ENGLISH AND FOREIGN NOTES.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 873, 12 October 1871, Page 2

ENGLISH AND FOREIGN NOTES.

(The " Spectator.") Two of the jury then who tried tbi action for libel against Miss Jex Blab have written to the " Scotsman" to express their great regret at the awart of the Judge that she should pay tb costs (about £600). The result of tbi award has been, we noW learn, to enl bolden the male students to fresh out rages. Miss Pechey, the youDg gij who last year gained the position of medallist in chemistry, writer to |tl editor of the " Scotsman" that a kn<j of young men—gentlemen they ca never have been—follow her and hi companions in the streets, addre'ssid them by the foulest epithets, and " uj ing medical terms to make the pur pen of their language more intelligible J me." A lady, "moved by indignj tion," has already sent Miss Jex Bid £2OO towards a women's hospital, j save women from the attendance! such male advisers as tflese ; and 1 shall not be surprised to hear that \ whole of the £6OO will shortly be sd scribed by frionds, who will feel tlj Miss Jex Blake has received in Edj burgh a very scant measure of justij not to speak of courtesy. ! The children in English brickfiej the moat oppressed caste among El

•J is l - are likely to b« protected 'this session. Mr Mundella's Bill placing them under the protection of the Factory Act, and forbidding girls under sixteen from being engaged in the "work, has passed a second reading, and on Tuesday Lord Shaftesbury carried an address praying for tho same measures. In a speech in his best style, in which gritty facts are smelted by a fire of genuine indignation, he showed *that 80[000 childreu were employed 'from 14 to 10 hours a day in horrible labour, working up to their Waists in "wet mud, carrying lumps of clay on their heads heavy enough for hodmen ■ —a girl of thirteen for instance carries 'fifty pounds —and frequently walking fourteen miles a day to and from work, j Both sexes are huddled togbther in the "works, there is ! no rest or recreation, there is a tradition of lewdness in the trade, and scenes occur constantly such as Lord Shaftesbury declined to describe, and we cannot venture to 'quote. There is a chapter in the evidence of Mr Smith, the philanthropic master brickmaker, without a parallel 'even 'in our factory history, and as members have seen his statements, the bill must pass this session. This sensational case, the death of Mr : and Mrs Feast, or of IlfOrd, has ended in an open verdict. This ! mai-, a cashier on, the Great Eastern Railway, recently received a legacy, ; and being a hard drinktr, went in for a di'biuch.Jolie was a hard drinker too, ■and after the house had been closed for a week it was entered, and the fdunddead With his head smashed Mn, and'the wife dying and drunk. Two |little children, one a girl of ten, called *in tHe neighborhood from her'intelligence '' the little housekeeper," 'either could '-hot 'or would not give '■ any information, and'it is supposed, on ; a very incoherent statement by the "woman, 'that Feast had smashed His •head agaiuSt the fender'or knob'in the 'bed. -His money Was '-gone, however, : and there 'is"still a'mystery about the case, though it sedins clear 'that the -wife, Who "was 'bedridden, 'could 'not have killed the husbatid, | and tViat the children did 'not. The: wife just before dying volunteered the 1 'statement that they often spent thirty, shillings a day 'in 'drink, say at least ■five bottles 'of brandy, a statement which Will be credited only by physi-■! cians Who have come across true dipsomania. The " Lancet," we imagine, could quote cases much more astounding than this. Count Beust has been making a •speech to the Reichsrath, in which he stated that the policy of Austria was •one of peace, and recent historic events greatly increased the chances of its being maintained. "We note also that the Emperor is taking a bolder tone with his German subjects, 'that Prince Bismarck is exceedingly 'civil, and that Russia has retreated in some way out of her pretensions to interfere in Gallicia. We have no information, but cannot help thinking that the Hapsburgs haVe received some sort of a guarantee from Germany, which wishes them to civihse the valley of the Danube, and does not see how it is to be done if the Austrian"Germans leave the Empire. These South Germans, moreover, are getting accustomed to a great deal more liberty than Prince Bismarck thinks advisable. The London School Board had an interesting debate on the motion to include "Latin or a modern language" : as a discretionary subject for the higher elementary schools. The motion, as regards Latin, was, very fortunately we think, defeated by 21 to 15 —Mrs Anderson and all the more thoughtful of the members opposing it—generally on the ground that to attempt more than can be really effected is one of the worst kind of blunders, that the clever and industrious childten will have a way opened for them to the secondary schools—in many of which even Latin is not taught or desired by the parents—and that to include Latin in the list of subjects needful for primary education would be pedantic and unpractical. The introduction of one modern language as a discretionary subject was, though not defeated, not carried, Canon Cromwell proposing to limit it to schools in 'which the scholars pay 6d per week, and the motion being ultimately withdrawn. "We quite agree that to attempt too much will be to fail, but should Jit be essential for every boy or girl who is to learn even a single foreign language, to pass into tho ■secondary schools, in other words, to prolong education beyond the ordinary limit ? Is not the (even imperfect) knowledge of a single foreign language one of the most useful of all educating influences—helping, as it does, to 'realise the smallness of the world with \vhich we are most familiar, and the largeness of that of which we know nothing ? Education is not education ■unless it teaches us our ignorance. Patti was going to Homburg after the London season, and is to receive £I6OO for ten performances. She would be accompanied by Trebelli. A number of Polish ladies, princesses, countesses-, and other members of the highest nobility, propose to make up a purse "of five million francs-, ,and to present it to the ex-Empress Euginie, •as an expressiCn of their sympathy and respect tor the fallen greatness of a dynasty which baa so often pleaded for the cause of Poland.

The following bit of fashionable scandal is related by the London correspondent of the " Dundee Advertiser" : —"** A curious story is in circulation With regard to the relations X>f the Marquis of Lome and the Princess Louise with the other meur-

bers of the Royal Family. I believe that at the Duke 'Of Sutherland's banquet 'to the Russian' Grand Duke now in this country,'the Marquis and Princess Were treated as merabors of the Royal Family. The Prince of Wales, however, Will not accept this view of the position, and at the State Ball the other night, gave notice that the Marquis should not be admitted at the Royal entrance. He was accordingly refused admittance, and the' Princess declined to enter except with her husband, saying that her place Was where he was. The Marquis would not take the Princess in by the general public entrance, and the result was that they did not attend the ball. The circumstance has caused a good deal df talk in the upper circles."