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Southland Times, Issue 1563, 12 April 1872, Page 2

spectators like ourselves. Of the succession to the throne there is now happily no question, and the objections to a regency, which after all might never be required, and could hardly be a long one, do not seem very obvious or important, while the Prince's personal popularity has not latterly been very great. The real meaning of these remarkable displays of public feeling we take to be an emphatic protest on the part of the nation against the republican agitation which it is felt has gone long enough unchecked, and which ninety-nine men of a hundred are beginning to look on as little better than a nuis.mce they would gladly be rid of. It is easy for a few noisy agitators to assume the airs of a party in the State, but it will not be so easy to convince us that we do not now enjoy an amount of political and individual freedom unequalled under any , form of government in the world, or that . there is much to be gained by rebuilding from the foundation, even on the most scientific principles, a political system which has been the gradual growth of a thousand years. Lord Northbrook is the new Viceroy of India, and the appointment nearly cost the Gladstone Ministry their seats. It will be remembered that the appointment of the late Lord Mato by Mr ] Disraeli, made, however, just after the close of a session, was criticised in the strongest terms by all parties, and yet there never was a more deservedly popular Governor-General. In continental politics there is little to note of a definite character. The alliance between Germany, Austria, and Italy has been talked of for some time, and it is no news that the pretensions of the Comte de Chambord are supported by the Pope and the Ultramontane clergy of France. Bonapartist conspiracies, rearl or imaginary, in the present state of Ereuch politics, are matters of course ; and the jealousy of the French and German Governments may be expected to produce periodical announcements of an alarming kind until the payment of the war indemnity is completed. The intimation that the Pope has resolved to hold another (Ecumenical Council will be read with more surprise, if not incredulity, and the identification of the locality described in the telegram as Izru.l may afford an interesting problem for the ingenious until the newspaper files arrive.