THE COMING MAN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 25, 19 October 1883, Page 5

THE COMING MAN.

{Dublin Freeman, _ August 28th.)

If the prophets err not, Mr. Chamberlain is the coming man. His statement with reference to Ireland last Friday night make the predictions more than ordinarily interesting for this country. The passage in the speech to which we allude was reported in our columns as followß :— " It is the earnest desire of the Government that Ireland shall have a larger measure of Self-Government. I trust that Parliament will not separate without giving it. " The comments of the weekly publications upon the Session render those ' words comming from Mr. Chamberlain doubly significant.' We give them at as great length as our space will allow, since they illustrate the impression made on the .public mind of England by Mr. Chamberlain, and the reputation which he has consolidated of late days. His is one of the most.remarkable instances of rapid Parliamentary success.'The present is only the second Parliament in which he sat, yet he has been already admitted to a place in the Cabinet. What influence he has exercised in that place is mirrored in the extracts which follow. A considerable consensus of opinion exists as to the Minister wearing the laurels of the expiring Session. Ministers in and oat of the Cabinet have lost, or are fortunate if they have only maintained position. That consensus is concentrated opon Mr. Chamberlain. It may not be so much for what he has done, though his skill in carrying the Bankruptcy Bill for England has won him universal meed in Grand Committee and in the House, but for all he has shown his capability to do. The Society World is not often found on all-fours with the Radical Spectator . But hear them both. Says the Spectator last Saturday— " Probably no member of the Government has gained s« much in reputation by the Session which is all but over as Mr. Chamberlain. The general Conservative notion of Radicalism certainly is that it is an ' upsetting ' creed ; and, indeed, no Radical can deny that he does wish to upset some things which exist, and which i n his opinion ought not to exist. Mr. Chamber lain exhibited himself to the Conservative party as the strong and skilful representative of one of the great bnlkwarks of human society, instead of as the assailant of any of those bulkwarks. They knew him already as a very skilful and effective debater, but rather as a debater inclined to minimise what they deemed national obligations— inclined to take the side of disappointing the confidence inspired by traditional policy and formal pledges— than as a debater disposed to invest such obligations with new sacredness, and to enforce severe penalties against those who made light of them. We do not, of course, mean that Conservatives will cease to fear Mr. Chamberlain's Radicalism on the ground that he is a first-rate man of business, and a skilled mediator in business discussioas. Oo that account they will only fear his influence the more, and very justly. But though they may fear his influence the more, they will doubtless fear him as a statesman less than they have hitherto done. It is no trivial set-ofE against what are supposed to be revolutionary views that they are not so revolutionary as to absorb the man in the partisan, and it is an even greater set-off against such views that the men who hold them should be found to be candid and courteous towards political opponents, keen in defence of the rights of property, aid as eager to prevent their patronage from being badly used as they would be to guard against the abuse of the patronage of opponents." The last number of the World chimes in with the announcement that " the legislative honors of the Ssssion belong to Mr. Chamberlain. But the laurels that Mr. Chamberlain has won not only indicate the triumph of an individual but the rapid growth oE acausj. No caaiid observer can deny that, whether the country* is or is not prepared in the immediate "future for any great organic changes, the fortunes of Radicalism are at least not on the wane. Mr. Chamberlain has lost no opportunity of emphasising his views and defining his situation as a Radical Minister. A3 a radical Minister he has exhibited a sobriety of judgment and a capacity for action which give Radicalism a new vitality and vigour. He has disabused the public mind of the idea that Radicalism is a spades of political disease which inspires a mania for indiscriminate iconoclasm. For these reasons it may be said without qualification that the most important feature in the history of the Session is the degree to which Mr. Chamberlain has succeeded in colouring the general policy of the Government on some of the gravest questions of the day with the hues of his own political principles and belief. Take the case of Ireland. Mr. Chamberlain, and those who think with him, no more said at any time that crime and outrage were to go unchecked, than they did that the Phoenix Park assassins ought to go unhanged. What they did say was that the recognition of the reality of Ireland's grievances, the necessity of taking Irishmen themselves into counsel, and of looking at matters from an Irish point of view, should be admitted as integral parts of English policy. For the first time that has been done with si ncerity and fulness. The earnest, pathetic, and dignified speech which Mr. Gladstone made in reply to Mr. Healy iv the House of Commons on Saturday last — a speech which will rank among the noblest efforts of a statesman, to the elevated tone of whose speeches posterity will assuredly not fail to do justice — was couched in a tone which would of itself be enough to show that a new epoch in the Irish statesmanship of the Liberal party had arrived. Mr. Chamberlain has unambiguously declared himself in favour of the extension of a considerable meaßure of Salf-Government to Ireland. Yet he remains a member of the same Cabinet a 9 Lord Selborne, Lord Hartiugton, Lord Derby, and Sir William Harcourt. Remarkable as the Parliamentary session of 1883 will be hereafter esteemed for many things, it is not premature to say that its most important and novel characteristic will be regarded as the definite promise and the substantial proof which it has afforded of the growing power of Radicalism to take part in and direct ihe business of Imperial legislation."

Lately at Oldham three barbers were brought before the police magistrate, and fined five shillings each, for shaving men on the previous Sunday.