The San Francisco call., 1896-10-11

which he had to work upon, was unfairly
criticized and ridiculed. The Trochu OF
at to- morrow men dream OF Ill france
will have ready to his hanos olllerehI
weapons indeed.
Englishmen are still as much in the
dark as ever as to what business, Il any,
Lord Salisbury transacted with the Gar
at BalmoraI last week. Public sentiment
was a good deal attracted by the notion
of an Anglo Franco Russian arrangement,
and certain signs of amellorat1on IN the
feeling OF the Paris and st. Petersburg
press toward England are seizea upon
witt ayiditv as warranting the bellet that
this is impending. Nothing has happened
since the Balmoral meeting either 10 con-
firm or to disprove this idea, and mean
while popular feeling is revertlng to the
after impulse to have England keep her
hands free to act in Turkey upon her own
initiative. This is what the English al
ways prefer to do if they are quite sure the
continental powers are divided into hos
tile camps. and in proportion as Russia and
France seem to be angering Germany ana
Austria by their demonstrative honey
moon, the British instinct to hold aloof
and play between these rival alliances re-
wives its force.
To every politician of sense whom
know Lord Roseberry's choice OF an issue,
and even more OF a time for rupture
sibly there may be a mystery behind 1t,
but to the ordinary vision he seems to be
N ore Tory than Lord Salisbury himself.
and he resigns his titular leadership be-
cause the Liberals are saying what the
Duke of Norfolk, the present Postmaster
General, does not hesitate to say at pub
lie meeting. His action gives to the baser
sort of Tory papers chance 20 insist that
the Radicals are using the Armenian bus1-
ness for partisan purposes, but this hardly
matters, and really the same thing may
be said of Roseberry himself.
From the day when Lord Roseberry was
foisted by an underhanded intrigue
upon his party these dispatches have
maintained his unftness for the position
of leader, and for year at least, even
those who helped him to rise have ad-
mitted their error. His retirement is of in
terest as saving the Liberal party from the
embarrassment of throwing him out, but
Just now there is so little left of the
Liberal party anyway that its oficerlng
is of slight importance.
In the suitable surroundings given by
somewhat gaudy music hall stage, that of
the Empire Theater at e inburgh Lord
Roseberry held up to ridicule last night
every proposal made by Mr.. Gladstone for
the solution of the Armenian question.
Lord Roseberry' speech consisted in great
part of dull philosophic and political
lecture, and this was varied only by ex-
pressed or implied attacks on Gladstone,
Harcourt and other unnamed Liberals.
These attacks were sugared by sweet re-
ferences to the old man whom he was
wounding so deeply. The speech is the
most astounding confession of the impo-
tence of England that was ever made in
public by any English statesman. That
Lord Rose berry should have selected this
time, so dangerous and difficult for his
country, to do this thing proves up TO the
hilt that he is neither a really great Lib
eral states man nor true patriot. An ad-
mlrabe breeder of race horses, but fee
bic, fluid and vacillating leader of men, he
has done his best to undo any good effects
the visit of the Czar to this country might
have produced bv declining the practical
cooperation of Russia. The only thing
that was needed TO complete the mixed
comedy and tragedy OF last evenings en-
tertainment was q telegram containing
the Sultan's warmest thanks, followed by
a suitable dirge for the dead and dying
Chris tians whom England, according to
the principal speaker, is now powerIess to
protect.
At the railway station at Leahlade, a
quaint, peaceful, medieval village far up
the Thames, above Oxford, a harvest cart
was waiting Wednesday morning. The
cart had yellow whrels and was lined with
moss. Willows and vines had been
twisted about its frame. The loving
bands of tho friends bore what once was
William Morris from the train to this bed
of moss, and then gently to his last home
under the elms at Kelmscott Church,
which was decorated as for harvest fes-
tival. There was no other gloom or con-
ventional sadness, and all was as the dead
poet would have himself wished it.
Up to late Wednesday night George du
xrh N
sembed around Punch's weekly dinner
table, had been led by the latest bulletins
from him to hope that "Kicky," his pet
familiar name in the circle. would live to
be once more among them, with his glori-
Gus spirits and quick flashes of hunor.
Yet those hig h spirits had sunk some
what of recent months, possibly from fall
ing health. Du Maurler had never been
quite the same man since the publication
of 'Trilby."
That wonderful success brought never
ending demands on his time and energy,
and his great unselfish nature could not
resist. Du Maurier was ever haunted by
fear lest blindness should overtake
him, and the misfortune of many years
ago when the sight of his left eye was lost
remained always before him. This par
tial deprivation of sight was in some sense
gain to the artist, as he had TO draw on
a large scale on account of it, and those
drawings became. in all senses of high
value 1t is curious that he was not the
only artist on the staff of Punch who suf-
fered in the same way, and 1t was favor
ite Joke of Tenniels that he and Du Maui
rier had but a pair of eyes between them.
Something has been said of Du Maui
rier's cynIcism. but never was there
gentler cynic. He laid firm, kind hand
on the weaknesses and snobbish philistine
tendencies of the EngIishmen of his day,
but even those at whom be laughed were
most ready to laugh themselves. He never
took his literary powers quite seriously,
,4ni only regretted that oilers who he
honestly believed were greater than him
self had no such successful boom. He was
the Eindest of satirists, the most loyal of
friends. Men and dogs all loved him, and
it is not many winters since he waded
through broken ice at some serious per-
sonal risk 10 save a little drowning dog.
An interchange of courtesies between
the Pope and the Queen has highly graft
fed the English Catholics. The two are
old friends, for just fifty years ago the
then Mgr. Pecci visited the Queen in Lon
don. The Pope's graceful congratulations
on the length of Victoria's reign have
drawn from the latter striking acknowl-
edgments of the felicity and loyalty of her
Catholic SUBJECTS to their sovereign.
The saddest reports, | regret to say.
r r