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Rh Its phrased thunders;—these things are no more, Which once were. And concluding, which is clear, The growing drama has outgrown such toys Of simulated stature, faces and speech, It also, peradventure, may outgrow The simulation of the painted scene, Boards, actors, prompters, gaslight, and costume; And take for a worthier stage the soul itself, Its shifting fancies and celestial lights, With all its grand orchestral silences To keep the pauses of the rhythmic sounds.

Alas, I still see something to be done, And what I do falls short of what I see, Though I waste myself on doing. Long green days, Worn bare of grass and sunshine,—long calm nights, From which the silken sleeps were fretted out,— Be witness for me, with no amateur’s Irreverent haste and busy idleness I’ve set myself to art! What then? what’s done? What’s done, at last? Behold, at last, a book. If life-blood’s necessary,—which it is, (By that blue vein athrob on Mahomet’s brow, Each prophet-poet’s book must show man’s blood!) If life-blood’s fertilising, I wrung mine On every leaf of this,—unless the drops Slid heavily on one side and left it dry. That chances often: many a fervid man Writes books as cold and flat as grave-yard stones

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Rh From which the lichen’s scraped; and if St. Preux Had written his own letters, as he might, We had never wept to think of the little mole ’Neath Julie’s drooping eyelid. Passion is But something suffered, after all. While art Sets action on the top of suffering: The artist’s part is both to be and do, Transfixing with a special, central power The flat experience of the common man, And turning outward, with a sudden wrench, Half agony, half ecstasy, the thing He feels the inmost: never felt the less Because he sings it. Does a torch less burn For burning next reflectors of blue steel, That he should be the colder for his place ’Twixt two incessant fires,—his personal life’s, And that intense refraction which burns back Perpetually against him from the round Of crystal conscience he was born into If artist born? O sorrowful great gift Conferred on poets, of a twofold life, When one life has been found enough for pain! We staggering ’neath our burden as mere men, Being called to stand up straight as demi-gods, Support the intolerable strain and stress Of the universal, and send clearly up With voices broken by the human sob, Our poems to find rhymes among the stars!

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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Rh But soft!—a ‘poet’ is a word soon said; A book’s a thing soon written. Nay, indeed, The more the poet shall be questionable, The more unquestionably comes his book! And this of mine,—well, granting to myself Some passion in it, furrowing up the flats, Mere passion will not prove a volume worth Its gall and rags even. Bubbles round a keel Mean nought, excepting that the vessel moves. There’s more than passion goes to make a man, Or book, which is a man too. I am sad: I wonder if Pygmalion had these doubts, And, feeling the hard marble first relent, Grow supple to the straining of his arms, And tingle through its cold to his burning lip, Supposed his senses mocked, and that the toil Of stretching past the known and seen, to reach The archetypal Beauty out of sight, Had made his heart beat fast enough for two, And with his own life dazed and blinded him! Not so; Pygmalion loved,—and whoso loves Believes the impossible. And I am sad: I cannot thoroughly love a work of mine, Since none seems worthy of my thought and hope More highly mated. He has shot them down, My Phoebus Apollo, soul within my soul, Who judges by the attempted, what’s attained, And with the silver arrow from his height,

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 opposition. I understand the bargain to be a fairly hard one for Singapore in terms of representation on the governing authority and, possibly, also in some of the economic arrangements which have been made.

My chief concern is that there should be adequate safeguards for Sarawak and North Borneo in the association which is now being formed. These are somewhat primitive, unsophisticated countries and the people who will ultimately be responsible for administering them have had little or no experience of administration of alien native peoples. It will, therefore, be a severe test for the new authority in regard to the policies which are pursued in the Territories from which Britain is withdrawing her administration.

I hope that the safeguards which will be built into the constitution will be real on behalf of those somewhat under-developed peoples and that they can go forward making the equal progress which they possibly would have made had they remained under the British Crown.

The experiment is one of great difficulty because of the number of peoples and races who are involved, but I think that the experiment in Malaya augurs well. To bring together three principal peoples like the Indians, the Chinese and the Malays under a single Government and to maintain harmony when there are so many conflicting pressures and conflicts in the world, is certainly a great achievement by the Malay Government. I hope, therefore, that tolerance and good will will be shown and that there will be understanding of the basic differences which exist amongst the peoples concerned.

I hope, further, that the British Government will not withdraw all their support of a practical character because a new nation or federation is being formed. The technical, financial and military assistance has been of great importance and I hope that a continuation of this technical co-operation, practical aid and financial help will be forthcoming and that as a result of our co-operation we will see the progress which we had hoped to see when some of these schemes of welfare development were inaugurated.

I hope, too, that it will be possible to entice Brunei to come into the Federation. Its strategic position is one of difficulty to itself if it does not join. I hope that the extraordinary wealth and great resources of that country can be utilised in a wider field than merely Brunei itself. Some of the advantages of that wealth could be shared by other parts of Borneo, by Sarawak and North Borneo. I hope that we will use our good offices in that direction.

I hope that with the coming together of this association, the principle of local autonomy will be full recognised. I cannot conceive of how these federations can work unless there is a widely recognised principle of self-government inside the respective provinces and territories. One of the mistakes that was made with Central Africa was to allow one of the three territories there to be in a dominant position in the Federation. As I said in the last debate on Central Africa, the East Africa Federation is coming into being largely because, right from the beginning, the equality of the respective territories was fully recognised as well as the equality of the races.

I hope, therefore, that the central Government of the Federation will be sufficiently tolerant and will give the respective territories as wide as possible an opportunity of self-expression and self-government in the territories and not restrain or restrict them by tedious prohibitions and by assuming too geat an authority over them.

I conclude therefore, not only by approving this final step, but wishing the Federation the best of luck and success in the days to come. I have great faith in some of the leaders, whom I know. I believe that they are tolerant and that they respect the principles of democratic government and I am certain that they will try to implement these principles in this great association which they are creating.

 * 2.7 p.m.

Mr. Graham Page (Crosby) in this debate, the House has had the benefit of a wealth of experience from those who


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Rh Has struck down all my works before my face, While I say nothing. Is there aught to say? I called the artist but a greatened man: He may be childless also, like a man.

I laboured on alone. The wind and dust And sun of the world beat blistering in my face; And hope, now for me, now against me, dragged My spirits onward,—as some fallen balloon, Which, whether caught by blossoming tree or bare, Is torn alike. I sometimes touched my aim, Or seemed,—and generous souls cried out, ‘Be strong, Take courage; now you’re on our level,—now! The next step saves you!’ I was flushed with praise, But, pausing just a moment to draw breath, I could not choose but murmur to myself ‘Is this all? all that’s done? and all that’s gained? If this then be success, ’tis dismaller Than any failure.’ O my God, my God, O supreme Artist, who as sole return For all the cosmic wonder of Thy work, Demandest of us just a word a name, ‘My Father!’—thou hast knowledge, only thou, How dreary ’tis for women to sit still On winter nights by solitary fires, And hear the nations praising them far off, Too far! ay, praising our quick sense of love, Our very heart of passionate womanhood, Which could not beat so in the verse without

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Rh Being present also in the unkissed lips, And eyes undried because there’s none to ask The reason they grew moist. To sit alone, And think, for comfort, how, that very night, Affianced lovers, leaning face to face With sweet half-listenings for each other’s breath, Are reading haply from some page of ours, To pause with a thrill, as if their cheeks had touched, When such a stanza, level to their mood, Seems floating their own thoughts out—‘so I feel For thee,’—‘And I, for thee: this poet knows What everlasting love is!’—how, that night. A father, issuing from the misty roads Upon the luminous round of lamp and hearth And happy children, having caught up first The youngest there until it shrunk and shrieked To feel the cold chin prick its dimple through With winter from the hills, may throw i’ the lap Of the eldest, (who has learnt to drop her lids To hide some sweetness newer than last year’s) Our book and cry,. . ‘Ah you, you care for rhymes; So here be rhymes to pore on under trees, When April comes to let you! I’ve been told They are not idle as so many are, But set hearts beating pure as well as fast: It’s yours, the book: I’ll write your name in it,— That so you may not lose, however lost In poet’s lore and charming reverie, The thought of how your father thought of you

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Rh In riding from the town.’ To have our books Appraised by love, associated with love, While we sit loveless! is it hard, you think? At least ’tis mournful. Fame, indeed, ’twas said, Means simply love. It was a man said that. And then there’s love and love: the love of all (To risk, in turn, a woman’s paradox,) Is but a small thing to the love of one. You bid a hungry child be satisfied With a heritage of many corn-fields: nay, He says he’s hungry,—he would rather have That little barley-cake you keep from him While reckoning up his harvests. So with us; (Here, Romney, too, we fail to generalise!) We’re hungry. Hungry! but it’s pitiful To wail like unweaned babes and suck our thumbs Because we’re hungry. Who, in all this world, (Wherein we are haply set to pray and fast, And learn what good is by its opposite) Has never hungered? Woe to him who has found The meal enough: if Ugolino’s full, His teeth have crunched some foul unnatural thing: For here satiety proves penury More utterly irremediable. And since We needs must hunger,—better, for man’s love, Than God’s truth! better, for companions sweet, Than great convictions! let us bear our weights, Preferring dreary hearths to desert souls.

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The New International Encyclopædia/Spitzka, Edward Charles

SPITZ'KA, (1852—). An American psychiatrist, born in New York City. He was educated at New York University, in Germany, and in Vienna. He served as interne in the New York City Asylum for the Insane, was professor of medical jurisprudence and diseases of the nervous system in the New York Post Graduate Medical School and Hospital from 1881, consulting surgeon to the Northeastern Dispensary, physician to the department of nerve diseases in the New York Polyclinic, and physician to the Metropolitan Throat Hospital. His writings include A Treatise on Insanity (New York, l883), besides many monographs.


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Rh Well, well! they say we’re envious, we who rhyme; But I, because I am a woman, perhaps, And so rhyme ill, am ill at envying. I never envied Graham his breadth of style, Which gives you, with a random smutch or two, (Near-sighted critics analyse to smutch) Such delicate perspectives of full life; Nor Belmore, for the unity of aim To which he cuts his cedarn poems, fine As sketchers do their pencils; not Mark Gage, For that caressing colour and trancing tone Whereby you’re swept away and melted in The sensual element, which, with a back wave, Restores you to the level of pure souls And leaves you with Plotinus. None of these, For native gifts or popular applause, I’ve envied; but for this,—that when, by chance, Says some one,—‘There goes Belmore, a great man! He leaves clean work behind him, and requires No sweeper up of the chips,’. . a girl I know, Who answers nothing, save with her brown eyes, Smiles unawares, as if a guardian saint Smiled in her:—for this, too,—that Gage comes home And lays his last book’s prodigal review Upon his mother’s knees, where, years ago, He had laid his childish spelling-book and learned To chirp and peck the letters from her mouth, As young birds must. ‘Well done,’ she murmured then, She will not say it now more wonderingly; And yet the last ‘Well done’ will touch him more,

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Rh As catching up to-day and yesterday In a perfect chord of love; and so, Mark Gage, I envy you your mother!—and you, Graham, Because you have a wife who loves you so, She half forgets, at moments, to be proud Of being Graham’s wife, until a friend observes, ‘The boy here, has his father’s massive brow, Done small in wax. . if we push back the curls.’

Who loves me? Dearest father,—mother sweet,— I speak the names out sometimes by myself, And make the silence shiver: they sound strange, As Hindostanee to an Ind-born man Accustomed many years to English speech; Or lovely poet-words grown obsolete, Which will not leave off singing. Up in heaven I have my father,—with my mother’s face Beside him in a blotch of heavenly light; No more for earth’s familiar household use, No more! The best verse written by this hand, Can never reach them where they sit, to seem Well-done to them. Death quite unfellows us, Sets dreadful odds betwixt the live and dead, And makes us part as those at Babel did, Through sudden ignorance of a common tongue. A living Cæsar would not dare to play At bowls, with such as my dead father is.

And yet, this may be less so than appears, This change and separation. Sparrows five

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Rh For just two farthings, and God cares for each. If God is not too great for little cares, Is any creature, because gone to God? I’ve seen some men, veracious, nowise mad, Who have thought or dreamed, declared and testified, They’ve heard the Dead a-ticking like a clock Which strikes the hours of the eternities, Beside them, with their natural ears, and known That human spirits feel the human way, And hate the unreasoning awe which waves them off From possible communion. It may be.

At least, earth separates as well as heaven. For instance, I have not seen Romney Leigh Full eighteen months. . add six, you get two years. They say he’s very busy with good works,— Has parted Leigh Hall into almshouses. He made an almshouse of his heart one day, Which ever since is loose upon the latch For those who pull the string.—I never did.

It always makes me sad to go abroad; And now I’m sadder that I went to-night Among the lights and talkers at Lord Howe’s. His wife is gracious, with her glossy braids, And even voice, and gorgeous eyeballs, calm As her other jewels. If she’s somewhat cold, Who wonders, when her blood has stood so long In the ducal reservoir she calls her line By no means arrogantly? she’s not proud;

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Rh Not prouder than the swan is of the lake He has always swum in;—’tis her element, And so she takes it with a natural grace, Ignoring tadpoles. She just knows, perhaps, There are men, move on without outriders, Which isn’t her fault. Ah, to watch her face, When good Lord Howe expounds his theories Of social justice and equality— ’tis curious, what a tender, tolerant bend Her neck takes: for she loves him, likes his talk, ‘Such clever talk—that dear, odd Algernon!’ She listens on, exactly as if he talked Some Scandinavian myth of Lemures, Too pretty to dispute, and too absurd.

She’s gracious to me as her husband’s friend, And would be gracious, were I not a Leigh, Being used to smile just so, without her eyes, On Joseph Strangways, the Leeds mesmerist, And Delia Dobbs, the lecturer from ‘the States’ Upon the ‘Woman’s question.’ Then, for him, I like him. . he’s my friend. And all the rooms Were full of crinkling silks that swept about The fine dust of most subtle courtesies. What then?—why then, we come home to be sad. How lovely One I love not, looked to-night! She’s very pretty, Lady Waldemar. Her maid must use both hands to twist that coil Of tresses, then be careful lest the rich

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Rh Bronze rounds should slip :—she missed, though, a grey hair, A single one,—I saw it; otherwise The woman looked immortal. How they told, Those alabaster shoulders and bare breasts, On which the pearls, drowned out of sight in milk, Were lost, excepting for the ruby-clasp! They split the amaranth velvet-boddice down To the waist, or nearly, with the audacious press Of full-breathed beauty. If the heart within Were half as white!—but, if it were, perhaps The breast were closer covered, and the sight Less aspectable, by half, too. I heard The young man with the German student’s look— A sharp face, like a knife in a cleft stick, Which shot up straight against the parting line So equally dividing the long hair,— Say softly to his neighbour, (thirty-five And mediæval) ‘Look that way, Sir Blaise. She’s Lady Waldemar—to the left,—in red— Whom Romney Leigh, our ablest man just now, Is soon to marry.’ Then replied Sir Blaise Delorme, with quiet, priest-like voice, Too used to syllable damnations round To make a natural emphasis worth while: ‘Is Leigh your ablest man? the same, I think, Once jilted by a recreant pretty maid Adopted from the people? Now, in change,

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Rh He seems to have plucked a flower from the other side Of the social hedge.’ ‘A flower, a flower,’ exclaimed My German student,—his own eyes full-blown Bent on her. He was twenty, certainly.

Sir Blaise resumed with gentle arrogance, As if he had dropped his alms into a hat, And had the right to counsel,—‘My young friend, I doubt your ablest man’s ability To get the least good or help meet for him, For pagan phalanstery or Christian home, From such a flowery creature.’

‘Beautiful!’ My student murmured, rapt,—‘Mark how she stirs Just waves her head, as if a flower indeed, Touched far off by the vain breath of our talk.’

At which that bilious Grimwald, (he who writes For the Renovator) who had seemed absorbed Upon the table-book of autographs, (I dare say mentally he crunched the bones Of all those writers, wishing them alive To feel his tooth in earnest) turned short round With low carnivorous laugh,—‘A flower, of course! She neither sews nor spins,—and takes no thought Of her garments. . falling off.’ The student flinched, Sir Blaise, the same; then both, drawing back their chairs As if they spied black-beetles on the floor,

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Rh Pursued their talk, without a word being thrown To the critic. Good Sir Blaise’s brow is high And noticeably narrow; a strong wind, You fancy, might unroof him suddenly, And blow that great top attic off his head So piled with feudal relics. You admire His nose in profile, though you miss his chin; But, though you miss his chin, you seldom miss His golden cross worn innermostly, (carved For penance, by a saintly Styrian monk Whose flesh was too much with him,) slipping trough Some unaware unbuttoned casualty Of the under-waistcoat. With an absent air Sir Blaise sate fingering it and speaking low, While I, upon the sofa, heard it all.

‘My dear young friend, if we could bear our eyes Like blessedest St. Lucy, on a plate, They would not trick us into choosing wives, As doublets, by the colour. Otherwise Our fathers chose,—and therefore, when they had hung Their household keys about a lady’s waist, The sense of duty gave her dignity: She kept her bosom holy to her babes; And, if a moralist reproved her dress, ’twas, ‘Too much starch!’—and not, ‘Too little lawn!’’

‘Now, pshaw!’ returned the other in a heat, A little fretted by being called ‘young friend,’

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Rh Or so I took it,—‘for St. Lucy’s sake, If she’s the saint to curse by, let us leave Our fathers,—plagued enough about our sons!’ (He stroked his beardless chin) ‘yes, plagued, sir, plagued: The future generations lie on us As heavy as the nightmare of a seer; Our meat and drink grow painful prophecy: I ask you,—have we leisure, if we liked, To hollow out our weary hands to keep Your intermittent rushlight of the past From draughts in lobbies? Prejudice of sex, And marriage-laws. . the socket drops them through While we two speak,—however may protest Some over-delicate nostrils, like our own, ’Gainst odours thence arising.’ ‘You are young,’ Sir Blaise objected. ‘If I am,’ he said With fire,—‘though somewhat less so than I seem. The young run on before, and see the thing That’s coming. Reverence for the young, I cry. In that new church for which the world’s near ripe, You’ll have the younger in the elder’s chair, Presiding with his ivory front of hope O’er foreheads clawed by cruel carrion birds Of life’s experience.’ ‘Pray your blessing, sir,’ Sir Blaise replied good-humouredly,—‘I plucked A silver hair this morning from my beard, Which left me your inferior. Would I were

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Rh Eighteen, and worthy to admonish you! If young men of your order run before To see such sights as sexual prejudice And marriage-law dissolved,—in plainer words, A general concubinage expressed In a universal pruriency,—the thing Is scarce worth running fast for, and you’d gain By loitering with your elders.’ ‘Ah,’ he said, ‘Who, getting to the top of Pisgah-hill, Can talk with one at the bottom of the view, To make it comprehensible? Why Leigh Himself, although our ablest man, I said, Is scarce advanced to see as far as this, Which some are: he takes up imperfectly The social question—by one handle—leaves The rest to trail. A Christian socialist, Is Romney Leigh, you understand.’ ‘Not I. I disbelieve in Christians-pagans, much As you in women-fishes. If we mix Two colours, we lose both, and make a third Distinct from either. Mark you! to mistake A colour is the sign of a sick brain, And mine, I thank the saints, is clear and cool: A neutral tint is here impossible. The church,—and by the church, I mean, of course, The catholic, apostolic, mother-church,— Draws lines as plain and straight as her own wall; Inside of which, are Christians, obviously,

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208 And outside. . dogs.’ ‘We thank you. Well I know The ancient mother-church would fain still bite For all her toothless gums,—as Leigh himself Would fain be a Christian still, for all his wit; Pass that; you two may settle it, for me. you’re slow in England. In a month I learnt At Göttingen, enough philosophy To stock your English schools for fifty years; Pass that, too. Here, alone, I stop you short, —Supposing a true man like Leigh could stand Unequal in the stature of his life To the height of his opinions. Choose a wife Because of a smooth skin?—not he, not he! He’d rail at Venus’ self for creaking shoes, Unless she walked his way of righteousness: And if he takes a Venus Meretrix (No imputation on the lady there) Be sure that, by some sleight of Christian art, He has metamorphosed and converted her To a Blessed Virgin.’ ‘Soft!’ Sir Blaise drew breath As if it hurt him,—‘Soft! no blasphemy, I pray you!’ ‘The first Christians did the thing; Why not the last?’ asked he of Göttingen, With just that shade of sneering on the lip, Compensates for the lagging of the beard,— ‘And so the case is. If that fairest fair Is talked of as the future wife of Leigh,

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Rh She’s talked of, too, at least as certainly, As Leigh’s disciple. You may find her name On all his missions and commissions, school, Asylums, hospitals,—he has had her down, With other ladies whom her starry lead Persuaded from their spheres, to his country-place In Shropshire, to the famed phalanstery At Leigh Hall, christianised from Fourier’s own, (In which he has planted out his sapling stocks Of knowledge into social nurseries) And there, they say, she has tarried half a week, And milked the cows, and churned, and pressed the curd, And said ‘my sister’ to the lowest drab Of all the assembled castaways; such girls! Ay, sided with them at the washing-tub— Conceive, Sir Blaise, those naked perfect arms, Round glittering arms, plunged elbow-deep in suds, Like wild swans hid in lilies all a-shake.’

Lord Howe came up. ‘What, talking poetry So near the image of the unfavouring Muse? That’s you, Miss Leigh: I’ve watched you half an hour, Precisely as I watched the statue called A Pallas in the Vatican;—you mind The face, Sir Blaise?—intensely calm and sad, As wisdom cut it off from fellowship,— But that spoke louder. Not a word from you! And these two gentlemen were bold, I marked, And unabashed by even your silence.’ ‘Ah,’

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Rh Said I, ‘my dear Lord Howe, you shall not speak To a printing woman who has lost her place, (The sweet safe corner of the household fire Behind the heads of children) compliments As if she were a woman. We who have clipt The curls before our eyes, may see at least As plain as men do: speak out, man to man; No compliments, beseech you.’ ‘Friend to friend, Let that be. We are sad to-night, I saw, (—Good night, Sir Blaise! Ah, Smith—he has slipped away) I saw you across the room, and stayed, Miss Leigh, To keep a crowd of lion-hunters off, With faces toward your jungle. There were three; A spacious lady, five feet ten and fat, Who has the devil in her (and there’s room) For walking to and fro upon the earth, From Chippewa to China; she requires Your autograph upon a tinted leaf ’Twixt Queen Pomare’s and Emperor Soulouque’s; Pray give it; she has energies, though fat: For me, I’d rather see a rick on fire Than such a woman angry. Then a youth Fresh from the backwoods, green as the underboughs, Asks modestly, Miss Leigh, to kiss your shoe, And adds, he has an epic, in twelve parts, Which when you’ve read, you’ll do it for his boot,— All which I saved you, and absorb next week Both manuscript and man,—because a lord

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Rh Is still more potent that a poetess, With any extreme republican. Ah, ah, You smile at last, then.’ ‘Thank you.’ ‘Leave the smile, I’ll lose the thanks for’t,—ay, and throw you in My transatlantic girl, with golden eyes, That draw you to her splendid whiteness, as The pistil of a water-lily draws, Adust with gold. Those girls across the sea Are tyrannously pretty,—and I swore (She seemed to me an innocent, frank girl) To bring her to you for a woman’s kiss, Not now, but on some other day or week: —We’ll call it perjury; I give her up.’

‘No, bring her.’ ‘Now,’ said he, ‘you make it hard To touch such goodness with a grimy palm. I thought to tease you well, and fret you cross, And steel myself, when rightly vexed with you, For telling you a thing to tease you more.’

‘Of Romney?’ ‘No, no; nothing worse,’ he cried, ‘Of Romney Leigh, than what is buzzed about,— That he is taken in an eye-trap too, Like many half as wise. The thing I mean Refers to you, not him.’ ‘Refers to me,’

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Rh He echoed,—‘Me! You sound it like a stone Dropped down a dry well very listlessly, By one who never thinks about the toad Alive at the bottom. Presently perhaps You’ll sound your ‘me’ more proudly—till I shrink.

Lord Howe’s the toad, then, in this question?’ ‘Brief, We’ll take it graver. Give me sofa-room, And quiet hearing. You know Eglinton, John Eglinton, of Eglinton in Kent?’

‘Is he the toad?—he’s rather like the snail; Known chiefly for the house upon his back: Divide the man and house—you kill the man; That’s Eglinton of Eglinton, Lord Howe.’ He answered grave. ‘A reputable man, An excellent landlord of the olden stamp, If somewhat slack in new philanthropies; Who keeps his birthdays with a tenants’ dance, Is hard upon them when they miss the church Or keep their children back from catechism, But not ungentle when the aged poor Pick sticks at hedge-sides; nay, I’ve heard him say ’The old dame has a twinge because she stoops: ’That’s punishment enough for felony.’’

‘O tender-hearted landlord! May I take My long lease with him, when the time arrives

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 have spoken and it would be impertinent of me to try to follow the comments of some of those who know the territories concerned far more intimately than I do.

There is, however, one matter which has not been touched upon. The Bill which is before us contains a Clause which particularly concerns and interests me. I refer to Clause 5, which deals with judicial arrangements. The reason why that Clause interests me is that I practise as a Privy Council appeal agent and since what I would call the Malayan appeal formula, which was found about six years ago, I have been involved in almost every appeal which has come from Malaya to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. I have seen how satisfactorily this formula has worked and how satisfactorily appeals from the courts in Malaya have been dealt with by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

As the House will know, in appeals from Colonial Territories the decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is not a judgment, but is advice to Her Majesty. When Colonies have emerged to independence and have become Commonwealth nations and have gained administrative and legislative independence, it has been difficult for them to stomach judicial dependence in that form, coming to an appeal court which does not give a judgment, but advises Her Majesty on the Order which she should make.

Nevertheless, the Judicial Committee is held in such high regard by the Colonial and Commonwealth countries that I am sure that it would have been the desire of many of them, as they emerged to independence, to retain the services of the Judicial Committee. Some of them have done so and have found it extremely valuable in helping their own courts to take in the native judges, who have proved to be such extremely good judges for their own countries. They have welcomed the guidance and the brilliance of the Judicial Committee as an appeal court. As I say, some of the emerging countries have found this extremely useful. Others have found that it is politically impossible for them to retain the appeal jurisdiction of the Judicial Committee.

Malaya solved the problem. Petitions for leave to appeal from the Malayan courts to the Judicial Committee are petitions not to Her Majesty but to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the Head of the State, and he passes the petitions to the Judicial Committee for their advice. In the same way, when the substantive appeal goes to the Judicial Committee from Malaya, the decision is given not as advice to Her Majesty but as advice to the Head of the Malayan State.

Clause 5 of this Bill is testimony to the very satisfactory way in which this has worked over the past five or six years, because under Clause 5 that system is to continue—or at least, we are providing for it to continue if Malaysia so desires, and my information is that Malaysia will desire to continue with that procedure, thereby linking some 19 races, in one form of judicial procedure, to a Commonwealth judiciary. It is a recognition of the Judicial Committee as a Commonwealth court—as the supreme Commonwealth court—and as a help to the judiciary within a Commonwealth nation which is emerging to independence. I say a help, in no way a bully. The Commonwealth courts have always known they could rely upon the Judicial Committee to uphold the prestige of the Commonwealth courts.

I want to stress that, under Clause 5 of this Bill, and as it has been for the past six years, it is the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council which hears the appeals, not the Privy Council. There is a distinction there—that the Commonwealth courts are asking the advice of the Judicial Committee, not asking the advice of Her Majesty's Privy Council.

But if the Malayan formula which has proved so successful with Malaya over the past years is not universally adopted, how long can we hold this position with Malaya itself? I say "hold this position", because I am sure that all Members of the House would wish to have this important link between Commonwealth nations. It is an active, practical Commonwealth link which we ought to make every effort to maintain. We lost the opportunity of maintaining it with the emerging African nations, but we have it here, in a successful form, with Malaya in the past and with Malaysia in the future.


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Rh For gathering winter-faggots?’

‘He likes art, Buys books and pictures. . of a certain kind; Neglects no patient duty; a good son’. ..

‘To a most obedient mother. Born to wear His father’s shoes, he wears her husband’s too: Indeed, I’ve heard its touching. Dear Lord Howe, You shall not praise me so against your heart, When I’m at worst for praise and faggots.’ ‘Be Less bitter with me, for. . in short,’ he said, ‘I have a letter, which he urged me so To bring you. . I could scarcely choose but yield Insisting that a new love passing through The hand of an old friendship, caught from it Some reconciling perfume.’ ‘Love, you say? My lord, I cannot love. I only find The rhymes for love,—and that’s not love, my lord. Take back your letter.’ ‘Pause: you’ll read it first?’

‘I will not read it: it is stereotyped; The same he wrote to,—anybody’s name,— Anne Blythe, the actress, when she had died so true, A duchess fainted in an open box: Pauline, the dancer, after the great pas, In which her little feet winked overhead Like other fire-flies, and amazed the pit:

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Rh Or Baldinacci, when her F in alt Had touched the silver tops of heaven itself With such a pungent soul-dart, even the Queen Laid softly, each to each, her white-gloved palms, And sighed for joy: or else (I thank your friend) Aurora Leigh,—when some indifferent rhymes, Like those the boys sang round the holy ox On Memphis-road, have chanced, perhaps, to set Our Apis-public lowing. Oh, he wants, Instead of any worthy wife at home, A star upon his stage of Eglinton! Advise him that he is not overshrewd In being so little modest: a dropped star Makes bitter waters, says a Book I’ve read,— And there’s his unread letter,’ ‘My dear friend,’ Lord Howe began. .

In haste I tore the phrase. ‘You mean your friend of Eglinton, or me?’

‘I mean you, you,’ he answered with some fire. ‘A happy life means prudent compromise; The tare runs through the farmer’s garnered sheaves; But though the gleaner’s apron holds pure wheat, We count her poorer. Tare with wheat, we cry, And good with drawbacks. You, you love your art, And, certain of vocation, set your soul On utterance. Only,. . in this world we have made, (They say God made it first, but, if He did,

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Rh ’twas so long since,. . and, since, we have spoiled it so, He scarce would know it, if He looked this way, From hells we preach of, with the flames blown out,) In this bad, twisted, topsy-turvy world, Where all the heaviest wrongs get uppermost,— In this uneven, unfostering England here, Where ledger-strokes and sword-strokes count indeed, But soul-strokes merely tell upon the flesh They strike from,—it is hard to stand for art, Unless some golden tripod from the sea Be fished up, by Apollo’s divine chance, To throne such feet as yours, my prophetess, At Delphi. Think,—the god comes down as fierce As twenty bloodhounds! shakes you, strangles you, Until the oracular shriek shall ooze in froth! At best it’s not all ease,—at worst too hard: A place to stand on is a ’vantage gained, And here’s your tripod. To be plain, dear friend, you’re poor, except in what you richly give; You labour for your own bread painfully, Or ere you pour our wine. For art’s sake, pause.’

I answered slow,—as some wayfaring man, Who feels himself at night too far from home, Makes stedfast face against the bitter wind. ‘Is art so less a thing than virtue is, That artists first must cater for their ease Or ever they make issue past themselves To generous use? alas, and is it so, That we, who would be somewhat clean, must sweep

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Rh Our ways as well as walk them, and no friend Confirm us nobly,—‘Leave results to God, But you be clean?’ What! ‘prudent compromise Makes acceptable life,’ you say instead, You, you, Lord Howe?—in things indifferent, well. For instance, compromise the wheaten bread For rye, the meat for lentils, silk for serge, And sleep on down, if needs, for sleep on straw; But there, end compromise. I will not bate One artist-dream, on straw or down, my lord, Nor pinch my liberal soul, though I be poor, Nor cease to love high, though I live thus low.’

So speaking, with less anger in my voice Than sorrow, I rose quickly to depart; While he, thrown back upon the noble shame Of such high-stumbling natures, murmured words, The right words after wrong ones. Ah, the man Is worthy, but so given to entertain Impossible plans of superhuman life,— He sets his virtues on so raised a shelf, To keep them at the grand millennial height, He has to mount a stool to get at them; And meantime, lives on quite the common way, With everybody’s morals. As we passed, Lord Howe insisting that his friendly arm Should oar me across the sparkling brawling stream Which swept from room to room, we fell at once On Lady Waldemar. ‘Miss Leigh,’ she said,

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Rh And gave me such a smile, so cold and bright, As if she tried it in a ’tiring glass And liked it; ‘all to-night I’ve strained at you, As babes at baubles held up out of reach By spiteful nurses, (‘Never snatch,’ they say,) And there you sate, most perfectly shut in By good Sir Blaize and clever Mister Smith, And then our dear Lord Howe! at last, indeed, I almost snatched. I have a world to speak About your cousin’s place in Shropshire, where I’ve been to see his work. . our work,—you heard I went? . . and of a letter yesterday, In which, if I should read a page or two, You might feel interest, though you’re locked of course In literary toil.—You’ll like to hear Your last book lies at the phalanstery, As judged innocuous for the elder girls And younger women who still care for books. We all must read, you see, before we live: But slowly the ineffable light comes up, And, as it deepens, drowns the written word,— So said your cousin, while we stood and felt A sunset from his favorite beech-tree seat: He might have been a poet if he would, But then he saw the higher thing at once, And climbed to it. It think he looks well now, Has quite got over that unfortunate. . Ah, ah. . I know it moved you. Tender-heart! You took a liking to the wretched girl. Perhaps you thought the marriage suitable,

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Rh Who knows? a poet hankers for romance, And so on. As for Romney Leigh, ’tis sure He never loved her,—never. By the way, You have not heard of her. .? quite out of sight. And out of saving? lost in every sense?’

She might have gone on talking half-an-hour, And I stood still, and cold, and pale, I think, As a garden-statue a child pelts with snow For pretty pastime. Every now and then I put in ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ I scarce knew why; The blind man walks wherever the dog pulls, And so I answered. Till Lord Howe broke in; ‘What penance takes the wretch who interrupts The talk of charming women? I, at last, Must brave it. Pardon, Lady Waldemar! The lady on my arm is tired, unwell, And loyally I’ve promised she may say Nor harder word this evening, than. . goodnight; The rest her face speaks for her.’—Then we went.

And I breathe large at home. I drop my cloak, Unclasp my girdle, loose the band that ties My hair. . now could I but unloose my soul! We are sepulchred alive in this close world, And want more room. The charming woman there— This reckoning up and writing down her talk Affects me singularly. How she talked To pain me! woman’s spite!—You wear steel-mail;

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Rh A woman takes a housewife from her breast, And plucks the delicatest needle out As ’twere a rose, and pricks you carefully ’Neath nails, ’neath eyelids, in your nostrils,—say, A beast would roar so tortured,—but a man, A human creature, must not, shall not flinch, No, not for shame. What vexes after all, Is just that such as she, with such as I, Knows how to vex. Sweet heaven, she takes me up As if she had fingered me and dog-eared me And spelled me by the fireside, half a life! She knows my turns, my feeble points,—What then? The knowledge of a thing implies the thing; Of course she found that in me, she saw that, Her pencil underscored this for a fault, And I, still ignorant. Shut the book up! close! And crush that beetle in the leaves. O heart, At last we shall grow hard too, like the rest, And call it self-defence because we are soft.

And after all, now,. . why should I be pained, That Romney Leigh, my cousin, should espouse This Lady Waldemar? And, say, she held Her newly-blossomed gladness in my face,. . ’twas natural surely, if not generous, Considering how, when winter held her fast, I helped the frost with mine, and pained her more Than she pains me. Pains me!—but wherefore pained?

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Rh ’tis clear my cousin Romney wants a wife,— So, good!—The man’s need of the woman, here, Is greater than the woman’s of the man, And easier served; for where the man discerns A sex, (ah, ah, the man can generalise, Said he) we see but one, ideally And really: where we yearn to lose ourselves And melt like white pearls in another’s wine, He seeks to double himself by what he loves, And make his drink more costly by our pearls. At board, at bed, at work, and holiday, It is not good for a man to be alone,— And that’s his way of thinking, first and last; And thus my cousin Romney wants a wife.

But then my cousin sets his dignity On personal virtue. If he understands By love, like others, self-aggrandisement, It is that he may verily be great By doing rightly and kindly. Once he thought, For charitable ends set duly forth In heaven’s white judgement-book, to marry. . ah, We’ll call her name Aurora Leigh, although She’s changed since then!—and once, for social ends, Poor Marian Erle, my sister Marian Erle, My woodland sister, sweet Maid Marian, Whose memory moans on in me like the wind Through ill-shut casements, making me more sad Than ever I find reasons for. Alas, Poor pretty plaintive face, embodied ghost,

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Rh He finds it easy, then, to clap thee off From pulling at his sleeve and book and pen,— He locks thee out at night into the cold, Away from butting with thy horny eyes Against his crystal dreams,—that, now, he’s strong To love anew? that Lady Waldemar Succeeds my Marian? After all, why not? He loved not Marian, more than once he loved Aurora. If he loves, at last, that Third, Albeit she prove as slippery as spilt oil On marble floors, I will not augur him Ill luck for that. Good love, howe’er ill-placed, Is better for a man’s soul in the end, Than if he loved ill what deserves love well. A pagan, kissing, for a step of Pan, The wild-goat’s hoof-print on the loamy down, Exceeds our modern thinker who turns back The strata. . granite, limestone, coal, and clay, Concluding coldly with, ‘Here’s law! Where’s God?’

And then at worse,—if Romney loves her not,— At worst,—if he’s incapable of love, Which may be—then indeed, for such a man Incapable of love, she’s good enough; For she, at worst too, is a woman still And loves him as the sort of woman can.

My loose long hair began to burn and creep, Alive to the very ends, about my knees:

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Rh I swept it backward as the wind sweeps flame, With the passion of my hands. Ah, Romney laughed One day. . (how full the memories came up!) ‘—Your Florence fire-flies live on in your hair,’ He said, ‘it gleams so.’ Well, I wrung them out, My fire-flies; made a knot as hard as life, Of those loose, soft, impracticable curls, And then sat down and thought. . ‘She shall not think Her thoughts of me,’—and drew my desk and wrote.

‘dear Lady Waldemar, I could not speak With people around me, nor can sleep to-night And not speak, after the great news I heard Of you and of my cousin. My you be Most happy; and the good he meant the world, Replenish his own life. Say what I say, And let my word be sweeter for your mouth, As you are you. . I only Aurora Leigh.’

That’s quiet, guarded! Though she hold it up Against the light, she’ll not see through it more Than lies there to be seen. So much for pride; And now for peace, a little! Let me stop All writing back. . ’sweet thanks, my sweetest friend, ‘You’ve made more joyful my great joy itself.’ —No, that’s too simple! she would twist it thus, ‘My joy would still be as sweet as thyme in drawers, However shut up in the dark and dry; But violets, aired and dewed by love like yours, Out-smell all thyme! we keep that in our clothes,

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Rh But drop the other down our bosoms, till they smell like’. . ah, I see her writing back Just so. She’ll make a nosegay of her words, And tie it with blue ribbons at the end To suit a poet;—pshaw! And then we’ll have The call to church; the broken, sad, bad dream Dreamed out at last; the marriage-vow complete With the marriage-breakfast; praying in white gloves, Drawn off in haste for drinking pagan toasts In somewhat stronger wine than any sipped By gods, since Bacchus had his way with grapes.

A postscript stops all that, and rescues me. ‘You need not write. I have been overworked, And think of leaving London, England, even, And hastening to get nearer to the sun, Where men sleep better. So, adieu,’—I fold And seal,—and now I’m out of all the coil; I breathe now; I spring upward like a branch, A ten-years school-boy with a crooked stick May pull down to his level, in search of nuts, But cannot hold a moment. How we twang Back on the blue sky, and assert our height, While he stares after! Now, the wonder seems That I could wrong myself by such a doubt. We poets always have uneasy hearts; Because our hearts, large-rounded as the globe, Can turn but one side to the sun at once. We are used to dip our artist-hands in gall

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Rh And potash, trying potentialities Of alternated colour, till at last We get confused, and wonder for our skin How nature tinged it first. Well—here’s the true Good flesh-colour; I recognise my hand,— Which Romney Leigh may clasp as just a friend’s, And keep his clean. And now, my Italy. Alas, if we could ride with naked souls And make no noise and pay no price at all, I would have seen thee sooner, Italy,— For still I have heard thee crying through my life, Thou piercing silence of ecstatic graves, Men call that name!

But even a witch, to-day, Must melt down golden pieces in the nard Wherewith to anoint her broomstick ere she rides; And poets evermore are scant of gold, And, if they find a piece behind the door, It turns by sunset to a withered leaf. The Devil himself scarce trusts his patented Gold-making art to any who make rhymes, But culls his Faustus from philosophers And not from poets. ‘Leave my Job,’ said God; And so, the Devil leaves him without pence, And poverty proves, plainly, special grace. In these new, just, administrative times, Men clamour for an order of merit. Why? Here’s black bread on the table, and no wine!

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Rh At least I am a poet in being poor; Thank God. I wonder if the manuscript Of my long poem, it ’twere sold outright, Would fetch enough to buy me shoes, to go A-foot, (thrown in, the necessary patch For the other side the Alps)? it cannot be: I fear that I must sell this residue Of my father’s books; although the Elzevirs Have fly-leaves over-written by his hand, In faded notes as thick and fine and brown as cobwebs on a tawny monument Of the old Greeks—conferenda hoec cum his— Corruptè citat—lege potiùs, And so on, in the scholar’s regal way Of giving judgment on the parts of speech, As if he sate on all twelve thrones up-piled, Arraigning Israel. Ay, but books and notes Must go together. And this Proclus too, In quaintly dear contracted Grecian types, Fantastically crumpled, like his thoughts Which would not seem too plain; you go round twice For one step forward, then you take it back Because you’re somewhat giddy! there’s the rule For Proclus. Ah, I stained this middle leaf With pressing in’t my Florentine iris-bell, Long stalk and all; my father chided me For that stain of blue blood,—I recollect The peevish turn his voice took,—‘Silly girls, Who plant their flowers in our philosophy To make it fine, and only spoil the book!

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Rh No more of it, Aurora.’ Yes—no more! Ah, blame of love, that’s sweeter than all praise Of those who love not! ’tis so lost to me, I cannot, in such beggared life, afford To lose my Proclus. Not for Florence, even.

The kissing Judas, Wolff, shall go instead, Who builds us such a royal book as this To honour a chief-poet, folio-built, And writes above, ‘The house of Nobody:’ Who floats in cream, as rich as any sucked From Juno’s breasts, the broad Homeric lines, And, while with their spondaic prodigious mouths They lap the lucent margins as babe-gods, Proclaims them bastards. Wolff’s an atheist; And if the Iliad fell out, as he says, By mere fortuitous concourse of old songs, We’ll guess as much, too, for the universe.

That Wolff, those Platos: sweep the upper shelves As clean as this, and so I am almost rich, Which means, not forced to think of being poor In sight of ends. To-morrow: no delay. I’ll wait in Paris till good Carrington Dispose of such, and, having chaffered for My book’s price with the publisher, direct All proceeds to me. Just a line to ask His help. And now I come, my Italy, My own hills! are you ’ware of me, my hills,

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Rh How I burn toward you? do you feel to-night The urgency and yearning of my soul, As sleeping mothers feel the sucking babe And smile?—Nay, not so much as when, in heat, Vain lightnings catch at your inviolate tops, And tremble while ye are stedfast. Still, ye go Your own determined, calm, indifferent way Toward sunrise, shade by shade, and light by light; Of all the grand progression nought left out; As if God verily made you for yourselves, And would not interrupt your life with ours.

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The New International Encyclopædia/Spitzweg, Karl

SPITZWEG, spĭts'vắK, (1808-85). A German genre and landscape painter, one of the most original figures in the art world of Munich, the most genial exponent of the humorous genre. Born and educated in Munich, he dispensed drugs for several years, then studied at the university, and in 1833 was won to art by his accidental surroundings in a watering place. Under the introductory guidance of the historical painter Hansonn (1791-1863), he took to brush and palette, but, practically self-taught, developed his rare talent for the depiction of those inimitable types of German philistinism amusingly associated with his name. On the establishment of the Fliegende Blätter in 1844, he became one of its most diligent contributors, whose incomparable humorous drawings were for years the delight of the entire reading world. Among his finely colored pictures of old bachelors, bookworms, hermits, etc., and his poetic landscapes with fanciful accessories, may be mentioned: “The Poor Poet” (1837), “Two Hermits” and a “Scholar in the Attic” (1882), all in the Pinakothek, Munich; “Spanish Serenade,” “The Hypochrondriac,” “Herd-Girls on an Alp,” and “Turkish Coffee-House,” all in the Schack Gallery, Munich; “Going to Church Near Dachau” (1802), in Dresden; “His Reverence” and

“Village Street,” both in the National Gallery, Berlin. Reproductions of his works appeared in the collections Spitzweg Mappe (Munich, 1887) and Spitweg Album (ib., 1888). Consult: Regnet, in Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst (Leipzig, 1880), and Holland, in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, xxxv. (ib., 1893).


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Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters

The States signatory to the present Convention,

 * Desiring to establish common provisions on mutual recognition and enforcement of judicial decisions rendered in their respective countries,

Have resolved to conclude a Convention to this effect and have agreed on the following provisions:

Article 1
This Convention shall apply to decisions rendered in civil or commercial matters by the courts of Contracting States.

It shall not apply to decisions the main object of which is to determine -

 * (1)  the status or capacity of persons or questions of family law, including personal or financial rights and obligations between parents and children or between spouses;
 * (2)  the existence or constitution of legal persons or the powers of their officers;
 * (3)  maintenance obligations, so far as not included in sub-paragraph (1) of this Article;
 * (4)  questions of succession;
 * (5)  questions of bankruptcy, compositions or analogous proceedings, including decisions which may result therefrom and which relate to the validity of the acts of the debtor;
 * (6)  questions of social security;
 * (7)  questions relating to damage or injury in nuclear matters.

This Convention does not apply to decisions for the payment of any customs duty, tax or penalty.

Article 2
This Convention shall apply to all decisions given by the courts of a Contracting State, irrespective of the name given by that State to the proceedings which gave rise to the decision or of the name given to the decision itself such as judgment, order or writ of execution.

However, it shall apply neither to decisions which order provisional or protective measures nor to decisions rendered by administrative tribunals.

Article 3
This Convention shall apply irrespective of the nationality of the parties.

Article 4
A decision rendered in one of the Contracting States shall be entitled to recognition and enforcement in another Contracting State under the terms of this Convention -

 * (1)  if the decision was given by a court considered to have jurisdiction within the meaning of this Convention, and
 * (2)  if it is no longer subject to ordinary forms of review in the State of origin.

In addition, to be enforceable in the State addressed, a decision must be enforceable in the State of origin.

Article 5
Recognition or enforcement of a decision may nevertheless be refused in any of the following cases -

 * (1)  if recognition or enforcement of the decision is manifestly incompatible with the public policy of the State addressed or if the decision resulted from proceedings incompatible with the requirements of due process of law or if, in the circumstances, either party had no adequate opportunity fairly to present his case;
 * (2)  if the decision was obtained by fraud in the procedural sense;
 * (3)  if proceedings between the same parties, based on the same facts and having the same purpose -
 * a) are pending before a court of the State addressed and those proceedings were the first to be instituted, or
 * b) have resulted in a decision by a court of the State addressed, or
 * c) have resulted in a decision by a court of another State which would be entitled to recognition and enforcement under the law of the State addressed.

Article 6
Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 5, a decision rendered by default shall neither be recognised nor enforced unless the defaulting party received notice of the institution of the proceedings in accordance with the law of the State of origin in sufficient time to enable him to defend the proceedings.

Article 7
Recognition or enforcement may not be refused for the sole reason that the court of the State of origin has applied a law other than that which would have been applicable according to the rules of private international law of the State addressed.

Nevertheless, recognition or enforcement may be refused if, to reach its decision, the court of the State of origin had to decide a question relating either to the status or the capacity of a party or to his rights in other matters excluded from this Convention by sub-paragraphs (1)-(4) of the second paragraph of Article 1, and has reached a result different from that which would have followed from the application to that question of the rules of private international law of the State addressed.

Article 8
Without prejudice to such review as is required by the terms of the preceding Articles, there shall be no review of the merits of the decision rendered by the court of origin.

Article 9
In questions relating to the jurisdiction of the court of the State of origin, the authority addressed shall be bound by the findings of fact on which that court based its jurisdiction, unless the decision was rendered by default.

Article 10
The court of the State of origin shall be considered to have jurisdiction for the purposes of this Convention -

 * (1)  if the defendant had, at the time when the proceedings were instituted, his habitual residence in the State of origin, or, if the defendant is not a natural person, its seat, its place of incorporation or its principal place of business in that State;
 * (2)  if the defendant had, in the State of origin, at the time when the proceedings were instituted, a commercial, industrial or other business establishment, or a branch office, and was cited there in proceedings arising from business transacted by such establishment or branch office;
 * (3)  if the action had as its object the determination of an issue relating to immovable property situated in the State of origin;
 * (4)  in the case of injuries to the person or damage to tangible property, if the facts which occasioned the damage occurred in the territory of the State of origin, and if the author of the injury or damage was present in that territory at the time when those facts occurred;
 * (5)  if, by a written agreement or by an oral agreement confirmed in writing within a reasonable time, the parties agreed to submit to the jurisdiction of the court of origin disputes which have arisen or which may arise in respect of a specific legal relationship, unless the law of the State addressed would not permit such an agreement because of the subject-matter of the dispute;
 * (6)  if the defendant has argued the merits without challenging the jurisdiction of the court or making reservations thereon; nevertheless such jurisdiction shall not be recognised if the defendant has argued the merits in order to resist the seisure of property or to obtain its release, or if the recognition of this jurisdiction would be contrary to the law of the State addressed because of the subject-matter of the dispute;
 * (7)  if the person against whom recognition or enforcement is sought was the plaintiff in the proceedings in the court of origin and was unsuccessful in those proceedings, unless the recognition of this jurisdiction would be contrary to the law of the State addressed because of the subject-matter of the dispute.

Article 11
The court of the State of origin shall be considered to have jurisdiction for the purposes of this Convention to try a counterclaim -

 * (1)  if that court would have had jurisdiction to try the action as a principal claim under sub-paragraphs (1)-(6) of Article 10, or
 * (2)  if that court had jurisdiction under Article 10 to try the principal claim and if the counterclaim arose out of the contract or out of the facts on which the principal claim was based.

Article 12
The jurisdiction of the court of the State of origin need not be recognised by the authority addressed in the following cases -

 * (1)  if the law of the State addressed confers upon its courts exclusive jurisdiction, either by reason of the subject-matter of the action or by virtue of an agreement between the parties as to the determination of the claim which gave rise to the foreign decision;
 * (2)  if the law of the State addressed recognises a different exclusive jurisdiction by reason of the subject-matter of the action, or if the authority addressed considers itself bound to recognise such an exclusive jurisdiction by reason of an agreement between the parties;
 * (3)  if the authority addressed considers itself bound to recognise an agreement by which exclusive jurisdiction is conferred upon arbitrators.

Article 13
The party seeking recognition or applying for enforcement shall furnish -

 * (1)  a complete and authenticated copy of the decision;
 * (2)  if the decision was rendered by default, the originals or certified true copies of the documents required to establish that the summons was duly served on the defaulting party;
 * (3)  all documents required to establish that the decision fulfills the conditions of sub-paragraph (2) of the first paragraph of Article 4, and, where appropriate, of the second paragraph of Article 4;
 * (4)  unless the authority addressed otherwise requires, translations of the documents referred to above, certified as correct either by a diplomatic or consular agent or by a sworn translator or by any other person so authorised in either State.

If the terms of the decision do not permit the authority addressed to verify whether the conditions of this Convention have been complied with, that authority may require the production of any other necessary documents.

No legalisation or other like formality may be required.

Article 14
The procedure for the recognition or enforcement of foreign judgments is governed by the law of the State addressed so far as this Convention does not provide otherwise.

If the decision contains provisions which can be dissociated, any one or more of these may be separately recognised or enforced.

Article 15
Recognition or enforcement of an award of judicial costs or expenses may be accorded by virtue of this Convention only if this Convention is applicable to the decision on the merits.

This Convention shall apply to decisions relating to judicial costs or expenses even if such decisions do not proceed from a court, provided that they derive from a decision which may be recognised or enforced under this Convention and that the decision relating to costs or expenses could have been subject to judicial review.

Article 16
A judgment for costs or expenses given in connection with the granting or refusal of recognition or enforcement of a decision may be enforced under this Convention only if the applicant in the proceedings for recognition or enforcement relied on this Convention.

Article 17
No security, bond or deposit, however termed under the law of the State addressed, shall be required by reason of the nationality or domicile of the applicant to guarantee the payment of judicial costs or expenses if the applicant, being a natural person, has his habitual residence in or, not being a natural person, has a place of business in a State which has concluded with the State addressed a Supplementary Agreement in accordance with Article 21.

Article 18
A party granted legal aid in the State of origin shall be extended such aid in accordance with the law of the State addressed in any proceedings for the recognition or for the enforcement of a foreign decision.

Article 19
Settlements made in court in the course of a pending proceeding which may be enforced in the State of origin shall be enforceable in the State addressed under the same conditions as decisions falling within this Convention, so far as those conditions apply to settlements.

Article 20
If two States have concluded a Supplementary Agreement pursuant to Article 21, the judicial authorities of either State may dismiss an action brought before them or may stay such an action when other proceedings between the same parties, based on the same facts and having the same purpose, are pending in a court of another State and these proceedings may result in a decision which the authorities of the State in which the first mentioned action was brought would be bound to recognise under the terms of this Convention.

The authorities of these States may nevertheless order provisional or protective measures regardless of proceedings elsewhere.

Article 21
Decisions rendered in a Contracting State shall not be recognised or enforced in another Contracting State in accordance with the provisions of the preceding Articles unless the two States, being Parties to this Convention, have concluded a Supplementary Agreement to this effect.

Article 22
This Convention shall not apply to decisions rendered before the entry into force of the Supplementary Agreement provided for in Article 21 unless that Agreement otherwise provides.

The Supplementary Agreement shall continue to be applicable to decisions in respect of which recognition or enforcement proceedings have been instituted before any denunciation of that Agreement takes effect.

Article 23
In the Supplementary Agreements referred to in Article 21 the Contracting States may agree -

 * (1)  to clarify the meaning of the expression "civil and commercial matters", to determine the courts whose decisions shall be recognised and enforced under this Convention, to define the expression "social security" and to define the expression "habitual residence";
 * (2)  to clarify the meaning of the term "law" in States with more than one legal system;
 * (3)  to include within the scope of this Convention questions relating to damage or injury in nuclear matters;
 * (4)  to apply this Convention to decisions ordering provisional or protective measures;
 * (5)  not to apply this Convention to decisions rendered in the course of criminal proceedings;
 * (6)  to specify the cases under which a decision is no longer subject to ordinary forms of review;
 * (7)  to recognise and enforce decisions upon which enforcement could be obtained in the State of origin even if such decisions are still subject to ordinary forms of review and in such a case to define the conditions under which a stay of proceedings for recognition or enforcement is possible;
 * (8)  not to apply Article 6 if the decision rendered by default was notified to the defaulting party and the latter had the opportunity to lodge a timely appeal against such a decision;
 * (8 bis)  that the Authority addressed shall not be bound by the findings of fact on which the court of the State of origin based its jurisdiction;
 * (9)  to consider the courts of the State in which the defendant has his "domicile" as having jurisdiction under Article 10:
 * (10) that the court of origin shall be considered as having jurisdiction under the terms of this Convention in cases where its jurisdiction is admitted by another Convention in force between the State of origin and the State addressed if that other Convention contains no special rules relating to the recognition or enforcement of foreign judgments;
 * (11) that the court of origin shall be considered as having jurisdiction under the terms of this Convention either when its jurisdiction is admitted by the law of the State addressed relating to the recognition or enforcement of foreign judgments, or on grounds additional to those in Article 10;
 * (12) to define, for the purposes of the application of Article 12, the bases of jurisdiction which are exclusive by reason of the subject-matter of the action;
 * (13) to exclude, in cases where jurisdiction is based on an agreement between the parties, the application of sub-paragraph (1) of Article 12 as well as to exclude that of sub-paragraph (3) of Article 12;
 * (14) to regulate the procedure for obtaining recognition or enforcement;
 * (15) to regulate the enforcement of judgments other than those which order the payment of a sum of money;
 * (16) that the enforcement of a foreign judgment may be refused when a specified period has elapsed from its date;
 * (17) to fix the rate of interest payable from the date of the judgment in the State of origin;
 * (18) to adapt to the requirements of their legal systems the list of documents required by Article 13, but with the sole object of enabling the authority addressed to verify whether the conditions of this Convention have been fulfilled;
 * (19) to subject the documents referred to in Article 13 to legalisation or to a similar formality;
 * (20) to depart from the provisions of Article 17 and to depart from the provisions of Article 18;
 * (21) to make the provisions of the first paragraph of Article 20 obligatory;
 * (22) to include within the scope of this Convention "actes authentiques", including documents upon which immediate enforcement can be obtained, and to specify those documents.

Article 24
This Convention shall not affect other Conventions relating to the recognition and enforcement of judgments to which the Contracting States are already Parties so long as those States have not concluded a Supplementary Agreement under the terms of Article 21.

Unless it is otherwise agreed, the provisions of a Supplementary Agreement concluded under Article 21 shall prevail over the terms of any prior Conventions in force between the Parties relating to the recognition and enforcement of judgments to the extent that their terms are mutually inconsistent.

Article 25
Whether or not they have concluded a Supplementary Agreement under Article 21, the Contracting States shall not conclude between themselves other Conventions relating to the recognition and enforcement of judgments within the scope of this Convention unless they consider it necessary, in particular, because of economic ties or of particular aspects of their legal systems.

Article 26
Notwithstanding the provisions of Articles 24 and 25, this Convention and the Supplementary Agreements made under Article 21 shall not prevail over Conventions to which the Contracting States are or may become Parties in special fields and which contain provisions for the recognition and enforcement of judgments.

Article 27
This Convention shall be open for signature by the States represented at the Tenth Session of the Hague Conference on Private International Law and Cyprus, Iceland and Malta.

It shall be ratified and the instruments of ratification shall be deposited with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

Article 28
This Convention shall enter into force on the sixtieth day after the deposit of the second instrument of ratification.

This Convention shall enter into force for each State which ratifies it subsequently on the sixtieth day after the deposit of its instrument of ratification.

Article 29
Any State not falling within the provisions of the first paragraph of Article 27 may accede to this Convention after it has entered into force in accordance with the first paragraph of Article 28. The instrument of accession shall be deposited with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

This Convention shall enter into force for such a State in the absence of any objection from a State which has ratified this Convention before such deposit, notified to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands within a period of six months after the date on which the said Ministry has notified it of such accession.

In the absence of any such objection, this Convention shall enter into force for the acceding State on the first day of the month following the expiration of the last of the periods referred to in the preceding paragraph.

Article 30
Any State may, at the time of signature, ratification or accession, declare that this Convention shall extend to all the territories for the international relations of which it is responsible, or to one or more of them. Such a declaration shall take effect on the date of entry into force of this Convention for the State concerned.

At any time thereafter, such extensions shall be notified to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

This Convention shall enter into force for the territories mentioned in such an extension on the sixtieth day after the notification referred to in the preceding paragraph.

The Parties to a Supplementary Agreement concluded under Article 21 shall determine its territorial application.

Article 31
This Convention shall have a duration of five years from the date on which it enters into force under the first paragraph of Article 28, even in its application to States which have subsequently ratified or acceded to it.

In the absence of any denunciation, this Convention shall be renewed tacitly every five years.

Any denunciation shall be notified to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands at least six months before the end of the five year period.

Such denunciation may be limited to any one of the territories to which this Convention applies.

Such denunciation shall affect only the notifying State. This Convention shall remain in force for the other Contracting States.

Article 32
Each Supplementary Agreement concluded under Article 21 shall take effect from the date specified in such Agreement; a certified copy and, if necessary, a translation into French or English shall be communicated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

Any Contracting State may, without denouncing this Convention, denounce a Supplementary Agreement either under any provision for denunciation in such Agreement or, if such Agreement contains no such provision, by giving six months' notice to the other State. Any State denouncing a Supplementary Agreement shall so inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

Notwithstanding the denunciation of this Convention, it shall nevertheless continue to have effect between the denouncing State and any other State with which the former has concluded a Supplementary Agreement under Article 21, unless such Agreement provides otherwise.

Article 33
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands shall give notice to the States referred to in Article 27, and to the States which have acceded in accordance with Article 29, of the following -

 * a) the signatures and ratifications referred to in Article 27;
 * b) the date on which the present Convention enters into force in accordance with the first paragraph of Article 28;
 * c) the accessions referred to in Article 29 and the dates on which they take effect;
 * d) the extensions referred to in Article 30 and the dates on which they take effect;
 * e) a translation or a copy of the text in English or French of Supplementary Agreements concluded under Article 21;
 * f) the denunciations referred to in the third paragraph of Article 31 and the second paragraph of Article 32.

In witness whereof the undersigned, being duly authorised thereto, have signed this Convention.

Done at The Hague, on the first day of February, 1971, in the English and French languages, both texts being equally authentic, in a single copy which shall be deposited in the archives of the Government of the Netherlands, and of which a certified copy shall be sent, through the diplomatic channel, to each of the States represented at the Tenth Session of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, and to Cyprus, Iceland and Malta.


text: Talk:Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters


text:
Page:British hansard (1963) Malaysia bill.djvu/29

 I want just to make quickly three proposals to implement Clause 5 and incidentally to strengthen the Commonwealth ties by doing so.

First, I would ask my right hon. Friend to ensure that a Malayan judge is frequently available to sit in the Judicial Committee. If Malaysia is to send appeals here and keep this Commonwealth link, then we should see that a Malayan judge is sitting from time to time in the Judicial Committee. We had for many years a most valuable Ceylon judge on the Judicial Committee. We have recently had a very eminent New Zealand judge sitting there, and I hope that we can get this principle well recognised, that those countries who retain the appellate jurisdiction of the Judicial Committee should have their own judges sitting on that Committee.

My second proposal is that the Judicial Committee should go on circuit. It should not only sit in the old town hall by Admiralty Arch. Indeed, perhaps hon. and right hon. Members do not know that it sits in an old town hall by Admiralty Arch. It used to sit in Downing Street. But if we are to continue this as a Commonwealth court it should go on circuit throughout the Commonwealth. Air travel is so quick these days that it is almost as quick to move the court out to Kuala Lumpur as to get a Scottish Law Lord down from Edinburgh, and here is an opportunity, with this Bill going through, to say that for the Michael as sittings in 1963 the Judicial Committee will sit in Kuala Lumpur. We should set that precedent, taking the opportunity of this Bill. When Malaya and the other States joining in this Bill have said, "This has worked for the past six years admirably, we are going to continue it," surely we in this House should respond by urging my right hon. Friend to see that arrangements are made for the Judicial Committee to sit in Kuala Lumpur for sittings in the very near future.

Thirdly, we have talked time and again in this House about the Judicial Committee being the supreme court of appeal for the Commonwealth, but we have never been prepared to recognise it as such ourselves. We continue with the House of Lords as our supreme appeal court. Can we really expect enthusiasim for the Judicial Committee from the emerging Commonwealth nations, and, indeed, can we expect Clause 5 of this Bill to last for any length of time, if we ourselves stand aloof from this Commonwealth court? Of course, it is a quite Gilbertian situation when we think that exactly the same members sit in a Committee Room of the other place here as the supreme court of appeal for our judicial system in this country as sit in the old town hall as the Judicial Committee, the supreme court of appeal for the Commonwealth. Surely our right course, if we wish to keep this great and practical Commonwealth link, is to abolish the appellate jurisidiction of the House of Lords and put in its place the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council under a new style, the Commonwealth Court of Appeal, advising the Heads of State of each of the Commonwealth nations.

I would warn my right hon. Friend that this is a matter for him and not for the Law Officers. I have pleaded this case in Adjournment debates and so on over many years. I have made no progress whatever with the Law Officers' Department. It will never be done if my right hon Friend passes it to them, and I very much doubt whether we shall hold Clause 5 of this Bill for any length of time if this is not done now or at any rate soon. This is a major Commonwealth political decision, and this is the opportune time to reform both the House of Lords as an appeal court and the Judicial Committee and to form them into the Commonwealth Appeal Court. Malaya and the new Malaysia have pointed the way to this, and the form under which it can be done, without any loss of prestige whatever to the independent Commonwealth nations, and we should not disregard the wisdom they have shown.

 * 2.20 p.m.

Mr. James Griffiths (Llanelly) As a layman, I was very interested in the suggestions made by the hon. Member for Crosby (Mr. Graham Page). I was particularly interested in his suggestion that the Judicial Committee of the British Council should go on tour, which would provide a useful link to cement the Commonwealth still further.

I was also very interested in the speech by my right hon. Friend the Member for Smethwick (Mr. Gordon Walker), who spoke so interestingly about the Commonwealth. I was very interested in his suggestion that the time has come


text:
Summary Jurisdiction Act 1884

An Act to repeal divers Enactments rendered unnecessary by the Summary Jurisdiction Acts and other Acts relating to Proceedings before Courts of Summary Jurisdiction, and to make further provision for the uniformity of Proceedings before those Courts. [7th August 1884.]

WHEREAS the Summary Jurisdiction Acts  regulate the procedure before courts of summary jurisdiction and on appeals from those courts to courts of quarter sessions, and it is expedient to provide for uniformity of procedure in all such cases:

Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Short title.

1. This Act may be cited as the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1884.

Commencement of Act.

2. This Act shall come into operation on the first day of December one thousand eight hundred and eighty-four.

Repeal of obsolete punishments for non-payment of fines and other sums of money.

3. Whereas the Summary Jurisdiction Acts provide for the imprisonment of a person for the nonpaymentin certain cases of a sum of money adjudged to be paid by the conviction or order of a court of summary jurisdiction, and it is expedient to repeal so much of any enactment as provides the punishment of whipping or any punishment other than imprisonment, with or without hard labour, provided for such nonpayment: Be it therefore enacted that-

So much of any Act as enacts that a person on nonpayment of a sum of money adjudged to be paid by the conviction or order of a court of summary jurisdiction in England shall be liable to be whipped or to any punishment other than imprisonment, with or without hard labour, is hereby repealed.

Repeal of Acts in schedule.

4. The Acts contained in the schedule to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent in the third column of that schedule mentioned.
 * Provided that-
 * (1.) Where an enactment extends beyond England that enactment shall be repealed only as regards England; and
 * (2.) The expression in the said "schedule conviction or order of a court of summary jurisdiction" shall mean a conviction or order made in pursuance of the Summary Jurisdiction Acts; and
 * (3.) This repeal shall not revive any enactment repealed by any of the repealed Acts, nor shall it affect-
 * (a.) Anything duly done or suffered before the commencement of this Act under any enactment hereby repealed; or
 * (b.) Any legal proceeding or appeal commenced, or any writ, warrant, or instrument made or issued before the commencement of this Act;

and any such legal proceeding, appeal, writ, warrant, and instrument may be carried on and executed as if this Act had not passed.

A reference in any Act of Parliament or other document to any enactment repealed by this Act, whether incorporating or applying such enactment or otherwise, shall be construed to refer to the corresponding enactment in the Summary Jurisdiction Acts, and so far as there is no such corresponding enactment shall be repealed.

Removal of doubts as to application of Summary Jurisdiction Acts.

5. Whereas doubts may arise as to whether the Summary Jurisdiction Acts apply, or will, after the repeal enacted by this Act takes effect, apply to the proceedings before justices referred to in the sections mentioned in the third column of the schedule to this Act, and it is expedient to remove such doubts: Be it therefore enacted that-

The repeal enacted by this Act shall not take away any jurisdiction of any justices to act summarily in any matter referred to in an enactment hereby repealed, and the Summary Jurisdiction Acts shall, so far as is consistent with the tenor thereof, apply to every proceeding before justices as to which the procedure is wholly or partly repealed by this Act in substitution for the procedure so repealed.

And for the further removal of doubts it is hereby declared that where by virtue of the repeal enacted by this Act or otherwise any statute authorising the infliction by any justice or justices of a penalty or fine, either as a sole punishment or as an alternative punishment for imprisonment, provides no method for the recovery of such penalty or fine, sections nineteen and twenty-one of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1848, as amended by section twenty-one of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, shall apply to the recovery of such penalty or fine.

'''Application of provisions of 42 & 43 Vict. c. 49. respecting appeals to appeals under prior Acts.'''

6. Where a person is authorised by any Act passed before the commencement of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, to appeal from the conviction or order of a court of summary jurisdiction made in pursuance of the Summary Jurisdiction Acts, or from the refusal to make any conviction or order in pursuance of those Acts, to a court of general or quarter sessions, he shall after the passing of this Act appeal to such court subject to the conditions and regulations contained in the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, with respect to an appeal to a court of general or quarter sessions.

'''Removal of doubts as to 42 & 43 Vict. c. 49. s. 50.'''

7. Whereas by section fifty of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, it is enacted that the expression "court of summary jurisdiction" shall in that Act and any future Act mean "any justice or justices of the peace or other magistrate by whatever name called to whom jurisdiction is given by or who is or are authorised to act under the Summary Jurisdiction Acts or any of such Acts."

And whereas doubts have arisen as to whether the said section extends to such justice, justices, or magistrate when acting under some Act other than the Summary Jurisdiction Acts, and it is expedient to remove such doubts: Be it therefore enacted as follows:

It is hereby declared that the above recited definition of court of summary jurisdiction in section fifty of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, includes such justice, justices, or magistrate as therein mentioned whether acting under the Summary Jurisdiction Acts, or any of them, or under any other Act, or by virtue of his or their commission or by the common law.

'''Extension of 42 & 43 Vict. c. 49. s. 30.'''

8. Whereas doubts have arisen whether under the thirtieth section of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, the justices or council therein mentioned have power to provide more than one petty sessional court-house, and it is expedient that such doubts shall be removed: Be it therefore enacted as follows:

It is hereby declared that the power of the thirtieth section of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, given to the justices or council therein mentioned to provide a petty sessional court-house shall be deemed to extend to providing more than one such petty sessional court-house if the justices or council shall think it necessary or expedient so to do.

And for the further removal of doubts it is hereby declared that a petty sessional court-house or occasional court-house for the use of the justices of any county may be outside the limits of the petty sessional division for which such court-house is provided or appointed, and may be either in the said county, or in any adjoining county or borough, and for the purpose of the jurisdiction of any justices acting in such court-house the same shall be deemed to be within the county and the petty sessional division for which such justices act.

'''Removal of doubts as to effect of 45 & 46 Vict. c. 50. s. 227. on 42 & 43 Vict. c. 49. s. 38.'''

9. Nothing in section two hundred and twenty-seven of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, shall be taken to have repealed section thirty-eight of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879.

Saving for the recovery of poor rates, &c.

10. Nothing in this Act shall alter the procedure for the recovery of or any remedy for the nonpayment of any poor rate, or of any rate or sum the payment of which is not adjudged by the conviction or order of a court of summary jurisdiction.

Recovery of payments certified by district auditors.

11. The payment of any sum certified by a district auditor to be due in accordance with the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1844, and the Acts amending the same, or with any other Act may, together with the costs of the proceedings for the recovery thereof, be enforced in like manner as if it were a sum due in respect of the poor rate.

Effect of forms.

12. Whereas by section twenty-nine of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, the Lord Chancellor is authorised from time to time to make rules in relation to the forms to be used under the Summary Jurisdiction Acts or any of them, and to annul and to add to forms in relation to summary proceedings contained in other Acts, and doubts have arisen with respect to the effect of the forms altered by such rules, and it is expedient to remove such doubts :  Be it therefore enacted that-

A form authorised by any rules for the time being in force in pursuance of the said section shall be of the same effect as if it were contained in the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1848, or in any other Act to which the form is made applicable.

SCHEDULE.

ENACTMENTS REPEALED.

This schedule down to the year 1868 refers to the Statutes, Revised Edition, published by authority under the direction of the Statute Law Committee.

A description or citation of a portion of an Act in this schedule is inclusive of the word, section, or other part first or last mentioned or otherwise referred to as forming the beginning or as forming the end of the portion described in the description or citation.

title: Summary Jurisdiction Act 1884


text:
Page:A Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury.pdf/83

Rh "This officer has been for years in the public service, has a family to provide for, and is entirely dependent upon his annual pay; and for these reasons your Committee think that a sum of money, insignificant indeed in comparison to his services, yet sufficient to remove his anxieties and to cheer his hopes for the future of those dependent upon him, might be justly bestowed. Your Committee recommend that a sum of 25,000 dollars be thus appropriated, and report a Bill accordingly."

The ingratitude of republics has become proverbial. So far from any reward being offered to Maury for these well known and widely acknowledged services, in the following month public attention was engrossed by the astounding action of the Naval Retiring Board, which, through the jealousy of some, placed Lieutenant Maury in official disgrace, and reduced his pay to $1500.

The following extracts from the Annual Reports of Secretaries of the Navy show the value of Maury's work at the Observatory:—

"The Act of Congress of March 3rd, 1849, authorized the employment of three small vessels of the Navy in testing


text:
Page:British hansard (1963) Malaysia bill.djvu/30

 when we ought to consider whether we ought not in some of these matters to put ourselves on the same footing as other countries in the Commonwealth. That would be an application of a principle already embodied in the Statute of Westminster of 1931, which we have not yet carried through.

One of the things that have made this debate so very interesting to us and will make it very valuable to members of the public who care to read the reports of it is that we have had the advantage of listening to hon. Members on both sides of the House who have recently been in the territories discussed and have been able to bring back to us the knowledge which they have gained and the impressions that they have formed there and to advise us about the provisions of this very important Bill. I have been very glad to listen to them and have waited until they have spoken until venturing to catch Mr. Speaker's eye because I thought it was important that the House should be informed of their views.

It is now more than 13 years since I had the very great privilege of first going to Malaya. That was my first visit to any of the territories after I became Secretary of State. I was accompanied by John Strachey, who was then the Secretary of State for War. I hope the House will permit me to say what an enriching experience it was to go with him on a visit to a country so full of problems, economic and political—indeed, all kinds of problems—and to have the advantage of his rich mind and of conversations with him and his help over those matters. It is indeed sad for the House and the country that we have this week lost John Strachey. I would pay my very sincere tribute to his memory and say that my memories of our fellowship for years in this House and, in particular, on my first visit to Malaya will abide with me all my life.

In 1950 it was a very different Malaya and a very different scene. Malaya was then engaged in a life and death struggle, which could easily have gone the other way. I am turning the pages of memory a little. It certainly was touch and go in 1950, and if it had gone the other way we should not today have been discussing this Bill and considering Malaysia.

It was clear to me then, as it was to my right hon. Friend the Member for Wakefield (Mr. Creech Jones) when I discussed these matters with him, that in the future the problem of the relationships between Malaya and Singapore would have to be considered and dealt with and that a wider field would have to be taken into consideration if we were to build out of these territories a nation which could be economically viable and politically stable and provide for its people the opportunity of a rising standard of life.

It was interesting at that time that many of the young Malay students here talked of "a great Malaysia". In those days they thought of a Malaysia which would include Indonesia. I hope the time will come—it is not yet—when that will be considered. They are so close to each other—and their languages are interchangeable—that, looking to the future, I hope very much that the time will come when it will be possible to extend the present area into a wider federation. I certainly express the hope that in the meantime there will be reasonable cooperation and peaceful relationships between the new Malaysia and Indonesia, for that is very important.

This federation is full of interesting problems. It can, indeed, be the opportunity for the building of a nation which can make a wonderful contribution not only to the Commonwealth but also to the world. The races concerned have different backgrounds, traditions and religions, and will want to preserve them, and they have a right to do so. If they can find a way by which they can live and work together in equality and dignity, it will be a wonderful contribution to the solution of one of the world's greatest problems, that of getting not only black and white but people of all races to live together. How dire the consequences if they divide on racial grounds can be seen in the tragedy of British Guiana. Therefore, I hope the federation will be a success.

I believe that we shall give unanimous assent to the Second Reading of this Bill so that Malaysia will come into operation and will shortly become an established nation. It is vitally important that it should succeed. Federations are always risky ventures. Our experience has not been altogether too happy. But this federation is vitally important.


text: Page:Aurora Leigh a Poem.djvu/237

title: Page:Aurora Leigh a Poem.djvu/237