FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC LIFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1660, 24 February 1883, Page 4

FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC LIFE.

MR-ttiiAJ^TONElms lived in public life for fiftWoars; and yet he is ruling over the mightiest empire the sun ever shone upon, and is still hale and hearty. His daily routine of work involves an amount of labour that the youngest of us might despair in going thiough. It has recently been said that the holding oi high oiFicc in England means slavery, and th.it is true. The responsible ehiefs> have not only to s administer their departments, but to'attenrt Parliament as well. It Is measurably true that they have, to sit up all night in order to explain a*u\ rtciemi whatever they have been doing all day. They are at the mercy of eveiy 1 ailiamentary questioner. They arc h.ibh> at a moment's notice to be called upon to give a reason for the most secret tmng that they have done. They can ha\e no hidden ways that tiic prying eyes of over six hundred members of the lloupo ot Cofninbris may not peep into. Mr Gladstone has been subject to this kind ot espionage for fifty years. Taking ofhec as an Umler-Secretary when only twenty throe years of aye he has mounted step by step until he is a unique figure in English history. To-day lie has no rival and can hardly be said to have a peer, bineo the death of Lord Ikaeonsftcld the Conbcrvativo party has had no leader who can in any sense ha cUssoil as n. competitor with Gladstone for popular favour and confidence. Ke rules alone, a star of the first magnitude. On Ins own Bide the Haitingtons and Foi*teis will not compare with him. In the opposition there is nothing in a Salisbury or a Northcoto that .seriously competes with him. Fifty ye.irs of political activity, aided by a Wong and oiiginal mind, has made him master of the situation. He ha 3 occupied nc-nrly every leading office known to the Government of his country. He knows the workings of the departments thoroughly. If anything goes wrong he can detect it instantly. Is there°not something in this stability that should recommend itscli to us Ainerwuns? We have no fifty-year \eteraiis. There is hardly a man in Congiess to-d.iy, who ■was known to f.une a score of ycu s ago. That system is not good which lelegatcs a man to private life as soon as he has acquired the experience which is best calculated to equip him for future usefulness. There is the case of ex-Senator Thurman, for instance. He was admittedly a most cxpeuenced, able and •upright statesman, who3e every ufctcrance°was of value. Yofc in the maturity of his manhood, and at a period when his judgment is most ripe, he ia dismissed from the councils of a nation that is not being too wisely advised. We do not believe that such trained minds ay bis should be lost to the services of thencountry, We think there should be come way of continuing their public usi-fulncss. Recruits aye essential to the perpetuation of an effective army, and apprentices are necessary to the continuance of skilled woiknien, but that is no reason why old soldiers, able mechanics, or skilled statesmen should be dismissed in favor of green h.uids.— S<m Fnumsco Xlu-j Letti".

Hauu to have— a soft com. It is leportod tlnough tlio colitlns of Emopcan yaucis that Clv istiuc Nilssou is ciK'agcd to be inanicd again, jhe bridegroom is stated to be M. Do iMnand.i, a young gentleman attached to tlio .Spaiusli'lOniljas'sy in I'a.us. Hkmiv Jami.s ba~> diamalised Ins story " Daisy Miller," and it will shoitly bo published in the Atliuilit midei the title of "Daisy Miller, .'i Comedy." The story has bean le cast and icwritten, and new chaiacters, situations, and incidents nave been intioduced._ Doutoh f. Popokk has. «in aiticlc in the Oritir of September 0, allowing to what extent American litcratuio is read in Russia. Longfellow heads the Hbt of Amciicau poets who^e woiks have been translated into the lauguauc. Cooper's Indian talcs are better liked than any other foreign novels ; .md thoic ate few educated Russians who have not lead Mrs Stowe's " Undo Tom's Cabin."' Bret Hailc and Moris. Twain are also popular among the bubjeota of the C/ar. Tin: Jamaica fiic has destroyed piopcrtyto tlie value §15*000,000 \xJiich is a pietty big loss foi so .small a community "to sulfer. The lire, which was of incundiaiy origin, bog.vi in a quantity of .shingles, and in the high wiml prevailing gained gu\it propoitions. All warehonhe-5, m banes and btoies were consumed. Four hundied .stoics, in sill, ■weio destroyed. Buildings regaidod as fire pi oof did not usc.ipu thu destruction, andne.uly ovuyoiie of tliaMiisfc ol.i'-s which tlio fnc attacked succuinbid to the flamos. The Inc. was attended with loss of Jif< 1 . Kit o p<'i i>o» > •'" c knou nto have burned to <Kith. A new law will be passed prohibiting the use of shingles hereafter. A M\MTi'Af ruuiNC City.-- Pan Vn\ncisco docs not cul sucli a b.ul ligiue after all ns a manufacturing tity. General Walker, in the ci usus bulletin ]us>t ib&ued, fuinishcs a tabular statement ot manuf.icloueb in twenty of the pimuipal cities, show in i; S.in Fianctsco to be the tenth in the aggregate ol L'm« product, but fii sfc in what he calls individual products, that is, the avei.ago product per hand employed. It also stands tenth in amount of wages, and eleventh m the number of hands employed. |>OYjsit MoKi'vixn .-- Why do more boys die than <^nls? uiijuiios the /'.'// Ma// Gazette. For every hnndied "ills bom into tlio voild there are one hunhred and four boys, and it used to be imagined that the c\ti a lour bu}=s Atcie feupplied in older to meet the e\tia wear and toai of lite \\lueh must be home by the brendstinncis of the woild. But the odd thing to v\hi<h l>r ]siddlc calls attention in a medical eontempoiaiy is that the extra 4 per cent of boys is wiped out by death befoie they attain the age of five. Why iH thi&? Di Biddle makes two suggestions, first, that the gi eater " waste" of boys may be due to their organism ; and, secondly, that it may be be " due to the fact th.xt our little boys are given over to the tender mcicicb of motlieis and m,iid&, inatcad of being reaied by those who undeibLnul them." " Those who undergtand tliem" would seem to refer to peisons of their own sex, so that Dr Biddlc would seem to look with favour upon the appointment of male nurses for male infants. The non-medi-cal observer would be inclined to accept heavy odds that, if Dr Biddle's suggestion were acted upon, the " waste" of higher organism, instead of being reduced, would increase at a very alaiming ratio indeed. Justick Willie, who set fire to a house at Piitman, R. 1., Ameiica, was caught ■with difficulty. Theic was at first only a detective's vague buspieion against him, resting upon no evidence. It would not have done to airust him, for he was a man of good standing, and bo much of a politician that ho expected to go to the next State Legislatn c. A plot was therctoic laid to make him convict himself. A woman was gent to board in the &arne house with him. She pretended to be a book canvasser. After gaining his confidence, she told him bhc told him ' that she really belonged to a gang of thieves, who had a large amount of government bonds to sell. Willis eagerly proposed to act as agent for the puipose. He went with the woman to Boston, where she intioduced him to robbers. They affected to doubt his sincerity. Fearing that he was about to miss a profitable bit of business, he tried to win their confidence by telling them of crimes that he had committed. He, has stolen from various persons, and once ' in a bank, when counting money along- ' side a man who was doing the' same, he 1 slyly clapped the other pile orihis' own,' ' atid it was supposed that a sneak thief 'had disappeared "with the' missing notes. This exploit fairly delighted the listeners (it turns out to' be a true fitoiy), and thay 'led ! ' him into a "confession , of the incendiarism. A.concealed shorthand writer took, down, all be paid and, his wrest 'C fflwft, ■■>'■'