ITEMS FROM OUR MAIL FILES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1977, 10 March 1885, Page 2

ITEMS FROM OUR MAIL FILES.

Tiik Souun CvMi F vu.v.—The Sin I'iancisoo News Tji'tt'ji vviites on the lltli Febiu u y : — The subject (if piranioiint 111totpst to nil mmds tliii week is the condition (.f affairs in the Solid in. The dispatches winch have come to hand ju-t prior to tlie wilting of this seem to throw some doubt upon the lepoits which an nounced the taking of Kh.utorm by the Mihdi, and the massacie of Geneial Goidon, and the Egyptian garrison which supported him. The 01 lginal repmts, however, wore too strongly branded with the cm -muks of truth to permit of much hope being taken from the later and contrndictory rumour*. It h not conceivable that the I3nti-.li Expedition, uhich went up the Nile to Khaitouin, would have found .my difficulty m '.Hiding .md communicating with Gordon, had he still been in possession of the pl.icj. And evon although the M ilub's adherents were in possession of the plic, had the Gcucial been alive, it is almost :v foregone conclusion that he would ha\c found *ome means ot communicating uitli Ins fi uuids. Theiefoie, legicttable though in Iv, good judgment diivos one to the conclusion that this ,utii ible gentleman and gallant soldier has fallen before tho assassin's knife; that the place was treacherously betrayed into the hands of the enemy, and that the garuson was annihilated in a massacre so fiendish and ho brutal that even the coarsest human nature must turn from a contemplation of it in disgust. For tins lesiilt unthinking minds will hold Gladstone and his Government responsible ; thoughtful, reflects o and observing minds, however, will not concur in this view. Honest and waim-heuted impetuosity, unguided by brnns, vvillsiy — in fact, does say— that Gladstone's policy in repard to the Soudan, has been " vacillating." The fact of the matter, however, is, it has been a him and consistent policy, under tho most trying and chinging circumstances, fiom the \uiy hist. And what is more, it has been a. policy which docs credit to Ins clearness of head as welf as to his goodness of heai t. His policy has been the policy of a humane and conscientious man, and during his long career he hasnever .i-ssum^d a position upon a public question which redounded 111010 to his ciedit. From the first he objected to the Bntish Government doing anything towaid bringing the Soudanese back under tho yoke of tho Egyptian tiskmasters and tax collectors fiom which they weio trying to escipo. Unfortunately the Arab mind, Hteeped as it is in egotistical religious fanaticism, and accustomed to revel in a \indictive cruelty, which nothing tempers but a l.vek of might, could not understand this— and, for the matter of that neither could the honest and warm-hearted impetuosity which has designated Gladstone's policy as " vacillating," Tho facts of the Soudan trouble nro simple. It is not necessary to go farther back than the emeute headed by Ai.ibi Pasha. At that tune El Malidi wan in revolt, and during the poiiod which was consumed in the subjugation of Arabi, tho former gained much headway. After the adjustment of those tumbles ho gained one or two advantages over the Egyptian*, , t nd tho latter applied to tho lintisli for nid in suppressing him. This Gladstone refused, but as there were Kcvpral Egyptian garrisons in the Soudan, ho permitted General Goidon, who was believed to have great inHuenco with the Aiabs, to go alone to Khaitouin with a view to effecting a peaceful settlement of the tumbles, the establishment of a icliablo government, and the peaceful withdiaw.il of the gainson. Flushed with a few rictoiies ever a c mtcmptible fon, the M ihdi, in his insolent and fanatic il ignorance, announced his intention of ovei-i mining all of lower Egypt, if not the eutue woild, and 10fused to come to any teims. Shoitly afterwaids the road to Khartoum was closed, and Guidon* iv trout was cut off. Sinco that moment there has been a jingo cry in Englaud for an army to Ijtj «<>nt to his relief. This ciy Gladstone resisted. He knew th it, for the present, Guidon was peifectly safe. Ho knew, also, it was easier to go into tho Soudan thau to leave it, and ho had no desire for its territory. He hoped that in time theso troubles would adjust themselves, but they did not. Eventually he sent forward tho present expedition. It is non onso to say he waited too long, That is the idle vaporing of jiijgo'besotted Ignorance. When last heard from Gordon stated that he could hold out for another year, and there is no doubt but that he could. It is true that he has not done no, but that is the result of treachery, which is an uncertain element, and cannot be taken into any calculation— th»t treachery was just oa

h ible to develop lUelf up ill the appioach of the expedition had it sUited twelve month-, ago. Those fact* slum that (Had stone's policy lias bi'pJi both wise and couj Mstent. Keejiit events, however, have j completely tli mj^ed the aspect of afFahs, and, as a natm.il coiiseciueucr, the policy of (Jlidstone's govern. n at hi-, been changed to meet th" ie((uirements of the ocl.imoii. If U now an imperative neces-ity tint Khartoum bo recaptured, the M,ihdi\ pimoi oveithiovvn, and the Aiabs t night ,i lesMm th v will iec>lleet no long .in the i die ny debits leniiin their chiding pi ice N<> nil" need doubt that this will bo done. Aheady you cm hear tho dull ti unp, Uainp of an auny of men, sprung fioni <i lace of wariioi-, that know no defeat, as they piess on acro-s tho sandy deceit on their iniNsKiu of vengeance. The spirit which dashed like an avalanche into the liussia.ii battery at Balaklava, which held the bloody height-* at Inkunnann, and which Ins triumphed on a. thousand hard fought held--, fioni Tel el-Kebir to Crecy, is still alive and full of vigour. THRnnniberwf omcers killed and wounded on the Biitish side in the fight near the Almiu Klei Wells i<, in proportion to the casualties and number of troops engaged, exceedingly large, and indicate:) that the British troops are led by men of mettle, who do not shirk from the fray. This has always been a characteristic of tho British army, and to a I irgo extent it accounts for the historic .steadiness of Jonn Bull's troops. Among the eighteen who fell, wounded or dead, on Africa's sandy deserts on last Saturday, there is one conspicuous name which deserves more than that pacing regret which the death of a br.ive soldier on the field of b ittle must always call forth fiom chivalrous hutn.vn nature. We allude to Colonel Burnaby. Thjs^ gontleman was one of tho nio-t piomisinjr soldiers the ButUh army contained. Hi* intellectual bughtness was quite equal to his physic il bravery, and what the latter was is amply evidenced by the m Miner of his death, When discovered, the Arab whose spear had, in the hand to hand conflict, inflicted upon him the fatal wound, wsn found in his grasp, strangled by the only weapon ho posse-sod— his hands. Had he lived, a gieat future was piolnbly before him ; lvit, niMMiied by oidinnry stmdaidN, it in questionable vvhethei th**hilo of glory which the ina'incr of his death h is gatheivd round his name \*> not in >ro des.rablo thin any Micce-.ii tlio fature might luve hid in store for him. Oni thing is certain, and that in that no Hilton need over feel a«harucd to point to the Ah >u Klea Wells or ui'iitina the names of Colonel Burnaby and Ihn doad comrade-. Ir is stated in the North Biitish Agn 'CultuiiN't that three of the men who wore engaged to slaughter cattle suffering from foot-and-mouth diseasj, and belonging to Mr W. F. Webb, of Newstead Abbey, have contracted the dhoi.se by holding their knives m their mouths. An applica tii in was, it is said, made to the L >rds in Council t > know whether the men were to be isolated or nI iug!it«"red. | RhoumatiNm pli>s havoc witli some of the female inembjis ol liaropjan royalty. The Kmpress of Austiia sutlers seveiely from it, and has to go a^ain to Am-terd mi to undergo Dr. Metzger's treatment. The late Princess Alice was a martyr to this ill, and so is Princess Beatrice, now about to be inairied. An Italian Duke has ju-t corn" into a fortune in rather a stringe way, for it wa-. through his wife's death that he Middenlv bjcamo a rich mm. The lady had lived a quiet and reserved life, and everybnlv, in eluding her husband, believed her to b? posMjNNed of only a moderate mc >nn\ When she died, hotvovei, and an inventory of the furniture which had belonged to her v\as m i'le, it was discovered that bundles of b ink-notes had been hidden away in every conceivable corner, the net v.\luo of which amounted to over eight million lire. As she left no will, ail this property goes, of course, to the Duke ; but neither he nor any of her relations seem to know where the money came from. According to a German paper, the Duko of Cumberland has Iwen exceptionally lucky in his herit ige. The Duke of Brunswick, as is known, bequeathed to him his villa at Hietzing, with all its contents. The inventoiy has only now oeen made by a Commission lepre-entmg the Brunswick ( Joy eminent, the delegates of the Vienna not iries and tho representatives of tho Duke of Cumbei land. On opening an iron safe which vv.in believed to be empty, they found that it contained 40,090 Austiian ducats, Gorman, Austrian, French and X lghsh bmk notes woith half a million of Ho ii», and stock worth 40,000 florins, l>3sid s some silver coin. Tlio value of the wiole iN about £100,000. Tin: Paii-iuii are propo-unvy to erect a monument to the cbry of Je m J.ique-. Rosseau, in the thoroughfare which now I)3 irs the n yin j of the author of the " Nou\ello Htloi-ie." At the same timo they relentlessly devote to doNtruction tlio famou-, H6t"l Jean .Taques ltos-oau, so called from the fact that RoNseiu Ntoppjd in it in 1741, when it was the Hotel de St Qucntin. It is a pity that a Imilduu which has so many associations with th i literary histoi y of France should go th" way of all buddings so soon. It is haunted by other memoiies thin those of the "selftortming sophist," which ought to mike it almost s-.tcied in the eyes of Fro'ichmen Within its walls (Jcorges Sand wrote her first novel. Within it< walls Jule* Sindoau met her for the fir-«t time. Within its wall*, too, Ciuhtave Planche wrote his fir.st ciitical essay. LvuoucHKKE says, referring to tho Knglish Jingo editois: It has often occuire.l to me that the interests of ikuca would be greitly served, were Jingo editors and Jingo sp mteis formed into a special coips, and foiced to constitute the advance guard of all warlike expeditions they advocite. A few Zulus dischaiging their assegais in the faces of thesa smug gentlemen, a few Arabs prodding theii circasses with their spears, tho flies of the desert tormenting them, bad food or no fo-)d, pestiferous water or no water, fever and ague, gunshot wound--, bhclN lniyting round them, and the amputitim of an arm or a lesr, followed by hospital fever, would— if Jingo writing had to b3 followed by Jingo fighting — speedily convert the outpouiiiigs of those ad\ocatosof blood and murder into the cooings of sucking doves. So long, however, a« a division of lab mr exists, which in ikes it oiu man's business to advise fighting, and the busiiipss of another nun to hs»ht. we shall have ploity of pMplo bud ami liiNty in the torm.'r avocation, who, it, like thoMihdi. they were asked to go to the front to charm the bullets, would, like him, dieain a die iin. This'cirpsof editori il heio"s might htly be biippoited by a ti\ upon Jingo articles.

The " Homo Nrws " stiongly advocates the formation of a Colonial Butish Museum. Mr W. Moon, Cimbndge, warns the public against <iegott itinjr al'A. 1 lie first meeting of the creditors of Thorn is Hoy, Cambridge, binkrupt, will be held .it the Deputy Assignee's offi.-e, Ihe Vaikato limes Buildings, on Fridiy, the 13th inst., at noon. MrJ S. Uuckland will sell at Cambridge on Saturdis next, light farm waggon, spring wairgon, tip dray, draught horse and 1) irness pair bl.ick horses, staunch draught geldings. &c. lhe p-mnerslup hitherto subsisting between Messrs Hugh Kanibiv and William K.inisi\, Kangnohia, has been thssohed, and the public are < mtioncd against dealing with an} of the propei t> of the late firm The Miranda Cotl Compinv invites t^-ulers for cxcivating a (anal, about t>o chains in length, from the Miramarui Creek to the new shift. Plans, B.C ,m ij lie seen .it the office of the engineers, Stcwirt anj Hunter, Amkhnd, and at I'orter's Hotel, .Mercer. Fii'ts Ym no A6Uv-".My mother wis afflicted a long time uith nauriliiii md a dull, hctw, inactive rendition nt the whole s\-,tcm he.idarhe, nervous prostration and w is ilmost lielphss No p'nsi Mill or mi rfu iur-s <lnl her .my good llucc months ago she begin to use Hop Mittcis, with suth good i flfet t that she seems and feels uiung igain, llthough over scv-nty jears old "— A Lvov in R I Lookup We rail our readers 1 attention to the firt that we h.nvo ntrain received names and addresses of the print ip it winners in Kobin Hood's programme on the Dunedin Cup We are also to not ceth.it thu Press was well rcpivsente.l at the drawing a< usii il lhe popul inty of Kobin Hood ranr.ot bo belter notified than by the fit t tint the above programn.e closed with 7125 shares, bung .ril2s. r il25 in etccss of what was sold on the same event in 1884. In another column will bo found the new advertisement of the Co-operitive Association showing pi ii c list &l. Such prices have never before been he ird of except for large wholesale ordeis The Co-opentive Assoli ition arc now placing the order of the fanner upn n the same footing a^ the lirgest transactions and they trust that tins ac tion will meet with a vcrj hearty response from shareholders and others, and also induce every settler who has not yet brought co-operative shares to make immediate application for an interoU in an Institution wri< h is cheapening all kindi of goods the farmer r« quires and finding a market ol every kind ol produce ho has for sale. Doctors Gwk Him Up— "ls it possible that Mr Godfrey is up and at work, and cured by so simple a remedy?" •• I assure )ou it is true tint he_ i« entirely cured, and with nothing but Hop Hitters, and only ten days ago bis doctor cave htm up and said he must die 1 " •' Well aday 1 If that is so I will go this minute and get some for ray poor George. I know hops are food." Head.