POLITICAL POINTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 138, 7 December 1907, Page 11

POLITICAL POINTS.

Mr. ,11. H. Asquith, Chancellor of the Exchequer, speaking at East Fife on 19th October, gave a very interesting deliverance on Liberalism and Socialism, in which he essayed to defins tho tlilference. He said : — They could not take up a Tory newspaper or read a Tory speech without coming across the suggestion that tho Socialists had captured or wero in process of capturing the Liberal party, and that the people of this country, if they wished to avoid tho inconveniences of universal spoliation, would do well — indeed, it was the only courso open for them — to throw themselves bodily and blindly into the arms of Toryism and tariff reform. . . If they asked him at what point it was that Liberalism and what was called ! Socialism in tho true and strict sense j of tho term parted company, he ' answered, When liberty in its positive, and not merely its negative, sense was threatened. Liberty meant more than tho mere absence of coercion or restraint ; it meant 'tho power of initiative, the free play of intelligences and wills, tho right, so long as a man did not become a danger or a nuisance to the community, to use as he thought beat the faculties of his nature or his brain, and tho opportunities of his life. The great loss conterbalancing all apparent gains of a reconstruction of society upon what were colled Socialistic lints would be that liberty would be slowly but surely (Starved to death ,and that with the superficial equality of fortunes and conditions, even if that could be attained, we should have the most startling despotism that the world had ever seen. To Socialism, so understood, Liberals wero prepared to offer a convinced and' uncompromising opposition. In conclusion, Mr. Asquith said: When, therefore, Lord Balfour of Burleigh appealed to his countrymen to forma new organisation to deal with Socialism this appeal left him very cold. He did not underrate the activity or tho progress of the Socialist propaganda or tho importance of meeting it with a constant and consistent exposure of many of its cloudy though alluring fallacies ; but the real danger lay in leaving evils unredressed and problems unsolved on the ground that except by revolutionary expedients it was beyond the competence of statesmen to deal with them. Tho community must be master in its own house. That was no principle of anarchy ; it was tho security and safeguard of social union. The Monarchy and Constitution of Great Britain were a hundred times safer to-day than they wero a hundred years ago. Why? Because, as Tennyson said, they had been "broad-based upon the people's will." By widening tho area of political power wo had at the same timo widened that area of political responsibility and stability. It would bo the same with our social institutions unless ho was much mistaken. Property and liberty, each of them, became moro and not less sectire by every step which was taken to remove the sense of injustice, to diffuse and equalise tho pressure of the common burden, and to keep — and this was most important of all — to keep every particular interest in subordination to the .interest of the whole. At Arbroath, on 21st October, Mr. John Morley made a speech of historic importance on the Indian pioblem. It is fully reported in The Times. Inter alia, he said: — "There is one tremendous fallacy which it is indispensable for you to banish from your minds when you are thinking from the point of view of a British Liberal — that whatever is good in tho way of self-government for Cana^ da must bo good for India. In my view that is tho most concise statement that I can imagine, and the grossest fallacy in all politics. I think it is most dangerous, I think it is the hollowest and, I am sorry to say, the commonest of all the fallacies in the history of the world in all stages of civilisation, that because a particular policy or principle is true and expedient and vital in certain definite circumstances, therefore it is equally true and vital in a completely different set of circumstances. A very dangerous and gross fallacy. You might jiisi as well say that, because a fur coat in Canada at certain times of tho year is n. moat comfortable garment, therefore a fur coat in tho Deccan of India is a sort of handy garment which you might be very happy to wear. You might say, "Oh ! but a form of government is one thing and a coat is another." 1 only throw it out to you as an example and an illustration. Where tho historical traditions, the religious beliefs, the racial conditions, are all different — I do not want to be arrogant or insolent, but I say that to transfer by mere logic all the conclusions that you apply to ono case to the other is the heigho of political folly, and 1, for one, will never lend myself to that doctrine." "Those of you (said Mr. Morley) who have followed Indian matters at all during the last few weeks or months — two or three months — are aware there is a reform scheme, a schemu to bring tho Indians closely — giving them a chance, at all events, of coming more closely — into contact with the Government of their country. Though tho Government of India issued certain proposals expressly marked as piovi&iona' and tentative, there was no secret hatching of a new Constitution. Their circular was sent about to obtain an expression of Indian opinion, official and non-oflicial. Plenty of timo has been given and is to be given for an examination and discussion of the information. We shall not be called upon to give an official decision until spring next year, .and shall not personally be called upon for a decision before the middle of next session. Tt you will let me, 1 will say that wo look with satisfaction on tho now policy of leaving the Indian protected States and tho Indian princes who rule over them — and they amount to over sixty millions of population outside the area of what is called the British area — to leave these princes much more to themselves. This is a step we have taken to which I attach the greatest importance. Two Indians have for the first time been appointed to be members of the Council of India sitting at Whitehall. I appointed these two gentlemen, not only to advise the Secretary of State in Council, not only to help to keep him in touuh with Indian opinion and Indian interests, but as a marked and conspicuous proof on tho highest scale, by placing them on this important advisory and in some respects its ruling body, that we no longer mean to keep Indians at arms' length or hhut tho door of the Council Chamber of tho paramount power against them." A well-cured lor body (says a hygienic reformer) is the best antidote I know for indulgence in alcoholics. Half of us "nip" to Hog up a fagged and waning energy. Men and women do not drink out of pure "cu&sedness" — they drink in 75 per cent, of cases to secure a spasm of new energy. Young men, make of the iields and the "gym." your public-house, and stand lit Nature's "bar" as long as you will, quaffing deep goblets of oxygen and delight. A day in the forest or on tho bleak uplands is worth to your health and good spirits a thousand whiskies and sodas ; and a cycle ride before breakfast a tramp through the country, or a splash in a swimming buth, is equivalent in exhilaration to all tho "brandies and sodas" ever drunk, and a million times cheaper und more eflicacioua.,