OUR LONDON LETTER.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1630, 21 January 1879, Page 2

OUR LONDON LETTER.

[FEOiI OtJB OWN COItSESPONDKiST

London, Dec 4th

Another Cabiuet Council was held yesterday, and lasted for more than two hours. Those who saw Ministers going to their deliberations remarked that they all looked uncommonly well. War is good for the health Lord Beacousfield himself turned up gaily in a liaht tweed suit. The other Miaisters had an appearauce of the most light hearted joviality, The rumourists will have it that tb>s is a blind, For Lord Salisbury has still a diiposition to resign, He threatened to. do so last Friday, and Mr Cross threatened to follow him, but they were both pacified by the calling of "Pariiament. Yet a new question arose, and they are said again to be mutinous. What is a denial worth ? I have heard many, and if they were ever wor th anything theu I can state to you on the most unquestionable authority that Lord Salisbury neither now nor then, neither some time since or recently has really written the fatal letter. I would tell you that war being decided, upon and Parliament being called together there. is no outstanding question between the various Ministers, but they agreed upon the future. But in the matter of denials, incredulity is the very soul of a politician. Similar statements were made when Lord-- Carnarvon resigned, also Li:d Derby's resignation was discredited in the same way. It, is quite possible therefore, that new difficulties have, arisen about the Scientific frontier, and that before tho question is settled the Cabinet will again be in pieces. The effect of that will be Iho formation of a Tory party without Imperialism. But Lord Salisbury will stay a long time before he gives in to that idea. It would again subordinate him to Lord Derby, and it would bring; him into official relationship with the very man whom last session he co;n« pared to Titus Gates.

Meantime matters go swimmingly in Afghanistan. Our troops am still advancing. Tboy have taken prisrinors nearly the whole of the Amur's advanced army. They even think that they haye bia General. I'hp hope of the Indian otSco still is that it will all 03 over iu a few weeks. When the Ameer sees that we crumple up his defences like match boxes, that no obstacle is a real one to us, and that we really mean to bring him to his knees, he will find discretion is the better part of valour and surrender. It U objected to this view that the Ameer has not that sorr, of character; and that, even if be had, lie would not dare to give way. lie is as obstinate as a mule, and his obstinacy alone made him Ameer. Were ho to prove weak now he would simply be dethroned by a betrayed people It is much more likely that he will fight until we enter Cabul ; that wo shall go in at o;ie gate while he escapes by the other, and that then from the muuntains he will incite his people against us It is an undoubted face, however, that if the war closes soon it will be the very b">.-fc thing tij.it could happen for the Government.

It may be interesting to the British public to know that at this very moment, when the question of breech, loaders and muzzleloadefs is aitcgethAC undecided, we l>ave about a hundred and twenty, thirty ei s ht ton gn ' ~( the Woolwich pattern on i and. an.\ are continuing to make them as fast as we] can. They cost an nppalling sum, and mav he snnerseded in three vears ai-erall. Letters from St.. Petersburg speak of the health of tin troops as being in a very bad state, necos-itaungdh some instances the esfahlishmpnt of a species of quarantine. Toe soldiers arriving from Turkey are believed to have brought with them the seeds of various infections diseases, at anvra'e, sickn*ss among the gnrrrison has largely in* creased since tbey have returned, and three or (our straage disorders, havin<* fin affinity to camp frver and cholera.] have broke oat air-onj the inhabitant adjacent to the barracks. The anj liinriiics *:ndee,voted to provide agains! this by the institution at. Odessa of ai systcat of disinfection, by which every individual after landing in Sussia xti& subjected to a vapor bath, and bis clothes either boiled in huge coopers or exchanged for new ones; but- to anyonf who is f imidur with the happy-go-lnckj way that Government orders are carried! out in Russia, it. is feasy to guess the! number of soldiers wh->, from disinclina-l tion to undergo the troublesome pivoi-sJ jf disinfection, managed to evade liiefl

sanitary regulations. At the bsst of times the Russian soldiers are not the cleanest of mortals, and the dirty habits they have brought back with them from the squalid camp 3 in Turkey is the reason, no doubt, for the command issued a day or two ago by the Grand Duke Nicholas that the various regiments garrisoning the Russian capital were to commence a series of route marches, in order that they might make themselves familiar with this important branch of military duty " while their barracks were'being s.veetened." General Heintz has arrived at Odessa, and has announced to the police that he is not a man to be trifled with. His predecessor, Count Levaskoff, was too easy a governor in dealing "«vith the. Nihilists, he says ; and he almost implies in his address a few days ago that the police themselves were in the pay of

the conspirators, lie is therefore going ! to reorganise the gendarmerie first, and if he catches any man conniving at the operations of the Nihilists he is determined to shoot him within twenty four

hour, —and Alexander Constantinovitch Heintz is just the man to do it. Terribly dinfigured during the Crimean war by a sholl that carried away the right side of thei face, he has since then developed a most savage temper, and has often in

Central Asia, where he has spent most of .his life, ex*cited the horror of his countrymen by his demon-like demeanour en the battlefield. At the storming of :;amarcand he displayed the utmost contempt for Ms person, and acquired a reputation for having a charmed life,. similar to that gained by Skobelloff at PleJna. To his ferocity of temper is added a most indomitable will, and they say that when in: once sets his mind on doiag a thing not even the orders of his superior are effectual iu making him relinquish it. .It is to this strange being that the Czar has entrusted the duty of weaning Odessa from the revolutionary tenor of its ways, and the contest between personal government in it-s most repulsive form and Socialism a outrance will thus be watched with eager interest

by Europe. The Porte does no! lack confidence. In other days it might even have been called presumptuous. At this present moment, for example, it is proposing to issue a loan of no less than twenty mi'lions, ami expects that the western capitalists will be content with 4 per cent, because a sinking fund is con. nscted with the business, and the surplus fund o ! Cyprus ate included in the gaarantee of course, the idea is preposterous. In the present condition of public opinion, capi'alists weuld require 15 or 20 ptr cent, and a dis. count to boot.

Iu one o! the most unpopular iic'.s of the Gladstone Govern went was the withdrawal ol troops from Isnw Zealand during the Maori war — an act of a kind wbie.h one would say a priosi the Tory G-overn-

merit, with us love ol empire, would be least likely to commit, Yet, i! the plaints of South African colonists may be trusted, this is just what is doing. True, it is not withdrawing men, hut it is refusing to semi sufficient forcts,

which amounts to the same thing. Our Utile African war threatens to «ro\v to dimensions hardly vet conceived in England. Lord Chelmsford Las an enormous frontier to defend with his small army against the brave and intelligent Zulus. 11 he happens, through misleading information, to make a mistake, it may prove irreparable. The colony may hj» overrun before the colonists themselves are fully aware of what has happened. The Government, however is ieeling acutely its financial position. Sir Stafford Nortjicote has sworn by the next general election, and by the surplus he hopes to shew ia ISBO, that no single penny shall bespent li it can b() helped So in South Africa volunt.-ers are being attracttd under [in; royal coat-of»aru>s, and the initials oi her Majesty'/sign manual, by the premise ol heavy loot and the rutiotis of a general South African affairs appear 10 me to ha Gritting in any thing but a right and safe direction, u>, army wh:ch fights fir loot is very apt to pluider, and a plundering are. y is generally a murderous army. We do not want to turn cur colonial homier grounds into a lesttnblance, however faint, of Bulgaria. It was time somebody tcok up the cudgels for the Capo Mounted Police. I have seen a good many letters iron; a young friend of mil.e who went out, and from what lie rays they have decidedly had Lard times—which he does not mind—but very irregular pay, and still more irregular diet, which he decs mind very much indeed. In the last letter 1 saw from him his soul was yearning for some cabbage. They got scarcely any vegetables; and the postsciip of his letier was triumphant; he had con.passed a cabbage at last ' Cato," who writes to the 'limes to day, lias a son out there, and besides ihe minor grievances I mention, asserts that it is against the law and against the rights of Englishmen now ; hat the police force, having Hone its duty in the field, is being charged ii to a. regiment ot Mounted Rifles, to ioice these young men to eniish in it, whetherithe wiil or not, for six years of military sei vice, wh< n most ol them went out bound to the civil authorities for three years only Many of the young fellows, however, like the change, and do not mind the lengthened term if better times come along with it. Vi ere 1 the guardian of tie Princess Tuyia ] resent very angrily lhelibeit.es whid; are beipg taken

with her name. When Priuce Louis Napoleon made her au offer of marriage, and was found agreeable to the Princess personally, but not to her father, the King of Denmark, the situation was one easily understood. But Prince Louis is a gentleman, and he never, one may be quite sure, gave any authority for the satements that he found the Princess too old for him. Doubtless the King of Denmark has Biuce been doing his best to provide his unmarried daughter with a husband, but it is something too bad that the uewspapers should makejhi r the bride of the Duke of Cumberland before she has accepted him. It is strange that the daughter of Danish monarch whom Bismarck dispossessed of part of his territories, should have her name connected with princes whose father Bismarck also deposed. Priiipe Louis would bave had a chance of being Emperor but tor Sedan. 'lhe Duke of Cumberland would have been King of Hanover but for the annexation of his kingdom to Germany It was at one time thought that the Duke would become au English subject, and Royal Highness, lie bad a few months ago, many offers from very high places tempting him to throw in his lot with us. But he would not. He eeuld not resign Lis pretensions to the throne he will never regain, lie is 33 years of age.