GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5255, 26 January 1878, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

i The Militarische Jllattcr, : remarks the : fall Mall Gazette* gives.tho following details of i the numbers which have been transported to. the theatre of war by railways at the .outset of. seme of tho recent European campaigns, when the French, Gerpan, and Austrian railways performed work'.wiich contrasts forcibly with, the performance: of the Russian and Roumanian . lines in'the present war,During the concentration of the French army ,in northern Italy , at the beginning of the, Campaign of ,1859 p,. '‘ fewer ■ than 604,381, men aud..129,227, horses^ ’ .were moved hy.xailwayThe; average' time,, taken to transport(trOop&ffom.;Paris:to Genoa ■ was five days .and l on oho occasion a battalion was . brought if rota: Bille, vtoijMftrseilles in ;40 hours. At the time when the greatest activitywas displayed 8590,!men and ,600 horses were , transported daily; from .Faria ;to Marseilles,j and on : one particular day. 12,000 men aud 050 horses were: carried isafelyjthrough.!,.] No r acci*. dent of any kind oheurtred during! tjbe; .-wholeperiod, nor was the ordinary.itraffift on the|liao suspended. In 1860, 1 during, the concentration: of the Prussiandirmy on the Austrian frontier, the whole of the ,Bth Army Corps,-‘comprising > 31,000 men, 8500 horses, 95two-wheeled, .and 3125 four-wheeledivehicles, was moved by rail ■ in six days from the Rhine‘into ; Saxony. I In . the same year the three Austrian corps-wtam- - . bering altogether 123,000 ‘men, 16,051 horses, 259 guns,: an d 2777; waggons,. which afterj the victory of Custozza were 'hurried from, the, Quadrilateral northward to oppose; the: invader threatening the capital of .the iempirei from Bohemia, were moved .in Ift days; nearly; 6i)o, miles, from'the north of Italy to the-Danube, All these achievements: again, were surpassed, by the work done by the German and especially the Prussian railways in the summer of i 1370. The order; to ■ mobilise was telegraphed from Berlin on the.lsth of July, and three weeks afterwards three' large armies,- numbering al- : together more, than 300,000 infantry, 45,000. 1 cavalry, and 1000 guns, Were ; pouring, across the French frontier,;-the men having, in the interval been" collected and transported; by railway from every quarter of Germany, from the shores of the Baltic and North Sea, 1 from the most eastern, territories of , Prussia, from Saxony, Hanover, 1 and Silesia. From those examples it appears that even a large army may he rapidly concentrated by-the,: aid of railways if properly! utilised,-; while frota the meagre performances of .the Russian, and Rou--1 • manian railways during the.present; campaign, it is equally obvious that; but comparatively little assistance will be; derived from existing railways if they are worked in an unskilful manner. ..

The Hindu feeling about the war is thus referred to by the 'Hindu..Patriot “It cannot be denied that the feeling; about the war between Turkey and Russia is decidedly,in favor of the former. This fact seems to be a puzzle to some European writers. They cannot understand why the Hindu should at all feel keenly . on the subject. They, argue that the Hindus have nothing in common with the Turks. : The Mohammedans, they say; may well feel interested iu the fortunes of the Turks, for as co-religionists they have common traditions' and aspirations, but the same cannot be said of the Hindus. True, but the Hindus feel a sort of cosmopolitan interest in the war. That' interest has in the first place its origin in the circumstance that the Turks are of Asiatic birth, and that their achievements have naturally a certain significance in Asiatic eyes. They have always been hearing that Turkey was the Sick Man, that it was in the throes of death, that it'could not cope with the superior strength, resources, and intellect of the European nations ; and that it was sure to go to ' the wall oh the first collision with a first-class European Power. Mr. Gladstone told his countrymen that Turkey, ought to be turned out of Europe bag and baggage, because it had no life as a nation. The great Hellenic statesman was not singular in this opinion. ' It, was, in fact, the general opinio^.that Turkey would not be able to maintain her ground. But five months of deadly' warfare have passed away, ' and Turkey has shown an amount of courage,' energy, skill,, and perseverance which; has extorted the admiration of even her opponents. A nation that could show so much life, so much vitality, so much strength, so much energy, could hot justly be called a dying nation. *• The, adverse opinions which i had hitherto been expressed about the efficiency of the Turks as a nation have thus‘been emphatically contradicted by events, and'proved to be mere prejudice. The achievements of the Turks have thus invested them' with a peculiar interest in the eyes of the Hindus, for the weak sympathise with the weak. Then the character which .the Russians, have given to the war, that is to say, a religions war for' the protection, of the Christians of Turkey, has also enlisted the sympathies of ; the neutral Hindu. Wars have many 1 a time originated from religious feelings or antipathies, but in the case of the present war it is admitted on all hands that the religious, feeling pf the Russians is a mere pretence, a myth, that love of territorial acquisition is at the bottom of the conflict, that to swallow.np the Ottoman Empire has long been the aim of the Russian Bear. The Bulgarian atrocities of the Turks have been rivalled by tbe Russian atrocities upon the Mohammedans during the war. So it is a case of six on one side and half a dozen on the 1 other. Then , the Hindu' feeling has been somewhat moulded by the English feeling,’ Whatever a section of Englishmen, may say} the present English feeling, it cannot be denied, is not on the aide of Russia. Russia is the enemy of England, and , England’s enemy' is India’s enemy. This feeling of- the Hindus is begotten of their attachment to the British Crown. . It is an emphatic proof of the loyalty of the Hindus. It shows that, whatever grievances they may have as British subjects, they do not court a change of masters,’ that they have cast in their lot with, the English, and that they look upon the Englishman’s enemy as their enemy.’ ~ ■ ... ■’ ’ The Correctional Tribunal of Paris. has been engaged lately with' a swindle which has given rise to much amusement in the French metropolis. A young pupil of the Eeple Norm ale, of Grenoble, named Antoine 1 Lanfrey, received by. post in the course of last year a packet of papers, bearing the seal of a Royal Chancery, constituting him King of the Mary Anne Islands. The first document was a pragmatic sanction, signed by the late King Ferdinand, who had died without direct descendants, fixing on Antoine’Lanfrey, whom the document described as a soion'of the junior branch of his family, as his successor. Antoine ■was to marry the niece of the deceased King as a condition of his accession. Another document contained a letter addresaed to Antoine’s father by the late Ferdinand, begging him to accept the Crown for his son, who was under age ; and a third document was from the Regent, the mother of the King’s niece, who added her supplication to Ferdinand's. These papers were believed without hesitation by, young Antoine and his mother to bo genuine, while his father had doubts, which do not, however, appear to have been strong enough to lead him to take any steps in tho matter. Soon there appeared a notice in the local 'papor announcing the new accession to royalty, and then there came courtiers who pressed upon: him their services. ’ In particular there’ were among the latter two suspended priest*, and a young man who was under the influence of one of them. These three gentlemen were not long In getting themselves appointed, the one, Due de Bouillon, 'Archbishop of Antoine’s new, kingdom; the second, Grand Vicar of the , Duke ; and the third, : Captain of the Guards,' Orders were created and showered on: these, , dignitaries. These weteeverywhere displayed, \ and tradesmen were, in consequence, willing, , to supply the wearers on credit. Eventually, 1 no payments being forthcoming, the swindlers were seised, and, says The Times, they were tried and sentenced to different terms bf im-: prisonmeht, while the too credulous Madame Lanfrey and her son have had to settled down again to citizen life, a few hundreds ,of francs poorer for their too readily accepted pragmatic sanction.

A man has been arrested at Maidstone on suspicion of being concerned in the robbery of jewelry belonging to Lady Aberdeen;'but it appears that he is insane, and- that there is no truth in his statement that he was one of a gang of thieves.