SCIENCE AND PRAYER.

Waikato Times, Volume 459, Issue VIII, 27 April 1875, Page 2

SCIENCE AND PRAYER.

Dr. Tyndall lays down a^ecience " the gratuitoms paradox that winds and ciauf s\>f to-morrow may be, like the phnetary morons, predetermined by only brute cosmic forces ; which} if as true as it is demonstrably false would not even then give the fixity he wants, as the planetary system itself is invaded at any moment by unknownable comets and meteors and solar radiation hourly altered by storms of the photosphere. He requires, at the outset of his attack, all the present century's discoveries to be ignored. But let us grant him a solar system as simple as mediaval ignorance ever fancied ; this would not help him. Yonder is a gardener who may dig twenty more spadefuls before dinner, or perhaps only nineteen. Is Dr Tyndall prepared to prove that whether they shall be twenty or nineteen is already as determinedly laws of brute matter, as the next transit of Venus 1 If not, he should have warned his readers that the whole Prayer argument was a mere " jeud'esprit," hanging on the assumption of this extreme necessarianism. Relax one stitch thereof, and the whole fabric falls, thus :—lf: — If there be any uncertainty about that twentieth spadeful, on this may depend whether a slug is turned up or not; on the slug may depend a young swallow's dinner who is feeble, and, on this may depend whether he shall follow his colony, and reach Africa; but on this fledgling's arrival or non-arrival may depend whether a certain insect shall serve him for supper, or be left to lay a million eggs, which, in that case, will next month be each a locust laying a million more; and on this billion of locusts and their progeny may depend whether at Christmas all Ashantee and three Senega m bias of forest shall be green as Eden or a leafless wilderness, and its mean temperature 100 degrees or only 70 degrees ; and on whether such an area be the hottest or coolest portion of the planet's intertropical landdttaay well depend, by Dr Tyndalls own shewing, tne -w^nds and drought or wet of a season, over fyalf Hiro^e or the whole. It behoved him, then, to be quite sure about that gardener's last spadeful, aad aid. \such causes which yet he wholly leaves out of recount ] The weather of large districts may as prainly be still more quickly affected by events that acts of man or beast unconsciously bring about — as forest fires ; avalanches, that a goat may set rolling ; dykes burst, and Zuyder Zees refilled for ages by the burrowing of a rat; shoals of herrings or of whales, that by turning right or left may make a month's difference in the break-up and drifting to us of half a year's polar ice. Here we confine ourselves to visible nature and known forces. Let the insitne assumption be granted that there is no visj!hje\i&ture nor ought unknown, and even so, He Hiba^ owns and actuates the cattle on a thousand hills, thus plainly, by only one of their hlo\, Aake the winds His ministers, and flames of fir<p His messengers. — " Journal of Science." *

Literary Intelligence. — Kate Field is dramatising Haw* thorne'i " Scarlet Lstters," and echo answers" Lot tor.

The illness of Prince Leopold could not affect the whole Empire with the same sense of anxiety as did that of his brother three years ago ; but it has nevertheless served, if anything were needed, to bring out the undiminished affection of th c English* people for the Royal House. Such a result is the more satisfactory, seeing that the nature and attributes of English Royalty have been of late rather closely scrutinised. The diary of a dyspeptic gentleman, who was bored because he had four thousand a year and nothing to do, has made many people . write even more foolishly than the dyspeptic gentleman himself. They affect an astonished mcredulijfr at revelations which prove, that any sensible person might have guessed, that the atmosphere of a Court is hardly the same as that of a mountain heath. Butib would have been wiser to welcome the 'Greviile Memoirs/ as illustrating the very good andjMcessary work that may be and has been done by the Soworeigns of England. Thus when Lord Minto brought reckless charges against Admiral Sartorius in the Council Chamber, and wished his petition to the King to be dismissed, William IV. turned round on him and abruptly asked him to substantiate his accusation. Lord Minto had nothing to say, and everyone, add* Mr Greviile, remained silent to " this extraordinary outburst." -It was eYufc^itly considered monstrous iby a Whig First Xorl V-tho Admiralty and his brother Whig Ministers \hat they should not be allowed to ruilTiha qM sailer quietly, and that the King should tjawnoffthe cause of one of his subjects against a powerful Kunily clique. Again, under Lord Grey's Ministry the colenelcy of a regiment was vacant. Lord Hill, Commander of the Forces,, heard that the Premier meant to recommend hia own brother for it, on no other grounds than those of relationship. He resolved that, if possible, this scandal should be averted, and posted »p front* 1 Brighton to Windsor, to lay the claims of a Penin- > sular veteran before the King, who acknowledged 1 the justice of Lord Hill's representations, and disposed of the colonelcy as he had suggested. To go back a few years, it is true that George IV. made difficulties about receiving Canning in the number of his advisers ; but a very little iLanagement over came his reluctance, and, what is more to the pointy * a few years later he was up Canning as I Prime Minister against the^p«ke of Wellington and » a powerful aristocratic following^TJie popularorator > could hardly have remained at tfes head of affairs. 1 but for the King's suflp^rt. a country where > an extremely narrow sbcw^Kabsorbs the supreme " authority it is well tha\ one^person, supposed to- * hold the sceptre, should Be aboverparty and factious. 1 intrigue — should, in lact, have a distinct interest in 1 occasionally setting both at defiance. So late as - 1868 Mr Disraeli would probably have been elbowed * out of the first place in the Cabinet had not the f Queen accorded him a frank support. > For when it is said that the Sovereign is supposed I to hold the sceptre, a greater power is conceded £ by that phrase than may appear at first sight. The, " truth is that the Premier himself is only supposed r to direct the national policy. Really, Mr Disraeli " is as much fettered by precedent, by the necessity 3 for humouring thoW who with him, finally, by 1 what public opmion«yijylk>w, as the Queen her3 self. But the nominll precedence of the Sovereign 3 gives her a right of initiation, of consel, of control, } which can be excei^sed^n 50 different ways, just a* the Premier's norafcoak pendency over a Cabinet of 8 Tory nobles and sqti|res,\assuredly more powerful aa 1 a body than himself^giveVhim a right of advising- * them with the weight of a great position attached 1 to his words. But it must never be supposed that I in a plutocratic republic like ours any individual can B exercise very much authority. The only exceptions3 to this rule are writers of talent, who often excercise 8 a despotic sway ; but it is not over the men of their c own generation. The thinkers of 1875 are laying fc down the law for the world of 1925. A schoolboy in a prize essay might describe Mr '• Disraeli as the ruler of England, and observe that " he pursued a Conservative policy. The Minister II really pursues no policy at all. The country is Con3 servative for the moilbfct, and he has to interpret ita^, 11 wishes as correctly as \dbsible. And so it is pro- \ 6 bable that the power of the present representafciite * of Royalty in ErJjrlaM is not actually more wit substantial than^uit w most others who stand in s high places and have to bear the gaze of publicity. * Publicity accords neither with freedom nor with t- power. And here lies a secret. Every one who >■ has read the- contemporary history of England must r have noticed the care with which the chiefs of either party veil the action of the august lady whom they yet affirm to take a very active part in the administration of affairs. Sfe necessary has it been deemed to keep up the constitutional theory that the Queen 8 reigns, but doe&oioh govern, and to screen her May jesty from all fcp^it^k) criticism, that Ministers are 7 absolutely silenx as to anything more than the merest 18 tenor of the communications they receive from her. c Nor since the Bed Chamber affair, which seems l~l ~ already to belong to a past age, has either Party M seriously attempted to use the Queen's name in supv port of its action, The Tories having been severly *•" blamed whentrjey incurred the suspicion of such ja conduct during \te debates provoked by Mr GladI 1I 1 stone's resolution V»n the Irish Church. Hence the 18 Queen's position has come to be one that any poli0 tician migoi>enyy, if he were wise enough to distin>r guish the ptyss^ssion from the show of power. The "° Queen is th^ perm anent Minister of the country, n having a considerable amount of patronage and in18 fluence, and yet being totally irresponsible for its cxc ercise. Moreover, her Majesty has one source of power which she holds quite irrespectively of her ?" Ministers, or indeed of her subjects at large. She is a Princess of Germany, and the head of the most " powerful house within the Empire next to that of c " the Hohenzollerte, with 'which it is closely connected. P Now Germany is ! actually governed, without pre8 tence, by its Emperor and Kings ; and these will listen more respectfully to the representations ot l > the Queen of England on international questions c'e ' than they would to those of Mr Gladstone or Mr )r Disraeli, about whom and whose interests they con31 cern themselves littl4 Were our country the fight- , a ing England of-old days, it would matter the less f- r who spoke out her mandate as long as he delivered k" it in clear tones. But in the era of Geneva Arbit!n rations and humble apologies by the Prime Minister a " of Great Britain to Prince Bismark, it is literally >n well for us that we have a friend at (the German) r " Court. And the voice which the Queen undoubtedly e ~ has in the councils af German Royalty must give LC * her considerable influence with English statesmen. Ie Occasionally they must come to her as suppliants. Jt The potentialities of English Royalty, it need 38 hardly be remarked, are tremendous. Should they 16 never be inherrited by a prince of despotic temper, " they would lead to a revolution, of which the end :)r would be tolerably certain ; but wielded by one who } > sheuld be at once cautions, ambitious, and unscrult > pulous, they migfyL witM^j; the public being aware { & of it, attract far ttevtajveh authority td the person V of the Sovereign. * It/would be a cnrioun judgment ■;e; e on a shop-keeping nation that its liberties should be ' 8 gradually filched away. But the danger at present le lies in quite a different direction, for tfeo Sovereign P' as alone constitutrtnallji existing and feting — that 3 J is, by and with thl^t^frice of that Pri^y Council ld which is only6k)i«ressecf by a triek — h*a for too | s Uttleauthorit^^ . r^ Vivat Regina. So long as her Majesty lives she may confiently take more and more of the Government upon herself. I Englishmen care little for w . theories, and, having'foUpd a good Queen, are only too happy to |spe lief govern as well as reign. And

mown ior wnai sne wouia oe, tn« proper ruier vi England. r