WISE MEN OF OLD

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXXII, Issue 2806, 27 November 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

WISE MEN OF OLD

MAY BE AS WRONG AS WISE MEN OF TO-DAY. There is probably a commercial value in cheerfulness. Those who preach a gloomy doctrine in these days can be reminded that for generations past troubles have not been unknown and that even some of the world's greatest men have made ll<e mistake of looking on the gloomy side of things. William Pitt said: “There is scarcely anything around us but ruin and despair.” Wilberforce, in the early 1800’s said: “J dnre not marry, the future is so dark and unsettled.” Lord Grey in 1819: “Believed everything was tending to a convulsion.” The Duke of Wellington, on the eve of his death (1851), thanked God he would “be spared from seeing the consummation of ruin that is gathering about, us.” Disraeli (1819): “In industry, commerce and agriculture there is no hope.” Queen Adelaide said she “ had only one desire, to play the part of Marie Antoinette with bravery in the revolution that was coming in England.” Lord Shaftesbury (1848): “Nothing could save the British Empire from shipwreck.” But the fact remains that we came through all right, and shall do so again.