MAXIMS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1273, 31 October 1911, Page 5

MAXIMS.

TIPS BY SIR JOHN FINDLAY, THE POLITICIAN'S YADE MECUM. Tho Attorney-General's book of essays, "Humbugs and llomilies," is being widely read in some quarters. An Auckland weekly has dived into it and come up with theso intensely interesting maxims, te which tho author has given a special point by his candidature:— "1 talk to earn my bread." "He who aspires to bo a lcador of men must perforce bo a humbug." "1 should as soon think of fighting a policeniau as quarrelling with a newspaper man." "Fat fees pavo a croobcd path." "Never trust a lawyer who keopg hia conscioneo ill 'tlio front window'. "Talk in the loudest key, and let your laughter be a startling cachination. Not, of course, that tho canaille around you may hear, but that you may show tliein how completely you ignore their presence." "Thero is in my case a tradition that! one of my forbears lost his head—a tendency his descendants havo shown ever since." "Spouter, the politician, who fools tho crowd with glorious and gigantic lies, and, while ever ready if required to lie a pillar of the Slate, prefers merely to mako a pile," "Virtues arc only perfectly possessed when wo don't' know wo have them, and much tho same may bo said of not a few of our commonest vices." "Hum bug then, like folly, doth vrallc about this orb—like tho sun, it shines everywhere." "October is, indeed, our true All Fools' Month. [The month in which Sir John began his courtships of Parnell.'] "What a lino faculty politicians havo for this kind ol' business (persuading men who have been robbed thai they aro overpaid with thanks and should return tho change), llul then their speeches nro often their only ready cash—a kind of verbal money tender for services rendered —a currency, which from (ho excessivo quantities put in circulation, always boconies most infernally depreciated." "Tho language of smooth nonsenso is easy and familiar." "What, in my opinion, our civil and religious liberties, nave, in future, most' to fear ... is tho intolerance of a class whoso gospel is the fanaticism of 0110 idea, and whoso zeal, union and sincerity convert their gospel into law by securing a bars majority at tho polls." "Do good for self, but blush to find it fame." "Skilful veneer looks ns well as solid mahogany, and costs less." "Keep your voico loud and fortepedal your superlatives." "See that your convictions have a back door of e,scape." "The fence is a safe plaoo to see how the game is 'going'." "Train yourself to keep skilfully on tho rails. "The retort irrelevant is safer than liio lie direct." "If you bavo to back down do it liko the bear growling." "When in doubt bo doublv confident." "Censure implies superiority, and tha abuso of vico passes for virtue."