NEWS FROM HOME.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4012, 25 December 1874, Page 6 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM HOME.

(from our owk correspondent.)

Edinburgh, October 29th. ~~ DB, BiWO OU SELF-SUPPORTING CRIMINALS. Dr Begg read before the Social Science Con<'re3S°on the Ist inst. the paper mentioned in my last letter, on "Criminals Self-sustaining in New Zealand." He adduced the example of Dunedin m the matter, and gave a sketch of your prison system and its results. He also expressed his pleasure at seeing from the Howard Society's annual report that criminal labour was beginning to be made self-sus-taining in England, where the Governor of Devonport Gaol expected to have a surplus over all expenses of about £100. Another result of making the prisoners in this Gaol do their own work had been in thirteen years to reduce the number of civil prisoners from 77 to 11. Dr Begg advocated the extension of this system to the so-called " work-house," which, he said, had become to a large extent, an "idle house." He believed that were both criminals and paupers made to work, not only the public burdens, but crime and pauperism them- . selves would be diminished. Several speakers concurred in Dr Begg's views, "•"" among them being Sheriff Barclay, of Perth. The Governor of Edinburgh Prison said that the shortness of many of the sentences pronounced would prevent criminal Jabour from being self-supporting. Dr Begg, in replying, said he thought Eliort terms of imprisonment were a great mistake. He suggested also that the prisoners should be employed in reclaiming land—doubtless in consequence of what he had seen of. their labours in this direction at Dunedin. THE PRINCE 6F WALES's DEBTS. On the very day that my last letter _wa3 despatched, a long and palpably inspired statement on this subject was published by thoTimes. The substance of this statement is as follows :—The Prince has not been able to live within his income, as " from his first entrance into public life, the ex__petfScs -of his position were larger than had been anticipated." These expenses were largely swelled by the Prince being, immediately after his marriage, "called upon to assume a relation to English Bociety and to foreign Royalties, which does not necessarily, or even usually, fall to subjects, however near the throne.'' Then follows an enumeration of the places iv which the Prince has had to ,-.... fulfil these duties, which did not properly devolve on him. The result has been that the Prince has been living beyond his income at the rate of from £10,000 to £20,000 annually, and thi3 excess has hitherto been defrayed out of the ftcoutuulated revenues of the, Puchy

of Cornwall, which had grown con-' siderably during the Prince's minority. In other words, the Prince has been living on his capital, and the Times naively adds that " a time may come when this resource will be exhausted." This statement, which is written with evident care and circumspection throughout, has evoked much comment. As far as I have been able to learn, the general opinion appears to be that the Prince's case is a hai'd one, but that still no ground exists for tho country voting a further increase of his income. Whilo it is admitted that tho Prince of Wales's income is insufficient to enablo him to perform the duties of Royalty, it is obected that no attempt has been made to show that the sum the country pays for the performance of these duties is insufficient. In plain words, people say that it should be shown that the public income of the Queen is insufficient for this purpos3, but that if she gets paid for work which the Prince of Wales peri forms for her, she ought to reimburse . him for the expenses he thus incurs on i her behalf. In language quite as plain as i this the matter has been stated in several high-class journals. On the other hand, the London correspondent of the Man- ', Chester Guardian declares, "on good i authority," that the implication contained in the Times's statement—which every one acknowledges as emanating originally , from the Prince of Wales—that the , Prince has got into debt by undertaking t the Queen's duties, is controverted by tho Queen herself, though it is in the highest l degree improbable that any public notice . of it will be taken by her. So the matter , stands at present, but it is very likely , that more will be heard of it during the j next session of Parliament. One thing is abundantly clear, if the Prince of Wales '. goes on encroaching upon his capital withi out receiving relief either from his mother . or the country, the time must come when ; his pecuniary affairs will require to be more publicly enquired into than they i have been of late. In these matter-of-fact days Princes must pay their way like j other people. ) OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITIES, I The question of the endowments of these ■ Universities —how much they amount to, I and how they are disposed of—is begin- > ning to attract public attention. During ' the sitting of the Social Science Congress » apaper on the subject was read by Mr ■ C. Stewart Parker, who stated the annual i incomes of these two Universities (includJ- ing the Colleges and Halls) tobeasfolr loows :—Oxford, £414,000 ; Cambridge, i £340,000; total, £754,000. He expected, 7 also, that in 15 years, through the falling t in of a number of beneficial leases, the • aggregate income of tho Universities t would be increased to £918,000 yearly. 3 Since tho reading of Mr Parker's paper 3 the report of a Commission appointed to - inquire into the subject has been issued, 3 From this report it appears that Mi » Parker's estimate of the University i revenues was almost precisely correct, s within about £400 or so. One-third oi 3 their enormous total is spent upon Fellow--3 ships, and on all sides it seems to be ad- - mitted that there is much need for rei form in this particular. Some figures - given by the Scotsman regarding the re--5 lative teaching staff and number of stui dents in the Universities of Oxford and r Cambridge on the one hand, and those oi s Edinburgh and Glasgow on the other, are a both interesting and instructive. The - twoenormously wealthy English Universi- - ties have between them three thousand four hundred students, while the two starved I Scottish ones have 3100. In Oxford and - Cambridge there are 360 teachers, of all - grades—professors, lecturers, and tutors ; t while in Edinburgh and Glasgow there c are only 93. That is to say, in the t former there is one teacher to every nine 1 students, and in the latter one teacher to a every 33 students. The cost of managing '- the two Scottish Universities is not menbi tioned, but at Cambridge it amounts to v £80,000 a year, and at Oxford to no less c than £110,000. Altogether, the pubv lished figures appear to show, and public r opinion seems clearly to discern the fact, i that a great reform is required in the ad c ministration of the incomes of Oxford >t and Cambridge, and that, as the Scotsmar 3 puts it, " the representatives of the natioi 1. should have some direct control over the ', administration of what are essentially na t, tional funds." Fat sinecures are op c posed to the Bpirit of the age, and war ii c being declared against them everywhere— y in the Universities now as in other placei before them.

THE CHURCH CONGRESS,

The annual Congress of the Church of England was opened with greai splendour at Brighton on the Gth inst,, and sat for three days. The meetings were attended by very large and fashionable audiences, but the proceedings seem to have been very barren of anything remarkable, save scandal. At one of the first sittings some blunt, outspoken remarks on Romanism, by Colonel Bartelot, M,P., who, always speaks with military directness and courage, created a perfect storm, and " rowdy" is the only word that can be correctly used to describe the conduct of the reverend individuals assembled on. the oscasion. Two important papers on Church Patronage were read, the former being contributed by the Bishop of Lincoln, and the latter by Canon Ashwell. The Bishop's paper stated, inter alia, that there are now 7000 livings in England and Wales under private patronage. The annual value of these livings is nearly £2,000,000, representing a capital sum of about £17,000,000. The Canon's paper was strong in its denunciation of the abuse of this private patronage—an abuse which he declared to be "scandalous." He read the following inducements to intending purchasers of livings, selected from a single issue of a Church paper:—" A living where the population was scanty ; a lying within a 4s Gd ride from London ; a living near a yachting station ; a living with a rookery in the garden ; a living with the incumbent nearly eighty." On another occasion a great disturbance was created by Dr Hayman, ex-headmaster of Rugby School, who indulged irv a savage and wanton attack upon his illustrious predecessor, Dr Arnold, whom he charged with being the cause of a great portion of the scepticism of the present day. Among three persons whom ho adduced as examples of Arnold's kfluence in this direction, Dr Hayman had the bad taste to name Mr Congrevo, one of his former subordinates at Rugby School —a dirty way of gratifying a private grudge. His remarks, however, called forth so much disapprobation that he had to sit down, and a speech made immediately after him by a reverend gentleman named Wright, who warmly defended the illustrious dead, was enthusiastically applauded. The Congress will meet at Stoke-upon-Trent next year. THE POPE EXPELLED FROM THE MASONIC BODY. An extraordinary story is told —on the authority of a Masonic paper published at Cologne—by the Pall Mall Gazette, which appears t® fully credit it, though I confess that there are circumstances attending it which render its correctness doubtful. It is that, at a meeting of the Grand Lodge of the Orient, held at Palermo, a decree was issued expelling the Pope, who is a Freemason," from the Masonic body, on account of his violating his oath by persecuting its members. This decree is further said to be signed by no less a person than King Victor Emanuei, in his capacity a3 Grand Master of the Lodge. It seems that initiatory steps towards this end were taken so far back as 18G5, but were suspended till the Pope's action in regard to the Freemasons in Brazil caused matters to come to a climax. It is a somewhat suspicious circumstance, however, that this decree is said to bear the date, March 17th, and yet has only just been made public. If tfye story is true, it is rather a good, joke

to find Victor Bmanuol thus repaying old Pius for excommunicating him. ROMISH RUMOURS AND REALITIES. A great deal of stir was made at the beginning of tho month, in consequence of" the publication of rumours that a leading English Duke had joined tho Church of Rome, and that his wife was expected to do so in a few days. The nobleman pointed at was tho Duke of Northumberland, ami the Daily Telegraph telegraphed to Alnwick to learn whether the nows were true or not. Tho answer came back that it was, and that tho Duke had been admitted into the Romish Church by the Papal Bishop of Beverley. Thereupon the Telegraph announced these particulars, and they were reproduced by almost every daily paper in the Kingdom. It turned out, however, that the statements were untrue, and next day the papers had to eat their words, including some longwinded and lachrymose leading articles, the Duke himself declaring the announcement to be a foul.slander and baseless calumny. It may be added that the Duke is one of the mainstays of the Catholic Apostolic Church, or Irvingite body, and that his wife is a daughter of the late Mr Drummond, the London banker, who is well known in connection with the Trvingitos. The Pope, however, though disappointed of the English Duke, obtained the consolation a day or two later of receiving another titled person into the "Mother Church," in the shape of the Dowager Queen of Bavaria, a lady whose existence everybody appeared to have forgotten until reminded of it in this connection. It seems she has long felt disposed to end her days in a convent, though why she couldn't do so without telling all Europe about it is.hard to see. An Ultramontane paper states that when the Pope heard of her perversion he burst into tears, and exclaimed, lifting up his eyes to heaven, "My God ! thy poor vicar is unworthy of such consolation." I am sorry to add that this story has been productive of much heretical merriment. SCOTCH NEWS. The citizens of Edinburgh were lately afforded an opportunity of both seeing and hearing Jacob Wainwright, the NasBik boy, whose name will be familiar to your readers in connection with the death of Dr Livingstone. Jacob was present at two lectures delivered in Edinburgh on the 6th and Bth inst., by Mr E. Hutchinson, F.E.G.S., the Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, on the East African Slave Trade. At the close of each lecture Jacob told the audience himself what connection he had had with Livingstone. I heard him on the occasion of the-second lecture, which was delivered in the Free Church Assembly Hall, and even that magnificent apartment was filled to overflowing,, numbers being unable to obtain admittance. Jacob was most enthusiastically received, and his statement, which occupied about 25 minutes in delivery, was constantly interrupted by applause. He is a pure negro of the very blackest hue, and with features of the genuine negro type. He is thickset, and only about five feet in height. He speaks English exceedingly correctly and with a good accent, but very slowly. His modest, straightforward manner entirely won the favour of his hearers, who applauded him to the echo when he sat down. When the proceedings terminated Jacob was quite mobbed by young ladies anxious to shake hands with him. He took their assaults —for really that is the correct word—with the greatest good nature, and when I left the hall he was still surrounded by a bevy of excited damsels, who were all talking to him at once and struggling for a grasp of his hand. 1 have omitted to mention that he wore one of the coats last worn by Dr Livingstone—a light tweed sac coat, which fitted him well.

Old Aberdoniana will hear wifch much regret of the total destruction, by fire, of the East Parish Church, in the Granite City. The (ire was observed about 7.15 p.m. on the 9th inst, while a prayer meeting was being held in the church ; and the people had barely time to get out before the building was fairly in the grasp of the flames, which ran aLng the roof and up the spire, which was made of oak, sheatned with load. The latter poured down in molten streams, and the blazing spire lit up the surrounding streets with a light as bright as that of day. At 9.20 the roof fell in with a tremendous crash, and, seven minutes later, the spire did the same, the scene then being one of great grandeur. It was not till 9.40, or an hour and 25 minutes after the alarm was given, that the Fire Brigade was actively at work, and by that time their services were of avail only to save the West Church from sharing the fate of its sister edifice, from which it was separated by a spacious aisle. Happily, their efforts were successful, though at one time the West Church also was on fire. The East Church was a very handsome building, and it had lately been fitted up inside in a very complete style. The Church itself dated from before the Reformation. In its spire was one ot the finest peals of bells in Scotland, two of the bells having been presented 300 years ago to another Church by a Provost of Leith, in atonement for taking the life of a bailie. The total money loss is estimated at £15,000, but no money can compensate for the disaster. Several persons were injured during the fire, and one of them subsequently died. The fire is believed to have been caused by the overheating of a " sunlight," which had been undergoing some alterations.

Lord Walter Campbell, a younger son of the Duke of Argyle, has been admitted a member of the London Stock Exchange.

A great walking feat was performed lately by a pedestrian who calls himself " Professor " Poplin. The feat consisted in the walking,' between Kilbarchan and Johnstone, of 40 miles in eight hours, exclusive of two hours devoted to meals. The performance was witnessed by a great many people. The shipbuilding returns of the Clyde for the first nine months of this year show a largo increase in the tonnage built as compared with the corresponding period of 1873. Dundee is going in heavily for town improvements. The Improvement Commissioners during the past year have spent £100,000 in purchasing property, and have sold sites to the value of £45,000. A bridge, also, has been erected over the Dens, connecting Victoria street with Victoria Road (formerly known as Bncklemaker Wynd), and will be of great use to the east end of the town. It is a very substantial piece of work, and has cost £3500.

A statue of Alexander Wilson, the poet and ornithologist, was unveiled in Paisley, his native town, on the Bth inst. The statue is a bronze one, 7gft, high, on a granite pedestal 10ft. in height. Wilson is represented as leaning against the stump of a tree, admiring a bird which he holds in his hand, while at his foet are his hat and portfolio, on the latter of which rests a little blue parrot that was his companion in his American, forest wanderings. The ancient Abbey of Dunfermline, being reported to be in a ricketty condition, Lord Henry Lennox, First Commissioner of Public Works, lately visited it, and has promised that the necessary repairs shall be effected. Notwithstanding that Ihe dock accommodation of Leith has been nearly doubled during the last few years, another large dock is about to be constructed there at a cost of £370,000. It will cover an area of three acres and a half, and will take five years to construct. It will be to the east of all the existing docks. The island of Ilasay has been sold by its owner, Mr G. G. Mackay, of Inver-nf-H", to Mr Armitage, of London, for £62 000,

A curious cj,uarr.e,J. h^ t^ken plage b?-

tween the Rev. Mr Mackie,, of St. Mary's Church, Dumfries, and his beadle. I have not been able to gather the whole of the facts, but from what I have learned it apjears that Mr Mackie among other thingß accused his beadle of sitting in the seasion-house smoking, instead of attending the service. The beadle in his defenco admitted being in the sessionhouso instead of the church, but declared that ho was kept there making tea for Mr Mackie. The latter applied in tho Sheriffs Court to have not only the beadle dismissed, but the church trustees as well —probably because they sided with Buraulo (if it is not libellous to call ; him so). The sheriff has decided in favour of the laymen, but the minister is determined not to be deterred by this check from " having the law of'his contumacious subordinate and his abettors. -

The pneumatic gas has been introduced into the works of Messrs Hally and Co., ■ Ruthvon Yale, Auchterarder. The turning on of the gas was celebrated with a grand ceremony/ at which between 600 and 700 persons were present. The cost of this gas is between 4s and 5s per 1000 feet, while the ordinary gas at the same place costs 9s 7d per 1000 feet. The new gas is equal in strength to 20^ candles per light, and is said to be fully equal to that supplied in Liverpool and Manchester, and superior to tliat used in London, Birmingham, and other large towns in England. A iine new Infirmary was opened at Glasgow on the 27th inst. It "is situated on D°onaldshill, close to the new University Building on Gilmorehill, and stands in grounds of its own, twelve acres in extent. The "• building consists of nine blocks, and the number of beds available at present is 200, though it will ultimately reach 350. There are three medical theatres of capacious dimensions within it, and the arrangements generally appear to be of a very complete description. The total cost of the Infirmary, when it is completed, will not be less than £100,000. An Archaeological Museum has been opened at Alloa. Scarlet and typhoid fevers are very prevalent in many parts of Scotland at present, especially in the counties of Midlothian, Stirling, and Kinross.