CLIPPINGS OF THE MONTH.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1438, 21 July 1865, Page 3

CLIPPINGS OF THE MONTH.

(From the Spectator for April.) f M. Thiers must surely have caught moral qualities from Louis Philippe. On April 13th last he made a speech upon Italy full of the cynical selfishness which overthrew the House of Orleans. He denounced Italian unity and supported the temporal'power. A n united Italy he believed wns dangerous to France, the policy of preventing political neighbours from becoming great being " not an old policy but an eternal one." He doubted whether unity was good even for the Peninsula itself, which thus obtained the conscription and the national debt. As to the Papacy, to remove it from Rome was to commence the regime of national churches which was fatal to liberty, or of free churches which would compel the police every Sunday to take notes of the cure's sermon. M. Thiers should accept office under the Emperor. He has just the worship of force, the contempt for freedom, the dislike of possible rivals which make up the character of a stout Bonapartist. We fear, however, that on the matter of unity he spoke the feeling of many Frenchmen. Charles Dickens, in one of his wildest moods, makes Sam Wellcr tell a story of a man who. to prove that muffins were wholesome, ate three shillings' worth of muffins on principle, " toasfed 'em all, buttered 'em all, eat 'em all, and blew his brains out." That man has been outdone. On Go-d Friday, George liunning, a respectable draper of Hoxton, aged seventy-five, after breakfast, ate fourteen hot-cross buns. Whether he did it on principle or not is not recorded, but surely nothing less could tempt a man with the means to buy bread and salt to consume those indigestible edibles. Of course the nasty mess swelled, distending Dunning's stomach, till it pressed on vital organs, and, in a few hours killed him with great suffering. The incident will, let us hope, help to decrease the consumption of articles about as lit for food as sponge, and rather less palatable.

Mr.. Alfred Butler, M.D., has this week brought on himself a fatal notoriety. Mary Green, wife of a carpenter, being near her confinement, agreed to pay Dr. Gardiner 16s to attend her. Dr. Gardiner sold his business to Dr. Butler, and when the time arrived Mary Green sent for the new owner of the " practice." Dr. Butler went, found the woman in labour, inquired aB to payment, and left the house because the poor woman could only pay him by instalments. He told her husband to go to the workhouse, and the workhouse Bumbles told him to produce his marriage certificate. The husband, who could not have got it for hours, went back to Dr. Butler, but lie flatly refused to go, and the poor woman unattended died from rupture of the womb. Is there no governing body in the protession which can take notice of a case like this, no power analogous to that of disbarring ? A few more such cases, and Englishmen will begin to question whether there are not crimes as well as sins of omission. There is hope for Ireland yet. The priests of Louth have returned to Parliament Mr. Kennedy, a Presbyterian, because they agreed with his political opinions. Mr. Kennedy apparently made no religious concessions, and was really elected as a staunch Liberal, and in spite of his creed. It appears that Louth is within the diocese of Dr. Dixon, a Bishop who seems to believe that his business is to get people to heaven if he can,. and not to overthrow Lord Palmerston's Government, or ostracize, every politician with a different creed from his own. Le Memorial Diplomatique publishes the correspondence between the Papacy and the Emperor Maximilian upon the subject of his recent decrees. The drift of the Papal reply, which is dated sth of March, was known before, but the text contains two points of interest—a distinct threat that the recall of the Nuncio will not be the last measure adopted by the Pope against the Mexican Government, and a distinct assertion that Rome will never consent, and has never consented, to toleration. The Holy Chair, writes the Cardinal Secretary, even in dealing with Governments ruling over mixed faiths," has never recognized equaL toleration in principle, but has striven only, wherever toleration existed de facto, to secure guarantees that it should not do any harm to the Catholic religion." Consequently, should the Church, say in Ireland or Prussia, get the upper hand, Protestantism would "in principle" cease to be tolerated, which is worth knowing. The Russian Government has concluded a contract with two Americans, Messrs. Collins and Sibley, for an electric telegraph from the Amoor to California via Behring's Straits. The distance is £7,000 miles, and the line will pass through territories almost uninhabitable from the cold. The money is said to have been subscribed, the consent of England and the Union obtained, and the line is to be opened on the 3rd April, 1870. It will give the Americans a tortuous but complete conimunication with Europe by land. It is calculated that the cost of a message of twenty words from London to Washington by this route will be £8 17s 6d, but the competition of the Atlantic cable will keep down the charge. Messrs. Terry and Burch, respectively manager jtnd secretary of the late Unity Bank, were acquitted on the 20th of the charge of having unlawfully conspired to publish a false balance-sheet of affairs _ of that bank. Mr. Justice Smith, in summing up, told the jury that they must he satisfied that the prisoners had conspired, that the balance-sheet was false, and that the intention had been to defraud. He considered the mode of making out the balance-sheet most improper and vicious, but as the same mode had been adopted by the former manager, the jury would have to decide whether the issue of the balance-sheet in question was the act of Mr. Terry or part of an established system. He could not see how the manager could be said to be acting criminally when the account he made was in reality that of the directors. As to Mr. Burch,;he was clearly only a subordinate, bound to obey the orders of the manager. The jury followed the ruling of the judge, and acquitted the prisoners of conspiracy, but embodied in their verdict the opinion he had expressed as to the mode in which the balance-sheet had been made out, and censured the negligence of the directors in their supervision of the accounts. The verdict seems the only one to which they could come, as it was clear that the directors alone were responsible for the preparation of the balancesheet, and the auditors for its issue. A curious case of child-stealing was heard j at Leeds on the 20th. Caroline Walton, wife of a cabman, was childless, and believed that i her husband disliked her on that account. She therefore stole the child of one Bridget O'Connor, while in charge of a little girl of ten years old. The nurse, afraid of the mother, vowed stoutly that she had dropped the child into the Aire, and the truth was only discovered by a neighbour remarking how very large Mrs. Walton's child seemed to be. Mrs. Walton, before the magistrates, confessed at once, admitting that she had passed off the child upon her husband. The poor woman, indeed, seems to have committed a great crime solely from unsatisfied maternal longThe Volunteer Review at Brighton on Easter Monday passed off with remarkable spirit and success. 20,000 volunteers were under arms on the ground, considerably more than on any former occasion, and so we hope to be spared any further talk about the decline of the movement—if the volunteer force has not leng emerged from the " movement" stage. Twenty special trains conveyed 13 800 volunteers irom London and its neighbourhood to Brighton in an average time of two hours—one doing the distance in an hour and a half. The weather was perfection, the enthusiasm with which Brighton received the roluntcers was naturally heightened by the omission of their visit last year, the sham fight was conducted in a more Intelligible manner than usual, the different corps also showed marked improvement in marching, and what is really very creditable to all concerned, there was scarcely an accident that could be called serious in the course of th® day. The Easter Monday Review seems now likely to be held at Brighton as a matter of course. Brighton may be the best place for a mere review, but it is not clear

that it is to the advantage of the volunteers always to manoeuvre on the same ground, or. advisable that one railway should always have the task of massing 20,000 men at a given point in the minimum of time. Why should not the volunteers become acquainted with as many points on the coast as possible? It would be well, too, if every railway lending to the coast within a moderate distance could have the benefits of experience in rapid conveyance of troops. It ought to be borne in mind that the Kaster Monday Review should be more than a mere military spectacleWimbledon affords that—but that each recurrence should, if possible, render the force more efficient for its great object—defence.There is nothing 1 to prevent the volunteers from becoming acquainted in course of time with all the main points of coast defence near London. If Brighton is again to be selected for the Easter Monday review, the Brighton police must keep better watch over their beauh at night. At present it is on Easter Monday a " dark walk" of the worst kind. Policemen have nothing to do with morals, but they have with civilization, and on Monday evening it was as little preserved as among the Andaman Islanders. A dozen magnesium lights would be even more effective than the police.