THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 1880.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1833, 7 January 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 1880.

The intelligence received yesterday, that General Prado, the President of the Peruvian Republic, "had fled in consequence of tho difficulty of prosecuting the war with Chili, aud becauso of the insecurity of his position," need surprise no one. The Peruvians themselves, indeed, will probably think less of tho event than anybody else. The fact is, on the whole, of le3s importance than would, relatively speaking, bo a change of Ministry in England, and certainly will less rouse the Peruvians themselves than one ef their frequent earthquakes. The Pradvists themselves will acquiesce in the arrangement with singular philosophy, and will calmly await the opening proclamation of Signor Pierloa, to see if they can transact satisfactory business with him, and, if they cannot, will make immediate preparations for a fresh revolution. In reality South American politics are almost entirely personal. If a man cannot get office under one chief he tries his hand with another. Those " bisonosos" or office-seekers, are elastic in th»ir ideas to an extent scarcely credible, and if out of Government employ merely spend their time in seeing how they can get in again. The sole importance, therefore to bo attached to the disappearance of General Prado lies in the fact that it is an indication that the Peruvian and Bolivian causes are going to the wall. The capture of Iquique and Pisagua, through which port Bolivia received her supplies from the outer world, has had a disastrous effect on the morale of the allies. Joined with tho impecuniosity of the two States—"the country agonises for the means of support," said a recont Finance Minister of Bolivia—this blow has been a crushing one. The allied operations by land have not in any way tended to rectify these disasters. Tho Peruvian army has conducted its operations with extreme langour and the Bolivian army, though hardy and frugal to a degree, has done nothing, notwithstanding that it is so well officered that rocont accounts state that it consists of 1021 officers to 2000 privates ! Tho position of Signor Pierloa is not an enviablo one. With a ruined excheqnor, with the Pradvists ready to go to any extreme to turn him out in'o tho cold, with tho seaboard swarming with tho Chilian marine, and with a disheartened country at his back, thero is no man under tho sun who is more worthy of sympathy, or less likely to got it.

PitoiiAJiLY no man has of lato brought himself into moro merited ridicule than has Mr. Berry by his action with regard to Sir A. Michie's subscribing, as AgentGeneral, threo guineas towards the memorial erected in memory of Mr. Summers, a distinguished Yictorian

sculptor, in his native town. It evidently lies within the scope of the duties of an Agent-General to testify, on behalf of his Government, the appreciation in which that Government should hold the efforts of a distinguished citizen to uphold the dignity of his country. Mr. Summers has made a name in a direction which should be peculiarly grateful to a new country. It is a general topic of reproach that the inhabitants of the colonies, however they may shine in lines solely practical in their nature, are altogether wanting in the cultivation of testhetical pursuits; so that when a colonial poet, sculptor, or painter rises on the horizon, his advent should be welcomed by his contemporaries with peculiariervour and,no Government should throw cold water on the enthusiasm excited or refuse to endorso any reasonable demands made on its exchequer with the view of honoring the individual. The patriot Berry, however, has a soul above such trifles. He is perfectly willing to put his colony to a large expense, while ho sallies off with a friend on an idiotic mission to England, but to spend three guineas on a defunct sculptor militates against his ideas on the fitness of things in general. He probably argues that if a live donkey is of more value than a dead lion, a live Premier must weigh considerably more than a dead sculptor, as he, for his part, "never could take to them stone gals," The public must be pleased' and amusod to notice that a penny subscription has been started to raise the three guineas, about which all this fuss has been made. It would be a pity, however, that it should be limited to 700 subscribers. If tho list wero made a perfectly open one, a nice little sum ' might be realised, which might purchase for Mr Berry a wreath such as was designed for Lord Beaconsfield by Mr Turnerelli. The effect of wearing such a wreath on a stumping tour would be novel and powerful. Mr Berry's influence appears somewhat on tho wane, and it might be well to see what effect a new sensation of the description suggested would produce. Mr Berry, with the people's wreath on his brow, and his usual stock of political nostrums in his pocket, would make as successful a cheap-jack as this generation has seen.