f is that they who
can steer the State along peaceful lines are mediocrities, and they
who involve us in war are geniuses and earn the distinction of fame
and Westminster Abbey, though it may be that they are totally void of
all the essentials that are required to keep on good terms, not only
with other Powers, but with our own masses. Take, first of all, the
unostentatious old Scotsman, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who was
regarded in the light of a mediocrity by the bellicose-minded people.
Had he lived and been in power at the time of Pitt and Castlereagh,
his finely constituted, shrewd brain and quiet determined personality
would have guided the State in a way that would have brought it credit
and kept it out of the shambles. Another personality who is possessed
of attributes that have been scantily recognized is that of Lord
Rosebery who, during his Foreign Secretaryship under Mr. Gladstone,
and when he became Premier himself, saved this country more than once
from war with Germany, leaving out of account the many other services
rendered to his country. It is a tragedy to allow such merits to be
wasted because of some slight difference of opinion in matters that do
not count compared with the advantage of having at the head of affairs
a man with an unerring tactful brain who can deal with international
complexities with complete ease and assurance.

Although Mr. Gladstone must always be associated with those who were
responsible for the guilt of dragging this country, and perhaps
France, into the Crimean war in defence of a State and a people whom
he declared in other days should be turned out of Europe "bag and
baggage" because of her unwholesome Government and hideous crimes to
her subject races, _he_ had the courage and the honesty to declare in
later life that the part he took in allowing himself to acquiesce in a
policy he did not approve, would always be a bitter thought to him.
Had he been at the head of the Government then, and had he lived at
the time of the continental upheaval that followed the French
Revolution, all the evidences of his humane spirit and prodigious
capacity lead us to the belief that there were no circumstances
affecting our vital national interests that would have led him to take
up arms against France. Nor do we think that a statesman of Lord
Salisbury's stamp would have failed to find a way out. Disraeli was a
different type. He lived in a picturesque world, and thirsted for
sensat