CURRENT TOMS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXIX, Issue 9986, 15 March 1893, Page 5

CURRENT TOMS.

The army has lost one of its beet and most popular geuereds,' Archibald Alison, G.C.8., havmg retibbd ■ from the service, in consequence of his having attained his sixty ■ seventh % year. - Sir Archibald is the eldest son pf the we,Ur known author of the " History of Europe ” and .other successful works of the same class. He entered the army ia ■ 1846, and served for ten years in the' 72nd High: landers. He fought through the Crimean campaign, and in 1857 he was appointed to Lord Clyde’s staff in India during-the Mutiny, and lost an arm at the relief of Lucknow. Sir Archibald distinguished himself during the Ashantee ■oampaigii, and also at Tel-el-Kebir. He has shqdeßßfully filled many important staff appoint* meats, and for five years, he -;wm Commander-in-Chief at Aldershot, -'lie has been a member of the Council of India during the last four years.

Those “ maidens of Vienna/’ whom Macaulay apostrophised, are not quite' SO well accustomed as their English ustenfto the existence of Bachelors’ Clubs. > A Club of that kind was lately formed in Vienne,, to the great indignation of the ladies, ‘who regard it as their mission to xpratent celibacy becoming too popular. . Thotnn* lucky members were threatened with all manner of boycota by their fair friends, and to such a condition of terror werethov reduced that not a man could be found w accept the Presidency of the Glnb. : satisfied with this victory, the iyoung persons of Vienna have gone in counterblast in the form of a Spinsters’ Club. But this 'Verem will ‘ not -he 'BO selfishly exclusive as that formed by the men. (jjtentiimea are-to be Admitted tollt, upon occasion j for, as the lady President candidly'admitted at the very first meet-, iag, the object cf the Club is ’ W •‘bring about the speedy and happy marriage of its members.” But suppose the. Bfen prefer to keep to their own Club? In, vain is.the net spread in the sight of fisy bird.

The flood of “recollections ’’and “reminiscences ” of Carlyle will probably -act come to an end until his contenipoearies ace all extinct. It is almost exactly • dozen years since the sage’s death,' Mid there have been at least "a ''couple of volumes a year written 'about him-andhis wife since then. The rector of Chelsea,’ the Eev, Garaid Blunt, has juat 'added some further gossip about the Carlyles bo the quantity we already poeaees. It ie impossible not to be interested 'in it,‘ although it does not amount to much. The story of the horse which helped la the writing of “ Frederick ” is perhaps, -the best, . Carlyle used to ndo out on that noble be:at to think over the eternal book' which, so .terribly tortured him. The horse had his own way, and frequently people would see him grazing at_ the side of the road with a tall figure sitting**!! unconscious on his back thinking 'about Frederick the Great. Naturally, therefore, when tho book was finished and Carlyle j presented the steed to Mr Blunt, he could' do nothing with the animal. He was'a good horse spoiled by his master. In that respect, indeed, he was somewhat inthfe position of poor Mrs Carlyle.,

There are limits even to the American passion for vastness. At the laW gathering in tho largest of the npble buildings appropriated to the forthcoming Exhibition in Chicago, at least one hundred thousand—-some reckon the nuipber as nearer one hundred and fifty thousand —persons were present; but, unfortunately, no human voice can reach more than a small proportion of such a multitude. The military bands, moreover, played, end an orchestra and chorus, numbering five thousand musicians, performed a new composition ; but, according to Mr D. C. Gilman’s account in “ The Century,” the notes were only faintly heard on the speaker's stand halfway across the building. As to the prayers offered iip by a Methodist Bishop and a Roman Catholic Cardinal, a hope is . expressed ' that ' they.,,were.., heard ■ in Haaveu, since they certainly were not ' heard by a majority of those present. Mr Gilman has a practical suggestion to make for next May. It is that since it is impossible to reach the ear the authorities should be content to appeal to the eye. This is to be done by decorations, representative groups of persona bearing emblems and symbols, and ceremonials such as the bestowal of medals, wreaths, and flags full in the view of the vast moss of spectators. Oratory, poetry, and song Mr Gilman is prepared to welcome in suitable places. In this enormous building on such occasions he is of opinion that a sentence from the mouth of some high official, a collect, and a Doxology would express all that language need say.

In testifying before the Canadian. Prohibition Commission, Mr George Hague, manager of the Merchants Bank, a gentleman long known as a philanthropist and strenuous worker in the ranks of the social reformers of the Dominion, need these words With regard to prohibition, it is, of course, understood that all license laws are to a certain extent prohibitive, and such prohibition can be enforced. Bat the experience of all communities in which a total prohibition has been carried by the resolution of a small body of popular representatives shows that such a law will not be obeyed except by those ’who abstain no matter what the law was i and, further, that the general enforcement of the law by fines, penalties, &0., is practically impossible. Experience eeeitta to lead up to a conclusion something like this: That no prohibitory law will be obeyed or can be enforced in any given community unless a very large majority of that community (almost the whole in fact) agreed on other grounds to give up the nee of intoxicating drinks. But then it is evident that in such a community no prohibitory law would be needful at all. As a conclusion of the whole matter, I am driven to the conviction, as I said at the beginning, that it is a great pity and a division of energy into an illusory channel, for temperance organisations and religions bodies to abandon the use of moral and spiritual forces which naturally belong to them and to descend into the troubled arena of political strife merely to secure the plabibg of resolutions and laws on statute books. I give this opinion with a certain diffidence, bub it is founded on experience and observation. I have long thought it to be deplorable that ministers of religion should, in so many instances, have ceased to testify against drunkenness &a a ein and should so generally have concentrated blamo upon the material by which the ain ia committed, as if nob the ainner but material substances called wines, or whiskey, or alcohols, had a moral quality and could be arraigned of a moral offence. This unfortunate diversion of blame from the man to the liquor has, I think, done lihtold mischief.”