The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-26 00:00:00

THE QUARTERLIES.

The North British presents a bill of fare of very tempt-
ing variety. Its space is largely devoted to questions of
the day ; but it avoids the sterile track of politics, and is
not without interesting research in the more recondite
walks of literature. " The Royal Engineers " is a short
paper giving a full account of the system of training and
discipline adopted in preparing for a commission in the
non-purchase corps. There can be no doubt that if the
officers of other branches of the service were required to
undergo such an ordeal, the British army, in respect of
officering, would be the most formidable in the world.
The candidate for admission to the Engineers or Artillery
corps is required to pass a preliminary examination of
considerable severity. Then he spends two years and a
half in training at Woolwich Academy. The course at
this establishment terminates by another examination, at
which thirty or forty compete, out of whom some half-a-
dozen only are selected for the Royal Engineers, the rest
being drafted into the Royal Artillery. The six successful
aspirants are next received into the Royal Engineer esta-
blishment at Chatham, where they expend two years in
the most searching training—surveying, fortress and
bridge building, sapping and mining, &c., besides all the
ordinary duties of a soldier. Even these four years and a
half of discipline do not finish the preliminary course of
training, for the young officer is now generally drafted
into one of the forty companies which are stationed sepa-
rately in different parts of the British Isles. His actual
duties on service are the most arduous which fall to the
lot of the soldier. He reconnoitres the enemy's position
exposed to the fire of riflemen, plans batteries and
trenches, and leads the assault upon a beleaguered for-
tress. The blowing open of the Cashmere gate at Delhi
may be cited as a specimen of the Engineer's duty. And
yet it will scarcely be believed that this corps is con-
sidered the least " honourable" in the service, and the
Engineer officer is not allowed to aspire to the command
of the army, or even of brigade. Lord Napier of
Magdala led the Abyssinian expedition because he was
chosen by the Indian Government. The system is mon-
strous. A very different subject follows this useful
exposé. " Turguenief s Novels" is an excellent article on
one of the most occult of topics—Russian fiction. The
Russians believe in fact, and ignore fiction as a rule ; or,
at least, they confine it to their diplomacy. But they
have one novelist worthy of being accounted amongst the
greatest. His name is Turguenief. As the reviewer re-
marks, Turguenief's writings have gained a wide celebrity
in France and Germany, but they are little known in
England, and I can safely recommend this entertaining
analysis to all who find pleasure in an excursion in the
less cultivated fields of literature. Turguenief's style,
judging from these extracts, approaches nearest to the
English school. It is furthest removed from the French
style; and there is too much incident for the Germans. The
translations of Turguenief published in this country are
very unsatisfactory. The reviewer translates him well ;
why not undertake a whole work, or the series ? " Revo-
lutions in the Queen's English" is an able review of the
chief alterations which the English language has under-
gone during the three great periods of change—the reigns
of Elizabeth, Anne, and Victoria—for, oddly enough, the
reigns of the three British queens were the turning points
in the history of the English tongue. This, too, is a very
able paper, and is, I am glad to see, to be followed by a
a sequel. There is, of course, an article on Dean Milman,
and another on " The Increase of Lunacy," the writer
accepting the increase as a serious fact ; whilst the
Saturday Review, on the other hand, argues that it is more
apparent than real. " Going back," says the writer in
the North British, "to 1849, at the beginning of that year
we find 14,560 patients in the asylums of England and
Wales, and 33,213 at the beginning of 1868, being an in-
crease of about 19,000 in nineteen years, with nothing to
indicate that there may not be a like increase in the nine-
teen to follow." But, in the first place, the population
has increased ; and, more than this, the insane, especially
paupers, are far better taken care of than formerly, so
that many lunatics who were formerly at large, and never
included in the estimates, now swell the number which
seems to rise at so rapid a rate. The same thing has been
noted in France. There an immediate apparent increase
of lunacy followed the passing of a law for the better
treatment of lunatics ; but the proportion has not risen
since. This explanation seems on the whole satisfactory.
The Hudson's Bay Company is very severely handled in
the next paper ; in fact, though the writer's enthusiasm
for the Great North British Empire idea is palpable, he is
successful enough in demolishing the position of the com-
pany. That a territory of such immense extent should be
kept as a hunting ground for a company of merchants on
the authority of a charter which was never confirmed by
Act of Parliament, is simply discreditable. I must pass
over the remaining three topics of this fine number, though
each of them is good enough to deserve notice. " What is
Man's Chief End ?" is the only philosophical paper in the
number ; it is devoted to an examination of Mr. Arnold's
theory of culture. Then comes a full and very opportune
article on " Public Works in India ;" and a paper on " The
Reconstruction of Germany " brings up the rear.

At the Norfolk Assizes, on Thursday, the grand
jury returned a true bill against 'William Sheward, who is
charged on his own confession with the wilful murder of
his wife at Norwich in 1851. It is understood that the
trial will take place on Monday next.

At a meeting of the Cheshire Chamber of Agricul-
ture on Wednesday it was decided that the Government should
be asked to appoint a special tribunal for settling claims for
exemption from the cattle plague rate. Great dissatisfac-
tion was expressed by the chamber regarding the way in
which the local authorities have discharged the duties as-
signed to them.
On Tuesday, April 6th, Mr. It. N. Fowler intends
to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether Mr. Lowe,
as reported in the Times and other newspapers, said that at
guard mounting in the Castle-yard, Dublin, on St. Patrick's
Day, the populace " indulged in revelry of a dangerous form,
and afterwards expressed their hatred of England by groan-
ing and hissing the National Anthem in the presence of the
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland."
The London correspondent of the Manchester
Guardian attributes Sir Robert Peel's absence from the
division on the Irish Church to political disappointment.
" It is said that he was not only disappointed at not having
been offered a seat in Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet, but much
offended at the Premier's apologising for his omission on the
ground that his younger brother, Mr. Arthur Peel, had been
given a subordinate Fost in the Administration."
A distressing accident occurred on Wednesday at an
old building which was in the course of being pulled
down in connection with the reconstruction of Boar-lane,
Leeds. A division wall in the back portion of the premises
fell unexpectedly, and buried in the ruins two men
named Atkinson and Vickerman. The latter had purchased
the wood work, and at the time of the accident he was
watching Atkinson's progress in the demolition of a
doorway in the wall. Both the men were speedily
rescued by the rest of the workmen, some of whom had
a narrow escape as the wall fell. Atkinson was compa-
ratively little worse, but Vickerman had evidently been
killed on the spot.

Mr. Goschen's bill to Amend the Metropolitan
Poor Act of 1867 has been published. It gives the Poor-law
Board discretionary power to dissolve asylum and
school districts and unions, and to adjust the parts of
any divided parish in such manner as shall seem to
them to be most expedient. They may also rescind the
provisions in the local act which relate to the assessing
and collecting of the poor rate. It enacts that where a
dispensary is provided the Guardians shall provide'a place
for the attendance of the sick poor and the medical officer.
If the Guardians refuse to provide a dispensary, the
parish shall have no claim on the common fund for me-
dicines or medical officers.

The present year completes the quarter of a cen-
tury during which the Earl of Zetland has held the office of
Grand Master of the Freemasons of England, And his lord-
ship having intimated his intention to retire from the office
at the close of the year the Freemasons are gettfng up a tes-
timonial to him which promises to reach the sum of
£5,000. His lordship lately declared that he would not
apply the testimonial to any personal object or to
any of the existing masonic charities, and it now appears
that it is his intention to invest the money in the names of
trustees, and devote the interest to the relief of distinguished
brethren who may become distressed, and their widows or
other relations depending upon them. The fund is to be
called the Zetland Fund, and the disposal of it is to rest with
the Earl of Zetland for his life and after him with the Grand
Master for the time.

BLACKBURN ELECTIOR.--Mr. Morley has issued
an address as candidate with Mr. Potter for the represen-
tation of Blackburn. lie says the issue is no longer that
which excited violent dissension last autumn, as the Irish
Church question must be looked upon as practically settled,
and there are many signs that the party most strenuously
opposed to the change of the Episcopal Church in Ireland
into a free Episcopal Church now perceives that this mea-
sure, formerly regarded by them with deep distrust, will
bring no ill to Protestantism, while it will assuredly do a
something to remove that discontent in Ireland which has
long been a source of weakness and danger to the empire.
The question for decision in the present election is whether
the borough will send two members to be lost in hopeless
minorities following Mr. Disraeli, who are led by him into
shallow compromises inefficacious for practical good, or to
support a strong and resolute Government in lightening
and readjusting imperial and local taxes, in giving the
country large and beneficent measures of education, and
in favour of the Ballot, which we need now to protect the
many against the few, and which we may by-and-by need
to proteet the few against the many.

-- • -
THE ,DISTRIBUTION OF THE QUEEN'S
CHARITIES.

The Queen's Charities, usually given on MaundaY
Thursday, were distributed at the Chapel Royal,
Whitehall, on Thursday morning. The Bishop of Oxford,
her Majesty's Lord High Almoner, officiated, and wag
assisted by the Rev. Dr. R. W. Jelf, the contribu-
tions being made to fifty aged men and fifty aged
women, the number of each sex corresponding with
the age of the Queen. A procession was formed in
the Almonry Office, in Whitehall, consisting of the
Yeomen of the Guards, the Secretary and Yeomen of
the Almonry accompanied by six children, two from
each of the National Schools in the parishes of St.
Margaret and St. John, Westminster, and St. Mary'
le-Strand, who had been selected for participation in
this privilege in consequence of their good conduct, and
moved from the Almonry to the Chapel Royal, where they
were met by the Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Jelf, and a body of
the parochial clergy. On arriving at the altar steps, the
alms were deposited in front of the royal closet, and a
special service.for the occasion was read by the Rev. J.
Vivian, D.D. A distribution of red and white purses took
place. Each red purse contained the usual gold sovereign
and a further sum of one pound and ten shillings, as 3
commutation in lieu of provisions formerly issued from
the Lord Steward's department of the Queen's household.
Each white purse contained the Maundy coins, consisting
of 4d., 3d., 2d., and pence in silver, amounting to E.%
The gentlemen of the Chapel Royal, of Westminster
Abbey, and of St. Paul's Cathedral assisted in the
ceremony, which was witnessed by a large number of
persons.