The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-11-08
THE NEWS FROM LONDON Is Englands Loss of Prestige Due Her Giving Place
 Leaders of the Aristocracy Instead of the People
BY HENRY oEvEREAux.

London, October S1.-The great En- glish people have been seeking reasons for the slow and positive loss of national icy, and even in the art of war. the United States Is gaining her way to the proudest place in the procession of na- tions. Why? Is 1t because the aristo- cratic idea prevails? Does England draw too much from her aristocracy and not enough from her people-the bone and sinew of the nation. This selection of aristocratic gentlemen for Ministers, and exclusion of commonalty, used to be the rule In Austria, and was defended by Prince Schwarzenberg, when Prime Min ister, on the ground that in his opinion humanity hsgan with Baron. But even there it proved such a failure that the business of the State is largely in the hands of business men. Ours Is. in fact, the only country where this system of aristocratic administration still pre- vails. Public companies have discovered that 1t does not pay to have a board of lordly guinea-pigs. We are learning the lesson by very bitter experience.
 
 For country professing equality of opportunity for all men, we have a strangely constructed ministry. Including the new recruits, there are at present eighteen cabinet ministers one office be- ing still vacant. Of these eighteen, the only men who are not peers or members or the landed aristocracy are MT. Austen Chamberlain and MT. Arnold Foster and the former is in the cabinet-like Casa blanca on the burning ship-by order of ms rather, not with all respect to him, owing to his personal merits. Seven out of the eighteen are peers, and the rest are sons and nephews of Peers and country gentlemen. Trade is represented by MT. Gerald Balfour because he is the brother of the Premier. The India Office IS given to MT. Frederick because, as he was wanting as a war minister, another place had to be found for him. War is represented by MT. Arnold-Foster ap- parently because he has picked up a theoretic knowledge of the navy The colonies are handed over to Mir Lyttle- ton, who is chiefly known as distin- guished cricketer. Lord Lansdowne remains foreign secretary, although he was even more responsible for the crim- inal follies of the war office during the late war than Mir. Frederick The navy is represented by Lord Selborne because he is son-in-law of the late prime minis- ter. He is also a colonel of mllitia--a good qualification, l suppose, for the ad- miralty. The new Lord Salisbury is in troduced into the cabinet as Lord Privy Seal partly, no doubt, because he is the cousin of Mir. Balfour and partly per- haps in order that he may still display as cabinet minister the hereditary ca pacity for blazing indiscretions which marked his career as under secretary. | Lord Londonderry is president of the l board of education because he is a great landlord who was a thorn in the side of his party who had to be conciliated by some important office being given to him. and who knew as much, or as little of the l education department as of any other. MT. l Walter Long is at the local government board because his dog-muzzling vagaries could not be tolerated any longer at the board of agriculture; and Lord Onsow is at the board of agriculture because he has pulled the party wires in the mu- nicipal affairs of the metropolis. MT.