Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 230, 29 September 1870, Page 4

The exodus from the Thames to the new rush in Queensland seems to continue, according to the local journal, j which paper seems rather to exult over the affair. Certain it is that there have been a number of alluvial diggers for some time resident at the Thames who fiave found themselves a good deal out of their element, who will probably benefit by getting away, and whose presence will not haye been much benefit to the Thames field. The Fijis are continuing to draw large numbers, and in Melbourne quite a furoie seems to have been got up in their favor. — Herald. The French war steamer Guichen, in which the new governor of New Caledonia left Sydney iast month, returned to that port on the oth instant. Governor M. La Richerie had assumed the adsniaistration on the 14th of August. A large quantity of coal, said to be over 10,000 tons, has been stored at Noumea, and will make the French steamers independent of the neutrality proclamation at Sydney. The G-uichen purchased a cargo of coal in the harbor this morning, and. will replenish her bunkers during the slight, and then return with all speed, carrying the despatches received by the mail, which are believed to contain the ibrmal proclamation of war ; and an immediate raid on the enemy's shipping is therefore now expected at every moment. It would certainly seem that English -statesmen had some premonition of what 'was going to happen in Europe. It will he recollected that orders were issued some time ago for the return to England of the greater portion of the troops stationed in the Colonies. The order was suspended for a brief space in Canada because of the threatened raid of the Fenians, but the fnoment that danger blew over it was revived. In vain the young Dominion Implored that the regulars might be left ■with her. Her militia was, of course, seady and able to do all the fighting that was ever forced upon her, as may at any time be verified by an inspection of the aregimental records of the "Queen's Own," and other military organizations, but then It had a weakness for regulars and did .not want them recalled. But to all its pleadings the stern stepmother turned a deaf ear. Home the troops were ordered, ■and home they had to go. No one could understand the obduracy which the English government then manifested, but it appears to be perfectly plain now, even &» the traditional pedestrian who wants to read while he runs. — News of the World.

The Geelonq Advertiser asks a question which we think would puzzle the smartest of Philadelphia lawyers : — " A creditor of the Jewish persuasion had occasion to make an affidavit in proof of debt, and of course could not do so with uncovered head. As he had left his own chapeau in another part of the Court, ho, without hesitation, appropriated a hat belonging to one of the legal gentlemen that was lying handy, and in that hat he was sworn. The question is, whether this is an affidavit at all, as the deponent did not put on c his ' hat, but that belonging to somebody else." In an arlicle on the mail services, the Post says : — The war raging in Europe, especially if England is drawn into its vortex, will affect the Australasian Colonies in a manner at first not thought of — it will influence their mail arrangements. Through the Mediterranean, and especially through the Suez Canal, the service would in a great measure be at the mercy of the French, and communication would at all times be liable to be interrupted, if not altogether suspended. Victorian journals urge this as a strong argument of at once establishing a route via the cape of Good Hope, but of course that would be much longer than the Suez line, and it would be impossible to work it with the same regularity. The only safe and suitable route is one through the United States, and in the event of a general European war, all the Australian Colonies would be compelled to use it. The knowledge of this fact should prove an additional incentive to us to perfect our arrar.gements for an efficient steam service to California, even if the cost is heavy at first, as there is no doubt, if the war goes on, that one and all of the neighboring colonies will eventually find themselves compelled to make use of it, and assist us in bearing the expense of its maintenance. Mr. Ruskin and the Ladies. — When Mr. Ruskin last delivered lectures in Manchester, he gave the ladies a pretty round scolding because they did not put an end to warfare. Those of his audience who afterwards read the published lectures under the title of " Sesame and Lilies," would miss a good deal of the vigour with which the approach was originally levelled. Now, however, the omission is made good, almost in the identical words we heard in Manchester. We learn from the Pall Mall Gazette that Mr. Ruskin, at the close of a recent lecture on war, addressed to the Royal Military College, Woolwich, made the following remarks to the ladies present : "You may wonder, perhaps, that I have spoken this night in praise of war. Yet, truly, if it might be, I for one would fain join in the cadance of hammer-strokes that should beat swords into ploughshares; and that this cannot be, is not the fault of us men. It is your fault. Wholly yours. Only by your command, or by your permission, can any contest take place among us. And the real final reason for all the poverty, misery, and rage of battle throughout Europe is simply that you women, however good and religious, however self-sa-crificing to those whom you love, are too selfish and too thoughtless to take pains for any creature out of your immediate circles. You fancy that you are sorry for the pain of others. Now, I just tell you this : that if the usual course of war, iustead of unroofing peasants' houses and ravaging peasants' fields, merely broke china upon your own drawing-room tables, no war in civilised country would last a week. I tell you more, that at whatever moment you chose to put a period to war, you could do it with less trouble than you take any day to go out to dinner. You know, or at least you might kuow, if you would think, that every battle you hear of has made many orphans and widows. We have none of us heart enough truly to mourn with these ; but, at least, xve might put on the outer symbols of mourning with them. Let but every Christian lady who has conscience toward God vow that she will mourn, at least outwardly,. for his killed creatures. Your prayer is useless, aud your church-going mere mockery of God, if you have not plain obedience in you to your conscience. Let every lady iv the happy classes of civilised Europe simply vow that, while any cruel war proceeds, she will wear black — a mute's black — with no jewel, no ornament, no excuse for an invasion into prettiness; I tell you again, no war would last a week. The body of a sensualist is the coffin of a dead soul.