PRESIDENT GRANT'S MESSAGE.

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 119, 8 February 1873, Page 2

PRESIDENT GRANT'S MESSAGE.

(Timi:s, December 3 ) Thk parts of the document which relate to foreign affairs are as temperate and courteous as the most susceptible nation could desire The President congratulates Congress on the hiiccess of the Orene\a Arbitration, and informs the two Houses that the thanks of the Executive hare been communicated to the three friendly Powers — Brazil, Italy, and Switzerland — for their arbitrators ; as also the American people's appreciation of the dignity, patience, impartiality, and ability with which those arbitrators discharged their arduous duties. In like manner a tribute of praise i 3 paid to the. Emperor of Germany in his arbitration of the San Juan boundary. The President acknowledges the prompt and spontaneous action of the British Gknennent in giving effect to the award by removing its troops and leaung the United States in exclusive possession of the territory. The President is able to remark that the United States, now for the first time in their history, are left without a question of disputed boundary- The satisfactory relations which e\ist between the Republic and France are referred to, and Russii, of course, comes in for her share of compliment, as pre-eminently the friend and ally of the United States in Europe. We have ne\er seen a President's message more uniformly satisfactory in its tones as regard the countries on this side of the Atlantic. All of these with the exception of Great Britain are so much out of the sphere of Ameii ai interests that lhe causes of dispute with them can only be accidental and tomporary.

Olonxixa Advi:rtiser, December 4) Never bc'oie, or if ever, not since the. time- of Washington — not e\ en in the d.13 3of Jackson — has an American President's Message been »o humiliating to the Goternment of her Britannic Majesty, and of such strange interest for Englishmen, as tho quiet, sobor, friendly, nay, even complimentary and eminonth pacific, composition penned bv General Grant* and just laid before Congress The United States and Great Britain, jijs this remarkable document, arc in tho most perfect state of amity and friendship, and quite naturally as regards the former, iuasmuoh a* all outstanding disputes and "difficulties" ha\c been settled by her Majesty's Government having yielded and conceded everything which the Government of Washington and the people of tho Union could possibly ask or desire. Who doubts that misunderstandings can always be terminated by the simple and compendious method of one party giving nay in everything, and letting tho other have his own way in everything 9 Who can say the Union was to blame in exacting what has been exacted, when the Imperial Government of the United Kingdom showed itself so singularly compliant in its Uriah Hecpean humbleness ?

The Construction of Irovciads. — The Times, commenting on two letters which it published on the 7th in3t fiom Mr Kced and Captain Shcrard Osborn, remarks that they reproduce, in a compact and intelligible form, the mam features of the controversy which raged so long between the advocates of turrets and oroadside ships. The Times thinks that the time ha 3 come when this discussion can bo handled without the personal acerbities which once disfigured it, and mny not a little have retarded its solution. Time and experience have totally solved the discusion whioh for a time was so hotly contested. If you wnnt an ironclad to cruise about the world, you must be content with partial armouv-platmjj, but you must then recognise that •■he is a ship of limited powers, and must not regard her as a first-rate man-of-war If >ou want an ironclad to close in line of battle and stand the shock of naval guns, youthen must have that full and complete protection •which can only bo obtained by the adoption of the Monitor type. So' long as ironclads are a necessity, both types aro indispensable to a naval Power with transmarine possessions, although the extent to which it is wise to raise the number of partially arinod crnisera depends ou tho adoption of the course, recommended by tho Admiralty Committee on Design*, of establishing in various p.irts of tho world centres of naval stations from which Monitor ships could operate, Let tho Government provide n*, without delay, with those implements of warfare which, our naval strength requires. lfit them encourage every experiment by which a substitute for armourplating can be elaborated. But, in the meantime, let us be supplied with ironclads for every purpose, seeing that such a force can never bo cxtomporiacd, and that a war may be begun and ended before tho ironclad commenced at ite outbreak is rcadv to receive her crew.

\icotin in Tobacco Smoke. — In a recent number of the Centralhlait Dr Emil Heubel, of Ciew, a somewhat noted university in Russian Poland, gi%-es a pretty full account of researches which he had cai ried on with legard to the presence of nicotin in tobacco smoke, summing up his conclusions thus : — 1. Nicotin is without doubt contained in. tobacco ainoke, and its presence can be pi oved as well by chemical analysis as by physiologic il expcinnent. 2. Daring slow combustion the nicotin is to be constantly found in the smoke, a quantity of the alkaloid, varying as the tobacco is or is not rich in nicotin, passing over in the smoke. 3, This nicotin exists in tobacco smoke, for the most part at all events, as a salt of the alkaloid. 4 The fact that nicotin, spite of its consideiable volatility and easy solubility, is, during the process of smoking, by no means enthcly, or even for the most Ipai t, dissipated or dissolved, appears to have its solution in the circumstance that in tobacco smoke, as ■well as in tobacco leaves, the nicotin exists, not as a free alkaloid, but as a stable salt of niootin. 5 In the woiking of tobacco smoke both upon the human and biute organisms an essential share in the effect is taken by the nicotin ingredient of the smoke. In the course of hia pieliminary remarks, Dr. ITeuhel records a striking c\pci uncut thus : — " That a relative large quantity of nicotin passes over in tobacco smoke seems to be supported by the following observation \\ Inch I once made — that the smoke, only paitially collected and condensed, derived fiom the conibubtion of but a single cigar, and from which, after condensation, only fiom siv to eight drops of distillate were dcnved, \\a.e amply sufficient to produce m a lartje frog tbo most violent mcotm convul&ions, gcaei.il paralysis, and death."

Cumnkous AroPLKXV — Dr Rinaldi, of Phillippe\ille, relates in the Gazelle da Hopitaux a strange case of cutaneous apoplexy. It occurred in a man who on the previous day had been much worried, and who, after eating a hoar} dish of cold liver, was seiml w ith pain in the stomach and hole's When Dr Rinaldi saw him the face was intensely red, lips almost bl.iek, loose edge of eye-lids deep red, and all the bod} of the same colour. A dose of tartar emetic was followed b\ eopioiH vomiting and immediate relief. The intenso red Holour bpgnu fo disappear, and had, completely gone the panic pvc-niuz. A few griiina of quimuo were given, aud since then the patient hus beeu quite well. Pnnco Leopold m.itnculalrd ii" a moiuber of Chribt Chvireh, Oxford, ou the liGth JN'o\enibcr.