MAIL ITEMS.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3217, 11 June 1879, Page 2

MAIL ITEMS.

(FBOJI ENGLISH PAFEBS.)

A correspondent points out that the generosity and magnanimity of Lord Beaconsfiold in supporting Lord Chelmsford aro more noteworthy when it is remembered that the first Lord Chelmsford, father of the present peer, assailed tbe Premier with bitterest invective when his claim to be again Lord Chancellor was put aside in favor of Lord Cairns.

• Mr Tennyson sends two poems to the Nineteenth Century for April, one a brief " Dedicatory Voem" to the Princess Alice, which is very graceful and touching, and just what such a poem ought,to be; the other a.',' war ballad " .on ;,' The Defence of Luoknow." Vigorous and spirited as this is, we cannot help feeling it—as we ff It concerning the "Ballad of tbeUeet," published some twelve month aga-r-too, much in,the nature, of a four deforce.' Mr' Toanysoa.'haslßhp^n'tikt he can write war ballad* if he pldasei, fat somehow they do not teem-to oome natural to him. We, howcrer, quote the stanza which to our thinking i» (v« best of the whole:— Men will forget what we suffer and not what 'wedo'.' tTewrti fight j - rt, ->' But to be «oldi«f all day and be sentinel all thro' the night—Erer toSmiae and aUanft, ioorltttti**, their lying alarm*, Bugles arid drums in the dsrksew, ana-snout-' ; ings and soundjngMo arms, , Ever the Udoui* «f flftfclltffc had to be done by fire, —'ietLTiJe^ ■WW7-W °V%t* b* Brer the day with its traitorous death fromf^ the loopholwaround, • Brer the night witk its coffioless corpse to be laid in the gfetntd, Heat like the mouth of a hell, or a deluge of ■ ' .^cataract sfcws,' , *■ ;;> -v *- Stench of old offal decaying, aad infinite tor* . ment of flieii ;a Thoughts of the breeies of tiay^Hqwtaf o?er an English field r ,&\w Cholera, seurv.v, and fever, the %taflClqflt j r nttxwWtnot be heal'd,, - V • - Lopping away of the limb by th« pitifulpitiless knife, — " . '„,; ' 'J£'' Torture and,,trpuble in T«a*»»—for it cond 'J sare"us a^i«>, r - •» 'I < * ?J; - * v>'" Valour of delicate women who tended the hospital fcM?<"-; '"<£> '/« Horror of women Who travail #moog the vli'ayißip«Wldtje4''Jlt''-"{' »:-,*MBT f. * " Oriof for our perishing children, and never a ';'f moment for gri«%, '. - '. <* ■■!?' •<>-, Toil and ineffable weariness, faltering hope*, ""'•'•'■ 'of relief, ■ •''• , •' '-i J<.%n : //',!{-ij'>'> Havelock baffled, or beaten, or butchaVd for all that wekaew-*-■-•* -ojj: t^'*" ? Then day and sight, day and night, cowing down on the still shatter'd walls

Millions of musket-bullets, and thousands of '" , ■.':" But ever upon the topmost roof our banner of England blew.' -■ ■•- -j-gomeETews. 7 ; , t ,' f ;v .-,

PRUSSIAN PRASANTS.

What are the-main causes of this scanty improvement* or, in perts r even^decline, in the condition', of' the Russian peasant classes'P' :The| main cause'<6f the lack of progress is laid at > the. door of the communistic village sjgtem which, prevails in Russia. This system has ra-ttwOf fold character and ■'; bearing —it binds i the peasantry together to the soil, bythe dom* mon possession of undirided laridt,ahd it renders, them liable in ; oommonjta the Government for the tale*.' ''4hjbrifrMjetof both is to repress and, hinder' Ut the .utmost all 'individual and individual enterprise. It is Intfi' the^ lands of the commune may be divided and allotted ? to the peasants individually by sK.tirs»>. thirds vote in! tae^ communal Msemb& « But the' unreasoning < conservatism of: tn# mass operates against any such vote being carried^ whiletnefact that, separate ai they may, they are still held collectively responsible foe*the taxation of the commune to the Government, renders their separation a difficult, if not an impotaible, matter. The few attire members? ejfl the i community might thus be rendered fe» sponsible for the whole? while the idle and dissolute wonld escape. In tome Govern* m^nts in Southern fotssia^ Hia true, the communal possession lrfehf *eo«j«nction of favourable circumstances liven way before. the, introduction of private; pro* perty; for example, in <h* Governments of Poltava, Tcherntgoff, PocUdia, and Bessarabia, when* many Getpak. and other colonies are to be found. has taken place, or/rather ha* hmfc^nd, . in the 1 Baltic" province* :iU|ldfi|||||aj|ia f ,, Here, agriculture, ' 'no/tfrMsSljjsitlNiffJ! ;iqme-. ; drawbacks,, whioh. might hare operated to'the contt«.tf,ht£m^nrtd t and no power, it is said, could t£ffaoe peasants -tq- return > to the communal system.' In Northern:-BussiA; and in Great Russia generally, there is a great desire on the part of the peasantry to acquire property in land,-thongli this tendency is much restrained by their of their own, this it greatly better caltivated than the land« r the/ own. Vekmcing to the commune. Yet such peasant^ rarely quit the commune from the diffiCases have been found where a peasant has paid as much at 160 roubles' for permission., to leave tk* commune. Another ease is .given of a' peasant who has succeeded in pnrehaaing three lots, or twelve dewjatwag ($1.32 acres), at a cost of 36X> roablea^sla who relinquished the Whole that he might be free to leare thVmmmune. The frequent * exchange or redtvision of aHoUaenta is one of the greatest, evils which the communal system nil IthX Russian village carries along with it. At tW«ame tieAe, even amid the prevailing darkness and misery occasioned by this, there, are . gleams of. a better state of this)gß approaching. In some places repartition takes place only at.the end of ten y^ra. In other places there appears to be^ a disposition to aljow these repartitions of the laud to become less and less frequent while at the same tune the annual redivision obtains to a>ery large'extent. It might be supposed that th« »u«iam peasant, ignorant and coMerTative with the jconserjratism, x>{ ignorance, wonld not readily apprehend the evils fron* whioh he suffers and the disadvantages at which • he is placed. We' are igsured, however, : that this it very "far from being the ease. The peasants themselves feel and declare that, their bondage under the commune *yt f often worse 5 than under the proprietdr,! , from the oppression of whom, they formerly suffered, inasmuch, as<it disposes, without check or control, of their lands, goods, and chattels.—Frasrer's MagMtne. Rustic |Politeness. — Pedestrian (to Rustic): "How is it, {.wonderP. You work Hard,'.live plainly, and ■ get *}o ot,» wn;le' I—" Rustle : No use o' .tilkm, sir; it lays i' the breed. A toatfatool s a toadstool, and you can't make a mnsnroom out'nit. Naverl"