NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Treaty of peace between Denmark and the two leading German Powers was signed on the 30th October. Its main pro- visions are, as expected, that Holstein, Lauenburg, Schleswig, and the " enclaves" of Jutland shall be ceded to Austria and Prussia ; that the Northern boundary line shall be drawn from Christiansend to Stenderiip ; that the Duchies shall pay to Denmark the interest on 3,500,000/. of her debt ; that tho Duchies receive in return some portion not yet stated of Danish property ; that. Denmark restore all ships and cargoes captured by her in the war or their equiva- lents, and that three weeks shall bs allowed for the exchange of ratifications, and three more for the withdrawal of the Prussians from Jutland. We have denounced this treaty in fitting terms elsewhere, but we may add here that it has still to be accepted by the Rigsraad, or General Assembly of the Danish Monarchy, and that General Falkedsteiu, to coerce the vote of that body, has threatened by proclamation that if in three weeks the ratifications are not exchanged he will recommence his systeni of eviscerating Jutland with additional severity.
General Falkenstein, commanding the Prussian troops in Jut- land, has issued an order to the Commissioners of Forests in the Peninsula ordering them to cut down timber sufficient to make up the " deficiency in the revenue,"— i, e., the difference between the taxation of Jutland and the amount required to feed and pay his army. The order cannot be executed until after the signature of the final Treaty of Peace, but it will be none the less carried out, the theory of General Falkenstein being that a province honoured by the presence of Prussian invaders is bound to pay for their keep. It is fortunate for those invaders that Jutland is not like Holland—below the sea-level.
The trial of Miller ended on Saturday afternoon in a verdict of " Guilty," and Baron Martin immediately passed sentence of death. The prisoner acknowledged the fairness of his trial, and did not assert his own innocence, but declared that he had been convicted on false evidence. The German Legal Protection Society, who paid the expenses of his defence, have since resolved to present a petition for a reprieve on the ground of new evidence. They say they have found a man who on the night of the murder had a pair of bloody trousers flung at his window, and saw a cab with four men in it, to whom he spoke complaining of the damage done. One of these men had his head bandaged, and it is suggested that he, and not Midler, was the murderer. The statement seems to be true, but the probability is that the bandaged person had been injured in some row wholly unconnected with the murder of Mr. Briggs.
It is worth while to mention that the election of President takes place on Tuesday next, the 8th inst.
The most important news from America received late this day week by the Manchester Examiner, but not transmitted by the agents of either Mr. Reuter or the Times, is a fresh testimony to the ability of the youngest of the Federal commanders, General P. H. Sheridan. Sheridan had been at Washington, and was at Winchester, on his way back to join his army in the Shenandoah Valley, when long before light on the morning of the 19th of October General Longstreet, who has, it seems, superseded General Early in command of the Confederate army, ordered an attack on the Federals at Cedar Creek. The surprise was perfectly success- ful, and General Wright, who had been left in command by Sheridan, was. defeated, with the loss of twenty-four pieces of artillery.
Sheridan hearing the cannonade, hastened from Winchester, found his army, which had been driven back four miles, between Middle- town and Newtown, united the corps, and formed a compact line of battle just in time to repulse a fresh attack of the enemy made an hour before noon. By three in the afternoon, after changing his cavalry from his left to his right, he attacked, drove the enemy back, recaptured his twenty-four pieces of artillery, and captured twenty more, together with many waggons, trains, ambulances, caissons, and 1,600 prisoners. The losses on both sides were heavy. General Grant says in his despatch, " Turning what bid fair to be a disaster into a glorious victory stamps Sheridan, what I have always thought him to be, one of the ablest of generals." It was scarcely creditable to Mr. Reuter to have failed in sending this important telegram by the China via Cape Race.
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Mr. Roger B. Taney, died last month in the eighty-eighth year of his age. The correspondent of the Times in lamenting over his death gives a letter written on the last anniversary of his birthday, lamenting that he hadfallen on evil times. No one had contributed more to darken them than himself. He was an able lawyer, but so violent a partizan of Slavery and the Democratic party that he was guilty of the famous Dred-Scott decision, in which he held, in the teeth of the Constitution, that free negro% could not be citizens of the United States, but only within the jurisdiction of particular States ; secondly, that the provision of the Missouri Compromise Act prohibiting Slavery north of 36 deg. 80 min. was unconstitu- tional; lastly, that slaves taken by their owners into a State pro- hibiting slavery remained slaves still. An unjust judge, he pro- bably did more than any man of his time to precipitate the conflict which he bewailed.
The proposal to endow the Greek Professorship has again been defeated in the Hebdomadal Board by a majority of one, so that this time it will not get so far as Convocation. Dr. Pusey, having satisfied his conscience by the clause refusing the sanction of the University to Mr. Jowett's opinions, again voted in favour of the endowment, in spite of a violent letter recently addressed to him by Archdeacon Denison reproaching him with deserting the cause of the Church. Archdeacon Denison thinks it doing evil that good may come to endow Professor Jowett in order that he may not gain the popularity consequent on martyrdom for his opinions, and he prophesies that his own followers will remain true to hint against the man whose writings have been condemned by a Synod. Probably it may be so, but Professor Jowett is uncon- sciously swelling the number of his own supporters every year, and Archdeacon Denison will grieve over the lessening roll-call of his own followers at each succmaive act of persecution. Dr. Pusey is not exactly a man of the world, but he is more a man of the world than Archdeacon Denison.
The expedition sent out by Sir Rutherford Alcock to destroy Simonosaki and force an entrance into the Inland Sea has been successful, the batteries having been silenced and the place taken. The Japanese appear to have made a most gallant defence, the struggle, according to an account put forth by the British Admiralty, having continued three days. Sixty bronze guns, 24-pounders and 36-pounders, have been taken away, and the Japanese have sued for peace. The loss of life on the side of the Allies is said to have been small, and no officer was killed. The loss of life on the other side is not stated ; but the Japanese were in this instance hopelessly in the wrong, and after maintaining the contest for three days with sixty pieces of cannon cannot fairly plead weakness. The event gives us free entrance into the Inland Sea, an open road through the very heart of Japan.
Signor Boggio, member of the Italian Parliament, asserts in a pamphlet recently published that Jules Fevre is no friend to the unity of Italy. That eminent Liberal told him in June that if Napoleon abandoned Rome he would lose his throne, and that the "Italians had reason to rejoice be [Jules Fevre] was not Minister
if they were going to insist on the surrender of Rome to Italy." Many of the French Liberals are known to be so utterly " national " on this question of Rome —which, be it remembered, was occupied by Lamartine—that this statement obtained full credence ; but M. Jules Favre gives it a formal and peremptory denial. The state- ments of Signor Boggio arc, he declares, "apocryphal," and he himself earnestly desires to see the day when Rome shall complete, by the surrender of herself, the unity of Italy. We presume the truth is, that M: Jules Favre, talking to the Italian, only referred to the course it would, as Minister, be his interest to pursue, not to the course he should follow.
The Times of Tuesday published a singular article calling the Court to account for the niggardliness with which Royal visitors to Great Britain are always entertained. They are usually suffered to find quarters in a hotel, and the heir of Italy was recently left to the hospitality of the Italian Ambassador. It is suggested that one of the duties of Royalty is to represent the nation when re- ceiving illustrious guests, and that if the Sovereign is determined to remain in retirement, this duty, like that of holding levees, should be delegated into other hands. The hint, which after the treatment of Prince Humbert was really required, will probably not be lost on the Prince of Wales, who has so recently seen in other Courts what Royal hospitality should mean.
A. frightful cyclone or circular storm burst over Calcutta on the 5th October. According to the statements received by telegraph about 150 vessels have been driven on shore, property in the city has been extensively injured, and the villages south of Calcutta" have been inundated. According to an account received in Paris 12,000 lives have been lost, and the damage done amounts to eight millions sterling. The pecuniary estimate is absurd ; but there is reason to fear that the estimate of loss of life may be true, as a cyclone of the kind twenty years ago killed upwards of thirty thousand persons. Ships in the Hooghly are so huddled together, by want of moorings and other causes, that it has often been said that an incendiary might destroy a million of property in half an hour.
The Bishop of Peterborough delivered last week a sermon at Leicester on the Atonement, in which he pushed what we may call the heathen view of that doctrine to its last extreme. In each of two reports which he before us he is said to have used these words with reference to the suffering of our Lord on the cross, "After man had done his worst, worse remained for Christ to bear. He has now fallen into His Father's hands." In another curiously inconsistent passage he maintains that it was " the abandonment" by His Father, "not bodily anguish, which overwhelmed the Redeemer's soul." Is, then, to " fall into God's hands " precisely the same as to fall out of them ? The Bishop ;appears to think so, and as he seems to think that either one or the other is but a form of speech to represent anguish deliberately inflicted by the Father on the Son, perhaps it does not make so much difference. One report of the Bishop's sermon represents him as saying that the remorse which led Judas to suicide " was perhaps nearest of all to this last anguish of Christ, which he believes to have been due not to the perfect sympathy between our Lord and man, but to the assumed wrath of His Father. If God can assume wrath He does not feel, or feel it against His own perfect Son, the sacrifice of Christ for us all would give little pledge of safety. Does Dr. Jeune himself understand the theology of his own dismal and histrionic picture ?
At the annual soiree of the Huddersfield Church Institute on Monday, the Archbishop of York gave a useful sort of address censuring the sensational literature of the day for its cynicism and fatalism. The only defect of his speech was that ho a little confounded all literature which delineates a great passion—as Shakespeare does in all his tragedies—with sensational literature. The difference we take to be that sensational literature subordi- nates art to excitement, while all healthy literature holds visibly the thin and delicate veil of art between the spectator and the in- terest of the piece. Whenever the picture of a passion comes so close to us as to rouse passion (either similar or dissimilar) the artistic work is bad. The transparent film which separates artistic sympathy from real sympathy, and which renders all true delinea- tion of passion delicate, is the true test of an artist.
This day week the Bishop of Oxford explained at a meeting of the Curates' Additional Aid Society, at Hastings, his view about the Church. He claimed for the English Church a direct Apostolic succession, and accused Rome of schism. He rejoiced, he said, at any single approach to truth outside this only regular channel of grace to England, and he would not "tie the blessed witness of the pure Spirit of God down to any channel." But he did not ignore the one channel of grace on this account. "I may tell a man in the midst of drought, Put out your handkerchief for the drop of rain, and wring it out for your child,' but I do not say that is as good as going to the never-failing well." The Dissenters and Roman Catholics may each have the drop in the handker- chief, but the Church of England, says its Bishop, is the never- failing well. We hold it certainly to be the best Church in the land, but not because it asserts such a view as the Bishop of Oxford's, rather because it does not tie down its Lord to give the " well of water springing up to everlasting life" by any rules of its own making, but to whom He will.
Mr. Bright has written to Mr. Horace Greeley, the proprietor of the New York Tribune, to express the sympathy felt by the friends of the North in England for Mr. Lincoln, and their hopes for his success. They have observed, or thought they have observed (he say*, a grand simplicity and integrity about Mr. Lincoln's political career which have won their confidence, and almost every one who wishes to see the Union undivided also hopes to see General M'Clellan defeated and Mr. Lincoln re-elected. We heartily agree with Mr. Bright (except indeed in caring about an undivided Union per se), but it is difficult to conceive a politician less like Mr. Lincoln than his eulogist. A slow, cautious, shrewd, conser- vative, legal mind like Mr. Lincoln's, groping its way by the clue of the Constitution, never denouncing an enemy, never appealing to a passion, following the people, not leading them, is a type about as opposite to the tribune-like anger and fervour of Mr. Bright's democracy as the aristocratic type itself. If Mr. Bright had been an American politician, he would have long ago been denouncing the stolid conservatism of Mr. Lincoln.
Lord Stanley took the chair on Monday at a dinner in aid of the Manchester Warehousemen and Clerks' Schools. He said nothing of any political moment, except that he objected to Parliamentary fights unless they were absolutely necessary. " Moderate men, sensible men, men of business," on both sides of the House, would easily come to an agreement as to what ought to be done, and he conceived the trite policy was to strengthen the hands of those moderate, sensible, business men who agree on action, and do not much care who acts so long as the right thing is done. We take it that Lord Stanley's recent able manifesto of general policy was expressly directed to these moderate, sensible, business men, and that he would not object to lead them in default of any older statesman whenever Lord Palmerston retires.
Our attention has been called to a practice adopted by the India House which seems to involve a somewhat flagrant breach of faith. A vast quantity of Enfaced rupee paper has been sent to this country, and is very readily purchased, interest being paid in the form of bills on Calcutta. The payment of each six months' interest is, however, recorded on the back of the promissory notes, and when the paper is full the Secretary of State repudiates fur- ther payment. The holder may send the note back to Calcutta, or may change it for an equal amount in stock, but on that note no more interest will be paid. The alternative therefore is to run the risk of sending such property by post or of accepting a totally different security, viz., stock instead of a promissory note payable to bearer. The change to persons living out of London is a serious one, but if it were not the India House has no right to make it. It accepted the obligation to pay interest on those notes, and is no more entitled to compel an exchange from notes to stock than it is to steal them. It ought to grant a new note, as the Calcutta Government does, or trust its own register instead of covering its bonds with illegible signatures. Suppose the British Government compelled all holders of Exchequer bills on a given day to take Consols instead ?
The Spanish Government has published a long report on the education of the Prince of the Asturias, eldest son of the Queen of Spain, a child of six. It is a regular essay, beginning with the power of Spain under Philip II. and ending with praises of "your Majesty's exquisite tact." The Ministry state that in their opinion the wars of the past have been only " trivial preludes to those which are expected still," and the education of the Prince is therefore to be " chiefly military." He is to " become insensibly a great captain," and for that end is to " visit the troops, to descend to details, to understand principles, to learn the origin of military force and the conditions of its organization." This paramount study is not, however, to interfere with that of "religion, which is the code of kings"—mark the implied exemption from human) law —or of morals, or of the political law of the country. Well, it is something to see it conceded that a king ought to be educated. A hundred years ago wisdom came to the Bourbons by intuition. The world advances, though its progress cannot be said to be very fast when drill is made the first occupation of the heir to a throne.
The store of gunpowder at Purfleet would, it is admitted on all hands, if it exploded pretty nearly destroy London. At an inquest on one of the victims by the Erith explosion held on Tuesday, Henry John Langham, cooper, of Erith, deposed to the following facts, which we trust, Londoners will appreciate :—" I have seen powder from Purfleet sixty years old come to our magazine which was not fit to be taken in from the state of the casks. I know it came from Purfleet because it had the broad arrow on it. It often comes in a most scandalous state from leakage. I am speaking now, probably, of three years ago. Within the last three months we have had casks from there of the same description. When we have put the casks down I have seen the powder fly out of the joints just like dust or smoke."
It appears from the Quarterly Returns of the Registrar-General that the population of Great Britain and Ireland is now nearly stationary, the surplus of births after deducting deaths and emigra- tion being only at the rate of 88,000 a year. Emigration seems to cost us more than double that number.
Mr. Bass, member for Derby, and according to all sportsmen, yachtsmen, and active individuals generally, " benefactor of the human race," calls upon all licensed victuallers to unite and resist the new attempt of the Teetotal Societies to make Mr. Lawson's " Permissive Bill " a test on every hustings. It appears that the teetotallers really intend to try their strength, and as they have the support of many among the workmen, and the numbers are likely to run very close, they may exercise very considerable influ- ence. They will never of course pass their Bill, as the Peers cannot be coerced except by public opinion, which is not on the teetotallers' side, but they may affect the poll in a good many boroughs. The only way to put down dictation of this kind is for the candidates on both sides to agree that they will give no pledge whatever, and leave the organized cliques to sulk without injuring anybody but themselves. They cannot vote against both sides.
The Russian Government, not content with decimating Poland, has ordered all Poles to proclaim their exultation at the atrocities they are compelled to endure. On the 19th of September a solemn Te Deum was sung in all the Roman Catholic churches of War- saw to celebrate the anniversary of General De Berg's escape from assassination. The authorities of all kinds also presented the Lieutenant of the Kingdom with an address, which General De Berg acknowledged by saying that his success was due to Russia, which was ready " to devote her sons, the very last one, to preserve the glory of her Sovereign." The Russian residents of Warsaw subsequently presented their ruler with bread and salt, in token, we presume, of their thorough approval of all his acts. It is to be noted that in the address M. De Berg is declared entitled to honour for the "glorious souvenirs of the days of Ostrolenka. of the taking of Wola, and of the assault of Warsaw," a touch of political cynicism of which only a Tartar could be guilty.
The Committee of Liquidators of the Unity Bank have adopted the very unusual course of proceeding criminally against the Manager and Secretary of that institution for fraud and con- spiracy. The charge against them, which it is impossible to con- dense, substantially amounts to one of cooking the bank accounts, not for their own advantage, but to deceive the shareholders, and the Lord Mayor refused to admit them to bail. The proceeding is a very unusual one, and seems at first sight unjust, the two gentlemen implicated beinf, precluded by their position as accused from giving evidence in their own favour. They may have simply obeyed the orders of their directors, a point which a civil prosecu- tion would have satisfactorily set at rest.
There is an exciting report that "Shakespeare's own Prayer- book" has been found. Mr. Toulmin Smith writes to the Times that a black-letter Prayer-book of the date of 1596 (the Psalter part of the volume being two years older, 1594) was picked up at Whitchurch, North Shropshire, for a few pence, passed for eighteenpence into the hands of Mr. Partridge, of Wellington, and is now to be sold. The book is about three and a half inches long, and an inch and a half thick, with several leaves lost at the begin- ning, At the end of the Prayer-book is the signature " William
Shakespeare," and at the foot of " the Confession of the Christian Fayth " is the signature " W. Shakespeare," and underneath the last signature is the date " 1600." By the aid of a glass Mr. Toulmin Smith discovered another nearly obliterated signature in another part of the book, and there is also " M. Shakespeare" signed in a different hand elsewhere. "Stratford-on-Avon" is written faintly on the inside of the left-hand cover. Mr. Toulmin Smith of course does not commit himself to the authenticity of tha book, but he seems inclined to accept it. From internal evidenes we had always been inclined to think Shakespeare a moderate English Catholic,—Catholic in feeling, not fond of dogma, and ,:lore attached to his country than his Church. However, many of those who accepted the English Prayer-book and the faith it expressed were of this type of religion, and certainly would not have borne the name of Protestants.
Mr. Banting, the worthy upholsterer who has become so famous by his successful efforts to grow lean, has published a statement of the sale of his pamphlet on corpulence. Exclusive of the first and second editions be has sold 50,000 copies, at the trade price of 4s. per dozen, so that there are at least that number of persons who have the means of changing their diet and think they have too much flesh. The profit, amounting to 1711., is divided among four hospitals. The sudden success of this pamphlet is remarkable, but it is trifling compared with the sale a pamphlet for curing scraggi- ness would be sure to obtain. That, and not fat, is in the opinion of women the evil to be corrected, and anybody who discovers an effectual plan may charge a guinea per recipe without diminish- ing his sale.
A very mysterious case has this week attracted the attention of the public. George King, a gas inspector, was on the 30th of October found insensible in the Green Park, and taken to St. George's Hospital. There the surgeons declared him drunk, and ho was taken to the police-station in King Street, where he re- mained all night. Next morning he was bailed, and his friends took him to Westminster Hospital, where he was found to have a fractured skull and many severe bruises, and where he died. Where did he meet with his death? The surgeons at St. George's say that when brought to them he was drunk (a statement which might be the result of their carelessness), and that he had no fracture, (which could not be), and from that moment till his delivery to his friends be was in the hands of the police. Only two hypotheses are therefore possible ; either he was wounded in the Park, in which case the surgeons of St. George's ought to suffer for their gross carelessness—or he was beaten by the police, in which case the severest punishment ought to be inflicted. Neither of those sup- positions is probable, the surgeons being men of eminence, and the police having little motive for violence ; but what is the third alternative ? That Mr. King inflicted fourteen separate blows him- self on his own head while is the police cell? The case needs a great deal more inquiry through an agency independent of the police, who are too apt to act as a corporate body, and we are happy to per- ceive that the surgeons of St. George's promise further report.
On Saturday last Consols for money left off at 891 / for money, and 891 1 for account. Yesterday the closing prices were,—for money, 891 /, for the present account, 89i / ; for December, 901 1. The stock of bullion in the Bank of England is now 13,313,4411. The Bank of France has reduced its rate of discount' to 7 per cent.
The leading Foreign Securities left off yesterday and on Friday week at the following prices :—
Greek Do. Coupons .. Mexican Spanish Passive •• Do. Certificates turkish 6 per Centa.,1858..
1662..
• •
• • • • • • • • • • • • Friday, Oct. 28. Friday, Nov. 4, • • 22 221 9 • 27 271
• 31 ▪ 30
• • 14
as
71 721 .• GUI
The last transactions in the leading British Railways yesterday and on Friday week were at the annexed quotations :-
Friday, Oct. 28 Friday, Nov. 41
Caledonian .. .• Great Eastern •• Great Northern .. .. • • •• Great Western.. . • West Midland. Oxford Lancashire and Yorkshire London and Brighton . • London and North-Western • Loudon and South-Western ..
London, Chatham, and Dover • • Midland .. • North-Eastern, 13erwlek Do. York .. 126 43 188 78 65
163115
1 .• 116 •• 961 .• 1171 133 •• 108 .• 90
• •
• •
• • •
• .
1291 40 185 761 65 116
1031
117 07 43 1351 111 ,
