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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 29, 5 February 1869, Page 3

The Times believes that the adoption of Captain MoncriefPs system for the handling of artillery will render us as invulnerable as we can ever hope to be in war. Ifc may make the defence far stronger than the attHck, and to England, whose motto is ' Defence, not defiance,' j this will be tbe most invaluable of all boons. The public will be justly indig- | naut if the development and adoption of such an invention be obstructed either by official dukicss or hy professional theories. This is uot a question, for instance, lo be left in the bauds of a Select Committee. It is one which deeply concerns the whole army and the whole nation. It may save us from spending millions in useless fortifications, wliile at tbe same time it may render such a country as this almost impregnable. The inventor has done his part, aud it remains for the Government to dy theirs. They may be assured that, ' unless they are on the alert, they will be anticipated by foreign countries. The Austrian Government has already opeued communications with the inventor, and the Prussian officers who were at Shoeburyness on Friday are in the employ of a Government which is uofc likely to wait ten years before making use of a discovery which throws the ueedlegun into the shade. In an article which appears in Blackj wood on the Spauish Revolution, a very circumstantial account is given of the Queen's departure from San Sebastian and her arrival at Biarritz. Here is the last scene in the little drama : The Emperor and Empress have returned with | Queen Isabella from the waiting-rooms, | and the royal fugitives have taken their j places in the saloon carriage : the Queen I stands alone upon the balcony, aud thanks tiie Imperial Chamberlain. 'It was afc j this moment,' says the writer, ' that I beheld tbe saddest spectacle it is possible to imagine, and of which I shall ever retain the uneffaceabie impression. The Emperor stands with uncovered head on the platform of the station, at two paces from the carriage; the Empress is on his right — her eyes full of tears— *-aud on her right stands the Imperial Prince, agitated and astouished by all he sees passing before him. In the royal carriage the King and his suite are on their legs •; the Queen is on the gallery, of which Charles, the piqueur, has just bolted the entrance; bc- . fore her, looking bowed down, bendin"* under this immense misfortune, stands Couut Yspeleta. The guards close the carriage doors of the royal train. Four minutes thus elapse amidst the most profound si-leu ce, all looking at each other with an air of gloom aud consternation. I never was present at a funeral where the grief of the mourners was more profound ; it was the funeral procession of a dyuasty two centuries old, which had just breathed its last sigh in the Biarritz station. The siguai is given, the train is put iu motion, everybody bows, and all is over.' A blacksmith of a village in Spain murdered a man and was condemned to be hanged. The chief peasants of the place joined together, an-d begged the alcade that the blacksmith might not suffer, because he was necessary tothe place, which could not do without a blacksmith to shoe horses, mend wheels, &c. But the alcade said, 'How then can I fulfil justice?' A laborer auswered, ' Sir, there are two weavers in the village, and for so small a place one is enough. Hang the other !' I ' There, now,' said a little girl, while rummaging a drawer in a bureau ; 'there, now, grandpa has gone 'to heaven without his spectacles.' Au Indiana paper records a wager betweeu a lady and gentleman on the Presidential election. If Grant was elected, the yonng man was to marry the young lady; if Seymour, the young lady was to marry the young gentleman.