CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXI, Issue 15456, 7 November 1910, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS.

UGNPOWDF.U TRKASO.V.

Tho youthful financiers wiio endeavoured to establish a connection

between Guy Fawkea Day and the expanses of Carnival Week did not concern themselves much with the origin of tho ceremonies they were engaged in perpetuating. At least two Christchurch boys who ivere asked to supply a little information about " Mr Fawkes" allowed blank wonder to ap-

pear on their soot-stainerl countenances. History records that "Guy Fawkes was not the leading figure in the famous conspiracy with winch Ins name is always associated. In the early years of the seventeenth century penal laws wore enforced against Roman Catholics in Great Britain, and the attempts of James 1. to secure some measure of religious tolerance in the country were frustrated by tho House of Commons, with tho result that very bitter feeling was aroused among Catholic people. The originator of the Gunpowder Plot was Robert Catesby, a (gentleman of ancient family. Ho formed o project for destroying at a blow the King, tho Lords and the Commons. «!id secured the co-operation of Thomas Winter and Guido Fawkes. two gentlemen of good family actuated by a spirit of fanaticism. Other men soon joined in the plot, and in December, 1804, preparations wore begun for the destruction of the parliamentary buildings at the moment when a session was being opened. Tho conspirators were able to rent a collar underneath the House of Lords, and in it they deposited thirty-six barrels of gunpowder and many large stones and bars of iron. The arrangements were all complete in May, 1605, but as Parliament would not open until November 5, a long wait was necessary. Before tho fatal day arrived the plot became known to the Government, through tho anxiety of some conspirators to- give warnings to their own particular friends, and on tho afternoon of November 4 tho cellar was raided by soldiers and Fawkes, who was to have applied the match, was | found and arrested. He and his fellow conspirators all suffered death within a | few weeks.

/LKCIJSKT CBBEMONIES.

The celebration of Guy

Fawkes Day has been stripped of all its elements or pomp and cir-

cumstance, but the small boys manage to preserve a good deal of the original spirit. The scarecrow figure, of course, represents Fawkes himself, and properly he should be provided with a lantern in one hand and a box of matches in the other. Tradition provides that the effigy shall be carried in procession from house to house, while tho attendants chant tho time-honoured rhyme : Remember! Remember 1 The fifth of November, The gunpowder trea«on and plot; Thdre. is no reason Why tho gunpowder treason Should ever ho forgotl The request for monev, always tho most prominent feature of the modern colouration, had its origin in a custom of collecting sticks for the bonfire in which poor Fawkes would be consumed at the close of tho day. One verso sometimes recited a century ago made reference to tho collection of tho firewood : This is the day that God did prevent To blow up his King and Parliament. A stick and a stake For thankfulness fake; tf you won't give me ono I'll take two, Tiie better for me And the worse for you. In London in former times the burning of tho effigy of Fawkes was a most important ceremony. A great bonfiro in Lincoln's Inn Fields sometimes contained as much as two hundred cartloads of fuel, and twenty or thirty " Guys " would be suspended on gibbets and committed to the flames. Church bells were rung, groat crowds paraded the streets and tho whole city was thrown into a state of riotous confusion. The commemoration of tho Guu]>owder Plot, in tho oversea dominions at any rate, is hardly necessary after the lapse of throe centuries^

THK PALLIDUiITT OV WITNESSES.

An interesting passage

in Mr Francis Wellman's recently-published book, " A Day in Court," is

that which deals with the variations which are almost bound to exist between the testimonies of evon tho most honest and intelligent of witnesses. Mr Wellman states that at a meeting of a scientific association ill Gottingen in 1908, a peculiar test was applied to the assemblage, which consisted of jurists, psychologists and physicians, all man well trained in careful observation. Suddenly a clown, in a highly coloured costume, rushed into the midst of tho hall, followed by a nogro with a revolver in his hand. First one and thon tho other shouted wild phrases. Then on© fell to tho ground, and tho other fell on liim. A pistol-shot was then heard, and then both men suddenly vanished from tho room. AH present were taken by surprise, but every word and action had been secretly planned and rehearsed beforehand, and photographs had been taken of tho various incidents. As soon as the clown and the negro had loft tho hall, evoryono present was asked to write down an account of what ho had soen, depending on his own memory. The result was a very surprising one. Of forty reports handed in, twelve omitted from 4.0 to 60 per cent of what had taken place, while there were only six reports which did not contain positively incorrect statements. The scientific commission which reported tho details of this inquiry came to the general conclusion that tho majority of the observers had omitted or falsified about, half the processes which occurred completely in their field of vision. The judgment of time duration had variod between a few seconds and several minutes. Tho author states that similar experiments have been made in Berlin by Professor Von Liszt, the famous criminologist, and with similar results. It makes the honest lawyer shudder, he says, to realise that it is a daily experience* in Court work to hear ignorant witnesses detail their memory of occurrences perhaps a year old, and agreeing with one another in the minutest particul ars of what they saw. Tho author comes to the conclusion that perjury.- conscious or unconscious, is the rule rather than the exception with most witnesses. H c a l so gives it as his expononco that in tho United Kingdom deliberate and prearranged porjury is very largely on tho increase.