The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-06-28 00:00:00

ISE DAY'S NEWS.

The House of Commons sat only for a short
time yesterday. The Labourers' Cottages (Scot-
land) Bill passed through committee, and the
remainder of the sitting was occupied with a
discussion of the various claiifies of the Pleriching
and tyehig *or is Bill,—when Sir Hugh Cairns
succeeded in carrying an amendment exempting
the linen works of the North of Ireland from the
operation of the act.
The New Prussian. Gazette finds a husband for
the Princess Alice in the heir presumptive to the
throne of the Grand Duke of Hesse.
The important statement is made that the
grant of a constitution to the kingdom of Naples
is at the direct instigation of the Emperor
Napoleon, and there are fears that he will
actively intervene, unless Garibaldi anticipates
his intention by a sudden march upon Naples.
The rinid plitlifilies a bong account of the loss
of the Malabar. She had on board 1,080 boxes
of bullion worth nearly £300,000, and 725 chests
of opium worth upwards of £lOO,OOO, of which
216 have been recovered from the fore hold. The
remainder are aft, and cannot be reached. The
ship herself cannot be replaced for less than
560,000, and the rest of the cargo (Ltd ptissen-
geisi higgage wilt swell the total loss to half a
million sterling. The whole of the bullion will
most probably be recovered by divers, but the
salvage dues will be very considerable.
The Times had quite a warlike leader, yesterday,
on the irritating conduct of an American officer
at San Juan, in attempting to defeat the joint
occupation agreed Upon: It says It Is otily
tad evident that General Harney is seeking fdr rifi
occasion of offence against us, and if a stop be
not put to his mischievous career he will most
probably involve us in troubles from which there
will be no honourable escape, except through the
open portals of the Temple of Janus. We have
endured all that the most extreme desire for
peace could call iipoil tie to eiladre. We ate now
called upon to show that we have the courage to
repel, as well as the moderation to overlook, an
insult. The island itself would not be worth
one-hundredth part of the losses and calamities
that must ensue from the interruption for a single
week of a good understanding between the two
countries ; but there is a thing dearer even than
ease and wealth, and that thing is national honour.
We have not called forth our young men from
the peaceful avocations of ordinary life, and put
arms in their hands, in order to exhibit to them'
in return for their heroic efforts, the spectacle of
a country which has no respect for herself, and
invites by her tameness, the injuries she dares
not repel."

The Calcutta and Chinese-mails have arrived,.
bringing us detailed intelligence. In China,
from the north, there are rumours that great
preparations are being made on the Peiho for
meeting the allied forces ; and that Sann-ko-lin-
sin compels every family to furnish a man to
leirn the manual exercise and artillery drill.
Cavalry also were said to be levied in great
numbers. One defeat will, in all probability,
throw the war, party into such discredit that
there will be no difficulty in then arranging
terms if the allies are sincerely desirous to do so.
A Bengal pager ofmtafir the almost incredible

statement that the contractors for supplying the
ill fated Tasmania,' were forced by Government
to purchase from them old commissariat stores.
The arrangements for the visit of the Prince of
Wales to our Transetlittitic pdasessiohs have now
been definitely arisaised: niA Royal highness will
hike departUre on the 10th of next month,
and will visit, in succession, Newfoundland,
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward's
Ireland, reaching Montreal, for the grand cere-
mony of inaugurating the Victoria Bridge, about
the latter end of August. After this, he will
make a brief tour, semi-ineog., through the
United States, being entertained at Washington
by the President.

Whilst in the south of Europe uneasiness is
felt at the restlt of the torn crops; the Gazette du
Yord says that iii ale northern SigEs, and par-
ticularly Sweden, expectations are entertained
that the harvest will be one of extraordinary
abundance. The Swedish journals even go so far
as to announce an unusual yield of wheat, and in
that belief a large quantity of rye has been ex-
ported to England from Stockholm.
We publish an extended report of the speeches
delivered on Saturday last at the anniversary
dinner of the Trinity House in London, this event
being generally tendered Mott than usually
interesting by the presence a the Prince Consort,
and of Members of the Cabinet; and Other dis-
tinguished stittestilen. year there was a
larger gathering than usual of' celebrities, who,
in their speeches, adverted to various topics of
public interest. The Prince first referred in a
graceful manner to the positions occupied by his
three eldest children. He next proposed the toast
of " The Army and Navy," and descanted on
the appearance, numbers, discipline, and public
spirit or thi volunteeil Oho had been
reviewed that day. The Earl of Derby having
delivered an admirable address, Dr. Lushington
indulged in reminiscences of the volunteer force
of 1804 and of the days of William Pitt, and
the Duke of Newcastle wound up the speech-
making with an appropriate allusion to the Prince
of Wales' approaching visit to Canada, and the
demonstrations of loyalty with which he would
be teceiveclt

The well-informed London correspondent of
the Manchester Guardian says :—Conspicuous
among the foreign officers at the review, and
occupying a prominent place in the brilliant
cavalcade which accompanied her Majesty into
the field, was the Baron D'Andigne, military
attache to the French Embassy. It is, no doubt,
the Baron's duty to convey to the Emperor a
soldier's appreciation of the sight of Satur-
day. If the Baron employ to his imperial
master langdage eMpliatic id its expres-
sions df siitistaction and astOnishtnent as that
he has freely employed in society here, the
volunteers will have no reason to fear being
under-rated by the Sovereign who is, above all
others, interested in their efficiency. The Baron
is understood to have begun by laughing good-
humouredly at the amateur soldiers and their
performances ) but his mood changed as he saw
corps after corps march into the Park and take
up their alignment, in their respective brigades.
Precision of movement and smartness in parade
evolutions are not the strong points of the French
soldier; so that the Baron was the more
open to irapression from the excellent March-
ing and *heeling of the Volunteers. I under-
stand that the French Ambassador dwells on the
political danger& of a Military organisation of the
middle claw, and itiaists Upon it that the National
Guard of Paris has really been at the bottom of
all the successive revolutions which have taken
that capital for their centre. He shakes his head
over our English National Guard, and bids us
heidrii t siuiiilar res Ult in Lbndon.

THE INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL

CONGRESS.

To most general readers Statistics present a for-
bidding aspect, in whatever light they may
appear to those who have made them their special
study. Piles of flgiireS, *lilt elaborate disqui-
sitions founded upon them, attract few readers.
In a newspaper they are generally looked upon
as out of place, and passed over accordingly. Our
present object, however, is nothing more
.than
briefly to direct attention.to the fact that a very
important meeting is to be held in London next
month -.the totirti dnritial tfieeting of the Inter-
national Statistical Congress,—the first meeting of
the kind ever held in this country. We are afraid
many of our readers will either at once turn
aside from our subject, or with blank astonish-
ment ask what is meant by a Statistical Con-
gress. We shall best answer the question by a
*oid et en jilsithition as td the object and
history of this instittition. Since about the
middle of the last century the close and
systematic observation and analysation of facts in
the history of civilised communities has gradually
received more and more attention until it latterly
has assumed the dignity of a separate branch of
seichtel Some years Eigd the idea was conceived
of forming an international congress for the com-
bined consideration of the Statistics of those
various countries in which this modern science
had been more or less cultivated. Our intelligent
readers will be familiar with the great work on
Statistics, by QUETELET—a Belgian, popular
editions of Whose *alp have- long been in cir-
culation in this country. To this eminent statis-
tician, we believe, belongs the honour of having
suggested the idea of bringing all the separate
experiences of statisticians in other countries into
one congress, with the view of enlarging the area
of general observation and of securing that
strength in the further prosecution of the new
science which is to be fdifrid in extensive combi-
nation for a common purpose. As to Belgium
belongs the distinction of having offered that
idea, so to that kingdom appertains the applause
of having inaugurated the first International
Statistical Congress. The second congress was
held at Paris, and the third at Vienna. The
fourth will come off in London on the 16th
of &it nionthi under imperial patronage and
support.

What is the use of Statistics ? What have
they done or can they do for the welfare of any
community ? Have not our statistical philosophers
been the subject of no small amount of ridicule ;.
and have not their labours been pronounced
fruitless add barren ? Is this International Statis-
tical Congress really anything More than an amuse-.
ment for the learned leisure of a few continental
savans? It may be all very well for these to meet
under Government auspices, and spend time and
money pleasantly in toying with this philoso-
phical subject,—but people in this country are
apt to put the question with undeniable force and
point, " Cui bono ?" 1, must be admitted, how-
ever, in the meantime, that the very fact that,
after three years' experience and observation of
the proceedings and operations of this Statistical.
Congress, the Government of England having
resolved to lend its aid and encouragement to the
institution, is no insignificant testimony to its-
practical utility. It may be that the science Of
Statistics collects and records materials which"
are difficult to apply practically. They may be
susceptible of much abuse in the hands of- the
skilful designer whose object is trifling, or worse ;
but this is no argument against their fair and
legitimate application. One of the first: neces-
sary steps to individual success and happiness
is an adequate knowledge of one's own capacities
and deficiencies—to know what we can'attain or
accomplish, and wherein we are apt to come
short, or sure to fail. It is so also in the case of
communities, states, kingdoms, empires, and of a
wh9le world, To.petform this dqty by the strict,