New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-01-07
''LABBY'S" RETIREMENT.
Un7oillimg to Lag Super18uous ON
the Political Stage"
London. December 20.


There are as quick changes in holiday politics
as in any pantomirne. One of them has a touch
of pathos In Mr.. Barries little curtain raiser.
"Pantaloon" the old clown, whose wit has grown
so stale that a generation Of playgoers Is
saddened by 1t and stolidly refuses to laugh at
the gray haired jests. is melancholy figure;
and so also is ''Iabby" when he takes the faith
full Northampton shoemakers into his confidence
and tells them that at seventyfour Radical
member is no longer strong IN wind and limb,
and ought not "to lag superfiuous on the politi-
cal stage" By his retirement the most consist
entity Radical constituency loses representa-
tive who for a quarter of century has been
against everything in the political order of the
United Kingdom and Parliament of its
most notorious testers. The political vacancy is
easily filed. for incorporating Radical with
q more constructive order Of mind has been
quickly chosen as his substitute for NOrthamp
ton; but there can be no other Pantaloon IN
Parliament like Mr. Labouchere. II he had ever
taken q serious view of himself or of politics
he might have allowed the shoemakers to
elect him once more: for one of the objects
which he pursued most persistently has been
accomplished. and another is in a fair way to
be worked out He was an irreconcilable n
envy of Lord Rosebery, heading hollow Liberal
cave" against the Prime Minister in 1894 and
power There is Liberal Ministry with
Lord Rosebery as an outsider in the lonely fur
row; and Mr.. Labouchere might reasonably be
expected to enjoy the spectacle from the
benches in Westminster. He was also an
compromising foe OF the privileged class to
which he belonged; and he took a conspicuous
part in drafting a bill providing for the election
of all members of Parliament, Lords as well as
Commons, by popular vote and, while there Is
no chance for the ending OF the privileged house
by that drastic method, the formation of a Com
mons Ministry, with unmanageable majority
of thirteen to against it in the upper cham
Der, is sign that the old order is passing away
and that practical measures will have to be
adopted for converting the Lords into an eff
fective organ OF national legislation. Mr..
Labouchere might easily have found recreation
during his closing years in watching the process
of reforming the Lords; but he is weary of
sport and takes himself out of the way-a jester
more hopelessly bored than Mr. Barrie's clown.
Yet his last word to the Northampton shoe
makers is Jest. He tells them that they
easily find man eager to promote the cause
of democracy he has been. and candidate
better able fight than in the and
yellow leaf" The nephew of Lord Taunton has
Knocked at everybody and everything since he
came out of Elton and Cambridge and as a mem
Der of the diplomatic service 'jollied and roll
licked" with embassy Office superiors and court
officials at half a dozen capitals. What book
could be more amusing than the true story of
all his diplomatic adventures and escapades?
His entrance upon political life a joke by
itself. for was not this thoroughgoing Radical
member for Windsor under the shadow of the
Queens castle? AS a journalist he made his
first hit In revolutionary Paris as the contributor
OF Letters OF a Besieged Resident; and what
racy reading il for that period OF storm and
stressi Wealth came to him as the founder Of