The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1875-10-18


its nauseous odor, to drive out their adver
saries from n cave when they could no
otherwise dislodge them; and Captain
| Mayne Reid has very rividy described IL
effects 10 his thrilling romances. am sur
that the Englishman With bis own pipe, a
you smell it right here 10 London or Liver
pool (aad you find the SINE horrible smell
just as bad. or worse, in Scotland, aInit
! her most charming scenery, would have
done the same work in about half tine
time that 1t took the Indians to fire
iup the creosote weed. Yet, in al
candor, | must own that / do remem.
Der one stencil which the Iowa people
might perhaps put up against the English
mans pipe. was up in Iowa sorae years
ago. and we were running by rail Of O sweet
summers night over a prairie, When of a
| sudden We encountered an odor that GER
tainly was not sweet. Inquiring the caUse, I
| was told that the train was not On fire, or
Anything burning, as inuocently' suggested,
but that We had "rpn down skunk" and
| further, that it was the common practice for
| that particular railroad to run over skunks in
that way with the same precise enchanting
results as TO smell. I left Iowa very soon
after ward, and have had no more Of that sort
Of luck until l came to England this sum-
mer.
ENGLISH CIVILIZATION.
II may be said by some that these matters,
though touching the everyday experience of
the traveller, are Of far less moment in judg-
ing England or English civilization than the
Just administration of the laws, the moral
elevation of Queen Victoria, the bearing OF the
heir apparent, and the naval supremacy of
the Empire. One swallow does not make
a summer, but there are recent melancholy
examples under each Of these heads enough
to make thoughtful Englishman wish for 10
improvement. The court Of England has just
declared in effect that there is one law for tue
poor and another foc the rich by saying that
Colonel Btker, Of the army and the upper
classes, after being convicted OF an attempt
at rape upon an unprotected lady. is to be let
Off with years easy imprisonment, and no
hard or degrading labor imposed upon him.
English society says this sentence is about
right, aud that the loss Of social position for
Baker is punishment enough for such on of
fence. OF this society" the Prince Of Wales
is the natural cap sheaf and ornament. The
newspapers tell you much of bim and his
movements; but the! never so muca as hint
at what you may readily pick up at any
din1er-table Of well-informed gentlemen
namely, that the days and nights OF the
Prince are consecratcd not to studying The
duties of the exalted position he is to tlll,
but to vice and libertiuism. Her Majesty,
however, is pious and has q warm side for
the clergy and Exeter Hall. Her servants,
acting usder her own eye, in her own royal
yacht. deliberately violate the law of the
road" in the crowded waters of the Solent,
run down yacht, hurry into eternity three
Innocent persons, and when jury,
,hn Silppt tn thn murder.
timidlv suggest that a little more cau-
ton in future might be better on the part
of the officers of the royal yacht, her MaJesty
at once rushes into print with letter, which
was upuuestiouably intended TO condoDe and
defend the monslrous outrage Of her ser
wants. Turning from such bad examples to
the one point OF administration on which It
is absolutely essential for England to hold
her own--ber naval supremacy-We find ber
naval officers building one great ship OF war
which, soon after, is sunk in mld-ocean
with nearly all her crew; then 5ulld.
ing another iron.clad, at COST
of millions of dollars; then third
at like cost, and yet, in profound peace and
m:dsummer.time smooth seas, ordinary
British weather, British waters, and no spe-
cial emergency to occasion haste or mistake,
they haven't scpse or skill enough to keep
No. 8 from running down and sinking No.
.. An investigation of the affair, conducted
! at great expense, shows, of course, that no.
BODY is TO blame, and that all the officers OF
| both ships deserve the greatest credlf ana
| then follows the solemn CONCLUSION OF tne
London Times that after all the whole iron.
clad system on which the British navy has
been constructed at such enormous expense
| is probably waste Of money mistake,
| and that the work will have to be done
over again somehow or other. DeSpalrlng
over their failures, even American ideas are
caught at and welcomed in sort Of fashion.
Now. lave no uDkind feeling towards
England, and none certainly for the many
charming English ladies and manly gentle
men have met this summer. both here ana
on the contirent. In the better classes or
English people ] meet more points OF con.
genlaity and more 10 reSpCcI than III inJ
other nation, except our own. lly dis
gust for such wretched and expensive
establishments as the Inns of Court Hotel
in London, Maclean's Hotel at Glasgow, and
| the Edinburgh Hotel in thc capital OF the
Gland of cakes" has not mirred my eXqui.
site enjoyment of such places as AbbOttsford,
Dry burgb, Ayreshirc, Chester, Shrewsbury,
and other British localities. Even in old,
smoky, dirty London have a sort of home
feeling, and go about as if had grown up
| with rather confused ideas about the proper
use of The letter f.
But though am still under the impression
of delightful trip just made 10 Scotland,
visiting the banks OF bonnie Doune" ana
castle of Montgomery, recaliDg there the
outline OF one OF the mosttouching incidents
OF all personal romance as my footsteps press
ed the spot where Burns and his Highland
Mary may have wandered on just such
sweet summers day as mine was, Zee
that I would just now rather see the
spire OF Trinity church, New York
looming up than to sit under the lofty
aisles of Westminster Abbey or hear the
halfangelic chart oil The morning service il
Temple church. There is much, indeed. IL
America TO criticise and correct mlcn tc
mourn over and lament since its rule ha'
been confaed to Republican charlatan!
and the money powcr-bIt with al IL
faults the one great lesson taught by sum
mer's observation in Europe is the marked
superiority OF cur o|n country to the sys
TENS, the habits: and the people of the ole
| World. L.. u w.