The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-08 00:00:00

THE MARQUIS D'ORVAULT.

The Paris papers publish an account of an action
now going on which must certainly find a place
among future causes celebres. A cab-driver named
Schumacker, sixty-three years of age, partially in-
firm, married to a woman who, though an invalid,
helps him in his business, and, in particular, washes
his cab, and occasionally grooms his horses, de-
mands from his daughter and son-in-law the means
of subsistence. Cab-driving has of late been a
losing trade with him ; which, as he is almost
totally deaf, and in bad weather suffers great pain
from the effects of accidents in which he has twice
had a leg broken, is not astonishing. The daughter
is
,the Marquise d'Orvault, and lives with her hus-
band, in an apartment of which the annual rent is
11,000 francs, and which is said to be magnificently
furnished. The marquis has horses which the
marchioness does not groom, and carriages of the
latest make which she naturally does not wash
down. When Catherine Schumacker married the
marquis a year ago her fortune Consisted of up-
wards of a million francs in money
and securi-
ties, besides 325,000 francs in jewellery and per-
sonal property of various kinds. She was then
thirty-six years of age—less than half the age of
her husband, who was eighty-three.
If the daughter of the cab-driver was, at the
time of her marriage, neither poor nor respectable,
the marquis, at least, did not resemble her in one
respect :he was decidedly poor. An annuity of
2,700 francs allowed him by his relations, and a
pension of 2,500 francs from the Emperor, was
all he had to live upon ; and he had luxurious tastes.
Catherine Schumacker's fifty thousand pounds
tempted him, and it no doubt suited her very well
to become the wife of a marquis,
eighty-three
years of age.

The bridegroom's life hi‘d already been an event-
ful one. The importance of his very ancient family
is strikingly shown by the fact that during the
reign of terror no less than twenty-two of its mem-
bers were guillotined. The present marquis escaped
abroad, but, returning on the establishment of the
empire, entered the French army as M. de Mau-
breuil, one of his numerous family names. He
attained the rank of major, and gained the cross of
the Legion of Honour, which, on entering Paris in
1814 with the staff of the allied Sovereigns, he
tied to his horse's tail. The same day he further
distinguished himself by helping to pass the rope
round the neck of the statue of Napoleon on the
column of the Place Vendome, when it had been
decided that the fallen hero should be degraded
in effigy.

The marquis's hatred of the Bonaparte family
now became so great that, finding the Queen of
Westphalia, the wife of Jerome Bonaparte, was
about to cross the forest of Fontainebleau on her
way into exile, he attacked her and took from her
all her jewellery, besides 84,000 francs in gold.
For this feat of arms, however, he was brought to
trial and was sentenced on the 16th of May, 1818,
to five years' imprisonment. Escaping to England,
where he lived for some years, he attracted no fur-
ther attention until, on.the 21st of January, 1827,
he suddenly appeared in the Cathedral of St. Denis,
where a service was being performed on the oc-
casion of the anniversary of Louis the Sixteenth's
death. Seeing M. de Talleyrand among those pre-
sent he went up to him, and with a blow in the face
knocked him down. This brought upon the
marquis a penalty of five years' imprisonment, a
fine of 500 francs, and ten years' police surveil-
lance.

We may here observe that the story of the blow
in the face administered to Talley rand has been
told differently. The version given in the formal
report of " Schumacker against Orvault" is no
doubt the correct one ; and, admitting it to be
so, the outrage committed by the Marquis d'Orvault
(or Marquis de Maubreuil, as he was then called),
in a place of worship and in presence of the King,
could not, even by the most determined fire-eater,
be looked upon as a mere challenge to fight a
duel. It has been mentioned, however, as a proof
of Talleyrand's imperturbable coolness and presence
of mind, that on receiving this so-called " soufflet"
which knocked him down, he rose with difficulty,
and, still stunned by the blow, exclaimed, ";Quel
terrible coup de poing !" " It will be remem-
bered," says the reviewer of Sir Henry Bulwer's
" Historical Characters" in the last number of the
Quarterly, after repeating the anecdote, " that a
soufilet is a dishonouring insult, a coup de poing a
mere act of brutality." All things considered, it
may be said that " an act of brutality" was indeed
committed ; and if people had not been determinefl
to see esprit or finesse in every phrase that Talley-

rand uttered, his exclamation would have appeared
perfectly natural.
For the present we are without information as
to whether the marquis, who lost twenty-two rela-
tions in the Reign of Terror ; who served in the
Grand Army ; who afterwards tied tl-.e cros sof the
Legion of Honour to his horse's tail, and Tilt a rope
round the neck of Napoleon's statue ; who robbed
Napoleon's sister-in-law and assaulted Talleyrand ;
and who at this moment, oddly enough, enjoys a
pension granted to him by the Napoleon now
on the throne of France—will or will not be called
upon to support the infirm parents of his rich
wife. The case for the defence is said -to be that
the father-in-law had some 40,000 francs, but
that he gambled it away on the Bourse—a pro-
ceeding which shocks the delicate morality of the
Marquis d'Orvault.—Pall Mall Gazette.

71HE GORLESTON LIFEBOAT RESCUER.

An official report has just been made of the cir-
cumstances attending the collision of the fishing
lugger James and Ellen with the Gorleston lifeboat
Rescuer, an inquiry into which was held in the
Town-hall, Great Yarmouth, towards the end of
last month, before Mr. Henry llarris and Mr. James
O'Dowd. The accident occurred on the 3d of De-
cember last, when the Gorleston lifeboat Rescuer
put to sea, with a crew of 12 hands, with the object
of rendering assistance to any vessel that might be
in distress from the effects of the violent gale of the
previous day. While cruising they observed a small
vessel in the offing, which proved to be the longboat
of an abandoned ship, the George Kendal, and con-
tained the crew of that ship, consisting of 21 per-
sons. The lifeboat took all on board except one
man, who refused to leave the boat, and who was
ultimately saved. They then placed two of the
lifeboat's crew on board the longboat, took her in
tow, and proceeded towards the harbour, on enter-
ing which a collision occurred, whereby no fewer
than 23 lives were sacrificed.

It appears that the navigable channel of the har-
bour is a little over 170 ft., and that shortly before
the collision the lugger and the Rescuer were seen
approaching the harbour nearly at right angles, the
one from the N.E., the other from the S.E. At the
same time the steam-tug Andrew Wodehouse, hav-
ing a dismasted brig in tow, was approaching the
harbour from the southward. The lugger was run-
ning in with the wind free at N.N.E. on the star-
board quarter. The lifeboat was close hauled upon
a wind on the starboard tack, and had just succeeded
in weathering the steam-tug, but so closely that the
longboat she had in tow struck her sponson boom.
In fact, the steam-tug'stopped her engines, momen-
tarily fearing an accident. The lifeboat having
cleared the steamer shot out across the harbour, and
in the short space of one minute and a half came
under the bows of the lugger, then running in
before the wind and sea. The lugger, on the other
hand, was under the direction of a pilot stationed
on the South Pier, whose duty it is in bad weather
to signal to an approaching vessel by waving his
hand the course she is to steer.

By the evidence of the pilot and also of the
master of the lugger it would appear that she was
as close over to the north shore as she could be
steered with safety. Both vessels had the harbour
open, and had a good look out been kept and the
relative position of the lugger to the lifeboat ascer-
tained, it would have been the duty of the lifeboat
to bear up. It is clear from the evidence that
neither the helmsman of the lifeboat nor of the
lugger saw each other's vessel, the attention of the
former having been probably occupied by the boat
he had in tow (the tow-rope of which he had just
ordered to be slacked off, fearing danger to her from
contact with the paddles of the steamer), and that
of the latter by the pilot, whose signals he was
watching, with a view to the safe conduct of his
vessel into the harbour. When the collision oc-
curred the lifeboat turned over, bottom up, throw-
ing all the persons on board into the water, and the
lugger shot rapidly up the harbour, passing be-
tween the stern of the lifeboat and the boat in tow.
The lugger could, under the circumstances, render
no assistance, so sudden was the casualty. Besides,
the consternation on the part of those ou board was
so great that they appear to have been bewildered.
The sea was so heavy that their small boat would
have been of no avail. The steam-tug, with laud-
able zeal, cast off the disabled vessel, and pre-
ceeded to the assistance of the people in the water.
Several men clutched the ropes thrown over, but
before they could be hauled ou board let go their
hold through exhaustion and sank, only one man
being saved by these means.
The inquiry at Yarmouth was also ex ended to
the circumstances attending a somewhat similai
accident which occurred to the same lifeboat, the
Rescuer, in January, 1866, when 12 lives were lost
out of a crew of 16. On that occasion the boat put
to sea in a gale of wind to render assistance to some
vessel in distress. It was low water at the time. In
crossing the bar, upon which a high sea was run-
ning, the boat took the ground, and, being under a
heavy press of sail at the time, she capsized. This
accident, like the more recent one, is not to be
attributed to any defect in the construction of the
boat, which might have happened to any other.life-
boat under similar circumstances. The Rescuer
appears to be a powerful boat, 42 feet in length,
five feet nine inches in breadth, and four feet in
depth, provided with air tanks all round, both above
and below the thwarts, and her buoyancy is further
increased by a cork fender of large dimensions that
entirely surrounds the boat. Water is used for
ballast, which, having free ingress, is increased in
bulk and weight in proportion to the im-
mersion. From her large size sails are chiefly
used, oars being resorted to only when she is drop-
ping down the river, or for her guidance when ap-
proaching a wrecked vessel. Her crew in bad
weather is usually 20 or 22 hands when proceeding
to sea on salvage services. There appears to be no
want of efficiency on the part of the crew by whom
the boat has hitherto been manned, and though the
service is entirely voluntary the report recommends
no change, inasmuch as it would be impossible to
rely on any permanent crew, many of whom might
be at work as fishermen at the moment when the
. aid of the lifeboat was repired. The inquiry fully
bears out the following conclusions at which Mr.
Harris has arrived :

Firstly.—That the Rescuer is in all respects an
efficient lifeboat, and adapted for the purposes for
which she is intended, viz., for saving life and ren-
dering aisistance to vessels in distress, especially on
this dangerous coast.
Secondly.—That the accidents that have occurred
to her on both occasions, in January, 1866, and in
December, 1867, may be regarded as casualties
which might have happened to any lifeboet of what-
ever construction.

Thirdly.--It is imperative, in order to prevent
the sad loss of life consequent on the recent and for-
mer disaster, that the crew should wear lifebelts
when engaged on this dangerous service. With
these they have been to a certain extent provided,
but hitherto the crews of beachmen have evinced a
strong prejudice against wearing them, asserting
that they are too cumbersome, and also that they
impede their motions in rowing. The latter objec-
tion is scarcely valid, seeing that rowing is seldom
resorted to in boats of this description and size.
Captain Ward, R.N., in his evidence, furnished
some interesting statistics showing the value of life-
belts in case of accident. From 1849 to 1867, 200
persons wearing lifebelts have been either upset or
washed overboaid from lifeboats, and of these only
12 lost their lives ; while out of 127 who failed to
take this precaution no less than 100 perished. It
is gratifying, therefore, to find that the fatal
accidents to the Rescuer have awakened a great
many to the necessity of wearing the belts, and that
the witnesses who were examined at the inquiry
declared their intention of never putting to am

" PROCLAMATION.

Mr. Char!eS Rae, in a letter to the editor of the
Times, says : "In your review of Dr. Wane's
work, The Story of the Captives,' you make some
very pertinent remarks on the imprudence and im-
policy of questioning King Theodore's pi etensions
to Royal descent. Still, as what you say does not
fully account for that monarch's pertinacity in
claiming to be the descendant of Menilek, son of
Solomon, King of Israel, and the Queen of Sheba,
I would atl you to allow me to explain that this
is in fact the title by which Theodore wears the
crown of Ethiopia. Dispute it, and he becomes
Kassa, the kosso-seller's son, as formerly.
" The proclamation made by him several years
ago places this in the clearest light. I have already
published it, but perhaps you may deem it worthy
of reproduction in your columns, both for the pur-
pose of proving what I have stated above, and
also of showing the great importance of a proper
understanding of these recondite matters, known to
so few.

" The claim of the Sovereign of Ethiopia to be a
descendant of Menilek is not at all ' a certain weak-
ness to glory in his supposed ancestors,' as Dr.
Blanc imagines. It is a necessity, as the following
examples will demonstrate.
" Aikuna Amlak, in the beginkitig of. the 14th
century, made out his pedigree, by fhictaa..ahowed-
,
his descent from Delnaod, the last reigning Sove-
reign of the Imperial dynasty in the tenth century,
which had been displaced by an intrusive line of
Kings of the house of Zagye, whose lineal descen-
dant Waagshum Gobazye is at the present day, as
I explained in the Times of July 5, 1867. Aikuna
Amlak's accession to the throne was thus alleged to
be the Restoration of the House of Solomon,' and
this is accordingly accepted as an historical fact,
notwithstanding that it has connected with it a
gross anachronism, which was pointed out to me
many years ago by Monsignor de Jacobis, otherwise
Abuna Yakob.

"In like manner, when Sahela Selasye, King of
Shoa, was taken up by the English in 1841, and
hoped with their assistance to acquire the sove-
reignty of the whole empire, he had a pedigree
drawn up, showing his progenitor Negusye to have
been a fugitive Prince of the Imperial house, like
the ancestor of Aikuna Amlak. This I know, be-
cause I was in Shoa at the time.

" The latest pretender to the throne of Ethiopia, 1
as a descendant of King Solomon and the Queen of
Sheba, is Signor Alessandro de' Marchesi Marzara -
Bridgtower, whose mother's claim was countenanced
by Monsignor de Jacobis, and who has himself ad-
dressed Lord Stanley on the subject, in a letter
dated September 13, 1867, which is printed on page
178 of the Abyssinian Blue-book of the past session
of Parliament. Signor Marzara's pedigree was com -
municated to me several years ago by a Quaker
friend of mine, when I found it to contain an-
achronisms not grosser or more absurd, perhaps,
than that in the pedigree of Aikuna Amlak, but
more patent, inasmuch as they relate to the 19th
instead of the 14th century.
" With these precedents before us, it will be per-
ceived that Theodore is not at all mad, as he is sup.
posed to be, in insisting on his claim, and punish-
ing those who dare to call it in question. In doing
so they are guilty of the crimen less majestatis of
the Roman law, which is the groundwork of the
law of Abyssinia.
" The explanation now given will at the same
time serve to corroborate the opinion expressed in
my letter in the Times of the 4th inst., that the
death of Abba Salama, the late Coptic Abuna, was
not a natural one, but one caused by Theodore's
determination to prevent a David from being
anointed in the place of the Abyssinian Saul. Fie is
now safe in this respect until the consecration of
a new Abuna, who, in order to gain the confidence
andseneration of the Abyssinians, should, not be
brought in by a foreign invading -artny,-but must be`
properly accredited by means of a 'native balderaM,
I or introducer.

" In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost, one God.
"The King of Kings, Theodore, created by the
Trinity its servant, installed by it and made Prince,
to his children given to him by God and to all the
Franks (Europeans).
"By your God and the God of your friend
Theodore, who appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai
and in the Red Sea, who appeared to Joshua at
Jericho, who through hie servant Samuel anointed
Saul when he was seeking the asses that were lost,
who, when Saul turned from his Creator, com-
manded Samuel to anoint David.

" Solomon was King after David, according to
the word of the prophet and of his father, notwith-
standing that Adonias (Adoaijah), against the will
of God, was proclaimed King by the people and
obtained favour in their sight. Solomon, by the
Queen of Azyeb (the south-east), begat Menilek,
who became King of Ethiopia. From Menilek down
to the dynasty of the Gallas, all the Kings were
stageplayers (azmciri), who sought from God neither
wisdom nor strength, but, with His help, the means
of raising up the empire were found, when God
chose me, His servant, to be King.
tt My countrymen said, The river is dried up,
its bed is empty,' and they insulted me because my
mother was poor, and called me the son of a beggar.
But the Turks knew the greatness of my father,
who made them his tributaries as far as the frontiers
of Egypt and to the gates of their cities. My father
and my mother descended from David and from
Solomon, and they are also of the seed of Abraham,
the servant of God.

" Now, those whoinsulted me with the name of a
beggar's son are themselves beggars; and beg for
their daily bread. Without God's will neither wis-
dom nor power can save from ruin. Nevertheless,
as God said unto Adam, In the sweat of thy face
thou shalt eat bread,' it is necessary not to fall into
slothfulness. But it is needless for me to give you
this advice ; for, as the proverb says, ' speak not of
wisdom to the sage, neither cut the food of a lion.'
" There is nothing powerful in the world. Many
have had mortars and cannons in abundance, and
nevertheless have succumbed. Napoleon had
myriads of them, yet he died conquered, after hav-
ing subjugated tile Franks. Nicholas, Emperor of
the Muscovites, possessed them in abundance, and
he was vanquished by the French, the English, and
the Turks, and died without having accomplished
the desire of his heart.
"If in your countries you meet with any parti-
sans of the brigand Negusye, who shall say, like
the traitors of this country, that Ethiopia is
governed by the son of a beggar, wager with them
a field covered with gold that I, the present Em-
peror, am on the throne of my fathers, Abraham
and David, and bring them here to be confronted
with me.
It is God that bath put down the mighty
from their seats, and hath exalted them of low
degree.' "

FALMOUTH, Monday.—The steamship Kaffraria,
Starks, commander, arrived at this port from London on
Sunday night, and, after embarking six passengers and 26
bags of mails, proceeded at about noon this day for the
Capo of Good Hope. Among the passengers are the
Bishop of Capetown and wife.

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NEW S PAP ER
•e=?f,
47/e, 'ArA
EMIT OF THE PUBLIC J'o iM4
tis the Tims tells us, must think it is plain er
•
that the governing classes bf India cannot
and must obey against the grain. It is plain the cen
dants of princes, of Mahomedan conquerors, of predatory
chiefs of old renown, and of families reckoning back three
thousand years or more, cannot but think the older the
better rule. There always were those who loved adventure
even to pillage, magnificence even to the wildest profu-
sion, luxury to unbounded license, and opportunities only
possible under virtual anarchy. This is the passion not
only of persons or of families, nor is it even limited to
classes. The semi-barbarous, and, it must be added, the
weak and foolish, everywhere love that which purchases
brief enjoyment for a few at the cost of lasting misery
for the many. Nor is this the whole truth. India can-
not afford under our rule the opportunities it once
offered the ambitious, or even the native of political
genius and brilliant powers. An iron rule and a dull
routine may be the most conducive to the vulgar and uni-
versal good, but they leave little scope for the achieve-
ments and the displays in which some see the life of a
nation. There must be suppressed fire, and dorznant rather
than extinct volcanoes of feeling, under such a system.
Then, if we are the most power:ulof all Indian conquerors
and masters, if the wisest, if the most beneficent and dis-
interested, we are also entirely alien, dissimilar, and
unsympathetic. Mahomedanism might almost be a caste
in Indian estimation ; our religion cannot ever be this, if
we practised it ever so consistently. In what we allow
and what we disallow, we are alike odious to them. There
is nothing to recommend us in their eyes but the demon-
stration of results. We bring order, peace, and plenty,
and assure the natives that under our rule they are the
most fortunate of subjects, fellow-workers, bondsmen,
as the case may be. We give them more, indeed,
for we give them a share in all we possess our-
selves. We give them that unbounded liberty
of speech and that ready appeal to justice which are
presumed in the very inquiry before us, and which cer-
tainly have receiveo le*-1-- c^me notable illustrations. It
will be said, indeea,lZ.kt even these boons are not to the
taste of the Hindoo ; that he loves the despot, that he
prefers sudden vengeance to' deliberate justice, and that
he worships not only the murderer, but even4he very ape- e '
'strayers of the human mind. steea a ,prfiiece, howeles';‘.z
on his part will not unnerve theeleind 'of his 111%00
rulers. We have offered to make any sacrifices to win his
love and respect, but we shall still'be just with him, after
our own dull, slow, and costly fashion. What is the only
possible conclusion of this controversy, so long as it is left
for us to sum up? It is that under existing circumstances
we are the actual guardians of order, peace, justice, and
all that constitutes prosperity in India. We of the pre-
sent generation find ourselves there. We did not put our-
selves there. The mighty trust is in our hands. Mean-
while, we have the satisfaction of knowing, what, indeed,
is only too true, that it is for the good of India, not our
own, or for any ascertainable advantage to ourselves that
we hold her.

According to the Slanda,rd, it is monstrous to pretend
that we have no business in Afghanistan. Nature has
made our business there, and we have accepted the dis-
pensation. It is said that we , ought to await any event
within our line of defence, which is supposed to be the
Indus. But, in the first place, the Indus is no line of de-
fence ; and, in the next, we are already on its other side.
Our advanced post is the valley of Peshawur. All the
military authorities concur in the opinion that our present
position is by no means a strong one, and that in the event
of a European army invading India from the north-west,
we should be compelled to abandon it, or risk what would
be a fatal defeat. The Afghan mountains, and not the
Indus, are, in fact, our true frontier, and though it may be
advisable to permit it to be occupied by the natives, it is
surely the extreme of folly to neglect or to despise their
friendship, and to permit them to form alliances elsewhere.
The policy of absolute inaction, which is the policy we de-
sire to see amended, is; in the words of an accomplished
and experienced officer, who has had peculiar opportuni-
ties of studying the question, " a selfish attempt to ignore
the responsibilities of our high and powerful position in the
East ; it is at the best but a poor and ignoble policy, and
in reality its success is impossible."
The Herald thinks it would be a great mistake to sup-
pose that because General Menabrea is still in power the
vote which was designed to eject him has not had some
mischievous results. It has sadly discredited the Italia',
Parliament, it has encouraged throughout Europe doubts
as to the future of the Italian kingdom, and consequently
as to the permanence of Italian unity ; it has injured the
credit of. Italy, already so vastly shaken, and driven the
price of Italian funds to so low a figure that no Financ
Minister could now hope to raise a large sum of money,
except at rates which even a South American Republic
that had compromised half a dozen times with its creditors
would not think of paying, whilst the value of the paper
currency has continued to sink steadily, and the difficul•
ties of that essential business of its withdrawal have been
greatly intensified. It will take a long time to remedy
the mischief that has been done by this ill-judged vote,
and every real friend-of Italy will earnestly hope that the
Chamber will not aggravate the danger by quarrelling
with a situation that cannot for the present be altered, and
a Ministry which, under the circumstances, is the only
--pesisible-one4---Who Ibal as mint look the facts in the - -
face ; they cannot get Rome, let them cry for it as they
will, but they may wreck the Italy they have got upon the
rocks of insolvency and provisional jealousies and petti-
nesses, and they will do so too if they do not, deputies
and ministers, at once set themselves to work and make a
long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether, to get into
safer waters.

The Telegraph would have us bear in mind that in the
present condition of the sister island and the consequent
conspiracy, we suffer for the sins of our ancestors, who
acted unjustly and harshly towards their fellow-citizens
across the ocean and their fellow-citizens across the Irish
Sea. These things are a second national debt, which we
are now called upon to pay. We inherited a political
estate encumbered with uncertain and ugly-looking claims,
and we must make the best of it. We must take the
situation as we find it, and endeavour so to act that we
may_diminish the incumbrance, or at least not add to it by
any new act of insult or of wrong. Meanwhile, the
statesman who shall secure for us the cordial alliance of
the American nation would confer upon us, upon the
United States, and upon humanity a greater boon than
the appeasement of twenty European disputes or the
arrangement of twenty European questions. The politics
of Paris, of Vienna, of Constantinople, and of Rome—
seats of empires and powers that have already begun to
decay—are the mere ephemera of diplomacy, compared
with the relations between us and our great cousins across
that Atlantic which science is shortening every day. And,
when we study the balance of power, how can we find
any greater way of preserving it than by adding to Eng-
land's strength the might which slumbers in the neglected
Celt? Properly used, the Irish element of our empire
might supply us with splendid implements for our Im-
perial needs. Are we to allow such faculties to rust or
to be forged by our foes into daggers pointed at our
hearts ?

The Daily News, dealing with the first report of tho
Clerkenwell Explosion Fud Relief Committee, says it
contains many interesting facts ; but it does not find in it
that which Mr. Disraeli and the public have been asking
for—a statement, approximate of course, but positive, of
the amount of money_required to enable the committee to
complete its work. lip to the present time only £7,143
have been subscribed—a sum which neither duly expresses:
the sympathy of the public with the sufferers, nor is
adequate to the relief of their necessities. It fears that
precious time is being wasted. The money already sub-
scribed will do little more than satisfy claims for
immediate assistance, including the purchase of tools,
working materials, and furniture for those who
have lost home and the means of earning a
livelihood. There remain to be dealt with more
than 150 cases of personal injury, for all of which some
compensation ought to be given, while for many a life pro-
vision more or less complete will have to be made. The
proportion of female sufferers is unusually large, and all
of them were dependent on their own exertions for a living:
four of these have lost eyes ; others have been maimed or
terribly shaken, and will never again be what they were.
The revolting barbarity of the outrage comes out in strong
colours in the report of Mrs. Bailey, who has given her
attention to the maternity cases, and who reports no fewer
than twenty-six instances in which injury has been done
to mothers and their infants. We trust that the sub-
scription list will be raised to an amount equal to the exi-
gencies of the case before some new catastrophe comes to
divide public attention with the consequences of the
Clerkenwell explosion.

ahso
Our friends the French, who are always discovering new
amusementodfelights , and w
aaflreslns at home in the water, have jus'
much at home upon all questions
borrowed some
fashionable excellent fun from Russia. The most
jollity in Paris just now, observes the Morning
Post, is enough to exhilarate one to think of it. The
Skating Club have got up a night fête during the frosty
weather in the Bois de Boulogne ; and all that is fair or
joyous in Paris have flocked to see it. They do not run
the risk of being drowned in the solemn stolid way that
we do when we try to amuse ourselves in cold weather
upon the water ; but they made themselves a shallow
lake expressly to suit their purpose on the Madrid cricket
ground. This was illuminated gaily by ten thousand jets
of electrical light, many of them grouped in the form of
garlands and bouquets, while innumerable Chinese lan-
terns were suspended to the branches of trees. The
neighbourhood of the Swiss Chalet belonging to the club
was paved with soft cocoa-nut matting, and every precau-
tion taken to defy the cold without and within. Then the
sport began ; the ladies made themselves snug in pretty
fur-lined sleighs, and were pushed about by cavaliers upon
skates at such a pace as brought the roses into their cheeks
and the sparkles into their eyes. Why can't we do some-
thing of this kind the next time it freezes in London, in-
stead of going shivering about at night like so many rheu-
matic ghosts 1) It would do us a vast deal of good, and be
something quite new and jolly for the ladies. Let us try
it ; it will be no end of a relief, after being boxed up in
offices, banks, and counting-houses all day, to have a little
healthful sport in the evening, instead of cramping our
knees and straining our eye-sight in those modern
" stocks," the stalls of ill-built theatres ; and sitting bolt
upright, choked by white handkerchiefs, and silent as
mutes for four hours at a time. We are already beginning
to understand the Medicinal and curative power of well,
chosen recreations in the open air ; all that it remains fez'
us to do is to put Our tardily acquired knowledge now ali-d,
then into Dractice. .

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE.
Sole Lessee and Manageress, Mrs. Swanborough.
THIS EVENING, at 7, KIND TO A FAULT.
After which will be produced a Grand Christmas Operatic
Oriental Extravaganza " THE CALIPH OF BAGDAD " Mes,rs.
Thorne, James, Turner,- Murray ; Mesdames A. Swanborough.
Johnstone, Harland, Holt, IN ewton, &c.
To conclude with OUR DOMESTICS.