General News.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3885, 11 June 1881, Page 2

General News.

The Morning Herald, Dunedin, says;— Dr Wallis, the member for Auckland City West, is perhaps not one of the ablest of oue politicians, but he is beyond controversy one of the greatest originals in the House. He is, we believe, a Scotchman, and a Scotchman (as far as we can judge from his public speeches) without the least .particle of pawkiness. In this we may possibly be mistaken, although we always imagine we can discern marks of an unselfish and slightly fantastic enthusiasm in the worthy doctor; and that is a quality not met with every day among his canny, hard-headed countrymen- We should imagine also that he had taken to politics rather late in life and that certain of the .opinions which he now so stoutly maintains must have been at first something of a surprise to himself. They must have come to him, as it were" by revelation; at least the doctrine of evolution, which seems to be the key to most mysteries in these latter days will scarcely account for them. Like most Scotchmen that have moved, or been driven, in any essential respect, from their original standpoint, he is moreoveiTa bundle ot contrasts and eontwaictioM In some thing*, for example, he is whatii

c»Uad w» advanced Liberal, while in othtt* he. remains, and will probably always remain, a staunch Whig of the old Scotch Presbyterian stamp. Charles Xiamb indeed says that Scotchmen do nothing by halves, and that even when they apostatise they apostatise all

A description of Lord Beaconsfield'a appearance in his coffin says :—" His hands 1 are crossed above the winding sheet. . . His face has not the slightest expression of pain, but wears an expression of placid {.. and happy sleep. His eyes are closed,

and his mouth is smiling. His face looks many years youßger than it did ia the latter period of his life," which reminds

one of Tennyson's lines : "His palms are folded on his breast— There is no other thing express'd But long disquiet merged in rest."

When you hear a man say, "Life is ',) but a dream," tread on his corns and wake him up. Life is real.