NOTES OF THE MONTH.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 181, 7 January 1875, Page 3

NOTES OF THE MONTH.

[From the Spectator , October 17 ]

The Government of Spain has addressed to that of France a Note, in which it complains bitterly of the assistance afforded by French officials, in the Basses Pvrdnees, to the Carlist cause. From the tone of the Note and the bitterness of the expressions employed, it is considered in Fiance an ultimatum, and believed to have been dictated by Prince Bismarck. Parisian journals even ask whether Germany is seeking any special concession, or only a pretext for war. The French Government appears to have allowed the Note to reach the Times, and will, it is stated, submit its answer to the Courts of Europe. Meanwhile, the Due Decazes is gathering information to enable him to make a reply, and there are rumors of a circular protesting against German dictation. It is possible, as we have endeavored to show, that too much importance has been given to the Note; that it is an effort on the part of Marshal Serrano’s Cabinet to shift the odium of their failure to subdue Carlism on to the nearest shoulders, which happen to be those of Marshal MacMahon; and that the President is playing for popularity, rather than furthering German interests. It seems to be certain that the commotion caused by the Note has greatly pleased the Spaniards. Rumors from the seat of war in Spain now all take one form. The Basques and Navarrese are growing rapidly tired of the war, of which they bear the brunt. One day there is a report of a mutiny in the Carlist ranks, another day of a surrender, and on a third, of a voluntary disbandment. It is probable that there is some smoke under all this fire, but it is observable that such rumors come from Santander, that intelligence from Santander is, as a rule, false, and that the Spanish Government seems more and not less bitter with all who assist the Carlists. No southward movement, however, of the Carlists, is now talked of, and winter, which always cripples them, is rapidly coming on. On the other hand, it seems clear that the last levy has failed, that the Government has_ not nearly enough men, and that the provinces have almost too much to do to restrain the

bands—half-Carlist, half-brigand which arise every where, levy contiibutions, and tax the rich, are mat by hastily-gathered troops, and disappear. Lord Colei idge made a speech at Exeter, at the celebration of the anniversary of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge and of that for the Propagation of the Gospel, in which he insisted much on the necessity that the clergy of the Church should seize every opportunity to take counsel of (he laity, and declared that if the state of feeling shown by Parliament in relation to the Public Worship Regulation Act should remain unchanged, the legal position of the Church could not but be affected. He did not himself object to splendid ritual, so long as it was merely adopted for the sake of the help which art gives to the soul ; but he would profer the baldest possible service in a barn, to a grand ritual founded on the sacerdotal principle, on which it was admitted, both by friends and opponents, that the ritual of the Ritualistic party is really intended to rest. Not that Lord Coleridge denied the legal right of the Sacerdotal party to a place in the Church of England, for the Prayer-book in several places distinctly recognises their principle; and indeed in the age in which the Prayer-book was compiled very anti-Romanist persons like Manton, Cromwell’s chaplain, went a long way towards sacerdotalism in their defence of the sacrament of Confession and Absolution. But the legal right of the Sacerdotal party was one thing, and its chance of exerting power over the laity quite an ther, and this last Lord Coleridge strongly denied. The mind of the age had gone away from sacerdotalism, and the clergy would exercise and extend the great influence they would have if they represented the laity, only by going away from it also. Lord Coleridge is about right there; but what will the clergy do? Is not the spell and fascination of sacerdotal power upon them, so that they could not repudiate it, if they would ? It is said that, of the younger clergy, a larger proportion every year lean to High views, and claim the power of the keys, A Paris correspondent of the Times has asserted on the authority of a letter in the Magdeburg Gazette , that it is in contemplation to choose Queen Victoria as arbitrator between Denmark and Germany, giving her power to fix what the Treaty of Prague meant by “ the North-Slesvig districts,” — the districts where a popular vote was to be taken as to whether they would be annexed to Germany or to Denmark. If the proposal is ever really made, we trust the Queen will decline the arbitration, unless it is fully understood that her judgment is not to be restricted by any German taboo on Alsen, or Duppel, or any other district of North 81esvig. An arbitration so limited would not be a real arbitration, and it would not befit the dignity of an English Monarch to accept it. With full power, the Queen, considering her close relations both to Denmark and to Germany, would certainly be an impartial arbiter. It is stated that the new Bill on the Landsturm, to be introduced at the next session of the German Parliament, will include every man under forty-two in the “ first call ;” that is, every man in Germany under that age, and not an invalid, will be liable to be drawn into the fighting Landwehr, many regiments of which, it should be remembered, actually marched into France and fought in the late war. It is calculated that this addition, and without new cadres, Germany will be able to mobilise 1,800,000 men. No such force can be necessary to defend her against France, and the Chancellor will scarcely carry his Bill without showing that she is in danger both from France and Russia, the latter a power which ordinary Germans dread exceedingly. Even the Chancellor’s influence will, however, be strained by this Bill, unless he introduces clauses exempting the Landsturm from being sent out of the country, Germans do not want to be liable to service into middle-age. The general result of the elections to the French Councils-General seems to be that the Monarchists and Republicans are about equal, and that the Bonapartists, 150 in number, or say ten per cent of the whole, hold the balance. This is a gain for the Republicans, who were formerly kept down by the local notabilities, rarely Republicans, whom the peasantry sent up to manage local affairs. Moreover, as the Legitimists, Orleanists, and Bonapartists cannot act together, the elections leave the Republicans the strongest single party, and in possession, in particular, of almost every important town. Outside Paris, it is true, local ascendancy has seldom helped any political cause in B’rance, but still the elections show that the peasantry are not hostile to the Republic. Mr Blaine, Speaker of the House of Representatives, has made a speech to the North Wisconsin Agricultural Association, in which he says that the total indebtedness of the American Union, including the National Debt, the State Debts, and the debts of all the Municipalities, amounts (calculating the dollar at 4s) to £640,000,000, probably equal to one-tenth the property of the country, whose income, he says, increases about £24,000,000 a year. He holds that at the present rate of increase, men still living will see one hundred millions of people in the Union, and its income increased to £3,000 000,000 sterling a year. Figures of this kind were once very popular, but except to pad an election speech, they are almost valueless. There is not the slightest ground for assuming a particular rate of k crease in American population, or wealth, or rate of expenditure, and still less for assuming a particular rate of interest on property, which is the first point’of all. Suppose the Union is worth £6,400,000,000 now, which it may be, or not, and the interest on that to be ten per cent, doubling that property will not double wealth, in the sense of wealth against debt, unless the interest remains stationary. Now the tendency of accumulation is to diminish average return. The true point to be ascertained about debt is the proportion its interest bpars to the annual income of the nation, and no doubt, as the Union fills up, that will become smaller. Sir T. D, Acland has had a correspondence with Mr Mitchell, one of the most prominent leaders of the'agricultural labourers, who has recently published a statement showing that a!labourer, with four children, cannot be maintained on less than 21s a week. Sir Thomas Acland places a room at Mr Mitchell’s disposal to hold a meeting in Broadclyst, but argues that in his district men are fairly paid—their low rents and cottage-gardens being taken into considera-tion-good hands earning 15s or 16s a week; asks consideration for the farmer, whose margin of profit is so kept down by competition, and admits that much may yet be done to bouse the labourers better,

but deprecates attack on a single class—the practical farmers —because they do not offer wages beyond the market rate. The letter is only a sensible business-letter, but we notice it for its tone, which is altogether free from that bitterness and assumption of superior rights which so exasperates the laborers. So far as agitation is directed to good end ■, it has Bir T. D. Acland’s sympathy; and at all events, he will secure for the agitators a fair hearing, confident that the laborers can then judge for themselves.

The Church Congress at Brighton had an attempt at a discussion on a subject which seems singularly unsuited to Congresses, “ The Spiritual Life, its Helps and Hindrances,” on which the Dean of Norwich read a paper. The Very Reverend Dean seemed to think that to know what in us is body, and what is soul, and what is spirit, and whether the emotions belong to the soul, and the affections to the spirit, or the converse, would be a great help to the spiritual life—which seems to us, we confess, rather a baseless idea. Especially he thought the study of Bishop Butler’s sermons on human nature would be a great help to the spiritual life. The three sermons on “ Human Nature” are very good sermons, but are, to our mind, much more of helps to the intellectual than to the spiritual life ; and how it can help our spiritua 1 life to be clear in our notions of the “ tripartite nature of man.” is a puzzle which the Dean of Norwich does not appear to have cleared up. It does not help a laborer to lift a weight to know what muscles he used in the lifting ; but it might help him to talk about lifting a weight. And it was the necessity of talking about the spiritual life, not the spiritual life itself, we take it, which led Dean Goulburn into the “ tripartite nature of man.”