EUROPEAN ITEMS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3056, 12 April 1881, Page 3

EUROPEAN ITEMS.

A protest on behalf of the London Positivist Society, signed by Professor Beesly, has been issued against the Transvaal war. It asserts that the original annexation was soon admitted by all except the handful of persons who were responsible for it to have been a flagrant injustice, and that the only reason that has any semblance of morality which has been advanced for maintaining the annexation is, that the Boers are a minority of the inhabitants of the Transvaal, and that we are bound to remain in the interest of the native races. But justice would be satisfied by recognizing the independence of the Boers in the districts they really occupy, and forbidding them to encroach any further on the native tribes. The real motive for maintaining the annexation was the immoral and fatal maxim that our prestige requires ns never to draw back from any enterprise however ill-advised and unju9t; but the frank confession that one has been in the wrong is no more degrading to a nation than to an individual.

Under the double-headed eagle, as under the British flag, no slavery is permitted, and tbe hoisting of tbe Russian standard on the ruined ramparts of the Turkoman fortress was the signal for the emancipation of 700 wretched Persian captives. Half-naked, starving, and covered with bruises, after being compelled to work all day, they were chained at night hand and foot to stakes and guarded by dogs. No words could describe the rapture of these unfortunate men when the Russians told them they were free to return to the province of Khorassan, from whence most of them bad been carried off by the Tekkea. Within the fortress the Russians found about 4,000 Turkoman families, or about 18,000 individuals, whose astonishment knew no bounds when, instead of being butchered or enslaved, they were treated with scurpnlous kindness, and confided to the care ot the Russian Red Cross Society.

A correspondent of tbe Inventors Record suggests the use of burning petroleum for repelling hostile fleets from harbors. A hundred thousand barrels of oil poured upon an outflowing tide would cover a large area of wa'er, and when set on fire would sweep a fleet with a torrent of destruction that nothing coiAd resist. When a street of burning oil ran down the Allegheny River laßt winter the flames sometimes leaped up nearly a huudred feet, and threw out lateral tongues of fire terrible to see. Such flames around an ironclad fleet would asphyxiate all on board. Another plan would be to link together long lines or rafts of oil barrels and sent them against the fleet by small swift steam launches that could be exploded and the oil fired by the same agency at the proper moment ; and, if necessary, line after line of the fire rafts could be drifted or driven against the enemy until every vessel was destroyed. Such an application of floating fire might also be used to protect a system of torpedoes in a ship channel, by making it impossible to operate any counter system for exploding or removing the torpedoes by men in small boats. Obviously this plan would not do to rely upon generally, though in certain emergencies it might be resorted to with terrible effect.

Three biographies of Mr Carlyle are, it is stated, in preparation. Mr Froude has written to the Times to say that Mr Carlyle m?de over to him all his correspondence, his journals, private papers, and unfinished manuscripts, with permission to use them or destroy them as he might think fit. The materials are extremely voluminous, several thousand letters among them : Mr Carlyle's own letters to members of his family, and letters from tbe most eminent of his contemporaries to himself. Besides these were "Reminiscences" of his father and mother, of Edward Irving, of Lord Jeffery, and the materials for a memorial of Mrs Carlyle, intended to form an introduction to the letters of hers which he had prepared for publication. These sketches, Mr Froude says, will appear in a few weeks; sketches of his father, James Carlyle, of Ecclefechan; of Edward Irving, of Lord Jefferey, and of Jane Welsh Carlyle. The first three will be printed exactly as Mr Carlyle left them. Mr Froude continues:— " The mass of matter remaining on my hands is so extensive that I have not decided in what way to deal with it. Mr Carlyle's own letters are so uniformly admirable that none of them ought to be lost. The same may be said of the letters to him from Goethe, Mill, Jeffrey, Sterling, Emerson, Leigh Hunt, Dickens, Thackeray, Varnbagen yon Ense, and many other famous persons."

Correspondents who venture to approach Lord Beaconsfield should beware how they address him. He resents being miscalled. An author, who knows more of Sylvan scenery than of the ranks and titles, lately addressed his envelope to the Earl of Beaconsfield, G.C.B. A reply came from the earl's own hand, and very sarcastic it was. He had not the honor, he said to possess the Grand Cross of the Bath, but it was true that his gracious Sovereign had been pleased to bestow unon him the honour of numbering him among her Knights of the Garter. The polite modesty wherewith his lordship seems to hint that his own demerits have prevented him from obtaining the higher ftonor of the Batb, when all the world knows the Garter to be the most highly prized, is characteristic. A Canadian authority assures us that the Princess Louise has a weakness for making pastry, and in connection with this assertion gives the following story. At one of the dinners given at Ottawa last summer a distinguished guest had a fondness for apricot tart. His delight was iudescrible when the servant placed

an apricot tart before him, to which he did full justice. He even complimented the hostess upon the excellence of her pastrycook. "I am so glad you like them," said the Princess, " because I made them myself." And in order that her guests should in future be able to know how apricot tarts should be made, the royal lady wrote out the recipe, with the words underlined, "If you desire to have an apricot tart properly cooked, always make it with an upper crust \ " The story has point, like Mr Byron's Upper Crrt.it, but the point of this one ia that one can never how to do a thing too well.

Confidential information has been communicated to the Government of an alleged intention on the part of a secret society to imitate the action of Guy Fawkes and blow up the Palace of Westminster. To the reliability of the intelligence the police authorities give general credence, and have accordingly adopted special and elaborate precautions. Ever since the evening upon which the Home Rulers were expelled from the House a large body of special constables and detectives from Scotland-yard have formed a complete cordon round the extensive circle which the palace covers. Every entrance has been carefully guarded, and a reserve body of men retained on duty in convenient contiguity, so that their services might be speedily requisitioned in case of an emergency. All the subterranean passages—and their name is legion —are being guarded night and day by metropolitan and Scotland-yard detectives.

Something like an epidemic of blackballing has come over some of the most coveted and exclusive of London clubs. Three weeks ago Lord Durham, proposed by Lord Granville and seconded by Lord Hartington, was rejected at Brook's; a little later Lord Rosebery was " pilled " at the Travellers'; and now tbe same malignant destiny at the same establishment has overtaken Lord Lytton. 1 hackeray said that a man mast be very obscure or possessed of almost supernatural influence to get into a club after the age of thirty. There is much truth in the remark. If a club candidate is known favorably to most of the electors of a club, there are sure to be some who will embrace with alacity the opportunity of doing him a bad turn. There is something pleasant to most people in the exercise of power, and the consciousness of dropping a black bean into the ballot box at a club election gratifies this feeling. In all clubs, too, there is a certain number of gentlemen who resent the idea of having any fresh members. There may also be some who think it desirable to administer to tbe most highly-placed of candidates a reminder that they are mortal.

An influential and enthusiastic meeting of noblemen and gentlemen, mostly of Scotch nationality, was held recently at the town residence of the Duke of Sutherland, to protest again&t any change being made in the distinctive tartans worn by the Highland regiments, as contemplated by the Government. Petitions to the Queen and the Secretary for War, subscribed to by most of the nobility of Scotland, and supported by upwards of 2400 signatures, were unanimously adopted, and the Duke of Sutherland and The Mackintosh of Mackintosh were requested to present the same. The great State ball at Berlin last week was marked by an incident which deserves to be noticed. Before all his brilliant Court and the assembled Diplomatic Corps, the Emperor presented Colonel tbe Hon. Paul Methuen, British military attach, there, with the silver medal for saving life, in recognition of bis having a few days ago, at great personal risk, gallantly jumped into a canal and rescued a would-be suicide from death. This is a similar medal to that which was presented to Prince Bismarck for saving his groom from drowning when serving in the Uhlans of tho Landwehr, and which he is still fonder of wearing than any other among the multitude of orders conferred upon him. The story is told of a diplomatist who once superciliously asked the Chancellor the meaning of this modest decoration, and to whom he lightly replied, turning on his heel, that he was in the habit sometimes of saving a man's life.

The Duke de la RochefoucauldBisaccia has just found out the fact that his plate cupboard was being gradually emptied of its valuable contents under rather singular circumstances. The duke possesses a marvellous collection of plate, engraved with his coat of arms, and comprising amongst other articles twelve dozen richly-chased dinner plates. Latterly he gave a dinner party to twelve friends, the said plates being, of course, used. After the first course, and, indeed, after each course, the plates were brought in so hot that the guests in touching them burned their fingers. When they were gone the duke sought an explanation of this circumstance, and was informed that the plates bad to be washed in scalding water after each course. " But I have twelve dozen," retorted the duke. " There is only one dozen left, monsieur," replied the valet; and upon inspecting the cupboard this was found to be exact. The elven dozen bad been gradually purloined, but have been happily recovered from the pawnbrokers, where they had been pledged for 8000 francs. When the duke expressed his surprise tbat such an amount of plate, with arms engraved on it, should have been received, he was told that "so many of the aristocracy pawned their plate that the circumstance had excited no suspicion.

Much agitation id at present astir amongst us in London as to the diminution of smoke, and thereby, it ia hoped, effecting the diminution of the fogs which are usually so prevalent iv London about this time. Although we are somewhat sceptical as to the effectual removal of fogs by an absolute removal of smoke, yet, we think, that there is no reason why a large city, such as London, should not have an atmosphere as pure and free from smoke as that of a small provincial town. It is now becoming more generally known that, in th« 2 case of factories, the smoke of boiler furnaces may be entirely avoided by substantial mechancial appliances. An improved apparatus for preventing the generation of smoke in an ordinary open grate has been invented. This arrangement is exceedingly simple, as may be seen from the illustrations, and the beneficial effect upon the state of the atmosphere must be undoubtedly great, from an entire cessation of smoke from ordinary domestic fires. The conditions are essentially simple, and we think it a standing slur on our powers of, invention that any open grate should be allowed to generate the volumes of smoke that are frequently seen to issue from the ordinary household chimney, and to send a very large proportion of its heat up the chimney instead of into the room. So, entirely to obviate the smoke nuisance, it is but necessary that the fresh fuel should be coked gradually, and that the volatile gases or smoke so produced should meet the air at a sufficiently high temperature to be consumed. This may be effected by causing the volatile products from the coking fuel to pass through the bright shot part of the fire. This would be effected by coking the fresh fuel, either under or at the back of tos ordinary

grate. The latter arrangement is well worked out in the invention. The former we have yet to see.

, The latest news from Persia does not promise quiet times in that empire. The eldest son of the Shah, who bears the title of Zel-es-Sultan or "Shaddow of the Shah," has left his seat of governorship of Ispahan, and has gone to TeheraD, ready, it is stated in telegrams, to lend his father a large sum of money he requires, upon condition that certain powers of government are granted to himself. From the other side it is reported that there are complaints against the government of tbe Crown Prince at Tabrecz. The Shah long since notified to the Powers that his second son, tbe Governor of Tabreez, had been nominated heir apparent, to the exclusion of his eldest son the Governor of Ispahan. The reason of this is tbat in Persia it is usual to select as heir the son of the higbest-born mother; and the Shah's second wife was a princess, not the first; but tbe Zil-es-Sultan, who has racked Central Persia for years for his own advantage, and has acquired great wealth by great tyranny, is much the more determined of the two young men ; and little doubt is felt that the powers he is now asking from the Shah are to be made the basis of an attempt to grasp the imperial succession at the death of the present Shah. That event might in the opinion of some who are well acquainted with Ceutral Asian politics, lead to a civil war of North against South in Persia, a war in which it would be very difficult to avoid the protection of Russia for the northern belligerent, leading to that of England for those who contended for empire in the south. The division of Persia under such patronage into north and south is regarded as one of the possibilities of the future which this fraternal quarrel may bring about.