New-York daily tribune., 1856-05-03
GOSSIP FROM LONDON.
LONDON, Tuesday, April 1S, 1856,
From privsts unpublished letter lately received

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LONDON, Tuesday, April Is, 1856,
From privsts unpublished letter lately received
from Scutari extract the following passages:
"The peace is clearly the doing of Napoleon and
the state Of the French army shows why he is 50
anxious for peace. Above 10000 men are in the hos
pitals chiefly from the state of oestitutiOn in which
they have been this Winter They are far uorse than
are wcre last gear, but our publicity has enabled us
to remedy all evils which their system conceas. IL
is impossible to conceive finer army than ours is at
this mon en, fit and ready for work than the
soldiers are. Miss Nightingale has lately been much
engaged with schools and readingroOms for them. She
is always bard at work in their cause; and now that
the hospitals in such capital order she has turned
toward their education; and she says that the willing
of the soldiers to prove-to take 10 all the good
that is offered to them is delightful"
" Give them opportunity, Miss Nightingale lately
wrote to friend promptly and easily to send money
home and they will use it; give them schools and
reading.rOoms, ard they will profit by them; give
them games and books, and they will leave off drink
ing give them suffering, and they will bear it; give
them work and they will do it. / would rather have
to do with the army generally. than with any other
class that have ever attempted to serve" Another
friend of hers, now in the Cmea, writes about her:
Miss Nightingale has lived not on the natural life
within her, but on the interest of fulfilling her work
and fear that when the spring of that is over, she will
sink entirely Still hope that entire rest may revive
her, though she could not rest for long
1t has lately been rumored that the celebrated
Baron Humboldt is taking an interest in table
turning and spirit rappiDgs, and, accordingly, DIR.
Jobard wrote letter to the old savant who re-
piled as follows:
"BERLIS, April Q, 1856.
"DEAR SIR: You wrote, as always, a most ami able
letter but unable TO discuss the simple possibility
Of different kinds of mineral, vegetable, animal, vol
untary ard involuntary cerebral eectrcism. had al
ways the weakness Of having dread OF the spiritual
irm of pine deals and opsychographic mysticism You
augmeDt my dread by the ghost of an ephemeraf ra-
tional being, which is to get understanding by the
thoughts of the men surrounding the instrument lthe
me medums around the table, You know that Geoffroy
de st. Haire believed he had in Egypt had transp
ration of oxydated thoughts; and you, dear Doctor
will perhaps find that my skeptcism the result OF my
lazness. 1 submit to this rebuke, but am convinced
that the regret which feel in knowing that you have
gone astray on such dark pathway will not diminish
the friendship which you have allowed me to ENJOY for
80 long. trust You will eXcnse me. ,,,,,,.o,nr,
The domestic topic for the last few days has been
Lord John Russell's failure in "great and COM
prehensve" education measure. The division ad-
mirably illustrated our chaotic party condition
Tory or two supporting Lord John, in company
with the Whig Rump-but Wings, Tories, Peelites
and Radicals ali smashing him by tremendous ma
jority against the scheme. What he intended to do
is hard to say be could scarcely hope to ride into
power again on such very old hobby; and one can
hardly believe that he knew the country 80 i'll as to
think his scheme would take. 1t was the old story
an attempt to suit everybody which missed every
body-LOrd John being at once the old man and
the ass. He was going to have compulsory educs-
ton under sub-inspectors, and raised the old war
cry of "no bureaucracy You can't think how
much bureaucracy is talked about just now in En-
gland. First, our old system is everywhere max
ing failures, and provoking wish for better ad.
ministratiOn which raises cry for able men,
which makes people fear we shall be swarming with
government clerks everywhere. Then, there is
Prince Albert known to be able, active, specu-
latve, and exciting dim suspicious Of foreign
influence, of bureaucratic tendencies. For in.
stance, the Prince got nearly all the discredit OF
the Lhe-Peerages proposition, it being supposed
that he wants men of science, arts and let
ters in the Lords. Now this is bureau
cracy" in its most horrible form, you know; so
one way and another, We hear OF nothing
but "local self fGovernment"-'n no red tapery"
-" no Prussianism, cries in which Tories and
Radicals (observe) are in concert. Poor Lord
John is not an absolutist, but his measures seem
likely to have the same kind Of influence, and his
knock down has been tremendous The French
alliance q remark, aside,) has led to an undue
dwelling on the advantages Of despotism, and the
pronp!nea Of bureau1-and now we are all pre-.
dieting despOtsm as the future Of Europe. The
scholars argue the question in their own way and
YOU would be surprised to hear how much Cesar
and his sQe-and their parties and rights and
wror gs-are discussed just now BY reading men.
An Oxford scholar, Congreve (of the family, no
doubt, famous for comedies and rockets, has
been panesy rIins Imperialism in volume Of leo
lures; and is soemnly replied to IN ,ne new vol
ume of "O1ford Essay" BY Goodwin smith.
Read that essay if you have the leisure. Goidwin
Smith is a writer Of mark. whom you have prob
sbly admired without knowing him, In The Times
and elsewhere.
Will Lord John ever recover himself is ques.
tion often asked. The Wing party is' 10 erea'
party at an end--its head having turned OUT lsil
ure. and ite BODY dvindled to rump. We are in
an age of chaos and coalition. Pam holds MS
ground by dint of the war and his adroitness and
administrative experience and parliamentary tact
But nobody supposes he can hold it long ss things
are. Lord Johns failures make it dificut for him
10 join Pam and try fresh quasiWhg coalition.
Sir James Graham deserted him and his opinions