PASSING NOTES,

Otago Witness, Issue 2528, 27 August 1902, Page 5

PASSING NOTES,

(From Saturday's Daily Times.)

When, during the last week of July, 1815, H.M.S. Bellerophon, with. Napoleon Bonaparte a prisoner on board, lay at ' Plymouth, crowds of people assembled to see him ; shoals of boats — more than a thousand on fine days — struggled and jostled to .get as near the Belleraphon as the guardboats would allow. Two or three persons were drowned ; but still the swarm pressed on. In compliment to the prisoner the men wore carnations, and the women waved their handkerchiefs when he appealed on the poop or at the open gangway. To end a display so scandalous and refute absurd rumours of a rescue, the ship had to be hurried out of harbour. Yet only f=ix weeks earlier, June 15-18, the object of this misdirected hero-worship had occasioned the slaughter of 80,000 men, of whom more than 10,000 were British. There is nothing that need surprise us, then, in the wild welcome given by the London mob of 1902 to Botha, De la Rey, and De Wet. If Napoleon, as hie hope and prayer was, could have got ashore, he might have made a- triumphal progress through the kingdom, might have dined with the Prince Regent, might have responded to complimentary addresses from the Campbell-Bannermans and John Morleys of the day. That was in 1815. But .is the fathers', so the children. In this year of grace 1902 the three Boer leader*, whose guerilla exploits during the last 18 months have been costing us a million and a-quarter a week and in the gross as many British lives as ended at Waterloo, have to be rescued from the enthusiastic embraces of the Londoners by the police. Mr Seddon and The Times consider this "exuberance" unseemly. I agree with Mr Seddon and The Times. But what would you have? Our national characteristics are what they are, and you can't change them. Botha, D« la Rey, and De Wet have put up a good fight and have been handsomely knocked out. The British way in such cases is to shake hands over a glass of beer and bear no malice.

But guppo«e the Londoners privileged to entertain Mr Krager. That were a hor«e of another colour ! I s-hould accept as a fair exponent of John Bull sentiment about Kruger the Rev. Dr Parker of the City Temple. This is the divine, it may be remembered, who marked his disapproval of the Armenian massacres by publicly praying " God damn the Sultan ! " Considering the intricacies and exigencies of his Nonconformist conscience Dr Parker on that occasion hit the mark meritoriously ; the Psalmist David himself in his most imprecatory mood couldn't have expressed with greater accuracy the general British sentiment. So also about Kruger. Here ia a passage from Dr Parkers Peace Thanksgiving eermon :

He believed with all his heart that this country was by one act of the Transvaal positively driven into war. England was not accustomed to have a-n ultimatum thrown, in her face. She answered such an ultimatum with a great challenge of patriotism and of fire. The Boers were working out loyally the terms ,£i && (*t&us»V«g& & m& ttftfce ibo t»#k

easy lot them. There wa* one man for whom he would not make things too easy, and that was Mr Kruger. Some loose tongues might call him the most snivelling old hypocrite on tho face of -the wholevearth/b'iira's a Christian minister he was bound not to say such things. As an honest man, however, he was bound to agree with it. The ex-President had been likened to Oliver Cromwell. In "his opinion Paul Kruger bore as much resemblance to Oliver Cromwell as a buzzard did to an archangel. If by any chance there came to London the man who made the war and ran away I should expect that the Londoners would discriminate. They would not confuse him Avith the men who had no part in making the war yet stayed to fight it out. Rotten eggs and dead cats, supposing them available, would be Kruger's portion at the hands of a London mob ; aware of which he will doubtless transact the residue of his dishonourable old age amongst sympathetic Dutchmen in the seclusion of The Hague.

Mr Stead s suggestion about Mr Seddon — that he may transfer himself to the Cape and assume the leadership of the South Africa Labour party — is discredited not so much by what we know of Mr Seddon as by what we know of Mr Stead. That the old West Coaster should look upon New Zealand as a claim worked out is likely enough^ In the past he has made ..a good thing of it ; but what has the future, to offer? Assuredly nothing, good, or good enough. Politically he can't grow v bigger within these horizons, the field is too cramped ; and he must grow less. Can we picture him without place and pay, sitting in the cold shade of Opposition, voting in minorities? We may be quite sure that he cannot with equanimity so picture himself. And if that is really his New Zealand outlook: why not seek fresh woods and pastures new? Probably Mi- Stead, who doesn't want for shrewdness, reading the situation much as we read it, has invented for us out of his own head the suggestion" that Mi* Seddon's next political incarnation will be as leader of the Cape Labour party. Not for a moment do I believe that the boss Jingo of the Empire would reveal nimself confidentially to the boss pro-Boer. It is pain and grief to me to surrender my own private hope that there would descend upon Mr Seddon some gilt-edged appointment, something expressing Imperial confidence and carrying Imperial authority — in fact a Governorship. The Coronation trip, I take it, has ruined that. Before he landed, the papers were heralding his approach in terms such ac these: "Air Seddon, orator and Premier, will arrive in this country on June 13, and -will be officially met at Southampton by Mr W. Pember Reeves, Agent-general." It is a different note now ; — the amazing Mr Seddon — the New Zealand Premiers incredible ignorance of the ABC of political economy — that terrible man Mi* Richard Seddon, the noisy ex-publican from New Zealand, etc., etc. Very unjust all this, no doubt ; but it seems the prevailing style of reference. Pity our Richard couldn't have remained where he wa6 and loomed large from a distance.

I have never been able to accept the principle of the referendum, not even of the referendum with due parliamentary authority at its back. Do we not appoint and pay a Parliament to deliberate, consult, resolve, on our behalf? Why then should we be called upon to do these things for ourselves? However, waiving that point, I am dead against any mere experimental referendum, got up by irresponsible persons, whether to gratify an itching curiosity or to obtain an illicit backing of their own opinion. Which are the best 100 books? — who is the most popular preacher? — the cleverest lawyer? — the most successful physician? Questions of this kind; — impertinent enough, some of them — we nave all seen made matter of referendum. It is an amusement worthy only of the idle-minded and shallow-pated. But the case looks serious when a Bible-in-Schools party referenda you with the inquiry — Will you have ottr plan of Bible-in-schools, or no Bible-in-schools at all? Reminds one of the cross-examining counsel : " Now, sir, no prevarication ! — on your oath, flave you left off beating your wife? — Yes or no!" A great field lie* open to these irresponsible referenders. Having settled Bible-in-schools they will proceed to no- license and the totalisator. At this moment I have a letter from Palmer* ton, where a distracted congregation, or one member of it, wants to know whether there is or is not euch a tiling as unfermented wine. Personally I don't think there is. There .ire syrups and vinegars ; but a wine which is no wine I cannot believe to exist in rerum natura. Possibly — and it is a dreadful thought — they will submit this question of sacramental wine to public referendum. Going back to Bible-in-schools, as half the community will probably not vote, there will not be much proved, either way. Along with the authors of this experiment I lament, -if only on literary grounds, the omission of the Bible from colonial school books. But ignorance of the Bible is consistent with any system and with all systems. Ifc was a Scotch divinity student who understood the sick of the palsy "borne of four' to be born of four, and remarked that to him it had always seemed "a pheesical impossibility." And it was an English divinity student who explained " Gamaliel " as " a mountain in Judaea .at whose feet St. Paul was brought up."' Both probably had been nurtured under a system of Bible-in-schools.

Dear Civis.— You affixni that a confession of Agnosticism involves dropping behind the times. Despite a perusal of Captain Hutton'9 address, I am content with the position. Time is ' on my side. The creeds to secure the premier position you suggest they occupy have had to shed many doctrines en route. Competent Christian scholars have discarded 12 verses of Mark's Gospel, and the" text of the Three "Witnesses from the Epistle of St. John, whilst the Confession of Faith is under " revision." The Bible-in-Schools party will, I presume, if they succeed in determining the Bible shall be read in schools, decide which ehall be adopted— the Authorised, oi Revised

As to orthodox Christians being more prtf* minent in all good works than scientists or philosophers. It is evident Huxley embraced! infidel or Agnostic forms of these species in the passage quoted. Do you wish to suggest th»t right — the sacrifice of self to good — has only obtained recognition in the world during the Christian era? " The moral law is written on the tablets of eternity." What part of the orthodox faith stimulates these workers in their noble efforts? Is it the old law which was extant long before Christianity adopted it — " Do unto others as ye would they should do unto you " ? Or is it the verse in the creed falsely fathered on to St. Athanasius — " Those who have done good shall go into life everlasting, and those who have done evil into everlasting fire " ? I unhesitatingly ascribe it to the former.. When theologians ruled the world ..there were huts and hovels for'the many. ari'd* palaces and cathedrals for the few, and in proportion as they have lost their grip on this earth knowledge has increased and crime and „ pauperism have diminisKecK History teaches "us 'that heresy grows for ever, and Plato well said that " a house thatT has a library in it has a soul." Ignorant wonder is no longer regarded as necessary characteristic of 'a high type ol humanity. What encouragement do Agnostics and other doubters receive to take a public part in good work? Privately I know they do their share. The orthodox' labourers would snort with anger at any poaching by Freethinkers, on tlieir preserves. " Come ye out "from- amongst theni," etc. As Huxley says, we are regarded by .Christians in much the same light as a dog without a muzzle is regarded by a policeman — not under proper control. We can wait, however, in the hop'a that an •extenp sion of recent " revisions " will secure recognition of -the fact taat in the economy ol -nature room may be found even for an

Agnostic. The Passing Notes column is not exactly the place for arguments by, or with, an Agnostic. But having unwittingly " started this hare I suppose I must let fiim run for a while. Fop a while only. No doubt I could pick him. off if I tried ; the sporting"" piece I carry is warranted to kill; bub cvi bono? I am all for free thought, and all for free speech, «r for as much of it as my readers' will take from me. But let us clear our minds of cant. There is a Freethought cant, as well as an Evangelical cant. It may be recognised in Agnostio invectives against creeds as creeds. What is the harm in a creed, provided the creed be true? The multiplication table is a creed, if it comes to that. It is no re-, preach to a man's intelligence that he says, "I believe that two and two make four." I don't say that- all the creeds of Christendom are on a level with the proposition that two and two make four ; but it is mere cant to condemn a creed because it is a creed. And it is mere cant to allege, as something to be ashamed of, that "Christian scholars" have revised the Bible. If the revisers had been Mahometan scholars, or Buddhist scholars, or Agnostia scholars, the revision, forced on them from without, might have been something for Christians to blush over. For this Agnosiia whose ideal is free thinking I have a sneaking regard, being, as explained last week, a free thinker myself. But I may .assure him that until he emancipates himself from Freethought cant, his thinking will b» very much less free than he supposes.

Rose's Life of Napoleon I — the latest and, for English readers, most authentic book on its subject — incidentlly knocks to pieces Lord Rosebery's recent monograph oa Napoleon at St. Helena. There must be something radically vicious in Lord Rosebery's thinking processes, or he would~nofc be so ineffectual a person in current politics, and certainly he could never have written anything so wide of historic truth as his essay on Napoleon's exile. With much pretence of research, scrutiny, analysis, criticism, he adopts helplessly the French legend that we treated our captive with the vilest cruelty. As a matter of fact we allowed him, first, £8000 a year, then £12,000, and permitted him his liberty within a piece of country 12 miles round. Fo/ Sir Hudson Lowe, the Governor of St. Helena, Lord Rosebery can find no epithet bad enough. He was no gentleman, had a physiognomy that suggested the devil, and an eye like "that of a hyena caught in a trap." As a matter of fact, Lowe was a distinguished soldier, with much experience of court* ; a scholar ; a man of good presence and handsome features. Here is a pen picture of him by a lady:

I was taken in to dinner by a grave, particularly gentlemanly, man, in a general's uniform, wKose conversation was as agreeable a« his manner. He had been over half the world, knew all celebrities, and contrived without display to say a great deal one was willing to hear. . . Years before, with our Whig principles and prejudices, we had cultivated in our Highland retirement n horror of the great Napoleon's jailor. The cry of party, tho feeling for the pnsoner, the book of Surgeon O'Meara, had all worked my woman's heart to such a pitch of indignation that this maligned name, Lowe, was a.i offence. We were to hold the owner in abhorrence. Speak to him never! Look at him, sit m the same room with him, never! None weri louder than I, more vehement; yet here was I beside my bugbear and perfectly satisfied with my position. It was a good lesson. Lord Rosebery's reputation in literature i% in about 'as bad a way, it fceenis t«/me, as his reputation in politics. * _^ Civis.

The IT^rbour Board will commence pump ing chetlg'ng spoil into that portion of its endowment which lies between the Milbum Lime and Cement Company's works and the channel of (he Water of Leifch some day thi9 week. It is intended to reclaim the whole of the area, which is about 38 acres in extent. The operations will be commenced with about 2200ffc of pipes, and it. is anticipated that it will take about two years to complete the work of filling-in. The work, it i 3 understood, will be carried! on without intermission, and the material will be .dredged out of the- "Victoria channel! and round about the Dunedin wharves. The area to be filled ,in being so large, will gave an idea of the amount of stuff than will be lifted in the two years' time in the upper harbour. When reclaimed the property will be opened for selection for build-il ing sites, and will be no inconsiderable-t addition, to the beard's endowments. \