NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10415, 13 April 1897, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Mr. Upton's mild protest againsb the exaggerated praise of Stevenson as a novelist is by no means solitary. Wo have noticed the same thirig more than once in the English press. The fact Is Stevenson has suffered from an excess of logrolling. His prominent reviewers were his devotedly attached friends. They saw genius in every line he wrote, or professed to do. He was as the saying goes, praised to the skies. He was even seb by the side of Sir Walter Scott. We do not know what Professor Egerton's appreciation of Stevenson is likely to be should he respond to our correspondent's suggestion, nor do we suppose that whatever it is it will fix Stevenson's position in literature. It is the reading public and riot the critic that settles these things. Bub it is interesting to know what a brother novelist— who, unfortunately for himself, outside of the literary logrolling circle— to say about the comparison which has been seb up between Scott and Stevenson.

This is what David Christie Murray says, and in our opinion says justly: " The comparison which has been urged so often will not stand a moment's examination. Stevenson is nob a greatcreative artist. He isnot an epoch-maker. He cannot be set shoulder to shoulder with any of the giants. It is no defect in him which prompts this protest. Except in the sense in whioh bis example of purity, delicacy* and finish in verbal work will inspire other artists, Stevenson will have no imitators, as original men always have. He has' done delicious things,' but he has done nothing new. He has, with astonishing labour and felicity, built a composite style out of the style of every good writer of English. Even in a single page he sometimes reflected many manners. He is the embodiment of the literary as distinguished from the originating intellect. His method is almost perfect, bub ib is devoid of personality. He says countless things which are the very echo of Sir Walter's epistolary manner. He Bays things like Lamb, and sometimes they are as good as the original could have made them. He says things like Defoe, like Montaigne, like Rochefoucauld. His bouquet is culled in every garden, and sot in leaves which have grown in all forests of literature. He is deft, apt, sprightly, and always sincerely a man. He is just and brave, and essentially a gentleman. He has the righb imitative romance, and he can so blend Defoe and Dickens with a something of himself which is almost, but not quite, creative that he can present you with a blind old Pugh or a John Silver. He is a litterateur born—and made. A verbal invention is meat and drink to him."

Thai) share of genius which belongs to the man who can take infinite pains is the only share Mr. Murray seems to award to Stevenson, though he admits that the latter, while essentially a reproducer, was in no sense an imitator or a plagiarist, but "had an alembic of his own which made old thing* new." He concludes as follows:— It is nob the critics, and it is not I, who will finally measure his proportions. He seems to me to stand well in the middle of the middle rank of acoopted writers. He will not live as an inventor, for he has not invented. He will not live as one of those who have opened new fields of thought. He will not live among those who have explored the heights and the deeps of the spirit of man. He may live-" the stupid and ignorant pig of a public" will settle the question—as a writer in whose works stand revealed a lovable, sincere, and brave soul and an unsleeping vigilance of artistic effort. The most beautiful thing he has done-to my mind-is his epitaph. There are but eight lines of it, bub I know nothing finer in its way : Under the wide and starry sky Lay me down and let me fie Gldd .lid I live and gladly die, *"} I lay ">• down with a will I This be the Terse you grave for me' Here be lies where he longed to be'' Home is the Sailor, home from sea' And the Hunter home from the hill. Sleep there, bright heart! In your wakiug hours you would have laughed at the exaggerated praises which do you such poor sorvice now 1 - Yob he sleeps there in an islo of the lonely South Sea, in a neglected grave, unmarked by a single stone, far from the busy haunts of men and the noise and wrangle of civilisation, while those who knew him not and know his works as little, are appealed to to raise a monument to his memory in the capital of Scotland. Among the colonial Premiers who have been invited to come to London for the Qaeen'g "Diamond Jubilee," no one will excite a deeper personal and imperial interest than M. Wilfrid Laurier, of the Canadian Dominion, It is suggested thai electioneering exigencies may prevent him from coming. For every reason his nonappearance would be profoundly regretted. Laurier is : the first French Canadian Prime Minister of the Dominion. He is the representative of a million and a-half Canadians, whose language. is French, whose, religion; is, Roman Catholic, and who are deeply attached to the old laws and institutions which their - ancestors brought with ' thorn from Normandy, Brittany,, and Central France centuries ago. .For generations the French Canadians have recognised the fact • that the British, dominion ii the strongest goaranUe

for the preservation of their knjjek M institutions No more loyal <&& 1 the British Empire exist than Htffa&L ■'! Canadians. In the British Empir etlo ml 'S sincere Imperialist! lives than 11 \ynfJi ",'\ Laurier, the French Catholic.' Frenll ' though he is, he is a master of the Emrifr language and literature. His exafapfeflf :v: - given great encouragement to the stu-JS English in Lower Canada, where French Hi the language, wholly in the country dil' : tacts, and principally in the towns ani* ll almost exclusively in the Law Courts and ? "--' Provincial Legislature. As for the S Uprein < Court of the Dominion the arguments m « be in French. In the Quebec Parliament the records are given in the two language*! 1 though, ra already said, the speeches am almost all in French. Englishmen n ti( j, themselves upon what they have done on the Ganges and the- Nile. But theii achievements there are not a whit that* striking than thoir work on the St, La* \ reiice. ; J.-'§» , ';**. The tables in the coming " Year Bootrf '--■ the Church" estimate the number of son, municants of the Church of England i' ' • 1893-96 at 1,840,351. A year before t| • figures were 1,778,361, and 18912 1,437 711' w The number of celebrations of the HoW ; .-i Communion has also risen rapidly, mote '' : '* especially the early celebrations on Sunday §§ and celebrations during the week. Pra sittings in churches have risen from 3,575,505 in 18912 to 4,200,086 in 189 M :- and the free sittings in chapels of ease from * '-'"'* 372,401 to 460,120. The number of church,, &'. open for daily prayer has risen in five vow ' ■ from 2896 to 3943, and the churches open for private prayer from 4239 to 5865. T]» i j Sunday-school figures show a vigorou advance, and the attendance at adult Bib!) Vclasses grows fast. The above statistics*.";': of course, confined to England alone, and I' i do nob include any of the other branches ot I the Anglican Communion. ° t^S

Particulars of the conflict between Greek irregulars and Turkish troops, on the IS frontier, show' that the former, who are'fll commanded by ex-military officers, while successful at first were eventually repulsed with the loss of fifty men. Their object appears to have been to seize the passes*:! between Macedonia and Epirus. The - Greek Government disclaim responsibility a)l for the action of the irregulars, and declare H that it is impossible to restrain them, Tbi J Porte has protested to the Powers against tbsjS'3 invasion of Turkish territory. The Chan, nel fleet has been ordered to Malta.' Wi French financiers are consulting Russia, - -f regarding supplying the Porte with fundi ■? to carry out reforms. Over a hundred, -I thousand slaves have been freed in Zanzibar 'M by the decree of the Sultan abolishing the! ■'.-$ statute recognising slavery. Mr. Goschen, M in the course of a speech at a banquet to||| the new Governor of the Cape, declared ft that Britain was determined to maintain her supremacy in South Africa. -. |M