Round the Corners.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 606, 15 September 1883, Page 13

Round the Corners.

How much deeper in the depths of infamy is the wretched Irish difficulty to immerse the people ? We have had presented to us assassination by cold steel, bullet, and fire in its worst forms, and now this is capped by assassination of the most atrocious kind of all—wholesale poisoning. And poisoning, too, under the guise of benevolence. Some poor creatures—forty or so in number, it is said —were boycotted, and then, when reduced to starvation point, were given poisoned food, and two of their number died. Gods ! How detestable ! There is nothing like it on record to quote as a precedent. The poisonings of the Medicis and Borgias were amiable traits compared with such hideous treachery and bloodthirstiness. The Nihilists are bright angels compared with those wretches in the “sister isle,” so termed, that have made murder their pastime. The lowest race of savages ou the face of God’s earth are far, far above them in the scale of humanity. And all this in the name of the “ Land League ! ” First reduce to starvation point, arid then mock with poisoned food ! The offering of the sponge soaked in vinegar arid gall was nothing to it. And two persons are perambulating the colonies, striving to excite sympathy and raise funds for the Land League ! They are even now on New Zealand soil. Let us hope that not a red cent in money or a grain of symj>athy will fall to their share unless they can clear the reputation of that “ League,” in the name of which so many atrocities have been committed, from the black shadows that it casts. What have we to do in this bright land with the foul poli--tical broils, the outcome on the one side of oppression, of the other of bigotry and dense ignorance, of this wretched Irish question ? The less New Zealand dabbles in the dirty" puddle the better for her.

Truly has Christianity received a backhander from the votaries of Confucius, Budh, and Shinto. Some Japanese “ chiels taking notes ” have, it seems, been prowling through England and putting our boasted Christianity upon its trial, so far as it affects the social life of the people. And they came to the conclusion that it was no good ; that under its regime, drunkenness, that mother of vices, flourished unchecked, and that it had not so tight a hold upon the inner life of the people, did not exercise so much real influence, as the religion of the East. And so Christianity is not to be made the State religion of Japan. Not very flattering this to tlie massive ecclesiastical structure that has been built up in the name of Christianity. And it is the more galling because it is, in a measure, true. Social reforms have not been brought about by religion, but by the growing intelligence and intellectuality of the people, by the spread of education amongst them. The giant demos has raised himself by innate force, breaking the bonds imposed upon him by caste and its handdemons tyranny, bigotry, ignorance. Demos stretches forth mighty hands and takes that which is his. He is casting behind him those brutish instincts which those who enslaved him helped to foster, and in the light of clear intellect views his power, recognises his rights, and admits his responsibilities. Don’t deceive yourselves, Mr Japanese. The time is not far distant when the Anglo-Saxon will be as temperate as yourselves, when that which is possible of attainment in sections of the race—perfect sobriety—wili be a crowning characteristic of the race as a whole.

The Te Aro Reclamation Fiasco ! Not a bad designation, by any means, for it is a sort of all-round fiasco, in which none of the parties concerned appear to particular advantage. But it would be unfair not to admit that the Mayor has come out of the trouble with not a bit more discredit than anyone else. At first he was howled down as having surreptitiously altered the wording of a notice to the contractor’s sureties, which he flatly denied by affirming that the notice was altered with the consent, or, at any rate, knowledge, of the Council. And this was subsequently borne out by the admission of Councillor Greenfield, and also by the half-and-half way in which the Councillors affirmed their version of the affair, only two, Councillor Maginnity and Dr. ; Newman being at all emphatic, about it. Of course, he did wrong in countenancing any alteration in the notice, but he evidently was not the only sinner. Then it was sought to be shown that the Corporation contracts were loosely drawn by a layman, but coriespondence, which the Mayor published in the Times, proves the contrary, the form of contract generally used by the Corporation having been first submitted to and approved by the City Solicitor. But it also seems that the mistake, such as it was, is not likely to be attended with the fatal consequences first anticipated, and, if that be so, the sooner oil is cast upon the troubled waters the better. The Mayor is not the monster he was sought to be depicted, and throughout the discussion has borne himself fairly aud with moderation, and is certainly raised several degrees in my estimation. At the same time, I hear he is developing autocratic tendencies. Now, my good sir, don’t. If you are wise you will keep within the limits of the strictest legal administration of your office, and bear yourself with exceeding modesty.

So the dear old British Lion has been roaring for nothing again, has he ? Public clamor has, as it is in nine cases out of ten, been false in its notes. We have another falsification of the much misused aphorism, Vox populi vox Dei. Vox Dei, indeed ! Vox diavolo or vox asinorum. That’s about the size of it, I think. If the vox Dei is ever heard, it is only where pas sionless wisdom guides the helm. Not in Parliaments, not in streets, but where two or three are gathered together to consult and reflect and decide for the good of the many. There it may whisper now and again. But to suppose that it is ever heard through Demos, in the broad sense of that term, is a profound fallacy. Further and very clear evidence on this point has been supplied during the xeeerxt furore —that’s the expression, I think—about Angelique The-

rasse. Who was it in the House that said that the instincts of the people seldom misled them in such a matter ? What a Solon, to be sure ! And then someone else wanted the House to immediately convert itself into a Court of Appeal, and reverse the decision of the ordinary legal tribunal. And wasn't the prisoner’s innocence affirmed by everybody ? And didn't the Minister of Justice order her release, and wasn't she released? And now—what? Hasn’t that astute {person, Detective Browne, —may he never get on my trail—returned from Christchurch, and isn’t it shown very conclusively indeed that Vox populi is not Vox Dei, by long chalks, not even through those sapients, the M.H.R. representatives of populi. Nothing that I know of is so misleading, so deceitful, so dangerous, as popular passion and prejudice when once excited. Directly Demos gets upon his hind legs and roars out that heknows allhbout it. then that “ instant minute,’ as Sairey Gamp would say, you may be sure he is about to make an ass of himself, or worse. He has done so in connection with Angelique Therasse, and will do so again, for “ ’tis his nature to.”

That man best prepares himself for the world to come, Who leaves his work in this one thoroughly well done. ° If I were not Asmodeus, I think I should like to be Dargaville. My horns are nothing to his “ front,” my unscrupulousness nothing to Ms readiness in evading the truth, and my readiness in evading the truth is nothing to his unscrupulousness in trying to compass his ends. He is a very proper devil, brazen to the last, and absolutely incapable of distinguishing the truth when it is placed before him. And if this is the case—and it is so—what sort of an exhibition wili he make when he calls his northern constituents together to address them. Possibly the devil himself will come to his assistance. The latest pun out is of the feminine gender; that is to say, a “ fimmle ” is its “ parient.” “I should imagine,” said the shameless creature, “ that rice is Far in Asias (farinaceous) Hood.” And; then she giggled. What, Bishop ! Hoisting the standard of rebellion ? Setting the children of the State against the State ? I wonder how it is that Bishops entertain such a deadly enmity to marriage with a deceased wife’s sister. It was the Bishops who stopped the passage of the Bill at the last attempt made to get it through the British Parliament, and a Bishop—a colonial one—is, notwithstanding that the Bill is law here, stirring up strife against it, urging the people not to conform to the law. This is the .substance of the Bishop of Wellington’s adjuration to the ministers of the Episcopalian Church the other day. They were not to celebrate the rites of marriage between principals of whom one was a deceased wife's sister. Well, Bishop, and what then ? Will that stay the marriage, think you, when the law of the land provides for the civil union of man and woman by the Registrar, and also when there are nalf-a-dozen or more religious denominations that are legally qualified to tie a matrimonial knot in accordance with the rites of their particular creeds. And is not one way of marriage just as "good as another, Bishop ? Do you suppose that people regard the Episcopal way as vitally essential ? Not a bit of it. .If your church won’t marry, another will, and so, sir, you will only succeed in driving away custom, in weakening your own cause. What ! Have you forgotten Christ’s command: “Render unto Caesar the things that are Cmsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s?” God never prohibited marriage with a deceased wife's sister, and the Caesar of the colonies has distinctly affirmed its legality. Obey the law, sir ; preach peace, and bow your stiff’, sacerdotal neck to the force of Public Opinion.

Too much education, eh. Not the right sort hum. Perhaps so, it may be so ; but if so, it strikes me that a little more in certain directions would not be amiss. This is how an agreement drawn the other day is made to terminate by the writer : “ And i orlso agre to pay horl rates off the said premeses!” Here we are again ! Narrow escape from shocking loss of life ; death and destruction averted by a miracle. An infernal machine a steam-boiler out of order is an infernal machine—is tolerated in the heart of a crowded neighborhood, and suddenly explodes. Luckily, no one is hurt, but for all 'that it strikes me that “somebody wants woppiug ” over the affair, and it is to be hoped that the inquiry into the Tory-street explosion will bare the right shoulders to the lash, But, although serious, the exDlosion had its funny side. Half-an-liour before, the Princess Hotel reposed in quiet sedateness; half-an-hour after there were sixteen glaziers at work upon its front windows, whilst the landlord was hard at work ascertaining how many of ’em wore the blue ribbon. In a tenement not far off lay an ancient female of the Irish persuasion. Crash came the blow-up. “.Murder ! murder ! ” she cried. “ What hiv I done to be shot at ? Shure, I’m not an informer.” Asmodetts.