The Star. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1893. Parliamentary Ruffianism.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4712, 2 August 1893, Page 2

The Star. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1893. Parliamentary Ruffianism.

A himple apology from Messrs Fisher and Logan, the tvzo men who were, apparently, i the chief delinquents in connection with the display of. ruffianism whereby the English Honse of Commons has eternally . disgraced itself, seems an absurd sequel ; to that shameful occurrence. A cable message published elsewhere states that the Speaker " buried the incident in a few , well-choseD words," but, bo far as public | opinion is concerned, it will long live as a memory of disgrace. The fracat of last Thursday was a general riot of I outrageous violence, which, had it occurred in the public streets, would have | : resulted in tbe participators in it being sent to gaol. It happened in a place which should be even more sacred from sach disturbances than the streets are supposed to be, and yet it is, apparently, to be condoned by a simple apology from two of : the peace breakers. One would suppose that the respectable members of the 5 House, of all parties, would have joined in E fixing the blame for this disgraceful affair on the right persons, and inflicting condign punishment j for, according to the accounts " telegraphed to thin Colony, praotioally all parties in the House were implicated. 5 Liberal and Conservative, Celt and Saxon, ■ alike foigot dignity and decency, and I ; wallowed in a common sink of ruffianism. ; Of course, many members did sot allow | themselves to act as blackguards because | others did so, but, on the contrary, l strove to quell the shameful tumult, and it should be the pride of the proletariat that foremost among these was John Burns. I While many of the "gentlemen" who g ' compose the bulk of the . members of the House were behaving as blackguards, the } representative of the masses we read, j " Bhouldered members right and left, and i tried to suppress the disorder." The 9 labour element newly imported intoPar--3 liament has added yet another to its I claims on the reßpeot of the country, in that it appeared as the champion of order ' at a time when the representatives of the } ; classes were trampling under foot the laws which they, of all men, Bhould respect. 9 The effects of the fracas will, undoubtedly, be Berious. One of them will be a marked [ decline in the respect felt for Parliamentary institutions. Another will be a strengthening of the feeling that class " /distinctions are irrational and absurd. , Napoleon used to say that one had only to 1 scratch the Muscovite to come down on the ; Tartar ! The episode of Thursday last will lead many to paraphrase his words, and to , say that one has only to scratch the i "gentleman" to come down on the 1 : " rough/ Perhaps, in both instances, . . the generalisation may be too sweeping, but there iB no doubt that many who, from birth and position, should be gentle* men, have a good deal in common with blackguards, and exhibit "high-bred i courtesy" and " aristocratic self-control" • only so long as they are having their own | way — until, in short, they are " scratched." i When that happens, they cast off their j veneer of superiority, and demonstrate their kinship with the rest of the human family, in folly and wickedness at all events.