Flotsam and Jetsam.

Manawatu Herald, 13 August 1892, Page 3

Flotsam and Jetsam.

(By Motuiti.j What an immense lot of rubbish has been talked during the three weeks financial debate, now happily elided in Wellington ! How much washing of dirty linen degrading personality, and senseless recrimination I And how little honest, useful criticism ! Those wise men of Gotham," ministerialists and oppositionists alike, never seem to realize even in lucid intervals that, following their usual lines of argument, they might just as reasonably charge each other with being responsible for the late outbreak of diphtheria in Foxton, the labour troubles at Broken Bill, or the earthquake that destroyed San Christobal in Mexico, as reported in the late cable. I intended to write a paragraph about " the great debate ;" but I feel too disgusted. Instead let ma have a say about Mr Gladstone and his approaching return to the head of ■affairs at home. Mr Gladstone is unmistakably one of the most remarkable figures in English history. Never 'before has one man so compelled the admiration of friends and enemies for his marvellous attainments. As statesman, orator, scholar, thinker, and writer even his opponents grant him place perforce in tho foremost rank, whilst as a tactician he has simply no equal amongst living politicians. I am not by any means as out-and-out admirer of Mr Gladstone's opinions and schemes ; but facts are facts, and the strangest thing I know of in recent history is the magnetic power, the fascination which he has ever his followers. The majority of the British people at this moment pin their faith not to the Liberal party,- but to him and him only. With them devotion to the one man is a sort of religious worship. They trust in him as an infallabt'e guide, and this accounts for the fact that for the last seven years ho has held them together by the mere magic of - a phrase— Home Rule - What this may mean from his point of view he has not disclosed to friend or foe up to the present time. Over and over again he has been appealed to by his friends and challenged by his opponents to divulge his schema ; biit in response the Grand Old Man has only " winked the other eye," and carried his majority all the same ! It is wonderful. Whether Home Eule for Ireland ever becomes a reality or not is a matter of small importance to us in New Zealand. If it does, it will be only after a tremendous fight ; but the marvel of it all to us is that this fight is being entered on with, a light heart by a man of 83, an age at which even the most highly gifted men are usually tottering into senility and decrepitude.