NEWS OF THE WEEK.
CONFERENCE, it is said, meets to-day in Paris to discuss the Turkish ultimatum, and possibly other things, though these are strictly forbidden, and Aemil Pasha threatens to retire if they are mentioned. Turkey tried hard to avoid the meeting, and asked for eight days' delay "to send instructions ;" but Turkey was snubbed somehow, and the Conference is to meet in the room where the Treaty of Paris was signed, —a place selected, we presume, as a delicate hint to the Russian representative. Three sittings, it is said, will complete the work,—that is, will suffice to draw up a decree which Greece is to obey, or Turkey is to be let loose. By next Saturday, therefore, we ought to know whether war in the East is to break out now, or is to be postponed for a few months longer. The powers present will be the Five, Italy, and Turkey, while Greece is admitted to argue, but not to vote, like an ordinary criminal under trial. By this arrangement, as we pointed out last week, Napoleon secures the casting-vote, even if Italy votes with Prussia.
The superstition of Royalty seems likely, in Spain at least, to destroy monarchy. The Spaniards cannot find a King not Bourbon among the reigning houses, and they will not apparently follow the example of the bees, and fatten a private man up to the required size. Only the blue blood,—or is it violet, as noble blood is blue ?—can be admitted to a throne, so Spain is driven back on a Republic. The Republicans believe that they have a clear majority at the polls, and they certainly have the masses with them, as city after city rises in arms. Last week it was Cadiz, this week it is Malaga, where 600 people had to be killed, and next week it may be Madrid. The wealthy, it is said, look to the Duke de Montpensier, the priests to Carlos, and the Provisional Government to some candidate in their pockets, but meanwhile the people are looking to a Federal Republic.
The revolt of Malaga seems to have been very serious, but the accounts as yet are meagre and contradictory. Malaga is the hotbed of Spanish socialism, and General Caballero de Rodas was ordered after the Cadiz affair to disarm the national volunteers. They resisted, and kept up a severe contest for three days, during which they are said to have lost " immensely " and the soldiers very few. Some 280 are to be tried, and will probably be shot ; but the correspondent of the Star, who knows what the " Reds " think, says the Republicans of Madrid will rise if any political executions are allowed. Perhaps the Government wish that, as an excuse for anticipating the decision of the Cortes.
The Emperor of the French received the various Bodies of the State as usual on New Year's Day, and made several pretty little speeches. A "spirit of conciliation," he told the Ambassadors, "animates all the European Powers, and the moment a difficulty arises they agree among themselves to smooth away and avert complications," a most satisfactory remark to men who have just been ordered to discuss an ultimatum to be followed by shot. To the Deputies His Majesty said, "Every year the co-operation of the Legislative Body becomes more indispensable to the preservation of real liberty in France," or in other words, Only agree with me and everything will always be right.' To the Court of Coma
tion, the Emperor remarked, "The sense of justice must penetrate our national customs more than ever. It is the surest guarantee of liberty." Is that the reason why, as M. de Seguier testifies, the Home Secretary prescribes the sentences which judges are to inflict upon the Press ? Finally, said Napoleon to the clergy, we trust with his hands folded, "From what is going on in the world we can see how indispensable it is to assert the great principles of Christianity which teach us virtue that we may know how to live, and immortality that we may know how to die." For a school to succeed it wants not only good teachers, but some pupils.
The Marquis of Bute was reconciled to the Church of Rome at Nice on Christmas Eve, and is going, it is said, to the Holy Land before his return to his native country. The comments on his change of faith are very funny. The Times, in deploring the young man's rashness, and explaining that it can't after all make much difference, since even 1300,000 a year in the hands of an enthusiast is not a revenue that can materially help the Pope, intimates that as a matter of course a youth with 1300,000 a year ought to be much more fastidious in satisfying himself of his change of conviction than a youth with only 2300 a year. At an "age and under circumstances when delay would not only have been natural, but becoming," he was a foolish young man to do as he did, and "throw a considerable portion of his power away." Evidently the Tinier holds that the rich young man who went away "sorrowful because he had great possessions" was quite in the right. "At an age and under circumstances when delay would not only have been natural, but becoming," he decided on delay, and had no doubt the judicious public opinion of "the coasts beyond Jordan" decidedly in his favour.
It is not yet certain what the Ritualist party intend to do in respect to compliance with the recent judgment of the Privy Council on the St. Alban's case. Mr. Going, of St. Paul's, Walworth, writes to the Times to say he intends to obey the judgment as soon as it has legal effect, but he sees no reason to make a change in his services till he has formal notice of the judgment. On the other hand, Mr. Richards, of All Saints', Margaret Street, takes up the ground that the more the Ritualists are persecuted the more it behoves them to bear witness to their real faith. "Hitherto I have never counselled the adoption of extreme gestures of devotion. Nay, you are my witnesses that I have rather restrained you from them. But now I think the time is come when we must take a bolder course, and show by our outward actions what is the belief of our hearts. I hope, then, that you will adopt every gesture calculated to show that you really believe in the incarnation of our dear Lord. For instance, I hope that when that part of the creed is sung, you will one and all openly manifest your faith by humbly kneeling at the words, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made Man.' At the time of the consecration I hope that by the prostration of your bodies you will humbly adore God. . . . Let me pray you, for reverence' sake, unless illness obliges you, never to sit down while your Lord lies before you on the altar ; always stand or kneel," &c. It is clear that Mr. Richards proposes to illustrate the whole service with the most elaborate glosses of gesture in a way that would make it an idolatry to genuine Protestants. Suppose the Rationalists and the Evangelicals do the same ! We should have three wholly different worships.
The enthusiasts have made a first attempt on the Right Honourable John Bright in his capacity of Minister, and the object was to enlist his powerful aid in an internecine war,— against bottled-nosed whales. Father Newman describes very amusingly in Loss and Gain the rush of fanatics upon any eminent man who is known to be in transita between Church and Church. All sorts of wild schemers immediately descend upon him and strive to engage him for their pet extravagance. Apparently, an analogous political fate may be in store for Mr. Bright on his accession to office. All sorts of political dreamers will be apt to think that now at last they have got a man in office whose mind
may be open to the grand ideas which they have never yet persuaded any one but themselves to entertain. Mr. Alexander Drew, of Nairn, will not be satisfied. unless, the new President 'of the Board of Trade will: devote a good share of the Army savings . to placing a bounty on the slaughter of bottle-nosed whales and porpoises, whom he regards as the great poachers on the supplies of our fisheries. Mr. Bright keeps his countenance, in a political sense, well. He first replies to Mr. Drew that Parliament is not likely to vote bounty money for the slaughter of. bottle-nosed whales and porpoises, and on receiving from Mr. Drew reproaches for taking so " contracted " a view of the bottle-noses, and exhortations enforcing his views in a rather excited manner, Mr. Bright merely directs his secretary to acknowledge the receipt of the letter enclosing the correspondence with Mr. Loch "on bottlenosed whales."
A paragraph has been going the round of the papers purporting to describe Lord Clarendon's policy in China. It contains one important statement and one piece of silly verbiage. We are, it appears, to adhere to the policy which dictated the Treaty of Tient-sin, and seek redress when we want it only at Pekin. We trust that decision has been intimated to Sir Rutherford Alcock, whose rashness in menacing the Viceroy of Nankin, instead of steadily pressing on the Regency, nearly plunged us into a war. We are, moreover, to pay every attention to the ideas, habits, and prejudices of the Chinese. Are we ? The first of them all is an extreme dislike to the presence of any foreigners at any time or for any purpose in China at all. If we yield upon that, we abandon China ; if we do not yield upon that, the principles of justice and Christianity will form a much better basis of action than ideas which those who are to respect them scarcely even know of.
General Grant has, it is said, declared himself decidedly hostile to Federal grants for public works, railways, canal; and so on. He believes it impolitic to increase the debt while any party in the Union talks of repudiation, and advises strict economy and reduction of taxation. The President has still immense power of defending the Treasury, as he can veto any money bill he disapproves, and neither the Senate nor the House wish to quarrel with General Grant.
Another terrible agrarian murder is reported from Ireland. Mr. Baker, proprietor of Ballydavid, in county Tipperary, a young and excellent landlord, has been shot dead, because it was believed that he intended to eject a tenant who had threatened him. The murderer has not been discovered, and it is stated that throughout Tipperary the peasantry received the news with indifference or pleasure. The eviction not being for non-payment of rent, and from a farm held for generations, was considered a capricious one, and Mr. Baker was threatened on that ground in a letter dated December 21, which appeased in the Tipperary Free Press. The writer of that letter alludes to a previous eviction of a man named Keating, who was removed because Mr. Baker's father wanted the land, and the magistrates have a man of this name under examination.
Sir Charles Trevelyan has made out a strong case against the site selected for the Palace of Justice. It is, he says, very contracted, very much too high, and very inaccessible. A sum of £1,500,000 has already been expended in purchasing it, and even now approaches will have to be built at nearly equal cost. All this while the Thames Embankment offers the finest site in Europe, and the space between it, the Strand, the Temple, and Somerset House would be accessible on all sides. To this Mr. Tite adds that there is no necessity whatever for putting the Probate Office, which requires endless room, within the Palace,—a great saving of expense. We suppose the Carey Street site would sell for what it cost, or the State might keep it for other purposes, but both Sir C. Trevelyan and Mr. Tite forget one point. The necessity of making decent approaches to the Palace through those wretched rookeries is in every view but the pecuniary one clear gain to London.
The Government of France seems to grow daily more bitter against the Press. M. de Seguier, Procureur Imperial of Toulouse, has just resigned because he will no longer receive incessant reproaches from the Minister of Justice for his lenity towards the Press, and publishes his reasons in the Emancipation. This very journal recently exposed some acts of a provincial mayor, and was prosecuted for defamation. The Correctional Tribunal admitted that the statements were true, and that the Mayor had "illegally practised a system of secret arrests, fictitious employment of the public funds and transfers of credit ;" but nevertheless fined the Emancipation £60, gave damages against it for £120, and condemned it to pay costs. We believe truth cannot be pleaded in France in bar of an action for libel, but onlyin extenuation, but the degree of the sentence marks the official tone. A jury would have given M. le Maire a farthing.
The Irish clergy have not yet made up their minds whether to resist the Disestablisinnent of the Irish Church or to accept the verdict of the nation as "unrighteous," but irreveraible, and proceed to make the best of their situation. Should the latter and wiser decision be adopted they will, it seems probable, prefer entire freedom to any half-and-half connection with the State such as would be involved in the appointment of Bishops by the Crown 1Ve wish those among them who, ike Mr. Sherlock and Mr. W. C. Plunket, have the nerve to look the situation in the face, would examine the Canadian scheme, and.state the points which render it applicable or inapplicable to Ireland. They will, unless we are greatly mistaken, find it much more useful to think that scheme out, than to write about the injustice of a sentence they cannot avert.
A discussion at the Whittington Club on pauperism is reported in Tuesday's Times. It was remarkable for a kind of explosion of dislike to the Poor-law, almost every speaker advocating measures which would be equivalent to the total abolition of the legal right of relief. A Mr. Townsend supported the French system, which denies the right ; Mr. Webster denounced the right to relief ; Mr. G. Godwin would abolis% medical charity,—perhaps the best form of all ; Mr. Patterson, a working-man apparently, wanted relief given before pauperization ; Mr. Taverner, a guarddian, would do away with free dispensaries ; Mr. Weir wanted the workman to become a self-dependent being ; Mr. Rawlinson, C.B., objected, as a working-man who had risen, to workmen being "coddled ;" Mr. Levy thought the poor-law the cause of unthrift ; and Mr. Kitto, Vicar of Poplar, admitted that "pauperism was often associated with crime." Is the radical principle of a Poorlaw to be brought up again for judgment?
Mr. Vanderbilt and his immediate connections own half the shares of the New York Central Railway, and control another large section. A group of speculators made an effort to "bear" these shares, and Mr. Vanderbilt determined to punish them. He accordingly ordered his nominees, the Directors, to declare a dividend of 80 per cent. in scrip, exchangeable for new shares, and 4 per cent. in money. The shares went up from 123 to 162, the "bears" were ruined, and Messrs. Vanderbilt and Co. pocketed about a million sterling. It is asserted that nothing whatever had happened to justify the dividend, which, in fact, is nothing but a new and illegal issue of shares, by which, of course, new purchasers will suffer. If that is true, buying railway stock in New York must be very like playing hazard against loaded dice.
A curious illustration of the violence of the Protestant-ascendancy feeling has occurred at Limerick. At a meeting in Limerick, a Roman Catholic priest, Mr. Shanahan, called upon the present Mayor of Limerick to exhibit his chain of office, which he did, whereupon Father Shanahan accused the late mayor, Sir Peter Tait, who was present, of having removed the links of the first two Roman Catholic mayors, his predecessors,—and having substituted his own medallion in their place. Sir Peter Tait's immediate predecessor in the mayoralty, Alderman Tinsley, confirmed the fact that his link had been removed from the chain since he yielded it up to Alderman Tait ; and of course a resolution was at once passed condemning Alderman Tait severely, and calling upon the Town Council to have the links of the Roman Catholic mayors restored. This, we suppose, the Town Council did, and, moreover, sent back Sir Peter Tait's medallion, asking him to substitute links for it, and not to mark them "Sir Peter Tait," as he had only been knighted since resigning his mayoralty. It all sounds very much like children quarrelling about their bricks, and one of them reproaching the other because he had despised and rejected the bricks piled on by his playmates ; but when races or religions quarrel about fancy matters, it is apt to be a sign of much deeper hostility than when they quarrel about politics or faith.
Biagrove, the Wells murderer, who confessed his own crime, and entirely exonerated the man Sweet, who had also been convicted of it, has been respited by order of the Home Office, and his sentence seems likely to be commuted from death to penal servitude for life. We suppose Mr. Bruce's ground must be the voluntary confession, and the apparent absence of any premeditation, for the murder itself seems to have been a singularly cold
blooded one, and it will hardly be easy to maintain the punishment of death at all, if crimes like Bisgrove's are punished more leniently. His own account of the murder was that he felt a sudden impulse to commit it, and accordingly dashed out his victim's (Cornish's) brains with a huge stone, 501b. in weight. The popular opinion in Wells, Shepton Mallet, and Taunton is unfavourable to the respite.
A citizen of Norwich, Wilhiasn Sheward, who had always had the reputation of being a very quiet and inoffensive man, gave himself up the other day in London, to Mr. Woolrych, the Lambeth magistrate, self-charged with having murdered his first wife, Martha Sheward, on the 15th June, 1851,—seventeen and a half years ago. According to his own account, he was so moved by walking in the street where he had first made her acquaintance, that he could bear his guilt no longer, and gave himself up to the police. He had murdered his wife, cut up her body, he said, and buried the remains in various places ; most of them had been found, examined, and kept in spirits by the surgeons of the place, who made out that a young woman had been murdered, but were quite unable to obtain any evidence bearing on her identity. The Norwich police had, indeed, professed themselves satisfied that the murdered woman was not a resident of Norwich at all. It is said that Sheward was never even suspected. He accounted for his wife's disappearance by saying that she had gone on a long journey, and was never doubted. It does not appear how he accounted for her non-return adll death,—which he must have given out before marrying again. The prisoner reaffirmed before Mr. Woolrych the correctness of the account he had given to the police inspector, excepting that he denied having accused himself of "wilful" murder,—meaning to imply, we suppose, that he had been led into murder by some sudden quarrel, and not by premeditation. He has been sent to Norwich for examination, and will be committed for trial there.
A curious and complete contradiction of a very generally accepted political fact was furnished by Mr. M. D. Hill, the well-known Recorder of Birmingham, in a letter to the Times of this day week. The Times had said, in its review of the past year, in mentioning the death of Lord Brougham, "He forced himself into Lord Grey's Cabinet against the wish of its chief members." Mr. Hill states that in May, 1831, he was counsel for Lord Althorp, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the Northamptonshire election, which lasted a fortnight, and during his intercourse with him, Lord Althorp assured Mr. Hill that the rumour as to Lord Brougham having forced himself into the Cabinet was exactly the contrary of the truth. "My colleagues," said Lord Althorp to Mr. Hill, "knowing there would be difficulty in persuading Brougham to abandon his position in the House of Commons, which he had just strengthened by becoming member for Yorkshire, laid upon me, as his intimate friend, the task of inducing him to accept the Great Seal, and a harder task I never had in my life." Indeed, according to Mr. Hill, Lord Althorp only succeeded by reiterating repeatedly "that unless be would consent to fill the office of Chancellor, the party could not form a Government." This is a curious instance of how apt is the public impression of a great man's character,—even when it is a perfectly true impression,—to falsify history. As regards his own interest,. Brougham was quite wise in inclining to remain in the Commons, and it now seems that what the public regarded -as ambitious self-seeking was probably one of the most disinterested acts of his life.
The Corporation of Doncaster do not seem to be very courteous to their Chaplain and Vicar. Yesterday week the Corporation were asked to increase their grant to the September race from 11,500 to /2,000 annually,—the receipts from the race increasing annually until they have reached 18,000. Dr. Vaughan, the Vicar, who is also the Chaplain to the Corporation, sent in, however, a letter of respectful protest, stating that he had not been fanatical in denouncing the race, that he had earnestly sought to hope against hope that "the abuse of the system might yet be proved to be separable from its use, and that an amusement in which thousands doubtless participate without intention or consequences of evil, might come to be regarded by Christian people with a less sweeping and indiscriminate reprobation ;" but he could not be blind to the great evils which do come out of the races, and of which the permanent residents reap throughout the year the bitter fruits, and he protested accordingly against an increasing grant from the borough fund for the encouragement of racing. He even hinted that this application of the borough fund might be illegal as well as mischievous. But the Corporation did not see it. They did see that they net a good deal by the race even after contributing 12,000 to it, and it was said in the discussion that many of the charitable grants would be impossible but for the income brought by the races. So the Corporation would not even enter their Chaplain's and Vicar's letter on their minutes. They simply passed the vote raising the race-grant to 12,000, and ignored the protest.
Dark dyes for the hair are generally composed of acetate of lead and sulphur, and consequently cause paralysis. So says the Times, and the Lancet endorses the opinion. We pointed out months since that almost the only, if not the only innocuous dark dye, is a weak solution of acetate of iron mixed with glycerine, which writers on those subjects say gradually darkens the hair, and has no effect, except as a slight tonic. That remark brought us more letters than we ever remember to have received on any one topic, half the old ladies in the kingdom seeming to want a recipe. We were obliged to advertise that we did not know it, and would not send it if we did, and so stopped the funniest correspondence we have read. There is no more moral objection to a hair dye than to a wig ; but those who want one should consult chemists, and not hairdressers.
It seems that the rainfall of last year was, in spite of the dry summer, six and a half inches above the average,—at least at Frant, in Sussex, whence Mr. R. H. Allnatt sends his estimate to the Times. It was 34-68 inches, the average rainfall being about 28, or nearly 25 per cent. above the average. The rainfall of December was nearly double that of the highest other month, namely, January. Indeed, much more than a third of the whole year's rain fell in the first and last months of the year. The month of least rain was June, in which little more than half an inch fell, and the next lowest, February, the latter part of which was lovely last year,—the rainfall being less than an inch.
Professor Stanley Jevons, of Owens College, Manchester, read, not long ago before the Statistical Society a very curious paper on the gold currency of England, the substance of which has this week been published. Professor Jevons states that out of every 100,000 sovereigns now in circulation, 18,671 bear the dates of 1863 or 1864, in other words, that the total number of sovereigns is about 5-356 times, as great as the number issued in those years. But the number issued in those years was short of 114,000,000, whence Professor Jevons calculates that our total circulation of sovereigns is at most 75 millions. In the same way he shows that the number of half-sovereigns does not exceed 24 millions. Allowing for the number exported and melted down, he calculates that our total gold circulation cannot exceed 189,000,000 sterling. He goes on to estimate the silver coinage in use as worth about 114,000,000, and the copper as worth 11,000,000. Adding the Bank-note circulation, and the bullion in the coffers of the Bank, Mr. Jevons estimates our total currency at about £134,000,000, of which 1110,000,000, or four-fifths, is metallic (including therein the bullion in the coffers of the Bank). Bat,, of course, this represents but a small proportion of the real medium of exchange, large transactions being effected by cheques, set off against each other at the Clearing House, and not by currency of any kind. One of the most curious features of Mr. Jevons's calculations is the loss of gold by wear and tear. He estimates that eighteen years' wear reduces a sovereign below the legaltender limit. The proportion of light sovereigns in circulation is near one-third, Mr. Jevons thinks, and of light half-sovereigns near one-half !
Consols, at one time this week, were quoted at 93 for the February account, but the closing price yesterday was 921 11The Railway Share Market has been active, and Metropolitan
Stock closed at 108 to being a rise of upwards of 3 per cent. on the week. The discount rate for good thirty to sixty days' paper has declined in the open market to 21, 1 per cent. The stock of bullion in the Bank of England is now £18,445,868; in the Bank of France, 143,205,000.
