CLIPPINGS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2501, 8 January 1869, Page 3

CLIPPINGS.

(From the Spectator for October,)

The Spanish Provisional Government have apparently authorized the Times' correspondent to say that their candidate for the Throne is Ferdinand of Cohurg, husband of the last Queen of Portugal, and father of the present King. The idea is that by electing him Spain will acquire a good administrator and a resolute constitutionalist for the present, while in the future the succession may fall to the King of Portugal, and the Peninsula thus be once more united, At the same time, the Emperor of the French is precluded from demanding compensation. King Ferdinand is a Catholic of the Ooburg type, i e., not Ultramontane, has had great experience, and governed Portugal as Eegent for some years very satisfactorily. The only objections in the way seem to be that he is unwilling to undertake the burden, and has Borne unfortunate female connections which he may be unwilling to give up. Prim, however, would hardly have announced his candidate unless sure of his consent, and we suspect, in view of the disturbed state of the country, that we shall next/ week have to record the installation of Ferdinand the Eighth, King of Spain.

Prime Ministers and leaders of Opposition appear to be agreed only on one point, and that is in publishing their election addresses on a Saturday morning. Is it in order to keep the weekly criticism back as a reserve force till the daily papers have exhausted themselves—or for any other more recondite reason? Mr Gladstone was a week later than Mr Disraeli, but his address was much leßs laboured, much simpler, and had far more real force. After reciting his Keform policy, he promises his constituents to strike off the objectionable " rating restrictions" on voting, if he is able; but he Bays nothing about extending the redistribution of seats—with which we may therefore conclude Mr Gladstone would not meddle while the great Irish questions and education questions are still unresolved. He advocates, besides strict financial economy, giving county ratepayers a control over county rates, "by the principle of representation," we trust rather by an elective chairman of Quarter Sessions than by a county parliament, which would not answer. On education Mr Gladstone's language is rather ambiguous, He is in favour both of religious education and of a strict protection for the rights of conscience, but he does not say what he would do in parts of the country where the denominational schools are inefficient or nonexistent. His declarations on the Irish Church are clear, explicit, and vigorous. We should infer, nlso, from both the address and the speech at Liverpool, that Mr Gladstone would be very unwilling to postpone a reform of the land tenure. Mr Gladstone's first great canvassing speech, —delivered at Warrington,— was an exceedingly powerful attack on the Tory propensity to squander, and an exposure of the replies which the Tory organs have recently made to the censures of their critics. He showed that even when the Tory Government of 1858-9 had nominally reduced the income-tax to sd, they had themselves received a larger amount, having received in the first half-year receipts belonging to the income-tax of 7d of the previous year, —that they raised the estimates greatly both in 1858 and 1859; that the Tory critics, though deducting the Abyssinian expenditurefrom the expenditure of 1868, had not deducted the expenditure for the Chinese war from the Liberal expenditure of 1860 He charged the Conservative Opposition with constantly: urging on expenditure instead of resisting it, and said that three-fourths of the motions, questions, &c, teuding to new expenditure have proceeded, during the last Parliament, from the Conservative benches. And he illustrated the laxity of the Conservative Government by quoting a case in which the Liberal Government had refused to remit the claim for a loan of £20,000 to a local authority, the greater part of which was remitted by the Conservatives directly they came into office—the remission being made the ground of an appeal by a Conservative candidate for the political support of the borough, As a financial criticism on the recent Conservative proofs of the economy of the existing Government, and on its really spendthrift character, the speech was crushing. Mr Gladstone delivered a second speech at Liverpool, filling six columns, all reported by telegraph. It was one of his finest displays. What seems to us its finest point, is a protest against the idea that there could exist a race insensible to sympathetic justice, a morally one-legged people; but Mr

Gladstone touched other topics, gave a singularly lucid history of the Eet'orra Bill, diverged into a defence of compounding, needful in Liverpool, wearisome to men already convinced that compounding must be restored; and then turned to Ireland, which he described as a country .where a large proportion of the lower class, there unusually numerous, were either friendly to Fenianism or coldly neutral. Mr Gladstone considers Mr Muguires's account of Irish feeling in America not exaggerated, characterised the accounts of Mr Scully's evictions as" heartrending," declared that such scenes palliated though they could not justify the hatred of the people, and demanded, in the words of Mr D'Arcy M'Gee, an experiment in " equal and exact justice to Ireland." He then spoke of the Irish Church, and remarked that property bestowed by individuals on that Church, though it belonged to the State, should not be appropriated by the Slate, and pledged himself that no portion of the surplus of Irish Church property should be devoted to support any religion whatever. Its precise disposal can only be indicated by Ministers of the Crown, but in any event he means that it should not go to Rome.

Mr Mundella's address to the electors of Sheffield is the ablest and the best yet put forward by a working man's candidate. Mr Mundella is an employer, and well known to be strongly opposed to outrages; but after repeating the usual Liberal creed and declaring for "national, compulsory, and secular" education, he continues,—" The relations of capital and labour have for many years past occupied my attention. I maintain that in a frank recognition of the equality of the buyers and sellers of labour is to bo found the true solution of the difficulties which beset this important question. I am in favour of legislation which shall render Trade Societies legal, which shall enable them profitably to invest their surplus funds, shall permit them to build and hold property, shall substitute clear and definite language for the ambiguous expressions, variously interpreted by the judges, which have subjected workmen to prosecutions for conspiracy; shall refer all such cases to the judges of assize, aud shall confer powers to prosecute and punish those who may steal or embezzle the property of a Trade Society. I look forward hopefully to the time when, by the adoption of Arbitration, Co-Operation, aud Industrial Partnerships, Strikes and Lockouts shall become things of the past." Mr Mundella will be a great addition to the House of Commons, more especially if he replaces Mr Roebuck.

Mr John Eoutledge, engineer, of Durham, six feet two or three in height, and of great personal strength, is traffic manager at Cordova. The battle of Alcolea going on, he went out to see it, and seeing it, saw the wounded necessarily neglected. He could not help the battle, but he could help that incident of it, so for hours he went in and out under,the fire,, steadying the ambulance corps, bearing the wounded in his arms to the ambulances. He seemed, says the writer who described his achievement, to bear a charmed life. Marshal Serrano, who seems to know a man when he sees him, went up to him, embraced him, and decorated him with hia own order, that of Isabella the Catholic, which bauble Eoutledge quietly put in his pocket, perhaps the most characteristic feat of all he had done that day. Clearly, a hero of the simple, unconscious, best sort, luckier than other heroes in this, that he has found his tacer vates in the modern form of a newspaper correspondent. He will find himself famous on Tyneside, the reward he would most prefer. Cuba has adhered to the Spanish Revolution. It had no other choice, for annexation to the United States would have meant immediate emancipation. As it is, the Spanish Government shrinks from this step, and only proposes to free all slaves born after the Eevolution, a very half-hearted measure. It is stated, however, that the slaves in the island do not now exceed 200,000 a number for which compensation is possible; that free labour has been found profitable; and that the planters are not fanatics for their system, an assertion which we doubt. The island, however, deprived of American support, has no alternative except to obey orders from Madrid, and with a free Cortes and a Coburg King slavery cannot last long. A great blow has fallen on Eome. The supreme Junta of Madrid, aware of the extreme hostility of the Democrats to the priesthood, has issued two decrees, the first expelling the Jesuits from Spain and confiscating their property, the second declaring all restrictions on education at an end. It proposes, however, that all monastic establishments founded since 1835 should be suppressed, that all monks and nuns should be at liberty to'return to the world, and that all religions Bhould be declared equally entitled to civil rights. If the Cortes accepts these principles civil.liberty will be established in Spain, apparently with the consent of the people. They are bigoted Catholics, but dislike convents, and the Junta has been able to sequester the rich establishments of Las Huolgas without opposition. Mr J. 8. Mill is really doing mischief, both to himself and to his party, by his affectation to give credentials to Liberal candidates in search of a seat. Mr Ohadwick,—of drainage fame,—has taken, a letter from Mr J. S. Mill recommendatory to him and his claims to the electors of Kilmarnock, where be hopes to attract some of Mr Bouverie'e former supporters over to his camp. Mr Bouverie is naturally not pleased, and writes to Mr, Mill for an explanation. The explanation comes from Avignon, to the effect that, if Mr Mill had the power, he would gjve up his own seat at Westminster tff Mr Chadwick, so highly does he think of him,—but, not having the power, he has sent him elsewhere, i.e., we suppose, where the member is less popular and more likely

to be shaken in his seat. Now, we do not particularly appreciate Mr Bonverie, who has not been a very good Liberal lately, and has been fussy and conceited,andifthe Kilmarnock electorshad wished to ask another Liberal to contest the seat there would be nothing to object. But this volunteer propagaudism of Mr J. S. Mill's seems to us really invidious and mischievous. Ho writes from Avignon, the abode of a secessionist Pope, almost with the authority—as well as the humility—of a new philosophical Pope, and does no good by his letters. We can quite believe that he is not exaggerating when he says that he would put Mr Mr Chad wick in his place if he could. He has chivalry enough for that. But as he can't, why send out his Bullr to the people of Kilmarnock? Why can't he let it alone ?

Dean Close has written an election address to the electors of Carlisle, in favour of the Irish Church and against the Liberals. We confess we like to seetheclergytellingtheirmindhonestly and strongly (where they have one, or even something partly resembling one, like Dean Close), and we respect Dean Close for his appeal, though not for the matter it contains. He advances the same teaching which we examined when put forth by a much abler man, the Dean of Cork, that a land without a State religion of some sort, or, as Dean Close phrases it," some political recognition of Christianity," is a godless land. And he maintains accordingly that Canada and the United States are godless lands; though he tames this down into "in the sense in which I have argued, they are more or less so." But why more or less P—in the sense in which he has argued is nonsense. We would suggest to Dean Close that it may be a better political "recognition" of Christianity to deal justly, as it tells us to do, even with the benighted, than to recognise it by an act of conspicuous injustice.

A great meeting was held in the Guildhall in aid of the sufferers ruined by the earthquake in Peru and Ecuador. It was attended by all the great City notables, including the members, and was most successful, though the speakers were evidently aware of the inability of language to do justice to the catastrophe. With the exception of Mr Alfred de Rothschild, who read an eloquent extr.ict from a letter describing the scene, they preferred to enlarge on the opportunity of charity. The misfortune of one nation, said Sir J. Lubbuck, was the opportunity of another in a nobler sense than statesmen meant. If anything, said Mr Goschen, could counteract despair under such a catastrophe, it would be a message of sympathy and help from the other side of the globe. The nations of the earth, said Mr Gibbs, should in presence of such calamities show that they were of one blood; and it especially behoves London, said Mr T. Baring, as the centre of the commerce of the world. The very best feeling pervaded the meeting, £6500 were subscribed in the room, and we trust the feeling of powerlessness with which men cannot help regarding calamities so vast will not prevent the collection of at least £IOO,OOO. Mr Prevost Paradol, prince of Orleanist epigrammatists, happened to be at Biarritz when the Emperor received the ex-Queen of Spain. The Patrie thereupon declared that he had followed the ex-Queen from Sebastian to Pau, " desiring a near view of the collapse of a dynasty." M. Prevost Paradol thereupon in a pungent little letter, corrects the error, and adds, "As to' the collapse of a dynasty,' it is a spectacle often enough afforded to the Parisians, as you know, without their taking the trouble of leaving their houses to seek it; and allow me to add that you neglect nothing, your friends and yourself, in order that the present generation be not more deprived of it than those that went before." All the Parisian papers publish that, and then the Economist is seized for remarks in English on French disaffection.

Nations find it very hard to accept geographical facts when at variance with their instincts. The Czechs will not see that Bohemia has become an enclave of Germauy, and agitation for Czech autonomy has risen to such a height in Prague that the Kaiser has been compelled to suspend liberty in the city by decree, to appoint the Lieutenant-General in command Governor of Bohemia, and to dismiss the municipal police. The immediate occasion of the decree was a series of riots, advertised to continue every Sunday, and a bill of indemnity will be demanded from the Eeichsrath. With the Habeas Corpus suspended in Ireland, criticism on such " exceptional" measures scarcely lies in our mouths. Many of the Continental, and more especially German, papers will have it that a graud plot was arrested by the Spanish explosion. Queen Isabella was to garrison Eome, and hold Italy iu check while Napoleon crossed the Ehiue. At the same time, Austria was to have called Poland to arms, and Turkey to have entered the Principalities. It was calculated that Prussia would have been beaten, that Russia, attacked on the east and south, would have been unable to move, that the South Germaus would have declared the treaties at an end, and that the old state of affairs would have been restored. The programme may be correct, but it looks very much like a programme of the coffee room.

It seems that Archbishop Manning in 18-10, when he was atill a Prates, tantj Btood sponsor to Mr Gladstone's eldest son. Consequently, Mr GladBtone is abolishing the Irish Church out of friendship for Dr Manning, This absurd calumny has beenserioußly repeated in Liverpool, and the Archbishop has therefore written to the Mercury[o explain the facts. His close friendship with Mr Gladstone, he says, was suspended in 1851, when he entered the Catholic Church, and for twelve years they never met. Subsequently, public duty renewed their communications, Dr Manning coinmuuicatiug with every Government. The Archbishop concludes his letter by a warm testimony to the transparent truth of Mr Gladstone's mind,

and his almoßt faulty impatience of insincerity and selfishness in public affairs.

The several correspondents in Paris mention a report that the Emperor, aware that with Spain in flames he cannot go to war, intends to issue a great manifesto to his people, explaining his policy, granting liberal reforms, and either promising or proposing disarmament. It is, moreover, stated demi-officially that 30,000 soldiers have been sent to their homes, and that the French army now numbers only 350,000 men. The last statement does not matter much, as the reserves would speedily bring up its strength; but it seems to be seriously believed that war is much less probable than it was. The revolution has deprived France of an ally who might have aided her against Italy, and at all events was sure not to threaten her southern frontier. The funds have risen in consequence in Paris, and a formal declaration that the Emperor seeks peace might for once have a great effect. Mr. Vining, lessee of the Princess's Theatre, writes to the Times to say that the extortions of boxkeepers are the fault of the public. They will give. He abolished the present system and paid his boxkeepers' wages, but people, would give them silver all the same. It is the same on railways and in private houses, but theatrical managers m'ght at least control their boxkeepers by prohibiting any demand, and by giving a playbill with the ticket, If they would widen the footways a little, and sell keys instead of tickets for private boxes, as in Italy, they might dispense with boxkeepers altogether, to the immense satisfaction of their visitors. Really comfortable theatres we cannot have till the old buildings and their older furniture are superseded, but we might have playbills, soft seats, and footstools before that happy time. "A Traveller," in an amusing if slightly cynical letter to the Pall Mali gives a very favourable account of the Eev Olympia Brown, a young lady of Universal Tiews, whom he heard preach in a New England village. She evidently preached what, as sermons go, must have been a very excellent sermon, with modesty and effect, on the thesis that virtue should be its own reward; and that, if it is not, neither in this life nor in the next can any external happiness, that is not implied in the very fact of goodness, be expected to accrue to it. We suppose she argued that goodness in itself implies communion with God, and evil, alienation from Him, but "A Traveller" is evidently of opinion that religion is altogether too much a subject for chaff to go into details. Still, he clearly thought both her delivery and matter better than those of nine out of ten male preachers in this country, and described her election as minister as having created no remark whatever, and| resulted merely from the fact that she was the best candidate who applied, just as in England a woman is chosen editor of a magazine without exciting the slightest criticism.

The Times, in a leading article on the proposed Women's College, seems to us to echo some rather unreasonable fears of Lord Carnarvon's as to its effect on young women. It represents the weakness of women as unfitting them for hard study ;—well then, there iB no occasion for it to be, in that sense, hard study; hard study to one man is not hard study to another, and if men find out pretty easily what is the hardest study that is good for them, why should not women find it out just as easily? But then the profession of most women in life is, in a sense, dependence, and college life is meant to teach, and ought to teach, independence ? Well, all that seems to us very vague and abstract, and to mean very little. Are well informed women, women with independent intellects, and independent opinions, really, as a matter of fact, less loveable, less loving, lesß adapted to make men happy, than women with no independent intellectual life of their own? We believe just the contrary. Miss Bronte,—we should say Mrs Nicholls, —the most intellectually self-depend-ent, as well as independent of women of genius, was domestic to the heart's core. Women are, in fact, unmanageable and obstinate—like men,—usually in proportion to their narrowness and ignorance. And knowledge without independent thought is not knowledge, —only a burdened memory. Nobody doubts that, who has had much opportunity of watching the effect of true intellectual growth and life in making the miodß of women large, elastic, reasonable.