THE COMMON ROUND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18875, 30 May 1923, Page 2

THE COMMON ROUND.

By Wateabee. “Back to Dunedin 1” Yes, lot the slogan cry go up again. Lot us again have our guid contc . of curse Is once more. The Snow and the Races, by immemorial tradition, will bo bringing the clan together,' and if any of the brither Scots are lingering back, O come along! Our homes and hearts are wide open. Come back to Dunedin—as you came in the long ago, as ,you have always come on your tribal pilgrimage,—come to the Show and the Races k Few, if any. men less known that Mr Stanley Baldwin have come to the chief position in public affairs, at any rate in modern times. It is true that the name of Mr Bonar Law was scarcely a household word when he succeeded Mr Lloyd George; and, to go back to 1905. the man in the street, at least in this part of the world, did not know a vast deal about Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. Still, both these statesmen had been leaders of their respective parties, and could be definitely located by people who made any pretence of following the trend of political matters. But m Dunedin last week it was not difficult to find generally well-informed folk who, it (hoy were not disguising their ignorance, were glad to obtain information about the new Prime Minister. The day may come when Stanley Baldwin will be as well known as Lloyd George or (though it is a daring stretch) as Gladstone ; or, to use onr more familiar allusiveness, as “Dick Seddon” and “Bill Massey.” Meanwnile, pending that apotheosis, he asks for our prayers (if the cable tolls truth); and, as he is not the sort of man to make the request in a canting spirit, ’twere churlish to bo backward with our petitions.

By the way, it would be ouite a mistake to suppose that Mr Stanley Baldwin is just the typical man of business, the hardhearted politician whose views are bounded hy strict economic lines. A few weeks ago a London newspaper remarked that “though gifted with foresight, lie is wanting in the higher faculties of imagination and vision. It is doubtful whether he lias time or the inclination to dream.” Now, that is all tommy-rot. Let any one look up Mr Baldwin’s speech on the Ruhr amendment last February and note the fervent passage —prayerful, it might fairly be called—m "'hieh the then Chancellor of the Exchequer gave expression to bis loftiest political aspirations. While cordially appreciating the ardent sentiments of the Labour Pnrtv, ho did not hesitate to speak in terms of almost Gladstonian intensity regarding the principle of his own party. Ibis exalted strain was promptly recognised by the London papers, and The Times almost wept and prayed over the edifying Minister—and The ’limes does not weep or pray in a hurry. In short, don’t let us get the notion-into onr heads that the now Imperial Prime Minister is a man without a soul.

Iho gaunt, stooping, rather cadaverous figure of Lord Robert Cecil is familiar enough to most or us, per favour of Punch and other topical journals. And now he is in the Cabinet! His presence there is worth a note of exclamation,—and perhaps not ouite unassociated with what was said just now about the Prime Minister’s idealism. For Lord Robert Cecil is a piquant mixture of seemingly incompatible characteristics—visionary, practical, and brooding—and the only trouble is li)at he may not be able to work in-harmony with colleagues who do not fully share his! views. Anyhow, the League of Nations, which has not been in the highest prestige of late, would seem to have a chance of coming to its, own.

So the Dunrnow Flitch has been won by a member of Parliament and his. doubtless better half. The lady should be in the "ext House of Commons. “To live in conjugal amity, without wishing the marriage note to be less firmly tied,” is the timehonoured formula of the Dunrnow plight; and it is more than a thousand years old. As a lover of antique institutions I. am sorry to notice that “the attempt to revive this premium for humbug is a mere get-up for the benefit of the town.” They thought differently 'in the spacious days'of Queen Elizabeth:—

You shall swear, by the custom of our confession, That you never made any nuptial transgression Since you were married man and wife, • By household brawls or contentious strife; Or, since the parish clerk £aid "Amen,; Wished yourselves unmarried again; '*. ■' Or, in a. twelvemonth and a day, Repented not in thought" any way. If to these terms, without all fear,- . ~ ■ Of your own accord you will freely swear, A gammon of bacon you shall receive,And bear it hence with cur good leave For this is our custom at Dunmow;'. well known— ..■■ The sport is ours, but the bacon.your.".own. Extraordinarily like our own New- Poetry, isn't it? One feels sure that the editor of "Georgian Poetry" would be glad to include the Dunmow rhymes in his next Volume.

Royal Oak Day (May 29) is not celebrated in Dunedin, but. there may be Borne more' or less elderly residents who remember being "'nettled" in the school playing-grounds on that august"- festival. If you didn't wear an oak-leaf or a,t least a bit of symbolic green of softie" kind, you were promptly nettled, and nettling (crede experte) was not a trivial experience when administered by callous sohool-fellows. And all for what? ; Because May 29 was tho birthday of that graceless but unforgettable Sovereign, the Memo Monarch, King Charles the Second,—the emblem of the occasion being derived from the fact (or legend) that the engaging scapegrace concealed himself in an oak at" Boscobel after the battle cf Worcester in 1651. Tennyson has casually celebrated that oak, Wherein the younger Charles abode " Till all the paths were dim, And far below the Roundhead rode, And humm'd a surly hymn. The controversy between early Roundhead and riotous Royalist is a secular one, and Charles the Second still casts a glamouras perhaps more worthily does liis fatherover minds to which the Stuart principles of government and conduct are utterly repulsive.

Who is the greatest painter the world ever produced ? Thi s question is not asked in any cavillous or cynical spirit. One has heard of Titian and Velasquez and the other old Masters, and we do our best; but in the Homo Country the great controversy appears to be whether John or Sargent will in centuries to come be regarded as the consummate masters of British art. For the moment Augustas John appears to be the idol of the hour. The following words are not quoted with any ironic intent: far from it:—

To be painted by Augustus John is no ordinary experience. If the result of the sitting is a masterpiece, the process that has gone to its creation is no less thrilling. The man is unique and so are his methods. Some people have said to me (says Mme. Suggia) that they loved the picture more before they mot me, as they think he has not made mo ns beautiful as they think I am. For answer, I will quote what John himself said to my mother while she was looking at the picture. Very humbly he asked her if she were pleased with it. When she replied that she was enormously pleased he said (in trench): ‘‘Your daughter becomes more beautiful every day, and what 1 regret is that I am not able to represent her as beautiful as she is now.”