NOTES OF THE MONTH.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 588, 8 May 1876, Page 4

NOTES OF THE MONTH.

{Spectator, March 4.) M. Gambetta has uttered a speech at Lyons in which he sketches the programme of the Liberal party. He desires to diminish the influence of the Clericals, particularly in education ; to establish liberty by giving each Commune the right of electing its Mayor and Councillors ; to abolish the state of siege ; to make the conscription really universal ; and to restore the right of meeting and of publishing. He would remove only such officials as were hostile to the Republic ; would receive cordially the old Parliamentarians into the Republican ranks; and would, in all things, act with moderation. He was singularly emphatic in advocating a policy of peace. He would give up all propagandism on behalf of nationali ties —though he condemns severely the betrayal of Denmark—and would have France stay at home staunching her own wounds, and leaving the rest of the world to satisfy its desires without hindrance. This last utterance is most prudent, as the Republicans are supposed to be warlike, but we suspect it is to be read with some considerable reserves. M. Gambetta is not exactly a Manchester man in a French drew. _ Mr Goschen brought before the House of Commons the Admiralty minute on the loss of the "Vanguard" in a very spirited and amusing speech, on the main point of which « we have commented elsewhere. We may . add here that he regretted that Mr Ward Hunt had not taken occasion to give his own view of the minute and the circumstances which led to it, since the country really knew nothing of the First Lord's view, except what they had derived from that gay and festive speech at the Guildhall, in which he had "spoken with enthusiasm of the ramming powers of the navy." Mr Goschen related with great clearness the history of the disaster, and remarked that the Vanguard

was under-manned because she went on cruising, after the object of her cruise, the training of the Coastguard men, who had been already landed, was accomplished. Even the Coastguard men had not had much naval training during the cruise. It had been a cruise distinguished by balls and festivities. "During the whole of tbe cruise, the only signals were the waving of ladi s' pocket-handkerchiefs, while the only evolutions were the intricacies of quadrilles," The voyage to Cork, on which, after landing the Coastguard men, the disaster happened, w«S not one of business but a voyago apparently undertaken to gratify the wish of Cork for a sight of the ironclad fleet. It was a voyage directed on the principle of "concurrent endowment," that Cork might enjoy what Belfast had previously enjoyed. Even Admiral Tarleton, in command of the fleet, said that before going to Cork the cruise had " virtually terminated." And Mr Goschen asked whether this f-ct, that the Vanguard was under-manned, and had only 374 instead of 500 men—the number she had on the previous day—was not one cause of disorganisation.

Mr Ward Hunt replied that the Reserve Squadron was not sent out merely to practise the Coastguardsmen ; that-, on the contrary, they were sent out for their own discipline and training ; and that there was no better training fcr a squadion than that of going into and out of harbor The complement of men remaining in the Vanguard was, in the opinion of her commander, amply sufficient to work the ship, and it was at his request that the Coastguardsmen were discharged before the voyage to Cork. Mr Hunt defended the practice of letting the taxpayers see exactly whit they got for their money in the way of naval defences, and main-

tained that the disaster was in no way due to that popular and faucy character of the cruise, to which Mr Goschen suggested that it might to somi extent be attributed. So Mr Goschen's motion for further papers was agreed to, after a very desultory discus aion by naval and other maritime authorities, in which hardly two persons were found to agree on any single point. The Admiralty snub the Court of Inquiry, independent raeu •nab the Admiralty, and every naval officer snubs every other. The fog to which the loss of the Vanguard was due was transferred to the Bouse of Commons.

Mr Hardy has brought forward the Army Estimates iu a very good speech. It appeal s that he intends to grant an increase of 2d a day to all private soldiers, the monoy to be regarded as deferred pay, and distributed as a bounty of £lB on completion of the sis years' seivice. The Guards will receive beyond this another penny a day of direct pay, and all non-commießioned officers obtain an increase—6d a day for sergeant-majors, 2d • day for sergeants, and 4d a day if they remain two years, and Id a day for corporals. The Medical Service is to be better paid, and the Yeomanry turned into Light Cavalry. The Reserve Men also obtain £2 a year more, and will, Mr Hardy thinks, be ready when called upon. These changes apEear to be all sound, and will, it is to be oped, increase the popularity of the service, which already the Secretary for War affirms is drawing fair recruits, t*ie average height of the Infantry being sft 6 3 Bin, with 84fin round the ches*". Wnen the additional 3600 men to be voted have joined, we shall have a eorps d'armee of more than 30,000 men ready for foreign service, in addition to the three regiments of the Guards. The only drawback to the scheme is that Mr Hardy

suggests no method of retrenchment, but flings the whole burden on the Estimates. The method of saving suggested on Thursday, by reducing the Army by 10,000 men, is of course absurd ; but Mr Hardy acts as if there were no waste. Mr Hardy, in the course of a discussion on recruiting, on Thursday, previous to his speech-on the Estimates, told a capital story about the utter want of conscience most

men display in giving characters. A man of notoriously bad character, residing in a Tillage he knew, wished to emigrate. To obtain assistance from the Emigration Commissioners one must have a character, and the man accordingly asked one from his neighbours. Everybody was anxious he should go, and everbody therefore testified to his excellent reputation. No one was more astonished at this result than the man himself, and after looking at his certificate, with its long list of signatures, " Well," said he, " I had no idea I was so much esteemed in the neighbourhood ; I think I shall stay," The Turkish Government has made another default. Messrs Dent, Palmer, and Co announce that they have not received the money to pay the interest and drawings on the loan of lbsß, which was originally £5,000,000, at 88, and was specially secured on the Customs revenue of Constantinople. The amount due on March Ist was £120,719, lut they have only received -616,380, It

will be observed that in this case default has not been preceded by any pompons announcements, or soothed by any promises. The Pashas have simply failed to remit the money, and the Turkish Treasury is all the more comfortable for not remitting it. The event will perhaps give investors a muchneeded lesson as to the folly of trusting a special hypothecation. The bankrupt has absconded, but they think they have a lien on the shoe-bnckles which go with him.

The Times announces the dismissal of Sir D. Lange, the agent in England for the Suez Canal Company. He had, it appears, formerly urged the British Government to buy the Canal, and his representations were, by a grave breach of confidence, included in the Parliamentary papers on the purchase. M. de Lesseps therefore dismissed him. He appears to have exceeded his authority, though he acted in the intere>t of the shareholders, and M. de Lesseps may not to blame, but the step raises doubts as to the chairman's assurances that he welcomes English cooperation, lb looks very much as if he would very gladly keep England out of Egypt, and betrays a feeling which may compel the new shareholder to risk a conflict with him. Sir D. Lange's letters are not of yesterday, but his dismissal is. The British Government, according to Mr Bourke, knows nothing about the matter, which is its most usual, but not most satisfactory position. Lord Stanley of Alderley has raised a short debate on affairs in Malaya, charging the Colonial Office with having changed its policy as regards the Peninsula, with allowing Sir W. Jervois to usurp power, and with failing to check cruelty and barbarism on the part of the troops. Lord Carnarvon, while denying that he had altered the policy of the office about Malaya, declined to enter into that discussion till the papers were ready, one despatch deemed by Sir W. Jervois essential being still wanting but warmly repudiated the charge of cruelty on behalf of the Army. He read orders from Sir W. Jervois, distinctly directing that every place entered by the troops was to be considered friendly till proved to be the contrary ; and from General Colborne, in command, specially prohibiting plunder, arson, or the ill-treatment of persons not in arms ; and a letter from General Ross, showing that those orders had been obeyed. One place was destroyed, but under written orders from General Colborne, who held severity in this case to be necessary, to stop a practice, not defined, which, if allowed unchecked would produce disastrous results. For the rest, the Government, warned by the results of Dutch dilatoriness in Acheen, had been so energetic, that although there were few troops at hand and the cable was broken, they had in a few weeks concentrated 3000 men, and had prevented one of our costly and troublesome " little wars." In a despatch from St Petersburg it is stated that the exchange of the Japanese portion of the island of Saghalien for the Russian Kurile Islands is now definitely carried out. Six hundred and fifty natives of Saghalien followed the Japanese who evacuated the territory. Oh the Kurile Islands only seventy-two of the natives remain as Japanese subjects ; the rest intend migrating to Russian territory on account of their being Christians, and having commercial interest in Russia.