NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10035, 23 January 1896, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

It may not be generally known that) there is only one constituency in the L'ihn Kingdom where the once familiar in sl tution of speeches on the hustings is t( served intact. At the nomination of candidates for tho representation of Dublin University the old custom is still followed. On the last occasion, a few weeks ago, .M r> Lecky, whose election we have been in. formed of by cable, delivered a remarkablt speech in which he dealt in a large-minded and philosophical spirit with tho great polj. tical issues of the day. The last election h s said, has opened a new era in English politios. Never since 1832 has tho national condemnation of a Government and a policy been so decisive, and the result of th election is that we hare a Government in power which is at once the strongest and most unpledged of tho present generation. The significance of this memorable election ii not, I think, difficult to understand, li means that the country has condemned with no faltering voice, and for the second timo, tho policy of Home Rule, which ii now fast disappearing out of the speeches of English Radical statesmen. It meant that the country lias condemned not less decisively the perpotual attacks on the organic institutions of the country, on property, on Churches, on the House of Lord*, which have of late been so common; the perpetual attempts to fan class and provincial animosities, and it is determined that, at least for the next Parliament, statesmen should turn their energies rather in the direction of conciliation and material development. It means also that the two great wings of the Unionist party are now thoroughly fused into one. A great part ol the questions that soem likely to occupy ut In the immediate future will be those ol foreign politics, which are, unfortunately, now in many quarters very menacing, and in that field I think wo shall all agree that the result of the last election has been peculiarly happy. Since Prince Bismarck retired no Minister in Europe carries with him in foreign affairs so great a weight as Lord Salisbury ; but the strongest Minister would be weak in a great European crisis if his power depended on a feeble, precarious, and disintegrated majority, in which one large group was notoriously indifferent to Imperial interests and notoriously looking forward to foreign complications as the best opportunity of carrying out its ends,

An English Judge, Mr. Justice Romer, recently delivered an important decision, to the effect that unnecessary noise in the conduct of a business constitutes a nuisance. The plaintiffs in tho case complained of i nuisance by noise occasioned by carts ami vans loading and unloading in the dead ol night and the small hours of the morning at' the defendant's premises, and by the shouting of the carmen and letting down and banging up of the cart-tails, etc. Mr. Justice Romer's judgment will, says tho Times, be a pleasant surprise to Londoner!. There can be very few of them who have not suffered habitually from some form or other of needless and offensive noise. There are many businesses which are so conducted a! to cause a nuisance to everybody within range. There are many workmen who delight in noise for itself and for the annoyance it causes to other people. But the victims have never thought that they had any i choice but to submit. Their rest has been broken by the shrieks of railway engines continued at intervals throughout the night, mora loud, more prolonged, more shrill, and more frequent than they hare any need to be, and wholo districts hart been rendered practically uuinliabitabli from this cause; but nothing has been done and nothing has been tried' to put a check on so intolerable a nuisance. Noises in the daytime are legs annoying than at night, but there are a good many of them whoso disappearcnco would bo a welcome relief to most of u(. But from whatever variety of noises Londonors have suffered in the course of the four and twenty hours of tho day—we have mentioned only one or two of the worst and most prominent—the notion has hardly occurred to them that they could do more than venture a mild protest or put up a humble petition for relief. They will know now that they have it in their power to proceed in a more masterful way; that, in some cases at any rate, tho ear of the law will be open to their tale of wrong, and that if the nuisance which they have had to beat has been perpetual, eo, too, will be the injunction forbidding it to go on.

In an interesting letter on spelling and English, addressed to tho London Time?, Canon Girdlestone gays:—"ln the Authorised Version of tho Bible and in tha columns of the Times, we find ' judgment,' but in ordinary Prayer Books and in the Revised Version, 'judgoment' is the form. The introduction of the central e seem unnecessary. Again, some writers have a weakness for doubling letters not only »1 tho ends of such words as 'downfall,' but also in the middle?. 1 Batting " is all right, but why should a man be described as' com' batting' tho arguments of his opponent! ' Coquetting' is all very well, as far a.' the word is concerned; bub ought wo tc speak of attention being 'rivetted' on a speaker ? It would be well if we could all make up our minds as to such words as 'shew' and' show,' 1 enquire'and' inquire,' There seem* to be a growing tendency to spell the verb one way and the noun tin other, as also with ' practise' and ' practice, 1 'prophesy' and 'prophecy.' We m" s ' yield to necessity, and accept 'bike' 81 British for' bicycle' and ' navvy' as shorn for' navigator,' but we need hardly give u;i the plural forms 'dragomans' and ' Mussulmans' and substitute ' dragomen' anil ' Mussulmen.' The mythical lady who trouted onmibi as the plural of 'omnibus' has been outstripped by the actual gentleman who regarded alibi as the plural of olibits! I have read of a ilrala ; and a newspaper lately informed us of an Arabic MSS. Some speakers and writers toll u' of an ' union ' and an ' university j' in fact, this Is getting fashionable. If we pronounced 'union' like 'onion' it would be right, but when the first letter is pronounced lit® 'you ' it surely needs no n before It. There is a terrible word, ' dynamitard,' which ha' grown up since the days of Nihilism, and has. probably ; been imported from abroad. The final ard seems to connect It remotely and wrongly with petard. An Bnglishnia' 1 I would naturally gay' dynamiter' if ho n"" 1

u« 0 the word at all. But tliore is , yell more terrible word, with which I must close-viz., 1 pandenominational. It reminds one painfully of pandemonium, but whilst the latter is nil right linguistically, the former is a cross-treed. 8 „ is all very well as part of a (.reek compound. No one objects to a 'panorama' or a ' oantechnicon but then the word 'pan-Anglican' was created-not Without protest; and ' pan-Presbyterian followed; and I suppose we may loo* in time for a crop of Nonconformist ' pans. But why say ' pandenominational when a far better and plea»«nter word has been invented-Til., 'interdenominational.

Although the situation abroad, regarded from the British standpoint, is less alarming than it was a short time ago it is not yet free from elements of danger. Britishers however may regard it without uneasiness after the speech delivered by Mr. Chamberlain at, the farewell banquet to Lord binjngton, tho Governor of Queensland. Tho Secretary for the Colonies spoke with no underlain sound, and from the tone of his speech it is evident to all the world that England does not intend to tolerate any foreign interference in tho fulfilment of her natural destiny. There is now in power in England tho strongest Government, and the sanest that tho present generation has known, and at its head is the ablest and most powerful statesman of modern times. British interests are therefore Safe in whatever part of the globe they may lie. They cannot be touched with impunity by either Presidents or Kaisers. In the Transvaal a large number of prisoners accused of treason are still in custody, but Kruger will, we doubt not, be shrewd enough to drop proceedings against tbeui whan the present excitement has abated. The French are imitating the English in strengthening their navy.