Rtvieti of Rfiiewt, 1_10;06. 



Leading Articles. 



395 



Amusing Peeps at the Life of the Poor. 



Miss M. Loane writes in the Contemporary upon 

 culture among the poor. She does justice to the 

 excellences and the limitations of the class that she 

 describes. The general reader will perhaps most 

 enjoy her paper because of the amusing incidents 

 that she relates. A few of these may be given 

 here : — 



In a north country town I was oiu-e stopped in the street 

 by a chimney-swe'ep'. wJio told uie that he had heen asked 

 trt clean a chimney in a house where there had been a 

 case of fever, and inquired if it would be safe for him to 

 do so. " I suppose tlie place has been disinfected?" " Aye, 

 but Ah doot they've disinfected the chimley." He present- 

 ly told me that he had not washed for forty years, and 

 having survived that. I thought lie must be strong enough 

 to risk battle with any enfeebled germs hiding behind soot- 

 flakes. 



Standards of propriety and even morality vary strangely, 

 but are never entirely absent. " He's droonk, yon mon." 

 said an experienced cliild of nine or ten in a matter-of- 

 fact manner, entirely free from any tinge of surprise pr 

 blame : but, after a moment'c; reflection, she added, in 

 tones of stern condemnation, ' and it's not Saturday, nay- 

 therl" 



" Danny's a bit improved from what he was; he used 

 to be a nawfil boy," said an elder sister. I dared not ask 

 from what a life of sin satin-cheeked Danny haiT been 

 rescued, but slie gave me an adequate measure of his 

 depths of infamy by adding, "When he come indoors now 

 he do rememl)er to take his liat off." 



" Then fou married rather late in life?" said a friend 

 of mine to a retired butler, in whose house she was 

 lodging. "Yes, ma'am, but." in a husky and triumphant 

 whisper. "I'd had offens.'" 



During the SpaniBli-.\nierican war a village baker pro- 

 tested, " Two thousand years and them Philippines ain't 

 altered, not a mite. You mind what St. Paul said of 'em?" 



I was told recently of a factory girl who, the day after 

 the wedding, provided her husband with chops burnt abso- 

 lutely black. "Well. I juss put em in the pan and they 

 come so. What bad I ought to h.a' done?" "You'd ought 

 to ha' put oil in the pan, " replied the husband, boldly. 

 As soon as she had hurried hack with two fresh chops 

 she Boused them well in parafiin and recommenced her 

 labours. After a little " language " the husband retreated 

 to the public-house. 



Standardisation in Municipal Life. 



In the Forum Mr. H. (J, Stechhan has described 

 the municipal rode of Indian.i. It .seems to be the 

 introduction of the principle of standardisation, 

 which Americans have found so valuable in indus- 

 trial prfxliiction, iiito municipal life. The wTiter 

 s.iys : — 



Uniform government in all the cities and towns of 

 India is the end which the new municipal code enacted 

 by the General Assembly this year seeks to achieve. It 

 m.arka a distinct .stej) forward in city government, and is 

 intended to work a number of important reforms in the 

 general conduct of municipal affairs, placing them on 

 more of a business basis. 



The code repeals all so-called individual city charters 

 and separate incorporation acts, with special grants, under 

 which the different municipalities of Indiana have been 

 org.ini8ed heretofore, and extend.s the same broad principles 

 of local self-goyernment to all. 



This is opposed to the customary city-made char- 

 ter. The new code embodies the federal plan of 

 government with the three divisions — executive, 

 legislative and judicial. The mayor corresponds to 

 the president, and is elected for four years. He 

 works through six administrative divisions, all of 

 ■which are accountable to him. Judicial power is in 

 the hands of judge and clerk, elected by the people 

 for four years. The Common Council exercises the 

 legislative authority. 



The Native Disturbances in NataL 



The Perils and Limits of Martial Law. 



Mr. F. Mackarness, M.P., writes in the Indepen- 

 Jeiit Review to insist that the facts, when really in- 

 vestigated, tend to nothing more than isolated cases 

 of passive resistance to the pavment of the poll 

 tax. He reviews the progress of recent events in 

 Xatal, and declares that the attitude of the Colonial 

 Ministers towards the Governor when he suspended 

 the capital sentence passed upon the twelve natives, 

 was from a constitutional point of view ill-conceived 

 and an interference with the prerogative of the 

 Cromi. For, once martial law has been established, 

 the will of the Governor, as commander-in-chief of 

 the military forces in the Colony, becomes the sole 

 court of appeal in the military courts. The writer 

 urges : — ■ 



It seems very desirable that tiiis disagreeable business in 

 Natal should be made the occasion by the Imperial Govern- 

 ment of laying down a fi.ved code of rules, after consulta- 

 tion with the colonial governments, defining the circum- 

 stances in which martial law may be invoked, the extent 

 to which it may be applied, and tlie authorities who are 

 to regulate its administration. To have used it recklessly 

 as an engine for depriving Britisli subjects, black or white, 

 of the right of an orderly judicial trial to which they are 

 entitled, is to bring British justice into ridicule and con- 

 tempt. 



The Imperial Government seems to have a unique oppor- 

 tunity piesentcd to it by the conclusion of the Natal dis- 

 turbances, coinciding, as it does, with the imminent estab- 

 lishment of se'.f-government in the Transvaal and Orange 

 River Colony, of suggesting and initiating the lines of a 

 common policy for all the colonies, under which the ele- 

 mentary rights of British subiects may be secured to the 

 natives witliout any injury to the interests of the European 

 population. 



GERMAN FRIENDSHIP IN EGYPT. 



Mr. Edward Dicey, writing in the Empire Review 

 on Islam in fermentation, traces the uprising of 

 the natives in various parts of the French, German, 

 and English colonies to the recent defeat of Russia 

 by a non-European power. This has stirred the 

 \Ioslem feeling. Mr. Dicey entirely approves Lord 

 Cromer's stern measures in the recent executions. 

 He goes on to say this good and timely word for 

 Germany : — 



To the best of my belief our own Government is fully 

 aware how much we owe to the refusal of Germany to give 

 any encouragement to the invasion of the Sinai Peninsula 

 by Turkish troops. It is certain tliat if Germany had kept 

 silent at Constantinople, the Sultan, relying on the sup- 

 posed good-will of Germany and on the temporary efface 

 ment of Russia as a military Power, would have pursued 

 his aggressive policy towards Egypt, and would have com- 

 pelled England to engage in a war with Turkey, and by 

 so doing expose herself to the hitter liostility of Islam 

 throughout Asia and Africa generally, and especially in 

 Egypt. We thus owe our escape from a position of grave 

 embarrassment, which would, in all likelihood, have even- 

 tuated in war. to the good faith of (ierniany. This being 

 so. common sense, not tn sjjeak of common gratitude, 

 should compel us to look with great scepticism upon all 

 reports, emanating for the most part from French sources, 

 which seek to represent Germany as being engaged in per- 

 petual intrigues to undermine British influence in .Africa 

 and elsewhere. These reports are reproduced by a section 

 of the British press without hostile comment, and their 

 reproduction naturally creates an tinravoniable impression 

 on the German public. 



