TOPICS CURRENT AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 228, 14 September 1877, Page 1

TOPICS CURRENT AT HOME AND ABROAD.

Tbs Honourable the Minister for Justice appears to borrow license from the proverbial blindness of the goddess he pretends to serve, and thus to claim immunity for the obliquity of vision with which he looks back upon the records of his candidature for the district he represents, and reads there the promises made by him to those who are now his constituents. We are informed by a most trustworthy correspondent, writing from Rangiora, that the gentleman to whom we refer is affirmed by reliable members of his constituency to have distinctly promised, when soliciting their support, that he would strive to abolish the grievances from which Catholics suffered on the important point of education, — a promise which went far in securing for him the collective vote by which his return to Parliament was ensured, and which vote was that of Catholics. It is certainly rather inconsistent that a man supposed capable of preparing a Bill for the education of the children of the colony should prove flagrantly wanting in regard for truth, attachment to which forms so necessary an element in all education. Perhaps, however, the Hon. Minister holds to the venerable maxim that faith with " Papists " is not to be kept ; or, when making his electioneering promises, he may have adopted the tactics of those creations of calumny, Pascal's •' Jesuits," arid, while proffering his aid to Catholics in bland and persuasive tones, repeated sotto voce, as a salve to conscience, " I'd see you hanged first." A slight degree of exaggeration in candidates for Parliamentary honours is to be looked for, but few examples have occurred of men, on election, sitting down in cold blood to outrage any particular portion of their constituency -to which they had especially promised redress and protection. We trust, therefore, that the name of the Honourable the Minister for Justice will, for future needs, be embalmed in the minds of all honest electors — if indeed we may fitly use the term " embalm " of so unsavoury a subject.

We learn that, in order to prevent a scandalous breach of the Sabbath, the swings which stood on the Ocean Beach have been removed. The course of theological reasoning that led to bo sage a conclusion and determined the peculiar method of exercise in question to be the insurmountable stumbling-block par excellence, might be curious to follow. To our certain knowledge there are folk who are mischievous enough to take a special delight in watching the anxiety with which a particular school of would-be Orthodox seeks to enforce the rigorous observance of the first day of the week ; for they discern in it a contradiction and a general obfuscation of the understanding that is extremely amusing. There is not a word in the Bible, from the first chapter of Genesis to the last of the Apocalypse, that commands the observance of the day alluded to, and our " evangelical " divines in upholding it are simply paying an involuntary homage to the authority of the Church which they reject. They keep the first day of the week holy because Catholic tradition commands that it is to be so ; and they do well so far, but they are unable to rest within due bounds, and therefore strike out a strange path for themselves, — that is, a kind of medium between the Christian Lord's Day and the Jewish Sabbath, and which, while it exacts a starched line of demeanour totally foreign to the one, is much too lax to suit the requirements of the other. The fact is, these people are in the matter hardly accountable ; they have been educated in an iron-bound groove from which the emancipation of their minds is all but impossible. They are influenced neither by reason nor religion, but prejudice and custom lead them by the ndse. Qhacun $ eon gout. We do not object to their

proceeding themselves according to their lights ; the grievance is that they should seek to impose their groundless regulations upon those who are not inclined by habit to respect them, but their doing so is in accordance with the " liberty of conscience " that prevails generally at the present day.

In view of the Republican victory whose imminence is reported from France, the question naturally arises as to what its effect will be on the peace and prosperity of the nation in question. It appears to us that, supposing the Republic to be firmly established on a moderate basis, without that tendency to communism which is more than suspected of lurking amongst its principal supporters, the most becoming step that the President could take would be to retire. But if he has sufficient reason to believe that, by doing so, he would but pave the way for anarchy, he cannot vacate his position without renouncing the pledge by which he bound himself at his election, when he promised, " with the aid of God and the devotion of the army, ... to maintain internal peace, and the principles upon which society rests." Meantime, that the Republicans should have the majority is in nothing unexpected. The votes of the peasantry — no inconsiderable item — were certain to be accorded to the party represented by M. Thiers, because that veteran statesman was regarded by the class referred to as the representative of order; and although his death has occurred at this awkward crisis, time has not been given for tlm consideration that might affect the candidates connected in the mind of the working men with their trusted leader. Had such been the case, the result might have been different, for fears would naturally have arisen of a fusion of moderate Republican representatives with those of extreme views, — a matter that would have inclined the votes of the peasauts in favour of the party held likely to be supported by the military, which in all probability would have been the Bonapartists. On the other hand, the fact that the Republicans have carried the day, notwithstanding their agitation and the violence of Gambetta, bears a particularly sinister aspect, for it was confidently asserted in political circles that their victory depended on their show of moderation ; and that, despite their transgression on this important point, they have gained the day, seems to indicate the possibility that the country is not so determined on the continuance of tranquillity, under any circumstances, as was supposed to be the case. On the whole, then, should the matter result in a coup d'etat, we should be by no means astonished, but would accept it as an additional proof that a Republic in France is impossible — so long, at least, as the " ideal " for which Garibaldi affirms that he fought, and concerning which so much nonseuse has been written and talked, is allowed to cast its shadow over the sober realities of actual government — so long as license and sentiment are allowed to usurp the place of reason and liberty in the minds of French Republicans. It may be true that the late Emperor led the army " from the Boulevard Montmartre to Sedan " — from the ignominious slaughter of its fellow-citizens to the ignominy of defeat ; but it must be acknowledged that during the interval of nearly twenty years that lay between the two events, the state of the country was far from unwholesome, and that even yet it experiences the salutary effects of the regime that then prevailed. Should a coup d'Stat, then, take place that would result in the restoration of the Empire, it might reasonably be hoped that, profiting by the lessons of the past, its faults would be avoided, and its benefits continued or renewed, so that the gain in material prosperity would atone for the sacrifice of ideas.

The war news brought by the San Francisdo mail is

simply confirmatory of that already received by telegram, of which it furnishes fuller details. The rashness of the Russians in assuming that the Turks would retire before their advance, so as to leave them a fair road to Constantinople, has proved their bane, and by their imprudent haste they have involved themselves in difficulties that may result in concluding the pg?ampaign to their prejudice. The Turks have recovered an that seemed to have died out from amongst them, but which, nevertheless, certain of those who had opportunities for judging asserted to he only latent, as it has proved. We confess that from the time in which it was rumoured that the astute German Chancellor was secretly noxious to promote the war, we had entertained a suspicion that events might turn out in some such manner as we now see to be the case, for it is quite clear that it would by no means suit the ultimate object of Bismarck to have upon the frontier of the Empire a great power capable of surpassing it in strength, and at all times the possible ally of France, or any other hostile country. Therefore, it would chime in with the tactics of this messiah of a dishonest policy that, while he appeared to remember and reward the former forbearance of Russia by observing a strict neutrality, he should have plotted in private to involve her in a war which he had ascertained was likely to prostrate her by defeat, or, at least, to offer such a conquest as would be attended by weakness and the necessity for prolonged peace. As to the actual combatants, their warfare appears to be — as, indeed, it could hardly avoid being — characterised by the utmost brutality, and of such a nature that the interest felt in the success or defeat of either party must be based alone uprm the results likely to follow from it. Between the ruthless fire and sword of the Bashi-Bazouk and those of the Russian there is little to choose, and if the numbers of victims who have perished horribly under the murderous hands of the former surpass that of those who have met with a like cruel fate from the latter, the reason must be sought elsewhere than in any of those traits which raise mankind above the level of beasts. We rejoice in the Turkish successes, not from any sympathy with the evil race concerned, but because we believe that the victory of their foe would be attended with calamities widespread and untold. The very mercies of these latter are cruel. The missions of their religion themselves are conducted, not by persuasion as elsewhere, even amongst heretics, but by the sword and scourge. Their emperor falls sick at the repulse of his arms, but he feels not a qualm when tortures are inflicted at his bidd ng upon peaceful subjects whose only fault is fidelity to their faith. His own reverses fall heavily upon him, but the manner in which they affect him is no more an index to a humane nature than are the false words that have so often dropped from his lips a proof of the justice of his intentions. We would gladly believe, then, that the defeat of the Russians would prove lasting .and complete, but we fear that it is but temporary. The whole force of the Empire will indubitably be brought to bear upon the enemy before it is resolved to relinquish the struggle ; and we do not believe that the power of the Turks will be capable of sustaining so great a strain eventually. We are afraid that the most that can be looked for is a check to Russian progress for a time by a victory that will cost the people in question dear, and of the policy of other countries will prevent their reaping full benefit. But even so much will be something gained.

That the hero Achilles should, in the beginning of his career, ply the distaff, disguised amongst the daughters of Lycomedes, was, under the circumstances in which he found himself placed, easily comprehensible, and rather a matter for congratulation than otherwise ; but that, in the evening of their days, men of heroic parts should be driven by the necessities of life on occupations ordinarily associated with the gentler sex, is much to be lamented. The report, nevertheless, reaches us from San Francisco that there are to be found in the States hundreds of unhappy beings, who held their own amongst the heroes of the late Civil War, but who are now bending to labour over the wash-tub, where we may imagine them enshrouded in fumes of soap-suds, rising up murkily like the mist of Dante's bog, while they chant in dirge-like numbers the childish refrain, admirably, alas ! fitted to their condition — Nous n'irons plus an bois, Les lauriers sont coupes. We, however, gather that the cause of this shrivelling up of reaped laurels amidst the steam of the wash-tub is traced to the superabundance of Chinese labour that has been introduced into the country, and our sympathies warmly go out to

the unfortunates in question. It- seems to us a very mistaken policy that encourages the unlimited immigration of Chinamen into any civilized community. The advantages to bo derived from their presence are not at any time excessive, and when weighed against the objections that may rationally be found with it, they fade into utter insignificance. Revolting immorality, uncleanliness, addiction to the use of a noxious drug, and a reputation well deserved for an unequalled dexterity in thieving, such are the qualifications which in our highly civilized colonies, no less than in America, it is thought that it would be an outrage on the Constitution to exclude. Verily all things have their limits beyond which it is dangerous to move, and, if we mistake not, iv the matter of Chinese immigration such limits are not over wide. We can hardly find it in our hearts to pass a very heavy sentence on them, if in the mob of " hoodlums" who are reported to have planned the extermination of the people referred to, of late at San Francisco, there was to be found a considerable percentage of our misapplied heroes ; or if, failing fresh struggles in "which to gather legitimate laurels, they had grown so oonfused by the unmanly method of their labour as to seek for a dubious glory in revenge on the promoters of their torment.

The echoes of that Castle of Insolence, the Parliamentary buildings at Wellington, can hardly ever have been awakened by coarser sounds than those in which the inexcusable and unwarranted attack upon Sir George Grey by the Honorable the Minister for Public Works has been made. The gross manner iv which the high-minded gentleman in question has been branded as a trickster and liar, and the ill-conditioned' schoolboy-like tone in which certain names — as if of Tom, Dick, and Harry — have been invoked in support of a false accusation, are disgusting in the extreme. We need scarcely I wonder that tyrannous and foolish measures should be introduced by a Ministry amongst whom falsehood, shamelessness, and vulgarity preponderate ; and it would indeed be ominous were the House found capable of enduring so insufferable a clique. We are at a loss to determine which of the two was the most revolting — the brazen-faced, bullying accusations, or the shuffling growl with which, when the baselessness of the whole mud edifice had been proved — when it was shown beyond controversy that Sir George had never dabbled questionably iv land, had never been condemned by his friends | as untruthful, and when the letters appealed to as capable of establishing his guilt, though present, were not considered safe to meddle with, the Honorable Mr. Ormond refused to retreat from the ugly situation in which he had recklessly involved himself. Verily the acquiring of land from the Natives is not a refining process, and if a profound contempt for our rulers retains possession of us, we hold .ourselves free from blame, " Hoc, hoc tribuno militum ! " During the debate the Honorable Mr. Whitaker likewise distinguished himself by the rudeness and unscrupulousness of his remarks. On the whole, the Government is to be congratulated on the acquisition it possesses in its libellous sheet, the Waka Maori, and the Thersites-like eloquence of Ministers.