TOWN EDITION.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 7601, 21 February 1896, Page 3

TOWN EDITION.

THE OUTSIDE WORLD.

Me Sextos, who retires from politics after refusing the position of leader of the Irish party, lias been in tlio Houso of Commons since 1880. Ho is an able man, comparatively young (he is only forty-eight) and noticeably eloquent. By the latter quality he was distinguished from most of his colleagues, whose fluency of speech is ordinary garrulity except where it is personal. His admirers called him " the silver-tongued Sexton." His career a3 a politician devoted to the Nationalist cause has cured him of the enthusiasm with which he started hi 3 political life. He has only too bitterly learned the fact that most of the wirepullers in the agitation ho supported were playing " lone hands " for their own glorification or enrichment. Mr Sexton entered Parliament in 1880 as member for Sligo. In 1886 he was elected for Belfast West, and from 1892 till the date of his retirement he represented Kerry North.

The Communal Council of Brussels, which has voted a subsidy towards the coat of an antarctic expedition, is one of two thousand six hundred similar bodies in Belgium. Those which govern the rural and country districts are called Provincial Councils, but their powers and functions are practically the same as those which rule the communes, or municipalities. The Provincial Councils are elected for four years and the Communal Councils for six years. Only those who pay direct rates can vote at communal or provincial elections with the exception of priests, who have votes whether they pay rates or not. Eack Communal Council has an executive body, composed of the Burgomaster (equal to our Mayor), the President (corresponding to chairman of committees in a New Zealand Municipal Council), nnd a- few of the Councillors. These practically do as they please except levy rates. That has to be done by the whole body.

Mr Hogan, who has introduced a bill into the House of Commons to legitimise the children of a certain class of married people, deserves praise for his efforts to right a glaring wrong. The existence of that wrong is striking evidence of the absolute wickedness which ecclesiastical corporations sometimes permit themselves to indulge in. It ia they who have made the deceased wife's sister difficulty. They have made it against the dictates of common sense, and against the Biblical sanction of marriages of males with deceased wives' sisters and of females with deceased husbands' brother. The Bible forbids a man marrying the sister of his wife while that wife is alive, but by that very prohibition impliedly sanctions such marriages after the wife's death. The Bible also commands that in certain cases the brother of a woman's dead husband must marry that woman. There is absolutely no Biblical sanction whatever for the priest-made difficulty of the deceased wife's sister.

Some may say "What does it matter ?" It matters a great deal. There is, unfortunately, a great deal of other law in existence that was made in the bad old times when priests ruled Christendom. At one time every child whose parents were not married by a priest was illegitimate. Advancing civilisation has altered that, but the shameful penalties of illegitimacy still remain for thousands of other unfortunates. And they are not imaginary penalties, seeing that upon legitimacy frequently depends inheritance. But for the Anglican Bishops in the House of Lords, backed up by a sentiment which the Eomish Church also supports, marriage with a deceased wife's sister would be as legal in Great Britain as it is in all the colonies. But the curse of ecclesiasticism still overshadows the world, and one form of it is the wicked injustice which Mr Hogan seeks to rectify.

The question of Fenianism is being raised by Archbishop Walsh. We venture the opinion that he is utterly wrong in his assumptions. Fenianism i 9 not on the inciease. Ireland is more prosperous and more contented now than for many years past. If the Archbishop would undertake a careful analysis of his own mental condition, he would probably have to confess that he would not be displeased if the British Government thought him to be an exceedingly important personage at this juncture, apprehensive lest the Fenians should begin to break things, and desirous of being the ally of the Government in circumventing them. In that case common gratitude might induce Lord Salisbury to make some political concessions to the views on educational subsidise held by Archbishop Walsh. The latter is clever, not to say wily, and usually knows exactly what he is after, but in this case the head of his bogey looks suspiciously like the hollow turnip o£ childhood.

That is awful news which comes from Johannesburg. Hundred of persons have been killed, bat how many have been injured will probably never be known. Those whose hurts are on the surface will be accurately enough reckoned, but explosions frequently cause mental and physical shocks the results of which are not known at first even to the sufferers. That is often the case in connection with railway collisions and mining accidents. Judging by the cable news those of the Lh'ing who suffer most by the catastrophe are poor Dutch families, for that is a fair inference from the statements made as to the funds collected on their behalf. The wide area involved by the explosion is shown by the fact that every house within half-a-mile of the sceDe of the explosion was destroyed. What can be done to minimise the sufferings of the injured and alleviate the poverty and distress of the relatives of those killed, we may be sure will be done heartily and promptly.

Poor Siv Henry Parkes ! Hβ has isdeed sunk to a low ebb in his old age. At one time the arbiter of New Sonth Wales politics, bo now stands an example of .the veteran lagging " superfluous on the stage " of his former triumphs. Tke J?reotrade policy he threatened for years he ney.ejr introduced, and when it was presented to the people by his one-time follower. Gaol Delivery Reid, the old man opposed it tooth and nail. He is now stranded on the lee shore of political ingiatituda, and although his iron constitution may-v-?.nd we hope will—long preserve him to Aaatrslasia as a spectator of the fights in whiefc h? once took part, he is no longer a factor ,iv politics. Eis remark to the effect that he welcomed defeat rather than success is suggestive of the ridiculous, for to stand only to ask to be knocked down is stupid., but regarded as an attempt to put a littlo dignity into an undignified position it is pathetic. The sooner the Govemmeat: rote him his annuity the better.