PASSING ROTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13199, 4 February 1905, Page 4

PASSING ROTES.

The proposal to back up the Russian strikers by -funds raised in Britain has ■ more in it of heart than of head. It has brought together the Rev. Dr Clifford, leader 'of - the 'Baptists aud of the whole sect and following of passive resisters. Canon Scott Holland, a showy preacher at St. Paul's, Mr George Meredith, whose recent mauifestb in favour of leasehold marriage argues him in his dotage—these and some other irrespoflsibles, who all alike mean well but do not know. Apparently-they do not know that in relation to the strikers and their wants any money . contribution from Britain would he a drop in the bucket; whilst, in relation to the Government that is shooting down the strikers; help to tlie'm from us would be' an act of war. We may deplore our Hard case, but the Best service left us is to stand and wait. To stand and wait-,—l was going to say to Stand still and see tho salvation of God; but to see that Ws should have to wait, maybe, a loiig lime. The mills of God grind slowly.- Meanwhile we seem-fated to stand still and see tho triumph of the Devil, For, as the onlens.are pointing, the battle will be to. the strong;—the syndicate of Grand Dukes, their military and their police, must win. Once again order will reign-at Warsaw—as the phraso ran half-a-century ago; and the same sort of order will reign elsewhere. Yet none the less is it truo that these travail-pangs have brought nearer the birth of a new time. Nobody, let us hope, will have died in vainthe blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. And the contest now being quenched will kindle again; For freedom's battle once begun Bequeathed by bleeding sire to son, Though bgfilod oft is over won. These lines are Byron's. I dislike their demagogic and claptfiippy associations, but they hold a truth all the saine. Revolution in Russia is going to prove a damp squib, let us suppose. But, in compensation there is & good deal of revolution in progress elsewhere. There is a distinctly anti-Russia , revolution in France. I am not thinking of the stir amongst French anarchists ahd Russian refugees. Naturally these people feel that events.at St. Petersburg constitute a call, and everywhere the artists in bombs are nil agog. In Paris bombs are dropping out of the pockets of loungers oil the boulevards and blowing tliem up. So say the veracious cables. But it is not so inucli in these facts that significance lies as in the changed temper of the whole French people. The French can put up with a good deal Of tyranny—witness the career of the Combes Ministry just ousted, —but it must be tyranny decked out with the forms and phrases of liberty. In Russia of late decorative forms and phrases have been sadly to seek ; tyranny, knout in h an d, walks abroad naked and Unashamed. Dear to the hearts of all Frenchmen is "the sacred right of insurrection"—a cherished inheritance from their "glorious Revolution" of 1789. But in St. Petersburg citizens making procession through the streets—not yet in insurrection, but only thinking about it— ofy? officially fusilladed. If the alliance between France and Russia survives these moral shocks and strains, mankind will have the right to feel very much astonished. Mr A. H. Maude among the prohibitionists is a sheep in the midst of wolves,— although, be it said, tho wolves are toothless, and have more bark than bite. Let lis change the metaphor and make him a dovo in a Sanhedrim of jackdaws. That would bo more like it. Or rather let us get rid of metaphor altogether and say that Mr Maude writes with courtesy, good temper, patience, sweet reasonableness ; in short, not to put too fine a point upon it, he writes like a gentleman. Etis adversaries write like prohibitionists. I observe that they show a disposition to fall back on St. Paul, whose tenderness for wenk brethren (such as themselves) they highly approve:—"lt is good neither to cat flesh nor to drink wiuo"; nay, "If meat mako ray brother to offend, I will eat no flesh -while the world standeth ";—so they quote him. Somewhere else, as I seem to remember, the same St. Paul protests bis willingnessill the interest of brethren obstinately weak—to be "accursed-fjrom Christ." But he would have felt not a little astonished had even tho weakest of weak brethren taken this rhetorical exaggeration ail pied de la lettre. St. Paul'ii willingness to give up flesh and wine may be a good argument for voluntary abstinence; it is no argument at all for coercion; it makes against meat-eating if it makes against winedrinking, and you get vegetarianism out of it before you get prohibition. Prohibition, forsooth! Paul the Apostle to Timothy:—"Take A little wine for thy stomach's sake," Inference plain from this admonitionPaul tho Apostle votes, No Prohibition, 'The prohibitioriists Who are chivying Mr A. H. Maude may shut lip the New Testament; it will lend them no help. The Prophet under whose auspices they elect to march came not from Nazareth, but from Mecca. Iri Tuesday's Daily Times, over tlie signature " Alexr, S. Adams "—a guarantee of accuracy in both law and fact—are produced for Mr Maudes undoing "three propositions which knock tho pins from under his position" (imagine a proposition knocking tho pins from under a position!)—and, fitrthcr,. "prove tlie no-license case up to the hilt." The metaphors are mixed; but we will let that pass, and note that of these three, fatal propositions " the two first are from John Stuart Mill; the third is from Mr Gladstone." So says Alexr. S. Adams, or so ho said on Tuesday. But. on Wednesday he writes to the editor thus: , ' Sir,—l find a mistake in the first sentence of tho last paragraph of my letter this morn--ing. It reads: "The two first are from John Stuart Mill, and the tliml from Mr Gladstone." In each case the word " from " should be " supported by." This Mated accuracy reminds me of an Oxford story about a sermon preached by Doctor Spooner, Warden oi New—a dear old soul, rapt' and dreamy, who lived in ah Oxford world of his own. It was a sermon that seemed to be mainly about Aristotle. But, at the close, half-way down the. pulpit steps, the preacher paused,- turned him abont,. reasccnfled, and made a remarkable correction: "I think I ought to say that" wherever in the course of mv sermon I mentioned Aristotle I meant St; Paul" Presumably tins correction left the case improved; but the Adams correction gives the Adams ease atfay. The three Mill and Gladstone propfisjtioris that knock pins from ilnder positions are not "from" Mill and Gladstone, bnt are only "supported by" those worthies. Here let me bring in another story; it is from an English paper by the mail. 'A ThiSutb That West Wboko. Some American seamen from the cruiser Cleveland were present at a swimming club dinner at Dartmouth yesterday. During the proceedings a sailor rose to sing a. song, and the ei-rnayor availed himself of ths opportunity of paying a tribute to the American navv. PeHl&ps,- to da-id; the tar who had just rioen to sing had taken part; and done his duty minfnlly, in-the Spiriish-AiAerican war. He was certainly a typical American sailor.. Eseotso me, Mr Chairman'," the bluejacket promptly remarked, " but I belong to the British destroyer -Teaser." The audience Aired with -laughter. It is Open to . surmise that Jit Alexr, S. Adams and his three propositions would be "supported by". Mill and Gladstone, if they 'could put in their word, pretty milch . as the eulogistic ex-mayor was' supported by the bluejacket. ; Under the heading "A-, Traveller's Grievance," and over the signature "Lucy Broad, Delegate from the British Women's Temperance Association," an Invercairgill paper (copy sent me by a 'correspondent) prints the lamentable .adventures 'of a tourist. Miss,'- or Mris; Lticy Brof.'l--let ns. bQ as gracious as we can-and say lliss— stepped ashore at Diihedin; whence—

''having an interval with no. work "—she lightly set out for "Milford Sr-ud and tbe Lakes." From Lumsden the coach fare on, she complains, "is so high as to be almost. 1 prohibitive." The said fare, according .to my correspondent, ; is £2, return; distance.. 52 miles each way. Nevertheless Miss Lucy Broad must needs walk, for though she 'was on. pleasure bent she had a frugal mind; and that's where she made the mistake. Equipped with "small bag, cloak and umbrella"— she does not. mention a pair of pattens and a hat-box—she waded into a- mountain stream, apparently the Mararoa'River.' The wind was high, the current strong, and the looting on great cobbles and pebbles very rough, and k Ssvas swept off my feet. For a terrible moment or two I camo very near drowning, and I shall not soon forget the found of the water swirling in lr.y ears. But I was washed a little towards the side, and, making a great effort, with'.my heavy skirt dragging, ine down, I struggled to my'feet and readied tho bank,'finding myself minus one of. my lovly new walking shoes, and the rest of my things gone down the river.. My bug caught on a stick a mile and a-half below, and was, happily, recovered; hut it will cost me £3 or more to replace the loss, and I am infinitely the poorer in not seeing yonr world-famed lakes and sound, , for. I could not g» on barefooted and cloakless. No one would consent to laUgli at the poor lady ; rather let us rejoice that "Mr and Mrs Jack at the hotel were niost kind and helpful"; whereby " I started for tho return journey in a cut-down gumboot, tied, round the atikle"; moreover, encountering n Good Samaritan in a buggy, not only did I get a lift across the creek, but " the gentleman kindly took off his own boot that 1' might have something more comfortable to walk in." Which touching act of self-sacrifice would be hard to beat. Jt should be set down to the credit of the roads of Otago that a lady in distress liiav find thereon a "philanthropist who will present her with one of his boots. Nevertheless Miss Lucy Broad is barely grateful. "I am not sure," she says, "that, yon are hospitable to the stranger that is within your gates." As how? Because " there are such difficulties on an important road." But, all things considered, surely it is enough that there is a road at all. It is a rsad that has to do with mountain.? and rivers,—-we can't help that; and it niay be that we ought to erect "finger-posts and footbridges." Tliem wo shall achieve in duo time. Meanwhile it would be well that a delegate from the British Women's Temperance Association should not be a "walking delegate." Hither that, or she should content herself with ono side of the Island at a time. Sir Howard Vincent, one of Mr Chamberlain's henchmen and a diligent preacher of the gospel according to Joseph, was recently tiib-thumping at Inverness, North Britain. Said he, "Of all the people in the world to develop the Empire it was the Scottish race."—(Cheers.) Again: "He (Sir Howard) visited the whole of the colonies, and wherever he went he had always found that the richest men, the most well-to-do, were the Scotchmen.''— (Cheers.) Once more: "All the leading men who developed the north-west of Canada were Scotchmen. There was Lord StrathcOna, a Scotchman."—(Cheers.) Thus Sir Howard, careering along with a wet sheet and a flowing sea. Where to better advantage may you praise Scotchmen than in Inverness, North Britain? There are Inverness men here in Dunedin; it is one of them, I fancy, that sends me the Northern Chronicle of December 27 containing this speech, and no doubt ho wishes nic to share his feeling of pride in seeing Dunedin brought in to cap all: Ho (Sir Howard) went to Dunedin, in New Zealand, and what did he find thore? If you are not a Scotchman, said Sir Howard, they give you a ticket to leave tho town, and half-it-crown for food on tho way.—(Laughter.) That picture may stand—'twere pity to spoil it; though I may say of it, as Mark Twain said of the newspaper announcement of his death, that' it is greatly exaggerated. It -is : exaggerated in the matter ,of the half-crown. Cms.