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Southland Times, Issue 1629, 6 September 1872, Page 2

The news by the Suez miil this month is of a very satisfactory character. The Alabama arbitration was proceeding peacefully since the decision of the tribunal that the indirect claims could not be considered. Mr Gladstone felt sure enough of the result to state at a Ministerial dinner given at the Mansion House on the 24th July, that the American controversy was practically settled. The public mind was immensely relieved, we are told, by the removal of the indirect claims from the American case. Though the danger of an actual rupture, ending in war between the two nations, was perhaps never very great, still it is a comfort to have the cause of uneasiness finally swept away, and the way paved for a fair and honorable settlement of all disputes between the two countries up to the present time. England, it appears, was contending that she had not violated the duty of a neutral at all, but of course that question is precisely what the arbitrators are sitting to decidp, and in their decision, whatever it may now be, there cannot be a doubt that both parties will heartily acquiesce. The sittings of the tribunal are expected to continue to the end of September, and after they are concluded the treaty allows three months more to prepare the decision. The session of the Imperial Parliament was approaching- a termination, the 10th of August being the day announced for ' the prorogation. The abandonment of the minor measures introduced by the Government, and the pet schemes of private mombopß, known as " the massacre of the innocents," had commenced, and it may be assumed that no new event of importance in Parliamentary history is likely to oicur this year. The measure of the session is of course the Ballot Bill, which has at last passed safely through both Houses, and received the Royal assent. That the ballot is a theoretical improvement on the old plan of voting, cannot, we think, admit of a doubt, and that it woiks well iv the Australian colonies we know. Whether its practical results, under the widely different social and political conditions of the old country, will equal the sanguine anticipations of its friends, reina : ns, of course, to be seen ; but it may be fairly hoped that the effect of the change will be, on the whole, tor good. Among social matters we note the increasing rise in the price of butchers' meat, bringing the Australian article into greater notice than ever ; the prospects of a coal-famine, which we must hope will yet prove a false alarm ; the westward advance of the cholera ; and the unusual heat of the English summer. On the continent, the most noteworthy events are the progress of the struggle between the civil and the ecclesiastical powers in Germany, the financial success of the new French loan, and the consequent probability that the German army of occupation may be withdrawn at no very distant date. The teud between the German Federal Government and the Jesuits is based on the idea, which the German people have, rightly or wrongly, got into their heads, that their newlyacquired national unity — which they worship with all the enthusiasm of political idolatry — is endangered by tbe machinations of the Ultramontane party, of the organisation and action of which the Jesuits have the complete control. A measure of the most severely repressive character has therefore been adopted, giving the Government the most perfect control of the movements of individual members of the society, and the power to decide who do and who do not belong to its ranks. It is stated that nearly all the younger priests in the North of Germany are members of this and other kindred societies, so it may be presumed that we have not heard the last of this contest, which promises to be a feature of no ordinary interest and importance in European politics for many a day to come.