Te Aroha Ohinemuri News TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 1889. SEDDONISM.

Te Aroha News, Volume XIV, Issue 2093, 12 April 1898, Page 2

Te Aroha Ohinemuri News TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 1889. SEDDONISM.

In - old established States where the business of the country is transacted more or less strictly in accordance with tradition any departure from the ordinary procedure sanctioned by the usage of centuries, is looked upon -with" suspicion. * Statesmen and politicians in the Old Country naturally become affected by this steady attachment to custom in matters pertaining to the conduct of national affairs. I'hat this punctilious regard for form and almost servile abasement to the traditions of an age other than their own by members elected by the people to represent them in Parliament militate against the interests of long suffering electors has been patent since the birth of the Reform Bill. That this slavish adherence to the custom <>f taking their cue from their superiors in culture, social position, and martial accomplishments, operates adversely when the question at issue is one affecting larger interests such as those • .of an expanding empire, history has repeatedly shown since we lost the great American colonies. While we Democrats admit that the solidity, bo marked a characteristic of England, is largely due to the Conservative strain and the aristocratic classes within lier wave washed boundaries, we may wi h justice claim for the emancipated Liberals the first recognition of those wider views, of England's destiny as a coloniser and propagator among the eai th’s races of the idea of true freedom, which to-day make her the admiration and envy of the nations. Those relics of feudalism the hereditary governing classes in England, while supremely patriotic and undoubtedly prepared at any moment to give their lives ia defence of their country, are by reason of their intense ; insularity, as a body, incapable of sympathising with “ the Colonial ; movement.” Their hearts are wrapt up in their possessions—rthe stately of England and their broad demesnes. The slow work of making the colonies was nevor in keeping with, their sympathies—although they are, ready enough to fight when Imperial pr stige is at stake—and when the colonies were beginning td take i shape their attempts to mould them were seldom attended with success. When George the Third and his advisers were endeavouring to enforce : their mad policy, which eost us the American colonies, the mass of the English people, it is notorious, were heart and soul with the revolutionists. Lafayette was furtively caressed by the London populace on his way to : assist Washington, who, at the head of a population actually less than that of the Australian colonies, routed the King of England’s troops in battle after battle. The exactions the King and his Tory advisers put' upon the descendants of the Puritans, England’s democracy, with a keen Insight into the rights of a youthful colony, execrated as inj ush It was nr.blind persistence in a similar policy that,has robbed the Spanish Grandees of.their splendid over- , sea possessions. Although it is impossible to find anything definite or consistent in the Mother Country’s poliey towards her colonies in the Victorian age; yet’it may be said with truth that the general idea of the scheme adopted is such that it could only spring from the heart of a democracy, and any interference with the natural current whieh has been attended with disaster may invariably be traced to the narrowmindedness of an undemocratic Government. The fedual system was a suitable form of Government when Europe was a nest of robber chiefs, and kings had a habit of trying to wear a halo of divinity along with .their crowns. The serfs required such belted earls as Hereford to stand between them and the Lord’s anointed. A Hereford who could reply to the warlike Edward's * By God, Sir Earl, you either go or hang,’ with tho equally imperious retort, ‘ By God, Sir King, I neither go nor hang.’ A relic of feudalism is’this tradition of ‘ the governing classes,’ with their hopelessly perverted ideas of what good government should consist of. Their prototypes—the feudal Lords —did noble service in their day. They were a grand chivalrous set —true to the death to their friends, and cruel as the fabled hell to their enemies. But the “Knights are dust, their good swords, - rust.” Peace to their manes. They would only be so much lumber in these utilitarian days. Now these so-called governing classes—these mediaeval anachronisms—whatpurpose in the economy of a progressive world do they fulfil 1 You will find the class in full fig in Austria to day. The land lords there are a powerful and privileged class ; legislation is all in their ' interests. Unfortunately, for them, ; education has crept in to the country, and thepeasants, whoare politically ashrewd and intelligent race, are rapidly be j coming revolutionists. The labourers j < in that country, where the governing ! i

classes have everything tlWr own way, live practically under police srpervision. There are strong laws which undermine his rights of combination, and he has absolutely no representative in Parliament. Such are some of the results of unchecked hereditary legislation. Are we wrong m stating that even the Eng ish c domes have run the risk of succumbing to the evils of class legislation in their histories. We have only to look at cl .ss-ridden Tasmania struggling on from day to day in spite of her enormous mineral wealth, under the burthen of debt, contracted by the “log-rolling” landed proprietors only a deeed n or two ago By some strange dispensation of providence the descendants of those who' acquire vast possessions by fraud and chicanery soon dissipate their inheritance, and the balance becomes readjusted ; but the public debt remains, I and that is where the curse comes in ; where the sins of the fathers are visited on the children. In the earlier days of colonial history, the governing classes reigned supreme, and the welfare of the budding states being identical with their own interests and those of their numerous relatives, the colonies prospered—funds, being found bv sales of huge tracts of that then drug in the market—land. But the erstwhilesubmissive settlers are rapidly growing into nations, and to New Zealand that form of government which is to be the government of the world in the future, in which the supreme power is in the hands of the people and directly exercised by them, has come borne on the wings of the salt breeze that ever blows across her rock-bound shores, with the force of a gospel. But class legislation dies hard, and it required a clear-headed, resolute, able man, gifted with a ready and persuasive tongue, and above all that personal magnetism which is the invariable concomitant of the leader of men to oppose the eloquent and trained advocates of the Tory cause and its bastard offspring Democratic-Con-servatism. -It has often been observed that great storms are bred on lonely mountain tops, and great armies come from remote villages. Great minds are formed there too, and from the wild coast of Western New Zealand came Bichard Seddon, who by sheer strength of character and outstanding intellectual force took up the Cause Ballance laid down, and carried it to a height where all the world may 1 ©hold and imitate its achievements. And such is Seddonism.