The Evening Star THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1909.

Evening Star, Issue 14118, 22 July 1909, Page 4

The Evening Star THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1909.

i "Hi; constantly insisted on the .necessity of I " preparation and training Dr Findlay's "for politico, ami lidiculed Speech. "the id«i. that, the ability " to preside over tlie State i " accrued to any itki.ii spontaneously, while "the same niii.n could not, learn a common "art (such as playing on the flute) without "good teaching and constant application ";ii!'l practice." This account- <jf one of. the political principle* of Socrates reeuts to u-. in cormeetiun -with I)r Findlay's mmirka.hle address at Burns Hall last night; and a saying of Viscount Morley's might he put liy the side of it: "Government is the "greatest of the practical arts, because, its '"ends are the highest, and the difficulties " the most subtle, complex, and incalcul"able." Tlieso are not popular doctrines. Most, jvople regard government and politics as <|iiito easy matters, and are disposed to rc.-.'nt the idea o[ any serious preparation ivcing necessary in order to pronounce judgment] on affaire, of State. But they are wrong, and J)v Findlay's •.-peech furnishes a salutary corrective to their glib notions. It is the result of careful study—not lnerely of academic lucubration, but of the study which puts theory to the tost- of history and practice—and it requires to be carefully studied in its turn. Full knowledge of the subjects treated, natural and trained sobermindedness, absence of turbid passion (which is not, absence of anient social feeling), happy discrimination, terse and pointed rhetoric may be mentioned as among the qualities of a deliverance which it was pleasant to hear and which it is instructive to treat. The peoplo who stayed away missed an oratorical treat, but in one way it will perlia.ps be all tire bctteil for them to read the report at leisure, for the entire import of the speaker's sustained argument could not be easily appreciated at the, passing moment. Those, who heard should also read, and those who did not hear should read twice or thrice. This is high praise, no doubt, but it. is sincere and not lighily-Loi'MdiTcd. We mentioned Dv Findlay's sobermindedncss just now. and in this respect it would he interesting to compare hist night's speech with the notorious speech delivered by a Minister (now an oxMinistcv) of the Crown in the House of Representatives on June 12. Mr Hogg's wild harangue, with his later utterances of like calibre, have been greatly admired by extremists and sciolists who regard political i bought fulness and moderation as drawbacks : yet we venture to say that l)r Fimlliy's sense of the jh-.hl of progress and reform is not a whit less keen (as it, is assuredly more intelligent) than that of his late colleague. The dilferenee. is) tluit he apprehends "the difficulties tiie mest suhtle. complex, and incalculable"—which attach to the woik of government, and knows that, passionate invective and crude generalisation are futile weapons, and sees clearly in addition to feeling strongly. It would be. telling, though rather cruel, to arrange a number of passages from the two speeches in parallel columns ; and it is at least permissible to ask those people, who desire a faster rate of piogress whether they really think that their ultimate object—the greater happiness and welfare of tin 1 people—will be more quickly and effectively served by Mr Hogg's undisciplined pranks than by the steady pursuit of the reasoned principles laid down by the Attor-ney-General last night. The " best practicable means" was a phrase used by f)r Findlay more than once, and it might be termed the keynote of his speech, which in nothing was more remarkable than in its sound co-ordination of the. theoretically desirable and the immediately possible. Now and tl>on. while the Minister wa.s dealing with theory or principle, the audience may have feared for the moment that the academic nottf was going to be overworked, so to speak: but- again and again, with happy certainty, the practical illustration, in rcepeet to the political necessities of Hie hour, made its appearance, and it. was realised that the speaker was a workinj statesman and not merely a suggestive thinker. '"Waste-production" and like, phrases may seem to smack of (ho 'study or the lecture room, but T)r Findlay lucidly showed the bearing alike of his terms and of iiis general principles upon the problems of the present day in New Zealand, and it, may well have occurred to many of hk hearers that, an address on public; questions need not. after all. be any the less enjoyable for being at the same time thoughtful in tone and closely logical in texture. Almost incidentally, and without one polemical word, the Miuistcr. managed to prove the inherent reasonableness of the attitude adopted by the Liberal Government towards a number of important questions, and special mention may be made of his treatment of the subjects of land [settlement and unemployment. We may have something further to say on these and other matters, but our immediateanxiety is to induce as many people as possible to read and study the re|x>it of the Even those who Lhiuk that

politics are the easiest thing in {he world, and who ridicule the notion that the. difficulties of government are "subtle, complex, and incalculable,"- might learn something by following our counsel in this respect.

After lees than three years of office M. Clemebceau and his GoFrench vernment have been deCovernment feated by 36 votes in a Defeated. Chamber where theyi once had an enormous majority. The cruris, though sudden, can hardly be described, except perhaps by tho; immediate sufterers, ;<6 unexpected. Everything, said a cynic, happens in France, and France of late years has liad so many political ups and downs and Ministerial crises and Cabinet clianges that the possibilities of surprise are well-mgh exhausted. After all that has gone before, it needs a manifesto proclaiming the restoration of the monarchy to create international astonishment. Such a irroclamation is not inherently improbable That eminent academician and psychological novelist, as he has been inelegantly termed, M. Bourget, some time ago wrote a series of articles entitled ' Crisis oi Parliamentarism ' the burden of which was the failure of popular government, the tyranny of tbo masses, the certainty of catastrophe, and the restitution of the monarchv. The Paris ' temps,' in answer, urged th'at if the Re publican system is a disease, it, is at least one under which Franco has lived CTiousrh for thirtv-eisht veins. But has she lived "well enough'"/ What (lore her (i.i.T.e.<;a n\ord say for live la*t five rears? Internal revolt. industrial chaos, the" overthrow of the Church, inaeenritv of life and property, a birth-rate less than its dcathlate, an army seething wiUt discontent, and. last of all, a rotten navv. Thus briefly set down, the resultant picture may be characterised a* an exaggerated one, and the criticism, in the absence of the necessary qualifications and amplications, would not lw unfair. Yet every one of our statements, as intelligent students of the world's news will admit, could 1* subfetantiated by evidence that'cannot he disputed. France is in a kid way—morally industrially, politically, and spiritually' Her problem is not- a new one. onlv its solu *'<>" has been evaded. Possibly the defeat of the Clemenccau Government fa, mixture of Socialists and Republicans) may be the lirst, step on the road to a new ordeV. What 1-ranee, m common with all other nation* new as well as old, has vet 1o learn is that man cannot live hv bread alone