BY THE WAY.

Evening Star, Issue 8718, 9 January 1892, Page 1 (Supplement)

BY THE WAY.

-1 et your sense ho clear, Nor with a weight of words fatigue the ear Horace.

" Not in such a hurry, my friend," Cfcarles Lamb used to observe in reply to those tombstone impertinences which preached to him "As I am now, so you must be "; and " Not in such a hurry, my friend," may well have been the remark of Bishop Kennion, of Adelaide, when he read ' The Times's' notice of his death. Not to every man is it given to out out his own obituary record, to have it framed, and to hang it over his study mantelpiece. Mr Dalziel, in a very humble apology to the Thunderer, gives the wording of the guilty cablegram : " Influenza extensively prevalent Wales Victoria numerous deaths Bishop Adelaide found dead sea aerpent sixty foet Coffin Bay." Not bad, certainly, whether regarded as a very tragic comedy or a Chinese puzzle. Dalziel adds : "We read the last six words as a separate sentence, and, judging that it was not suitable for the * Times,' we omitted it in the copy sent you. We can only now assume that the Bishop of Adelaide, or, possibly, a Mr Bishop of Adelaide, found something in Coffin Bay which our correspondent describes as a dead sta serpent." How delicate is tho compliment conveyed in the surmise that tho serpent yarn was "not suitable" for the' Times'! and how wise the incredulity which speaks not of a aea serpent, but of "something in Cotlin Bay which our correspondent describes as a dead sea serpent." Of course the ' Times ' has " much pleasure " in announcing that tho bishop is not in " ColKu Bay," wherever the "something" may be. As it turned out, !'■ "-n not His ] Lordship who found the " sumuthing"—a fact which surely demands a yet more humble apology ; for I take it that a right reverend and" truth-loving bishop would prefer prematurely to pass through " Coffin Bay" to the Chnrch Invisible to being known in the Church Militant as tho finder of a sea serpent.

It is pleasant to see tho name of Disraeli once more connected with public affairs. Mr Coningsby Disraeli, the young nephew of Dizzy the Great, is not yet in Parliament, but he has been entering political life in the correspondence columns of 'The Times.' Truth to tell, he seems to have made as sorry a show as did his uncle more than halt a century ago. "The day will come when you will hear me," cried youug Benjamin in the faith of conscious genius; and what shall bo the future of young Coniug?by ? Well, this is what one Gladatonian MP. says of his performance: •'Of course, young cocks crow loudly, and no doubt it U easier to copy the consummate self-assurauce of tho late Earl of Beaconefield than his other

political gifts As to Mr Coningsby Disraeli, I cannot be surprised that he is beginning his c.ueer with that strong leaning to mis-atatement and selfassurance which proved so eminently suecosHful iu the case of his uncle." But the rno3t damning proof of young Dizzy's audacity lies in the fact that by an attack on Mr John Morley he has actually shocked the generous susceptiHlities of Professor Obey. Professor D. himself, as my readers know, has a very pretty gift of, well criticism ; can it be that he thinks the younger D. is likely to cut him out as Uuionist bruiser—to out-Dizzy Dicey? Auyway. the tender-hearted Professor ia aghast that anyone bolonging to the aame party as himself should speak of Gladstoniana as Master Coningsby speaks. Listen, oh my friends, to Satan reproviug sin: "Mr Coningaby Disraeli has invented a uew method of attack upon opponents, of which 1 trust he may long continue the undisputed patentee. . . . Of tho indecency of the attack I say nothing. Nothing, we may presume, would make it apparent to Mr Disraeli; no words are needed to make it patent to others. . . . The attack will not damage a single Gladstonian, but may do great injury to the party which has tho misfortune to number Mr Coningaby Disraeli in its rank?." And this, remember, in from the man who referred to Mr Gladstone as "Old Timbertoes." Young Dizzy's attack upon Mr John Morley certainly proves that it cannot be said of him that " he wants nothing but audacity" ; but Professor Dicey's censure has a humor all its own. -* * * *

The spectacle of Sir Robert Stout preachhi» "kith and hope" is almost as rich as that of Professor Dicey controversial virulence. "We need faith and hope"—this was the edifying text upon which the uncommercial knight held forth the other evening, with much acceptance to the commercial travellers. Mr Fish was present on the occasion, clad in war paint, aud had just previously delivered a harangue bristling with debatable matter; but Sir Robert was not to be "drawn" from the tinwontedly religious state of mind in which he found himself. "Sir Robert Stout," said our mediocre member, " laughed, as he always did when he had nothing to say "; but though the Fishy bait was not taken, Sir Robert had something to say. Not about politics or the New Liberalism—not even about Judge Edwards—but about peace and joy and hope and faith, my dear brethren. How pleasant it is for brethrea to dwell together in unity, even though some of them may have " sought for oifice and not got it!" That one little dig the preacher could not resist, but he soon passed on into the ampler ether and diviner air of Melancthon and Diogenes and Macaulay's New Zealander and dreamland and peace and j'>y and hope and—faith. Mote it be ever thus ! Would that, so long as he occupies a position of freedom and irresponsibility, Sir Robert might always have grace given him to eschew party politics and all such ungodliness. On faith and hope, though a neophyte, he is not without impresaiveness ; his novitiate passed, there is no saying to what heights of sacred oratory he may rise ; but if only for his own reputation, ho should abstain from political interference as he abstains from tobacco. Tobacco, he told us some time ago, used to make him lazy ; politics, now that he is not actively engaged in them, make him foolish. Let him continue to leave to Mr Fish the task of_ postprandial partisanship, and himself stick to peace and hope and faith. * # * *

I have been discoursing of faith and hope; who might not get a lesson in these virtues from Tawhaio? His dusky Majesty believes that the dead for some generations back will shortly rise again (white folks always excepted), and " the whole of the lands taken from the Natives will come back to them again, and they will all, living and resurrected, occupy them, enjoy them together, and live after their old modes and customs.'' I take it that "their old modes and customß " is a euphemism for roast missionary. Meanwhile the royal prophet is on the wallaby, and is utilising the divinity which doth hedge a king by living at the expense of the settled Natives. "In some of the smaller settlements his party nearly ate the residents out." Let those residents instead of grumbling, thank their stars that they were not eaten up as well as out. Happy Tawhaio ! For the present a lively faith, no hotel bills or household expenses all found! for the future a glorious Utopia, with resurrected Maoris galore, and the pakelia in the pot. * * * *

It is told of the "blameless " Arthur that He spake no slander, no, nor listened to it. It is told of the people of Christchurch, by no less a personage than their own bishopwell, that they do not resemble the legendary king. " Bishop JuHub, in a sermon to the fire brigades on Sunday, said Christchurch is a wonderful place for lying, and gossiping, and dcandal-mongering. It was a wonderful place for spreading scandal, and ho would to God for a fire brigade to spread a little cold water upon them or a little hot." Here's a how-d'ye-do ! I presume that the bishop spoke not, like David, in his haste, but, "living in this parish " at his leisure. It is some satisfaction to find that he accuses not all men, but only the denizens of the City of the Plains, of being liars; and yet even the Christchurch folk—at least the bishop's folk—pray every week to be delivered from evilspeaking, lying and slandering, from hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness. Who has been scandalising His Lordship ? Who has been going for him across the walnuts and the wine, or over the refreshing cup of afternoon tea ? Has some reprobate been spread-

iog a report that the very-much-alive bishop is dead T or that ho has discovered a defunct sea serpent in Lyttelton Harbor ? Is some lady in the habit of whispering on the housetop that gaiters don't suit him ? la it hinted that Roman is not the accurate description of his nasal organ ? Has some Christchurchian Dr Belcher been insinuating that his father was a clergyman in merrie Islington? Can it be that he is accused of " corrupting the yonth " by refusing to join the Anti-tobacconalian League, and by smoking a pipe before breakfast? Has he been displaying an ability to laugh, and so outraging eacrosanct notions of Episcopal starqhiness ? Is it Mrs Proudie in the cathedral precinots, or Mrs Grundy in the city, that he has offended ? I can ask these questions, but I cannot answer them. Anyhow, the Christchurch people may take consolation from reflecting that theirs is not the first cathedral city which has borne the reputation of scandal mongeriug and Laodicean - ism. Nor is Dr Julius the first bishop who has cried from heart and pulpit: *' I would that thou wert hot or cold." Let us hope that he will not carry out the unpleasant threat indicated in the subsequent words of Holy Writ. * * * *

The Wellington Trades and Labor Council may have their faults like the rest of ns, but they are at least freo from the insanity and presumption of the Auckland Liberal Association. I fancy that in a world-embrac-ing contest for ability in making oneself ridiculous a New Zealand Liberal Association would take the cake against all comers. The saviug senses of humor and proportion find no place in a Liberal committee room. Very humorous the proceedings are to the outside and non-" Liberal" world —the great unsaved—but inside all is grave self importance and unsuspecting solemnity. The Auckland Sim Tappertits have been "suggesting " that Sir George Grey should be nominated as Governor of New Zealand (rather rough on the Knight of Barkton, isn't it ?), and have forwarded their suggestion to the Wellington Trades and Labor Council. But the Conncil are not "on." Tney "cannot see their way at present to express an opinion as to the advisableness of the appointment of Sir G. Grey as Governor of New Zealand." It would be invidious to inquire too closely into tho motives of the Council's wariness. Possibly the members have taken the precaution of looking up Sir George's New Zealand record. Possibly they are not unaware of instances in which the Democracy has unwittingly undone itself by making au autocrat of an oratorical sentimentalist. Anyhow the Auckland Sim Tappertits are snubbed, which is in itself a pleasing fact; and I suspect Sir Robert Stout, though he is president of the glorious Liberal Federation, will say "serve 'em right"—not because they are Sim Tappertits, or because they want an elective Governor, but because they arc unendowed with the happy instinct of right selection. * * ■* •»

In Westminster Abbey, on October 31, a biut of Matthew Arnold was unveiled by tho Lord Chief Justice of England, who pronounced a glowing eulogium on tho poetcritic'a genius and character. Arnold does not lie in the Abbey, but in th.3 Churchyard of Laleham, the village of his birth.

Ami nigh to where his bones abide, Tne Thames, with its uoruftletl tide, Sjttns like his "emus typifiud— Its strength, its graco, Its lucid gleam, its sober pride, Its tranquil pace. I should like to quote one or two passages from Lord Colei-dge's speech, lie told how " in the year 18'Ji* a bright little fellow was put upon a table in a room full of people at Laleham, and recited with intelligence and effect Mr Buike's magnificent description of Hyder Ali's ferocious desolation of tho Carnatic " ; and how " in the year ISSB that bright boy, not one whit less bright—scarcely one whit les3 youthful, for the sixty years which had rolled away, was laid to sleep in Lvleham Churchyard, almost within earshot of tho room, which still remains, and which one who was there can never think of except as illuminated with that bright figure, that ?uuny face." Lord Coleridge admitted that Tennyson might be a greater poet, and John Morley a greater critical biographer; that Cardinal Newman might have a more splendid stylo, and that Lightfoot and Ellioott and Jowett might be greater ecclesiastical scholars; "but for a union of the satirist, the poet, the delineator of character, the wielder of an admirable style, the striver after tho eternal truths of Scripture and religion, he is, in my judgment, not only first, but ho is unique." By the way, it is half a century this year since the death of Thomas Arnold, Matthew's father, tho great head-master of Rugby, whom the son has so nobly commemorated in 'Rugby Chapol,' and Tom Hughes in 'Torn Brown's School Days.' # # * *

After all it is a very good thing to be an Englishman, by which I mean a Britisher, We arc so accustomed to songs that say so that we are very apt to regard the statement as a mere sentimental piece of flummery, compounded largely of national vanity. I am myself too well posted in history (I write with all due humility, notwithstanding adverse appearances) to have ever doubted that it was a good thing to be an Englishman, and I emphatically expressed my opinion to that effeot when, the other day, I read the cablegram whieh informed us that a Socialist in Germany had received three months' imprisonment for neglecting to cheer the Emperor William as he passed. 1 admit at once that the German people have some little reason to be proud of their Emperor a young, aspiring, restless spirit, of lofty aims and good intentions; daring, firm, with considerable power of initiative, snxious to be tho "father of his people " —all very good qualities and exceedingly rare in an Emperor. Emphatically the young Emperor is a being to be admired; and were he to paHB me, left to my own devices, I would take off my hat to him with as much reverence aa I would to a bishop. But I really couldn't do it if / were compellal to; or, rather, 1 should hastily doff my hat, and take good care that I should never bo caught passing the Emperor again. I forget what celebrated man declared that he would confess to anything rather than have a turn of the thumbscrew, and I am of that way of thinking. I would kiss the great toe of the Emperor William rather than take three months in gaol. But, if I had to take my choice between liberty and a dashing young emperor, king, or queen, as the case may be, Englishman-like, I would prefer liberty. * * * *

Now it happens that I have a German friend who, though he has completely fallen in with the British Constitution, has still got a great, a very proper love, for tho Fatherland, and an intense and rather indisjrimiuating admiratiou for Emperor William Once, in the oourse of a friendly argument, he made a slightly invidious comparison between the serious aspirations of the Emperor and the baccarat-playing, pheasant-shooting habits of the Prince, who, after all said and done, is a good fellow and a thorough Englishman. I was a little nettled at the time, and saw my opportunity (or thought I did) over the imprisonment business.

"It's a very bad business," I said, "and couldn't occur in a country like Euglund. I am surprised the Emperor has so little regard for liberty." "I hope," he said, with a perceptible fliißh, "that you don't mean to sneer at Kaiser Wilhelm ?"

"By no means," I said, hastily (for my German friend is a good deal bigger than I am). " I was merely remarking on the constitutional aspect of the incident." " Well, then," he said, "if you want my opinion, it is that there is absolutely nothing in the affair if you bad all tho faota. Anyhow, things of the same sort occur in New Zealand, and, read as cablegrams, would look every whit as bad in Germany." "That," I said, "I emphatically deny " —for there was a limit to what I could stand.

" Well, then, he said, " I will give you a true cablegram, that might have, and probably has, been sent Home to Germany from here, and you shall judge for yourself." With that he calmly wrote down and handed me the following on a piece of paper :

New Zealand, November —,

A respectable citizen of Dunedin, a Mr Scott, was yesterday suddenly arrested in the streets of Dunedin at the instance of the Government, and sent to gaol without bciwj allowed the opportunity

of communicating with any of his friends. No charge had been preferred against him. "How does that sound for liberty?" added my friend. A man cannot always have an answer ready, and I oonfess that I waß stumped for the moment. Nkmo.