NOTES OF THE MONTH.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 291, 18 May 1875, Page 4

NOTES OF THE MONTH.

(From the Spectator.}

The correspondence as to the contest at Liskeard between Mr Horsmin and Mr Courtney has been succeeded by a still more trivial-correspondencejas to the last contest at Stroud between Mr Brand and Lord Bury. Lord Bury charged Mr Brand with discourteous and unusual references made in his speeches at Stroud to private matters—to remarks dropped in private conversation, and to the fact that he (Lord Bury) had continued to belong to a Liberal Club (Brooks's) for some little time after he had virtually joined the Conservative party. Mr Brand denied the discourtesy, and disowned a phrase which seemed to charge Lord Bury with a disposition to sail under false colours, but maintained that Lord Bury had really joined the Conservatives while hoping to be accepted as the Liberal candidate for Berwick. If Mr Brand might clearly have been a little more courteous and temperate, Lord Bury might have been a little less sensitive, and might have spared the public so uninteresting a correspondence. Politicians who change sides must lay their account for a little invective, and not shrink from the inevitable censure they will encounter. Are we not getting a little too thin-skinned for political conflict of any sort ? Our political invective is much milder than it used to be, but our nerves are even more delicate.

Sir Henry James asked for a Select Committee to inquire into the circumstances attending the making of foreign loans, and made a most amusing speech. He took as crucial instances the loans effected by Honduras for £4,800,000, against which her creditors had nothing to set except £560,000 spent on an abandoned railway, and a tinbox in the Bank of England, which the bank could not open; by Costa Rica, of £2,000,000, of which only £926,000 went to Costa Rica, the rest remaining in this country, while no interest was paid; by San Domingo, of £529,000, of which only £50,000 ever reached that island, and was sent back again; and by Paraguay, of £2,400,000, of which only £237,000 ever got there, while there was stated to be a previous debt never mentioned in this country of £47,000,000. Sir Stafford Northcote, in a very cautious and rather weak speech, granted the committee, which, we fear, can serve no good purpose. It cannot take evidence on oath, and as Sir Henry himself acknowledged; can hardly suggest a remedy. You cannot distrain on a Government except by war. If you appoint an inspector of loans, you ought also to appoint an inspector of prospectuses, whether issued by Governments or oil companies; and as to the way foreign Governments are cheated, that is their fault for appointing dishonest agents. We might as well try to punish ambassadors for sending home false reports.

The Pope has addressed an Encyclical to the Prussian Bishops, telling them that the Falck laws are invalid, as no temporal ruler can interfere in things which concern the service of the Church or deprive Bishops of their functions. All persons who accept such functions, and all impious men who usurp the government of the Church, fall under the major excommunication, and should be avoided by the faithful, who, however, are still to render obedience in temporal things, The Encyclical has excited great stir in Germany, where it is denounced as a provocation to rebellion, and the Catholic Church is threatened with a withdrawal of its subvention. The latter measure is fair enough, if the Church is left independent, but the Encyclical does not contain a word more than is asserted by the Scotch Presbyterians and English Dissenters. They also say that people who force Bishops or Church functionaries on them do wrong, and will be damned; and their view has, after centuries of contest, been recognised by the State, without civil government going to pieces. A Pope is necessarily wicked, but what is he saying just now that Dr Chalmers, at the time of the Disruption, did not say ! The Colonial Office is embarrassed by a new difficulty in the Langalibelele affair. Lord Carnarvon restored the Potini tribe absolutely, but there were political objections to restoring Langalibalele, who had disobeyed a legal summons, and who possessed, owing to his repute as a magician, exceptional authority over tribes beyond the Drachenberg. It was determined, therefore, to locate him and all his tribe who choose to accompany him near Cape Town. The Cape colonists, however, either from fear of such a neighbor, or sympathy with opinion in Natal, where settlers are indulging in the tallest kind of talk, and are ready, by their own account, for secession, refused to receive the Chief. Lord Carnarvon has, after careful reconsideration of the circumstances, repeated his proposal, and left it to the Cape Parliament to take the responsibility of impeding, so soon after the concession of selfgovernment, the policy of the Imperial Government. It is probable that the colonists on reflection will recede, but if they do not, it will be necessary for Parliament to consider whether it can suffer the Queen's Government to be set at naught upon a point like this, involving the military security of a part of her dominions. The reason for placing Langilabelele at the Cape is the security of Natal, a point of Imperial interest upon which no local government ought to be able to pronounce a final decision. Any cost to be incurred should be included in the military account.

The Editor of the Frankfurter Zeitung, a Liberal paper, not at all given to Romanism, quite the reverse, has been convicted and sentenced to Imprisonment for three months for publishing in his paper a translation of an article—"A Week of Kulturkamp " which appeared in the Spectator of 26th September last. This is the second German editor who has unfortunately suffered for translating the same article, which purported to be, and was, nothing more or less than a resume of facts.

firmed, and that he would make up the deficiency of 30,000 acres out of the Crown lands. The draft memorial was adopted, on the motion of Mr Moody, seconded by Mr L. L. Smith, and it was resolved that it should form the basis of a document to be presented to Sir Arthur Gordon on his arrival in Melbourne, the trustees to be authorised to take all necessary steps in the matter, and to present the memorial lo his Excellency in company with as many of the purchasers as could be got together. The South Australian Begister understands that the order for the telegraph cable, by means of which it is intended to connect Cape Borda with other parts of the colony, has been sent by the mail which left per the China on Friday, April 23rd. The Government have, upon the representation of Mr Todd, who made all the necessary examinations before arriving at his decision, resolved to carry the sea wire from Normanville to Kingscote, Nepean Bay, and thence by land to Borda. Mr Todd considers that this route possesses many advantages over the original project to run a line down Yorke's Peninsula to Cape Spencer, and thence across the Straits. The telegraph will be extended from Moonta to Bdithburg with as little delay as possible. The first shipment of iron poles for the West Australian line is expected in June next, when the work will be quickly proceeded with.