, 1880-02-11

The following, story from Russia illus.
trstes the dangerous state Of the country,
eAAccOrdingt9to the Mosc0a0! Gazette, the
following curious incident occurred in st.
Petersburg q few days ago :-As I have
already informed your readers, rigorous
efforts are being made by the Russian
ecclesiastical authorities to counteract the
spread of Nihilism. One Of the priests at.
tached to the Isaac Cathedral lately deli
vered q sermon in condemnation of the
revolutionary p~ropagandiSts, and a day OF
two afterwards he wal surprised to re-
ceive at his house a visit from three young
men, who expressed a great desire to make
his personal acquaintance. AS soon as
they were announced by the servant, the
priest suspected there was something
wrong, and before asking them in, took the
precaution of sending for an attendant to
be present during the interview. In the
presence of this person the three men in
formed the priest that, in his sermon de-
Hvered in the Isaac Cathedral, he had In.
suited the better representatives of the
young generation" and that they had
come to ask him never to repeat anything
of the kind again. On the priests reply
ing chat he should always preach what bis
duty and conscience dictated, one OF the
trio drew a revolver from his pocket and
levelled it at the priest. Fortunately the
attendant, who had been called in, seized
the would be assassin in time and wrench
ed the weapon out of mis- hand. The other
two attempted a rescue, but all the servants
in the house making their appearance, the
q better representatives of the rising gen.
Grafton" were marched off to the police
station
The Beers of the Transvaal held a meet
ing in December at which they passed re-
solutions which ignored the English Co.
vernment lately established there, and
stated their readiness to sacrifice their
lives in defence of their liberties. The
Chairman and Secretary of the Beers COM
mittee, Mess. P~r@tOrius and Box were
arrested by the Transvaal Government
OH a charge OF treason. Bail had been
accepted. Another prominent Boer is
looked after on the charge of conspifing
with SecocOeni. Sir Garnet WOlseley, at a
dinner in Pretoria, had stated that it
would be unsafe to trust the Beers with
executive functions, and that the T%ransvaal
would be governed as a crown colony.
The con dition of the country was attracting
considerable attention in England.
A gentleman who writes to the Times SAYS
awe constantly see the question argued
for or against the demand of the Beers for
restoration of their independence, as
though they-or at any rate they and the
English settlers were the only inhabitants
of the Transvaal but surely we must not
forget that for every white man in the ter.
ritory there are in all probability ten black
men. The only statistics have by me are
those given in "Whitaker's Almanackn
for this year, in which I find the inhabi.
tants of the T%ransvaal calculated at
about 800, 900, of whom 25, 900 or 10000
are whites )" and I imagine This is not far
from the estimate which would generally
be made by travellers and officials.
But this much is certain-that whatever
be the number of the natives, they are
now the Queens subjects and our country
men and it is the duty of the Govern.
ment to consider their interests and rights.
1t not their wishes, in dealing with the
territory which they inhabit. Nor can we,
in considering their interests, forget that
one great reason, if not the chief reason,
why the Beers first went to the Transvaal
and now demand to be independent rulers
OF the Transvaal, is that they desire to
carry out their ideas of native policy,
which to say the least, arc not in accor,
dance with the usual English ideas Of
justice aud humanity"
Tt is amusing to notice how the circum-
stances Of the American Irish put them
out Of sympathy with Mr.. Parnell and his
party. Mr.. Parnell went to America to
preach a political doctrine; but he has
found that he must alter his tactics. In
fact he has been told that he can get
fnonaU IN rn1iouo dictrocc h,x% cC-o