NOTES OF THE MONTH.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 245, 23 March 1875, Page 4

NOTES OF THE MONTH.

(From the Spectator .) A crisis which would be better described as a dead-lock would seem to have arrived in France. The President, after his conference with the chief of the Conservative fractions, resolved to appeal to the Assembly, and on the 6th instant M. Grivart read a message, in which Marshal MacMahon informed the deputies that he must ask for an early day for the discussion of the proposal to create a Second Chamber, an institution “imperatively called for by the Conservative interest, which you have entrusted to me, and which 1 will never abandon.” The necessity for that Chamber would be great, “ even if, as my Government has asked you, you arm the Executive power with the right of appealing to the judgment of the country by a dissolution.” The transmission of power ought also to be settled, and so settled that the Assembly in existence on Nov. 20lh, 1880, “ shall have full and entire liberty of determining the form of government of France.” The Marshal attaches less importance to the settlement of the transmission of powers in the event of his death, as the Assembly would then name his successor, and thinks France would not understand a “ difference of opinion resting on a hypothesis.” The meaning of this clearly is that he wants the impersonal Septennate to continue until the agreed date. M. Batbie, President of the Commission of Thirty, then proposed to fix a day for the Constitutional Laws, but was resisted by M. Laboulaye, who insisted that the form of government must be settled before the Senate was organised, but was defeated without a division. M. Buffet, President of the Assembly, then put the Marshal’s proposal, the priority of the law on the Senate, and this was defeated, the Left, Left Centre, Extreme Left, Extreme Right, and Bonapartists all voting together, by 420 to 250, —a majority against Government of 170. Immediately on this blow to the Marshal, his Ministry resigned, and he held conferences with a view to forming another. Up to Friday night nothing had been definitely fixed, but it was understood that if the Marshal could not obtain a Ministry with a majority—which is impossible without the support of M. Gambetta, whose condition is the definite proclamation of the Republic—he would form a Ministry of Dissolution with the Due de Broglie at its head, the Due Decazes as Foreign Minister, and M. Fourton as Minister of the Interior. The object of this combination, which is obviously framed by the Due de Broglie, is to force a dissolution and then manipulate the elections in the interest of the Septennate; but the Duke has failed in this work once before. M. Gambetta accepts the Marshal, though not the Septennate, and the result might be a majority determined on the declaration of the Republic, with Marshal MacMahon as first President. It is by no means certain, though it is very probable, that the Marshal’s following can peacefully carry the dissolution, which meets with grave resistance from all the Conservative fractions, and irom a few members even of the left. He will require assistance, which will only be given on condition that the elections shall be decently free. The Times' correspondent has forwarded long and somewhat confused telegrams to London, describing the state of affairs in New Orleans, where the Governor of Louisiana has employed a Federal force to remove five anti-Republican members who persisted in voting after they had been unseated by the Returning Board. The correspondent buries his figures in a fog, but on carefully comparing his three telegrams we arrive at the result recorded elsewhere, which is, that although the Governor and the Board may be acting from corrupt motives, the Federal force is supporting the legal authorities. The Conservative or anti-Republicans had no right to seat rejected members in order to obtain a majority adequate to pass Bills. It is clear that this was done, and clear therefore that the Federal force, if over-violent, is not defending illegality. The affair has created great excitement in the Union, and the Governor of Massachusetts has protested against the President’s course, while in the Senate, which is still Republican, opinion is greatly divided. An extravagant suggestion of General Sheridan to declare the White Leaguers in three States “ banditti” by Federal power, and try them by military commission, has increased the anger against the President, though he has not accepted the advice. One of the few members who has made a speech during the vacation —a speech, as distinguished from a bundle of remarks—has been Mr Osborne Morgan, the member for Denbighshire, who addressed his constituents at Wrexham. His chief subject was Disestablishment, a theme very popular in Wales, and one to which Mr Osborne Morgan has given a good deal of attention. He began by saying that the old iron of the Liberal party had been so battered and twisted by the wear and tear of the last Government, that the only chance for it was to put it back into the furnace, for fre h fusing, in the hope that it might come out “ Bessemer.” Under such circumstances,

the party policy musf for some time to come he one of observation. They held what was called in his profession -‘a watching brief.” But, for him at least, the next great question of the future was Disestablishment. He hod been taken to task for saying that no Church could be at once “comprehensive and orthodox,” and he had been reminded of the days of Tillotson and Chillingworth. He might just as well be sent back to the days of Thomas 5, Becket or the Venerable Bede. Convictions have become too eager for a Church of compromise. Spiritual activity is more dangerous to a State Church than spiritual apathy. The party of comprehension cannot carry away the Church with it. Even the Bishop of London inhibits his brother bishop, the Bishop of Natal, from preaching in his diocese. There was no more hope, reasoned Mr Morgan, of combining spiritual activity and comprehension in our Established Church than in our Unestablished sects. Dr Ball has been sworn in as Lord Chancellor of Ireland. He has always been a sound lawyer, an able though rather unpleasing orator—his harsh brogue and unmodulated voice diminishing much the pleasure which would otherwise be taken in the acuteness and vivacity of his speeches—a Conservative who believes in the Conservative effect of moderate reform, and a vigorous though not an extreme partisan. He took great pains with the scheme for the reconstruction of the Irish Church after its disestablishment, and whatever success it has had owes much to his efforts. As an Irish Lord Chancellor, Dr Ball will have plenty of opportunity of proving his Conservatism by moderate reforms—we trust they may not be too moderate —though such Conservatism is but too likely to cost him his popularity with the Irish Bar. Judiciary reform in Ireland is the chief duty of the next session—a patriotic but most unpalatable task. We hope and believe that the new Lord Chancellor will be equal to it. The conflict between the State and the Roman Catholic Church in Germany seems to become more and more bitter every day. Bishop Martin, of Paderborn, has now been deprived of his see by the chief ecclesiastical tribunal in Germany, and it is supposed that the Archbishop of Cologne will be the next to lose his diocese. In the meantime, according to the Ball Mall Gazette , the number of Catholic priests either fined or imprisoned amounts to 1400 ; and the Government has even forbidden the people to pray for the imprisoned clergy, on the ground that their prayers conduce, as of course they do, to a species of political agitation. This is what comes of trying to push the coarse penalties of the law into the interior of the conscience and the spirit. It is like a proposal that the lion should rule the birds of the air, for which purpose it must first become winged, like the celebrated Venetian lion of St Mark’s. The Falck laws have no wings ; they succeed in exciting the deepest ani--mosity against the Government, but not in searching “ the heart and reins.” The reigning Duke of Brunswick is the last of his branch of the Guelphs, and on his death his Duchy should lapse to the King of Hanover, as head in the male line of the second branch, or failing him and his son, to the Duke of Cambridge. It was supposed, however, that the King and his sou would be excluded as haring fought against Germany, and the Duke of Cambridge as a foreigner, and that the Federal Council will assign the Duchy to the Hohenzollerns. It appears, however, that the Emperor will install the Crown Prince of Hanover, if he on his part will recognise the German Empire, and agree to the cession of his claims to the absorbed kingdom of Hanover. As the facts are accomplished, and little likely to be altered, the Prince will probably accept these terms, which restore him to a” position, though not to his old position, among German Princes, The offer is reported to have been due to the feeling of the Emperor himself, who might in that case also restore the King of Hanover’s treasure, if not to the father, then to the son.

Mr Melly, the Liberal member for Stoke-upon-Trent, has, we regret to see, bten compelled by the necessities of his great business in Liverpool to resign his seat. The Tories have not yet selected a candidate, but think of applying to Mr H. Davenport, Q. 0.; while the Liberals will probably bring forward Mr A, Walton, architect, of Brecon, who contested the place at the last election as the working-man’s candidate, and polled over 5000 votes. He was a working-man once himself, but he seems to have obtained considerable middle-class support, and to run two candidates would be fatal. The second Liberal condidate was beaten last time, and the reaction has not spent its force.

The charities of London have sustained a serious loss. For many years past some person unknown has been sending them gifts of £I,OOO, always under a signature made up of the initials of the charity. Thus the Brompton Consumption Hospital, say, would acknowledge £IOOO from “B. C. H.” These gifts became so frequent that society became interested, and begging-letter writers were frantic at their failures to find out the donor’s name, but it was not revealed till his death. It thenturned out that Mr B. Attwood, of Cheshunt, having received an immense legacy from Mr M, W. Attwood, M.P., his nephew, had decided to distribute it himself. He gradually bestowed £375,000 on charities, and an equal sum on some of his relatives, and died without a will, leaving a sum which report magnifies to a million, but which is very large, to be divided among his next of kin. The remarkable feature in the case is the time occupied in the distribution. Donors of great sums almost always give them at once.

The North German Gazette affirms that the German fleet will soon be worthy of the German Empire. It has been decided to raise the ironclad fleet to eight frigates, six corvettes, two monitors, and two batteries. Of the eight frigates, three are in service, four will be completed this year, and one in 1876. All are first-class vessels, and two have been designed by Mr E. J. Reed, with 10-inch plates, and cuirassed casemates on the decks—are, in fact, floating fortresses. They carry rams and have engines of 8000 horse power. Of the corvettes, four are finished, and both the batteries, while three monitors with 8-inch plates, carrying each one 30-centimetre gun, will be commenced in 1875. The Admiralty is of course well aware of the progress of these vessels, which, when completed, will make of Germany the second maritime power, and give her complete ascendancy in the Baltic, where it is vital to her to be free. “ Power and influence, no less than riches and culture,” writes the North German Gazette, “ depend on the possession of an effective fleet,” a fact Englishmen are seldom tempted to forget, When they do, some ambitious power reminds them of their duty.