Clippings.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 221, 4 December 1875, Page 7

Clippings.

COLONIAL GOVERNORS. (From the Times.)

A correspondence has recently passed between the Earl of Carnarvon and the Board of Inland Revenue which will give general satisfaction to colonial Governors. Two classes of commissions have been sent out from time to time from the Colonial Office—one a paper comraision under the Royal sign manual and signet, and the other letterspatent, on skins of parchment, issued under the Great Seal. The former is the instrument addressed to Administrators and Lieutenant-Governors, and bears no stamp duty. The letters patent under the Great Heal, by which alone the Queen appoints Governors to act as her Majesty’s representatives in various parts of the world, have been liable to a considerable ad valorem stamp duty. The letters patent conferring a Governorship worth £3OOO a year, have had to be impressed with a stamp of £l5O ; where the salary is £4OOO, a stamp duty of £2OO ; and so on, at the rate of 5 per cent, on each appointment. Not long since this tax was prospectively abolished, and future commissions will bo free from it. But, in looking at its operations in the past, Lord Carnarvon observed that the letter and spirit of the Stamp Act had not been fairly applied. The Act contemplated a stamp duty on letters patent conferring a new appointment. In Downing-street this had always been accepted as requiring not only that a gentleman should pay the stamp duty on his first entering on his career of colonial Governor, but that he should also pay duty on each promotion her Majesty may be pleased to give him in the service. The present Secretary of State for the Colonies, however, having requested the Inland Revenue Commisssoners to consider whether these repeated impositions of stamp duty were really in accordance with the Act of Parliament, the Board decided, in the first instance —in the special cases of Sir Hercules Robinson and Sir George Bowen—-that one stamp duty only could be lawfully demanded from each Governor. On the 10th of last month Lord Carnarvon suggested that, in accordance with this decision, a communication should be addressed to all Governors who have paid more than one stamp duty, informing them that they are at liberty to claim a repayment of duty to the extent of the difference between the total amount formerly paid by them and the value of the stamp on the highest salary attached to any Government they may have held, and on the 19th ultimo the Board of Inland Revenue agreed to this proposal. To the great majority of Governors this will involve the totally unexpected satisfaction of receiving a not inconsiderable sum, the repayments varying from about £IOO in some cases to £BOO or £IOOO in other cases. Probably the officers who benefit by this act of justice—-the great majority of whom are residing in remote parts of the Empire—will, however, attach more importance to the equitable spirit of the Government than to the amount of money involved, as it shows that their personal interests are not overlooked during their absence, on arduous and responsible duties, from England. DOMESTIC SERVICE FOR GENTLEWOMEN. (Standard, August 30.1 Nobody can deny tbe great interest of the question dealt with by Mrs. Crawshay in her paper read last Thursday before the British Association at Bristol. One of tk° most prominent problems of the age is the difficulty of finding employment for ladies in reduced circumstances, and no well-meant effort to solve it should be denied its tribute of respect. Mrs. Crawshay’s suggestion is, that ladies should be employed as domestic servants, whom, in order to soften down the proposal, she calls by the American name of “ helps,” and she has some right to speak on the subject, as she has tried the experiment in her own house. There is certainly this much in favor of her scheme, that while some ladies cannot get a living, other ladies cannot get servants. Here is the work for which there is a scarcity of workers, and there are the workers for whom there is a scarcity of work. Why not bring the two together, the supply to the demand ? The class from which our domestic servants used formerly to bo recruited is growing less and less willing to supply them: while those who do go to service are far more troublesome and independent than is at all agreeable to their employers. An influx into the market of a superior class of servants would have the effect, perhaps, of bringing them to their senses. And we have no doubt that ladies, like gentlemen, would work, if they undertook to do it, much more thoroughly and conscientiously than the present race of servants. They are just as strong, and education always teaches people more or less to take pride in doing good work. We would back half a dozen young ladies to scrub floors, make beds, clean plate, and wait at table against any half-dozen girls taken indiscriminately from tbe register office. We have no doubt of their ability, therefore, to make good servants. And some of our readers may remember, perhaps, in one of Mr. Peacock's novels, the description of a house where the master was waited upon, in all innocence, by six or seven very pretty girls, all 'well educated and capable of appreciating literature. It is true they were not “ ladies ” and they did net scrub the floors. But they had received the education of ladies, and showed how superior it made them to the ordinary class of servants for a great many menial occupations. We do not think there is much in the objection that by using ladies for servants we should be cutting blocks with razors. It is better for the razors to cut blocks than to be idle and rust. The real objection to plan lies deeper than this ; namely, that it would be making money alone the test of social position, to the exclusion of birth and culture, When the real lady was in the

kitchen, and the vulgar parvenu in the parlor, a social revolution would be inaugurated, the end of which nobody can tell. This is the strong theoretical objection to Mrs. Crawshay s scheme. But the practical are just as strong. Ladies might be found quite capable of household work, and might beat the present race of servants on their own ground. But that is not the point. The question is how are they to mix with them, and how if they do not mix with them they are to retain the character of servants.

Mrs. Crawshay tried the experiment for twelve months. During that time she employed ladies as her upper servants, and not a single change took place among the women servants during the whole time. In the next ten months, when the superiors were not ladies, she had no less than seven changes. This is satisfactory, of course, as far as it goes. But it must be evident to everybody that a much longer experimen t would be necessary to enable us to form anything like a trustworthy deduction. But the worst of Mrs. Crawshay’s paper is that it omits the very thing which everybody will most want to know, namely, on what terms the lady servants lived with the others. She tells us, indeed, that she allowed them to use the front door, but owns that this was a mistake, from which we may infer that her plan contemplates their being treated as servants, and not as something halfway between servants and companions. Indeed, if she only meant the latter, the paper was superfluous, because plenty of ladies are in that situation as it is. And we must presume, therefore, that by lady servants she means ladies who, to use a common phrase, sink their gentility and work and live like other household domestics. We want to know, therefore, how these lady helps get on with their fellow-servants. If they constitute a privileged class, on a level with male servants out of livery, how are they expected to comport themselves towards these ? If they find it easy work to regulate their demeanor towards a scullerymaid, how do they manage with the butler ? If there is a “la-dv's” room downstairs, there is also a “gentleman’s,” the inmates of which would probably feel themselves quite on a level with their female neighbors. Mrs. Crawshay cannot mean that any girl brought up in the position of a lady till nineteen or twenty years of age could endure to associate on familiar terms with the butlers and valets. Would Mrs. Crawshay herself desire it ? We wish to say nothing against that very estimable class of society to whom we are indebted for so much that is delightful both to the eye and to the taste. Still a prejudice exists which denies that they are associates for young ladies. And if these can only reap the benefit of Mrs. Crawshay’s charitable device by changing their natures, we should be unwilling to congratulate them on the result. If ladies are to turn housemaids it seems to us that we must go a step further, and induce gentlemen to turn footmen. This new version of “ High Life Below Stairs ” would have its advantages, inasmuch as the same girl might at once be lady’s maid and governess, and the same gentleman both brush his young master’s clothes and prepare him for Eton or Oxford. The only difficulty would be how to dispose of those who are now valets and ladies’ maids

The evils which Mrs. Crawshay has endeavored to mitigate by this well-intentioned but impracticable scheme, stares us in the face every day. But the subject bristles with difficulties, and they cannot be met to any appreciable extent by admitting ladies merely to one new department of labor. Make them head nurses, says Mrs. Gray, at Bristol. By all means, and under nurses too ; but when you have done that, what impression has been made on the growing mass of young women who have been brought up as ladies, with no prospect from the beginning except marriage '! If this fails them, where are they ? The lawe majority of destitute middle-aged ladies have themselves been girls at one time. And girls will not give up the struggle while there is a chance left. Here, then, is a fresh difficulty. If ladies are to make good servants, they, like other people, must begin young. But what lady would begin young while she had a chance of marriage ? In short, the difficulties which surround this particular scheme are so multitudinous that the moment one is dropped another starts up. We must own, too, that as regards the case of women in general the more one thinks of it the more one is perplexed. Return to a healthier state of society, says one man—early marriages, and a simpler way of living in general. But if more women were married more also would be born, and the old difficulty would recur. Let them practise as doctors and lawyers, says another. But we have already more doctors and lawyers than we want. And the demand, we hope, will not increase in proportion to the increase of population. We are afraid that in this case women must continue, as they have always done, to take their chance with men.

BUSINESS AND CHAMPAGNE. (From the American Review.) Temperance principles are making way in every department of life in this country. A very notable instance of this amongst merchants has just occurred. A- week or two ago the National Board of Trade hold their annual Convention in "Philadelphia. Leading merchants from all the principal cities in the'lTnited States were present, discussing matters of interest to commercial men. A dinner was given them by the Philadelphia Board of Trade and the Commercial Exchange. The dinner was an elegant and expensive affair. I ho tickets were £5 each, and of course wines and liquors of the finest brands flowed freely. The next day the Maritime Exchange took them on the Delaware river, on board one of the river steamers to Chester and back, visiting the shipyards, groin-elevators, &c., from noon until near dark. A handsome dinner was set out with an abundance of the choicest eatables, with coffee, tea, and lemonade, but not a drop of wine, liquor, or beer of any kind. The company on board was made up of the National

Board of Trade, together with the members of the Maritime Exchange, and some two or three hundred invited guests, among whom were many bank directors, railroad directors, underwriters, bankers, Congressmen, and merchants. Repeatedly during the afternoon the Committee of Arrangements were congratulated upon the great enjoyment of the party, and particularly upon the bravery they manifested in bringing such a party together without providing wines and liquors for the table. The President of the New York Maritime Exchange expressed his approbation of that feature in very marked terms. Only the day before, at the dinner at the park, he stated that the champagne had got into the fieads of the party so effectually that they became noisy and garrulous, preventing the audience from hearing the speeches. “ The fact is, says one of our commercial newspapers, “ some of the leading merchants in the Maritime Exchange are Christian men—some of them elders in churches. Such men should always throw their influence on the side of temperance. One example like this is worth a hundred pamphlets and platform speeches for the cause. The merchants from Chicago, Ht. Louis, Detroit, Charleston, and elsewhere will not fail to tell how we entertained them, and it may be the example of our M aritime Exchange will be followed on similar occasions in other cities.”

THE MARQUIS OF LORNE AS A POET. The Marquis of Lome enters the literary arena as a poet. He has a long poem in (food Words for July, entitled “ A Legend of Mull.” The story opens with preparations for the chase around Loch Buy’s Hall, and the first part ends with the punishment by stripes of a faithful huntsman, Eaclian, at the hands of his master, whose wrath has been excited by' the deer having been allowed to go by. ~ The humiliation of Dachau makes him throw his fidelity to the winds and thirsts for vengeance. The second part opens with tbe birth of a boy to the old chief Loch Buy, and again there is depicted a hunting morning, when father and son, guests and kinsmen, “ Hidden o'er a coppiced glen,” are preparing for the chase. Deep within its oaken thickets Ivan its waters to the sea ; On the hill the chief lay careless. While the child watched eagerly. ’Neath them, on the shining ocean, Island beyond island lay, Where the peaks of Jura’s bosom Hose o'er holy Oronsay. Where the greener fields of Tslay Pointed to the far Kintyre— Fruitful lands of after ages— Wasted then with sword and fire. For the spell, that once had gathered All the chiefs beneath the sway Of the ancient loyal sceptre Of the Isles had passed away.

Once, from Ibdhrin to the southward, W cstward to the low Tyree, Northward passed the Alps of Cuchullan. Someried ruled land and sea ; Colonsay, Lismore, and Scarba, Bute and Cumbrae, Mull and Skye, Arran, Jura, Lews, and Islay. Shouted then one battle-cry. But those Isles, that still united, Fought at Harlaw Scotland’s might, Broken by their fierce contention, Singly waged disastrous fight. And the teaching of ForgivenessDrey lonia’s creed—became Not a sign for men to reverence. But a burning brand of shame. During the hunt, the old chief’s boy is seized by a rough hand that had apparently waited its opportunity, and is carried off. It is Kachan ! who has, wolflike, Seized upon a helpless prey ! Furiously and fast he bears him Where a cliff o’erhangs the bay. There, while sea-birds scream around them, Holding by his throat the boy, Kachan turns, and to the father Shouts in scorn and mocking joy : ‘Take the punishment thou gavest—- _ Hive before all there a pledge For my freedom, or thy darling, Dying, falls from yonder ledge '! ‘ ’1 akc the strokes in even number ( A s thou gavest—blow for blow—Then, dishonored, on thy honor, Swear to let me freely go.’ .Stroke for stroke is given, while tile chief and bis people can only look on. ‘Then again the voice of vengeance Pealed from Kachan’s lips in hate,” and he hurls the boy “ downward, headlong through the air.” Eaclian yells with laughter, and, springing from tbe cliff, follows his victim. SHAKSPERE IN INDIA. A very welcome addition (says the PArminnlam Post) lias been made to the Birmingham Shakspere Library, in the shape of a copy of the. “ Merchant of Venice,” translated by a native merchant into the Tamil language. The present is made by Mr. Thomas Clarke, an English merchant in Madras, who has forwarded the book to Mr. George Dawson, for presentation, accompanied by a most interesting letter, of which tbe following is an extract : —“Madras, 12th July, 1875.—1 am sending by the parcel post, same time as this letter, a parcel addressed to Mr. Dawson. It contains a copy of the 1 Merchant of Venice,’ translated into the Tamil language l>v V. Vanoogopola Chargar, 8.A., and I shall Ini much obliged if Mr. Dawson will present it, in my name, to the Birmingham Shakspere I library. The author took bis degree in the Madras University, and is now carrying on business in Madras as a merchant. He describes his book (correctly, I believe) as ‘the first attempt ever made to translate a play of Shakspere in Tamil ;’ and it is also, as far as I can learn, the first time any attempt has been made to translate Shakspere into any of the numerous dialects of India. You will see by the preface that the author announces a Sanskrit edition of the same play, which is to be forthcoming this year ; and I am informed by a Hindoo friend, that a professor in the Madras College is at work on a Tamil translation of another of the plays. As I know, there are not many Tamil scholars in Birmingham, I thought it would be interesting

to lovers of Shakspere to hear what he is like in this strange tongue, or rather, perhaps, in what guise he presents himself for the first time to the Hindoo, who is unable to study him in .the original. To this end I asked my native friend (who is a good English scholar) to take the la.mil play, and, without any pre- ' i°us reading of the English version, to retranslate it into I‘itiglish, just as he would do it. for an examination. He very kindly complied. 1 selected, as a passage well known, thi! speedt of Rortia in the -4tli act, beginning ‘The quality of mercy is not strained;’ and the following is his version of it :—‘One of the eliief .elements of mercy is non-restriction. Bike the dews from Heaven it fallcth upon those below. It contributes to goodness in two ways ; it gives pleasure to the giver as well to the taker. It, shows great power in one who is very powerful. To an Emperor it is a .more valuable ornament than his diadem. His sceptre shows strength to those of this world ; it is a sign, of power and greatness which ensures fear of the royal person. As to mercy, it is above this power ; and it presides in his heart. It is one of the divine s> mjitems, and when justice seasons mercy, it is only then that the‘earthly reign will bear a near semblance to the reign Divine. Therofoie, oh Jew, although you may have justice on your side,, yet think of one thing, namely, if it is done in accordance with justice, none of us will meet heaven. Wo all pray for mercy ; that prayer inculcates that we should do merciful actions. I tell you all these things simply that you may a little subside, tbe force of your advocacy, but if you insist in that, the impartial judge of Venice must, at any rate, pass a judgment against that merchant. I here, that is just word for word as he gave it from the Tamil version. It will give a very good idea of the difficulty the translator of the play lias had sometimes to find an equivalent in his own tongue for English words, and even modes of thought ; arid also I think it docs him much credit for having so well performed a difficult task, that is, of course, in the rest if the translation is as near to the text as my quotation.”

DIR, STANLEY ON LAKE VICTORIA

NYANZA. D paragraph in our English news states : “ After a long silence despatches have been received, by the .Daily Telegraph from Mr. Stanley in Central Africa, They are not yet published. He has completely surveyed Lake Victoria Nyauza.”

Ihe following notes of the explorer’s progress have been received from Zanzibar, from ins friend Mr. Sparhawk, who has quoted them from Stanley’s letters “ Lake Victoria Nyanza, village of Kagehyi, March 4—103 days from Bagomogo.—On the march we lost 181 men by desertion, disease, and war. We have still 100 men left. Desertions have been few compared to deaths. By vaccination I have saved the expedition from smallpox. Lady Alice, boat, after a march of 720 miles, is in first-rate order, saving us from the furious flood on the Izambti. Young Pocock, an Englishman, died from typhoid fever. The two large mastiffs, one of which was given by L<u oiless Lurdett Ooutts, are both dead, also the. retriever Nero. In a war with the natives ive lost twenty-one men in one day. Wo killed fifty of the enemy and wounded several others, burnt their village, and stockaded their cattle.”—“ Same village, May 15. Circumnavigated Lake Victoria Nyanza. Have had to fight four times. Discovered about 300 rivers, streams, &c., the extent, length, breadth, and depth all determined. AH nearly starved, once nearly drowned, and several times nearly killed by savages. Two of the white men are dead. Fred. Baker died from intermittent fever. Three of my best blacks, Zulu Mango, Mabruki Speke, and Erezolia Christie have just had bad fever. Frank Pocock well and hearty. Kalulu and several others down with ulcers. Rest here a few days, and then start the expedition again.” EXPEDITION UP THE CONGO. News received via the Cape of Good Hope states : —An expedition, consisting of the Active, the Spiteful, the Encounter, the Foam, tin; Ariel, and the Merlin, under the command of Commodore Sir William Hewitt, sailed up the Congo River, above Bull Island, but was compelled to anchor owing to tlie difficulties of navigation. ’Hie islands which form the delta of the Congo are intersected bv numerous narrow creeks, and the banks are covered with mangrove swamps and thick bush, and it is upon these islands that the natives have their villages, which they have all along believed impenetrable to attack. These natives are known by the name of Mossonlongees, which word means pirates of the river. One of their means of livelihood is levying black mail on the palm oil which the natives iff the interior collect, but are unable to take themselves to tlie traders, because between them and the trading stations are these lawless tribes, who taking the oil exchange it on behalf of themselves and the others for Manchester goods chiefly. On the 30th of August, an expedition consisting of twenty-seven boats, including seven steam launches, and a party of 280 setv men and marines, was despatched under the command of Captain Bradshaw, of the Encounter. Some of the creeks were of more than 50ft. wide in their narrower parts, and up these steam launches 12ft. in length had to proceed. Ihe mode of landing adopted was for the gunboats to go lip the creeks first, throwing in shot and shell and rockets, commencing at a short range and continuing it up to such ranges as 1/00 or 1800yds., so as to drive back tlie enemy for at least that distance. After this firing, the scouts would advance, followed by the column. Day after day the work of destruction was proceeded with. All the creeks were explored as far as Punta da Lonha, and every village was. burnt, including some important ones belonging to the notorious pirates AnfizMizfi, Manuel Vecca, and Macalat. In all sixty-seven villages were destroyed, which afforded homes for thousands of inhabitants,

and a large number of men must have been killed. Amongst the English forces there was onlyono man killed—he was a guide—and there were only five men wounded, one of them being Mr. Dixon, the senior engineer of the Ariel To get at the villages was a work of wondrous difficulty. The men had to struggle through loathsome black mud, sometimes almost up to their waists, through mangroves intricate and apparently interminable. Yet they sometimes marched as much as ten miles a day, the scouts performing exceptionally good service, whilst the marines were remarkably steady and were ably commanded. Upon the first day the whole force was landed ; but afterwards it was difficult to move such a large body through the country, so the seamen were kept as a reserve force. In the way of loot there was nothing got as there was in Asliantee, where the ornaments were of gold, but here of brass ; some few curios in the way of horrid fettishes were all that were; brought back as prizes by an expedition which was splendidly organised and most ably conducted throughout. After three weeks’ operations, the squadron dispersed.”