The age-herald., 1898-12-20
SIR W. HARCOURT
 AND OTHERS
pY LUoIEN CULLEN wALKER


 preme fact-that is, the practical disinte-
 grafton and helplessness of his party. It
 means also incidentally the passing of Sir
 William, but that fact Is of minor impor-
 tance. since it concerns the personal for
 tunes of one individual in what is probably
 the most powerful democracy of the world.
 That which we Americans would have called the popular party in England was really disrupted by MT. Gladstone's in- ordinate and unreasoning vanity Much praise had made the old man mad. One of the wisest statesmen of this century lost
 his head. Lord Randolph Churchill, the brightest of all the younger men in the public life of Great Britain referred to MT. Gladstone irreverently "the old man in
 a hurry The noble lords" idea was that Gladstone was trying to crowd into
 the few remaining years of his own life too
 much work. Churchill was right, but Glad stone lived to send a wreath to be placed upon the grave of his redoubtable young adversary
 Beaconsfeld, the keenest wit of this age in England, said of Gladstone, that he was a man drunk with the exuberance of his own verbosity." That was likewise true; but Beaconsfield had been sixteen years in
 his grave in the little churchyard of Hugh enden, in the Buckinghamshire, when Glad stone answered the last summons. When Gladstone yielded up to the queen his exalted office of prime minister and quilted parliament forever, after adorning ''the mother of parliments'' for more than sixty years, he asked the queen to send Tor Lord Roseberry, the Scottish peer, who had been for two decades Gladstones protege. There was grumbling then because of Glad stones action, for the mass of the radical party, or what was left of 1t, in England undoubtedly desired Harcourt to succeed the Grand Old Man" It was a curious thing in politics, the grumbhng of the Brit ish radicals over the accession of peer to the premiership, as many members of the radical party were stoutly enough, and blindly and .foolishly enough, too, contend ing for the abolition of the house of lords, as if that could be accomplished by any | means save revolution.
 Harcourt himself is an aristocrat of the aristocrats. He is a direct descendant in the indirect line of the Plantagenets, and is therefore of royal blood. His wife is an American woman, the daughter of John Lathrop Motley; but that is of small mo- ment Harcourt was that puzzling anom- ally, an aristocrat in the ranks of political | freebooters. Gladstone himself was the son | of a merchant and slave-owner, and socially | was not worthy to loosen the latchet of | Harcourt's shoes. A certain small class | of English aristocrats received Gladstone | socially for political reasons. Some of the | cheap peers of his own creation fawned upon him in sheer gratitude, but into the inner circle of England's most charmed
 
 albeit he was the first minister of the queen and consequently the virtual ruler | of England. But that is another story. | What concerns politicians the world over now is that Sir William Harcourt, at the age of Pa young enough age in English | politics, by the way-should step down and out from the leadership of the liberal party because of party dissensions, bitternesses and bickerings. For thirty years Sir Will | liam, royal aristocrat that he is, has been | the real swashbuckler of English politics. When Rosebery was made prime minister instead of himself, upon Gladstone's retire. . ment, his heart broke, and these four years he has been of little use.
 At the general elections in 1894 the voters by a majority never but once before equaled repudiated Rosebery, Harcourt and Gladstonism generally. Harcourt himself was turned out of his seat at Derby, and had to seek constituency in gallant little Wales," rottenest radical hole in the Eng fish speaking world.
 Lord Salisbury, the Tory chief, came into power in a glow of political glory only once or twice equaled in the world of politics. Lord Rosebery struggled along as the leader of the liberal party for two years and more, meantime twice winning the Derby; but in the end he had to give the | leadership up in disgust.
 Lord Rosebery is one of the most accom- l plished and loveable men in public life in l any country. He is a man of letters, a l scholar and a statesman. Notwithstanding | that he Is an earl he is a democrat. And l once more he is called upon to lead his | party, and what hope he can have of the l future it is difficult to discern. He is the only possible leader of party that is the l party of John Bright Chamberlain, Har- | tington, and Gladstone in his sane days, ] only in name.
 | John Morley is impossible, for Morley is merely academicaI. He is an infdel simply
 because he hates priests. and it was only l the other year that the world knew he had
 a wife. England does not forgive that sort of thing. Henry Herbert Asquith, brightest of them all, cares more for his new wife and the law than he cares for | politics. Apart from these there is none | respectable amongst the leaders of liberal | ism so-called in England.
 l Lord Salisbury has made enough blunders
 in the last two years to doom any party in | England in normal times. But these he 1 times wholly abnormal. Tn England to- | day there is no respectable opposition to | toryism in it's radicalized form.
 | Harcourt is accused by English radical l ism of deserting his party. That is an &C., | cusation that is the very refinement of in- | justice. It is cruel. Harcourt is a con- | scientious man, brave man, and strong | one with certain marked limitations. He l hasn't deserted his party-the party has de-