ENGLISH SUMMARY.

Grey River Argus, Volume VI, Issue 442, 12 November 1868, Page 3

ENGLISH SUMMARY.

(From the Home. News.) We need not say that all England, Scotland, and Ireland is preparing for the great election, About 450 new candidates are in the field, but a large deduction must be made for many who came forward only to advertise themselves, and to prepare their wwar} r for some future contest, and for many who are put forward to make the running (we write in the St. Leger week) for their superiors. The artisans have called upon very few men of their own class to stand, but there are many ultra-Radicals who have been connected with the League and the Unions, and who hope to be elected by the suffrages of the woi'ldng men, so-called, as if a professional man in fair practice did not work twice as hard as any manual laborer. All the usual leaders offer themselves for their old seats. Mr Gladstone elects to stand for the new division of Lancashire. Mr Lowe resigns Oalne, for an educated constituency. Earl Russell begs that lv's tenants, so long as they pay their rent and treat his land properly, will vote as their consciences please, and so say several landlords, but so says not a Mrs Burton, who orders her tenants, on the receipt of a note, to go and vote for her father, Mr Drax. The revising barristers begin their labors next week, and we shall have the question of large numbers of women having been placed on some of the registers, on the ground that Mr Mill holds the word " persons" to include thp dominant gender Finally the Conservatives make no secret of the fact that they have subscribed a vast sum of money for general purposes, and the Earl of Derby heads the list with L 25,000. If the Liberals are doing the same, they do make a secret of it, but that they are is probable from the fact that one Lusk, a Radical alderman, who sits for Finsbury, and does not think much of tlie Elgin marbles, owns to having spent upwards of LBOOO on the last contest, and stands again. Sir John Lawrence is about to retire from the Viceroyalty of India, and Mr Disraeli is going to send out in his place, as the Queen's representative, and the ruler of two hundred millions, the present Irish Secretary, Lord Mayo. This appointment is very hard of defence by those who are bound to defend everything that the Government does, and therefore would be a great deal harder by those who, like ourselves, have merely to record events, and announce the opinion of society. Having, therefore, no duty of advocacy, we simply say that the selection of Lord Mayo is a mistake. We need not here talk of insult to India, though that is another and a tenable part of the indictment. Lord Mayo is a good-natured, commonplace man, who has never done anything good or bad, and never will do anything of either kind. It is not always safe to say this of men who have not been tried, and there are not wanting instances in which even the dormant genius of a governor-general has not been discovered until his energies were called upon. But Lord Mayo is so thoroughly well understood that it is clear that all corners of the napkiu have been shaken, and there is no talent hidden therein. No. more can be added upon the probable fate of the Ministry, for there are no data to go upon. The battle is solely fought on the Irish Church; and if the Conservatives, aided by the clergy (who now fight very hard, preach, write, pray, a»d call names with all their sacerdotal mighty can manage to make the English people really afraid for the English Church — they care very little about the Irish one, except in anti-Popish circles — the contest may be more equal than is supposed. But there is no doubt that, the Gladstone party will be aided by nearly all the artisan votes. We shall, perhaps, begin to know a little more about it when the revising barrister's list shall be made up, but with at least a doubled canstituency all prognostication is set at defiance. But we must notice one sign of the trnes. Many clergymen regard the destruction of the Irish Church with favor as tending to bring about a separation of the English Church from the State. The Ritualists talk in. this, way, and affect to reject a State aid which involves State interference, and they joy at the thought of being delivered from a council of which Lord Westbury is the mouthpiece. We do not say that this kind of language is very largely held in public, but it is much used in clerical society of a certain kind, and may bear fruit. Mr Gladstone has already been told that Judas Iscariot was a gentleman compared to him, and people generally have been told by a relative of Mr Gladstone that the way the latter has been persecuted can only find a parallel in the treatment bestowed upon Him whom Iscariot betrayed. The single important item of foreign news is that there is a chance of the war between Brazil and her allies, and Paraguay, being brought to an end. That is to say, the fortress of Humaita, which President Lopez has so gallantly defended for two years and a half against the united power of Brazil, the Argentines, and Uruguay, has been evacuated by him, after some fighting, variously described, but in which he appears to have inflicted a terrible slaughter on the allies. He ha 3 retreated, and again entrenched himself strongly, but the Parana has now been opened up, the Brazilian iron-clads (made in England, and apparently good ships) having broken the chains which Lopez had laid, and it seems likely that a new defence line will be deprived of many of the advantages enjoyed by Humaita. But we may reasonably hope for an accommodation, a new Ministry has succeeded to office in Brazil, and is indisposed to carry on a terrifically costly war, and the honor of Brazil may be held to have been satisfied by the conquest of Humaita. The national debt of Brazil will tell the story of Lopez for many a year to come. He is not a man to stop at half measures, and one of his last acts before leaving Huraaita was to shoot his secretary for Foreign Affairs on suspicion of treason. From France we have little to toll except that a general uncomfortable feeling is spreading, and there are incessant indications that the nation is dissatisfied with the existing state of things. The French are kept in such very good order that it is difficult for them to make any demonstrations, and hence Englishmen ought to make more allowance for things which seem to them somewhat puerile proofs of hostility. But the eagerness with which every insult to the Emporer — and even the Empress — is hailed, the avidity Avith which works, like the are bought Up — the strong effort to register ft large

minority against a Government candidate, though there is no chance of defeating him, are all indications of restlessness, and more. The Emperor does not neglect the signs. He ha 3 driven M. Rocheforte, of the Lanterns out of France, and the latter insults him from Brussels, and says that he will never cease his onslaughts until "your' glorious Emperor " shall be driven from the Tulleries. A more important indication of what the Emperor thinks is the postponement of a general election, on which, in the present state of public opinion, he does not care to venture. The one card which Louis Napoleon holds, and which he will not play until necessary, is war. He is oven now thought to be intriguing for a baais of hostilities with Prussia. Such a course would instantly silence the disaffected, and the French would rally en massa to support him in a conflict for "glory," but that Prussia is strong and victorious, and if the war card should not take the trick, and the Prussians should repeat their visit to Paris, Louis Napoleon would speedily be installed in a British hotel. So that lie has much to think of over those eternal cigarettes, which, according to M. Emile Girardin, intoxicate him into believing that he can do great things for France, whereas he ought to let her do them for herself. One of the cleverest squibs ever written has been published by M. Edmond A bout, on the recent visit of the son of King Bqmba, who married a daughter of tiie Queen of Spain, to the Emperor and Empress, and the unfortunate recollections winch every word and di3h revivj are thrown in with a wit that is not too common in these days.