MAIL ITEMS.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1282, 29 April 1878, Page 3

MAIL ITEMS.

[From the “ Spectator.”] PHOPHEBIE3 OF THE POPE. There is a curious liope among some Catho-1 lies about Leo A 111. According to the “ prophecy of St. Malachi,” believed by Catholics to bo a very ancient prediction, and certainly in print five or six generations ago, the symbol or key note of Pio Nono’s reign was to be crux de cntcc, equivalent to “suffering from the Cross,” which is interpreted in monnstries and such places to mean suffering from the White Cross, the emblem of the House of Savoy. The symbol of Leo XIII. was to bo “ Lumen do Cocio,” which may be “ Light from Heaven,” but may also bo a light from Heaven, and be intended to describe the Pope himself. According to this prophecy there are to bo nine more Popes, and then the Advent, when, let us hope, neither Popes, nor Protests, nor newspaper articles about either, will be any piore required.

END OF CUBAN IN SUBSECTION. The determined obstinacy of the Spaniards in Cuba has apparently been rewarded by success. The last chiefs remaining in insurrection have made terms with the Government of Havannah, and submitted. The subjugation of the island has cost Spain more than its fee-simple is worth, and at least 100,000 good soldiers ; but it has been accomplished, the Spaniards, as usual, having supplemented all the defects of their organisation by bull-dog tenacity and perseverance. They deserve credit for these qualities, but European congratulations must depend entirely upon the use they make of their victory—that is, upon the question whether they will or will not restore slavery. Wo fear they will. This is the first instance in which Spain, when once seriously opposed, has succeeded in resubjugating a colony, and the result throws a singular light upon her strength and weakness. She can afford to expend 100,000 men upon a campaign 4000 miles off, but she governs so badly that the rcconquest of a single island costs her that enormous sacrifice. SEPOY REGIMENTS IN EUROPEAN WARFARE. A scheme is evidently being pressed for using Sepoy regiments against Russia, and the “Times’ ” Calcutta correspondent warns the public that if they are to bo used, the number of European officers in each regiment, which is now seven, must be increased. That is true, but that is not the only objection to the use of Sepoys in a European war. Supposing them to bo beaten, they would have given us no aid, and supposing them victorious, they would have learned the only lesson we do not want to impart, —that Sepoys can defeat white troops in the open field. How long would the Sikhs, after defeating a Russian army, remain content without trying to conquer India for themselves ? “ Times’ ” correspondent thinks regiments might be raised of Mussulmans alone. Wo dare say they might, though, be it observed, the fighting tribes of India, the Sikh, the Rajpoot, and the Mahratta, are Hindoo ; but what should wo do with an unbroken Mussulman army when we got it back again, wild with the excitement of a victorious struggle for (lie faith? Englishmen may depend on it that if we have to fight Russia, we must do the work ourselves, and not bribe Asiatics to do it for us.

THE CAPE "WAE. The news from the Capo is unpleasant, in this way. The troops and the volunteers are defeating the insurgent Kafirs everywhere, aud seizing largo numbers of cattle and sheep, but the younger leaders of the tribes in Kaffraria seem to be eager for conflict. Sandili, for instance, remains faithful, but Sandili’s men are in insurrection ; and while the chief of the Amatembus stays in our service, the Amatembus themselves have declared war—it may be under sudden panic. The tribes were defeated in an engagement on January 25th, but there are rumours that they intend in future to await attack, remaining in selected fastnesses. Fortunately they cannot live without their cattle, and their cattle require wide room to graze in ; but if they adopt this policy, the war may be long, expensive, and wearisome. The tribes which rise one after another do not plead any wrongs, and appear to obey some impulse which is as yet unintelligible, and demands investigation. It is quite possible that the moving cause is want of land. Each tribe originally received quite enough, but with peace and order the numbers increase rapidly, partly by birth, partly by absorptions, till the lands will not hold them; while the young men are embittered by the old men’s monopoly of the women, a result certain to follow unlimited polygamy, based upon a money payment for wives. A SENSITIVE ASSASSIN, The assassination of the ablest Judge on the English Bench, the Master of the Rolls, was attempted yesterday, but fortunately unsuccessfully, by a clergyman (believed to be insane) who had lost his case in this Court. The Rev. Henry John Dodwell was brought up before Mr Flowers, charged with firing at the Master of the Rolls, and also accused by the Court Keeper, who was the chief witness, of justifying himself, on the ground that the Master of the Rolls “ had did him out of two rights.” This charge the accused evidently felt much severer than the other, which ho acknowledged to be true, and rather gloried in. But that ho, —an educated man, —should have been guilty of the vulgarity of saying “had did him” was a sore grievance. Perhaps, indeed, this will be the only real punishment—the only poetical justice—which will find him. Of course, he will not be allowed to go at large, but ho will not mind that. To have been accused of bad grammar will bo a much severer punishment.

PROPOSED LEGISLATION EE CATTLE DISEASES, The Duke of Richmond brought in the Government Bill to prevent epidemics among animals. The principle of the measure is, that all foreign animals used for food—of which 1,317,000 were imported in 1876, against 37,000,000 in the country—shall be slaughtered at once at the port of landing, while local outbreaks of disease will be met by slaughter and by rigid restrictions upon movement. These' latter can only be discussed by experts, but there will be a battle about the main provision of slaughter at the port of entry, many boroughs holding that it will decidedly increase the price of meat. The discussion would be more interesting but for the evidence recently obtained that American meat can be brought over in a perfectly lit state for consumption. Every rise of Id per lb will bring more meat, and we confess we would rather see a logical Bill prphibiting the entry of live animals altogether. Scientific men would then set to work on new methods of transporting meat, the food would not bo partly spoiled by the deterioration caused by the voyage, and an immense amount of suffering to animals would be finally prevented. ROUMANIAN AND SERVIAN FEELING. Moderate Rmsophobists should note the situation in Roumania and Servia, The theory of the war party is that a small State in South-Eastern Europe is always Russian. Well, there are four such States, and Roumania is raging against Russia; Servia says point blank she will not agree to the Russian conditions; Montenegro wants to make a separate peace; and Greece is longing openly for an alliance with Great Britain against Turkey and Russia too. The earthen pots do not love the iron pot when swimming down the stream half so much as people think, and we predict that Bulgaria’s first great act in politics will be an exhibition of ingratitude. Does Spain love England because we freed her from the French, or are the Hapsburgs devoted to the Romanoffs for crushing Kossuth? The war people forget the selfishness as well as the enthusiasm latent in human nature. THE FAMINE IN CHINA. Mr F. 11. Balfour has the following horribly graphic letter in the “Spectator” on the famine in China : The dearth in China to which Sir Thomas Wade has lately drawn attention, and which is perhaps the widest-spread and most fearful scourge that has befallen humanity for the last two hundred years, began first in the autumn of 1875. Its immediate cause was the long absence of rain, but the phenomenon to which it was and still is primarily due is the gradual desiccation of the vast plains of Chihli and Shantung, a process which, commencing in the table-lands of Central Asia, has now reached the densely-populated northern provinces of China. For the last two years I have been in constant communication with the famine-stricken districts, and the letters I have received from day to day can only be described as sickening. Fancy, sir, a tract of country larger than thirteen Switzerlands a prey to want that it is well-nigh impossible to relieve. The people’s faces are black with hunger ; they are dying by thousands upon thousands. Women and girls and boys are openly offered for sale to any chance wayfarer ; when I left the country, a respectable married woman could be easily bought for six dollars, and a little girl for two. In cases, however, where it was found impossible to dispose of their children, parents have been known to kill them sooner than witness their prolonged sufferings, in many instances throwing themselves afterwards down wells, or committing suicide by arsenic. Corpses lay rotting by the highway, and there was none to bury tncra. As for food, the population subsisted for a long time on roots and grass ; then they found some nourishment in willow-buds, and finally ate the thatches off their cottages. The bark of trees served them for several months, and

last July I received specimens of the stuff the unhappy creatures had been by that time reduced to. The most harmless kind was polato-stalks, tough, stringy fibres, which only the strongest teeth could reduce to pulp, and which entirely defied all ray attempts at deglutition. The other description of “food”—I hardly expect credence, but I have seen it myself—was red slatestone. It appears that this substance when rolled about in the mouth and chewed will eventually split into small splinters, which can be swallowed after practice. To such frightful extremities have the famine-stricken people in China been put. I might fill many of your columns with even more shocking details still, but I think I have said enough. The chief, indeed I may say the only, assistance which has hitherto been proffered has come from foreigners in the open ports, the missionaries, both Protestant and Catholic, acting as their almoners. Many wealthy Chinese have also given liberally, but the misery increases, and more help is urgently required. Surely the recital of so appalling a calamity will bo sufficient to enlist sympathy for the suffering Chinese ? If not, let me urge their claims upon political grounds. There is no doubt that the present distress and (he noble generosity of foreigners in the East have combined to produce a very warm and grateful feeling towards us on the part of all the natives. The sight of so much self-sacrificing labor and Christliko self-forgetfulness ns have been displayed by the missionaries throughout these troubles has filled the Chinamen with astonishment. It has opened their eyes entirely, “What,” they are reported to have said on one occasion, when thousands of them came flocking round the missionaries who had brought them such timely succour, “ are these the foreigners wo have heard so much about —the malignant, unscrupulous, deceitful foreigners ? Well, wo will never speak ill of them again, nor believe what the Mandarins tell us of them. The Mandarins leave us to die of starvation, while the foreigners they have taught us to hate are spending their very lives in saving ours.” This is but a faint representation, sir, of the new-born goodwill of the Chinese people to us, and it is well that their friendship and gratitude should be cemented by further deeds of mercy.