Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), Monday 25 January 1886, page 2


THE EUROPEAN MAIL.

OLD COUNTRY NOTES.

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

December 11.

jLreuemuer X.

Two charming; little Queensland maidens, whose acquaintance I have just made, were delighted last Wednesday by, for the first time, in their lives, seeing real snow. They gleefully announced their intention of sitting up all night to see it fall. But they were saved the imprudence, for the snow ceased, and it has been hanging about ever since. The

Christmas Cattle Show of the Smith-field Club began in warm, wet weather, but before it has closed we have an apparently hard winter upon us-black frosts day and night, and north-eastern to harden them. The cattle show this year was very good as to both quality and quantity, but the attendance which promised during the first two days to be excellent has proved to be some thousands below the customary total. The champion beast was a polled Angus of marvellous outspring of rib, and lovely form, The Shorthorns were not at all up to the mark of previous years, but the crossbreds were magnificent. The same may be said of all the Scotch classes. The longhorns, which used to be the fashionable dairy stock of the Midlands-it was, however, a hundred years ago are to be revived as a breed, and this year we had three specimens at Islington. They should have been shown at the dairy cattle show in the autumn.

The elections are virtually over, and we now know what the position is. "Unless there be a coalition in order to dish the Parnellites, the position must be a deadlock when the House meets. But before this letter is printed Parliament will have met, and the telegraphic wires will have informed you of much later developments. The elections have produced a good deal of lying and bad manners, but I think all the fury is spent now, and that there will be no more sudden deaths from excitement. There have been seven Buch fatalities.

Mr. Garrick has been visiting Denmark to make arrangements for the indenting of labourers to Queensland, and has now returned.

The telegraphed news of the death of Sir Peter Scratchley has produced wide-spread sympathy with the-gallant general's family.

The Times considerably startled me last Tuesday morning by the sentence in its second leader:-"To-day the federation of Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, West Australia, and Tasmania is complete." It turned out that the expression was figurative, and that the writer know pretty well the history of the federation movement. His style is good, but his work is not clear ; as, for example, when he, by-and-by, says that the repose might have remained undisturbed " except for the apprehensions aroused by threatened foreign annexes tions in Queensland, and by French penal settlements in New Caledonia." The complete federation announced at the beginning is somewhat whittled down further on in the remark, " The warmest friends of the scheme are obliged to confess that the Federal Council is likely in its opening session next month at Hobart Town to be conscious of a chilling

apathy among the constituents it is to legislate

for."

The London School Board has been nearly lost sight of in the general election, amongst public questions the Aaron's rod swallowing up

all the rest. Else the recent election of a chairman would have created a good deal of attention. It has always been held that who-ever occupied that post it should not be a clergyman, the supposition being that his influence would go for the voluntary rather than the board schools. But a clergyman has been chosen by the newly-elected board, and, in the deed, there is promise of mighty reforms to be undertaken. The Rev. Mr. INgles, who succeeds Mr. Buxton, is the gentleman who has just unsuccessfully contested one of the divisions of Marylebone. As it was clearly understood that he did not mean business as regards politics, but was merely anxious to see whether a member of the clerical profession was eligible for a sent in Parliament, he made but a poor show at the well.

Against the untold amount of evil done by the Armstrong case, which seems to have pretty well passed out of the public mind, together with the most notorious of the actors therein, there is at least this morsel of good to put down on the right side of the lodger the Armstrongs themselves have a chance of beginning a new life. The appeal of Mr. Poland was liberally responded to, and, without any trouble, enough money was raised to place the child in the Princess Louie's Home at Wanstead, and to keep " a dowry" in reserve for her when she comes of age. The rough father has been presented with two complete acts of chimney sweeping machines, and the friends who are doing this good work not the persons who injured them have also taken steps to place the family in a cottage amidst surroundings that will leave the wife no excuse for drowning her sorrows in "twos" of gin and the husband with less provocation for blacken-

ing her eyes.

It is strange that with so many public buildings in London there is none really serviceable for a large concert. When any musical func-tion out of the common occurs you have to go to the Crystal Palace or Albert Hall, both too boundless as to space for the single human voice. The new piece, "Mors et vita," has been a great hit, and at its last performance in St. James's Hall people had to be turned away from the crowded place. Hence an agitation for a gigantic hall that shall rank midray tween the Albert and St. James's and Exeter halls. The site has been pro sionally' determined upon, and also the character-a somewhat composite one of the building; but whatever may be stated to the contrary the fact remains that hitherto the one thing needful has been, as usual, capital. The metropolis often requires a building like the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, not only for musical purposes, but for great public meetings. The promoters of the new undertaking must not, however, make their hall too much of a wilderness.

Next year should see on improvement in opera. Carl Rosa has secured Drury Lane for English opera, of which there is far too little in the metropolis, and it is said that changes will be attempted in Italian opera that will have the effect of reducing the extravagant sums paid to two or three stars, and improving the artistic merit of the general representations. That, of course, means revolution, and we may depend upon it that the changes will not be wrought in a moment. After all there is but one Patti, and such a voice must be secured at all costs. The reform requires, therefore, self-sacrifice on the part of the persons who support Italian opera, and I hope I am not uncharitable in the belief that they are the very last close from whom to

expect it.

How will the Speaker, the clerk at the table, and the reporters up aloft in the gallery team the names of the new members who have been elected to serve in the new Parliament of the next year? It is unparliamentary to mention a name except by the Speaker, so that to the initial difficulty of knowing whether a new member is called Brown or Jones must be added the greater puzzle of recognising the constituency for which he sits. Many of these electorates have been absolutely unheard of until the Redistribution Bill was discussed, and some of them are very outlandish and jawbreaking. However, time will cure these hardships, but meanwhile we may look out for inevitable confusion and muddle. After the excitement has subsided the composition of the new House of Commons will bear close studying quite apart from the question of politics; and I, for one, shall be very interested in knowing what reasons are advanced to explain the election of so many lawyers and brewers on both sides, and why so many teetotallers and advocates of woman's suffrage have been-to use the vernacular of the moment "chucked." Or is it all an accidental result? The sneer that the large proportion of very young gentlemen elected should necessitate the conversion of Westminster Hall into a suitable play-ground I do not sympathise with. The chances that on one side or the other from those youngsters will emerge men of promise who will redeem the reputation of the English Parliament from the justifiable charge of mediocrity so often brought against it. Mediocrity may be safer than brilliancy, yet we have for years now run

very short of planets in our Parliamentary

firmament.

When it was proposed to call the Great Eastern "The Leviathan," prophets, who publicly protested against the profanity, gave out that her career would be disastrous. It has been bad enough, verily, but it might have been worse. She has, after various vicissitudes, which have always interested the public and been daggers to the shareholders, been sold for £20,000-a mere song, indeed. She is to be a coal hulk at Gibraltar, and perhaps that is about the best thing that could happen to her. A useful if not great future lies before 1 cr, and, barring some supernatural misfortune, she ought to outlive us, our children, and a few generations ahead even of them.

Since the days when a man was hanged for sheep-stealing, and very often for being accused of it, how to treat our criminals has been a standing problem. And it is yet unsolved.

At the annual thieves' supper at Seven Dials, promoted by a worthy mission to reformed criminals, Lord Coleridge placed himself on the side of those who would make imprisonment less rigorous. The good people on the other side insist that we are crying altogether in the direction of leniency, and making imprisonment a desirable refuge for lazy fellows. What the Chief Justice, however, objects to is the long term of imprisonment given for a trivial offence because the offender has been convicted before. The question bristles with difficulties ; but, against the undoubted fact that most of the murderous, burglars who have of late made a noise in the world have been ticket-of-leave men, it must, be remembered that efforts made by various societies to aid the criminal after his term of punishment is over have had this result : In one year (1884) there were (1379) fewer sentences of penal servitude passed than in 1883. What we more immediately want is a Court off Criminal Appeal, or anything that will insure: a uniformity of just sentences.

(From English Papers to 12th December.)

IN THE CHINESE SERVICE.

A Dublin correspondent telegraphs the particulars of a mutiny, and some terrible scenes which occurred some weeks ago on a ship belonging to the British mercantile marine, which has been doing duty as a Chinese transport in the Chinese seas. Our correspondent

says :

" The story is contained in a long letter to a. Dublin gentleman which arrived yesterday The writer is chief steward on the vessel on which the mutiny occurred; but, as every off art has been made by the authorities in China to prevent the affair from becoming known, he desires his name and that of the ship not to be given. He, however, is a highly respectable man, and the truth of the remarkable story he tells cannot be doubted. The writer states that his steamer was chartered by the Chinese for $10,000, to take to Hankow from Amoy, COO miles, 2500 Black Flag troops, who had been disbanded from the Tonquin war. On their march to Amoy they had committed fearful murders and atrocities, and the Government were very anxious to get them from Amoy, where they were a terror. At the embarkation about 4000were disarmed, but they crowded on board toofast, and the work of disarming had to be abandoned. Many of them were drunk and carried liquor with them, and were fit for any mischief. The ship was crowded to excess, the bridge, poop, forecastle, between decks, and lower holds being packed. After getting, under way with great difficulty, the Black: Flags commenced gambling, having plenty of money about them, and were all night quarrelling, fighting, and murdering each other. Numbers were thrown overboard alive or dead. Some were stabbed, others were strangled, and not one of the ship's crew dared interfere. The writer himself saw 300 men pitched over-board during the night. When morning came: dozens of dead bodies were thrown overboard, some of them having been smothered, squeezed to death, or having died from want of water. A party of the Black Flags seized the water on board and guarded it, refusing any to the crew. A fearful crush followed on the other Black Flags trying to get at the water. The heat was fearful, and many died from thirst.

The Black Flags destroyed all the food, threw the race overboard, with the cookingapparatus, and threatened to kill the cooks,. They eventually began to drink sea-water. The sailors, who were fearfully parched, crawled down to the engine-room and got con-densed water and drank it, though it was quite hot. Things became still more serious, and the Black Flags threatened to kill the crew, drawing knives across their own throats to convey tothesailorathoirmeaning. They succeeded in getting hold of the captain by the beard, and held a knife to his throat. Eventually the vessel was put back to Amoy, where a British, warship was anchored. The commander of the latter prepared to sweep the vessel's decks with his Gatlings, and eventually boarded her. The mutineers were then standing on deck with black flag hoisted on spears. Two Chinese gunboats subsequently arrived and took off the Black Flags, those refusing to leave being thrown overboard and left to get to land as they could. Six of the mutineers were at once beheaded and 100 bastinadoed. Five dead mutineers were afterwards found in the lower hold, having been crushed to death."

id

MISCELLANEOUS.

MR. BRIGHT presided on Monday night at a. meeting held in the Town Hall, Birmingham, to hear addresses from three " Indian delegates to the British people" Mr. Manomshun Ghose, Mr. S. Ramaitvainy Undalivar, and Mr. N. G. Chandavarkar. After the delivery of the addresses, Mr. Bright said the delegates appealed to the great body of the right. think-ing and right-acting portion of the population of this island and all that they asked for was that measure of justice and right which Governments in all ages and countries had owedbut had very seldom granted-to the nations under their rule. He thought the enormously prevailing disposition in this country was in favour of justice, and kindness, and generosity to the Indian people. He had not the least doubt that Lord Mayo, Lord Northbrook, Lord Ripon, and Lord Dufferin had a real generous honest sympathy with the great populations whom they were sent to rule over. It was a matter of deep regret that the efforts of those distinguished Governors of India had not been fairly met by the Anglo-Iudian'community, and that if there was any obstacle more persistent and unwearying than another to any generous treatment, and conference of increased freedom upon the population of India, it was the civilians and officials of the Indian Government, and many of the English living in India, and engaged in speculations, plantations, and enterprises of various characters. They knew they were of the conquering race, and, with many honourable exceptions, they treated the natives as the conquered race, dealing out to them only that very moderate degree of justice and generosity which was dealt out all over the world, and in all periods of history, to the sub-jugated and the feeble. It could not much longer be allowed that educated and intelligent natives should be passed over, and all important places of honour and emolument given to a handful of English. In short, India must not in future be treated as a mere pasture ground for the young men of these islands. The time had come when England must learn this great lesson-that her absolute rule in her Asiatic empire was temporary. The duration of it would depend far more upon wisdom than upon force. Wisdom suggested and urged a policy that would conciliate the millions of India, and enable that country to enter

tranquilly on the path of civilised Government

and independence.

MR. GLADSTONE has written the following letter to Sir James Carmichael, who is con-testing NorthNorthamptonahiro:-" Hawarden Castle, Chester, December 5, 1885. Dear Sir James Carmichael I venture to express, with reference to your approaching election, my hearty good wishes for your success. It is now absolutely certain that the Tories will be much weaker than the Liberals in the coming Parliament, as they were in the last. It is therefore impossible for them to carry on the Government by their own strength or to hold their present position with dignity and independence. The only question remaining unsettled is the great imperial question whether there shall be in the new House some

party forming a majority, and, therefore, independent of all unworthy motives for courting Nationalist support. This can only be the Liberal party, which at the present moment outnumbers Tories and Nationalists together, and will outnumber them at the close, of your division of Northampton and some few other county divisions provide for the great imperial interests in view by returning Liberal candidates to Parliament. Therefore I most heartily wish you success ; but I must, in justice to you, add that your abilities and experience qualify you in an eminent degree, as I consider, to render good service to the country in the House of Commons Believe me, very faithfully yours, Vf. E. GLADSTONE." MR. PARNELL has been interviewed by the Dublin correspondent of the Boston Herald, who asked his opinion as to the result of the elections. Mr. Parnell says the polls scored by the National candidates almost exceed their anticipations. Counting the English seats, there will be either eighty-six Nationalists and eighteen Irish Tories, or eighty-fivcNationalists and nineteen Tories. The contests forced upon the Nationalists in Ireland cost £15,000; but they show the overwhelming preponderance of the Nationalist party, and the utter insignificance of the minority, to the defence of whose unjust privileges the forces of the Empire have so long been directed. The next Parliament cannot last long. The policy of the Irish party must be guided by circumstances. The Irish question will be the great question, unless foreign complications arise. Mr. Parnell does not believe in the possibility of a coalition Government, seeing no converging lines between any considerable sections of the two English parties ; but if ever such a combination were possible, coalition Ministries in England have always been short-lived. He expects the settle

the

ment of the of pb- question to come from the Liberals; adc&R-"assuming they will be about equal sTories aIm Nationalists come-breeders were to in our power on their accepting on terms to give them at once a majority of '9 votes, which would amply suffice to enable them to deal with the Irish question and cPT other question; whereas the Conservation, even with our aid, cannot get more than a Dore majority and would be always Wrapercd by the action of their eighteens nineteen followers from Ireland." MR. C BRADLAUGH, M.P., speaking on Sunday at the Hall of Science, Old-street, Cityroad, said he intended to introduce a Land Bill which was not likely to be brought forward by anybody else. He proposed in his bill to impose by law upon every landowner the duty of cultivating his land to the best of its reasonable ability; that any man who possessed land capable of cultivation with S rout, and who failed to so cultivate it, or who

is not utilise it for any purpose of public or reasonable private enjoyment, should be held to be guilty of misdemeanour. When they found land which admitted of profitable cultivation thrown out of cultivation, either for the purpose of game or luxury, this should be made a misdemeanour. About 32,000,000 acres of land in the United Kingdom was not cultivated, and how much of this could be cultivated with profit experiment alone could show. He proposed that the punishment to be imposed upon conviction for the misdemeanour

e would create should be empowering the State to take the land from its owner at the ordinary rate of value of land in the district, and calculated upon the income produced by the particular land acquired during seven or fourteen years preceding the time of sale. Game rents should not be deemed income, but only actual produce. If that amounted to anything, he should propose that it should be paid to the landowner in bonds of the state bearing the ordinary interest of the Consolidated Stock, and he should further propose to extend payment over a period of thirty or more years. He would pay the amount by letting the land so acquired to tenant cultivators, who would tender for it in small quantities, and be entitled to hold it for terms lengthened according to the improvement they effected in it.

THE polling district of Wedmore, for the Wells Division of Somersetshire, was the scene of a terrible riot on the day of the election (Friday), which resulted in favour of Colonel Paget, the Conservative candidate. The disturbance commenced by some Radicals stealing from the house of a prominent Conservative a blue flag. The Conservatives went after the flag, and a fight ensued, the Radicals taking refuge in a public-house. The few police in the neighbourhood did their best to disperse the mob, but with little effect, the rioters pelt-ing them with stones, which cut some of the constables about the face. The riot was renewed, and the public - house, which was wrecked during the afternoon, was again attacked. The mob broke open the house and severely handled those within it, but they were beaten off. Some Conservatives outside pelted the Radicals in the house, and the latter retaliated by the use of firearms. These were pointed at the crowd through the broken windows and discharged again and again for fully two hours, several persons being struck by the shots. One man was in a critical condition, bullets having entered his body ; whilst another man was dangerously wounded in the leg. Matters having become so serious, extra police were telegraphed for, but meantime the mob marched to the police station, which they attacked with sticks and stones, breaking every window as well as the sashes. The owner of the police station, a prominent Radical, was pelted with stones, and sustained several cuts in the head and face. The rioters were not satisfied until they had forced their way into his residence and broken up some of his furniture. When the extra police arrived they cleared the streets, but the task was difficult, and many constables received cuts from the stones.

THE capable citizens of the Buckrose Division, says the Yorkshire Post, have risen quite freely to the three acres and a cow which the Radical agitators have drawn over their noses. Witness the following conversation between a gentleman of large landed property in the division, who was chatting with his humble friends and dependents while collect-ing hill cottage rents. " My son is going to be married," said an old woman. " Oh, indeed I" was the answer. "Then is he going to live with you?" "Yes, for the present, but he looks to better himself very soon. He is ex-pecting to get three acres and a cow as soon as Mr. Cousins is returned !" Whether it was Mr. Cousins himself who told the flattering tale, or whether it was the invention of one of his active agents does not appear. All that is certain is that Mr. Cousins's defeat has marred at least one matrimonial project in the division he has been canvassing.

A PROJECT is on foot for the establishment of a Colonial College and Training Farm in this country, under the auspices of the Duke of Manchester, Sir Charles Clifford, Sir Charles Mills, Mr. M'Arthur, M.P., Mr. Staveley Hill, M.P., many of the colonial AgentsGeneral hero resident, and others well acquainted with the requirements of our various colonies. The undertaking is also approved of and supported by the head masters of our great public schools, and many more who may be considered to have knowledge of the need of such an institution from the home point of

view.

WILLIAM WALLWORK, of Great Lever, Bolton, an engine-driver in the service of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company, was presented on Saturday with £35 in recognition of the courage displayed by him on the 26th of December last in remaining on his engine in face of great danger, and avoiding a disastrous collision between an express and a goods train at Hindley. An express train missed the points at Crow Tree Junction, and dashed into a siding where a goods train was standing. A terrible' collision seemed inevitable, as the express was going at great speed. The fireman, perceiving the danger, leapt from the engine ; but Wallwork seized the broke, and by dint of great efforts, and in the face of almost certain death, so minimised the collision that no lives were lost, though many persons were severely injured, himself among the number. A number of passengers were so struck with the gallantry displayed by Wallwork that they opened a subscription-list, with the above result.

WINTRY weather Kaiserin with extraordinary severity. In London the sun has shone brightly for several days, but a keen frost has prevailed and some snow fell on Wednesday night. In Hyde Park, on Tuesday evening, the barometer registered 301", thermometer 295", being in" below freezing point. In the north of England, in Wales, and in Scotland there have been severe snowstorms and a very low temperature - 25" of frost have been registered at Kingussie, on the Highland Railway. The snowfall in Scotland has been so heavy that roads are blocked in many places; and railway traffic oven has been interrupted. The Caithness election took place on Tuesday, and, in consequence of the snow-storm, only 25 per cent of the voters went to the poll. Skating has been general in Scot-land and the North of England.