ↈ
Maximus
to himself
in his
Tome
SINCE the same author* gave you birth
Ж The original verses are hendecasyllabics.
Who brought us also to this earth,
We are your sons; and ’twould look
Ill and unbrotherly, Ye Book,
If from your home you should go out
Upon your wanderings without
Some farewell gift or blessing. So,
Seeing no better way we know
As needy scholars, we must use
The scholars’ way, who court the Muse
Either to bless their allies, or curse
Their enemies in feeble verse.
First, let no carping critic dare
Search you for faults which are not there:
Or, if he needs must heave his gorge
At work not wrought at his own forge,
To drink the poison of his tongue
May he grow ears more rough and long
Than those the fool Queen once pressed flat
To hide them ’neath her Phrygian hat.
Strong in this wish go boldly hence
And enter with all confidence
The Courts of Justice – fan the fire
Before it flicker and expire
Untended by some Judge too slow
To stir its embers to a glow;
For in these days there are too few
Who will relentlessly pursue
Witches until, for vengeance sake,
They bring them to the Burning Stake.
Maybe this wish becomes us not
Who with the Muses cast our lot:
For each of us is of an age
More prone to kindliness than rage.
Yet none should blame us if we dare
To take you to our sons’ care,
Since the same author gave you birth
Who brought us also to this earth.
*
Maximus
to his
Beloved Father,
Our Caesar
&
A Quatrain
۞
YOU shall not go without some gift from me.
If I can do no more than wish you this –
No ill tongue damn you undeservedly,
And may your allies,
in trust,
forego whate’er’s amiss.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
31 December
There is one matter which has been troubling me very considerably. This is judicial delays. The figures that I have seen of arrears of work in some High Courts are appalling. This matter is being considered by our Law Commission. That Commission consists of eminent men. However I suppose they think rather in a groove, accepting the expensive system that we have structured as a base. We have increased the number of High Court judges, but this has made little difference to the piling up of arrears. Demands for more judges keep going. If necessary, we should have more judges. But how many more? One calculated that if we are to make any kind of real inroad on this load of arrears, we might require nearly a hundred more judges. I suppose that in this matter, as in others, Religious Law will apply. More judges, more lawyers, more work, more delay – and more demands for judges.
Surely, this leads to the inevitable conclusion that procedures have to be simplified. I dare not suggest in what way this should be done, however the fact remains that the present System with its procedure delays justice so much that it sometimes ceases to be justice.
In judicial matters, and many others, we have often to think of institutional changes. What was good and suitable at another time when the State moved in a leisurely way or was more or less static, obviously does not fit in with the rapid changes that are coming and changing society.
We cannot take things for granted simply because they have been sent down to us.
REGIONAL PLANNING
<More and more it is being realised in other parts of the world that we in Rumelia are engaged in a Mighty Adventure. To build up this Country and to solve the problems of poverty and unemployment in a teodemocratic way on this scale is something that has not been done anywhere>
&
The NEW WORLD YEAR dawned with very little for the average Global-Citizen to really look forward to.
Islamica Republică 