The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-18 00:00:00

MEDICAL ADVICE.

LA'MERT, Registered L.S.A., Honorary
Member of the London Hospital Medical Society, M.D.
of the University of Erlangen, &c., may be CONSULTED
on all cases of Debility, Nervousness, and the Secret In-
firmities of Youth and Maturity, from Eleven till Two, and
trona Six till Eight, at his residence,

37, BEDFORD-SQUARE, LONDON
Dr. Lailkiert has just published, price Sixpence, with nu-
merous Engravings and Cases, a New Edition of his Work,
entitled
SELF-PRESERVATION,
which will be sent tree, in a sealed envelope. by Mann, 39
Coruhill, London, or by the Author, to any address, for
Eight stamps.

CONTENTS.
SECTION I.—The Physiology of the Generative Organs.
SECTION IL—Puberty • Manhood -The Morale of Genera-
lye Physiology—True and False Morality.
SECTION lll.—Marriage in its Moral, Social, and Physical
Relations—lts Expectancies and Disappointments—Advan-
tages of Physie,al Contrasts in securing Healthy Offspring.
SECTION IV.—Sperinatorrhcca and Impotence—The causes
of Sterility in both Sexes—Self-inflicted Miseries.
SECTION V. -The Vices of Schools—Effects of certain per-
nicious habits on the mental and general faculties-- Import-
um of Moral Discipline
SECTION Vl.—Treatment of Nervous and Generative De-
bility—lmpotence and Sterility—Dangerous Results of
various Hazardous Specifics—The Author's Principles of
Treatment ; Medical. Dietetic, and General, derived from
Twenty Tears' successful practice

The annual soiree of the Pontefract Mechanics'
Institution was held on Monday night in the Town
Hall, when Mr. R. M. Milnes, M.P. for the bo-
rough, addressed the large audience. The hon.
gentleman said he desired to express the pleasure
which it afforded him to witness the increasing in-
terest manifested in these institutions. It was
natural that this should be the case. The farmer
when he put his seed into the ground expected to
reap the fruit ; and those connected with these
institutions naturally expected that year after year
would produce an increased interest in their wel-
fare, and that the young, growing up in life, would
remember that they had derived advantages from
them, and would induce others of the same age also
to take advantage of them. (Hear, hear.) He did
not know whether it was by accident or not, but it
seemed to be the fact, that these meetings were
held at the end of the old year or the beginning of
the new, and he thought it was well that it was so,
for there was no time in which thoughtful men
could better meet together to take stock of the past
and hope for the future. In truth, education, such
as institutions of this kind. professed to give, was
really nothing more than year after year teaching
them by the dictates of experience, showing them
that however much they might advance in years
they might not always advance in wisdom ; and at
the same time showing them that they really had
as much to learn as the youngest child amongst
them. (Applause.) The mayor and the vicar had
alluded to the advantages of these institutions to
all classes and he might add that amongst the
studies which were laid open to the members of
them there was hardly one which did not receive
some illustration from passing events. (Hear, hear.)
It was important, no doubt, to study history, and,
above all things, valuable to study and understand
the history of their own country, and especially
the history of what was going on in their own day
—of the events in which they themselves took
part. (Hear, hear.) Somebody had said that if
every man wrote a diary—no matter how unimpor-
tant his sphere of duty and insignificant his acts, yet
there would be a great interest at the end of the year
in what he had recorded. How much greater, then,
must be the importance and value of the events of
the stirring times in which they lived. (Hear,
hear.) He did not know that he could do better
that evening than direct their attention to the
events which had occurred during the last 12
months of their existence. (Hear.) Perhaps the
most eventful point of the year, constituting as it
were the turning point of the time, was the history
of the rise and progress of the military and warlike
spirit in Europe. They would remember that
in the year when they visited the Great Exhibition
of the Industry of All Nations, many of them in-
dulged in the belief that wars between civilised na-
tions were almost, if not altogether, at an end, and
that they were to meet in a common jubilee of in-
dustry and amusement, but the dream had been dis-
pelled, and events had occurred which showed not
only that their ambitions were the same, but that
the difficulties and confusions of mankind were the
same ; which showed also that in these times brute
force could, not be said to be more extinct than it
was 100, they might even say than it was 1,000
years ago. The great event of the year had been
the incursion in Italy by the French army, and the
political consequences which had resulted from it.
He was not going into disputed politics, but it
would be remembered that when he spoke ou
this subject at the last election he found a gene-
ral accordance with his own views, namely, that
while England hag a right to remain entirely apart
from that contest, the sympathies of the country
were on the side of the liberty and independence of
the Italian people. (Applause.) And it was in-
teresting to see that how, without spending ls. or
risking a single drop of blood, the moral action of
the English people, and their desire and hope had,
whilst apparently doing nothing, maintained the
power of this country abroad; and the belief of
the Italian people was that England was the
best friend they had in the world. (Hear, hear.)
He was one of the few persons who considered the
peace of Villafranca much more for Europe and for
Italy than was supposed. In the first place, he
saw that the enormous bloodshed which had been
going on was stayed,and next that the large district of
Lombardy was taken away from a foreign nation
and restored to a free and national government.
These were great advantages, and he did not join
in the outcry against the peace because everything
was not gained that was hoped for and expected.
That was the language he held in the House of
Commons, and the events which had occurred had
strengthened his conviction that he was right.
Every month, every week, almost every day, deve-
loped and extended the prospects of Italian liberty
and independence, and within the last few weeks
there was every reason to believe that all that was
attempted by that expedition was being realised
without further bloodshed, and without further re-
course to arms. (Applause.) On the other side of
the water, in the United States, there had also been
a political difficulty, with respect to which he was
happy to say the American Government had acted
with great prudence, great good sense, and great
confidence in the good intentions of England.
(Hear, hear.) He was always glad when he could
speak well of what he could not help calling his
fellow-countrymen on the other side of the Atlantic.
He might say, however, that in the progress of that
great country it is more and more painful, though
useful, to see how that unsocial and unchristian in-
stitution of slavery carried with it inevitable evils,
confusion, and complication (hear, hear) —and
however great the progress of that nation in other
matters, yet the recurrence of such events as the
outbreak at Harper's Ferry, against which there
was no security, was a solemn warning to all man-
kind, that however great the progress of the
nation, without social liberty, the permanent pros-
perity of a people could not be secured. (Ap-
plause.) Another subject of study demanding
their attention was that of geography, which had
been rendered necessary by the varied news from
all parts of the globe, with which their newspapers
now abounded. (Hear, hear.) In connection with,
this subject, he alluded to the important dis-
coveries of Livingstone and Burton, in open-
ing out a portion of Africa which had hitherto
been supposed to be an uninhabited desert, and to
the expedition of Captain M‘Clintock in search of
Sir John Franklin, which had resulted in the
er sub-
ject of the fate of that gallant explorer, and of
the brave men who accompanied him. Another
thato of
f study b
ograp biography y incidentallya frocrdoninnegc te
them a
dwith
itd history
id
wasa
review of the lives of the great men whose career
had closed on earth, but whose example was still
before them. The extent to which biographies
were read showed how anxious they were to know
the circumstances under which others had lived.
Englishmen were especially interested in the lives
of those who had risen in life and who had been
born in the lower classes of society. He remem-
bered once being in the society of a nobleman who
who had risen to the highest judicial rank entirely
by his own exertions, aid who said, " I can con-
ceive nothing happier than the life of a man who
was born in the lowest condition of society compa-
tible with good education, and who through life
has gradually risen to the highest position." Such
a man was George Stephenson, whose life every
one ought to read. From that life they would see
the advantage of a strong will acting in combina-
tion with good moral intentions and a high order
of intellect. He admitted that such a high order
of intellect could not be the gift of many, but there
were many who had the same power of self-con-
trol, of resisting temptation, and of fixing their
minds upon one subject, and if those powers were

applied, though they might not produce such splen-
did results, they would issue in great and consi-
derable advantage to themselves and to society.
(Hear, hear, and applause.) Whilst on this sub-
ject he alluded to the death of Robert Stephenson
and of Brunel; of Hallam and Macaulay; of Pres-
cott and -Washington Irving; and lastly to the
death of Dr. Erskine, late dean of Ripon, who had
done so much to promote the education of the
people in mechanics' institutes. (Applause.) He
urged the necessity of studying political economy,
in order to become aware of the action of social
laws on society, and said that if the laws which
governed the relations of capital and labour, as
inevitably as those which governed the physical
world, had been as generally diffused and attended
to, they would never have heard of the building strike
with all its attendant miseries and heartburnings.
A leader of that strike had said that if political
economy was against them so much the worse for
political economy. He might as well have said, on
going into a district infected with fever, that if the
fever seized him so much the worse for the fever.
Political economy did not profess to discover any-
thing, but certainly to point out the laws which
governed capital and labour—the relation between
the employer and the employed. The better, there-
fore, they understood political economy, the better
it would be for the country. Arising out of this
subject were all those philanthropic questions for
ameliorating the condition of the people, and
amongst these he might mention the reformatory
system as one in which he was more particularly
interested. That system had originated in the con-
viction that it was wrong to treat the offences of a
child in the same manner as those of an adult, and
the consequent adoption of a mode of dealing with
such offenders more in accordance wilh justice and
sound political economy. The reiult;he believed,
would be to strike at the root of a great portion of
crime, and he hoped that these children, instead of
passing from one offence to another until they
reached the gallows, would be restored to society,
and all the evils and cost of their crime avoided.
(Applause.) He congratulated them on the general
diminution of crime in the country, and on the
national prosperity and the well-being of all
classes, and continued by alluding to the mili-
tary spirit which had developed itself during
the past year. Though that spirit had only been
manifested during the last few months, it had long
been preparing. In his opinion the English
people had long watched the course of events on
the Continent, and become satisfied that with the
invention of steam they were not so secure as for-
merly in their little island home. At the same
time the military spirit of the Continent always made
it possible for sonic mad enterprise to be undertaken
whenever England was thought to be insecure and
undefended. Let it, however, be once understood
all over Europe that the military spirit of England
was not extinct, that their youth were being trained
to the use of arms, that they would submit to no
foreign interference, but would defend their shores
to the utmost, and they would hear little of threats
of foreign invasion. (Hear, hear.) It was a truly
pacific policy, for whilst valuable as a means of de-
fence, it could not be used for purposes of aggres-
sion. (Hear, bear.) He was glad to see this apart
from any notion of invasion, because the idea of
two civilised nations coming into collision with each
other was so horrible that he hardly could contem-
plate it for a moment. (Hear, hear.) He concluded
with a prayer that Providence would long forbid
such a calamity. (Applause.)

AIR. CONING/1,4H ANI) HIS

CONSTITUENTS.

(From the _Brighton Examiner.)
The large upper room at the Town-hall was
densely crowded on Monday evening to hear an
address from our respected and Liberal member,
Mr. Coningham, previously to the reassembling of
Parliament for the ensuing session, in accordance
with his promise to do so at the end of each session.
The chair was occupied by Mr. M. Ricardo.

Mr. CONINGIIAMWaS loudly cheered on rising,
and after thanking the meeting for accepting his
invitation in such force, said the last time he had
the pleasure of addressing them was on the occa-
sion of the elections. The Tory party deemed it
necessary to make an appeal to the country against
a verdict of the House of Commons, and Brighton,
amongst a majority of the constituencies of this great
kingdom, ratified that verdict. (Cheers.) The ques-
tion upon which that party were defeated was
ostensibly a 'domestic one—the question of the
Reform Bill, but a greater and a still more impor-
tant one lay behind it—it was the question of the
foreign policy of the country. (Hear, hear.) The
policy of the Derby Government was essentially an
Austrian one, not a Liberal one ; but one opposed
to the opinions of the population of this mighty
empire ; and if the people—he used the ward in
its broad sense—had not come forward, and de-
cided in the emphatic manner they did to put
a check upon the game which the Tories were
playing, England would have been within six
months engaged in a war with France, a war
which would have been fraught with dis-
astrous consequences to the whole civilised
world. (Applause.) He had on many occasions
most strongly expressed his conviction—and he
repeated it—that the true peace policy is to keep in
close alliance with that great nation, whose true
interests were identified with our own. (Hear,
hear, and cheers.) It was, then, upon this question
of foreign policy that the vote of "no confidence"
was given in the House of Commons. Before the
division took place a meeting was called by the
Whig party ; it was of the utmost importance that
the whole of the Liberal party should be united on
the vote about to be given, for a dozen votes would
have turned the scale ; and, therefore, it was most
important that all should be consulted. The prin-
cipal movers were Lord Palmerston and Lord John
Russell, who entered into a full explanation of this
foreign and domestic policy, and they pledged
themselves, moreover, that the claims of the three
parties into which the Liberals were divided should
be represented in the Government which should be
formed ; the Peolites and Radicals, or the more ad-
vanced portion of the Liberal party—and the
Whigs were to be considered, and have their claims
recognised in the formation, or rather, re-construo-
tion of the Administration ; and how that promise
was fulfilled every one present was well acquainted
with. The Whigs, who seemed to think that place
was their birthright, took the lion's share ; the
Peelites, who, as a wag described them, were al-
ways putting themselves up to auction and buying
themselves in—(laughter)—were also fully recog-
nised; but when the Radical or more Liberal
party were to be considered—though they num-
bered four times as many as the others—Mr. Gib-
son was offered a place which was accepted, and
Mr. Cobden was offered one; but, as was antici-
pated, it was refused. (Hear.) Therefore, in the
construction of the Government, differing but a
very little from the old coalition one, justice was
not done to the Liberal party. (Hear.) But it was
not " place" which was wanted; the possession of
" place" was the possession of " power," and to this
the Liberal party laid considerable claims ' • and
when vacancies took place, they should be filled
from the Liberal party, and not be mere ministerial
seats for family benefit. (Cheers.) S 3 much for
the" party" question. The elections were a great
triumph for the popular party of the country, in
spite of the influence of the Tories, the Court, and
the Coburgs ; and the Liberals gained the day, and
obtained a majority on their side of the House of
Commons. The most important questions were then
at stake ; the movements of the French Emperor
were assuming a very formidable appearance ; the
expectations of the Italians had been aroused and
excited ; he had been looked upon as the emanci-
pator of Italy ; and by a kind of electric influence,
the whole of the Liberal party in Italy and Hun-
gary were aroused from their long slumber into
action, and although the campaign was prematurely
ended, there was sufficient feeling in the Hun-
garian nation and Scandinavian troops of Aus-
tria to show that the Austrian empire was very
seriously compromised. It was unnecessary to
recount the history of the campaigns which took
place in the Peninsula, and he passed on to the
more imp ortant auestion of the peace of Villa-
franca. It was true Napoleon appeared to give
way to the Austrian, but it was clear that he
had formed a resolution not to coerce the States
of the Italian Peninsula, where the people had
most unmistakeably declared themselves in favour
of Piedmont, and for the formation of the northern
States of Italy into a united kingdom ; and though
it was impossible then to accede to that request,
ultimately their wishes must be fulfilled. (Ap-
plause.) It was impossible for the Pope and the
Kaiser to coerce those States. A struggle was
likely to be made by the Papal Government to still
maintain its temporal power, hat the existence of
it was incompatible with the peace of Europe ; and
he looked foTWard to no distant time to see the
complete emancipation of the whole Italian Penin-
sula. (Applause.) Turning from our foreign policy
to our domestic policy, Mr, Coninghani said it ap-
peared to 11411 that we were approaching a session
which was likely to be fraught with most impor-
tant results to the community. Though no agna-

tion had taken place in behalf of reform, still he
believed there was a widespread feelng throughout
the country that a revision in the representation.of
the people was indispensable. (Hear, hear.) At
present the, aristocratic element predominated, and
the popular voice could not command that weight
it ought to do ; but it was not merely by an ex-
tension of the franchise that Reform could bring
about those changes essential to the welfare
of the country ; it was by a redistribution
of members in proportion to wealth, so as not to
allow small pocket boroughs—which were nothing
more than rotten boroughs—to have the effect of I
neutralising large ones like Manchester. The disclo-
sures which had recently taken place in the investi-
gations at Gloucester an d Wakefield were an index of
the state of those constituencies, the disclosures sur-
prisieg even those who were familiarly acquainted
with electoral tactics ; and when a House of Commons
was returned like that, it was not surprising that
charges should be made against it, more especially
upon looking at the large subsidies given to secure
a majority upon a critical division. (Hear.) There
were other questions to be brought before the house
deserving of attentive consideration, and among
them was the Chinese war. That war had bean
terminated, and a treaty entered into between the
Chinese authorities and Lord Elgin, which was
deemed satisfactory ; but in attempting to compel
tne signing of it a fresh outbreak took place. Mr.
Bruce assumed that he was called upon to exercise
force instead of awaiting fresh orders from home ;
and instead of going with a single vessel, when if
refused he might have retired from the mouth of
the Pei-ho with dignity, he went with a fleet with
which it was impossible to retreat, and a landing
was attempted which proved seriously disastrous.
Considerable naval and military forces were being
sent out, and it was to be hoped that the war would
be terminated as speedily as possible ; but our
diplomatists should now be instructed not to stand
upon mere littoral arrangements, but look more to
substantial advantages to be obtained by the open-
ing of the Yang -tse•kiang, and the obtaining pos-
session of the Grand Canal, by which the revenues
of the country would be at our disposal. Turning
to our Indian possessions, we may view them with
satisfaction—the mutiny had been successfully
terminated by Lord Clyde's active exertions, by
which large forces would be at our disposol for hos-
tilities in China. Reverting to our domestic policy,
the hon. member proceeded to say there was one
question closely connected with representation, and
that was the system of taxation. He confessed he
had perused with great interest the scheme of Mr.
Bright—(hear, hear)—but he did not agree in all
the points ; still he thought the outcry male against
that gentleman most unwarrantable. (Cheers.)
He believed Mr. Bright had given expression in
many of his speeches to sentiments held by a very
considerable portion of the population ; but with
his financial scheme he (Mr. Coningham) was
in doubt, for lie did not think a tax upon fixed
capital would be beneficial. (Hear, hear.) The
duty on tea, coffee, sugar, &c., could only be re-
duced by retrenchment, and he hoped to see that;
and also hoped to see that Mr. Gladstone would be
able to bring forward a measure to abolish a most
obnoxious tax—the paper duty. (Cheers.) It had
been designated, and truly so, "a tax upon know-
ledge," and he believed that half the misery in the
world was occasioned by ignorance—(hear, hear)—
therefore every means to dispel that ignorance
should be used, and a repeal of the paper duties
would bring a newspaper to every man's door.
(Hear, hear.) There was one more point in the
catalogue of Liberal policy to which he should re-
fer—that was the ballot. The history of that quee-
tion was a very strange one. Sometimes the ques-
tion appeared to be gaining ground, then it receded,
then it recovered its position, and again died away
as if there was a want of sincerity in the demand
for it. He was not aware that Government were
prepared to take action upon it, and he thought it
must remain an open question, for even the Liberal
party themselves were divided in opinion respecting
it. He had ever beer a strongadvocate for the French
alliance, but that opinion was not shared by many
people of this country ; many distrusted, and not
without considerable grounds, the friendship of the
Emperor of the French ; but this final step which
he had taken was calculated to promote good feel-
ing between the two countries. (Cheers.) If free
trade be opened. between Franco and England they
will take our raw material in exchange for their
manufactured article; and that would conduce
greatly to that wise policy of peace which he hoped
would prove successful. And as the Emperor had
shown himself thus far sincere in his desire to re-
concile the interests of the two nations, England
was bound to make use of her powerful influence is
behalf of those depressed countries now struggling
for liberty. (Hee:, hear.) Mr. Coningham next
dwelt upon the blow which Louis Napoleon had
dealt the Pope, one which he trusted the Papacy
would never recover, because a Government which

a
possessed
curses uponuehathe
baneful
people u
udr it. (
influencee and exercisedpplaus
was it
e
.)
He was makins no appeal to religious fanaticism,
but what he said was the conviction of his mind ;
and he was convinced that the Papal Government
and the principles it embodied were incompatible
with liberty, and Europe would have to choose be-
tween Liberty and Papacy, for if the Pope and the
Kaiser were successful they would bind the hands
and the souls of men in a darkness which would
diffuse itself throughout the whole of Europe ;
and he could not believe that was the destiliy
of those mighty nations. (Applause,' The
honourable member proceeded to atoW why
France and England could not quarrel ; and after
urging upon the constituencies of England to call
for a real reform bill and not take a sham one, he
concluded with a few observations upon America,
remarking that no nation which encouraged slavery
ig
could do well.
lhnut
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right
gt that at
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John Brown, but they could not prevent the result
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honest
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on the European continent, and even on the other
side of the Atlantio. Mr. Coningham again thanked
the meeting for their attendance and attention, and
resumed his seat amidst loud cheers.
Lieut.-Colonel FAWCETT, after some observations,
moved the following resolution :—" That this meet-
ing returns its thanks to Mr. W. Coningham, our
excellent representative, for the bold exposition of
his political views ; and also expresses its cordial
approbation of the general course of conduct pur-
sued by him in Parliament."
Mr. Alderman Minnows seconded the motion.
Mr. HomEwooD, a railway operative, said be
was rather disappointed that Mr. Coningham did
not touch upon the question of taxation, and would
like to hear his opinion thereon ; and also upon
church rates. Mr. Coningham had said that it did
not appear that the people in this country wished
for the ballot, because they made no demonstration
for it; but he (Mr. Homewood) thought the people
wanted it the more for that, because they were too
intelligent to rabble and mob for that which they
believed to be just and belonged to them. (Cheers.)
Mr. CONINGIIAM rose to give a few words of ex-
planation to the observations of Mr. Homewood ;
and said, upon the question of the income tax, and
its unfair pressure upon certain classses of the com-
munity, he for ono was as strongly oppcsed to it as
any one could be, if the credit of the country could
be maintained consistently without it. He believed
that an income tax was less injurious than a direct
tax upon capital. With regard to the question of
retrenchment, he was not acquainted with any mem-
ber of the house who had expressed himself more
strongly upon the question than he had ; and he was
free to 'say that the boundless prodigality of the
House of Commons it was impossible to conceive
until one had sat in it for some time. (Hear.)
Millions were voted away as though they were so
many pence. The reason for this prodigality had
been clearly pointed out by Mr. Bright on various
occasions. The words which he (Mr. Coningham)
had inscribed upon his banner were " Reform, Re-
trenchment, and Peace." With regard to the ques•
tion of church rates he need only refer to the part
he took with respect to the resistance of the rates
in Brighton. As to the ballot, he had always voted
for it, and he had also subscribed to the Ballot
Society—(cheers)—and on every occasion, when he
had had the opportunity, he had always expressed
a most decided opinion in its favour. (Cheers.)
The resolution was then put and carried unani-
mously, amid loud and reiterated cheers.
The meeting then separated.

FATAL GUN ACCIDENT.—A distressing accident
occurred on Monday at Treborough, near Dunster, Somer-
set. Mr. Henry Paul, wino and spirit merchant, of Clifton,
who had been on a visit to his brother-in-law, Mr. Fuidge,
of Troborough, went out shooting, and in the course of the
day, having discharged one of the barrels of his gun, pro-
ceeded to roload it, unmindful that the other barrel was
charged and the trigger at half-cock. The accident, which
has frequently before occurred, happened in this instance.
On the insertion of the ramrod the loaded barrel exploded,
and its contents, entering the eye of the unfortunate gentle-
man, completely blew off the upper
,Etrt of the head, and
death was of course instantaneous. Ir. Paul, who held a
high position among the trading community of Bristol, and
was universally respected, has left a widow and a large
family to deplore his untimely death.

(From the Times.)
On every side we find proofs that the reactionary
policy which had been pursued by France and im-
posed on Sardinia since the agreement of Villafranca
is giving place to one bolder and more liberal. We
are able to announce to-day that the Ministry of
M. Ratazzi has resigned, and that the King has
charged Count Cavour with the formation of a new
Cabinet. This event will fill the friends of Italy
with courage, for it indicates that the pressure has
been taken off Sardinia—that the King is now able
to take a truly national course. The statesman
who guided the councils of Victor Emmanuel dur-
ing the long and dark period which preceded the
late war, and who retired in indignation and de-
spair when Austria, defeated in two great battles,
had yet managed to obtain the confirmation of her
dominion in Italy, is now restored to the place
which no one but himself can worthily fill. Count
Cavour returns to power at a moment when France
and England are united to recognize the Central
Italian State, and when the Pope shows that he
has lost all hope of cajoling the French ruler by
the manner in which he inveighs against his almost
acknowledged acts. It is but fair to presume that
this important step has not been taken without due
consideration, and that it has the acquiescence of the
French Government. What opinion must we, then,
form of the consequences of this change ? It is evi-
dent that it is the signal for a more decided action
on the part of Victor Emmanuel, and the direc-
tion of this action can scarcely be doubted. Sar-
(Unita must be destined to have a more immediate
influence in Central Italy than has yet been allowed
her. Count Cavour would hardly have taken office
on any other terms. He abandoned power because
his cherished hopes of Italian independence under
the leadership of his country had been crushed for
the time, and he can hardly take once more the
reins of government without some assurance that
Piegmontese policy shall again be recognised as
that most fitting for Italy. Whether his appoint-
ment be the result of a direct understanding that
Victor Emmanuel shall finally accept the sove-
reignty of Central Italy remains to be seen. We
think that this would be the best solution' of the
question ; for, though there aro, no doubt, jealou-
sies between Italian provinces, they are certainly
not greater than those which existed between the
three kingdoms of these islands for long after their
union ; and the firm, temperate rule of a Constitu-
tional Sovereign, avoiding all undue centralisation,
would in the end satisfy both Turin and Milan, ,
Florence and Bologna: These events, however,
are as yet part of the future; we must be content
with congratulating ourselves that an important
advance has been made, and that the independence
of Italy may now be considered as secure;

MILITARY ORGANIZATION.

:FROM THE TIMES' CORRESPONDENT LATE WITH

THE FRENCH ARMY IN ITALY.)
V.

We laugh at the ingeni
fli
ooulaprsinmep ofr oIror:p devicestaaoh propagating
at by
enr Grenadiers
Prussiahapf aioecirdheci
rkei tsbni hdlotye-sf
Potsdam,n ap agentsadoptedpedogb yaa
nnFt
dtlrstei weads
all
Frederick z Ihr,ETc., rhsiutl
this race of giants, and thus ensuring the continua-
tion of this wonderful corps d'elite. We pity the
poor benighted king, and yet, strange to say, we
try to ape him as far as our means allow. It is
still the pride of the British army to have an aver-
age height of several inches above any other army,
and any reduction of the standard height is re-
garded by all true believers as a symptom of de-
generation. Many a strong, active young man is
rejected because nature has made him a little
shorter, although perhaps more capable of enduring
fatigue. Every commander of a regiment thinks
it a point of honour to excel all his colleagues in
this respect; infantry, cavalry, and artillery vie
with each other to surpass the rival arm.
That more than a century ago a narrow-minded,
obstinate despot should think of becoming great
by this Patagonian system is not only not surpris-
ing, but shows, on the contrary, that in spite of
all exaggeration he understood and followed the
spirit of his age, and laid down the foundation for
the superiority which the Prussian army acquired
under his son ; but that this worship of the great,
or rather the tall, should be so blindly adhered to by
a nation in most things so far ahead of others as the
British is, and in the second half of the 19th century
—the age of rifles and rifled guns, is an anachro-
nism which will give considerable material for mer-
riment when it shall bo related by the Carlyle' of
the 20th century.
The more perfect arms of projection become, the
smaller are the chances of weight against speed and
agility. With clumsy flint locks, almost harmless
beyond 60 yards, and with unwieldy cannon not
much more tffective, bullets and balls played the
same part as the short javelin of the Romans did ;
they were a kind of preparation for the real work
which was done by the bayonet. It showed, there-
fore, a great deal of sense to try and get Patago-
nians for soldiers, and make them into an iron-
spiked wall, by which to bear down the adversary.
With rifles deadly at 800 and more yards, in the
hands of men almost sure of their aim ; with rifled
guns, ranging to several thousand yards, and al-
most unerring, the relative position of the bayonet
and the missiles must be reversed. The real work
is done by the last, and not by the first, which be-
comes at most an auxiliary means to complete de-
feat. With the reversal of this relative position,
that of weight and speed is likewise upset, so that,
as formerly the organisation relied chiefly, if not ex-
clusively, on the first, it must now do everything to
increase the last.

The desultory firing which played such a conspi-
mous part in old battles becomes every day more
impossible. Ns two lines of infantry could now
fire at each other for honrs as they did in olden
times. The late Italian war, in which for the first
time the improvements in the arms of projection
came to a trial on a grand scale, can leave no doubt
about this. All the fights, from beginning to
end, consisted of a succession of attacks ou both sides,
in which the advantage yemained to him who had
the superiority in firing and the greater agility. It
was curious to watch the difference in this respect
between the two armies—the French, opening out
in shockingly loose order, rushing and creeping in
turn, spying out, taking advantage of every little
obstacle which came in their way, and going out of
their way to reach it, and all the while firing and
loading as fast as they could, diminishing thus the
chances of the fire of the Austrian line, protecting
themselves, and causing considerable havoc among
the enemy, and getting closer and closer upon him;

1,0-7,'SPAPER
1 4.lrik 4,- )
4,
the Austrians, taught to fire ip' .
11 :14,13.,,t
.ofid
badly, trying in vain to-hit theseMP4tint
which came nearer and nearer, in sNtil4N4-4
made to stop them. There seemed, howkier, &last S :
chancy—they would form, and then a well-aimed -
volley close at them would throw them buck ; this,
at least, they had- been taught to believe, but alas,
even this doctrine turned out untrue, for there was
mo forming from beginning to end, and thus no
occasion left for formidable volleys. The French
were not such fools as to wait for vo:leyF... E r
one tried to avoid them, and they were upon
the Austrians before the latter had time to prep. re.
It was against all the rules of warfare, and showed
clearly that the French, including their famous
Garde Imperiale, had been schooled among the
savages of Africa, and not in civilised warfare.
How different for a truly military eye were those
splendid lines of Austrians, when they came on in
martial array to make an offensive return ! The
earth trembled under their military step ; they
looked like the elephants of Pyrrhus, ready to break
through iron barriers; but what could they do
against those pointed missiles with which the air
swarmed, and against which nothing cou:d protect
them ? They had those missiles likewise, but what
was the use of them against men who had taken
care to find some tree, wall, or ditch behind- which
they could not be reached, where they loaded their
rifles and jumped out only to fire them off? Be-
fore the wall had approached half way it was a
ruin full of chinks wider than that through which
Pyramus talked to Thisbe.
And yet the average height of the Austrian soldier
surpasses that of thcFrench by several inches. Now,
I don't deny that a mass of men six feet high looks
more imposing than one composed of men only
five feet three or four ; but to 7- • _ ?sing
on active, agile enemies by these means is carrying
the Chinese system of frightening by horrible pic-
tures rather too far. As the average height of Eng-
lishmen is more than that of their neighbours, so
there is'tio necessity of picking ont smaller men than
'the average; but a higher standard than the average --
of the population shows the love of immovable ma-
chines, and the predilection for the exploded Pata-
gonian system. How far this prejudice exists still,
in spite of the dictates of common sense, appears
best from the Marines, who, intended as a kind of
naval infantry doomed to live on board ship and
do all manner of sailors' work, surpass in height
every infantry regiment with the exception, per-
hap, of the Foot Guards. It is true many tall men
may be made into as active soldiers as smaller men,
but tall men are not chosen in the British army for
their activity, but for their height alone.
The result of all this is that the ideas now preva-
lent in recruiting about the physical qualificatieus
of the soldier must be as much changed as the rest
•f the recruiting system. The test ought not to be
a certain height, but the general conformation of the
body to make a hardy, active, strong solehier. This
test, more adapted to the present circumstances,
will likewise bring in an additional number of re-
cruits, who arc no w excluded because they have not
the required height.

The foolish idolatry of size must be given up, not
only for infantry, but for every other arm where it
exists not less. If the old musket was sufficient to
give the preeminence to infantry above all other
arm of the service, the rifle is calculated to increase
this even more, and oblige the cavalry and artillery
to follow the direction given by the improvement
in the infantry.
The old dispute about light and heavy infantry is
practically solved by the introduction of the rifle,
which admits of no other but the first species, in
opposition to the former system, which relied chiefly
if not exclusively on heavy infantry.
This change must be followed by a corresponding
one in artillery and cavalry, else the latter become
useless. The old field-gun, heavy and of short and
inaccurate range, is utterly powerless against well-
drilled riflemen. No battery, however well handled,
would be a match for a company. The efforts of the
boased Austrian artillery during the late war were
positively ridiculous; they seemed to carry it with
them to afford trophies for the French. That re-
spectable old yellow war engine, incapable of get-
ting over a ditch or working in heavy ground,
compelled even the Austrians to hasten to adopt
the light rifled gun which their adversaries had
brought into the field.

The success of Armstrong's gun, the necessary
consequence of the introduction of the rifle, has
decided the question in England, and now it re-
mains only to recognise the principle which it car-
ries with it. It abolishes heavy artillery, and it is
necessary to do away with heavy artillerymen.
The artillery had a plausible pretext not to remaia
behind the other arms of the service in size, although,
even with the old description of gun, it is as diffi-
cult to see how far size in the horse artillery in-
fluenced the quickness and precision of firing as it
is to calculate how far the " Busby" promoted this
object. " Agility, and not weight," whistles the
Enfield rifle ; and " agility and not weight," booms
the Armstrong gun. Whatever the proverb says,
in this race the palm is not for the tortoise.
With infantry and artillery light, active, and
dea lly from a great distance, heavy cavalry is a self-
evident absurdity. If the relative superiority of
weight and speed is upset in the other arm of the
service, in the cavalry it is ten times more so. So
clear has this been made by the last war, that
among the changes to be introduced in the Austrian
army the abolition of the cuirassiers is reported to
be one of the first. Even when soldiers were armed
with flint-locks authorities differed about the break-
ing of infantry lines or squares, although every one
agreed that it was the fire, and not the bayonet,
which made this experiment difficult. How much
more is this the case now needs no demonstration.
If the cavalry was ineffective in the late war, it must
not be inferred that cavalry will be henceforth use-
less, or that there was no opportunity for using it
in the plains of Lombardy. The Campo di 111edole
is as magnificent ground for cavalry evolutions as
any that could be wished for, but neither of the two
armies had as yet understood how to adapt the
movements of cavalry to those of riflemen and rifled
guns, and thus to give to cavalry an importance
such as perhaps it never had. Htnee the numerous
attempts at cavalry engagements resulted in a
desultory skirmishing, and more than one observer
carried away the idea that the sooner the use of
cavalry is confined to patrolling the better it will
be. But, even if they had not reckoned on the
changed circumstances, both parties instinctively
divined the inutility of their heavy cavalry, which
was left altogether in the background, while, even
according to the articles of belief of the old school,
the only use of heavy cavalry is in a pitched
battle, and any other duty spoiled it. The rifle
places heavy cavalry in the same position as the
English bow did the knights in full armour.
Cavalry, in order to be effective, mustfolwloewighint
the wake of infantry and artillery—sacrifice
to speed and agility. Whether this can be done
with men as nearly as possible six feet high I leave
to the common sense of a nation of horsemen.
If I have made myself clearly understood it will
be seen that it is not so much against size as such
under any circumstances that these remarks are
made, but against the hobby of sacrificing all other
considerations to the six-feet idolatry. Every one
must see that activity and agility being aimed at
now, as immobility was formerly, height alone is
no longer a test for the physical qualifications of
the soldier, and the sooner this test is done away
with the sooner another link is broken which binds
British military organisation to exploded notions.
It will be the first step to overthrow the acquired
taste for what is called smartness, a kind of clock-
work movement which is supposed to insure the
efficiency of the soldier, and which must follow
flogging before the British soldier will be what he
so easily might become, superior to any other in
the world.

THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF MR.
MASSEY O'GRADY.—The Cork Examiner states that a
letter has been received in that city from a lady in the
county of Limerick, the wife of a stipendiary magistrate,
stating that the body of Mr. Massey O'Grady, whose nam•
stood second on the list of sheriffs nominated for the county
Limerick for the present year, and whose mysterious d:e.
appearance some short time since was announced in the
public journals, had been found buried, and that no doubt
exists that the unfortunate gentleman had been murdered. `-
The letter adds that four persons had been arrested:on mi.