THE EVILS OF PARTY. 



By THE RT. HON. EARL OF ROSEBERY. 



In view of the fact that every day sees the domination of party politics over national interests 

 grow greater and more overbearing, we are glad to be able to publish below what is perhaps the most 

 trenchant attack upon party politics ever penned by a great statesman. Lord Rosebery originally 

 wrote this article as a preface to a book on Japan as an example of National Efficiency. 



fAPAN is indeed the object-lesson 

 of national efficiency. Happy is 

 the country that learns it. But 

 not a hundred books or a 

 thousand prefaces will bring this 

 lesson home to our own nation. We 

 have been so successful in the world 

 without efficiency that in the ordinary 

 course of events we shall be one of the 

 last to strive for it without external 

 pressure. We won our empire and our 

 liberties by genius and daring in an 

 inefficient world. Now that one or 

 more nations are keenly striving after 

 efficiency it will not be easy to maintain 

 our heritage ; for the inefficient nation 

 must sooner or later go to the wall. We 

 have muddled through so successfully 

 by character and courage that we are 

 indifferent as to any other secret of 

 achievement. 



Three things may move us : obvious 

 decline, sudden catastrophe, or some 

 stimulating example. This last, at 

 least, is furnished by Japan. 



Some think we are too old a nation 

 for new departures ; that our garment 

 is too old for new patches. It is true 

 that we cannot begin on entirely new 

 lines ; we cannot, like an American 

 manufacturer, " scrap " all our old 

 machinery and begin suddenly afresh. 

 But Japan is, historically speaking, a 

 much older nation than ours ; and yet 

 she actually did this very thing some 

 thirty years ago : discarded nearly every- 

 thing but patriotism, and began a fresh 

 career. But the exception of patriotism 



w^as vast and pregnant. For she not 

 merely retained a peculiar devotion to 

 fatherland, but developed it into a 

 religion. " Our country is our idol," 

 says a Japanese editor, " and patriotism 

 our first doctrine. From the Emperor 

 downwards, the vast majority have no 

 other religion." 



How stands it with us in comparison 

 with these Orientals ? We have all the 

 raw materials, some of the best. We 

 have courage and brains and strength, 

 but there is surely an immense leakage 

 of power in their development. Politic- 

 ally speaking, we begin and end with 

 party. We are all striving to put our- 

 selves or our leaders into offices or 

 expel other people from them. This is 

 not from want of patriotism : quite the 

 reverse, the habit of centuries has made 

 us believe that this is patriotism, this 

 and no other. Do we ever stop to 

 reflect what is the outcome of it all : the 

 net result of millions of words, words, 

 words ; of great debates and incessant 

 divisions and spirited autumn cam- 

 paigns ? In truth, exceeding little. 

 " The hungry sheep look up and are 

 not fed." But Brown has made a fine 

 speech, and Jones has surpassed him- 

 self, and Robinson has done less well 

 than usual, and so we turn complacently 

 from the long newspaper reports to the 

 ordinary bread and cheese of life. And 

 the old State machine creaks on. 



The fact is that party is an evil — 

 perhaps, even probably, a necessary 

 evil, but still an evil. It is the curse of 

 our country that so many, especially in 



