, 1875-06-23

VIII heIp to protect nyDOo Is a di1erent
matter. We take it, most successful as
sassins-there have been exceptions in
Spain have been unpaid, and that any
man rich and cowardly enough to suborn
a bravo would be cowardIy enough also
to avoid writing about this crime. How
ever if Prince Bismarck will be more
comfortable with such a law, let him have
it, by ell means. When he is content
Europe is tranquil, for that five minutes
at all events.
Prince Bismarck is learning by ex-
perience. According to a special tele-
gram to the Pail Mall Gazette, he has
issued an order dissolving the Press Bu-
tons during the recent war panic. He Is
right. A Momiteur may often be useful,
and under some forms of government may
be almost indispensable, but a semi-oficial
Press invariably does .mischief. 1t is
not controlled like q MOnteur, yet it is
trusted whenever it threatens as if it were,
while it's eufogies create no qualification.
Its conductors are almost sure to say more
than their chief means, or if they respect
his instructions exactly, they are SO tame
that nobody pays them the necessary at
t~ention. If Prince Bismarck wants to be
heard without writing dispatches, be should
confne himself to a recognised Monite&r.
The Secretary for the Colonies has pro-
hibited the slaughter of elephants in Cey-
lon, where the beasts are being rapidly ex-
terminated. No more elephants are to be
killed except for Government purposes for
some time to come, though "rogue" ele-
plants, which are dangerous to life, and
elephants which ravage the crops, may
still be shot down. The beast is greatly
wanted, it is said, in the island to assist in
public works, and it has a certain value
in war in countries where carriage is either
scarce or difficult. Moreover, it is a pity
that an animal of such exceptional intelli-
gence and peculiar form, an animal hardly
belonging to our epoch, should perish out,
and he is perishing fast, the increased
price of ivory putting whole tribes upon
his track. In Africa the beast is massacred,
and in India the supply of the stud yearly
becomes more difficult, till it was the opin-
ion of the late Mr.. Blyth, o naturalist
whose attachments were recognised all over
Europe, but who was entirely unrecog-
missed in Calcutta, that in a century the
elephant would probably be as extinct as
the m~astodon.
A remarkable letter from Professor E.
S. Beesly to the Pail Mall Gazette of
yesterday shows that he has lived and
learnt, which is not what we usually
expect from people who hold dogmas so
very independent of anything like plausi-
BILE evidence for them as the Positivists
do. Usually such theorists hold a shield
of triple brass between their hearts and
the teaching of events. However, it is
not so with Professor Beesly. He admits
the fact that but for Russia, Germany
might recently have plunged Europe once
more into war, and then remarks that OF
the only coalition which could secure
Europe against this danger England must
be the keystone. Whereupon he exhorts
Englishmen to demand an increase in the
quality and number of our armies, and
"puts on the SHELF for the present,
though he does not "% renounce," all the
doctrines unfavourable to expenditure on
ornaments, which he has formerly broach-
ed. In conclusion, Professor Bessly mar
rates the following:-"I was talking the
other day to . manufacturer who sympa-
thised warmly with Germany in the last