PREMIER'S FOIBLES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 90, 7 December 1931, Page 2

PREMIER'S FOIBLES

LORD SALISBURY lady gwendoline cecil's biography of • her father FULL OF DIVERTING HUMOUR Lady Gwendoline Gecil's hiography of her great father, the third Marquis of Salisbury, draws a stage nearer completion b-y the publication of 'ts tliird volume " Life o'f Robert Marquis of Salisbury." It is an exceedingly flne piece of work, full of humorous toucbes, and gives a diverting picture of Lord Salisbury^s ' f o'ibles and peculiarities. Tbis relief is the more needed beeause the period covered, from 1880 to 1886, is a dreary one In Our political history, and because Lady Gwendolen avoids indiscretions almost too studiously. Needless to say, sbe does full justice : to the great' public services of her ; father. c. He hated popularity and its consequences. When in 1885 Queeh Victoria sent for him to Balmoral to form , a Ministry, he slipped out of the sleep-ing-car into which he had been duly ushered by dignified offlcials at King's cross and took refuge in an etmpty third-class' compartment. Keepiog himself close, he heard as the day advanced the footsteps of puzzled pressmen hurrying along beside the traia at each stopping place, and listenecl with gratified appreciation to their ejaculations " I can't find him 'anywhere." Shut Out of Caslno. He was "a great fldget"; when bored he waggled his leg; and he had " one habitual tricli which was not popular with his neighbours. Raising , his heels from the ground as he sat, he would establish a sustained quivering of his lcnees and legs, continuing perhaps for half an hour at a time, shaking the whole floor and making the furniture rattle. His colleagues on the front bench in the House of Lords complained that it made them seasick. Even when his rugged limbs were at rest his hands were not — his long rather rugged flngers incessantly twisting and turning a paper-knife or penholder or heating a devil's tatoo upon his knee." His clothes were apt to be shabhy,» and when he stayed at "Monte Carlo " to the delight of his family and friends he was safeguarded from the temptations peculiar to the place by being refused admittance to the Casino on account of his unconventional style of dress." . His cairn was extraordinary: on one occasion, when he was on his way to Hatfield a lunatic got into his railway compartment, travelled down with him and got into the 'carriage that met him at Hatfield, Lord Salisbury imagining that the man was " an unremembered guest." in " the close contact of the brougham " the stranger revealed himself a " a raving lunatic." On their arrival Lord Salisbury was able to niake an excuse and pass on alone to his room . . . The startled young footman who answered his bell reported afterwards that he had fo.und his lordship at work among his papers frofn which he glanced up to tell him, as of an everyday occurrance which called for no comment, that " he had left a 'inadman in the front hall." Dining By flrc Light. A humorous account is given of his scientific activlties at Hatfield. When the electric arc lamp appeared he introduced it at that famous Tudor house: "For a hrief period his family and guests were compelled to eat their dinners under the vibrating glare of one of tliese lamps fixed in the centre of the dining-hall ceiling. No exertion

of good will or courtesy could silenoe the plaintive protests of his lady visitors, and he would gird with growing despondency at the obstructions which feminine vanity offered to the conquests of science. When the incandescent lamp appeared, as yet altogetlier imperfect, he had it fltted. " There were evenings when the houshold had to grope about in semi-darkness, illuminated only hy a dim red glow such as comes from a half-extinct fire; there were others when a perilous brilliancy culminated in miniature storms pf lightning, ending in complete collapse." Political apothegms and epigrams

are scattered throughout the hook. This is what Lord Salisbury said of representative government: "It worlcs admirably when it is confined to people who are of^Teutonic race, hut it does not work so well when people of other races are called upon to join in it." It is interesting to note that he expressly mentioned India as one of the ! countries unfltted for i-t. Of Ireland | he saicl: "What she wants is government — government that does not flinch, that does not vary; government that she cannot hope to beat down by agitations at Westminster; government that does not alter in its rcsolutions or its temperature hy the" party changes which take place at Westminster.

She has got it now under Mr Cosgrave. IVleddlesome Laws. Ile disliked meddlesome legisiation and did his hest to stop it. "I reefton myself, he once said, as no higher in the scale of things than a policeman, whose utility would be gone if the workers of mischief clisappeared." Included in the hook is a curious account of a conversation between Sir Philip Currie, who represented Lord Salisbury, and Bismarclt in 1885. Currie told Bismarck deflnitely that England would fight if Belgium were attacked, provided England had an ally. Bismarclc expresscd unlimited contempt for Russia: "The countx'y was seething with revolution; steeped in corrupion; militarlly worthless. "If

she were not on the frontiers of Germany he should not trouble about her at all." Bismarck's relations with Lord Salisbury were those of friendship and had their differences. An Australian " goodwill " delegation, headed by Mr A. E. Hyland, direfitor of Australian trade publicity, and ■including Mr G. E. Cri'tchley, assistant Australian trade commissioner in Canada, left Toronto on Saturday to visit all the large centres of Western ■Ganada. They will mee't Boards of , Trade and other 'representative bodies and explain the nature of the trade ' agree'ment and 'its beneilts to bo'th countries. The party will return to Montreal early in Ootoher to greet a products. j