NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11536, 22 November 1900, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The London Times, in commenting on the result of the general election in Great Bri- J tain, says : —For the first time since the Reform Act of 373, the Liberal party are in a j minority among the representatives of the Scottish constituencies. The Government are now in a majority of 132, leaving the Orkney and Shetland vote out of consideration. As the avowed Liberal Imperialists number more than 80, the actual majority on the South African question or any similar issue would be nearly 300, and foreign nations would do well to take note of this. The Government are confronted by an Opposition which is weaker in numbers than that which was arrayed against them in the last Parliament, and which does not appear to be in the least more united either on the question of leadership or on that of policy. The minority in the next House of Commons will consist of two separate sections, who, it must be remembered, have fought this battle on the explicit ground that thev are not allies. The Liberal party, nominally led by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, have with very few exceptions avoided the question of Home Rule as much as possible. Most of them have openly declared that it must be at least thrust into the background for years, and Borne, who hold strong Imperialist opinions, would evidently be delighted if they could get rid of the unhappy connection altogether. On the other hand, the Irish Separatists, who have lost two seats to the Unionists, and won two from them, have combined for fighting purposes on a pledge not to enter into any alliance or compact with any British party. They may, and probably will, vote with the Radicals, if there should appear to be any chance of inflicting injury on the British Empire or the Unionist Government, but, in other cases, the Whips of the regular Opposition cannot count upon their help. Thus, the Liberals will be actually weaker in the new Parliament than they were in that which was dissolved. They have now had an experience of nearly 15 years of calamity and disintegration, since Mr. Gladstone made his unlucky " leap into the dark." Their fortunes have been continually waning. The statistical survey of the result of the elections is ominous. With very few exceptions, the great towns and the most prosperous and populous industrial districts have shown that they have lost all faith in those who still profess to be the leaders of Liberalism. In the Liberal camp itself the Imperialists are the most powerful section, and they alone have saved the Opposition from utter ruin. We do not know whether Sir Henry CampbellBannernmn will care to retain his leadership, whatever it may be worth, after the rebuff that he has met with, especially in his i own country. But it is to be hoped, in any case, that Liberal Imperialists, like Sir Edward Grey, will not consider that they are bound by ties of party allegiance to retire into the background when critical questions arise, or to shape their Parliamentary conduct so as to avoid a breach with Mr. Labouchere, Mr. Lloyd-George, or Mr. William O'Brien. If the Liberal party is to be regeneratedand every thinking man must feel that to have no material for an alternative Administration is very unsatisfactory— its leaders must get clear of the " entangling alliances" that have crippled them since 1886, and of doctrinaire theories that have become odious to the nation. The dominance of Imperial questions in politics has broken up the foundations of the old Liberalism. But there will always be a tendency to cleavage between the Conservative and the Liberal type of character. What is wanted is to evolve a new Liberalism which will satisfy the Imperial instincts of the British people. Security must be given against the tendencies of. those politicians who are known as Separatists and Little Englanders.

A writer in the Fortnightly Review moralising on some of the changes which have characterised the latter half of the nineteenth century, remarks that one of the most distinctive signs of to-day is the repudiation of age. No one is old, and no one can afford to get older. The life, the occupations, the interests, the amusements, the ambitions of to-day, are those of a youthful epoch, of a time when to be old is sin. We see it on every side, especially among women. Every mother is as young as her children in dress and appearance, and grandmothers younger than either. The reverence for age, the tender respect with which it used to be regarded, is only a tradition, and the strong influence of youth is what inspires our life and dominates us in this new century. It is not wonderful that it should be so, for life is so pleasant to-day. Its duties, its occupations, are easy, and do not need any great effort for their accomplishment. Life formerly was serious and real, there was no artistic, no ideal side to it, and as women and young people influence the life and society of their day. so in proportion as their lives were narrow, and uninteresting, was existence dull and bornee. There was a dulness and stiffness in every relation in life, between husband and wife, parents and children. The wife was hardly a companion to her husband, much more his housekeeper, parents were stern, unsympathetic, and exacting as regarded their children, a.nd the only class with whom any feelings: oif equality or sentiment existed seemed to be between master and servant. When we contrast the simplicity of English life of only 50 years ago, the position of women, and the relations between parents and their children, with the luxury and equality of to-day, we realise how extraordinary and far-reaching is the change. Many causes have combined to bring it about ; the softening influence of a woman as queen, tho increasing facilities of communication, the improvement in education, the great increase in wealth, and last, but not least, the effect of American life »nd thought on the Mother Country are sufficient to account foi a change which is only logically the result of the marvellous developments, of the nineteenth century. If some Rip Van Winkle, fallen to sleep in 1850, could now awake from his slumber and enter our modern every day life, he would certainly not believo it was the same England he said good bye co 50 yearr ago. v He would, indeed, look .ui vain for many of the landmarks and characteristics of his time. For the tranquillity and sleepiness of life, he would awake to the hurry and bustle of an age, in which life. 1 is not long enough to accomplish all that has grown out of our modern requirements, with its increasing interests and occupations, which vary every year in character and uumbei. He would look in vain lor the old-world nooks of England, with their traditions and fancies, their quiet, tranquil existence, and see giant express trains rushing through the hamlet where he spent his youth ; smoking

mills belching out black bine* by the stream that used to ripple softly in the noon-day heat, the smart newly-built town hall in the street of the old-fashioned village he knew so well ; the flaring electric light, where hj had often stood under the gleam of the oil lamp in the softly darkening evening, watching the shadows descending on a sleeping world. He would find a bustling, active, strong-minded matron where he left the gentle, tender-eyed grandmother ; a laud, voiced managing wife, full of interest in every kind of terrible question unknown and unheard of before ; and a tall, slight, gailydressed young lady, self-assertive, capable, and independent, in the place of the genua smiling maiden he remembered in the days he went a-courting. This and so many mora transformations would he find so incomprehensible that he would fain return once again to the sleep he had broken, and say goodbye to a world so strange and bewildering. We are learning to understand and sym ; pathise with his perplexity, for we al«o are becoming Hip van Winkles, and from one year to another we rub our eyes and ponder over what has passed and gone, only to await with increased curiosity the changes that overwhelm us with incredible rapidity.

The idea that the native Indian eschews all but his native tobacco, which he takes mostly in the form of cheroots, receives a hard knock from the newly-issued official Review of the Trade of India. It appears that in 1898-99 the reports of manufactured tobacco, especially in the shape of cigarettes, underwent much expansion. It is no longer true that the consumption of imported tobacco is practically confined to the AngloIndian population. "Cigarettes made in America are being extensively imported now with special reference to the requirements of the native smoker. They are greatly in evidence in and about Calcutta and other large towns, where they are beginning to supersede the unclean and unsavoury compound* smoked in native apparatus. Imported cottons have largely superseded the production of the native handloom ; imported mineral oil and dyes have superseded the inferior articles produced in the country, to the great advantage of the consumer ; imported sugar is alsc gradually beginning to thrust, back the inferior and dirty sugar hitherto offered to the Indian consumer ; and now it seems that Indian tobacco is to recoil before the invasion of foreign tobacco made up in neatly packed cigarettes. Another turn of the wheel, and when the people have become accustomed to the better article the capitalist will arise and make it on the spot of Indian tobacco, to the advantage of both producer and consumer, as has been done with cotton goods and will be done with sugar." The report shows that had it not been for the famine, the trade of India for the year under review would, save ?... regards cotton manufacturing, have been characterised by much prosperity. One other curious point may be mentioned. "In Bengal the habit of wearing coloured woollen shawls (made in Germany) in the winter has now become widespread, and in this and other provinces certain classes of natives have in recent years adopted either European costume or an. adaptation of it, or have, while retaining native forms of costume, changed from cotton to woollens."