POLITICAL POINTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 28, 2 February 1907, Page 12

POLITICAL POINTS.

To sit upon the fence and- to wait to s,ee the direction in which the noli- ' tical cat will jump (says "Merlin* m , the Referee} is'n&ver quite the noblest thing; and the mere opportunist will always be rightly held in scorn. But the cry of the illimitable crowd which exclaims against the man who is of neither party is an expression of the latest tolly of the age. The Conservative view on the Educational Bill is well set for by The Times of 20th December. The loss of the Bill, it says, will be a subject of deep and sincere regret to moderate men of aH parties and of none. It might. The Times thinks, have bean averted bad more of the leaders on, both sides shared the spirit of the Arch'bistuJp of Canterbury, and the Duke-of Devonshire. But the fate pf th? measure has at least demonstrated, in, a way which the most obtuse cannot mistake, that , no ( per[manont solution of a gr^at national question which intimately affects tshgious convictions ia ' feasible, if it offends tho convictions and the., desires of the largest religious community in the country. Should that truth come, home now to the Government, it might not be wholly impracticable to avert the evils which 'must otherwise ensue, by somekind of "round table" discussion, before , the beginning of next session. » The Church Times is an exponent of tho extreme clerical views: —We care scarcely more (it says) for the Bill as amended by tho Lords than for the Bill as it left the Commons. Still less do we bolieve in the possibility of turn- . ing it into anything that resembles a just Bill. As a preliminary to compromise or peace, the present Bill would have' to be abandoned. And then it should nolj be impossible to effect a settlement, under which the State would impartially protect all the religions in which the parents desired their children to be instructed. It is in that direction only that the way to peace lies. The Nonconformist sentiment finds expression in the Christian World, m an article with the sensational title of "Wilful Murder !'■* It writes in a tone of angry defiance. It says :— The outcast from Manchester, the leader of the mere rump o£ a party in tho Commons^ Mr. Balfour, can at the moment, triumph in the thought that, rejected by the English people, he has been able once more to thwart their wishes. Calling to his aid that feuda) element of the Constitution which still remains to mock at our liberties, he. is able by its means to defy the greatest democratic majority which our generation has seen. We wish him joy of his achievement. But tho end ia not yet. The Government, if war there is to be, has amp/c resources for- carrying it on. A singular fact in eonn«etioji with th« constitutional crisis in Germany (says the Globe) is that the UUramontanes and the Socialists are making common cause against what, for want of a better name, we may perhaps call tho Kaisers party in the Reichstag. The combination illustrates one of the great dangers of government by group. These Wo. sections are bitterly opposed to one another and beyond a natred |or the Government have not a single idea in common. Were they successful, neither could assume responsibility, for the other would instantly turn apd rend it if it did. Yet they can combine, to make tho rule of a third party impossible. We suspect there is a good deal of truth in the idea that Parliamentary Government can only be auccessf u) when the Parliament is divided into two great' parties and no more. This week's telegrams have served to illustrate the remarkable insight of the Spectator, which, in its issue of 15th December, s.aid : — The real struggle is between the German Emperor and the German Parliament. Is the Reichstag to excrciba the power of the purse in reality, or only in name! If those Vho claim tho power of the purse win at the next election, the cause of Parliamentarianism and of liberal institutions in Germany will have been immensely. cvdvanced If, on the other hand, the voters endorse tho action of tie Kaiser, aujjeteracy will be more firmly established in Germany than ever. No doubt the German Emperor has losrt a good deal of his prestige, if not of his popT\lap:ity, during the last year, and this ni^y affect the contest. Wo must never forget, however, that tho German people, even when in an angry mood, have always in the past, when called sharply to attention by the Imperial voice, dropped their grumblings and assumed an obedient attitude.' On the question of the trouble in France the Saturday Review has uncompromisingly ranged itself with the Vatican party, which, as is well known, is by no means in accord with the hierarchy of tho Galilean Church- It says : The pigmy Jacobins to whom French foßy has entrusted the destinies of a great nation havo torn up the ■religious settlement which the winunisfcrative genius of Napoleon devised, and vrhich for a century had given to Franc* some measure of religious pea^oe. The reasons that have urged thesepigmy Robespierres and Dantons to this colossal crime are notorious outside England. To do these atheists justice, have for thirty years shouted their beliefs in the market place. From Gambetta's "Le clericalisme viola I'ennemi to M. Briands "II faut en flnir avec I 'idee chretiennc," they have marched steadily on to their goal which is the transformation of their countrymen into not only a non-Christian but an. anti-Christian nation. Never before in the struggle between the* State and the a Vatican m France has French Catholicism so unanimously ranged itself on tho side of tho Papacy. Only an issue of the first moment could nave united so great a body, hampered as it is, by Ar«irtian traditions^ in sp inagnificient a protest, tn its courage lies the best hopa for French religion. Fs>r the time the clouds are black, and there seems little hope of a popular reaction against Jacobinism in the land of St. Louis, From, tho greater part of OhriS' tendom, to its shame be" it said, there coroo but scant sympathy with the prosecuted church. History happily may be trusted to sot the wrpng right, and to do a generous if tardy justice to the brave mon who are fighting the battle of religious liberty for the world and are preserving for France the faith of Christ." Tho Church Times, on the contrary—-' a paper which cannot' be accused of any "Protestairt' 1 bias — holds, the Vatican' party responsible for all the trouble. "To us who stand aside, disinterested observers," U says, "it seems that the Roman Court is plungnig French Catholics into intolerable difficulties, merely to gratify- a diplomatic amour propre. For Frenchmen there is an urgent practical question. The Roman challenge amounts, in the circumstances, to a denial of the legislative independence of France. It. is not »nat a law is pronounced morally and religiously so ' objectionable that Catholics should disregard it and take the consequences. The law is declared null and void, beoause made by incompetent authority. And this law touches nothing but tfio tenure of property and personal rights of public meemng. If the LVeuch Republic; cannot onoot such a lavy, it is not an independent State. That is the question at' issue, nnd to defend this preposterous claim of tho Roman Court French Catholics are called upon to sofftß inconvenience! which will fall 'little. 6hor.t\oi mituw oenw^ution^