VICTOR GRAYSON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 300, 15 December 1908, Page 4

VICTOR GRAYSON.

To tin; Kditor. •Sir,—Your comment on my defence "I (iiitvson is even more interesting than the'one. L answered; ami to ■begin in the middle, Mini going from the ridiculous to the sublime, you ask, "What would be thought of a member of the Borough Council" who defied the ruling of the Jlavor and, willy uilly, have his own way." My dear sir, it is often done, as anvonc' who reads the reports of our august Council knows full well. Once upon a time I found fault with a piece of work done in our street, and the eii"iiicer and Works Committee came and sat on me—and where was I, eh? Hut a short time afterwards a man with a horse and dray came and reetilie.l the mistake that had been made, "(.inijsnn's greatness lie-, in the extent of his seif-assuram-e and .presumption." rio

did Disraeli's, who was laughed to scorn in the self-same House; yet is it not on record that Disraeli became Premier? Bruno was burnt at the stake for asserting in his self-assurance that he right. To-day, there is a monument erected to his memory on the self-same spot where he was burnt, and his assumptions are now applied truth. Pliiiisoll, of immortal memory in the same House- what, did tliev not call him when in his assumption of self-assurance he called them murderers? Yet in the end they did his bidding. I have in my mind's eye a, young man wlw dared in | his .self-assurance to run a newspaper. Some of the older wiseacres said lie was too young; but he was quite successful, though afterwards he was inclined to sit down bant on the self-assurance of other reformers. This is one of the phases of human nature that is hard to understand, and is called "pure cusscdiiess." Though not a betting man, 1 am prepared to wager a pennyworth of 'lO4 nibs that Orayson's claims will be thought well of in the near future, and that lie will attain pow.'iin the hearts of the oppressed, and that the House will yet hear liim. All honor to the men. who dare to create piecedents and who stand firm in their advocacy of the rights of the oppressed. "For if a- brother or sister be naked and destitute of food and ye say. Depart in peace, be ye wanned and filled, what doth it profit!:"—l am, etc., ,1. A. ROBERT,S,

[lt is hard to understand how an intelligent man like -Mr. Roberts can persist in his attempt to justify such anarcliial conduct as Mr. Grayson s see in him any virtue us a reformer becauso lie shrieks hysterically and luirls .senseless epithet/ at all ami sundry, or regard his "mission"' as one lit to b« compared with the missions of real reformers and benefactors of humanity. Victor Oravson seems more of a political mountebank than a reformer. Aecord- ' ijig to our London liles just to hand it appears that the recent scene the House of Commons in which Mr. GrayM>a figured was nothing more nor less than a piece of well-managed newspaper advertisement. Immediately following the publication of the incident the announcement was made by tlm proprietors of the "New Age" that Mr Grayson had been appoint.ed associate editor of ! that paper. The news is on all fours I with Mr. Gravso-n's connection with the 1 House of Commons. According to a fellow socialist, in the person of Mr. V. Snowden, Mr. Grayson was always absent when useful work was to be done, ! although he was paid a salary by the i Labor Tarty in order that he might at--1 tend his Parliamentary duties. And ; this is the man Mr. Koberts regards as ! a reformer worthy of comparison with Disraeli, Bruno, l'limsoll /etc.! W!r» are sorry for Mr. Roberts. —Ed.] To the Editor. Sir,—'l have just read with amazement a letter signed by Mr. <l. A. Koberts. Doe* he mean to be taken seriously, or is his letter to be treated as sarcasm? I must assume that the latter is not intended —the subject is too much elaborated fur that. Yet, can we believe that he is seriously pouring out the vials of bis wrath on tlie British House of Commons because they refused to allow the .Speaker to be browbeaten by a notorious Anarchist who refused to obey the ruling of the Speaker on n point of order? For this act Mr. iloberts calls the House "hide-bound.'' Does Mr. Koberts mean. then, that this man should have been backed up by the House in defying the Speaker whom they had appointed to his position to enforce the laws of the House? Mow 7 , then, niiild the all'airs of the country be conducted? But thi> man had put himself outside the pale by publicly advocating the breaking into bakers* shops and stealing the foods by the unemployed. by advising them to resort to bomb-throwing, bv inciting the Imh peasants to resort to cattle-driving. This is tin; mini Mr. Hubert* is championing; this the man Mr. Koberts compares to J.'sus Christ—much to the hitter's disadvantage. Mr. Koberts recognises the conduct of this blatant agitator to be a "parallel case'' with the conduct; of the Saviour. Dues Mr. Koberts want us to believe that Christ would have given His sanction to bombthrowing. stealing, and cruelty to dumb animals? Yet he says that Christ called "re-pectable folk of His day" harder names than those used by Mr. (iravson. This is utterly false. Christ never did anything of the sort. Nor did He, as i Mr. Kobert- would have u* believe, ever, range Himself on the side of lawlessness. Mr. Kobert>' contention that eminent scientists, theologians, and politicians ete,. have oued their >u<(mss lo similar tactics to those displayed by Mr. Grayson is to<» grotesque for me to seriously attempt to contraverl. Letters of the kind in -question do an immense amount of harm, as they are calculated to destroy reverence for sacred things in the young and unthinking portion of the community.—l am, etc., VJiKITAS.