ftei-'ew of Reviews, 1/11J06, 



History of the Month. 



431 



■one. the attempt to banish coloured people from the ocean 

 highways, as if they were an accursed race, is carrying 

 matters to a vile extreme. Coupled with other pieces of 

 illiberal legislation, I question whether we will not be- 

 come the most hated people on the face of the earth. Since 

 this is intended as an independent gift to the mother 

 country, and is, therefore, out of the run of ordinary 

 legislation, it is quite conceivable that the British Govern- 

 ment will claim the right of refusiBg the concession 

 coupled with such a condition. 



[Since writing this, news has arrived that the 

 Board of Trade objects to this provision, as it 

 conflicts with certain treaties,] 



-Australia rejoiced exceedingly when 



Chiaa and the cable was read, towards the 



Opium. end of last month, to the effect 



that an Imperial edict had been is- 

 sued in China, abolishing within ten years the use 

 of opium by both the foreign and native population. 

 Australians generally have taken a very keen inte- 

 rest in this, and much speech and writing has been 

 directed against the course of events which foisted 

 opium upon China. No one can tell what position- 

 China may occupy in the future when the brains of 

 its bedrugged people are clear from the fumes of 

 •' this foreign drug,'' as the Chinese Commissioners 

 who lately toured the world stigmatise it, but British 



people generally ought to heave a sigh of relief at 

 the fact that China intends to free herself from the 

 thraldom of the evil which was foisted upon her by 

 our people. What a good thing for Britain's dig- 

 nity it was that a little time ago the British Parlia- 

 ment volunteered the statement that if China wanted 

 seriously and in good faith to restrict the consump- 

 tion of opium, the British Government would not 

 close the door. 



... The New South Wales colliery 



New South Wales trouble, which arose from the men 

 Colliery Strike, objecting to work the dog-watch, 

 has been settled, and it practically 

 means that the position resolves itself into one of "as 

 you were." The men are to sign on at each of the 

 collieries under the contract form at use in that 

 colliery before the cessation of work. The strike 

 has lasted three weeks, and some outsiders won- 

 dered what all the fuss was about. Everyone must 

 be in favour of removing any conditions which press 

 hardly on men, but work is continuously carried on 

 in practically every mine in Australia, and it seems 

 as though it could not be a hardship to apply the 

 same rule to New South Wales mines. 



London, September, 1906. 



The Death The death of Lady Henry Camp- 

 of bell-Bannerman, which occurred at 



lady Campbell- Marienbad on the 30th of August, 

 Bannerraan. jg oj-,g gf those e\ents which may 

 profoundly influence the course of history. Of a 

 retiring disposition, the deceased ladv was hardly 

 known to the great public, and, outside their circle 

 of friends, few knew her even by sight. But those 

 who were privileged to enjoy the friendship of the 

 Prime Minister knew that in her Sir Henry had his 

 most trusted adviser, his shrewdest counsellor, his 

 unfailing stay and support in all his public and pri- 

 vate affairs. It was she. it is said, who decisixely 

 intervened to frustrate the determined intrigue to 

 force him into the House of Lords, for she, better 

 even than her husband, knew where his strength 

 lay. Whether or not this story be true, it illus- 

 trates the impression made on all who knew them 

 of her strength of character, her sagacity and good 

 sense. For years she had been a chronic invalid, 

 suffering acutely from a distressing malady which 

 the utmost skill of the physician was unable to cure. 

 During all that long martyrdom Sir Henry was the 

 most weariless of nurses, the most tender of com- 

 panions. No stress of public duty was allowed to 

 interfere with the service which by night and by 

 day he was ever prompt to render. It was an open 

 secret that if her physicians had insisted upon a 

 permanent sojourn abroad Sir Henry would have 

 resigned his high office. " My wife comes fir.st, " he 

 always said, and those who stood nearest to him in 

 party often shuddered at the thought of how pre- 

 carious was the securitv for the <-i)ntinuanre in office 



of the one indispensable man in the Liberal Minis- 

 try. Now that she has gone no one can predict 

 what will be the consequences of a bereavement 

 which, in Dr. Johnson's phrase, "lacerates the con- 

 tinuity of existence." 



Premiers 

 and 



For Sir Henry, who is suffering 

 the cruellest blow which can be 



Their Wives. dealt to the heart of a childless 

 husband, a sympathy is felt so uni- 

 versal and so profound that it would be vain to at- 

 tempt to express it in words. We can only hope 

 that in the absorbing preoccupations of the duties 

 which he alone can perform, the Prime Minister 

 may, like Cobden, find some anodyne to dull the 

 pain of bereavement. It is a notable fact that, with 

 the exception of Mr. Balfour, who is unmarried, 

 and Lord Rosebery, who was a widower, all our 

 recent Premiers were singularly fortunate in their 

 marriages. Lord Beaconsfield, Mr. Gladstone, 

 Lord Salisbury — it is difficult to say which of these 

 owed most to their wives. Mr. Gladstone always 

 used to say that without Mrs. Gladstone he could 

 never have borne the burdens of his supreme posi- 

 tion, and that if anything ever happened to Cathe- 

 rine he would retire from public life. Lord Beacons- 

 field's indebtedness to his wife was often publicly 

 expressed. Lord Salisbury found in Lady Salis- 

 bury exactly the helpmate — domestic, social and in- 

 tellectual — which he needed. And in his domestic 

 life Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman was equally 

 fortunate. Lady Henry was a plain, homely Scotch 

 wife to look at, but only those who were privileged 

 to enter into the intimacy of their faniilv life can 



