The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-16 00:00:00

THE METROPOLITAN AND PROVINCIAD

PRESS.

The Economist considers that a marked change is
passing
over the position of the metropolitan press, and that
it is losing influence, vigour, and circulation. Two Papers,
the Star and the morning Pall Mall Gazette have died,
within the year, and four within the last few years. OnlY
six morning papers are left, two of which, the Advertiser
and the Post, are supported by class connections.
No, European capital has so few daily i 011;-
nals, and their total circulation is probablY
not equal to half that of the Paris or New
York press. There is a lack of energy about the.
Proprietors. Only two journals have anything like a good
foreign staff ; only one seems to have a provincial staff et
any kind; and the telegraph wire is almost unused.
mass of information which a journal like the Hew }Tors
Herald, for example, will pubish any morning—fres'
news from all parts of the world, whole columns of tele-
grams by cable, letters from all the cities of the Union--
seems wonderful to men who study the London news'
papers and note how they are filled. Nothing now is we_
reported in them except Parliamentary proceedinoo!
which are well reported because it is traditional to repory
them well, and members complain, we know not wit°
what justice, that even these grow worse and worse-
Of municipal news there is next to nothing—of countY
news nothing at all unconnected with imperial, polities,
In the whole London Press there is not so
as a letter from Scotland, while Manchester iniaghti be
almost on the verge of civil war without London knowing
that anything had occurred in Manchester. Time Was
when the London papers were the only ones which exer-
cised any political power. Men repeated the Timm
1
their opinion, and to quote the ideas of a provincial
paper seemed an absurdity. Nov it is doubt:
ful whether provincial papers do not .reflect
opinion more accurately than London papers.
The political importance of London itself has de-
clined, and no longer sways the country. Power has
passed to an electorate which does not take its view from
London society, or even from London,—which prefers its
own views, its own politics, and, to a growing ex"
tent, its own men. There is even a dislocation
of ideas between London and the provinces
so great that an article, reflecting very accurately
the ideas of the club world, is criticised in Manchester or
Birmingham because it reflects them, as an expression to
be scrutinised with something of hostility, not accepted as
a guide. At the same time, while their opinions have
thus lost weight, the London journals have lost their
ancient monopoly of news. The telegraph has equalised
the position of almost all localities. Birmingham
knows everything of importance as soon 8.4
Belgravia, and Edinburgh reads the gossip of the lobbies
at the moment when it is being read in London.
Indeed, Birmingham is apt to hear the news first of the
two. There are difficulties, too, in the nature of the trade.
A successful newspaper is extremely profitable, but the
capital required is considerable, and the adventure is one
that can hardly be attempted by an association. Come?:
tition becomes in consequence extremely difficult. 11' e
are inclined to believe that, apart from accident, the fall
of the London Press and the rise of the provincial Press
will continue until we see something like the state of
things in America, where each journal, however good,
finds geographical limits to its circulation, and the
journals of the greatest city have no universal influence
and only a nominal precedence in the newspaper world•
a change which in England will be a very great
one indeed will make provincial opinion the
opinion of the great trading cities—much more Win"
tial than that somewhat over-cautious and feeble, but
acute set of ideas usually described as " London opinion.
There is crudity very often in the opinion of the pro-
vinces, but it is• masculine and broad, which opinion at
present in London certainly is not.

A TALE FROM CHILI.
A horrible story of brigandage reaches us from Chili-
Don Gomez y Lagoberon, a famous bandit captain who,
from his fastnesses in the Sierra Profunda, has long de-
flea the Chilian authorities, was recently pursued, with
the brigands under his command, by a body of troops,
which succeeded in cutting him off from his followers, and
driving him to take refuge in a cavern situated near the
summit of one of the lofty mountains constituting the
above-named range. In this cavern he had con-
cealed a female captive, whose husband he had
robbed and slain, and whom he had for some time
compelled to live with him as his mistress. The soldiers
made several attempts to reach the entrance to this
cavern, to which there was only one means of access—a
mere mountain goat track ; but Lagoberon, a man
gigantic stature and Herulean strength, rolled heavyrocks
down upon them, and succeeded in beating them off, after
several men had been severely injured. The officer in
command, unwilling to sacrifice his troops uselessly, re-
solved to starve the bandit out, and " sate down" before the
place. After two days' blockade, however, the soldiers grew
weary of so tedious snd humiliating an expedient, so they
improvised an escalade of the robber-chieftian's strong-
hold, and succeeded in capturing him. To their horror,
they found that Lagoberon had cut off one of his unfortu-
nate companion's breasts, and eaten it. The poor woman
was discovered in a dying state, having sustained a
fearful loss of blood ; and she expired shortly after
her rescue from the clutches of her barbarous
paramour. The butcher was conveyed to Talea
where he •was promptly tried and condemned to
death by the garotte. In South America, execution
I follows sentence with startling rapidity ; and Gomez was
straightway conducted to the scaffold, guarded by a strong
escort of mounted gendarmes. While the executioner
was engaged in adjusting his toilette de mort, the convict
drew a whistle from his pocket, and blew a whistle from
his pocket, and blew it sharply ; whereupon about sixty
of his men, who had introduced themselves amongst the
crowd surrounding the scaffold, rushed upon the gendarmes,
and massacred them ere they could offer any resistance.
They freed Lagoberon, and completed their enterprise
in a manner not devoid of a certain ghastly humour, by
garotting the executioner ; after which they escaped,
almost unscathed, to the mountains. There they
are probably still at liberty, practising their pro-
fession to the terror of the whole country round. It
should be observed that to facilitate their flight they
" annexed" the horses of the fallen gendarmes ;
and that a good many of them seized women from
the throng gathered upon the place of execution, car-
rying them away, flung across their saddle-bows-
The social condition of Chili as revealed by this narrative
is one of almost hopeless degradation, only to be equalled
by that of Mexico, Greece, and certain districts of Central
Africa, where murder, lust, and rapine are the rules of
life. Civilisation penetrates but slowly into these savage
countries, of whose existence we are scarcely ever re-
minded save by some appalling and revolting incident,
like the Marathon massacre, or the cannibalism of Don
Gomez y Lagoberon.—Daily Telegraph.

The Broad Arrow believes it is quite true that Sir
William Mansfield has been offered the command in Ire-
land, but it is not so certain that he has accepted it.
The National Rifle Association are busy preparing
for the annual camp-out at Wimbledon. The camp will
be ready to receive occupants on the Bth of July, and
the shooting will commence on the 11th of that month.

HYDROPHOBIA.—A writer in the Leipsic Journal
gives the following as a cure for hydrophobia :—" Take
immediately, warm vinegar, wash the wound clean
therewith, and then dry it ; afterwards pour upon the
sore a few drops of muriatic acid, because mineral acids
destroy the poison of the saliva, and the evil effects of the
latter is neutralised."

The appointment of Prince Dittrichstein-Mensdorfr
(not Dietrichstein-Mensdorff as given by Reuter's tele-
grams) in the room of Lieutenant Field-Marshal Baron
Koller, as Governor of Bohemia, is hardly likely to give
satisfaction in that country, or to. foster a better under-
standing between Vienna and Prague. Prince Dittriell-
stein-Mensdorff has the reputation of being a strong Con-
servative, and thoroughly German in his views.—Pall
Mall Gazette.

LAD vEh TISEMENT. J—Avoid Medicines—they always aggravate
chronic complaints; but Du Barry's delicious health-restoring
Revalenta Arabica Food, which yields three times the nourish
mentof the best meat, saves 50 times its cost in other remedies,
and invariably restores perfect digestion, strong nerves, sound
lungs, healthy liver, pure blood, refreshing sleep, functional re
gularity, and energy to the most disordered or enfeebled. We ex-
tract a few out of the 68,000 cures;—"The Pope's health restored
by Du Barry's Food. Cure No. 68,413. "Rome, July 21, 1866.
—The health of the. Holy Father is excellent, especially since,
abandoning all other remedies, he has confined himself entirely
to Du Barry's Revalenta, Arabica Food, of which he consumes
a plateful at every meal. It has produced a surprisingly bene-
ficial effect on his health, and his Holiness cannot praise eilis excel-
lent food too highly. —From the "Gazette du Midi," July 25. Cure
No. 58,216, of the Marchioness de Brehan, of seven years' liver
complaint, wasting away, debility, nervousness, with a nervous
palpitation all over, bad digestion, constant sleeplessness, 00d
the most intolerable nervous agitation.." Cure No. 1,771; Lori:
Stuart de Decies, Lord-Lieutenant of Waterford, of many years
dyspepsia. No 49,832: " Fifty years' indescribable agory • from
dyspepsia, nervousness, asthma, cough, constipation, flatulency
spasms, sickness, and vomiting.—Maria Jolly." Cure No;
46,270: Mr. James Roberts, of Frimley, Surrey, of 30 years,
diseased lungs, spitting of blood, liver derangement, and
partial deafness. Important Caution.- -Beware of the many
unsavoury and more than sloppy imitations to which, without
authority, Baron Liebig's name is most audaciously attached.

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all Grocers and Chemists.