Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 260, 26 April 1878, Page 1

Current Topics

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HE rejection of the measure introduced last Februaiy into the Imperial Parliament for the reclamation of the waste lauds of Ireland is a further proof, if such were needed of the unfitness of the British House of Commons to deal with purely Irish matters. Mr. Macarthy stated that of the whole area of the lands of Ireland, four million acres, or about one-fifth, were hog and swamp. His proposal "•was that Government should undertake to reclaim these lands, making it compulsory on their present proprietary to part with them for this purpose, of course at a just scale of remuneration, and that they should then he disposed of to peasant farmers, who would refund the money expended on their purchase and reclamation. It is needless to speak a word in favour of the measure, which recommends itself clearly to the judgment of all unprejudiced men, Indeed the evident advantage to be gained from the reclamation itself was too'clear to admit of much opposition on that score ; although Lord Crichton rather foolishly adduced, in opposing the measure, the instance of certain lands in Fermanagh which he said had been successfully relaimed and cultivated, but after some time given up by the farmers who held them and allowed to become once more shelter for grouse. His Lordship did not enter into any explanations by which it might be gathered how far a desire for exorbitant rents, or a fancy for the return of the land in question to the sole occupancy of game might have determined the ultimate fate of the lands in question, but if we may judge by the barren aspect [at present shown by other districts in Ireland, which were also once successfully cultivated, there need not be much doubt that some such cause led to the desertion spoken of by him. The measure was objected to, not because it. was thought, so far as its main feature was concerned, unreasonable, but because certain of its clauses made provisions to which exception was taken. It was objected to by some members who considered that it interfered unjustifiably with the rights of landlords, and by others because they questioned the -wisdom of creating a class of peasant proprietors. Yet if the interests of individuals— and indeed m this case rather their whims, or pastimes— were allowed to stand m the way few great national undertakings would be carried out. While we can fancy nothing more desirable in any country than, to have settled upon its soil an industrious and prosperous population, such as that of Ireland would undoubtedly be if they were certain of iixed tenure, and the fear of the cormorant landlord were removed. But the time has yet to come, it seems, when Irish landlords will be regarded in England in their true light, as being the bane and hindrance of the country ; and when it will he admitted that the great principle universal]y recognised at the present day in reference to other lauds must in all justice be extended to Ireland, so that she also may be declared tho legitimate possession of her own people — Ireland for the Irish.

To tbobe who remember the high-sounding boasts with which the secular system was established in Victoria some live years ago, it cannot fail to be instructive when they find that the great expectations then so confidently expressed have resulted in disappointment. At that time we were told that the panacea for all social and political ills had been discovered, and that the golden age was about to issue from the Government Schools. The contrary, however, appears to have been the case ; five years have passed, and as yet hardly any thing has been accomplished. So little, indeed, has been effected, that it is now admitted the system, if it is eventually to succeed, must be completely remodelled. Such, at least, is the conclusion which I'iofcssor Pearson in his report appears to have arrived at,— a conclusion which people of ordinary understanding might, perhaps, be held excusable in looking upon as highly condemnatory of the system in question. The system, however, is not to be condemned, it is to be remodelled, and the learned Professor, who has pronounced upon it, is to be rewarded by the appointment of head of the education department. A matter which, by the way, may lead to consequences that will hereafter require examination into, at the hands of some other

expert, for Professor Pearson, gives expression to a notion or two on the subject of educ. „ , ,t that may lead to startling results. For the present, suffice it to c . , that gentleman is greatly bent on compulsion. The whole dut. of man he conceives to be that of inculcating devotion to the je E.s upon the rising generation, and with a view to the enforce:- out of this duty he would introduce certain new and stringent regulations into the measure in question. He would have parents— who will certainly arrive at the suspicion, at least, that it is a desideratum to be free from •• incumbrances" — obliged to register their families with the nearest dominie. Dogberry is about to be multiplied ! He would.have an official elected to fill a most enviable post, who would be known to persons speaking with propriety as the " Traant Inspector ; " and amongst whose pleasing duties would be that of caning extra-refractory members at the bidding of the school-master. To increase the popularity of .this person, moreover, Professor Pearson would have him maintained at the expense of the district to which it was found" necessary to appoint him. In short, we may observe, en passant, that if individuals could be found of sufficient meanness of spirit, and yet strong- bodied enough, to fufil the duties of the office, it would afford a proof of the degeneracy of. the times and colony. It now proves the fertility of the Professor's invention in the matter of " publicans and sinners." This gentleman would, finally, have Government examinations held of all children receiving private instruction, and in cases where such, children were pronounced not up to the standard, and there would we imagine be many such cases, he would have them forced into the Government schools — which measure is rather a dangerous one to propose, for we can fancy instances in which it would be the duty of parents to resist such a mandate as if it were an attempt upon life or honour. It would undoubtedly have been so in the case of those schools wherein the seed of destruction had been sown in the hearts of those women of whom Professor Agassiz has told us, and fathers would be as much bound to resist it as if it were the direct order to imprison their innocent children in the houses in which Agassiz found them. It would be so, likewise, with regard to those schools in which the New York Society for the Prevention of Vice informs us obscene books are freely circulated. We do not believe the secular system will prove one whit more cleanly in Australia than it has {proved in America. The system, however, has so far failed in Victoria. "I do not," says Professor Pearson, "regard an average attendance of 40 per cent, or less with any f eeling but dismay, when I consider what our expenditure has been." It remains to be seen how far the rigorous enforcement of compulsion will mend matters, or whether even this will succeed in. bringing up the rate of increase to what it was under the former system, and of which it now falls short.

Dr. Cumming, we perceive, is still amongst the prophets. The rev. seer appears to have been in no way discouraged by the failure of previous predictions. He is of better heart, and when the years he has now and again declared as, severally, the last which, the world was to witness had passed, and left this terrestrial ball still swinging intact around the sun, he simply wiped out the page he had inscribed, and commenced all over again, to the admiration and satisfaction of himself and his followers. The rev. doctor now declares that the crescent is " waning in a mist of blood and slaughter." A rather prettily turned expression we admit, but hardly one that it requires second-sight to suggest. He announces fiu-ther that the " cross will soon supplant the crescent," and it is respecting this that we desire a little information. What cross does the prophetic gentlemen allude to ? Does he mean the Russo-Greek cross, which is not very much more a sign of Christianity than is the crescent itself 'I Or does he, peradventure, mean the Presbyterian cross ? which, if our eyesight does not deceive us, and the summit of the First Church steeple in Dunedin may be relied* upon as a criterion, it strikes us bears a strong resemblance to something horticultural, and, in fact, to a kind of trophy of green-grocery, rather than an emblem of religion. However, if there were to be found any patriarchal fish surviving from heathen days in the waters of the Bosphorus, the Teflection of such an adornment there from the dome of St. Sophia might excusably lead them to conclude that the worship of Ceres had been rcvivod upon the earth. We doubt, even if Dr. Camming wprc possessed of a power kindred to that of St. Francis

of Paula, or St. Anthony, whether his facile interpretations would be able to convince them that such a symbol was worthy of Christianity, and fit to replace the sigu which led to the conversion of the founder of Constantinople. The crescent, at least, is emblematic of ■what was once a mighty empire, but the pineapple (?) of nothing.

We can have no better proof of the desperation into -which the loss of personal charms drives certain members of the fair sex than that afforded by the continued patronage accorded to Madame Kachel. The craving to be " beautiful for ever" has been strong enough to induce ladies of good position to have recourse to this woman's doubtful services, notwithstanding the exposes that have occurred throughout her career, and which, it might have been thought, most have been sufficient to have blasted her reputation even in respect to the unworthy trade carried on by her, and shovm her to be, where her professed art was concerned, an impostor ; while social extinction was well known to be the penalty that awaited her published victims. This effort to retain beauty of appearance for a longer period than nature has decreed that it shall be retained is certainly one of the gravest weaknesses that marks the female character, and it is a blemish that is as incomprehensible as it is disfiguring. It is, indeed, most difficult to understand what satisfaction can be derived from the belief that admiration is accorded to the paint and enamel that adorn skin which has lost its smoothness and delicate tints, or to a head adorned with luxuriant tresses that by no means belong to it. It is as irrational to take pleasure in such an admiration .as it would be, almost ' to feel a personal conceit in that bestowed upon the waxen lineaments of a liy figure in the nearest hairdresser's window. But it is too true that a tendency to seek for spurious admiration of the kind is not only in existence, but strongly on the increase. The extravagance of fashion is said to be growing daily, and the promenades of Paris, its chief fountain, are now said to exhibit a devotion to dress that has never been equalled. Yet it remains true that dress is impotent to confer the chamis that are demanded from it. In many instances it disfigures rather than adorns, and it frequently takes weeks for the eye to grow accustomed to some freak of taste introduced by those who lead the fashionable world in this regard. What Acldison has said of the head is worthy of all attention :— " I would desire the fair bex to consider how impossible it is for them to add anything that can be ornamental to what is already the masterpiece of nature. The head has the most beautiful appearance, as well as the highest station ? in a human figure. Nature has laid out all her art in beautifying the i'ace ; she has touched it with vermilion, planted in it a double row of ivory, made it the seat of smiles and blushes, lighted it up and enHveued it with the brightness of the eyes, hung it on each side with curious organs of sense, given it airs and graces that cannot be described, and surrounded it with such a flowing shade of hair as sets all its beauties iv the most agreeable light. In short, she seems to have designed the head as a cupola to the most glorious of her works ; and when we load it with such a pile of supernumerary ornaments, we destroy the symmetry of the human figure, .and foolishly contrive to cull off the eye from great and real beauties, to childish gewgaws, ribbons, and bone-lace."

Pkaoe or war, which is it to be ? It is not as yet determined but matters do not look very cheerful. What the effect of the attitude of Roumauia may be on the question we arc hardly as yet in a position to judge, for we have not had the advantage of learning the opinions of those at home, more intimately acquainted with the ins and outs of European politics. The two most remarkable articles on the situation brought here by the mail arc that of Mr. Gladstone in the Xineteeih Century, and that of M. dc Lavelcyc in the Fortnightly, but neither includes a view of the present complication. Mr. GladbtoncWf,r leprous thnl lluumaiiia should not be deprived of Bessarabia, &vi considered the matter as a question to be decided upon by the States bordering on the Danube, and he did not seem to foresee thai Iloumania would offer an armed resistance to the demands o^ Russia. 31. do Laveleye, whose paper contains a sketch of the most satisfactory settlement of the difficulty that appears possible, made no provision for the establishment of Russia within the Balkan Peninsula, or in fact at all upon the Danube. His plan was for autonomous provinces, with an Austrian protectorate of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that Turkey should be allowed to suffer her inevitable fate of decay. He did not consider that the interests of England in the East were threatened by the Russian advance in Asia, which he looked upon as certain to prove a source of weakness to the latter power. Ho believed that England, should she bo guilty of undue interference, would ba isolated ; but although he affirms the impotency of Austria to take action without the cordial support of Germany, ami considers France to be the natural ally of Russia, and further relics upon the good sense and Stirling qualities of the present French Ministry for the preservation of peace, he admits the possibility of .England's persuading France aud Austria to form an alliance with her. ami consequently the possibility of her committing the great

crime of provoking a general war. Of a probable coercion by Russia of Roumania he say.s uothing, and this now appears likely to exercise an important influence in detei'mining to which side the balance is to incline. The Journal des Bebats, the French constitutionalist organ, we perceive expro&sot, doubts of the sincerity of Prince Bismarck's mediation. ; we confess we participate in such doubts. The great chancellor has throughout his career been known for so iar-sighted a plotter, so systematic and patient in designing and working out the measures that seemed desirable to him that it is impossible to place any reliance upon him, or to say what it may be, that he, in truth, is bent on until his ends have been gained, and published to the world. It may be true that a great war would not now suit Germany, but it may also be true that a war in which she would not be obliged to take part, but which would facilitate her annexation of Holland, may seem to her statesmen far from undesirable. However it may be, we may be persuaded that Bismarck's mediation, sincere or insincere, is intended for the ultimate benefit of his own cotintry, rather than for that cf either of the two other powers concerned.