TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 8727, 24 February 1894, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

A Sydhei amateur Chili After the v astronomer, Mr W. F. Revolution. ' Gale, who has just re-

turned from Chili, where, in company with the Lick Observatory party, he observed the eclipse' of the sun, has contributed to the Sydney Daily Telegraph some of his impressions of the two South American ' republics whose names have figured co prominently before the public in connection with war and bloodshed during the last few years. He gives a doleful account of both countries. Chili has been steadily going baok ever since the revolution. This ie, no doubt, due in some measure to the general decline in trade,.and partly to the fall in JBilyer. Those who ; sympathise with Balmaceda are strongly of opinion that it is niainly attributable to the victory £of the congressional ;party. However that may be, the fact remains that before the war the couutry had a surplus of 40,000,000 silver dollars. She was prosperous.. The paper dollar nominally valued at 2a 6d was worth 17d or 13d. Even during the war it did not fall below 16d. But since the cessation of hostilities the value of the paper ha3gono slowly down until it is now about 1* 2d. Still it is a country of vast resource*, and, as it has shown itself in the past, a country of splendid recnpsratfve powers. A merchant in the capital, Santiago, told * Mr Gale that lie laeb year sold 300 reaping machines to settlers in the South. This shows that the inhabitants are- devoting themselves to the development of jts resources, and ia, besides a suggestive fact for cur own farmers to reflect upon. Mr GaiiE's. account* of Peru v Modern "it is affords a , lamentable conPeru, trast to the glowing picture painted by Prescott of Pern as it existed in the time of the Inoas. Says the visitor :— "Scenes of more utter desolation don't exist on the face of the civilued earth. Houses empty, shops teoantiesa, settlements abandoned, buildings falling to decay. The country seems utterly bankrupt. I observed houses long since left to decay with the roofs fulling iv, and vultures sitting on the rafters , as though they had arrived just too late for their prey. Even in State a&tirs everything . nearly is farmed out. It you go to the pusc office for a stamp you probably le«n that the right to them, for ft term has been sold to a tobacconist round the corner. I don't know whether all the revenues are farmed oat. They may be. Bat Peru, v a nation, is dead ; or, if it's nob dead, it's just enter- , ing its' coftiu." Such ia the condition into which a naturally wealthy country may drift owing to bad < government, culminating fn war ; and mistaken notions regarding political economy and social laws.' Sik James Chichtoi* Browne, ' Pleasure the eminent physician, has an and interesting article in the Pain. Humanitarian in which he die* pusses the question of the i evolution'of pain and pleasure. He takes i

it as an axiom that the higherwY.aioitnft i n civilisation, th* mote out seatieney iocxtwe, —the greater our capacity, that is to %&» for feeling either pleasure or pain. The most anxious question to be decided however, is M to whether these V crease ia the aatno ratio? Does plenum as Sir James puts it, predominate O7er pain or pain over pleasure ? I 8 eorrow out-ruo* aiog joy, or does joy distance eorrow J % c are glad to see that he incline* to the opti, mistic view. To the physiologist, he eaye i~! "It. ia evident that in the evolution ol aentiency, tho amplification of ite able possibilities is greater than the anioli fioation of ita painial ones, Wβ see thii if we look at tho senses separately The varieties of pain, if we consider common sensibility, are numerous enough and many of them are exaruciatine but there ie always a crudity about them notwithstanding the special nerve fibres subservient to them, when compared with the refinements of touoh, and of the temperature and muscular sense. Iv taste the scale of agreeable flavours are far more extended and subtle than that of nauseous sensations, and ia sight we enjoy oceans of delight, broken only occasionally by impressions that hu-t or offend the retina. And the higher we ascend in the scale of eentienoy, the more does pleasure preponderate over pain. Music is sublimated heating, and surely the gratification that it gives Uβ more than counter balances the affliction of harah or jarrfoe sounds, even as these assail us in WJ - towns. The sense of beauty ia vision raised to a higher powor, ond surely it opens up tc us vasb tracte of enjoyment in nature ajjri att with distressful patches only here *&{ there. On the active side of our nature, too pleasure prevails, for the «mjoyraenb acooin' pauying muscular exerciae—the sense ol effort and consciousness of power— -U Ui greater than any suffering that comes from weariness or fatigue."

These are not only cheery words but they contain undeniable truths, which it is w*H we should look upon and recognise. A great I deal of the pessimism- of the present day proceeds from blindness either wilful or constitutional. We get too much in the Jubib of nursing our pains and grievances and shutting our eyea to the brighter side of the picture—the privileges and pleasure' which we enjoyi "

A case of some public A interest haa just beeu Patent Medicine decided in the Wei. Case. lington Supremo Court. It was a claim by Steter Mary Joseph Aubert, of Jerusalem, on th« Wauganui river, against Mr O. J. Kemp, thorne, manager for Messrs Kempthorno, Prosser and Co., for £500, for breach ot agreement. \ The plaintiff ia the inventor of certain patent medicines, now well known to the public, which enjoy the singular distinction of being blessod by an Archbishop, and sanctioned by the official approval of an ex-Governor of this colony. - There are in all nine vegetable preparations associated with her name, and the defendant acquired under an agreement made ia August, 1891, the right to put up theso modioinee fo! sale in euoh form as ho considered suitable < for trade purposes. He elected to deal only with four of them, named respectively Matupa, Natanata, Paramo and Karana. Sβ was required by the agreement t<? purchaio at least lifty gallons oi medicine from the plaintiff per year. In the twelvemonths ending August, 1893, tho defendant took - only ten gallons instead of fifty, and hettice the suit for breach of contract. One. lino of defence was that defendant , wail at liberty, if he did nob tako the full quantity one year, to. make it up the next, but this was denied by the plaintiff, Another was that there haviug been default in the performance of the contract, the. i.'emedy was to break it. Furthermore, thedefendant put ia a counter-claim for £600 as damages, alleging that tlie medicine ytta supplied so badly made, that some boceme fermented and unfit for the market. The plaintiff, in her evidence, produced, sartiplea manufactured in 1890, which wore in good ojrder, and attributed the fermentation to ' the manner in which the fluid extract had x been diluted by the defendant. It was DOS. intended to be diluted—at any rate only to a small extent. Plaintiff further stated that she had iv hand nearly seventy gallons of the medioiaw and that defendant had told her he h|4 spent £3000 in advertising and pushing the sale of the medicine, and that he waa pro* pared to spend & like sum again. For her* self the medicine had been produced at ft. loae up to the present, on account of th« outlay on machinery, and eho looked to too future for the profit. Counsel foi , tho defendant, on tho other hand, said the agree* menb was to a certain extent a partnership, MrKempthorne taking all the risks. His client had endeavoured to carry out the . contract, but had been saddled with a coaV modity which was unmarketable, and he lost largely by the agreement. In the result the Court awarded Sister Aubert £21.0 damages, with costs, and dismissed the counter cteirri. One of the legal gentlemen engaged hibthfl mark, we think, when he said that, in tht intereste of both parties, the case ought never to have come into' Court—that it ought to have been settled ,by arbitritioA Ie was jusb the case for those 1 triburisleet, commercial men inaugurated by Mr, Olwlw ,■ in the Cifcy of London, and whose introduction here he advocated in our columns., the other day.