NOTES AND QUERIES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 375, 7 June 1856, Page 4

NOTES AND QUERIES.

From the " Spectator. "

TAv. Justice Willes remarks, that a large proportion of crimes before the Assize Court at York were attended with violence ; thirty persons are charged with robbery, chiefly iv batches of two or three together. Several cases are those of garotte robberies in the neighbourhood of large towns ; there are thirteen cases of burglary, and three of arson. All these cases " point to insufficient protection; yet the West Riding of Yorkshire is wholly without a Rural Police: at the same time that it exhibits more tangible properly and wealth than any other district in England. " The West Riding, we suppose, takes its choice, and does not pay its money—it prefers robbers to policemen. Those who prefer defence for defencelessoess are a minority. Should this state of things continue, will not the private citizen be obliged to take the case into his own hands, to become his own policeman, and go armed *

Mrs. Wooler was poisoned, but we have vet to learn how the poison came there. Should anybody else be charged, will the Laffarge defence be revived ? The human body produces iron; the injury to a very small part of the brain causes an amazingl developement of sugar ; cases have been known of limbs almost converted into chalkstone, as if the man was about to become his own monument; is it impossible that any other morbid influence may render us capable of producing arsenic? Is it a case of adulteration r The adulterer has tampered with our food and converted it into poison ; has he been tampering with some of the more dangerous drugs? A suspicion of this kind might account for the medical men to

trace the symptoms to exposure

"' Fiat expeniuentmn " : Russia is obliging the currency-doctors with an experiment on their proposal. In order to facilitate the Treasury and Imperial banks of Russia, the proportion of bullion in relation to bank-notes is to be diminished. This should secure, on Birmingham principles, an immediate accession of wealth to Russia. " The payment of the interest on the National Debt," says a despatch from Berlin, " may, it is feared, be stopped " : so little can German philosophy appreciate the measure taken by Russia! We shall now have the u?e of paper as the cheap wealth of nations fully exemplified.

Mr. Salt complains that the Bank Act of 1844 '• fixed the price of money. " What a shame it is that, whatever may be the relative value of beer and water, a pint-pot of the popular drink must contain a pint! It' a tyrannical government would but permit a proper elasticity of pewter, the people would always have as many pints of beer as they could wish.

In Vienna, we observe three characteristic actions going on simultaneously. Government is preparing for the transfer of ma'.rimonial matters from the civil to the ecclesiastical courts. Carnival is the appropriate accompaniment of that business proceeding-. And subscriptions for the Austrian Credit Mobilier are to begin on Mo:sday,.under the guard of a company of soldiers, "to prevent accidents. " Is it intended to prevent the public from expressing doubts ? For sometimes Government will not even allow the lieges to quote its own acts. We remember hearing a ludicrous instance of this sensitiveness. At a time when Dr. Hers-cheli had alluded to the possible habitation of the moon by winged beings, a placard was -put-up in Rome forbidding the lieges to discuss the subject; informing them that any person who alluded to it, in earnest or in juke, would be ipso J'^clo excommunicate, benefit of

clergy. An indiscreet Englishman who saw the placard on the walls without having read it, asked a loyal Roman what the nature of the placard was. The loyal Roman made some general reply ; but, pressed for an answer, he shudderingly covered his face with his hands. He fell that it was dangerous even to repeat the prohibition in his own terms, for that would have been to use words touching the winged beings in the moo-i and Dr. Herschell.

Why was the route of King Victor Emmanuel changed when he was received in Paris ? This is a subject still debated in Turin. The people were led to expect him by one route and the king himself was led by another. He was sent oft" in state at his departure; but. it was thought on his arrival, and during his visit, that the manifestations of the public were not invited or even faciliated. Is it that the paternal Emperor, who judges for the French, did not wish to give occasion for popular admiration to burst out at the sight of the King who has told the people to judge for themselves, and has exercised his paternal power to protect them against the ultra-paternity even of the Church ?

A contemporary assures us that " the tendency of the Russian peasantry is the very reverse of vagabondage and squatting"; and for proving the truth of this we are told, "■ nothing breaks their hearts so certainly as permanent removal from the tombs of their fathers." The tombs of our fathers are usually the 'last place at which we desire to be " permanently " lodged. How difficult it must be for an Englishman to judge for Russians !

It is dangerous to refer too much to pedigrees. Sir Arthur Wardour proved something more than the antiquity of his family when he cited the name of his ancestors in the Ragman Roll. A claim was recently made to the public on behalf of a gentleman who is related to Defoe; a very illustrious relationship. It is, however, curious to read in the Chronicle of the Annual Register 1771, paye 63, another record of the Defoe family.

"'January Id. The following convicts were executed at Tyburn pursuant to their sentence: viz. Mark Marks, for a street jobbery, which hi? denied to the last; Thomas Hand, for firing a pistol and wounding Joseph Holloway, with intent to kill ; and John Clerk and Joseph Defoe, for robbi-g Mr. Fordyce of a gold watch and some, money. This last is snid to be grandson of the celebrated Daniel Defoe, who wrote the True born Englishman, Robinson Crusoe, Colonel Jack, and other ingenious

pieces. "

Failure of the Ticket of-Leave System. — While the assizes are proceeding1, two subjects, of juvenile reform and ticket-of-ltave outrages, have regained public attention. Both are rendered rather conspicuous by discussion. The ticket-of-leave point, indeed, receives li'.tle new light. It is proved that the convicts are not retained under sufficient surveillance, —which everybody kmuv ; and Western Australia has reminded the Government, through the newspapers, that she is prepared to receive transported convicts, —quite prepared to renew that convict system in the West of Australia, which was put down as an intolerable ciirse in the East and South. It is impossible, however, that the ticket-of-leave question can be settled now. The new plan of home custody for convicts Mias been a compromise between the whole system of permanent imprisonment and some reformatory adjunct. The convicts are now kept long enough, or strictly enough, to be reformed; the power of revoking tickets-of-leave has been exercised ; and it is probable that in their professional training thieves learn the expediency and convenience of behaving well in prison, the quicker to regain

their freedom of action out of doors. The system as it was carried on is condemned for its imperfections, not for any inherent fault in a probationary ticket-of-!eave system properly carried out. What Government has done has been to suspend the system, and the question is handed over to Parliament next session.

Meanwhile ; the Reformatory system is extended. Twenty-five counties now have Reformatories; Jand in Warwickshire a Roman Catholic meeting, headed by Viscount Catnden and Bishop Ullathorne, has taken steps to establish a Juvenile Reformatory in the Forest of Chard wood, under the Cistercian monastery of St. Bernard. This is a new form of papal activity, which we can heartily welcome. If the Roman Catholics endeavour to preserve or extend their influence by joining in an agitation to do good, they will attain their object, and they will attain it in a manner which must disarm suspicion. .

AN INDIAN CONTINGENT. A great want in the Crimea, says an*1 * Anglo-Indian, has been men; and he gives us a paper in the Bombay Quarterly Review, showing us how we may obtain men from India. That region certainly has been a fertile '" oificina gentium"; but many objections have been felt to drawing troops from India. Sir De Lacy Evans proposed to obtain a reinforcement; but he sank the idea of using the Native troops, and would have brought away several European regiments. Now, Native India may ultimately be governed by public opinion, and she now appears about to be born into the world of opinion. Some very interesting evidences of that birth have come before us even recently. But hitherto she has been governed by the bayonet as the ultima ratio. Any statesman who proposes to withdraw Kuropeau regiments from India forgets this fundamental axiom of Indian polity; and, as the writer to whom we have referred says, the insurrection of the Sautals proved that when the bayonets are removed out of sight the Natives forget it too. The reason why the Native population has been overlooked have been manifold. In the first place, the fcepoys, organized as they are in irregular regiments, are accustomed to a mode of life which would render their mobilization almost impossible. They require arrangements and a camp-following that would immensely impede transport. Their physical strength has been thought incapable of enduring distant warfare. And the inexpediency of diminishing the obvious strength of the Native army haa prevailed with reference to the Natives as well as to tie Europeans, The plan suggested by the Bombay writer, however, appears to us in a great degree to overrule those objections; and certainly to open the way bj which a very useful contingent could be drawn from India and its dependencies.

There would be three ways of organizing' an Indian contingent. The first would be, to draft from the three Presidencies regiments already organized. The second, to raise new levies, officered hy European officers, on the system which prevails in irr.egu.iar forces. Tlv-J third, to call for volunteers from every regiment in India, and form these into other regiments, also, on' the irregular system. The first plan is objectionable, inasmuch as it would, in the sight of the Natives, diminish the total force; the second would be very slow ; the third would avoid most of the difficulties incident to an Indian contingent—not diminishing the number of regiments, but the individual vacancies in the ranks to be filled up by recruitment. It would draw out the pick of the men for distant enterprise. The irregulars in India have answered very well; they have shown good capacity for service with a very small allowance of European

officers. Even the lower classes of Sepoys, under European drill, have exhibited no difficulty in facing those Arabs who have been considered by Native. Sovereigns the stoutest and most formidable mercenaries, the possession of which rendered conquest certain. By the forming of the corps into irregulars, the Sepoys would know from the first, that they are not to enjojr those accompaniments which are thought essential for the regular. And notwithstanding the strong impression that the Hindoo will stick to his ancient customs, —which are, after all, perhaps not so very ancient,—recent experience has proved that the men can be weaned from their ways. In the Bombay Army, for example, as we have had occasion to mention before, the positive refusal to recognize Native religious incapacities and tabooings, and the mixing of castes, have emancipated the men themselves from many barbarisms and burdensome restraints, and have decidedly conduced to European discipline; the Bombay Army forming a contrast with

the Bengal in that respect. Would not the of a native contingent from abroad greatly conduce to the welfare of India, in strengthening the discipline and morals of the Native Army ? The Sikhs, pointed out by Sir Erskine Ferry, would be usefully called into service in an Indian contingent. Taking "'lndia" in its widest sense, an almost £exhaustless draft of picked men would thus be opened to the aid of Government. Corps could be raised, for example, like the Ceylon Rifles, recruited from Malacca, and peculiarly fitted both for a distant service and for the use of a formidable weapod. The Bombay Quarterly Review reckous that a force of 30,000 men, including a valuable Light Horse coips, cGuld be in this manner obtained from India. The subject is worthy inquiry ; but we agree with the writer in thinking that the

inquiry would be far better conducted in

India than in this country. We may add the further opinion, that the inquiry would

be much better conducted by one high-

minded, experienced, active, and conscien-tious-officer, such as Sir Joseph Thackwell or Colonel Outram, than by any committee or^commission of several men. — Spectator.