The Aberystwith Observer

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN AUSTRIA. I We take the following account of religious liberty in Austria from the Jewish CkroniclR The progress which religious liberty has made with- in the last few years in Austria is most gratifying. To the credit of the Emperor be it said, the impulse to it is proceeding from him. At a review of theAustrian army, near Olmutz, by the Emperor Francis Joseph, he noticed a sergeant whose breast was decorated with several medals, which the bravery of this soldier in several battles, and notably in Italy, had obtained him. The Emperor called the colonel of the regiment and asked him why this sergeant, who appeared to be an excellent soldier, was still a "sous- officer." The colonel replied: Sire, in our regi- there is not a single Jewish officer; thia soldier is a Jew, and wishes to pas3 as such, and *hi« is the reason why he cannot advance." The Emperor replied: "In my army I know neither Jew nor Christian: I know only soldiers; "and he appointed on the spot the sergeant as an officer in his guard. Again, in the University of Vienna there are now four Jewish professors. When, some few years ago, a liberal member ventured to suggest in the Imperial I Council the appointment of an eminent Jewish phy- sician as professor of some medical branch in which he had particularly distinguished himself, the proposer as reminded that this was a ".Catholic university," "hich no Jew could be permitted to teach. The -tment, of course, did not take place. But the of the thorough change in policy which 'ately undergone in this respect will be the following incident which lately oc- and which we find described in -kable in it that a court at 1V punished some indivi- 1 assaulted, a Jewish %n because he w*s a iays the goveru- o be offered to itical laws. •f policy iudge in and gone by for ever-when a mtii was despised solely because he was of a faith different from our own. They do not understand, or do not wish to understand, that society has at last arrived at the recognition that it is itself responsible for the faults imputed to the Israelites, by having banished them from Hs midst for so many centuries."

SERVANTS AND THEIR CHARACTERS. Under the signature of "Truth" a lady writes the fol- lowing sensible letter to the London Times, on the greatest plagues in life "-servants:- The admirable leading article which appeared in the Times of yesterday on the subject of the too common practice of giving false characters to servants induces me to send to you for insertion in your columns a letter which I wrote a month ago, and the remarks in which suggested themselves to me in consequence of a letter published by you and signed "A Mistress of a Household." I shall therefore be glad if you will allow me the space, in the interests of society at large, to call attention to a subject of deep interestto4 all classes. I quite a<ree with "A Mistress of I Household" that servants now-a-days do not care either to obtain or to keep places where there are any restrictions as to dress, or as to hours for going out, or where regular attendance at church is required. TIISY MUST HAVE FINERY The love of dress and finery among servants is quite a mania. They will by preference go to places where the work is hard and the wages low, but where they are allowed to be out late and to dress in an unsuitable, and indeed, ridiculous manner. They care not how this mania is gratified. So long as the money can be had to be smart, it matters not how it is got. Often, of course, honesty sutlers, and when this happen, character is gone. When finery has been purchased, some opportunity for displaying it must be found, and I am quite sure of this, that many a poor girl who now receives shelter in one of the refuges Would never have had to seek such a home had it not been for love of dress and late hours. IS THIS TRUE? Another crying evil of the day with regard to servants is the system upon which the register-offices in general are conducted. Their ore object is to cause as many changes as possible in -very household. St-rv.mts who are comfortably s-ttled and quite satisfied with their places c nstantly receive letters from these office" to induce them to leave their present service. Tempting, offers of places with less work, higher wages, and more liberty are held out, the whole object; of these offices being to get the fee which servants as well a-* employers have to pay whenever a fresh engagement is made. There can be no doubt in the mind of any person of experience that servants are as a class sadly devoid of principle and religion, and there can be no reasonable hope of improvement so long as the present system of giving characters continues. From some cause or other, truth is in general the very last thing aimed at in these characters, so that ba.d servants have juBC as much encouragement as good ones. A SERVANTS' CLUB! And here I weuld point out oue most annoying con- sequence of this system which is, perhaps, not gene- rally known. There are established in London, I believe many servants' clubs, and these have arranged a system ot communication between servants which is perfectly marvellous. The name of any lady or gen- tleman who dares to speak the truth as to the faults of any servant is posted at these clubs, and to their houses no servant will on any account go. I have known two or three instances of persons who have acted with a determination to give in all enpfs truth- ful characters of their servants and who have had their names posted in this manner, and so great was the malice of servants with whom they had been obliged to part for misconduct which could not be con- cealed, that they were forced to live in hotels or to go abroad for a time until the subject had been for- gotten. A VERY SAD PICTURE I may also add that the ideas of servants with re- gard to honesty and truth are about as high as their standard of morality in other respects. How hard it is to make a servant see that it is just as dishonest to take 101b. of suet from the larder as to take 10s. from her master's purse.' How difficult to put an end to those habitual thefts which go on in all large esta- blishments under the name of perqui-ites." Such, sir, are some of the difficulties with which the heads of families are in the present day called upon to con. tend in the management of their servants. Surely, the wives aud mothers of England cannot be indif- ferent on such a sutject as this. Wherever distress or sorrow com. s, there they too are found, gent!e, sympathising, self-forgettin<. Surely, then, they cannot see unmoved this serious evil within their own doora. THE REMEDY PROPOSED. But I should not call attention to the faults of ser- vants and to the difficulty we all find in getting good ones if I had not some suggestions to make, founded on my own experience as mistress of a household, which would, I am convinced, if generally adopted, tend very much to the improvement of the existing state of things and to no class would the benefit be so great as to really respectable, upright servants. And firstly with regard to dress it is one of .the vices of the present day, and it is one of the favourite follies of women. Before any improvement can be expected in the dress of servants, mistresses must set them a better example than they now do. I am not one of those who think that a person with 50,0001. a year ought to dress in the same way as one with 5,0001. a year; still less do I think that any lady should dress as a housemaid ought to dress but what 1 do say is, that now-a-days the housemaid wants to dr-pss like her mistress, and the lady's-maid a great deal smarter than her mistress. I am sure that thousands who have fallen to the lowest depths of degradation (God help them) have made the first step on the road to ruin in order to obtain the means of gratifying this insane love of dress. Prevention is better than cure, and I am sure that there would be fewer refuges re- quired if ladies would dress less extravagantly them- selves, and at all events insist on plain, neat servant- like dress among their servants; but so long as ladies give up their whole time and t-nergries and health and money (talents for which we shall all have to render ac- count) to dress and parties of one kind or another, leaving their servants and children and houses to take care of themselves, so long there can be no improve- ment in those who ought to look up to us for an example. Combination makes strength, Servants know this. They will leave places to please each other. They will refuse places to please each other. They will see any wrong done to their employers sooner than tell of each other. At all events, however mistaken their views may be on other subjects, they are true to their Cla"8. Why cannot ladies be true to one another ? I fear the answer may be arrived at in a very few words-it would entail trouble. Under the existing state of things, none but those who have tried the plan of giving really true characters can be aware of the trouble and annoyance it entails, and nothing more clearly proves the fact of untrue characters being more usual than true ones than this-viz., that the giver of true nes becomes a marked person, just in the same way that the household where perquisites are not al- lowed, fine dress and late hours are forbidden, becomes among servants a place to be avoided, no matter how good the wages are, or how great the comforts of the place in other respects. Let these person and these houses no longer be the exception, but rather the rule, and let the ladies of England give up a little of the time h very little would uffice) now devoted to dress, and tne innumerable frivolous pursuits followed to fill up the hours which otherwise would be weary (but which nevertheless are hastening us all to eternity), and let them know a lIttle more of their own house- holds. Let them be true to each other. Let them, by setting an example of truth and honesty of purpose, encourage their servants in the paths of virtue. So will they best fulfil their mission upon earth so at the last may they hear their Lord and Master address to them those blessed words-" Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.

'A Barrister," writing on the subject of servants' characters, says:- It is an error to suppose that a mistress is compella- ble by law to give her discharged servant a character. In Carrol v. Bird" (3 Esp. 201), an action brought by a servant against hfr master for refusing to give her any character whatever on dismissal, Lord Chief Justice Kenyon said that in the case of domestic ser- vants there was no la. -v to compel a master to give a servant a character, it might be a duty which his feel- ings might prompt him to perform, but there was no law to enforce the doing it, and that the -action could not be sustained. Mo eover, what a master says or writes in regard to a servant's character to a person bona fide inquiring is looked upon as a privileged communication, and no action will lie unless it can be proved by the servant that the character given was false, and also that it was maliciously given. I cannot help thinking that a clearer knowledge of the legal relations of master and servant in regard to the giving or withholding a character would help materially tox improve the position of the latter in regard to their employers and of masters with refer- j ence to each other.

A WINTER IN ITALY. The Italian correspondent of the London Standard, in speaking of the extraordinary cold -which has there set in this winter, says:- The cold is indeed extraordinary, and seems to have every prospect of lasting for some time to come. I shall certainly not attempt to describe the sensation, beiiig confident that most of your readers will have it already at their fingers' ends. While upon the subject however, I will note the very curious philological fact that the word cold" in so many letters signifies in the dialects of Lombardy neither more nor less than hot. A singular instance, this, of the doctrine that "ex- tremes meet." Winter is a much more serious affair in Italy than elsewhere, for the simple reason that all the houses in the country have been constructed from time imme- morial, and all social usage formed, with a view to coolness, rather than warmth, beat being, of course, more or less the prevailing characteristic of this southern clime, and severe winters like the present an occa- sional exception, although it is a generally admitted fact that they have been greatly on the increase of Itte years, owing, it is said, in no small degree to the gradual disappearance of the dense forests which formerly kept off the chill blasts of the north. So convinced are the Italians of the increasing rigour of their winters, that they have a proverb to the effect that "in Germany you see the cold, but in Italy you feel it." Chilblains on the hands and on the feet are a pecu- liar fruit of the season in Italy, where they attack the new comer and the native with a virulence of whi h no adequate idea can be formed by the in- habitant of any other country; and accordingly, during the wintry months, a roaring trade is done here in the preparation and in the advertising of oint- ment, waehes, and other innumerable modes of treat- ment for the removal of this curse, all of them being, it is needless to say. equally inefficacious for in no respect does the healing art more clearly demon- strate its impotence than in its miserable attempts to deal with this class of disorders. The only specific th-t I know is to cross Mount Cenis and to in- hale for awhile the Transalpine air, which will put the enemy to flight in a very few days; but no sooner shall you set foot again within the charmed circle than he will renew his terrible visitations. Skaters are now 'n full glory, although there are but few places in Turin where they can display their dex- terity, the ice on standing ponds being removed almost as soon as formed by the numerous speculators in an article which enters so largely into the domestic consumption of the Turinese. Most of the ice-houses, however, in the neighbourhood of the city have meadow* adjoining, which are inundated on the approach of winter, and at some of these places a portion of the ground is reserved for the use of skaters; and natives as well as foreigners, ladies as well as gentlemen, repair thither in great numbers daily and ply the skate and the sledge with untiring activity and enjoyment. The ice upon which I disported this morning was more than seven inches thick, and I believe that it has been once broken already. Happily there is not much wind at present in these northern provinces, but we hear that in the neighbourhood of Naples they have been excessive, and that three soldiers were lately frozen to death in their sentry- boxes. In Basilicata the communications, never of the most easy, have been entirely blocked up by the snow. The evil is not, however, unmixed with good, for Jack Frost effectually keeps the brigands in check.

THE INNISKILLINGS AND THE LILLE Y-KILLINGS. The nation must be a very unreasonable, not to say impolite nation, if it is not perfectly satisfied with the very gentlemanly way in which H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridt e ha-i arranged the Crawley business. Nothing could be in better taste. Colonel Crawley having been honourably acquitted on all the charges which the Horse Guards thought could in fairness be brought against a gentleman, the Duke pleasantly reiterates the fact, and in replacing Colonel Crawley at the head- of the Inniskilling Dragoons, gives him just that friendly hint about tact and temper which one veteran soldier might offer to another. All the persons who were so rude as not to like Colonel Crawley, or to give evidence in an ungentlemanly manner, are severely wigged and menaced, as such conduct justly deserves, and Sir Hugh Rose is apologised to for having been rebuked under a misapprehension. But the noble generosity of the Horse Guards does not stop here, and as if to con- fute the base and public-house charge that the humble soldier was less considered than his superiors, the Duke of Cambridge makes the most complete atone- mentto the manes of Sergeant-Major Lilley, by frankly admitting that there is no particular proof that he was not a sober man "up to the period of arrest." This generous, soldierly, and unstinted compensation must be more than sa'isfactory to Lilley's relatives and to the nation, and in the interest of the army, and especially of the recruiting service, a copy of the Duke's remarks should be largely distributed. As for the ridiculous, lawyer-like objections that Lilley was kept under arrest in violation of the articles of war, and that he and his wife died under painful circum- stances, we really fe,-l that it would be lowering the tone in which military matters are discussed by gen- tlemen to enter into explanations of such miserable detads. The Horse Guards have behaved as might have been expected.—Punch.

THE NEW [STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY IN FRANCE! The debate on the address to the Emperor has been chosen by the Opposition in the Corps Legislatif as a kind of peg on which to hang the longings of the French for a further extension of freedom to the people; as the debate proceeds the public become more and more interested in the discussion. Nothing else is talked about, and various speculations are hazarded as to the course the Government will adopt. Some, crediting the report that the Emperor is highly irritated at the tone of the debate, think his Majesty will resort to another coup (re<«<; others, who have more reliance on the Emperor's sagacity, think he intends to grant some of the reforms so much needed. If we can gather anything from the speech of the Emperor on conferring the hat on a new cardinal last week, it is that his Majesty, though pained at the language used in the Chamber, is not inclined to interfere with the freedom of debate The following extracts are taken from a leader in the Times on the subject:— The debates on the address in the French Elective Chamber are a great addition to the contents of a ne spaper at a season like the present, when domestic politics can hardly be said to exist, when differences are narrowed do Nn to points of detail, and when all that can be said about foreign politics from the plain and simple English point of view has been pretty nearly exhausted. What a pity that a nation endowed with so admirable a faculty of speech should have been so long debarred from the use of it THE FRENCH GOOD DEBATERS. We claim for ourselves with some confidence, the quality of governing and being governed,of know- ing how to command and how to obey, the modera- tion that avoids extremes, and the common sense which looks more to a practical good obtained by mutual concession than to the assertion of the most splendid theory. But, with all our practice in poli- tical encounters, how little we are able to rival our neighbpurs, just waking up from a 12 years' sleep, in the dexterity of fence, in quickness of re- partee; and in that transparent clearness which doubles the force of a good argument, and carries off the defects of a bad one To the weightier attacks of M. Thiers and M. Berryer have succeeded a cloud of light skirmishers, who, wasp-like, settle on the sore places of the Constitution, and excite the official mind to an exquisite and tingling sensibility. We have this sort of thing in our own Parliament, but the en- counters are not so sharp, and the results of victory or defeat are not so serious. MERITS OF A CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT. The merit of a Constitutional Government is that it puts buttons on the ends of the foils and muffled gloves on the fists of the combatants. If order is at issue with liberty, or popular right at variance with prerogative, the principals in the conflict never ap- pear upon the stage. The form in which a change of policy presents itself is that of a change of ministry, and the greatest alterations are operated by the solu- tion of the question which of two party leaders shall direct the affairs of the nation. The people do not make their demands upon the sovereign, the sovereign does not refuse the wishes of the people. Be the party conflict ever so hot, the Crown is untarnished by the smoke of the battle, and everything subsides the day after the conflict into the old routine, without the least idea that tby censuring a man or a measure the institutions of the country have in the slightest de- gree beeh-weakened or endangered. TPSE FRENCH CONSTITUTION PELTED TO DEATH -France herself once condescended to live under such forms as have sufficed for us for the last 200 years. But her quick spirit of analysis, and her keen appre- ciation of logical incongruity, soon made her cast away a system so full of compromise and inconsequence. The constitution was pelted to death with epigrams the king.vas to reign, but not to govern the minis- ter was sometimes to have power, and always respon- sibility. The affairs of a great nation were lowered to a struggle for place and patronage, and so forth. THE ODIUM FAtXS ON THE EJIPEROK. France has now got an Emperor who reigns and governs, and who professes himself responsible to the people, though we do not know in what way. It fol- lows, of course, that hi* M inisters are irresponsible, and they therefore do not defend their measures before the Assembly, but leave the support of their acts 4o persons who have nothing to do with advising them. The consequence of all this we are now witnessing. The Assembly debates the state of the nation, and all the fault that is found with measures goes straight to the address of the Emperor himself. It is of no use to find fault with agents who act simply under the con- trol of a responsible chid. TWO FACTIONS IN FRAXCE Again, the origin of the Assembly is twofold — the majority, which is composed of members avowedly named by the Government, and either accepted by the constituencies or forced upon them by the unscru- pulous use of its influence; and the Opposition, elected in spite of it. Such divis'ons do not form, as with us. two political parties, striving with an allowable, if not always with a blameless, emulation for the same prize; f hey are two sects or factions, the one of which enjoys all the favour, the other undergoes the frowns and submits to the discouragements, of power. We know not with what view this machine was contrived, but its effects must necessarily be to bring the Govern- ment—that is, the sovereign power itself—into odium and disrepute. The sympathies of mankind are always with the weaker party, and when they see a band of men, some distinguished for ability and for 'he high positions they have held, and all exempt, t the very nature of the case, from any suspicion of ted motives, opposed to men richly rewarded money for defending measures not their own, 'It tbat the sympathies of mankindshould not he enlisted in favour ot the Opposition, and ex- actly to the same extent against the Government — that is, the sovereign power, between which and the people no intervening substance is permitted to soften the collision. DISTINCTION BETWEEN A PRESIDENT AND A SPEAKER! Another remarkable feature in the French Chamber is the position and conduct of the President, who does not sit, like the Speaker of the House of Commons, as the representative of the whole Assembly, to main- tain its order and dignity against attacks of individual members, but rather, as an additional representative of the Government, to interrupt orators who are touching on dangerous ground, and to forestal argu- ments which it might be found difficult to answer. In England the Opposition is kept in order and modera- tion by the consciousness that it may itself be called upon to exercise the functions which it criticises, and that it must look itself for the same measure which it metes out to its antagonists. In France this moderating influence is sought to be supplied by the rather clumsy expedient of a Government censor, who performs his duty while the debate is yet running its course, and checks the fault ere it is uttered, instead of interfering with its publication. THE DIFFICULTIES OF DEBATE. The recent debate affords two instances of the diffi- culties of conducting a debate in such an assembly. M. Taillefer makes certain observations on universal suffrage, tending, as it would seem, to show that the lower the franchise, the more sure the elector is to sup- port the Government which can reward his vote. He is told by the President that his— Remarks are completely foreign to the discussion. While allowing great liberty in discussion, I cannot permit the in- troduction of questions such as "you have started. The next was M. Glais-Bizoin, who said, among other disagreeable things, that he was hostile to the allurements offered to the vanity of citizens in the shape of titles and decorations, and that it was a humiliation to see the tribune subverted and the reports imposed on their acceptance. For this he received a lecture, of which the following is the substance. The reply is not wanting in smartness, but what must strike the reader is a strange mixture of the tone of debate with that of superior authority There is a limit to everything. You have joined the Assembly; you have taken an oath to the Constitution. There is no loyalty in criticising in so bitter a manner a state of things of which you were cognisant when you entered the hall. The tribune was not here then, and we did not set it up for your benefit. There is no imposed report; we have confided it to honest and impartial men, instead of allowing the truth to be disfigured by the party spirit of journalists. I consent to admit the most complete liberty of discussion here, but I will never tolerate un- measured attack on our institutions, with a view to their demolition. I hope the Opposition will be moderate. Then, perhaps, the sovereign may be induced to pursue the generous course which he entered on some years since, and the majority will follow in his footsteps; but, remember, neither the majority nor I will ever yield to violence. A STRONG GOVERNMENT. Strong indeed must be the confidence of the Emperor in the stability of his government when he thinks he can afford to exhibit it in such a light as this before the eyes of the world. To allow, in the same breath, liberty of discussion and to silence a speaker with taunts and insults tbe moment he touches on topics really interesting and important; to deny all responsibility to ministers, and yet to refuse to allow free criticism on his acts who is alone responsible; to embark the wInIe power of the government in the effort to exclude persons who are not satisfied with the present state of things, and then to employ a public functionary to prevent the few who have escaped proscription from giving utterance to their opinion, is to present the government in a light so unnecessarily odious, so superfluously irritating, that we find in it, if not evidence of far-sighted wisdom, at any rate the confidence of invincible strength. We can understand the policy, such as it is, of refusing free discussion al- together, but to pay homage to the principle of repre- sentation and the utility of debate by assembling an elective chamber and intrusting it with important duties, and then to exhibit before the public eye the whole process by which the minority of that chamber is prevented from giving utterance to its opinions, is a course so full of danger and so devoid of profit, that we are at a loss to imagine the motives which sug- gested it, or the reasoning by which it can be sup- ported. The Paris correspondent of the Morning Star has the following remarks on the remarkable speech of M. Tliiers M. Thiers' speech is to-day (Jan. 13.) in everybody's mouth. M. Larrabure's report, two or three days ago, was considered the great event of the session, but it is now almost forgotten, so delighted is Paris with the debate of the day before yesterday. The demand for places in the strangers' gallery is unprecedented. Those who are fortunate enough to obtain passes must stand a la queue, for several hours at the door opening from the Salle des Pas Perdus on the winding staircase, by which the few dozen persons, called the public, rush at half- past one in the afternoon to the pew set apart for them. They have not, when there, the pleasure of hearing much of the oratory which is. by means of its re- production in the Moniteur, making France delirious with an honest pride. It is complained that fewpersons,unlessthe reporters, were able to hear a word of what M. Thiers said. A great.manyof his colleagues did not even well hear him. Yesterday's debate was still less audible. The inconvenience arising from the suppression of the tribune is much felt, and a round robin has been addressed by many members of the Right and Left to the Due de Morny, praying that he will cause it to be restored. But it is not probable that the English mode of addressing the chamber will be set aside for the French. Were deputies never to improvise, the latter would be unquestionably preferable to the former. But as the Emperor, and indeed the French people, prefer a debate to a seance at which elabo- rate and highly-finished essays can only be read, the present mode is, on the whole, the best suited to the exigencies of the present day.

THE ADVENTURES OF A CHIMNEY. There lives in New Hampshire a man called Joe, a fellow noted for the tough yarns he can spin. A correspondent (says a New York paper) informs us that Joe called in at Holton's lately, and found him almost choked with smoke, when he suggested:— You don't know as much about managing smoky chimneys as I do, squire, or you'd cure 'em." Ah said Holton, with interest, "did you ever see a. smoky chimney cured ?" "Seen it?" said old Joe, "I think I have. I had the worst one in Seaboard county once, and I cured it a little too much." How was that?" asked Holton. "Why, you see," said Joe, "I built a little house out yonder, at Wolf Hollow, 10 or 12 years ago. Jim Bush, the fellow that built the chimneys, kept blind drunk three-quarters of the time, and crazy drunk the other. I told him I thought he'd have something wrong; but he stuck to it and finished the house. Well, we moved in, and built a fire the next morning to boil the tea-kettle. All the smoke came through the room and went out of the windows; not a bit went up the flues. We tried it for two or three days, and it got worse and worse. By-and-bye it came on to rain, and the rain began to come down the chimney. It put the fire out in a minute, and directly it came down by the pailful. We had to get the baby off the floor as soon as we could, or it would have been drowned. In fifteen minutes the water stood knee-deep on the floor. I pretty soon saw what was the matter. The drunken cuss had put the chimney wring end up, and it drawed downwards. It gathered all the rain within a. hundred yards, and poured it down by bucketfuls." Well, that was unfortunate," remarked Holton, but what in the world did you do with the house ? Surely, you never cured that chimney ?" "Didn't I, though?" answered old Joe; "yes, I did." "How ?" asked Holton. Turned it the other end up," said the incorrigible, "and then you ought to have seen it draw. That was the way I cured it too much." Drew too much ?" asked Holton. Well, squire, you may judge for yourself," said old Joe. "Pretty soon we got the chimney down the other end up I missed one of the chairs out of the room, and directly I see'd another of 'em shooting towards the fireplace. Next the table went, and I see the back log going up. Then I grabbed the old woman under one arm and the baby under t'other, and started but just as I got to the door I see'd the cat going across the floor backwards, holding on with her claws to the carpet, yelling awfully. It wasn't no use. I just see her going over the top of the chimney, and that was the last of her." Well, what did you do then ?" asked Holton of course you could not live in such a house ?" "Couldn't I, though?" said Joe "but I did I put a poultice on the jamb of the fireplace, and that drawed t'other way, so we had no more trouble."

WOMEN IN RANGOON. From a series of articles termed A Visit to the Rice Ports," communicated to the Laches'Own Journal, we selected the following sketches of some of the women tile correspondent met with: The Shau women are dressed in plain or coloured cloth, of no particular pattern or shape—something like that of the Bengalee women, however, except that the breasts are more covered, and the lower part of the dres", instead of being closed all round, is open so as to expose the limbs, when walking, very freely. The hair is fastened up with huge wooden combs, and the ears are adorned with a peculiar ornament the shape of a dice-box, and of about one inch in diameter. The material of this ornament varies according to the quality of the wearer,gold, silver, amber, brass, horn, or sometimes merely a roll of plain flannel. The wo- men are remarkably plain, much fairer than the Ben- galees, but not halt so good looking. The noses inva- riably partake of ,the snub or retrousse character, and the only good feature arc the eyes, which are large, dark, and bright. Of all the Burmese manufactures the boxes are the most curious and the bust known, and of these there is an infinite variety. BARGAINING. I drove into town with my host, leaving him at his office to go into the bazaar again, for I had several orders from Calcutta friends for Burmese curiosities. This is the most difficult place to go a shopping in I know. In the first place, all the shopkeepers are women, and then, as the curiosity shops are supported almost entirely by tourists, many of whom are only too easily taken in, the market is spoilt for after- comers, and it is most difficult to obtain anything at a. reasonable price. In order to do so some such pro- cess as the following is necessary. You enter the shnp, select an article-say a box-and inquire the price. Six rupees," says the lady. Six rupees I'll give you two."—" No, two won't do." Very well," and you put down the box. Well,' I'll let you have it for five twelve."— No, I'll give you two eight." y "Meow" she says, and you prepare to leave the shop. j She lets you get to the door, or perhaps as far as the gharry, and then she calls out, Come here, come here," and you wait to hear v\ hit she has got to say. "Four rupees," says she.—" No." "Three eight."—" No," and you turn round. "Well, three rupees."—"No, no, I told you two weight." Very well, take and you get the box, after all, at two rupees eight annas. As you have to spend the same time and trouble over every purchase, shopping is very troublesome, and it often happens that you do not come to terms, either from obstinacy on the part of the woman, or because you lose your temper and leave the shop. A GORGEOUS JEWESS. The Jewess came out in gorgeous array this morning —I suppose to make an impression upon her husband's friends, whom she would meet to-day for the first time. Her dress was extremely handsome, and I was so much attracted by it that I ventured to ask her if she would have any objection to give me the parti- culars of it; I said that I wanted to tell my lady friends in England how handsomely the Jewish ladies dressed. She would be most happy she said, and so we went together to the end of the saloon, and then I sat down at the table, pulled out my notebook, and wrote as follows: Her tunic or gown was of a rich green velvet lined with crimson silk, and profusely embroidered round the skirts with gold cord; the wide sleeves were ornamented with a fringe of small gold tassels. The gown, open in front, dis- closed a red satin petticoat, covered with fine white muslin. The breast was inclosed in a tieht-flttinsr cloth of srold. covered with the finest cambric embroidery. The headdress, which fell back on to the shoulders, was of a richly variegated stuff interwoven with gold and silver thread, and a few pearls. Handsome emerald drops ornamented her ears; round her neck was a lace of solid gold fastened by a large ruby clasp, and another gold chain hung down as far as her waist. Stockings of open work, and sandals of green and yellow satin bands, completed the inventory.

To the above we add the following amusing account of a luxury in India, although not relating particularly to ladies, which we have termed- A BATH BY INSTALMENTS. I turned out on to the verandah about seven, and then into the bath, which is one of the greatest advan- tages secured by staying on shore. Clean fresh water, and plenty of it, is a desideratum in any country, but in this climate what a luxury There is a bathroom in the steamer-of course every steamer has a bath- room-where the water comes through a hole in the rcof. I once heard some one call it a shower-bath, but he must have been j oking. This contrivance was j ustlarge enough to water one shoulder at a time, so that, by exposing the limbs one by one to the modest trickle from the above-mentioned hole, you might, in course of time, succeed in getting the whole of your body tolerably damp,—only that, by the time you have come to the last of the series, the first shoulder has become dry again, and so cold. Then the bathroom is quite dark, unless you leave the door open, which is objectionable and, all things considered, I had come to the conclusion that a bath was not worth the trouble it involved.

INTERESTING SCIENTIFIC FACTS. The following are selected from a great number of scientific facts recently published, as the most interesting to readers who do not care for abstruse subjects :— A NEW USE FOR WOOD SHAVINGS. Gustave Colomb, a civil engineer of Switzerland, has patented an invention for manufacturing factitious blocks of wood of diversified shades or colours, intended especially to be divided by sawing into thin sheets for veneering, although the blocks can be applied to other purposes. The inventor takes shavings made by hand- planing or by machine, which are rolled up by means of a spindle with a crank, compactly on each other, to form bundles, several of which are closely packed in suitable frames. The bundles can be formed with shavings of the same kind of wood or of several different kinds and colours in some cases shavings of other thin and pliable substances are introduced; such as thin strips of soft metals, horn. whalebone- ivorv- tortoiseshell, papier-mache made of sawdust, and any substance capable of being glued together with the wood shavings. When the frame has been filled up with bundles of shavings, it is dipped in a hot bath of well-liquefied glue. After this immersion, the bundles are submitted to strong pressure, and the blocks thus formed are then carried to a hot-air chamber, where they are sufficiently dried to be cut into thin sheets. COATING OF SHIPS WITH GLASS. By direction of the Admiralty, experiments, which are stated to be highly satisfactory, have beeir carried out at Woolwich dockyard to ascertain the practica- bility of coating the bottoms of iron ships on a plan invented by Mr. Leatch, which consists in covering the iron surface with gutta-percha or other cement, and on this soft material to fasten sheets of glass about a quarter of an inch thick. The glass is previously bent to the shape of the ship, and pierced for the reception of the screws or bolts, the apertures being lined with a soft adhesive composition, which prevent the fastenings from. coming into immediate contact with the glass. THE UTILISATION OF SEAWEED. At the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, Mr. E. A. Wunsch has read a paper on the above subject, in which he stated that the production of kelp" could be almost indefinitely increased if the difficulties of climate in the drying process could be overcome. The supply of seaweed on our shores is practically inex- haustible, being estimatedat21,000,000 tons perannum while the present consumption, both for kelp and for green manuring, does not reach 1,000,000 tons. The wrack cast up on our shores during the winter season is the largest in quantity and the most valuable in quality, and.it is now proposed to save and dry this artificially by a contrivance for burning "wet fuel," and by which the seaweed itself is made to contribute towards the heat required for drying large quantities, at a cheap rate, at all seasons of the year.

THE LAW OF LADIES' BONNETS! In the Westminster County Court, a cause, Pickwead v. Austen," has been tried, and which was of great importance to theatrical managers. Plaintiff stated that on the 28th December he went to St. James's Hall (London), and paid for four stall tickets. When he went in the evening with his wife and family, the defendant refused to admit the lady unless she left her hat outside. This she declined to do, as she did not wish to part with her property, but took off the hat and put it under her cloak. Defendant objected to this, and insisted on the hat being left in the cloak-room, and pointed to a board that was exhibited, whereon it stated that bonnets were not allowed in the stalls. Plaintiff remonstrated with defendant, and said that he had no right to make such an arbitrary regulation, but defend- ant insisted on his right. Plaintiff then demanded the return of his money, which defendant declined, upon which plaintiff said he would bring an action. Upon plaintiffand his family leaving, defendant offered to admit them if the lady promised not to put on the hat; this piomise plaintiff refused to give, and then left, and now brought his action for 12s., the money he had paid for the tickets, and also Ms. cab fare, although he went in his own carriage. In cross-examination, plaintiff said he did not see the board prohibiting the wearing of bonnets at the time he purchased the tickets, and that his attention was only drawn to it at the time he was "entering the hall. Mr. Lewis, who appeared for defendant, contended that the plaintiff could not recover, as he was bound to conform to the rules of the establishment where proper notice was given, as it had been done in this case, by placards being posted in various parts of 'the hall, prohibiting the wearing of bonnets in the stalls. defendant only asked a slight concession of the lady, which she declined to grant, and therefore he refused admission. He did not seek their custom, but they came to please themselves, and therefore they had a right to comply with the regulations of the house. Defendant sworn Has been engaged several years at St. James's Hall. Never saw a bonnet in the stalls. The rule prohibiting them is most strictly enforced. Refused to permit the lady to go in unless she took off her bonnet. Cross-examined by Plaintiff: The lady had the bonnet in her hand. By the Judge Had no noti6cation in his advertise- ments or on the tickets as to the restriction respecting bonnets. Plaintiff: It is not for the convenience of the public that this regulation is made, but for the purpose of mulcting them in fees. Mr. Lewis You have no right to make such an as- sertion with reference to such a respectable establish-! ment. His Honour, oil a review of the case, said that the proprietor of a place of entertainment had no right to insist on a lady taking off her bonnet, that it had already been so decided; but at the same time recom- mended the defendant to have the notification printed on his tickets, as it might be the means of preventing misunderstanding in future, although he did not think it would justify the defendant in enforcing it. # Judgment for plaintiff for the 12s. he paid for the tickets, but the cab fare was refused, as he did not employ one.

WHERE WILL IT END? Could some power bestow upon President Lincoln and his advisers the gift of seeing themselves as others see them, what a picture would their handiwork, as read in this once happy and favoured continent of North America, present to their view! (writes the Times correspondent from Richmond). A broad belt of devastation sweeps for hundred of miles along the frontier which separates the exasperated combatants, and within its precincts fire and sword, and havoc and rapine have done their worst. In no other words can the desolation of Northern Virginia. and Tennessee find such forcible exposition as in those of the prophet Joel:— That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten, and that which the locust hath left hath the canker- worm eaten, and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. Behind, a gloomier vision ascends. The whole land groans with dungeons and bastilles-in the North 34,000 Confederates, in the South nearly 20,000 Federals languish in imprisonment—in both sections an unknown number of suspected, and often, unoffend- ing civilians and women pay the penalty of imputed opinion. In the North, Johnson's Island, Forts Warren, Lafayette, Delaware, and M'Henry, Camp Chase, and Camp Douglas are words of terror known throughout the civilised globe in the South, Castle Thunder, the Libby Prison, Belle Isle, Danville, and Americus are choking with prisoners, and there is a cry for increased prison accommodation. Where, it may well be asked, will it all end ? Is the precarious tenure of Tennessee, which may be wrested from him any day, and which is substantially all the success which his armies have gained this year, sufficient to justify President Lincoln in continuing the anguish of so large a portion of the human race for yet another year ?

A WELCOME TO THE BABY PRINCE. BY THE POET LAUREATE T-PP-R, Twinkle, twinkle, little Star, That's precisely what you are, Star of England's hopes, and mine, Destined on her throne to shine. Pretty little royal boy, Father's pride and mother's joy, IIow I long to see thee toddle, And to kiss thy pinky noddle Haply if thy praise I sing, Old England's small but future King Pa and Ma will ask me down To Frogniore, nigh to Windsor town. Therefore, hail auspicious child Who upon our land hast smiled And let thy parents read my rhymes A hundred thousand million times !-Pit), elt.

THE NEW MORGUE IN PARIS. The new La Morgue, or dead-house, in Paris, which is being raised behind the cathedral of Notre Dame, between the bridge of St. Louis and that of the archbishop's palace, is now nearly complete. It is to be occupied as soon as the court-yard is paved and flagged. The new dead-house is composed of a principal building, with arches at three of the sides. There are wings at the right and left with five windows, which are fitted up for the accommodation of the persons employed to receive and lay out the dead bodies brought there. At the lower end is the dead hall, so called because the subjects are to be first deposited there. It is there the servants are to dress them before they are placed cn their marble bed to be exposed to the examination of those who may come to look for a lost friend. The dead hall communicates with a second room, in which the bodies are to be washed. In this room are placed several vats filled with hot water. Beyond this room are the drying lofts, and the large presses in which the wearing apparel of the deceased is deposited. The great hall in which the bodies are exposed to public view is close to the street. It is well-aired, and lighted by a skylight. There are two windows, so placed as to create a constant current of air. There are twelve marble tables on which the bodies are to be placed. The old Morgue, which is shortly to be taken down, is situated on the Quai du Marche Neuf, and was built in the year 1804. It replaced the building of the prison of the Chatelet, where the dead bodies found in the Seine were exposed, but at that peried nobody claimed a body, because it was supposed that a sum of money should be paid for the recovery. E.ven now such a belief exiats among a certain class of the population. It was at the Morgue of the Quai du Marche Neuf that the body of a child was ex- posed for six weeks after it had been embalmed, which the assassin Elicabide murdered at La Villette.

DISEASES OF OVERWORKED MEN. The following very opportune remarks on the special mania of the time, are taken from the Social Science Review:- Time was when the very phrase, diseases of over- worked men, would have been considered foolish and out of the question. Now it conveys a truth of national importance, whicli tho^ nation must con- sider. From being a comparatively idle world, we have of late become an insane world on the subject of labour. So long as the muscles merely were employed, so long little harm was done; we remained men; now we aspire to be gods, and we pay the forfeit of our ambition. From overwork we now get a class of diseases the most prolonged, the most fatal. The euns of our best men go down at noon, and so ac- customed are we to the phenomenon that we cease to regard it as either strange or out of place. It is through the mind now that the body is destroyed by overwork at all events it is so mainly. The men of intense thought—men of letter?, men of business who think and speculate, men of the State who are ambi- tious to rule, these men are sacrifices. With them the brain bus not merely to act on it3 own muscles, bidding them perform their necessary duties, but the one brain must needs guide a hundred other brains, and all the muscles thereto appended. •An electric battery works a single wire from the City to Brighton, and does its work well, and goes on for some months before it is dead or worn out. Can it do the work of a hundred wires? Oh, yes, it can, but it must have more acid, must wear faster, and will ultimately die sooner. We may protect the plates, make the battery to an extent self-regenerative as the body is, but in the main the waste is in excess of the supply, and the wear is certain as the day. Men of letters, men of business who do their business through other hands and do great business, and men immersed in politics, suffer much the same kind of effects from overwork. They induce in themselves, usually, when they suffer from this cause, one or other of tht. follow- ing maladies :-Cardiac melancholy, or broken heart; dyspepsia, accompanied with great loss of phosphorus from the body; diabetes, consumption; paralysis, sis, local and general; apoplexy, insanity, premature old age. They also suffer more than other men from the effects of ordinary disorders. They bear pain in- differently, can tolerate no lowering measures, are left long prostrated by simple depressing maladies, and acquire in some instances a morbid sensibility which is reflected in every direction so that briskness of action becomes irritability; and quiet, seclusion and moroseness. They dislike themselves, and feel that they must be disliked, and if they attempt to be joyous, they lapse into shame at having dissembled, and fall again into gloom. -+--

A WOMAN'S RIGHTS IN SLAVERY. The following is taken from Professor Newman's "Letter to a Friend." It is forcibly written and very plainly put, but it really speaks the truth as to a woman's right to her virtue when in slavery:— The right of rape practically acts in two different ways. On the majority of slave women it induces a total recklessness as to female honour. They are taught by precept and example that it is their duty to have a child once a year, and it matters not who is the father. To this degradation they learn to submit, though they cannot put off maternal feelings, and escape pangs of anguish, when one child after another is rent away from them. But there is another still more piteous case-that of mulattos, mestizos, quadroons, quinteroons, kc., who have been reared delicately and trained modest. With inhumanity unparalleled the American code has pronounced the mixed blood to be slaves. One drop of the African is held to pollute an ocean of European blood and the master's licentiousness, instead of conducing to freedom, as in Cuba, does but breed for him a peculiarly valuable stock of cattle. A man's beautiful daughter, reared in his house, may be sold to men'sktst through her parent's death or pecuniary difficulties. If she be forced to worse by her father or brother, the law justifies it; and however rare this last enormity, no Southerner would dare to propose to forbid it. The slave has no rights which the white man is bound to respect," is a summary warning against all Utopian ideas of amendment. Even if we had not, what we have, actual cases in point, showing the execrable nature of the infliction on beautiful quadroons, what say you to a law which justifies a man in whipping a woman to death because she will not submit to rape ? beautiful quadroons, what say you to a law which justifies a man in whipping a woman to death because she will not submit to rape ? Mrs. Beecher Stowe, -in her Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin" (a book with which your association seems to be unacquainted), relates an actual case of Delia Clarke, a beautiful quinteroon, her mother being a quadroon, and her father a Scotchman, who married, as he thought and intended, legitimately, and on the promise that she would be made free. But nine children were nevertheless kept in slavery, Delia among them. Delia was pious, and a member of the Baptist Church; but was sold, apparently for her beauty. In sight of her brother and mother she was brutally whipped, because she would not' submit to her new master's lust. When nothing could conquer her resolution, he sold her to the brothels of New Orleans. No thanks to him nor to the slave code that her beauty attracted a Frenchman, who took her to Mexico, emancipated, and married her. Does a Power which maintains such laws deserve to be shielded by the collective patronage or force of Europe from extinction by any greater Power which will take the trouble? Is it not strictly an enemy of mankind? Europe does not espouse the King of Ashantee, or cherish the political existence of Dahomey, who are far more bearable than this Slave Power. ———

LOOKING FOR A SUPPER. Mr. Sala, the well-known author and correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, in a letter to that paper gives the following amusing account of a supper which he sought in an Ameri- can hotel, and of the •' helps" who assisted" him thereatj The presence of style in the Tremont House, St. Alban's, however perfect it may be, fails, perhaps, to compensate for the absence of suppers. There was on the occasion described in my last letter, a power- fully meaty smell in the refectory, recalling the odour of an engine factory next door to a cookshop, but for a long time nothing else. At last one attendant Hebe appeared with cheese and crackers—stylish to look at, but undeniably nubbly. This Hebe was Irish; she was a stout but uncombed young person. Soon afterwards another waitress en- tered. This nymph was tall and gaunt and American. She bore a huge pitcher of iced water-a most welcome beverage, but somewhat cold comfort for Christmas. I should have preferred egg-hot. I thought, when I saw the Vermontese nymph's apron and bib, and her hair screwed off her temples in butterfly bows, with a high comb behind, that I beheld the versatile Mrs. Barney Williams in her admired impersonation of the "Yankee Gal." For the nonce I elected to be Pesky Ike," and expected every moment to be addressed as keemo kimo," and asked whether I would have my high, my low," or "my right fol iddle diddle" for supper — The female Vermonter was a Pliillia, br.t not neat- handed. In a nasal contralto, to which the grossest caricature of the American dialect I ever heard on the English stage was perfectly tame, she asked me if I would have "steak or tryaipe." A taste for tripo is among the few human vices to which I am not ad- dicted and my brief experience of American beef had not led me to look upon steak as a very dainty viand. I asked, failing offal, if I could have any- thing else. "No," curtly replied Mrs. Barney Williams, "youkyant; ain't that enough ?" I bowed, and said I would take steak. She brought me, on a cold plate, a curled-up flap of something hard and greasy and cartilaginous, which looked unpleasantly like a piece of an Ethiop's ear, fried. I asked if I could have anything to drink with my supper — some beer, some cider, or some wine. This is not a bar," said Mrs. Barney Williams, severely; "guess there's water and tea, and that's all." Upon which I made some rather uncompli- mentary allusions to Mr. Niel Dow and the Maine Liquor Law. This brought in the landlord, who, with sedate affability, whispered that he could "get" me any- thing I wanted" quietly." I declined, however, to be supplied surreptitiously, and as a favour, with that to which I conceived that, as a peaceable bona fide traveller, I had a right; and as I couldn't get on with the fried Ethiop's ear after the first mouthful, I re- tired from the hall" sulky and supperless. I did not care to bandy words with the Phillis who was not neat-handed. She did not like me evidently, and I reciprocated the sentiment, But, for anything I knew to the contrary, she might be the sheriff's daughter or the mayor's sister-in-law, and accustomed to go out on Sundays with a "magnolious" parasol and a "spanglorlous" crinoline. An American help" is no menial. She is spoken of, not satirically, but in simple good faith, as "the young lady" who picks up" the house, and fixes" the dinner table. Before she agrees to enter a family she cross-examines her mistress as to whether the house is provided with Hecker's flour, and Berbe's range, brass pails, oil-cloth on the stairs, and hot and cold water laid on. Then she states the domestic "plat- form" on which she is prepared to act. "Monday I bakes, and nobody speaks to me. Tuesday I washes I'se to be let alone. Wednesday I irons you'd best let me be that day. Thursday I picks up the house I'm awful ugly that day in temper, but affectionate. Friday I bakes again. Saturday my beau comes. And Sunday I has to myself." The "help," I repeat, is a young lady. She devours with avidity the romances, all about love and murder, in the New York Ledger. She attends lectures, and may some day deliver lectures herself, or become a member of a Woman's Rights Convention and it is because she is a young lady, and the persons who require her assistance do not choose to run the risk of being driven raving mad by her perversity and her impertinence, that so many married couples in the United States never venture on housekeeping for themselves, but live from year's end to year's end in uproarious and comfortless hotels.

ENGLAND AND THE WAR IN NEW ZEALAND. The following, from the Times, explains the feeling of England in respect to war with her colonies, and also gives, in a small compass, the gist of the quarrel in New Zealand: England does not go into war until driven into it; nor does she continue war a day longer than necessary. She never declines honest and reasonable overtures. She does not want to dispossess a single savage of his hut or his field, even though at home, under the pressure of social necessity, she has seen immense classes of indigenous peasants ousted of their holdings, and hereditary landlords of their estates. Our ex- tensive colonial literature, our great geographical curiosity, our missions, our churches rising up every- where, in the remotest wilderness, all testify to the fact that it is not the territory, but the people, whom we wish to call our own and that the interest of the possession disappears when the aboriginal race is either extinct or is reduced to a miserable remnant. We read with delight of native chiefs, native cere- monies, native councils, the eloquence of native ora- tors and the wisdom of natives, of native traditions and rules of State. Such are our feelings, and they spring from the same source as that varied henevo- lence which at home penetrates every alley and every cottage in this country. We should all be rejoiced to hear that peace had been obtained upon terms which saved our honour and the British sovereignty, even though it added nothing to the soil ia our possession. We should deem it a heavy item in any indictment against the Colonial Governor that he had neglected a fair opportunity of peace, or stood out for terms which the natives could not be expected to accept. As to confiscation, that is a question which, by the experience of all wars and treaties, cannot be dismissed in a breath. The expenses of the wtr must be paid; s outrage and fraud must be mulcted; military positions must be held for security but, no doubt, we should all of us be very glad to hear that order had been res- tored without any violent interference with the former state of property and occupation. It appears that the Government of New Zealand, about four years ago, did wliat many a man ha3 done to his cost in this country. It purchased some land from a dishonest chief, who failed to inform it either as ta the claims upon the land or his own complicity in those claims, or the actual occupation of parts of t I the laud, or his own intended reserve. It is difficult to conceive how any Government could be so egre- giously duped, and we must either suppose there is some unexplained mystery, or that rreira-like many savages and many apparently stupid men among its-- was, under the guise of simplicity, a consummate rogue. However this may be, the purchased land had been c eu d occupied by our troops, and the supposed intruders dispossessed. Sir George Grey, even after a disaster and under circumstances too likely to lower the native opinion of our firmness and courage, had agreed to throw up this untoward purchase, and wipe his hands of the quarrels thence arising. But neither this nor any other possible concession could touch the main difficul; y. W. King, the person who some years ago saw in these quarrels the prospect of founding a native sovereignty, and has had some success, has laid down laws limiting 1" the pater of the natives to dispose of their own lands, with the avowed object of confiningthe British colonists to the immediate neighbourhood of the ports. This man ii.;siaipiy a usurper, his laws are simply usurpa- tions ;and bfith he and they have no other sanctioll than ort which he may happen to receive. |

The ^Latte. CONSPIRACY to ASSASSINATE the FRENCH EMPEROR. Whit the Times has said in respect to the late conspiracy in Paris and M. Mazzini's"complicity therein is tfortb reading, but the only paragraph of importance is the one quoted below, where the duty of England is referred to. Doubts, however, have been thrown on the subject by residents in France, who believe the police, if not the originators, have at least brought matters to a head by unfair means:- M. Mazzini's disavowal will be welcomed by every one, except, perhaps, by the French police; but it will be received with partipuljfr satisfaction in this country. Every Englishman will be relieved to find that this villany has not been contrived on English soil. In the case of Orsini the whole plot had certainly been laid in England in this case we may congratulate ourselves on having escaped any such misfortune. This plot was not laid in England; but in Switzerland, and whoever the mover of the ^con- spiracy may be, there is now no reason to suppose that he is in London. We hope the incident may help to convirce the French police and public that there is nothing in the air of England which specially attracts or fosters assassins. Assassination is not an English crime, and any man who was only reasonably suspected of having plotted it against any one, whether a public or private enemy, would be scouted even by the prize-fighters in the neighbourhood of Leicester-square. Percussion bombs and poisoned daggers are weapons more Jamiliar to the Continent than to us, and if, as in this case, conspiracy finds a. home on the outskirts of Italy, it will have taken helter on a more congenial- soil. We feel, indeed, that the immunity of a political asylum is wholly perverted when it is made to shelter the perpetrators of. notorious crimes. With the organisation on our soil of mere schemes of political revolution, however questionable, it is difficult for us to interfere, and the nation whoso present ruler found shelter for so long among us ought to be the last to complaiif of our generosity. But there is a clear and broad distinction between offences which are only political crimes, however grave, and acts which are direct violations of the criminal law of any civilised country. I If a man commits a murder in France and escapes to England, we are bound by treaty to surrender him, and any accomplices he might be proved to have over here would be equally liable to punishment. But a murder is not less a murder because it is committed against a sovereign, and a person who has committed it ought to be as amenable to j ustice here as in France. Englishmen are as eager as the French can wish them to put a stop to the initiation of these crimes on English soil, and if there has ever seemed to be any difficulty in the matter, it has been raised by the hasty violence of the French themselves. If they elevate a miserable criminal to the rank of a great political offender, any proceedings against him or his accomplices take the colour of a political prosecu- tion, and the Government, as in the case of Orsini, is hampered by the jealousy with which Englishmen view even the semblance of acting at the dictation of a foreign government.

The following is M. Mazzini's letter to the papefs on the above subject:— TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Accusations of every description have been, since the arrest of four Italians at Paris charged with an attempt against Louis Napoleon, heaped upon me by the organs of the French Government and repeated by the English press. It has always been my known habit not to discuss accu- sations put forth against me by avowed enemies, and I feel a special dislike to do so when the accusations come from the agents of a man who, as far as in him lies, is by mere brutal force depriving my country of the unity which she claims, and making of Rome; the basis of operation of the brigandage infesting the South of Italy. Yielding, however, to solicitations of dear English friends, I do declare That I never did instigate anybody to kill Louis Napoleon; That I never did give to any man bombs, air-guns, revol- vers, or daggers for that purpose That Trabucco, Imperatori, and Gaglio are entirely un. known to me. That, therefore, the meeting summoned at Lugano, the: absurd place of under-lieutenant given to Imperatori in a brigade of four men, and the giving of photographs to the men, are absolute falsehoods. That my photographs, with my autograph at the bottom, are sold for the Venice Emancipation Fund at the office ot the Cnita Italiana and elsewhere; That no letter, with or without money, has ever been ad< dressed by me to Greco in Paris: Greco I know. Hundreds, I might say thousands, of young men belonging to our national party of action are known to me. Greco is an enthusiastic patriot, who took an active part in the enterprises of 1860 and 1861 in the South of Italy, and he has had, as such, contact with me. Any note 01 mine in his possession, if there is any, must, however, belong to at least nine or ten months ago. Enougn in reply to accusations hitherto merely grounded on French police reports.—I am, sir, yours faithfully, Jan. 14. JOSEPH MAZZINI. ir OF THACKERAY.

In a letter to Lc Tewps, full of the most generous feeling and of fine and penetrating criticism of the genius of our great departed humorist, whose friendship he had enjoyed, M. Louis Blanc relates in his own inimitable style (which we can only paraphrase) the following characteristic) anecdote A few years ago the London papers announced that a Frenchman, whose name I need not give you, was going to deliver in English what is here called a lecture. Foremost among those who were moved by a feeling of delicate kindness and hospitable curiosity to encourage the lecturer with their presence was Thackeray. When the lecture was over, the manager of the literary institution where it was delivered, for some reason or other, recommended the company to take care of their pockets in the crowd at the doors; a hint which was not particularly to the taste of a highly- respectable and even distinguished audience. Some even protested, and none more warmly than an un- known person, very well dressed, sitting next to Mr. Robert Bell. Not content with speaking, this un- known person gesticulated in a. singularly animated manner. Isn't such a suggestion indecent, sir, in- sulting ?" said he to Mr. Bell. "What does he take us for ?" &c., &c. After giving vent to his indignation in this way for some moments, the susceptible stranger disappeared, and when Mr. Robert Bell, who wanted to know how long the lecture had lasted, put his hand to his watch-pocket, behold I his watch had disap- peared likewise. Thackeray, to whom his excellent friend mentioned the mishap, invited Robert Bell to dinner a day or two after. When the day came, Robert Bell took his seat at his friend's table, round which a joyous company of wits were gathered, and soon found himself encircled by a rattling fire of banter about an article of his which had just appeared in the Cornhill Magazine, then conducted by Thackeray; an article remarkably in all respects, and which had attracted universal notice, as a faithful, serious, and philosophical account of some effects of spiritism, which the authpf' had witnessed at a seance given by Mr. Home. Air. Robert Bell is an admirable ca use ur; his talk is a happy: mixture of all Englishman's good sense and an Irish- man's verve. So his questioners found their match in brilliant fence. Next day a mysterious messenger arrived at Air. Robert Bell's, and handed to him, without-saying who had sent it, a box containing a note, worded, as nearly as I recollect, as follows The spirits present their compliments to Mr. Robert Bell, and, as a mark of their gratitude to him, they have the honour to return him the watch that was stolen from him." And a watch it' really was that the box contained, but. a watch far liner and richer than the one which had dis- appeared. Mr. Robert Bell thought at once of Thackeray, and wrote to him without further explanation I don't know if it is you, but it is very like you." Thackeray, in reply, sent a caricature portrait of himself, drawn by his own hand, and representing a winged spirit in a flowing robe, and spectacles on nose. Thackeray had in early life taken to painting, and perhaps, if he had pursued his first vocation, he might nave come in time to handle the brush as well as afterwards handled the pen. At any rate the drawing in question, as I can bear witness, was one to britig tears into your eyes for laughing. It was accom' panied by a note, asfollows :— The spirit Gabriel presents his compliments to Mr. Robert Bell, and takes the liberty to communicate to him the portrait of the person who stood the watch. Now, is not this bit of a story charming ? What grace what delicacy what humour in this inspira- tion of a friend who, to punish his friend for having done the spirits the honour to speak of them, sends him with a smile a magnificent present! Honourable to Thackeray, this anecdote is equally so to Robert BelJ, who could inspire such feelings in such a man. And this is why I feel a double pleasure in relating it.

DEATH OF A MAN OF MARK A man of great mark and influence has just passed away (writes a New York correspondent). JohnHughen. Catholic Archbishop of New York, died on Sunaa/, at the age cf 65, from softening of the brain and general prostration of the powers of life. He came to America a poor Irish boy, began life as a shopman or assistant to a florist in New York, and entering the Church at an early age, succeeded, by dint of pliancy, industry, and native talent, in working him- self up to the high ecclesiastical position which he has held for the last 2G years, as bishop and archbishop. He exercised an enormous influence over the Irish Roman Catholic population—not so much for leading them in political affairs as for following the current of their opinions and prej udices, and for his thorough per- sonal sympathy in all their feelings of nationality. He was entirely a manof the people, and, if .some what anti- English, was more so from policy than from convic- tion. He was not an opponent of slavery, for if he had been, he would have placed himself in antagonism, not only to his Church, but to the sentiment of the whole Irish population. He was deliberately opposed to an enforced military conscription, and during the riots of last July took no pains to conceal either from the Government or the people that he considered the draft unwise, or unjust, if not tyrannical. As befitted his sacred character, he was a friend of peace, and seeing high above the madness of the crowd to those serener altitudes of thought where passion has no foothold, he took occasion to impress upon the minds of the youthful students of the Ecclesiastical College of St. Xavier, and upon those of his flock, that the liberty of the Rwpublic was to be prized as something far more estimable than extent of territory, and that the happiness of a State was to be considered better worth securing than its "bigness."

ANOTHER, TOAD STORY i-Otie of the men engaged in the Hall Pit, near to Malinslee Hall, was engaged in "holing# under the coal, when, after he had got on hi-i nndLfmining about one foot, he was surprised by obserwng a small toad crawl out from under the coal, This discovery was made in the pricking" under the sulphur coal. There is no fault or crevice by wMch-this reptile could have gained ac- cess to its tomb, .The pit is 24Q yards deep. *1 1 J