Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXII, Issue 16, 16 August 1895, Page 3

Current Topics

AT HOME AND ABROAD. It is to be feared that the visits to this Colony of ODDS AND distinguished personages as lecturers has been ENDS. rather overdone. The tour, for example, of that London celebrity, the Rev B. H. Haweis, does not •eem to have been especially marked by success. When Mr Haweis preached in a chnrch of his communion— that is, the Anglican— his audience was crowded, but in the lecture hall then appears, as a rule, to have been room to spare. Why, however, did Mr Haweis reserve hif best effort for the last. That, surely, was an error of judgment on the part of tbe management. Had the rev lecturer only come forward at the Btart as a ci-devant Garibaldian he might have drawn much better. The ci-devant Garibaldian, indeed, has a good deal that is interesting about him, and, in some instances, at least, could, if be would, impart to his hearers very sensational stories of life. All who followed to the standard of tbe adventurer were not, without exception, seriously affected. Bot even into the reminiscences of the rev lecturer himself there enters, we are told, something that is" humorous. The lecturer, we find, alluded, '• in a humorouß way," to Garibaldi's love affairs — matters of a sort of poetic license that was very notable. Heroes of Garibaldi's stamp cannot be expected to submit to ordinary restrictions, nor, perhaps, is it reasonable to expect that those who recall their memories, as bright phases in their own bygone youth, Bhould be over-paiticular in doing bo. Men, for example, to whom, as to the Rev R. H. Haweis, Garibaldi and Mazzini remain as heroes, must necessarily make allowances for even such grave matters as piracy and assassination. How, then, can they be expected to deal too severely with what are, in comparison, mere peccadillos? It is, meantime, evident, as we have said, that for some time, at any rate, the celebrity, as a lecturer, has seen his best days in this Colony. Not even the Rev R. H. Haweia's choicest theo^ offered as a last resource and at popular prices, availed to attract anything of an audience. The Referendum, we find, like female franchise, forme a point upon which members of all parties seem inclined to agree, that is, to agree so far as means are concerned, but not at all to agree with regard to ends. In Liberty, for example, the organ of the National Association, for the current month, a plea is entered for the adoption of the system in strictly Conservative interests. Thus tbe writer expresses a conviction that, were the system adopted, an end would be pa», once for all, to borrowing by the State, We have already referred to an article published recently on the subject in one of the London monthlies— the March number, m fact, of the Contemporary Review. There tbe writer states that from the Swirs Referendum, of which he gives a sketch, questions of finance were obliged, after a trial, to be excluded. "It was fonnd, for example, bf the experience of several cantons, that, owing to its repeated rejection by the people, the budget could not be included." Under. takings, moreover, euch as those for which in New Zealand borrowed money is required, are also excluded in Switzerland — " public works tbe construction of buildings, the conservancy of rivers and the like.'' Tneae, we are told, are looked upon as purely administrative and not requiring tbe formality of popular sanction, but they, or the class of undertakings to which they belong, certainly need an outlay. Tbe suggestion, in short, seems to be that among ourselves the system mast be applied in a manner different from that in which it ie used in Switzerland and that, therefore, it would be an experiment without practical precedent and of whose working little could be predicted. Another advantage among the many — always of strictly Conservative import, which the writerjiu Liberty foresees, would be the rousing of a large class of citizens — "whose political apathy," he says "adds so largely to the chances of bad representation and consequently of bad government. •' The referendum," Bays the writer in the Contemporary " has also given birtb to a camarilla of politicians who exploit the credulity or passions of the populace in order Jto

oppose measures which are perfectly legitimnte. " Has the writer in Liberty never heard the old saying, " Better let sleeping dogs lie ?" How does he know, for instance, what might replace an apathy which bad been routed by the goads of one or other of oar fanatical combinations? Our own chief objection, in fact, to the proposed system is the danger in question. In the referendum, in short, we Bhould have a perpetual source of political turmoil. Tbo writer in Liberty speaks of it as " only available upon a pretty general consensus of public opinion respec'ing an important question." The writer in the Contemporary says, "The optional referendum. . . , generally provokes a pretty lively cootest first over the getting of the signatures, and still more over the votes themse^es." Homoeopathy, we perceive, is still in the land of thi living — ia indeed, not only alive but kicking. We have at hand the first number of the Australasian Ilomeeopathic Medical Gazette, to ba published quarterly in its interests. But what have we hire— an apology for rattle-snakes? Perhaps, then, it was premature to introduce that clausa into the Animals' Prjtection Bill. If snakes are imperatively demanded tor useful or necessary purposes, matters if life or death, snakes should certainly be placed within reach. " The sudden and extreme coldness and bluenesa which follow the serpent's bite, the collapse, choleric state," etc, etc, a£E jrd, we are told, " very strong evidence in favour of tbe use of Crotalus (or rattle-snake venom) in cholera." But fancy the condition of tbe individual in whoße inside the venom of the rattlesnake aid the microbes of the cholera should be engaged in deadly combat. O'-her curious matter is also contained in the Gasette. The health and safety that lie ia the venom of the rattle-snake, however, seem to us for the moment sufficient. Personal experience, nevertheless, goes for something in meat cases. Our own impression of homoeopathy was early received. One d»y very many years ago, it happened that on our arriving at a certain house we found the family in commotion. An antidote wag urgently needed, and some fuss was being made in its preparation. There was a patient, whom we did nob see, but wboae state we heard described. Her eyes were projecting, her face purple, and her head in agony. Belladonna — not as yet rattle-snake venom — was if we recollect aright, the cause— improperly administered, no doubt, tbe homot )pathiet will say. Early impressions, we say, remain, and, on the whole, we, for our part, prefer medicines that, at worst, are harmless. It may be as well after all to take your rattle-Bnaka in the way nature has Appointed, or even to let your cholera microbe do his work unassisted by an opponent. On tbe other hand we had it once, on an assurauce that seemed reliable — the pledged word of a Bchoolboy — which we believed at tbe time, and have since seen no reason to doubt— that he had himself swallowed a whole fist full of mixed globules without experiencing any effect whatever — not even by taste. The Doctor (D.D. not M.D.) had been called away, leaving tbe claes ranged around bis desk, and bis desk open. Within it were the vials in tempting array, and who Bhould swallow the contents wholesale became the question. It was solved as we have said. One globule, perhaps, was antidote to another— or all together were of tbe nature of bread pills. Battlesnakes, at all events, remained so far unmedicinal. Alphonse Daudet, the famouß writer, who recently paid a visit to London, has not explained tbe impressions received by him there in a manner agreeable to British vanity. Indeed he has gone Borne way towards bringing discredit in the Perfide Albion on French politeneee. The ladies themselves have come under thi* laßb of bis disapprobation, " Not only is tbe Englishwoman cot handsome in feature," he says, "but there ia nothing seductive in her physic il form, and, moreover, she is an utter stranger to elegancy and good taste." The pretty women, it is said, voted the Frenchman a bore. JFinc ilia lachrymce. Rude expressions, like that quoted, nevertheless, do not tend to promote good feeling between the countries. The judgment of Paris, with modifications and variations, remains generally suggestive. Two ladies still survive, at the ages respectively of 92 and 86, who were present at the ball in Brussels the night before the battle

of Waterloo. They are the Indies Louisa Tigbe and Sophia Cecil, both daughters of a Duke of Richmond— tr.e same wbo was noted for a merry life as Lord Lieuttnant of Ireland. Four veterans of Ibe gieai fight aie utill liviug in ftaccd. Not or.c remain? in England. The charges brought by GeDtral Hamcrlpy, in his recently published memoirs, against Lord Wolsalsy, are explained as a mere outcome of spleen and jealousy. Lord WoUe'ey, it : s predicted, will not deign to notice them. Oar contemporary, the Otago Daily Times quotes from the Berlin correspondent of the London Times a calumnious report of a case that has recently taken place at Mariabcrg, near Aix-la-Chapelle. The repirt is, in effect, that a Scotch priest named Forbes had been incarcerated voder a false pretenca of madness, in a lunatic asylum conducted by the members of a religious Order— the Alexian Brothers —and brutally treated— to wit, stripped, bound and dipped head downward into ice.cold water, until the babbles showed th&t he was in danger of suffocation, when he was given time to take a breath and then dipped again. At the inquiry in the court at Aix-la-Ohapelle, meantime, Police Director Stirling of Aberdeen, who was one of the witnesses, swore that Father Forbes had been brought in April '74 to the police office ] in his town for thrashing an officer of mari lei who had offended him at an inn ; that he had smashed his stick on a police-officer's head, and that his conduct was that of a madman. At Mariaberg, according to the sworn evidence, he seems to have gone in and out at will. On the occasion on which be was treated with cold water he had come in at night drunk and violent. A strait wais'coat was put on him, the douche was turned on, and he was ducked in a tnb for about two minutes. Out of this the Times correspondent has spun his sensational yarn of torture and death, oar contemporary the Otago Daily Times quoting, as a tit-bit to make bis columos attractive, the tissue of calumnious misrepresentation and exaggeration. But how is it that our contemporary, toe Otago Daily Times shows such an interest in this c.se, or thinks it must needs be of exceptional interest to those who lead lis columns? Other cases there have been quite as sensational and much nearer home, towards which, nevertheless, our contemporary has not been so much on the alert. There, for example, was that of the Rev Mr Cotton, an Anglican clergyman, a year or two ago. Had not our contemporary heard how this amiable dirine was twice imprisoned — his second term hardly having as yet expired— for illireating the children of the Carogh Orphanage in the County Kildare. His Reverence, too, had made a ,very free use of ice-cold water and starvation and nakedness, and tbe poor orphans under his tender care had suffered piteously. We hare no recollection that our contemporary treated his readers to any of iheae details— which, moreover, were true, and not misrepresented or exaggerated Is that tbe only reason ? We, some way or another, mis=ed tbe report, but we quote from an editoiial note in ihe Daily Time*. The Franchise League, it seems, refused to interfere on behalf of tbe unfortunate woman Dean— hanged at Invercargill on Monday for Qhild-murder :— « For (say) the Women's Frßncbise League to have made an appeal would have been tantamount to an admission that a female wrongdoer is to ba treated with comparative leniercyon the score of sex, and the admission would ba a dangerous one from the new point of view." It all depends then on what otherwise the mind of the League may have been. Did they approve of capital punishment? Did they think the woman deserved to bo hnng ? Or was their grim resolution that, right or wrong, Ufa or death, they would be the equals of meD,downto the very level of the gallows ? Only a certain knowledge of the inmost mind of the League would justify the expression of a judgment in this matter. Possibly a tolerably strong expression might with just cc be made. "On Brighton F,ont. Hawwy : 'Dear old chappie, you do look bad. Wbat'd happened?' Fweddy : 'I feel dweadfuily bad, old fellow. I pwoposed to Miss Liitlecurl last night, and 6he wejected me.' ' Oh, never mind ; there are lots as gool as she is.' ' Ot, it isn't that. I couldn't afford to marry ; but she was so wough. I met her and tod her how I had loved her from the first day I saw her, and if she would only cwown my love wo would walk down the flowery path of life the euvitd of a'l, an 1 ' ' Wall, an 1 af v er all, she told you with sorrow tbat she could never be more thhn a Bister to yon?' 'No; pue woarelout laughing, and said " Chestnuts ! " and then jumped on her bicycle aud woad (ff, sujing, "So long, Gaepipes 1 " ' " Mr M'Nacaais, a Queensland journalist, who hag returned from New Australia, gives it, in effect, as his opinion that Socialism on a

small scale, an i without tha power of a Btate to back it op, mmt prove a failure— as it bai plainly proved m the abortive nttlement allude J to. The description, besides, given by this gentleman of Paraguay, tbe omntry of the settlement, recalls and illustrates once more the loss entailed there by the withdrawal, in the last century, of the Jesuit missionaries. Ha speaks of the agricultural capacities of the country as completely marred by the climate— from which the condition of the population may be easily deduced. Whatever, npvortheWp, might bo the difficulties to be overcome, the Jesuit Fathers, in their reductions, had secured the happiness and prosperity of the natives. Lord Honghton is undersold to be much relieved by his enforced letiremont from the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland. His tenure of office, it seems, entailed for him a social boycotting on the part of the world of rank and fashion. His Excellency was said to accept this as a matter of coarse— being content to receive the recognition ef ill made of him, whenever circumstances permitted, in his noncfficial character. He, nevertheless, was Buspected all the time of a rather weak consciousness that he was being very unpleasantly victimised. 14 Mr Justin M'Oarthy, in a strongly-worldly manifesto, denounces Mr Healy, and attributes the Conservative victory in Ireland to faction troubles aud Mr Healy's disloyalty." This is anything rather than pleasant news. It, however, seems ad visable to await full particulars before venturing to comment on it. The Anglican Bishop of Wellington seems to have novel tnd strange ideaß concerning the uses of a cathedral or his sect. A sentence delivered tbe other day on the snbject by his Lordship is thus reported :— " He wanted a church where a poor man could go in and worship— a neutral ground to which everyone could come without being called upon to declare himself a Churchman." Hitherto Anglican cathedrals have been buildings frequented bat little by the poor, or in which tbe poor were recognised as specially daserviog of a place. Why people, other than Churchmen, should desire to fre. , quent auch a building also needs explanation. Indeed, a nentral ground in religion is suggestive of a standing place for those, being neither hot nor cold, whose doom it is to be spewed out. No cause whose motto was neutrality— otherwise indifference— ever yet made its mark in this world. Where, in the next, its traces are likely to be found we must leave to be conjectured. " ' Maria, bow does it happen that Fanny isn't going to church wtth you this morning ? ' 'You know as well as I do, John, that when Bessie and Kate and I go to church somebody has to stay at home. There ian't room for four pairs of sleeves in our pew.' " A slight sign of the times may perhaps be disowned in the rumour that the French Ambassador, Baron Courcel, now in London is about to make way for a successor, M. Barrere, whose disposition is anti-English. Thg sect held guilty of the massacre of English missionaries in China are known as the Vegetarians— their distinctive feature being an intense enmity to f)reii?aer9. Officials, nevertheless, are accused of complicity, and Boldiers of taking part in the murders. The die. position of the population generally eeema hostile. Punishment, and protection for the missions, will be demanded. It may, however, be regarded as an open question as to how far a slaughter of missionaries may justly, or in the interests of Christianity, ba avenged. They intrude themselves into countries where they are nnwillingly received and go with the open profession that they ate ready to sacrifice their lives. Some suspicion of false pretences msy, therefore, be thrown by the exaction of punishment on their memories— as well as of an attempt to favour the spread of Christianity by force of arms. Those who go down into the sea in ships seem nowadays to have exceptional cause for nervousness. Another wreck ia now reported! that namely of the Catterthun, a steamer bound from Sydney for China. The vessel struck on a reef called the Seal Rocks, some nine or ten houis after she had cleared Sydney Heads, at 6 30 p.m. on Wednesiay, August 7, and foundered with great rapidity. There we:e 81 people on board and some 25 only were saved. The vessel carried mails— one bag being from Wellington and three from the Bluff. What is a " eenilo old woman." The phrase, if we recollect our dic'-ionaiy aright, contains B'^methicg like a contradiction in terms. At any rate, ibat is wha>, during the recent Cork bye-electioD, Mr J, B. Redmond called the opposing candidate, Mr J. F. X. O'Brien, Mr William O'Brien took np the cudgels against Mr Redmond. He said that Mr Redmond might be called a " mannikin traitor," and again, that he was not worthy ef booing. He said that Mr Redmond had spent bis youth in the p*y of England— a* a clerk in the House of Commons— and his middle age in " assassinating a Home Bale

Government." Mr O'BrieD, in a word, dealt very eeverely with Mr Redmond — not even sparing his powers as a speaker— which he described aa those of a composer of ''flowery debating school orations," He morpo'pr Rforpdifpd him with success ia assassinfcting a Hvme Rule Government, and bringing back Lord Salisbury, Mr Balfour, and Mr Chamberlain. Of Mr J. F. X. O'Brien, or the other hand, Mr William O'Brien Bpokein very high terms— though, perhaps, in magnifying, as such, an ex-Fenian, ho showed some slight inconsistency with the ridicule aad contempt thiown by him on the Fanian movement in his book " When we were Boys," Mr J. F. X. O'Brien, wa may explain, is a native of the County Cork, now aged sixty-three, who, at the age of twen'y-five, had emigrated to America where he had Berved during the civil war as assistant Burgeon, with the rank of Captain. He afterwards returned to Ireland, and occupied a respectable position in Cork when Fenianism was Bet on foot. In this he took an active part— his chief feat being his capture, as colonel of a regiment, of a poHce barrack at a place named Ballyknockane— in which he also displayed great humanity, and a oice consideration for human life. This, exploit, nevertheless, formed a chief couat in an indictment, on which he was sentenced by the notoriou* Judge Keogh to be hanged, drawn, and quarterei — the sentencs being commuted to one of penal servitude for life. Mr O'Brien was released, afier several years' imprisonment, in the general amnesty. Mr William O'Brien, in alluding to the general election, which was then approaching, spoke a word or two worthy of recollection. If only the Irish people were true to themselves, he said in tflect, and returned a united party, he had no fear of the coercionists :— " I am not sure," he soid, " that in the designs of Providence it may not turn out to be a blessing in disguise to have tbe Tories and the Ooercionists back again for a while, because either one or two things vation of the people. Sir Robert, nevertheless, was not too benevo-

will happen— either they will go back upon the days of Mitchelstown, »nd in that case they will simply brace up the spirit of the country to the old fighting form, or if, what in my opinion is very much more likely, they have a genuine or a eolid Irish party to deal witb, they will have a little more sense than to go back to the days of Mitchelstown, and we will probably find that on the Home Rule question, and on tbe land qnestioi, and on tbe evicted tenants' question, aud on tbe amnesty question, and on the e'3ucatbn queatiou we will experience another specimen of thit Tory flexibili-y which in 188.J ltd Lord Salisbury to hint at a measure of Home Rule even more dras ie than Mr Gladstone's. The debate on the buiget has buea dragging \U somewhat dreary length at Wellington throughout the week. There is not very much to be gleaned from the tummansi'd reports of the'speerm-s. We are however, lold that Mr Allen, as usual, contributed " something solid " —too dense, perhaps, for transmission by wire, as nothirg very importantappears in the words a 9 reported. Mr Ward, had giveo Sir Robert Stout an opportunity for the airing of his q-ialuies— benevolence, inregard of the t.xaiioa of widows— philosophy, with reoptct to a failure to provide for the elelent or too philosophic to take advantage of a fortunae discovery By some fluke or another he had come across a copy of the Cana ian tariff of 1894, and found out that Mr Ward ia the Statement had quoted inatead of it t .at of 1890. Tuis, as Fat ,er Prout has it was au "eurekisb moment," and Kir Robert made the most of it. a'sli'd no doubt, had occurred, but it did not amount to very mash. " Uncle : 'If you pass your examination I will pay all your debts ' Student : 'So you want me to s udy simply for tbe benefb of mv creditors V " y

The death of the second Lord Gough at the age of 80 admonishes of the flight of time those of us who remember the victories in India of bis father. Him we recollsct «b a tall, upright, soldier-like looking man with snow white hair aid mouiUob.^. It was whispered, however, whether truly or iunaiy we do not know, that m disposition, he was Bomething more than parsimonious— or in plain English, a miser, Besides the property near Bjoterstown, Dublin, where the second Lard Gough died last June, he owned aa estate in the County Gal way, that namely of Lough Oootra, near Gjrt, purchased from ft community of nans for wrom in tarn it bad been bought when, at the property of Lord Gort, it was sold in the Encumbered Estate! Court. For the purposes of the religions community the place had been fooud unsuitable. The death of Lord Gjugh besides recalls an episode, once of stirring interest, but which perhaps on a generation that knew not Joseph, if it has been ever heard of by them, has made little impression. We allude to the persistent— and even desperate, attempt! made by a certain Major Garden to become, whether she would or no, the husband of bis Lordship's sißter-in-law, Miss Arbuthnot. All Ireland was roueei one day at hearing that, as this young lady had been returning home the previous Sunday from church, the vehicle in which, with some members of her family, she was driving, had been stopped, and a determined fight made by Carden to carry her oft by force. It was in the County Tipperary, if we recollect aright, that this event occurred. At any rate it was not in Dublin or Gal /ray, la fact, when the young lady with her Bister, then the Hon Mrs Gougo, first arrived West of the Shannon, there was a good deal of cariosity to see her, aB a heroine of lomanca— a position which possibly ibe fonnd rather trying. Nothing indeed could be less like a poetic vision of such associations than was Miss Arbntbnot personally. She was

in appearance, a young lady of quiet but resolute dignity, and, one would say, of sound common sense. For the escap ide in question, Carden suffered a couple of years imprisonment. That, however, did not cool his ariour, and, afcer his release, Miss Arbuthnot continued to be importuned by him. Even dv.ing her visits to her relatives in England be contrived to bribe sarvants to convey letters to her. Indirectly then, the death of the second Lord Gougb renews for ns memories not only of war but of love. A boc ety paper B p?culate 9 -not inappositely, as it appears to ns -on a question aa to why her Most Gracious Majesty, aa Head of the Church of Eugland, wears no special costume. Hhe receives her archbishops and bishops, Bays our contemporary " in her low-necked short-sleeved, full dress rob- s, such as no Roman Catholic lady would wear in the company of ecclesiastics." Our contemporary points out that, nevcrlLe'es*. it woald h,ve been quite easy to plan robes •aitable totha character-instancing military accoutrements worn sometimes at reviews by both Elizabeth and Victoria-as well as the ''toggery » of a doctor of music worn by the Princess of Wales Her Maj sty, however takes brevet rank only «s a Djctor of Divinity. Archbishop Laud was a great favourite at Court. One d»y how ever, he annoyed the kiog by suggesting that his Majesty wm hasty in a atep he was about taking. "It is aot f or yoa to dlcfate iQ * said .he monarch in a rage. "Asa chesa player," replied iii "yoar Majesty ought to know that it is not at all unusual for bishop to check a king." ur

Mr Gladstone has delivered a rattling speech against the Turks, at a meeting at Chester, convened, we are, somewhat doubtfully perhaps, told, by the Dnke of Westminster. The speaker, in effect, recommended short shrift for the offenders. The speech, it is explained, will probably go a long way in strengthening Lord Salisbury's hands to deal sternly in the matter— a diplomatic rendering we conclude, of toe necessity thus imposed upon Lord Salisbury of doing bo. It is not, however, to be concluded that, where the Turks are concerned, it is all such plain sailing. The Sultan, to the Mohammedan world represents the head of their religion. It was, for example, reported that the Bbabsada— that ia the Prince Nasrulla of Afghanistan, son of the Ameer, now, or recently, visiting England— and regarded there as an ally worth pleasing— on his way honr c would visit Constantinople to pay religious homage to the potentate there. Turkish enmity, therefore, or the dissatisfaction of the Sultan, might not be without its results on the aspect of things in India and the neigh bouring^erritories. Lord Salisbary may possibly be in a tighter place in the matter than many people suppose. Another thing said about the Shahzada was that they were going to make him a Freemason— Masonry being open to Mohammedans Paraees, Jews, and the sweepings of mankind in general. Nasrulla Khan, therefore, was to be received promiscuously by the Grand Lodge of England— just, for instance, as Sir Robert Stout had been received by the Grand Orient of France or Italy. Liberty of conscience, then, has its limits in Protestant Germany. A recruit of the » Mennonit " sect, for example, recently refused to carry arms, as contrary to the precepts of his creed. The consequence is, that he has been sent to gaol for a year— the Emperor having personally confirmed the sentence. A Chinese editor recently returned a MS. — a copy of verses most probably— with an explanation that, were it to be published by him, literature must come to a Btop. No reader, he said, who read it would ever be bothered reading anything unequal to it, and no writer could ever write anything to equal it. The heathen Chinee may have his faults, but there is still wisdom ia the land of Sinim— verhum sap, '"I camo pwetty near b.ing complimented to- lay,' said Willie W.ehington. 'How was that ? ' asked his friend, ' Mhs Cayenne told ma 1 was a perfect migazine poem.' ' Indeed ! ' < Y-a-a-as ; she said I didn't have au idea in me.' " The "Claimant" continuep, indeed, a mo^t mysterious person. Now they deny his claim to be Arthur Orton. Sir Roger they say he it not, nor yet Orton— but a Ttchborne of (he bead sinister— inclined, perhaps, a little more than usual to the left. The Nelson education Board has compiled with the request of tbe Rev Fathers Wal B h and Rolland that the Catholb schools at Weetport and Reefton should be examined by the Government Inspectors. A correspondent thinks it significant that in the same number of the Colonist, that of August Ist, in which the consent of the Board is reported, an extract from a book by Dr Strong, an American Congregational minister, is quoted, ii which details are gtveo of tbe decadence of Protestant Christianity in the United Btates. During the past 30 years, says the writer, thousands of churches have died there from exhaustion. "There »re ninety-five towns and plantations in Maine wher« no religious services of any sort are held, and there are more villages in Illinois without the Gospel than in any other State in the Union. In one village, with two disused Protestant churches and one ac'ive Boman Catholic church, there were 14 saloon*, all within a distance of a quarter of a mile. There were, a few years ago in one town, a large Presbyterian church, two Methodist cburcheP, a Baptist church and a flourishing Baptist seminary. To-day the Presbyteriao church is used as a barn, the Baptist church is abandoned, the two Methodist churches are almost extinct, and tho Baptist seminary is n ilised as a Roman Catholic church. We have large city populations where there ie only one church to 10, 20, and even 40 tbousaud s,uU." By the way, what would be the moral effec's of t at rattlesnake stuff ? Might it by chance be administered with good effect ? There are people we know for whom it is vouched by Holy Writ that the poison of asps is under their tongues. How would it be if tbe venom of the rattle-snake, ou homoeopathic principle*, were applied to them above that unruly member— our old Tory friends for instance 7 We should recommend for experiment Lord Salisbury

•n3 Mr Balfoor, or above all, Joe Chamberlain. Moral boraasopatby might perhaps work without the aid of antidotes. A person—a rather snobbish person— who does in London the letters of a " Kiss Oaloai* " for the Duaedin Star, gives her impressions of a sermon recently preached on the reunion of Christendom by Cardinal Vaughan. The Cardinal does not come up a? an orator to this person's standard, and she rather sneers at his high-bred manner. His Eminence, too, displeased her father— if she has a father, and if ■he has why does she expose the weakness of a foolishly choleric old party, who must coma oat of church rather than sit still and hear patiently to the end opinions that do notjsuit him ? If she has not, why does she invent an elderly imbecile — as well as other relatives— whom it is at least bad taste to introduce to the publio ? The chief fault, however, found by this person with Cardinal Vaughan— that which she seems to represent as routing her irritable parent, waa the fact that his Eminence attributed to the Protestant mind a condition of donbt. What, meantime, doea a note! spokesman of Protestant Christianity say : " There is more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half yonr creeds " " Miss Oolonia's " parent, then, might more consistently have sat the Bermon out. When, moreover, the traditional bull charges the traditional rag, the virus is in the beiat and not in the colour. It was all papa's temper. For our own part we manage, as a role, to glance over " Miss Oolonia'a " letter without ramming the paper under the grate. " Cholley Oaumpey : ' I see that earrings ate coming into fashion again. Have your ears ever been bored? 1 Misa Caustic: • What a question I Haven't I often listened to your twaddle V " The news that comes from Sydney, that a promise is given of a market for wool in Japan, may be received by us with mingled feelings, since we are also told (hat the purchasers will manufacture from this wool goods to be sent her* for sale. This necessarily meant that factories maintained at a starvation rate of wages are to be brought into competition with those where out own work-people are trying to earn a deoint livelihood. We saw last week from the extract quoted by üb, from a lecture recently delivered on tbe eubject in San Francisco, that a trying competition with the cheap labour of certain Asiatic countries was a danger of the near f atnre, and we were warned especially as to the competition of Japan. A French traveller— to wit, the redoubtable Dr Bataille— had, however, already described for us the cleverness, in substituting themselves for others, of the peoples in question. At ote time, the Doctor informed us, it bad been a good trade for Europeans to travel as buyers of silk-worm e^gs in the East— but, after a little Easterns perceived the advantage of cutting out their visitors, and cunningly availed themselves of it. 9:ill the main business remained a little longer in the hands of European companies, but here also, in due time, the Asiatics insinuated themselves, and bo monopolisedjthe trade in all its branches. An opening of markets in Japan for our raw;material th, refore— glorious as for the moment it must appear to the deserving squatter and welcome as it may seem to others of us, is not witbouHts graver considerations as well. High life continues to make rather a suspicious show. Two cases have been reported this week, in which it appears to figure with some discredit. In the first, one lady of quality has accused another of writing obscene letters— for which it is hinted she is herself accountable. In the second— the Lady Frances Gaming has been committed for trial on a charge of forging her father's name to bills of exchange. May Fair, then, threatens to maka its mark rather heavily this year in the criminal statistics of the country. An enemy-we may say a virulent enemy— has sent ns a clipping from a Bristol paper, purporting to give the substance of a letter from a priost ia Donegal to the Irish Tinet We for our part, recognise in the writer only a simple cleric whose goodness of heart makes him over-thankfut for small mercies :-" Father Martin says candidly that be writes ' in order to advertise Killybegs and its neighbourhood as a beautiful seaside resort, and to tbank Mr Balfonr for having given to us the Killybegs and Glenties lines, constructed and equippei at the expense of the State, and free of all loc.l co* when he was Chief Secre'ary ia this country.' " That's it you sen' too good a heart and too grateful a temperament. Of Father Martin. qualifications as a politican the following will inform our reader." "He says farther on, 'Mr Balfour Laving given us so many wod , measures in the past, what may we not expect from him if he lb* again called back to power ? He is the greatest statesman of the a*T and inatmctively sees what the country needs.' " The Bristol 2dZl says there are a great many Irish priests who agree with Fathr

Martin, bnt for that be has necessarily on'y the promptings of bis own inner consciousness. The enemy, who has sent vi this extract does not agree with this editor. If be did be would not be so anxious to force upon va, with such an air of triumph, his solitary find. Among his brother piiests Father Martin is fortunately in safe handsTbe nnforfuoßte woman Dean, convicted recently of child-mur-der, as a baby-farmer, &t Winton, was hanged at Invercargill on Monday— a very miserable termination to a very miserable case. There may be some question aa to the advisability of capital punishment— tbongh, for our own part, we cannot see that a plea for its abolition rests either on justice or expediency. Capital punishment, however, remaining the law of the land, there can be no doubt tbat this woman had deserved her fate. She bad been guilty of persistent, cold-blooded murder— aggravated by murderous, unpity ing breach of trußt. What right, indeed, had ehe, as the correspondent of the Otogo Daily Times infor ms us she did, to throw a " contemptuous, loathing look at the hangman 7 " Pity, even for a woman of this kind, is a duty for us all — but to describe her with something like admiration as almost a heroine in meeting the death she bad deserved, is falsely sentimental and mischievous. Executions have been shut in from the public. Would it not usefully complete the matter to refuse the Press a right of describing tbeir details 7 It seems a case in which sensational journalism may be usefully dispensed with. The better the report as a jonrnaliitic effort, tbe more mischievous it is likely to be — the more inimical to the deterrent ends for which capital punishment is maintained. Nevertheless we pitied this wretched woman. We hope now ehe^has met with the mercy of God. The final results of the elections — Orkney being reported— are now given. The strength of parties is : — Conservatives, 330 ; Unionists, 72 ; Liberals, 179 ; Nationalists 70 ; Parnellites, 12. Out contemporary the Otago Daily Times quotes a paragraph from Nature, in which the Spaniards are accuned of having destroyed by their cruelty 600,000 inoffensive natives of the island of Jamaica, foutd there by Columbus, " all of whom died out under the cruelties inflicted by the Ohristinnising Spaniards." What the action towards native raced of " Christianising Spaniards " was has been shown once for all by Sir Arthur Helps in his Life of Las Casas. Christianising Spaniards as we see there — in flat contradiction of such calumnies as that the Daily Times quotes, and of which, for example, the late Rev Charles Kingsley was also a noted apostle — did their best for the temporal as well as the spiritual welfare of tbe natives and gave them such protection as they could give against Spaniards who were not Christianising. How, meantime, did Christianising Britons pro. ceed ? How did the natives of North America fare from the neigh, bourhood of the pious Pilgrim Fathers ? How have the natives fared in tvery part of the world where the British settler has set his foot ? Wberr, for instance, from some twenty-five to thirty years ago, we. with oar own eyee, saw tbe Queensland bush thickly peopled with blacks— a most inoffensive people there — not one is now to be found. We admit, however, tbat the Briton in this case was not Christianising. Oae of the moat suggestive, as well as the most extraordinary, sights we can recall is that of a tribe of blacks sitting, stark-naked, in front of their gunyahs in the forest primeval, playing euchre for tobacco. How, moreover, have the Maories — a vastly superior race — fared 1 The British writer who ventures to sneer at the Christianising Spaniards in their dealings with the native tribes, or the editor tbat qao'es his sneering, lays open bis own Christianising conntrymen to accusations tenfold worse, and »hich have not tbe ndvantage of being calumnies and cannot be refuted. There are more natives surviving now in Spanish settlements— proportionally as well as absolutely— than there are in British settlements. " A ell, I suppose you're a tatur^Haed citizen, now ?" said the acquaintance. " Well, I'm not 1" exclaimed the beefy -looking man with side whiskers who bad just come out of tbe courthouse. " They wanted me to renounce my halleg/ance to Queen Victoria, and I told em I'd see tbeir bloomin' country in 'Alifax first. I'm wilhn' to do anything in reason, but that's arsgia' too much, don't y' know?" — Chicago Tribune.