SPECTATOR SUMMARY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 94, 22 April 1911, Page 12

SPECTATOR SUMMARY.

(For week ending 4th March, 1911.) THE POLL OF THE PEOPLE. We are quite willing to agree that we shall never get rid of party. It is too deeply ingrained in our public life. Probably, too, we could not get rid of it without finding ourselves involved in greater evils. What we can do, however, and what we ought to do, is to hold in check the chief evils of the party system— i.e. , legislative log-rolling, and what Mill called government not by the majority, but by that majority inside a majority which is too often a minority. By lodging a veto power in the hands of the people, we minimise these evils and, in effect, restore to representative institutions that freedom which has been in no small measure destroyed by the Caucus. Again, the electors will have a much greater elasticity and choice in regard to their representatives if they know that in choosing a particular man they will not be absolutely forced to a-ssent to all the measures which he or his party desire. THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE. The discussion of German relations with Italy has done the Triple Alliance the disservice of exposing its weak spot. If the German Jilmperor carried out his original intention of visiting Rome this year the Vatican would be closed to him, and no doubt he feels that the less said about the probability of his going there the better. But, as the untactful act of drawing^ attention to the matter has been committed, it may be supposed that the German Emperor ie concerned to put the best complexion possible on the circumstances. The decision that the Crown Prince shall visit Rome in his stead is attributed to his sudden intervention. This can be only an inadequate solution of a difficulty that need never have become prominent, and the feelings ot Italy ■ towards Germany, scarcely cordial in any case, are not likely to improve. A MESSAGE OF THANKS. The G^man Crown Prince, who Bailed from Bombay last Saturday, has issued through his staff a cordial message of thanks to all who were concerned in his tour. He carries away with him " most interesting, enjoyable, and affectionate impressions," and expresses his high appreciation not merely of the scenery, records, and monuments of that mighty country, but of the achievements of its administrators. Wherever he went hospitality and friendly feeling have boen shown him " privately, publicly, and in the Press," and he ends by declaring that' " India will always hold a prominent place in his affections." It ia pleasant to learn that these feelings have been reciprocated by his hosts, and that the Crown Prince's genial and unaffected nature has won him friends wherever he went. i THE FALL OF M. BRIAND. M. Briand has made an effort towards conciliation, towards a removal of the intense bitterness which disfigures French public life, and expresses itself, above all, in the arid and narrow intolerance of religious organisation. The typical French political man is anti-Clerical — that is certain — and in the circumstances the separation of the Church from the State waa probably inevitable. But there is no reason in the world, except an unfortunate tradition and perhaps a sort of morbid logic which is characteristic of French politics, why the secularisation of the State should require the penalising and insulting of religion. M. BTiand is often called an opportunist, for all we know, he may be. It is not easy to read any man's hei>rt. But, at all events, his conception of distinguishing in practice between anti-Clericalism and vulgar antireligious prejudice was a great one, and he tried to put ;fc into effect with a. courage and persistence for which we believe his name will always be honourably remembered. INDIA AND THE IMPERIAL CONFERENCE. Wi» note with great satisfaction the statement lately made by the Prime Minister, in answer to a question put to him by Sir J. H. Roberts, that the representation of India at the coming Imperial Conference is under consideration. It is very greatly to be hoped, ia the interests of the Empire as a whole, that the result of this consideration will be the inclusion of India. No doubt a good many questions will be raised at the Conference in which India^will not be*interested, and also questions which are ">nly appropriate for the consideration of the self-governing communities, or, as we should prefer to call them, the Daughter Nations. When, however, the great and vital problems of Imperial defence are to he discussed, the omission of India must have the most serious consequences. There are matters of vast importance to the safety of the Empire which, if India is left out of consideration or not properly represented, cannot possibly receive adequate treatment. No doubt, in dealing with India in the matter of Imperial defence great care must be taken not to do anything which would seem or which could be easily represented to be an attempt to exploit India for the benefit of Britain, or to lay upon the Indian people burdens which really belong to, and ought to be borne solely by, the people of this country" or by its Daughter States. , TRADE UNIONS AND THE LAW. This point, However, is already determined, pending an appeal to the House of Lords, that for the future no trade union committee can expel a member without showing that the expulsion is id accordance with the rules of the society. It is hardly too much to say that this judgment constitutes a new charter of freedom to trade unionists, for since the Socialists obtained control of the trade unions they have characteristically been using their power to threaten with expulsion members who ventured to oppose their policy. Doubtless their spokesmen in the House of Commons and elsewhere will deny that accusation, but the proof that it is justified is found not only in a multitude of isolated facts which could be brought together on the testimony of individual Lrade unionists, but still more in the central fact that the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, which is controlled by the Socialists, is appealing to the courts of law to give it this power of arbitrary expulsion. The society has already put forward this plea in the Divisional Court, where it was accepted, and in the Court of Appeal, where it was rejected. THE LATE LORD WOLVERHAMPTON. Lord Wolverhampton, better known as Sir Henry Fowler, who had been in health for some time past, died last Saturday, in his eighty-first year. Entering politics in middle life, he attained Cabinet rank in the Liberal Administration of 1892-5, and proved himself a strong and capable administrator at the India Office. Interest attaches to his career in that he was the first solicitor, and one of the first Nonconformists, to be admitted- to the Cabinet. He did not frequently intervene in debate, but he spoke with admirable lucidity, weight, and moderation, and his memorable speech on the Indian cotton duties in 1895 was one of the few delivered in our time which have turned votes. He was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1905 to 1908. when he retired ; but his share in recent Liberal policy amounted to no more than a passive acquiescence in methods which he himself had never practised and never openly approved.