The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-07-02
FRIDAY, JULY 2, 1897.
HOW ENGLAND Is GOVERNED.

Lord Salisbury. the leader of the tory
party, and the only man since Earl
Beaconsfeld who has been any impor-
tant rival of the grand old man, MI.
Gladstone, has a proper appreciation
of the illustrious leader of the liberia!
party until ne went into voluntary
retirement. Last December, when Mr..
Gladstone attained his 9Th year, the
leader of the government, Prime Min
lister Salisbury, said that the great
m was the greatest man who
mad lived in England since parliament
fary government began. That is, since
the time of Charles !, and the Long
Parliament. Great Britain is governed
by parliament. The cabinet is COM
posed Of representative men Of the
particular party that is supreme in the
house Of commons for the time. At
present the tories are in power, con-
1rol the government II the govern
mcnt introduces a measure into the
commons and is defeated, they resign.
The queen then sends for tbs leader Of
The opposition and asks hin1 to form a
government-to choose some twenty or
more men of his own party to consti-
tute a cabinet. The queens power
stops with this sending for the leader
and making known her request. She
does not attempt to govern in any
popular sense. Her people would not
allow it. 1t is as Lord Salisbury properly
Jn.crihnl if-a nc rIi. ~ N ta rU rnLyprn-
ment strictly. Hence we said that the
excellent queen did not govern, but left
is to the parHament-that she was at
the head of the nobility, of society
therefore, and the head of the Estab-
iiShed Church of England, but did not
govern as we usually employ that
term. In our editorial reference to
Queen Victoria, whom we greatly re-
spect because of her genuine excellence
and wOmanIy character, and many adj
mirable virtues, and have often so
written, we wrote, as we thought I'M
Standingly of the British government,
one Of the very best on the globe as
we have contended ever since we came
TO Wilmington in 1875, and a purer
government than our own as ad-
miniStered nowadays, Cook at Tom
Reed, the charges against senators
and other things) and when we limited
the powers of the queen we did SO in
accordance with various works we have
rea bearing more or less upon the
British government. The misfortune
IS that people generally do moi under
stand how either Great Britain or TIL
United States are governed. Congress
governs this country. Read Professor
Woodrow Wilson'S book and you will
see how it is.
We add this, that we did not in the
least intend to offend any sensitive and
enthusiastic admirer of the venerable
queen who is held in all proper respect
at home and abroad She has set her
people "a noble example in many ways.
We have not thought her particularly
able intellectually. and We hope that
is no crime, but have esteemed her for
her sound intelligence, her knowledge
Of her limitations of power, her clear
understanding of the people she ruled,
and all her manifold ex~cellencies and
virtues. She has been a good queen for
Great Britain, and has borne herself
under the fierce light that falls upon
the throne through ali of her prolong-
ed reign of sixty years most womanly,
most ~VirtuOuSly.