The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-25 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY 25, 1864.

The Suppression and Extinction of Fires,

A meeting of the members of the Inventors' In..
stitute was held on Thursday evening at 9, Con-
duit-street--Mr. Ashton in the chair.

Mr. KING, C.E., read a paper on the means and
appliances adopted for the suppression and extinc-

tion of fires, with a review of the steam fire•engines
at present in use. Mr. King, after referring to the
causes of fire, said buildings could not be made en-
tirely fire-proof, but they could be constructed with
a view of rendering them impervious to fire, so as
to resist and not assist fire. Many plans had been
proposed for increasing the extinguishing power of
water, but the result had been so small as to be
wholly unworthy of consideration, and all such
schemes were practically useless. Phillips's Fire
Annihilator was useful in contending with the ear-

liest stages of fires ; beyond that, when tried, it had
been found practically to fail. Having detailed the
improvements which had been made in fire-engines,
he contended that Hodges' fire observatory, con-
structed by himself, had been proved to be very
useful in deciding the exact neighbourhood of fires,
and so enabling Mr. Hodges' Brigade to arrive first
at the scene of the disaster. The advantage of the
high-pressure system of water in the pipes was ob-
vious, but to enable it to be universally adopted in
London the whole water system would require to be
re-modelled. In extinguishing fires the steam fire-
engines must hold a foremost place, not only in
consequence of the development of power, bat on
the ground of economy. He then treated the rise
and progress of steam fire-engines, giving some in-
teresting details as to the construction of steam
fire-engines at present in use. With reference to
the late trial of steam fire-engines at the Crystal
Palace, he observed that the programme for the
trial was all that the most scrupulous could desire,
had it been carried out. The committee did not
comply with the terms on which they asked the
exhibitors to work the engines, causing a very large
amount of confusion and dissatisfaction, and render-
ing the award of little or no importance as a test of
intrinsic value; Several of the committee showed
a marked partiality for certain descriptions of en-
gines, and owing to the want of unanimity among
the members the result of the trial was unfortunately
of little comparative value, He concluded by ex-
pressing a hope that in future volunteer fire brigades
would receive more encouragement.
A discussion ensued, in the course of which Mr.
Frederick Hodges observed that everything ought
to be done to increase the pressure of water. In
the day it should be laid on at about 60, and at
night at 80 degrees.
Mr. HANKEY, said a town like London
should not depend upon private fire brigades. He
Should hail with great satisfaction the time when
the legislature, public, private, and volunteer enter-
prise went hand in hand in establishing an effective
fire brigade.
Mr. BADDELEY, C.E., thought it very desirable
that information should be obtained as to the causes
of fires, a number of which were put down to un-
known causes.
After some further discussion the proceedings
terminated with a vote of thanks to Mr. King for
his paper.

TRAIN SIGNALLING.

There is nothingin which the telegraph has rendered more
service to railways than in what has been technically called
"Train Signalling," Its value for this purpose was pointed
out two-and-twenty years ago, in a very explicit manner,
by the original patentee, Mr. Wm. Fothergile Cooke, in a
pamphlet of 39 pages, illustrated by four plates. The pur-
port of this pamphlet may be gathered from the title :7

" Telegraphic Railways ; or, the single way recommended,
by safety, economy, and efficiency, under the safeguard and
control of the Electric Telegraph: with particular reference I
to railway communication with Scotland, and to Irish
Railways." Many of the fundamental rules for protecting
trains in motion may be found in this pamphlet.
The railway system has in these latter days so expanded
itself—trains have so multiplied in number, that it is im-
perative on nsanrgers to have recourse to the telegraph for
regulating their movements; business cannot otherwise be
conducted in safety. The old forms of instrument were not
equal to the duties required on thoso lines where the traffic
was so heavy—trains following trains in such quick suc-
cession, that speaking instruments of a new character were
imperatively demanded. Little is required to be expressed
in this service; but that little must be in language
not only unmistakeable but of extreme brevity.
There is no time for speeches, none for sentences, sot even
for spelling. The well-worked railway is cut up into shorter
and shorter sections, and the distance between signal sta-
tions is constantly made less and less. As the duty of the
telegraph is to protect the line, length by length, consecu-
tive trains are no longer separated each from the other by
an interval of time, but by an interval of space. The inter-
val of time may be long or short ; it may be measured by
hours or by minutes ; the safety is the same. A second train

is not allowed to enter upon any length of railway, be it
long or be it short, until the train preceding has left that
length. When these lengths are—as they are in some cases
of metropolitan lines--redueed to very small fractions of a
mile, and trains follow each other--as they de on high days
and holidays—as fast as they can be loaded, it is obvious

that the telegraphic language must be brief and expressive.
A few seconds is all the time at command. No portion of

this can be spared for calling attention ; the signal and its
reply must be instant on the heels each of the other. The
organs open to the language of the telegraph are the eye
and the ear, What human eye, even were it relieved from
its other responsible duties, is equal to the amount of fixed
watchfulness implied by such duties as we have described ?
The ear, happily, is always open; and no action is required
on the part of him to whose ear language is addressed.
Then the ear is not fatigued with listening, as the eye is
with gazing. Hence it has become the practice to address
the ear under these pressing circumstances. The few
things to be said—and they are very few; the fewer the
better—are accordingly expressed by sounds, differing in
quantity and quality. Sometimes the memory is assisted
by a visual signal, permanent for the time being, and altered
in character, when the condition it indicates is itself changed.
This either accompanies or follows the audible signal. The
memory is more fully assistsd, and a system of checking and
permament record is added, by booking the signals, as they
follow on in rapid succession. Not only is the fact—be it
what it may—put on record, but the interval that has passed
since the fact occurred ; since, for example, a coming
train arrived, or a parting train left, may be seen, if
required, at a glance. Ruled books are provided, where
every possible word is printed ; and little save the name of
each train and the time-figures, requires entering. This
saving of unnecessary labour is very essential ; for in
times of great pressure it requires lissom fingers to enter
up legions of train signals—of ins and outs, of comings and
goings.—Railway News.

REFORM IN THE RUSSIAN ARMY,

The Ryalide Russe Publishes the subjoined infor

mation :--

The Minister of War is occupied at this moment in exe-
cuting two important refcrms :-Ist, the new organisation
of the army ; and 2d, the sew system of military adminis-
tration. The first relates to the formation of active corps
from the reserve, and to the formation of regiments and
battalions for the defence of tho fortresses, &e., also to tho
training of recruits for the active corps by means of special
detachments. We have, as every one knows, besides the
guards, the grenadiers, and the army of the Caucasus, only
72 regiments of active infantry forming six infantry corps.
France possesses at this tine 106 regiments of infantry, with-
counting the guard ; Austria 91 and Prussia 71; and more-
over the regiments of the guard and the landwehr. How -
ever, this organisation of our army was sufficient; for in
time of war we were able to form for each active regiment
a reserve regiment, and also two battalions in depot. In
reckoning the regiment at three battalions of 1,000 men,
our active force in infantry was 226,000 men, and a reserve
of 350 battalions, or about 350,000 men, :The fortresses,
even in time of peace, cannot be without sufficient garri-
sons, furnished up to the present time by troop that might
bo more usefully employed on the field of battle—these gar-
risons have, therefore, weakened our active force—besides
it was necessary to keep for those troops everything that
composes the train of hal t tlions of an army in activity.
In future the garrisons will be formed of men less capable
of field service, and whom it will not be necessary to fur-
nish with the train of equipage belonging to active
battalions, which arrangements will effect a con•
siderable economy. As the troops in garrison are
not subject to perpetual marching, they will have
plenty of time to be trailed to the use of cannon. rney will
consequently furnish a good number of artillerymen in re-
e,erve, and reinforcements for the active army, at the same
time that they fulfil all the conditions of efficient defence of
the places confided to them. Up to this time, the care of
training recruits belonged to the divisions, and this incon-
venience existed, that for one regiment ten recruits had to
be trained ; for another, a hundred ; for a third, a thousand,
and there were not always sufficient expert drillmasters.
Now, this case is entrusted only to a certoin number of
battalions, distributed in the fortresses, in the Government
towns, and in some district towns, Experience proves that
100 drillmasters are sufficient to prepare in a short time
1,000 recruits, consequently we must have a reserve body
of 10,000 or 12,000 good masters, in order to drill in the
course or a year, not only the double, but in case of need the
triple of our contingent for the year, viz., 375,000 men.
This system is already in the course of execution, and the
reserve divisions of the first five corps of infantry are
already changed into active troops."

ART 'WATCH CASES.—" In Benson's great case are seine
fine specimens of engraved watch cases, designed by the
pupils of the Schools of Design. They are, perhaps, on the
whole, the best specimens of engraved watch cases in the
Exhibition."—Clerkenwell News, October 27, 11 02. Chrono-
meter, duplex, :ever, horizontal, repeaters, centre seconds,
keyless, split seconds, and every description of watch adapted
to all climates. Beason's illustrated pamphlet on watches,
free by post for two stamps, contains a short history of
watchmaking, with prices, from 3 to 200 guineas each. It
acts as a guide in the purchase of a watch, and enables th3se
who live in any part of the world to select a watch, and have
it sent free and safe by post. Prize medal and honourable
mention, classes 33 and 15. J. W. Benson, 33 and 31, Lud-
gate-hill, London. Established 1740. Watch 'end clock
maker, by speial warrant of appointment, to ILIZ.II. the
Prince of Wales.

The Tribunal of Correctional Police on Friday
heard a complaint of assault and false imprison-
ment made by an agent d'affaires, named Letailleur, against
a Mme. Dhubert, a woman 72 years of age, and very in-
firm. A man named Chenneviere and wife were also
charged as accomplices. The complainant who demanded
10,000 fr, damages, deposed as follows :—" Some time since
I summoned Mme. Dhubert before the juge de pais for a
debt of 424 fr. I was aware that the amount exceeded the
jurisdiction of that magistrate. I thought, however, we
might perhaps come to an amicable arrangement; but the
person who attended for Mine. Dhubert protested against
my demand as extravagant. I according determined to see
Mine. Dhubert herself, and having ascertained from the
concierge that she was at home, and willing to receive me,
I went up to her apartment. I had no sooner •entered,
however, than she locked the door, and commenced an as-
sault on my person. She struck me three times on the breast
and pulled my beard, at the same time calling me a thief,
an assassin, and accused me of having been the cause
of her losing a suit which I had managed for her. At last
I got out of the room, and was assailed on the landing by
Chenneviere and his wife, the former of whom struck me
repeatedly, bat the latter only abused me with her tongue."
The complainant called several witnesses, but their evidence
did not support his statement. M. Lachaud, for the de-
fence, stated that the juge de pair had reduced the
complainant's claim of 424 f. to 30f., and was proceeding to
speak of the assault when the president of the Tribunal
said that he had beard enough, dismissed the charge against
all three defendants, and condemned the plaintiff to pay all
expenses.
The Tribunal of Correctional Police on Friday also
tried a woman named Vasse, who had occasionally
assamed the titles of Baroness or Countess de St. Marie, on
numerous charges of obtaining goods and money under false
pretences. A furniture dealer deposed that the prisoner
entered his shop and bought a pair of ctuved oak stools,
which she ordered to be sent to Mine. Ste: Maria, wife of the
Governor of Algeria, Rue Garanciere. As, while barjaieing
for the stools, the prisoner remarked that she had seen a
pair exactly like them in the apartment of M. Chaix d'Est-
Ange, he supposed her to be a friend of that gentleman,
who was a customer of his, and therefore sent the goods
without hesitation, but had never been able to get his.
money. Other tradesmen deposed that the prisoner had
obtained goods of them in a similar manner, and had even
borrowed money of them under the pretext that she had
accidentally left her purse at home. The prisoner, in her
defence, declared that she had never had any fraudulent
intention, and that most of the complainants had since
been paid. She added that her husband held a situation
under Government in Algeria, and that she had a right to
use the titles she had assumed. With respect to M.
Chaix d'Est-Ange, she admitted that she was not an
acquaintance of his, but that her daughter was his house-
keeper. The Tribunal, considering that the prisoner had
obtained credit by false representations of her position, de-
clared the charges proved, ancl sentenced her to three
months' imprisonment.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

SATURDAY RETTEW.—A general impression pre-
vails, which may or may not be corroborated by
facts, that the Ministry is weaker than it was, that
it can less afford to stand an attack, end that the
Conservative leaders, although notoriously un-
willing to force on an issue, may be driven
by their supporters to try their strength.
The Conservatives have increased their forces
since the last election, and it is indisputable
that their forces are very:strong. We have now had
two sessions barren of interest and excitement, and
of which nothing better can be said than that, if
nothing was done in them, nothing was promised
to he done. The nation, not having any domestic
grievance of a salient kind to grumble over, and
occupied with the observation of foreign affeire,"has
been satisfied with the long period of inaction, and
has taken pleasure in finding an opportunity of pay-
ing Lord Palmerston the handsome compliment of
letting him preside in undisturbed ease over this
epoch of repose. But, in the nature of things, a
quiet and easy-going time—a time when people are
satisfied with themselves, and delight in keeping
up the military strength of the country without
any wish to make any demonstration or use of it
—must tend to throw power sooner or later into
the hands of the Conservative party. Nor is
it at all desirable that accidental causes should
long debar a party from the experience
and consistency it derives from holding office, when
the general sentiment of the nation runs in that
groove to which the party professes to adhere. The
Conservatives may be said in a general way to de-
serve their turn of power, and it would be a misfor-
tune if those who are likely to lead them hereafter
should not have their fair share of official training
before they are too old to learn. Hitherto, the Con-
servatives have been kept back by several causes of
considerable importance. They do not carry with
them the general body of educated Englishmen. In
the Houses of Parliament there are young men of
promise on their side, because family connexions
have made the profession or adoption of the Conser-
vatiee programme a condition and a means of their
securing their seats. But outside Parliament edu-
cated opinion is not on the side of the Conservatives.
There is no literature conceived in a spirit favourable
to their pretensions; they have no powerful organs in
the press; and the defensive, and therefore some-
what carping and narrow, position which they are
obliged to occupy alienates those who look on poli-
tics from what they conceive to be a broader point
of view. But in other respects the Conservatives
have made a real advance. For they have got rid of
some of their other shortcomings. They have, more
especially, attained a position of Parliamentary
strength which enables them to be compared no;
very unfavourably with their opponents. They
could show a Ministerial front in the House of
Commons which would be by no means despicable.
Lord Malmesbury will, we presume, be got out of
the way ; and be might relieve his party at once of
the embarrassment of his presence, and of the re-
proach of not being able to find a Paris Ambassador
of their choosing, if he replaced Lord Cowley at.
Paris. Even Lord Malmesbury might shine at
Paris, for Lord Cowley nas worked hard to make
any successor welcome. With Mr. Disraeli as
Foreign Secretary, with Sir Stafford Northcote
as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Hugh Cairns
end 11r. Seymour Fitzgerald and Lord Robert Cecil
to act as ready end powerful supporters in debate,
and with Lord Stanley to add the influence of his
name and his ponderous respectability, the Con-
servatives might fill with some credit the benches
now adorned by Sir George Grey and Sir Charles
Wood. If Lard Palmerston, once out of office, were
to find himself too old to care much more for party
struggles, there would remain on the Liberal side
in the House of Commons only Mr. Gladstone to
represent the order of statesmen which towers above
the level of the Conservative leaders. Events also
have taken a turn which gives the Cmservative3 a
much better chance than they have had for some
years. The old party cries are nearly worn out,
and the old watch words of the Liberals
have become empty sounds. Reform aed the Ballot
and Church-rate Abolition are gone to the Silences,
at least for the present. New questions have
come up which theraten more and more to engross
the minds of Englishmen. There is the question of
the relation of England to foreign nations; and
there is the question of the practicability or neces-
sity of changes in the construction of the Este-
blished,Church. In the discussion of both questions
the Conservatives may not unfitly sit on the official
side of the House. So long as the success of the
Italian movement could he supposed to depend on
the action of English parties, the gulf of opinion
and sentiment that lay between the mass of the
governing classes and the Conservative leaderi,
made their firm tenure of cffice almost impossib,e.
But now that Italy has got as good a chance of suc-
cess as she is likely to have, and that we cannot and
will not do more for her—as we have no power to
get the French out of Rome, and have no intention
of fighting Austria for the recovery of Venetia—
there is not much ground for supposing that the
bitterest Conservative could do Italy any great
harm. No injury to Italy on which a Conservative
Government could venture is likely to equal in im-
portance the blow struck by Lord Russell in remov-
ing Sir James Hudson. And, if we put Italy aside,
and look at our foreign policy as a whole, it seems
now to consist in little more than doing very little,
and writing a great many despatches. Why shoeeld
the Conservatives be supposed incapable of doing
very little and of writing any number of
despatches ? They might, too, make their
despatches civil and conciliatoiy, and although
this would be a great change, it might not be a bad
one. On some points also, their preposessions, so
far as any Ministry dares to have or avow prepos-
sessions in these days, might tend to redress the
balance of English influence a little, and to make
us fairer in some of our political dealings. No
Ministry could well leave Turkey to be the prey of
France and Russia, but a new Ministry might re-
gard the struggles and hopes of the dependen-
cies of Constantinople without that jealousy and ,
that belief in the sacred right of Turkey to
govern which the memory of old diplomatic
contests has imprinted on the mind of Lord Palmer-
ston. So, too, no Ministry would dare to depart
from the policy of neutrality which we have laid
down for ourselves with regard to the American
Civil War. We are not going to help either side.
But the Federals have attained an influence with
the present Ministry which might be balanced ad-
vantageously by the sympathy which prevails in
the Conservative ranks for the cause of the South.
If it is fair that a Cabinet Minister should do as
Mr. Gibson has done, and jean() a partisan manifesto
in favour of the North, it would not be unfair that
another Cabinet Minister should do what many Con-
servatives would be very glad to do, and explain
why the simple issue of ale verysor no slavery does
not seem to them the true one. That the religious
question will also assume importance before long is
as certain as a generation which has seen the interest
in reform fade away can feel that anything is
certain in English politics. A move will be made
to do away with some of the tests by which the
English clergy are bound, and to abolish or greatly
alter the Establishment in Ireland. Whatever may
be the value of the arguments by which the attack
in either case is supported, it appears to us to be
clearly the part of the Conservatives to make the de-
fence. They have a distinct intelligible line on each
question—a line consistent with their traditions and
.with the whole feelings of their party. It is a line
in which a large portion of English opinion will
support them, and by adhering to which they can
make a long, a creditable, and possibly a successful
fight. They will have much to say which their
opponents will have to own is worth consider-
ing; and if they are defeated, they can scarcely
fail to be defeated only gradually and by a little
and to secure a handsome and respectable com-
promise, The Irish Church, for example, when
regarded in the gloss, and from the outside,
seems to have rather a questionable case ; but
when it is looked at in connection with English
history, with the conduct of public affairs in Ire-
land, with the ecclesiastical institutions of England,
and with the interests of powerful individuals, it
assumes a different shape, and it does not seem to be
quite so easy to touch it. The Conservative may
find much to urge in its favour, nor will it do them
any harm that the course thus forced on them will
probably tend to separate them from those strange
Ultramontane allies whom a dread of Lord Palmer-
ston's views about the Temporal Power has lately
arrayed on their side. m
The time, therefore, sees
to be near at hand when the Conservatives will, for
the first time for nearly twenty years, have an op-
portunity of holding office on something like satis-
factory terms, unless some unexpected crisis occurs
It is true that the prospect of a Conservative Go•
vernmen t excites no enthusiasm, for the defensive and
critical attitude of the Conservatives denies them
popularity, and the supremacy of Mr. Disraeli
woold be a national event not exactly calculated to
make people enthusiastic. But a change of ministry
a
would be taken calmly, and, if regretted on account
of the personal eminence of Lord Palmersten, Lord
Russell, and Mr. aladstene, would yet commend
itself as giving a fair 'urn to a powerful party, and
as being in substantial =respondence with a great
portion of English opinion.
EX.AMINER.—Greece and England are, we are sorry
to say, arrayed in hostile position, Instead of shak-
ing hands, they have come to spar, and although no
blows have been struck, they have assumed an atti-
tude of combative mistrust one to the other. Eng-
land has declared that she must and will blow up
the forts in the island of Corfu. Greece says, We
cannot prevent your blowing up the fortifications,
for which the lonians paid at iteaet a part, but we
cannot be a consenting party. We cannot disgrace

ourselves and depopularise King Georg...,
ing parties to an arrangement that gives us
island disarmed and mortified. The Greeks allege
that they elected their monarch on the understand-
ing that the lonian Islands were to be ceded to them.
They could not foresee this cession accompanied by
humiliating circumstances. They say they have
been so far tricked, and they must take care to right
themselves. They will sign no treaty by which the
destruction of their forts and the neutralisation of
the Islands are insisted on as conditions. In that
case, quoth England, I must keep the islands. That
will only make your breach of promise more fla-
grant, saith the Greek. Since you won't have the
islands by the only way in which we can part with
them, we are determined to keep them, quoth Eng-
land, and keeping them we shall preserve the forti-
fications intact. The work of destruction has, there-
fore, not been proceeded with, and Great Britain is
still saddled with the maintenance and government
of a very recalcitrant and oddly placed set of sub-
jects. In the midst of this, a very ably drawn up
act of accusation against England, for its malversa-
tion and mismanagement in the lonian Islands, has
been made by a French gentleman named Le Nor-
mant, and printed iu the .Revue des Deux Mondes.
In this the English are accused not merely of Ellis•
rule and of abuses in their political administration,
but even in their fiscal and economical manage-
ment of the islands it is affirmed that they have
committed worse blunders in the lonian Islands
than the most retrograde Government in Europe.
Our boasted improvements are declared to be mere
deceptions; our roads scarcely get half a mile out of
the great town before they are lost in the open
country. Our export duties were as high and as
barbarous as those of Greece itself, or of Turkey,
and our system of taxation ground the poor and
exempted the rich. We do not credit the truth or
justice of this virulent French impeachment. But
some one competent to do so ought really to take
the trouble to expose the fallacies and refute the
errors of skis calumnious accusation. In the Revue
des Deux Moncit'.! it is addressed to the tribunal of
Europe. There should be some one who would take
the trouble to reply.
LONDON REVIEW.—The last hope of preserving
peace seems to have vanished. The Austr':,'ln and
Prussian troops are already on their march to
occupy Slesvig, and on the frontier of that duchy it
is well understood they will meet the only reception
which it is possible for Denmark to give them, with-
out placing her independence at the feet of the
German Powers. All that remains doub'ful is the

by becom-
+he

extent of the conflict and the issues which it may
involve. Defeated in the Federal Diet on their
proposition to occupy Slesvig as a means of com-
pelling the Danes to withdraw the Constitution of
November, Austria and Prussia have taken the
settlement of the pending dispute into their own
hrnds. In their view, the step they are adopting
is a pacific one ; but although it is possibly as little
as they could do, in the present temper of the Ger-
man people, it obviously constitutes a direct act of
war, and threatens us with all the consequences
which, in the present state of Europe, such an act
may involve. There is no doubt, however, that the
policy and the avowed aim of these two States
are completely at variance with the claims which
their own subjects and their Confederates in the
Band desire to urge. The popular demand in Ger-
many—the demand of the secondary States who
have so lately been the object of the suspicious at-
, rentions of the Emperor of France—is, that the
Treaty of London should be at once set aside, that
the Diet should declare the rule of the Danish kings
in Schleswig and Holstein at an end, and that the
whole power of the Teutonic race should be em-
ployed in erecting these Duchies into a State under
Prince Frederic of Augustenburg. The conduct of
Austria and Prussia is based upon an altogether
different principle. As signitaries of the treaty of
1852, they are not prepared to violate its stipula-
tions ; es great European Powers, they are sensible
of the danger of embarking on a war Jur the aggran-
disement of Germany. They, therefore, acknow-
ledge that the treaty in question confers upon
Christian IX. the succession to the Duchies ; but
they allege that a certain contemporary understand-
ing has en violated by the Constitution already
referred to, and they are preparing to enter Schles-
wig,not with a view of separating it from Denmark,
but as a mode of extorting the repeal of this ob•
noxious constitution. It would not be difficult to
prove that the negotiations of 1851-2 furnish no
ground for these complaints, white they are still
further from lending any justification to so violent
a method of enforcing them. Had Austria and
Prussia been as much in the right as we think them
in the wrong, the mode in which they pressed their
demands on Denmark—their peremptory summons
to that Power to surrender at twenty-four hours'
notice—is hardly consistent with a sincere desire
for the peaceful settlement of points which diplo-
macy may possibly have left; open. We cannot now
stay to consider the real bearing of the negotiations
of ten years ago. The discussion of historical
details would lead us far from our present object,
which is to show the radical discrepancy that
exists between the wishes of the Germans and the
course of Austria and Prussia. Indeed, the latter
are not now acting as German but as European
Powers. In that capacity they have overruled the
Diet ; and if they are successful, they will have
demonstrated once more the utterly feeble and useless
character of the organisation which assumes to re-
present the nationality of the Teutonic race. It re-
mains, however, to be seen whether they will be
auccessfal. Their course is beset with difficulty and
danger, In the first place, the Governments both
of Austria and Prussia will be driven to violate the
Constitution of their respective countries ; for the
Prussian Parliament has refused, and the Austrian
Reichsrath seem on the point of refusing, the sup-
plies necessary to carry out a policy which falls far
short of the national wishes. But, in addition to
this, they will be placed in a position of antagonism
towards the other German States. We should not
be disposed to estimate very highly the difficulties
likely to arise from either these causes could we con-
fine our view to the Fatherland. But, as we pointed
out last week, there is reason to fear the appearance
of another, and a more energetic actor, upon the
scene. The recent note which the French Emperor
has addressed to the secondary Powers can have no
other object than to incite them to throw off the
leadership, or rather the dictatorship, of Francis
Joseph and William I. There is no knowing to
what extent the small kings and princes may go
under the encouragement of such powerful patron-
age. It is at least premature to talk of a civil ss or
in Germany ; but thoughtful politicians do not con-
ceal their apprehensions of a possible tendency to-
wards a new Confederation of the Rhine. If the
resistance of Denmark—assisted, as we trust she
will be, by Sweden and other powers—be suffi-
ciently protracted, the division which exists in
Germany must be embittered, with every month
of struggle. We do not pretend to forecast the
policy of Louis Napoleon, but it is certain that he
will not lose the opportunity of extending his in-
fluence, and profiting by the quarrels of his neigh-
bours. Ignorant as we are of his precise intentions,
it is utterly impossible even to guess at the probable
course of events, after a cannon has once been fired
in hostility on the banks of the Eider. We have,
indeed, the disagreeable conviction that his Majesty
does not really desire peace, because, had he done so,
he could easily havo procured it by frankly co-ope-
rating with England tuY the protection of Denmark.
Unfortunately, if he deems it his interest to prolong
a European war or to foment European confusion,
the means are not likely to be wanting. The prospect
before us is of the most threatening character. Nor
can we look with satisfaction upon anything which
has recently transpired, except it be the manly and
high-spirited address in which the Danish Rigsrad
has just pledged itself to maintain at any sacrifice
the integrity of the kingdom.
SPECTATOR.—The Maori war has given rise to a
scheme magnificent in conception, and which if exe-
cuted may be entitled also to be called beneficent.
The leading men of New Zealand propose to stud
the North Island with villages of military settlers,
so distributed upon great lines of communication that
they will constitute a complete and well-knit sys-
tem of defence, segregate the natives, and cover the
country with cultivation. To accomplish this they
will require 20,000 men and a loan of two millions
and a half. The figures are large, but the project
looks feasible; and if it be carried out, few greater
works will have been done, with premeditation, this
century. By some such process alone can the Maori
race be saved from extermination. What the colonists
des is iisthththeecseassvaatgiztriiihoetsoonnlythoef
fwr
ianrg,
ebsuot
ft e fear of
far
tried the laassez a//er method, they have tried
weh
mh
posire
spreading but desolate lands they dwell. They have
ical
plans of conciliation and nursing ; both have failed.
Neither non-intervention nor the bribes of Sir G.
Grey have sufficed to
tr.aise the Maories to that state
which we call civilisation, and which would render
tnleietiolanntdhahtabititiasble. Mtoaosreitesuphaav;liamerbiikbeindga.
king-
dom, self governed ancindependent ; and for this
they are fighting.practicable
right to act on what
that a Maori kingdom
couldsubsist
the b y side.
Maori
have,haery please;
British fcourse,
colony
cannot
imaginable
growth of but it is plain
British
ki kingdom
Persist-
ence
a colony.
the Maori idea means perpetual war, raid
perpetual war means extermination, sooner or later,
etheeionuAeltaroyr,i
theraceßut if, by a skilful occupation of
othfMaori can be made to feel at once
weakness and the benefits which flow from thriving
settlements, then his idea may be extinguished; he
too may settle down into the peaceful cultivator, and
be saved. Otherwise , appears to us, not.
For in a series of wars he must lose, and finally pass
away and be seen no more. Wherefore it is not loss
for the benefit of the Maories than for the benefit
of the colonists that no pains should be spared to