Monmouthshire Merlin

THE BISHOP OF MANCHESTER AND j CARDINAL MANNING. The Bishop of Manchester prcached at St. Helens, Churchtown, near Garstang, on Sunday. Taking for his text the tith verse of the 4th chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, his Lordship referred to the recent sermons of Cardinal Manning in Lancashire. He said that on the previous Sunday his Eminence, in a remarkable sermon that he preached in Manchester, compared Christian truth to beads s rung together on a thread. The thread on which these beads were strung was Church authority, and he maintained that in the Protestant denominations this thread was broken, and that all truth, or what should have been truth, had become mere confusion, contention, and contradiction, till at last, he said, every germ of the truth was wasting and perish- ing. That was Cardinal Manning's description of the Catholic faith as held by the various Protestant Churches in Christendom, and he (the Bishop) saw that the Bishop of Salford in Ireland not very long ago described the land in which he was living-whether in England or Lancashire he did not know-as honey- combed with heresy. Now, he asked if they could find St. Paul saying that Church authority was the thread on which beads of truth were strung ? He was quite prepared to admit that Paul recognised such a thing as church authority, but he did not recognise it as supreme authority. The authority of the Catholic Church, which in the mind of Cardinal Manning meant infallibility, centred in a man whom the Cardinal did not hesitate in a sermon preached in Liverpool about a month ago to clothe with divine attributes. That idea was one which they could not find the slightest trac of in the Scriptures. Cardinal Manning said in Manchester last Sunday that his (the Bishop's) requirement of faith was the very ex- travagance of rationalism. He (the Bishop) bad done no more than Peter did 1800 years ago when he said, Let every man be able to give a reason of the hope that is in him." That was all he (the Bishop) said. His lordship then went on to say that they must seek for unity in these latter days, not by trusting to the poor reed of Church authority, which meant trusting in the authority of the so-called infallible man. The unity which rested on mere authority was delusive. Beads hung on a thread was hardly the image of what they pictured to themselves as strong and durable; snap the thread and the beads fell upon the floor. And so if man ever doubted the authority on which he was taught to rely, the whole faith fell to pieces. In those countries which professed to receive Church authority there was widespread scepticism and infidelity amongst the intellectual and educated classes, and the faith that remained was a mere superstition, laying hold of the imagination, but not directing and illuminating the heart of man. And so when men had taught those who heard them to trust to this feeble thread on which they strung their beads, the real weakness of the thread was masked by all sorts of contrivances, and they heard of all sorts of visions and trances and ilgrimages-all of them instruments to galvanise faith into something like truth.

THE FLOGGING CASE AT BARNSLEY WORKHOUSE. The London Telegraph, in an indignant leader on the subject of the flogging of two pauper girls by the matron of the Barnsley Workhouse, dwells upon the story of the flagellation of female inmates at the Hoo Union, near Rochester, in Ken:a story which, five-and-thirty years ago, unutterably disgusted the public—and brought -if that were possible—additional discredit on the administration of the new Poor Law. This case impelled the Poor Law Commissioners to issue an order directing that in future no female pauper child should be subjected, under any circumstances whatso- ever, to corporeal punishment. Other leading cases" are recorded, and our contemporary comes to the con- clusion that, although Mrs. Wright, of the Barnsley Workhouse, might be legally absolved from the charge of indecent conduct—while nothing could be virtually more indecent than her mode of procedure—the assault she committed was nevertheless of an out- rageously aggravated nature, and deserves more serious punishment than mere dismissal from her situation. It is unnecessary to go into the unpleasant minutiae of the affair. That the punishment was unwarrantably severe seems plain from the evidence of the workhouse nurse, who subsequently anointed the stripes of one sufferer with oil. It should be remarked that when magistrates order naughty little boys to be birched, the maximum of blows administered rarely exceeds a dozen, that the whole performance is over in a couple of minutes, and that even the most robust garrotters are not under the cat-o'-nine tails for more than five minutes. If the matron at Barnsley took double that time to satisfy her thirst for cruelty on the I naked and shrinking iorms before her, it becomes manifest either that she must have inflicted an uncon- scionable number of stripes, or that she must have paused long between them, thus prolonging the agony of her victims. If such a punishment does not con- stitute an aggravated assault," we may expect to be told that the public whipping of women at the cart's tail was neither a cruel nor a shameful spec- tacle. The Local Government Board, having care- fully considered the evidence forwarded to them by the Barnsley Guardians, have, we are informed, determined to request Mrs. Wright to resign." So far as it goes, the decision is most commendable, but it should only be regarded as a step towards ulterior proceedings, of which the prosecution of the ex-matron for an aggravated assault should form an integral part. Late in the Victorian era we find a Christian woman who goes regularly to church, and, it is to be pre- sumed, has taught in Sunday-school, presumably neither coarse nor uneducated, and one, moreover, who could not have obtained her situation without high tes- timonials as to character and efficiency, dragging the clothes off two grown-up girls, and scourging them with a birch rod. The keeper of a bridewell in Queen Elizabeth's time could have done no more; nay. the wantons tied to the whipping-post would not have Lad their modesty wholly and ruthlessly trampled under foot as has been done by this unwomanly woman at Barnsley.

HERZEGOVINA AND BOSNIA. The Times says Herzegovina and Bosnia are two of the most unruly provinces in the empire, because they are the seat of an old family quarrel. The Mahomedans as well as the Christians are Slavs, and it was to preserve their lands that a minority of the people long ago went over to the faith of the Prophet. They apostatised with all the vehemence of the Slav race, becoming Mahomedans of Mahomedans. Nowhere is the laxity of religious usage in Constantinople more despised than in the homes of the Bosnian landowners, and they inherit from former generations a peculiarly keen contempt for the Christian drudges who till their fields. As our special correspondent said recently, the quarrel between the two classes is essentially a re- ligious combat-of all strifes the most difficult to heal, or even to distinctly analyse. The fanaticism of the Mahomedans has led them to c mmit many acts of atrocious injustice, and, if our special correspondent has been rightly informed, to perpetrate some of those outrages which often live in the memory of the meanest race for generations. If Moslem landlords not only quarter themselves on the peasant who has failed to pay his rent, but sometimes subject his wife and daughters to the last extremity of insult, it is indeed no wonder that the rayahs have risen against their oppressors in a fit of desperation. We shall wait for the testimony of the consuls before believing that Mahomedan violence has gone so ftirf but there is nothing in the administration either of Bosnia or the Herzegovina to encourage the idea that such out- rages could not go unpunished. The Pasha may sometimes be both just and vigorous, but the local courts are usually able to shield noto- rious criminals even from the rigour of the Pasha himself, and, as they are entirely at the com- mand of the Mahomedans, the landowners can too often make their own will their own law. The exao- tions of those lords of the soil are another source of constant anger, and few forms of oppression are so baffling to statesmanship. It is said that the rayahs have in their turn been guilty of violence, and there is a story that the rebellion began by the murder of a Mussulman. We think it extremely probable that the rayahs are at least as bad as other people, and we should be very much surprised to hear that they were in the habit of turning their cheeks to the smiter. We have not the slightest doubt that they are degraded and superstitious. It would be a wonder if centuries of oppression had left them pure or heroic. But we must take them for what they are, and not dismiss their complaints because they Lhemselves bear indifferent characters. Another of these complaints is directed against the collectors of the taxes, and here we touch a sign of deep disease. The personal extravagance of the Sultan, the huge sums spent on the construction of palaces and ironclads, the bad system of levying the taxes, and the systematic peculation of the officials, force the Porte to gather an amount of revenue which is often crushing to a poor peasantry. A striking example of Turkish taxation has been given in one of the ordinary telegrams from Constantinople. Yielding to the impulse of our Ambassador, the Porte, it was said, had agreed to fulfil its promise that the tithes in the island of Crete should be reduced to 10 per cent. Although given in a formal charter so long ago as 1868, that pledge has, of course, been broken, and the real amount of the so-called tithe 'has been 121 per cent. But Sir Henry Elliot seems to have taught the Porte that, in the present season of diplomatic publicity, it would be well to return the extra 2t per cent. to the pillaged taxpayers,"

MR. GLADSTONE ON THE CONDITION 01' THE ENGLISH LABOURER. At the annual meeting of the Hawarden Literary Institution, held on Tuesday, the Rev. Stephen Glad- stone presiding, the adoption of the report was moved by the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, who said I wish you to consider a few things which I will en- deavour to lay before you. In the first place let me say, in recommending to your encouragement and patronage an establishment of this kind, I do not do so as if either bodily exercise or even mental culture and improvement of our intellectual faculties are of themselves the whole of what man requires in the course of this his pilgrimage upon earth. Man has three forms of life-his spiritual life, his intellectual life, and his bodily life. It is in relation to God, and upon his relation to God, upon the knowledge of God, and upon all that concerns that know- ledge, that his destiny and his happiness really depend. On these matters I don't presume to address you. It is no part of my function here. I address myself here to a lower task, but still to a very high task, when I ask you to consider what can be done to consider the question of the intelligent life that we ought all to endeavour to live, and what belongs to such an institution as this. Now, as I said, believing that this institution, if it is to prosper, must be a popular institution, having its foundation in the minds of those who are called the labouring part of the population, I must necessarily consider a question which may occur to them all, and which, in other times, must have occurred to any of them who were solicited to enter establishments of this kind. I have said that man has an intelligent life, and likewise a bodily life and material life. Of the bodily or material life the wants are perfectly imperative and indispensable. It is in his choice, to a great degree, whether he will cultivate his intellectual faculties. It can hardly be said to be in his choice whether he will labour for the supply of his bodily wants, and the supply of the wants of those who are immedia'ely depending upon him. It often happens in the mixed and imperfect condition in which we live that the exigencies of the bodily and material life are such, and the means of supplying them so limited, that they actu, ally press out-squeeze out, if I may say so—the op- portunity of attending to the wants of our intellectual life. And that, perhaps, is the great excuse that men would make for passing by the calls of an institution of this kind. They say, It is all very well for people •withplenty o £ money to spend, butlamalabouring man, dependent upon my hands, dependent upon my health. I have got a wifY and children to support. It is not for me, and I won't be bothered with it." It is now about 36 years ago since, very greatly to my own comfort and advance, I became very closely con- nected with this place, and that is a very limited time in the life of a community. But what immense changes have taken place in the position of the agri- cultural labourer even within that time! The right hon. gentleman then referred to Mr. Eden's work on the condition of agricultual labourers in the counties in England between the years 1790 and 1800, to show that the average wages then received by an agricultural labourer to support his wife and family was 8s. per week. Continuing, he said:—Of 62 cases of families, which are given in the most minute manner, in 49 of them the wages of the man and of his family were not sufficient to meet the expenditure, the expenditure being based upon a narrow, scanty, and defective scale. That was the condition of what we called Merry England 80 years ago—(laughter)— and now you hear people sometimes say that the time of Merry England is gone by. Well, it may not be as merry" now in all cases as we should wish it to be, but I expect it is quite as merry as it was in the times ot your fathers and grandfathers, and many generations before them, and a good deal merrier too. (Applause.) As regards mining labour, the change has been very great and extraordinary. I don't speak of the change which has taken place within the last three or four years. I hope there are a many good miners in this room, and to them I would say as a friend, I have always looked upon the change with very mixed feelings. It was too great-too sudden-not to be of a short-lived character. It was quite manifest that so great and so sudden a change could not be supported permanently. It is not in the nature of things. The laws of the trade did not permit the rise that took place three or four years ago in the price of coke and of coal, and I say it was entirely without precedent. It was like a great storm that disturbs the air with exceeding violence. Those changes which are to be desired are changes slower and more gradual, but of a more solid and permanent kind. Apart entirely from this great change, there has been a great upward movement on the part of miners in other senses of the word. With- out great augmentation of means, there is something at any rate which a man may venture to spare for his mind. It may be perhaps thought this augmenta- tion of means has been neutralised by an augmentation of prices. That is not so. There are no aug- mentations of prices at all to account for the difference between the wages of those days. It is true that some prices are raised. The price, for example, of meat is considerably raised. What did that signify to those men ? Nothing at all. It was very well that it should be cheap, but it was totally beyond their reach. But meat a hundred years ago was not equal in quality to what it is now. Remember that, and when we hear so much from the people of all classes about the increased cost of living the reply is: In some points it is true—in some points it is totally untrafe, because such articles as tea and sugar and clothes are enormously reduced in price. But independently of those cases where it is true and where it is totally untrue, it very commonly means this, that people are not contented to live as they were formerly contented to live and I don't say that is un- reasonable. On the contrary, it is thought now they have many of the innocent means of health as well as subsistence and luxury to a degree which formerly they could not have, and which, in a degree, now forms part of the expenses of living. But I think you will admit that in this parish there is not a general presence of poverty among the labouring classes to induce men to say, "we will give everything to our bodily wants and to the support of our families, and we will reserve nothing whatever for the cultivation of the mind." I hope nobody has been frightened by the formidable title Literary and Scientific." (Laughter.) Litera- ture," that is a very hig flight; science," that is a higher flight. Still, you may say that practically the exigencies of life are such that they will not allow a very large portion of literature or a very large portion of science to be pursued by the community at large. Now my friends, let me say one word as to the kind of temptation I think besets those who are called upon for a. great deal of bodily labour in their usual lot in life. When I speak of temptation, I don't now refer to those temptations which beset us all-I don't speak of those temptations whieh which lead men-I hope in but rare instances-to neg- lect their wives and families and primary duties. All these I put by. I am going to speak of temptations of another class, but which have, perhaps, a readier access to those who labour hard, simply because they do not appear to involve, at first sight, any moral offence. I mean the temptation to bodily and mental indolence. Now, as far as the body is concerned, the body has pretty well done its duty when it has done the labour by means of which it obtains wages, but mental in- dolence is a sad thing. There is no reason why a mind of that kind should be inactive, and the owner of it should spend his time in lolling loiter- ing, whistling, and playing marbles, and other trifling oc- cupations which are unworthy to be called a substitute for occupation. It is quite evident, although the body is hard pressed by the labour of a population so ener- getic and industrious as this, yet it does not always feel entirely exhausted. Men have some strength remaining, and I am very glad that they have games of a character that require great bodily exercise but what I entreat and desire is that they would do the same justice to their minds that they do to their bodies. The fact of having bodily power may be a reason why they can- not give their' minds to the most reduced de- scription of reading and conversation or inves- tigation, and, therefore, I admit that they may be frightened by the bugbear of a scientific inquiry" which appears to be written over the door of our institution. But employment of the mind-relief to the mind—by useful employment and recreation does not in the slightest degree add to the fatigue which the body undergoes, and which promotes that equitable and general development of the faculties as between body and mind which is most conducive to the health as well as to the happiness of mankind. In this respect it must be admitted that we, as a people, don't come up to the proper standard. We don't do enough for the culti- vation of our minds. We are, unless in the pressure of absolute necessity, a rather indolent people as regards mental cultivation, not in the lowest class, but in all classes. I will now speak of the people of Wales- that is, the Welsh-speaking people. I don't know if any of you ever read a series of letters by Mr. Richard, the member of Parliament for Merthyr, a man of very considerable ability and high character, a distinguished Welshman, who sustains the character of a Welshman in the House with great effect. He published a series of letters in the Morning Star, which does not now exist, and brought them out as a small volume. I have read those letters with very great advantage, and I was very much struck by the character which he has given of the Welsh people. It quite astonished me to see in how many respects the population can lay claim to credit and honour for all that most distinguishes good citizens and good men. Having quoted from Mr. Richard to show the literary tastes of the Welsh people, who, however, did not indulge in novels, the right hon. gentleman then concluded: I wanted to make a case in some degree, to show that the question whether you should take up this institution, deserves serious consideration from those here, and a serious consideration from those to whom I hope those here will mention it. We desire that this institution should be popular, we desire that it should prosper on the present basis, and we desire to extend it. Mr Gladstone, having warmly expressed his good wishes for the local institution, resumed his seat amid great cheering.

A RAILWAY BRIDGE ON EIRE. The railway bridge near the junction of the South- Western and South Coast Railways, three miles from Portsmouth, was discovered tibe on fire on Wednesday. It was, however, speedily extinguished.

FATAL STEAMBOAT ACCIDENT IN AMERICA. A telegram from Philadelphia to the Times says:- The steamer Mendota has foundered on Lake Michigan. Thirteen out of twenty persons on board were drowned."

PROPOSED LAND PURCHASE BY UNIONISTS. The council of the Labour League have appointed Mr. Banks, of Boston, an agricultural labourer, to meet Lords Leicester and Waveney, with a view to the purchase of land by the league, and also to inspect some land on behalf of the league.

FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT IN SCOTLAND. An accident has occurred on the Sutherland and Caithness Railway, by an engine going off the line. The stoker has been killed, and the engine-driver severely injured. The engine was smashed, and the carriages considerably damaged.

MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF AN IRISH FARMER. William Millway, a farmer, residing near Arofinnan, eight miles from Clonmel, was found in a dying state near his house, on Sunday evening, with two large wounds on his head. He died soon afterwards. At the inquest on Tuesday, nothing was elicited as to the perpetrators of the crime.

STATISTICS OF MORTALITY. The Registrar-General reports, during the week ending last Saturday, 5547 births and 3723 deaths in 21 large cities and towns of the United Kingdom. The mortality in these towns was at the average rate of 25 annually per 1000. The rate in London was 23; Edinburgh, 23; Glasgow, 22 Sheffield, 24; Sunder- land, 24; Nottingham, 25; Wolverhampton, 26; Leeds, 29 Leicester, 29 Manchester, 30; Newcastle, 30 Bradford, 32; Liverpool, 33; Salford, 36; and Hull, 39.

EXPECTED VISIT OF THE PRINCE OF WALES TO AUSTRALIA. A Sandringham correspondent writes The news comes by mail from Melbourne that it is expected and believed that his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, with his suite, will call at Australia on his way home from India. The expectation has evoked a general expression of desire that the official confirmation may be speedily received. It is stated by the same mail that New Zealand is about to be connected with Australia by telegraphic cable, which is expected to be laid and opened for public use by February next.

ABDUCTION BY A PRIEST. an extraordinary proceeding on the part ot a Roman Catholic clergyman, the Rev. Father Dalton, S.J., has, says the Melbourne Argus, been brought to light. Father Dalton has been charged by the Rev. H. N. Wollaston, a clergyman of the Church of England, with carrying off two children named Bates, whose father is a Protestant, and causing their deten- tion in the Catholic Orphanage at Emerald hill. The children's father deserted them, and the mother, when dying, left the children in the care of a Mrs. Si'neaton. Father Dalton, it is stated, went to her house and took away the children, after some objection on her part, alleging that he was acting according to the dying injuncfions of Mrs. Bates, a Roman Catholic, who wished the children to be brought up in that religion. It is stated, on the other hand, that Mrs. Bates before her death had been heard to express a wish that the children should be brought up in the religion of their father, who be- longed to the Church of England. The matter was to I be brought before Parliament. Mr. G. P. Smith in- tended to ask the Attorney-General if he would take any steps in reference to the children. In the event of the Government declining to interfere, it was intended to apply to the Supreme Court for a writ of Habeas Corpus, in order to procure the removal of the children from the orphanage. I

I EXTRAORDINARY TROTTING MATCH I BETWEEN DONCASTER AND WAKE- FIELD. On Monday considerable excitement was created at Wakefield by the running off of a trotting match which had been arranged for £100 (being four stakes of X25) between the owners of four horses which liave attained some local celebrity as fast trotters. The matched horses were, Mr. Jas. Oldroyd's blind black mare, aged Mr. J. Hargreave's Lady Beatrice, which recently ran second in the grand trotting match at Liverpool; Mr. John Heald's roan horse; and Mr. Hebblethwaite's ches- nut horse. The conditions were, that the course should be between Doncaster and Wakefield, a distance of 18 miles, and that each owner should drive his own animal, and that Heald and Hebblethwaite should have two minutes start. At four o'clock Heald and Hebble- thwaite set out, and two minutes later the scratches fol- lowed. Hebblethwaite took the lead for a long distance, then followed Heald, and Hargreaves was third, until Hampole Inn was reached, when Oldroyd got into the third position. Between Hampole and Ackworth the I two who had two minutes start of Oldroyd were over- taken by him. and at Brackenhill Oldroyd passed I Hebblethwaite, who was first. Oldroyd kept in advance untilthegoal was reached, Hebblethwaite coming second, only a few yards behind, while Heald was not a bad third. The race was run in 1 hour 25 minutes. On the Doncaster road, in the neighbourhood of the goal, there would be at least 3000 persons assembled, and many vehicles of various descriptions were requisitioned, some of which had come a considerable part of the road with the trotters.

THE FORTUNE OF THE ORLEANS PRINCES. The Paris Univers having recently published a state- ment, grossly exaggerated, concerning the property ap- pertaining to the Princes of the House of Orleans, M. Bocher, the administrator of the Royal estates, com- municates to the press a detailed account of the fortune of the family, from which it appears that it amounts, as officially ascertained in 1872, to 80 millions instead of 348 millions. Of that sum 35 millions was sold by the empire, 19 millions of which was appro- priated by the state, while the remainder was ap- plied to the purpose of paying off the loan contracted by King L6uis Philippe for the liquidation of his debts. Forty-five millions consequently remained, which the Assembly restored to the legitimate pro- prietors, despoiled by the empire of 18 years' income, and of nearly half the capital. This sum was divided among eight branches of the Orleans family, three of them foreign branches. Louis Philippe, at the time of his deposition, owed nearly 40 millions, which have been entirely paid, this debt being contracted in the interest of the country for restoring and beautifying St. Cloud, Fontainebleau, and Versailles. So far from Breteuil Forest having multiplied ten times in value in the King's hands, it was sold after 1848 towards clearing off the 40 millions of debt for half the sum which M. Laffitte obtained for it from the King. As for the Duke d'Aumale, the Conde property was so encumbered, the liabilities almost equalling the assets, that the King's counsel recommended the Duke, then a minor, to renounce the succession; but Louis Philiippe accepted it for him at his own risk, and by his management and personal sacrifices cleared off the encumbrances and handed over the property free to his son on his majority. The Duke, moreover, devotes at least 100,000f. per annum to the descendants of officers of the Conde Army and other military servants of France a condition of the Prince de Conde's will which he was alleged to disregard.

el A Greenock telegram states that yellow fever broke out on board the Liverpool ship Punjaub during her voyage from Bahia to the Clyde, and two men died. THE REV. EDWARD MOORE, OF SPALDING.—At the last assizes for the county of Lincoln Mr. Justice Field visited the new Lindsey prison, and found a prisoner there named Edmund Johnson, who had been tried at the Spalding quarter sessions (of which the Rev. Edward Moore was chairman) held two years ago, and sentenced to a year's imprisonment on three separate indictments (to all of which he pleaded guilty), a year for each, the second year to commence on the termination ef the first year, and the third on the expiration of the second, thus making three consecutive years' imprisonment. This being an unusually severe punishment to issue from a quarter sessions, and it being in some respects equal to five years' penal servitude, as in the latter there is a prospect of remission on good behaviour, the man's case was made known to the Home Secretary, who, having inquired into all the circumstances, laid them before her Majesty, and the result was that an order for the prisoner's release was received by the governor of the prison, with the sign manual of the Queen her- self.-By a special arrangement long-term prisoners are received into the new Lindsey prison from the Holland division.-Stamford Mercury

A JKAV BURNT ALIVE. BAGDAD, September 13.-A Jew, who was considered guilty of blasphemy, has been horribly maltreated and burnt by the populace. Several other Jews were ill- used.

REDUCTION OF WAGES. The miners employed in Farmers' Folly Colliery, near Coleford, having accepted 10 per cent. reduction in their wages, the men at Parkend Tin-plate Works have effected a compromise of 5 per cent.

ANOTHER COLLISION AT SEA. The steamer James C. Stevenson has arrived at Ply- mouth, having run down the German barque Herzog Ernst, with tobacco for Bremen. The crew was saved. The steamer has a hole in her port bow, and the fore compartments are full of water.

CAPTAIN WELCH AND THE COLLISION IN THE SOLENT. The Rev. T. H. Ball, curate of Osbaldwick, York, writes to the Standard:- Will you kindly permit an old and intimate friend of Captain Welch-one of up- wards of thirty years' standing-to add a word to your article on the melancholy collision between the Alberta and the Mistletoe ? Now that the verdict has been given I am at liberty publicly to state that I have frequently, very frequently, been at his residence, either at Portsmouth or Virginia Water, when it was his duty to convey her Majesty from Cowes toGasport and vice versa; and the first greeting and ejaculation of his would be, Well, thank God, all is safe once more; none of the landlubbers that will cross or get round us were run down." His painful anxiety to prevent the ignorant and too curious yachtsmen and their friends being injured is only known to those who are intimate with him. Having by his judiciousness and caution saved many a craft that impeded him from being injured and run down, it is now painful to those who love and esteem him to find that after a service of more than a quarter of a century in convey- ing her Majesty safely through these difficulties, no recognition of them, or reference to them is made by the jury. Those who know, or ought to know, them well-they, the jury, have evidently concluded that it was the duty of Captain Welch to keep out of the way of the Mistletoe, or any other boat. Is it not the duty, if not de jure certainly in morem, for all craft to keep out of the way of the Queen ? When her Majesty drives through London is not the traffic diverted in order to allow her to proceed unimpeded ? When she travels by railway is not the same rule, etiquette, and caution observed ? If she drives down Rotten Row in the season, what carriage or equestrian dare be in the way ? All this is as it should be. Why not the same preventatives to obstruction when her Ma- jesty travels over her own sea ? I do hope that this collision will lead to some such regulations being made and enforced as are observed when our beloved Queen travels by land. As to the hisses with which you report my friend was greeted by some, when he and Prince Leiningen left the court, I shall, with your permission, apply to them the words of the wisest of men, "Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar amongst wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.Prov. xxvii. 22.

CHARGE OF MURDER AT DUBLIN. Two sergeants of the 4th Dragoon Guards, at pre- sent stationed in the Royal Barracks, Dublin, were brought up on Tuesday morning at the Northern Divi- sional Police-court, charged with the wilful murder of a girl named Anne Burden, at the Royal Barracks, on the 29th August. They are Sergeant Robert Le Mesurier and Sergeant Patterson. The statement of the deceased girl was that at an early hour on the morning of Sunday, the 29th August, she was passing one of the gates of the Royal Barracks, when a sergeant of the 4th Dragoon Guards, who appeared to be on duty there, invited her in. She complied with the invitation, and was introduced into one of the dormitories set apart for non-commissioned officers, in which she alleged were the two prisoners. One of them produced some whiskey and wanted her to drink, but she merely put it to her lips and refused to take any more, on which one of the men got angry and seized her violently round the waist. She threatened to report him to the guard at the gate, and the reply was that she would get something to report about. She then left the room, and was passing along a dark corridor, when, according to the statement which she subsequently made, she was again seized by the I waist, and pushed or flung through an open window. Whatever truth there may be in the rest of her story, it is certain that she passed through the window, by what agency is now the subject of inquiry, and fell from a considerable height into a flagged courtyard underneath. She lay there for a considerable time without power to more or utter a sound, but at length she recovered sufficient energy to utter some moans which attracted the attention of one of the sentinels, and a guard having been summoned, she was removed from where she lay, and was sub- sequently taken to Steven's Hospital. She was frightfully injured, a bone of one of her arms projecting four inches outside the skin, but it was sup- posed at first that she would recover, and Sergeant Lemesurier, whom she idemified as one of the men who were in the barrack dormitory when she went in there, and who, on her information, was arrested on a charge of violent assault, was admitted to bail. Subsequently, her case took a turn for the worse. High fever set in, and after lingering for some time she died at eleven o'clock on Sunday night. In consequence of her death Lemesurier and Patterson were taken into custody on a charge of murder, and having been taken before Mr. O'Donnell, one of the divisional police magistrates, on Tuesday morning, were remanded.

THE SUPPOSED RATTENING AT SHEFFIELD. Lord Robert Montagu, M.P., writes to the Times as follows:—" I venture to call your attention to a paragraph which has been inserted in your paper. It is as follows RATTENING —The magistratesatSheffield,on Thurs- day, were occupied a considerable time in investigating a charge of rattening preferred against a cutler named Bamforth, The prisoner formerly rented a portion, of a grinding wheel" at the Cavendish Works, and as he got very much into arrears with his rent, his tools were seized and sold in part payment of the amount due. This caused a good deal of ill-feeling on the part of Bamforth, and one evening last week he secreted himself in the wheel, and when the men had gone, cut some driving bands, worth £10. The result was that the wheel was idle for some time, and the men tem- porarily thrown out of employment.' "V eryrmmydifiiculties which complicatethis question are due to ambiguous terms. I venture to suggest that instead of calling the above crime by the name ratten- ing' it should have been designated 'a malicious in- jury to property.' Rattening means a distraint or punishment on a member of a trades union by the ruling authority of that union. It is a practice as old as the Kingdom of England, and has much to do with the labour question. But the crime investigated on Thursday seems, by your account to have nothing to say to the labour question. If a farmer were turned out of his farm for rent due, and then set fire, in spite, to his former house, that would not be rattening, and would have nothing to say to the labour question. If the distraint you mentioned was ordered by a trades union authority, in accordance with rules to which the criminal had virtually agreed, by joining the union,then that distraint was rattening; but, plainly, justice was on the side of that authority, and not on the side of the prisoner, who had endeavoured to defraud others of the rent due to them. On the other hand, the crime complained of — the ill-feeling' which Bamforth showed, and the malicious injury to property which he committed—was not rattening. It was a malicious in- jury to property, and nothing else, whether a labouring man or a duke committed it. You must, I feel sure, desire that on a most important subject, which lies very near to the turning-point of the labour question, the public mind should not be misled by the wrong use of a term, and therefore I have ventured to appeal to you."

A FAMOUS DONKEY.-An American contemporary records the death of an extraordinary donkey which came off victorious in an encounter with a lioness at the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens. A boy who was leading the donkey in front of the cage containing an African lioness, stopped to gaze on the noble wild animal. In a moment the ferocious beast burst her bars, and attacked the unconscious and unoffending donkey. The little donkey accepted the gage of battle, and reversed the traditions of all time by defeating the lioness. Shaking her off, he stood his ground, and by a. well-directed blow "fetched her one on the mug and keeled her over. Rushing at her and seizing her with his teeth, he shook her as a big Newfoundland dog might serve a waspish little terrier who had barked and snapped at his heels. He was sorely wounded, however, and was tenderly cared for, provided with the best medical attendance and watchful nursing, every pains possible heing 011 to prolong his valuable life. But the attack had beer too severe. The teeth of his enemy, crunching bone of his hip joint, created a painful wound w*lfc would not heal, and the suppuration from wmcu caused his death, after an interval of nearly toui months from the date of the eventful confiic o which he was at once the hero and the martyr. Live Stock Journal and Fancier's Gazette-

LITLliAlll EXIllACTS. TAT.MA IN LES TEMFLIE':S."—Talma had a very iiuliilVreut part, and, I must be presumptuous enough to say, very indifferently he played ir. His under- play, as well as his by-play, was very inefficient, devoid of grace, and tame. The constant use of his right arm and the redundancy of his action became tire- some. By the persevering frequency with which he shakes his arm and hand without occasion, he must, to a person ignorant of French, appear everlastingly menacing or defying, when he is really meaning to do nothing of the kind. In short, I often found cause to complain of the inappropriateness of his action, the pantomime of his body telling a story utterly at vari- ance with the utterance of his lips. He has a meaning- less trick of closing his eyes, simultaneously with an expression of sickening grief at the corners of his month, at times when he is supposed to be burning with suppressed indignation. This was painfully appa- rent in Coriolanus, when telling his mother, on his return from the senate, of their having banished him, Je suis un bannif—Charles Young in the Last Leaves from the Journal of J. C. Young" MDLLE. MARS.—For refinement of taste, and fasti- dious polish, she beats every actress I ever saw and yet, contradictory as it may sound, she is not perfectly and entirely graceful either. No dout her maintem is that of the drawing-room, and her movements never are redundant, but still, she never floats. She is not imaginative, and it is not in her to be raptu- rous, but. she has marvellous quickness of apprehen- sion, and a felicitous power of expressing truthfully whatever is in her mind. Her laugh, her irony, and all her strongest emotions, are so pungent, that they produce on my brain the effect of strong smelling salts. Her perception is quick and subtle, and her whole form and countenance respond, with electric vivacity, to every passing emotion of her mind. If she has not the sensitive faculty in large measure, at least she knows well how to counterfeit sensibility, and does it, too, with ex- quisite grace. Her mode of describing her youthful lover's introduction of himself to her notice, and the, simplicity of her manner in receiving and replying to it, was full of delicacy and finesse. Her by-play, too, was admirable her colouring neither over-charged nor yet deficient in brilliancy her eye telling all she felt, whenever she chose to make it eloquent. It is difficult to conceive her finesse, impossible to sur- pass it. She is, alternately, playful, sparkling, pun- gent, yet utterly devoid of strain or effort. She never misses a point every part of her performance, though highly polished, is never monotonous. She is a won- derful perspective-ist—the Canaletto of dramatic art. Everything she does is, in its proportion, relatively accurate nothing is overdone less would be insuffi- cient. I find I cannot reconcile myself to the man- nerism of all the other actors and actresses. The con- stant recurrence of hurried, impetuous utterance, which, alike in style and delivery, appertains to all, is as distressing as it would be to me to see a free horse incessantly whipped when going at full gallop round the limited circle of a snuff-mill.—Charles Young, in the" Last Leaves from the Journal of C. J. Yov/ng." THE COUNT ST. GERMAIS.-At the Councils of the King and at the Board of Cabinet Ministers crop up strange figures, labelled with stranger titles-the illus- trious Count Cagliostro, the dashing Chevalier de Seingalt, and the mysterious Count St. Germain. This famous adventurer is supposed to have been an Hun- garian by birth, but the early part of his life was by himself carefully wrapped in mystery. His person and his title alike stimulated curiosity. His age was unknown, and his parentage equally obscure. We catch the first glimpse of him in Paris, a century and a quarter ago, filling the Court and the town with his renown. Amazed Paris saw a man- apparently of middle age—a man who lived in magnificent style, who went to dinner parties, where. he ate nothing, but talked incessantly, and with ex- ceeding brilliancy, on every imaginable topic. His tone was perhaps over trenchant-the tone of a man who knows perfectly what he is talking about. Learned, speaking every civilised language admirably. a great musician, an excellent chemist, he played the part of a prodigy, and played it to perfection. En- dowed with extraordinary confidence, or consummate impudence, he not only laid down the law magisterially concerning the present, but spoke without hesitation about events two hundred years old. His anecdotes of remote occurrences were related with extraordinary minuteness. He spoke of scenes at the Court of Francis the First as if he had seen them, describ- ing exactly the appearance of the King, imitating his voice, manner, and language—affecting throughout the character of an eye-witness. In like style he edified his audience with pleasant stories of Louis the Fourteenth, and regaled them with vivid descriptions of places and persons. Hardly saying in so many words that he was actually present when the events happened, he yet contrived, by his great graphic power, to convey that impression. Intended to astonish, he succeeded completely. Wild stories were current concerning him. He was reported to be 300 years old, and to have prolonged his life by the use of a famous elixir. Paris went mad about him. He was questioned constantly about his secret of longevity, and was marvellously adroit in his replies, denying all power to make old folks young again, but quietly asserting his possession of the secret of arresting decay in the human frame. Diet, he pro- tested, was his marvellous elixir, the true secret of long life, and he resolutely refused to eat any food but such as had been especially prepared for him-oatmeal, groats, and the white meat of chickens. On great occasions he drank a little wine, sat up as late as any- body would listen to him, but took extraordinary pre- cautions against cold. To ladies he gave mysterious cosmetics, to preserve their beauty unimpaired; to men he talked openly of his method of transmuting metals, and of a certain process for melting down a dozen little diamonds into one large stone. These astounding assertions were backed by the possession of apparently unbounded wealth, and a collection of jewels of rare size and beauty.-All the Yexr Round. GERMAN CRITICISMS OF SHAKESPEAHE.—It provokes me to be told, as I am constantly told, that the Germans appreciate Shakespeare more than the English, and that they have taught us of late truly to estimate him. I am sick of hearing of Schlegel and Goethe and the rest, and what they say. We might just as well tell the Italians that we English understand Dante better than they do. Some of the German criticism on Shakespeare is as bad as Voltaire's. Dr. Roderick Benedix, himself a dramatist, has perhaps even sur- passed him. He thinks that none of Shakespeare's creations are equal to many by the German play- writers, as, for instance, to Lessing's Nathan the Wise," or Schiller's "Karl Moor," "Wallenstein," and Philip II." But the very best of their criticism is not worth much. Even Goethe's Analysis of Hamlet," much as it has been praised, seems very poor to me—not to be men- tioned for insight and sympathetic sense with, for instance, Lamb, Coleridge, or Hazlitt. The single phrase of Hazlitt, "We are all of us Hamlet," is worth all that Goethe and Schlegel ever wrote. Not that I count for much the English criticism on Shakespeare, which is very traditional for the most part, and greatly overshadowed by stage influences. For instance, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are one thing in Shakespeare, and quite another thing in the public mind, where they take the form and shape of Mrs. Siddons and the Kembles. But the Ger- mans have the vice of anatomising Shakespeare, and laying him out into parts and pieces, and ad- miring the worst as much as the best. They find admirable reasons to show that the notoriously un- genuine parts of his plays are as admirable as the others. When they once go in to praise they praise everything. They select" Cymbeline" for public performance at his anniversary, as one of his great plays, and admire it throughout, the interpolated passages as much as the genuine ones. Nothing can be more absurd in many respects than Burger's trans- lation of "Macbeth." Poet though he was, he seems to have lost all sense of poetry or reason in this trans- lation, in which, in fact, he so ludicrously travesties the original that one cannot but smile at the absurdities he introduces. The fact is that Burger, who was a very vain man, thought himself far superior to Shakespeare, and kindly assisted him, and eked outhis shortcomings. Think of this opening in Macbeth :— Soldier: Hold not in such a hurry, good sir. Guard: Now, then Soldier: I prithee, what is it you will tell the king ? Guard That the battle is won. Sold.: But I have been lying. Guard: Lying rascal! Then thou art indeed with thy wounds a desperate joker. Tuis is a literal translation of one of Burger's improve- ments to ShakespeareBelton: You must be joking. Mallett: Neither I nor Burger. This was the notion of Shakespeare. Schlegel was far better than this; but Schlegel was not original in his views, and took nearly all his notions from Coleridge; and as for Tieck, he was ready to think anything was by Shake- Ing speare—even Fair Em "and the "Tyrant of Mas- singer; and he also thought Shakespeare wrote Greene's Friar Bacon," and the Prince of Wake- field," and "Locrine," and Tne Merry Devil of Ed- monton," and many others. In fact, take the German criticism on Shakespeare for all in all, it seems to me to be very commonplace. It is vehement and indis- criminate in its praise as in its blame, without any true critical sense.—Blackwood s Magazine,