NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11679, 14 June 1901, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

There were " impositions" upon exported coal three centuries ago, and then, as now, great outcry. The following is the comment then written by Sir Walter Raleigh, which will seem curiously familiar to those who have followed the arguments in the English press recently : —"I cannot but admire why the imposition of 5s should any way dis-

hearten them (the Newcastle men), seeing there is not one company in England upon whose trade any new payments .ire laid, but they on whom it is laid raise profit by it. The silkmen, if they pay His Majesty 12d upon a yard of sattin, they nor only raise th.it 12d. but they impose 12d or 2s mora upon the subject. So they do upon all they sell, of what kind soever, as all other retailers do, of what quality or profession soever. And seeing »11 the maritime provinces of France and Flanders, all Holland and Zealand. Embden. ttreuine. etc., cannot want (do without) our Newcastle or our Welsh coals, the imposition cannot impoverish the transporter, but that the buyer must make payment accordingly. And if the imposition laid on these things whereof the kingdom hath no necessary use. as upon silks, velvets, gold and silver Lice, cloata or gold mid silver, cut works, cambricks, and a world of other trumpery, doth in nothing hinder their vent here, but that they are more used than ever they were, to the utter impoverishing of the land in general, and of these popinjays that value themselves by their outsides. and by their players' coats ; certainly imposing upon coals, which other nations cannot want, can be no hindrance at all to the Newcastle men, but that they must raise it again upon the FrencL and" other nations, as those nations themselves do which letch them from us with their own shipping." A Panislamic Association has been founded in Turkey which extends to the whole Mahomedau world, and which has its own organisation, programme, committee of action, and adequate means of propaganda. Its object is to secure the submission of all Mussulmans to the sacred laws of their religion. This association, of which next to nothing is known in Europe, transfers its headquarters according to its circumstances and requirements iroin one- country to another. It is at work wherever Mussulmans are to be found—that is to say, throughout the Ottoman Empire, in the Caucasus, Persia, Central Asia, Egypt, the Soudan, the whole of South Africa, India, the Indian Archipelago, and elsewhere. It is under the direction of theologians of great learning and widespread popularity. The most respectable men in the provinces who oiten exercise unlimited authority arc at the head of the committees ot agitation. The president is an author of repute, an abie speaker, and a protound thinker. He has just issued a manifesto, or rather, a pamphlet, in which, taking his stand exclusively on the sacred writings, he argues in choice and moderate language that the greatest enemy of Islam is, at present, the Khedive of Egypt, Abbas Pasha, who, in his diseased ambition, dreams of the erection of an independent Islamic kingdom under his own Khalifate. In order to attain his ends he has recourse tc means which must inevitably lead to the disintegration of the various Mussulman elements. He makes Egypt a csntre of revolution where men of notorious immorality and corruption have assembled. 'I he Khedive takes advantage of the naivete of certain members of the Imperial family and of the rapacity of some of the chamberlains and secretaries a* Yildiz Kio»k. He seeks support among the lowest strata of society, whose ignorance and fanaticism he turns to account to provoke a revolution, the consequences of which must be disastrous, not only for the whole Mussulman world! but also for the Christians and for general peace. The manifesto emphasises the fact that all good Mussulmans want to live at peace with the whole world and fear nothing so much as movements calculated to provoke general disturbance. In conclusion, it declares that it is urgently necessary to depose the av.edive after coming to an understanding with the Powers and the Sultan. He must have a successor who ."s agreeable, in the first place, to Turkey France,_ and England. There is no question of modifying the political position of Egypt towards the Powers, but simply of getting nd of an ambitious man who is sowing dis cord among the Mussulmans and seeks to bring about an insane and dangerous revolution. Furtlierj t0 replape him b a believer who does not threaten the interests of civilised mankind. crests At the British Museum, recently, Mr W St. Chad Boscawen delivered the first "of a course of lectures upon « Oriental Magic and folklore, the special subject being the 'Nature and Character of Oriental Magic » He commenced by saying that hitherto the character of magic had been misunderstood and its value as a record of the earliest intellectual progress of the human race unrecognised It was to Adolph Bastian that we owed the first concise definition of magic as the physios of mankind in a state of nature. Man in the earliest stages of his intellectual progress recognised tne mutual connection which existed throughout all nature, and sought to control and direct nature to his own ends. Thus, in the desire to obtain for himself supernatural powers, man developed magic. His first problem was that of self; to formulate some satisfactory theory of his own entity, and then reasoning by analogy, to form one applicable to nature. How early man commenced to study these problems we do not know. But the prehistoric bronzes in Egypt and other ancient seats of civilisation showed that at that remote time mar. Nad advanced considerably in his studies. The placing of food in the tombs as well as weapons and articles of adornment seemed to indicate a theory of the soul and a life after death, and the discovery of amulets in the form of slate tablets representing animals, birds, etc., showed that he had attained to an elementary stage of magic. One curious custom pointed to the application of the soul theory to inanimate nature, in that all funeral furniture, pots, etc., were broken, in order that, they being dead, their souls might minister to the sou) of the departed. It was this creed of animism that formed the beginning of religious life both in Egypt and Chaldea, and of this creed magic was the ritual. But another important psychic element remained to be considered. In the early days of linguistic development, a mystic power had become attached to the personal names, and this idea was found among all primitive tribes, and lay at the basis of totemism. The name was something more than a mere appellation; it was the mark of man's existence, the cause of hisbeing, and the knowledge of it was a great power over him. It was the magic act in creation the " pronouncing of the name." In the papyrus of Nesi Amsu, in the British Museum, we read the words of the creatorgod Khepera, "I uttered my own name as a word of power (magic) and straightway I evolved myself." In another magical papyrus at Turin was a charm against snakebites. This name hidden secret was no doubt, the Ka, or soul-name, of any person or power in nature, and the knowledge of it imparted a supernatural power to the magician. In the knowledge ot these names of power was the beginning of magic, and it! ceremonies. It was the Ka name that the deceased answered when called to the fuI neral feast at the " going forth of the voice" I of the Ka priest. The Ka name was the same as " the good name" borne by every Egyptian, which he assumed in heaven, as is in the earliest texts we read, " Pepi is happy in nis name;" and the same idea survived, no doubt, in the " new name'' of the Apocalypse. As soon as the magician found that the herbs, or substances he used as charms, produced a beneficial effect, he attained, as it were, a materia medica, and magic grew into medicine. As soon as *

the astrologer recognised a cosmic law and order in nature he passed from pseudoscience to astronomy. Mr. Boscawen then pointed out how the two great magical systems of the old world—Egypt and Chaldea .had given us the beginnings of medicine, astronomy, and mathematics—the former from Egypt, and the two latter from Chuldea. In conclusion, the lecturer observed that magic outlived the ok! creeds because it was part of the literary and religious pabulum of the populace, and at the present day, under the guise of palmistry and Christian science, it. attracted those whose intellectual ennui called for a new stimulant. A thousand Boer prisoners have petitioned Steyn, Botha, De Wet, and others to cease their useless resistance and so end the war. Six Boers at Pretoria, who had taken the oath of neutrality, made an attempt to rejoin the enemy, firing at and "wounding a sentry when challenged. Three of them were recaptured and were, sentenced to death. In the case of one the sentence was remitted, owing to his youth, but the othex two were shot, the authorities deeming it imperative to cany out the extreme, penalty, in consequence of surrenderors disregarding their' obligations. The German and Russian press criticises Great Britain's action in China in an unfriendly spirit. There is reason for believing that the tire in the Forbidden City in l'ekin was caused by the Chinese, then object apparently being to render the return of the Court impossible, and to create a new capital, The Spanish Government propose to follow the example of Franco in suppressing certain religious orders. They also intend to reduce the number of' bishops and sees, and to devote the money thus saved to relieving country clergy. The political situation in Cuba is unsettled, the Nationalist party threatening to resist the Cuban policy of the American Government. President McKinley has found it necessary to make a declaration that he will uot be a candidate again for the Presidency.