BOUND THE CORNERS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 7355, 20 December 1884, Page 4

BOUND THE CORNERS.

(From the New Zealand Mail, Dec. 12 J.

A nice fuss has been made in the Old Country about the Franchise Bill. Lords and Commons have been at each other’s throats ; the whole country has been stirred to its depths, and there have been disgraceful displays of party feeling in consequence. But why did party feeling run so high? Simply because the introduction of the measure was ill-timed. It was dangled before the country as a bait by the scheming Gladstone and his so-termed liberal compeers, without the slightest consideration on their part whether the country was, or was not, ripe for the measure. To extend an already liberal franchise to over two millions more voters, was a hazardous experiment, unless it had been first ascertained that those two millions were capable of exercising it in a moderate and intelligent manner. And by one means only could they be made capable, viz., by the force of education, to which it is notorious they had not been submitted, Now, radical we may be in the colonies, and radical we are, but our radicalism is noted for its consistency, and having gone, hand in hand, with measures for raising the status of the masses, those measures being a free and liberal system of education, in which the inculcation of high morality largely predominates. Men and women fit to exercise an extended franchise are being produced here, and that is how we hold “Demos” in subjection, the subjection of the people’s own common sense, intellectuality, and intelligence. But there is very little of this in the Old Country; It is only quite recently that board schools have been established in the country, whore ignorance, dense as it well can be, still prevails. The mining and manufacturing districts, the former especially, still produce a large quota of thoroughbred savages, x se °ple but a degree or two above the beasts, insensible, intractable, brutish, mere animals, i And until such have undergone thorough reclamation, only to be accomx>lished by a sound educational system, they are not fit to bo entrusted with a voice in the direction of the administration of public affairs. This does not seem to have been considered, in the slightest degree, by England’s “ G.0.M.” He wanted to manufacture political capital for immediate use, and went the shortest way to work by pandering to the worst xmasions of the unthinking and uneducated, but who amongst them had an immense reservoir of power to be taxied. No wonder the Lords xirotested; they saw the danger, and must have been cognisant of the desperately ignorant condition of so many cf their countrymen, but without giving a second thought to improving it, for that would have been counter to the traditions of their class. A liberal education scheme, emanating from the Lords would have indeed been a phenomenon, And so they deserve no sympathy if they are “hoist with their own petard,” But for all that the action of Gladstone and his myrmidons is not one whit more commenondatory. They are mere botchers at legislation, not master hands.

Max Muller is tho great philological authority. No one than himself has bo gone to the roots of letters and things of that sort, and has shown how language and writing have been gradually developed from natural signs and sounds, hieroglyphics and so on ; the process upward, evolved from lower to higher, each step marking mankind’s advancement. But on this point I am becoming rather doubtful since the introduction of the latest phases of modern type construction. It seems to mo that we are fast retroceding to a hieroglyphical condition again, Any thing more cuniform, arrow-headed, undecipherable, than certain of the lines of a certain new catalogue of new types just published would puzzle a Smith or a Wilson, or a Muller to say. Is it possible that hieroglyphics denote a high stage of civilisation, or have we commenced, with balloonbursting rapidity, to descend to a lower. One or the other it must be, or else there are lunatics at large driven to their wits’ ends in their efforts to produce something that will pander to morbid tastes and ideas. One thing is certain, that as much of tho new type ia not even readable, it must have been devised to suit the intelligence of a peculiar people by people as peculiar as themselves. And hero we have a clear and triumphant illustration of the superiority of the old to the new, and that therefore wo are not progressing, at least in one direction.

A good crop of cocksfoot grass gave a bankrupt breathing time not so very long ago. When interrogated as to his assets, lie included a field of fine cocksfoot, out of which, if time were allowed him, he expected to harvest enough seed to put himself comparatively straight. Time was allowed him. Now, I notice there is a very fine growth of cocksfoot about the Government buildings, and tho dilatoriness of tho Government in making roads through the reclaimed land may be explained by this same grass. The powers that bo are waiting for seeding time, when, possibly, enough needful may be realised to pay the cost of making the reclaimed land traversable.

Gi’ave doubts are entertained about the purity of the law as administered in these days. Of the law’s delays the first has scarcely yet been heard. Law had hardly received recognition when it was detected halting, and it has halted ever since, and now complaints are rife about tho increasing difficulty of overtaking fleet-footed justice by its aid. It is working more heavily than ever; the machinery seems to be clogged with the litter of the law’s letter, whilst its spirit has taken flight to regions unknown. A cumbrous system has grown up that hampers and puzzles the judges on the bench, who, with lawyer-like caution, prefer to remain next to motionless than transgress one of the aforesaid precious and musty letters. Of course tho judges excuse themselves upon the plea that the people make the laws and pay the judges to interpret them. This may be so, no doubt ia so, but yet the judge has some discretionary power, and those judges will best serve their country, in an increasing pinch, if they boldly temper law with a great deal more justice and equity, by departing a little from its letter in order to entertain a great deal more of its spirit. People complain, and with reason, that they can’t obtain justice ; even the lawyers won’t move, pay them as you will, unless it quite suits, and will not roughly disturb their environment. I am putting it mildly. But certain it is that if* the law halts along much longer; if it continues to stand in tho way of justice, while those who practice and administer it study their own convenience and personal feelings, instead of letting right prevail at all hazards ; then, I say, they will gradually educate the people up to the pitch of taking the law into their own hands, of being a law unto themselves, and then the crack of the revolver will be heard and the flash of the bowio knife be seen in the public places of the colony. Such cases as those of persons who wilfully and wickedly betray trust reposed in them, to the undoing of their fellow-creatures, demand special consideration on the part of bench and bar, in order that justice may not be frustrated, or elso the wrongs suffered by the victims may drive them to desperate courses for redress, and no jury then will be found to convict. A stern sense of justice will compel the jury to scout justiceless law laid down by the bench, and mete out justice themselves. We are living in a peculiar age j tho voice, the welfare of the masses, are all paramount, but not nearly to the degree they will be bye-and-bye. And of this those most concerned with the law may rest assured that the people will have justice ; individual satisfaction for wrong sustained will be insisted upon, even if anarchy reigns supreme around. Let bench and bar look to this.

We all enjoyed ourselves at tlie Basin Reserve last week, upon the occasion of the College sports, It was a pleasing and exhilarating scene, a lot of smart and athletic youngsters competing, quite in classic style, for the honor and glory of the thing, to say nothing of the prizes. Kven Dr. Hutchinson must have been soothed and gratified, albeit the competitors did wear some clothes—were not quite in their birthday suits. But whilst the quality of the contention was excellent, the quantity was hardly up to the mark. Out of a college of two hundred and ten boys, surely more than thirty or so should be found willing to train in athletics. There was a decided poverty in the number, I hope this will be rectified next year.

Idiotic, although the proceedings were—yet that blessed meeting at the Athcn&um on Monday evening, created a sort of sensation, and was in a good many people’s mouths the next day. Dreadful misapprehensions about it. however, arose. For instance, one worthy cit. lo another ; ‘‘l say, are you going to hear Judas

jiaccabteus to-night?” The other cit. : Judas Macbeas, who is he, is it another Insurance lecturer ?”

Oh, my dear “Stump,” so your have been at your old game again, striving to make wrong look right, and throwing dust in the eyes of some poor creatures who, for want of knowing better, regard you as an authority. As a good gas bag you stand unris'alled, but your outpouring of the fluid_last Tuesday, when you were lying on your back with the New Zealand Times, article on top of you, beat anything of the kind on any previous occasion. What a tirade to be sure —reminded me of nothing so much as an old hen squalling viciously for fear of her chicks. How you did, O Post, try to warp the truth to your own purpose, and failed, notwithstanding that you suppressed the iioint made by the Times on which the sentence hinged. And that point was “ our contemporary, if he had wished to be true to himself, should leave ” &c., &c. True to yourself, Evening Post, aye, indeed, for then you are invariably false to some one else. “ To one thing constant never,” who ever knew you stick to a side of any kind consistently. You can’t even stick properly to Vogel, and are gazing furtively over your shoulder, and round about in search of ground on whicli to change your front. And because the Times in effect pointed this out with a well deserved taunt, you shrieked, like an old fishfag, on Tuesday evening, about “Dishonest Journalism” forsooth. Nothing like cheek, Evening Post, you have plenty ot it.

Can any of my readers supply an estimate of the value of the seventy-seven new J.P.’s, whose names are published in another part of this issue. If he can a memo to that effect will be thankfully received by the the Treasurer and other members of the Ministry, the fingers of every one of them having helped to make the pie—(pye), and each man’s handiwork is clearly distinguishable. Asmodeus,