The Irish standard., 1902-11-29
"rHE HOTEL CECIL"
A Phrase Applied to Salisbury's
Government.

night in the very agony of the war
South Africa. The discovery had bee
made that the family of the Chamber
lains had made vast profits in the SUI
ply Of arms, ammunition and othe
things connected with the making {
war. 1t had always been known ths
delicacy of feeling had not been til
distinguishing characteristic Of thl
somewhat pushful race; but this con
bfnation Of warlike policy in the chic
figure Of the family and commercis
profit from the war was somethin
that seemed to reach point beyond Ell
durance Of any honorable parliamer
or even political party. When, there
fore, it was known that Lloyd Georg'
one of the most fearless of the Pre-
Boer Liberals, was to bring the matte
before the House of Commons, every
body expected that, however cleve
might be the defence of Mr. Chamber
lain, the debate was bound to do hin
irreparable mischief, says T. P. O'Con
nor, M. P, in the Saturday Evenin,
Post of Philadelphia.
The situation was not supposed to b.
in any way modified by the fact that {
Mr.. BARLEY had put down for the sam,
night as the anti Chamberlain motion
another resolution, which called atten
tion to the construction of the Minis
try and to the overwhelming represen
tation in it of the one family. Nobody
attached any Importance to the motion.
Its proposer-a not very sympathetic
figure-was supposed to be Influenced
by disappointment; and in any case,
as he was member of the Unionist
party, he was considered to have
sinned against all canons both of
party discipline and of personal good
taste in having raised such a pain
fully personal question ut all. The gen.
would end in Il wretched fizzle and
that nobody would be discreditcd by it
but the very tactless person who had
brought it forward. And yet what
really happened was that it was the
motion against Mr.. Chamberlain which
turned out a fizzle; whereas it was that
against Lord Salisbury and the Cecil
family which produced profound ef-
feet and very general assent. 1t was
then for the first time that Liberals
and other opponents of the present
government realized how much the
conduct of Lord Salisbury in stuiIing
the cabinet with members of his fam
lily was resented by the members on
his own side
The phrase applied to the government
at the time WAS the Hotel Cecil-n
name, as you know, suggested by one
of the great hotels of London; and the
name has stuck. The truth is that the
Unionist party is so overwhelmingly
strong that it is bound to have vast
number of disappointed ambitions:
there is not enough to 90 around even
il there were forty instead Of eighteen
cabinet ministers when a party has Il
majority of $50. The result is that
there are in all parts Of the party mon
who think that they have a right to
4 place: and some of them are entitled
to hold that opinion. And, instead of
their getting even chance, they find
the SONS and ncplcwS and relations
by marriage of the Cecil family and
the SONS and dependents OF Chamber
lain perc swallowing up I'LL that there
is going.
Mr.. Ralfour had an opportunity Of
rightinG this state of things to some
extent when the moment came FOR re-
constructing his ministry; but every
body who knew Mr. Balfour knew that
he was not in the least the man boldly
to grasp such Il situation; that he was
too kindhearted. too considerable, too
jealous of his great personal popularity
to make anything like the clean sweep
which, in tho opinion of his own party,
as well as that of the country gencr-
ally was demanded of him. The war
is over and the country brcathes freely
at the fact; but do not suppose that
anybody forgcts the terrible volume of
disasters, plumbers. horrible unprcpar-
edness which that war revealed.
There is not today Il man who thinks
that the ministry responsible for the
war did well. The feeling is universal
that the country is in the hands Of
bunglers, decadents. and two families:
and that is the feeling which is real
~ producing the dry-rot which has
come upon the ministry and which in
a short time will probably make it i'm
possible for it any longer to hold
power.
1t is a curious fact that the clev
est Of the Cecil family-the only one in
parliament who has got nothing-is yet
the one who has helped almost more
than anybody else to aggravate the
growing feeling of discomfort and
fatigue with the Hotel Cecil I
ailude to Lord Hugh Cecil. Lord
Hugh Cecil is one of the most
curious and interesting figures in the
life of England today. He repre-
sealts something of the kind of feel
inn nj, f01 Il =