The San Francisco call., 1896-03-15

this same line of educating the public to
distrust the whole Downing-street OUTFIT.
No one supposes that there was any dis
honest intention underlying these gross
blunders, but in troublous times the ma
tion has far more to fear from its fools
than from, its knaves.
Although the oldest member of Parlia-
ment hardly recalls time when the Gov
ernment benches were able to turn on at
will such maiorites of from $50 to 200 in
every division on every subject as those
which are now welded by Balfour, rumors
that Ministerial disasters are impending
obstinately continue to haunt the lobbies
and smoking-rooms in 81. Stephens. 1t is
true that no tangible signs appear of fric-
tion between the Cecil Rhodes and Cham
berlain groups in the Cabinet, but sparks
are struck with increasing frequency
among their respective retalners In the
rank and file of the party. Last Tuesday,
for instance, Galloway, who is a Tory
member for one of the Manchester divi-
sions, had put down a notice of the ques-
ton that he is to ask about the fair wages
resolution of 1891. Chamberlain sent his
private secretary to him with the polite
request that he withdraw the question,
and Galloway returned the simple reply,
81 will see Mr.. Chamberlain first This
incident borrows significance from the fact
that Galloway's constituency adjoins Bal
four's, and that they are close political
friends.
Predictions that the open split between
Chamberlain and his Tory colleagues will
come over the Transvaal business continue
70 ha bf1t
now that the matter has got into British
law courts, where the science of delay has
been carried to the heartbreaking point of
perfection. So far as it is understood, the
Jameson hearing next Tuesday will occupy
only few hours and then be adjourned
another week. and after that everything
will be suspended for a month or so, os-
tensibly to await the arrival of evidence
from the Transvaal, but private letters
from the Cape say that the Colonial Office
men sent out there to gather this testi-
mony are doing nothing but to amuse
themselves, and the suspicion is strong
there that the whole thing is to be strung
out Indefinitely till public attention is di-
verted to other topics of interest, when it
will be quietly allowed to drop. l would
not like to say that you could not find that
same suspicion here in England if you
| looked hard for it.
a week of further meditation on that
annual grant of f1s00 to the Duke OF Cam
bridge smuggled into the army estimates
has aroused such widespread hostility
among the Tories themselves now that it
| is hardly doubted that the Duke will be
pressed by the Ministry to decline the
| thing in advance. If he refuses to do this
then the Ministry will have to face the
alternative of abandoning the grant them
selves or probably of being beaten on it.
This royal begging for money used to be
common enough, ard there were periodical
scandalS about it, till Mr.. Gladstone and
other old servants and friends OF the crown
arranged new systetn2of support for the
p-;-.e.-, iIrcri II was supposeu prec1uuau
further incidents of that unpleasant sort.
The Duke of Coburgs grant skated over
very thin ice, it is true, but it was possible
to make a certain defense of it, and the
House of Commons decided that it was un-
wise to make fuss over it, but this Cam
bridge grant has no defense whatever. He
is an extremely rich man as he is, and,
moreover, this present Ministry made a
specific promise only last August that
u.
1t is not only the Liberals now, but appar-
emily half of the Tory party and all the
Liberal U nionists, who have determined
that the promise shall be kept. and appar-
emily the old Georgian Duke will be cudg-
eled into evacuating one more last ditch.
Another rather unexpected demonstra-
ton of Liberal views among this huge
Tory majority was found in the vote by
which it becomes Immediately possible to
open all the state museums and picture
galleries to the public on Sunday. This
long sought-for boon had been stoidly re-
fused by the previous House of Commons,
and the casual precipitancy with which it
has now been all at once conceded has al
most taken the public breath away. The
Sabbatarians, too, are so completely taken
aback that they have not yet collected
themselves for q chorus of protests. By
the time that they begin to make
themselves heard the British Museum,
National Gallery and the great collections
of South Kensington will all be open for
seven days in the week, and after this is an
accomplished fact it is vain to imagine that
it can ever be upset.
The triumphant moral vindication given
to Harry Marks by two of her Majesty's
Judges, who have been inquiring into the
Whitechapel election for over month, is
enough to make dog sick. 1t needed
only this crowning result to convince the
last remaining doubter that the corrupt
practices act, as It has been whitfield down
by successive judicial decisions, is ridicu-
lous rubbish which must promptly be shot
into the dustbin.
The story that the Kaiser's malformed
left arm has been diagnosed by the Roent-
gen process, and that surgeons by this
help will now be able to restore It's useful
ness, is very pretty, but will hardly hold
water. The limb in question has no bones
worth talking of. and it is incredible that
auy structural operation can bring vigor
into member which has been withered
and lifeless for thirty years.
1t is not surprising that it has already
occurred to the Partisan press wits to call
the young cousin of the Orleanist pre-
tender who has just been decorated with
the Legion of Honor Henri Egalite. For
over a century the royal house of France
has always contained cadet branch which