LIBERALS AND FUSION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 18285, 22 December 1919, Page 6

LIBERALS AND FUSION.

Orn Reform friends tried vory hard before tho elections to create an atmosphere among tho public and tho politicians in favour of the fusion proposal which was nipped in tho bud by Sir Joseph Ward a few months ago. Tho arguments mml, with necessary modifications, of course, were those employed by apologists for the coalition which is becoming so increasingly unpopular ip Britain, tho sum and substance of which is “ damn the people, we must have stable government.” There arc several features of coalition rule in time of peace which run counter to every Liberal and progressive sentiment, and indeed to all that is best in British constitutional methods. We cannot do bettor than to quote from Mr Asquith’s speech at Westminster to indicate tho vicAV which the Liberal Party, or that portion of it which lias refused to acquiesce in the maintenance of tho ToryLiberal compromise, takes concerning tho present situation. “The primary and supremo duty of Liberals at this hour,” said Mr Asquith, “wasto rescuo tho country from the morass, to show and to lead the way to escape; and ns a first means to that end to develop and to employ all the resources of an organised Opposition. The political conditions under which wo lived at present wero not only unnatural, but grotesque. What at this moment was the orthodox and official doctrine of Ministers? It was, as far as he could make it out, that a certain set of gentlemen, thrown together into tho task of government largely by the accident of fortune in the ups and downs of tho war, ought now to bo regarded by tho nation as tho chosen and indispensable vessels of Providence- What was at tho bottom of this watery and sentimental verbiage about party truces and national unity? It was the foolish fallacy that, in some way or other, the Avar had wiped out tho lessons of experience and history. Tho truth, of course, was that tho war had created some neAv problems and it had readjusted tho perspective and values of many old problems. Liberals had seen in the war, in tho causes in which it was f< ught and won, to a degree, in tho terms - f peace, tho great vindication of their root Liberal principles. It was their duly to leave no stone unturned until they had brought back once more in all their old vitality and vigour thoso great safeguards for liberty— Cabinet control and Parliamentary responsibility. They Avoro witnessing the passing of tho transitory phase. They had only to work together in tho same spirit as of old to save, nr they could save, the future of tho country.” Hero in Ngav Zealand wo have been assured that tho Liberals have earned public disapprobation by ending a coalition which whatever its virtues and whatever its shortcomings was*! probably tho most unnopular Administration Now Zealand has ever had to put up with. The fart has heen partially recognised at least by Mr Massey, who in his plain blunt way explained that what ho likes host nhont a fusion is that it enables tho Administration to do nnn-innlnv thirifTS. The o nlv in politics that really Avants a fusion is that which is faced with a minority in tho country, and Avhicli seeks to reverse tho A'erdict of tho electors after the poll. The Reformers hav« probably

lost somo of their passion for a fusion now that they havo a majority in the House, but since they aro still in a minority in tho country tho fusion idea may not bo quite dead. At tho moment it is interesting to notico that tho Nationalists, or Fusionists, in Australia appear to bo regarded by the electors with anything but enthusiasm.

Tho abortive attempt on tho lifo of tho Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in Phoenix Park inevitably recalls tho circumstances under which Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr T. H. Burko mot their death in tho same park on May 6, 1882. These murders, perpetrated in broad daylight-, aroused tremendous sensation. They followed tho arrest and release of Parnell under the Coercion Act of 1881, and tho suppression of tho Irish Land League, and were preceded by innumerable minor outrages. Ireland from end to end was seething with rebellion. Parnell was released from Kilmainbam Gaol on May 2, 1882, against tho wishes of Earl Cowper, tho Lord-Lieutenant, and Mr W. E. Forster, tho Chief Secretary, both of whom immediately resigned. On May 6 Earl Cowper’s successor, Lord Frederick Cavendish, and Mr Burke, tho permanent under-secretary, arrived m Dublin, and that same evening, in Phcenix Park, a number of men drove up in a jaunting-car, leaped out, and slew tho new Lord-Lieutenant and the under-secretary, who were taking a stroll, the weapons used being amputating knives.

Tho samo gang of assassins also attacked a Dublin tradesman named Field, whom they stabbed in many places. But Field recovered and was afterwards able to identify the man who drove tho car. James Carey, a member of tho Dublin Corporation, and ono of those who planned tho murders, turned informer, and on his evidence twenty persons were arrested- Fivo were hanged and others received lengthy sentences of imprisonment. Carey was smuggled out of the country by the Irish Government, hut he was assassinated on board ship. Ireland continued to ho the sceno of outrages which tho Crimes Prevention Act and Explosives Act (tho latter aimed at tho dynamiters, who mostly operated outside Ireland) failed to suppress. Ireland bas continued to bo a “ most distressful country ” down to modern times, and the history has gone on repeating itself almost monotonously. Tho solution of the Irish problem is-long overdue.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who, it is stated, proposes to conduct a lecturing tour in Australasia in advocacy of the cause of spiritualism, deals in his book, “ The Vital Message,” with the somewhat paradoxical subject of the physical basis of tho soul. Sir A. C. Doyle has been converted to a belief in the ability of tho spirits of tho dead to communicate with tho living by physical evidence —spirit photographs, written messages, knockings, and other manifestations which would bo impossible to immaterial beings. “Science,” ho says, “has demonstrated that ’while ether pervades everything the other which is actually in the body is different from tho other outsido it. ‘Bound’ ether is tho name given to this, which Fresnel and others havo shown to be denser.” The author proceeds: “ Now if this fact be applied to tho human body tho result would be that, if all that is visiblo of the body were removed, there would still remain a complete and absolute mould of tho body formed in bound ether which would bo different from the ether around it.” Sir A. C. Doyle declares that “this argument is more solid than mere speculation, and it shows that even tho soul may como to be defined in terms of matter and is not altogether 1 such stuff as dreams are made of-’ ” And yet there aro people who refuse to bo convinced!