The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1879.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 241, 22 October 1879, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1879.

In the House the same unsatisfactory state of affairs that has ruled for the last week still continues. The Government having gained the right to occupy the Treasury benches by defeating the late Ministry are naturally anxious to carry out their measures, the principles of which are recognized aud approved by the whole House, while Mr Macandrew and his crew are equally desirous of returning to the offices from which they have been ejected by a twice expressed declaration or want of confidence in them, and so the battle rages, w and the business of tbe country, we are told, is kept in suspense

by four waverers, who appear to be desirous of making the best terras that they can for themselves, or, it may be, for their constituents In addition to the late Government having distinctly proved themselves incapable of doing anything but talk and promise, which is sufficient reason for desiring a change of Ministry, it must be the earnest wisb of every man and woman who ha 3 the interests of Nelson at heart that Mr Macaudrew may never again return to power, aud, as he is to be the Premier in the event of the present Opposition proving victorious, bur representatives, such of them, at least, who are desirous of securing the progress of the district, should leave not a stove unturned to ensure his defeat. There was another large audience at the Theatre Royal last night when Mrs Hardinge Britten delivered her second lecture, the subject of which was the somewhat sensational one, " Where are the dead : or life in the Spirit World '' After showing that, among the earliest historic nations the idea existed that the spirit or soul merely made the human form its temporary habitation in the course of its endless journey from eternity to eternity, Mrs Britten went" on to give her creed, the result as she said, of what had been revealed to her by the spirits, that the soul passed on from sphere to sphere, and that upon the life that had been led oh earth depended its immediate future after quitting its tenament of clay ; hnd that life been an evil one, the spirit had to be purified by a period of mental suffering before being fitted to take its position in a higher sphere. We cannot attempt in these columns to follow Mrs Britten through her hour and a half's address, which was a masterpiece of eloquence, delivered without the slightest hesitation, and illustrated by the most beautiful imagery. No aoubt the number was very small, if indeed there were any present, of those who accepted her creed, which, bowever, she predicts is shortly to become the religion of the future, but all must have felt that they were listening to a remarkably clever woman who had thought much and deeply on tbe subject on which she was lecturing, and who possessed in a very marked degree the power of conveying her ideas to her hearers in the most fascinatiug language. It was announced that Mrs Britten's stay in Nelson will be shorter than was at first intended, and that consequently the next lecture, which will be on "Ancient and Modern Freemasonry " will be delivered tomorrow evening instead of on Friday as previously advertised. Mr Mabm reports the sale by auction on Saturday last of cattle, ex Wallace from Wanganui, at £13 per head.