Morning journal and courier., 1885-06-06
MAX 0RELL'S LETTER.

I Campaign Nm the Soudan-Vfctor
 Hugo-The Primitive Methodists.
 Especial Correspondence of the JOURNAL AND CoUR- | TER. All Rights Reserved.l
 LONDON, May ss, 1885, To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 l The Channel tunnel question is disposed of for a long time to come. The second reading
 of the bill was rejected by majority of near l ly 300 against 99. MT. Chamberlain, presi- l dent of the Board of Trade, moved the re- | jection in person. This decision is not much to be wondered at after all. The English attribute their security ,and no doubt rightly, ! to the fact of their inhabiting an island; the l more fanatical among them even see, in the geographical situation of Great Britain, the ! finger of God, and they are none of them in
 8 hurry to abandon their natural fortifcation, | and change their dear island into peninsu-
 Ia. Of course, England's refusal is ascribed 1 to various motives by French journalists, who cannot, will not, enter into her real reason for her final decision. An important Parisian paper seriously informs it's readers | that England is afraid of showing her real | inferiority to the world, and that she dreads,
 for her commerce, foreign competition. Can l it be possible that the staff of this paper never heard that England was the only coun- 1 try in Europe that allowed all foreign pro- ducts to be landed on her shores on free 1 trade principles? believe the utility of the l tunnel has been exaggerated in France, and l it's dangers in England. It is 8 work of art more than promising speculation, and the | French look at the question as artists, and the English as capitalists. At the same time
 I cannot help regretting that the rejection of | the bill should nave been moved by such large minded man as the Radical member for Birmingham. MT. Ashmead Bartlett ! much better man to act in this capacity. l | suppose Americans know Mr. Ashmead Bart l lett's name we'll for he is himself an Ameri-
 can, naturalized an Englishman. He is bet- ! ter known over here as the "Memter for l Eye" He has undertaken all to himself the care of British interests, which he revindi- I cates in England, the sonly" really conser- ! vative paper, of which le is the only contrib l utor, and the only reader.
 Arbitration is becoming fashionable just l now. The two rival Mahdis have sent depu | tations to the famous Sheikh Semoussi, in l Tripoll, to beg him to proceed at to | Kordofan, and to decide which of them is the i real and which the false prophet. The ! Sheikh has accepted the honor, but he does \ not propose to settle the question at once. ! He has intimated that Che will leave the | | his judgment when 8 decisive victory has l been won by either party" Undoubtedly 1 the Sheikh is wise person.
 | By the death of MT. F. J. Fargus, better l known by his pseudonym of Hugh Conway, England has lost novelist who was on tLe l very threshold of a most brilliant career l The author of Called Back" work which | has enjoyed the unprecedented sale of 35O,- 1 900 copies since its appearance in 1883, was ! taking a holiday in the south of France, when he was attacked, about two months | ago, wit typhoid fever. Hugh Conway was ! only thirty six years of age, and until year ago was partner in the principal auctioneer- ! ing firm in Bristol. "Called Back' was dramatized by MT. Comyus Carr and had great success in London. It was played, at one time, by over dozen companies in Eng I land and America. The style of the writer ! was loose and unstudied, but his weird fan cies took by storm vast circle of readers. ! who felt their interest enchained by the l action of the story while they read, and little needed any imperfection of method. All the readers of his books that have spoken with I averred their inability to lay down the vol | ume until they had read to the end. After ''Ca11ed Back' came "Dark Days" Hugh Conway had also completed "A Family Af- fair" now appearing in the English nlustrat- ed Magazine. But his are not precisely the
 kind of tales likes to read by small in stallments out of monthly magazine. Fancy being confronted by the announce
 ment to be continued in our next in the
 midst of one of his thrilling situations.
 People'here are pretty well satisfied with the
 changes made in the Old Testament by the
 revisers. A few elderly ones may be inclined
 to sigh over the alteration of certain texts
 that have sounded music in their
 from childhood; but it is generally allowed
 that, on the whole, the new version is @ gain
 in clearness over the old. The discussion
 that is now going on as to the respective
 Al Tz1 xo
 ments brings to my mind witty anecdote
 about the present Cardinal Archbishop of
 Paris. M. Cremieux, the famous Hebrew
 iurisconsult who was member of the Nation al Defence in 1870, had enjoyed the hospital
 ity of Monsignor Guibert at Tours. On leav ing he said to his illustrious host: "Monsig
 nor, the wicked Jew would part from the good Christian very happy if he would al
 low him to embrace him.' The archbishop gave his consent. "Ah! monsignor," exclaim- ed M. Cremieux, ''this is the reconciliation
 between the Old and the New Testament"
 Excuse me, M Cremieux," archly replied
 the archbishop" the reconciliation is almost q case of impossibility, for you, who are a clever lawyer, ought to know that the last
 Testament renders all previous ones null and
 void so that mine is the only good one, you see."
 General Lord Wolseley is to return to
 England immediately, and the whole of the
  Never was 8 campaign so utterly useless, so
 utterly frnitless. I see, however, that an
 English firm has turned the British occupa- ton to account. At Otao, about twenty
 miles from Suakim the Suakim and Der Ger railway, stands 8 huge rock one hundred feet high On the face of this rock 8 colos sal advertisement, two hundred and fifty feet square, in letters four and a half feet high, indicates that s'Pear's Soap is the best"
 I fear that, before this letter reaches Ameri ca, France will have lost her greatest son. Victor Hugo is ill, and all France is In sus pense as to how the illness will end Busy men go out of their way to get the latest tidings of his state, and an lncessant stream of carriages makes it's way at pace to his door, carrying men and women anxious lest the great light of France should go out. Never since the death of Voltaire has an ap- preaching death caused such sensation. Party animosities are set aside for the time, | and the important questions of the day are, How is he? Will he recovers Political din ners and festivities in general are being put l off; there is no heart for pleasure in the l Parisians while this threatening cloud hangs | over Paris. The great poet speaks calmly of death it seems, and believes his end to be ] approaching. A complication of heart dis | ease and congestion of the lungs is serious at | eighty-three The prolonged cold weather | has tried him, and he has rashly exposed | himself to it's effects by standing about on | the site of his new house, in consultation | with the architect. The London papers | make comments upon the state France is in about her poet, and kindly remark that l nation with such characteristic is not yet | in it's decline. It is true that we French | have not the bump of veneration particularly l developed; but, whatever our shortcomings may be, I hope that one of our redeeming | points will always be our love for the beauti ful, and an admiration for genius which al most amounts to worship.
 No modern literature can show such stories as those of Victor Hugo; now full of Titanic force, now delicate and graceful as 8 flower or child. If Victor Hugo had touched only one of his many strings, if he had only been lyrist, dramatist, or novelist, he would still have ranked with the most famous French writers. But adding, as he does, variety and abundance to excellence, he stands greatest in the roll of French literary | worthies. Yes, France has waited till this 1 century for her poet of widest range, ofmost musical tongue, mighty voiced inventor of harmonies, :" of whom England's Poet Eau- reate said:
 in in