CURRENT TOPICS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1265, 28 May 1896, Page 33

CURRENT TOPICS.

EUROPEAN POLITICS. To understand European politics all that is necessary is to realise that Europe has ceased to bo Christian. Europe has oven ceased to care for morality in any shape or form. All public treaties between contending States begin by invoking “ The Omnipotent Godnevertheless, there is not in a single Cabinet in tho whole of Europe one spark of practical Christianity or ono single atom of any kind of morality. Selfishness, cynical disregard for feelings of all kinds, systematic ignoring of right, persistent worship ot might —theso aro the leading maxims of modern diplomacy. They have produced the greatest crimes of history. Tho history of theso is not recorded in old volumes dealing with tho almost forgotten centuries of old; it stains with blood and anguish the pages of tho record of our own Nineteenth Century. The awful reign of tho Austrian in Italy, tho partition of Poland among three rapacious brigands, the rehabilitation of the unspeakable Turk —these are tho blackest stains in the whole range of history. They wore the work of the diplomatic representatives of all Europe, assembled to adjust a balance of power utterly and deliberately regardless of every consideration of justice and every prompting of humanity. Wo need not be surprised, therefore, to read of tho last fiendish massacre by the Khuids, with its story of 30U*J victims burned alive. It is more than probable that every newspaper in tho civilised world which has published the fact is offering to guarantee in the usual newspaper way that the news has thrilled the public every where to the very core. But public opinion has, like tho diplomatists, relegated morality and religion to private life. Nobody cares whether these poor Armenians were killed quickly or roasted slowly to death, nobody cares a straw’ that some of them suffered nameless outrage, nobody heeds that the survivors have been plundered of every possession, as part of a deliberate plan ot forcing them to perish slowly and miserably. The public sympathy goes as far as the headlines of the newspapers, and those do not go beyond the column of which they aro the sign-posts. There was a time when Europe was differently constituted. Public opinion, when Peter the Hermit was alive, did feel thrilled by news of wrong and outrage. Public opinion was Christian, in spirit and in truth. Those wore tho days when a crusade was possible. Soldiers, statesmen, lawyers, clerics, labouring men, traders thought nothing of abandoning their avocations and marching forth to do battle for tho Cross. It was a strange, eventful, most wonderfully curious time. Many dreadful tilings wero done in it, many things that must bo regretted eternally. But the page stained by those deeds was redeemed by tho record of genuine faith and honesty of purpose and real practical desire to uphold good and put down evil. What a contrast it is to-day ! For tho last IS years English public opinion has relied upon a treaty binding Britain to make the Turk govern liis dominions properly, and esj ecially Armenia.. When the Turk is found to govern disgracefully by murder, rapine and ravishment, and a portion of public opinion insists on tho fulfilment of our part of the treaty, a representative of the Government is actually heard to say in Parliament that as the Turk has broken his part of tho treaty, Britain is at liberty to forgot her promise of justice and protection to tho Christians of Armenia. It is only another instance of the absence of Christianity, of moral feeling, of humanity, which could have permitted such a statement to bo publicly made. It means probably that Russia will bo allowed to do tho work by taking the country, in exchange for permission to permit Britain to overrun Africa. But why, because Russia is not ready for tho work, tens of thousands should be allowed to perish in misery and torture no one can understand, except upon tho only hypothesis that can enable us to understand the international politics of Europe, viz., that every Power concerned is as absolutely destitute of honourable feeling as of sense of justice or regard for humanity. THE AWFUL MEAGHER. O.N’i; of tho worst offenders tho profession of the law lias produced in our time is Mr Meagher. One of tho mostawful things m the history of all countries is tho inability of tho Courts to punish this wretch. He sheltered himselt under tlio plea of privilege to escape tho consequences of the greatest crime a lawyer can under any possible eiicumstances commit.. Knowing tho absolute guilt of his client—a murderer of the worst sort—ho adopted a course which brought infamy on honest people, one of them the murderer’s victim ; and to support that infamous lino of conduct, ho in his place in Parliament brought the vilest charges against an hono.t man who checkmated him and refused to give way to his abominable artifices. Meagher is the genius of Australian larrikinism gotten into high places. When discovered and exposed ho whimpered and drivelled and cried for mercy, and behaved like ono who wanted to bo honest, but had been prevented by unhappy circumstances. Tho course ho has adopted has proved that there is neither honesty nor sense of decency in 1 lie mail. The memory of the scene got up between him and his wretched partner, a scene watered with crocodile tears, and emphasised by hypocritical allusions, the memory of that scene is enough to fill every honest man in every country with disgust. Yet the ruffianly larrikin who has 3 lied and prevaricated and tried to min virtue which he knew to be virtue, and to blast innocence which he knew to be innocent, is not to suffer.

Until the newspapers arrived here with tho judgment of the Court it was generally supposed that tho verdict of tho Court was based on tho privilege of Parliament. Privilege was certainly ono of the pleas for Meagher and his friend the wife murderer, Dean. For Dean tho only thing to bo said was that if Meagher’s conviction wero quashed there would be no ono left for Dean to have conspired with, and that therefore he must bo acquitted. Tho point on tho question of privilege turned entirely on tho position of Meagher. On his behalf it was contended that “ tho declaration in tho Bill of Rights sots out that ‘ freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any place out of Parliament.’ ” Here was a case, it was urged, iu which tho addition of one little pieco of evidence, as to the crucial act of conspiracy, was fatal -, that it came from a speech which ought not by law to bo impeached or questioned; and that it was by these proceedings being very decidedly impeached and questioned. The reply on tho other side was that “ while on the ground of public policy members of Parliament were allowed freedom of speech and wero not liable for actions for defamation or libel, they had no more privileges in that respect than had a witness and advocate or even a judge in a, Court of J ustice. That being so, all the authorities on the question pointed to tho conclusion that the speeches delivered in Parliament and offered in evidence were admissible.”

Tho argument is very interesting, but it did not affect the result of the case ill the least. The Judges all agreed that they would like to see this question of Parliamentary privilege settled by the Full Court, and they thought that it would require the written judgments of every member of the Court. But they unanimously decided that tho question of privilege need not on the present occasion be considered at all, for tho simple reason that the case was governed by another matter altogether. That matter was tho inadmissibility of certain evidence, quite apart from the Parliamentary character of some of if.

They laid down, Ist. that if any evideuco in a ease is improperly admitted, it iu impossible for any one to dotormiuo what tho effect of that evidence maybe on a jmy, and that therefore tho conviction must bo quashed; 2nd, that in the .Meagher-Dean case the report of a Royal Commission with the speeches of Sir Julian Salomons and Mr Want had boon admitted in evideuco ; that theso speeches weio not on oath and for that reason not admissible as only sworn testimony can be received ; that it was impossible for the jury to decide wlmt points of those speeches were admitted by the confessions of Meagher and Dean ; 3rd, that therefore the conviction against both Meagher and Dean must be quashed. It is a deplorable verdict, which gives a sensational ending to an exceptionally sensational case. And we are afraid that, being sensational, the verdict is WLong. It is admitted on all sides that t hese speeches of Sir J. Salomons and Mr Want wero the direct cause of Meagher s confession and Crick’s collapse. They brought the culprit down. Until t heir scathing force revealed the strength of the other side, Meagher went about iu triple brass. W lien ho realised that the enemy was on his track and following him up remorselessly ho threw up the sponge and confessed. On tho main point of his own wrong-doing Meagher’s confession corroborated tho speeches. If seems futile to talk of the uncertainty of how many of their particular points wero or wero not corroborated. The Court ought, at least, to have gone on to deal with the privilege question ; then they would have grappled with Meagher’s confession. Tho Judges, have blamed the Crown’s conduct of tho case for the grave fad tiro of justice which has occurred. The Crown ought to ask for the review of the Privy Council. STRAY DOGS. In our desire to keep our cities from being infested by vagrant dogs wo find ourselves obliged to do one of two things, either to send thorn back to their owners or to despatch them to the happy hunting grounds of their race. Obviously thorn must bo an interval of time within which the choice between these destinies must bo made. Time was, as wo have onco boforo remarked in this connection, when tho stray dog served a useful pm pose in tho world. As tho only city scaveugor, ho fulfilled a sacred mission ; his efficiency was kept up to tho mark by that most remorseless of nuisance inspectors, hunger; lie was an honoured resident in the land. Now that we have bettor scavengers, if less efficient inspectors, and a complete drainage system —tho pride necessarily of every citizen, more particularly of those citizens who aro anxious for civic honours —we are reduced to the necessity of getting the stray dog out of tho way as himself olio of tlio greatest of our nuisances. Tho change is, let us remark in passing, typical of something that happens in human life. In his hot youth the vigorous man rules the world ; at the close of his honoured career a. cynical, but we are airaid correct, generation rails against him as “ tho veteran who lags superlluous ” on the stage.

However, tho change has come and wo have to face it. To any ono who understands tho subject of tho lost, stolen or strayed dog it must be evident that the danger of rabies is the special aggravation of the case of lost dog. Tint that only applies to countries in which dogs go mad with or without notice. Now dogs never go mad in (lie Australasian colonies, in spite even of the temptation offered by their dog-days, which in some of those countries are more trying to animal life than in any other country claiming to be considered as tomperat;. The logical deduction has be<mapplied in Sydney. Tlnre the obvious truth has been generally recognised that dogs which have been well cared for have

a motive to return to their homes. Dogs of that kind stray usually because they have escaped from men who have stolon them, or because they have gone out on the prowl. They are, when seized, actually on-the way home. Naturally, therefore, if sob at liberty they will go at once to the home where they have been well cared for. If, on the other hand, stray dogs show no sign of care, their liberation would only bring them back in worse plight than ever.. Sydney has tried tho plan of liberating the first division, and apparently has never found any causo for regretting it. V o beg to recommend tho same to our city authorities.

In tho matter of tho method of putting to death those dogs that must be, for public reasons, despatched to the happy hunting grounds, Sydney is barbaric. One writer and laudator of the system has been told that eminent authorities have approved formally and most highly of the system of knocking on tho head, and he has believed implicitly. But compare the account of Dr Richardson’s system of narcotic poisoning. The poor doggies are wheeled in unsuspecting comfort into the lethal chamber; the fumes of the narcotic put them quietly to sleep in one minute ; in three the sleep has passed tranquilly into death, and the doggies are ready for the cremator. Our people have turned from tho sharp prolonged pain of drowning to that. Let us all commend them. WILD CAT MINES. Mixes that do not exist are only one department of the great mining division host known by its famous name of wild cat. All honour to tho French Consul here for the thoughtfulness which has prompted him to warn the Chamber of Minos at Auckland that a number of daring speculators are fleecing his countrymen by soiling properties which do not exist. “ Gentlemen who have an estate in Air-shire, another in the Isle of Sky, and another in My-cye,” who “ have a property in a rather large salt marsh—tho sea, my hoy—and think of raising money on it, with the assistance of a name, a purely formal transaction designed merely to comply with business and banking rules, which are obsolete as well as effete, my dear sir,” these are fhe leaders among the chevaliers, so called, of industry. They come forth in every mining centre, drawn by the attraction of gold, just as gnats are drawn by the breath of summer from the rank growth of forest valleys. Like the gnats, they attack and annoy; their buzz is a perpetual nuisance, their sting is deadly, their power of suction incalculable. What more natural than that they should extend their buzzing and tho play ol their predatory instincts to foreign countries? French capital appeared long ago in tho Rand, and went by easy transition into Westralian ventures. Indeed, if wo remember right, there were 1‘ renchmen among tho Londonderry investors to whom tho late Colonel North behaved so remarkably well last year Events have of late been sending tho Auckland goldfields to the front; tho mines are quoted freely; money, foreign and otherwise, is directed Aucklandwards. It is a time of falling interest and increasing difficulty ol investment. And of such a tiino tho most striking result is enforced rashness of speculation. A man who is content with 3 j per cent, will commit any folly rather than condemn himself to tho income which 1 per cent, loss on his capital will afford him. Here is tho opportunity for the chevaliers, tho races of Rook, Plunger and Punter, tho tribes of spieler, swindler, liar and vampire. Tho Count Jouffray d’Abbans lias very proporly descended upon tho rear of these brigands, at tho very outset of their rapacious work. He will bo loaded with the gratitude of investors just as those men get the gratitude of tho soldiery who protect tho wounded from the hordes of scoundrels of the lowest and most infamous typo who are found hanging to tho outskirts of overy army on active service, i Tho Count will also obtain, as ho deserves, the gratitude of the people cf this count ry for the step ho lias taken towards giving a truthful representation of their mineral resources and mining properties. The Count, in fact, has done all that is in his power, and a great deal more than we had a right to expect at his hands.

It is for the Chamber ol Mines to carry on the work upon the lines laid down by the French Consul. They have taken up his idea, and they lmpo that they may have all tho mines registered with them. But does any one seriously think that more registry is any guarantee. Tho thing to do is to stop the marauder whose market fur the non-existent thing is spoiled from swindling with things that exist only in name. Turn to tho piles of the Gazelle and look at tho properties gazetted during periods of mining excitement. During the

famous days of the Golden Crown and Moanatairi, tho companies that camo forth into the light of the Gazette were thousands, their capital—“ estimated value of the mino”—stood at millions upon millions in the Gazette, their real capital was in many cases only boundless by reason of the impossibility of putting a boundary round nothing, while in others the ideal millions dwindled to a paid-up “ real,” which in tho Spanish currency is a small fraction of the British farthing. Now here is another department of tho wild-cat divison. It is more dangerous than the other, because it walks forth in procession with respectable honest ventures. There are hundreds of mines which do not go below the tussock or the scrub, in which it is not intended to do any real work, where tho whole value lies in the proximity to something which is either good in itself or near to a good thing, where the owners are a properly registered company, where there is absolutely no idea of anything but pure speculation. These are not mines, and many of them never will be. If the Chamber of Mines can manage to put some mark on them by which they may be known it will complete the good work begun so well by tho Count d’Abbans, and there will be nothing to interfere with the rapid development of the New Zealand gold resources on solid lines. MEDICAL HONOUR. A few days ago we wrote on medical dishonour, the dishonour which Dr Playfair, a most eminent physician, had brought upon himself and upon his noble profession by divulging a secret committed to him in the sacred confidence of medical consultation. The dishonour was deepened by tho prevarications of himself and some of his confreres in tho witness box ; and that bad impression was made worse by the defence which the British Medical Journal made of tho abominable hacksliding. Tho facts wore clear. Dr Playfair truckled to wealth, other medical men truckled with him, and one great organ of the medical profession truckled with them. The public was horrified, and the public indignation knew no bounds. It was a happy proof that honour is still bright in the world.

To-day it is our pleasing duty to write on medical honour.- The medical profession has shown that it thinks of honour just as highly as tho public does. It has repudiated its organ, and it has stamped heavily upon its “ eminent confrere,” whom it has sunk deeper into tho mire of his iniquity. That was necessary, because the offender, who truckled to wealth, was not permitted to bear tho only punishment which he would have really felt—viz., tho enforcement of the verdict of the Court („C12,000 damages) and tho heavy costs of his cause celebrc ; Sir James Kitson, who is very rich, a dealer and purveyor of machinery on a large scale, having paid everything. But the Medical Practitioners’ Association has prevented the eminent truckler from regarding that payment as a sufficient whitewash.

The Association unanimously passed a drastic resolution: “We placo tho fact formally oil record that since tho days of Hippocrates it has been hold among medical practitioners as a cardinal, indisputable principle of conduct that they should regard all information acquired by or confided to them concerning their patients as absolutely sacred and inviolable.” Nothing could bo more complete as well as drastic, and nothing could lio conceived more overwhelming. Dr Playfair lias been told in tho clearest language that all tho men of honour who have practised mediceuo during tho thousands of years the profession has been in existoncocondemn his conduct unequivocally as dishonourable. Greeks, Romans, Persians, Egyptians, the Byzantines, Europeans of tho middle ages, tho civilised world of modern times, all unite, by their practice and their records, to condemn tho dishonour of Dr Playfair. The profession has come to the front, nobly, and the public opinion of the world is once more satisfied to trust it implicibly.

A REVIVED SOUDAN MEMORY. The messago from Zubohr, tho groat Soudan chief, which wo publish elsewhere, carries tho mind back some years. Not many ; just back to the time when General Gordon was GovernorGeneral of the Soudan for tho first time. Zcbehr was a slave-dealer, the boldest of the tribe, the nun who built up a vast power on tho basis of his wealth in Ivor-lofau and Darfur and the provinces reaching to the Balir-el-Gazal, who was at the head of a confederation which defied the Government, with its anti-slavery Governor-General. To him one day camo General Gordon, sudden as Fate-, and equally irresistible. He had ridden away on his fast camel from his escort and tho troops. 110 arrived in consequence ah-

solutely alone. But such -was tho terror inspired by his name that when he marched into the Council of the Confederacy and arrested Zobehr and his sons every one acquiesced without a murmur. Tho escort came, the troops arrived, tho sons of Zebehr and some raiders who had made themselves notorious were hanged Gordon expressing on the occasion his usual doubt as to tho righteousness of his course, a doubt this great man was never known to feel until the objects of his severity had got well beyond human aid—and Zebehr himself was sent down to Cairo a prisoner. There he remained till Gordon returned to Khartoum for his second Governorship under the evil star which blinded him to the real value of the promises of support he got from tho Government of Great Britain. No sooner had he got to Khartoum than the face of things was changed. Expeditions up and down the river checked the enemy and brought in provisions to the beleaguered city, the spirit of the troops revived, the people rejoiced. It was a transitory prosperity, and Gordon knew it well. His plan was to take advantage of the good time by doing a good thing. He knew Zebehr, ho was aware that Zobeln had not his equal for organising power and influence over tribes of all shades and varieties, above all tilings ho felt lie could trust him as to tho slavery question. He had converted him on that point, and was ready to (rust him. In short, Zebehr was tho native whom Gordon wished to set up against the Mahdi; ho knew there was no other way to cope with that potentate; ho strongly urged tho plan on tho Government; ho begged that Zebehr might be sent to him without delay. But the Government was under tho dominion of the blind Nonconformist conscience, and feared the crassly ignorant denunciations of Exeter Hall. The Government therefore refused, and poor Gordon was left to face rebellion, the Mahdi and death alone. Ho faced them, lie died in the storm of his city; time passed, and an expedition is on foot to root out tho Dervish power. As it gets away the voice of Zebehr is heard once more, and all those memories come back upon us. Whether the man will be employed in tho service or not is immaterial just now. Tho melancholy ring of many sad memories in his voice is tho most interesting thing about him at present. And there is tho fact that he is more likely to bo well informed than any other person about current topics in tho Soudan. And he lias said that half tho Soudan is virtually in insurrection against the Khalifa. THE QUEEN. All over the Empire on Monday flags floated all day from mastheads of ships of war and merchantmen, from public buildings and from private houses, and in overy country under the3o flags was tho thunder and smoke of the Royal salute, while tho people kept holiday in pleasant fashion. All theso things had a double meaning. They honoured the Sovereign who has reigned nearly 59 years, and they did personal homage to tho woman who has established 59 claims to the respect and affection of tho subjects of her vast Empire. As a Quoon sho has reigned- without governing in the senso of the word as some of her predecessors understood it. As a woman in the highest placo in tho land she lias given the best example. As wife, mother, kindly social chief, rigorous worshipper of duty, simple in her habits, refined in her tastes, virtuous, homely and dignified, there is no such record on tho throne of any country. A parallel in one rospoct has boon drawn botweon her reign and that of George 111. George 111. reigned from October 25, 17(50, to January 29, 1820, a reign of 59 years and 92 days. Her Majesty lias reigned from 21st June, 1837, fo the present day, and may sho reign many years yet. Up to midnight last night sho has reigned 25 days loss than 59 years. That is tho parallel so far as time goes. Bo-t-woeu “ Farmer George ” and the Empress Queen there is another parallel to bo drawn. Ho was, like his illustrious descendant, a virtuous and well-meaning monarch, singularly devoted Lo tho welfare of his people, in which respect ho was a marked contrast to his son, “ Tho finest gentleman in Europe,” the “ Prince Florizel ” of Thackeray's well-merited castigation, who covered the very name of King with dishonour. “ Born and educated in tins country, I glory in the mine of Briton, and the peculiar happiness of my life will ever consist in pnnuoling the welfare of a people whose loyalty and warm affection to mo 1 consider the greatest and most permanent security of my thriiie.” Tnis, from a man who had not a drop ol English blood in his veins, meant that he claimed kinship by reason of the placo of his birth. Tho fact that he drafted tho words himself and insi.-ted on their appearance in his first Speech from tho Throne—at a time when it had just been establishedj that constitutionally tho Speech is the utterance of the Sovereign's responsible’ advisers —this fact demonstrated his determination to bo in touch with his pjoplo always. It is not improbable that these words did more to consolidate tho popularity of the House of Hanover and to further the cause of limited Monarchy than anything in the history of that House up to that time. Be this as it may, the words could not, had Her Gracious Majesty herself written them on Monday, have given a clearer and better account of the motive that has ruled her own conduct. Immediately after the accession of the third George there was another parallel. Iloraco*\Valpole, describing his conduct at a levee, said he was sui prised to see that the levee-room had lost the air of the “Lion’s den” which those two undignified, fierce and buckram Gormans the first two Georges, who gloried to the day of their deaths that they wore “ made in Germany,” had given to theso ceremonial occasions. The new King, Horace Walpole said, instead of “standing fixedly

in one place, with eyes fixed royally on the ground, dropping bits of German news, walked about, speaking freely to everybody.” This social unbending, without loss of dignity or grace of command, is also one of Her Majesty’s happiest gifts, ono, wo may add, which her eldest son has inherited from her in a degree that has made him both famous and popular. In all respects tho two reigns afford us a contrast rather than parallel. For instance, the Indian Empire was made in the day of tho grandsiro by Warren Hastings, who was impeached and persecuted, and tho same was hold by the great men who fought the Mutiny for tho granddaughter, and woro duly honoured. Tho grandsiro lost tho American colonies, and with them the opportunity of keeping all the English - speaking people under the flag of one vast confederation, and tho granddaughter balanced that loss by extending her dominion over everything left in tho temperate zones fit for Caucasian habitation. George 111. saw tho reading of tho United Kingdom, and the spread of coaching; his granddaughter has seen the railroading of the world, and all the fairy tales of scienco fully applied to tho wants of man. George 111. nursed by Protection the commercial greatness of Great Britain which tho Ministers of his granddaughter founded on Freetrado. Tho eld King had one vast advantage over tho Queen of to-day; lie saw tho period of his country’s highest greatness. No Power has ever in modern European history risen to tho height occupied by Groat Britain when she was tho life and soul and paymaster of tho vast European confederation which overthrow and crushed the power of Napoleon. Men are beginning to say that the interference in the affairs of a free poople in which that great struggle began was a crime. Wo will not stop to discuss that point. It is onough for tho purpose of contrast that never has tho might of England been so great as it then was, never was her power rospected so greatly since tho days of Cromwell, never was tho weight of her help so great. The reign of tho Empress Queen lias nothing to show like it. It is true that Lord Palmerston, ono of her greatest Ministers, certainly tho greatest Foreign Minister sho has over had, the only ono of them who has made the name of England respected abroad, it is true that Lord Palmerston, who was nursed in the groat school of Pitt and Canning, did well. But never has such a result been seen as that seen in the last years of George 111. Tho last great contrast is mental. For eleven years before his death the state of tho old King was terrible. Nothing so melancholy and so awful has ever afflicted the Empress Queen. May she live long to reign over us.