TOPICS Of THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12683, 22 December 1906, Page 8

TOPICS Of THE DAY.

Many will recall amongst A Baptism in mission tragedies of our Uganda. time the death of the first Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, ruthlessly murdered at the instigation of King Mwanga himself. Letter.-and journals remained to toll the story of Bishop Hannington's last journey, and few missionary records have been more worth reading than thia of the cheery young prelate lie was only thirty-eight that- year, 1885), travelling fearlessly on towards evil fate. "I have just treveHeed fortyfive miles." runs one of his lest letters, "have cleared, away the bushes, and lighted a fire with my own hands. You must not be surprised if I am rather lacy. I have had scaraely any food for eighteen hours, and have not had a wash for two days, nor do I see muoh chance of getting more than a ' lick' for two days more." He was not given to sentimentalising on his circumstances, and kept a fine hopefulness even to the end of those diaries written while a prisoner in his but, fevered, ill, and tormented by the night cries of hyenas which "scented a sick man. Mwwngs was then a mere boy, under the influence of his vixier and council of chiefs. He sent the order through Luba, or Lubwa, a man of considerable power in his own territory, and the Bishop was dragged from his sick bed to face death with the memorable words, 'Tell the King I am about to <die for the Bagan<da, and hare, purchased tlwyroad to tbem with my l;fe." Very few would have dared to prophesy then that Mwanga. would eventually become a Christian, that his eon would rula as a <Chriertian; but them things' are part of the later history of the Eaat /African Church. And this year a still stranger harvest has (sprung from that seed of martyrdom. In Uganda ktely_ Lubwa'a son was baptised by the Hey. J. Hannington, Vho is a son of the; murdered missionary. Shorthouee is gone, who in "Sir Peroival" gave some curiously life-like though imaginative details of tha Bishop's edeath. It almost needs his mystical pcs to treat this victory of Christian faith.,, "Thy father killed my father; therefore, die 1" nays the natural heathen in man. Mr Hannington has travelled tbe road his father pure-Used, only to extend all possible benefits to those who wrought that painful tragedy twenty years ago. To Lubwa'e man, and to East African converts generally, .this Christmas must bring an illustration most near at hand to the fullest meaning of "peace and goodwill." Mr Douglas Story, in An Observer his articles on the East in in tbe "Tribune," Si run. gives an interesting acoount of Siam as it is to-day, prosperous and picturesque. East and West meet here in strange contrasts. Near the great white sacred elephant in tbe palace of the King, attended day and night by servants who make obeisance before offering it sugar cane, stands a powerful motorcar of the latest pattern. "Feathery palm trees and gently swaying bamboos shade cotton milk and engineering works, navy ship-building yards, and the silent wats of Buddhist monks. Chinese junks, like great brown moths, float imperceptibly through luah green paddy fields, . while fuesy motor boats push rudely among the ruins of deserted temples." Ths description of the prosperity and geod government of the country comes aa rather a revelation. The statistics of King Chulalongkorn'a domestic life do not create a good Impression. He is credited with having eighty children, and his numerous wives—the gifts of ambitious nobles as palatable aids in advancement—never leave the harem. But the King is a statesman and a reformer, a keen man of business and a patriot. He speaks, reads,, and writes English like an Eng-

lishman. works harder thin any man in hia kingdom, and personally superintends every department of his kingdom. His energy is a standing roach tc one of the lasiest peoples iv ihe world. The exports of the country have nearly doubled in ten years, and its credit is firmly established in the exchanges of the world. Every Siamese boy can read and write, and 10,000 scholars in the capital are instructed in higher education, while the most ambitious are drafted to European universities with the understanding that they will give their services to tbe Government' when theey return. The country's prosperity is in a large measure due to tbe King's foreign advisers. The King wisely chose hia advisers from many lands, and placed them under Siamese Ministers. The general adviser is an American. The directors of finance and education, of the customs, mining, and survey departments are British. The judicial advisers are an Englishman and a Frenchman. The managers of State railways, of the posts and telegraphs., are Germans. The public works are engineered by Italians, and the sanitary department is administered by Frenchman. Tlie officers of the navy and the gendarmerie ire Tho great fault of the Siamese seems to be their lai-iness, due to the extreme fer-, tilirtry of their land. They are a simple and courteous people, full of tbe joy of life, and they meet Europe-ns "with a quiet dignity that is as devoid of humility as it is of the impudence which makes ths Chinese and Japanese of the coast ports obnoxious to the poople of the west." On the first <anniversA Russian ary of the granting of Trial. the so-called "constitution to Russia, some Russian papers made a list of the fruits of the year, which included 623 papers and revieews stopped, and 647 prosecutions of editors. A little sketch byalr John FosteT Fraseer shows, however, that the Court is not always against the Press, and that o 'clever lawyer may (jet a journalist off even ' when he breakß the law. Tho trial was at Kazan, and the editor and publisher of the "Evening" were charged with printing, two days after the esmothering of the Duma by Imperial ukase, an, article in which it wa.<- said that ihe news of the closing of the Duma came like a bomb among the people; that the people must now be ready to stand in their and use their power, and that this time there must be IJO bloodshed for nothing. According to Mr Fraeer, the judges not fearful - Looking men, but courteous . gentlemen who might teach something to, many a County Bench in England. There seems to be no doubt as to the construction to be put,on the passage complained of, but counsel for the defence was equal to the task. In these stirring times the authorities were hysterical, and, the j censor was a, fool who oould not plain Russian. articla;-W»aa*j vigorous. The people most _ <atj»kjwU their plaoeP Of What crime was there in tolling thai people thatP Every<mo in oourt wait standing in hie place. The people were j to use their power P By what rig-lit did thd{ censor decide that this: power, was for harmful purpoeeaP, Waif' there not the power of the brain P ' W_a there not tiie pow<er pf JoveP The assertion that this time there must be no bloodshed for nothing, was it not merely a prptesl- against .the waste of. blood Th these rerolute_|aa_y times? Impressed^%. thesfc argumsiits the judges acquittWHhe prisoner, but* remarks °Mr Fraeer, "if We aent-'editors to prison in England for writing tliat sort of thing, no Judge would'allow himself to be co bamboo_led 'aa to what was the meaning of the writer.*" Hie editor, it may be mentio*«d, h<ad been in prison for several months, a_>4 tWe waa no guarantee that the acquittal would save him from .'BiWsriw. As one of the pufoio in the oourt explained to ': Mr -Fn_aer, no trial is needed for deportation to Siberia. / It is enough that tbe political police think you edangenaua'/ You may be seised on the night of your acquittal, and hurried, off across Russia without, anyone knowing. 8o the sen--ational novelista are right after all.

A most interesting disA oovery has been mad* tv Tennyson th-a Rowf -in Discovery, the shape of a Tennyson "trial-book." Teqnjraon formed early in life the curioua';habit of printing privately and in' in mpe of only three or four copies, poems which he did, not publish at once, or in sqme pases, for several years. Those books Mrved as modelling clayVand often differed very much from the puttlished form. There has now been discovered "The Birth of Arthur; thp Holy Grail; Air Pilleaa; and tbe i>eath of Arthur, 1868,'' the pre-natal.form <'f the "Holy Grail' volumo of 1870. catalogued in the Rowfant library erroneously aa l ;idyl_t'of the King, new edition, 1862." Apparently Tennyson gave Locker Lampson a bundle of corrected pages, pressing them, according to tradition, aeoretly into his friend's greatcoat pocket, and the collector never perceived that besides a small portion of the issue of-18-2, they contained a proof-volume of 1868. The materia] was bound and catalogued as the 'Idylls" of 1862. This book throws additional light on the extreme pains taken oy the poet to attain perfection, The alterations and additions are very numerous, but besides these there ar einsertod slips containing additional lines, remodellings of long pasaages, *nd alterations' and balancings of melody and mum.' At first a famoua passage in the "Holy Grail" stood: "That, m they rase, knighted from kneeling, some Were red as chidden boys, and others pale, Some trembled and one wept; but when he spake, 'Be ye my Table Round and work my will. * My vows -are not too high and hard to keep • •So that ye love mc utterly."" As we know it the passage ia: "That when they rose, knighted from kneeling, some Were pale aa at the passing of a ghost, Some flush' d, and others dazed, as one who wakee Half blinded at the coming of a light. But when he spake and <cbeerVi hia Table Round With large, divine and comfortable words Beyond my tongue to toll mo—l beheld From eye to eye through all their Order flash/ A London reviewer points out that the interest of this book is not that of mere curiosity, but lies "in the proof it gives of the absorbing seriousness

with which Tennyson regarded hia art Brooding on it by night and day] weighing every particle and t<aiti«| every <Sadence. No poet in the histori of literature has been a craftsm.n patient or more adroit."