ENGLISH NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 584, 4 April 1870, Page 3

ENGLISH NOTES.

{From the Spectator.) The Commissioner of Agriculture in the United States reports that the agriculture of the South is rapidly reviving. The cotton produced in 1868 reached 2,380,000 bales, and that of next year is expected to reach 2,700,000 bales, of which 40 per cent at least will be manufactured within the Union. Eighty-six mills are already at work in the South alone, all earning large dividends. The " sugar interest is rapidly attaining its former proportions," and fruit culture acquiring a promiuence it never before enjoyed, vineyards of hundreds and orchards of thousands of acres having been planted, besides great orange groves. In the summary of the report, which we have seen, nothing is said about tobacco, but there seems no diminution in the supply, and the agriculture of the South may be considered almost renewed. The Secretary of the American Navy curiously confirms the view which we recently put forward about the conj dition of our own. We said that de- | spite all the talk in Parliament we had now no reason to fear America or any other maritime power, and were accused of talking buncombe. The American Secretary now declares that our war vessels are models of strength and swiftness ; that we have 191 of them to 43 American^ besides the flying squadron ; and that the " first sign of a foreign war would send the American Navy hurrying ignominiously to their own shores." All that does not make an American war less formidable, for forty millions of energetic men, situated as they are, can improvise anything ; but it does show that for the present we are well prepared to cope with the most formidable maritime powers. To hear some people talk, an American war would not only be the greatest calamity to the world

— which is quite true — but the signal for the extinction of Great Britain. Lord St. Leonards publishes a letter in the Times stating that he and his family are the victims of constant annoyance from some person who sends orders in his name to different tradesmen. In on 9 instance, his name was forged by tracing to an order directing Mr Emmanuel to make seven lockets ornamented with diamonds, which his Lordship wished to present to his seven daughters. The lockets were to cost dS3O each, and to be sent to some place to be afterwards fixed. It is doubtful, however, if the forger intended theft, for another order by telegraph directed a sculptor to re-marble a neighbouring tomb, an order which could bring no advantage to him who uttered ifc. The probability seems to be that some educated person — he uses Athena?um Club paper — is from vindictiveness carrying out a plan of annoying Lord St. Leonards, If such attempts were frequent we should have to modify our laws, for life might, with the complicated arrangements of our civilization, easily be made unbearable. A well-informed writer, who describes the Gold Panic in New York for Fraser's Magazine, adds a little to our knowledge of that transaction. It appears tbat the Ring made money after all, the writer alleging that they kept their good bargains bufc repudiated their bad ones, but the greatest winner was " Commodore " Vanderbilt, whom they had attacked. The old speculator owned three railways, and during the panic their stocks were sacrificed at almost any loss. He bought all that were offered at low prices, and all the discredited shares in three other railways besides. When the panic cleared away and reaction set in, Vauderbilfc's stocks became " wildly buoyant," one iv particular rising 14 per cent in a single night. The old man cleared an enormous fortune, and acquired the mastery of three other railways, now owning " six long, valuable, and prosperous lines of railroad." In other words, he personally owns so many shares that he can appoint the directors of those lines, and dictate the policy without consulting anyone. The will of the late Marquis of Westminster has been published, and is a complete refutation of the stories which have for some time been going about. The new Marquis, of course, gets most of his father's estates — the London properties, Cheshire, and Welsh properties — that goes without talking ; bufc the second son is not left without " pittance," unless, indeed, we interpret the word by an unfair comparison. He gets the Dorsetshire estates, whatever they are, and the whole residue, including we know not what of land, and the larger part of £800,000, under which fche personalty is sworn. It is true, the Marchioness has a life-interest in it all ; but that has nothing to do with the general argument, which is, that it is unfair to strip a second son. It is unfair, after his mother's death. If there be such a thing as a natural heir, surely the wife goes before, not. after, the children. She always does in Prussia, and would in England, but that we practically attach certain duties to the heir, and therefore make it needful that he should have certain property. A reversionary interest in a million or so would quite content most men. The Emperor of the French received everybody, as usual, on New Tear's Day. He told the Diplomatic Body that their presence was a proof of the good relations between France and all foreign powers ; the Senate, that it had modified the Constitution very properly ; the clergy that they were " zealous in spreading the doctrines of abnegation and Christian charity ; and the Deputies that " never bas an understanding between us been more necessary or more advantageous. The new circumstances which have arisen have increased your privileges without diminishing the authority I hold from the nation. In sharing responsibility with the great bodies of the State, I feel more confident of overcoming the difficulties of the future. When a traveller, after a long journey, relieves himself of a portion of his burden, he does not thereby weaken himself; he gathers fresh strength to continue on his course." That depends. If the traveller is going up hill, laying down his alpenstock

may lighten him without helping him much. We shall yet have to make assassination a special crime in Ireland, and pursue, try, and punish assassins by exceptional means, as the Indian Government does Thugs. The impunity accorded by opinion to agrarian murder, under an impression that it resembled an act of war rather than an ordinary crime, seems to be demoralizing the public conscience. A man has now been assassinated for buying too many eggs. Mr Walsh, a dealer in eggs in county Mayo, contrived by activity and capital to obtain a sort of control of the egg market, out of which he made money. His prosperity annoyed his rivals, he was threatened, j and on Jan. 1, as he was driving from Tuam, a man advanced, placed a pistol right against his stomach, and lodged 'the ball in it. He cannot, of course, survive ; but there is no chance with | the present system of the capture of the assassin, who, in fact, could be detected only by tho French system of cross-examination. In Ireland Tropmann must have escaped. According to a telegram dated 11th November, and published in London on Jan. 6, Sir Rutherford Alcock has succeeded in making a new treaty with the Chinese Government. Under its provisions fche Chinese surrender all right to levy transit duties, in consideration of an increase in the tariff from 5 to 7| per cenfc. ad valorem, an increase in the duty on opium, which will henceforward be 50 taels a chest, and a double export duty on silk. I They give ua a port in Hainau and two ports on the Yangfcse, some kind of right of entry into the Poyang Lake, and the right of working certain coal mines. Details and explanations are still required ; but at first sight this treaty looks to us as if Sir Rutherford had rather postponed the interests of India and Lancashire to those of the trading houses in China itself. They will benefit by the new stations and the coal mines and the traffic on the lake, while India will lose some revenue, and Lancashire a considerable demand for her goods. As for the silk duty, that will be a mere bonus to the Japanese and Italian ailk-growers.