The Dominion. THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1912. PICTURES FROM BURKE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1382, 7 March 1912, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1912. PICTURES FROM BURKE.

Lord Morlby, in the closing sentence of his Life of Burke, written a quarter of a century ago, predicted that that great political thinker would bo more frequently and more seriously referred to within the ensuing twenty years than he had been within the whole- of the preceding eighty. This forecast, arising equally from Lord Morley's unrivalled knowledge of Burke and from his intimate understanding of contemporary tendencies, has been justified hy events. Publicists in Britain have been turning back more and more frequently to Burke. Moreover, now that the twenty years indicated by Lord_ Mokley have expired, Burke is still a source of inspiration to those who think seriously of politics. _ A wonderful century has passed since his voice was. last heard in the House of Commons, yet his maxims and illustrations exactly fit many of the occasions of to-day. It is, indeed, likely that in the near future his name will be even more frequently heard, for men cannot but turn to his magnificent expositions of civil liberty for correctives of the errors which arise from pseudo-Imperialism and the too exclusive pre-occupation of modern politics with economic concerns. But our immediate object in referring to Burke is to draw attention to certain pictorial utterances which describe, with a felicity and an accuracy which are equally marvellous, Some items jn the immediate political Scene in this country. One of the most brilliant passages in Burke's Speech on American Taxation (1774) is that in which ho blends with his condemnation of the policy of Charles Townshend a luminous portrayal of that statesman's character. Desiring to be indulgent to the memory of one who had been "the delight and ornament of the House," he seeks excuses for Townshend's failings. Thus he noteß that he was so unfortunate as to imitate certain persons who were "infinitely his inferiors in all respects," men who "rendered themselves considerable in this House by ono method alone." And then Burke flashes forth a word-picture which every reader of the Parliamentary reports of last week will have no difficulty in applying to one of tho now members of the New Zealand House of Kepresentatives: They were a race of men (I hope in God tliß specie? is extinct) who, when they! rose in their plnco, no man living could divine, from ftiiy known ndliprenco to parties, to opinions, or to principles, from any order or system in tlieii , politics, or from nny system or connection in their idenSi what purl they were to tnlce in any debate. It i? astonishing how much'this'uiwerluinly, especially nt criticnl tinier, onlled Hie attention of nil uavti(is on puoli nii'li. All evi's wore iixoil on Ilii'Di. nil eni'S ojinn In hear Ihpin; wuh party rhiiml, ami looked nllpuiutt-ly lor their vote, iilinosl to the end of'their spoerhe-. While the House hiinir in this uncertainty, now the "licni" him.'." iu-i' from this side—now they rcbellmred from the other; nml'tlint parly to whom they fell lit leiiKth from tltnir tremulous ami dancing Iwlnnce .ihv.iys received I hem in ii tempest'of applause. It was BunKE's excuse for Towxkhf.np that the. fortune of these balancing politicians was,"n Icmptntirju too great to bo reitUtetJ by on? to whom a siaKlo whiff of kceme

withheld gave much greater pain tha.vi he received delight in the ('.lOiul.s of it which daily rose about him from the prodigal superstition of innumerable admirers." Hence TowxsHiiXD was drawn into a series of those vacillating policies that helped to lose the American colonics. It cannot be imagined that Mn. AtMore's recent carefully-planned excursion into the limelight will lead to any such catastrophe as that, but such an effort at the outset of a political career will eventually be recognised, not as a thing to be proud of, but as one to be lived down. The Townshends may be splendid in the limelight, but the work they and their tuppeny twentieth-century shadows leave behind looks mean and shabby when a Burke applies the searchlight. "What the member for Nelson lias assisted to do is to enable Sir Joseph Ward, or some person not yet identified, to form a new Ministry out of the wrecks and sediment of "Liberalism," the unknown quantities of "Independence," and the largely antagonistic squadron of Labour. Should the attempt succeed, the new Cabinet will resemble that famous and disastrous one for a likeness of which we again turn to the pages of BuitKE. Hβ 'Lord Chatham) made an Administration so chequered and speckled; he put together a piece of joinery, so crossly indented and whimsically dovetailed; a cabinet so variously inlaid; such a piece of diversified mosaic; such a tessellated pavement Without cement; hero a bit of blnck stone, and there a bit of white; patriots and courtiers, King's friends and Republican?; Whigs and Tories; treacherous friends and open enemies—that it was indeed a very curious show, but utterly unsafe, to touch and unsure to stand on. The colleagues whom he had assorted at the same boards stnred nt each other, and wero obliged to ask, "Sir, your name:— Sir, you have the 'advantage of me—Mr. Sucli-a-one—l bog a thousand pardons—" I venture (o say, it did so liappen that persons had a single office divided l>etwejn them, who had never spoke to each other in their lives until they found themselves, they knew not how, pigging together, heads and points, in tho same truckle-bed. • Such was the last Administration of Chatham, made when his hand had' lost its grip oh the helm, but weak and ludicrous as it was, we do not find that its designer feared to let it face tho Parliament. It was not to that Government, nor, indeed, to any Government of his time, that Burke applied the maxim, "Interested timidity disgraces as much in the Cabinet as personal timidity does in the field."