NOTES OF THE MONTH

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 837, 28 February 1877, Page 3

NOTES OF THE MONTH

| From the Spectator.] The Times bas published an abstract of an account of the population of the world annually prepared by Drs Behm and Wagner, and published by Pertha, from which it appears that the population in 1876 maybe taken at 1,423,917,000, of whom nearly onefifth, or 309.178,000, reside in Europe, and probably 400,000,000, or less than one-third, belong to the European civilisation. Four sevenths of the world s people, or 824,000.000, reside in Asia, aud half of these are Chinese. The population of America, natives included, in both divisions of the continent, is only 85,000,000, of whom wo imag ne about half are of pure-blooded European descent. The population of Africa, arrived at, of course, by more or less careful guessing, is set down at 199,900,000, of whom scarcely 1 per cent can be fairly set down as civilised men, and little more than 10 per cent as semi civilised. The Turkish Empire is estimated at 40,000,000, including 20,000,000 in Egypt and its dependencies, with Tunis and Tripoli ; but the population in Europe is only 8,000,000, and in Asia 13,500,000. Half the European population of Turkey at least ia Bulgarian, and if we add the Greeks and Slavs, we shall find that the dominant caste does not exceed onefourth of the whole, to whom the other three fourths are sacrificed. Mr Goschen does not seem to have succeeded quite so well with the Khedive's private or Daira debt as with the Egyptian Bonds. He could not, he said, in a very frank speech delivered to the Daira bondholders on Tuesday, be quite certain as to the position of affairs. There was no doubt that £9,000,000 was owing, or that there were 150,000 acres as security for it, but how much those acres yielded annually was the question. Estimates were shown to Mr Gave, according to which the Daira revenue ought to bo about £1,000,000 a year, but it waa really £392,000, the difference being accounted for by a fall in prices and an increase in expenses. The Viceroy was willing to renounce the whole estate, and thought 8 per cent might be allowed the bondholders ; but it was quite certain the estate could not pay that, even if there were not other difficulties, such as the right of certain creditors acting through the International Tribunal to sei?a part of the property, The bondholders unanimously asked Mr Goschen to take all power into his own hands, and try if he could not put matters straight, but Mr Goschen asked time for consideration, The bondholders seem to think the estate miyht be profitable in private hands, but before they come to that conclusion they will do well to study the question of Egyptian labour. The Khedive could make people work at his own rates of pay. Can they or their assigns ? or do they think Ismail will keep up the frightfully oppressive oorvees for other people's benefit I

At the Mansion House Sir G. Nares admitted that he had not provided the sledge expeditions in his arctic voyage with a ration of lime juice for each man, but had provided only enough for use as an occasional medicine, and he justified this practice by the precedents of former expeditions. In the first place, however, the precedents of expeditious of twentythree years previously are hardly adequate, the danger and the cure of scurvy being bettor understood now than then; and in the Bceond place, it doos not appear to be true that at loast in all tun considerable sledge expeditions of the Arctic voyage of 1852 4 this dangerous economy was adopted. At least Commander Herbert, writing to Tuesday's Times, shows that he himself commanded a sledge party in each of the years of tha .Arctic expedition of 1802 4, and he. encloses a leaf from bis journal detailing the scale of the victualling of the sledge parties. In that scale of victualling -\ oz of lime-juice was allowed for each person per day. This sufficiently proves that even in that expedition this wise precaution was not forgotten, and unquestionably Sir G. Nares made a serious mistake in providing no ration of lime-juice for his sledge parties of last year. The objec tion made, that too much fuel would have bsen necessary to melt it and to melt the enow for diluting it, can hardly be seriously intended, Some drink was r,e M essary for the men, arid why that drink should hot have been of a kind to secure th".*m against disease, it is impossible to imagine. An interesting point of law has been decided, j.b,ecau.se a point of law which will affect the willingness of every honest man to give evidence in a court of justice Mr Netherclift, the expert in handwritings, had affirmed in a particular Probate case that ho believed a given signature to be a forgery, and had apparently repeated bis conviction even when confronted with other evidence proviug conciluQiveiy to the mind of the Ji-dge os the Probite CoiU't %hat ho had made a blunder. For this "over-confidenrje in his particular test Sir James E.ann&a rebuked him. Subsequently, en another case of forgery, Mr Netherclift, when summoned as a witness, wss asked gby the barrister on the other side whether he had read the observations made by Sir James Eaarian, and on his replying that ho b,gd,' the counsel eat down without furthey cross-examining him, nor does }t'appear that the counsel for the party on whoso side he appeared ss a witness, made any re-examination with the object of eliciting that what be had said, as to the alleged forgery, when before the Probate Court, was said in simple good faith. Hence, when he found that he was not re-examined, Mr Netherclift asked leave to make a statement, and though discouraged by the Court, went on to say, '• I believe that will to be a rank forgery, and shall go believe to the day of my death." For this volunteered statemerit ho was indicted Sov Blander; and kg far as the jury's verdict on the facta wont, found j,guilty; but the point of law as to the lia . bility of a. witness for any statement given bona fide in the shape of evidence in the witneea box waa reserved, and decided in Mr Nethcrclift's favour on the first trial. The plaintiffs appealed, and on Thursday the Court of Appeal confirmed the judgment of the lower Court, deciding that Mr Netherclif t's speech was a fair reply to the implied discredit thrown on hir. evidence by the opposite counsel, aDd that witnesses who do aoiQ go bwyond what is relevant to the drift o£ thew evidence, ' cj,ea?ly h-Sltf

exempt from all penal liabilities for what they say. This is a fortunate decision. Had it gono the other way, it would have closed the mouths of hundreds of disinterested witnesses.

Mr Ooehad a three years' engagement, on £lO a week, as Ftage manager at the Haymarket, from Mr Sothern and Mr Buckstone, when he was suddenly dismissed by Mr Sothern. He therefore claimed damages from Mr Sothern, and the case was decided by Baron Cleabby, Mr Sothero's defence was that Mr Ooe extorted bonuses from actresses engaged at the theatre—which was not proved—and shared commissions with an agent who engaged actresses, which was, Mr Ooe's reply to that, however, was that Mr Sothern knew of the practice ; and though, as Barou Glcasby remarked, it is odd that Mr Sothern should have been suddenly enraged about a practice he knew of before, the jury seem to have taken Mr Ooe's view, and gave him £1035 damages, an amount which will almost ensure an attempt '.o secure a new trial. There can har ily be i\ doubt that Mr Sothern. whether right as to his particular facts or not—a point on which the jury has decided against him was perfectly right in trying, as ho thought, to check a practice which mast seriously injure any theatre. As Mr Holliugshead testified, the direct effect of sharing a theatrical agent's profits must be to make a stage manager prefer the agent's clients, wtihont reference either to capacity, character, or the interests of his theatre. An engineer appointed to supervise a contractor's work might just aa well go partners with a contractor, and say that the relation never biassed his judgment iu favor of the contractor's demands.

Mr B. H. Scott, Director of the Meteorological Office, gave an interesting lecture at the London Institution on " Weather Knowledge." After mentioning that individuals greatly dependent on weather sometimes appeared to anticipate it by a sort of sixth sense, but were rarely useful out of their own districts, he said that the best non instrumental signs of weather were the clouds, the landscape, and optical phenomena Cirri, or mare's tail clouds, were a most important sign of bad wathcr, as was also the "cap" on a low bill, though the same cap on a high bill is no index of coming rain. The old saw about " evening red and morning grey" being a s'gn of good weather is correct, for the red of evening is produced by the sun shining through the vapour left by clouds disappearing into the warmer strata near the earth, where they evaporate ; while in the morning, if the air is dry, the sun's rays are not stopped, and the clouds look grey from the diffused light. We wish Mr Scott would give another lecture on instrumental observations. What Londoners, who do not watch the sky much, want most, is some indication through instruments of the chances of rain for, say, the next twelve hours.

The "Joseph Hume" Scholarship for pro fieiency in jurisprudence—a scholarship of £2O a year for three years—at University College, London, has this year been gained by a lady, Miss Eliza Orrne. Even bhakspenre, though he ventured to draw a picture of a lady pleading the cau*e of a man in daDger of death, and taking some rather fine distinctions with the laudable end of saving her lover's friend, never ventured to anticipate that a lady would take up by preference the science of jurisprudence —generally thought the driest and least attractive of studies—as an intellectual pursuit. And probab'y law, in its more scientific aspects, will never be a very popular pursuit with women, even though they might very well acquaint themselves with enough of it to make them very tolerable attorneys and land agents. As to the land agencies, however, on second thoughts, we hesitate ; for it is easier to conceive a woman with a pansioa for jurisprudence, tha.n one who had mastered Sugden'a ,: Vendors and Purchasers," ever, for the vary practical object of advising her principals on their contracts i'or sale or purchase. It is only intellectual doggedness that can do, thai;, but there is intellectual doggeduess in some women, though it is rare. •*-.