PASSSING NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10417, 20 July 1895, Page 2

PASSSING NOTES.

(From the Ctago Witness).

Amongst tha surprises, pleasant and unpleasant, of the British general election, so far as it has got, is the popularity of the Barae " Conservative." Ia this " country "Conservative" ia, a mere epithet o£ abuse. No politician admits thai he is a Conservative, or would bs elected if ho did. We are all Liberals, either of the sbam vanoty, at present in office, or of the true. Nothing but liberalism will "gd down " with* New Zealaad constituencies; you must either bo a Inbsral or pretend to be. And Liberalism, here sad elsewhere, means incessant change. Now why should incessant change be good'for the body, politic any more than for tbe individual? In the haalthy human orgauifm tho csane policy is always conservatism. You po3ssss, lot U3 suppose, a good head of hur, a sound set of teeth, a pair of clear-sighted eyes. Wfcat could ba better than that you should be able to conserve these desirable possessions? Ara you going to listen to Dr Liberal when hs offors yen in exchange a wig, a sot of artificial teath, and a pair oE spectacles? Clearly these ara departments of life in which we are not ashamad to confess ourselves conservatives. Why should conservatism be necsßearily scandalous ia politics ? Not a ie?r enlightened British constituencies seem to have bean askicg themselves this qucation and recording thoir answer at the polls. Tho example is of good orneu. It may ba that in New Zaalaad before long "Conservative" will cease to be a name of sham?, and " Liberal" serve no longer as a word to conjure with.

Suppose Mr Three-per-cent. Ward did tell those political and finsncisl tcrradiddles imputed to him—and I, for one, am quite willing to believe that he did—is hs for that reason the less entitled to our gratitude ? The function, of an ambassador, it used to be said, is "to lie abroad for the benefit of his country.", Why not admit gracefully that Mr Ward has fulfilled that function ? The lying abroad waa his own affair; we have nothing to do with'that. What we have to do with is the magnificent result—a million and a-hal£ sterling transferred from the British capitalist's pocket to ours. Granted, for the sake of argument, that the British' capitalist was bamboozled out of in. That was his affair, and Mr Ward's afiair;—let every man bear his own burden. It will take us all our time to look after the division of -the plunder and see that each of gets his share—not to mentioq the 3 per cent, interest we are expected' to pay for it. lam disposed to agree with Hr Seddon that the "confidence trick "—if that is what it was— as improved, adapted, and spplM by Mr Ward, has set that gentleman "on.'a puinacis" of some kind—of glory, Ist us say. The aitsmpt to convert that pizmaole.into a pillory savours of ingratitude.

The Dnnedia thsosophists—who, I imagine, must be an exceedingly select company —announce their iatantion of "defending Madame Blavatsky as they would defend any lady unjustly attacked, slandered, a,nd misrepresented." One cannot but admire a faith so generous. They believe in Madame Biavatsky still, do they? Belief in Karma and Mahatmas is, compared with this, a trifle. It is characteristic of the tbeosophist, says a London critic, to suffer refutation and exposure and to go ou as before. Well, if yon can't make him understand that he is rofated and exposed, whas else'should he do than go on as before? There is a' Miss Green, a musician, who has jnst presented the world with .a symphony communicated to her by Beethoven. Sliss Green is, of course, either a spiritiat or a theosophist, or a compound of both. Bit fey bit, for months pa3t, the new Beethoven symphony has been coming from the spirit vrorld through Miss Green,—Beethoven, as in this life, composing slowly and with incesEant corrections. ■ In April last it was performed in , St. James's Sail, London, to an audience —of believers, possibly— described by the papers as "• Scanty." Thore were some reasons for which this composition might be ascribed to Beethoven, says a crisic ;—it was unlike anything Beethoven ever wrote, and we know that the great composer seldom repeated himself; it was too long for most of its hearers; in parts it was incomprehensible/1 "The world will laugh," remarked Miss Green to*an interviewing reporter, " bnb'that will not move me. How shonld it, when I absolutely know the music to have cozrie from Beethoven?" This is the true thaosophistical attitude. The uabelie7ing?; wor2d may laugh or chide as it pleases;/with tbeosophists it can never get " any forrarder."

__ ITor Otago people , t 4liss 'Green's transactions with the disembodied Beethoven have only a far-away interest. Let us come nearer home. AMr 3VT. King afc Gore has transactions with this disembodied Robert Burns. Two new "poems " by Barns are before me at thie moment. They have come via Gore from Burns in Hades, and are possibly quite as authentic as the Barns snuff-box, or "-husO," which the other day Mr Downie Stc&art, with becoming, solemnity, comEdttsd to the keeping of the Otago University. The department of Hades in which Barns at piesont resides is " on the road to progress." This information, intended to be [ encouraging, is at the best indefinite-^pain- ■ jtuiiy so, indeed. There is progress in the right direction and progress in the wrong, progress np and progress down. In the matter of doctrine, the progress of poor Burns, I regret to say, is towards heterodoxy of the mo3t deadly kind. Addressing the simple-minded believer 'as "deluded creature I" he bids him " come, cast aside the Holy Book," and "fear not to seek without the Book the truths o' Nature." If Burns's place of abode "on tKeioad to progress " were within the bounds of any earthly presbytery we might ezpscfc a lively heresy case. Quite as unsatisfactory is the poet's " progress " in his own special" art. Here are a few rhymes—and such rhymes I —from a " poem " which, says Mr King, " was given by Burns only a few weeks ago ": , Stay not its course till Truth supreme Replaces ffirror. Then will be seen wi' clearer 'een Man's Nature's brither; 3?or rock an' grass an' tree and flowes , An' every beastie, ' Tho' cow far short o' human power, They yet will gret ye.

This is sheer defamation. What I Robert Burns sank below the level of the Otago bush poet I It is the plain duty of the Burns Society to have a serious word or two with this Mr T. T. King.

Itzs one of the advantages of Spiritism that, wherever yon be, in the city or in the wilderness, you always have at command the " hoight of good company." At Gore, Mr T. T. King foregathers with Sir John Franklin, Gordon, of Khartoum, Professor Mainwaring Brown, —who,> as it would appear, has becomes "professor of chemistry " —and with all the tuneful choir of poets from Shakespeare downward. The hero of Khartoum, in aflay sermon preached at Gore " a, few nights since," is credited in Mr KingV pamphlet with the following st-range confidences .T

As 1 have told you before, I do nat believe in bloodshed. It was ever my desire, when coming in contact with an enemy, that there should be a flsg of truce bo that the firing should cease. Being, as I was, a commander, I could not tnzn and ran away. No, no, that would never do. But it was never my desire to fire a single shot at the poor soul sent forward in battle. Life was never made to be shot down, 8b.31l I say—well, like dogs.

"Stickto your colours," continues Gordon; "unfurl the flag of truth, and keep the bayonets bright to gather more light." A new ÜBe for bayonets I "You can do everything with bayonets, except sit npon them," someone is reported to have said to Napoleon 111. There is at least one other thing you can't do with bayonets, I should think; yoa can't gather more light with them. After Gordon we come to Proctor, the astronomer, who informs Mr King that " the1 greatest fault ha has to find with astronomers is that they won't tell what they know to toe facts."

He says most of our astronomers on this earth know more about the different planets than they have the courage t6 tellue. They know they are inhabited, and, in come cases, have a good idea of what is going on in them ; but keep their views to themselves for tear of being laughed at by the ignoraut public.

Fear of being laughed at is not a weakness with Mr King, that is quite certain. Mr King himself has "listened to discourses from the inhabitants of the planet of Mars—not from disembodied spirits, but from the people themselves." The people of Kars, he,adds, all speak English; as also do " the Atlanteans," whoever they may be. " But,' friends," he continues sadly, " when I tell joa all this as a solemn fact, I feel you

sbaking-your.heads, ana musfe therefore stop." Yes, he may feel us shaking onr beads, and one eoald wish that he also folfc E3 shaking our sides. Bnt Hie whimsicality of spiritism, interestiag though, they, ba to raad doctors and other students of morbid pathology, are too dreary for laughter.

In ths tariff' of pleasures a good laugh shouldftlwa^ go duty-free. Blessed be the rants, however we name him, who can compel as shake our sides. I feel an inftuiti tenderness for all cranks that have the grace to be amusing cranks. The dull crank'is a bore, the sour crank an irritation; tho ?> mussing crank is a benefactor and a boon. You got your laugh—tho laugh derisive—and Buffer no loss of self-respoct; whereas, on the other hand, tha laugh sympathetic—when you laugh with a man instead of at him is risky. You lift him to your levol or sink to $173. For this reason tho feeblest witticism, from the bench whore Law aits throned and fcswigged sets .the court in a roar; his ludship has condescended for the moment to ba even as • other men. Bnt to joke with a fcuporior is an impertinont asserting o£ equality that doesn Tt exist; aa such it ia. usually snubbed. Hence very big people tbe Qnoen, say, and tha Prince of Wales— seldom get; a good laugh; there is. nobody good enough for them to laugh with.,. Hare let .mo bring in a story told by a gossiping writer in an English paper. There is said to be only one /man in the country" who has the courage to make a joke before the Queen, and who succeeds in getting her tp laugh heartily. Needless to say, he is a clergyman, and needle3B likewise to cay, he is an Irishman. Some time ago psople were discussing in the presence o£ the Queen the heretic opinions of a shoemaker who dwells in the royal borough of Windsor, and who,is,notorious for the freedom with which he preaches the doctrines of materialism. Much scandal was expressed in the royal presence at the audacity and. iniquity or' the shoemaker. "•But- after all;" eaict the Irishman, "you can't expect a shoemaker to believe in "the immortality of tho sole." Whereupon her Majesty is said to have given the nearest approach to a hearty b ugh she has been ssen to reach for a quarter of a century. ThiE is the story. Whether f.he temerarious parson has been banished the court in disgrace or promoted to a bishopric is not stated. ■ One or the other would seem to be the logical sequence.