NOTES OF THE MONTH.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 338, 13 July 1875, Page 4

NOTES OF THE MONTH.

Government has consented to a very important change in the qualification of Justices of the Peace. At present no man can be appointed a county magistrate unless he possesses £IOO a year in freehold. By a clause in Lord Albemarle’s Bill, suggested by the Lord Chancellor on Tuesday night, the qualification is extended to any person who has occupied a dwelling house in the county rated to the Inhabited House Duty at £IOO a year, for two consecutive years previous to appointment, This clause makes a new class eligible to the magistracy, and marks the progress of a great social change. It gets rid, too, of the absurdity that a retired judge might be disqualified for a magistracy granted to the nearest landlord, and will in most places render it easy for the Lords Lieutenant to secure an educated Bench without appointing so many clergymen. At the same time, it still leaves us without a guarantee for the competence of the justices of the peace, who may be Queen’s Counsel, and may be drinking squireens. A German correspondent writes in deprecation of what he regards as the hostile criticisms directed against Germany by the English Press. He should remonstrate first with the German Press, It was not Ihe note addressed to Belgium nearly so much as the article in the Berlin Post which really alarmed us all, and made us believe that Germany was about to force on a war. As for the conquest of Alsace and Lorraine, though we hold it to be a political blunder and, as regards Metz at least, a perpetual threat to France, the English Press has long ceased to criticise that fait accompli , and tries to judge Germany not by what it did, but by what it does. When, however, it appears that Prince Bismarck will hardly be friendly with any Powers unless they join him in his silly and violent crusade against the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church, and that all the Germans throw up their caps for Bismarck, it is difficult to reconcile the excitability so displayed with the prospect of tranquillity in Europe. The Coal-ownere’ Association of South Wales have resolved to withdraw the lockout, and admit all hands to work at a reduction of 15 per cent on wages, On Monday, therefore, the collieries were re-opened, and it is reported that a large number of hands were going in, though the men as a body still resist the terms, alleging, what is true enough, that they have no guarantee against being locked out again. Have the masters any guarantee against a strike ? The termination of the struggle is not to be regretted, as the men in the position of the trade could not have won ; but it is difficult to see why the present course should not have been adopted at first. If, the men without any corporate surrender can be admitted now at 15 per cent reduction, why could they not have been remitted from the first 1 It looks as if the coal-owners wished to test their new Association as an engine of war, and have not found it so potent as they expected. One argument which we perceive influenced them, is that the sectional opening of the works will compel the non-associated masters to reduce wages to the terms offered by the Association, and it is significant enough, A very curious revelation has been made by the North German Gazette, Prince Bismarck’s especial organ. It appears that during the German war, and while the German army was) still around Paris,' Prince Bismarck endeavored to induce the Pope, through the French Bishops, to persuade the French Government —that is, M. Gambetta—to make peace. The Pope acceded to the request, but totally failed. The incident occurred before the defeat of General Chanzy, and strengthens the conviction of many observers that there was a time when tue German chiefs begun to doubt, and that had General Chanzy won a battle or Marshal Bazaine broken out of Metz with half his army, the whole course of the war might have been different. It is their knowledge that victory was not so easy as Englishmen imagine, which makes Germans so sensitive to rumours of French preparation. We regret to notice the death on the 27th April of Lord Hobart, the Governor of Madras. Lord Hobart had given proof of financial capacity at Constantinople, and was expected to be a considerable Governor, but his reign of three years was a quiet one, and he was unexpectedly unpopular. He did all his work very well, but he liked living on the Neilgherries, and had a notion, not unfounded, that the Mohammedan population of the Presidency had been neglected. He brought the Mohammedans forward, therefore, pressing their claims both to education and office, and was consequently slightly disliked not only by Hindoos but by Englishmen, who throughoat India have a curious though intelligible prejudice in favour of the submissive polytheists and against the more independent monotheists. Lord Hobart’s death leaves a very important post unfilled.