CLIPPINGS FROM HOME PAPERS.

Evening Star, Issue 3369, 6 December 1873, Page 2 (Supplement)

CLIPPINGS FROM HOME PAPERS.

VK'i'OK KM MANUEL ON THU FUANCO-I’KUSSI AN WAK. The Timcs's correspondent states that in Ins first interview with the Emperor of Germany, Victor Emmanuel avows that * although he strongly blamed Napoleon for his umraiun - able attack tm Prussia in 1870, he was bound to that monarch by such debts of gratitude anti by sued ties of family as could not make him indifferent to France’s sudden and violent cheeks and to her ultimate downfall. Hail it been in my power,” he said, • it would have been my duty to march to the rescue ol the at the head of 200,000 combatants ; but I was nut a free agent in _ the matter, and I now look upon the past as irrevocable.” .JUSTICE ASLEEP IN CALIFORNIA. Another of the numerous murders which disgrace this city has just occurred, in the case of a man named Curtin, who deliberately shot another man named Johnson, because the lattei refused to marry a daughter whom Johnson was alleged to have seduced, lius happened in a public street in San Francisco and in broad daylight, but the murderer was not arrested until he had coolly retired to his house ami was taking his breakfast. He was evidently under the conviction that he had done a legitimate thing, and that he would escape any penalty tor the offence. A short time previously a similar act was perpetrated, a person named Marchant, the father of a large family, having been shot during business hours by one Samuel. Ihc plea that the murdered man had made improper advances to the daughters of Samuel was considered by the grand jury a sufficient reason for the act, so no charge was preferred against him. Curtin had evidently acted with this case before him, and it is most probable that, whatever the fault may have been of the daughter, the giand jury in his cuse, in, that of Samuel s, will ignore the bill for murder. It is a well-known tbiim in California that whenever a woman is concerned in a trial before a jury she is sure to have their sympathy, no matter what her offence may be, so long as there is a male on whom to wreak vengeance. COLLAPSE OF THE ATLANTIC BALLOON. _ The balloon voyage to Europe, about which everybody has been talking, was doubtless undertaken in good faith ; but it has been so badly managed that the chances of its success have long since been desperate. Its magnificent proportions sunk rapidly. It was to carry tea or twenty people, in a three-storied car, provided with various domestic comforts, and an open verandah; and several distinguished people (including General Butler) were formally invited to take a free passage. It turned out after a while that there would be room for only four, and then that the balloon could not carry any car at all, but the voyagers must trust themselves to the lifeboat. Wise long a-m "ave up the expectation of reaching Europe with 3 the flimsy contrivance, but he expected to make an ascent, go as far as he could, and then take to the boat. The inflation was attempted on the 10th September, but had to be abandoned in conse<iueifce of the high wind. On the morning of the 12th the work was resumed. It was a beautiful day, with only a gentle breeze blowing, which hardly disturbed the great globe as it slowly assumed shape. At four o’clock it was about half or two-thirds full, when a rent suddenly showed itself in the top, and in a moment it was a heap of ruins. Then the crowd swarmed over the barriers, and 3,000 or 4,000 people went home, laughing goodhumoredly at what they called the “ humbug.”

YOUNG lady to bk bakklbd for. In hymeneal matters, as in other things, the Americans are ahead of us. Our cute cousins appear to have commenced laffling for their wives. The brilliant idea first entered the head of a Chicago belle, and she at once used the local journals to inform the public on what terms sho was at their disposal. She announced that she was to be raffled for, and in a businesslike way went on to describe the charms and qualities that made here a desirable prize. From her advertisements it appears that she is iust twenty-one, handsome, talented, and attractive. Indeed, her reasons for putting herself to be rattled is not, site assures the public, a lack of offers of marriage, but merely a fastidious taste, which is tickled with none of the eligible husbands ready to her hand. Thou follows the plan she proposes to adopt. She proposes to give the male public 100,000 chances, at a dollar a chance, thus valuing herself at 1/20 COO which is no doubt a moderate price for such an original young lady. Directly the chances are disposed of the drawing is to take place, and the gentleman holding the lucky number will become her husband, if—and here comes an important reservation—she approves of him If not, it is arranged she shall pay him a solatium of 5,000 dollars, and see what she thinks of the next on the list. In any case, this ingenious young lady of Chicago is likely to make something out of her original proposal, jtud it is not surprising to hear that the dollar chances are being rapidly disposed of It remains to bo seen whether this latest Yankee potion will reach across the Pacific. CI.T'RAMONTANISM IN SWIT/t:itl,ANI). In reference to the Ultramontane f|ucsti(»u In Switzerland, the Pall Moll Gazelle says:“The President of the Swiss lederatiou, M. Ceresole, recently communicated to the National Council the contents of a remarkable letter addressed by him to Colonel Hammer, the Swiss Minister at Berlin, which at once describes the policy pursued by the Federal Government in the recent struggle with the Ultraxnontanes, and repudiates wannly the change that this was pressed on Switzerland by her ,-rreat neighbor, who is engaged m a similar contU* ‘ \Vc intervened m the conflict at (.eneva, he writes, ‘only because the dignity of the State was brought in question. In that of Soleure, which is of a more difficult and complicated nature we shall intervene only if it becomes nee fill to do so in order to maintain order and JJbserve the rights of State authority. It was to be expected,’ he continues, after this explanarion ‘'hat both Swiss and 1 rench Ultra.mmtlon ’ ■ av,iild charge os with servility to. A»i; (t some Of the most violent after . (,U L " 11( . es the President observes that of then; utterances kul thf . these attemp • tf> that intended. ‘ They !cccl the most unwilling how smipuCllOiCo 0i lbC,r

means, and how cheap they hold the honor anil dignity of their country. But this is one. reason the more for avoiding even the appearance of seeking support from abroad, or of j allowing ourselves to be dragged forward by anyone, whoever it may be. We follow with the most lively sympathy the course of the struggle iu Germany ; but for bearing our own shave of it we will invoke no moral intervention, and should with stronger feeling still resist any sort of pressure.’ The President concludes by expressing his happiness to know that Colonel Hammer fully shares these sentiments of the Government, and his dcsii-e that flie Minister should express himself at Berlin in the sense thus conveyed to him. A SHAM EKiHT TURNED INTO A REAL ITOHT. One of the principal events of the recent autumn manoeuvres was the battle of Cannock Chase. A portion of the proceedings is thus described in the Times; Coming down from the Sherbrook Hills an additional Company of the Grenadier Guards was encountered by troops of the defenders, who were ensconced in » small earthwork. Tho Guards poured some volleys into them, and then, by order of an Umpire, the occupants of the earthwork uere ordered to surrender it. 'The Guards, (foldstream and Grenadier, passed down from the Sherbrook heights, and it is alleged that during this movement some of them advanced in close order. On nearing the enemy’s skirmishers to the defenders’ left of the road to Brindleyheath they certainly spread out, and again there was a skirmishing fire, prolonged for several minutes, during which it was clear the two Battalions of Guards had completely turned the defenders’ left flank and were _ obliging the Borderers to give way each instant. According to “ the rules to be observed by troops,” no contending parties are to advance within U>o yards of each other. The contending forces were even closer than this Avhen the order was given for the Guards to advance and the Borderers to retire. Whether it was that the Guards advanced too quickly or the Borderers retired too slowly cannot be said positively, but the impression is that the Borderers were rather leisurely iu retiring. Be this as it may, a very unseemly scuffle occurred. Borderers fired at such close quarters that (’ol. Johnston, of the Guards, had his face blackened with powder. Guards and Borderers got into handgrips, and the former seized some of the latter to make them prisoners. 'Then the belligerents took to cudgelling each other with the butt-ends of their rifles, and it was not until Colonel Walker, commanding the Borderers, and Colonel Sturt, commanding the Grenadiers, shouted to their men in the most peremptory tones to desist, and until some of tho mounted men of tho Metropolitan Police rode between them that a separation was effected. Happily no one was seriously hurt. MR I OWE DEPENDS HIMSELF, Mr Lowe, at Sheffield, on September I, gave the following account of his stewardship- “ During the last four years I have been able to take off twelve millions of taxes ; Imt I ask you if you had been paying three millions extra for taxes, as you would have done if the expenditure had not been watched over, how much of these twelve millions would have_ been remitted ? But the expenditure has diminished, and the consequence is that the revenue of this country having increased during the period that I had charge of the finances by a sum of twelve millions a-year, every farthing of that twelve millions a-year has gone into the pockets of the people, and not one sixpence of it Jins gone to increase the public expenditure. Nor, gentlemen, is that all. You have now, with the exception of Exchequer bills, which are kept for the purpose of convenience, no unfunded debt at all, for although I have been obliged to increase the debt L 10,000,000 in order to pay for the telegraphs, 1 have diminished the debt during four years by 1/20,(100,000. Even that is not all. T was called upon in JS7O to provide L 2,000,000 on account of the war iu Europe, and as you know in the present year I have been called upon to pay the sum of Id,(100,000, the one-half of tho Alabama indemnity, and making altogether LJ,000,000, So prosperous have been the finances during this period that I have paid off the whole sum of LJ,000,000 without borrowing a sixpence or imposing a tax on you at all. That is the answer which 1 have to give to those who have been so liberal iu criticising. Can it be said in exercising tins strict economy in your public service that anything has been shirked, or that anything which ought to have been done has been neglected ? Look at the army. In 1859 the army numbered 84,000 men. Now it numbers 98,000, being an increase of 14,000, and this is amendment with this great reduction in the expenditure. If you look at the line arts, I have spent LS.OOO in buying Sir Robert Peel’s pictures, and L 50,000 in splendid collections of antiquity for the British Museum ; so far from ray having been stingy, I consider that these payments have been liberal iu the extreme. I have been told that everything I have done has been mismanaged, and that the office I have ♦acated had broken down. I can only say lam proud of the position in which I have left your finances, and I trust many more Chancellors of the Exchequer will be able to give a similar account of receipts. So far as lam aware, up to the present time there is no one who can challenge a comparison with what has been done during these years.” ,LUDICROUS INCIDENTS OK THE SPANISH REVOLUTION. _ Some of the incidents of this anarchic struggle are full of grotesque humor. We are often reminded that we are in the country of Don Quixote. The Times correspondent, for example, writes from Cartagena of a patriot lunatic, i'c., a postman, in command of Fort Galeras, who has constituted himself alone “ an independent canton,” and defies the control of the Junta iu that insurgent town. “He cannot on any pretext—not even by invitations to dinner—be induced to come down to see them, and they are half afraid to go up and see him. ‘ A project was seriously discussed in council of disguising some soldiers in the dresses of the convicts whose duty it has been to carry guns and ammunition up to Fort Galeras, and thus surprising and carrying off the old gentleman from the very midst of his devoted retainers. But the project was abandoned in consideration of the fact that, though eccentric and troublesome, he was wan anted faithful to the cause, and could be confidently counted upon not to betray his fort.’ The latest eccentricity by which the ‘independent canton’ had provoked the. Junta had been to scud down four of his followers to Cartagena, without condescending to consult or even inform tho Junta, with orders to arrest a captain who had sent some bad cartridges into Fort Galeras. The wretched captain was dragged up to the old despot’s den, and nearly frightened to death by being made to dig his own grave, say his parting prayers, and take his stand at a wall with a shooting party facing him. It was only meant, however, as a grim practical joke and effective warning, for beyond being all but killed with fright, he had no punishment inflicted on him, and was merely detained a prisoner until a deputation fz-om the Junta courageously ventured up to ask Ids release. However, the Junta magnanimously pardoned even tins freak, on the score of the eccentric old gentleman’s loyalty.’ ” An amusing story is told also of Senor Galvez, the Minister of the (’olouies (in Cartagena !), one of the boldest members of the Junta, but a man who cannot even sign his own name. He was bent on a fight, but feared his colleagues would run away, so he contrived to get them all locked into the arsenal, aud had sentinels posted at the gates. They were indignant, but Signor Galvez was firm. Next morning, as soon as the ‘independent Canton’ heard that they were under arrest, he sent down word that if they were not immediately released lie would fire upon the town. It was known that the patriot-lunatic would be as good as his word, and even the strong Galvez had to give way before a stronger man, armed with his guns. All this is not wild fiction, but prosaic fact, and perhaps the best part of the story is that the Government aud Junta, in consideration of the patriotic motives which induced the Minister of the Colonies to lock them up lest they should rim away, have magnanimously condoned his conduct on his offering an apology. To the stout old ‘independent Canton’ they sent their thanks, and no doubt on this occasion he deserved them.”