Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 11, 6 July 1888, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

Lord Salisbury's rebuke to Lord Wolselej, for LORD SALISBURY having attacked the Government under which he AWRONTED. served by his comments made at a public dinner on the dangerous condition of the national defences, has been the cause of a great uproar. Lord Salisbury took up the ■latter very seriously, and challenged Lord Wolseley, if he had such statement* to make, to make them in the House of Lords, of which he was a member, and where he could be answered on the part of the Government accused by him. But, though Lord Wolseley accepted the challenge in some degree, and explained in the Hons e of Lords that he had not meant to reflect adversly on Lord Salisbury's Government, or on any Government, since he substantially repeated his charges, and accepted the responsibility of all be had laid, the Prime Minister does not seem to hare gained very much by his action. The fact remains that, although Lord Wolseley has done so in a more regular manner, he has but intensified the utterance already made by him. It is of comparatively little consequence, in fact, as to whether, according to Lord Salisbury'^ interpretation of Lord Wolseley's charge, the Government has put party interests before the defences of the country, if even with the most disinterested intentions they have neglec ed those defences. There are cases in whioh the results of incapacity may be as bad as those of corruption' and the case alluded to is one of them. Naval opinion, meantime, does not take the same gloomy views a 9 to the ease with which an invasion of England might be made. Lord Alcester, for instance, even admitting that the English fleet were beaten, looks upon it as certain that the coasts could be effectually defends 1 by earthworks. Earthworks, he says, make the bast kind of fortific.iti:>n=, and could be erected at a moment's notice by the employment of in. numerable navvies. v The thing would be done," he adds, "as if by magic." More to the purpose, however, is the decis'oa of Lord Charles Beresford, who expressed the very seasible and palpably true opinion, that were the fleet once beaten, there would be no reason for an invasion. "Is It not evident," he said "that were England beaten in the waters that form her only frontier, the enemy would have osly to block her food supplies and let her starve ? Ibey would conquer us without striking a blow. England can never be saved by her army." Lord Charles Beresford would naturally attribute to the navy its utmost importance, but, in this instance, he may be allowed to have spoken im an unprejudiced manner, and with authority. Whatever may have been the anger of Lord Salisbury, then, at the manner in which Lord Wolseley spoke, the truth was undoubtedly told by the Geueral and it can make but little difference as to his having no intentions of blaming Lord Salisbury's Government, when the palpable fact is that Lord Salisbury's Government, whether through incapacity or party interests, have endangered the safety of the country, or allowed it to continue in danger, for the condition of the fleet, no less than that of the fortifioations on land, is anything but complete, as both Lord Aloester and Lord Charles Beresford assert. Notwithstanding the anger of Lord balisbury, in fact, the country may thank Lord Wolseley, if he has forced the hand of the Government, and obliged them to act.

Londob, as well as the colonies, has its immigration UHWILOOMB question. There is great trouble at present there visitors, because of the in-ponring of a foreign population, whioh is looked upon as inferior te that native to the city, and, owing to whose arrival extreme misery if rapidly spreadlag; A large portion of the invaders, though not all of them, oonsista of Buisian Jews, unfortunate people who, driven from their own country by popular prejudice and despotic Government, hardly know where to turn their faces. Some of them, says a witness, hang them•elves, and tome drown themselves, but as many of them at possible apparently, make their way to England, relying on a belief current Amongst them that, once arrived there, they will be sent to America. Their fate, however, is to swell the starving numbers employed in the sweaters' dens, and scarcely able, by working day and night, to earn sufficient to keep body and soul together. A woman, for example,

who makes match-boxes at a penny three farthings per gross, finding her own paste, can earn, with the assistance of her children, from 4i 6d io 5s a week. A lady, nevertheless/ called as,a witness before the committee of the House of Lords, now examining into the mailer i declares that on the whole thesa people are rather ■ til off, the lady's experience having been gained as a collector of cute among, thi population, which is a somewhat suggestive fact, mother witness attributes a good deal of the evil to the existing B}.4temof education which, h« says, fits the boys for clerks, and this leads to their applying by b ondreds for any vacant clerkship — some even offering to give tDeir services at first for nothing with the hope of being paid >a few shillings by and by. And yet we hear our own Premier complainiag that the high salaries of tne civil service prevent boys from being apprenticed to trades and other manual occupations, while a similar system of education is at work among ourselves. There is a good deal* in a word, that might be usefully considered in the colonies, to be learned from the increase of misery, a 6 caused especially by an interior immigration, in London.

It is not only in London that people are calling oat THI old story, against the Jews, — and there the only feeling excited against them is that arising from the injurious competition offered ia the labour market by those of them whom misfortune and persecution elsewhere have driven in spite of themselves to take refuge in England. Into the programme of General Boulanger there also enters a design to curb the influence of the people referred to. The General, however, who declares that they must be got rid of, is understood to refer to the leaders of the financial world, and especially to Both child, who ii said to be, as things dow are, the true king of Franc* — although this accusation is indignantly denied by the French. Howev«r it may be, the Jews have evidently not as yet seen the end of the movement stinei up against them in Europe, and which still goes briskly ou in Russia, where their arbitrary expulsion is continually taking place. The death of tha Emperor Frederick, moreover, was amongst the untoward events o* the times for them, for he in this also differed from the disposition of the man of blood and iron, amd one of the things charged against him was certain honours he had conferred upon two prominent members of their body — from whioh, by ths way, a nick-nane given him was the Emperor Cohen. His successor, we may take it for granted, will follow in this matter as well the guidance ot Prince Bismarck, and unless the Countess von Walderiee, who is the confidential friend of the young Impress, and who is suspected of being of Jewish origin, can, through her Majesty, bring some influence to bear in favour of these people, they are not likely to find an efficient advocate. It will be interesting, meantime, to see Geneial Boulanger, who, if he is not to be the successful foe of Germany, is to ba nothing, even in one case, following up a course of proceed iega that has also the patronage of Prince Bismarck.

Notwithstandimo the superiority of British superior civilisation, we occasionally hear of actions perOIYILISA.TION. formed in the very middle of it that, did we not know them to be the actions of highly civilised people, might Beem to us a disgrace eveu to a low tribe of savages* Such actions, for example, are those recorded in the reports of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children that ha* been for some time at work in London, and which, in the course of three years and a half, has come to the aid of Bometwo thousand children suffering from violence or neglect. Tha details of some of. tie cases given are almost too horrible for repetition, —lacludm^ as they do torture, in. almost every form. Bat the list of the implements used should of itself be sufficient. Tha latest report qivea it as follows :— Besides the usual weapons of ordinary puaishmant, whica in one huadred cases of assault, hava been mad mjsi unreasonably — such as canei, straps, whips, and the lesi usual boots, baits, thongs of rope — there hava been used hammers, pokers, cold aad hot, deliberately heited in the fira ; wire toasting-forkß, the prongs hammered out, tho stem untwisted a little up, makiu? a sort of a birco. 6f frayed wire ; files, with which tho skin on projecting bones ha» been rasped raw ; hot stoves, on which bare limbs have been put ; hot fire-grates against which little hands kave been held." It needs no very vivid imagination to suggest the methods in which these things are used by wicked

and angry people— but no imagination could exceed the horrors of ■•me of the details given. British civilisation, then, may be all very w«U. Perhaps as great horrors may be found among other civilised peoples, but while such things are done in the heart of the nation it Bay be as prudent not to boast too loudly, nor to think it a thing to be granted with a good deal of reservation— as was reported the other day of Sir George Grey speaking at Wellington on the Chinese question, that other n itioas may possess a nature nearly as elevated. British civilisation and the British national character have also their more doubtf al aspects.

It almost seems as if a Duke could be a snob. Tbe A FLAW IN TBS Dake of Westminster, who is chiefly distinguished BTBAWBBRBT for his immense and ever-increasing wealth, gave a LIATHB. dinner the other day, to which, among others, were invited Mr. Bobert Spencer, H.P., and his wife. Mr. Spencer, however, in the interval between the ducal " feed " and the Invitation, attended the banquet given to Mr. Purnell by the Eighty Olnb,— and the consequence was an intimation from his Grace that tbe Invitation was cancelled. But the Duke of Westminster bad already been recognised as a patron of the boycott.— An unfortunate teacher who had dared a little time ago to breatka some words that were not worshipful concerning hisGraoe, had at once been dismissed from the school at which certain ahildren whose parents were employed by him attended, his Grace's disposition doubtless being well understood there. He himself, moreover, had gone as far as he could towards toning Mr. Gladstone out of doors by selling a portrait of his which he bad had painted by a oelebrated artist in gratitude for the ducal nmk to which Mr. Gladstone had elevated him, and to which nothing in Che world but hie riches enittled him. His Grace, however, made money by the transaction, for he sold the picture, albeit as a mark of his anger at Mr. Gladstone's Irish politics, at a profit. It almost seems, then, as if an English duke oould be a snob— though, whether this also has any bearing on the British civilisation and character, we are not prepared to say.

Mb. Gladstone, the versatility of whose genias MB, OLACfITOHB and oapaoity for work are among the wonders of his OH IXGHBBOLL. career, has found time among his multitudinous occupations and his engrossing political pursuits and duties to write an article, in the North American Itetieit, on Colonel Ingersoll. He refers to the Colonel's arbitrary methods, and tbe mannet in wbich he makes bald assertion serve in place of argument, and, especially in reference to the use made by him of Darwinism, himMlf in some instances adopts a similar line.— Thus, he says, " There i Bi B no colourable ground for assuming evolution and revelation to be at variance with one another." He, however, shows also by valid arguments the mistakes that Ingersoll has made. Bat particularly happy, as it strikes us, is his argument against the assumption that error in belief does not involve moral responsibility. As an illustration of the falsehood of this assumption be takes the dispute which divides the world as to whether the source of civil power ii in the community or its bead. No reasonable man will contend, he Bays, that pure rea&oniDg only, and no moral or immoral causes have determined the adoption of either mide. "If we cay that they have not, we contradict the universal judgment of mankind. If we say they have, then mental processes are not automatic, but may be influenced by ths will and by the passions, affections, habits, fancies, that sway the will ; and this wnter will not have advanced a step towards proving the universal Innocence of error until he has shown that propositions of religion are essentially unlike almost all other propositions, and that no man ever has been, or from the nature of ths case can be, affected in their acceptance or rejection by moral causes." Mr. Gladstone's conclusion ia this :— " Whereas we are placed in an atmosphere of mystery, relieved only by a little sphere of light round each of as, like a clearing in an American forest, and rprely can sse farther than is necessary for to.c direction of our own conduct from day to day, we fiud here, assumed by a particular person, the character of a universal judge without appeal. And whereas the highest self-restraint is neoessary tn these dark but, therefore, all the more exciting inquiries, in order to maintain the ever quivering balance of our faculties, this rider chooses to ride an unbroken horse, and to throw the reins upon hi 8 neok. I have endeavoarei to give a sample of the results, 1 '

Wa have heard it repeated, td nauseam, that it was DOUBTFUL ths moral and intellectual superiority — for what is POINT!. the one without the other, and is it not irjsisted upon by tbe enlightenment of the day that they are mutually involved ?— of tha German army that conquered the French in 1870. We have, nevertheless, the testimony of a practical man and a high authority that an army may conquer, and yet be neither morally nor intellectually remarkable. The Duke of Wellington, for instance, in some conversations held by him with Lord S.anhope, and which have been recently published for piiv .te circulation, gave but an indifferent account of the army which he had commanded with each oucceus during tbe Peninsular war, 8b spoke of bis sfcidiers as

the " scum of the earth," as having enlisted through drink, and being generally drunken ; fellows, moreover, who, if let loose, committed shocking excesses, The French then, are at one time beaten by an army which, if it does not conquer through moral and intellectual inferiority, at least conquers in spite of it, and at another, by an army whose moral and intellectual superiority alone gives it the upper hand. It is evidently the destiny of the French in either case to be beaten. Or, let us put the matter in a more British light :— The Bngliah army, though drunken, accomplishes that which only the high moral standing of the Germans enables them to do, and the drunken English soldier is the equal of the moral German soldier, and tbe superior of the Frenchman. But this, at least, is in accordance with the view that is sometimes taken of the distinctive British civilisation. The statements made by the Duke of Wellington, meantime, give us some reason to question whether, after all, bold and successful fighting is really a matter of the higher morality and intellect.

Mas. Crawford, who is the Paris correspondent the hose of the Daily Newt amd Truth, and some othei daring promindnt newspapers, and who is among the journalist, principal journalists of the day, claims for her sex a priority in journalism. " There is nothing," she says, " a man can do in journalism that a woman cannot do, and there are many things a vasa cannot do which a woman oan do:" But of what these impossible things are, Mrs. Crawford gives us an example in Truth. " I have been interviewing Boulanger : " she writes, "yoa would never guess about what. This morning I heard him violently attacked, not this time for riding the black horse, bat for wearing a scalp and being a/au« jeune homme. So I went to him to question. He said, ' I give you leave to " wig " me. Pull my hair.' I did so. It was firm at the roots, and not even dyed." Decidedly no journalist of the sterner sex could venture on such a trial as this, without showing an amount of " cheek " that would merit for him a kicking. But, then, generals who leave it doubtful as to whether they are heroes or coxcombs, are not of everyday occurrence. And we may further ask would not the immunity of the lady interviewer wear off if she became a common visitor T It can hardly be expected that if women generally take upon them the offices of men, they will also be able to maintain their peculiar privileges.

The Rev. Jacob Primmer is again on the rampage, HER HAJCSTT and again he shakes a pious fist in the fa«e o' bebokbd. reyalty. If the Bey. Jacob, in fact, does not even • tually become towards Her Majesty Queen Victoria what John Knox was towards her Majesty's illustrious ancestressi Mary Queen of Scots, either her Majesty must mend her ways or the circumstances of the times mast prove changed indeed. There has her Majesty been sabbath-breaking in the whole combined face of Europe — leaving Florence, shouts the Rsv. Jacob to his congregation at*Dumfermline, on the sabbath and proceeding through the streets " through dense and cheering crowds of Papists." Bat let the Bey. Jacob be in some degree consoled — the cheering crowds probably numbered among them a proportion of revolutionists and infidels by whom they were sanctified and their cheering made less impious. The Bey. Jacob is however inconsolable. The Queen also, he says, has been running after the " priests of anti-Cbrist." Times are changed then or the rev. mam who follows thus faithfully in the footsteps of his great forerunner' John Knox, would make Majesty mend her ways. As matters are he will hardly succeed in doing anything more than making a fool of himself, or, more properly in improving on the handiwork done already by nature in that direction.

Dr. Stenhousk at a meeting of the Otago BducftIBTTINO thi tional Institude, last week, read a paper in which he FAT on SIBB. accounted for the wickedness of children by the wickedness of their parents, and leant particularly haid on rev . ministers, whose sons, he said, tamed oat bad because of their fathers' hypocrisy. The doctor, however, did nut account for those cases, of rery common occurrence, in which tome children of one family tain oat well and others badly. Perhaps, somewhat after that receipt for making good bacon— a streak of fat and a streak of lean— by stuffing your pig one day and starving him the next, the parents of such mixed families are good and bad alternately and the children choose the humour they will respectively follow. But we do not believe that the sons of rev. ministers are, as a rale, worse than those of other people. Whenever, for example, anything occurs which leads to an inquiry into the parentage of a good number of men, or makes it prominent in any way, the sons of clergymen are generally found to have a very fair record. It was so, for example, both during the Crimean war and the Indian mutiny. When moreover, black sheep occur among the youths alluded [to their faults and failings receive an exaggeration and a publicity not common in other cases, and this makes it appear, on a superficial view, as if more of them were affected. Into the body of Dr. Stenhouse's paper we dare not follow him. He speaks for instance of such things as woman's

master " whoever he may be, and of " our management of women " whenever that was discovered or came into play, and us if it was not exactly the other way.and her management of us. Among 6uch mysteries as these we should speedily get out of our depth. Dr. Stenhouse's paper has given rise to a good deal of discussion, as indeed the writer could hardly avoid seeing that it would.