Morning journal and courier., 1885-12-19


 Literary Notes.
 Special Correspondence of the JOURNAL CoUR- TER. All Rights Reservedl
 LONDON, Dec. ,. It is really to be hoped that the English
 4s,o=.. toral law and manage to have all the polling tal.e i2laea on ona -aessNes t does in France That the canvassing -sSsss.ests peoples attention from business and every
 thing else is bad enough, but no doubt una
 voidable. That the polling should occupy
 close upon another month, however, is sim
 ply preposterous. In England it is not a
 man who votes, it is his property, and as there are plenty of Englishmen who own
 property in all parts of the kingdom and
 have 8 score of votes, they must have time
 given them to travel about and do their vot-
 ing. But no doubt with the spread of Lib eral ideas there will come time when each
 man will have one vote in his place of resi-
 dence and no other Then will it be possible to have the polling take place all over the land in one day.
 The prospects of the Liberal party brightening, thanks to the almost unanimous Liberal vote of the Scotch. At the present time the Liberal majority is about fifty. The newly enfranchised people in the counties vote for their iberators, the Liberals, and this will, perhaps, coonteract the result of the boroughs which has been decided by Conservatives thanks to the church panic, the visionary promise of fair trade and the vote of all the Irish residents, which had been ordered by ATr. Parnel1 the uncrowned King of Ireland, to be given to the Conserya- | ' ting working majority. The Irish question remains the burning one of the day, for neither party will be able to do without the Irish vote, eighty strong. The English seem determined not to give home rule to the Irish whatever other concessions they are ready to make, as they think there would be a danger in having in Ireland an independent State ready to make alliances with foreign poyers There senms no way out Of the hole but for the Conservatives and Liberals to CO., alesce and sternly refuse the Irish demands. In this cas the worst is to be feared, and i should not wonder if the next viceroy of Ire land were General Lord Wolseley. The pros pect is not brilliant one.
 Very acute the candidates in Lancashire. With an ingenuity worthy of a better cause they have succeeded in escaping the provis- ions of the Corrupt Practices act, which pro- hibits the use of hired carriages for the pur pose of conveying voters to the polls. This is how they proceed. The candidate pur- chases number of carriages few days be- fore the polling day, uses them for the convey ance of his supporters to the polls and as soon as the election IS over ably involves the loss of few hundred pounds; but to man with long purse this is but a secondary matter. This plan. which has apparently worked successfully in bor- ough, will doubtless be adopted in other constituencies where ffmopey is no object" 4,off icJ0 JrjtI ard to the use of hired carriages, says core spondent of the Pan Mall Gazette, twas to prevent the rich candidate having an unfair advantage over his poorer rival, it is difficult to conceive a more fragrant violation of the spirit of the act" True, but the English only know the letter of the law, and it is impossible to say that the letter of the law has been broken. The act will have to be altered. The purchase of conveyances for the exclusive purpose of conveying voters to the poll, as evidenced by the fact that the conveyances are disposed | of immediately after the election, will have l to be put upon the same footing as an lille gal hiring So that if the candidate insists upon conveying his supporters to the poll he will nave jolly bill to pay. l dare say some will go in for it.
 If a hearty drubbing has ever been richly | deserved it is that which the gallant little Bulgarians have lately administered to the 1 Servians. These poor Bulgarians were pre- ! pairing to make stand against the common oppressor, the 'sunspeakable'' Turk, when King Milan, whose prowess is
 anything but legendary, thought it was | time to attack his brethren Slavs, who, with his own subjects, had only just shaken
 off the terrible yoke It was sad spectacle e u; to see these poor little people, instead Of mak- | ing their cause common, cut each others throats Prince Alexander of Bulgaris has shown himself to be gallant soldier and skillful general. The Servians have lost all their pluck and the steadily increasing hum
 bers of the Bulgarians, among whom the
 Roumelians are perhaps the smartest, give to
 the former not only no hope of further sue
 cess, but a certainty of complete discomtit-
 ure The Bulgarians attacked their treaeh
 erous enemies with the bayonet and the Ser vians did not like the game. They propose to
 ask their King Bully to fight duel with ] Prince Alexander. I should like to see that. | I believe when civilization has made little | more progress and common sense taken hold
 of the people disputes between sovereigns will be settled in that way. Each will be provided with gun and enough ammuni- ton to warrant the destruction of both com batants. Then, and then only, will the peo-