CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVI, Issue 11152, 29 December 1896, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

The remarkable scene which took place last week at the confirmation of ib& election of Dr Temple as . Archbishop of Canterbury, was probably preceded by

THE AECHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

many expressions of dissent and indignation from orthodox churchmen. In fact the appointment of Dr Temple was, to quote an exchange, one of those rash and radical things which only a Conservative < Government can venture upon in safety. When Mr Gladstone named the same gentleman as Bishop of Exeter, there was a wild outcry from startled aud a< resolute effort made to prevent his confirmation. Probably the real grounds of objection to him were that he had openly and vigorously supported Mr Gladstone and Irish Disestablishment, hut the formal charges -.laid before the 'Vicar-General alleged, on the ground of his contribution, to that scandalum magnaium of the sixties, the ‘'Essays and Reviews,” that he was not sound in the faith. But l)r Temple was confirmed nevertheless, and in 1883* gave fresh offence with his volume of Bampton lectures, which were open to the suspicion, to say the least, of being the product of a rationalising mind. The solution of the mystery of his good fortune is probably simple enough. Theological views scarcely count any longer fa these matters. The work of a. bishop is largely executive the Archbishop of Canterbury, in particular, must have a vast genius for detail and despatch of business. Given a man of ability—and Dr Temple’s ability is unquestioned and preeminent —who will be fitted to grace the . office in all its public aspects, who has a record of organising and administrative success behind him, and who is willing toV work like a horse, and his particular stripe of theology is hardly worth considering. An Archbishop of Canterbury must not be too High nor yet too Low, must not indulge in Romish practices himself, but _j must not be too bard on those who do. Bishop Temple, like both his immediate predecessors, is thought to be well qualified in these particulars. There will be a decent ecclesiastical peace in his day, and that. Lord Salisbury no doubt concluded, is the main thing. The revereqd gentleman who objected to the Bishop’s promotion is, no doubt, a very correct and earnest churchman, but be seems to have mst. sight of the fact that theology is at lasfcA moving on, and is now numbered among the progressive professions. i

representation.

A correspondent, whose letter appears in this issue, only notices our advocacy of the Hare system of propor-

tional representation to tell us that it is altogether inconsistent with our professions of Liberalism. He assumes, we suppose, that Liberalism has no sympathy with minorities, and that every public question should be discussed, as well as decided, solely by the majority. We ar©; inclined to leave him to the enjoyment of his own ideas on the subject, but just to show that they are not shared by every, professing Liberal we extract two or three lines froqi a private letter written, by Miss C. H. Spence to a resident in Christchurch. “It is,” this lady says, “ a point to be emphasised and dwelt upon that without equitable representation of minorities there can bo no true presentment of the real majority which ought to rule the country.” At present we have far more minority representation than wo should bo likely to have under the Haro system, but it i 3 obtained by chance and by the splitting of votes, and has no scientific relation to the strength of parties. It is quite true that the method of preferential voting suggested by our correspondent would put an end to this defect, but it would, at the same time, deprive a largo number of electors of such representation as they now enjoy. We do not regard this as a fatal objection ; indeed, wo consider preferential voting infinitely superior t© our present system ; but our representation will not be placed ux>on an ideal basil

'until every section of public opinion obtains a voice in tho Parliament of the country. Our Correspondent is altogether mistaken in supposing that the Hare system is an invention of the Tories. It is the purest expression of the principle of one-man-one-vote, and this is the very reason why it his not been adopted in England and other Conservative countries. About 200 members' of the British House of Commons aro' members of a society formed some years ago, to promote proportional representation in England, but the remaining 470 members would probably fight night and day to prevent the inauguration of a system that would confine their supporters to a single vote. The men who would certainly he left out in the cold are not the men to advocate the change, and until the electors master its principles for themselves, their representatives are not likely to place them on the Statute Book. In the meantime, we ■warmly ■ sympathise with our correspondent’s efforts to achieve a smaller reform.

King Oscar, of Sweden A royal ■ and Norway, whose virtues referee. have long been sounded far beyond the confines of his own kingdom, has secured some fame in the outside'world by his selectionas referee in the constitution of the Arbitral Court for the Venezuela and British Guiana boundary. His Majesty is no commonplace monarch, who owes all his distinction to the accident of birth. He ' was a doctor of philosophy before ho was a king, and his people claim that he is the best instructed sovereign of his day. Ho is now in his sixty-eighth year, hut he bears himself like a much younger man. He travels much in the united kingdoms of which he is the ruler, and he does not fear that familiarity with his presence and ’ his voice will bring him into contempt. He knows, it is said, all the leading men of the two countries by sight, and be can talk with Norwegian and Swede ' and with most foreigners with almost equal freedom. : His training as a naval - officer has helped these linguistic acquirements ; and his early rovings have not unsettled him for literary pursuits. He is praised as an orator, and he once had some reputation as a poet. It is said that he is quite a match for , his generals and admirals in knowledge of. their professions, and that he still derives the keenest enjoyment from tho study of scientific subjects. He displayed a warm and liberal interest in Dr Nansen’s Arctic expedition, and was among the first to congratulate the intrepid explorer upon his success. He is the son of' Oscar 1., and of Josephine of Leuchtenberg, who was tho daughter of Beauharnais, tho stepson of Napoleon. His wife, whom he married in 1857, is the sister of tho present Grand Duke of Luxemburg, and his sons aro now allmen. TheCrownPrincomarriedagranddaughter of the Emperor William 1., and Prince Oscar, the second son, made that romantic marriage with Miss Bbba Munck, an English young lady, which involved his renunciation of any claims to tho succes-, .sion to the Swedish crown. It is extremely fortunate from every point of view that a man of such marked ability should have been selected to assist in the constitution of a tribunal which may be the forerunner of a permanent Court of Arbitration between Great Britain and the United States.