The Otago Witness, WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 1910.) THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2935, 15 June 1910, Page 55

The Otago Witness, WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 1910.) THE WEEK.

« Nunquam aliud natura, aliud aapientia dixit.”— JtfVES'AL. “ Goad nature and good sense must ever join. POPE, Careful comparison of the extraordinary animosity of the pre-elec-

The Probability of' an Imperial Compromise.

tion speeches with the tone and tenor of public opinion in England at the present .time might be taken to prove the truth of the

famous assertion that this is “ a time of loud disputes and weak convictions.” Whereas a few months back the acuteness of the political situation at Home seemed to portend a battle a I’outrance between the masses and classes, there now appears every probability of a working compromise being arrived at between the followers of Mr Balfour and the supporters of Mr Asquith. It is, perhaps, the most notable tribute to the abiding influence of the late King that his death should have • contributed so largely to this marked change in political feeling. The shadow of death passing over the Empire and the genuine sorrow universally occasioned by so tremendous a loss to the national life softened' political acerbity and mellowed political differences to a degree absolutely marvellous. and which, had it not been seen and felt,’ would have been thought well nigh incredible. Added to the national grief at the passing of so mighty a monarch as King Edward VII is the natural disinclination on the part of loyal statesmen to saddle King George with the grave responsibility so early in his reign of having to exercise his royal prerogative, " should the dispute between Lords and Commons reach a deadlock. These and other considerations of an equally weighty nature —chief among them, doubtless, being a hesitar.yy. lest England . should again .be plunged into the throes of another general election — decided Mr Asquith to approach Mr Balfour with a proposal for a; conference, at which the reform of the House of Lords and the Veto question may be amicably discussed and thoroughly investigated. There can be little doubt that, should this conference have a satisfactory issue, it will sound the ultimate knell of the existing party system, a system , which,in the opinion of many of our deepest thinkers, has outgrown its usefulness. The difficulties in the way of a workable compromise are many and great, for the distrust of both the Labour members arid of the Nationalists has to be taken into account, since both Mr Redmond and Mr Ramsay Macdonald are uneasy lest the path of compromise should prove the path of surrender.. The precise nature of the pledge given by Mr Asquith to the Nationalist leader, a pledge which secured the passing of the Budget, has not been disclosed, but it is currently

reported that it at least embodied an assurance of some measure of Home Rule. And it is easy to believe that one plana of a compromise with the Unionists might entail the ruling out of what has been included in the terms of agreement between Mr Asquith and Mr Redmond. It is easy to discern why the Labour members resent any idea of a conference and do not hesitate to declare that Mr Asquith, in making such a proposal, has betrayed them. For any sort of agreement between the Liberals and the Unionists would at once depose tha Labourites from the commanding position to which the result of the last election promoted them. On the other hand, should Mr Ramsay Macdonald and his following persist in the antagonistic attitude which they have taken up, it will lend colour to the assertion of the Observer—an Opposition oi'gan. by the way —that if the negotiations are successful, it will prove that the New Democracy is not potent for any purpose except that of party. As aid for the right understanding of the important issues in-

John Morley on Compromise.

volvcd in Mr Asquith’s proposal for a conference, and in Mr Balfour’s favour-

able reply, we strongly recommend a perusal of Lord Morley’s famous essay on “Compromise.” Originally penned nearly forty-, years ago, when its author was plain John Morley, it nevertheless contains so much that is apposite to the existing political situation at Home that a reference to its pages will prove both ■helpful and stimulating. Morley quotes Burke,as saying: “It is a very great mistake to imagine that mankind follows up practically any speculative principle either of government or of freedom as far as it will go in argument and logical illation. All government, indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every, virtue, and every prudent act, ie founded on compromise and barter. We balance inconveniences, we .give and take, we remit some rights that we may enjoy others.- . . Man acts from motrvea relative to his interests, and not on metaphysical speculations.” These words, uttered by Burke in his speech on “Conciliation with America,” and at a time when that great statesman was unreasonably alleged to have been alienated from Liberalism by the French Revolution, are taken by Lord Morley as text upon which to hang some exceeding weighty observations : —“These are words of wisdom and truth if we can be sure that men will interpret them in .all the fulness c. their meaning, and not be content to take only that part of the meaning which falls in with the dictates of their own love -of ease. ... In England such words need a commentary which shall bring out the very simple truth, that compromise and barter do not mean the undisputed triumph of one set o# principles. Nor, on the other hand, do they mean the mutilation of both sets of principles, with a view to producing a tertium quid that shall involve the disadvantage of" each, without securing the advantages of either. What Burke means is that we ought never' to press our ideas on to their remotest logical issues, without reference to the conditions in which we are applying them. In politics we have an art. Success, in polities, aa in every other art, obviously before all else implies both knowledge of tbqi material with which we have to deal and also such concession as is necessary to the qualities of the material. Above all, in politics we have an art in which development depends upon small modifications. . . . What Burke means by compromise, and what every true statesman understands by it, is that it may be most inexpedient to meddle with an institution merely because it does not harmonise with ‘argument and logical: illation.’ This is a very different thing from giving new comfort with one hand to an institution whose death warrant you pretend to be signing with the other. . . . Compromise may mean, not (acquiescence in an instalment, on the ground that the time is not ripe to yield us more than an instalment, but either the acceptance of the instalment as final,, followed by the virtual abandonment of hope and effort; or else it may meant a mistaken reversal of direction, which augments the .distance that lias ultimately to be traversed. In either of these senses, the small reform may become the enemy, of the great one. But a right conception of political method, based on a rightly interpreted experience of the conditions on which societies unite progress with order, leaves the wise Conservative to accept the small change, lest a worse thing befall him, and the wise innovator to seize the chance of a small improvement while incessantly working in the direction of great ones. The important thing is that throughout the progress neither of them should lose sight of his ultimata ideal, nor fail to look at the detail from the point of view of the whole, nor allow the particular, to bulk so large as to obscure the general and distant.” There is something in the severity of the sentence passed upon.

Severity of Sentence.

Pawelka which is at variance with the humani-

tarian spirit of the age. Twenty-one years’ imprisonment appears an extreme penalty foi the crime of arson, even when that crime was agn;ravated by a series of petty thefts "committed at a time when Pawelka’s hand was against every man, and when hunted l like a wild beast he was compelled to steal in order to sustain life itself. We have no desire to minimise in the slightest degree the he-inousness of the offences of which • Pawelka was found guilty, but already there are evidences that ; n this case justice is defeating itself by evoking in the public mind a f eeling of compassion for the criminal. It is, we take it, a cardinal principle with the presentday penal system that punishment should be administered with a view of influencing the offender to better ways, and that

the old idea of vindictive justice has been relegated to the dark ages to which it properly belongs Unfortunately, the idea that the sentence passed upon Pawelka is in a sense vindictive, is rapidly gaming ground. Only the other day in Wellington a man found guilty of taking the life of another was sentenced to six' months’ imprisonment, in contrast with which Pawelka’s 21 years upon seven years for arson—seems unnecessarily severe. For surely the surrounding circumstances should be taken into account, especially the outstanding ■fact that the senseless and wholly unjustifiable panic. which possessed the inhabitants of Palmerston North and the surrounding district —a panic which penetrated into the heart of the police force itself—invested the crimes committed by Pawelka with an importance disproportionate to their nature. For can anyone think had Pawelka’s offences against the law been divested ol their sensational accompaniments, that so severe a penalty would have been meted out to him ? We are of opinion that only upon extraordinary occasions should any attempt be Xna.de to interfere with the course of the law, but iu Pawelka’s case the Government would, we think, do well to cause 'inquiry to be made with a view to some mitigation of what, in the opinion of the great majority of the people _-ol the Dominion, is a term of imprisonment altogether too severe. And if anyone 'desires to realise what 21 years in prison means to a human being, let him read Wilde’s “ Ballad of Reading Gaol, and especially these stanzas : I know not whether Laws be right, i Or whether Laws be wrong; All that we know who lie in gaol Is that the wall is strong; And that each day is like a year, i A year whose days are long. !With midnight always in one’s heart, And twilight in one’s cell, US’© turn the crank, or tear the rope. Each in his senarate Hell; And the silence is more awful far Than tlie sound of a brazen bell. And never a human voice comes near i To speak a. gentle word; >nd the eye that watches through the door 1 Is pitiless and hard; by all forgot, de rot and rpt, I’lWth, soul and body marred And thus we rust Life's iron chain, r Degraded and alone; A_nd some men curse and some men weep, 1 And some men make no moan; God’s eternal Laws are kind, And break the heart of stone. It was four years last Friday since the death of Richard Johr

Jfcar Tears Ago , And Now.

Seddon, and the perspective of time enables a

better' and more faithful Estimate to be made of the man and of his work than has previously been possible. The personality of the late Mr ■Seddon presented some curious contrasts, dor in a very true sense his great strength of character was his greatest weakness. >lt may bo useful to recall the words ■penned by Sir William Bussell at tho (time of Mr Seddon’s death :—“ In our 'own Parliament he has been a New Zea--1 land Bismarck—of indomitable will and 'endless fertility of resource—and he un'fjuestionabiy deserves the epithet ‘groat. 5 It may be objected that many of the measures he placed on the Statute Book were not of his own origination, but he had at least the wisdom to know what the people wanted, and the personal influence which persuaded ah often _ unwilling Parliament, and the tactful ability to realise what he might insist upon.” ■Mr Seddon was in every sense of the Iword a dictator, but he lacked those lofty ideals which make men remembered by posterity. True, Mr Seddod is lauded .not so much for what he was as for t what he did. He played an important part in the national life of the Dominion, Imperialism appealed to an answering chord in his nature, and his best claim to the gratitude of posterity is the work he did in fostering Imperial ideals and fn kindling the Imperial imagination, films it may be said that the loyalty of 'the Dominion to the Crown and to the Empire is to a large extent of Mr Beddon’s creation, and certainly he helped to maintain it at white heat. His personal influence in political life was far [from the best—he always had one ear to the ground,—and Lis statesmanship havoared too much of the methods of a ■ dubious diplomacy. He had a very ■ poor conception of the intelligence of the ■people, and he suited his political methods %o that conception. He had undoubted [gifts in the management of men which 'alone entitled him to be dubbed a leader, [but there remains the patent fact that although only four short years have •passed since he died, he is no longer missed either in Parliament or in public life, and one never hears the lament Would that Mr Seddon were back in his place again.” On the other hand, it is only common justice to remark that the path of the present-day politician is beset by pitfalls many and deep, which recalls a saying of Colton’s : “ The clashing interests of society and the double, yet equal and contrary, demands arising put of them, where duty and justice are constantly opposed to gratitude and intimation, these things must make the profession of a statesman an office neither ijeasy nor enviable. It often happens that jeuch men have only a choice of evils, and that in adopting either the discontent !jWil! he certain, the benefit precarious. ■Jt is seldom that statesmen have the •option of choosing between a good and an evil; and still more seldom that they ten boast of that fortunate situation .where, like the great Duke of Marl’iborough, they are permitted to choose between two things that are good. His Grace was hesitating whether he ■should take a prescription recommended by the Duchess. ‘ I will be hanged,’ said he, ‘it it does not cure me.’ Dr ©rath, who was present, instantly exclaimed : ‘ Take it, then, your Grace, by all manner of means, it is sure to do .good one way or the other.’ -’