If this demi-official account of the incident is true, Lord
Rosebery is a very weak Premier. Any one of his predecessors would have consulted the naval and military departments, and have sanctioned the necessary orders without creating a need- less and unnecessary alarm. What is the Crown for, if British subjects in Asia cannot be protected without the depart- mental chiefs sheltering themselves behind a Cabinet reso- lution ? In such matters the Premier should take the responsibility, and leave Parliament to censure him if it pleases ; and Lord Palmerston or Mr. Gladstone would have done it, It is, however, possible that our Ambassador at Pekin had telegraphed news so serious that the Govern- ment had to decide not on a movement but on a policy, and in. that case a Cabinet consultation may have been constitutionally justified. It is difficult to see, however, what aid most of the Ministers would bring to a discus- sion,—say, on the necessity of checking Japan or pre- paring against a Russian coup ; and one wonders what Lord Rosebery would do in the case of a real emergency. Would he, as depositary of the authority of the Crown, act at once, or would he wait till his colleagues could arrive from the ends of the earth, to shelter him from blame if things went wrong P The public confidence in him will certainly not be increased by the incident, which, if there is no secret still con- cealed, revealed fussiness rather than decision.
