HOME NEWS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 549, 6 February 1858, Page 4

HOME NEWS.

(foe the week ended nov. 7.) In the interval before we receive the rest of the interrupted story of the last days of Delhi, we can afford a glance at some other things nearer home geographically: and we find the North of Europe in a state of some ferment at the prospect of diplomatic if not political troubles ; while Paris is getting up the best excitement it can for want of other provocatives, in anticipation of the renewed Conference on the grand " Eastern question." These are the most interesting points in foreign affairs. The report that some of the Cagliari prisoners have been released is agreeable as far as it goes, but we need to hear more about it. There is a new Ministerial crisis in Spain, as yet unexplained, and of course worth little attention if it were explained. The Ministerial crisis in Brussels also possesses as yet scarcely more than a local interest. But the meeting at Paris may have practical results ; and certainly the anticipative reports of its agenda indicate a rather remarkable change in the relations of the European Governments. For one reason or another, the Four Powers which insisted upon the union of the Principalities are said to have veered round to the opposite opinion, which has all along been supported by Great Britain; and this change is witnessed just as the Principalities themselves have resolutely declared in favour of union. An intimation, more or less official, has been given on the part of one Government at least, the Prussian, that with all anxiety to learn the wish of the Moldo-Walla-chian people, there has been no settled resolution to give that wish effect. In fact, the Royal Governments of Europe find that it will not be convenient to recognize the Eouman population, and so the subject of union is to be dropped. Such is expected to be the practical issue of the Paris Conference. Although less immediately standing for official arrangement, the Holstein question ia really more important. It is brought before us this w«ek by the proceedings of the Danish Government and German Diet. The people of Holstein, as of Schleswig, having declined the offer of in-

corporation in the Danish Monarchy notwithstanding the professed liberality of the terms" the Danish Government has issued a circular to' its diplomatic agents on the continent and in this country expressing surprise at the want of good feeling in the Holstein Estates; and intimating, that if Holstein cannot come to terms with Denmark, it will find the Monarchy able to settle matters h, son grd. The Danish Minister is also in hot water with his own Diet, but apparently from nothing more than some wurai of Parliamentary tact on his part; for notwithstanding minor differences among the Danes they appear generally to support the Government in the idea of reducing Schleswig and Holstein to Danish provinces. On the other hand, the provinces are understood to be sup. ported by Austria, and still more actively by Prussia, whose support in 1849 will be remembered; while Sweden begins sympathetically to share the political agitation of Denmark. Thua interesting events appear to be preparing on the Southern shores of the Baltic.

The special Court of Common Council, held to present the Duke of Cambridge with a'sword as the gift of the city of London, was the occasion for bringing out important official statements on the subject most interesting to the public at the present day. As Commander-in-Chief of her Majesty's Forces, the Duke of Cambridge contradicted the report that there had been a misunderstanding betweeen;the*som-mander-in-chief in India and the GovernorGeneral; and the Duke spoke on the subject of India, of English duties, and of his relations with the people, in a manner so frank and earnest that his denial will be taken for something more than official. He gave us the military version: Lord Granville, President of the Council, speaking for the civil power, also denied the alleged difference between Lord Canning and Sir Colin Campbell. Avowing his personal friendship for the Governor-General, Lord Granville said he happened to know that Lord Canning, even during the few weeks of Sir Colin's residence in Calcutta, had discovered his great qualities as a man and a soldier. Taking some pains to repel the charge of pusillanimity, he stated facts to show, that instead of shielding the mutineers, Lord Canning had interfered to prevent too lenient a treatment of them. These assurances are in so far satisfactory—and not premature. On one important point the official statements are corroborated by our Postcript. At most of the public meetings the subject of India has still been conspicuous, but nowhere do we see it handled with that plain and vigorous English style which distinguished Lord Shaftesbury's treatment of the subject last week. Prom some expressions which he let fall, Lord Shaftesbury created an impression that he was speaking the sentiments of Lord Palmerston; and nothing could be more completely English.

Other speakers, however, have somewhat abated their use of a subject that perhaps begins to tire by sameness. Lord Brougham, at Leeds, although he did not entirely omit the topic of which all are thinking, but expressed himself with great force in denouncing any proposal to abandon India, as the abandonment of our duty in civilizing, kept more to one of his own special subjects—education. He showed how muph that isthe key to all which men chiefly desire in this country—to the possession of political franchises, or to advancement in life: and he showed how, without eleemosynary assistance, the middle classes might aid the working classes in self-education,—lf, for instance, customers and shopkeepers would conspire to carry out short time. At Leeds, and again at Liverpool, Lord Brougham saw rallying around him the notables of all classes and parties, to support that mission which he was one of the few to sustain half a century ago. _ So again, at the American Agricultural Association, Mr. Disraeli did but hint in the gentlest manner at such a subject as India; his own subject being the great improvement whicfc agricultui-al societies have assisted to work out in agricultural Counties. Mr. Disraeli has been the object of some sneers for magnifying the munificence of these local associations which give " one pound and a coat" as the honorary reward of life-long service: but if Mr. Disraeli speaks common-sense in somewhat sublime language, his tale in the present case had at least the advantage of being fit for his audience, and true.

So again, Sir Benjamin Hall, at a local Abergavenny meeting, eschewed all politics whatsoever, and illustrated with pointed anecdotes the mode in which abstruse subjects have been gradually introduced to the agricultural mind—subjects even so abstruse as turnips.