The Otago Witness, WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1910 THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2955, 2 November 1910, Page 51

The Otago Witness, WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1910 THE WEEK.

" jr-.ir.iuam aliu-d natnra, aliud sapieotia dixit."-*' JUVBWAL. " Good natur* and good senae muat ever join."-* POPS.

i: After a session which has lasted about ■seventeen weeks the end of The End Parliament is at length ;i in Sight. sight. The Prime Minia. •ter, with the breezy optirm ism inherent in his nature, has hintec, that in another fortnight, or three weekt at most, it may be possible to ring down. and that without any undue

slaughter of innocents. But such a statement demands a greater draught upon" public credulity than is oidinanly .ccsibie. To put the situation in a nntshell, it is pertinent to inquire, if Parliament in the first seventeen weeks oi' : ts business has managed only to pass Some twenty measures, of which bat (three may be dubbed important, what 'length of time ought to be occupied -u passing fort}' more bills, throe at least of which—the Land Bill, the Licensing Bill, and the Gaming Bill—contain clauses of a highly contentions nature. If the situation be considered logically then the Prime Minister is on the horns of a lifficult dilemma. For if it requires seventeen weeks to pa»s twenty bills, obviously should the same attention be paid M the remaining forty, which Sir Joseph Ward declares he intends to have dealt with prior to the proroguement, they should occupy a period of thirty"our weeks instead of three. Or, to >ui the case the other way, if hree weeks be sufficient to adejuately discuss and deliberate upon forty bills, including three such important measures as those we have specified. -,hen the waste of time over the twenty Dills already placed upon the Statute Book is simply scandalous. Nor is it a competent defence to attribute the waste •jl time to the delays of a factious Opposition, for reference to Hansard shows .that if time has been wasted by the neerl'ess verbosity of members, then the oc-.-upanis of toe Government benches have ione the lion's share of the talking. As i matter of fact we do not beiieve that the Prime Minister has the slightest in.ention of endeavouring to pass the forty >dd bills he has expressly specified, although doubtless he hopes to see th'e cur'.ain rung down by the middle »f the present month. It appears highly probsble that the Land Bill will either be Iropped or rendered comparatively innocuous by the dropping or amending 'of the compulsory Leasing clauses, and if these be dropped or amended the emire bill might as well be abandoned for all the good it will accomplish. In view of •he doubtful approval extended to the ukensin;.- Bill by advocates of the Liquor Traffic and of the policy of Prohibition dike, we may assume that the sounding of the death knell of the measure will occasion no poignant regrets. And of the Gaming Bill it need only be said that it presents a feeble endeavour to linker with, a growing evil which demands '1 drastic enactment verging on the heroic. Surveying the situation, we venture to predict that the actual accomplishment of will fall far short of the Prime Minister's optimistic assertion. .Members, their physical power sapped by long sittings in the exhausted atmosphere of a fcr. dry-vent ihted makeshift for a proper Chamber, are rapidly approaching the stage of. enervation which invariably marks the dying hours of the session. There will happen the usual scramble to rush through the business which is essential, .while a half-hearted endeavour to deal with the rest of the business will result in the throwing up of the sponge on the part of the Prime Minister as a signal for the accustomed slaughter. And members, heaving a sigh of relief, will seek their homes, and in a holiday spirit will speedily forget how shockingly they have failed to fulfil their mission as representatives of the people. So it always has been, and there is no reason to expect anything different in 1910. The South African Union was consummated amid proper pomp fko CelebrntSsoj and pageantry at the beof the South ginning of the week by the African Union, opening of the first Union Parliament. And so scon is the celebrations and congratulations are over, the Parliament will settle to doal with the problems incidental to Union, which, although difficult, are by no means insoluble. It is perhaps fortunate that the Botha Ministry finds itself confronted by a 6trong Opposition almost able to hold the balance of power. As one competent critic writes:—"'The result of a Fairly close balance of power in the Union Parliament is difficult to forecast. The Natal members will possess a considerable force, and when the question of the Protectorates aiid the native -franchise come jtp, a Parliament constituted on the colour uar will exhibit a preponderance of opinion hostile to any advance, and probably willing tc take a backward step. But nere we must hope and expect that the linger of meddling with the colour franchise in the Cape or unsettling Basutoland will act as a drag on reactionary views. Not that one white race is closer to British opinion on native and coloured questions than the other. Both were parties to the fixing of the colour bar in the Union Act. But the administration of the Protectorates has not been placed under the Union Parliaments at all ; it has been reserved to the Prime Minister and a Commission. So long as a man of General Botha's cautious temper and moderate views holds that position we need not anticipate a policy that will fiercely agitate the greatest of the unsettled controversies of South Africa. Nor need we look for a high Protectionist policy. South Africa has never taken Protection in the more extreme Canadian and Australian forms, and on the whole the.powerful industrial interest, whose chronic complaint is high prices and high railway rates, tends to keep her in the temperate zone of tariffs. Nor is the half-raised racial 'ssue likely Seriously to embitter the life of the first Union Parliament, though it has given a :ertain harshness to the later phases of vhe election. The astounding feature of South African politics is not that there is so much racial feeling, but that so little of it exists in the midst of so exciting an event in the political life of this subcontinent as the election of its first Parliament. The cause of this warmth is mainly the Hertzog Education Act of 1908 for the Orange Free State, which, outside Bloemfontein, is still mainly Dutch. But the meaning and the effect of the Hertzog Act Wa heen greatly

exaggerated It inflicts nothing more serious than the bilingual teaching which, as Mr Lloyd-George said at the Nations! Eistoddtod, has given Wales a rich stream of culture flowing from the best elements of the two languages. The same general conditions upnly to South Africa. No one who reali&is what life on the veldt means will expect the Taal, the unlettered Dutch dialect, to die away, and if so. Dutch is- a necessary medium of instruction for the children of the older community. And no one believes that the Dutch race is blind to the practical advantages of the English tongue. Practically this is the basis of the Hertzog Act, '

The publication of the first volume oi Mr Moneypennv's "'Life of The Karl of the Earl 01 Beaconsfield " Beacons Held. —announcement of which has just been made by cable-is likely to hasten an all too tardy recognition of Benjamin Disraeli's genius both as statesman and litterateur. Lewis Melville says with truth: —" Disraeli has not yet been awarded the fruits of his work as a man of letters The neglect- of Disraeli's writings may in part be due to the fact that most people think it is below the dignity of a statesman or of any man following what is called a 'serious' profession to compose works of fiction. Certainly many do not yet understand that the roan who writes novels may be a very wise man ; they do not realise that accurately to portray human nature and to present pictures of life is not only a mast worthy, but also a most difficult task, requiring for its performance an intelligence far above the average of acute powers of observation and a keen sense of humour. . . . For surely the great novelist is the observer, sounding the depths while others glance at the surface, and examining the mysteries of life, while others are content to overlook even the obvious. Those who dabble in ink often wade deep in human nature; and apart from all else, every good novel indirectly teaches humanity. humility, and a deeper understanding oi the heart. Be the cause what it may, by the vast majority, Disraeli is regarded as a statesman who wrote novels. The alternative view, that he was a man of letters who became a statesman, is accepted only by those who place literature before statescraft, and who realise that while the triumphs .of the politician and the diplomatist are Meeting, a great book is, so far as anything on this earth can be, eternal." And the same writer goes on to say.—" There are few novelists before whom the author of .'Contarini,' 'Fleming.' ' Popanilla,' ' Coning.sby,' 'Sybil.' ' Tancred.' and ' Lothair,' need bow the knee. How many authors have created a gallery of characters more magnificent or more extensive? As one thinks of the books there is conjured up in the mind a- mighty phalanx—great noblemen, politicians of all ranks, of all degrees of importance and unimportance, and of both sexes, leaders of society, men and women of the world, members of the Anglican and Roman communions, members of secret societies, Chartist delegates, toadies even, even a chef, and many high-minded, high-spirited youths and girls. He takes his readers into a world unfamiliar to most of them. He portrayed tlje life of the great patrician iamilies whose genealogy is the history of England; of the Carabas. Armine, St. James, .Monmouth, Marney, . Bellarmine, Beaumanoir, St. Jerome* families. A guide to the town houses and country seats of the • English nobility might be compiled from his pages. He describes society in all its phases, society in the time before successful manufacturers, contractors, and miners could take a place in it; when to enter the ('harmed circie one required a title, a million, or a genius. In years to come students will turn to his books for information as to the political and social world of his day. Indeed, it is for this his book-; will endure rather than -for the plots, which are of secondary importance. Wr in imagination he is second only to the greatest. He is the only English writer who has poetically as well as graphically described the East. In his books as in his speeches he shows himself a great master of phrase. He is never betrayed into false pathos. His humour is never forced. His taste is never at fault."

While, however, there is reason to anticipate that the publication The of Mr Moneypenny's life First British will send a/ multitude of Imperialffir. new readers to Beaconsfield's well nigh forgotten novels, and thereby increase his. literary fame, yet it is as statesman that Disraeli will be longest remembered. For it should never be overlooked that when he persuaded Queen Victoria to proclaim he: self Empress of India he laid the foundation of that larger Imperialism to-day so prominent in the British dominions beyond the seas Disraeli's personality, together with his Oriental imagination. fitted him to play the par* of founder of the modern Imperialism. It was his personality which carried him, without influence, and without wealth, to tht Premiership, in which capacity he dominated all his colleagues. He had that love of grandeur and of Oriental splendour which is the portion of most of the sons of Israel. To a large extent Mr T. P. O'Connor must be held responsible for the prevailing misrepresentation of Lord Be.aconsfle!d's life and character, for T. P.'s so-called biography—in reality a most virulent attack on a great statesman—published in popular form, has had an extensive circulation. The following sentences from that attack will convey a correct enough, idea of its trend and purpose:—" Lord Beaconsfield's whole character is complete in its selfishness, his whole career is uniform in its dis-' honesty. Throughout his whole life I do not find even on a single occasion a. generous emotion, one self-sacrificing act, a moment of sincere conviction—except that of the almighty perfection of himself. I find him uniform in all his deal-

ings with hfiis fellovmen, and behind every word he utters I can .only see the ever vigilant custodian of his own interests. And it is this perfect uniformity in his character and career that most estranges me. " We know that too often in the course of a man's life his original nature is warped. Disappointment, suffering, unresisted temptations, harden many a heart that was once soft, lower many a nature that was cnce high. But even in their degradation these men carry the relics of their better past. As the completest wreck recalls most vividly the stately ship, the wildest ruin the lofty mansion, the very recklessness of such men's vice is the most eloquent testimony to the elevation of their early strivings. But Lord Beacons fie id is the came from the beginning; as he was in old age. as he was in middle age. m he was in youth. His maturity without virtues is the natural sequel to his youth without generous illusions. There is thro'.j«hout the same selfishness—calm, patient, unhasting, unresisting." As foil to this phillipic. we olace some sentences from Walter Sichel's study of the statesman: —"in private life the 'man of mystery ' was gentle, generous and unselfish. In public the ' master of the language of praise and blame' often hit hard but never ' unless he had been first assailed,' nor ever at small quarrv or from paltry motives. He never bor-: rancour when the fight was past. His wit in Parliament, conversation, and literature was exceptional and was never empty. It was pith, not foliage, and summarised wisdom. His phrases wielded an enchanter's wand. .They were fantastic and spacious, but he never used big words for little things. It was the exotic about them that sometimes perplexed or annoyed. No one could sum up characters and situations, with appeals to the ear and fancy and the mind, more picturesque and penetrating, as. Gladstone himself acknowledged. . . . All his faults were faults of intensity. Haunted by ideal pictures of life and destiny which he projected by an enormous will power into action, he- tometimes tended to a certain stiffness of ideas, though never to one of mere opinions. He al most devoid of prejudice. Many and eloquent were the public tributes paid to his genius. . . . But perhaps his best epitaph is his own deliverance in the farewell letter addressed during the August of 1878, to his when he became Earl of Beaeonsfield. and which repeats the ideas and even the phrases of his pamphlets in 1833 and 1835: 'Throughout my public life I have aimed at two chief results. Not insensible to the principle of progress I have endeavoured reconcile change with that respect for tradition which is one. of the main elements of our social strength. And in external affairs I have endeavoured to develop and strengthen our Empire, believing that a combination of achievement and responsibility elevates the character and condition of a people. So does it that of an individual.' Benjamin Disraeli came to create, net to destroy, to bind and not to lese. He was indeed a doer as well as a dreamer of greatness." The contrast between these two estimates of Lord Beaconsfie'ld is striking enough : perhaps Mr Moneypenny may be able vo place the man in his true perspective and in right relation to his time and to ours.