The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-26 00:00:00

HIE SUN, LONDON, _MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 26, 1864.

SPIRIT OF

JOURNALS.

THE "EXAMINER" ON THE lONIAN ISLANDS
TINDER GREECE.—If the condition of the new
kingdom of Greece is less promising than pro-Hel-
lenic enthusiasts could desire, it is, upon the whole,
perhaps as satisfactory as sober-minded men should
expect it to be. The position was a difficult, almost
a desperate one. A country torn by civil factions
and military rebellion, barely solvent in its finances,
and so devo'd of men entitled to confidence, that,
having expelled one foreign King, it was obliged,
after vainly touting throughout the Courts of
Europe, to intrust its destinies to a Royal schoolboy
and his Danish tutor, may be congratulated on
having for a year maintained itself without losing
ground. If Greece has not done much towards
gaining the respect of Europe, she has done nothing
to forbid her friends from hoping for her future, and
is, all things considered, in a more favourable
position than during the close of King Otho's rule
or the interregnum of anarchy which preceded the
advent of King George. To Greece proper, then,
this is so much gained; already, however, the
lonians ask themselves whether they have not paid
more for their share in the new order of things than
it is worth, and whether they have gained or lost
in influence, dignity, and power by their exchange
of nominal dependence for national existence. It is
difficult to pay too dearly for liberty, but the name
of liberty may be bought at too high a price. That
the position of the lonian Republic under British
protection was in some respects an artificial and
unnatural one cannot be disputed, The Protec-
torate was a sham, the Constitution 'vas a sham,
there was a sham Senate and a sham Assembly,
there were sham statesmen and sham patriots.
But these were all admitted shams, and deceived
no one. The Lord High Commissioner per-
formed his conjuring tricks openly, and combining
in his own person the authority of Sovereign,
Senate, and Assembly, allowed the people to amuse
themselves with playing at representative instill'.
tions. It pleased them and did not hurt him, The
material effect of British rule was, however, unmis.
takeably beneficial. In no country in Europe was
life and property more secure; in no country were
the laws more Just or more impartially adminis-
tered; in none of our colonies was local taxation
as moderate or imperial expenditure proportion.
ately so high. The lonian flag, though it covered
many doubtful transactions and bore a more than
doubtful name, was as safe from insult or injury
as oar own. The religion, the language, the habits,
and oven the prejudices of the people were
piously respected by us. Once a year the, Queen's
representative bowed low before the embalmed
mummy of lonia's patron saint, and Protestant
gunners fired a Royal salute in honour of the most
ludicrous of Greek superstitions. It was but five
years ago since one of England's greatest states-
men went to Corfu, apparently for no other reason
than to kiss the hand and receive the benedic-
tion of the Greek Archbishop. But though the
mass of the people were happy, prosperous,
and content under a rule which, in comparison
with that of their succeesire Venetian, Russian, and
French masters, was the wildest liberty, there was
a large class of political agitators, while there was
only a limited number of places wherewith to silence
them, The Church, too, trader Russian influence,
was inimical to 13/ itish dominion, and encouraged
the spirit of opposition, which increased in exact
proportion to the concession made; and when at
length all was conceded, even to a liberty of speech
which in England would have been called treason
or indecency, and a licence of the press which New
York might have envied before the days of Presi.
dent Lincoln, even when, in order to increase the
local revenue, we allowed the food and necessaries
of the protecting garrison to be taxed for the bene-
fit of the lonians, when, in short, we had granted
all that could be given consistently with the exist.
ence of a protectorate, then we were requested to
withdraw, and to give lonia to the lonians. This
demand no Lord High Commissioner could ven-
ture to submit to the Queen until when, on the
fall of King Otho, something was wanted to make
the Hellenic throne acceptable to a new Sovereign,
we wisely concluded that this was a good opportu-
nity to get rid of an ungrateful duty in a graceful
manner, and to the surprise of the lonians they found
their prayer granted. The Ai chbishop celebrated
a Te Deum, the Assembly was enthusiastic in its
thanks, San Spiridione paraded the streets, the
people shouted Zito and waved the Greek flag, but
there was a feeling of uneasiness in all classes. The
Greek is not truthful, and untruthful men are ever
suspicious; he was alarmed at our readiness to con-
clude the bargain ; he had misgivings as to our
motives; and when it was announced that the de-
molition of some of the fortifications would be a
condition of the cession of the islands, the men who
in their speeches had declared that life and pro-
petty were too small a price wherewith to purchase
independence exclaimed loudly against annexation
with Greece at the expense of a few batteries.
THE "LONDON REVIEW" ON THE HOSPITAL
FOR SICK CHILDREN.—Rather more than twelve
years ago, some benevolent ladies and gentlemen
cpened an asylum for the sick children of the poor
in one of the large old mansious in Great Ormond-
street, Queen-square, W.C. At first (though her
Majesty kindly became the patroness of the institu-
tion), the funds in the hands of the committee were
small, and only 18 beds could be made up. The ap.
plicants, however, were equally few for some time,
the poor requirieg to be accustomed to the idea,
or perhaps to be made acquainted with the fact
that such a place had been opened for their espe-
cial benefit. After awhile the applicants became so
numerous that it was found necessary to refuse
cases for sheer want of room. The utmost number
of in-patients which can be received is 62;
and, when it is borne in mind that more than
25,000 children under 10 years of cge die in
London every year, and that owing to the imperfect
knowledge of children's diseases to which medical
men confess, this mortality scarcely diminishes with
the great spread of sanitary precautions, it wilt be
understood that 62 beds go but a little way towards
the alleviation of the particular form of suffering
with which this institution deals. A larger building
is required; and indeed it is clear that no one
building can be sufficient to answer the wants in
this respect of so vast a metropolis. Every poor
neighbourhood should have its Sick Children's
Hospital ; and the rich neighbourhoods should look
to it that they be supplied. It is surprising how
much more might be done than is done, even in this
charitable country, for the relief of the needy and
suffering. We are not wanting in the best inten-
tions, but we are inclined, all of us, to be appalled
and paralyzed sometimes at the enormous magnitude
of the evils with which we are called upon to con-
tend. This is the great difficulty in the way of all
philanthropic effort. It is not indifference to human
affliction which so often stays the hand of the
wealthy; it is rather the stupor of despair at mea-
suring the vastness of the work to be accomplished,
and observing the small results of individual efforts
at amelioration, however generously conceived or
energetically carried out. This is especially the case
in London. In comparatively small towns, the
enemy does not seem beyond the power of grappling
with. Here,on the other hand,the incubusof poverty
and disease appears to acquire the size, weight, and
fatal immobility of a nightmare; and too many of us
cease even to struggle. This is a form of resig-
nation, however, which is the very contrary of a
virtue; and the good achieved by such establish.
meats as the asylum in Great Ormond-street
should rouse U 3 to the more courageous views.
Daring the time of its existence, the Hospital for
Sick Children has received 4,250 patients, and has
extended relief to 100,105 out-patients. In 1863
alone, the inpatients ea ere 573, and the out-pa-
tiens 11,224—while beyond these numbers lie those
who would have been most cheerfuliy admitted, or
otherwise attended to, had the funds allowed, but
to whom the managers were compelled to give a
reluctant negative. The hospital is open to the
inspection of visitors every :day between the hours
of twelve and four o'clock, and a glance at its ar.
rangements will show the careful kindness with
which it is managed. Considering that the house is
in the thick of town, the situation is remarkably
airy. Within a few doors, lies the long, wide, old-
fashioned Queen-square, with trees an d grass and
quiet, freshening up the somewhat dingy houses of
the heavy Dutch period, and acting as a
reservoir of air to the surrounding streets. At the
back of the hospital extends a spacious garden, very
serviceable for such of the children as have euffia
cientlyarecovered to run about. Upstairs is the sick
room, broad and lofy, with panelled walls and fold-
ing doors. here are the sixty. two little beds with
the sixty-two little sufferere—each bed provided
with a horizontal tray attached to the 'nedetead, and
so arranged that it will hold conveniently whatever
it may be necessary to put on it, and can be moved
to and fro at pleasure. The supply of books and
playthings is ample. Here you may EBO one little
thing reading the Bible ; there, another conning
some pictured storybook; a third, too young to
read, gazicg at a number of coloured pictures on
indestructible material; a fourth, p'.aying with the
most gorgeous and fascinating toys. The toys, in
truth, may well be of the best, for they come from
the Queen, who, together with the young Princes
and Princesses, has taken great interest in the
hospital, and sent it many presents. Another room
is devoted to the U3O of convalescents, and there
are also separate homes for the convalescent both
at Mitcham and Brighton. But the hospital itself
does not merely receive sick children ; it has a
room on the ground floor which is used as a nursery
for healthy infants the advantages of which may
be had by mothers of the working classes for two-
pence a day. The medical attendance seem to be
unexceptionable; religious knowledge is imparted

Businegf.
done.

by a clergyman who regularly visits the hospital ;
and many benevolent ladies go there from time to
time, carrying with them the comfort and bright-
ness which only women can bring into the chamber
of sickness and of weary trouble. This is the in-
stitution which Mr Dickens—always alive to any
shape of human need ur act of kindness, and espe-
cially so where children are concerned—described
so touchingly in the December number of " Oar
Mutual Friend." The service of so powerful a pen
shola be worth thousands to the hospital ; but we
cannot refrain at this season of the year from adding
our'own voice to those which have preceded us in
calling attention to this excellent charity and its
need of funds. In our rejoicings this Christmas,
let us think of the sick children and their home in
Great Ormond-street, and, so thinking,we shall npt
be slow to act.
THE " SATURDAY REVIEW" ON TOBACCO:' AND ITS
ENEMIES,—Among the many advantages arising from a
judicious use of tobacco may be reckoned the increase of
benevolence amongst its devotees. The world always looks
pleasanter through a cloud of smoke. All harsh and irri-
tating things become mellowed and softened to the mind
which regards them under the hallowing influences of a
cigar. No genuine smoker should, therefore, feel anything
but amusement at the petulant attacks of the profane vulgar
—he should regard even the Dean of Carlisle with Chris-
tian, or at least Nicotian, toleration. It he of course, wrong
for a man to seek to deprive others of a pleasure because he
does not enjoy it himself; but we must always make allowance
for the irritability natural to persons suffering from any se-
rious deprivation. So long, therefore, as the anti-tobacco-
nists confine themselves to quiet lamentations over
the wickedness of smokers, we should simply avoid their
company—if they preach at us, we should seek refuge in
sleep—if they send us pamphlets, we should convert the
pamphlets into pipe-lights--the very strongest weapon we
should wish to use against all fair means of propagating
their cheerful creed should be a hearty laugh. But wo
must add that, when they endeavour to extort 40s. from us,
e should undoubtedly summon them before a police court.
It is not often that the operations of those earnest men who
have become the missionaries of the anti-tobacco movement
crop up at the surface—and it is desirable that, when they
eo, they should receive the fullest publicity. It is probably
unknown to many of our readers that there has existed since
1853 a" Bi itish Anti-Tobacco Society," whose list of vice.
presidents include the name of our old friend the Dean of Care
lisle. This society has taken upon itself to issue a placard,
which begins by announcing " smokers are now exceedingly
insolent ;" and states that, to arrest this" insufferable nuis-
ance in railway stations and carriages, they will offer re-
wards varying from 10s to £2 to any one who will secure
the conviction of an offender on the Richmond line. A Mr
Innes, apparently in blissful ignorance of the society and its
placards, was smoking the pipe of peace at the end of the
Barnes platform, whilst waiting for a train, He was ad-
dressed by a man calling himself an agent of the Anti-To-
bacco Society, to whom he at once gave his name, He also
wrote a letter to the society, explaining that he was annoy-
ing no one by smoking, and that he left off when requested.
The secretary—stated to be an unsuccessful provincial
tailor, who has found a more congenial employment "in
prosecuting a crusade against tobacco"—replied to the
effect that:,the case would be proceeded with unless Mr
lanes would pay the fine of 40s, to avoid the costs and ex-
posure. This fine, as was explained afterwards, was to be
paid over to the porters and informers. Mr Innes summoned
the secretary fur a demand for money accompanied by me-
nace, and the case failed on the grounds that it had not
been demanded, but euggested, that the money should be
pai 1, and that the menaces had not been such as to put Mr
Innes in personal fear. The decision is doubtless correct,
and the society have done nothing for which they or their
secretary can be legally punished. The punishment appro.
priate to most of their errors is that of being universally ridi-
culous, though this is one which use has by this time con-
verted into an enjoyment for them. Their present pro-
ceedings deserve ridicule, flavoured with a stronger feeling.
We hope that they will refrain in future from conduct
which has such a strong, though delusive, resemblance to
extorting money. The code of railway morality iu regard
to smoking has become pretty well established. It of
course condemns smoking in all cases where it is likely to
produce annoyance to one's fel ow-travellers. In such
cases, however, smoking ought to be suppresod by the Com-
pany's officers. It is bad enough that a society of volun-
teer zealots should rush in to stimulate official zeal, that it
should convert the harmless porter into a spy, and poison
the confidence which exists between judicious travellers
and an obliging guard. But it is quite intolerable that any
society, however pure its motives, should proceed to levy
fines upon the accused, and distribute them according to its
will and pleasure. If a man were to accuse another of a
crime punishable by fine, and then say that to save ex-
posure he would take the fine himself, we should know
what to call him, The " British Anti-Tobacco Society"
of course does not take the fine itself, but, according to its
secretary, it distributes the money to its informers. The
spy gets his forty shillings, and you save the exposure,
although the bargain is not transacted with him directly,
but with an immaculate society of almost super
human virtue. The case will, to the society, be a warn-
ing to avoid such inadvertence for the future; to others,
it will be a now illustration of the old truth that the
blunders. of saints have often a superficial likeness to
the deliberate tricks of the worldly. The special manifesta-
tion of the society's energy will, of course, soon come to an
end. A few unfortunate smelters will be victimised. The
understanding between officials and passengers will for a
time be clouded. Things will then shako down into a new
condition of equilibrium. It will be tacitly taken for
granted that the guard's eye is to be endowed with only a
certain fixed amount of penetrative power. The tariff will
be readjusted, and the battle of the pipes will be succeeded
by a general pacification. We have no fears that a stand-
ing army of spies will be organised on English railways by
our crusaders against tobacco, or that it will be kept in
working order for any length of time. Smoking in railroad
carriages, like bribery at elections, suits too many interests
not to preserve a tolerably tough vitality. But tho society,
not content with suppressing the symptoms, means to at-
tack the very root of the disease, Our reformers aim at far
greater things than stopping this particular loophole. They
intend to revolutionise the state of public opinion. They
mean to stigmatise this awful vice, till it dies out branded
by their contempt. The day is to come when it will be a
proud thing for a man to say, " I was one of the original
members of the Anti-Tobacco Society," when the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer will have to look about for another
source of revenue than tobacco duties, and when the
few surviving smokers who have escaped from a pre-
mature grave will be pointed at like the last wearers
of Hessian boots, pigtails, or full-bottomed wigs. %Ve con-
fess that we were ignorant of these lofty aspirations till our
attention was called to the nature of the society by the
judicious proceedings above described. We then discovered
that it was represented by a special organ, known as the
Anti-Tobacco Journal, which has already reached its
seventh volume without, so far as we know, materially
affecting the state of public opinion. The contents of this
charming periodical are designed to chill the smoker's
blood. The only number which we Lava dared to read
opens with a battery of sixty objections against tobacco.
‘ r
of
b Aegimnse "is a main upholder of slavery in the
America," This is a trifle, comparatively
speaking. Tobacco harms the gums and teeth, and the
g
because they arc few"— a sentiment which,
Unirni odtebe d "Tobacco,"
csStatesccease
from its semi-scriptural twang, is apparently meant as an
addition to Solomon's proverbs, "Tobacco is at variance"
—it is not said why—" with the dictates which Christianity
inspires in the soul." "Tobacco robs the pulpit by circum-
scribing the qualifications of smoking ministers"—a remark
the more terrible from its obscurity, "Tobacco-smoking
is sottish, snuffing is snobbish, and chewing is hoggish."
This last has perhaps the most epigrammatic point, but
there are some fifty equally weighty aphorisms, the perusal
of which will probably reduce the smoker's spirits to a fit
state to encounter the more deliberate arguments of the
journal. The solid part of this periodical refers to subjects
whose nature may be inferred from such titles as " A
Stubborn Minister Humbled,', and "Three Hundred and
Sixty-five Interviews with Smokers, Chewers, and
Snuff-
takers." The good taste and religious feeling with which
they are written may be exemplified by the triumphant
question put to the stubborn minister :—'.Are faith, prayer,
and the Spirit and the word of God become so sterile that,
being cast aside, tobacco must supply their place ?" The
minister is, of course, brought down by this latter irre-
verent remark, and consents to refrain from smoking himself
to death. Sneerers in real life seem to be tougher. The
gentleman who describes the " three hundred and sixty-five
interviews" complains that the boys, instead of giving a ra-
tional answer to his remarks, generally " amused themselves
with insulting gibes." We don't wonder at it. The only
consolation he received was from a man at a public-house,
whose face " had the appearance of laceration from human
nails, asked for a journal, but remonstrance was useless,"
If the remonstrance, as the grammar would imply, was
directed against an unnatural appetite for the collection of
trash called a journal, wo regret that his friends should
have scrupled to use the degree of constraint necessary,
Tarn "SPECTATOR" ON EMPEROR LAY'S BLUE-BOOK,
—Mr Horatio Lay, the gentleman who recently made a
clutch at the Imperial throne of China, and missed it by a
hairsbreadth,has published a pamphlet to explain the failure
of his attempt, It is in the form of a letter to Earl Russell,
and though entirely supet fluent., except as a despatch to the
Foreign Office, who gave him his secret instructions and
may be irritated at his want of success, is most valuable po-
litical resoling. Mr Lay seems to have thought it advisable
to defend himself from the charge of mismanagement before
the public also, but he entirely mistakes his position in their
eyes. Nobody out of the Foreign Office accuses him of any-
thing except of being one of the ablest, most honourable,and
most determined of those Anglo-Asiatics who have from
time to time endeavour to impose on this country dominion
she does not want, responsibilities she would rather avoid,
and power she is unable to exercise without neglecting more
urgent and binding claims. It is the Government which re-
quires defence for having attempted to acquire the sove-
reignty of China without consulting Parliament or inform-
ing the nation, and Mr Lay will hardly affirm that he has
cleared the Foreign Office of the charge. On the contrary,
his private bluebook will, we believe, convince every man
who reads it that the view maintained in this journal was
correct from beginning to end; that Mr Lay formed in 1863
a deliberate and wellnoneeived plan for obtaining thee

guidance and control" of the Chinese Government; for
" beginning the work there," as ho says in one place,
"which we have commenced in India ;" for becoming, as he
says in another place, "middleman between the Govern,
meat of China and all foreign Powers ;" that this plan
was laid before Lord Palmerston, and in principle cor-
dially approved ; that it was accepted, promoted, and acted
on by that very inept person Sir Frederick Bruce, and
that C only tailed because the British Minister at Pekin
was Mr Lay's inferior in firmness, keenness, and know-
ledge of tha Chinese. It is pleasant of course to read
such a confirmation of our statements, but from the
first among those who know Asia there never was
any doubt of the truth, any suspicion or hope that
Mr Lay was acting independently. Anglo• Asiatics,
who dare all things else, have one ever present fear.
They will break up a dynasty to recover a debt of a
shilling, annex an empire to punish the refusal of
a ceremonial bow, pulverise the civilisation of mil.
lions rather than leave a salt lake unexplored,
assume any Asiatic government, risk the hostility
of any Asiatic race, accept the command of any
Asiatic army, bat neither the hope of power, nor
the crave for emolument, nor the thirst for reputa-
tion, nor even their own fanaticism for the spread
of civilisation, will them to act for an hour in oppo•
sition to the policy of their own country, They
will rather see a rich colony conquered by them•
selves given away, as Sir S. RAihs did, because a
public remonstrance would have injured English
prestige : fling up a vizierat, as Ouseley did, because
the King asked him to impede a British design; or
declare, as Rajah Brooke did,that sovereignty meant
nothing to him if he was to lose his
rights as a British citizen. Mr. Lay did
even more than these men. After years of labour
and effort, with the prize just within his
grasp, with his dream almost visibly fulfilled,
with an ambition such as stirs conquerors burning in his
veins, he offered, rather than England should forfeit the
glorious prize, to give up• the prospect of exercising impe-
rial power, and abandon the mayoralty of the Pekin Palace
to Captain Osborn, by making him instead of himself im-
mediate agent of the Emperor. It was not very probable
that such a man would be found acting in Asia indepen-
dently of his own Government, but it is as well that Eng-
land should know how thoroughly that Govetnment
approved his scheme. If anybody, blinded by Mr Layard's
serene chatter about Chinese employds, and British irre-
sponsibility for Englishmen in the service of the Govern-
ment of Pekin; and the right of all governments to choose
their own servants, thinks that Mr Lay was simply a pri-
vate adventurer, he had better read this pamphlet. Those
who etudy it will find thnt Mr T.ny pnrAnintOrilY refused to
move one step without the consent of the British Govern-
ment, that Lord Palmerston advised, after hearing
his plans, the issue of the Order in Council
allowing British officers to take service in China,
that Earl Russell upon Mr Bruce's representations
agreed to waive many forms and assume much responsi-
bility rather than delay the despatch of the fleet, that the
British Minister pressed the plan on Prince Kling, and that
finally every word of the astounding arrangement between
Prince Kung and Mr Lay, under which Mr Lay was in-
vested with power to make any agreement which he
thought for the advantage of China, and under which, as ho
says, he, working with but not under the Regent. began to
" organise" a great " service," was submitted to Sir F.
Bruce and approved by him I They will see that the same
Minister actually told the American Envoy that his plan
of action was to "thrust the Chinese on Lay," and leave
him to manage, i, e., govern, them in the interest of
Europe. They will find, moreover, that the scheme
under which Mr Lay was to have been as much mas-
ter of the Chinese—it is his own simile—as a school-
master is of his children, was within a hairsbreadth of
ia g carried out, and would have been car-
ried out but that Sir F. Bruce at the eleventh
hour knocked out the key-stone, as Mr Lay avers from
simple fear of trouble, but as we think from that and a slow
perception that the plan involved turning China into another
India, The Chinese at their wits' end to resist the Tao-
pings, had in 1863 begun to create an Anglo-Chinese force
which, as Mr Lay knew, would release them from all ap-
prehension. He demanded, therefore, that this :orce should
be responsible only to the Emperor, upon whom the Minister
or himself could always act with effect. Sir F. Bruce
agreed, remarking shrewdly that "so long as the local
governors can obtain on their own terms foreign officers
and steamers officered by foreigners, sufficient to repel the
insurgents, it is idle to expect that the Government at Pekin
will undertake the otgnisation of an Imperial force either
on land or on the sea." The Chinese, however, persisted
in placing Major Gordon under the local Foutaie, Sir F
Bruce vacillated and gave way, Nankin was captured,.
and "almost the first words uttered to Mr Lay
at the Foreign Board were these The state
of matters here is such and such. Our policy, we don't
mind telling you, :,is this :—ln the morning we are weak
and yield to all demands, but by the evening we recover
our• strength, and then we ignore everything,' with a sig.
uificant nod•" After a scene reported by Captain Osborn
in a letter of inimitable :picturesqueness, in which the
Chinese Foreign Board constantly repudiated the words
they lead uttered five minutes before, and lied with a pre-
sence of mind wnich Captain Osborn can hardly help ad-
miring, the agreement was only repudiated on the ground
of a change of policy, really because the Mandarins once
more felt themselves strong. Mr Lay made one more de-
spairing effort. With a nobleness only possible to his
class, he offered to give up every word in the agreement
which referred to [himself, to make Captain Osborn all in
all if only the Government would keep faith—but the
Mandarins refused, ,and under a profusion' of assurances
of friondahip ho quitted Pchiu, Niue nays afterwards
he, the man who apart altogether from this
affair had built up the customs revenue of China, was
"curtly dismissed," and the only imperial project framed in
this generation came silently to an end. We cannot blame
Prince Kung. Reading this pamphlet by ;.he light of all
previous despatches, we have no more doubt that Mr Lay
intended to be Mayor of the Palace in China than we
doubt that his motive was to benefit that country and to
aggrandize his own, We question if he would have borne
much control from the Regent himself, any more than from
the provincials whom he so entirely despised. Indeed he
says so himself in almost so many words :—" The Chinese
Government was too rotten a reed to lean upon, and the
foundations of the structure I was endeavouring to build
up had to be artificially created. My position was that of a
foreigner engaged,by the Chinese Government to perform
certain work for them, not under them. I need scarcely
observe in passing that the notion of a gentleman acting
under an Asiatic barbarian is preposterous. I was not a
Chinese official, but a foreign adviser without rank, but
with a high and influential position, because trusted in and
honoured." He is quite right, as every Anglo-Asiatic
knows, but then that is not the attitude a native potentate
once relieved from the fear of destruction can be expected
to tolerate. Mr Lay would of all mankind probably make
the best use of the throne of China, but he can scarcely
expect a Chinese Regent to help to seat him on it. The
instant the consequences of the agreement were per-
ceived it was certain that Prince Kung would evade it,
and we do not know that a European Court would have
been much more straightforward. The real blame, ,es
it seems to us, rests with our own Govern-
must and its agents, who first supported a scheme involv-
ing a frightful addition to our responsibilities without con•
suiting Parliament, then allowed Mr Layard to say that
Britain was not responsible, then fell back from Mr Lay
in the very hour of trial, and finally compelled him to
explain why he bungled the scheme with which they have
all along professed to have nothing to do. Mr Lay offered
them empire, and they smiled, then frowned, and then
required him to explain the catastrophe their own frown had
produced. Three words to Mr Lay, "It won't do," wculd
have stopped the scheme in the beginning, as many to Sir F.
Bruce, " Lay must succeed," would have made it success-
ful; but neither were uttered, the Ministry being willing
to incur the responsibility of increasing her Majesty's
subjects to six hundred' millions, yet reluctant to take the
slightest step towards securing the result they all the while
desire& We have not said anything upon the relations be-
tween Pekin and London, which Mr Lay describes with a
lucidity we cannot think discreet, but we may venture on
one disagreeable prophecy, So puffed up is the Chinese
Government with its victories over the rebels, that early in
1863 we were on the eve of a fourth war with China, the
French Minister having almost declared hostilities, and Sir
F. Bruce "not being able to see" how he could avoid sup-
porting him. The inflation has been increased by Mr Lay's
departure, and unless all our history in Asia is a myth,
within three years our troops will be once more on their
road to Pekin.

The profits on "La Vie de Jesus" in two years
amounted to nearly £lB,OOO.

THE SHEFFIELD INUNDATION.—The directors of
the Sheffield Waterworks Company having in
strutted Messrs. Simpson, Hawkesley, Bateman, Fowler,
and Harrison, engineers, to examine their works, these
gentlemen have embodied the result of their examinations
in an elaborate report. They dissent from the opinion of
Mr Rawlinson and Mr Beardmore as to the causes which
led to the rupture of the embankment. They say there was
no fracture of the pipes, and that the embankment was
composed of materials which would not have slipped if the
base on which it rested had been immovable. They think,
therefore, that " we must look for causes other than sup-
posed impezfactions in the quality of the materials or work-
manship for the failure of the reservoirs They then say
After a full consideration of am collate' al circum-
stances, we are unanimously of opinion that the accident
was occasioned by a landslip, whal occurred in the ground
immediately on the east side of the embankment, and which
extended beneath a portion of its outer slope, involving in
its consequences the min of that portion of the bank, and
producing the catastrophe which followed."

LATE THEATRICAL NEWS.—Mdlle. Beatrice, 'she
talented and pleasing French actress, is engagrA at
the Lyceum for three consecutive years,. Shortly after
Christmas " The Lady of Lyons" will be represented, with
Mdllle. Beatrice as Pauline, and Mr Pechter as Claude
Melnotte. We need hardly say that the scenery, dresses,
and paraphernalia will be produced with the Lessee's usual
Witt/ liberality and good taste.—Era,