DE OMNIBUS REBUS.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 158, 7 December 1874, Page 4

DE OMNIBUS REBUS.

Through the enterprise of a Bombay journal the Indian press has, says the Pall Mall Gawtte, been so fortunate as to obtain a perfectly independent account by a recent traveller of those districts of Russian Asia and Kashgar to which our interest has been lately directed. The report spread shortly before, that “ a Russian Jesuit” had travelled into India by way of Kashgar has resolved itself into the arrival at Bombay of Herr Berzenczy, an energetic Hungarian, who has travelled alone from Austria completely across the vast Empire of Russia, and on through the dominions of the Atalik Ghazec into our own, his ostensible object being to try and discover what ethnological affinities there are between his fcllow-Magyars and the great Asian races, from one of which they are supposed to have sprung. While passing from Siberia into Turkestan he ascertained that every important particular relating to Sir U. Forsyth’s mission to the Atalik was known to the Russian authorities long before the arrival of that which Vacoob Beg sent to St Petersburg to do away with the impression that he was making any important alliance with ourselves. He had very great difficulty in procuring the required permission at Tashkcud to proceed on to the Atalik’s territory, though bringing with him from St Petersburg a permit which was confirmed by telegraph; and the Governor only finally allowed him to start on condition of his returning to report the feelings of the Kashgarians towards Russia. His promise to do this he has found it impossible as yet to carry out; for though at first well received, he was presently illtreated, and afterwards for some time imprisoned, on the not unnatural suspicion of being a Russian spy sent in to report on the operations of our mission. Among many other interesting particulars, Heir Berzenczy reports that, although there is a broad belt of nominally neutral territory between Turkestan and Kashgar, the tribes that occupy it up to Yacoob Beg’s posts acknowledge Russian supremacy, and actually pay tribute to St Petersburg. Our own moral influence, however, with the Atalik and his people is highly extolled in this report. It remains chiefly to be added that it describes Yacoob’s own character as much more cruel than other travellers have made it appear. Herr Berzenezy promises to develop his discoveries hereafter in a more complete form than that furnished in the journals. A letter from Trebizond in the Levant Herald shows how little the Shah or his subjects have profited by the reforming zeal with which the former was supposed to have been inoculated during his European visit:— “ The intelligent policy,” wo are told,“ pursued by lUirza Hussein Khan is evidently too far in advance of popular ideas in Persia to do ranch good for the present. The Mirza’s influence has prevailed to such an extent at Court that the Shah was actually induced to grant his loving subjects a charter conferring upon them a number of privileges, hitherto unknown in Persia, and calculated to protect them against the extortions of the clergy and the oppression of the rich. Unluckily for the people, however, the clergy were beforehand with the Grand Vizier, and before he could issue his charter they had succeeded in pursuadiug everybody that the promised privileges would never in reality exist, and that, on the contrary, the charter was directed against the poor, and would in the end only aggravate their position. Popular credulity easily succumbed to these in sinuations, and the appearance of the charter or tdnzimat, was greeted with riots. The latest news is that the people still refuse to have the charter, and that the mustcik, or supreme head of the clergy, has been summoned from his country residence to Teheran, to account for the rebellious behaviour of the peasantry. Judging from these reports, the conflicts between the liberal lay party, represented by Mirza Hussein, and the ecclesiastical party under the mustcik , will soon become hot and thick.” The Monitor Repuhlicano of Mexico gives some curious particulars of Victor Hugo’s novel “Ninety-three,” of which a translation is being printed in that capital. Simultaneously with the Paris edition it was published in English at London, Boston, Philadelphia, and Calcutta ; in Russian at St Petersburg, in Portuguese at Lisbon, in Italian at Florence, in Spanish at Madrid, in Dutch at Amsterdam, and in Hungarian at Pesth. Before a single copy had been sold the booksellers of Paris had realised 80,000 f for the right of translation, A South German paper relates the following—“ In a Bavarian town of the most pronounced Catholic orthodoxy, the priest preached lately against the Old Catholics, and related such horrible things about them that his pious hearers were literally horrorstricken at Old Catholic impieties. At last the preacher cried out, “The Old Catholics are so vile that they will all be cast into the pit ; and if what I tell you is not true, may the devil take mo now on the spot ?" His excitement was terrible ; and ho so struck the cushion that the book fell from it. Not far from the pulpit there sat an American, who had a negro servant with him, to whom he beckoned to take the book up to the priest, who perhaps had never seen one of those sons of Ham in his life. The negro at once obeyed, and as he mounted the lowest of the pulpit steps the clergyman repeated his wish that the devil might come and take him if what he had said against the old Catholics was not true. Although the negro went very softly the preacher heard his footsteps, and, turning round, saw a black object solemnly, steadily, and surely approaching him. He looked at him with terror, and believing that he would bo tire next instant collared by his satauic majesty, he cried out,

with trembling voice, ‘lt is, after all, possible that t,here may bo good people among the old Catholics.’ Turning then round to see if the object had disappeared, he saw it still steadily approaching. The perspiration burst out on his brow, and full of despair he called out, • There are even many good people among the Old Catholics.’ Thinking that this would suffice, he turned round, but what was his horror to find that the object was close at hand. Imagining himself in the very grasp of Belzcbub, turning partly to the negro and partly to the congregation, he cried out, ‘ Way the devil come and take me if all the Old Catholics arc not better than wc are !’ The terrified priest fainted from the fright, and it was only after some time that he recovered.” The Yokohama papers contain an account of the murder of Mr Haber, German Consul at Hakodadi, August 20th. He was assassinated by a native, who says he was commanded by a demon to execute the crime. He attacked his victim with a sword, mangled him fearfully, stabbing him in many places, almost severing both arms and cutting off entirely one of his legs. The German corvette Elizabeth sailed at once from Yokohama for Hadodadi on receipt of the startling news. The assassin was in custody. Among other works which are expected to be published shortly are the third volume of Lord Balling’s “Life of Lord Palmerston;” Mr George Smith’s volume on his explorations in Assyria; and the first two volumes of Mr W. S. Lindsay’s " History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce.” The correspondent of the Scotsman says:— “ I have received from the Government of New Zealand a large batch of official correspondence on the subject of immigration. In one of the most recent letters of the AgentGeneral he states that it is infinitely easier to procure forty thousand immigrants now that the agricultural unions have taken up emigration than it was to obtain 5000 when they were opposed to it. He adds— ‘ All the unions are working heartily with me, being convinced that they can only hope to succeed in their present struggle by shipping off the surplus labour. The number sent away has already had a very appreciable effect in the; labor market in certain districts in the county of Kent, and the employers are so alarmed that they constantly refuse to sign certificates of character for intending emigrants.’ The fact is that Kent is so contiguous to the metropolis that the AgcntsGeneral are able to operate more effectually in the rural districts of that county. Moreover, the South Australian Emigration Agents, even more than those for New Zealand have succeeded in gaining the ear of the Kentish laborers.” With reference to Professor Tyndall’s address, “ iEdipus” in the Melbourne Leader says:—The excitement caused by Professor Tyndall’s escapade at Belfast has not yet subsided. He has published his address in an extended form. As originally written it was too voluminous for oral delivery. He has now restored the excised portions, and in his preface ho avails himself of the opportunity to defend himself from his critical assailants. To the Dean of Manchester, who calls him “an avowed material atheist,” he curtly says that such names have lost their power to wound or to injure. Ho tells Cardinal Cullen that the imbibation of scientific knowledge by the youth of Ireland will be more powerful than any Protestant propagaudism or other external influence to bring about an abatement of “the mediaeval proceedings among Catholics which are a scandal and an amazement to nineteenth century intelligence.” He denies the correctness of the inference drawn by the Belfast Presbytery that he and Huxley “ ignored the existence of God, and advocated pure and simple materialism.” As so much has been said similar to this, it is but fair to allow Professor Tyndall to define his own feelings in his own words :—“ Christian men are proved by their writings to have their hours of weakness and of doubt as well as their hours of strength and conviction, and men like myself share in their own way those variations of mood and tense. Were the religious views of many of my assailants only alternative ones, I do not know how strong the claims of the doctrine of ‘ material atheism’ upon my allegiance might be. Probably they would be very strong; but as it is, I have noticed, during years of selfobservation, that it is not in hours of clearness and vigor that this doctrine commends itself to my mind; that in the presence of stronger and healthier thought it ever dissolves and disappears as offering no solution of the mystery in which we dwell and of which we form a part.” After this admission, it is open to doubt whether, at the time of his penning his Belfast address, Professor Tyndall was “in the presence of stronger and healthier thought,” or was in one of his “hours of weakness.” With reference to the mutilation of the Eotamahana terraces, the Lay of Plenty Times says : —“ We have all of us heard, and many of us met, the irrepressible Browns, Joneses, and Robinsons of society—a genus which, having exhausted the Alps of Switzerland and Pyramids of Egypt, and the hundred and one other wonders and sights of the old world, is, we regret to find, making its appearance in New Zealand. The Maoris, to their credit be it written, are very jealous about these springs, and have done all in their power to protect the terraces from being disfigured by visitors, but have, as might be supposed, not succeeded in their endeavours, We believe that yards of what Trollope has so well described as ‘ salmon-coloured surface’ have been chipped off the Pink terrace; countless numbers of names, initials, dates, &c, have been cut all over these lovely terraces, and in short the genus already referred to has taken care to leave its mark behind it. There is one more chapter to be added to Mr Thackeray’s Look of Snobs, —the ‘ dramatis persona; ’ for which may easily bo obtained during a limited stay at the Lakes. Within the last two years peerless Rolomahana has been favored (?) by the august presence of a Royal Duke and attendant satellites, by three or four Governors, by peers, statesmen, authors, poets, and a miscellaneous crowd of the body public. Nearly all these visitors have left their names behind them. There, on the terraces which baffle description, which scorn comparison, may he read the name of the Prince of Snobs, of the Royal Duke already alluded to, those nearly all his hangers-on, especially conspicuous being that of the brother of a certain noble Irish Marquis; and in this goodly string of names of aristocratic barbarians, may also be found those of captains of the Militia, of sporting Auckland publicans, and others, who, we presume from the force of example, have followed the precedent set by a real live duke—a precedent which is a violent offence against good taste, hnd an atrocious piece of vulgarity,”