SLIPS OF THE MIGHTY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4383, 27 February 1922, Page 3

SLIPS OF THE MIGHTY.

WHEN THE GREAT BECOME MERE MORTALS. There is sol ape for the forgetful in a story that is told in the new instalment of the letters ofl the late American ! Ambassador. In a conversation at the Ministry ofl Blockade, Mr Page had advised .Lord Robert Cecil - that he must “not forget the Boston Tea Party,” and it seems that Lord Robert), rather at a loss, had explained that he had never been, in Boston, and therefore had no recollection of any tea party there. I.t is a comforting example of the truth that eminence is not dependent upop a faculty for remembering faithfully everything that) one ever knew. “I wish I were as cocksurp of'one thing as Macaulay is oif everything,” was, after, all, a tribute to a very unusual kind of. emint ence. Nor., is it a very endearing kind. Lord Randolph Churchill and the “damned dots” is, a more engaging figure, and for every individual who was genuinely shocked by Mr Lloyd George's ignorance on the subject of Teschen there must have been dozens, or hundreds, who Were secret&y pleased to discover that they Had this much, at any rate, in common with the greatest figure on the European stage of the moment. In fact| slips of this kind leave everybody pleased. Those who could correct the distinguished stumbier are gratified to observe the superiority of their position, anti those who are in the same boat) as the blunderer rejoice to see it proved once more that,' in the conduct of affairs, character counts fbr more than an encyclopaedic knowledge oif facts. We are oppressed by the fluency of the official interpreter; but when the Foreign Secretary himself cannot manage a speech in French we are at once reassured, and the accomplishments of ,the> interpreter are placed in the perspective that we would prefer for them. It would, in fact; be a very gratifying and popular event if all our notables could be put through a yearly, examination on things that they ought to have learnt, and might therefore be presumed to know. We are familiar enough nowadays with the "general knowledge i paper” which ‘examines the untortui nate schoolboy on all manner of things which are outside his proper curriculum. The idea might be reversed for the exposure of his distinguished, elders—instead of the general knowledge that] floors the schoolboy they might have to sit down to a series of short papers on history, georgraphy, and languages, with which the schoolboy would be quite at ease. The result would probably be diverting—except for the notables. —“Man-' Chester Guardian.”