NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 767, 16 March 1910, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The friends of national self-de-fence need not spoil the humorous aspect of.the fracas at the Broken Hill Town Hall, reported, in to-day's cable news, by too solemnly insisting upon the moral of their triumph over the. Socialist protestants against ''the fostering, of the military, spirit." The fact that the care-fully-arranged plan of y the Broken Hill Socialists to enter their "protest" crumpled up under the pressure of, the. disagreeable people who refused to allow all the chairs at the back to remain empty is of much less interest than the fact that the Socialists did show fight. That the speeches upon the brotherhood of man and the foulness of violence were "drowned by the singing of patriotic songs" proves nothing except that the singers were lusty fellows or that the voices of the orators wore as mild as their sentiments. The main point is that the Socialists engaged : the enemy with enough fury to cause considerable damage to the furniture and fittings of the hall. Here and there in the scrimmage, no doubt, there were peace advocates sufficiently firm in their faith to bow'their heads in meek ocstasy to' the descending chair wielded by the militarist hereticsome, perhaps, of a faith sublime enough even to see in the ferocity of their antagonists a perfectly beautiful triumph for the spirit of lovingkindness and brotherhood. The report, however, does not indicate that the fight was a -massacre pure and simple. The majority, at any rate, of the preachers of peace must have degraded themselves by resorting tc the brutal argument of force. These will have reponted in sackcloth and ashes before now, and when their stauncher brethren are healed of their wounds, and the brotherhood assembles in low spirits for its next weekly meeting, there' will be some' touching appeals by the_ fighters for forgivermess for their grievous error. "The spirit was willing," the confessions will run, ! "but the flesh was weak. . Really, we have good hopes ■of our "anti-militarists." When the time of real trouble oomes, we believe, they _ will shamefully forget their ferocious advocacy of peace and brotherhood, and apostasise as miserably as they did in the Town Hall of Broken Hill.

The cable news to-day reports an incident whioh could happen only in England.. Me. Hennikek Hea•TON, the Unionist representative of Canterbury in the new Parliament, suggested a few days ago in a letter to his constituents that a new election would be held in June and that he would then retire from political life for health reasons. It is now announced that both parties in the electorate have joined in offering to send Me. HeAton back to the House unopposed if he will reconsider his decision to retire. This is a graceful supplement of the unopposed . re-election of Ms. Euros Isaacs, the Liberal member for Reading, who had to submit himself again to the electors as a result of his appointment as Solicitor-Gen-eral. Mr.. Isaacs, it was reported yesterday, publicly thanked the Conservative Association for 'its consideration. His return, he said, was "not a political triumph; it was a striking example of friendship.'! In the heat of conflict, of course, there can be little forbearance, but in normal times-British politics are ex-, traordinarily free from bitterness; and almost at all times there is a general readiness to sink party differences in recognising the personal merit and value of good men on both sides. We quoted some time ago Me. Lloyd-Gkoiiok's fine eulogy of Me. Balfoub as one of the best assets of the House. They are only a handful at the ,mo-st who do not feel that the retirement of Me. Bal l foub would be a serious loss to British politics. Nor would the loss of Me. Asquith, on the other hand, or of Sib Edward Grey, or various other members of the Cabinet, be regarded by the Opposition with any real satisfaction. .The Spectator made occasion, in the thick of the election struggle, to observe that the defeat of Colonel Seely, tbe UnderSecretary for the Colouies, caused "no exultation," and the Times, writing before the elections' closed, paid ahaudsome tribute to the dignity with which Mr. Asqtjith had borne himself,, adding that "he has maintained his. hold upon the respect and esteem, of the country." Things like these are possible, owing to the'fine spirit of. devotion that animates the leading men in the House of Commons. It will be an evil day for ,Britain and for the Empire when such changes are made in the political conditions at Home as will make impossible what is easy and common to-day, namely, sincerity's generous recognition of merit even in a 'political enemy.

The true measure of the British nation's verdict at the recent elections is to be found, not in the state of parties in the House, but in the details of the votes at the polls. The latest uritish papers to hand by the mail do not contain the final totals, since the elections were not all over when the mail left. The returns available, however, are very interesting. When 603 of tho 670 contests had been decided, there had been clccted 271 Unionists, 273 Liberals, 80 Nationalists and 39 Labour men. The votos polled numbered 6,178,038, and of these the Unionists secured ?,911,487 as against 3,266,551 cast for Liberals, Labourites and National-

ists. _ The following table shows the distribution of the votes: (

Liberal, Labour, and • Unionist. Nationalists. London 321,169 282,108 West of England 2,167,327 2,2C3,«fl Wales 97,125 206,288 ' Scotland 253,332 383,433 Ireland 72,534 131,282 Making allowances for the uncontested seats on a proportional basis the Standard calculates the following results: Unionists, 3,027,251; non-Unionists, 3,534,587. Of . the non-Unionist votes 383,462 were polled in Ireland, and as practically every_ Irish voter is against the Budget, it is obvious that the Budget received an absolute negative from the 1 nation. The Unionist vdte showed an increase of 541,491 on the figures in 1906, while the Liberal-Labour-Nationalist vote increased by only AVhen all but three seats had been decided, the 3,036,106 Unionist votes yielded 262 Unionist M.P.'s, while the 2,524,85 l Liberal votes yielded 272 Liberal M.P.'s. Each of the Unionist M.P.'s represents, on the average 11,580 Unionist votes, while the average Liberal M.P. represents 10,385 Liberal votes and the average Labour M.P. 13,726 | Labour votes. A system of proportionate representation would have given the Unionists over 300 members, instead of only 273, and would have cut down the Liberal representation, while the Nationalist group would have been halved and the Labour group enlarged. The figures suggest that a direct referendum on any of the issues with the possible exception of Free-trade would have produced a verdict against the Government.

The details of Dr. Findlay's prison reform scheme published this morning will be read with general interest. _ It is quite evident that the Minister has given the subject a great deal of attention and that he has brought forward a scheme which is a marked advance on anything befoijf, attempted in this country. Most people will regard it with, friendly, eyes-, for while there may be doubt as to whether it can be carried out in its 'entirety, it aims at overcoming many of the outstanding weaknesses of the existing prison system.'. The classification of prisoners proposed is a very necessary and proper step, and the, scheme outlined for the treatment of prisoners in the different classes appears to have been carefully thought out. The success of the innovations proposed will, of course, depend upon the manner in which they are carried out. What may appear very admirable in theory may prove impossible in practice, and unless those responsible for the administration of the prison system exercise a wise care and discretion they may experience very 'great difficulty in overcoming the initial troubles which are inevitable in connection with the introduction of such vital changes. t " Dr. Finijlay, however, has shown himself so much in earnest over this important- question that we feel confident he will spare no pains' to ensure the successful development of his scheme. His efforts will be watched with sympathetic interest: