PASSING NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3426, 3 April 1879, Page 3

PASSI NG NOTES.

(From the Spectator.)

Tho falrugglo between the labourers in Kent and the farmers who locked them out lius ended in the men's departuro for New Zealand. The men, it will bo remembeivd, struck against a reduction of work, and wore then locked out till they should abandon the Union. The farmers believed that, under the pressure of the hard times, they would yield ; but the younger men determined to emigrate, and introduce into the Colony tho cultivation of Kentish hops. The Government o£ .New Zealand, which prefers, thb class of immigrants to all others, readily agreed to asfist them, and on January 29 gix hundred emigrants, most of them young men, tho pick of the country-side, started from Maidstone for l.ho Antipodes. Two hundred men had gone before, live weeks ago ; and England has,: therefore, lost perhaps half a regiment — five hundred men, every one of wiiom will,-- 1 in about two yoars, draw out two or three families, or perhaps a whole Tillage. The emigration is good for the world, and perhaps even for England, or rather for the people who livo in it, who are better as well happier at tho Antipodes than liviug here, on wages which aro not sufficient to allow of civilised life ; but it is impossible not to regret such losses, which a different tenure of the soil would, as we believe, prevent. Tho men, according to an eye-witness, who writes in the Daily Newt, all plead tho absence of any prospect of " getting on." It is extremely difficult to make out the facts as to the progress of the "Bluck Death "in Rusßia. The Government, though evidently alarmed, and willing to take the most desperate stops, oven to the burnin-,' of infected villages, with compensation to (ho people, is exceedingly avorae to let the (ruth be Known. According to the latest accounts, tho disease has diminished in Astrakhan, perhaps from having done its work ; Lu'; it nas appeared on the other side of tho Vol^n, and from the precautions taken in Saratov, it

is evidently supposed to be making its . v.-ny up the valley of that great river. The German and Austrian Governments are extremely alarmed and hare prohibited the importation of any article, especially wool and felt, likely to carry the infection. They have, moreover, to the great indignation of the Russian doctors, insisted on sending an international commission of inquiry into Russia, in which the United States take part ; while Austria, Germany, America, and even Belgium and Holland, are enforcing a strict quarantine, which will ruin the Astrachan wool market. The most sensible proposal appears to be burning the villages, firo Laving cleared the Plague out of London ; but it is excessively expensive, and in winter may be cruel. The Lancet should get hold of the curious accounts which must exist in the India House of the desperate precautions taken by the Bengal Government against the " Mahamurree "— apparently the same disease — in 1853-56.

The Government does not intend to allow

cremation to be practised in England without a discussion in Parliament, in which, apparently, the Home Secretary will take the adverse view. The people of Woking are furious because a Company has bought land in Woking cemetery to set up a furnace for the burning of the dead, and on Jan, 30 sent a deputation to Mr Cross about it. Tho deputation had not much to say, their spokesman, the Hon Francis Scott, being much too angry to be intelligible, and making a speech which was a sort of oath -writ large. Cremation was un-Christian, un-English, a scandal, a disgrace, and the like, all of which showed Woking opinion, but not the demerits of cremation. The speech, however, drew from Mr Cross the declaration quoted, and tho advice that the Woking experiment should be prosecuted as a nuisance. There can be no doubt that, apn-t from popular feeling, which, as usual, is right in essence and silly in expression, there is a serious objection of public polity to cremation. Tt would knock the system of inque.-t to pieces, make poisoning much more easy, and perhaps facilitate grave cases of personation. The difficulty does not arise in India, where the climate destroys identity almost as quickly as eremntion doe?.

Mr Sidney Buxton, in one of his amusing papers on animals in the Animal World for February, says that dogs and horses are, as far as he knows, the only aniinab sensible to ridicule, while cats and birds are wholly unaware that they are being laughed at. He tells of a pony of his own which gets very cross when disparaging remarks are made upon him, and " becomes furious, and stamps aboivt his stall, putting back his ears, and attempting to bite," if he is openly laughed at, while praise greatly pleases him. The truth is, that it is only those creatures which can feel sympathy with men which cm also appreciate ridicule. The horse sympathises evidently with many of his rider's feelings and amusements, while the dog can enter into no small proportion of his feelings. But birds and cats, though often exceedingly affectionate, and full of attachment to individual?, hardly ever attempt to outer into human feeliug,— as Cowper's dog "Beau," for instance, entered into the poet's desire to possess himself of the water-lily. Tho hatred of ridicule always accompanies a capacity for sympathy. Certainly dog.", and probably horses, know the difference between being laughed i*t in derision, as we laugh at a fool, and being laughed at in admiration, as we laugh at a good comic actor, and enjoy the latter as much as they recent the former. It is questionable, however, whether some parrots do not understand and enjoy the practice of making fun. of their human acquaintances,— do not appreciate tho art of duping, and take pleasure in it.

Sir Stafford Northcote's increase on the tobacco duty does nob appear to have been a success. Three-fourths of all the tobacco used in the United Kingdom is consumed by the poor, who purchase in half-ounces, and n* the extra tax cannot be divided into the amounts due on half-ounces, the tax is doubled to the smoker. Consequently, the sale of tobacco, which has steadily increased for fifteen years, has receded during the nine months o*f the operation of the new tax by 1,401,1151 b ; and tho duty, which was to have, yielded threequarters of a million, hns yielded at the rate of only £M 7,000 a year, "or only £160,000 more than it would have been under tho old rates. A deputation of tobacco manufacturers and dealers have represented these, facts to Sir Stafford Korthcote, and have asked for a remission of the extra duty. The; memorialists have, no doubt, a case ; but it is^ not, we suspect, quite so strong as they &t&; anxious to believe. They have not allowed either for the general decline in the consumption of excLeeable articles consequent on the depression, or for the way in which the old stock, which had paid tho old duty, but is charged to the public as if it had paid the now one, has been used up to the last ounce. Another twelve months must pass before the yield of tho increased duty is exactly known, and meanwhilo tho nation is none the worse for smoking a few million ounces less.

Mr R. K. Douglas writes to The Times to state that a disease similar to the spotted plague in Astrachan appeared in Yunnan, in Western China, after tho great massacres there, and was believed by tho people to come from the soil, each outbreak being preceded by a great mortality among the rats. Although no precautions were taken, the disease did not spread into any of tho surrounding provinces. This is a consoling statement, but in opposition to this is tho report, apparently official, though still to be verified, that the Astrachau Plaguo — as the disease had better bo culled, till its exact character is ascertained

— has made its appearance at a village in Tliessaly. That would mean that it is advancing westward, but the gap between Thessaly and Astrachan is a very wide one. Tho French Government has now -joined in tho international inquiry, and the Kussian Government has taken tho moat determined etepa to isolate Astrachan. Eighteen thousand troops are to bo posted as a cordon round tho province, preventing all egress until after purification ; and the villages are to be burnt to tho ground, the inhabitants being lodged in sledges or tents, and compensated for their loss. The energetic Armenian Generol Loris Mclikoff has, moreover, been despatched to the province, with authority to take any stops which may be required, Tho trial of Charles Peace, at Leeds, for tho murder of Arthur Dyson in November, 1876, ended on Fob. 4 in a verdict of guilty and a sentence of death. Tho case was in itself by no means an extraordinary one, and the extreme interest taken in the trial wus caused chiefly by the character of tho accused, a professional burglar, who was also a musician and a carver and gilder, and a man of great ingenuity und daring. In the middle of 1876, Peace had paid such attention to Mrs Dyson that Mr Dyson became jealous, and ordered Peaco to cease his visits to the

house. Pe;ico, excessively' irritated, was heard to threaten to kill Dyson, and on Nov. 29 lie did kill him. He Wl been talking to Mrs Dyson in Mio yard of tho house, when Dyson came up, und was immediately shot with Peace's revolver. Tho principal witness was Mrs Dyson, who deposed positively to Peaco as the murderer ; but an effort was made to upseb her testimony, by proving her intimate relations with Peace. She, however, adhered to her statement, which was corroborated independent testimony thus far : tlmt Peaco was there, that he had threatened Dyson, that his revolver was the weapon used, and that nobody but Peaco or Mrs Dyson could have done the deed. Tho defence was that tho death was accidental, but there was no evidence in its support.

President Hayes lias achieved an important victory. One great obstacle to any reform, in

the American Civil Service has been tho practice of nominating men to office recommended by the Senators, who naturally propose friends who have done them political service. As all

the Senators are interested in this system, they are apt, when a Prcoidont breaks looso from it, to reject his nominations, under their constitutional power. Recently, Mr Hayes has disregarded the recommendations of Mr Conk-

ling, the powerful Senator from Now York, and insisted on filling up the vacancies in the New York Custom House with men of his own selection. Mr Conkling resisted, but the President stojd fine, and on Fob. 3, after weeks of intrigue, the division showed 83 Senators to 2<X in favour of liw nominees. Wo regret to Bee, however, that the victory, which is really ore over political jobbing, was secured mainly by the nßsistaneo of tho Democrats. Twice as many Democrats as Republicans voted for the President.

On Fob. 4 it was announced that tho Queen had been graciously pleased to nominate the Rev Joseph Eurber Lightfoot, D.D., Canon of .St. Paul's, ami Margaret Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge, to fill tbo See of Durham, vacant by the resignation of Dr Baring. Observers of coincidence will bo amused to nolo that thiß nomination of the first Joseph sjncp thp time of the great Bishop Butlor to fill the See of Durham, was made known on the morning in which the lesson

for the day contains tho following passage :— " And Pharouh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the spirit of God is ? And Pharoah said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath show n i.hce all this, there is none so discreet and wist: us thou art ; thou shalt be ovor my house." Joseph, however, was promoted from a dungeon to be Pharos hV minister, while tl-o Bishop Designate of Durham is pro mole ! from a very different position -— that of the head of the divinity school in Cambridge, where he exercises a very powerful influence of a very high kind, to preside over the diocese of Durham. We can but indulge the hope that the place which will know him no longer will not lose more by the change than even the See of Durham will gain— a hope which, on our part ab least, is sincere, but not sanguine.

There has been a decided failure in the Khost Valley. We havo never joined in the attacks upon General Roberts, who has appeared to us one of those dashing though over-confident leaders who in India often do great things; but his failure in his Khosfc operations must now be admitted. He entered that valley with insufficient force, hoping to make of it a new route to Afghanistan, defeated tho Mangak appointed a new chief, and uttered words very like a pledge of annexation. The moment lie retired, however, the Mangals re-assembled and up?et his nominee, and he was obliged to return to defend him. He did not defend him. Ho rescued him, took all treasures out of the fort at Makhoond and burnt the gram, and then retreated to Snbbery covered by the cavalry, who were severely pressed. "General Roberts has, therefore abandoned the Khost for the present, convinced that similar disturbances will bo incessant." Tins is the statement of the correspondent of the Standard, who, though too obviously contemptuous of General Roberts has not yet been wrong in his facts, and whose telegrams are read by a staff officer before their despatch. Ho telegraphs on the 30th ull and clearly intends to say that General .KobeWs has failed, ns every officer so situated will fail. The people of the hills are ngainst us, and until wo can conciliate them, or bridle them with permanent garrison?, wo shall bo masters only of tho ground we si and cm. We do not believe conciliation impossible, if we raise native Highland regiments, but the popular idea of our successes is unfounded A British force north-west of the Suleiman passes anywhere, like a knife through water But you cannot cut water, and the knife rusts.

Ihe Sultan is ill. The Sultan has been alarmed by a new plot, and has dismissed the Minister of Police, and lias ordered the guards to be changed every day. The Sultan has received the draft of tho final treaty with Russia, but delays signing it. The Sultan objects to the arrangement with Greece suggested by his Ministers, and says he is asked to sign^ away 3ome territory or other every day. The Sultan is anxious about the cuimes, and has dismissed Zuhdi Pasha, Minister of Finance, who promised to iiring them up to par, but has brought them down to less than one-fourth of their nominal value. These aro the prominent items of intelligence from Constantinople, and they all mean tho same thing, that the only source of power left in Turkey is the Sultan, and that ho is entirely incompetent to cope with his position, or, indeed, to understand it. Ho is Khalif— why does not the paper currency rice to pay, when he orders that it should ? Some faint idea of what his position should bo, as Head of Islam, is, however, never quite absent from Abdul Hamid's mind. He is a<min asking Sir Henry Layard for English" money, but cannot bring himself to sell Cyprus outright, even to put the caimes straight. At least, that is the most, reasonable interpretation of the statement that the British Government had offered to buy Cvprno, and the official denial that any such "offer had been made. It never was made, because it was ascertained that it would not be accepted.