Morning journal and courier., 1886-03-13

part of their duty aright. One Lord-Lieu- tenant succeeds another with the rapidity of | a French Prime Minister, holds his mock
 court and goes his way, but the same under
 lings are in office yesterday, to-day and to-
 morrow, and to the Castle revels are invited | the lucky personal friends and acquaint- | ances of these officials to the exclusion of
 numbers of people who have a right to e1- | pect to be admitted. Inde ire.
 1 A good story comes from Cairo about Cor | don's paper money. It appears that en- | terprising ring at Cairo is trying to float l some forged Gordon's bonds; but the joke is l that nobody knows what has become of the l gennine bonds.. It is the common belief 1 Bull good turn. The bonds fell into the
 Mahdi's hands. Tho Mahdi's followers | whose notions on money matters were not | quite clear, innocently imagined that they 1 could do the English no worse turn than the | destruction of their paper promises, and all the paper money was destroyed. So it is 1 believed at all events. Of course the gov l ernment, who would have to pay the bill, l does not make it it's business to start an in 1 quiry. The forgers were arrested. As for | the bondholders, well, if they do not turn up, so much the better for the govern | ment.
 When Masillon, preaching before the Court | of Louis XIV. in the beginning of the eight eenth century, thundered forth his eloquent I mingling of reproach and prophecy; when he | said to the mighty ones of the land, ''What have you ever done that the Almighty should thus exalt you over your fellow men, over thousands of poor wretches who daily eat the bread of tears and bitterness" when he plainly told them that they were not worthy to hold the rank that the hazard of birth had placed them in, I imagine they just set him down in their own minds for a kind of lunatic, and went on their usual way little tormented by fears of the revolu- tion in the distance. That Masillon, however, saw what was in store for them is plain enough from his words: "God will take | away the gifts which you have so misused, they will not descend to your posterity.' Is it a sign of the times that the Bishop of
 Truro, preaching in one of the most fashion able churches of London last Sunday, fol ! lowed on the lines of Masillon, and boldly l told his high-born hearers that their mode Of
 life was all wrong. He did not scruple to tell them that they | had only themselves to thank for the
 present disturbed state of things. The poor
 man, homeless, starving, shivering, was get | ting embittered against the rich, and for good reason He spoke of the fabulous | sums paid for wine and other luxuries and
 the general self-indulgence of the upper | classes, and altogether gave them a sound
 rating. But fancy very few of that Eaton l square congregation failed to do justice to a 1 geod dinner that day because of Bishop Will | kinson's harangue on the subject of their l lavish luxury. The world is much the same | as it was in the eighteenth century, and though one can but admire the Bishops | bold speech, it is doubtful whether his hear
 CTS will heed it more than the French nobles | needed that of Masillon, or than they needed
 the ''Contrat Social" of Jean Jacques Rous | sea, when the book burst upon the French
 world some ten years only before the terri
 oe ansb ion Ase they evea goca had
 and made fun of it. They called it mad | theory, the book of an Utopist. But as Car | lyle once said their skins went to bind the
 second edition. Yet England is passing | through most critical times at present, and | her sensible people are aware of it. l have l just returned home from a featuring tour | through the whole of England, Scotland and | Ireland. Everywhere people are expecting | something unknown; everywhere the same l depression everywhere the same state of
 suspense people living from hand to mouth, | people homeless. How will England pull l through in the event of a prolonged state of | people read, unfortunately for the upper l ten of England. These go on their way ap | parently unconcerned and unaware that l there may be yet good deal of binding to | be done.
 We have not heard the last of the Craw- | ford -Dilke divorce case. It was soon run l through, but the decision which the judge l came to seems to have satisfied nobody s | sense of justice. ''What" says everyone of 1 us, 'grant divorce on Mrs. Crawford's un-
 sworn statement of her guilt with Sir Charles | Dilke and then declare the same Sir Charles l Dilke innocent of offencel There is no log l ic, not even common sense in such proceed | ings." If MT. Crawford obtained the relief | he asked for it was because the statement of | his wife was accepted as true, by which de- l cision Sir Charles is naturally declared gull | ty. But the decision being that the honora | ble baronet is not guilty, Mrs. Crawford's l story breaks down. Then why did MT. 1 Crawford get his decree nisi? Do what we | will there is no way out of the circle. It Is
 one of those delicious muddles that English | justice alone can perpetrate. It is said that | Sir Charles went to the court ready to go | into the witness-box and deny oath the | charges made against him; that, if he did | not, it was because his friend and colleague, Mir. Joseph hamberlain, we'll as his | learned counsel, so strongly advised him to | hold his peace, and that he is now very anx-
 ious to deny the dreadful charges on oath. | But whether the case is tried again not, | I am thinking that, in these days of purity | movements, England will be deprived of the services of one of her youngest and cleverest l statesmen for good mauy years to come. Of l course, things are forgotten in time, espec ially in England, and Sir Charles Dilke may eventually re-enter the political arena, but, as things now stand, MT. Crawford has succeed ed in getting him out of the race, and so far has had his revenge.
 The Wet Nurse and Baby show, of which l spoke few weeks ago, has been held in Paris, 1 and, strange to say, the prizes were awarded in the great hall of the solemn Serbonne. Instead of Latin discourses peculiar to that
 grave amphitheatre, there were the crow ings and -cryings of young and hopeful France. One nurse received 8 prize of 100
 francs for rearing twenty-four children, and
 many plump babies were also duly recon
 pensed. Many acts of injustice, I pre- dicted, were committed and many young
 mothers returned home highly disgusted
 that'our darling, undoubtedly the best of the lot" had not been awarded prize. At
 one time the mortality among infants in
 France given out to nurse was as high as
 thirty per cent. During the past twenty
 years it has been reduced to fourteen.
 MAX O'RELL.