NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14819, 24 October 1911, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

A MODERATE LIBERAL'S VIEWS. Mb. Sydney Brooks, as a Moderate Liberal, contributes to the Fortnightly a crushing indictment of the British Government and their engineering of the. late Constitutional crisis. Although he says it with rei gret, he thinks events arc shaping better for the Unionist party than many Unionists believe. The charge ho brings against the Government is " that the revolution they have brought about has been a political rather than a popular movement. It did not originate in the constituencies, but in the Cabinet." Therefore, it cannot be final. Tho repeal of the Parliament Bill "is brought at once within the range of practical politics," because, as the people will soon discover, it is they, not the Lords, who are now eliminated. Mr. Brooks does not believe that the Radical party will ever attempt to reform the House of Lords—" they have carried their main point, and they will rest satisfied." But, he asks, what do Liberals now think of it all? This is exactly where we stand :—" Whatever antagonism and resentment it may arouse, and however sharply the country may realise, when it is too late, that a more or lees abstract endorsement of Home Rule as an idea or principle is one thing, and approving a specific Home Rule Bill is another and very different thing, the matter will be taken altogether out of the people's hands, tho Bill will be passed in whatever form commends itself to Mr. Redmond, and perhaps four members of the Cabinet, and the British people will have no more effective voice in deciding one of the most fateful issues in their history than if they were mediaeval Venetians living under the despotism of the Council of Ten. I hope and believe that the electorate favours Home Rule; but I am convinced that few of those who helped to return the Liberals to power last December foresaw that the creation of 500 Peers was to be threatened, or could conceivably take place, merely that Home Rule might be spared the ordeal of a popular pronouncement at the polls." As to the future, Mr. Brooks eays that " upon the Unionists is laid the high and fortifying duty of rectifying the perilous list in the ship of State," and of restoring the Constitution to a stable, and above all a democratic and equitable basis.

A HUNDRED YEARS' PEACE. Whilst the European air is being filled with recurring rumours of war impending between two or more of the treat Powers it is interesting to learn that preparations have been begun for what now seems likely to be the greatest international celebration the world has ever seen : the commemoration of 100 years of peace between Great Britain and the United States. The Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war of 1812, was signed on December 24, 1814, and ratified by the United States Senate on February 17,, 1815. The emphasis to be placed on the coming celebration is due to several causes. Between the two countries most interested there undoubtedly exists at present a feeling of even more than » ordinary friendliness and cordiality. The leaders of the peace movement throughout the world are keenly alive to the unusual opportunity for doing something impressive for the cause in which they are interested. Moreover, Canada, which stands for Great Britain on the American continent, is contiguous, and thus a monument, if one be decided on, can etand jointly on the territory of both nations. Finally, it is agreed that one of the things which has helped to make this long peace possible is the wise provision by treaty that neither nation shall maintain large warships on the great lakes— av potent argument for disarmament. Two committees, one national, the other international, have already been formed in the United States. They contain the names of Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Root, William J. Bryan. Andrew Carnegie, Albert K. SmJley, and others of distinction. One suggestion for a permanent monument is a beasitiful bridge, uniting Canada and the United States at Niagara. One idealist, with an ambitious outlook, suggests that a bridge across the Atlantic would be better. The years have closed a chaem wi'der even than that.

THE NEMESIS OF NEGLECT. " The lawless the ignorant, the idle— in a word, the .Hooligan—is the Nemesis of neglect," writers Canon Barnett in the Westminster. " Society has complacently enjoyed its wealth, while it has permitted dwellings to be occupied which are unfit for human habitation it has profited by conditions of trade rn which youth is robbed of its joy, and it has given 'little care to 668 that citizens .ure equipped with sufficient skill to earn a living or sufficient knowledge to take an intelligent part in government. Year after year goes by, measures. which seem great occupy the time of Parliament; but the greatness of such measures was dwarfed wh\en it looked as if mob violence might dominate the towns and food supplies be cut off by tho destruction of the railways. What did it matter about questions of Constitution, about the rights of this o.r that interest, when the very foundations of society were threatened, and the soldiers were silently marching through the night to take up positions in the cities? While the memory of the meaning of violence is stall fresh all parties might resolve to give their first attention to the neglected Hooligan, and so remove the disgrace and the danger of calling out soldiers to keep .order in, labour troubles," ""I