The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-02 00:00:00

AUSTRIAN DIFFICULTIES.

The war of races in the reformed Austrian
monarchy still rages. Forty members of the Vienna
Parliament have resigned their seats. They are
Poles, Istrians, Slovenes, and Bukovinians. They
retire, they say, because they are convinced that the
Government under present conditions will never
satisfy the just demands of their nationalities, which
demand are that the same concessions granted to the

Hungarians should be granted also to them. They
remained in the Chamber so long as they
imagined there was any hope of what they term
justice. Now that there is none, they withdraw.
This decisive step has of course created much excite-
ment. It is similar to the case of all the Irish
members withdrawing from the English House of
Commons on the ground that justice to Ireland
would never be realised.

THE TRAMWAYS BILL.
HOUSE OF COMMONS, THURSDAY.
The Special Committee on the Tramways Bill met
again to-day. Mr. Shaw Lefevre in the chair.
Mr. BRETT, Town Clerk of Salfoid, referring to the
proceedings of the previous day, wished to bring before
the committee a modification in the suggestion made
on behalf of the city of Manchester. He did not
think it would be well that the bill should
he worked on the hard and fast line prinpciple with regard
to traffic. He thought that the Board of Trade should
be vested with power to regulate the traffic in such a
manner as circumstances may render desirable. There
was at present carried through Salford an extensive coal
traffic, which was a great impediment to other business,
and was in some respects a great nuisance. He
thought that a good deal of this nuisance might.
lie remedied to some extent by a quick tramway convey-
ance. With this exception, Salford agreed with all that.
had been said the day before on behalf of Manchester.
Mr. Brett handed in an amendment to clause 24, which he
thought would meet the objection.
Mr. Clarke, on the part of the Corporations of Glasgow,
Edinburgh, and Dundee, pointed out that some specW
clauses should be provided to meet the peculiar legal
phraseology in use in Scotland, and that in several other
respects the bill should be very materially altered to make
it suitable to Scotland.
Several other witnesses were called as to the operation
of the Act in Scotland, after which the court adjourned.

THE PRISON AND
_PRISON MINISTERS'

ACT.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, THUBSDAT.
The Select Committee of the House of Commons sat
to-day on these acts, Mr. Maguire presiding.
Mr. White, formerly Roman Catholic minister attend-
ing the female prisoners of the Westminster House of
Correction, was recalled to reply to a question omitted by
the shorthand writer on the previous examination. Mr.
White said it would require as much attendance for 320
Roman Catholic prisoners as for 500 Protestant prisoners,
owing to the difference in the ministrations. It would
require the whole time of one Roman Catholic minister to
properly attend to the Roman Catholic prisoners in the
Westminster House of Correction.
Captain O'Brien, one of the visiting justices of West-
minster House of Correction, was examined by Sir John
Pakington. Witness stated that the reason of the exclu-
sion of the Roman Catholic prisoners from the laundry (a
coveted employment) was in consequence of the
report of the matron that the work was interrupted by
their being taken away for their religious duties. On the
remonstrance of Mr. White in July last, that rule was
relaxed in favour of the Roman Catholic prisoners. As
to the effect of the religious instruction in prison, it was
impossible for any one to say ; but his impression was
that it had not a lasting efect for good. He had
been chairman of the Visiting Justices since 1866, but
though they met for business once a week, and
his opinion was in favour of payment to
Roman Catholic ministers in prisons, is reason
for his not raising such a question was that it
would necessarily lead to differences of opinion, some
times of a disagreeable nature. The question of giving
salary to Roman Cotholic priests had not come before
the Court of Quarter Sersions since he became chairman
of the visiting justices. Had no information as to
whether there were prisoners in Westminster House
of Correction other than members of the Church
of England and the Roman Catholic Church.
Mr. O'Reilly : You know that some of the Roman
Catholic prisoners have been more than once in the prison,
and that when they knew beer was given to those in the
laundry who declared themselves Protestants, was it
likely to have a proselytising effect ?—Witness : I don't
think proselytising enters into the question.—Mri
O'Reilly ; I know that it will not affect their belief, han•
it is likely to affect their declaration on entering prison?
After some evidence of minor importance the committo
adjourned.

THE NON-UNIONISTS IN YORKSHIRE.—The four non-
Unionists charged at Leeds Assizes with shooting at a
Unionist collier at Manor Colliery, near Sheffield, have
been acquitted. It seemed there had been a general en-
counter, and the defendants maintained that they acted
in self defence.
FEVER D ENS. —Mr. Bates, the owner of a house in
Charlotte-street, Portland-place, has been summoned at
Marlborough-street for having his house in a state in-
jurious to health. He had been directed by the authori-
ties to do certain things, but he had done nothing but open
the drains. There had been fever in the house, and there
would in the opinion of the medical men probably be more.
An order was made for the immediate completion of the
work, the defendant paying costs.
A CHURCHYARD SQUABBLE.—A somewhat exciting
incident has occurred at the Southern Necropolis of Glas-
gow. A lair-holder, rendered suspicious by recent
disclosures in a case now pending in the Sheriff's
Court against the proprietor of the cemetery
resolved to open the grave where the body 01
his child had been interred, in order to satisfy himself
that all was right. It ended in the police being called in
to prevent a breach of the peace, and ultimately a watch
was set on the partially-ol)ened grave until a warrant was
obtained from the sheriff to enable the father to open it.
CAUTION TO STREET BLACKGUARDS. —A shoeblack
named Drewry has been charged at Hull with assaulting
a blind man in the street without provocation. The com-
plainant said that the prisoner struck him a violent blow
on the lower part of the body, causing him for a time consi-
derable pain. He had had no altercation or quarrel with him.
Lieutenant-Colonel Pease said that he witnessed the
assault upon the complainant, which was entirely unpro-
voked, and a more disgusting attack he never saw before.
He gave the prisoner into custody. The magistrate sen-
tenced the prisoner to two calendar months' imprisonment,
saying that he would put a stop to such brutal ruffianism
in the streets.
SERVICES OF T UPIDIT 17.—U ur stupidity, in short,
preserves a convenient twilight ; it hangs like a fog over
contending armies, which enables the rival command
to shift their positions, and gradually to occupy importantt
posts without giving the alarm. Before we are aware
that any change has been made we have undergone a conf-
plete revolution, and wonder, when we look back, like a
man who has been walking in a mist and has described a
complete circle under the impression that he was follow-
ing a straight line. But this service, great as it is, is only
only one of those which we owe to stupidity. It is gene-
rally said,. and with a certain degree of truth, that
men are in great proportion as they are in advance
of their age, and catch distinct glimpses of the
goal to which things are tending. But it is also to be
observed that fools are frequently in advance of their age,
and that the fools often make the best reformers of the
two. Great thinkers have for the most part the weakness
that they can see two sides of a question ; they see that a
change will lead to certain blessings ; but they cannot
overlook the evils with which those blessings will be
inevitably accompanied. Now a good thick-headed, one
idea'd fool is on such occasions of inestimable value. We
are accustomed to boast that as a nation we don't know
when we are beaten ; taken literally that amounts like
many other national self-glorifications to boasting of
stupidity, and, if the facts be true, it is a very legitimate
boast. The Duke of Wellington, who is supposed to
have profited by this quality, is in some respects an ex-
cellent example of the principle. He was not precisely
stupid, but no man, who can fairly be called great, ever
had a narrower escape from stupidity. With certain
great talents, he had one characteristic peculiarity of fools
—that of being provided with a pair of natural blinkers,
which compelled him to see only that which was straight
before him. and to take the narrowest possible view of
his task. The stupidest of men could hardly have been
more blind to the real nature of the vast revolution in
regard to which he played so conspicuous a part.—B•ont
•;.• The Uses of Foals," in the Cornhill Magazine for April.
STORM IN THE FAST.—The Levant Herald
of March 23rd, states that the equinoctial gales have set
in with a severity unequalled by any weather during the
past winter. Since the evening of Monday the 21st, i hur-
thexoternedpeoattsfafrromantdhowßidlaeckinSteuaasthezeedetitota.t tTheh.gorm e
ricaue of wind and sleet bad raged over the capital, and
£ hs
ea 1 3d
had been lost near the mouth of the Bosphorus, and other
casualties were feared. Telegraphic coraumnicatica with
_eme and Wet was lila' interrupted, --""*.' •