ITEMS BY THE MAIL.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 288, 22 April 1879, Page 2

ITEMS BY THE MAIL.

(From the English papers.) The calamity in South Africa has been largely commented upon by- the Continental Press, and not in a tone which disV" plays much sympathy with England.» One distinguished French officer, whose ■ ,t ad-. - : miration for our troopa," we are told by, ■" the Standard, "is founded on the actual : experience of real ■warfare,-" has remarked - that what has happened,in South Africa is what would probably have happened Iny Turkey had we gone to war jWithj Russia last spring. We should, he tbinfcs, : have sent some 40,000 to- attack 200,000 Bussians, as we cent 15,000 men to attack t 50,000. The dieaster, says the , critic,- c ,;may tl have-its uses if it opens . the eyes of Englishmen to the" im- ■ perative necessity of bringing up' their military system to the requirements of '-'' modern, warfare. Imagine, he what it might have been if such a disaster hacf occurred, not in Africa, but in Afghanistan, or even nearer home, and if, instead of a column of five hundred men, a corps of fifty thousand men had been annihilated ? By what machinery could their -places have been filled up ? Lα France displays so strong an anti-English bias as to congratulate the " heroic savages" on their triumph, and to remind England that with, ~ her Afghan and African wars, her gigantic strikes, her commercial paralysis, she is now passing through a "a crisis which must prove one of the most arduous in her history." The German newspapers generally recognise the fact that the disaster is not only very serious for English Colonial policy, but for the English Government, and the National Twitting remarks that Her Majesty's Ministers will now have an exceedingly hard task in making a stand against the Opposition. Although Lord Beaconsfield deprecated anything like conjecture as to how the Zulu business occurred, military critics who know something of the Cape and its - people cannot refrain from discussing. _ the sad affair. The most generally: received opinion is that the draught oxen, , of which there were many thousands, had,' as usual, strayed some distance from the ■ camp in search of pasture, and that when ; '; once in the bush they were surrounded and captured by the Zulus. Upon this the first impulse of the troops in camp would be to recover their oxen. The same thing has occurred again and again in previous , wars. The hot-headed lads rush out in a hurry, without order or system, snatching up their arms and eager for the fray. The presence of older soldiers experienced in the ruses of the wily savage, has often; enough in times past stared off a similar defeat by cheeking the rash ardour of the. rest. : Unhappily the 24th .were all boys. There washaTdly'an old soldier of two or three years , service in the ranks, and it is easy to conceive that the whole battalion was carried away by excitement. Officers in such a case, when the men have got but of hand, can do little to stem the torrent. The men will go their own way. It was so probably upon this unfortunate occasion, and the way led them straight into, the jaws of death. Encircled by the Zulu method . of attack, having fired away all their ammunition, they would have fallen an easy prey to the assegai-charge of the enemy. This is a very plausible explanation of the disaster. ... -

Lord Chelmsford states that a< court of enquiry is collecting evidence, but it is to be feared that-th& only -witnesses are dead men. We-shall-require, however, to hear 1 something from the general in his own defence.. . As Colonel Thesiger, Lord Ohelmsford was highly thought of when Adjutant-General of the Indian army; he did well also, as colonel of the 9th, and as Lord Napier's chief of the staff in the Abyssinian Expedition Certainly he has had ho Cape experience but that gained within the last twelve months, and at the tinle of his appointment to the command its wisdom was questioned bysome few. The points which must be. explained are his plan of campaign, with its ... four widely-spread lines of advance, and the collection of so large a . quantity-of stores, material, and cattle, within the enemy's country, and before he had made good his position. No doubt he intended t hiscamp'as an advanced magazine and*

base of operations. If so, it will bo important to hear whether the camp was intrenched. It must have been the earthWorks which enabled the detachment under j 1 ™ 0 y° un S Engineer officers," Broraheaclf Mid Chard, to hold out so" heroically ."at Borke's Drift; and if Lord Chelmsford had neglected to strengthen- the headquarter camp in the same way he will be censured by many who are already quite disposed to take him severely to task. It is said that the Cabinet was at first strongly inclined to throw him over altogether, and make him bear the whole brunt of the blame. The manifest injustice of this, at least until further details come to hand, was, however, obvious, and for the present he is exposed only to innuendo and indirect attack. ■ - A gentleman, called Mr Nunn, whose friends and relations thought it necessary not without some reason, as the evidence adduced _at the trial plainly showed, to confine him in a lunatic asylum in a London suburb a few years ago, can scarcely be considered to have been well advised in bringing an action against the proprietor of that institution for wrongful incarceration and ill-treatment. He alleged that when he was there he was, on the occasion of an unsuccessful effort to escape,, punished on his return in a most shocking manner—stripped, duckedjin cold water till he fainted, plied with a. dose of chlorodyne, put in a dark room, tortured with shockefrom a galvanic battery.' These allegations were all of them circumstantitially denied-; the jury iwere satisfied with, the denial, and verdict against Mr, Nunn. That at the time when his friends thought it necessary to place him in retirement Mr Nunn must have been yery mad indeed, may be assumed from the fact that he was not only in the habit of swallowing gold studs " to do his stomach good," but that his favorite amusement was trying to take his own life and that of his wife and children alternately with a carving-knife. The domestic menage of the Nunn family must have been of an exceedingly curious description, for on One occasion when his son saw his father engaged in thrashing and generally mauling his mother, he was content with merely putting in a cheery protest from the recesses of an arm-chair, " I say, old fellow, don't hit the poor woman about in that way."

Tie death, at the age of eighty, has just occurred of the Provincial Grand Master of Herefordshire, Bro. the Rev. J. Bowles. D.D., vicar of Staunton Lacey, Salop. The deceased gentleman was the oldest Provincial Grand Master but one, having held the appointment since June, 1848. Governor Jonas, for so long master of the ceremonies at Newgate executions, has been permitted to pass out of the world very quietly. The grave old gentleman had a dry humor of hisown. When Sir John Bennet was sheriff, tickets to witness floggings were distributed so indiscriminately that the visiting justices resolved to jefuse all purporting to be given for journalistic objects except those held by representatives of the daily press. A gay connoisseur presented his pass at the wicket one morning that four garotters j were tpj}© scourged. " What paper do you \ come from ?" asked Mr Jonas. " The Sporting Galmder? was the answer. " Can't let you in ; this is not • sporting event," was the ready reply, A romantic breach of promise case was settled at Bristol Assizes oh Feb. 15. Miss Long, daughter of a merchant, sued a young gentleman named. Hobart, eon of Lieut.-CoL Hobart, of Bath, and one of the Oxford University crew. The counsel agreed to a verdict for £200, and £100 costs. There were 600 love letters in the case. The thirst for realistic acting in Paris is becoming. r so:; great']that conscientious actors and . actresses ,are really afraid to take a part unless they have made themselves practically acquainted with it by means of personal experience. We mentioned in a note not. long ago the case of a famous comedian who spent an hour or more a day for several weeks in a coalhole studying the attitudes and dialect of a representative of Auvergne. Since then a hosf.'of artistes from the various French theatres have been diverting themselves in a similar way to acquire the actual habits of the . class they are to mimic on the stage. Mdlle. Alphonsine, in preparing for the part of Madeline in a well-known modern comedy, was heroic enough to get up at five every morning and repair to the great market for the purpose .of observing a -real live dame dela halle. ' Ji the L adorable 'Chaumont is said to have letimt riding- 'on ; purpose to make with good effect her entry on horseback in thesecond act of Casimir the Great; while Mdlle.. Judic is supposed to be at the present time engaged in learning the harp for a scene in the forthcoming play by M. Gondinet. As fof'M;'Berfon,:whose. personification of .Ladislaus Bolski at the Vaudeville has been a subject of so much conversation, he prepared for it by studying—not Polish, which would, perhaps, have been the better plan, but—the art of hair-dressing. In the matter of drunken scenes, to which we are so everlastingly treated, few actors have probably taken bo mnch paina as M. Gil-Naya, of the Ambigu. This gentleman, before, he undertook to represent a man in delirium tremens, had the courage to become an inmate of the hospital where such persons are treated, and remained there no less than a fortnight exposed to the influence, or as one may almost say, the infection of the place. Finally, M. Ligier, who had to play the part of an English fool, went over to London and make a stay of six weeks, collecting hints and'patterns. We are not, unfortunately, informed what part of London or of its inhabitants he found most suitable for the end he had in view.

Among the papers seized by the police at Peace's house, when arrested for the Blackheath burglaries, was found a complete plan of Camden Place, Chi9lehurst, the residence of the Empress Eugenic and the Prince Imperial. This he had obtained by his marvellous impudence. He wrote last Autumn to the proprietor of Camden Place to beg permission to inspect it " witlt his architect," as he represented that he was about to build a large villa, and tb&t he understood that Camden Place was admirably designed. Hβ would not have taken this liberty but that he knew that the EmpTess and Prince were abroad, and he therefore presumed to trespass on the kindness of the proprietor. The favor was at once accorded, and Mr Peace and his " architect " on driving over and presenting the proprietor's permission, were allowed to view the premises and take a plan. Of this, no doubt, the ingenious burglar would have speedily availed himself had not his career been cut short by hie arrest. •

Pope Leo XHL has intimated his desire to raiso Dr Newman to the rank of cardinal, and that, with expressions of ♦deep respect for the Holy See, Dr CTewman has excused himself from accepting the sacred pqrplo; t J.i t is understood-,that, some, yearsago the late Pope .offered ,the" prelacy to Dr .Newman, who declined it in the same spirit which has'caused r him now to shrink from the higher'dignity. - <■' ■ •'• • Edward O'Kelly, the last of the Fenian prisoners, .was released, Feb. 14,- and ppt on board a vessel for emigration to the United States. " The Home-Rule candidate!, Cbldhel Celthurst, has been returned for Cork 'County by more than 6000 votes. , .* • *

Whydo not the young men of Victoria propose, is a question often asked, but never ' answered. The backwardness our youth display in becoming Benedicts has resulted in many damsela not out of their teens, and who want a husband, accepting the position of an " old man's darling." Some people contend that a disparity of age is not an impediment to conjugal happiness, but those with a knowlege of human nature maintain that the odds are great against unions between May and December turning out well. An up-country clergyman, who was lately called upon to marry a young girl to a man old enough to be her father, evidently entertained this view, and took care to let it be known. Opening his prayer-bbok, and, casting his eye over a -page, he thus addressed the astonished bridegroom-?" Hath this child been already baptized or no ?"— " Atticus" in the Melbourne; Leader. ■:-.:•. <\ '■'.::.