NOTES.

Evening Star, Issue 8118, 18 January 1890, Page 1

NOTES.

A Daniel has "come to judgment" on the "He Means Well. Federatlo , n question in the lint He Don't Person of the Marquis of Know. - ' Lome, who has been good •i „ , enou g' l to declare that he considers ''a federal army essential to the safety of the Australian colonies"; and he u ,1/\. SUggcsts that New South Wales should "co-operate with England in framing an Imperial tariff for articles producible* uutr^ he - E »P i "-"'We have long been under the impression that Lord Lome had a S^ eloo 5 e - an impression now fully confirmed. General Edwards, as in duty bound, recommended a federal standing t ul f .? p u^ m l command of the sea. vl™ rtthu h ? wover - that this is not veiy probable , n our time; but under Zt C t lrci ; mStances 1 the fede ral army would }" e t0 > on a large scale to succc<sSn y th r e eS nff f he ° f a Sreat K . On the off-chance of such a casualty the Australian colonies are not likely wen .°olv!nT U n y C ° aSider a Propositton init of thf 3117 gl ' aVe iBSUeS » irres Pective ot the enormous cost. It will be prudent and desirable, from many points of beTrain P a d\ the peopb should be trained to arms ; and then, in a time of emergency there is little doubt it would be made pretty warm for the foreign aggressor tariff" tSf I**%*°* t0 aQ Tariff settled by New South Wales and Downing street Lord Lome must surely be dreaming, or have a queer perception of Australian politics. We may regret that power to levy taxation through tKustom was ever conceded to the colonies; but,™ such matters, no backward steps are pracwiflfn f f llwe / ail h °P* » wisdom will in the end prevail, and the heavy shackles of import duties be struck off the hmbs of industry and trade

The cablegrams from Europe have been more than usually idiotic recently, Thai Cable and seem to be compiled withAM'»- out the slightest consideration or authority. The idea iust Zambesi difficulties with Portugal; and we are mformed, under date January 9, that the Admiralty is about to despatch the Enchantress with sealed orders for the lenbow and Colossus, two powerful ironwiif'shTw ? Gi £ ralt r A " ttle «&££* kl k " rity ° f thi3 national item. The Admiralty communicates with admirals commanding fleets or stations, and never with individual ships ; nor are the Board in the habit of allowing their instrucnTp™6B1 * Ve ? selß or squadrons to become public. It i s a gness \ and a bad ore, the compiler having nerhana heard that the Enchantress was sf ppffi £ be under orders for Gibraltar with Admiralty despatches Then, again, under date January 10, the opinion which " prevails in diplomatic circles," and Lord Salisbury's private views as to the present phase of the trouble, are given with the greatest assurance, it not being within thi possibilities that either could be knownf It would be a vast improvement if the cablegrams were confined to statements of faet instead of mainly consisting of street gossip and the not very sagacious ideas of the genius vn ho drafts them. In the present instance a breach of diplomatic relations with Portugal is; possible, certainly, but hardly probable, and would certainly only be precipitated by the action taken for granted m the cablegrams as about to be pursued by the English Government. To threaten Lisbon with an array of big ironclads would be mere senseless bullying. There is a long way between a territorial dispute in Africa and what would practically amount to a declaration of war. We regard the news(?) [cabled as simple bunkum ; but it is only another instance of the unreliable, unsatisfactory information habitually cabled.

We suppose it is no use hammering at the splint n.M ? ailwa y Commissionera and try<ire7amlti!;;?g to driv * into their heads a Inhibition. llttle common sense in regard to i ,-j passenger traffic. The school holidays are, however, rapidly passing away, and we hear nothing of any special concession to allow of the pupils throughout the colony visiting the Exhibition. Things were differently managed in France, where the Minister of Public Instruction took the matter in hand and caused arrangements to be made so that the alumni of the educational institutions throughout the country should have the opportunity of coming to Paris. He further—we mention this to show the active interest he took m the matter politely intimated to certain side shows, where Oriental dancin"and posturing were the attraction, that they must materially modify or tone down the character of the entertainments during the period when the Exhibition might.be, as indeed it was, thronged with young people We should like to see-although . this i 3 beyond expectation—very liberal concessions indeed, both to school children and teachers since we believe that the Exhibition would prove practically useful, as well as instructive, to both. Is it too much to hope that the Commissionera will even now, at the eleventh hour,, turn over a new leaf? or must they be consigned in public estimation into the category of that class of individuals described by Solomon as not likely to be influenced, even if " brayed in a mortar " '

It is not a little curious that the diseases Theism' f ising u ff ? m l he Wron 2 useaof A\u«orVo.i. tea should be met with in totallers. greater frequency in countries foreign to its growth. This, however, is asserted as a fact by the ' Lancet.' The diseases due to tea are well known to doctors ; but the public seem to be strangely indifferent to the dictum of medical authority in this matter. B.ecently however, in France, an eminent pathologist (M. Eloy) has expressed himself very distinctly as to the vast number of diseases which owe allegiance to the queen of refreshing beverages. America and England lt „, wou ! d . a PP ear - ar e the countries most atllicted with maladies arising from the excessive consumption of tea. Individuals may suffer, says M. Eloy, in a variety of ways ; and it is customary in the profession to talk of acute, sub-acute, and chronic "theism"—a form of disease that has no connection with theological matters. The predominance of nervous symptoms ia a characteristic of theism. General excitation of the functions of the nervous system may be observed, or the weakness may be noted more especially in the brain as distinguished from the spinal cord. Perversion of the sense of hearing is not at all an uncommon symptom-persons hearing voices that have no real or objective existence. Ine irritability which this somewhat ungallant authority asserts " overtakes women so frequently" may sometimes, he says, be clearly traced to an excessive indulgence in afternoon tea. "There is hardly," he amrms, "a morbid symptom which may not be traceable to tea as its cause."

The venerable man, upwards of half a century a familiar figure to the u a «. - ? ph I B na tius Dollinger £, h * year, from the epidemic raging m the Northern Hemisphere, was cabled this week, was born at S er V B *r rfa) in « 17 "- Consecrated priest at the age -of, twenty-three, he was for many years one of the ablest defenders of the dogmas of the Catholic §&*•» =" * of Church History, published when the author was twenty-seven, was long an acknowledged authority. Iu 1845 DbUinger was choien as representative of-the- University of Munich in the Bavarian) Parliament. In 1851—elected as member of the Imperial Diet, then meeting at Frankfort—he definitely cast in his lot with the Liberals by voting for the.separatiea.Qf church and btate. Between ISGI and IS7I was gradually being moulded into definite form that ".Old Catholic mny " under :the- : remarkable personal influence of this illustrious man

which, for a time, seemed to threaten almost as serious a disruption within the Catholic Church in Germany as that effected by Luther more than three centuries before, Thdugh since the Conference of the year 1874, when Dollinger, elected as its head, formally renounced the authority of the Papacy, whilst retaining for a season the chief doctrines of the Catholic Church, comparatively little has been heard of this once famous sect, its influence has subseJuently affected to a considerable extent the 'rotestant Episcopal churches in countries far beyond Germany itself. The leading principles of what is termed the " Old Catholic party" are its renunciation of the temporal power of the Pope and his infallibility in matters of faith and morals, save when speaking as chief ' in a general council of the church, and not merely ex cathedrd. More lately the decrees of the Council of Trent have been formally disavowed, including that on the Sacrifice of the Mass. When on a visit, a few years ago, to Great Britain, Dr Diillin?;er was warmly welcomed, not merely by eading members of the Anglican Establishment—such as the late Bishops Wordsworth and Wilberforce—but by such broad churchmen as the late Dean Stanley and Archbishop Tait. He received from Oxford University the honorary degree of D.C.L.; and from Edinburgh that of LL.D. No event since the secession of Dr Newman to the Church of Rome in 1546 created so widespread and profound an impression on Christendom as the movement of which this distinguished scholar, now deceased, was the leader in Germany five-and-twenty years ago.