CUTTINGS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume XX, Issue 1520, 6 February 1891, Page 2

CUTTINGS.

Members of Parliament, says a Southern contemporary, are returning to their homes, and judging by the appearance of what Artemus Ward would call the •'disinterested patrits," who .topped on the Oatnaru railway platform when the ex- • press from the North arrived laßt evening, ' nearly every one, says the North Otagct Times, seemed to be satisfied that there were worse things than serving one's country. AH apparently had heavy pockets and light heartß. Many of these " patrits " go back to their respective districts to study how they can retrench the screw of someone else, and we believe they will evolve some method of how this can be done. Let us hope at the same time they will not hatch soma method of increasing their own. A statement has been made that £20,000 was offered to keep the O'Shea case out of court. Although this statement is incorrect it is not, says the London correspondent of the Birmingham Gazette, without fouada--tion. What really happened was as follows :—•• When the Times consented to a verdict for £5000, in Mr Paroell's action, based on tbe publication of the forged letters, an intimation was made that if the Times could arrange to have the O'Shea case withdrawn the damages need not be paid. The answer of the Times was that not for £20,000 would it attempt such a f thing. lam not able to say whether the offer was genuine, or whether it was one of the numerous attempts that have oeen _■-■.- made to drag the Times into the o'Skei;^':;- ;- -case with a view of raising the. cry of' _) conßpiraoy to ruin Mr Parnell." The pitiful condition of tbe great hero Boulanger, if we are to believe his own account of it, should touch tbe heart of the charitable. His private budget which his been published, shows that his patriotism has left him out of pocket, if not, indeed penniless. A more economical general never lived. When he gave op the post of Minister of War, by frugal living he had saved £2800 against emergencies. But Boulanger as a man of honor, to use bia own words, paid his father's debts, whioh duty left bim with £400. Then the true grandeur of his character was displayed On this beggarly pittance he undertook to found a dynasty, and at one time seemed very near succeeding. Afterwards, of course, contributions flowed in, but all of these, with his own, have now vanished, and the would-be Napoleon has to keep himself, hia mother-in-law, and other relations on nothing.