PASSING NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11684, 17 March 1900, Page 2

PASSING NOTES.

President Kmger, if we may accept Mr W. T. Stead as bis mouthpiece, is bscoming hysterical. He purposes to fill the trenches at Pretoria with women, and will then bid the British army to come on if it dare. Doubtless that would be somewhat embarrassing. Sentiment in the army, as well as in the navy, condemns the man who would lift his hand against a woman, except in the way of kindness. If Mr Kruger mans his trenches with women, it seems pretty clear that both branches of our service must be brought to a non-plus. There will be nothing for it but to sit down and wait till the ladj Boers get tired and go home to their babies.' It will be merely a question of waiting, and I dare say we shall be able to wait the longest. 'Mr Kruger's idea, if in his present hysterical mood he may be said to have an" idea, is that he would stir- up against us the indignation oi universal mankind. As soon as it became known that he was exposing his women folk to the chances of shot and shell, all the world would rush to his rescue. I don't think it. The military lowers, I fancy, would regard Mr Kruger's highly irregular proceedings as setting a dangerous precedent, Germany might have on her hands another siege of Paris. Russia another Plevna. America another Santiago. Is tho successful combatant to be paralysed in the moment of victory by a device so simple as Mr Kruger's?. After he has disposed of the men, shall he be brought to a stand by the women? On that supposition the most .effective military force would be an army of pretty girls. Possibly we may come to* that some day. but that day is not yet. ■ It will not be in time for the siege of Pretoria. Mr Kruger's Continental advisers will recommend him to send his women into laager and look to his Long Toms, his Krupps, and his Creusots. When they fail him, let him haul down his flair.

jStow that Ladysmith and Kimberley are once more our own. and the Union Jack flies over Bloemfontein—by the grace of God never again to be lowered, let us hope —it is edifying and comforting to recall the amiable predictions of our European friends and critics. Indeed, they did not limit themselves to prediction;' they invented history, and French journalists palmed it oft' upon the credulous' Continent as the sure testimonies of Reuter. For example, here is a telegraphic despatch professing to come from London :

The Minister of "War has just officially'announced the surrender of Ladysmith. Early on Thursday General White made a desperate attempt to cut his way through to Durban, but was attacked by General Joubert and tho entire Boer army. The ISn^lish had-more than 1000 killed and wounded, among them being General White, two generals, and five colonels, whereupon the survivors surrendered. The Boers entered the town, tore down the British and hoisted the Transvaal flag. There is a fearful panic in London. The fall of the Ministry is imminent.

To silence doubt, if doubt there can be, - one lying journalist corroborates another, deep calling unto deep—Paris to Madrid and Madrid to Paris. Thus: Madrid.—The above news is officially confirmed here. There is no reason why this collaboration in mendacity should set itself limits; it will never be found out. Accordingly a. Lisbon paper chimes in : We also believe Kimberley lias surrendered. " Bntallia," Lisbon. We learn from London to-day that the Daily Telegraph cabled the capitulation of .BJoenifanreiu to its agents in all European capitals, and that " the impression created was immense." I can well imagine it, considering the. fool's Paradise in which the European capital? seem to have been living.

A correspondent who disqualifies himself by writing on both sides of'the paper, and who for that reason cannot be reproduced textnnlly, wants to know what degree of truth there is in the following paragraph which ho has cut from an Invercavgill newspaper :

la it not history that after ihe Peninsular War the remnants of the Highland regiments were quartered in Ireland for very shame, while their strength wa.s being mucle up in the Highlands in Scotland?—of the 42nd only 110 came back out of 1050, and almost immediately Quntre Bras and Waterloo in two days brought them from over 1100 to less than 150?

The insinuation is that Wellington put the Highland regiments where David put Uriah—in the front of the battle. "Well, if lie did, ho paid them a high compliment. But, .as a matter of fact, lie didn't' The Highlanders under Wellington ' had their fair share or fiVhtim.;, but they had no more Of that I'll take my 'davy. ' I don't know what the Highland losses were at Qiuilve Bras and Waterloo, nor where the Highland regiments were stationed. after \\u-. war ; but. wherever it whs, they were certainly not sent there "for very "shame " at their reduced condition. That is an abominable slander. I cannot pretend, cither, to trace the fortunes of the Highland regiments throughout (lie Peninsular War. Taking, however, one of its many battles, Albuera—the hardest nf them all— I Snd that of the 57th. the " Die-hards," 430 men fell, out of 570 ; that the 3rd Buffs, going into the fight with 24 officers and 754 men. came out with 5 officers and 65 men : that one company of the Royal Fusiliers came out under command of a. corporal, every officer and sergeant bavin" been killed. The 7th. the 23rd. the 29th the alst, and the 48th suffered utmost as severely. None of these were "Highland regiments. In short, rakinsr; the military hisuiry of Britain from ihi; llrst beginnings of our modern army, there is not The leastreason for believing that hard knocks have not been served out fairly. Scotch' and Irish have had their due share, and so have the English.

Much the same sort of odious comparison between, brothers in arms is suggested by the next, paragraph, .sent to me by the same correspondent.

And the'lrish—can Britain do without their blazon on her flag? Then the leaders—From Waterloo, the Mutiny, "the thin■ red line' India again, Egypt, the Transvaal—lake from the leaders the Irish ami the Scots and you Jose your Wellingtons, youv Colin Campbefls, your A'apiers, your Berosfords, your Gordons, your

Kitcheners, your Wolseleys, youi Robertsons and hundreds of illustrious names.

Wellington, as I had occasion to mention last week, was accustomed in early life to sign himself "Arthur "Wesley," beinf in fact, a distant kinsman of John Wesley the founder of all Wesleyans. Beresford was by extraction a Dutchman, whose family came in with Dutch William. But let that pass. I am willing enough thatevery great man born in Ireland—Wellington included—should be reckoned an Trish- ■ man But lam not willing that Irishmen should oe extolled to the disparagement of other Britishers. IlUdvised people bent on this must, be reminded that there are two. ruecs^n-Ireland; that under Cromwell —and before but especially under Cromwell—large hnglish and Scotch settlements were made in the sistei isle; that these .settlements, known at one time as the English Pale,. included as many as 12 couSties palatine ;. that for behoof of these settlements, a branch of the English Church v;as established ,n Ireland-and in due cmuse disestablished a.s being the church of the minority ; and, finally, that of and from this minority are most of those eminent Irishmen whose names decorate such mischievous^ screeds as that Quoted above. VUiy should we be compelled" to remember that there are two sorts of Irishmen? What interest can any sane New Zealander have P^etiittting these wretched race distinctions.' ihough an Englishman, I am willjng to wear a shamrock on St. Patr-k's Day ; but shall 1 also be required to wt a lh !s tl e on St. Andrew's? Then I won't! Aothing shall induce me to carry complaisance as iai- as that, I suggest" as a compromise which might be acceptable to !ill three nationalities the English rose Why as the thistle, and preaches theology by its trefoil as conclusively as the shamrock! in my view ]t combines, providentially and prophetically, the excellencies of both.'

The Medical Association, I observe, has' comas, will be unable to stay/ iCclil c °L, rT> 1S t0? CoW for 5t- °» that point, I have TOy dol , bts London j ]d t-med to live and thrive in London. It began in December, the depth of winter, .ml lasted.into December again. Two cenl J7 ZJ* £ th? 1> I I';SUe nettrly depopulated Floienee, though Florence has a more severe waiter than Dunedin. From the account of Boccaccio, who was there at the time and knew all about it, I gather that the SWnnnes, m their precautionary measures, were a good bit ahead of our City

h,Th faS f ' iUBt P«nishm««t our sins had broken out some years before in the Levant and after.passmg from place to place, a D d mTk-' ing incredible havoo .all the way, had Tow tha art and human foresight could suggest, such sion of all Aispected persons, and the publication of copious instruction., for the preservation of health; and notwithstanding manifold humble supplications to God iv proce-sions and otherwise, it began to show itself hi the spring of the aforesaid year in a sad and wonderful manner.

In the manner of its approach, slow stealthy, implacable, the plague is nothing changed since the fourteenth century Increased commerce and steam liners have mads little difference. It has been five years in crawling f rom B ovn b ay to Aus . tralia, But it gets there all the same The Florentine pest, he it observed, was the genuine thing, the true bubonic plague. I quote Boccaccio again:

Unlike what had been seen in the cast, where bleeding from the nose is the fatal prognostic, here there appeared certain tumours in the groin or under the armpits, some as big as a small apple, others as an egg; and afterwards purple spots in most parts of the body; in some cases large and but few in number, in others smader and more numerous—both sorts the usual messengers of death.

If I may venture to counsel the City Councilors, I would recommend them not to rely-too much on cold weather as a urophylactic. It may be that we shall have to hang a selection of them in the end In that case it would be well that in their last moments they should be able to reflect that-they had flushed a fen- gutters and killed a few wharf rats, and, as respects an efficient system of drainaee, that they had at least kept it steadily in view. _ . . OIYIS.