GENERAL SUMMARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 90, 26 February 1864, Page 4

GENERAL SUMMARY.

{"From the " Home Ncvs." Deecmber 26.J The approach of Christmas is generally marked hv a lull in the political world, aiul, notwithstanding the urgent topics that arc abroad, and the anxious questions that c.re waiting solution at the point of tlie sword, the present season is no exception. It is, indeed. rather more dull than usual. Our budget of intelligence contains scarcely a single event of higher interest than a prize fight, or a barbarous murder, of which latter sensational class of incidents, we are sorry to say there are several examples. Love and drink appear to be the chief inspirations of the brutal deeds that are done in this way amongst the F.ngiish, and a glance at our columns will show that they still hold their influence over our gloomy population. The finding of the Court-martial in the cas»> of Colonel Crawley will not supriseour readers. It will be seen that the acquittal is complete and conclusive. Xo man ever came out of a court-martial with a triumph^! 4 t -:i .. v h .. •' : \:<■ v- s

to be raise.i on tiiu i. irahiv of the arrest had the effect of sluelding Colonel Crawley from any consequences to which he might have been lial 1 \ assumingthe arrest to have been illegal, as alledged in the reply, is doubtless. We "willingly acquiesce in the verdict, and are glad to get rid of the scandal. But it would he idle to attempt to conceal that the public mind is not quite contented, and that such points as we have indicated ought to he cleared up, so as to leave nothing in obscurity. Possibly the Commander-in-Chief may set all doubts at rot in his remarks on the case, and supply explanations which were beyond the province of the court-martial.

In our domestic politics there are some small events that give <emj>orary occupation to idlers, and produce considerable discission while they are before the public. One of these is a quarrel between Mr. Cobden and the Tinu.s. It is the time when members of Parliament address country audiences for the take of airing their oratory, and on one of these occasions Mr. Blight delivered a stunning speech at Ikoclululc, bearing, among*! other tilings, upon the comparative condition of tlie rich and pom* in this country. The Timts, declared that Mr. Bright advocated n. course of legislation which should have the effect of dividing the lauds of the rich amongst the poor; and Mr. Cobden, losing his temper, denounced the Tilths as a literary assassin, and fell ibnl of the system of anonymous journalism hv which ineu were protected in saying tilings which they would not dare to say in their own mtraes. All this was, of course, quite boside the re d question at issue, which Mr. Cobden never touched at all ; but it. led to a much more interesting collision. The editor oi" the Tiutr* declined to insert Mr. Ccbdim's Jotter, because it abounded in unwarrantable personal abuse ; and then Mr. Cobden addressed Mr. Delanc, tlie editor of the Times, by name, reiterating in a highly truculent fashtY-n his charges against the baseness and corruption of tlie anonymous system. To this ill-conditioned letter Mr. Delanc sent a calm and dignified reply, which has terminated the controversy to the total discomfiture of the original assailant. "Whether Mr. Cobden is right or jvrong about anonymous journalism, he is one of the last men who is entitled to condemn it. The Morning >Star was launched, and ia supported, by Mr. Cobden and Mr. .Bright, er their friends, or their party. Indeed it is commonly called Mr. Blight's paper. It is currently so called in places where such matters are familiarly debated, and supposed to be well known. lie that as it may, the Mowing Stur is undoubtedly the organ of Messrs. Cobden and Bright, and fights their battles, and defends their opinions with uncompromising fidelity. It cannot fail, therefore, to strike a reflecting nation a.s a a singular circumstance that Mr. Cobden does not set the example of publishing the names of writters in a journal which is so entirely at his service, and that while he howls at tho Tinics for writing under a mask, he should patronise a rival that ■writes under a denser nuisk—denser becausc its writers, are more obscure.

The appointment of Seijeant .Slice to the judgeship rendered vacant by the recent death of Judge Wightman has given universal satisfaction. It was a conquest of prejudice due to the legal eminence anil religious moderation of a distinguished Roman Catholic barrister, and everybody recognises its fitness. We regret we cannot say so much for the appointment of I)r. Stanley, as the successor of Dean Trench in AVc.stinim.ster. Dr. "Wordsworth, one of the canons who will he associated with the future Dean, lias published an elaborate protest against the appointment on the ground that some of the published opinions of Dr. Stanley on certain vexed religions questions are calculated to introduce discord and heartburning into the Church. Dr. "Wordsworth is perfectly sincere, and has taken this step in obedience to a strong sense of duty. But if it have any effect at all it will be to precipitate the evil it deprecates and deplores. Dr. Stanley is a man of high erudition; his learning places him in advance of most of his contemporaries ; and if there be questions upon which differences exist between him and them, they are not of a character to shake the foundations of the Establishment, or to endanger the harmony of its administration. The Emperor of the French is intent upon the pacification of the globe, and is adopting measures for the purpose which cannot fail to bring about fresh disturbances. The new state of things he i.s unconsciously urging into shape is a league of small States, ■whose function it will he to deliberate upon the map of the large States. It is as if the oysters and the mussels and the shrimps were to enter into a combination for parcelling out the dominions of the whales ana the til irks, and limiting the waters in which they should he at liberty to swin and devour their prey. The design nmy be entitled to the highest commendation on the'seorS of good intentions ; but in political life jjood intentions that are, impracticable are usually found to be mischievous, and this benevolent project certainly does not promise to he an exception. A European C'.jngies? without England, Prussia, and Austria, would very much lesemble Hamlei, with, nat only the Prince dropped out, but the Ghost, the Queen, and Ophelia, and nobody loft on the stage hut the auxiliaries and the walking gentlemen. Yet this is the experiment the Emperor is intent upon trying. M. lJronyn do Lhuys has addressed a circular to the foreign agents of the French government suggesting a programme for bringing together such pf the Powers as unreservedly assented to the original proposal, This moating is confessedly n gathering of

minor potentates. Even M. Drouvn do Lhuys dots not attach to it weight, or importance, of a Luropean Conm-ess lut thinks that it may be useful it. an inferior degree. Uow, ho does not attempt to show ; nor would it ho easy to discover in what way the decisions, or recommendations, of such an assembly could exercise the slightest influence upon tho conduct of the "rent Powers." That thev may open up new disconfs is highly probable. The most insignificant person possesses more means of doing i.ee what it is that tempts fpaiu into the council ot [sovereigns—the hope of getting hack Gibraltar, which she is understood to be"ready to demand. Greece may irQ in from vanity or even more politic motives ; but whatever may bring lier there, sho will inevitably have something to say about Corl'u. These! arc small things, no doubt, but they are calculated to rutlle the surface, and to produce discussions that it would be more prudent to avoid. 1 f this pretty Congress cannot he productive of any actual results, common sense points out the wisdom of suffering it to die a natural death. Moderation and justice «re not always sure ol a siurcfisiiil hearing in popular assemblies. Thia fact lias been signally illustrated at the recent meetings of the Prussian and Austrian Assemblies when the question oiSehleswig iuul 1.1 olstein was brought for--1 ward. To say (hut we live in Mirring times very in- ! aileijuatelv expresses the strange turmoil around us. i whieli would be mueh better described by saying tbat Iwe live in an i\sv of inexplicable events. A little | while ujjo we lirnl the rrussian Chamber espousing i ibe of reason and good faith, and the ministry opposing them ; now we hare the two bodies changing sides, and advocating exactly the contrary principles. It is the minister this time who defends (lie interests of I ruth and equity, and who exhibits a spirit of moderation that contrasts strongly with the violence of the Assembly. Ihe first step oi the Chamber was to earrv a vote against the Cabinet, tho object of which was. in undisguised terms, to deny that the King of Denmark possessed any sovereign rights in either Sclileswiji or llolsteiu, amounting in effect to a deliberate declaration of the independence of both Purines, notwithstanding that their eases are csseutiallv different, and that, whatever justification may exist for asserting the Germanic traditions ot Holstein. none can be found for refusing to acknowledge that Schleswig is Pnni.*h in grain and by all its historical antecedents. The Prussian minister, much to his credit, took up wholly different ground. lie tlir-tinclly admitted that .Prussia was hound by the treaty of 185:2, ami that so long as Denmark fulfilled her engagement, Prussia could not disturb the existing arranuemcnt. Put he was of opinion that Denmark had not kept her engagements, and that, therefore, Federal execution ought to follow. Count Peohberg. in the Vienna Chamber, took the same view. Austria, like Prussia, was bound to respect the treaty ; so, too, was Denmark ; and if Denmark failed in licr duties, Federal execution was the obvious remedy. As to the Augustenburg claim, neither minister cave it the slightest countenance, and Count, Kechberg went so far as to leave it to lie inferred that; he utterly condemned the notion of embroiling Oer-. ! omany i a war for (he elevation of a Prince whose npretensni >were. at least, extremely questionable.

Tlu* course taken by Denmark, under circumstances which might- have justified a declaration of war, bears out the anticipations we haveullalongvontured to express, that the question of the duchies might ultimately he settled by arbitration. Instead of resisting the approach of tlie Federal troops, Denmark has quietly retired before them, and thus put the Federal J)iet in the wrong, or, at all event?, upon it> defence before Europe. Had a single shot been fired, the consequences must have spread far beyond the local bounds to which the quarrel hns now narrowed : n ?td Penma-k. judiciously following the . ; • ■ 1 - •*. ha* «e- uivd their aid through all

:a_' -- ' . iiv v cmplicu? »on. The matter is 110 ionizer b< tu\ A n Denmark and Germany alone. It is felt that there has been a moral interposition which musf be heard out : and unless the fanaticism of thermal! nationality be blind and deaf, there is no ground for despairing of a. peaceful termination. The situation is, no doubt, surrounded by ditllculties. From America we hare two Presidentnl Messages, which, dealing alike with the past and the future, might be expected to alford a glimpse into the mysteries of the conflict : but I hey really yield no infor.mation which we were not in possession of before. A Liverpool paper had just apprised us, on "authority" that Karl Russell was in receipt of a despatch from Lord Lyons to the effect that the ho brought to a coneiu>km within three months, the ( onfcdcrates being so utterly reduced that they would shortly be obliged to sue for an armistice, or, in other words to throw down their arms. Xeither of the Messages confirm* this startling piece of intelligence. On the contrary, it is quite clear that neither Mr. Lincoln nor Mr. Davis contemplates any terminal ion of the sanguinary contest short of extermination on one side or the other. Mr. Lincoln congratulates the country on its friendly relations with Kngland and France, announces his determination to adhere to his (Emancipation Proclamation, and speaks much in the usual way as to the ultimate prospects of the war. President Davis complains bitterly of tlie help which Kngland and Francc, particularly the former, have •liven to the North under the disguise of neutrality, alludes with pride, heavily dashed with despondency, to the courage and patience of (he people, and again calls upon them for additional means to carry on the struggle. There is not a syllable in cither of these addresses to warrant the supposition that an armistice is in contemplation, or that we arc a wit nearer to a conclusion than we were two years ago. Winter alone suspends the lighting. The Federals are said to be going into winter quarters at Chattanooga; Longstreet has retired from before Knoxville, and is supposed to be on his way to join Lee in Virginia, and the two armies arc motionless on the "Rapidan. Charleston is justifying the charactcr„of impregnability ascribed to it by President Davis. The Federals have brought all their skill upon it without effect. •Shoti drop into the city but do no mischief. It is exactly as if the place bore a charmed life. Kvcn the nuns of Fort. Sumter cannot be taken. The who'e seige very much resembles the exploit of the French King, who rode his men somewhat ostentatiously up a hill, and then rode them down again.

Tin.- vitality of the Polish insurrection is quite lis remarkable as tin- inextinguishable ardour with ■which the American war is maintained by both belligerents. The main forru of the Russian army, the best generals in tin' service, and a system"of terror worthy of the most barbarous of Muscovite rule, have totally failed to subdue the spirit of the I'oles, or even, apparently, to diminish very materially their force in the lield. The National Government has justissued a proclamation in which it declares that the insurrection is as vigorous as ever, that all adverse reports are false, and that it. will continue to be maintained with increased energy. The. fact is, (he I'oles, like the Knglish at Waterloo, don't know when tliev are beaten, and, in spite of their oppression and their fricndlcssncss, they are daily winning fresh victories. The worst of it is that nothing can come of their triumphs. Prussia can afford to lose every tight until she nliall have exhausted her opponent, and then Poland must fall from sheer failure of means. The cause i.s hopeless. Europe will do nothing ; and the world is doomed to look on at the destruction of a gallant people, wiLhout being able to interfere. In this ease, as in a multitude of others, conventional considerations supersede . the demands of humanity.

I'lie Pope, if He cannot govern the old Pontifical regions which have been absorbed into the kingdom of Italy, is resolved at least to interfere with their government. He has lately nominated an archbishop, and no less than four bisliops in those districts which formerly belonged to Kome, and now belong to Italy, not only without the assent of the King, but against his wishes. We shall be curious to learn how this trespass will ultimately end. When the bishops come to claim their sees,'what will the people do ? v .\'hen the people repudiate the bishops, wimt will the bishops do? When the Pope excommunicates the sees, what will the sees do? And when the King issues a proclamation denying the jurisdiction of the Pope, what will the Pope do V