NOTES AND QUERIES.
IVILY does not the Home Office open a public laundry to "get up" the linen of private families throughout the United Kingdom? 00vernment is already undertaking the conduct of affairs for ma- nagers of places of business, fathers of families, and " fast " young gentlemen ; and we do not know why it should draw the line at the washerwoman. The Police have grown freshly vigorous against gaming-houses, being determined to prevent young men from going to the Devil in Jermyn Street,—as if those who are bent on the expedition could not go down one street as well as another. By means of , the Beer Act, people are prevented from having the staple drink of the British at the hour which suits them. A publican who supplies the printers of the Times has been fined for
serving refreshment at a _very early hour on Monday morning. Archdeacon Moseley proposes that education, which is compulsory for parents putting their children into a factory, should be renderea generally compulsory. Family business, it appears, is so ill-conduct- ed, that the boasted " self-government " of the English people, even within every man's castle, is to be carried on by authority. Now constant complaints are made about the getting-up of linen—the shirt-fronts speak for themselves; and we are confident the Home Office could do it better. We suppose that Lord Palmerston will next session introduce a bill for the better washing of " lingo sale en famine" by the Home Office.
An extraordinary stoppage has been put to the proceedings of those who have been getting up the "Perry defence and testimonial fund." Mr. Perry having given an order for the payment of 15001. out of the fund to himself, the treasurer has declined to re- ceive any more subscriptions, has locked up the fund in a Windsor bank, and has intimated that the presentation of the petitions to the Queen is suspended. Why is this ? Are the managers of the fund' indignant at Mr..Perry's presuming that he has a right to the proceeds ? or have they discovered that the object of their cha- ritable solicitude is not exactly what they took it for when they began ? A lawyer may accept any client, but it is awkward when a public journal and a committee adopt an injured man and after- wards see it necessary to drop him, or what is worse, to " suspend " him. Shall we have some new court-martial on this fresh execu- tion of authority ? Shall we have another appeal to the public, another testimonial fund to redress new Windsor injuries ?
Major Powys, Secretary to the Central Association in aid of the wives and families, wi,lows and orphans, of soldiers ordered to the Fast, refuses to relieve the widow of an artilleryman who died on service in the East, because the " Central Association cannot en. courage perjury and the desertion of a wife and family, and thus open the door to all heartless fathers who may run away from their families and enlist." This is a new application of the bail prin- ciple. In royal families they punish naughty princes by whipping somebody else,—or they used to do so, before the days of the Coburgs and common sense ; but Major Powys carries this casti- gation to a high pitch. Evidently the Commendatore did wrong when his stone hand fastened the retribution on Don Giovanni, in- stead of punishing Donna Elvira. On Major Powys's principle, instead of comforting Ariadne for her desertion Bacchus should have chastised her out of indignation at the conduct of Theseus.
The Greeks are the object of official suspicion and popular in- dignation, provoked by the sympathy which they show for Russia in the present war. They are accused of publicly exulting in the supposed reverses of the British, and of circulating false re- ports to mislead the public or to create disappointment; and by producing the line of conduct thus indicated, it is reckoned that they must be aiding and abetting the enemy of the country, under whose protection they reside. As Greeks have been detected in a project to burn Balaclava, the Greeks are not unnaturally suspected of entertaining plans to baulk Great Britain. It is not said whether they have betted on the success of the Emperor ? The public waxes wrathful at the Greek element, and a cry is raised against " Sinon " on the Stock Exchange and in the public-house ; for these sharp praetitioners get protection and profit out of England, and do not repay the advantages even by decorous sympathy with their entertainers. " Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes " ; but when the Greek makes no gifts—when the Englishman does not see the colour of his money—fear is converted to dislike. An alien act is demanded, or a sentence from Judge Lynch. Milder measures might be more appropriate. We do not often tax foreigners ; but what just cause or impedi- ment is there why we should not take a material guarantee for Greek obedience to the laws of hospitality ? Suppose we were to grant for C.ireeks a permit of residence in this country, with a daily fee to a handsome amount ; the fee to be payable every
twenty-four hours until the Czar shall have submitted? '
They manage things oddly in Christ's Ilospitg. Dr. Jacob, the Head Master, has been dismissed for preaching a sermon =the day of St. Mathew,—an important holiday in the school,—in which he reviewed its intellectual and moral atate, and expressed an opinion that it demands great improvement in order to place it on a level with the demands of the age. The Governors it seems, object to truth in the pulpit, when it comes home to themselves. Years ago, the boys had bread and water, studied only sections of knowledge, and turned out writing-masters and geniuses : since that day the tuition has been reformed by fusing it, and the lads are fed; the result being that they turn out average boys,— who yet go about the streets without their hats, as if they still cultivated the intellectual Spartanism which_ demanded an athletic brain. More recently the Lord Mayor put in his traditional claim to be head of the great intellectual charity ; but the Governors were beaten a reform for" the age " ; so they ousted the traditional Mayor from the chief command, and substituted Major-General his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, who has paid much attention to barrack and parade business, and has a great ambition to have an important command of soldiers. After some service in the school, the Head Master discovers that it is behind the age ; and he tells the fact to the boys—in church ! And because he has disclosed the secret to the little boys, who can't do anything, the Governors, who can, dismiss the candid pedagogue; thus, it is said, follow- ing his own example in dismissing another teacher under himself, who had appealed, not to little boys in church, but to the public in the journals.
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