The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-09-16
LONDON NEWS AND GOSSIP.
Premature Rumorx of the English
General Elections.

Mondays meeting OF the Privy Council,
taken in conjunction with hints to party
caucuses throughout the country TO get
ready for the great fight of the general
| elections. have convinced the newspaper
reading public that Parliament will be dis
solved and an appeal made to the cleo
torate In October
Meanwhile the South African war, 1t is
hoped, will have been ended, and perhaps
/ General Roberts and some OF his victorious
! troops will have paraded the London
( streets, and on wave of vociferous i'm
perialism the Salisbury Chamberlain COM
bination is to receive another seven years
lease OF political power. So runs public
expectation.
But the public does not know that only
last week Mr.. Chamberlain himself wrote
to political associate telling him not TO
expect the election before spring, unless,
as he put IL. some event of the gravest mo-
ment in public affairs should arise. That
\ being So all this ministerial drumheating
In the provinces can only mean that the
Ministers hope thereby TO induce the prov
incial party leaders to perfect their local
electoral organization, and perhaps also TO
| strike disniay into the Liberal ranks, and
| so lessen the chances OF that calm dispas-
sionate survey of the position which must
I precede the formation OF common plan
! of campaign among the Liberal leaders;
that is to say, between imperia]ists and
anti-imperialists, the Roseberyites and
| Harcourtites.
There certainly are as yet no signs OF
any such Liberal consolidation. Had Sir
/ William Harcourt retired from political
life, as his i'll health made probable, three
months ago, Lord Rosebery would doubt
| less have headed the Liberal party again
| with policy of sane, tolerant, unag-
| gressive Imperialism abroad and pro-
| grcssive reform at home but Sir VIII
| liam Harcourt has regained much Of his
vigor, anu will have nothing to say TO
| Imperialism in any shape or form. Early
| this week that other stanch antf-impe-
rialist, Mr.. John Morley, told his con-
| stituents in Montrose that, as voice
| trouble debars him from public speaking,
| he left them at liberty to choose another
member. No man in British public life Is
more highly esteemed than Mr.. Morley.
| Tories. no less than Liberals, imperialists,
and anti-imperialists, feel that the House
| of Commons would lose in him one of Its
| most striking and illustrious figures. OF
| course, Montrose Liberals have replied
that not only will they stand by him, but
| that they will return him free of any
! expense and without single electoral
| speech. There are few Liberal constit-
| uencies in England or Scotland which
| preserving for the nation the unbroken
services of Mr.. Morley in Parliament, but
all the same his practical exclusion from
I the activities of the campaign is blow
! to Liberalism, and anti-imperialism in
particular for he is a great power on the
platform.
On the other hand, Lord Rosebery and
his following remain mute, and SO far as
the public knows, inactive. Liberalism, IN
word, is still asleep as political force
/ Meanwhile the Spectator" most I'M
/ kindly and in its own lordly way, today
reads out Of its own Unionist ranks, in
/ view OF the coming campaign, such weak
ling Ministers as Lord Lansdowne, Lord
/ George Hamilton, Viscount Cross, and
Messrs. Chaplin, Richie, Long, and their
/ political kin. Dear sandbags OF the Cab
/ met is the polite epithet applied to them
by their younger and more vigorous col
+ leagues in the Ministry. The Spectator,
j in word calls for an immediate and pre-
election reconstruction of a Cabinet, under
/ Lord Salisbury. to include Mr. Chamber
1 lain Mr. Balfour. and Sir Michael Hicks
Beach, and younger men, now under Sec
! retaries, such as Mr.. William st. John
/ Brodrick, Lord Selborne. Mr.. George
/ Wyndham, and Mr.. Gerald Balfour. 1t
would be interesting to hear the comment
Of the dear sandbags" themselves on this
| proposal.
China Is more Of maze than ever even
to the official English world. From the
Foreign Office comes no word of enlight-
eminent. though Lord Salisbury yesterday
resumed his personal supervision there,
and this silence lends new weight to the
| published statement that Great Britain has
returned a plain and emphatic arrangement
of the Russian proposal for an interna-
| tional withdrawal from Pekin. Lord Sails
/ H..
| with the general British feeling If he has
called for the prior fulfllment OF certain
| conditions. namely, PREPARATION in the shape
| OF the punishment of the real authors of
outrages, from the Dowager Empress
! downward and guarantees against their
recurrence.
| The sensation of the week however,
has been the unhesitating assertions
which Dr. Morrison, the Times cor
| respondent, has sent from Pekin of
compact between Russia and Germany
| aimed at ousting England from the
| Yangtse Valley, and the practical diyis-
! ion of Northern China between Russia
| and Germany. That the Kaiser does
mean serious business in China all his
words and actions, eliminating in
/ Count Waldersee's appointment, prove
| but the disposition in most trusted
circles here is to believe in Germany's
/ good faith toward Great Britain and her
appreciation OF the great benefits to her
of the open-door policy, applied HIN silly
to all China. Indeed Lord Salisbury's
| friends cherish the hope that he Will
find an opportunity in the personal
| friendliness of both the Kaiser and the
| Gar to England for following America $
recent lead and securing from the pow
| ers collectively a self -denying ordinance
both as regards territorial aggressions
and exclusive trading privileges in
| China The proposal of Manchuria as a
| buffer State. open to the worlds trade.
| has influential advocates.
| Meanwhile, Londoners are getting a
| taste of China at home. In a word, Lon
! don is threatened with Chinese invasion
| Two capitalists have imported 1900 Chi
| nese washermen. Four Chinese iaundries
are already at work and are we'll pat
ronized by those who are disguised with
the poor work of existing laundries. The
| same capitalists talk of meeting London's
domestic-servant problem in a similar
way. Today twenty-five bright yellow
| laundry wagons, driven by Chinese, are
picturesque feature of the London
| streets, and, though white workmen and
women are getting a little alarmed, Lon
| doners generally have suffered too much
| to be displeased with the invasion. The
| Cinnamon wear their native costumes
while at work, but when they go out into
| the streets they curl their pigtails under
! their hats and wear European clothes, lest
the London hooligan should take them
| for Boxers.
Despite gloomy expectations, the pub
fishing season now opening promises fair
" we'll. London editors have this week