What Everybody Says.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2051, 31 July 1875, Page 2

What Everybody Says.

" In multitude o! counsellors there is safety."

—Old Proverb.

It is a great blow to the amour propre of Aucklandei's generally, and the students of the New Zealand University resident in Auckland particularly, that ndhe of the latter ; have been • successful in their examination for the "little go." Everybody says it is rather strange, especially as Auckland boys have been rather conspicuous on the list of scholarships. It is a disappointment most assuredly to be sent back for another year's study, but the failure ought to incite our boys to new efforts. Let them call to mind that old story about Kobert Bruce and the lesson he learned from the spider: Try, try, again, if at first you don't succeed. What lucky fellows those Queen of Beauty shareholders are. Gut of the bowels of the earth they get every two weeks or so from a hundred to two hundred pounds, and yet not one of them seems to be borne down by such a run of good luck. There is one pleasurable excitement they cannot feel: that is, hunting up the necessary to meet a big bill falling due on what appears to be a surprisingly early date. There must be a great sameness in the lives of very fortunate men. They never know what it is to feel the blood suddenly coursing through their veins and mantling on their cheek at the recollection that their credit will be endangered on the morrow if they don't meet a certain engagement. An almanac with certain dates—in the absence of a bill book —pointedly marked with a cross, is a thing they wot not of. And= as for duns, their experience in that line is not worth a cent. It is a moot question which is the, happier man; the consistently needy or the uniformly prosperous. Earthen vessels of a very common pattern are said to bo often used for great purposes. The Moody and Sankey people would seem to be vessels of this type. The former has lately been importuned —so it is said—to do something that he didn't want to do, and to every fresh request urged he replied, " I wunt." To the Earl of Shaftesbury and Mr Morley's urgent entreaties that he would hold services at the West End of London, Mr Moody is reported to have said, " I wunt leave myself in the hands of no meeting nor no committee 1" His love for the vernacular of the people must be very strong, or else his attainments fall far short of his earnestness and enthusiasm. If the language of his public utterances be on a par with his private conversation, and this be a fair sample of the latter, some of his hearers would find it difficult to understand what is intended, the tendency to a use of double negatives being calculated to obscure his real meaning. Perhaps Mr Moody depends for his success upon I a fervid manner and a quaintness of expression, rather than upon grammatical expression and logical discourse. Everybody is suprised at the disposition shown in all parts of the world to simplify the marriage laws. The good old plan used to do once upon a time, when boys aud girls were content to be married in the fashion adopted by their fathers and mothers. It mattered little whether it was according to the form prescribed by the church, of " asking " for three consecutive Sundays whether anyone had an objection—the more aristocratic method of a license which dispensed with the asking, and necessitated carriage accompaniments instead of walking to church—or the rather loose method of a 'visit to Gretna Green. Whichever way was in favor, young people (and some rather old ones too, for that matter) felt, after they had gone through the ceremony they chose, that they were married. It is changed now. What with civil marriage contracts, dispensing with the -rites of the church, and the absence of any formula as primitive as the Gretna Green blacksmith's knot-tying ; and the vagueness which pervades people's minds as to the correctness of marriage with a deceased wife's sister, owing to the diverse legislation on the subject, the matrimonially inclined are often in a quandary as to the proper means to adopt to do the -thing properly. New Zealand legislators are inclined to be liberal, and offer facilities for marriage, as likely to promote colonization. But they have not gone the lengths of some of their kindred. In India a Civil Marriage law has been brought into operation—apparently for people of different races; and it is reported that the first contract under this law was recently entered into. The names of the contracting parties were decidedly British, but judging by the declaration made they were heathens. Yet

the bridegroom was a " Sessions Judge " —(.he bride " Lady Superintendent of the Hindoo Ladies Institution." The interesting young people—it is assumed they are young — made declaration, jointly and severally, that they were neither "Brahmin, Hindoo, Parsee, Buddhist, Christian, Jew, Turk, Infidel or Heretic; of the full age of 18 years; not related in consanguinity." Then they joined t'leir hands and agreed \o take each /other for better or for worse : and they were wed. If Colonial legislation can improve upon the simplicity of this form it will carry the palm. No provision seems to be required for the consent of parents or irate guardians. The less religion professed the greater the facilities for " buckling to; " and perhaps for unbuckling.