ENGLISH SUMMARY.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 146, 30 October 1863, Page 3

ENGLISH SUMMARY.

The first two or three weeks after the prorogation of Parliament are always the dullest of the year. The boros of Parliament have spent themselves, and have not yet had time to prepare fresh “ wind-bags ’’ for exhibition in the provinces. There is no news, and no one would care to read it if there was, for the usual rush to the sea-side is going on, and excursion trains are begining their annual work of slaughter. It is not a great beginning—six killed and about twenty wounded near Lynn —but it is certain, according to the law of averages, that much more blood will be spilt before the autumn days are over. The daily news papers are evidently in a desperate strait for leading articles, and are fain to turn the American -question round and round about, and present dissolving views of it, till nonpoliticians become vexed in spirit with and are apt to underate its overwhelming importance. Nor are there any law cases or hits of scandal to make up the general deficiency. The one great home fact upon which everyone is dwelling with satisfaction is the probable magnitude and richness of the harvest throughout the country. The crops are everywhere in beautiful order, the weather is glorious, the farmers are sanguine and happy for the first time since 1851), and England will save over L'20,000,000 at a time when national economy is of the very first moment. This is really the only home subject on which people are talking, and we are not to le surprised if for a week or two it claims precedence over foreign affairs. The Queen left for Germany under circumstances that at first caused some little surprise. Previous to her departure •from Woolwich a notice was distributed announcing that any person found in the dockyard at the time her Majesty passed would be arrested. Tins sounded like a sentence from ,a Russian ukase in the time of Nicholas but it was surpassed by the next regulation, which commanded that no one should dare to peep from the windows which overlooked the route on pain of instant dismissal. Consequently the inhabitants of the dockyard were biding in back-rooms, in fear trembling, until the joyful tidings reached them that the Queen had gone, and consequently that they might put their heads out of the window without fear of being turned out of doors directly after. This is the first time during her Majesty's reign that her subjects have been made to feel her departure from them a relief and a blessing, It is the first time, too, that it has been made a penal offence to attempt to see her face. Everybody felt when the order was published that the Queen could not have sanctioned it, and we are glad to state that it lias since been repudiated both on behalf of her Majesty and the War-office. It was simply the work of some logger-headed official; or blundering underling, who dared to measure majesty by bis own insignificant staandard, and who would, if unchecked, turn the Queen, whom everybody honours and reveres, into a tyrant, whom everybody would detest. But her Majesty will doubtless put a summary restraint upon that kind of loyalty in one man which tends to the destruction of loyalty in others. Her first visit abroad was to the King of the Belgians. The Woolwich

official is probably getting ready an order for the decapitation of anyone who approaches whithiu a mile of her on her return to this country. As is usual when an appointment is made to the bench, the removal of Baron Wilde to the Divorce Court has set the bur in a ferment. Half the barristers are abusing him, some defend him, while others are entirely indifferent to the whole question, knowing nothing to speak of either law or judges. There is no doubt that Sir Cresswell Cresswell was a man who cannot easily be replaced, and the great objection to Baron Wilde is that he is not physically strong enough for the post. All the papers say so, save the Spectator, which defends the appointment on the ground of Baron Wilde’s general fitness fur the duties of the office, and the fact that the work will not be so hard as it was in Sir Cresswell Cresswell’s time, who had to establish the court. The general public feel rather interested in the result, and if carefully reading the decisions of Sir Cresswell Cresswell can be accounted a good training in the law of divorce, even the ladies could sit in judgment of Baron Wilde, and decide when he is wrong or when right.

The great project of establishing electric telegraphic communication between London ami Calcutta is nearly mature-. t The cable is all but ready, a world of care having been bestowed on its manufacture, and its- subsequent preservation. As length after length was finished it was taken up, examined, and, handled as tenderly as a new-born child by a monthly nurse. The electric current is kept running through it constantly, so as to

insure its perfect insulation. Next month the vessel, or vessels, bearing it will proceed on their wa}', and, if it all goes well, by next spring Calcutta may communicate with London in five hours. The Arabs may interrupt the communication rome, but to provide against that contingency the company have decided to carry the wire in another direction, where it will he little liable to injury. Everyone must hope that the attempt will be successful. It would be a source of greater security to the Government than the capture of fifty Nana Sahibs. —Home Neivs.