NEWS AND VIEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11366, 8 May 1900, Page 3

NEWS AND VIEWS.

>'' '■ ■■ ..." ■♦ ,y">,'■;<■:. ;'■- " '; YOUTH AND AGE.' - •';• ; ■ : Writing in ' the'' National '.■'Review,: aft Englishman maintains' that-', we'are relying too much upon old-men.:* He says:— Our own Empire was built up mainly by young . • "",-?- men. Chatham, nob 50 "when ho was ,v: called upon fo rescue England from utter ■, collapse, and to convert continued defeat into victory every morning. 'Pitt was a boy when he was summoned to the administration of affairs, on the eve of the greatest struggle in which our country lias ever engaged. Wolfe was only 42 when he laid down his noble life on the Heights of Abraham. Nelson was 39 when the victory of tho Nile stamped 'him as "our greatest sailor since the world began." Wellington was 34 when he commanded at Assaye, and only 40 when he opened the Peninsula war as Commander-in-Chief of a great army. John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, was 52 when he took the field for his first campaign as generalissimo in Flanders. Cromwell, the greatest: soldier and organiser our country has ever produced, was 46 when ho won Naseby. The Duke of Cumberland was not 25' when he became Commander-in-Chief; some months later he went to an army demoralised by defeat, and in a few weeks lifted it to confidence arid victory. But, then, Cumberland was a prince who had soldiered andjstudied, instead of giving his time to sport.

The generals who mado their names on the sido of the North during tho Civil War were all young men. Grant was 40 when ho commanded at Sbiloh; Sheridan was 33 when he received command of the cavalry of tho army of the Potomac; Sherman, ono of the very best, if not the'best man that the war produced on cither side, was only 44 when he started forth Upon his immortal Atlanta campaign. On the side of the South, too, the generals were young by modem standards. "Joe" Johnston was only 52 at the outbreak of the war; Lee was 54;'" Job" Stuart was 28; " Stonewall" Jackson, 37. If we turn to our own field army to-day, we shall find that not ono of tile officers in high command in South Africa is under 40. These are the ages: — Age General Duller 61' General Oatacrc " 57 General Lord Methuen .'." '..'. 55 General Clory 62 General French ... ," "' 48 General Kellv-Kenny ... ~! 60 General Warren .. 60 General Whito ... ,'.'.' ,',',' 65 Lord Roberts .','. 63 Lord Kitchener ,'.' 50 And now let us turn to the men who con« trol the fortunes of the Empire to-day. Their' names and their ages are as follows:'— Lord Salisbury 70 Mr. Chamberlain '" (fi Mr. A. Balfour '" 52 Mr. Goschen "' 69 Sir M. Hicks-Beach ... .'" 63 Duke of Devonshire ... Z. 67 Lord Lansdowno „ 55 Lord Wolseley ... , '" 67 Lord W. Kerr ... ." [.'. 60 There is no one under 50 in this "inner* circle."

THE ROMAN CURIA.

Among the number of interesting papers in the Pilot, Mr. Lathbury's new and excellent journal, the impression of which is to that of other weeklies what the impression of a cathedral is to tho impression of a lec-ture-room, wo should ourselves (writes tho London Spectator) assign the palm in interest to the first of a series on tho Roman Curia. The writer, who signs himself by the rather ill-chosen name of " Caractacus" —ill-chosen, that is, unless he wishes to de-! scribe himself as a British prisoner of Romo -brings strongly before us tho fact, too often forgotten by Protestants, that tho Roman Catholic Church is a vast organisation governed not only by the Pope, who, however absolute, cannot attend to all the affairs of 200,000,000 of persons in 50 different nations, but by a body of administering agents, seated in Rome, who collectively form tin' Curia. Theso gentlemen, who are all dig< nified priests, nearly all old, and in an inn menso majority members of the Latin race, investigate all eases, issue all orders, and exerciso nearly all patronage, renewing their numbers by co-option, and thus keep up from age to age an authority which among tho authorities of the world is probably the least changeable. Accident, tho influenco of Sovereigns, the will of a Pope with strength and originality such as Leo XIII. once possessed, may introduce among them some new blood, but in the main, and especially in the declining years of each occupant of the Papal chair, their characteristic is a conservatism to which that of the most conservative Courts of Europe is a vacillating feebleness. Prom decade to decade they settle all questions, always on the same principles, and in the same way; their favour promotes or keeps back all Catholic ecclesiastics in all nations ; they suggest most nominations to the Red Hat; and through the Cardinals, who are, as it were, the House of Lords of tho governing body, they elect the Pope. The Church, in fact, is not governed, as it appears to be, by an absolute monarch, though there is such a person, who on great occasions and for short periods, makes his authority felt, but by a corporation which, like the Deity, is self-existent, omnipresent through its agents in every land, and for the purposes of the Church omnipotent. Is a national Church recalcitrant, is a Catholic people "out-of-hand." is a Catholic teacher, or preacher, or bishop, inclined to wander from the settled path, is a book ostensibly Catholic tainted, however subtly, with heresy, the case comes sooner or later before the Curia, whose deliberations aro secret, practically unrecorded, without appeal, and irrestible except by tho few who from time to time are prepared to face the dread ordeal, most dread to men trained, as the Catholic priesthood is trained, almost from infancy, of open secession and defiance. It is easy to cry " Los von Rom," as German Austrians are now doing, but few among those who cry so are sure in their heart of hearts that they are not, if they act on their emotion, at least risking ultimate perdition. When the Curia, which almost always acts slowly, sometimes after years of delay, has at last decided—" Roma locuta est, causa finite est."