CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVIII, Issue 11462, 28 December 1897, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

The proceedings before Mr Justice Manning, the Chief Judge in Equity, which were mentioned in our Sydney cablegrams a few days ago, ought to

THE LAST OF THE TICHBOENE CASE.

finally dispose of the attempt that has been made by the Rev Father Williams, a venerable priest of eighty years of age, to establish the identity of William Cresswell, an inmate of the Parramatta Lunatic Asylum, with the late Sir Roger Tichborne. Father Williams, it seems, was a friend of the deluded Lady Tichborne, who, it will be remembered, just before her death, gave such a romantic colouring to the pretensions of the “claimant” by accepting him as her long-lost' son and the rightful heir to the Tichborne estates. Of course, all the elaborate fabrication that was built around this startling piece of evidence was shattered by the verdict of the jury that consigned the notorious Arthur Orton to gaol for fourteen years on a charge of perjury, and no one was greatly surprised when the "unfortunate nobleman,” after “ languishing at Dartmoor ” for that period, confessed his crime, and explained to the world how he had managed to deceive quite a number of observant witnesses. But a few people, even after these revelations, clung to the belief that the real Sir Roger was living somewhere in Australia, and Father Williams applied to the Equity Court some months ago to have the man Cresswell handed over to his custody, in order that he might be sent to England. The reverend gentleman submitted a number of marks and peculiarities by which Sir Roger might be identified, and Mr Justice Manning ordered that two medical men should determine whether these could be found on Cresswell. The report they returned to the Court was altogether against the theory put forward by Father Williams. Cresswell has neither the tattoo marks, the lancet scars, the peculiar ears, the unequal feet nor in-kneed walk that distinguished Sir Roger. There are one or two minor points of resem-blance-large eyes, a flat forehead, and a twitching of the eyebrows—but they are of so little significance that Mr Justice Manning had no hesitation in dismissing the application for the surrender of the lunatic, with the fervent hope that his decision would “ put an end to the matter for ever.”

It has been reserved for an Italian author to give a sympathetic view of old maidenhood in general, and of English old maids in

OLD MAIDS AS A “THIED BEX.”

particular, in contradistinction to the somewhat rude pleasantries that are top often indulged in at the expense of those prudent women who decline to undertake the risks of matrimony. Signor Guglielmo Ferrero, in a book entitled “Young Europe,” has a chapter devoted to “The Third Sex,” in which he makes reference to the great development in Eng-

land of humane feeling to animals, and attributes it to “ the influence of the spinsters, with their abnormal emotionalism.” Elderly unmarried women, he; says, are devoted to animals, the affection satisfying in part their maternal the dog or the cat takes with them the place of a baby. The elderly madden lady who becomes uneasy because her dog has not eaten his breakfast, and who calls in the veterinary surgeon to attend to him, is just a caricature o£ motherhood; the curious condition a of social life have annulled in her the physical laws of her sex, but the more; profound needs of the soul have remained 1 unaltered, and, confined,perverted, stunted, : still seek satisfaction. “ You may destroy everything else in woman, but the mother never; the maternal instinct will have its outlet in some form or another, ridiculous or sublime; now in great acts of self-denial and charity, now in ridiculous attachments to the. stupidest little animals m the universe.” The English view of cruelty to animals is, from this writer’s point of “absurd sensitiveness,” and.hence he doesnot altogether approve of this outcome of • the perverted instinct of motherhood; but he is unstinted in his praise of English | spinsters for their devotion to works of charity and philanthropy.

According to Signor E'er-* rero, the old maids of; England constitute an! order of nuns, but without | organisation of any kind.:

AS NONCATHOLIO STUNS.

The process of, reasoning by which ha. arrives at this conclusion regarding “the! third sex” is worth following out. Haj finds that charitable enterprise is greater ; in England than in any other couniry,; and he considers this the more remarkable \ because the people have not the sna« uhinery of a vast-and ancient body such as the - Catholic Church to work with,' If, in spite of this, the administration, of . charity has been so wonderfully carried t out,'it is due, he thinks, tothemaiden ladies of the richer classes. These elderly spinsters are the heart and soul of almost I all the projects and undertakings in the cause of charity, the ruling spirit in alkthe organisations; often the idea is theirs, always the actual work; the men whose' distinguished names are to he found in the prospectuses issued by the Council of Administration are mare ornamental figures in, the philanthropic edifice. “ These spinsters are-to be found participating in every kind of scheme for the benefit of the poor and unfortunate, and are alwaysamong’the most enthusiastic of its supporters; they enrol themselves as volunteers in all th&sentimental Quixotic crusades on which England embarks from time to time, * * * Thus, from so curious a cause, we see forming itself unde® our eyes, without any influx of religious feelings or ideas, a philanthropic force such, as hitherto has been the monopoly of Catholicism. England is full of nuns, who, without taking vows and without abandoning their places in social life, fulfil exactly the same duties as the sisters of St Vincent de Paul.” The same tendencies may be observed at work, in lesser degree, in this country, and those who have eyes to sec the value of the labours and influence of our spinster population will do well to-dis-courage the prevalent habit of sneering; at their ” single blessedness.”

THE DEEAD OF DEATH.

A Boman poet, in rai* ferring to the Scythians, says:—

Thrice happr they, beneath their northern skies, Who that worst tear, the fear of death, despise. But at the opening session of the Yorlc Medical Society recently a distinguished physician placed the dread of death in a very different light. Dr Goodhart's view and the Spectator be* lieves it is the sound view—is tliafj the dread of death which is experienced by almost all men and women is per se a natural and healthy, sign. "I am never tired of saying," he tells us, "because I am sure it is as true as it is comforting, although in opposition to the general belief, that death has no terrors for -the sick man* To the living and healthy man it ia quite otherwise, but the sick man upon whom Death lays his hand, pales gently and imperceptibly out of life." The man who is well dreads death keenly, if he is of a nature to reflect on the matter at all, ia obedience to a natural physical instinct. It is the very law of his being to live, and in obedience to that law he resists not only death, but also the very thought of death. He sets himself against it heart and soul, and recoils from it by a natural impulse. His power of will, inspired by such emotions as love for others, patriotism; the sense of duty or honour, may overcome the dread of death and triumph over the need to live, but the fact that there are plenty of mental impulses too strong for.the dread! of death does not alter the fact that as long as we are capable of living we desire to live, and desire it intensely. As a rule, when men do not dread deabh at all, and quietly resign themselves to it, not ia obedience to any higher call, but merely because it has no terrors for them, we may be sure that they are doomed. The Marquesas Islanders, for example, meet death half-way. Their talk is, or was when Mr Stevenson visited them, of burial and the tomb. Their thoughts were turned to the grave. Bud the race was- rapidly dying out. Their willingness to die and the lack of any dislike to death were signs of the fate that was ovei taking them. The man who'can say, "Though I dread death like other men, I will not fear to undergo it for a great cause," is a hero. He who says truly," Death may come when it will, I mind it no more than the thought of entering another room," may not be ill in mind, but he can hardly be sane of body.