TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 13000, 31 December 1907, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Tho industrious remoUncheerfnl reader must have, noticRhymes. cd how inevitably the

English poet decides that if Christmas spells jollity, the New Year must incline to melancholy. It has been suggested that these gloomy vi«we wero fostered by the cold coining of both festivals in. winter snows. At Christmas everyone felt bound to keep up appearances and assume a vast content, with shiverings. By New Year such artificial mirth had reached it» limit and poetry relapsed with a nat-

Ural abandon into the cold comfort more accordant with the season. "Dajs and moments, quickly flying. Blend tho living with tho deed; Soon will you and I' bo lying Each within his narrow bed." saya the church hymn still, in that tombstone mood which once provoked Charles Lamb's famous "Not so shortly, friond, perhaps as thoa iraaginest." When more ancient carols were in fashion, this was the sort of mortuary mandate that floated on the midnight air:

"Instruct and teach your children well Tho while on earth you etar: It will be better for your soul When you lie wrapped in clay. With one clod at thy head. O man. And enother 3t thy feet. Thy good and evil deeds, O man, Will all together meet" The soundest, supporter of Education Acts might object to have, his duty prescribed by such dismal rhymers. Even in Scotland, whero New Year keeps high carnival, the "Guisers ,, of Hogmanay had few more cheerful sentiments than, wo learn from Thrums: "Get up, gudo wife, and b* not eweir To deal your bread to them that's here. For the time will come when jou'll bo dead, Then you'll want neither beer nor bread."

A gudo wife thus roused, by successive parties, muet havo consoled herself, "Well, at any rate, 1 shall not have to get up then on frosty nights to feed tho guisers!" New Zealand, welcoming tho New Year to gardens of lilies and rosee,. will find the right noto struck only by Charles Lamb and by hearty, cheerful Mr Cotton:

"So smiles upon us the first morn, And speaks us good ;us soon as born."

In this climate there should arise a new school of versifiers, merry and wise, to concoct right sentiments, while "no gloom of 'shrunk Docembor , <'hills tlie moral of their lay."

According to an account Books in an American literary in journal, bookselling in Russia. Russia offers little attrae-

tiou to those who would, make money quickly or safely. The Czar's manifesto two years , ago gave real freedom to the Press, but since the dissolution of tho first Duma this freedom has given place to a censorship almost as tyrannous as that which formerly existed. Before the manifesto every lino was subjected to censorship beforo it could bo printed; offending passages wcro cut out, and books that touched upon tho Government, the Army, tho Church, or the privi-

kges of the nobility in a critical spirit were forbidden. After tho edict of freedom came a great literary outburst, authors, compilers, and tran»-

latore straining to keep up with the speed of the Press. Books circulated in millions all over Russia, eagerly beized upon by all classes of society in the great desiro to havo truth. Fiction had no place in this development of reading, for the people's own life was so full of euspense and of the dramatic as to make ordinary fiction seem oom.monplace. What they wanted was the truth about the Government—its oppreesion, corruption, and inefficiency— and all books, original or translated, that bore upon economics and politics were eagerly read. Aβ it was before

tbo- manifesto in 1905, so now again in 1907 the writing or publishing of such books means prison or Siberia. Now the difference is that the book is stopped after tho publisher has been to the expenso of printing. A visitor to St. Petersburg says that on asking for several forbidden publications ho was told with great courtesy that tho firm did not keep them, but at another book-etoro, whero ho had an introduction from Gorky, the forbidden-Htera-

ture was produced without trouble, ;hougb with great cnution. When Jio isked for a pamphlet dealing with the ?irl T«rroriet ■μ-iio kifled General JMimv, ;he dealer lot, him in behind the :on titer, and after eonio fumbling gave iim the. pamphlet insido a large volime of Government statistics, behind he protection of which tho purchaser lipped; the pamphlet inside his coat. Jve-n tho Czar's own speeches, it eeras, have fallen under the censor's iann. It occurred to come revoluionist that the incompetence of Nicholas could be most easily ehown by lis own words, co all his public utternoes since hit* accession in 1894 were, iiihlished in tho lorm of a book, and old cheaply to tho masses. "People cad, and laughed or grow bitter. Nicholas was guilty of lese-majcety gainst himself, and his speeches were dried to the most illegal of illegal iterature that ever imperilled the afety of his throne."

- The Finnish ParliaProhibition ment has passed one of in thb most extraordinary Excelsis. of licensing measures.

Based on a Bill originally drafted l>y a temperance society, it amounts, says tlio Helsingfore correspondent of "The Times,"-to a total prohibition of all traffic in spirits, beer, and wino. Only for medical and technical purposes may spirits be produced or imported as a State monopoly. Tho enactment actually forbids the im&o of wine in the sacrament; some non-alco-holic beverage must be substituted. Ono member—not a woman, to tho credit of her sex—said ho could not see why churches should bo tho only taverns left in the country. Xo ono may keep liquor in his house, unless ho can prove that it came into his possession before the law was passed; tho police may at any moment search a house on "reasonable grounds of euspicion; and tho penalties for breaches of the law range from a fino of £4 up to penal eervitudb for throe years. No provision is made for compensation to those engaged in the trade, but there are vague hints of the possibility of future legislation on this point. The Diet, it may bo stated, is elected on universal adult suffrage, and nineteen of ite members arc women. "Opponents of the total prohibition principle pointed in rain to the grave dangers attending such a dra«tio measure, as, for instance, tho revival of the now practically extinct smuggling trade, the inquisitorial powers conferred on the police, and tho general contempt for the law which they fear will result from an enactment not wholly supported , by the community," The attitude of the supporters of the measure wa* indicated by the words of one of the nineteen women, that in dealing with a social question of such vital importance, it was quite time "to leavo reason aside and let sentiment prevail!" tSentiment prevailed so much that the Czar is

unlikely to eanction tho niea&urc, which, besides being tyrannical, probl ably conflicts with the rights of other nations under treaties. "The Tinn-e". remarks -editorially that "in its theoretical aspect as a manifestation «f tho extreme democratic spirit in a .single Chamber, in its contempt for freedom, it* worship of sentiment, and its negation of reason, the action of the. Finnish Diet is not without a wide and Pimnbue significance."