The Brecon Reporter and South Wales General Advertiser

THE SIEGE OF MEXICO. Under date June 26, One of the Besieged writes Thinking that from the recent tragic events in this unhappy country a good share of public interest will be attracted towards it, I venture to send you a short account of the terrible siege the capital has just sustained—one of the worst, perhaps, taking into ac- count the size of the place, that this century has seen in the whole world. This can easily be imagined when it is known that during the 67 days the siege lasted no food entered the city, containing over 200,000 in- habitants, who had not only failed to make any pre- vious provision or preparation for it, but during the preceding two months had been unable to get the Usual supply, owing to the partial blockade of the place, and also to the shortsighted policy of the Go- vernment in seizing many of the Indians, who brought provisions, to serve in the army, and thus deterring others from venturing to the market with their goods. Necessaries of life, therefore, rose to a fabulous price, bread being from 10s. to 12s. per lb., meat of lean inilch cows 4s. per lb., horse flesh from 9d. to Is. In- dian corn or maize, which is sometimes sold for 8s. a carga of 3001b., was 301. lean fowls 8s. each, eggs three for 2s. Many of these prices were merely nominal; it was often impossible to get flour or maize for love or money, as there was no regular sale of them in the markets. Those who had them were obliged to keep it a profound secret, for immediately it was known the Government pounced Upon them and gave them to its soldiers they had, in fact, the power to enter any house to search for pro- 0 visions. I have seen soldiers go into the miserable huts of the poor and bring out a few handsful of maize that the inmates had carefully hoarded up. Hundreds, if not thousands, died of starvation, and those who were left had hardly strength left to crawl up to you in the streets to ask for alms. The scenes at the panaderias, or bread shops, before their stocks were exhausted, which happened about three weeks before the termina- tion of the siege, was most heartrending. There were only three open in the whole city the doors were crowded at one or two o'clock in the morning in order to get a good place by the time they were opened all day the streets leading to them were crowded. Out- side one near where I live five persons were found dead one morning, having dropped down from exhaustion, many others perished by the crush, or by the swords of the soldiers, put there to guard the place. There was sometimes an opportunity of leaving the city, of which thousands availed themselves at the risk of being shot on the way in fact, seven women and children were killed by one shell while half-way between the two camps, for white flags received no respect, the only chance being that both sides were wretched marksmen. While the poor suffered so fearfully the rich had also their share forced loans never to be paid and contributions following in quick succession. Those who refused to pay were put in prison, without any- thing to eat or drink, until they did while others who hid themselves had their houses guarded to prevent the entry of any food for their wives and children. Nearly half the money, moreover, thus collected went into the pockets of the chief officials. All commerce, of course, was suspended, the only life in the streets being the movement of troops from one point to another, the press-gang going about seizing almost any one they could catch, and searching houses for horses and the carriage of the wounded to the hospitals. It is needless to dwell on all the horrors which are common to all sieges. I cannot, however, help mention- ing one that came under my notice. A poor man who had lately lost his wife and was left with three little children was seized one day by the press- gang, or leva, while out searching for food for his little ones, whom he had left locked up at home. He begged and prayed to be allowed to go home to let them out and give them in charge to some neighbours, or else to send and do so. This was refused him till the third day, when he found them dead. Another inci- dent occurred at the intrenchments of the two camps. The Liberals, or besiegers, stuck up a dead horse, with a large placard, with Carne para los traidores" (meat for the traitors). The besieged, or Imperials, answered by putting up an old woman who had died of starva- tion, ivith I I Cai-ne pa?-a los cobardes (meat for the cowards), a stinging reproach for their not properly attacking the place, instead of trying to starve it out. Amid all this misery an anomalous scene presented itself every evening in the Plaza, or principal square, where the band played. Crowds of cavalleros and senoritas .decked in their best, walked about utterly indifferent to the roar of the cannon, which did not make a bad accompaniment to the music, often coming in right for the bass-drum part. "We, the English of the city, have particular cause for rejoicing at the termination of the siege, for our position has been anything but enviable, as the com- mander, Marquez, appointed lieutenant-general by the poor Emperor while he was at Queretaro, is less a man than a demon, and a demon possessed of inveterate hatred to the English. It was he who murdered the English doctors at Tacubaya, a town near here, order- ing them out to be shot while attending to the wounded, and who broke open the seals of the English Legation some years ago, taking out 600,000 dollars. This appointment of the late Emperor was the greatest fault he ever committed but dearly as he paid for it, for nearly all unite in saying that had it not been for the obstinate resistance of Mexico, carried on five weeks after the fall of Querataro, his life might have been spared. This resistance was effected by Marquez by the vilest lies—his assuring the Austrians, a chi- valrous set of men, 700 strong, who fought only for their countryman, that the capture of the Emperor was only an invention of the Liberals, although he had received official reports of the fact four days after it occurred. He actually on the day of his condemnation to death ordered public rejoicings to be celebrated for his victory said to be gained over the Liberals. live days after these rejoicings, June 21, the Austrians in the meantime being officially convinced of the fall of vll Queretaro, and having come to terms with the Liberals, the besiegers entered the city to the joy of all, in splendid order, without the slightest tumult or least act of violence. So far they certainly by their conduct merit the highest praise. We only hope they will continue to do so, although from the past history of Mexico no very sanguine hopes can be entertained. As they entered they certainly were a motley crew- most of the men in rags and without shoes, and even some of the officers in the same plight and in their shirt sleeves, while others were decked in all the colours of the rainbow. They were nearly all, however, well armed. The day they entered the aspect of the city changed as if by magic-—herds of sheep and oxen thronged the streets, making one's mouth water, cart- loads of bread, and long lines of mules and donkeys laden with provisions. On the 20th the man who had lately eaten a piece of bread would be almost looked on as a phenomenon, and pointed out in the streets. On the 21st all were "hurrying home with pieces in their hands to enjoy the uncommon feast. All commerce has assumed extraordinary briskness, and if peace last the losses and sufferings of the last six months will soon be forgotten. The argument in favour of our enjoying this peace is the almost entire annihilation of one great party, the Conservatives, or the Government of the five M's, as they have been re- cently called, from the fact of the names of the five leading men of it beginning with the letter M- namely, Maximilian, Marquez, Miramon, Mejia, and Mendez. Of these five, four were killed at one blow at Queretaro, Marquez being the only one left, he having hid himself in the city, and hitherto baffled the vigilant search of his enemies. On the other hand, the incongruous mixture among the Liberals, and the difficulty of amalgamating them, threaten a continuance of disorder and revolutions. If the moderate Liberals come into power, as it is generally expected they will, these evils will be averted, and a few prosperous years may then be looked forward to. "The melancholy death of the Emperor, and the dignified, kingly manner in which he met it, have produced a profound sensation here even among many of the Liberals his disinterested and chivalrous con- duct, as also that of the handful of Austrians who stuck by their prince to the last against overwhelming odds, will meet with admiration throughout the civilised world."

LIFE IN MEXICO. The New York Times of a recent date, published several columns of correspondence from the city of Mexico. In his most recent letter, dated the 26th of June, the correspondent of that paper writes:- The policy that is pursued by the Republicans so far since their triumph at Queretaro has been Blood, blood, blood. Nothing but executions, imprisonments, and extortions have thus far marked the new era which has dawned upon Mexico by the destruction of the empire, and over which so many promising prophecies were made. Eighteen hundred men, strangers and Mexicans bearing arms, have been shot at Queretaro since the capitulation of that city and not an evening has come or a morning broken but what the clang of rifles is heard at the different public plazas or squares. Whenever we hear these reports, at eventide or at sunrise, we know that some uncondemned Frenchmen, Germans, or Mexicans are being pierced through and through by bullets. No trial allowed, no confession granted, but death, death, and blood, blood, are demanded by this so-called Liberal Government. So far as we have seen, with but few exceptions, it is composed of a motley crowd, and one thing is certain —no foreigner can live here. The persecutions upon all of them, Americans as well as others, have begun with earnest. All the consulates and foreign legations were entered and searched last evening against the protest of the respective Consuls and Ministers. "Leave the country-we don't want you here," are the greetings given to all foreign residents.

TRAITORS. A correspondent, signing himself "A Builder," writing from the Staffordshire Potteries, makes the following remarks to the London Times:- I enclose you a printed copy of the" Resolutions" of the Labourers' Trade Society in this district. Need it be wondered at that the master builders should have bad the trouble and loss they have sus- tained through strikes during the last two years when such a rule as No. 5 exists? "CAUTION.—Any member violating the following resolutions will be considered a traitor to the society 1. You are strictly cautioned to take no member's place who turns out for just and lawful rights, or go into any other place where a strike may be in contem- plation. "2. You are also cautioned to take no undermining advantage of your fellow-labourer, by offering your- selves at lower wages than the regular rate of wages fixed by the committee of this society. "3. You are cautioned to take no other man to work but he who carries one of these contribution cards. 4. Any member allowing himself to run above two months' contribution in arrears on the card, shall not be entitled to the protection of this society. "5. You are strictly cautioned not to outstep good rules by doing double the work you are required, and causing others to do the same in order to gain a smile from your master. Such foolhardy and deceitful ac- tions leave a great portion of good members out of employment the year round. Certain individuals have been guilty, who will be expelled if they do not refrain."

GOSSIP ABOUT THE SULTAN. The Sultan's opinions are beginning to appear in print, and the following are a sample of some of them :— A correspondent questioned an attendant of his Majesty as to the opinion of the Sultan with regard to the Paris Exhibition, and was told his Majesty did not think much of it. Does he admire the French ladies?" said the guest. He says they are hideous to look at, and he cannot speak to them." "Does he not think Paris a beautiful city ?" He says it is well enough for a place so far from the sea." He was at the opera last night how does he like it ?" He was inclined to go to sleep at Trovatore, but the ballet of Gielle he thought one of the prettiest things he had for some time seen." "He went, after all, to the small party at the H6tel de Ville; did he like the illuminations?" "He thought M. Hausmann too free in the apparent humility of his intentions; he admired the flowers the ladies present rather disgusted him he thought the lace the best thing about them; they spoiled their shapes, and looked like tops in petticoats in his eyes where they should be narrow (at foot) they were broadest; he thinks a finely-formed, small head in a woman a beauty, and cannot comprehend why it should be made long and ugly with dirty, frizzled masses of false hair." Why, your Sultan seems hard to please he must at least admire the expressive eyes of the French dames?" Not at all, but thinks them round and bold they have not the languishing tenderness of the almond- shaped eyes they seem only fitted, he thinks, to look in the mirrors at their horrid naked bosoms; he wonders their men do not make them cover their necks, or, if there must be an exposure, shorten their dresses behind." Is there anything in Paris that surprises him? Yes, one thing greatly he never ceases to wonder at the excellent manner in which the common people are shod."

ON THE TRAMP. The following sketch, drawing a comparison between the old and experienced tramp, and the young one, is from Dickens's "All the Year Round" In tramping, as in everything else, experience maketh wise, and the experienced tramp, when on the road, suffers less in person, purse, and wardrobe than his inexperienced brethren. The practised tramp has ingenious methods of fastening on buttons, or repair- ing a broken brace. He can generally do a bit of extempore tailoring, and can, at a push, wash his own shirt and stockings and he has got rid of that fallacious notion, as erroneous as it is uncleanly, that it hardens the feet to leave them unwashed, and bathes them, at least once a day whenever it is possible to do so. He is great on the subject of shoes, and knows that the best kind for tramping in are a strong pair of lace-ups that have never been cobbled, and which have been sufficiently worn to bring them to the set of the feet. When on the road, the old tramp always keeps his boots well greased, and is generally in possession of cheap and cunning recipes for the manufacture of dubbin, which shall at the same time soften the leather and render it impervious to damp. He is weatherwise, and will read the approach of a storm in signs that would altogether escape the notice of a young tramp. He has a beneficial knowledge of what may be called road craft, and has a practical acquaintance with the ins and outs of many roads. On coming to the com- mencement of a long stretch of soft or grass bordered road, he will, in dry weather, take off his boots, sling them across his shoulders, and walk barefoot: by this means saving his boots and easing and cooling his feet; and if, from being a long time on tramp, his feet be- come blistered or inflamed, he can doctor them skilfully, The old tramp, too, knows the most advantageous manner of laying out small sums of money. He will not, like the inexperienced, buy two-pennyworths of bread and cheese, or expend his coppers in the pur- chase of the low-priced but really dear productions of small cook-shops. He adopts the more profitable plan of buying his provisions in the rough, and by weight, and as he knows the names and prices of all the odd bits" in the butchers' shops, he can indulge in the luxury of flesh meat much oftener than an inexpe- f rienced man, and can vary the dressing and cooking of his coarse and limited food to a surprising extent. The following is a fitting pendant to the above, and ap- peared in the London Times of last Saturday, signed by Tramp," under the head of CASUAL WARDS IN COUNTRY TOWNS. I am a clerk, with three children and a wife, desti- tute, having had very little employment for many months. After trying all means of getting something to do in London I started six weeks since into the country to look for work, willing to take anything that offered; but I met with no success, as trade every- where is so very bad. The first month I slept in the open air, on hay-ricks, in barns, stables, or wherever I could obtain permission, and not unfrequently walked from one town to another, twenty or thirty miles, in the course of a night but at length, overcome by want of rest and food, I sought relief in the Unions, and in two places only did I meet with good accom- modation :— At Cheltenham as soon as I got in I had a piece of bread, then a bath, and a very clean bed; in each bed two men slept, and the man who had charge of us slept in the same room and used every precaution to prevent vermin getting into the beds or clothing. We rose in the morning at six o'clock, did a little stone-breaking, had for breakfast a quart of gruel thickened with Indian corn, and a piece of bread, and were started further on our journeys at eight o'clok. At Birmingham I got bread for supper, a bath, bed to my- self, all quite clean; rose at six o'clock, hoed potatoes, until near nine o'clock; breakfast, a quart of thick gruel and bread, and was allowed to go at half-past nine o'clock. This was the only place there was any chanee of a wash in the morning, but there was only one towel for the forty or fifty who wished to use it, and it soon got useless for drying pur- poses; soap, not being provided by the officials, was also very scarce. "Monmouth.—Peasoup for supper, bread only for breakfast (after picking half a pound of oakum). The beds were too full of vermin. Same at Ledbury, except bread for supper; pcrridge and bread for breakfast, after two hours in the stoneyard. "Worcester.—Two hours each night and morning pumping water for a little bread each time; but it being Sunday morning when I came away, I had no breakfast and no work. "Bromsgrove, Woodstock, and Stow-on-the-Wold appeared like clean stables with fresh whitewashed walls, with clean straw on raised woodwork, and a rug for covering. I always took the precaution to put all my clothes on the stone floors, but straw is not very comfortable to lie upon naked besides, a few minutes told me there was plenty of vermin, and I was indebted to many farmers for the shelter their hedges, &c., gave me while I undressed to examine my clethes once or twice daily. "At Westbury, Glocestershire, is a dirty place, and not fit for any beast to sleep in. The straw was so short as though it had not been renewed for a month or more; a closet at one corner; and when the shutter of the open window was closed on five men-three of whom were very dirty-the place was very disagreeable. Smoking tobacco all night was the only thing I could do as it rained heavily I could not go out, and there was no supper and no breakfast without breaking 4cwt. of stones for 7oz. of bread, which we all de- clined, being only too happy to depart at six o'clock. "Ross was in somerespects better, being a loft over a stable, bare straw, and a rug, with a little bread in the morning, and no work; at Bicester rush matting to lie on a rug for covering, but so full of filth that loud complaints and threats to report it to the nearest magistrate compelled the master to have the place cleaned out, which had not been done for five months. "At High Wycombe there is no Union, but the relieving officer gives a ticket for a bed, which is the dirtiest thing ever seen. The covering and bed are dirty-old corn sacks sown together, apparently used for many years and never washed, vermin in thousands, one room was occupied by a man, his wife, and four children, the other was a double- bedded room, one bed of which I gladly gave up to a man and his wife, and I took to smoking, as it rained all night. No supper or breakfast. At Uxbridge I arrived a few minutes too late for my bread, and was told I should have to break stones till eleven o'clock in the morning before I got my breakfast of bread, but before that time I was many miles on my way to London. In justice to the officials, I must say, I received courtesy, and the food was in all cases good; but cLn nothing be done for the casual poor, who are thus obliged occasionally to come in contact with many who prefer going about the country in rags", living mena- geries, begging, and stealing, and who talk at night of what they have done, and what spikes (as they term the Unions) they get the best allowance, and who never go beyond ten miles a day ? Surely the places ought to be kept clean. I never endured such misery before, and would rather submit to anything than again seek relief and shelter in such places." In reference to the above, a Correspondent writes —" The ticket system adopted in the districts extending nearly from Bristol to Birmingham, and from Hereford to Witney, has for its object the relief of deserving and necessitous tramps without subjecting them to the work required of professional vagrants previously to leaving the unions which relieve them 1 To entitle a person to a ticket, procured from the relieving officer, or his substitute, the applicant must satisfy the officer that he is a bond fide traveller in quest of work, and that he has travelled twenty miles the preceding day. This ticket system is extending itself to other parts of the king- dom, the county of Westmoreland having recently, I see, adopted it, and the public are exhorted by the unions not to encourage begging and vagrancy by relieving stranger. being informed that the destitute are cared after by the authorities, and given lodging, supper, and breakfast. It is believed such a system will have the effect of dimi- nishing vagrancy, and ridding the agricultural districts especially of the class to whom a large percentage of the crime committed can be attributed. With regard to the beds and the vermin of which the Clerk' speaks, it would be impossible, with the greatest supervision, to keep the dormitories free from vermin, when it is considered that the great majority of the persons sleeping in the beds are wholly regardless of their personal cleanliness. In the Monmouth union, which I have visited, I found the walls of the dormi- tories for the casuals' whitewashed, iron bedsteads, pallias- ses, and quilts, and all appeared certainly scrupulously clean. Here the ticket system is adopted, and the clerk' in question, in informing the relieving officer that he was in search of em- ployment, and that he had fulfilled the requirements entitling a person to the advantages of the ticket system, might have been relieved on the following morning of the task imposed upon general tramps."

CLARET. The following is from a book entitled Drafts on My Memory;" by Lord William Pitt Lennox:— If there is one sin against the laws of hospitality which ought to be more severely visited than another, it is that of giving your guests bad wine. I knew a man, and a rich man, too, whose many virtues were obscured by that one fault in an aggravated degree. Before the reduction of the duty on foreign wines, which has conferred due immortality on the name of Gladstone, though it was very improperly conferred the name of Gladstone on inferior claret, my friend asked me one day what I thought of his claret. My reply was, If you really wish me to give you an honest opinion, I should say, it was not claret." "Not claret," he responded, "I bought it as such." Of course, after this remark I was silent, and the con- versation took another turn. One morning when I happened to call, I found a stranger in my friend's room. You are the very person I wish to see," said he to me; "let me introduce you to Mr. my wine merchant." The introduction took place, and before I had time to utter a word, my friend pro- ceeded, Lord William Lennox says, your claret is not claret." The importer of foreign wines and spirits looked aghast, and I was what the sailors term, taken aback:" but not wishing to retract what I said, I quietly re- marked that the wine I referred to did not come up to my notion of claret. "Your lordship is right," said the wine merchant, whose reputation in the city stood second to no one. The wine I sold is what is termed in France, vin ordinaire, price thirty shillings a dozen, alight dinner wine. I understood that you sir," ad- dressing the owner of the house, had a large stock of Crockford's choice Chateau Margaux." "I have some," he reponded. In future, sir," continued the wine merchant, "let me entreat you not to give my vin ordinaire as after-dinner claret. It might prove highly prejudicial to me. I have claret of the finest growth at ninety-six shillings a dozen." Here the con- ference broke up but before I conclude, I must add that my friend had purchased two dozen of Crock- ford's best claret, the appearance of which was, to adopt the hackneyed saying, "like angels' visits, few and far between:" still it gave my host the opportunity of saying, and truly saying, "he had some first-rate Chateau Margaux." My reader will readily understand what claret at thirty shillings a dozen was before the duty was taken off it probably cost ten sous a bottle, perhaps only five at Bordeaux. As a companion to this anecdote, let me tell you of what happened to a man who prided himself upon his wine, and who had some of the best claret of the celebrated '34 vintage. Be careful," said the host; "you will find in him 5." The wine was brought, and as the old butler, who took a real pride in his master's cellar, poured out "the purple regal stream," N re- marked, "Yes, this is '34." "34?" responded a country visitor. "Remarkably cheap, I've got some that cost 48 (this was long before the Gladstone cheap wine movement,) and it is not half as good." There was no further demand upon bin 5 that evening. In these days, instead of first growth Moet's sparkling champagne, dry champagne, Laffitte, and Chateau Margaux clarets, old bees'-wing port and hock, ex- quisite sherry, we meet with-there are many honour- able exceptions—home-made gooseberry, a perfect stranger to France, at thirty-two shillings a dozen, fizzing moselle at the same price, the Chancellor's S t. Emilionat two shillings a bottle, Cape, or South African port or "young and fruity" Portuguese port, varying from eighteen to twenty-three shillings a dozen. Hochheim, Nierstein, and Hattenhim, at a less price than the port, and Gladstone's sherry, (the senator, not the wine-mer- chant) at a pound per dozen, while some of exquisite quality, very old and scarce, not usually met with, their prices putting these beyond the reach of ordinary consumers," may be had at sixty-six shillings a dozen. It is now unfortunately the fashion for almost every Amphitryon to give champagne and claret, both ex- cellent wines when good but why not call things by their right names ? The former reminds me of a saying of Wright's at the Adelphi theatre, Since champagne suppers have been introduced, there's not a single gooseberry to be found on the bushes," and the latter, though a nice summer dinner beverage, and even then better as Badmington," is no more fit to be placed on an Englishman's table after dinner, than a fricasseed fog would be to take place of a sirloin of beef.

CLERICAL INTOLERANCE IN SWEDEN. Some time ago attention was called to the refusal of the Swedish Legislature to legalize marriages be- tween Swedes who were not members and communi- cants of the national Lutheran Church. That decision was received with mingled shame and sorrow by the liberal section of the nation, and was regarded as a cruel denial of justice to an increasingly large number of their fellow-countrymen. By Swedish dissenters, especially the Baptists, whose "churches" are now numerous, it had been expected that the abolition of the House of Clergy and tie inauguration of the new Constitution would be the signal for liberty in this matter. Eight years ago Dr. Steane and Mr. Hinton went to Sweden as a deputation from the Baptists of England, to try to obtain for their co-religionists from the then Government the concession of liberty to worship and marry according to their own rites. The demand was received in an evasive and temporizing manner, and nothing having been done in the first few years of the reign of the present King, the new Parliament was confidently looked to for liberation. But the old leaven of clerical intolerance was found to work strongly in the Upper House. The rejection of the measure has consequently driven the Baptists to set at defiance laws which would keep them in celibacy or force them into exile or a demo- ralizing hypocrisy. A. newspaper of the province of Nerike describes the open celebration at Orebro of a Baptist marriage. The ceremony commenced with singing, prayer, and Bible reading. Then followed an address setting forth the disappointment at the de- cision of the Legislature, and that, as the New Testa- ment had prescribed no particular ceremony of marriage, this union in the presence of the Church had been resolved on. The bride and bridegroom then came forward, and the bridegroom declared that, in the presence of God and that of his Church, he took his sister in the faith, for his true wife, to be faithful to her by God's help, and to love her in life and death." The bride on her part then made a similar avowal, and further religious exercises and a wedding feast followed. In the face of an extraordinary and incessant emigration, Sweden will probably find it best to abandon the policy of clerical bigots and adopt a more enlightened theory as to marriage.

CAUSES OF DEATH. In his customary letter addressed to the Registrar- General on the causes of death in England during the year 1864, Dr. Farr discussed at some length the defects of the present system of death registration, of which the large number of deaths returned from causes not specified or ill-defined formed one of the strongest evidences. Of the total deaths regis- tered in that year, amounting to 495,531, no less than 7,799 had no cause whatever assigned, although about 3,321 of these, having been sudden, were inquired into by coroners, who were nevertheless unsuccessful in ascertaining the cause. In 1865 the total deaths were 490,909, the numbers returned from unassigned causes being 8,400 of which 3,173 were subjects of coroners' in- quiries. From these facts the unsatisfactory inference follows that, as with a reduced aggregate of deaths from all causes an increase has taken place in the causes not specified, there has been some laxity either of observa- tion or record, which is much to be regretted. Bearing in mind that death takes place in so many ways, often under conditions unfavourable to observation, a margin must of necessity be allowed for cases which baffle the attempt to refer their phenomena to definite laws but the inquiry into the cause of death is so important in a social as well as in a scientific point of view, that no means of making it successful should be neglected, and we shall no doubt have eventually to come to some such organization as has been suggested by Dr. Farr if we would hope to attain the end desired.

A SHORT WAY WITH THE PRESS. The following satirical article, signed Clotilde de Vaux, aged 35," is from the Pall Mall Gazette:- Mr. Congreve has just said that one of the first wants of the Working Man is an Act of Parliament to compel the signature of every printed article with the name, to which is to be added the age, of the writer. Woman as I am, the discipline of the Positive Philo- sophy and Religion has made self-sacrifice so easy to me that I shall support Mr. Congreve's admirable idea. But it does not go far enough. Every one who publishes an article in any paper, on any subject, ought to be compelled to register his name, age, income, religion, politics, education, and parentage at Sta- tioners' Hall, where he should, in addition, be photo- graphed. For this purpose he should be compelled to present himself anew at stated intervals in order that any fresh peculiarity of appearance, such as a mous- tache, might be duly noted. He should also be com- pelled to give references as to character to at least two Working Men. But what is equally important is that every journalist should be made to carry a badge like a cabman, which he should be bound to produce on demand, especially to any Working Man. I cannot help asking your readers and the world in general to take note of the delicate amenity, the gentleness, the respectfulness, the compassion for human infirmity which distinguish the writing of our school. This comes of the habitual worship of "the only Supreme Being whose existence is undoubted (I believe I am correctly quoting the Founder of the Positive Religion); and surely the worship of Humanity should make men humane! Perhaps some industrious person will serve Humanity by making a collection of kindly and reverential short passages from the writings of Positivists, taking care not to omit the illustrious founder of our school himself. Sir, Auguste Comte rightly claimed it as one of the merits of the Positive Philosophy that it can admit exceptions. Although I think all public writers should be compelled to append their real names to their articles, I do not intend to sign my own to this letter but I shall add my age, which you may depend upon, and to my fellow-worshippers in the Religion of Humanity it will be a sufficient guarantee of good faith if I adopt as my pseudonym the sainted name of DE VAUX, aged 35."

THE ENGLISH CURATE. There is, first, what may be called the apprenticeship time of the young curate, when he receives any sum for his labours, varying from nothing to 501, a year (says the Quarterly Review). How long this period may be extended in any given case it is impossible to say; but when it is passed, and the young man has learnt his business, and too often married a wife and begun to furnish a nursery, it is no great increase to which he can look forward. His salary may be raised, perhaps, to 1001. or 120Z. a year; it is but seldom, since pluralities were happily abolished, that a house is provided for him, or, if it is, the estimated rent is deducted from his small salary, and on that miserable pittance he may continue to exist for an unlimited time —possibly for his whole life, though his labours may be honestly and ungrudgingly given to the work of his high office. Many are those to whom preferment never does nor can come. That to which the poor hard- working curate may most hopefully look, the prefer- ment administered by his bishop, is utterly insufficient to supply such claims for the benefices in England to which the bishops appoint form but a very small number in the list of livings. Whether on the whole this is an advantage or a disadvantage to the Church is a question on which we will not enter here. Its settlement would involve many most conflicting J considerations, but this inevitably results from it, that even where the episcopal patronage is most fairly administered (and we know cases in which none but curates of the diocese are admitted to share in it), a very small proportion of the curates can ever obtain the preferment from its resources. Many, therefore, unless they have claims on private or political patrons must, in spite of the real service of years, live and die as curates. But this is not all. Even if they do obtain, after years of work, a benefice, they are often little better and not unfrequently are worse off than they were before. Even the better-endowed livings commonly did little more than pay their expenses, and by far the greater proportion of English benefices fall far beyond this level. Perhaps the curate of twenty years' service succeeds at last to a living of 300Z. or 4001. a year. But with it come a multitude of new expenses, which often make the poor man wish himself back again in his less dignified position. The direct claims of charity multiply upon him. The maintenance of the parish school rests in ordinary cases mainly upon him; the parsonage is to be kept, too often to be put in decent repair, while it may be (for the entail of such property is very widely spread) there are no assets in the hands of the widow of the dead incumbent to meet that most sickening of all charges under such circumstances the claim for dilapidations. Then for the rector there are new social claims and new contingencies. He has now a certain position to maintain he cannot wholly abdi- cate it without greatly diminishing his usefulness, and probably incurring reproach. He finds himself com- monly in that poorest of all positions in a very wealthy society—that of a poor gentleman. He mixes in society, bound to conceal the secret grief which is preying on him, and to wear a look of complacency over a heart heavy with anxiety.

SPLENDOUR AND MISERY HAND IN HAND! Have you not remarked (writes the correspondent of the Morning Star) that whenever a pretty woman wishes to set off or rehausser the eclat of her beauty- as the French express it-she is invariably accom- panied by an old and ugly duenna? Well, what the young lady does is now imitated by Lutetia. Paris seems as if it took pleasure in having, next to its finest jewels, next to its Gobelins, its Ste. Chapelle, its Notre Dame, and even its Exhibition, the most dis- gusting booths possible next to its luxuriant car- riages Tof the Bois de Boulogne, the most absurd vehicles next to its millionaires and grandees, the worst specimens of moral and physical degradation. One thing which I had till now admired and approved of, was that the present regime had. more or less, done away with the poor population. For the last sixteen years we met no mendicants in our path, except a very few, such as the woman with blue spectacles and two wooden legs, who always sits under a parte cochere and offers her pencils to the passer-by. Such is not now the case. Paris is at present invaded by thousands of beggars, little boys and little girls for the greater part, who, under the pretext of playing the flute, the violin, the guitar, or the harp, boldly accost us in the streets, on the Boulevards, and even in the cafes whilst we are reading the evening papers. Is it to set off the mag- nificence of some of the Paris toilettes that the Prefet de Police authorises these tatterdemalions, these poor children in ragged clothes, to circulate thus from morning to night in the principal thoroughfares of this metropolis ? No; the fact is that misery is now in- vading Paris with a rapid pace. Statistics recently published, the authenticity of which cannot be doubted, inasmuch as they emanate from the "Bureau de FAssistance Publique," inform us of the startling fact that, whilst in 1863 there were but 101,770 indigents in the capital, these amounted last year to 105,119 What will the number be this year ? The development of material splendour, of pomp and pageantry, seems to be simultaneous with that of misery. In the 13th Arrondissement there is one indigent family in every house. There are in Paris at the present moment above 40,654 families who live in 40,131 rooms. 9,665 of these rooms have two beds in them; 5,422 possess three beds 1,170 four beds and 142 have five beds. These facts would tend to prove that the legalised and systematic charity, as estab- lished in this country, lies open to some serious and important reforms.

ANIMAL POISONS. In some experiments on the poison of the cobra di capella, which George B. Halford, M.D., Professor of Anatomy in the University of Melbourne, has been lately engaged in, he has discovered that when a per- son is mortally bitten by the cobra, molecules of living I I germinal" matter are thrown into the blood and speedily grow into cells. These cells multiply so rapidly that in a few hours millions upon millions are produced at the expense of the oxygen absorbed into the blood during respiration and hence the gradual decrease and ultimate extinction of com- bustion and chemical change in every other part of the body, followed by. coldness, sleepiness, in- sensibility, slow breathing, and death. The cells which thus render in so short a time the blood unfit to support life, as described by the professor, are circular in diameter, on the average of one seventeen- hundredth of an inch. They contain a nearly round nuclus of one two thousand eight-hundredth of an inch in breadth, which, when further magnified, is seen to contain other still more minute sphereules of living geruiinal matter. In addition to this the applica- tion of magenta reveals a minute coloured spot at some part of the circumference of the cell. This, besides its size, serves to distinguish it from the white bus or lymph-corpuscle. The professor adds to his account of the action of this powerful poison that he has many reasons for believing that the materies morbi of cholera is a nearly allied animal poison, and that if this on further examination, should prove to be the case,' we may hope to know something definite of the poisons of hydrophobia, small-pox, scarlet fever, and. indeed, of all zymotic diseases.

SUDDEN DEATHS. The death of Madame Musurus-itself very sad and shocking-is only the last of several recent sudden deaths in persons of high social position calculated to produce an excessive impression of the risk of sudden death inci- dental to diseased conditions of the heart (remarks The Lancet, a medical journal). We have lost lately in a similar way two bishops, one member of Parliament, and now the distinguished lady of the Turkish em- bassy. We are informed that Madame Musurus laboured under disease of the heart, and that she was advised by her medical attendant not to attend the grand ball at the India Office. Unfortunately, how- ever naturally, she disregarded this excellent advice. And, so, in many such cases, it will be found that death is produced by an indiscretion against which the patient had either been warned, or which was too obvious to be specified. Apart from such indiscretions the occurrence of sudden death from heart disease would really be much less common. One of the bishops alluded to died shortly after helping to carry an invalid friend up stairs. The member of Parliament was notorious in the House for the amount of the com- mittee work he did, to say nothing of the long, exciting, and exhausting sittings of the present session, which he should have avoided. It is obvious that sudden death in such cases isin the right sense of the word an accident, and that but for something attempted which should never have been attempted the accident would not have happened. It should be the study of persons so affected not only to live quiet, leisurely lives, but to resist the occasional temptations to extra exertions and excitement in which the life of tho present century abounds.

A CONTRIBUTION TO MECHANICAL SCIENCE. Mr. Whitworth has addressed to the Science and Art Department the following letter, which was laid before the select committee on Paris purchases "Feeling the national importance of maintaining the position which England has reached in the manufac- ture of machinery in general, I desire to do as much as may be in my power towards effecting this object. I should therefore feel obliged if you would inform the Lord President of the Council that I am willing to de- posit in the South Kensington Museum, to be there perpetually preserved, three original true planes and a. measuring machine or instrument demonstrating the millionth 0 part of an inch; and I propose, subject to some conditions, to make a sufficient endowment to provide for the delivery of lectures to explain such in- struments. Their importance will be manifest when it is considered that the value of every machine, when made of the bebt materials, depends on the truth of its surfaces and the accurate measurement of its parts."