NOTES OF THE MONTH.

Press, Volume XVIII, Issue 2534, 15 June 1871, Page 3

NOTES OF THE MONTH.

[From the Spectator.'] The census was taken on Monday throughout the kingdom, apparently with the greatest ease, and certainly without the sma lest complaint. Au old difficulty, the reluctauce of the Iriah emigrants to be counted, was this time completely overcome, through the energetic support given by Archbishop Manning to the Government, and we gather from the provincial papers that suspiciousness on the subject is declining. The only point upon which any " feeling " now seems to remain is that of age, the reluctance to state the truth being in some quarters incurable; and the main reason for opposition, the belief that it is an impioua act to number the people, has entirely disappeared. It will be, we presume, the middle of May before even the first rough estimate can be published, but there is little doubt that it will show a nation of about thirty millions of souls. The Commune of Paris is strongly suspected of intending to establish a Reign of Terror. The evidence as yet adduced of this design is, however, insufficient, though the Commune has gone for beyond the limits usual in a state of siege. Not only has it arrested " suspects," which, a regular Government does in dangerous times, but it has sequestrated the houses of M. Thiers, M. Picard, and other members of the Government, has decreed the seizure of church property —and executed the decree by plundering the Madelene and other churches —has arrested the Archbishop of Paris and several eminent clergymen to hold them as hostages for its men when taken prisoners,—a step not excused even by the facts, as the Generals of the Assembly shoot only mutineers. It has further decreed a levee en masse, prohibited the emigration of men under thirty-five, and threatened to treat all opponents as traitors It will probably fall under the control of the enraged Euragea, and begin executions on a great scale; but it has not as yet quite lost its head, and life in Paris goes on much as usual, except that there is no work. Prince Bismarck has marked the early days of the first session of the German Parliament by an emphatic repudiation of the claims of Poland. Turning to the twenty Polish representatives who were objecting to the inclusion of West Prussia in the Federal Empire, he told them that they were no nation, and were not elected to plead the cause of one. They were elected to support the interests of the Catholic Church, and had " no mandate to represent in the Reichstag the Polish people or nationality." The " people of Poson .... do not share the fiction you hold that the Polish rule would have been a good or ' not a bad thing, , to use the expression of the gentleman who has just spoken. "With all impartiality, and with every desire to be just, I can assure you it was a very had thing indeed, and that therefore it will never be restored." The doctrine of nationalities seems to be good for everbody who can enforce it, and for nobody else. There was rather an angry little sputter of County Members on Monday night, before the second reading of the Ballot Bill—properly called "The Elections' (Parliamentary and Municipal) Bill," as it deals with other parts of the machinery of election besides the ballot, —honorable members appearing to take it greatly to heart that they were not allowed to argue their case on the proposal for a second reading, instead of on the proposal for going into Committee; but that was, we suppose, only a little explosion of temper, which we can well pardon, at the apparent good prospects of the secret-voting proposal. Wβ fear the temper was as much caused by the knowledge of the good the Bill certainly will do, —as we who have steadily opposed its principle have always maintained, —the emancipation of the tenant-farmers, as by the prospect of the evil it certainly will also do in lowering the ideal of political duty. But when Mr W. E. Foster who has charge of the Bill, and has always been a ballot man, asserted that its successful passage would not in any way be an excuse for a dissolution, because " it did not affect either the person voting or the person voted for, it merely affected the machinery of voting," surely be almost threw up his brief, —unless he is audacious enough to maintain that the only effect of secret voting will be to secure impunity to those who now suffer for their opinions, and not to change their vote. If the Government think that I it won't materially affect the nature of the votes given, they are applying a; tremendous remedy (worse than the! disease) to a disease which is, in that case, already dying out. But if they think it will vitally affect the votes,! then they must consider that they have condemned the present Parliament, elected under a system which thej have declared to be false and unjust. On Friday week the " presumption of 'law " by which a woman ig supposed to act under her husband's influence in committing a crime wherein the husband takes part, was attacked by Mr Osborne Morgan, and a somewhat rambling discussion took place, in which Mrs Torpey's personal appearance was a good deal discussed, Mr Straight (M.P. for Shrewsbury) afiirming solemnly, as a barrister concerned in the case, that instead of being a tall woman with flowing hair, Mrs Torpey is a short woman with hair closely braided to her head, and that her diminutive height,—-he did not cay her braided hair, —co-operated with her baby to. procure her acquittal. The only apologists for the absurd "presumption of law" on the "subject, —of course, special evidence might be adduced in any case to show that the wife was acting under coercion, as she, often may be, —were . the two Mr Chamberses, Mr Montague Chambers, Q.C., and the Common Serjeant. The,

former was-very- eloquent, asserting that wives are generally " slaves of their affections." 'm-.d that"juries are all but divine, — inJc J Iμ* quite have taken the wind out of his namesake the Common- Senjoaut's sniis, who wa3 rrther le.-s Philistine in ins eloquence than usual. Sir K. Collier, undeterred by the demonstration of the Dioscuri of the Common Law Courts and the Houso of Commons, the Chamberses, admitted freely that this presumption of law in the present day is absurd. And so it is. If there are not as many husbands who dare not contradict their wives as wives who dare not contradict their husbands, still there are a very respectable proportion of both, and a still larger proportion both of wives, as well as husbands, who both dare and do. As Attorney-General, Sir A. Collier promised to consider the subject carefully. Mary Ann Folkard, wife of City Constable Folkard, seems to be the victim of very cruel circumstances. It is the rule of the City Police that constables must live in the city, but so many poor dwellings have been pulled down that Folkard could find none. He lived in one wretched place till the roof was taken off, and then got permission to pig in a large warehouse. His wife, a sober, industrious woman, lost her head with misery, tried to commit suicide, and when brought before the Lord Mayor refused to promise to live unless she could find a home. It was stated that four other constables were found to be in the same position. We presume the rule will be relaxed, but there will be trouble with these evictions yet. Rent is fast becoming the misery of the London poor, as it is of the Parisian workmen, and if work were to grow slack it would be the greatest of metropolitan social difficulties.

LAn " indignation" meeting summoned to protest against the House of Lords in throwing out a bill which the House of Commons has so frequently passed as it has the Bill for legalising marriage with a deceased wife's sister, was held on Tuesday, at St. James's Hall, when its promoters found by professing to express " indignation " they bad attracted a good many young persons who are more indignant against the House of Lords and the Throne, than against any particular act of the Peers. Mr Samuel Morley, M. P. for Bristol, and most moderate of respectable Radicals, couldnotgetouttwo moderate sentences without interruption, and was quite out of his element. A red flag with ' Republic ' on it was waved from the gallery, and only after some time torn down and destroyed by the heroic efforts of a virtuous crusader on the wife's sister question, who abhorred the thought of constitutional innovation, and the meeting was a complete failure, almost as many voting for the suppression of the House of Lords as for a solemn sermon to them on the improper exercise of tneir rights. Mr Morley will learn from this not to be precipitate in asking for the public expression of iudignation,—which it is not in his nature to feel, and which he no doubt only intended to express by way of oratorical metaphor. The invitation to be indignant attracts Reds as a honey-pot attracts flies.

In Vienna they are talking of a schism, to be led by Dr. Dollinger, who sticks to his refusal to accept the new dogma of the Pope's infallibility when speaking ex cathedra, and has offered to prove before the German Bishops, who are-likely to assemble in Fulda to decide on their course in reference to the dogma, that it is neither Scriptural nor known to the Church of the first thousand years, — that the majority of the Council was misled by garbled quotations—that in the fifteenth century two General Councils and several Popes decided the matter the other way, and that their decision was promulgated formally by the Councils and confirmed by the Popes (a very serioue statement indeed, if Dr. Dollinger can substantiate it), —and finally, what is of little importance, that obedience to the new dogma is inconsistent with obedience to the laws of States that are both European and Catholic. As a Christian, as a theologian, as a historian, and as a citizen, he rejects the dogma, and denies the freedom of the Council which enacted it. Of course, we quite agree with Dγ Dollinger in his view of the Papal infallibility ; but a good deal of what he says would apply equally to the infallibility of any Church in any form. And how he intends to prove that the Vatican Council was not free without proving that the earlier Councils of the Church were none of them free, we cannot imagine. He and his followers must join one of our Protestant Churches, if they would be true to their own logic.

It seema that as the London School Board will derive certain of its funds from other sources than the rates, it has power, if it chooses, to aid the denominational schools out of such funds, and on Wednesday a great diecuesion took place whether this course ehould be at once forbidden. Of course all the great secularists, —and the semi-secularist thinkers, those who think the tendency of things ought to be towards secularist teaching only,— were in favor of this prohibition, and it received Professor Huxley's earnest support. Many of the representatives of religious bodies, like Dr. Bigg and Canon Cromwell, were in favor of leniency to denominational schools, and especially in favor of paying the fees of children whose .parents are too poor to pay for their schooling at any qualified elementary school, whether denominational or not, —a concession which would chiefly affect the children of poor Irieh Catholics. Miss Davies spoke in favor of this very moderate proposal, and the debate raged long, yet the decision was not taken, but adjourned for further discussion. We must say, we hold with Miss Davies, that the strict prohibition will be very hard on the poor Catholics. Wβ publish this week, as we have

once or twice done before, two intentionally different views of the French situation —one despondent, one hopeful. The two together will not perhaps produce ft fairer impression thnn one unprejudiced estimate, but they will produce n fuller one. The balance of our own judgment, though still undecided, inclines slightly towards the more favorable view, Pnris showing strange powers of developing order in the interests of disorder.

The Easter Monday Review came oft'on Monday as usual at Brighton. Some 24,000 men attended, and tho mariopuvrps nre said to hove boon creditable performed ; but it is argued that the volunteers should not be asked to do in a review what they will never do on service,—manoeuvre without regular troops. Is it quite impossible to try the experiment of camping 10,000 volunteers out for a week, with everything arranged as if for active service ?

On Easter Monday Mr Goschen dined with tbo Lord Mayor at the Mansion House, and in answer to the toast of Her Majesty's Ministers made a remarkable speech, terse, weighty, and couched in that peculiar tone of dignity and self-reliance which Englishmen love to hear from their only political mouthpiece, the British Government. He expresses the regret of the Ministers that after two sessions and a half of hard work they had achieved so little. Tho truth was that the stupendous events happening abroad had arrested the attention of the Government and the country. " And what had we to do now ? We had to buy back our Army, which belonged at this momeut to the officers, and not to the nation." It would cost much, but tho result would be adequate to the expense. Ho did not think the foreign policy of the Government had been " other than honorable" to the country They had pursued a policy which had been called a policy of isolation, but which was at least one of unselfishness, and he believed there were many countries in Europe which would prefer " the disinterested neutrality j of England to the sinister policy of some Continental States." England was never credited abroad with simple honesty in her foreign policy. Some Machiavellian design was always imputed to her. Europe would have it that we abolished the slave trade because we were jealous of the competition, of the French and Spanish colonies, and that we sided with Denmark, because we feared the result of the harbor of KeiJ falling into German hands. But ho held we were more single-minded in our foreign policy than any other nation, and thought Europe foolish to be taken in by our habit of self-depreciation. Public opinion in this country was like a good strong horse rather out of condition with being fed only on greenmeat. Uecent events in Europe should teach us to rely not on treaties or aljiancea, which often fail when the pinch comes, not on the word of etatesmen, —for Secret Treaties shake confi-' dence in that, —but upon ourselves. We ought to take measure of ourselves and, if necessary, to hold every man to his duty of maintaining the honor and glory of England " at the same height at which it had been held through many generations." Tfiat has the true ring about it of a Minister who understands England, and who may one day help to make her great again. No event of the first importance was ever so badly reported in England as this civil war. The correspondents seem to rely on the newspapers on each side, which are full of partizan ■statements; they seldom attempt to be fair, aud never give . the smallest indication, of the motives at work. They are, too, as a rule, either blind partizans or labouring under some moat unusual apprehension. The Times' agent who telegraphs, is sufficiently unprejudiced to try to give a clear account, and his facts usually turn out correct, but the other correspondents of that journal hate the Parisian leaders for being " low men" till they cannot even describe their acts. A correspondent of the Daily JVeias actually telegraphs whole columns of sneers at the Commune's agents, while the Telegraph's correspondent forwarde bitter, nonsense, taken apparently from the Gaulois. The telegrams are pieced on to the letters, and the letters distributed all j over the papers, particularly in the! Times, till the inquirer feels as if he were wading -through a sort of historical Sradshaw. Is it quite impossible—we ask it in the interest of all newspaper readers—to give us a kind of summary, with references to the sources of information, after the method of condensing Parliamentary reports? J

The Commune in doing the work of a regular Government, finds discipline essential to millitary success. It has abolished the battalions, which , were too separate, one battalion being composed of workmen and another of shopkeeers, and ordered each of the twenty arronaissements to supply a legion, nominally of 15,000, teally of 10,000 men. Each is commanded by a Colonel, and has in it a Council of War, with power of death for military offences, insubordination included. The men are all paid, the line receiving fifteenpence a day and the artillerymen half-a-crown, besides rations of bread, soup, 4nd rough wine. The sub-officeri, mostly linesmen, receive two ehiUlngs and large promises are made of pensions to the widows and children of all who fall. We do nofr, however, notice the most inspiriting of alt forms of "blood-money" given in the British Army for severe wounds. M. Thiers has not advanced aetep towards the subjugation of Paris. Troops are coming in daily from Germany, and Marshal MacMahon has accepted the supreme command, but up to Friday ; morning no advantage had been gained. On the contrary, Dombrowski, the new General of the Commune, had by the latest accounts reorganised the Guards and

'carried the bridge of Neuilly, while laay and Vanvrea had driven oft sharp attacks*. Tho gendarmerie at tho dis-p-rsalofM. Thiers, who fight splendidly, are becoming fev,er, and the troopxfiilht no bettor than at fir,«t; while tho Nationals are acquiring milirary bflbitudo, have submitted to have their officers weeded out, and have been placed under the authority of courtsmartial which exercise tho power of life and death. Cluaeret, the Minister at War of the Commune, is in fact welding his miscellaneous troops rapidly into any army.

During the week one great effort "afc compromise has been made. The moderate party in the capital, tho party which, distrusting tho Beds, is still irritated by the " peasant government " of the last twenty years, has formed a League and proposed terms to Versailles. The Government is to allow Paris the control of her own police, her own finance, her own clerical organisation, and her own system of education, to place the garrison of the city in the hands of her National Guard, and to allow no troops to enter her walla. All functionaries and magistrates are to be elective. On the other hand, Paris is to furnish its contingent to the Army. M. Thiers at first rejected these terms, offering only an amnesty, and a continunnce for some time of pay to the National Guards ; but in a circular of the 12th instant he promisee aleo an elective municipal representation aud free management of civic affaire. Aβ, however, he had just before compelled the Assembly, by a threat of resignation, to allow tho Government to appoint the mayors in all towns with more than 20,000 inhabitants, this offer is considered insincere, and for the present negotiation may be said to have failed.

It is stated that M. Thiers hesitates to attack Paris until he has more troops. He has not 80,000 good men, while the Commune leads 100,000 volunteers, and is trying to compel as many more into the ranks. The city haa beeu thoroughly barricaded, the Nationals are dying readily in the fight in the suburbs, great confidence is evidently in Dombrowski, and the storming of Pun's might be a desperate undertaking, even for a German army, an impossible one for a French one. The insurgent leaders appear ready to go all lengths; they have placed torpedoes in the prioeipal streets, have, it is believed, mined the Aveuue leading to theArcdeTriomphe, and have manufactured quantitiea of Orini boraba. They are facing their barricades, too, with earth. Cluseret and Dombrowski, the Minister at "War and Commander-iu-Chief of the Commune are. both professional soldiers. The former, ia a Breton of good family, and was an officer of engineers till a mesalliance forced him to emigrate. He engaged in the American civil war and rose to the rank of General, was denounced by Irish informers as one of the Fenian leaders, headed the Bed party at Lyons against Gambetta, and is now absolute in Paris. His planfor the reorganisation of the French army published in a speech at Lyons was decidedly able and thorough-going. His difficulty, he tells the Commune, is to make officers. Discipline will make men. Dombrowski is a Pole, who was for a time in the Eussian serf ice, organised the Polish insurrection of 1863, : and has eerved.by. the_ side of Garibaldi. The men say he is a strategist, and he has clearly the power of infusing confidence into those under his command.