THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. Wednesday, February 3, 1909. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12455, 3 February 1909, Page 2

THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. Wednesday, February 3, 1909. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Cold and Trade. America mi two years imported gold tyiiK&HiSue of. gOOjOpp,ooo 'dollar^ of which to the end of November last only 7 about 30^000,000 "had Tbeeif rosliipped. ■ ; As : ; a fiil^/; the ' United States .are an ; exporting country. . They have borrowed enormously "from Europe, and especially sums to construct railways and ; - other- . works; and when ,theii\ writers boast oftho largeness of th^ jeiportsjthey do net * understand] that Vast sums are se:_t away every year in payment of the ,■ interest and the principal 'of .loans. Who'll they say that the balance of trade is in -favour of- the 1 country, they suppose that is, somehow, making a huge profit,;. whereas, the fact is, that, she >i? engaged in paying her debts. Oh 'the' 1 other? hand,! Great Britain has a large ' balance of im- , ports, . be&Suse' ; she' ; is "the ; '.leading country. '■■ : Her "investments, in ■ the c United "States are enormous, '"not io speak of other places, with. the na : i>;, urali result 'that; she receives a great deal: more than she sends^away." It is not, however. , a case of one cciim.try losing and., J tse other gaining, a : i is usually; .assumed- by. those, curious- : ly ignorant' persons -who -write abort foreign ; trade, for America is quito 'satisfied £ha*t ■■ the 'money • borrowed has {been turned to good account. ' She was in" -urgent need of gold to pay debts>-~ and had to stop buying goods/" - There was. a large increase in the export of wheat, which raised, t^e price to the home consumer, while it appears "that 'copper. : was shipped in 1 large quantities, and sold at what some regard 'as ruinous pi ices, the effects- of which are "felt even in, this remote portion of the world. - The, morar of it all is, 03 it seems, that gold was not ,. r tiio" master, but ' the servant, s and its .movements were determined by general causes affecting "'•'the,: various industries. ;•■■■■■ • . •. Benefi? of Clergy. :T r : I , Monstrous nonsense has been written about benefit of clergy, says Mr H. , Belloc,' M.P., such as that reading and writing were confined to the clergy/ in the Middle : Ages. BeDe^t jof clergy was very -nearly a First* Offenders' Act, or ' "lipi- Berenger." It in no'- way resembled .''.the farce it is too often represented 'ito. be. : . Inits origin it was a test to discover ifr a man should come under the., ecclesiastical or the civil- courts; just as we might V;have : a ; test to see if a man should come' tinder ." martial or' civil law during a: war.' test was the perfectly 'reasonable one of giving the reader, one of the books iof_ religious ritual written in the -dead language peculiar to that ritual,, and naturally chiefly familiar to whose trade it was' to practice tliat It was , as~ t"hpugh i'';a ' coui-t--martial in South Africa,- say,-, had claimed a man, and to find. out ? whether he'f was really a soldier or not the Court should have asked him the meaning of certain military terms,; The whole-thing was as practical as could be in its origin. When it was fossilised into a mere legalrite it was worked fir the benefit of "first offenders. A black-letter Testament was handed to the prisoner, who! opened it and mumbled afew words. The clerk of the court then recited the formula "Legit ut clericus,'? ' arid the man went free, butjwas branded lest he should cheat ,' in the game later on and try to have i."» second chance.-: '• •--_--'-. -•.'.•-■..'.-