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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 38, 14 February 1871, Page 2

Almost imperceptibly we have drifted to thef very edge of Niagara. We have arrived at the nomination-day for the first batch of elections under our new system of payment of members. The prospect, is JL by no means alluring. The £300 per annum is avowedly to compensate business men for the losses their absence from their profitable oceupa-ions must inevitably occasion to them, but, to our alarm, it is so far grasped at in the majmitv of instance-*- by men of no business at nl!. The halt, the blind, and the maimed are struggling forward with offers to lead us ; the husiness men, the men of chnracter and social position, the men of leisure to think, are still hanging back, knowing full well that the responsibility of the future of this colony rests upon them. The heat and dust of the race frights them. They still prefer to sit in their easy chairp, transform-* ng those elegant articles of furniture into the seats of the scoffer. As to the bulk of the men who sppak of offering themselves, a true lover of his country might bB pardoned for echoing Nero's wish, tbat they bad but one neck for him to strangle. We can but warn the constituencies that the responsibility rests with them of making the best choice possible under the disappointing circumstances. It is now cer-ain that unless the individual electors use their franchise with discrimination, vote on high motives and huge principles, for tha best man and not the fluent clos'-pand'-rer, we are like to be. a butt for the nations. Tn that case we shall throw democracy back for twenty years in the world's history. We shall have to point to our Assembly, as Beau Brummell's valet did fo bis tray of cravats, with the humiliating admission, " these are our failures." — Melbourne Telegraph. \ The European War. — There are in i the ambulance both French and Germau S'^ldi rs, and it is curious to observe the different manner in which the French and the Germans support pain and bear the approaches of death. It is natural that this war should often have raised the ques- | tion which of the two nations — the French lor the German — is the bravest, ? For of i course, the reverses of the French and the facility with which they have sometimes given way iu lhe battles of 1870, cannot be taken as decisive argument i against them. There can be no doubt that all northern Eations, and perhaps tha Teutonic race more than others have a more gloomy idea of death than the southern races. The southern races either never think of death at all or think of it in a more smiling ligh t than the people of the north. It is difficult to understand therefore, why the German should stand with more firmness than the French, and it would seem that it cannot be ascribed to the intrinsic bravery of the people, but to their training and to the presen^^pf discipline. What one observeHfcn hospitals, where wounded and djni^* soldiers of both armies are lying sidelfljjf^ side, is very singular. The French do ** not bear pain as well as the Germans, They scream and howl where the Germans will not utter a sound. "The German soldier's fortitude in this instanre is owing, again, to the awe he stands in of his superiors. But when the overwhelming terrors of inevitable death are upon them the German's training breaks down, and they give the most unmistakable signs of terror. The Frenchman, on the contrary, generally shows the greatest coolqes* aud unconcern. This contrast was Ihown very powerfully the other day./ A priest who had been administering I) a Bavarian soldier who was dying' stopped in another room at the bed of a Frenchman, who was in an equally hopeless conditioo, aud told him tbat he was about, to, die, asking him if there was nothing he would like to do to tmike his way clear to heaven by confession and the viaticum. The French soldier, turning his eyes to the prie3fc, answered with the faint voice that remained in him, I should like some beef tea." For remainder of News see Fourth page.