HERE AND THERE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVII, Issue 2409, 15 January 1895, Page 4

HERE AND THERE.

CLIPPINGS, CONDENSATIONS, AND COMMENTS. fjProiii the N.Z. Mail.) The duty of the Church with regard to Economic Reform is ahly the chuech set forth in an article by and the Eev C. H. Zimmerman economic in the American magazine, kefoem. the Arena ; —" 1. The ministry should make themselves masters of political and social science, so as to be able to preach intelligently and exert a leading influence on questions of social amelioration. 2. In pulpit and press they should seek continually to apply the ethical and social principles of Christianity to the solution of economic problems and the promotion of social reforms. 3. They should do all in their power to displace the anti-social and inhuman law of the survival of the strongest, which governs our present industrial system, by the Christian law of the succour of the weakest. 4. The ministry can and should make membership uncomfortable, if not impossible, to monopolists and stock gamblers. 5. They should assert their independence of all ill-gotten wealth by denouncing the methods by which it is gained. 6. They can and should free the Church from its present bondage to wealth by sotting the example of a cheerful cl oice and endurance of poverty and social ostracism, rather than bo recreant to the claims of justice on behalf of the poor.”

Me A. E. Bobbins, in his “Early Life of William Ewart Gladstone/' Gladstone’s recently published, states ancestoes, . that the Robertsons, from, whom his mother came, sprang from Duncan, King of Scotland, eldest son of the third Malcolm, and the branch to which Ann Robertson, his mother, belonged had for its immedia o ancestor Conan, second son of the last of the Celtic Earls of Atholl. “She was of kindred with the Munros of Eoulis, the Mackenzies of Coul, and the Mackenzies of Seaforth, High Chiefs of Kintail, all old Highland families of fame s and she was thus descended not only from - the older line of Scottish monarchs . , . but from Henry 111. of England, and King Robert the Bruce, and King James I. of Scotland.” That Mr Gladstone’s ancestors were considered of some account in their native land is evident from an interesting anecdote which Mr Bobbins reprints. Mr Gladstone’s father, John, and bis brothers all migrated from Leith to Liverpool; and the story runs that on one occasion John Gladstone took Henry Brougham, then a rising barrister, to a local theatre. The play was " Macbeth,” and when Macduff asked “ Stands Scotland where it did ?” the unexpected answer came from the gallery, “ Na, Da, sirs; there’s pairt o’ Scotland in England noo—there’s John Gladstone and his clan.”

The Emperor Napoleon had many doctors, but of them all the only one napoleon in whom he had confidence and the was Corvisart. Napoleon dootoes. nearly always received him with jokes. “ You there, great quack,” he would say, “have you killed many people to-day?" Corvisart appeared at the toilet every Wednesday and Saturday, and in his absence the Emperor chatted with his personal attendants, who were “compelled to report to him all the trifling talk of the town.” The warm bath amounted to a passion with Napoleon, and he often remained in it a whole hour. When he got out of it he frequently proceeded with business in anything but imperial habiliments " On leaving the bath he put on a waistcoat of flannel, a shirt similar to that which he wore at night; then ho put on his chamber costume, composed in summer of a pair of a sort of drawers with feet, and of a long coat or dressing-gown of white twilled dimity; in winter of drawers of stout twilled cotton with foet, and of a dressing-gown of white duffle. On his head he kept the bandana which he slept in, knotted over the forehead, the two corners of which hung down behind on his shoulders. In this costume he worked for a long time with his secretary, and began to dictate Ms letters, or even, if it was a case of urgency, he received one of the Ministers in the back cabinet.”

The Australasian, having seen that woman’s franchise does not spell

the Toryism, judging by the New POLITICAL Zealand precedent, falls foul woman. of the “ Political Woman.” There is, however, some sound sense in the following extract from an otherwise prejudiced article ; —“ It is a mistake to farcy that woman is dishonoured because the place assigned to her is somewhat diffeient from that of man. By a decree of nature her place is different from his ; in some respects it is higher. Man stands forth as the public representative of the household ; the sphere of woman is more emphatically the home, and, because it is so, in her hands lies the moulding of the national pfe and character. It she has suffered much as the hands of man, there have been compensating advantages. ■ In all civilised countries she is encompassed by honour and observance. As Mr Goldwin Smith has said in his ‘ Questions of the Day ,’ ’War has comparatively spared her public justice has been lenient to her, in a shipwreck she has been put first into the boat, while the slave to whom she now likens herself has been thrown overboard to save the provisions. In civilised countries she is pn all occasions served and considered first; special provisions are made for her comfort and convenience. ’ Let her not throw away the chivalrous aid and affection which she may rightly claim by insisting on an equality pf status and competition in every phase of life.

Some scraps about the Great Napoleon are extracted by the London

SCRAPS papers from M. Frederick about “ nap.” Masson's ” Napoleon at Home : the Daily Life of the Emperor at the Tuileries.” Napoleon was a good sleeper. Ho had indeed the power of sleeping at will, and of sleeping for only six hours, whether he took those six hours successively cr at intervals.- He had also the . faculty of passing at onco from the deepest sleep to' the most lucid wakefulness: — •‘Napoleon, when he was suddenly woke up, joked for a moment with his valet-dc-chambre. ‘ Open the windows,’ said he, ‘ that I may breathe the air God made.’ Although chilly indoors, the Emperor liked the air ; he had a horror of bad smells, and of ‘ closeness ;* the smell of paint made him ill. And this passion for fresh air in the morning is characteristic, of his sensations of smell. The only perfume which he liked in his rooms was that of aloe wood; no doubt he brought this fancy back with_him from' Egypt. It remained with him-Till death, and he was always throwing ayalondjiu on small peifurae burners to purify and scent the rooms in which he lived,” ,

Pieeee LcSti’s Madame Chrrjsanthhne makes the following referjapanese enoe to Japanese “ bogeys “ spooks.” “In one of the booths a man stretched 1 on a 1 table, flat on his back, is alone on the stage ; puppets of almost human size, with horribly grinning masks, spring out of his ■ body; they speak, gesticulate, and then full back like empty rags; with a sudden spring they start up again, change their costumes, change their faces, tearing about in one continual frenzy. Suddenly three, even four, appear at the same time; they are nothing more than the four limbs of the outstretched man whose legs and arms, raised on high, are each one dressed up and capped with a wig under -which peers a mask; between these phantoms Tremendous fighting and battling take place, and many a sword-thrust is exchanged. The most perfect of all is a certain puppet representing an bid hag; every time she appears with her, weird head and ghastly grin the lights burn low, the music of the ; accompanying orchestra-moans forth a sinister strain given by the flutes, mingled with a rattling tremolo which sounds like the clatter of bones.”-