HARUSPEX REPLIES.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10629, 7 June 1897, Page 4

HARUSPEX REPLIES.

Sib,— ld was a part of (he duty of the Haruspex in old times to iospeot, for purposo<s of divination, the entrails of onlmile, So, metaphorically, have I Inspected tbe Internal economy of a professed rhetorician and laid bare the spleen, large and highly Mimed, of a mere Solltloal rowdy. Really Mr H. H. Mur» ooh appears to havo studied the art of controversy as a Chinese soldier atudles (he art of war, and as the latter is taught to appal the enemy by vcild-beaet leaps and RorlUa-Rtlmaces, so Mr Murdoch thinks -to win his vlotory by rapidly Retting ont of the way of on awkward question and uttering a large number ol y*^ abusive epithets, not forgetting, by way ' of self-glorification, to detail how he once darted the jaoket of an audacious candidate. Desmond's grammar has nlmpiy nothing to do with the question I raised, His effrontery in seeking tho BolFrogea of an electorate In spite of the opposition of au indignant Murdoch ia a perfectly Irrelevant matter. The question raised was whether your correspondent meant people to infer from what he had written that a man who has not been tlalned to be careful about his neplrates, or a man who rtoas noo pay ■ornpulous attention to the rulei of syntax, is unfH for a high pnbllo poaltlon, Mr Matdaoh avoids an answer to this, and says he " doen not say that) no men of lowly origin bhouid aspire t,n polltloril poBltlons," but that they should first make themselves fit for much positions by acquiring " a mastery of their mother tongue." He dues not say that thli Is Indispensable, but only that " they should. " Well, who denies that It ia a good thing for a man to have a maatery of hli mother tongne ? Or that ft would be a good tiling for every man who aaplreß to a high position to endeavor to acquire that accomplishment and many more ? Bat is thatjmastery posaesoort by one man in & hundred ? and docs ib follow that he who possesses it is thereby bottrar fitted lor a high pooltion than many a plain, blnnti man who cannot boast it? jNo man knows better than your corespondent that a man may be very eloquent), may have a mastery of his mother tongas, and may yet have utterly wrong and foolliib. views on the most Important questions. While, on the other hand, * man may be Ungrammatloal and clnmsy in his upeeoh and yet have great lntollle>Bnoe, great oourage, find great inflnenoe. Should tbe. letter ha deaplaed and tbe former commended \ Which of the two would an elector of average Intelllgeuea sooner Beleot as bis lopresentatlve in the Senate? No, drj the power to speak with acenraoy, according lo tale, may bo an indication of come degree of intelligence, but the absence of that power is no proof that this deficiency denotes leok of ability. Hear how on erstwhile Lord Chancellor speaks of the utterances of a man who for many yeiva led, for a Tory Government, in the Rouse of Commons, " While he ntvur showed the least symptom of Information extending beyond the more recent volnmes of the Parliamentary Debates, or possibly the files of the newspapers only, his dlotlon eet.all imitation, perhaps all description, at defiance." And again: "The poor, tawdry, ravelled thread of his sorry dlsoonrae." And ngatn : " The , meanest matter la the most wrotohed language." But then, the man wai Vhoonnt Ciatteteagh, and in the case of a peer alt tho Malm, or of his son, the abiienoe of " A mastery of his mother tongue" la a matter of comparatively small moment. Bat If, In a new bnd rough oonntry, a plain, blunt, sensible man should be aeleoted by his fellows to represent them in Parliament he mast deollne the po«l> tlon, forsooth, because among Mb qualifications he oannot number thoße that belong to scholarship. Or, having been eleoted, he mast never venture to speak In pablio bat the "fair large ears" of some national asi should be offended, or lest some paeudo • professor of rhetoric should ba shocked at the want of claenlo atyle displayed by the speaker. Or, having, by dint of ability, energy, and courage attained one of the highest poiltlona in the land, and a place in the hearts of tens ot thousands of his onnntryman attd countrywomen, he is never to address them, exoept at the prloe of being made a target for the spiteful Bhafts of shallow wits, and the Impudent Insults ot semieducated scribblers. Saoh shafts are really shot at, and suoh lnsnlta are directed at, the whole oonntry, and the whole country has a right to resent them, As Mr Mnrdooh found he could not give a satisfactory answer to my query hs relieved his soul (inoh as it iaj by abusing, generally and profusely, all democrats, especially the present Government. Here is a gem in the way of vilification. "Spielers, oardoharpera, swell- mobsmen, Democratic colonial statesmen, and anonymous writers of the 'Haruopex' type." There we are, you see. Bcoauae I said that he was talking nonoeneo In n snobbish way I am the equal of a spieler. He need not take retnge under the " if " with whioh he commenced the sentence from whioh these words are takeo, beoause he evidently Intended hh readers to understand that all these different claises united to m»ka up one battalion of Liberal blackguards. But let him relieve himself In this characteristic •way as mnoh as he pleases. I dn not mind. In fact, I smile an I read of "Ignorant dabblers In politics jumping from bullock-driving, whiskyBelling, and lamp lighting into tbe Home." Why, if any one of these worthies suddenly blosnomed out ns a " Nitrate King," or had a large fortune left him, does nnybodj believe th*t the great Conservative party, the embodiment of all the purity, Intelligence, and patriotism of tho country, woald not at once gladly accept his services as a representative of their opinions in Parliament ? And they would not aak him to keep awake at night learning grammar so as to fit him for the poßltton. I shall not quote for purposes of common t tbe concluding paragraphs of your correspondent's latest letter. If what I have quoted made nw smile, these that I do not quote made me langh. Everybody who ia nob a perfect) tyro in the subject knows thai this farlons, general, everlasting fuellladn of extravagant bat Indefinite accusation b is the only sort of political warfare (if anon. It can be called) that Is oanled on by a certain class of politic U writers and speakers. They are fit for nothing else, and, as they please a seotlon of the party they claim to support, their efforts ta attract attention are increasing. It always has been so In all countries that have possessed Democratic Governments, In tbe natnre of things it must ba so. David Hume in his essay "Politics a Solence 1 ' pointed this ont n century and a half ago, and the passage ii worth olttn?. He says, "Those who either attaok or defend a Minister in snch a. Government ns ours, where the utmost liberty is allowed, always oarry matters to an extreme, end exaggerate bis merit or demerit with regard to the pnbllo. His enemies nre sure to ohorpe him with the greatest enormities, both in domestic and foreign management ; and there is no meanness or crime of which, tn their account, he it not capable,' 1 Humn was not philosophising when he wrote this, but simply stating whtb was as patent in his day as it was before Mi time. It has been so ever since. Was not, for example, Washington called a murderer, Speocer Peroeval a pilferer, Lord Melbourne a profligate debanohef>, &c , &c, &o ! Yet, so far a« I remember, eooh of the three men whom I have just named was alwr.ys credited with poseesilng chat greut da ilderatnm In the eyes of yonr correspond ont, namely, the manners of a gentleman. By tbe way. does your correspondent oandldly consider that in bia recent letters be has displays the manners of agmtieman ?— I am, &c,

Haruspex (or Aranpex). Napier, Jnne 6th, 1897.