Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 6, 29 May 1885, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

In Victor Hugo, who died lasfc Friday at the age of eighty-three, the Bevolntion has lost one of its roost powerful advocates, and the newer France has lost ' its votes tacer. The part played by Victor Hugo towardß the earlier France was that of one Who condemns utterly ibd blackens, and, to judge by what he has written, it might be ' supposed that the whole honourable history of that great country ' had arisen since '89. The men of the revolution, according to him,' were the giants who overthrew a baser race, and with them hope itself 'began. Hugo wrote, moreover, with the unsparing bitterness that marks the renegade, for he was of noble birth and had been brought np in the traditions and religion of the older France. His first published works, indeed, bore the impress of such an education, and his genius had already given a fair promise of what it was to produce before he departed from the early paths in which his feet had trodden. For that Hugo was a genius no one can deny whose judgment is of any worth. It may, indeed, be disputed as to whether he stands towards literature generally in the place of a second Shakespeare, as the claim has bden made for him, or it may be the task of a nice criticism to decide in what respects he equals or surpasses the greater French dramatists who preceded him, or outstrips | all the poets of his own time— and we have heard a competent judge j assert that Alfred de Musset, for example, must yet be accepted as the greatest French poet of the age owing to his excelling in humanity. But all must admit that the lyre of France, in Hugo's hands, was in toe hands of a master. Notre grand poete, Beranger called him, and Hugo deserved the title, and was indeed a great poet. As a writer of pWse also he excelled bat by no means in a degree so exalted. Sis epigrammatic style was occasionally abrupt, and when it was employed in the composition of political or patriotic publications it resulted in an effect that has been justly termed "screeching." He^ was fond of making a pedantic display of varied learning, not always correct : and sometimes ludicrous, and which was often introduced without any special bearing upon the subject with which he had been dealing. 'The morality, he taught, moreover, was of an exceedingly low order, and not only did he justify, or rather paint as heroic and all bat Godlike the principles of the red Bevolution in its extreme forms, but' he celebrated as raising human nature to its loftiest pinnacle much that is degrading and deplorable. The career of Victor 'Hugo was a somewhat checkered one. His literary successes at first if they gained for him many admirers raised up also opponents for him 1 , and the -innovations and departures from the rules of art hitherto observed by French dramatists that marked his greai work, "Hernani," led even to an appeal to the King, who replied that into his royal privileges there did not enter that of deciding as to the proprieties of art, and that in this respect he must be regaided as a private person. A common-sense action that, unfortunately for himself j Charles X. did not know how to ©bseive in dealing with every poet, for, had an equal moderation marked his conduct towards the seditions verses of Beranger, he would himself have fared much better in the minds of the people, and probably at their hands as well, Victor Hugo's candidature for a seat in the Academy was thrice defeated; and an amusing account is given of his personal interview with Boyer-Collard', whose vote he solicited, and the manner in which he was snubbed by that sage, who made it his boast that nothing in the shape of contemporary literature had been read by him for .thirty years. His play "Le Boi S 1 Amuse" was suppressed by the Government on the day after it had been performed at the Theatre Francaisin 1832, and it remained for our own generation to witness its reproduction. Even for republican France, however, it proved too much, and when it was acted two or three years ago the public of Paris were disgusted at finding some of the greatest names that adorn the bistory of France dragged in the mud, and made to stink in the noßtrils of the world. It is a distinctive feature of tht 'Bevolution that.it delights to overwhelm with shame and contempt the. memories of great men who have illuminated the history of the floutitry in which it liftß its hydra-head. Catholic peoples honoured the > names; of .the . pagan i heroes, who .had been prominent in their various countries of old. Protestant peoples to-day honour the

VICTOR HUGO.

names of Catholic heroes and great men vyho preceded them. Tjiere, is no man in England, for exampleV wljo would not defend the memory of the Black Prince against; , } btain, and what Scotchman would fail to be indignant at an iamtlb 6&ered to. the memory of the Bruce f But the' Revolution heaps up infamy on the tombs of great and heroic kings and leaders, and boasts its own arising as if it were that of a phoenix — not from the fiery nest of a predecessor capable of educating: or begetting to glory, but from a veritable cesspool. By* »ite own boast, then, let ns judge it, for what but the growth of a poisonous fungus can arise from a bed of filth? There remain to this day men scattered through various countries,, who,, while they ; have been born of a people who had become the loyal and, in eveiy sense, , the citizens of those countries, jStttl maintain among their honoured traditions the recollection that their fore- t fathers had been of the country of St. Louis and Joan of Arc. But were they to receive the teaching of the Beyolution, they-might hang their heads and V\,mh to own such an ancestry. The Bevolntion n s invited such men to return to the country of their forefathers, and has made naturalisation in their case an easy matter, but why should they return to an inheritance of shame ? They have nothing in common with the France of the present day, and the France of the past was a land of infamy. If the Bevolution speak the truth,' their forefathers well escaped from it, and there is every reason why they themselves should continue aliens. It may shame them to remember that the blood they come of ever flowed in the veins, of a Frenchman, , — always if the Bevolution speak the .truth. Victor Hugo also suffered . for his" political opinions, and during, the Empire he was an exile , I residing in the Channel Islands-rin connection with which,banishment it has, moreover, been remarked that during the. twenty .years it lasted, and notwithstanding his loud professions of a belief in the brotherhood of mankind, he refused to learn a single word of English* Whether in otbei respects Victor Hugo aIBO betrayed signs of a life somewhat at variance with the principles he professed, we cannot tell. What he may have been in his private relations we have no . means of knowing. We do know that nothing can be' a greater mis- [ take than to suppose that the personal character of a great writer must necessarily be learned'from his works, and, no doubt, the greater" , the artist the more the individual is hidden. It is, for example, a 1 perfection of Shakespeare's works that nothing of the writer can be discerned in them except his unequalled genius, and two publications lately published — those relating respectively to the lives of Carlyle and George Eliot — make the fact we allude to more striking still. Victor Hugo wrote very touchingly of his little grand-child, but tha£ % is no true test that he had a love for children generally. Some of the worst and most cruel men known in history have been loving fathers. He professed a respect for his fellow-creatures, and an interest in the young especially, yet he is accused by one who bad the opportunity , of knowing, as well as the ability to judge, of flattering young men in their conceits, and heedless of the injury and disappointment that might ensue, so that he should gain clayueurs for his plays. He was everywhere met when he passed through the streets of 'Paris by the ' respectful and affectionate greetings of his fellow-citizene, but wore his fellow-citiße&s fully acquainted with his true character ? Of all this we know nothing, The poet's life will, no. doubt, be written, and, if with a candour that has distinguished certain recent publications, the world will learn the whole. Meantime, we know that France has loßt a great poet and the Bevolution, as we said, a powerful advocate.

A WONDEBFUL BECOMMENDATION.

Whatbvee may be the rights or wrongs of the Soudan question, it perhaps is just as well that British soldiers have been withdrawn from all contact with?, the sons of the desert. It would at least be a lamentable thing to find that on returning to their homes in the United Kingdom or its colonies they had carried back with them a pxofonnd faith in Mohammed as the Prophet of Allah the only God. It would derange many households sadly, were they to discover that they lay under'the necessity of regulating themselves to suit the creed of the Koran, and the sweethearts and wives of ,the returned heroes might be especially expected to object to the change. The Bomans, we know, who are commonly held up as an example worthy of imitation to every warlike and manly, people were very liberal in the matter of religion, and iustead of imposing the worship j of their own particular deities on conquered peoples borrowed fron)

those peoples their allegiance and elevated many strange and barbar 10 gods to their owa Olympus. The worship of Isis and Osiris especially was adopted by them with enthusiasm, and formed a marked feature in the religion of the mature empire. It would be strange then but not unprecedented, if a modern nation were to adopt through conquest of, or contact with the inhabitants of the countries bordering on the Nile the faith that to-day prevails in those dis tricts, and to become the devotees of the great Eastern Impostor. Nordo we make any wild, and^outrageous supposition — an act of devotion to the memory of the Prophet and his spiritual sway was openly performed at Cairo, two or three years ago, when the British troops took part in the honours paid to the sacred carpet on its setting out for Mecca, and now we find an English general recommending Mahomed as the legitimitate and deserving otiject of prayers and praise. Among the methods, in short, employed by General Graham in his abortive attempt to overcome Osmpn Digna there occurred it seems that whose origin is vulgarly attributed to the bestowal of a kiss upon the famous Blarney Stone by 'those who are sufficiently steady of head and bold of heart to undertake and successfully accomplish the task. General Graham attempted to " soother " Osman Digna into an abandonment of the cause of the so-called Mahdi, and if at the same time he made an attempt to turn Osman Digna's supporters against their leader, an attempt which if successful must have resulted in the assassination of that leader, at least he proceeded with more delicacy and finesse that did Admiral Hewitt, when he placed a premium on Osman's head,and invited all who would try the adventure to bring to him in a charger or otherwise that ghastly trophy, more suited to a ruder age. Let us, therefore, give General Graham credit for all be deserves. He at least, as we say, acted with more refinement, and displayed a nicer taste in showing a will to remain satisfied with the knowledge that the assassination had been performed, than if he had coarsely made a demand that the gory head should be actually placed in his possession. General Graham, then, issued a manifesto in which he appealed first to Osman Digna against the Mahdi, and tben to the hostile Arabs against Osman Digna. whom he accused of being guilty of the blood of his followers shed at Teb and Tamai. But the nicest point of the whole document was that in which the General, in the spirit of a true Mussulman, whether inherited or imbibed we know not, but probably after the manner of the ancient Romans caught up from the surroundings, drew a contrast between Mahomed Ahmed and his Arabian predecessor. " The Arabian Mahomed," he wrote, " to rvhoni be prayers and praise, the head and founder of the Moslem religion, was as tolerant in his time as the English are to-day." The Italics are our own, and the passage needs no further comment. Such a document then did General Graham draw out, and elevate stuck in a cleft stick in the desert to produce fruit in due season. And a more remarkable document, we may perhaps be excused for thinking never left the hands of a general in command of a Christian army. Has not the success of the British army been due to the study by the British nation of the " open Word " ? Exeter Hall will surely answer in the affirmative — yet here was no mention of the " open "Word " not even a tract inserted in that cleft slick to work wonders in the desert, and excite the Arabs to compunction by the example of some fervent washerwoman or sanctified charity boy, saved in the morning of his days— but a direct and undisguised recommendation of Mahommed as an object of the prayers and praise of the Arabs. May we not then, with reason ask in what is all thig to end or in what has it originated ? May we not justly fear lest the British soldier, be led away by the adoration of whatever impostor or idol it is that spiritually prevails in any quarter of the world in which he finds himself ? Like master like man, says the old proverb, and if the general officer stoop to such an adoration, to what shall the private owe his preservation, Or is it admitte d as lawful that in every place the Mumbo-jumbo of the particular locality may be celebrated or worshipped as expediency recommends? Or may we all bend a knee in the House of Simmon if there be anything to be gained in such a way ? We await the reply of Exeter Hall.

AN UNFOBTUNA.TE COUNTRY.

Italy for the Italians, " which a few years ago was so fashionable a cry, appears to have had an illustra* tion in practical life that goes somewhat by the rule of contraries.— ltaly may, indeed, Btill prove to belong to the Italians but those of the nation who are left to possess their country according to all appearance bid fai r to be but few. — And it is remarkable that the revolution is doing in Italy that which the English Government have so long been engaged in doing in Ireland, that is driving the people out of the country. — The Italian papers are all complaining that emigration is stripping the country of its most useful population, that the peasantry are going away to America in thousands. — But as for those who remain at home, the same cause that drives their neighbours to emigrate is at work among them with still worse effects and threatens to make their abiding more dangerous to the well being of the nation than their departnre. — The Moniteur de Borne, for example, according to the translation of a contemporary, thus describes the condition of affairs that prevails. — " The social question in Italy is complicated

with a vexed problem — the agrarian question. It has been seen by the figures which we quoted lately, that frightful misery reigns in certain provinces. The peasaat in Italy is more miserable than in any country of Europe, and he has long suffered in silence, but by degrees roused to a consciousness of his deplorable condition, and ' under the influence of the revolutionary and Socialistic propaganda, he begins to foresee the possible destruction of the existing order of things and a more equitable division of property. There is nothing' in this progress of Socialism which should surprise us. It is in the! logic of events. The movement in favour of Italian unity, which manifested itself by successive revolutions, and which has ended in the violent occupation of Boms, has shaken profoundly the public conscience and assailed rudely those principles of morality and of , justice, which are the basis of all society. Italy has taken rank in the great powers ; the national self-love is gratified, bat this Tain glory is obtained at a dear price. The budgets have increased a hundredfold. The taxes, already so crushing, increase every day. Italy has twenty-five millions, but each year the exchequer expropriates thousands of small proprietors who have been unable to pay the tax. There is only one class which, up to the present, has gained by the hew order of things. It is that of the functionaries and the i politicians by profession who now govern and specnlate in Italy. For them, naturally, Socialism is only a subject of derision' bnt this does not hinder the progress of ideas and the. necessity for Italy to profit by the lessons of experience., ' With emigration depopulating the country, then, and Socialism corrupting the remnant that remains, Italy in the possession of the, Italians would appear destined to make but a sorry, figure in the world. Nor must we Buppose that it is only among the lower classes ' that the changed order of things is producing evil effects, or that the ■ great panacea of the day, a superior education, offers any means of amelioration or preservative from ill. In nothing should we be able to find a clearer proof of the efficiency of any system than in the conduct of those who are living under its direct influences, and ' enjoying all the privileges which it is capable of conferring upon them. Under the more enlightened system of education which has now for many years prevailed in Italy, we should, 'of course, expect . to find a youth — the outcome, moreover, of freethinking homes, for what Catholic would send his son to an atheistic university ?— full of, the improved manners of the period and preparing themselves eagerly^ to walk with lustre in all the ways of the scientific citizenship that modern philosophers have set up. But what do we find? One body, of riotous students after another. From Turin to Naples, in every university disorder reigns supreme, and godlessness is accompanied by tumult and violence. At Turin, Rome, Pavia, Padna, Naples, in almost every university, study has been abandoned for rebellion and riot. Such, then, is the Italy which the Revolution has given into <- the hands of the Italians, and where secularism is the ruling passipji , of the day. Have tb.3 Italians actually gained much by the gift? t -

THE EOYAL VISIT.

The visit of the Prince of Wales to Dublin was a, marked success for the Irish people and the Nationalist leaders. There was a natter of enthusiasm en the surface, it is true, and the classes who are anti-national, and ultra-loyal because they are anti-national, and for that cause only, succeeded in making a demonstration that has been taken advantage of by the anti- Irish Press to injure" Ireland, so far as it is possible, by praising her, and to do her an .ill turn while pretending to favour her interests. Of real popular enthusiasm* however, there was nothing to be seen or heard, and any applause?, that did come from the crowd might be set down to the effects of a pageant upon an excitable people. There were some addresses presented; but none by any responsible body of importance ; there was an abundance of bunting, and the windows and streets along the line of procession were crowded. People of business, interested in any momentary impetus given to the trade of the city, cheered lustily, and the world of the ascendant classes gathered from all parts of the country, and looking upon the events of the day as a demonstration made especially in support of their moribund privileges, cheered with all their poor, selfish hearts, and the excited crowd cheered now and then because they could not remain passive spectators of the scene without a change of their nature, bat of genuine rejoicing there was not a spark. Neither was there any sign of ill-will given by the crowd, or any manifestation made that could offend the royal visitors, and even the presence of Lord Spencer, detested though he be as Castlereagh was a century ago, or as Mouravieff was more recently in Poland, was allowed to pass unnoticed The Dublin crowd — the true people, in fact— behaved well, and the National leaders may be proud of their followers. And yet it is to be deplored that the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales should not produce all the effects that, under favourable circumstances, it must produce in Ireland. The Prince himself has qualities that' are eminently calculated to win for him in a very remarkable degree the' affection of the Irish people. He is thoroughly kind-hearted and generous, and his courtesy is as notable as hie easy dignity. His is the very character to be recognised by the Irish people* as that' of a

"real gentleman," a character that they hold in true respect, and which must ever be popular among them. It is understood, too, that the Prince entertains no insane bigotry against their religion, that, in fact, although, doubtless, firm in the faith in which he has been ■educated, he looks upon the grand old Church with anything rather than an unfavourable eye, and that he has been an object of interest to some of their most venerated spiritual leaders. Pius IX. himself, of holy memory, prayed fervently for his recovery from the dangerous fever that afflicted him some years ago, and allowed it to be made known that he had done so. And ai for the Princess of Wales when, from the days of Brian the Brave, has a beautiful and gracious lady passed through Ireland without being attended by the good wishes and homage of all whom she met with 1 We can well understand that the Prince of Wales and his wife should receive not only in Dublin, but from one end of the country to the other an ovation that would make the whole island ring, and we hopefully look forward to the time when such a king and ■nch a queen will make through that country a progress that will be remembered there for generations, and when they will bo received and welcomed there again and again with unfeigned rejoicing and delight, when perhaps in other parts of their kingdom a surly radicalism may receive their visits with coldness or manifest dislike; —For justice only is needed to make Ireland truly and lastingly loyal, and the common sense, and natural contentment of the Irish mind, jrill make a free Ireland rationally conservative.— As it is, the visit passed off in a manner but little remarkable, every thing considered, and its effects will prove to be simply null and void.— The notion indeed, of the anti-Irish Press that auch a visit, even attended with* ten times the show of rejoicing made on this occasion would have any effect on the condition of the Irish question is not a little absurd. — The only effect that such a display could possibly produce would be to cast a passing ridicule on Irishmen, who, while their hearts were set in one direction had made a vain show in another. — The matter would not, however, have altered the true state of the case ; it would not have made the anti-Irish party one whit more likely to yield their prejudices or abate their demands, and that such is the fact, we need but point in proof to the London Times, for example, which while pretending to applaud the action of the Irish people exceedingly and to augur from it much that is excellent still remains constant in urging the re-enactment of the coercion law. — Nor would it have altered in the slightest degree the minds of the Irish people determined as they are to pursue their rights until they have obtained them, to the very end.— The fight still remains unaltered by the visit 'Of the Prince of Wales, and would remain so whatever might be the nature of his reception. — Nothing will be yielded on either side — but inch by inch the ground will be contested and the battle will be won. — Meantime it is of very little consequence if the anti- Irish Press celebrate the visit of the Prince of Wales to Dublin as a triumph over the National party. They were determined from the first that it must prove such a triumph, at least in print. — They, however, know the true facts of the case well enough and so does the Prince of Wales, and so do the Irish people, and the Irish question remains exactly where it was before. —Nothing has been gained and nothing lost, with the exception of the proof given that the people in general are determined to follow the advice of their leader on all occasions, and thus the success rests with the National party, or rather the immense majority.

A DISGRACE TO THE EMPIRE.

The result of an enquiry lately held at Queensland into the Polynesian labour traffic is a blot upon English civilisation, and a grievous disgrace to the name of the Australian Colonies. A tale of kidnapping, and treachery, and murder, has been revealed that is harrowing to contemplate, and no less than six vessels have been condemned as having been in truth slave ships of the vilest class, and having brought to the colony cargoes of unfortunate men, forced on board or enticed from their homes on false pretences, and without having Mpxe slighest suspicion that they were to be detained for tbree years bondage, and forced to labour in a foreign land. It is well that <an inquiry has been held at last, and, that an attempt is being made in some degree to do justice by at least restoring to their homes the men so dealt with, but the light thrown on the abominable trade that has been carried on now for some nineteen or twenty years, may well startle and horrify all right-minded people. Our confidence moreover, in the good effects to follow from these disclosures would be firmer, did we not know that from the very first a considerable party in Queensland itself had discerned the nature of the trade, and had not ceased to denounce it, in some cases meeting with the unscrupulous resentment of men in authority who were interested in the maintenance of the state of things alluded to. It is quite certain, and beyond dispute that white men employed on plantations where blacks were worked at the mercy of some overseer, who in many instances well merited the fame of the slave-driver, were afraid to speak on the subject, and could with difficulty be induced to refer to it, and tbe employers of blacklabourleftno stone unturned to putdown all opposition or even , remonstrance against their system. It took

some eighteen or nineteen years to obtain the inquiry to whose result we refer, and it is to be feared that when the temporary excitement oaused by that inquiry has run its course things may resume their usual condition. It will possibly be taken for granted that nothing of the kind can occur again, that all is now well looked after, as indeed was said before, whenever an objection was made so as to receive any degree of attention worth speaking of ; and the pirates, for pirates they are in truth, will find all things smooth for the recommencement of their work. Unless the whole enterprise, in fact, be forbidden by the Imperial authority there will still be found means for the renewal and continuance of its worst features. And why should not tbe Imperial authorities directly interfere.' The suppression of the trade has been one of England's chief and most justly acknowledged glories. It cannot be forgotten to her that she was the first European country on whose territory the slave stood up the moment his foot touched it as a free man. The enormous expediture she encountered when she determined to free the slaves of the West Indies forms one of the noblest acts of generosity upon the page of history, and down to our own days she acts as the unfailing champion of the slave. The name of her heroic son General Gordon must ever be associated with such a service and if the war in ■ the Soudan has any justification it is principally that it was undertaken in connection with the championship. Tet for some twenty y ear b under the sceptre of England, a system has obtained that has detracted grossly from all her merits, a form of slavery that in some of its features is exceptionally revolting has been carried on, and she has not raised her hand to hinder it. But up to the conclusion of the iuquiry to which we have referred, there may perhaps be some excuse urged for the apathy of the Imperial government. Accusations and exposures were indeed made from time to time.and men who had a certain knowledge of what was going on took frequent opportunities' of remonstrating but all their statements were promptly met,and apparently refuted —-with what honesty the inquiry now shows. Influential men made their voices heard in high places and it did not shame them if their words were false. The exposure however, now made completely reveals the method of defence that had been used, and holds up those who availed themselves of it to contempt and disgrace. They deserve the treatment of men- who have shamelesly trafficked in human flesh for their own benefit, and covered their base undertaking with falsehood. If it were only to visit them with the punishment they so justly deserve, the imperative suppression of this system — that, owing to its very nature, can hardly be amended— is called for, and the Imperial Government is bound to enforce it.

SOCRATES, PROFESSOR TOOKEE, AND OTHEBS.

Soobates said that " all virtue was knowledge/ bo we learn from a learned pandit in Auckland;— a ■very learned pandit indeed, and no less a personage than a University Professor. For Socrates, we have also, it is needless to say, an unbounded respect, and the part that great sage seems destined to play in the history of modern mankind is a very prominent one. — Socrates, indeed, might have been the father of secularism, and scorned tbe very thought of sacrificing a cock to iEsculapius if we were to judge by the use that modern philosophers make of his name, and, of coarse, our pundit is a philosopher and a very eminent one into the bargain — ga va sans dire. — We remember, nevertheless, a motto much employed in a certain one of his works by a man who was not indeed so great a philosopher as Socrates, but who yet was of some renown in our own times, and whose delineation of men and manners deserves some consideration. The motto was " knowledge is power," and it was put by Lord Lytton into the mouth of a youth whose chief aim was certainly anything rather than virtue, and made the motive of his career. Not that we would for a moment compare Lord Lytton with Socrates, but still be may be accredited with having enjoyed some insight into the nature of the modern man and known how he was guided and influenced. , His studious and clever youth was a very great and most designing scoundrel, and the novelist is but a botch who does not give us true pictures of human character. — Let üb, however, go from the realms of ancient philosophy and modern fiction into the more convincing paths where we shall meet with men of experience, and practical men of the times, in order that we may hear what they have got to say. Let us take then, for example, a Governor of Massachusetts, one Mr. Clifford who had enjoyed ample opportunities of learning what it was that secular education brought forth, and who delivered himself on the subject as follows :—": — " Without the sanctifying element of religion I am by no means certain that the mere cultivation of the intellect docs not increase the exposure to crime by enlarging the sphere of man's capacity to minister through its agency to his sensual and corrupt desires. I can safely say, as a general inference drawn from my somewhat extensive observation of crime and criminals, that as flagrant cases, an d as depraved characters have been exhibited among a class of persons who have enjoyed the ordinary elementary instruction in our New England schools, and in some instances in the higher institutions of learning, as could be found by the most diligent investigation anting

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the convicts of Norfolk Island or Botany Bay," — And again let us hea T the opinions of an English statesman, that is the Marquis of Salisbury. " Yon may alter the nature of crime," he said in the House of Lords, "you may change the paths by which the criminal will proceed, but crime is a consequence of moral depravity, and the mode in which it will be committed will be, a matter of calculation with the criminal, no matter what amount of education may be given him in our national schools." Neither of these eminent men, therefore, seems to agree with Socrates that " knowledge is virtue." Let us deplore their folly, but the experience of modern life has misled them, and therein is their misfortune. Our pundit at Auckland, nevertheless, is very profound and, as it becomes a University professor perhaps, is, moreover, somewhat mysterious. Here, for example, is a Bublime passage that proves our point: "He was convinced," says the Evening Bell's report, " that the foundation of morality lay in the intellect. If this was not exactly true of the inherent moral sentiments, it was true of the behaviour of whole peoples and nations. *' Verily we have here a deliverance that may be Socratic but is certainly incomprehensible, and that may become a pundit but would undoubtedly not disgrace a fool. With such a deliverance we cannot pretend to meddle lest we ourselves also become involved in a slough of despair. But we have at least contrasted the sentiments of the ancient sage and his modern representative — or one of them, for they are now legion — with those of certain men who may also claim, some share of public attention. Let those profit by the contrast who can understand it.

IGNORANCE FALSELY ACCUSED.

By way of a postscript we may add that oar deep Professor up in Auckland attributes the expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain by Philip 111., to the ignorance of the clergy. The facts of the case, how ever, are that the expulsion of the Moriscos was the natural, if not necessary or wise, consequence of the revolt of the people referred to in the previous reign, and the atrocities then committed by them. We are not prepared to deny that the industries of Spain may have suffered to some extent, or even to a considerable extent, by the act, nor are we concerned to defend it as an act of wisdom — although the condition into which the kindred peoples of the Moriscos have fallen in every part of the world may well throw a suspicion on the inherent or lasting virtue of their race. Prof sssor Tucker, meantime, should not forget that persecution ha 3 taken place with marks of especial infamy under people who were anything but ignorant. Such was the case, for example, under Queen Elizabeth and her Ministers, who were foremost in the learning of an age that has left to England the inheritance of an unequalled literature. And, to come down to oar own days, the .men who have inaugurated and carried out a policy of persecution in Europe have shared fully in the enlightenment of the period. M. Paul Bert, for instance, claims a place among the principal men of science of the times. Nay, in our own Colony have we not a philosopher before whose parts Professor Tucker himself must bow down in the person of the Hon. Robert Stout, Premier of the Colony 1 who has taken an active and even an anxious part in the particular branch of persecution open to him — that of inflicting penalties by means of godless schools on Catholics— because they are resolved to maintain their religion— and who, moreover, with the ingenuity of the famous humanitarian who refused to chastise the dog that bit him, makes it his business to rob Catholics and Irishmen so far as it is possible for him of their good name— and, failing in the honesty that becomes the man, and the courtesy that distinguishes the gentleman, declines to makd reparation when it is pointed out to him that he has, to say the least of it, published a serieß of gross mistakes. O no, decidedly ignorance must not be accredited with the sole production of persecution, Many > very learned and clever people have been, and are at this moment accountable for it. Professor Tucker can hardly deny that.

The Pall Mall Gazette, in one of its recent Lssues, had an article entitled " Between the Devil and the Deep Sea." This article gives -^fjhe following as the reason why the Government did not resign after Ke very narrow escape they had a fortnight ago from defeat on Sir Stafford Northcote's vote of censure :—lt: — It is not very difficult to see what reasons induced the Government to check this impulse (that of resigning). The Crimes Act expires this year, and, although it will not need to be renewed in its entirety, it is notoriously the conviction of those responsible for the administration of Ireland that it is simply impossible to maintain order unless the clauses relating to juries are made permanent, and the Viceroy is armed with a few prerogatives in reserve which experience has shown to be indispensable for the maintenance of social peace. If the Tories came in and dissolved, the ParnelHtes would come back seventy strong, and it would be impossible, in view of the support which tber would command on the Liberal side, to pass the necessary bill. Bat if it was not passed, Ireland, it was thought, would relapse into a state of social dissolution. Such were the alternatives that confronted the Cabinet. Before Gladstone the chances of war, before Salisbury the risks of revolution. And when we say war, we do not meau war in the Soudan. To avoid a certain catastrophe in Ireland, Ministers have determined to prepare with fortitude to meet what is indeed only a possible rupture of pacific relations with Continental Powers.