Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

15 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

Ijjitkrn (fflrasjjottert.

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

Ijjitkrn (fflrasjjottert. (We deem it right to state that wo do not at alL timef Identify ouriclves with our correspondents Qpiuions,] It is a source of consolation, amid the troubles of "these presents," that the Education Bill has at last been got through committee. Another formal step, and the measure passes from the Lover House pre- paratory to the Lords dealing with it. During the session perhaps no bill that is more important has been introduced, and certainly no measure that has been more productive of difference of opinion, and we may therefore congratulate ourselves that progress has thus far been made. Indeed it is almost a wonder that the Education Bill could be pushed as far as it has been, so intensely have various members felt en the subject, and with widely differing views. There is now good reason to hope that the Lords will see fit either to accept the measure as the Commons send it up to their lordships, or else that the latter will make only such alterations as the Government can accept. In either case the public will be greatly the gainers, and the re- proach of England being behind other nations in educa- tion will be leaaened, if not wholly swept away. And there is consolation also to be drawn from the position of the other great measure of the Session, the Irish Land Bill The Lords have amended, and re-amended, and re- re-amended, and now at last the bill so stands that the Commons can accept the alterations, and thus the measure oan be carried through Parliament. Great fears have been entertained at various times relative to these two billa-the most prominent measures of the Session; but now there is little doubt that they will be passed, aud with their passing there will be a great diminution in the interest felt by the public in home politics. There II, of course, no public topic which excites any- thing like so much interest as "the war," as the Franco- Pruseian difficulty is called in brief. There is a wide differ- ence of opinion as to the blame to be attached to the two gnat Powers chiefly concerned. On the one hand it is maintained that the French Emperor and Government really care little about the nomination of the Prince of Hohenzollem in itself, but that they have throughout the whole affair sought an excuse for war; that the French people have been for four or five years put extremely jealous of the Prussians that France has been reaolved to quarrel with Prussia; that the Xing of Prussia has throughout the affair acted with conciliation and yet with dignity; and that in fact Prussia has had war thrust upon her. On the other ride it is maintained that the Emperor of the French has done all in his power to endeavour to avert this war; that, knowing how eager for war was a large part of the population of France, the Emperor has nevertheless exhausted all the means within his reach to preserve peace, and that he has been pushed for- ward by the force of events—by what he once spoke of as the inexorable logic of facts. Possibly the truth lies between these two views. Of one thing there can be no doubt—of the intense excitement that the declara- tion of war has caused in our own country and on the Continent. I can- well believe what I have read of the excited crowds in Paris, and the cries of the populace. I happened to be in Lille when the de- claration of war was made known. But before arriving there there were ample evidences of the excitement that the topic of the day was caus- ing. People in the train could talk of nothing but la guerre, and the excitement was intensified when we were told, on approaching the Franco- Belgian frontier that the railway had been cut on the frontier to maintain Belgian neutrality, and that we should have to walk to Lille But on reaching a little station en the frontier we learnt the actual facts—that the line had really been dtcoupie, but that it was rhmit. In the busy, working town of Lille, where there were then some 5,000 soldiers, all was excitement. Posted up in the market-place were the latest telegrams and declaration of war. Eagerly were these read, and more eagerly was the news discussed; and, judging from the prevailing tone of the conversation, this de- claration of war was certainly favourably received. In oar own country the news causes general regret, and whether we consider Prussia or France to be in the wrong, or both, we must deeply lament the probability of a serious atruggle. What to do with our boys is a constantly recurring prohlem. Apply to any friend in any trade or pro- fession, and your good-natured friend will almost assuredly tell you that that particular trade or pro- fession is overstocked, and you had better look out elsewhere for an opening for your boy. The Post- Office does well, therefore, to issue regulations as to toy clerkships in the savings' bank, telegraph, and cir- culation departments of that vast establishment. Boys between thirteen and sixteen, with no very high mental or physical qualifications, are to be eligible for appointments ranging from the not particularly extravagant pay of 5s. a week, as telegraph messengers, up to JB80 a year in the circulation department, the latter figure being reached, m in other departments, by an annual increase of JB5. Of course boy labour, like woman's work, always raises the queation what is to become of the men; but in this oase there will be plenty of occupation for men and boys too. and if the lads thus employed find that on reaching their maximum in the G. P.O. the salary is a bad look-out for the future, why they must seek some- thing better, and their training will not prove to have been a bad one. The inaugural ceremony at the Workmen's Inter- national Exhibition on Saturday was not at all a bril- liant affair, and the arrangements for the grand con- oert were in some respects ridiculously defective. The Exhibition has been opened at a rather unfortunate time; it is very late in the season, and then the news of the war hafl, without exaggeration, thrown a shadow over the Agricultural Hall. I am sorry to see that in many places the workmen's names are conspicuous by their absence, and that the names of firms have been substituted. It was undentood that the name of the real maker or inventor, and not the name of a firm was to be appended to the If esbibita," and this was to be a distinguishing feature of the Exhibition. This has been done to some extent, but in justice to the working classes whose exhibition thia iø, it ought to have been uniformly adopted wherever practicable. Iiooking at the Exhibition generally, however, it is a most interesting and attractive one, and thousands of people will daily flock to it. The vast building where it is held is admirably adapted to the purpose and there is ample room to circulate freely and examine the objects exhibited, while the facilities of communi- cation to and from the Hall have been largely increased staoe the last exhibition in the same building. Mr. Sporgeoo still ftlAI..tAln8 his remarkable, but act marvellous, popularity. Last Sunday morning the vast Tabernacle was crowded, as it generally is on Sunday mornings, and a noticeable feature was the attendance of a large number of casual visitors from the provinces and from abroad. I do not pretend to be able to tell either a countryman," as we Cockneys eay, or a foreigner at a glance, for Pompey is very tMchIike Cesar, &c., but having been several times asked, in the neighbourhood, "the way to Mr. >8pug.ø," and having heard, en sortant, two or three knots of people talking French, I naturally put this and that together, and arrive at a not very pro- found or sagacious conclusion. It is noticeable that the French and the French. Swiss are particularly careful to pay Mr. SpurgMD a visit when they come to London. They are very fond of good oratory, although the former have not noch opportunity of practising it, and Mr. Spurgeon's daifpg to be ranked as a fine orator are undeniable. The so-called "monster demonstration" in Hyde Park last Sunday, againat the Sunday Trading Bill, cannot be said to represent the opinions of the majority of the population of the metropolis. I see it stated that at least 30,000 persons visited the park as sym- pathisers with the object of the meeting." But what goataatee have we that the reporter who wrote this knew how to reckon the number? And how on earth ^ywiM he ten that all these were sympathisers with the object of the meeting ? But, even supposing these ex. feavagant statements true, it would be easy to get up meeting- (though not in the open air) at which, in the aggregate, ten times 30,000 would support the Sunday Trading BUL The strangest arguments used by the apwakeraat this meeting were that the bill was one-sided —In favour of the rich and against the poor, and one spnektr aMadedto thousands of the poor of the metropolis notbeingable to gettheir seouty Sunday dinners (ill they had sold their wares on Sunday morning. Now tkare is nothing more captivating with a certain class than strong language, about one law for the rich and another for the poor but this language will not always biar examination. Without entering deeply into the pro- visions of thi8 Mil, which I have geverthnfesa MjsfjiUy studied, and possessing a tolerable knowledge of v liat may be caNed" poor London," I unhesitatingly V*«rt that this hill would in the end be highly beneficjs to the poor. Te talk of it as being subversive of all "h,e serial liberty of the subject, tyrannical in the ex- treane, and opposed to morality, justice, and the per- sonal rights of a free people," Is simply nonsense. A his bill would tend far more to promote real liberty than It would tend to repress it. Sunday trading is very tyrannical as it now exists, and thousands of small tradesmen, shopmen, Ac., know this full well. One maa in a street will force twenty other people, masters men, to do Sunday trade when they otherwise woald not do it, and indirectly these twenty people in fluence others in the same directum. As to the "social liberty of the subject" we must not be led away bv *0 captivating a phrase. All our laws are less against individual liberty, for the common good, nature rfthirngs it must be so. On the religious p»* of the qpwrtaon I say but am persuaded that should this bill be pawed that put •f theworking classes tfho are now opposed to it would soon find that it was really for their benefi t. however, do I agree with one r^utwn paMed—that Charles the Second's Act should be abolished. It is bow an anachronism and an anomaly.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

PROCLAMATION OF NEUTRALITY…

A PAINFUL EVENT!

[No title]

[No title]

[No title]

THE WAR DEBATE IN THE CORPS…

SCENES IN PARIS.

THE FRENCH "MITRAILLEUSE."

GARDENING OPERATIONS FOR THE…

The WAR and the ENGLISH PORTS.

CUTTINGS FROM AMERICAN PAPERS

EPITOME OF NEWS,

THE MARKETS.