Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 45, 7 March 1884, Page 1

Current Topics

AT SOME AND ABROAD

The New York jPribune gives some particulars of the relative popularity of novel writers in his city, that on consideration are more curious than important. It is, for example, of but little significance to be told that of the four novelists, Thackeray, Dickens, Bulwer and Scott. Thackeray is the favourite, and "Vanity Fair " his most popular work. Such facts as these hardly give us much insight into the minds of New York novel-readers or afford any indications as to the tone of the society they form. That Mr. Wilkie Collins, Mrs. Henry Wood, and " Ouida," have lost ground] among the novel-readiDg public would be more suggestive, as well as more satisfactory, were we not told that new books by Miss Braddon are widely read, and that among the readers of French novels Zola is popular. But, as it is, we fear there is hardly any trace to be found in the fact of a purer taste on the part of novel-reader. Miss Braddon, indeed, is not so directly mischievous as Mr. Wilkie Collins or " Ouida," and it does not require so vacant a mind for the enjoyment of her compositions as it does to enjoy those of the utterly silly, gossiping, prosy and withal immoral Mrs Henry Wood; but her writing is quite sufficiently of the same class as that of these other writers to show that there is scarcely an elevation in the popular taste that prefers it. Of Zola there is nothing to be said except that his works are all that is hideous and revolting, and such as should be allowed to stigmatize every house into which they are admitted— As works of art they are failures, and the street life, the morceau dc rue, they essay to depict is the life of streets into which no respectable man or woman should venture by day or by night. We do not see, then, that there is very much insight gained into the condition of society in New York by these paiticulars published by the Tribune-ov rather, perhaps, the insight they do afford is not, on the whole, particularly encouraging. And. yet in this field of noveMvading by the rejection of the bad°and the choice of the good, we should be able to form a very cheering view of ihe condition of society. At this time of the world there arc few people of enlightenment who will unrestrictedly condemn the reading of novels. St. Teresa, indeed, has spoken harshly of her own early addiction to the study of romances. She male it the matter of abundant self-reproach, and laid to its charge many of the faults, such as they were, of her after life. She went further, and uttered the conviction that it was a special snare of the devil's, and the means by which, Lad she persevered in it, and not been recalled by the great mercy of God, she would have inevitably have been lost. And, allowing for the severity of the saint towards herself, for the clearer eye in discerning the true nature of all that was worldly, and the fuller view of the mysteries of heaven, we may still recog. aize that in what she said about this matter also, as in everything else where St. Teresa was concerned, there was an element of com. mon sense even such as it is in keen-minded and prudent people of no exceptional piety, for who can tell what mighc not have been the effects of an unrestrained addiction to romance on her part ? By nature she felt more deeply and acted more ardently than other people, and the young girl who, as a little child, had gone away from home to seek for martyrdom in the Holy Land might in all probability have been led into strange courses by the effects upon her imagination of romance reading. There may have been more, then, than the self-reproach of the Faint in the way in which St. Teresa looked back upon her days of indulgence in such a practice! But for ordinary people at the present day we hold a good novel to be occasionally a very good thing— and there are various aspects under which it is useful.— The study of character, for example, as drawn by a master hand is useful. The proper study of mankind is wan, and there is no where he may be more pleasantly studied than in a good novel.— He may be studied there also with advantage— to the knowledge of what there-is in him to be avoided or guarded against — to that of the respects in which he is to be pitied, or encouraged, or aided. Examples, in fact, of all the situations to be encountered in life may be found in such pages, and very useful instruction gay be obtained there as to the conduct desirable with respect to

NOTKL BEADING

them. Nor are th« feelings awakened by the fictitious characters of romance to be altogether despised. There can, it is true, be no sight more contemptible than that of some siJly person, mostly a woman of some kind, crying o^er the mawkish sentiment of snm irashy writer—but where thR .sentiment is pood, and pure, nn-1 noMe there is nothing to condemn even in the tears that am shed over if.. Who, for instance, could "believe the teirs dishunonvable that were shed at reading the story of Paul Dombey's life and death, or that of the fate of Fergus Mclvor, or of Maggie and Tom Tulliver overwhelmed in the flood, or at certain scenes Thackeray describes in " Vanity Fair.'|— For example, "No more firing was heard at Brussels—the pursuit rolled miles away. Darkness canje down on the field and city : and Amelia was praying for George, who was lying on his faoe dead with a bullet through his heart." The feelings awakened by j such descriptions as these-— and others, of goodness, self-sacrifice, happiness, biavery, joy, and much more— provided such descriptions be true and genuine— are wholesome and praisworthy. Wordsworth, again, speaking of the River Yarrow, writes thus :— "Nor deem that localised romance Plays false with our affections : Unsanctifies our tears — made sporb For fanciful dejections : Ah, no ! the visions of the past Sustain the heart in feeling Life as she is -our changeful life, With friends and kindred dealing." —And the visions of pure and masterly fiction may have a like effect. Nevertheless, whatever we may urge in favonr of novel reading, we are far from advocating it as practised excessively. On the contrary, we are convinced that the excessive readiug of even good novels is exceedingly mischievous. It impairs the memory a* applied to more weighty matters ; it weakens the powers of attention, and encourages dreamy habits that arc full of mischief. Novel reading, as we have said, well exercised, is a useful study or an agreeable and wholesome amuse-nent, but it is a bad habit and one that is perhaps even more mischievous than complete idleness— or rather complete abstinence from reading, for such a habit in itself is idleness. The habit of reading bad novels, and by bad novels we do not mean vicious ones— whose reading is infamy pure and simple—but those merely that are ill written and silly, is a fit training for people who desire to become fools, and we know of hardly any moro effectual way towards such an end, more especially as the frame of miud of those who enter upon it is most favourable to the development to be expected. Nothing, however, that the New Yoik Tribune lays before us enables us to determine as to the degree in which novels generally are read in New York, and, therefore, we have no grounds upon which to calculate as to the intellectual standing of the people in question.

TUB WAR IN THE SO UDAN.

The account of General Graham's victory over tbo rebel Arabs is extremely satisfactory, and it id (o be hoped that further victories are in the near future. The Government of the Soudan in itself may not be a matter of any great concern to England or to anyone outside its own boundaries, but the cause of humanity should enlist the sympathies of all civilised men against the Mahdi and his followers. In them we see only cruel fanatics, on whose success nothing could follow except what was lamentable and bad,— and whose success, moreover, might possibly be followed by Tery disastrous results elsewhere— for although the Mahommcdan ■world is not very likely under any circumstances to recognize thie man as the great Prophet whom it looks for, it is highly probable that a successful career on his part might gain for him the reputation generally throughout the world in question of being one of that prophet's forerunners,— several of whom, according to the tradition, there are to be. If, then, any weakness or vacillation on the part of the Gladstone Cabinet has in any degree been conducive to the advance or extension of this rebellion the Cabinet has acted very reprehensibly, and fully deserved the vote of censure from which a small majority saved it. Tt is idle to talk of infringing the rights of Home Rule in this matter, as some people have done. That British soldiers have been kept in Egypt has been the salvation of the country from an invading horde, before whom without their aid such traces of civilieatiou as the unfortunate country possesses must iu-

evitably perish. Bat there is such a thing as being the fanatical advocates even of so just a national right as Home Rule, and we doubt very much as to whether those people who have spoken hotly on the matter with regard to Egypt all along have not, in fact, been such advocates. Those at least who have given due consideration to the events connected with the outbreak of Arabi Pasha cannot fail to be rationally convinced that in his downfall a most- evil power was overthrown, and that the Home Rule Egypt would have enjoyed nnder his control would have been one of misery for her people. The English government in Egypt, in fact, has been necessary for the welfare of the country, and while it continues to be necessiry for that it is to be desired that it may be prolonged. It is one thing to claim that a country [capable of exercising self-government for its own good, and notably governed to its detriment for the good of another country should have its rights conceded to it ; it is quite another thing to complain because a foreign and humane power restrains a country that unrestrained would become a blot upon humanity. England in Egypt has beeen, as she has been in India, a power exeicising a comparative beneficialand necessary sway. For whatever may be they faults of British rule in India — and we cannot doubt that in several respects it has been and still continues far from, perfect— there can be no donbt of its having been immeasurably better than the native rale, so that to see it terminated before the native population had undergone a complete change, and benefited very fully by all that education could do for them would be a huge calamity, and one to b 3 deplored by every friend of humanity. If the Irish party, therefore, in Parliament voted against the Government we may conclude they were justified iv doing co without any reference to Irish affairs, and merely in condemnation of a policy that had in itself been bad. Andjshould they still continue to vote with a view of preserving Egypt from being given up to anarchy, we do not see that they can be reasonably accused of acting in any way inconsistently with their advocacy of Home Eule for Ireland— for it is a rational system of government they advocate, and by no means anything anarchic. At all events we trust, as we believe, they will support any steps necessary to confine the Mahdi within due bounds, and prevent the evil effects of his continued success.

In another place we publish the report given by MB. henry the Dublin Freeman of Mr. Henry George's address geougk's at St. James's Hall. But, although we publish this theoeies, rpport, we by no means desire to be understoDd as being in agreement with the theories of the speaker. On the contrary, we are further removed than before we had read this speech from the solution of the difficulties we had already seen in the project of land-nationalisation. — We hai seen nothing of advantage to be gained from the fulfilment of this project, which might not as well be obtained by the creation of apsasant pnprietory, and the provisions of t\n Code Napoleon ; we now see very clearly that Mr. George's project for the nationalisation of the land is one that must inevitably lead to a complete system of communism. Under it we should have classes in the receipt of a pansion from the State, and half the population of the country supported by a fund that would only differ from a charitable fund because the people in receipt of it would have an acknowledged right to such a receipt a distinction without a difference, whose particular beauty we fail to perceive. Indeed, we see its ugliness, on the contrary, for people supported in idleness by the labour of others, and without the humility that such a positioo should naturally beget, would be people possessed of a very ugly callousness, if not of a dirty pride, and encouraged in much that was objectionable. We should have simply the landlord classes vulgarised and vastly extended, and the agriculturist must still labour to support people who lived in idleness on the sweat of his brow. — Is it probable, we may ask in passing, that the agiicultural classes would long continue content with such a condition of things? But somewhat similar arguments with those applied to prove the right of the whole population to be joint owners of the land of a country are applicable to all other kinds of property, and if the land were taxed for the support of the people generally, capital and property of all kinds should be taxed for a like end and in due proportion — and thus we should reach communism pure and simple. We are sorry, then, to find ourselves oblige! to acknowledge that the task Mr. Henry George is at present engaged upon is the advocacy of a mischievous Utopia, and we are the more sorry since we have a very high appreciation of the motives as well as the abilities of the gentleman in question. — It is, however, only another instance in which a clever man adopts a false theory, and by means of his very cleverness blinds himself to] the nature of the position' he seeks to maintain. It is, then, to be regretted that an agitation of such a nature should have set in among the English missis ; and the more so since it is particularly adapted to the temper of the times, and the degree of education that has been conferred upon the working men. We have seen Mr. George enthusiastically received on his arrival in London, and enthusiastically suppoxtid at the meeting addressed by him, and there can be no doubt but that the ear of the masses is open to him, and their mind ready and willing to be

impressed by what he has to say to them. We may expect, therefore, that mischief greater or less will be the result, and if there is any good to follow from his undertaking, it will -only be by the legislature's taking tb.3 matter up, and passing such land laws for the three kingdoms as will satisfy the people, and form the most formidable bulwark against theories of the kind in question. He, for example, would be a bold man who Bhould undertake a campaign iv the interests of land-nationalisation in France or Belgium.— lt is also to ba regretted that Mr. Davitt should have introduced himself to the Euglish public in thisleonnection, and particularly because no system could be more injurious to Ireland than that which is thua advocated. The Irish people need, on the contiary, encouragement and instruction in self-reliance and persevering industry, for an effect of the long oppression they have suffered has undoubtedly been to discourage them in both these particulars, and a system of national charity, even under another name, is by no means one to conduce towards such an oad. We do not, .however,^believe that the danger of the project's obtaining favour in Ireland is very great ; — folk there are suspicious of the meddling of Government, and it is doubtful as to whether they would not almost as willingly continue the tenants of the old landlords as bjcome those of the new one. It is» nevertheless, a p ty that Mr. Davitt should have adopted a coarse that must, at least, in a c jnsiderable degree, perplex the people whose interests he has most of all anl most truly at heart. But there is consolation in the thought that he is a man perfectly devoid of selfishness of any kind, and who will never permit a hobby, however dear, to lead him to compromise the cause of the Irish people, or divide himself from it.— We refer oar rsalers to the caref 'il consideration of Mr. George's speech.

A NEWSPAPfIa in Invercargill, we are told, is very SUKE it WAS anxious thai the Dublia Freeman should be expelled the jack- ass? from the local Athenfeum. We have not seen the article in quesuon, and we are sorry for it, because it is always instructive, as well as amusing, to read the ipsissiniaverba that coutain sentiments which are antediluvian or otherwise out of the common. Patriarchal, indeed, must be the mind in which respect for constituted authorities roaches such a pitch that for it to find any of the powers that be caricatured is a trial not to be endured. The modern world is no fit abode for such a mind, and the days of the divine right of kings, and St. Cnarles the Martyr would have been more in harmony with it— and yet hardly the days of St. Charles the Martyr, for did not the forbears of the Invercargill majority treat him to something worse than a caricature? But wherein is the Freeman's offending ? Is the editorial b.east sat upon in night-mares by whole tons' weight of the pictorial John Bull ?— we admit the Freeman makes him very big, and it would be embarra-ing to be haunted by him in dreams of his ill-usage. Or is it Lord Spencer's red nose that glows through thy darkn-.si of the night? Qc has that caricature of the donkey whereby Orangeism is represented, touched a sore spot and insulted sotne familiar remembrance or tender association? Some mysterious cause we are driven to seek for, since no man in his sober senses can possibly object to political caricatures on any reasonable grounds. — But, if thj- donkey, especially, has awakened indignant sympathy, the matter is quite easily explained. Meantime, our worthy contemporary the Southland Times has not a word of blame for the caricatures of Punch.— They may be admitted into the local Athenaeum with his full consent, and it can debase or brutalise in no degree the mind of any settler of British origin to study the insolent inventions with which the publication in qutsiion has for so many years mocked Irish misery and backed up oppression by gross derision. It is pleasant, and praiseworthy, and improving, to insult a subject p ople ; it is degrading and scandalous to caricature public officials daring a political content. Nevertheless, the people whose spokesman is authorised to make such a claim in their name are not to be envied, and if Scotch settlers particularly are of such a way of thinking they have perverted their descent from the stock of which came Bruce and Wallace. — " Bright ran thy line, 0 Galloway, Through many a far-famed sire ! So ran the far-famci Roman way, So ended in a mire." Or is it, perchance, that the loyalty of our Southern friends is in jeopardy ; cannot their sense of the ridiculous support the caricatures of the Gladstone Cabinet, and the various English Government officials? — Le ridicule Uie—l% there any fear that they may be turned away from their allegiance to her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen ? Something or another there is that has alarmed our contemporary the Southland Times, and if it was not, as we said, the caricatured jack-ass, we must look ont for something else of a similar kind. Our choice, for the moment, lies among foolery, and it is no wonder if we be perplexed. — But surely the whole thing rests on the back of that jack-ass, and with him originates this soreness of heart. —

" Light lay the earth on Billy's breast, His chioken-hearo'a so tender ; Bat build a castle on hie head, His skull will prop it under." It is a mercy, then, that there still remains a strong foundation whereon tlw British Constitution may be propped — or if a pon-derously-pictured John Bull oppresses a loyal heart, that also fits in with the situation.

A discovery has been made in London of some AN enemy infernal machines charged with dynamite, and has left in the cloak room of a railway terminus. The DONE this also, clockwork intended to explode the dynamite, it is said, had gone out of order, and thus what would otherwise have been a very dangerous and harmful outrage was prevented. At the time we write nothing has been discovered as to the persons — the abandoned wretches, we may say — who were guilty of this action, but the mind of the public has, of course, turned to the Irish nationalist ranks and accredited them with the guilt. This was the coaise followed also with respect to the explosions in the underground railway, but nothing has occurred to confirm the suspicion, and, on the contrary, the American ambassador, Minister Lowell, has expressly declared there was no foundation whatever for it. — But, in the present instance, it appears to as there is, if possible, less reason to suspect Irishmen or. Irish Americans, for, no doubt, ever since the affair on the underground railway, officials everywhere have been on the alert, and men of the well-known appearance of the parties in question could not escape observation. It must be remembered also that, in the case in which Wolff was arrested the other day, an explosion was imminent, with which no Irishman nor Irish American, would have had any connection whatever. The fact, moreover, that the infernal machines discovered are said to be of American manufacture, is of little significance, for an Americanmade machine might be in the hands of anyone,— and any party intending to commit an outrage, or pretending to have such an intention, might, and most probably would, obtain such a machine for the purpose. So much mischief, at least, the boastings of the miserable O'Donovan Rossa and the clique with whom he is connected have actually done, that they have made miscreants of all kinds acquainted with a ready means of commiting crime, and furnished them with a cloak under which to shelter themselves. Nobody can doubt that there are in London crowds of criminals, who have no Irish or Irish American sympathies, but who are willing to avail themselves of any desperate means of working out their own ends— but, as we have said, it was a very unlikely time for any Irishman, or Irish American, to obtain admittance unnoticed to any part of a London terminus. The officials were certainly on their guard, and would have been chary about such a person's luggage, — The attempt, particularly since the machines failed to explode, and were opportunely discovered, seems much more like the outcome of a plot on the part of someone belonging to the railway — possibly someone desirous of seeing more hands employed about the station, and anxious to have special watchmen engaged — or discharged employees have before now been willing to wreak vengeance for their wrongs real or imaginary. There are, besides, many enemies of the Irish nationalists eager to seize upon any opportunity of prejudicing them still more bitterly in the public eyes, and in such an attempt an easy means of doing so would be found. Still, we are aware that there is a certain clique in America who at best are vicious fools, and whom at worst it would be hard to describe In any language we could use ; who, if they be sincere, arc fit for anything of whatever infamy — and if they be not sincere but have been bribed to brag and bluster, and make their boast of promiscuous murder, are still very deep-dyed scoundrels.— And therefore thero is always the possibility that this attempt, or pretended attempt, wejrefer to may be the deed of isomo emissary of theirs. As to the attempt we need hardly condemn it — we should be sorry to believe that any of our leaders would consider it necessary that we should deprecate an attempt to destroy innocent lives. We know of nothing that could justify or extenuate such an attempt — hardly even if the horrible hint given by the worthy radical Leathern the other day were acted upon, and Irish hills and vales filled with an unmerited carnage, hardly even if that were done would there be the slightest plea of extenuation for men who would wreak revenge upon people notably innocent — upon benevolent or harmless men, and women, and little children, but while no such, action has been done, or probably ever will be done, an unmitigated execration only must be uttered against this deed. But horrible though such attempts are against the lives of people in Loik'o-i, there is something that they are still a greater crime against.— Fair fame is dearer than life, and a people's honour is more even to them than their national existence. And such crimes as this are committed against the honour of Ireland ; — they hold the people up in the face of the world as a nation of murderers— a people who so long as they obtain their own ends are reckless as to the means need. The chief glory of the Irish people is to have resisted the oppression of ages for conscience sake, and her« are men who would proclaim to the world that they axe

roid of conscience, and ready to sacrifice their souls for lives t>f comfort and worldly goods. These men are giving us a bad name everywhere throughout the civilistd world and deserve our loudest reprobation and to be resisted with all our might. We hope, then, as we have reason to hope, it was no Irishman or Irish- American who attempted this deed. — We hope it may prove to be someone otherwise interested, or openly interested against Ireland, but whoever it proves to be, he is the enemy of Ireland, and of the Irish race in every part of the world, and his projects are accursed.

The news that Russia has joined in the allianc 6 WHAT does IT between Germany, Austria, and Italy, should have mean ? some significance. But as to what the true significance of the union may be it is, perhaps, unknown without the inmost diplomatic circles, and all that we of the oute r world have to rely upon is speculation. There are, however, abundant grounds for speculation, and it is impossible to refrain from venturing to some degree upoa it. May we not, for example, conjecture that the hint uttered by a correspondent of the Times to the King of Roumania. as to Mr. Gladstone's interview at Copenhagen with the Czar, may have been founded on fact, and that his Imperia Majesty had actually been given to understand that England would no longer interfere with any sinster designs he might entertain towards Turkey 1 An understanding with Germany and Austria might still be necessary, and into it there might perhaps enter the completion of Austrian affairs in the South, and the rectification of the German frontiers on the side of Poland ;— the rectification of frontiers was, as well as we recollect, the correct expression under the Third Empire, The alliance, for aught we know to the contrary, may have been made with a viow to some such arrangements as these, and, if the matter is to be shaped in such a way, it is better at any rate that it should be accomplished by peaceful, ,or comparatively peaceful methods, — for Turkey might still have some slight ineffectual objection to urge by force of arms. Or has the alliance been formed rather with a view towards the repression of the growing powers of anarchy, and is it within the bounds of possibility, as we have often thought it might be, that the democratic spirit of the age may at length be encountered by a fierce attempt to restore despotism? If this could be done, it should be by the strength of great armies surrendering themselves in passive obedience to their leaders, — and herein, perhaps, there lies the impossibility oE the project. It does not lie in the disposition of such a man as Prince Bismarck, for instance, who is a despot at heart, and only going with the more liberal spirit of the times so far as he is unable to avoid it. Nor can it lie in that of an Emperor of Russia, the inheritor of the traditional tyranny of ages, and stung to extremes by the abnormal dangers of bis position. Tbe question, then, is as to how far tbe armies would be content to bs made the instrument of despotism. Could it be made to the advantage of the ranks to become sach instruments, or would they also prove so imbued with thn democratic notions of the masses as to be unsuited to the required task 2 It must be remembered that when the French soldiers fraternised with the people the success of revolution was assured, and if the soldiers sided against the populace in the outbreak of the Commune, the case was exceptional and such as forms no basis of judgment. But however the matter may be, in the meantime, the alliance to which we allude must have some special and important ends* I and it will be interesting to watch the development of events.