MACAULAY 105 YEARS AGO.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 8, 2 October 1937, Page 4

MACAULAY 105 YEARS AGO.

Referring to the gloomy prophecies of speakers in a, House of Commons debate, Sir Arnold Wilson, M.P., said: — Lord Macauley, 105 years ago, ended a review of Southey's "Colloquies" by a reference to the state of affairs at that time. He said: — "The present is a moment of great distress. We have just passed through a war compared with which. all other wars sink into insignificance ; taxation such as the most heavily taxed people of former times could not have conceived ; a debt larger than all the publio debts that ever existed in the world added together ; the food of the people studiously rendered dearj the currency imprudently debased and imprudently restored. The tide is evidently coming in. lf we were to prophesy that in the year 1930 a, population of 50,000,000. better fed, clad and lodged than the English of our time will cover these islands, that machines constructed upon principles as yet undiscovered jvill he in every house, that there will be no highways but railroads, no travellingj but by steam, mgny people would think us insane. W© cannot absolutely prove that those are in error who tell us that society has reached a turning point; that we have seen our best days; but so said all who came beforo us, and with just as much apparent reason." I believe, Sir Arnold concluded) that we are as much justified to-day in looking forward with confidence in the futuie as was Macaulay in 1830.