Tux Spectator hus an article on Lord Randolph Churchill's Whitby speech on whicl we commented a few days ago, The optimist tone of it, in relation to the doings of last Session of parliament, is praised, and his Lordship is said to have risen above most of his rivals who have commented on late parliamentary doings. But the Spectator considers he has not covered the whole of the ground, and gives what it fears the historian of the future, who will never see much of what appears in the daily papers, will feel bound to say Will he not write that in that Session first appeared among Englishmen glimpses of the int which afterwards produced such disastrous results, the spirit of sympathy with ance to the law, whether in Parliament or out of it. Obstruction was defeated, but it had never been sheltered by Englishmen of such reputation. 'The law was sufficiently strengthened, Lut its impotence had never before delighted statesmen who had wielded power, 'The Government was even rigidly Before been' ea furiously denounced for per-refected by its majority; but it had never forming its plainest duty. The House w: a House of the orderly, but the disorderly were not expelled; lawlessness was put down, Dut amidst the regrets of a great historic party and resistance to Parliament was quelled, but only after obedience had been pronounced base by men of Cabinet rank. It was, as have proved, of evil omen that the offenders were not rebuked by their elector and that while Members were called on to resign for their private vices, for want of money, or for tergiversations, no one was even threatened with dismissal for open treason to the State. The Government had gained strength, but reverence for the nation had decayed. The malady of political anarchism which afterwards produced such disasters throughout Europe, though it was repressed in this Session, to be distinctly di cernible, and when the chiefs of the Opposition deserted the police, yet remained chiefs of so well minintained, received n wound. whick their great party, order, though apparent] through a generation enfeebled the whole body of the State.'
In an article on the " Nizam's Gift" the indulges in these reflections are ever turned out of India, it will be when her inhabitants, having unlearned the trade of war, and being governed by agitators instead of Princes, provoked some decree which we think philanthropic and they think impious, display their mar-Yellous patience and contempt for personal suffering in some universal act of passive resistance. They have only to decline to pay taxes, and the British Empire in India, the most wonderful political structure ever reared by the hand of man, will have disappeared, to be recollected only as an inexplicable through momentary phenomenon in Asiatic history. The Princes help to postpone that. outburst, which may not arrive for centuries, if only we will do our work; and to quarrel with them for keeping armies is evidence only of shortsightedness. Their armies, while they are faithful, are useful auxiliaries; and when they are unfaithful, are merely armed and disciplined invaders, whose career will end on the first day the British garrison faces them in strength. In no case will they join Russia, who, if she came at all, would come crashing down into the secluded peninsula, followed by soldiers of fortune from every tribe in Northern Asia, from the Caucasus to Viadivostock. The Princes of India do not want the Russians, any more than the people do; and if they are but wisely managed, they ive us real assistance in a defen the Czar strikes Persia to the ground, be rather a soldier's nightmare than a pressing necessity. of Milan polities," The the Indian Princes, an while the latter dread Indian peoples still take foreign policy from
a Russian victory, the rear of the frontier will remain safe and well supplied.
The new air-cannon, invented by a Pole of the name of Zalinski, forms the subject of a Tong article, This weapon lus it appears been rather indefinitely described, itis not an air-gun but bears a high sounding name "The pneumatic torpedo gun," a misnomer, unless all projectiles which explode on impact, whether in the air or water, are to be called torpedoes. It is an eight-inch tube, sixty feet long, of wrought iron inside, and lined with an eighth of an inch brass tubing, and works with a pressure of a thousand pounds. It may be applied effectively in coast defence, and the im for says that if an ironclad came within range and if a hundred pound shell fell on its deck, even if it were four inches of steel, she would be crushed by the explosion; but as the Spectator says it is ver dificult. to place a shell on deck. M. Zalinski says that if a four hundred pound shell burst near a turret the garrison would be placed hors de combat by the mere shock, while a shell exploding under water near ironclad would loosen the plates and render her useless. This the Spectator thinks, might be done by other guns. There will Ve no smoke from this gun which is said to have been tried last year by the United States Navy Board. its performances are said to have shown It will, at an elevation of thirty-five degrees, fling a shell loaded with sixty pounds of "dynamite gelatine" two miles and a quarter: that, at an elevation of thirty-two de; a hundred-pound shell can be' projected three thousand yards; and that the gun placed four out of five shots, exactly at a range of sixteen hundred yards, while a fifth shot only went seven yars beyond. The statement does not mean, we suppose, that the shots all fell on the same spot. Indeed, nothing is said of the guns's accuracy, except as to range; and it is difficult to imagine that a smooth-bore could attain the relative precision of a rifled gun, The Editor continues to see the prospec of war on the Continent, but at the time he was writing M. Crispi had not made known that Italy had joined the Austro-German alliance.
About the announcement of the Italian Premier's the St. Jumes's says, after dealing with his statement that Germany had never sought to interfere between the Roman Church and the Italian Government, But what concerns us most are the further communications of the Italian Minister to the German reporter. They amount to this: Aiming at nothing more than the maintenance of peace and the balance of power in Europe, Italy has joined the Austro-German alliance, benodoubt that Italy, like all other European Why, more particularly Because "there can
States, has every reason to dread the advance of Russia to Constantinople. We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a Russian lake." Spesking further, Signor Crispi added, "As for our sympathies" with Bulgarians and. their" independence, be assured the Italians wish well te all peoples, the Bulgarian included, this being part of the nature of a free people such as we." No more significant, no more important statement than this has been made for years past. Fresh from his conferences and his arrangements with Prince Bismarck, the Italian Minister—no doubt with the sanction if not at the suggestion of the great Chancellor—not only proclaims that fie has entered into an alliance with Germany and Austria, but openly states the purpose for which that alliance has been formed. He speaks for all three Powers when says that Europe has reason to dread the advance of Russia to Constantinople; that the Mediterranean must not be allowed to become a Russian lake—or French either being understood. On that account (for one thing at any rate) the Austro-German alliance has been formed; and for that reason Italy has joined it. Plain speaking at last. There can he no doubt about Signor Crispi's meaning, and the effect of it will be enormous. In Russia it will have agreateffect. Though the announcement may convey no news to the Czar, its publication before the eyes of his army and his people may have troublesome results for him. "In France too; though there Signor Crispi's declarations may rather be welcome to the Government than otherwise: it will damp down a vast deal of inconvenient chauvinism, and put General Boulanger many steps further into the background, The decorations scandals had not then transpired.
The Pall Malt Gazette still harps on the Parliamentary Scandal in the Hughes Hallett affair, and the Editor has collected in this number the opinion of " number of Provincial and other papers, mostly of the Radical faith, who want the seat for Rochester vacated. In reference to this affair Truth has one or two sensible paragraphs, one of which T have really no particular desire to go out of my way to defend the Colonel, beyond that T object to the system of scapegoats, and that I suspect that many who shake their heads over him are not better than he is. My sympathies are entirely with the girl; and the publicity which has been given to the affair aggravates a hundredfold the wrong that has been clone to her, whilst the fact that this has been due to the action of her own friends, renders it, if possible, still more regrettable.
Returning to the Pall Mull we find papers on Japanese curios and Tndian teas in Mincing Lane both of which should be interesting to many readers here. And under the title of the "Duke of Divorces" Marlborough—an amusing account of an interview between that poor and" news: paper interviewer and the Juno like Bir. oran Stevens, who happened to be present.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.