NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10007, 19 December 1895, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Facts have long ago dissipated tin romance that once hung about the land of the Turk. Tho following extract from a letter is given by tha St. James' Gazette as descriptive of a Turkish farmer's life :- "Inured as he has been to a struggling existence, it has had the effect of making him gloomy and taciturn. In pU « of a neat farmstead we find a hovel nonstructed of sun . dried mud bricks. This cneroomed hovel, without any window* (the only light and air admitted comes down the chimney) servos him and his family as their residence. Adjoining this we find a cellar like building which serves to house his live stock. All the surroundings are dirt and untidiness. in the. place of a garden wo see heaps of manure The walls round the promises are studded over with lumps of cow-dung undergoing the process if drying for fuel. On the whole » Turkish firm hovel has a desolate and cheerless look about it, and it is no wonder, with oil these lriserabla surrounding, that the owner slpuld partake of their nature.

Frugality is a great characteristic of the Turkish farmer, and it is owing to thii tint ho has been able to eko out a misorabh exiitonce. His tastes are simple and lis requirements few. He produces every, thhg for his sustenance at little cost; nil fool consists for the greater part of brad, for which he grows the vheat. This is sonetimes varied by a soup mado of four milk, and crushed wheat boiled ; this if a noefc nourishing and satisfying dish. Ho also cooks another dish, equally good, of crushod whe»t boiled and flavoured vrith fresh butter. Sometimes ha indulge in a dish of fried eggs. Coffee he drinks occasionally. This completes his dietary, and, simp!} as £. is, he is strong and healthy and peneralli of fino physique" He thints nothing of a twenty or thirty. mile walk, or of doing i day's work of sixteen hours. He would fare badly with the eight hours' system. His clothing tha cotton, from which the women spin the yarn and weave the calico for liii clothe?. He also allows himself a jacket made of bright-coloured Manchester pilnt. The sheep finds him materal for a warmer covering; he knits his oivrj stockings. Boots are unknown to him ; lie manufactures out of a piecao: nntanned cowhide a pair of sandals. Jie cattle find him fuel ; he collects all thef manure and dries it in the sun. This wfrms his house, it makes a good bright fire, md al»o serves to light hie room. Lamps fid candles are too great a luxury. Tobaco) he somotimej indulges in. In spite of all his frugality he remains poor."

In the course of an interesting survey of the progress of party hlstoy during the last Jew years in the Edinlurgh Keiieiv, the writcremphasises the noteworthy change in popular sentiment with regud to the military and naval requirtmetts of the country from that which pievailed in the middle of the century ; a oliang* which has an equally remarkable parallel in the view* taken then »nd now of th< relations between tho Mother Countrj and the colonies. The " Little Enlanl " policy is as dead to-day, it is urged, ii effect, as the policy of Home Rule. But "it is sad to look back across a hindred battlefields in Europe and America lo the optimistic dreams of half a century ago." Englishmen have been forced to realise more fully than formerly th; possibility and terrible consequences of war, and it is because these dangers are in the light of the history of the last thirty years now so fully realised that the nation willingly makes such mighty efforts to insure against them. There is amongst Englishmen none of the spirit of so-called "Jingoism." They wish to live at peace. But, on the other hand, the eontimonts of tho " Manchester School," the easy confidence that no nation will ever be so wicked or so blind to its own interest as to attack us, are no longer entertained. 1

The man who would get the ripes culburo from books (writes Mr. Hamilton W. Mabie, in the Literr.n Bulletin), ought to read many, but there are a few books which he must read ; amonj,: them, first and foremost, aro tho Biblo, and the works of Homer, Dante, Shakspcre, and Uoethe. These aro the supreme books of life, a? distinguished from the books of knowledge and skill. They hold their places becausa they combine in the highest degree vitality, truth, power, and beauty. They are the central reservoir into which tho rivulets of individual experience over a vast Burfaca havo been gathered; they aro the roost complete revelation of what life baa brought and has boon to the leading races; they bring us into contact with the heart and soul of humanity. Tney not only convey information and, rightly used, impart discipline, but they transmit life. There is % vitality in them which passes on into the nature which is open to receive it. They have again and again inspired intellectual monuments on a wido scale, as they are constantly re-creating individual idoals and aims. Whatever view may be held of the authority of tho Bible, it is agreed that its power as literature lias boon incalculable by reason of the depth of life which it sounds and the range of life which it compasses, Tliero is power enough in it to revive a decaying age or give a new data and a fresh impulse to a raco which has parted with its creative energy. The re-appearance of the New Testament in Greek, after tho long roign 01 the Vulgate, contributed mightily to that renewal and revival of life which wo call the Reformation ; while its translation into the modern languages liberated a moral and intellectual force of which no adequate measurement can be made. In like manner, though in lesser degree, the "Iliad" and "Odyssey," the "Divine Comedy," tho plays of Shakspere and " Faust" have set new movements in motion and havs enriched and enlarged the lives of races.

The Venezuelan frontier dispute, bo far as the relations between America and England are concerned, is assuming a distinctly unfriendly not to say bollicoso aspect. It ii difficult for those outside of American politics to discriminate between Yankee bluff, which is a gamo that American politicians are fond of playing for purely party reasons, and Yankee seriousness. President Cleveland's mossago to Congress respecting the Venezuela que?* tion is so hostile to the British claim that had it emanated from a European sovereign ib must have meant war. Lord Salisbury refuses to submit the dispute to arbitration —it is not a matter for arbitration—whtrfi upon President Cleveland demands that the United States shall proceed to fix the boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana, and resent as an act of aggression any attempt of Great Britain to claim territory that may be assigned t by the

iw n delimitation commission As beAl8 iDe to Venezuela. The Priident'a " on ha.« been rapturously applaudtfl by the " C '.English section of American polticians "d the American press, while it lis pro--3,° ~' a feeling of amazement in Sgland hero diplomacy of such a kind is mlnown . nol understood. We do not, of i jnrso, , li, v e for a moment that there is art like- ... M i of England and America gointio war this business, but at the sans time _ : j ell [ Cleveland's action is asda/gorous it jj foolish and impruden/ The I ..it new! from Cuba is to the elect that ", jjpani-'li troops have defeatql a large . [.. 0 ( ri'tels with great slaug/ter. The \Vuni-' Turkish party is ccoAuuing its fliai'ion for a change ot govejmont. The British troops are advancing in Ashanti, bi] , a rc experiencing great difficulties in.„ni,c;K!i with the tran»port6ervice. Mr. 1,, ',-ii ; ~-• had an interview fit.li the Popo, J.,, f »!,oited him to promote unity in i, i! !. The (ierman Emjjiror has paid a .'Jit to Prince Bismarck. , a ... f.