TOPICS OF THE DAY.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVII, Issue 2530, 8 June 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

THE LONDON SCANDAL. From Our Special Correspondent. London, April 19. Tho Master of Baliol was one day conversing on ethics. His friend propounded what ho believed to be a difficult question. “Do you think," said he, “ that a good_ man could ever look happy on the rack ?" “ Well," replied Jowott, with a judicial air, “I think, on the whole, ho might—that is if ho were a very good man and it were a very bad rack." I have quoted the foregoing because it seems singularly apropos to the attitude of the press towards Oscar Wilde just now. Not content With complaining that Mr Wilde looks miserable on the rack at the police court, they invite us to infer his guilt from tho fact. How they would have him look I can’t imagine. Even tho most blameless of beings might bo excused for displaying considerable emotion whilst listening to such infamous allegations as those of tho self-confessed blackmailers, Darker and Atkins. One wouldn’t hang a dog on tho word of these unutterable ‘ vermin; and if tho case rested on their depositions alono Wilde would soon bo freoi But there are many other witnesses, hotel-keepers, chamber-maids, landladies and fellow-lodgers of Taylor’s proteyis, who are welding together a chain of circumstantial evidence which Sir Edward Clarko '(who will conduct the defence) may find it impossible to destroy. Unless forced to do so by circumstances ■it is not the intention of the Government to drag Lord Alfred Douglas into this unpleasant business, though the evidence shows him to have been present at most of Oscar’s peculiar symposiums. The smart Loudon tradesmen and hotel-keepers are even sadder than the aesthetes over' tho fall of the apostle Of culture, lie owed money everywhere, though earning a big income nowadays from hisplajs. But only a millionaire’s resources would have stood such extravagance ns. his. A dinner at the Savoy seldom cost him less than -£4O, and I am told his small party’s bill at the Holborn Viaduct Hotel for the three days concluding the Queonsberry trial amounted to £l5O .odd. Three writs wore found on him when he was arrested. A PHILOSOPHIC MORAL. There is a philosophic moral to the Wilde case which some of us may do.well not to overlook. Oscar was not always tho combination of artist and brute he is to-day. Walter Pater was his evil genius. It was that accomplished stylist’s gospel of epicureanism (carried to excess) which has landed him in the dock. Wilde’s ease is the natural and regular physiological result of a literary and testhetic effort. It demonstrates tho influence which the deviation of certain literary faculties in the direction of a refined sensualism can exercise over, the intelligence and over the morals of men undoubtedly gifted. Fatal degeneration will ensue when intellectual effort is made tho result and not the principle of sensations. FINALLY. Finally, tor Heaven's sake don’t let us be humbugs about this Wilde trial. Mr Jerome points out in his own pleasant fashion that while everybody has been loudly eulogising the St. James's Gazette for not reporting tho Wilde case, nobody has been observed reading that rigidly virtuous journal. It was just tho same at the time of the “ Maiden Tribute." We howled with horror at Stead's filthy narrative and eagerly bought every fresh issue of the Pali Mall Gazette containing it. Moreover society will do’well to remember that there may be such a thing as oyer.reticence. In our desire not* to touch pitch and get defiled, we decent people have speechlessly conspired together not to see the facts which have led at last to this esclandre. In doing so we absolutely protected the gang. What society now demands is the absolute extinction of the Oscarian cult. This can only bo achieved by putting deadly fear into the hearts of two or three hundred well-known characters, and to manage tho work efficiently a certain amount of publicity is imperatively necessary. A THE NEW SPEAKEE. Perhaps the greatest compliment tho House of Commons could have paid to the late Speaker was thescene —almostamounting to i serious disorder—which occurred during the election of his successor. The chair stood empty for barely two hours, but that; was quite long enough to emphasise the.loss of . tho strong guiding hand. : And here let me say a word or two regarding Mr Peel's farewell. Mr Lucy’s account which L sent you last week does justice to its matter, but scarcely gives a fair idea of its admirable manner. The speech was in tho first place judiciously brief and couched in excellent taste and felicitous language. Its delivery was perfect. Mr Peel inherits from his father the beautiful and exquisitely modulated voice which enabled the repealer of the Corn Laws to —in tho words of Disraeli—play with the House of Commons as on an old fiddle, and this voice was never heard to greater advantage than in his valedictory address. Tho disturbance on Wednesday was due entirely to Mr Balfour, whoso tact, temper and self-control for once entirely gave way. Till the Tory leader, contrary to all precedent, intervened, tho election of the Speaker had progressed on conventional lines. Mr Whitbread proposed Mr Gully. And who, X hear some of you colonists ask, is Mr Whitbread ? In the words of these two diametrically opposed authorities “ Tay Pay " O’Connor and the St James's Gazette, “ Probably the most respected man in the House.” Liberals, Tories, Irishmen and Free Lances alike have long recognised bis sterling worth and capabilities. Offered office on many occasions he has always refused it, and eleven years ago the House would —but for the honourable member’s slight deafness—have unanimously elected him Speaker. In appearance the personification of grave dignity and blessed with a singularly gracious manner and considerable oratorical powers Mr "Whitbread yet seldom speaks. When he does his influence falls little, if at all, short of a party leader's. I commend to your notice the simple, earnest, self-restrained sentences in which the veteran parliamentarian proposed Mr Gully. It could not possibly have been better done, Mr Augustine Birrell’s little speech was also in quiet good taste, and Sir John Mowbray and Mr Wharton in proposing Sir Matthew White Eidley likewise showed to much advantage. Then the two candidates submitted selves to the House, Mr Gully making the best speech and looking a more ideal Speaker than the stout and short Sir Matthew.

Up to this point harmony had reigned, and- what demon of mischief prompted Mr Balfour to defy precedent and inter-

| pose no one could imagine. His speech . was so unlike him too. Ho made ho direct ft thick on Mr Gully, but managed I to suggest he was an undesirable man for the post. That might have passed. When, however, the right honourable gentleman went on to accuse the Government of reducing the question of the Speakership to a party fight, tho Chamber rang with erics of “ Courtney, Courtney, Courtney." This of course signified that so far from having made a party business of tho Speakership, the Government had suggested the obviously suitable Mr Courtney—though a Liberal Unionist—for tho post, and Mr Balfour himself had joined Mr Chamberlain in persuading that gentleman to withdraw.

Per once Mr Balfour was completely knocked over and—sat down. Tho cheers and howls which greeted Sir William Harcourt’s rising showed that the blood of tho House was up, and quieter souls gazed with moloncholy foreboding on tho empty chair.

Sir William was in great form and danced a sort of breakdown on the Opposition leader. Mr. Balfour’s objections to Mr Gully wore confuted cut of the mouth of his own side. In tho B.M.G. of the previous night appeared an article by that clever young Tory, Sir Herbert Maxwell, who showed conclusively that in 1884 Air Peel was as unknown and as severely criticised by the Tories as Mr Gully is (or was) now. “It is," says ‘‘ Tay Pay " (of whoso description of wlmt followed I must even at tho risk of repetition quote a bit)," tho peculiarity of an orator—and especially of an orator of the impressionable temperature of Sir William Harcourt—to rise with the rising tide, to grow stronger with strength, more’successful with success. And soon it was felt that Sir William was about to make n weightier, stronger, even more emphatic attack on Mr Balfour. In other words, ho was approaching the name of Mr Courtney. “The reader will have already soonwliat a frightful opening Mr Balfour had left on’ this question, when ho charged tho Government, with making the Speakership a party question by bringing forward one of their own followers. Who had made it a party question, asked Sir William Harcourt, with finger pointed at Mr Balfour —and in a loud and almost menacing voice—and with all the force of a piledriver, giving tho huge block of wood its last stroke homo. The Chancellor felt all tho passion he expressed and aroused ; for it is well known that ho had put forward tho .candidature of Mr Courtney with great and almost desperate eagerness, and in spite of some opposition from his own friends. If Mr Courtney, who was not a supporter of the Government, had not been elected, whoso was tiro responsibility ? Again, Sir William . pointed at Mr Balfour; and so fierce and loud, and prompt, was the storm of cheers that came up from the Liberals and the Irish that Sir William was unablo more th(in once to end his sentences. All tho sense of the ingratitude, the betrayal, the meanness, with which Mr Courtney had been hustled out of the Speakership by the Tories, came back to the memory ot tho House; never was n man so deeply avenged, never was a moan intrigue so mercilessly exposed. MB BALFOUR AND JIB CHAMBERLAIN. “Mr Chamberlain is always pale ; and in those later days ho nearly always looks sour, depressed, baffled, uneasy. Ho was positively and palpably miserable during this exposure of—shall I call it an intrigue or a defeat ?—in which ho has played so ignoble a part; and what must have added to his discomfort was the fact that Mr Courtney sat beside him —self-restrained and decorous, but still unable to conceal the natural smile of triumph at his tardy but emphatic vindication after tho knifing by his foes and his treacherous friends. But tho effect on Mr Balfour was more striking than even this. I have seen him go through many scenes ot storm and difficulty ; I have watched him all through the dread and hostile struggle over coercion; and for the first time I saw him lose nerve and courage and all readiness on this occasion. When Sir William Harcourt sat down he rose. He uttered only a sentence. But it was certainly a significant sentence. Ho denied that Sir William Harcourt had accurately described ‘my share’ in tho knifing of Mr Courtney. There was an unmistakable emphasis on tho ‘ my,' What does it mean ?" MR BALFOUR'S STRANGE CASE. Amongst Tories as well as Liberals the question “ What has borne to Balfour?" is the most urgent of the hour. The general impression seems to bo that ho has not got over'the influenza, and that his health is so broken he has lost courage for his work and may have to take a long holiday. We know too the alliance with Air Chamberlain is strained to breaking point, in fact the Spectator this week threatens that he also may in disgust throw up public life. BITS OF PEEL. Mr Peel is said to have given his successor the same advice which Mr Brand give him when he took the chair. “ You’ll make," said the ex-Speaker, “errors like other people no doubt — humanum tst—but whatever you say mind you stick to it, 11 During the period when tho Commons were utterly disorganised by Irish obstruction, it was assumed Mr Speaker must bo personally on bad terms with Parnell, Biggar and Co., but this was not so. Ho had one private “ brush," and one only with Air Parnell. The Irish leader had. been extra-adventurous, and the Chair had interfered. The incident being over Mr Parnell was passing .Mr Peel’s seat later in the evening, and said as ho walked by, “I think, Mr Speaker, that you dealt • excessively hardly with mo just now." Air Peel drew himself up and his eyes blazed, “ How dare you, sir," ho cried, “ how dare you address such, remarks to me." Parnell, surprised, walked away, but ever after in private spoke with great respect tb Air Peel.