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BRITISH POLITICS.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
(Daily Press, 20th March) That, unlike Continental nations, the Eng- lish, as a people for hundreds of years accustomed to constitutional working, and having a Government at all times amenable to popular control, were not prone to sudden revolutionary outbreaks, but pre ferred the safer if slower method of moving through regularly appointed chan- nels when it became advisable to remove abuses, used to be looked upon as one of the fundamental doctrines of national belief. So it continued till Mr. GLADSTONE, Ousted in turn from Oxford and Greenwich. came on the country as a wounded wild beast, who in his private rage at what he thought the indignity that had been put upon him, -first of English statesmen-made his appeal to mob rule. GLADSTONE, the most shortsighted of rulers, whom it would be a mockery to dignify with the title of states- man, inasmuch as one of the main essentials of statesmanship, the ability of seeing the eventual result of his measures, was entirely lacking, was the fist of responsible ministers to break through the wholesome rule of reticence, and for upwards of thirty years the State has been in a condition of constant simmer through the efforts of smaller men to follow in his footsteps. As his great opponent BEACONSFIELD put it, intoxicated by the exuberance of his own verbosity, GLADSTONE used to allow his tongue to take charge of his intellect; relying on that same As a fact, the Lords, dwelling, as most of exuberance to restrain the worse effects when them do, among the people at large, and necessary, but in his shortsightednes forget having at ordinary times, at least, no ting that what might be possible for him, particular axe to grind, are in a much better would in men of lower intellect be an imposition to gauge from day to day the pass possibility; and that they would be helding moods of public opinion than the bound to carry out any policy or doctrine, however suicidal, if once they had given utterance to the fatal word.
[March 29, 1909.
FREE TRADE BETWEEN AMERICA AND THE PHILIPPINES.
(Daily Press, March 22nd.)
Had the present Government got rid of it One session of Parliament wherein the by honest or honourable methods they would Ministry of the day would have the moral have deserved, so far, well of the country, courage to announce that it did not intend Unfortunately their arguments appealing to introduce one single measure of so-called to the lower class of the electorate were not reform, but meant to confine itself to the only dishonest, but were actually untruth-business of the day, and the healing of the ful. On no other point did any expression wounds incurred in the late contentions of of opinion come from the country-except, over-zealous practitioners, would do more to but here only to a limited extent on the restore a healthy frame of mind and body subject of Tariff revision, on which the than all the nostrums of the empirics put country had not then made up its mind together. We might, e. g.,, once more have The second untenable premise is that the an Army, in case the turn of external events ministers in their private capacity are any should bring on an invasion; and we might better able to gauge the general opinion of even hope to find our Navy, once more the country than the Lords. As a fact the reduced to efficiency, show that England natural présumption would be that these was not in the least disposed to hand over people, having only the limited experience to others the empire of the seas. gained from sounding their own consti tuencies; and being from the necessities of the case forced only to bring before them an extremely limited purview of facts, are of all others least qualified to judge on such matter. This is no new discovery, but common to all ministries. Mr. CHURCHILL, No community of American citizens bailed who for instance thought he represented the the victory of Mr. TAFT in the Presidential mercantile interest in his former Ma-contest with greater delight than did the chester constitutency, was taught by the American merchants established in business inexorable logic of a contested election that in the Philippine Islands, for the fact that on this subject at least he had wrongly Mr. TAFT was the first Civil Governor- gauged the opinions of a strictly mercantile General of the islands after they passed constituency. Has he any stronger ground under the control of the United States, and for the belief that in going down stumping to a large extent laid down the policy of the to the constituencies bis private desire to future government of the islands, gave him get rid of the matured opinion of the Lords, claims to support in the eyes of all interested he is any the more expressing the views of in the Philippines which his rival lacked. the country at large?
Moreover, since relinquishing the Governor- Generalship of the Islands, Mr. TAFT has naturally continued to watch with a keen paternal interest the development of the great work he initiated, and has shown a constant solicitude for the steady progress and welfare of the Islands. What made his candidature for the presidency particularly agreeable to the American business com- munity in the Philippines was Mr. TAFT's known sympathy with the movement for the establishment of reciprocal Free Trade between the United States and the Philip- pines, and one of his earliest acts as President has been the fulfilment of his promise to "do something" for the Philippines in this direc tion. It may be remembered by many readers that a feature of the Fourth of July celebrations in the Philippine Islands last year were the demonstrations organised in the principal cities with the object of endorsing a petition in favour of reciprocal Free Trade between the Islands and the United States. Full use was made of this petition during the Presidential campaign, y and the question has since been kept rather prominently before the public by the news- papers. A cartoon which recently came under our notice showed a substantial wall. separating the Philippines from the United States, and ou the wall was inscribed in big letters the words: "Philippine Imports 1908-From the U.S. 16 per cent; from other countries 84 per cent. Total, $30,918,357.” Uncle SAM was represented as looking over the wall and tendering to a Filipino from the end of a pole a pair of braces. "The little brown brother" was pictured wearing trousers from Spain, a coat from England, shoes from Australia, a shirt from Japan, a vest made in Germany, a hat made in China, and a necktie from the United States. The letterpress at the foot of the picture repre- sented the Little Filipino as saying: "Well, Uncle, I bought my necktie of you anyway"; und Uncle Sam as replying: "Yes, and if I can ever get this tariff wall removed, you'll buy you entire outfit of me." The other commercial powers were represented as listening with amusement to the convers- ation. President TAFT has set himself the task of removing the wall, and in spite of
minister who can never for a moment free himself from the meshes of official and party organisations; and who, even when best Without sufficient knowledge of men or disposed, has his eyes and ears closed things to control a parish vestry, members to the wider distinctions of public senti- of the present ministry have been stumping mest. Now, though not always a certain the country, each with his own project, of indication of the current of public thought, revolution, for it is one of the distinguishing a continuance of bye-elections, especially characteristics of the present ministry that along well defined directions, afford fairly practically each member is in himself the trustworthy grounds for forming a definite head of the Government, and owes no res opinion on the course of public opinión. pect nor allegiance to anyone higher. As The great blunder of the tale Government head, too, each one seemingly believes that in staking its existence on so questionable he, and he alone, is in charge of the feelings a policy ns that of indentured labour in of the country, and is entitled to speak on its South Africa, was preshadowed in the result behalf against the world. That the pre- of a series of bye-elections, which should sent House of Commons no more repre- have convinced an able leader that some sents the opinion of the country a thing radical has gone wrong. Apparently large than did Barebones Parliament in a pt, instead of trying to ascertain the of CROMWELL's time that of seventeenth objectionable measure, the Prime Minister century England, is a truth too deep of the day threw up the sponge at the very for him to grasp, and the favourite ex- moment when the irritation was greatest. pression of the ministers when addressing The result was the emphasising of the ore country constituences is that those wretched particular symptom, where the bodily health Lords in throwing out bills sent up from a
was in every other way sound and perfectly non-representative Commons have been healthy-as if a man in every respect in contravening the expressed will of the the full vigour of health and strength, country; and that should they persist in should throw away the remainder of his going counter the will of the speaker life, because, forsooth, be had contracted some means must be found for extinguishing a corn on his little toe. The blunder of the them. Now in this revolutionary declaration present inefficient and revolutionary Cabi- two untenable premises are put forward as
net is in presuming that the corn on the the ground of the argument; the first is, of patient's toe, already removed by the mere course, that the present House of Commons efluxion of time, gave it a commission to got together as a protest against what a administer a lethal dose of chloroform with large section of the Unionist Party saw was the avowed object of performing an opera a gross blunder, in any other respect repre-
tion for appendicitis, of which disease the sents the opin on of the country. But one patient had never exhibited the slightest question was before the country, and on that symptom. In fact the country has under- the voice of the country was decidedly gone a phethora of experimenting, which against the measure of the Government. would appal the most strenuous vivisectionist; The scheme for the introduction of Chinese and its great need is not further cutting unfree labour into South Afrien was, as and manipulating, but simply rest to permit many members of the party pointed out, it to recuperate after its half century of
unsound from economic and social reasons. I experimental treatment,