CURRENT TOPICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5859, 29 April 1897, Page 1

CURRENT TOPICS.

I . • Yesterday was the hunkobfolk clred and eighth anniverisland. sary cf the mutiny of the Bounty, an event which, as everyone knows, marks the birth of the strange and interesting community that has just been placed under the Government of JJew South Wales. It was in 1789 that the mutineers seized a king's ship, turned its captain' afloat in an open boat, and cruised for some time in the South Pacific in search of liberty and a home. Finally, those of them who had not perished in mutual quarrelling, or in fierce fights with various natives, found a refuge on Pitcairn Island, "the world forgetting, by the world forgot," until a stray ship discovered their descendants in the early years of this century. They took to themselves South Sea women, and the children were, of course of a mixed race. They used the English speech, they were Christians, and their life was simple and innocent. At once they became the subject of a hundred romances, nor has the interest in them yet died out of the pages of fiction. But they increased and multiplied till they grew far too many for the little dot of an island on which they were found. On a Queen's, ship, therefore, they were carried to Norfolk Island, and there settled with grants of land and gifts of seed and implements. Some of them began to long for the little island which gave them birth, and these were carried back to remain there to this day? The othei-3 remained at Norfolk Island, under a peculiar form of government, which may be described as patriarchal! But this, while it was suited to a small and simple-living community, was by no moans fitted for the more complex life of a growing society, and it became more and more evident that some change was necessary. The Queen, accordingly, transferred them to the jurisdiction of Xew South "Wales. As a Blue Book informs us, the change was not at all desired by the inhabitants, and they sent a very strong protest ■ Home. In this they assumed that the reason of the transfer was rheir faulty administration of justice. They pointed out that their "jury of elders" had no power to imprison, and that a few alterations to their simple laws

would quite meet the case. But their plea passed unnoticed, except for the official communication of the fact, and Norfolk Island became a dependency of New South Wales. It remains to be seen whether or not the condition of this interesting pec pie Avill be bettered by tha change. Little by little, it ap- . the secret pears, the mystery "that of shrouds the life, of the shakspere. " Swan of Avon " is to be dispersed, and the English idol is to be shown to have feet of very gross clay indeed. The secret oi Shakspere, according to Mr G. W. Thorpe, author of a book on " The Hidden Lives of Shakspere and Bacon," was not a .conspiracy to "father" Bacon's writings, as Mr.. Ignatius Donnelly holds, but it was something far more mean and sordid and discreditable. Patiently collating material and from it carefully drawing deductions, Mr Thorpe has reached the conclusion that Bacon blackmailed Shakspere into lending him the profits of a gambling hell, and nominally repaid the loan by getting his creditor to deal at his copying establishment, and so to become his debtor. He prints, in red type, by way of emphasis, the following facts and deductions : — That Shakspere, at all events up to 1599, kept a gold, silver and " copper " hell, carrying on this last in the open streets with yokels, and putting on a workman's dress in order to appear to be on their level, and thus more easily gain their confidence. * . * * That he purchased New Place out of the money got by rooking an infant young "gentleman. * * * That deer stealing was felony punishable in tbe Star Chamber, for which Bacon (practically the Public Prosecutor until he became Chancellor) prosecuted two men separately as late as 1614. * * * That if Bacon did not so prosecute but rather protected him (Shakspere), there must have been good (Baconian) reason for it. Now Bacon blackmailed everybody. * # * Shakspere was completely in Bacon's power, by the double ties of profitable employment flowing inwards and the fear of the terrors f the law which stood ready at Bacon's hand. We know that Bacon cadged for the smallest item of " copy for the Twickenham Scrivenery," so that Shakspere's theatre-writing would not pass overlooked. The very mention of such a nefarious and lawless partnership between "the myriadminded man" and "the greatest, wisest, meanest of mankind," would be something to give a shock to the most inveterate hero-worshipper and believer in human nature's perfectibility. Tbe theory of Mr Thorpe has, notwithstanding its apparent wildness, received the unqualified approval of so eminent a Shaksperian scholar as Mr Samuel Timmins ; and another scholar " far above me," as Mr Thorpe modestly puts it, finds "something staggering" in the evidence of Bacon's " newly-discovered copying-shop "at Twickenham. It may be true, but sober reviewers of the work return the cautious Scotch verdict of "Not proven." "The Land of the Doldemocratic lar," a brilliant book by Mr culture. Gr. W. Steevens, leads to comparisons between de- ' moeracy in England and democracy in the United States. In England democracy is, according to Mr Steevens, socially, a sham, while in America it is a substantial reality. England is an aristocracy in decay, an aristocracy with a leaky organisation, a land of hyphened names, bogus crests and derived manners, where everyone is strenuously putting on side, . toadying, imitating, presuming equality with some person supposed to be " above " him, holding aloof from or imposing charity or patronage upon some other person supposed to be " below " him. Whoever met an Englishman so pitiful that he did not find a" consolation in being "a little sxiperior"to some other Englishman? In England the wine merchant's wife does not call on the ironmonger's wife, the ironmonger's wife on the fishmonger's wife, the fishmonger's wife on the publican's wife whose license is only for beer ; and the mere fact that each husband has a vote no more makes the country socially democratic in the face of these vulgarities of selectness than the fact that each husband has two legs and a head of hair. In America they have freed themselves from the tyranny of most of this nonsense. Even America, however, is yet far from having realised the democratic ideal — the complete mutual respect of man for man, and personal and public loyalty to the humanity and the indefeasible rights of each other, Trusts, for example, make frequent and successful combinations to override the public interest. They even go to the length of keeping mutual black lists, and if a working man offends any of them he will get no ernj>loynient from any of the combination. The boycott is omniscient and merciless. Naturally, the workers go to corresponding extremes, and gun Ipowder and dynamite are frequently factors cf the ultimate appeal in strikes. This tyranny and violence are not compatible with true democracy, which means mutual loyalty to human rights, as well as political and social equality. America has yet much to learn in this respect, and New Zealand, in her own interest, should make an indelible note of the fact.