LATEST HOME NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4407, 13 July 1901, Page 2

LATEST HOME NEWS.

(“Spectator.”) LONDON, Mav 25. RELATIONS OF EMPERORS. It is the custom of the German Emperor to keep the birthday of the Emperor of Russia, and this year the custom was observed at Metz, where Wiliiam 11. happened to be staying. Naturally the Russian Ambassador was asked to the festival, and naturally also the Emperor proposed a toast to his brother-Sovereign, whom he once more thanked for his support of Count AValdcrseo as Commander-in-Chief in China. The incident is not alarriiing, but the French think themselves humiliated by it, as if Russia had thereby sanctioned the of Alsace-Lorraine. As the cession of Metz occurred thirty years ago, it is probable that the Czar, who was then only a child, does sanction it, but the sanction is no stronger because his Ambassador complies with a courtly etiquette. The French, however, cannot forget their lost provinces, and ask every day what, if Russia will give no help to recover them, is the value of the Alliance. Is it perhaps a privilege that France receives when she is asked, as she was on the day after the festival at Metz, to raise a Russian loan? THE SERVIAN SCANDAL. The health of Queen Draga of Servia has suddenly become a matter of acute interest to Eastern Europe. The matter i 5 in this wise. The King and Queen have for some time past expected the birth of an heir, foreign Courts have been officially warned of the expectation, and all Servia has been preparing to celebrate a safe accouchement. Of late, however, doctors have doubted, and it is now certain that the Queen is not pregnant, and doubtful from the state, of her health whether she ever will be. This is a real misfortune for Servia, as the King has no collaterals, and the enemies of the dynasty are circulating monstrous stories about an intention to foist a supposititious child upon the people. That people, being ignorant, believe the stories, and there i s danger, evidently believed by the Austrian Chancellor to he serious, of a rising either in fa vour of some other dynasty or of a Republic. Any such rising would compel Austria and Russia to interfere, and if they interfered on opposite sides the situation would be more than grave. At present, however, all is calm, for the Kino-, who was expected to divorce his wife, dines with her in sight of all men, and although the palace is specially guarded, there in no Still, Count Gbluehowski has told the Delegations that although there, is a ooninadt between St. Pete.'shurg and Vienna to keep peace in the Balkans, that pact would not hold good in the event of certain “surprises.” PRETORIA'S NEW DEFENCES. A Striking account of the new defences of Pretoria appears in Monday’s “Times.” The mucli-talked-of fortifications erected by the Boots resolved themselves, on close inspection, ten monthsago, into four “toy forts,” which could have offered no effective resistance to the heavy siege artillery brought up with great labour by Lord Roberts’s troops. Under the British occupation, however, all "this has been , changed. “Heavily armed blockhouses have been erected on sin inner circle and in such positions that every inch of spare ground between the forts- and redoubts can be swept by gun arid rifle fire. All excript the four main roads leading to the town j are closed and commanded by the I defence, and each line of fortification | is guarded bv an encircling labyrinth of barbed Wire.” The wire entanglements afe further charged with electricity, so that a stray goat cannot blunder against ! them without setting a hell ringing in the fortification itself, when an indicator at Cries- points out the precise Spot -whence the alarm has come. Furthertnorei most of the detachments actually sleep in the gun emplacements fully dressed and with their small-arms at hand. The “Times” correspondent sums up hv saving that Pretoria is absolutely safe, hut ho adds that the confidence induced by the knowledge of this fact is not of the kind l’k”lv to beget carelessness on the part of those. responsible for the defence cf the onnital. It has never been Lord Kitchener’s way to trust to improvisation in OPiern-enc’es. ’TURKISH AFFAIRS. ’There has been a muddle at Constantinople which might have become most menacing. The Sultan's fears of revolt have recently been accentuated■ by information, true or false; as to the designs of the Young Turkish party. He fancied that they communicated with each other through the foreign mailbags, which are not under the Turkish post, and, accordingly, in Turkish fashion, ordered them all to be seized; The Ambassadors, of cOutse, remonstrated indignantly, arid flndirig their protests disregarded, arranged, it is said, for a denionstratioii of warships in the Sea of Maffridra.; The Grirmrin Emperor thetetipon interfered, arid, as a devoted friend of the Sultan, advised his Majes* ty to yield and apologise, which was accordingly done, to the relief of Eu-’ rope, hut to the disgust of the Young Turks, Who are flying in every direction from Constantinople. It is impossible to obtain the exact truth as to anything that happens in Turkey; hut we fancy ffom all accounts that this time the Sultan had reason for Ins fears, that some officers of the Army had been , won over, and that a serious plot was hatching. ATROCITIES IN CHINA.

The “Times” special correspondent at Pekin draws in a letter, which appeared on the 22nd inst., a horrible picture of the ravages which the European ti'oops have comthitted in Northern China. From the mouth of the Peiho to Tientsin, and from Tientsin half-way to Pekin, “not a single village, not. a single house, has been spared.” ihe great district which is to Pekin what Surrey and Hampshire are to London was most fertile, hut to-day “not a furrow breaks the monotony of the drab-coloured waste.” All who are not dead, and there has been much massacre, have fled, traffic has ceased, even the rivers are deserted. Pekin itself has been plundered to the hare walls, the Forbidden City suffering especially at the hands of the Russians, who have sent home all the EmpressCßegCnt's accumulated treasures. Much of the looting was dong by the “Boxers” themselves, who seem to have gone mad with license; hut after the Allies entered the city there was a regular sack, with all the crimes which accompany it. The English, Americans, and Indians seem to have been guiltless of the Worst offences, hut even they joined in the plunder. \ Those of the people who remain seem thoroughly coWed, hht the “Boker” spirit, it is said, lurks within, and when the troops depart there may be horrible scenes of Vengeance, espedaily On native Christians. Every Christian will he Considered an ally of the brutal barbarism. We fail, we confess, to see the slightest justification for all

this cruelty, -which, if practised in Europe, would have covered its perpetrators with, infamy. SPEECH BY LORD LANSDOWNELord Lansdowne made on Tuesday the "important’’ speech on China which has been so largely advertised. It is important in a way, but it is not very interesting, as it only places an official stamp on well-known decisions. His Majesty's array is quitting China, three thousand three hundred men being withdrawn at ones, and the greater part ot the remainder as quickly as may be. The indemnity is fixed at L65,0(JU,000, which the Foreign Office considers excessive, though we get only one-ninth, but it has no power of reducing it. It has proposed, therefore, that the .Chinese should give bonds to each Power for tho amount of its demand, that tho bonds should bear interest, and that the interest should be charged cu certain sources of revenue, wihich would be watched over by an International Board, an arrangement, we should say, in which lurk endless opportunities for quarrel”. The external tariff is not, however, to exceed five per cent. With respect to retribution, the Powers have secured the execution of six great affenders—including none of the most guilty—arid have demanded the punishment of a number of inferior persons, whose punishment, however, tho troops will not wait to see. They will therefore probably be promoted. That is all, and to our mind it signifies that Europe retires from China, having looted Pekin, and desolated Chih-li, with a claim to a large sum of money which may or may not be paid. China survives, and the Manchu dynasty survives, entirely unreformed and savagely irritated, to plot a future scheme for complete vengeance. As regards the Concert Lord Lansdowne was- evidently dissatisfied. Manchuria, lie admitted, could not bo restored to tho Chinese until a Chinese Government had been established in the capital sufficiently .strong to guarantee Russia against a renewal of disturbances. That means, of course, that it will never be restored, any more than Egypt will he restored to tho Sultan, and why the Foreign Secretary who sees that could not say so, and say also that it matters nothing to. Groat Britain, we are at a loss to understand. We submit to a vast* and unavoidable increase of Russian territory with so had a grace that every Continental thinks we have suffered a blow, and evorv Russian celebrates a victory over “the secular encmv. Groat Britain.” Lord Lansdowne, be it noted, said in passing that in the Tientsin incident “moderation had been shown on both sed-.5,” but admitted that at one moment the situation bad become “extremely acute”; in other words, there was danger of a. rupture between this country and Russia ove,r competing railway claims to a bit of land. That is tho kind of danger we risk when we act “in harmonious concert” with Powers towards whom we are playing the part of don-in-thc-manger.

PREVENTION OF CORRUPTION. ■ In. the House of Lords on Tuesday the Lord Chancellor brought forward a simplified version of the Prevention of Corruption Bill, originally t introduced by Lord Russell of Killoweu and more recently by Lord Alverslone. Tiie measure, as originally drafted, was, in his opinion, unworkable from its complexity. Ho had now, with the approval of the Lord Chief. Justice, substituted for the confused first section the following : —“(1) If any person—(a) being an agent, corruptly, and without the knowledge of his principal, accepts” or obtains, or agrees to accept or attempts to obtain, from any person, for himself or for any other person, any gift or consideration as an inducement or reward for doing or forbearing to do any act in relation to his principal’s business, or for showing or forbearing to show favour or disfavour to any person in relation to his principal’s business; or (b) Corruptly gives or offers ally such gift or consideration to any agent, he 'shall be guilty of .a misdemeanour. (2) For the purposes of this section the expression ‘consideration includes Valuable consideration of any kind; the expression ‘agent’ includes any person-employed by or acting for another; and the expression ‘principal’ inelndCs an employer.” In its altered form the Bill guarded against tlie possibility bf action being taken for the- giving of trifling and innocent gifts —such as “tips’’ tb railway' porters—as well as against the creation of new fields of activity for blackmailers, it being enacted that no proceedings coilld be t&ken without the consent of the An tOrneyidenel-al or Solicitor-General. After Lord Alverstone had explained the motives which induced him to assent to the substitution of the smaller and more workable measure, the Bill was read ia first time. THE KING’S ESCAPE-

The King has had a happy escape from what might have been serious or even fatal injury. On Wednesday his Majesty had gone oh board Sir T. Liptcm’s rating yacht. Shamrock ll.j at Cowes, and the veSSfel whs just starting on a trial trip whfen, the bowsprit snapped, the niainraaSt “buckled,” and all phils and Spdfs went over til© side. The King whs standing in the compan-ion-way, and but that the wreckage cleared ” the side; the vessel having a strong list, ho might have been struck, or. as one correspondent reports, Shamrock 11, might herself have capsized. The King, who was perfectly cool, was immediately taken off by another yacht, and returned to London, Where a report of the accident, for once not exaggerated, had created great excitement, DEATH OF A PROMISING STATESMAN,

Sir Courtenay Boyle, this Permanent Secretary to the Board of Trade, who died suddenly last Sunday at the age of fifty-sis, wag a Public servant of the best type, Ha was twice private secretary to Lord Spencer in Ireland, and rendered invaluable aid to his chief in the troubled years of 1882-86, For the last fifteen years of his life lie was connected with the Board of Trade,, first ag Assistant-Secretary to the Railway Department, ftnd since 1893 as permanent head Or the Department. The work of the Board of Trade has grown enormously in magnitude and multifariouaness during that period, but Sir Courtenay Boyle never spared himself in his to cope with the ever-increas-ing burden of responsibility laid upon his shouldere. Within a few days of his death he had been speaking in Liverpool on commercial education, a subject in which he Whs deeply interested, and it is a signal proof of his devotion to duty that, though tu keen aM successful sportsman, he was never known to take the regulation holidays of the service, In a word, though natnrally versatile, with a pretty taste for art and letters, and an athlete's love of pastime, he took for his motto nott multa sed muitum, and con cent rat. ed himself on the work of his office With an energy that doubtless shortened his life. A NEW BISHOP. The vacant bishopric of -Oxford has been filled by the appointment of Dean

Paget. The Bishop designate, who ia just fifty, worthily maintained the repute ot Shrewsbury scholarship by a brilliant academic career. Ho has been in succession a College Fellow and Tutor, the vicar of a country living, Cancn of Christ Church, and Regius Professor of Pastoral Theology, and for the last nine years, as Dean of Christ Church, head of the largest Oxford College. A fine scholar and a learned theologian, Dean Paget adds to his intellectual equipment the urbanity kindness, as well ns the industry, which, distinguished his honoured and illustrious father, whom lie also resembles in the curious fecility of his occasional oratory. It is hardly necessary to add that the appointment has been received with general satisfaction. SCOTLAND AND IRELAND.

The population of Scotland as revealed by the new census now exceeds that of Ireland by 15,411. the figures being, for Scotland, 4.471,957. and for Ireland, 4,456,546. Nevertheless Scotland, which is enormously the richer country, has only 73 members, whilo Ireland has 103. Where is the justice or tho policy of that? We might add that England contributes 80 per cenf. of the revenue, and has little more than 70 per cent, of the representation, but that it is so useless to plead the cause of the silent “senior partner.”