NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11999, 23 June 1902, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE CONQUERING AMERICAN. In his latest book," Between Ourselves," Max O'Rell shows that American progress has deeply impressed him. For the last six or seven years America (he says) has been so prosperous that, thanks to the wealth it possesses, Europe sees itself on the point of being entirely at the mercy of the UnitedStates. I say that before 20 years Europo will be at the mercy of America in every respect—its stock exchanges, its commerce, its industries—just as its customs and manners will be American. Tho Treasury at Washington is choking, the commercial activity is boundless, and the intelligence and the ingenuity 0 f tho Americans are beyond competition, New, .York and Chicago are be-

cdMifig people with niifionaifSrifefe. millionaires, aid billionaire; ' I connt ± American ladiei in Mayfai, and BeWia and 78 in the laubourg StJGfanai * *£ Vice-Queen of India is African. When shall we- see an American *|Vn on a F,,/ pean throne? And why fort ™ ffe" like the idea of it. % L"ft Europe practicaly all belong to one KiW Their . marnages are all made beS cousins and Royvlty is sadly deteriorating I he healthy durttar of some rich Kansas farmer, manned to srt ne Sovereign of Europe, might poauce Princes and Prin cesses robust in body and mind, and in these democratic hues I fail to see war Kings ami Emperta should not follow the example of their autocracies. Mavbt thfe would obtain such dowries from Aineriti that our taxes coild be considerably reduced. } e

THE PATRIOTISJOF THE ECSSIAX. The. patriot ism oi the Russian applies only to the Tsar. InGlinka's tine and most characteristic opera, 'A Life for the Tsar'" the old peasant whosaves his life has no word for Russia but uly for the Tsar. Give your life, give everyhing for the Tsar! ia his cry; and the songsvrhich move the audience to profound excietnent are passional* appeals ending in purer to sacrifice all np the preservation of die Tsar. That which moves an American an Englishman a Frenchman, or a Cernian, to heroic deeds is devotion to his ntive land, to his fatherland, to that ideal ntity which is known as "country." That which moves the Rug. sian, says .Senator El. U. Lodge; in S C rd> ner's Magazine, is devotion to a man who next to Hod, comn&nds his religious faith and stands to him fa his country. The first conception is Roman, and of the Western World. The second is Oriental, and pertains to the subtle Gntk intellect in its decadence. Nor is this'feeling the personal loyalty of the Cavaliei and the Jacobite to the Stuarts, or of the Irencli noblesse to the House of Bourbon. The loyalty of the Russian is not to Alexnder or to Nicholas or to the Romanoffs, a family 0 mixed blood, chiefly Gemini and less than 300 years ago of the rank of boyars. The intense Russian loyalty i to the crowned and consecrated Tsar, whaver he may be, the head of the Slate ant the head of the Church, next to God ii their prayers.

HOW THE WAR WVS rROTBACTED. • There must have ben in South Africa during the second phaie of the -war, says a -writer in Blaekwoocs Magazine, many hundreds of men— might almost say' thousandswhc felt tint the nation had desperate need of their services men who voluntarily undertook tie risks and perils of a soldier's life, not fr>m a hope of preferment, nor from love of adventure, bub from true patriotism—a sacrifice to meet the nation's call in the hour of her need. But that day soon passed. The tide turned, and clash of arms ceased upon our own frontiers and within on - own dependencies, and the din of war sounded faintly from the heart of the euony's country. Then true patriotism failec; the men who had gone forth with thai- country's acclamations returned as ther obligations expired. There were no patents of the same class found to take their places. Yet the exigencies of the struggle required even more men than had been in the field when Lord Roberts made his eitreme effort to retrieve the earliei misfortuies. Then it was that Lord Kitchener conmitted one of the few errors of judgment which , have marked his conduct of the canpaign. He—arid he was not singular in believed that in December, 1900, the edifice of; the Boer re-' sistance_ was crunbling to its foundations | —that it was liki a mighty smoke-stack,, already mined at ts base, and but requir- | ing fuel at the dunmy supports to bring ' the whole structnri in ruins to the ground;"' He called for the iiel. The cry went itihll h for menmen—min. I Any men; only let ; '| there be a sufhciert quantity. The war Was over. Had not . the highest officials Raid. | tnat it was over. The recruiting-sergeant", went out into the highways and hedges to -. collect the fuel, for Lord Kitchener's final operation. It mattered not the quality—it was only quantity. The war was over. The gates of the Sold Reef City would 1 again be open. Then the, mass of degraded manhood which had fled from Johannesburg at the first mattering of thunder in tha war-cloud flocked from their hiding-places : on the Cape Cdony seaboard and fell on the recruiting-sergeant's neck. • : Mean < whites that they were, they came out of their burrows at the first gleam of suq-j shine. Greek, Armenian, Russian, Scandi-i navian, Levantine, Pole, and Jew. " Gaolbird, pickpocket) thief, drunkard, and loafer, they presented themiielves ;to v the and in due course polluted the uniform which they were not fiti to salute from a distance. The war was over; there would be no nidre fighting* only a quick march to Johannesburg, and disband within reach of the: filthy, lucre which they coveted. Their appearance in the field I gave new life'to th* enemy. New confidence, and free gift* of rifles, ammunition) clothes, and' llo«es„ These men had not come to fight. They" had enlisted only to reach Johannesburg*' and they refused to fight. Surrender to them brought no qualm or disgrace. They: possessed no faculty sensible to." shame/ Then the enemy hardened his heart. And who can blame him. He had ever been told that the supply of British fighting material was limited. He found these creatures in the field against him. ■''Ha stepped up to them, and without an effort disarmed them at will. Then he said, we have exhausted their supply of real fighting men. They are now forced to place" **"* spurious article in the field. We will persevere just a little longer. If we persevere till disease shall further destroy their good men, we must win in the long run. The erroi in judgment whichiallowed of the enlistment of these men has perhaps done more than anything else to prolong. the war. If any doubt remain, let the curious call upon the Government for a return of arms and ammunition surrendered to and captured by the enemy between November, 1 1900, and November, 1901, and then, if the answer be justly given, judge of At necessity of arsenals for our enemy. 5 '