The Manawatu Times. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1878.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 100, 25 September 1878, Page 2

The Manawatu Times. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1878.

" Thebk is nothing so successful as success." So spake one who had evidently well studied human nature m all its phases. It matters not what may be the means by which it is achieved, or what the ends accomplished, the result is the standard by which the reward is measured. In like manner as success commands respect, is failure the signal for contempt. The numberless gallant deeds which have been attempted but attended with> failure are lost m oblivion, for although the trials may have been attended, with grand conception and, execution, .v still their want of Ruccess niarred their merit,, and proved the bar sinister to fame and renown. : Perhaps through all the pages of history there is. but one event the author of which ■was the victim of defeat, and still his name has been handed down as a warrior and a hero;— the retreat of Sir John M!oorb at Corunna. Instead of receiving the surrender of General Bubgoynb and his 7000 English troops; had George Washington been captured m 1781, what would have been his* fate and how would his memory be held P Why he would have followed Major Andre to the other world, and irisicad of being hailed as the Saviour and Father of his country, his roemgry would have ranked of PEB^rN Wabbeck and Wat Tyler. The defeat of the First Napoleon at Waterloo -did,.- much to plu^ok the cluster of laurels with which ihjs bpow^iad been end relrd by, years of victory and triumph, and to alienate the: affections- of those who hitherto had'-deeiued him invinnble. Had his nephew, the Third Emperor. never risked andslost his glory on the hat' tie-field* but slept his last 'silt e p \vi th the ' "Imv lu'rial 'purple- and tire vagh's of France Mbt-ve his bod at St Cloudy uistead if-

an exile and a refugee, he would, to the hour of his dissolution, been, in^ the opinion of some, the Destined Monarch of the World. But that vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself urged him to his ruin, and by the one false step he '■■ destroyed the work of years, and is now looked upon as the verriest of shams. Perhaps the greatest example of [success wKieh can be found at the present time is the Eavl of Bbaconspikld, Premier of England. Starting m ihe race of political life at an age when most youths would seek for nought but pleasure, success did not come at his first beck. But Benjamin DtSBAELi was made of more than ordinary stuff,- and neither one, two, nor three defeats were sufficient to damp his courage, and the electors were wooed again anil again until pertinacity had its reward. But all difficulties had not been subdued with his entry into the House o£ Commons, and he was still to receive such a rebuff as would have politically slaughtered most men. The result of his maiden speech is well known, and his reply to the derisive shouts of laughter which proclaimed his montrous failure should be treasured up by every youthful aspirant. Folding his arms across his breast, he watted until the scoffers had wearied themselves into silence, and then — with a flashing eye and cutting tone, of which they had afterwards stern experience — he said. " You may laugh now, but the time will come when you will listen to me; aye, and hang upon my words." How he has redeemad his word the history of the last half century too well tells. The rejected candidate of '32 became the Chancellor of the Exchequer m '52 ; and sixteen years later, m 1868, when, by the retirement of Lord Derby, he became Prime Minister, he had reached the summit of ambition, and the highest office it was possible for a subject to hold. But others before him reached the same pinnacle, and the coronet of an earl and the office of Prime Minister were not sufficient for the ambitious descendant of the Hebrew. Something must be done which would place him m the niche of fame far above his compeers, and hand his name dovm to posterity. An opportunity was afforded by the RussoTurkish war, and well has he availed himself of it. Pitted against the plotters and intriguers of the Cabinets of Europe, though fast approaching fourscore, the master-mind of the great statesman comes out from the ordeal the brighter for the test. By his fi*m and determined policy m the Berlin Congress, and his master-stroke of threatening to employ her Indian soldiers, he has advanced England to the foremost place amongst nations and done as much to uphold her prestige and glory as his predecessor had done to lowerlier. The high estimation m which the Premier is at present held, not only throughout Great Britain and her Colonies, but ail over the civilised world, is worthy of contrast with his earlier life. Well may an American writer ask if this is the man who was stigmatised as a Jewish adventurer; who was a fop j who was a radical, if not a revolutionist; ; who once boasted that he had a taste for treason ; and had not only been the chosen leader of tho Tory party, the Conservative party, the stupid party, but had so successfully "educated " it as to make it the really popular organisation. As atone portion of his political career Disraeli was the most abused and mistrusted man, so m the evening of his life he has bloomed into the most belauded Minister who e\'er formed a Cabinet, and the secret of his success is — success.