CURRENT TOPICS.

Hastings Standard, Issue 369, 10 July 1897, Page 2

CURRENT TOPICS.

Lord Rosf-hery at one of the many gastronomic functions to which the Premiers have beea treated in Londcm threw ouL a very gentle hint that the colonials were over-fed, and it was time for them to think about leaving for their respective homes.

The hint was given not before it was needed, for in truth the Premiers must ere this have felt themselve satiated with the aggressive hospitality of England. The trip of the Premiers from a pleasure point of view has been a magnificent success, but in looking for the more serious business, -which at the outset appeared to be the chief cause of their being invited to London, the results are meagre and not worth notiug. Under these circumstances the sooner they return home the better. Mr Seddon at least can put his time to more profitable use in New Zealand than appears to be the case in London. Lord Eosebery's hint has apparently been taken, for the dates of the departure of the Premiers is now announced.

To-day the Premiers pay a visit en masse to the Grand Old Man at Hawarden. The venerable Mr Gladstone can look back upon as many year 3 of political life as Her Majesty can in governing as a Sovereign, and perhaps the Venerable Commoner has done more towards the building up of the Empire than any other Statesman. He has widened and liberalised the British constitution and helped into existence many institutions for the popular welfare, and though his political actions and his statesmanship have not been faultless, everyone gladly admits that for purity of intention and singleness of purpose he gives place to no one. A high moral sense has actuated his public and private life, and for many long years now he has received the homage that even kings might envy. How puny and insignificant our colonial Premiers seem by the side of this exPnme Minister of Great Britain ? Let us hope that they will derive some benefit from the necessarily short intercourse with the G.O.M.

The Turks seem determined to cling to Thessaly in spite of the Concert of Europe. The Sultan, if he had other desires, has been forced into action. The army, as we pointed out in a previous article, is practically the chief factor in Turkish affairs, being the best organised of the parties, and consequently best able to compel submission to its wishes. The army pressed upon Abdal Hamid the desirability of retaining the conquered province, and the Sultan has- 110 option but to obey. Nor do we think the Collective Notes and Identical Notes of the Great Powers will make any impression upon the Great Assassin. Coercion by bayonet and sword and shells will bring the Sultan and his people to appreciate the fact that Christendom will not permit a single acre of emancipated soil to again be brought under the Turkish yoke. There is a storehouse of terrible possibilities in the present situation, and however earnestly we may hope for peace the prospects are very gloomy. A Turkish butchery of Christians will follow any coercive act of the Powers, and a Holy War, with its terrible and far-reaching consequences, is not unlikely. Constantinople must be in a parlous state; at any rate the Christian population within its purlieus must be living in dread of the Turkish doom.

The fate of the Amberlev murderer is sealed, and we venture to think that there is not one soul in the community that does not believe in the justness of the punishment. The murder of Miss Lawcock was one of the most shocking deeds chronicled in New Zealand, and the motive of the crime not less so. This month the law will jerk into eternity three murderers whose individual records will take some beating. The South Australian criminal Joshua Beard pays the penalty of his crime to-day, and the now renowned Butler of New South Wales and Sheehan in this colony will quickly follow. The world is well rid of their worthlessness.