EXTRACTS FROM ENGLISH PAPERS.

Press, Volume XIV, Issue 1884, 29 April 1869, Page 3

EXTRACTS FROM ENGLISH PAPERS.

It appears from the quarterly report of the Registrar-General that the natural increase of the people of the United Kingdom, the births in excess of deaths,, was at the .rate of 1j177 daily, or 410,000 a year. Emigration, however, carried off 391 daily, or 142,000 a year, leaving 268,000 as the final addition to the population. At this Tate the kingdom increases by a Lancashire every ten years, or, say, a Savoy and Nice, and sends in the same time the population of a State like Massachusetts to America and the colonies. It is believed that other races are increasing as fast, but no other exerts the same centrifugal action upon its surplus, .the Germans and the Chinese alone emigrating in large numbers. The total increase in America must be even greater, and together the speakers of English multiply by more than eighty millons per century ; and, be it remembered, that there does not in the world exist a commity of 10,000 Englishmen not under their own laws. By a fatality which has often eß gaged public attention, Sir John Lawrence is the only surviving Gover-nor-General of India save.one. Lord Ellenborough is the only living man *ho has shared with him the honour of having ruled India, except for a few days. In the course of twelve years four of his predecessors died — Lords Hardinge, Dalhousie, Canning, and Elgin. Lord Dalhousie's life closed prematurely at forty-eight, and Lord Canning was only fifty when constitution broke down under the strain which an unhealthy climate and terrible anxieties had placed U it. Sir John Lawrence's work a. the mutinies was perhaps only im seveje than that pf tod Can*

. ning himself, and when he went back to India in tS(3_ he was in his . fifty-third year. He is still more than , twenty years the junior of Lord Ellenborough. He has, however, seen forty years of service in India, whereas Lord Ellenborough was in the country less than three years. When Lord Elgin died no man looked for the appointment of Viceroy less than Sir John Lawrence. It was said at the time that Lord Palmerston met him at a railway station, and said to him, " You are the very man I wanted to see. Will you go out to India as Governor General? Take till tomorrow morning to think over it." " I never expected to see India again," he said, to an acquaintance in Calcutta. Now, probably, he returns home to stay, and it may be hoped that he will continue to render good service to his countrymen, and to the natives of India, for many years to come. Our supremacy in the matter of huge musical gatherings is threatened. The American journals give some details of a projected " Mammoth Jubilee" which may well cause astonishment even at the Crystal Palace. A building is to be erected on Boston-common by June next capable of seating an audience of 50,000. The orchestra and chorus will number respectively 1000 and 10,000, and their efforts are to be supplemented by the " ringing of bells, firing of cannon, __c., from the' conductive ' desk." Oratorio choruses and orchesi tral symphonies will form the staple of the week's programme, but the proceedings are to open with " Hail, Columbia," sung hy a special choir of 20,000 children. The minor details of this scheme are on an equally " tall " scale. Every great living composer is •to be asked to contribute a piece, as well as to honour the festival with his presence. Special invitations will be sent to the -President and his Cabinet, to the governor of each state, to the chief officers of the army and navy, and to distinguished people generally, not only in America, but also " beyond the borders." To carry the affair through, a guarantee fund of 150,000 dollars is proposed, towards which the principal hotels in Boston have subscribed 1000 dollars each. All this is likely to please the sensation-loving American Luind, but what good can come from a mere accumulation of noise? The modern tendency towards music on a gigantic scale has long been thought mischievous. Nobody dreamed, however, of art being crushed beneath the weight of gun and bell metal. The latest advices trom Paraguay announce that Marshal Caxias has taken Angostura, and occupied Assungion, the capital, while Lopez has fled somewhither. The Brazilians say he has sought refuge in Bolivia, in which case, of course, the war is over, and Paraguay subdued ; but according to another, he has retired into the interior in which case the war is not over, for the Brazilian General only holds the river, and cannot garrison even the towns on its banks. Villa Rica apparently has not been occupied, and if Lopez is still obeyed by the pople, the authority of the invader will be bounded by his camps.