CLIPPINGS OF THE MONTH.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1408, 3 June 1865, Page 5

CLIPPINGS OF THE MONTH.

{From the Spectator for March.)

As we supposed, Sir Rutherford Alcock has been appointed Envoy Plenipotentiary at Pekin, in succession to Sir F. Bruce. We trust the Regent of China will like a change everybody else is certain to approve, and is prepared, to observe treaties a little more strictly than heretofore. If he does not, Sir Rutherford Alcock will be quite prepared to make him, and has fought Taoutais at Shanghai and Daimios in Japan quite long enough to know how. The appointment will, we believe, either consolidate British influence in Pekm, meaning by " influence " the power of guidance, or produce another war, and the first result is by far the more probable of the two. We congratulate the Daimios on their liberty, and the mandarins on having found a master.

Mr. Buckstone, of the Hay market, has been doing rather a foolish thing. The Woman in Mauve, a new play at his theatre, intended to ridicule sensation drama, has, on the whole, proved a failure. On the first night some of the audience hissed, and, as a London audience has unfortunately lost the habit of hissing, Mr. Buckstone suspected a plot, and, for some reason unknown, that Mr. Boucicault was the author of it. He did not name that gentleman, but Mr. Boucicault wrote to ask why he made the charge. Mr. Buckstone replied that he had proofs, but, when further pressed, was obliged to acknowledge that his proof amounted mainly to gossip. We have no no doubt he was quite honest in his faith. In fact, matters in London have now reached that pass that a manager cannot imagine why people should hiss unless they are paid as the claque are to applaud, and actors feel as ruffled by criticism as if they were reading sermons. It is time that some audience should assert its old right, and when a bad piece is produced, damn it there and then unmistakeably. If bad acting were treated in the same way, we should have better characters and abler representations of them. M. Mathieu de la Drome, the Trench weather prophet, is dead, at the early age of fifty-six, but his secret survives him. His son-in-law learned from his lips before his death, the magic formula which will teach him to prophesy frosts in January, high winds in March, and sultry weather about August. Though dead, he shall yet speak to us.

Government has sustained a severe defeat. Mi*. Sheridan moved a resolution that it was " expedient to extend the reduction of the fire duty" —that is, to 18d, —at the earliest opportunity to all descriptions of insurable property. He advanced no arguments, merely quoting the former resolution, and blaming the Government for not having accepted it in full, and he was opposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr. Gladstone admitted that any resolution of the House tending to a reduction of the burdens on the people deserved the highest consideration, but declared the resolution contrary to the principle of all financial arrangements, which fixes a time for the budget in order that the House may decide on the comparative merits of different arrangements. This argument, which is in itself unanswerable, called up Mr. Hubbard, who angrily asked if the country was to be governed by the Administration alone, and helped to produce the vote in favour of the resolution, 137 to 65. This takes a large slice, out of the surplus, and we trust the members who, desiring the reduction of the malt-tax, still swelled the majority against Government will be able to justify their conduct to the constituencies. " An Englishman" has shown in the Times that Ireland is still very thickly populated as compared with most of the Continental States. Ireland still supports 184 souls to every square mile, France only 178. Spain supports only 80 souls to the square mile, Austria only 148, Prussia only 172, Bavaria only 161, Sweden and Norway only 19, European Eussia, 32. Only Italy, England, Holland, and Belgium are more thickly populated than Ireland. TO CORRESPONDENTS. All newspapers and correspondence for the Lyttelton Tin; e J should be addressed Christchubch. All communications intended for insertion must be_ authenticated by the name and address of the writer, not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. . Letters, copies of which are addressed to other will not be published in the Lyttelton Times. We do iiot undertake to insert any communications which are not accompanied by an assurance that our rule on this subject has been complied with by our correspondents. Correspondents and advertisers will please bear in mind that, for the convenience of the printer, only one side of the paper should be written upon. We cannot undertake to return rejected communications.