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New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIII, Issue 13, 29 September 1909, Page 46

By

DELTA.

Join Davidson's Suicide. EADERS of the “Graphic” will have noticed that last weeek’s 1 V cables contained the informa- \ tion that the body of John Morrison Davidson, the poet and playwright, who disappeared from his home in Penzance on March 23 last, has been recovered from the sea off the Mousehole, near Penzance. The circumstances of his disappearance pointed to suicide, for he was a sufferer from cancer, and his brain had become affected. At heart John Davidson was a thorough individualist, and the man who could achieve the greatness of Napoleon was his ideal. Out of monsters he made heroes. Mammon, the great character in his most noteworthy work, does not scruple to murder his father and brother, and steal the latter’s bride, in order to gratify his individualistic will. But as a poet, Davidson’s work is full of great qualities and well worth reading. The following Chapter from “Anarchy: Its Methods and Exponents,” by Peter Latouche, will be of interest:—

The most famous and certainly the most learned Anarchist of British birth, is the well known journalist and author, John Morrison Davidson. He was born on July 31st, 1843, at Fetterangus, near Buchan, Aberdeenshire, and rejoices in being a “Scot of the Scots” as well as an internationalist. Like his famous brother, the late Professor Thomas Davidson, of Harvard University, U.S.A., bis unusual intellect excited attention at an age when most boys are mastering the intricacies of cricket. He became assistant master of the school at Buchan at the age of 14, and by the time he reached sixteen young Davidson was regarded as a leading Radical light by the advanced politicians of Aberdeenshire, on account of his famous leaders In the ‘'Peterhead Sentinel,” to which he regularly contributed. Davidson next became a student at Aberdeen University, lead for the Seotch Bar, married before lie was twenty, and-attracted-the attention of Lord Rosebery, whom he imbued with the views that made his lordship, in after years, so conspicuous as a municipal reformer! From his earliest years Davidson was the pride ami despair of his masters and professors. To this day he recalls with pride the consternation he caused when he, at the age of thirteen, gravely contended that Milton was a greater poet than Shakespeare, because he was a Republican! Davidson’s early manhood was spent in Edinburgh and Glasgow, where he was engaged as a schoolmaster, and filled np his spare time in writing for the leading Scotch and. English papers. In 1877 he came to London, and was called to the English Bar. but never practised, for even Sn his “Radical days” Davidson regarded fhe law as a dishonest profession. He was not long In London before he was appointed assistant editor of the eighth edition of tie

“Encyclopaedia Britannica,” and his contributions to the Radical Press made his name famous in Radical and Revolutionary circles. Study and refleetion caused him eventually to relinquish Radicalism for Socialism, and ultimately he became an avowed Anarchist, because he holds Anarchism to be the essence of Christianity applied to daily life. Christians who really follow Christ and understand His teachings must be Anarchists, Davidson contends, and he holds that the State and government in all forms is the personification of Anti-Christ! In a remarkable article written on the day King Humbert was assassinated, and published in “Reynold’s Newspaper” on August sth, 1900, Davidson thus refines his views on “Anarchy: True and False!” He says: “And let me say, in the first place, that those who ignorantly or wilfully seek to associate Anarchy with assassination are without excuse; for of all the isms true Anarchism is the farthest removed from any form of violence. Properly understood, Anarchy is neither more nor less than applied Christianity in all its primitive purity. But, needless to say, it is not properly understood by the desperate men who seek to propagate its principles by bomb, revolver, and dagger. Comtism, it has been said, is Roman Catholicism with God left out. In like way the Anarchy of a Santo, a Lucchenni, or a Bresei is Christianity with its distinctive element Dove (even for evildoers), left out and Terrorism put in its place. And just as the Communistic Anarchy taught by Christ is the best of all systems ever propounded or likely to be propounded in this world, so is Materialistic Anarchy the most abhorrent. The one is God’s Anarchy, the other the Devil’s. But there is yet another Anarchy worse by many degrees than that of Ducchenni, Kavachol. or Bresei—namely, the Anarchy of the German Kaiser, Queen Victoria’s hopeful grandson, who but yesterday actually gave to a horde of his Vikings sailing for China the memorable watchword: “Christ and No Quarter!” Such is the Imperial interpretation of the dicta of the Master, “If My kingdom were of this world (Age) then would My servants fight.” “Put up the sword: for they that take the sword shall perish by the sword.” In truth. Society, so-called Christian Society, trusts to precisely the same weapons of the flesh as the Materialistic Anarchist. Nay, the one lesson the State inculcates above all others is that there is no remedy but force! . The Christian Anarchist, therefore, is alone in a position to talk to the Anarchist of violence, or even to the State or Qoercionist Socialist in the gate. To the ethic of force he opposes the ethic of love . . . In slaying King of Italy, let it not be overlooked that Bresei has shown, when all is said, only how very well he has learned the very first lesson of the States—De Fide Propaganda—namely, that there is no remedy except “force!” If, for example, the misguided man in the military livery of the British Empire had gallantly gone forth to war and superintended the massacre of thousands of miserably-fleeced Egyptian fellaheen, or of half-armed Soudanese Dervishes in the interests of the Hon. Mr Shylock and his usurious shekels, he would have been a

hero of the first water, and his reward a peerage and £25,000. His Grace of Canterbury wcAld, moreover, have chimed in. with a lu&ty Te Deum Laudamus, and Church as well as State would have pronounced him blessed. As it is, Bresei has assassinated one man, not in the interests of Dives, but of Lazarus (as he imagined), and he is all but universally denounced as an unspeakable monster of iniquity! Well, be it so; but accepting, as I do, Fimpliciter the teaching of the Nazarene on the question of force, I still say, as a moral agent, that I would a thousand times rather stand at this hour in the shoes of Bresei, than in those of Brigand Roberts, Kitchener, Buller, Rundle, Hunter, Macdonald, or other, more or less, especially less, efficient murderer and freebooter now engaged in the devastation of the Transvaal.

“What are we to conclude?’’ asks Davidson, and then quotes Tolstoi in saying:— “To utilise violence is impossible; it would only cause reaction. To join the ranks of the Government is also impossible—one would only become its. instrument. One course, therefore, remains—to fight the Government by means of thoughts, speech, actions, life, neither yielding to government nor joining its ranks, thereby increasing its power. “This alone is needed: it will certainly be successful. But, it is usually asked, What will there be instead of governments? “There will be nothing. Something that has long been useless, and therefore superfluous and bad will be abolished. An organ that, being unnecessary, had become harmful will be removed.’’ “And this is the will of God, the teaching of Christ.” “Verily.” concludes Davidson, “The State is the Evil.” Davidson has published a large number of books dealing with historical and political questions. In advanced circles he is known as the “Historian of the Poor,” and it is claimed that one of his works, entitled: “The Old Order and the New,” published in 1892, has made more Socialists than any book ever printed. His writings, it is generally admitted, inspired Bellamy to write “Looking Backward.” While engaged in his historical researches some time ago, he discovered that long before Prudhon was born, a Scotch writer named Godwin propounded definite Anarchist theories, and Davidson as a Scotsman is naturallv proud of the fact. Davidson is a familiar figure in Fleet-street, and although a man of great learning, speaks with a marked Scotch accent. He rarely wears a collar, and frequently disports himself in a Scotch cap or “Tam o' Shanter.” No one who knows Davidson ever doubts his honesty, no matter how much they may disagree with his views, which he expresses courageously but somewhat dogmatically. Tolstoi holds him in great admiration, and perhaps the proudest moment in the life of the “Historian of the Poor” was when he received on his sixty-third birthday the following letter from the “Master,” on account of certain articles which had appeared in “Reynolds’ Newspaper,’’ and were afterwards published in book form, entitled “The Son of Man.” “Dear Friend, —I have received your very remarkable letter and book, ‘The Son of Man.’ I have read it with the same feeling with which I read all your books—the feeling that it is just what. I would have said on the same matter, but better and more energetically said. “Your opinion [adverse] of our Duma is, I regret to say, quite true. I hope that the fallacy of all this thing will be soon clear to everybody, and we Russians wil’ go another road. —With best wishes, yours truly, “LEO TOLSTOI.”