Extracts.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 462, 8 April 1857, Page 4

Extracts.

HOME POLITICS AND SOCIAL SUBJECTS.

(From the Correspondent of the ' Empire.') In" home politics there is a lull. On the 3rd of February you know the Houses of Parliament resume their labours, and not before" that shall we hear more of politicians than what transpires at individual elections and public dinners. The changes that have taken place in the Law Courts have sent fresh candidates for Parliamentary honours into the field, and the hustings professions of such gentlemen have been very amusing. We find Mr. Edwin James, for instance, pledging himself to vote by ballot, a thick and thin reformer, &c, and declaring to support Lord Palmerston who is -nothing of the kind. It is wonderful what candidates will promise to do before they get into Parliament; and ten times more wonderful what a constituency will forgive ticiviv failing to do when they get there. Be careful whom you send to represent you in the Legislature is an injunction that everybody gives but few observe, else we should not find ac we .do nine members out of ten voting for ' themselves,' and class interests, instead of the good of the general community. Lord Palmerston's ' move' in visiting Manchester and Liverpool as he did a month ago, has strengthened his position prodigiously. His reception was more than he or any one else bargained for. The demonstration to which I refer has shut up his opponents for the present. What the tactics of his opponents in that House may bring to pass, independently of out-door influence, I cannot say; they are neither quiet nor idle as may be seen by reports,of agricultural meetings, and as we are not yet represented according to numbers, the mob is more, noisy than potent. But liberal opinions are assuredly on the increase among us, if we may judge by results that are set down to the force of enlightenment ; and whatever may be going forward in other countries, liberalism is strengthening itself soundly here. It is not because Chartists are at a discount that the friends of rational freedom are getting weaker or fewer ; their very moderation adds to their weight and influence; and if the truth must be told we really have nothing but taxation to trouble us seriously, for abuses are giving way one by one. Opposite parties look after one another, although they will not unite for the public good; and such reformation as the public services, the Church, the City of London, and other institutions require, are coming surely although slowly. Lord Palmerston has won golden opinions by his Church appointments. Experience makes wise. Dr. Tait, the new Bishop of London, is Low Church ; so is the new Bishop of Ripon, the Eev. Robert Bickersteth ;so is the hew Bishop of Caffreland; so are one or two other dignitaries that. have lately come into power. It is to be hoped that they will bear their new honours meekly, for the *• pride that apes humility' is what made the Devil laugh. There is a movement up about reforming the Bible. The question was mooted in Parliament last session, and there was some talk of employing a commission of scholars to correct the faulty text. The matter will, I suppose, end in a Committee of Enquiry. Lord Shaftesbury, the head of the 'religious' world, is against meddling with the sacred language. . The Times says : 1 Men ofgood sense and religious feeling throughout the country will support Lord Shaft-sburv's protest at Oxford last week against a new version of the Bible. The religion, the literature, and the patriotism of England alike protest against it. Our translation of the B"ible is interwoven now with our history, and mingles, with our glory as a nation ; it is part and parcel of the English language ; It is sanctified by the associations of childhood, by the rraditions of family life, and by the thoughts and comments of the learned, the wise, and the holy of past generations; it forms the basis of religious hope and consolation on which all communications among us rest, cuiding daily life, soothing sickness, and inspiring the bed of death ; its text runs like chimes in the ear of every religious Englishman, they haunt his.chamber, they meet his steps, and they follow him into the busy office and crowded mart. What can our new translators give us in exchange for so priceless a gift, transmitted to us from the ,-ige of the Reformation ?' . The 'Times' then goes on to show that scholars will quibble at trifles and never agree -amongst themselves. Other papers, however, are for removing " glaring errors/ and so forth,

I suppose a medium will be adopted for compro-' mising the matter —there are many who are • most desirous to know what the principal errors are, and many who will stare when they see see those mistakes laid bare. Mr. Collett, the member of pai'liament,has blown his brains out.' The ' Salisbury Journal/ in recording the melancholy circumstance, observes, " Mr. Collett was a man of considerable wealth, and was, • to all appearance, surrounded with everything calculated to the promotion of a more thanordi- i nary degree of happiness." The writer should have said " all outward appearance." The money market has greatly improved of late. Consols that were long at about 92 are now at 94. The Bank of England has reduced its rate of discount to 6^, and is about to make it still lower; the Bank of Trance is getting more specie into its coffers. We are less drained by India and China of ouv silver, and consequently less of that metal leaves France. Eussia is not getting our money for her railways, simply because we don't exact!}' see that the Kussian Government can be relied upon, and not, I fear, because our moneyed people refrain from furthering the military designs of Eussia by enabling her to make means of transit for her troops and stores. But I think France, whose railway extension for 1857 will require £14,000,000, will get, through our great Citj' Houses, a great portion of that sum from our speculators and others who will invest whei'e the interest is tempting and the principal seems safe ! I will append the latest prices to the end of my letter. Lord Lucan has been figuring in a Court of Justice. The ' Daily News,' in reflecting upon the unfitness of Lord Raglan to command in the East, hit out bitterly against the public characters of Lords Lucan and Cardigan (who arebrothers -in-law). LordLucanwenttolawwith the ' Daily News,' and a jury gave a verdict for the defendant. The offensive remarks you will see, and, I think, highly commend, as we all do here. Two more unfit men for actual service, than Lords Lucan and Cardigan never lived. It is my duty to report that " Old Tom " has been surpassed by " Big Ben," and all London is talking about it. "Old Tom," you will recollect" as the great bell of St. Paul's, and "Big Ben "you must regard in future—and will, I hope, hear some day, as the great bell of Westminster. The latter has been tried and found to be perfect. He was designed by Mr. Denison, Queen's Counsel, and the product is quite a triumph in the nearly unknown and mysterious art of bell-making. His note is E natural, and we are all looking forward to the pleasure of hearing his voice from the enormous tower-built for him with the new Houses of Parliament, and overlooking, as he will make himself heard by, all London. The ' Times ' i has been quite eloquent about " Big Ben."" We are told that—" when struck with a hard stick he resents the indignity with a querulous wrangling jar; on a softer appeal he. replies with a deep hollow murmur; but he pours out his whole soul, it is said, with a proper mixture of gravity and sweetness, when he is addressed at all on equal terms. But we shall soon have the opportunity of criticising his notes every one of the twenty-four hours, whenever the million other noises of this Babel allow him to be heard. Up and down the Thames and across the parks he will send his deep tones even in the noisy midday; and at night we even "fear he will excite some remonstrance from the many light sleepers of our invalid or head-working population. But thefWest-enders will get used to him, as we at this end are to his brother at St. Pauls. That, dense intermediate district, neither east nor west, between Charing-cross. and Templebar, will recognise in his .louder and more solemn tones the approach of rain and storm ; and such is his advantage of height and position, that even here we expect him to come into competition with the bell that hangs almost over pur heatl.'' There is a fine subject for your nipraliser and your mere speculator, your''poet and your man of science. Ben's vibrations have been counted already.. As for his probable history I b.elieve he is to tolli« the last syllable of recorded time •" we cannot say nous verrons to that J I happened to" be present? when he was tested by Oh, such a ■ clapper 1 It was certainly yery fine-r stunning! A gentleman belonging to the press has thus described what he saw, heard, and felt on that occasion, What will '«Old Tom " say to this! - .. ' . .:'■'_ ' \ ,"< Well, now the time has come, As-Wallen-

stein told his soldiers, to fight, or rot, so Big Ben must now speak or split. By his voice we shall know him. Be there flaw or crack in him, out it now must come. So the sturdy fellows in fustian pull with a will, at first somewhat jerkingly and excitedly, Mr. Denison lending a willing hand as leader in that honest team. One, two, three, and then such an awful, solemn heart-rending sound; like a potemVpoison, the vibration penetrates every vein 4n the body, it strikes every nerve, it attacks and tries every fibre and muscle, it makes your bones rattle and your marrow creep. In despair of describing a sensation which combines all sensations and invades the body by so many senses, we can only cjll it a liquid blow; it strikes you all over your frame at once, and, not content with mastering your outworks, it streams into and pervades and floods your inner man in an instant of time. So much for the first stroke, the work of a moment, an electric shock intensified, which it has taken so many words to describe, even imperfectly. The men are not in good gear, and tug somewhat hurriedly; the second and third strokes are faltering, and cause our Frankenstein to give ' an umcertain sound;' the fourth and fifth, and so stroke after stroke, with rare exceptions, come truly home. And now arises a wondrous confluence of vibration as the air in the confined space under the cloclitower is lashed into fury by the tempest of sound. Many stop their ears—and, if any of Mr. Denison's detractors were present, it must have amused him to see the attitude of these ' deaf adders,who refused to hear the voice of the charmer'—scoffers, who, perhaps, came to exult over a defeat and remained to swell a triumph. But to return. Many stop their ears; many wauld run away if they dared, and some did, saying they preferred to hear it a little way oft', but the true friend of science neither stopped his ears nor thought of running away. lie stayed and braved out the brazen surge of sound around him and revelled in its vibrations with, the same excitement and delight as when a man stands upon a wind smitten headland on a stormy day and joys to feel the wind pour down on him^blast after blast and to see each gust as it tears its way towards the land smoothing its path across the rolling sea." If you noticed in your last file of papers, you probably inserted a "Sad account of Life in Georgia," setting forth a most extraordinary account of,duels and murders in a railway train, by an " Eye-witness," who subsequently gave his name and address—Mr. Arrowsmith, of Liverpool. The whole tale turns out to he a fabrication, and probably Mr. Arrowsmith. is a madman. His invention is extraordinary. The story 'was so improbable that I omitted mentioning it : I have therefore but little to say on the subject now.

LorcLE. Vane Tempest, as you will recollect, was, with another officer belonging to the Queen's own regiment of Light Dragoon Guards, at Brighton, turned out of the service by hisEoyal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, for "larking" in a brutal and ungentlemanry manner, and ill-using one Cornet Ames. Since that Lord Ernest has publicly spat in' the face of Mr. Ames for not calling him put; and Mr, •Ames has proceeded against the beastly offender in a Court of Law. His Lordship has, I hear, paid all his debts and bolted for a season, and possibly you will have some of his "larks'' at Sydney. Mr. Ames is a great coward or a very brave man. lam inclined to think the latter; and I hope he will have the courage to o-o on as he is going! ' A man has attempted to murder his landlady with a hatchet, and the 'Observer' is in great wrath because the penny-a-liner makes so much of the matter, remarking that he merely struck the woman on the head with a small chopper, and she is not dead but. getting over it, and the man never intended to kill her out' right ! So you see how we take these things. .