What Everybody Says.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2033, 10 July 1875, Page 2

What Everybody Says.

" In multitude of counsellors there is safety." —Old Proverb. If everybody had read the precedents already established by the Good Templars to guide lodges in considering what constitutes a breach of- the obligation or pledge, they would not be surprised to learn that the members of the order have lately been sitting in judgement upon one of their most zealous brethren arraigned on a charge of having " shouted " for some onei The offending member is said to haviJaetually paid for some description of alcohblife drink for a person wlio had just paid him a sum of money which was looked upon as a doubtful asset. Others say that he did not shout, but under a pardonable elation of feeling merely gave a small consideration to his creditor to spend as he chose- Anyhow, either act would be excusable in any but a Good Templar, but, according to precedents and Rulings of the Chiefs of the Order, to do either one or the other would be to " countenance the use of intoxicating drink as a beverage," and therefore an offence against the laws of the-order and a breach of the obligation. . But the precedents go further than this. Some of them say that a Good Templar cannot grow barley and sell-the same knowing that the grain is to be largely used in the . manufacture of alcoholic liquors without being guilty of a breach of his pledge; and there are others of an equally stringent character. But even in these instances Good Templars as a body are not more strict than were some individuals before the order of Good Templary was founded. There was once in Dunedin a storekeeper who was also a total abstainer of the most j extreme type, and his principles, or convictions, or -prejudices—whatever they ; may be called—carried him to such aVj length that he would jiot keep or sell decanters or wine glasses. . Tumblers he sold as articles well adapted for drinking out of at the crystal fountain; but he said people would not keep wine glasses to drink water with, and he'wouldn't keep j them astliey were specially suited for dram drinking, or nipping. It is questionable if the most rabid Good Templar woiild go as far as this old identity. In fact it is pretty well known that many Good Templars make money by selling and letting vessels used for drinking other liquids besides the cup which is supposed to cheer and docs not inebriate. The mail bag for the Agent General went down with the Schiller and has not been recovered. No doubt this circumstance will be generally regretted by the •clerks in the Agent General's Office; because it will save them some work, to which they are said to be devoted. To ,the Government it • will undoubtedly be -a blessing. It'will serve as an excuse to fall back upon on emergency, when any information is required regarding immigration and other matters. The loss of such a valuable lot-of. correspondence must necessarily cause "serious inconvenience, and as it will be difficult to replace the lost despatches and receive replies before the'meeting of Parliament, it may be made the vehicle of getting iover any little difficulties : which the Ministry, might .find it difficult or incon- . venient.io go into. It .will also make a perceptible difference in the next blue book published — a whole month's despatches, which are. no trifling: mail;in themselves. . . •:■ ■"■ • ' Everybody has. been criticising the gentlemen who played London Assurance —the ladies, of course, are above criticism. The verdict is favorable, and that is saying a great deal for everybody, as there were people present at the performance who judge more by a standard conceived in other places than this; : Borne from books and some from experience of the best schools. Passing- by those, who took part in the play and who from previous efforts may be termed old, stagers, one young gentleman seems to have made quite a small sensation by his natural, unaffected manners, '■> and one of the audience, ;at least, is enthusiastic in praise. He says it reminded him of a passage in Fielding's " Tom Jones," aud as the comparison is exceedingly flattering to the gentleman

whose naturalness was so, conspicuous, the passage may very well be given. It gives the impressions of a gentleman fresh from the country on first seeing a play iti; aliondon theatre. Here it is— Little more worth remembering occurred during-tke play ;at the end of which,,, Jones asked him, "Which of the players ho had liked best." " To this he answered, with some appearance of indignation at the question; "The king, without doubt." "Indeed, Mr Partridge," says .Mrs, Miller*, "you are not of the same opinion.with-.the town; for .they all agreed that' Hamlet is acted by the best player jwho ever was on the stage."""' "'" "" ; ",He .the best player !" cries Partridge, with a contemptuous sneer; "why, I could act as well is ho myself. lam sure if I had seeh'a ghost, I "should, have looked in the very same manner and done just as he did. Atid then,'to be sure, in that scene as you called it, between him and-his-mother, where you told me he acted so fine r ,why, Lord help me, any man, that is any good" man, that had such a mother, would have done exactly the same. I know you are only joking with me ; but, indeed, madam, though I was never at a play in London, yet I have seen acting before in the country ; and the king for my money; he speaks all his words distinctly, half as loud again as the other. Anybody may see he is an actor." It is scarcely necessary to inform readers iof Fielding that the actor who was considered no player by "Mr Partridge was none other .than Garrick. The comparison, therefore, between his naturalness and that of the yoxing gentleman ; who held the mirror up to nature in such $X truthful manner the other night is decidedly c6mplimentary.j;o the latter. If fine feathers make fine^ifds, His Excellency of Normanby may plume him-' self on being a bird, decidedly more resplendent than the Queen, judging at. least from the importance accorded; to him" bjpgthe}.New Zealand GazetteT-Jh'ait journal while contenting itself with speak*" ing of Her Majesty simply as " Queen, Defender of the Faith, and so forth," takes up no less than one fourth of its space in repeating again and again the titles of our. New, Governor! Truly the substance bfttimes casts ai shadow greater than itself. - ; .* -,