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    3STo. 440, AiTGggT_ 28, _ 185g. _ | _ _ ...

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    1ft iVttT1>tlf Ttf fltl* " '3X\j>>*>>I*- JUIrUUlU -Ul ll)t XUWli

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    fpHE Count de Persigny lias well set for...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    3sto. 440, Aitgggt_ 28, _ 185g. _ | _ _ ...

    3 STo . 440 , AiTGggT _ 28 , _ 185 g . _ | _ _ T H E IE A ID _ G R . 359

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    Fphe Count De Persigny Lias Well Set For...

    fpHE Count de Persigny lias well set forth , in his X speech at the opening of the Council-General of the department of the Ijoire , the mutual interest of France and England in the maintenance of the alliance . The two countries have reached that point at which a closer union is an absolute necessity . " So great has become the community of interests , " as the Count truly said , " that , if to-morrow London

    or Paris were burnt down ., we should reciprocally have to support enormous commercial losses ; and , while a catastrophe occurring to Berlin , Vienna , or St . Petersburg , would excite but our sentiments of commiseration , in London , on the contrary , French interests would suffer almost as severely as in Paris itself . " The two capitals arc , indeed , as closely hound to one another as the Corsican "brothers in

    Pumas s story : wound Paris , and London . bleeds . But there is a stronger argument still in favour of peace and union between the two nations . As the results of the last great war with France , England gained the great object of her interest and ambition—maritime and colonial supremacy . In a war with France we could have nothing further to seek , and the most successful issue could only leave us in possession of that which we already possess . The

    direct interest of France in . the maintenance of the English alliance is welt defined by the Count de Persigny . With England , he says , the French are masters of the seas , and have nothing to fear for their frontiers . No coalition against France is possible ; general peace is assured . The good common sense which has dictated these conclusions to the Count de Persigny , makes up for the famous answer to the Mansion House address ; it balances , too , the bellicose nonsense which has been fliinf ?

    backwards and forwards across the Channel since the completion of Cherbourg . A constitution has at last been shaped for the Danubiban . Principalities , and although we are not yet officially informed of the detailSj enough has become known to enable us to form , some sort of general notion of the scheme of government determined upon by tlie Paris Commission . On the face of it , nothing can be much more liberal and popular than the new constitution . There are to be two

    Elective Assemblies , elected "by popular suffrage , regulated by a fixed property qualification , not excessive in amount . These Chambers are each to elect a Hospodar . The Hospodars , assisted by the Elective Assembly , will have the entire control of all domestic legislation , the supreme authority of the Porte being exercised only on questions of peace or war . No act of the Hosjiodars will be Falid unless it is countersigned by the Minister , and the Ministers will be accountable to the Elective

    Assemblies . There is also to be a Federal Council , acting for the Principalities ; bat the intended action of this part of the scheme requires explanation . The impression which the scheme will most naturally make is that of surprise at the very small part which Turkey is to take iu the affairs of these important parts of her empire , and at the facility which has been given to the two Principalities for effecting the federal union of which , beyond doubt , they are both desirous , and whicli has been so stoutly resisted in alL tho discussions which have preceded tlie " Conferences . " "

    Tho Moldo-Wallachians brought into at least a promising state of harmony with tho Porte , it is time that something should bo done to put an end to the barbarous strugglo which h going on between Turkey and Montenegro . It is scaudulous that in any part of Europe such scenes should be enacted as those related in the Journal de Constantinople ol the 10 th instant . According to that paper , the Montenegrins , in contempt of solemn promises , « ave , for tho third time , broken a truce and desconded into tho Turkish territory with flro and

    sword . Their ferocity is described as something fiercer and more horrible than that of Caffres . They descended into the small town of Kalaehim , which was quite defenceless , and pitilessly slaughtered and despoiled its wretched inhabitants . All the women , says the account , who escaped the first massacre were carried off ; the Laudsomest were retained as booty , the others were murdered in cold blood .

    Even Prince Dauilo , the implacable foe of Turkey , is represented to have been scandalised by these monstrous doings , and to have issued a proclamation making it death to leaders , equally with subordinates , to attack the Turks , unless attacked first . Bat is it not the business of Europe to put an end to a state of things under which such atrocities are possible between states ?

    We are opening up China to the influence of Western civilisation , and we are urged on by the temptation of a high material reward , but are we not bound to see that the duties of civilisation are properly performed nearer home , even if the reward be not so direct and tangible ? At the present momeut , however , there is certainly no comparison between the interest we naturally take in China and in Montenegro . Admitted into China , it is hardly possible to conceive the importance of the new career that opens for our commerce . As yet

    we know nothing more than the hare fact that a treaty has been entered into between the Emperor of China and the representatives of France and England , by which tlie ports of China are all to be thrown , open to European commerce , the practice of the Christian religion is to be freely allowed , and foreign consuls and diplomatic agents admitted into Pekin . An indemnity—stated at 30 , 000 , 000 of francs—is also to be paid to England and France .

    A remarkable fact in connexion with these results of our operations on the Peiho is , that the intelligence has reached England through tlie French Minister at St . Petersburg , the Russian Government having , to the surprise of Europe , a regularly organised overland route from Pekin , by which it is enabled to forestall us of intelligence fromtheCelestial capital by at least a month . We have referred to this important fact in another part of the paper .

    ¦ Ihe view which we last week took of the state of parties in Canada appears to be pretty nearly the s ame as that which is taken by the new Premier , Mr . Cartier . In his " explanation" in the Assembly , he said , that the expediency of a Federal Union of all the Provinces of British North America will be anxiously considered , and communication with the Home Government and the Lower Province entered into forthwith . For the present , the question of the site of the proposed new capital is to he left open , the Government not taking any steps without fust consulting the Assembly .

    Before its dissolution , the East India Company has performed a graceful and generous act in granting a pension of 2000 / . a year to Sir John Lawrence , to commence whenever ho retires from the service . There is but one voice and one opinion as to the merits of Sir Johu Lawrence ; there is no man , military or civilian , who has done ao much for

    India since the outbreak of the mutiny ; and every one will rejoice to know that his services are not only recognised but rewarded . In fortune , he is now in a position to maintain any honour that may hereafter be bestowed upon him ; and it will be a , disappointment and mortification to the country if a title is not added to the rewards which as yet fall short of his deserts .

    Day by clay we have the pleasing intelligence that the Atlantic Telegraph works beautifully . Her Majesty and the President of the United States have exchanged congratulations along tho mysterious wire , each expressing fervent hopes that the union of the two halves' of the great Anglo-Saxon family may be strengthened by this wonderful now tic . America is in n jubilant state at the success of the third attompt to lay the cable , and tho most

    sanguine hopes of good results to come from the freer intercourse with , " Old England" are indulged by all classes ; it would , indeed , seem like a ^ profanation to think of anything but good resulting from the use of such a power . Let us hope that among the good results of freer intercourse between the peoples of the world by the help , of the electric telegraph will be the rapid development of a more liberal Christianity than has yet obtained in the Old World . We shall then not be shocked by such occurrences as the Maidenhead

    confessional dispute . The subject t has been opened out still further during tlie week by the publication , iirst of a letter from the Rev . Mr . Gresley , Vicar of Boyne-hill , denying the statements made by the accusers of his curate , Mr . West ; and next from Mrs . Ellen , of Maidenhead , who reaffirms the correctness of the statement first published in tlie Windsor and Eton Express , and publishes a

    report of a long conversation between herself , the Rev . Mr . Gresley , and Mr . West , in which it is made to appear that there is no room to doubt that the original statement was correct in spirit if not accurate to the letter . The fact , at all events , is made quite plain that at Boyne-hill the practice of auricular confession is persisted in , in conformity with the Tiews of S . Oxon ., the shepherd in chief of the spiritual nocks in that district .

    The Report of the Select Committee appointed to inquire into the causes of accidents on railways appears oy > portunely—the frightful consequences o £ the " accident" on the Oxford and Worcester line having roused the attention of the whole country to the subject of railway accidents . The recommendation of the committee is simple ^ "¦¦ " aad in a va . st number of cases where there is danger at present , would be sufficient to give security to the public : it is for the Board of Trade to get power from Parliament to investigate and report upon any

    accident , and togivethe public the means of enforcing penalties against the railways for non-punctuality in the departure of their trains , a fruitful source of et accident" arising out of the endeavour to make ¦ up for lost tinie . In the case of the Round Oak catastrophe , the cause of the disaster appears to have been of a kind to have been averted by the most ordinary care or forethought . An excursion train , consisting of twenty-nine carriages , closely packed with Sunday scholars and their parents , is being drawn up a steep incline , when some of the

    irons by which the carriages are attached snap , and thirteen out of the twenty-nine carriages fly down the descent and crash into a train which has been following it ; fifteen persons arc killed , and upwards of seventy maimed and wounded . It is premature to pass judgment on the case ; but we have no hesitation m saying that , if it is not proved beyond tlie shadow of a doubt that every care was taken in the adj ustment of the coupling-irons and in their adaption to the heavy work they were specially employed upon , the iurv should inflict a heavy deodand unon the

    railway company , and in every case of action brought for compensation the highest damages should be given . A most important decision has been conic to in the caso of the Liverpool" Borough Bank- Tho case was simply this : On the strength of the report issued by the directors of that bank , two gentlemen were induced to purchase ten shares in the bank j in a few weeks the bank stopped payment , and the present action was brought to compel one of the directors by "whom the false report had been issued to refund the value of the shares . The case was

    tried before Mr . Baron Martin , and decided for the plaintiffs , and establishes a most important precedent as ; to the legal as well as moral responsibility of those who arc , by any means over which they have control , tho cause of loss to others who put trust in . the good faith of their representations . Several other cases ot n remarkable kind have been heard in . the Law Courts , one of the most remarkable being that of Krog versus Franklin , in which the plaintiff has got 375 / . damages from tlie defendant , the captain of u merchant vessel , who had put him in irons and confined him for ten days , for the oll'cncc of ( oiling him thut his ship was " a floating hotel and he tho landlord I "

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 28, 1858, page 859, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_28081858/page/3/