The New Zealand THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1919. LAWLESS LAW

New Zealand Tablet, 23 October 1919, Page 25

The New Zealand THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1919. LAWLESS LAW

HEN Rip Van Winkle awoke from his 7s/ss//* protracted slumbers, he found many things changed for the worse around him; and indeed any old man who looks 5 with a dispassionate eye on modern conditions ought not. to be accused of exaggeration for saying that' they: did "■"■ ';'-.' things better in his day. >: In all things I /; '.■"'; "" where the use of reason is demanded the rule seems to be a day older a day worse. "And in nothing else is the . deterioration; so marked as in the matter of the enormities which our statesmen are .still pleased to miscall by the sacred and venerable name v of laws. .;.' The other day •it was made a "law" that f in Ireland noT processions ' should"be held and no demonstrations likely "to disturb the public peace should be tolerated ; but on r; the -Twelfth- of ~ July, in order to allow full freedom" to .those J who" wished to celebrate

the 'success of a rebellion against rightful' King of England, it was ruled that the law 1 for all Ireland did . not apply' to Orangemen at all! Here, if we were dealing y with people who still : had ' the use of '■ reason, we should" be tempted to point out that it is therefore a logical'conclusion that the Orangemen 1 are not Irishmen, and that the sooner they are ' packed '• out>of the country in which 'they '"' are helping to promote murder the ; better 'will it be for all 'parties. Again, we are told that Sinn Fein is unlawful because presumably it aims at asking English statesmen to keep "a pledge freely and repeatedly made to the effect that people ought to have the right to determine their own form of '■' government. • We have much sympathy with English statesmen who are expected to do so unusual a thing as to keep their pledges where Ireland is concerned; but ■• at the same time we have far more for the mass of the British people who are made to look like fools and hypocrites by the antics of the aforesaid and alleged statesmen. We are a great people; but no matter. '.-, V ',- ■ *,"--. We could say a great deal more about law as far as it refers to ourselves in New Zealand. One instance will do for all. A little paper is prosecuted for publishing among a few hundred subscribers an article said to be seditious. But when it has been made known that the publication of that article was wrong that the Government looked on it as wrong, which is far from being the same thing—it becomes perfectly right for. the Daily Lies to spread the wrong article broadcast among thousands of readers. We have before our eyes as we write a little book written hundreds of years ago in order to make known to all what law really means; and we have no hesitation in saying that if the pagan author of that book came back to-day he would ask bewilderedly why, in spite of all he did and all that his contemporaries did to educate the world, there was less reason and common sense to-day than in his time. In those far-off, old times, only a man who had proved that he could think, and that he understood what first principles were, and that he knew the value of words, could hope to become a law-giver or even a member of Parliament, or whatever its equivalent was at that time. In our time, to attain such positions it seems to be recognised . that a man must be incapable of thinking and that he must never reveal -any grasp of principles, and that he must use words only as means of hiding the truth and obfuscating reason. . In that old time it was understood, even of the man-in-the-street, that a law , was a generalisation and a definition; and our forefathers excelled in the art of making such definitions so clear, that in contradistinction to our present-day law-givers' efforts at camouflage, it was perfectly clear what the definition stood for. For instance, when they made a law. to apply to a whole country, it was never necessary for them to say afterwards that they did not mean it to apply to the Northern Province of that country, or to any Northern Province people in other parts of the country; and it is presumable that if they said that a little paper was wrong in publishing an article they would say that a big paper was far more wrong. Again, the ancients and the sensible people made a law pronounce in air impersonal manner that certain things were to be done and that other things were not to be done to certain persons who did or did .not do certain things. The modern idea of. a law is to say that if certain persons do or do not do certain things they shall be referred to certain other persons who shall do with them whatever first comes into their heads. Thus, in old times a man who committed murder was punished as a murderer; to-day the murderer is remitted to certain persons who recommend that he be treated as a lunatic for a little while and then let loose to do more harm. Take the case of conscientious objectors, for instance. v,lnstead of there being a clear general law to deal with them, as there would have been , in the old, sane' days, they are sent before , a man who ; may sympathise with them and let them off, or before one who, like our 'Chief Justice, may preach a sermon to them on the enormity of having a. conscience at all, and send them "to Hong

Kong or to Rotorua. Every reader who has retained his memory can multiply-such cases 1 ad infinitum for himself. "-'J"" ' i;^^-*^'"-'-^'/'/----?' l^'-,'^'^' * ! ; 7 ' Of course,' there is •something radically wrong ;-ibut where is the root of the wrong ? It came remotely from a seed sown centuries ago by those who put the reason Of every Tom, Dick, Harry, or Chief Justice above the reasoned and tested 1 experience of centuries. •-Proximately, and as it more intimately Concerns us, it comes from the fact that it seems impossible to get statesmen nowadays to bow to the ruling of common sense, or to admit that principles are sacred and inviolable matters against which their own whimsical little opinions do not matter the weight of a straw. Of course, the remedy is to get in their place' as soon as possible statesmen who know something and who are riot all ready to adore as a legal, luminary a man who babbles about public conscience and other similar enormities. In the meantime, as to get rid of the old crew will take time, it ought to be the business of ~ everyone to excogitate some scheme for the education of politicians and legislators; and needless to say, such education ought to be made compulsory for politicians under 80. At present our Brothers' boys are busy teaching sportsmanship to certain people who are supposed to teach it to others; but I am sure that when the season is over they would be willing to give catechism classes to members of Parliament, and that the consciousness of doing a patriotic duty would be reward enough for them. A few lessons on tho Ten Commandments, with an introduction on the general meaning of the word law, would be very helpful indeed. ;