AUSTRALIA'S GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11478, 10 January 1903, Page 7

AUSTRALIA'S GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

When Alfred Tennyson became Lord TenHyson, many people blamed him for accepting an honour which added nothing to bis fame. Yet to his acquiescence in Qbee& Victoria's desire to honour the great licreate of her reign, was due the cere- . nony which occurred yesterday in Mel- . bourne, when his eldest son was sworn in , m Governor-General of tne Commonwealth K H Australia, For it is hardly likely that «« a commoner Hallam Lord Tennyson, /•fa—d have been, offered the Governorship of fwth Australia, in which he acquitted KHself so creditably and which proved the ' to his present high position. Awtralia, therefore, in securing so admir- 3 able _ representative of the King ac Lord 1 Teooyion has shown nimself to be, is B-der some obligation to Tennyson the poet for so far sacrificing his principles «• to accept a peerage. There is a parfeilar appropriateness in the appointment •f Lord Tennyson, which may have escaped general notice. His father, we are reminded, not only followed ( Australian affairs with some atten- < tion, as is stiown in his correspondence < with the late Sir Henry Parkes, but he * *as "from the first a strong supporter of * "the Federation movement. Imperial Fede- ' "ration, too, had his hearty sympathy. Such a Federation, he more than once "declared, would be the strongest force _ "for good and freedom which the world <; "kad ever known ; nor did he consider if *. * impossible that America should eventually I *be broughr~lnto the alliance." Indeed, i *■ he showed in an oft-quoted passage, he " : looked forward to "the Federation of the *«"d," That the present Lord Tennyson c •olds the same views on this subject as ek illustrious father is proved by bis tele- Q ffcm to Sir E. Barton, congratulating him v •* *h» second anniversary of the birthday 1< of the Commonwealth. "Local Federation," k i« wrote, "is the herald of the larger o Imperial Federation, which is a reality • ° *it_in sight, and will come to pass if only it is not forced, but allowed to grow ° "gradually." It is most fitting that the _OTeraor.G_.eral of Australia should hold s ] tosh Imp? rial views. t (