Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-07-14

/ to the front in AFFAIRS or state ana we see
many of them attain political disuncuoh
at a remarkably early age.
But is precocity of this character pecul-
lar to our generation, or our recent his
tory?
Far from it! Instead of having acquired
1 increased political influence and larger po-
litical leadership in recent years, young
men are relatively less eminent In that
field than they were good many years
ago, at least so far as the two great Eng
lish speaking nations are concerned.
| There is now in this country no man
| only thirty-two years old who is so trust
ed and forceful, so eminent political
4 leader as Alexander Hamilton was AT
| that age nor one in the whole British em-
pire under forty who has been even dis
cussed as a possible prime minister, and
yet Pitt attained the Office when he was
| twenty-four Hamilton and Pitt were re-
markable, but not exceptional illustra-
tions of the rise Of young men in what we
regard as an olden time to splendid
| heights of fame in politics.
You can find many more examples OF
early distinction In politics then than the
present generation in either the united
| States and Great Britain has supplied, or
| Is likely to furnish There are scores or
| young men in congress- that is TO say,
men between thirty and forty-five, but 1t
| Is probable that the average age OF the
was lower than the average age of the
members of the Forty-seventh.
The influence of young men was felt
| more in both American and British poll
1 tics I'm the eighteenth century and the hrst
| half of the nineteenth than 1t is felt at
present, though one might infer from the
| talk of the progressiveness of latter day
youth that II is rapidly crowding maturer
men out of political leadership and con-
troll
What would we think now of a young
| ster Of nineteen entering parliament
| Charles James Fox did 1t nearly hun
| bred and fifty years ago. He modestly re-
NAMED silent until he became of age, but
had hardly attained his majority before he
! was attacking and worsting some of the
venerable past masters of debate In the
/ house of commons; was recognized as
l one of the most powerful supporters Of
Lord North's administration and had been
appointed a lord of the admiralty.
Fox was the most precocious Of the
Englishmen who have become famous
| statesmen while the down was still on
| their cheeks and we shall look in vain for
a man who became an acknowledged par
| liamentary leader in any country at so
/ early an age
Pitt, his great rival, was candidate for
/ parliament few months after he reached
| twenty-one, hut was defeated. Within
| few months thereafter he won seat and
| rose so rapidly that he was premier at
twenty-four Before he was nineteen his
| nlustrious father, Lord Chatham, had
trained him superbly for politics and in
spired in him an ambition to excel in 1.-THE
noblest of sciences" On his nineteenth
| birthday Pitt supported his noble father
/ on his arm as he entered the house of
lords on that memorable day when he
/ made MS immortal defense of the Ameri-
can colonies Chatham was nearly sew
i II w4sNNra
/ with great power, then, as he always did,
Il and became so carried away with his
Il theme that he even surpassed himself.
Il After his great peroration he fell fainttng
| and was taken from the scene of his many
/ historic triumphs to die.
The Pitt, who became Lord Chatham,
4 first entered the army, but the death of
/ his elder brother caused him to turn his
attention to politics and at twenty-seven
/ he entered parliament, but not until after
/ he had incurred the undying ehmity of Sir
/ Robert Walpole by fierce arraignments of
1 his administration. Pitt had hardly taken
( his seat before Horace Walpole took up
the quarrel of his father and endeavored
i to bring the parliamentary novice into
i ridicule by making a cruel attack upon
/ him in which Pitts youth was alluded to
/ in crushing sarcasm.
| Pitt needed neither defence nor sympa-
/ thy. His reply to Walpole, the son of his
/ prosecutor, is historic and for whitening
/ invective and satire has rarely been equal
/ ed. Multitudes of school boys have rung
the changes on that superb speech be-
i ginning, THE atrocious crime of being a
young man. I shall neither attempt to pail
| late nor deny" N.
The elder Pitt had to fight the Walpoles,
father and son. and his triumph over both
/ was complete.
Sir Robert, finding himself unable either
/ to beat him down or win him over, resort
/ ed to the meanness of procuring Pitts
dismissal from the army. Contemplate
as was that assertion of personal
/ spite, il was the best thing
that ever happened for Pitt
! as II gave him full opportunity to devote
i himself entirely to his parliamentary du-
ties and to the determination to be aveng-
| ed upon Walpole. Ale succeeded in defeat
Il ing measure after measure, one of which
that powerful minister set his heart
and finally overwhelmed him and his ad-
ministration beyond hope of recovery.
! A greater man than eitherSLord Chat
ham or his brilliant son, the greatest man
in intellectual power in the whole range Of
/ British politics, Edmund Burke, entered
| parliament when he was IS, but he was
already the foremost controversial writer
| and critic in the kingdom. Before he be-
came a member of parliament some one
| asked a distinguished man who knew both
Burke and Gibbon, the great historian,
| which of the two he considered the strong
| er intellect. His reply was: "Sir, you
might cut Gibbon out of a corner Of
Burke's mind and Burke would not know
that he had lost anything"
There are few personalities in British
annals so fascinating as George Canning
the son of a London linen draper who
| practically ruled England during one of
the stormiest periods of her history. Be
fore he became a premier of almost alb
solute power he made prime ministers
and cabinets do his bidding, like the born
ruler of men that he was.
| He was Great Britains greatest war
minister and, judged by his success in
| whatever he attempted he must be con-
| sidered the most triumphant British
statesman of the nineteenth century.
Canning prevented the subjugation of
Greece by Turkey, saved Portugal from
being crushed by Spain, forced Great Brit
| ain to recognize the newly established
South American republics before the Unit
ed States did so, stopped the Holy ALI
ance on its way to restore those republics
to Spain, paved the way for both Catholic
emancipation and the repeal of the corn
| laws.
! As an orator he had no peer in England
| then and has had none since. Perhaps no
speech ever delivered in parliament had
such an electric effect as Canning's glo-
rious address in which he gave an ac-
count OF how he had broken the power Of
! Spain in South America. When in the full
NT,nN H.,VsfF al Ton 1a