The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 1867.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 15, 18 January 1867, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 1867.

The English news flashed by telegraph from the Bluff yesterday, if not so startling a character as previous telegrams, furnishes ample materials for thought aud reflection. The refoi'm movement in England appears to be making rapid strides onwards j and what is said disparaging of Mr. Bright in one sentence, is contradicted in another. If he did not represent the feelings of the majority of the people, how could such immense masses be got together to listen to him, to applaud his utterances and pledge themselves to action in the cause he advocates. It may be fashionable to decry the reform movement in various quarters, but it is a great fact for all that, and the excitement can be allayed only by the passiug of a measure that shall do something like justice to the unenfranchised masses. Then several millions who are now xhe opponents aud haters of the government, will he converted into staunch defenders of the soil, men who would fight not only for their hearths and altars, but become powerful conservators of the Queen, her crown and dignity. In 1830 the Duke of Wellington called public meetings a farce, but he lived to express regret for haviug made the foolish statement. So now the earnestness of the assembled masses will compel respectful attention to their wants, and issue iv extending the basis of the Constitution on the sympathies of an enfranchised people. That the Fenian movement is not put down, is evident from the despatch of the soldiery to Ireland. Continued emigration to America does not appear to diminish the dissatisfaction. There are four millions of Irishmen in America, all more or less haters of the British rule. The movement may well be a source of anxiety to the British Government, and fortunate will be the ministry, whether Whig or Tory, who shall devise measures that will counteract the evils of centuries of misrule in the sister island, and neutralise the efforts of the vindictive Celts who are striving to make the Canadas the arena on which to gratify the national resentment. Little is said of the late marvellous feat of arms by Prussia, by which, in a short six weeks she crushed an old established and powerful military dynasty, united half a dozen other kingdoms to her own, and placed herself in an attitude to confront, if necessary, her envious and warlike Gallic neighbor. She is consolidating her acquisitions, husbanding her resources, and preparing for the blow from whatever quarter it may come. That Austria is driven to conciliate her Hungarian subjects is proof that she does not think it sufficient to rely on the affections of her own. There is abundant room for improvement in the effete old empire, and great changes for the better must take place in every department both civil and military, if she is to hold her own against her recent conqueror, flushed with victory, relying on the sympathies of a united people> and regarding herself as destined to establish the fact, that Germany admits of but one ruler, and that is Prussia. The resignation of his untenable throne by Maximilian will relieve the French Em- ,

peror from a grave embarrassment. That he who started with the maxim that his empire was peace, should have been weak enough to imitate the first Napoleon, in placing his relatives and friends on foreign thrones, is most unfortunate for his prestige and the stability of his dynasty. It will be well for Europe and the world if the complication be settled without further irritation on the part of the American people, who will never brook the appearance of European armies or princes on the North or South American shores. The Pope, after fifteen centuries of temporal rule, is contemplating a tranquil exile, and it remains to be seen to what extent his influence, as spiritual head of the Romish church, will be increased or diminished, by being stripped of temporal power. The change is i%giighty one, and furnishes food for thoughV'to the friends as well as the enemies of the-Roman Pontiff. ■: i President Johnson is addressing himself with characteristic energy to the: great work of reconstruction, for which he thinks he has a mission. He is laboring to convince Congress that all future legislation must be based on a just appreciation of the rights of men of whatever color. If he should be able to temper his fiery zeal with the discretion which is supposed to be the chief merit of statesmen, he may restrain the furious impulses cf his rabid opponents, and rule as the genius of the storm. The civilised world watches with intense eagerness the present act in the great American drama ; and with bating breath, waits to receive the intelligence that will enable it to rejoice in the peaceful denouement of a strife, imequalled for the importance of the principles it involved, and the amount of suffering it inflicted on the human race. In one short sentence we are told that the number of deaths from starvation in India, amounts to a million. It is not possible to realise the truth of this dreadful statement. Four times the population of New Zealand have died the lingering death, which a want of the customary supply of rice has led to. They have not fallen in battle, with the encouraging shouts of their fellow creatures ringing in their ears; nor been struck down by the destroying pestilence, sweeping with its poisonous breath across their country; but a million of children, mothers and fathers, with sympathies and affections like our own. with hopes of good, and loftj aspirations after happiness, have slowly, sorrowfully, despairingly, and with eyes uplifted in vain for help, lay down and died from hunger. Is this terrible calamity a divine infliction, or is it an evil that might have been remedied by human care aud foresight? In the absence of correct information ou the subject, readers in this part of the world csm only contemplate the awful spectiicle in speechless agony. Truly there is ample room for amendment, political, social, aud moral, iv this extensive empire of ours, on which the sun never