BRIEF NOTES ON A NUMBER OF THINGS.
TrEBE is one mode in which the Jew question could be settled summarily. If there exists a gentleman of Jewish birth and "persuasion," with as much disregard" de minirnis" as "Len" is said to have, and with no more respect for the actual terms of an oath than Protestants and Catholics already show, he might recite the words dictated to him. He might repeat the phrase "the true faith of a Christian," although he is no Christian, just as Papists abjure the authority of the Pop, which they would scorn to slight, and Protestants abjure the descendants of the Pretender, who have ceased to exist. The Honourable Member might then very properly turn round and say, "What is an oath ? I have fulfilled your forms, although I am no Christian ; and what do you gain by making me act a he ? You have only compelled me to add to the number of those in this House who have per- formed the same solemn and disgraceful farce." Perhaps such a scene as that would settle the question embodied in Lord John Russell's Bill, and some other abuses of swearing besides.
Satirists have sometimes imagined countries in which the old gentlemen would go to school. In our day the fancy has been realised; and, appositely enough, the schoolmaster comes from young America, his first pupils being the old gentlemen of Old England. Mr. &trey has been instructing his first class in the arts of Astley's, and the head boy in the class was Viscount Pal- merston. In most men's school-days it was the custom for the schoolmaster, at the breaking-up, to distribute some kind of tes- timonial to the better-behaved boys ; but in the new school the good boy Palmerston (gives a testimonial to his schoolmaster. There is one extension of the new art which has not yet been attempted. If Mr. Rarey had instituted a branch school for training congeners of the horse, Lord Palmerston might have been better able to apply the art to the training of his majority in a certain school.
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M. de la Guerroniere and his Imperial inspirer would have been safer if they had used more reserve in their explanation to France and England. They had already felt the embarrassment of their allusion to the Temple Discussion Forum, since at a later stage it became expedient for the Emperor to make us, if possible, believe that he had never intended to involve Englishmen in his charge of preaching assassination. But the same indiscretion which proved the intent of libelling our countrymen furnished the most direct means of extorting an apology from the Imperial libeller. As the Emperor attacked the Temple Discussion Forum, the chairman of that assembly, Mr. William Carpenter, boldly wrote to the Emperor himself, denying the assertion that he the chairman was paid for the duty of presiding in the Forum, and explaining, that the discussion of regicide was an historical theme having no reference to contemporary politics; the majority of the forensic orators being substantial tradesmen and men of business. Through his secretary, the Emperor replies by thank- ing Mr. Carpenter for his explanation, and expressing his regret that the writer of the pamphlet had misconstrued a circumstance now so satisfactorily explained. Mr. William Carpenter has cer- tainly cleared up the "painful misconception" more satisfactorily than T..ord Malmesbury has done. In this case the apology appears to be more explicit and unreserved. Perhaps even the Imperial in- spirer may learn that it is an awkward plan to make the assertion first and get the information afterwards. If he had followed the vulgar English plan of getting his information first, he would not have begun with an unfounded assertion and ended with having to apologize to the company of a tavern in Fleet Street.
Why did M. de la Guerroniere omit the following passage in his now celebrated pamphlet ? It is difficult to imagine that the "higher souroe," which inspired him, should have failed to per- ceive the strength of the argument derived from it. "Nor are these insidious suggestions developed only at the Temple Dis- cussion Forum or Wylde Reading-rooms. In the same country where assas- sination has been elevated into a doctrine, the extinction of the race of the great Napoleon has been elevated into a dogma. • A writer who cannot be stud tote sheltered by his obscurity, Richard Dublin Archbishop of Whatffiy, has written a treatise to prove the nonexistence of Napoleon the First. We all know that theorists are charmed if they can realize the fulfilment of their theories. The army is struck with stupor to observe that the author of this madious and audacious theory has been promoted to be an Archbishop by the Government of our ally. It is true that we are not familiar with the matitutions of that country ; a circumstance which may perhaps account for the want of intelligence which prevents a gallant army from understanding how it is that the theoretical extirpator of the race of naparte has been selected for one of the most distinguished posts in the English Church, while his doctrine has not only been translated into a canon of that church, but has been incorporated in the curriculum of Anglican logic. France, indeed, stands amazed in the presence of these facts,—facts that it is difficult to in- terpret in any sense but one, which our respect for the allianceforbids us to adopt with haste or to admit without sorrow."
The last great railway accident—last at the date of our writing —suggests four precautions upon railways which would tend to safety. The accident was caused by the rapid passage of a train over a part of the line under repair, in which the rails had not been fastened down, in some oases the chairs, it would appear, being quite loose ; but when the train got off the line, it did not get off- the embankment, because the embankment had been broadened, and the shock was less because the wheels began to plough up the deep sand under the sleepers. Now the first pre- caution suggested by this circumstance is, to make such arrange- ments at the stations as will prevent express-trains from over portions of the line which are still under repair. Thenisleong5 is, before express-trains or any other trains pass along a line, to fasten down the rails. The third, to make broad embankments as they materially tend to diminish the chances of fatality in acci- dents. The fourth, since the soft sandy substratum under the lines may assist in diminishing the shook when accidents do occur, to prepare for these evolutions by a sanded floor along the line.
The Duke of Cambridge has taken the first step to make a re- giment self-supporting, by drawing from it its own musicians; in October last there were a hundred pupils under instruction in the musical class at Kneller Hall," Hounslow, with a probability that the number would be recruited by thirty or forty more. As usual, the soldier-reformer is obstructed by the civilian-official : the War Department stickles at an improvement which would relieve the purses of the officers and place the band" on a much more legitimate footing. But, with some slight increase in the annual subscription of regiments,—from 8/. to 10/.,—the Duke appears to be carrying his point. The case is interesting to us, because if regiments can furnish their own musicians, there seems to be no reason why they should not furnish their own tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, farriers, or any other trades needed in the military household.
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