THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 93, 25 April 1900, Page 4

THE WAR.

SOMB PBOPBBOIE3 THAT FAILED. ' Mr. L. F. Austin, in his "Note Book" in theMuttrated London Jews, deals with the action cf the colonies in connection Tvith the South African war, and contrasts it with the attitude Mr. Morlay and Mr. Archibald Forbes prophesied they would assume in the event of the Mother Country becoming involved in a serious crisis. He caustically remarks that "Mr. John Morley has blamed the Government for lack of foresight. No man is better qualified by temperament to enjoy his own shortcomings, and he will be grateful to me, I am sure, for serving up a perfect feast of them from the third volume of his <' Miscellanies.' Years ■ ago, in an essay on Sir John Seeley's «Expansion of England,' Mr. Morley predicted that when England became involved in a serious war her colonies would refuse sympathy, money, and men. He quoted another prophet, Mr. Archibald Forbes, who wrote in 1883 these remarkable words:—'l, at least, have the implicit con fiction that if England should ever be engaged . in a serious struggle with a Power of strength and means, in what soever con-i dition that struggle might leave her, one of the outcomes would be to detach from her the Australian colonies.' What does Mr. Archibald Forbes think to-day about his ' implicit conviction ' ? Was ever a prophecy more ' knocked out' by the hand of history i I don't think Mr. Forbes will bring up his champion for anothor round, but I should like to know what Mr. Morley thinks now of the issue which he challenged with such luckless zeal. 'lt would be a hippy day,' he wrote, * for the Peace Sjciety that should give the colonies a vote on Imperial war.' What does the Peace Society think of the 'happy day' that sees Australia and Canada eagerly sending their best and bravest to fight and die for the Empire on the South African veldt ? Perhaps Mr. Morley has forgotten that unfortunate essay. Or did some acute spasm of misgiving shoot through him when he read of the Canadian who, on hearing that his brother had fallen in action, promptly volunteered to fill the gap? Did Sir Wilfred Laurier's noble assurance that the Canadian dead would be ' for ever he'd in the grateful remembranco of their countrymen' remind Mr. Morley uncomfortably of his own estimate of colonial chivalry % ' Australia has militiamen; but who supposes they can be spared ~ in any numbers worth considering for - long campaigns ?' Why should Australia subscribe blood or money for the , preservation of the Empire? 'The Australian, having as much as he can do to carry on from hand to mouth, would speedily repent himself of that close and filial union with the Mother Country, which he is now supposed so ardently to desire, when he found his personal resources crippled for the sake of European guarantees or Indian frontiers,' Or the upholding of British supremacy in South Africa! Prophets like Mr. Morley seem to be always! haunted by the dread that the British Empire will imitate the Roman, though there is absolutely no point of resemblance between the two . . , .

,Mr. Morley was so apprehensive of '• this that he found great comfort some 15 years ago in the apparent impossibility of Australian confederation. ■' The 'best-informed persons' in Australia did not believe in it To-day it is a great fact, and the first manifestation of the new Australian unitv is the most practical evidence of "close ' and filial sympathy with the Mother Country. . . . There is a mighty company of discredited prophets just now, and Mr. Morley will have no lack of congenial society. 1 feel a sincere compassion for some earnest friends of mine, who were confident, two months ago, that the Boers were unconquerable in the field, and that British generalship was finally discomfited. A Vienna editor has lately confessed that he is compelled to publish fantastic Boer ' victories' every day, because he would otherwise lose half his subscribers. This offers a new refuge for unfulfilled prophecy. If history will not shape itself according to your liking, why believe in history ? Why not say it is a minx, ' and puffit away, after the Horatian method of treating malicious fortune?"