A Day in the Life of a British Statesman.

Manawatu Herald, 24 December 1896, Page 3

A Day in the Life of a British Statesman.

" Thia . « day ' chiefly differs from oihtr days in that it has no definite time of beginning or ending," writes M ex Minister of the Government in Uie November issue of the Tf indsor Magazine. " The truly virtuous minister, we may presume, struggles down to the dining-room to read Srayers and to breakfast in the osom of his family between nine and ten a.m. But the self-indulgent bachelor declines to be called, and ftleeps hia sleep out. Mr Arthur Balfour invariably breakfasts at twelve ; and more politician- than would admit it consume tbeir tea abd toast in bed. Mercifully the dreadful habit of giving breakfast parties, though sanctioned by the memories of Holland and Macaulay, and Rogers and Houghton, virtually died out with the disappearance of Mr Gladstone. Breakfast over, the minister's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of exeroise. If he is a man of attire habits and strenuous tastes, be may take a gentle breather up Highgate HUI, like Mr Glad-tone, or niay (ennis, like Sir Edward Giey. Lord Spencer when in offioe might be seen any morning cantering up St. James's Street on a hack, or pounding round Hyde Park in high naval debate with the blameless Sir Ughtred Shuttleworth. Lord Rogatory drives himself in a cab ; Mr JU-JU- th if driven ; both occasionally survey the riding world over the railing! of Rotten Row; and even Lord Salisbury may be found prowling about the Green Park, to which bit house in Arlington Street has a private access. Mr Balfour, as we all know, ia a devotee of the wheel, and his example ie catching ; but Mr Chamberlain holds fast to the soothing belief that when a man has walked upstairs to bed he has made as muoh demand on his physical energies as is good for him, and that exeroise was invented by the dootors in order to bring grist to their mill. Whichever of these examples our minister prefers to follow, his exercise or his lounge must be over by twelve o'clook. The Grand Oommittees meet at that hour ; on Wednesday the House meets then; and, if he is not required by departmental business to attend either the Committee or the House, he will probably bt at his office by midday. And Bow our Minister, seated at his official table, touches his pneumatic bell ; his private secretary appears with a pile of papers, and the day's work begins. That work of oourse differs enormously in amount, nature, importance and interest with different offices. Among the most im-

portant of the morning's duties is Ihe preparation of answers to be - given in the House of Commons, and H il often necessary to have answers ready by three o'clock to questions whith have only appeared that taorning on the notice-paper. The range of questions ia infinite, and all . he resources bf tbe office are taxed order to prepare answers at once __________________________________________________________________

accurate iv fact and wise in pjlicy, to pass them under the minister'review, and to get them fairly copi d out before the House meets. When the day's official papers have been dealt with, answers to questions settled, correspondence read and the replies written or dictated, it is very likely time to go to a conference on some Bill wiih wbich tbe office is concerned An hour soon passes in this kind uf anticipatory debate, and tbe minister is called away to reoeive a deputation."