CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXI, Issue 15210, 22 January 1910, Page 8

CURRENT TOPICS.

a repudiated WIFE.

A paragraph quoted by a London newspapor from its files of a cen-

tury ago revives memories of the first American girl who gave her hand to a European of rank. When Jerome Bonaparte, the brother of the great Napoleon, visited the United States in 1803 as lieutenant in a French warship, ho married Miss Elizabeth Patterson according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church. The marriage was not a happy one, for Napoleon disapproved, and closed all Ihe ports of Western Europe to liis brother’s wife. Jerome had not the courage to contest tho matter, and he deserted his wife, who lived in London after she had been refused admission to Franco. The paragraph referred to stated that “Miss Jefferson, the repudiated wife of Jerome Bonaparte, is reported to have married a gentleman with whom she may hope to enjoy more happiness, though less splendour.” The writer had fallen into an error in regard to the maiden name of tho lady, and ho was no moro happy in his statement of fact, since Elizabeth Bonaparte never married again, and she was perfectly entitled to use her husband’s name. Her marriage was valid by the law of the Roman Catholio Church and by the express decision of the Pope, though illegal under the law of France. In that name she signed even tho receipts for the pension of £2400 a year which Napoleon faithfully paid her until his fall, and which did more for her happiness than the society of such a thriftless debauchee as Jerome would have done. Elizabeth’s father did not approve of her conduct, and he left in his will a character sketch of her that may have been unjust, but was plainly sincere. “The conduct of my daughter Betsey,” he wrote, “has through life been so disobedient that in no instance has she ever consulted my opinions or feelings; indeed, she has caused me more anxiety and trouble than all my other children put together, and her folly and misconduct havo occasioned me a train of expense that, first and last, has cost me much money.” Elizabeth certainly did her duty by her son, who was bom in London, and Charles J. Bonaparte, her great grandson, was President Roosevelt’s Secretary of the Navy.

THE SECRET OF I.IFE.

The latest philosophy has discovered that the secret of a long, happy

and contented life is to go without breakfast. This is not altogether a. new doctrine, but- it gains value from having been exploited by a man who was a sceptic. “Gossip,” an Australian writer by birth and profession, who has written several interesting "books, has been so impressed by this American method of pursuing the Perfect Life that he has written a brochure concerning it. He bases his conclusions upon an experiment along tho lines of Dr Dewey’s book on “ The True Science of Living.” “ Gossip ” is a frank person, who has a horror of vegetarianism. He admits that he has no time for “ imitation beef cutlets, and steak and kidney pies, or for bean chops and medicated coffee.” But when he found several of his friends, who were sane and levelheaded business men and meat-eaters, cutting out tho morning meal deliberately, he was compelled to give his honest attention to the new experiment. He tried it himself with marvellous results. “ The theory,” he writes, “ is simple. You go without your breakfast. You come down to two meals a day. You give ‘ Little Mary ’ a chance. When you go to bed at night you rest your body, but your stomach has to work for hours after you Tetiro, getting rid of the dinner

you ate. In the morning tho glands of the stomach are tired and need a rest, but instead of giving them a rest you pile on a breakfast and set them to work again; and so you keep tho internal organs forever at work, and wonder why you have indigestion.” In order to avert these disasters, “Gossip” wont without his breakfast, and found that his digestion and - his general habits of life improved out of all reason. “In the old days,” ho says, “ I had to pick and choose and leave the very things alone that I liked best, because they were indigestible. But now, bless you, I eat- whatever I like, because I never eat unless I’m hungry, and twice a day that biassed hunger comes to me. Pies and puddings, and tilings 1 have eschewed for a generation, all come to me now as fit food, and I enjoy them,” The writer of this interesting pamphlet has a good deal to say in detail in . support of his scheme of living, hut as he admits himself that be accepted it in the first place only under protest and from the promptings of an inquisitive imagination, his subsequent theories are somewhat discounted by his enthusiasm. His remedy is simple, however, and it may provide a very easy solution of the problem of how to be happy though bilious.

THE UN EMPHATIC PRESIDENT.

The comments of tho

American newspapers upon the new President suggest that they are a

little disappointed with Mr Taft. Some of them have complained quite frankly that they have been given “the Roosevelt policy without the Roosevelt snap,” and that the new President is not doing the emphatic things that have long been associated with the head of the great republic. Mr Taft docs not produce slashing phrases, his public announcer ments do not moot the publio demand for sensation, and he would much rather trust to management and diplomacy than to the “big stick.” Mr Roosevelt had acoustomed his countrymen to a brusque and assertive President, in whom leadership was an instinct and strife a great gladness, who paid little heed to constitutional forms and restrictions, and who was always spoctacnlar, generally belligerent and never humdrum. The new President does not overstop the constitutional limits of hi 3 office, or say to-day what he will wish unsaid to-morrow, or attack Congress or “ nature-fakers ” or millionaires. The situation is well stated by one American writer. “Mr Taft,” he says, “ has restored harmony between the White House and tho controlling leaders of tho Republican Party; he has also restored tho full blessings of the Constitution, with all its checks and blessings that at times Mr Roosevelt appeared not to rate too highly; and he has delivered innumerable speeches without raising a ripple of anxiety among the industrial magnates. But the people miss in him the personality, the driving powor, the sense of tingling life, the sheer overwhelming force, that made Mr Roosevelt the most popular of all Amerioan Presidents.” Speculation is now rife as to whether Ex-President Roosevelt will ever return to the White House.

THE CIIURCH . AND THE STATE.

Tho Nonconformist preachers who have been urging the British electors to vote for Liberal

candidates in tho election that is now going on at Home have been carrying out the policy laid'down by the National Council of tho Evangelical Free Churches in December. A manifesto issued by the Council called upon all Nonconformists to assist in the political battle made necessary by “ tho persistent action of the House of Lords in making impossible the reforms to which the National Free Church Council is committed.” It dealt first with national education, referring to- the attempts to revise the legislation of 1902, and to tho return in 1906 of a House of Commons containing a huge majority pledged to the principles of reform. Three distinct efforts had been mado by the House of Commons to carry into effect tho wishes of tho electors in regard to education, but on each occasion tho Lords had stood in the way. “Electors must now bo reminded,” continued the manifesto, “ that tho oppression of tho conscience by tho Education Act of 1902 not only continues, but increases year by year. The Anglican and Roman Catholic encroach more and more on tho rates. Thousands of tho children of Free Churchmen are compelled to attend Anglican or Roman Catholic schools maintained almost to the last penny out of taxes and rates paid by tho community. In thousands of public schools no Nonconformist toachers can obtain positions as headmasters and headmistresses, except on condition of assenting to the sectarian faith of tho managers.” In dealing with tho Licensing Bill, the manifesto stated that the moral sense of the country had been outraged by the “ sinister fact that an understanding had been arranged between the peers and the trade.” The concluding paragraph of tho manifesto was clear and emphatic. “ Other questions of great moral and religious importance hang on this election,” it stated, “ and specially those connected with the housing of the people, the sufferings of the aged poor, unemployment, the prevalence of extreme misery and degradation, "Welsh disestablishment, and: tho equality of all Churches before the law. Not as party politicians, but as Christians, we are compelled by the teaching of our Lord to seek to remove the obstacles that stand in the way of the moral and religious welfare of tire people.” It is plain that the Nonconformist preachers have- definite Church authority behind them in their present attitude.