DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16751#0001
?THE mim NEWS, -WDNESDAY;.,,'AUGUST 4, 1886.
represents the best side of Tory Democracy,
and is universally respected by men of all
parties in Liverpool.
and Heidelberg lias had its own share in mak- \ know what has happened there. There is loss
ing the Uemian people what they are.
A Ge a Heidelberg is celebrating this
University. wee^ an event which* all Germany
looks upon with pride. One of the
oldest—in fact, with the exception of Prague,
the oldest—of the Teutonic Universities com-
memorates its five hundredth anniversary. To
Englishmen whoso country has enjoyed immu-
nity from foreign invasion for a much longer
period, even five centuries does not seem a
remarkable spell of duration. Oxford Univer-
sity is said to have existed in the time of
Alfred the Great, and certainly received a
charter from Henry III. as early as 1248.
That was more than a century before Heidel-
berg was founded. But the annals
of the great German University are
written in blood as well as in ink.
Pew Continental towns have suffered
more constantly and more severely from the
ravages of war. In the choir of the old church
of the Holy Ghost the splendid collection of
MSS. which were the glory of the University in
the early years of its fame were long sacredly
stored, and when Tilly stormed the town the
library was cared for, and its contents removed
to Home. The MSS. of the Palatinate were
kept in the Vatican. Even its splendid collec-
tion was enriohed by this addition of 3,500
parchments. Heidelberg did not recover pos-
session of them till 1815. In that interval
the University had passed through strange
and cruel experiences. The Thirty Tears'
War had been almost fatal to its ex-
istence. Even the peace oi X.uneville
transferred part of its endowments. But at
the beginning of the present century a change
was made in the map of Europe. The town
and the surrounding territory were assigned to
the Grand Duke of Baden. The University
was reconstituted, and a fresh chapter in its
aimals commenced and continued. The new era
was to produce great results. Heidelberg was
to be again the most famous of German Uni-
versities, and the earlier records of the century
show that the good start it rnado was for a
time well maintained. If it has recently suf-
fered eclipse, diminution was due to causes
olwaj's indeed ready to produce their effects,
and which mark the distinction between Uni-
versity life in England and the varying condi-
tions under which it exists in all other warts of
the world.
In English life hitherto the University and
.even the College has had a part in the educa-
tion of a family from generation to generation.
A boy goes to Eton because his father and
his grandfather were educated there, and when
he passes from boyhood to youth he is found
B member of the same College within whose
walls his ancestors pursued or neglected their
studies for generations and possibly through
centuries. It is not a question of special learn-
ing, of eminence in any department of know-
ledge, of fitness for an individual course of
'training, but simply of the tradition of the
family. A German knows nothing of all this.
It is as hard to make him" understand as
it has been found impossible to make him
comprehend why eating a certain num-
ber of dinners in a hall near Chancery-
lane should be absolutely indispensable as a
qualification to being called to the Bar. The Ger-
man thinks the University is a kind of advanced
school, and the best college is that where
learning is most thoroughly imparted. The
question of antiquity is interesting to historians,
and the question of where his grandfather hap-
pened to be educated will be interesting chiefly
to his grandmother. And so it happens that the
German Universities depend for their success—in
otter words for the number of pupils on their
iKuoka and in the lecture rooms of tlio institution
»—cin the eminence of the professors. The ad-
'fcerit of a great teacher or savant will attract to
K German University just as the engage-
ment of a groat singer will fill the
Btallls of an English opera-house. Heidelberg
has been singularly fortunate in its professors.
Its chairs have been filled by some of the most
eminent names in the world of science or litera-
ture. It was here that Feuerb 40h delivered
his famous lectures on the analysis of Chris-
tia tity and the psychology of religion. Robert
voir Mohl, destined afterwards to play so im-
portant a part in the Parliament of Frank-
foeit'i, only a year before had addressed the
students who here crowded his class-room.
Here Gervinus had held the professorship of
Literature. In the little town on the Neckar
Btjnsen and Kirohoef had first made known
their theory of the solar spectrum. These
are great names in Germany; but Heidelberg
sould show amongst the list of its professors
names that were great all over Europe.
Here Helmholz studied acoustics and optics,
and published and lectured upon dis-
coveries that increased the world's stock
Df priceless kuowledge. But Heidelberg, in
the hour of her triumph and glory, was
once more to suffer as she had suffered
in the centuries gone by. This time it was not
from the ravages of war that trouble was to
come, but from the rivalries of peace. In the
city on the Spree a University had arisen which
was to distance all its contemporaries. The
capital of Prussia, soon to become the capital
Df Germany, could offer temptations to the
great professors which the oldest University in
the land had not the means to surpass, or even
to approach. BuirsEir, indeed, remained faithful
to his old University, but Helmholz and Vik-
chow yielded to the attractions which wealth and
position could holdout. It was natural that Berlin
ghould seek to have itself regarded as the
Centre of learning for the great Empire of which
she was, soon destined to become the centre oi
government.
Heidelberg suffered loss, but not irreparable
Joss. Her class-rooms are still thronged, and
Home of the most eminent names in learn-
ing still illustrate the list of the directors of
her studies. Humboldt, after he had wan-
dered round the world, recorded as the result of
Lis travel that if Salzburg was the most beauti-
ful place he had ever seen, Heidelberg came
next to it. Patriotism may have affected judg-
ment, and yet few travellers who have seen the
old town by the Neckar and the pathetic gran
deur of its ruined castle, more impressively
lovely in decay than in preservation, will
think the great savant much mistaken in his
verdict. Situated in the heart of Germaay,
centre of traffic from all parts of Europe, it
may be said that this oldest of Teutonic
Universities has within the last few years entered
upon a third era in the history of its civilizing
influences. It has become a University, not for
fiermany or the German-speaking races alone,
but for both hemispheres. Its class-rooms
show an affluence of Americans, of English, and
of Russians, such as no other University can
of. Th-e position is to * certain degree,
distinguished than that which it used
fto aspire to, but it is infinitely more servico-
I able to the general cause of learning. It can
I still boast of some men of great—of even
exceptional —eminence at the head of
its affairs. It can show a population
of students, widely indeed removed from
our own pursuers of knowledge on the banks of
the Isis or the Cam, but not more widely than
from that hysterical romantic creature who
fancied he endured the sorrows of Werthee,
and deservedly met his fate. Student life in
Heidelberg, and no doubt all over Germany,
Jg in these days eminently healthy and manly.
It has surrendered the peculiar charm of isola-
tion and of learned seclusion. It has perhaps a
little derogated from the dignity which attends
a well-endowed and sequestered University, but
llic guia to the general weal has been all on its
Bide. We have fewer great scholars, but the
aggregate of learninar is amazingly increased.
The Acting Consul at Bangkok
about Siam. uas sen^ home a model commercial
Beport on Siam. Nowadays every
British representative abroad is a commercial re-
porter, from her Majesty's Minister at Paris to
the humblest Consul in the far East. It is an ex-
cellent thing; it enlightens the trading com-
munity, and it keeps the representatives out of
mischief. With our merchants, however, this is
but the thin edge of the wedge, and they are
beginning to demand direct diplomatic action
at foreign Courts in the interests of British
trade. German and French trade, they say, is
backed in that way. This may come ; in the
meantime it is a good thing to have such help
as we find in this Report. The document is
retailed by her Majesty's Government at the
low price of one halfpenny. Every little boy
in the Kingdom may now know all about a most
interesting country ; and the publishers of the
cheap serials may justly complain of a compe-
tition in attractive literature, supported by
State funds. There is plenty to report upon in
Siam. The imports of the past year were
1,138,338?., the exports over one and a half mil-
lions, and Bangkok prospered fairly amid almost
universal depression. The commercial rela-
tions with Burrnah are extensive and import-
ant. There is a teak trade, a cattle trade,
and a trade in silk cloths. The cattle trade is
enough to make the mouth water. A fine cow
and calf can be bought in Siam for six rupees!
The three acres are probably just as cheap, only
they are not suited for export. Hides of course
are abundant, and the 1,436 tons of pepper
ought to be more than enough for the whole
world. The chief decline in imports was in the
article of muskets; but "the tears live in an
" onion that should water this sorrow " for all
but the traders of Birmingham. An incidental
mention of the sapphire diggings reminds us
that we are still in the gorgeous East, and it is a
relief after the pure utilitarianism of the pepper
and teak and hides. The Keport abounds in useful
hints to English traders, if they know how to
take them. There is an opening for pumps to
be worked by cattle, only they must not be too
dear. The country is abundantly supplied with
water by its splendid rivers; there i3 no need
of irrigation, but some system of distribution is
required. There is a gopd deal to be done, too,
in the teak forests. These are mostly worked
by Burmese just now, but the Burmese have
little capital, and perhaps less enterprise. There
is frequent litigation between the foresters
and the persons who lend them money. The
notion of a Siamese forester at odds with
his native bill discounter or loan Bociety seems
a strange one, but that is not in the least the
fault of the discounter or of the forester. The
strangeness is in our incurable British fancy,
that anything peculiarly distinctive of a
complex civilization must be confined to these
shores. Among the good things going in trade
with Siam may be mentioned chowl cloths—
every schoolboy knows what they are—though
India has snapped up the market. They must
have a strong glaze on the surface, or they will
find no sale.
Another proof of the forward state of the
country is to be found in the abundance of
middle-men. Not to put it offensively, they are
the curse of the land from a commercial point
of view. "European articles, before reaching
" the hands of the native consumer here," says
Mr. French, "pass, as a rule, through a great
" number of hands. The manufacturer in
" Europe sells them to the merchant, who sends
" them out to Singapore. There they are sold
" to a Chinese merchant, who sometimes
" sends them himself, and sometimes sells
" them to another person, who sends them to
" Bangkok. They are then again sold to a
"native trader, who either sells them
" himself, or re-sells them to another trader,
" who takes them up country. It would
" be of benefit to the home trade if
" the manufactured articles could reach
" the hands of the consumer more directly."
There is a peculiarly snug thing done in one
branch of business by a few Chinese firms. The
immigrant coolies, who are numerous in Siam,
are like the Irish in America in their generosity
to those they have left behind. They remit a
good deal of money to relatives in China, and
the firms through whom it is sent charge
twenty per cent, on each transaction. There
are two Kings in Siam, we believe ; perhaps if
there was one this abuse would be stopped. It
is so monstrous that each must feel sure the
other has already got {it in hand. The same
circumstance may account for the survival of
the corvee, or system of forced labour. The
service is heavy, that is bad enough ; but it is
unequal, and that is a good deal worse, It is
used as an instrument of extortion by the offi-
cials. They declare citizens on or off, according
to their good pleasure, and the only people who
are sure to have to serve are those too poor to
pay a bribe. A poll-tax has been suggested as
a substitute.
In other respects Siam is making well-meant
efforts to be like everybody else. It has entered
the Postal Union. It is revising its laws. Old
Siam is being hurried off the stage. Yet we
may see it linger in many a passage of the Be-
port. " The usual number of fires occurred in
•' the capital during the year," says the Consul
simply, and he goes on to show what precau-
tions are taken to maintain the average at a
good figure. The roofs are made of inflammable
material; and, lest this should not do, they are
closely packed together. There might still be a
chance of safety in the care exercised within
doors, but this is carefully removed by a prac-
tice of storing petroleum freely throughout the
capital. In fact Bangkok may burn from end
to end at a moment's notice. This lia
bility is perhaps carefully maintained as
a measure of policy to reconcile the
oldest inhabitants to the newest changes.
Postal Unions and revised laws must seem to a
thorough Oriental a flying in the face of Provi-
dence ; but a roof that may burn at any mo
ment over his head is a handsome recognition
of the true helplessness of man. The chief
concessions to common prudence and to com-
mon sense have been wrung from the Siamese
by the exigencies of their commercial policy,
Trade is the great civilizer, like the Roman arms
of old. Our race might well feel proud of the
work it is doing were it not that the entire
absence of self-consciousness with which it is
done precludes any sentiment of the kind.
A philosophic Siamese disposed to wel-
come an English bagman in the name
of civilization would probably be told that his
visitor had only called for a quotation in pepper
or teak. All the same the most diverse races
seem to feel the potency of this spell of self-
interest, and the unpleasant truth must be told
that they are civilized by their wants long
before they are civilized by their aspirations.
The man who means to make a fortune ouC of
them whether they like it or no has a patience
beyond that of the sage. You pull down his
telegraph line between Bangkok and Saigon, as
the insurgents in Cambodia are in the habit of
doing to make bullets out of the wires, but
this does not prevent him from trying
another somewhere else in the region. He
is busy now with a new line between Siam and
Burmah, encouraged by the success of an old
one that nevertheless passed through a most
difficult country. There is to bo a third line
running along the river into the teak district,
which will no doubt give the foresters timely
notice of every scare in England on the subject
of a phantom fleet. "We cannot learn from the
Beport whether the first hat of the chimaey-
pot pattern has yet reached the capital. If it
has not, we may safely conclude that it is on
as well as gain in such changes. Something
vanishes that can never be restored. In Japan
it is the beautiful art and the still more beauti-
ful manners—the manners born of a natural
gaiety and sweetness of soul. Whatever else
the travelling youth of that nation, who dress
at Poole's and dine at Bignow's, may take back
with them, this last will not be in their baggage ;
and they will unfortunately'find a whole people
only too ready to welcome their new learning of
French scepticism and British morgue. Siam
must fatally run the same course, and the only
consolation left for some of us, who however
form the most insignificant of minorities, is that
she has hardly yet left the starting post.
The East The pending election for East
Birmingham Birmingham is exciting great
Election. jntere8t throughout the country.
Last month the present Home Secretary was
returned by a majority of 789 votes over the
former member, Mr. CoOK. It is understood
that Mr. Coolt does cot desire to stand again,
and it may be that a candidate less
connected with recent differences of opinion in
Birmingham would have more chance of success.
The political outlook has very much changed
since the General Election. We publish else-
where a letter signed " A Gladstonian M.P.,"
which states the case both forcibly and fairly. The
great object would be to find a candidate who will
unite the Liberal vote, and remove the absurd-
ity of a Conservative member for Birmingham.
Mr. Matthews, as "A Gladstonian M.P."
says, was elected a month ago ^because some
Liberals desired to defeat Mr. Gladstone's Irish
Bills. Those measures have been, unfortunately as
we think, defeated, and now the question is
whether, or rather how long, Liberals will main-
tain Lord Randolph Churchill in office by
their unhappy divisions. We believe that the
complete re-union of the Liberal party is in-
evitable within a very short time, and that Lord
Randolph Churchill as leader of the House
of Commons will powerfully conduce to that
most desirable end. Why should any Liberal
vote for Mr. Matthews? Mr. Matthews
is now the follower and nominee of
Lord Randolph Churchill, % who is*fffas
likely as not to be a Home Ruler to-mor-
row and a Repealer the day after.
When Mr. Matthews was last heard of
in politics it was as something more
than the apologist of certain noted
Fenians. If Lord Salisbury means to
avert suspicion by excluding Lord Carnarvon
from the Cabinet, he should not have been per-
suaded to offer Mr. Matthews a place. The
question submitted to the electors of East Bir-
mingham is one of confidence first in Mr.
Matthews and secondly in Lord Salis-
bury's Government, with Lord Randolph
Churchill as the leader, we admit the inevitable
leader of the House of Commons. Can the
answer be doubtful ? Let every Liberal voter
read the Paddington address. It will much
assist him in making up his mind.
Whether animals are happy is a
Happiness, question debated by Mr. Briggs
Carlill in the Nineteenth Century.
The question is one which, properly speaking,
cannot arise at all. We might as well discuss,
to use Mr. Mill's illustration, whether Humpty
Dumpty is or is not Abracadabra. Happiness,
in the sense understood by philosophers, is a
state peculiar to men, only perhaps they also
have to do without it. Pessimists have argued
that happiness does not and cannot exist at all;
at most, people may be jolly, not happy. Even
Aristotle admits that the most fortunate
of us cannot be happy, " except as
" men may"—that is, in a very limited
fashion. But Aristotle and most other
philosophers so define happiness as ex-
pressly to exclude animals. It is peculiar to
beings with that higher and reflective conscious-
ness which we may presume that animals do not
possess. We can hardly call even a child happy,
because it is hardly conscious of its happiness.
In the same way, we might argue, animals can
at best be comfortable, or free from pain, or in
enjoyment of pleasure, all of which are blessed
conditions, but remote from that rounded con-
sciousness of unimpeded existence which may be
a merely ideal state, but which alone is happi-
ness properly so called. No animal, we
may be certain, cau look back and
say to itself, " Ah, those were happy days when
" I was a kitten," or " when I was in love," or
" when I was bringing up my first litter."
Animals are incapable of such reflection, of such
distinctions, and therefore can never, in a
philosophic sense, deserve4o be styled " happy."
Of course there is a sense in which animals
are happy, the sense indicated in the pro-
verbial expression " as happy as an idiot," a
sense which Aristotle would have rejected.
As an argument . to prove that animals are not
unhappy, Mr. Briggs Carlill says, " there is
" not even a suggestion of suicide as a habit
" among brutes." But who ever heard of a
man with whom suicide was a habit P O'est a
prendre ou d laisser. You commit suicide or you
leave it alone, though of course some weak-
minded people, like the poet Cowper, are
always nibbling at suicide. Yet, even taking
Cowper's case, we cannot say that suioide was
a habit with a man who, in point of fact, never
was felo de se, even once. So of animals; there
are pretty well authenticated anecdotes of ani-
mals which died by their own—one cannot say by
their own hands, but by their own act and
deed. Now if one case only is true, it is
enough to prove that an animal is capable of
unhappiness, and if of unhappiness, then, by
parity of reasoning, of happiness. Certainly a
cat deprived of its kittens, or a she-bear
robbed of her whelps, seems to show as much
misery as a dog, when his master comes home,
displays delight. But misery and delight both
lack that element of reflective consciousness
which is the differentia of happiness, properly
so called. Thus we return, as always happens
in metaphysics, to a kind of war of words,
and beating of the air. Mr. Briggs Carlill
concludes that the " local ganglionic pleasures"
are as jolly in the experience of the animals as
in ours. Physical suffering again is less in-
tense in animals than in men, so, taking bodily
pleasures and pains alone, animals have much
the advantage over even a very stupid man or
woman. Probably, as Plato saw, nothing is
so happy as an oyster at the bottom of a deep
warm bay, if we are to apply the term " happy"
to unreflective creatures. But clearly we
cannot apply it. We can scarcely venture to
say that man is happy, or unhappy ; much less
then can we speak for the lower and more
mysterious animals.
of the other known forms of mental disease
But this is a question for the experts ; and we
have :io doubt it will receive full justice
in the forthcoming issues of the medical
journals. On the whole, we incline to the sup-
position of a joke, for self-interest could hardly
have any end to serve in connection with the
doings of these obscure Indians and Eskimo.
It was well done; and the picture of the
Eskimo devouring the Indians—-we quote from
memory, but perhaps it was the other way—the
white settlers burying the Indians to cheat
the Eskimo of their revolting , meal,
and the bears moving down on the settle-
ments to make short work of all three, shows
talents that, if confined to merely unre-
munerated fiction, have certainly missed their
mark. It requires a real turn of the hand to do
this kind of fooling well, and it has rarelv been
more neatly done. If the author had not been
too lavish of his victims he might have pro-
longed his amusement. A multitude of the
starving exceeding the whole population of the
region naturally excited suspicion at the outset.
To the inventor of such a mystification life
must seem flat now that it has returned to its
normal course; and perhaps his only way of
prolonging his satisfaction in the freak for a
day or two longer is to re-read the journalistic
comments which his fiction evoked.
By the act completing his acceptance of office
at Osborne yesterday Lord R. Churchill ceases
to be a member of the new Parliament, and
therefore cannot appear in the House of Com-
mons to-morrow to congratulate the Speaker,
as Sir M. Hicks-Beach did last year on the
opening of Parliament. In 1880 when Mr.
Gladstone was absent in similar circumstances
Lord F. Cavendish discharged this pleasant
duty. Mr. Jackson now occupies the position
which Lord F. Cavendish held on that occa-
sion.
The following is the list of subjects for ex-
amination for clerkships in the House of Com-
mons department under the new system of com-
bined nomination and competitive examination,
initiated by the new Clerk of the House, Mr.
Reginald Palgrave. We are requested to state
that the new system does not come into opera-
tion till October, 1887 :
Obligatory Subjects.—1. Handwriting and ortho-
graphy. 2. The power of accurate comparison of a
copy with an original document. 3. Arithmetic, in-
cluding vulgar and decimal fractions. 4. English com-
position. 5. History of England from a.d. 1603 to the
year 1860. 6. Constilutioual history of England; hooks
to be read: " Hallam and May's Constitutional His-
tories," "Dicey on the Law of the Constitution,"
"Anson on the Law and Custom of tho Constitution."
7' Latin: the qualifying test is translation from Latin
into English, but marks will be given in the competi-
tion for translation from English into Latin. Optional
Subjects.—8. Greek: translation from Greek into Eng-
lish and from English into Greek. 9. Elementary
mathematics. 10. French. 11. German. Every can-
didate must show a competent knowledge of the obli-
gatory subjects, and may select any two of the optional
subjects. Limits of age, 19 to 25. Those between 19
and 24 whoso parents do not reside in London or the
vicinity must be provided with such a place of resi-
dence as shall meet with the approval of the Clerk of
the House of Commons.
The North-East Cornwall (Launceston) Libe-
ral Association have unanimously elected Sir
Arthur Hayter as president. Sir Arthur, in
accepting the nomination, has congratulated
the association upon the fact, that while Devon,
Dorset, and Somerset have each surrendered
divisions to the enemy, Cornwall in three of its
six divisions has returned representatives faith-
ful to the Liberal leader ; while in the remain-
ing three Cornishmen have been elected, of
whom at least it can be said that if on the Irish
question they have left the Liberal ranks, they
have not deserted to the enemy's camp.
probll
Our surmise, or rather our con-
TBomaan?e.°r clusion f°™ded on the infor-
rnatiort we were able to obtain
THE BIRMINGHAM ELECTION.
to the editor of the daily news.
Sir,—Will you allow me to suggest that th
Birmingham election offers a good opportunity fo:
beginning the reconciliation of the divided sections o:
the Liberal party? The Irish Bills are now undoubted!
dead, andt nobody believes that this Parliament wi
pass a Heme Bute Bill of any kind, unless a wholesal
conversion of the Tories is effected. In thei
circumstances, would it not be wise to selec
as an opponent to Mr. Matthews a Liberal
for whom all Liberals, Unionists, and Home
Rulers alike can vote ? Birmingham Radicals elected
Mr. Matthews, or suffered him to be elected, not for his
own sako, but to defeat tho Irish Bills of tho lafco
Government. Birmingham is now asked to elect M^
Matthews on his own merits as a public man, and the
split among the Liberals must be deep indeed if the;
cannot unite their forces on that issue. There ar<
special reasons why Mr. Matthews should be opposed
He is the nominee of Lord Randolph Churchill, and hii
defeat would be a reminder to the Conserva-
tive party—and not, I hope, the only one—^
that a disreputable leadership is not without its disad-
vantages. The atrocious insults of the Paddington
Manifesto were levelled at the whole Liberal party,
and not at Mr. Gladstone alone, and a Radical consti-
tuency would be disgraced which lost anlbpportunity of
punishing them. Old-fashioned Tories say that such
indecencies are necessary in order to make Conservatism
attractive to tho multitude. Will not Birmingham
Liberals repudiate the insolent apology f Home Rule
is out of the question at this bye-election; let us hear
what Birmingham has to say about Churchill Rule._I
am, &c, A GLADSTONIAN M.P.
Reform Club, August 3.
HOW IS THIS?
to the editor of the daily news.
Sir,—Under the above heading to a para-
graph in the Daily News of this day, Mr. H. Hudson
thinks that many more votes might be registered " if
they only knew who to address their claim to." I fear
Mr. Hudson does not take much notice of the adver-
tisement columns in the newspapers. From the 28th of
June to the 17th of July inclusive an advertisement ap-
peared iu the Daily News and in four other daily and
two weekly newspapers forty-five, times in the aggre-
gate, inviting Liberal who were qualified but not
registered to apply at these offices, where every assist-
ance would be afforded to persons desirous of being
registered, free of charge to the applicants. I may add
that if Mr. Hudson will communicate with me I shall
bs glad to assist him.—Tours, Sat.,
THOMAS NICOLLS ROBERTS,
Registration Agent.
Liberal Central Association, 41, Parliament-
street, Westminster, S.W., August 3.
REMITTANCES BY WIRE.
to the editor of the daily news.
Sir,—The plan proposed by Mr. F. Knight of
sending small sums by telegraph has long been in prac-
tice in the Australian colonies. It is only one of many
points in which we are ahead of tho Motherland. The
convenience and comfort of the people are studied iu
ways which astonish the " new chum." But I re-
member ^Anthony Trollope's advice to Victorians.—
Yours obediently, JULIAN THOMAS.
Melbourne Argus Office, .80, Fleet-street, August 3.
last Thursday, as to the distress in
Labrador turns out to have been within
the mark. The reports were not merely
much exaggerated, they prove to have been
an absolute hoax, and to have originated in
some person's idea of self-interest or conception
of a joke. Evidence has now come from all
quarters to show that they have no foundation
whatever. The Government showed a praise-
worthy alacrity in telegraphing for information,
and the replies to their inquiries set the matter
at rest. The Admiral on the station
has heard nothing of the distress, except
to hear it denied, The Governor of
Newfoundland is still more emphatic in his ex- I eldest daughter of the late Colonel Bagot Lane, of
Mr. Samuel Morley had a more favourable
night on Monday, and his slightly improved condition
continued up to last night.
" A Constant Reader for Twenty-Three
Years" writes : " Atlas" notes in the World the
interesting fact that Mr. J. C. Parkinson has pro-
ceeded to the United States on a holiday trip. He
adds that he will be more heartily welcomed . . .
as a most spirited and graphic writer in the best days
of the Daily News. Is not this an error P I was
under the impression that Mr. Parkinson's connection
with the Daily News was severed some time ago.
The Queen and the Royal Cambrian
Academy of Art.—Her Majesty having been com-
municated with on behalf of the Royal Cambrian
Academy of Art which, under the presidency of Mr.
Clarence Whaite, has this week opened an inaugural
exhibition at its permanent gallery in Plas Mawr, Con-
way, asking whether she would be pleased to accept an
album or folio of original drawings from members and
associates, to commemorate the jubilee year of her
reigii, Mr. Laurence Banks, the honorary secretary,
has received a reply from Sir Henry Ponsonby Stating
that her Majesty will have great pleasure in accepting
the gift, which it is arranged shall consist exclusively
of sketches and drawings of the most pictaresque parts
of North Wales, including Plas Newydd, the seat of
the Marquis of Anglesey, where her Majesty spent
some mouths before her accession to the Throne.
The Duke and Duchess of Norfolk are cruising
in their yacht off the coast of Devon and Cornwall.
The marriage of the Hon. Frederic William
Anson, fourth son of the Earl of Lichfield, with Florence,
THE J if
FESTIVITIES AT HEIDE^BEM.|
;: [from our special correspondent.) *\
HEIDELBERG, Tuesday Xiott.; j
The business of the day began with tie
arrival of the German Crown Prince and Hs
reception by the Grand Duke and the Univer-^
sity authorities at the railway station. Thei
Crown Prince looked fresh and soldierly,'
although ho had a fatiguing journey from
Bayroutb, where he attended the performance
of Wagner's opera "Parsifal."
The centenary festivities were opened by a
solemn service in the-Holy Ghost Church, which
to-day for tho first time served as a Protestant
Church. It was formerly divided by a thick
wall, and one half devoted to Protestant and the
other half to Catholic worship, owing to an old
lawsuit respecting tho property. The church
was brilliantly Edecorated with hothouse
flowers, and long before nine o'clock a distin-
guished assemblage of ladies, University pro-
fessors, and high functionaries filled every seat.
In the choir one hundred ladies; and gentlemen
stood'ready to perform sacred music, Bach and
Allegri being the composers «hosen. At nine [win. t
o'clock the service bpgan„ the German ;and
Crown Prince, in a field marshal's uniform,
having previously entered with the Grand
Duchess of Baden, who is his sister. She wore
a peacock-blue satin dress. The Grand Duke
was in a dragoon uniform. J)ean Bassermann
delivered a most impressive'sermon on a text
from the 90th Psalm : "A thousand years are to
Thee as one day."
At the conclusion of the service the illustrious
assembly drove to the University, where the
formal opening of the aula and commencement
of tho centenary festivities took place. The
Grand Duke, as Rector, occupied the centrabseat
on the platform, with a desk on either side.and
read a very effective address respecting; the
foundation and growth of the University. 'The
scene was most impressive. The aula >*s de-
corated in the most tasteful style. Carved oak,
with gildings and bronze-coloured draperies
form the background, on which oil paintings
illustrative of the University's foundation and
of the sciences cultivated, togethe r with scrolls'
bearing the names of the famous; men who have
taught in Heidelberg, come intoifine relief. The
audience was composed of mosf, picturesquely
dressed and intellectual - looking men,
for the most part old. Very conspicuous were
the scarlet, black, and parpJe robes of the
Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh professors,
as also the green embroiderod coats of the
French Academicians.
After the Grand Duke's; speech the German
Crown Prince read a letter sent by the German
Emperor to show his interest in this ;old home-
stead of science. One passage was especially
appreciated, iu which bis Majesty alluded to
the fact that at Heidelberg the young men from
north and south lefa-n to love each other, and
that . the University contributes much . toj.the
unity of tho Fathevland.
After this the pro-Rector, who had been in-
vested with a tine gold chain by the Grand
Duke, addressext the assembly in eloquent
words. Then the Pope's delegate informed the
assembly in Italian that Leo XHX, eager
to show his interest in the ^progress
of science in Germany, had sent a cata-
logue of the collection of manuscripts
which once, belonged to the University» and are
now preserved in the Vatican library. As this
collection was stolen during the Thirty Years'
War, and given to Pope Gregory XV., the pre-
sent of the catalogue is a rather'compromising
gift —a fact which the Rector, in. thanking the
Pope's delegate, seemed to appreciate, for he
said—" Thank God, those times are over !"
All the delegates from the Universities,
foreign and German, then in turn ^presented
addresses in magnificent covers and rolls to the
Rector. The Presidont of the Institute de
France, M. Ze'iler, who bad been se lected by
the foreign Universities to speak in tbeir names,
in a very eloquent'speech addresse d the as-
sembly. Insteadof giving a dry list of;the names
of those whom he represented, he; described
their countries, and how the sciences * thrived in
them, beginning with Greece and end ing with
France. The Rector replied, and remind edthe as-
sembly that there was nothing so inta rnational
on earth as science. After all the dej mutations
had been presented, and several dona tions an
nounced, the ceremony closed with a, hymn by
Mendelsohn, sung by the students' and the
choir. The Crown Prince then i .rove to
Schwetzingen, a beautiful little casth 3 on the
Rhine, where dinner was 'prepared.
This evening the University gue;3t^ will be
entertained in the splendid old JSsadtdberg-
Schloas by the Grand Duke himself.
Last night a monstre meeting to ok place in
the Jubilee Hall, which was brilli; vatly illu
minated by electric arc lamps, and h andsomcly
decorated. Between seven and eight thousand
persons j,were present. After the« opening
speeches a choir of male singers performed
Schefl'el's last Lied, which ho compose d shortly
before dying expressly for the annh tereary, of
his beloved Heidelberg. It is one of iiScheli'ePs
best compositions, and was received with en-
thusiastic applause and encored, altl iraugh the
music by Lachner, of Carlsruhe, is ind Afferent.
ijduriii
Spint i
>aboui
lit is [
a grd
\ who f
i justiJ
vain [
seusi|
| the
| new
ia
is to I
'and 1
l noxid
fshortl
jabolil
;uatio
ipeopll
, At|
^inany
;of
the
Will,
fdicedl
3?utti|
that
becau
systeil
seJ!ect|
neighl
feeSjiff
Yetifi
than ll
is co|
small I
great. |
prints
the ]
of tl
and '
thee
suit
is
choos
on i
mitteJ
are frf
honesj
silenc
debt. J
times!
for ra
dutv I
the"
wage
parerj
than I
poor
mia
quJ
Serf
ha]
in<T
oil
nrpwirm of inrrpdnlitv • and the Attonipv- i King'8 Bromley, Staffordshire, was solemnised in St.
pression or mcreauuly , ana tne Attorney . IJeter,s CImrch) Eaton-square, yesterday afternoon.
General of the Province, who is at present j New Colours for the Botes.—The presenta-
in London, has received a formal contra- i tion of new colours to the Buffs at Dover by Prince
diction of '-he whole story from a private I Albert Victor will take place on Friday next. _ The old
! colours which have been in the regiment since it was re-
its Way thither. Siam, after all, is not much | source. Nothing now remains, perhaps, but to forme(J m 1853 will be deposited in Canterbury Catha-
mora than round the cotnei of Jajoan, and. we 1 theorise on the relation of the,, renort to one pr , draj. „ The regiment tas a famous fiehiin/s record*
represents the best side of Tory Democracy,
and is universally respected by men of all
parties in Liverpool.
and Heidelberg lias had its own share in mak- \ know what has happened there. There is loss
ing the Uemian people what they are.
A Ge a Heidelberg is celebrating this
University. wee^ an event which* all Germany
looks upon with pride. One of the
oldest—in fact, with the exception of Prague,
the oldest—of the Teutonic Universities com-
memorates its five hundredth anniversary. To
Englishmen whoso country has enjoyed immu-
nity from foreign invasion for a much longer
period, even five centuries does not seem a
remarkable spell of duration. Oxford Univer-
sity is said to have existed in the time of
Alfred the Great, and certainly received a
charter from Henry III. as early as 1248.
That was more than a century before Heidel-
berg was founded. But the annals
of the great German University are
written in blood as well as in ink.
Pew Continental towns have suffered
more constantly and more severely from the
ravages of war. In the choir of the old church
of the Holy Ghost the splendid collection of
MSS. which were the glory of the University in
the early years of its fame were long sacredly
stored, and when Tilly stormed the town the
library was cared for, and its contents removed
to Home. The MSS. of the Palatinate were
kept in the Vatican. Even its splendid collec-
tion was enriohed by this addition of 3,500
parchments. Heidelberg did not recover pos-
session of them till 1815. In that interval
the University had passed through strange
and cruel experiences. The Thirty Tears'
War had been almost fatal to its ex-
istence. Even the peace oi X.uneville
transferred part of its endowments. But at
the beginning of the present century a change
was made in the map of Europe. The town
and the surrounding territory were assigned to
the Grand Duke of Baden. The University
was reconstituted, and a fresh chapter in its
aimals commenced and continued. The new era
was to produce great results. Heidelberg was
to be again the most famous of German Uni-
versities, and the earlier records of the century
show that the good start it rnado was for a
time well maintained. If it has recently suf-
fered eclipse, diminution was due to causes
olwaj's indeed ready to produce their effects,
and which mark the distinction between Uni-
versity life in England and the varying condi-
tions under which it exists in all other warts of
the world.
In English life hitherto the University and
.even the College has had a part in the educa-
tion of a family from generation to generation.
A boy goes to Eton because his father and
his grandfather were educated there, and when
he passes from boyhood to youth he is found
B member of the same College within whose
walls his ancestors pursued or neglected their
studies for generations and possibly through
centuries. It is not a question of special learn-
ing, of eminence in any department of know-
ledge, of fitness for an individual course of
'training, but simply of the tradition of the
family. A German knows nothing of all this.
It is as hard to make him" understand as
it has been found impossible to make him
comprehend why eating a certain num-
ber of dinners in a hall near Chancery-
lane should be absolutely indispensable as a
qualification to being called to the Bar. The Ger-
man thinks the University is a kind of advanced
school, and the best college is that where
learning is most thoroughly imparted. The
question of antiquity is interesting to historians,
and the question of where his grandfather hap-
pened to be educated will be interesting chiefly
to his grandmother. And so it happens that the
German Universities depend for their success—in
otter words for the number of pupils on their
iKuoka and in the lecture rooms of tlio institution
»—cin the eminence of the professors. The ad-
'fcerit of a great teacher or savant will attract to
K German University just as the engage-
ment of a groat singer will fill the
Btallls of an English opera-house. Heidelberg
has been singularly fortunate in its professors.
Its chairs have been filled by some of the most
eminent names in the world of science or litera-
ture. It was here that Feuerb 40h delivered
his famous lectures on the analysis of Chris-
tia tity and the psychology of religion. Robert
voir Mohl, destined afterwards to play so im-
portant a part in the Parliament of Frank-
foeit'i, only a year before had addressed the
students who here crowded his class-room.
Here Gervinus had held the professorship of
Literature. In the little town on the Neckar
Btjnsen and Kirohoef had first made known
their theory of the solar spectrum. These
are great names in Germany; but Heidelberg
sould show amongst the list of its professors
names that were great all over Europe.
Here Helmholz studied acoustics and optics,
and published and lectured upon dis-
coveries that increased the world's stock
Df priceless kuowledge. But Heidelberg, in
the hour of her triumph and glory, was
once more to suffer as she had suffered
in the centuries gone by. This time it was not
from the ravages of war that trouble was to
come, but from the rivalries of peace. In the
city on the Spree a University had arisen which
was to distance all its contemporaries. The
capital of Prussia, soon to become the capital
Df Germany, could offer temptations to the
great professors which the oldest University in
the land had not the means to surpass, or even
to approach. BuirsEir, indeed, remained faithful
to his old University, but Helmholz and Vik-
chow yielded to the attractions which wealth and
position could holdout. It was natural that Berlin
ghould seek to have itself regarded as the
Centre of learning for the great Empire of which
she was, soon destined to become the centre oi
government.
Heidelberg suffered loss, but not irreparable
Joss. Her class-rooms are still thronged, and
Home of the most eminent names in learn-
ing still illustrate the list of the directors of
her studies. Humboldt, after he had wan-
dered round the world, recorded as the result of
Lis travel that if Salzburg was the most beauti-
ful place he had ever seen, Heidelberg came
next to it. Patriotism may have affected judg-
ment, and yet few travellers who have seen the
old town by the Neckar and the pathetic gran
deur of its ruined castle, more impressively
lovely in decay than in preservation, will
think the great savant much mistaken in his
verdict. Situated in the heart of Germaay,
centre of traffic from all parts of Europe, it
may be said that this oldest of Teutonic
Universities has within the last few years entered
upon a third era in the history of its civilizing
influences. It has become a University, not for
fiermany or the German-speaking races alone,
but for both hemispheres. Its class-rooms
show an affluence of Americans, of English, and
of Russians, such as no other University can
of. Th-e position is to * certain degree,
distinguished than that which it used
fto aspire to, but it is infinitely more servico-
I able to the general cause of learning. It can
I still boast of some men of great—of even
exceptional —eminence at the head of
its affairs. It can show a population
of students, widely indeed removed from
our own pursuers of knowledge on the banks of
the Isis or the Cam, but not more widely than
from that hysterical romantic creature who
fancied he endured the sorrows of Werthee,
and deservedly met his fate. Student life in
Heidelberg, and no doubt all over Germany,
Jg in these days eminently healthy and manly.
It has surrendered the peculiar charm of isola-
tion and of learned seclusion. It has perhaps a
little derogated from the dignity which attends
a well-endowed and sequestered University, but
llic guia to the general weal has been all on its
Bide. We have fewer great scholars, but the
aggregate of learninar is amazingly increased.
The Acting Consul at Bangkok
about Siam. uas sen^ home a model commercial
Beport on Siam. Nowadays every
British representative abroad is a commercial re-
porter, from her Majesty's Minister at Paris to
the humblest Consul in the far East. It is an ex-
cellent thing; it enlightens the trading com-
munity, and it keeps the representatives out of
mischief. With our merchants, however, this is
but the thin edge of the wedge, and they are
beginning to demand direct diplomatic action
at foreign Courts in the interests of British
trade. German and French trade, they say, is
backed in that way. This may come ; in the
meantime it is a good thing to have such help
as we find in this Report. The document is
retailed by her Majesty's Government at the
low price of one halfpenny. Every little boy
in the Kingdom may now know all about a most
interesting country ; and the publishers of the
cheap serials may justly complain of a compe-
tition in attractive literature, supported by
State funds. There is plenty to report upon in
Siam. The imports of the past year were
1,138,338?., the exports over one and a half mil-
lions, and Bangkok prospered fairly amid almost
universal depression. The commercial rela-
tions with Burrnah are extensive and import-
ant. There is a teak trade, a cattle trade,
and a trade in silk cloths. The cattle trade is
enough to make the mouth water. A fine cow
and calf can be bought in Siam for six rupees!
The three acres are probably just as cheap, only
they are not suited for export. Hides of course
are abundant, and the 1,436 tons of pepper
ought to be more than enough for the whole
world. The chief decline in imports was in the
article of muskets; but "the tears live in an
" onion that should water this sorrow " for all
but the traders of Birmingham. An incidental
mention of the sapphire diggings reminds us
that we are still in the gorgeous East, and it is a
relief after the pure utilitarianism of the pepper
and teak and hides. The Keport abounds in useful
hints to English traders, if they know how to
take them. There is an opening for pumps to
be worked by cattle, only they must not be too
dear. The country is abundantly supplied with
water by its splendid rivers; there i3 no need
of irrigation, but some system of distribution is
required. There is a gopd deal to be done, too,
in the teak forests. These are mostly worked
by Burmese just now, but the Burmese have
little capital, and perhaps less enterprise. There
is frequent litigation between the foresters
and the persons who lend them money. The
notion of a Siamese forester at odds with
his native bill discounter or loan Bociety seems
a strange one, but that is not in the least the
fault of the discounter or of the forester. The
strangeness is in our incurable British fancy,
that anything peculiarly distinctive of a
complex civilization must be confined to these
shores. Among the good things going in trade
with Siam may be mentioned chowl cloths—
every schoolboy knows what they are—though
India has snapped up the market. They must
have a strong glaze on the surface, or they will
find no sale.
Another proof of the forward state of the
country is to be found in the abundance of
middle-men. Not to put it offensively, they are
the curse of the land from a commercial point
of view. "European articles, before reaching
" the hands of the native consumer here," says
Mr. French, "pass, as a rule, through a great
" number of hands. The manufacturer in
" Europe sells them to the merchant, who sends
" them out to Singapore. There they are sold
" to a Chinese merchant, who sometimes
" sends them himself, and sometimes sells
" them to another person, who sends them to
" Bangkok. They are then again sold to a
"native trader, who either sells them
" himself, or re-sells them to another trader,
" who takes them up country. It would
" be of benefit to the home trade if
" the manufactured articles could reach
" the hands of the consumer more directly."
There is a peculiarly snug thing done in one
branch of business by a few Chinese firms. The
immigrant coolies, who are numerous in Siam,
are like the Irish in America in their generosity
to those they have left behind. They remit a
good deal of money to relatives in China, and
the firms through whom it is sent charge
twenty per cent, on each transaction. There
are two Kings in Siam, we believe ; perhaps if
there was one this abuse would be stopped. It
is so monstrous that each must feel sure the
other has already got {it in hand. The same
circumstance may account for the survival of
the corvee, or system of forced labour. The
service is heavy, that is bad enough ; but it is
unequal, and that is a good deal worse, It is
used as an instrument of extortion by the offi-
cials. They declare citizens on or off, according
to their good pleasure, and the only people who
are sure to have to serve are those too poor to
pay a bribe. A poll-tax has been suggested as
a substitute.
In other respects Siam is making well-meant
efforts to be like everybody else. It has entered
the Postal Union. It is revising its laws. Old
Siam is being hurried off the stage. Yet we
may see it linger in many a passage of the Be-
port. " The usual number of fires occurred in
•' the capital during the year," says the Consul
simply, and he goes on to show what precau-
tions are taken to maintain the average at a
good figure. The roofs are made of inflammable
material; and, lest this should not do, they are
closely packed together. There might still be a
chance of safety in the care exercised within
doors, but this is carefully removed by a prac-
tice of storing petroleum freely throughout the
capital. In fact Bangkok may burn from end
to end at a moment's notice. This lia
bility is perhaps carefully maintained as
a measure of policy to reconcile the
oldest inhabitants to the newest changes.
Postal Unions and revised laws must seem to a
thorough Oriental a flying in the face of Provi-
dence ; but a roof that may burn at any mo
ment over his head is a handsome recognition
of the true helplessness of man. The chief
concessions to common prudence and to com-
mon sense have been wrung from the Siamese
by the exigencies of their commercial policy,
Trade is the great civilizer, like the Roman arms
of old. Our race might well feel proud of the
work it is doing were it not that the entire
absence of self-consciousness with which it is
done precludes any sentiment of the kind.
A philosophic Siamese disposed to wel-
come an English bagman in the name
of civilization would probably be told that his
visitor had only called for a quotation in pepper
or teak. All the same the most diverse races
seem to feel the potency of this spell of self-
interest, and the unpleasant truth must be told
that they are civilized by their wants long
before they are civilized by their aspirations.
The man who means to make a fortune ouC of
them whether they like it or no has a patience
beyond that of the sage. You pull down his
telegraph line between Bangkok and Saigon, as
the insurgents in Cambodia are in the habit of
doing to make bullets out of the wires, but
this does not prevent him from trying
another somewhere else in the region. He
is busy now with a new line between Siam and
Burmah, encouraged by the success of an old
one that nevertheless passed through a most
difficult country. There is to bo a third line
running along the river into the teak district,
which will no doubt give the foresters timely
notice of every scare in England on the subject
of a phantom fleet. "We cannot learn from the
Beport whether the first hat of the chimaey-
pot pattern has yet reached the capital. If it
has not, we may safely conclude that it is on
as well as gain in such changes. Something
vanishes that can never be restored. In Japan
it is the beautiful art and the still more beauti-
ful manners—the manners born of a natural
gaiety and sweetness of soul. Whatever else
the travelling youth of that nation, who dress
at Poole's and dine at Bignow's, may take back
with them, this last will not be in their baggage ;
and they will unfortunately'find a whole people
only too ready to welcome their new learning of
French scepticism and British morgue. Siam
must fatally run the same course, and the only
consolation left for some of us, who however
form the most insignificant of minorities, is that
she has hardly yet left the starting post.
The East The pending election for East
Birmingham Birmingham is exciting great
Election. jntere8t throughout the country.
Last month the present Home Secretary was
returned by a majority of 789 votes over the
former member, Mr. CoOK. It is understood
that Mr. Coolt does cot desire to stand again,
and it may be that a candidate less
connected with recent differences of opinion in
Birmingham would have more chance of success.
The political outlook has very much changed
since the General Election. We publish else-
where a letter signed " A Gladstonian M.P.,"
which states the case both forcibly and fairly. The
great object would be to find a candidate who will
unite the Liberal vote, and remove the absurd-
ity of a Conservative member for Birmingham.
Mr. Matthews, as "A Gladstonian M.P."
says, was elected a month ago ^because some
Liberals desired to defeat Mr. Gladstone's Irish
Bills. Those measures have been, unfortunately as
we think, defeated, and now the question is
whether, or rather how long, Liberals will main-
tain Lord Randolph Churchill in office by
their unhappy divisions. We believe that the
complete re-union of the Liberal party is in-
evitable within a very short time, and that Lord
Randolph Churchill as leader of the House
of Commons will powerfully conduce to that
most desirable end. Why should any Liberal
vote for Mr. Matthews? Mr. Matthews
is now the follower and nominee of
Lord Randolph Churchill, % who is*fffas
likely as not to be a Home Ruler to-mor-
row and a Repealer the day after.
When Mr. Matthews was last heard of
in politics it was as something more
than the apologist of certain noted
Fenians. If Lord Salisbury means to
avert suspicion by excluding Lord Carnarvon
from the Cabinet, he should not have been per-
suaded to offer Mr. Matthews a place. The
question submitted to the electors of East Bir-
mingham is one of confidence first in Mr.
Matthews and secondly in Lord Salis-
bury's Government, with Lord Randolph
Churchill as the leader, we admit the inevitable
leader of the House of Commons. Can the
answer be doubtful ? Let every Liberal voter
read the Paddington address. It will much
assist him in making up his mind.
Whether animals are happy is a
Happiness, question debated by Mr. Briggs
Carlill in the Nineteenth Century.
The question is one which, properly speaking,
cannot arise at all. We might as well discuss,
to use Mr. Mill's illustration, whether Humpty
Dumpty is or is not Abracadabra. Happiness,
in the sense understood by philosophers, is a
state peculiar to men, only perhaps they also
have to do without it. Pessimists have argued
that happiness does not and cannot exist at all;
at most, people may be jolly, not happy. Even
Aristotle admits that the most fortunate
of us cannot be happy, " except as
" men may"—that is, in a very limited
fashion. But Aristotle and most other
philosophers so define happiness as ex-
pressly to exclude animals. It is peculiar to
beings with that higher and reflective conscious-
ness which we may presume that animals do not
possess. We can hardly call even a child happy,
because it is hardly conscious of its happiness.
In the same way, we might argue, animals can
at best be comfortable, or free from pain, or in
enjoyment of pleasure, all of which are blessed
conditions, but remote from that rounded con-
sciousness of unimpeded existence which may be
a merely ideal state, but which alone is happi-
ness properly so called. No animal, we
may be certain, cau look back and
say to itself, " Ah, those were happy days when
" I was a kitten," or " when I was in love," or
" when I was bringing up my first litter."
Animals are incapable of such reflection, of such
distinctions, and therefore can never, in a
philosophic sense, deserve4o be styled " happy."
Of course there is a sense in which animals
are happy, the sense indicated in the pro-
verbial expression " as happy as an idiot," a
sense which Aristotle would have rejected.
As an argument . to prove that animals are not
unhappy, Mr. Briggs Carlill says, " there is
" not even a suggestion of suicide as a habit
" among brutes." But who ever heard of a
man with whom suicide was a habit P O'est a
prendre ou d laisser. You commit suicide or you
leave it alone, though of course some weak-
minded people, like the poet Cowper, are
always nibbling at suicide. Yet, even taking
Cowper's case, we cannot say that suioide was
a habit with a man who, in point of fact, never
was felo de se, even once. So of animals; there
are pretty well authenticated anecdotes of ani-
mals which died by their own—one cannot say by
their own hands, but by their own act and
deed. Now if one case only is true, it is
enough to prove that an animal is capable of
unhappiness, and if of unhappiness, then, by
parity of reasoning, of happiness. Certainly a
cat deprived of its kittens, or a she-bear
robbed of her whelps, seems to show as much
misery as a dog, when his master comes home,
displays delight. But misery and delight both
lack that element of reflective consciousness
which is the differentia of happiness, properly
so called. Thus we return, as always happens
in metaphysics, to a kind of war of words,
and beating of the air. Mr. Briggs Carlill
concludes that the " local ganglionic pleasures"
are as jolly in the experience of the animals as
in ours. Physical suffering again is less in-
tense in animals than in men, so, taking bodily
pleasures and pains alone, animals have much
the advantage over even a very stupid man or
woman. Probably, as Plato saw, nothing is
so happy as an oyster at the bottom of a deep
warm bay, if we are to apply the term " happy"
to unreflective creatures. But clearly we
cannot apply it. We can scarcely venture to
say that man is happy, or unhappy ; much less
then can we speak for the lower and more
mysterious animals.
of the other known forms of mental disease
But this is a question for the experts ; and we
have :io doubt it will receive full justice
in the forthcoming issues of the medical
journals. On the whole, we incline to the sup-
position of a joke, for self-interest could hardly
have any end to serve in connection with the
doings of these obscure Indians and Eskimo.
It was well done; and the picture of the
Eskimo devouring the Indians—-we quote from
memory, but perhaps it was the other way—the
white settlers burying the Indians to cheat
the Eskimo of their revolting , meal,
and the bears moving down on the settle-
ments to make short work of all three, shows
talents that, if confined to merely unre-
munerated fiction, have certainly missed their
mark. It requires a real turn of the hand to do
this kind of fooling well, and it has rarelv been
more neatly done. If the author had not been
too lavish of his victims he might have pro-
longed his amusement. A multitude of the
starving exceeding the whole population of the
region naturally excited suspicion at the outset.
To the inventor of such a mystification life
must seem flat now that it has returned to its
normal course; and perhaps his only way of
prolonging his satisfaction in the freak for a
day or two longer is to re-read the journalistic
comments which his fiction evoked.
By the act completing his acceptance of office
at Osborne yesterday Lord R. Churchill ceases
to be a member of the new Parliament, and
therefore cannot appear in the House of Com-
mons to-morrow to congratulate the Speaker,
as Sir M. Hicks-Beach did last year on the
opening of Parliament. In 1880 when Mr.
Gladstone was absent in similar circumstances
Lord F. Cavendish discharged this pleasant
duty. Mr. Jackson now occupies the position
which Lord F. Cavendish held on that occa-
sion.
The following is the list of subjects for ex-
amination for clerkships in the House of Com-
mons department under the new system of com-
bined nomination and competitive examination,
initiated by the new Clerk of the House, Mr.
Reginald Palgrave. We are requested to state
that the new system does not come into opera-
tion till October, 1887 :
Obligatory Subjects.—1. Handwriting and ortho-
graphy. 2. The power of accurate comparison of a
copy with an original document. 3. Arithmetic, in-
cluding vulgar and decimal fractions. 4. English com-
position. 5. History of England from a.d. 1603 to the
year 1860. 6. Constilutioual history of England; hooks
to be read: " Hallam and May's Constitutional His-
tories," "Dicey on the Law of the Constitution,"
"Anson on the Law and Custom of tho Constitution."
7' Latin: the qualifying test is translation from Latin
into English, but marks will be given in the competi-
tion for translation from English into Latin. Optional
Subjects.—8. Greek: translation from Greek into Eng-
lish and from English into Greek. 9. Elementary
mathematics. 10. French. 11. German. Every can-
didate must show a competent knowledge of the obli-
gatory subjects, and may select any two of the optional
subjects. Limits of age, 19 to 25. Those between 19
and 24 whoso parents do not reside in London or the
vicinity must be provided with such a place of resi-
dence as shall meet with the approval of the Clerk of
the House of Commons.
The North-East Cornwall (Launceston) Libe-
ral Association have unanimously elected Sir
Arthur Hayter as president. Sir Arthur, in
accepting the nomination, has congratulated
the association upon the fact, that while Devon,
Dorset, and Somerset have each surrendered
divisions to the enemy, Cornwall in three of its
six divisions has returned representatives faith-
ful to the Liberal leader ; while in the remain-
ing three Cornishmen have been elected, of
whom at least it can be said that if on the Irish
question they have left the Liberal ranks, they
have not deserted to the enemy's camp.
probll
Our surmise, or rather our con-
TBomaan?e.°r clusion f°™ded on the infor-
rnatiort we were able to obtain
THE BIRMINGHAM ELECTION.
to the editor of the daily news.
Sir,—Will you allow me to suggest that th
Birmingham election offers a good opportunity fo:
beginning the reconciliation of the divided sections o:
the Liberal party? The Irish Bills are now undoubted!
dead, andt nobody believes that this Parliament wi
pass a Heme Bute Bill of any kind, unless a wholesal
conversion of the Tories is effected. In thei
circumstances, would it not be wise to selec
as an opponent to Mr. Matthews a Liberal
for whom all Liberals, Unionists, and Home
Rulers alike can vote ? Birmingham Radicals elected
Mr. Matthews, or suffered him to be elected, not for his
own sako, but to defeat tho Irish Bills of tho lafco
Government. Birmingham is now asked to elect M^
Matthews on his own merits as a public man, and the
split among the Liberals must be deep indeed if the;
cannot unite their forces on that issue. There ar<
special reasons why Mr. Matthews should be opposed
He is the nominee of Lord Randolph Churchill, and hii
defeat would be a reminder to the Conserva-
tive party—and not, I hope, the only one—^
that a disreputable leadership is not without its disad-
vantages. The atrocious insults of the Paddington
Manifesto were levelled at the whole Liberal party,
and not at Mr. Gladstone alone, and a Radical consti-
tuency would be disgraced which lost anlbpportunity of
punishing them. Old-fashioned Tories say that such
indecencies are necessary in order to make Conservatism
attractive to tho multitude. Will not Birmingham
Liberals repudiate the insolent apology f Home Rule
is out of the question at this bye-election; let us hear
what Birmingham has to say about Churchill Rule._I
am, &c, A GLADSTONIAN M.P.
Reform Club, August 3.
HOW IS THIS?
to the editor of the daily news.
Sir,—Under the above heading to a para-
graph in the Daily News of this day, Mr. H. Hudson
thinks that many more votes might be registered " if
they only knew who to address their claim to." I fear
Mr. Hudson does not take much notice of the adver-
tisement columns in the newspapers. From the 28th of
June to the 17th of July inclusive an advertisement ap-
peared iu the Daily News and in four other daily and
two weekly newspapers forty-five, times in the aggre-
gate, inviting Liberal who were qualified but not
registered to apply at these offices, where every assist-
ance would be afforded to persons desirous of being
registered, free of charge to the applicants. I may add
that if Mr. Hudson will communicate with me I shall
bs glad to assist him.—Tours, Sat.,
THOMAS NICOLLS ROBERTS,
Registration Agent.
Liberal Central Association, 41, Parliament-
street, Westminster, S.W., August 3.
REMITTANCES BY WIRE.
to the editor of the daily news.
Sir,—The plan proposed by Mr. F. Knight of
sending small sums by telegraph has long been in prac-
tice in the Australian colonies. It is only one of many
points in which we are ahead of tho Motherland. The
convenience and comfort of the people are studied iu
ways which astonish the " new chum." But I re-
member ^Anthony Trollope's advice to Victorians.—
Yours obediently, JULIAN THOMAS.
Melbourne Argus Office, .80, Fleet-street, August 3.
last Thursday, as to the distress in
Labrador turns out to have been within
the mark. The reports were not merely
much exaggerated, they prove to have been
an absolute hoax, and to have originated in
some person's idea of self-interest or conception
of a joke. Evidence has now come from all
quarters to show that they have no foundation
whatever. The Government showed a praise-
worthy alacrity in telegraphing for information,
and the replies to their inquiries set the matter
at rest. The Admiral on the station
has heard nothing of the distress, except
to hear it denied, The Governor of
Newfoundland is still more emphatic in his ex- I eldest daughter of the late Colonel Bagot Lane, of
Mr. Samuel Morley had a more favourable
night on Monday, and his slightly improved condition
continued up to last night.
" A Constant Reader for Twenty-Three
Years" writes : " Atlas" notes in the World the
interesting fact that Mr. J. C. Parkinson has pro-
ceeded to the United States on a holiday trip. He
adds that he will be more heartily welcomed . . .
as a most spirited and graphic writer in the best days
of the Daily News. Is not this an error P I was
under the impression that Mr. Parkinson's connection
with the Daily News was severed some time ago.
The Queen and the Royal Cambrian
Academy of Art.—Her Majesty having been com-
municated with on behalf of the Royal Cambrian
Academy of Art which, under the presidency of Mr.
Clarence Whaite, has this week opened an inaugural
exhibition at its permanent gallery in Plas Mawr, Con-
way, asking whether she would be pleased to accept an
album or folio of original drawings from members and
associates, to commemorate the jubilee year of her
reigii, Mr. Laurence Banks, the honorary secretary,
has received a reply from Sir Henry Ponsonby Stating
that her Majesty will have great pleasure in accepting
the gift, which it is arranged shall consist exclusively
of sketches and drawings of the most pictaresque parts
of North Wales, including Plas Newydd, the seat of
the Marquis of Anglesey, where her Majesty spent
some mouths before her accession to the Throne.
The Duke and Duchess of Norfolk are cruising
in their yacht off the coast of Devon and Cornwall.
The marriage of the Hon. Frederic William
Anson, fourth son of the Earl of Lichfield, with Florence,
THE J if
FESTIVITIES AT HEIDE^BEM.|
;: [from our special correspondent.) *\
HEIDELBERG, Tuesday Xiott.; j
The business of the day began with tie
arrival of the German Crown Prince and Hs
reception by the Grand Duke and the Univer-^
sity authorities at the railway station. Thei
Crown Prince looked fresh and soldierly,'
although ho had a fatiguing journey from
Bayroutb, where he attended the performance
of Wagner's opera "Parsifal."
The centenary festivities were opened by a
solemn service in the-Holy Ghost Church, which
to-day for tho first time served as a Protestant
Church. It was formerly divided by a thick
wall, and one half devoted to Protestant and the
other half to Catholic worship, owing to an old
lawsuit respecting tho property. The church
was brilliantly Edecorated with hothouse
flowers, and long before nine o'clock a distin-
guished assemblage of ladies, University pro-
fessors, and high functionaries filled every seat.
In the choir one hundred ladies; and gentlemen
stood'ready to perform sacred music, Bach and
Allegri being the composers «hosen. At nine [win. t
o'clock the service bpgan„ the German ;and
Crown Prince, in a field marshal's uniform,
having previously entered with the Grand
Duchess of Baden, who is his sister. She wore
a peacock-blue satin dress. The Grand Duke
was in a dragoon uniform. J)ean Bassermann
delivered a most impressive'sermon on a text
from the 90th Psalm : "A thousand years are to
Thee as one day."
At the conclusion of the service the illustrious
assembly drove to the University, where the
formal opening of the aula and commencement
of tho centenary festivities took place. The
Grand Duke, as Rector, occupied the centrabseat
on the platform, with a desk on either side.and
read a very effective address respecting; the
foundation and growth of the University. 'The
scene was most impressive. The aula >*s de-
corated in the most tasteful style. Carved oak,
with gildings and bronze-coloured draperies
form the background, on which oil paintings
illustrative of the University's foundation and
of the sciences cultivated, togethe r with scrolls'
bearing the names of the famous; men who have
taught in Heidelberg, come intoifine relief. The
audience was composed of mosf, picturesquely
dressed and intellectual - looking men,
for the most part old. Very conspicuous were
the scarlet, black, and parpJe robes of the
Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh professors,
as also the green embroiderod coats of the
French Academicians.
After the Grand Duke's; speech the German
Crown Prince read a letter sent by the German
Emperor to show his interest in this ;old home-
stead of science. One passage was especially
appreciated, iu which bis Majesty alluded to
the fact that at Heidelberg the young men from
north and south lefa-n to love each other, and
that . the University contributes much . toj.the
unity of tho Fathevland.
After this the pro-Rector, who had been in-
vested with a tine gold chain by the Grand
Duke, addressext the assembly in eloquent
words. Then the Pope's delegate informed the
assembly in Italian that Leo XHX, eager
to show his interest in the ^progress
of science in Germany, had sent a cata-
logue of the collection of manuscripts
which once, belonged to the University» and are
now preserved in the Vatican library. As this
collection was stolen during the Thirty Years'
War, and given to Pope Gregory XV., the pre-
sent of the catalogue is a rather'compromising
gift —a fact which the Rector, in. thanking the
Pope's delegate, seemed to appreciate, for he
said—" Thank God, those times are over !"
All the delegates from the Universities,
foreign and German, then in turn ^presented
addresses in magnificent covers and rolls to the
Rector. The Presidont of the Institute de
France, M. Ze'iler, who bad been se lected by
the foreign Universities to speak in tbeir names,
in a very eloquent'speech addresse d the as-
sembly. Insteadof giving a dry list of;the names
of those whom he represented, he; described
their countries, and how the sciences * thrived in
them, beginning with Greece and end ing with
France. The Rector replied, and remind edthe as-
sembly that there was nothing so inta rnational
on earth as science. After all the dej mutations
had been presented, and several dona tions an
nounced, the ceremony closed with a, hymn by
Mendelsohn, sung by the students' and the
choir. The Crown Prince then i .rove to
Schwetzingen, a beautiful little casth 3 on the
Rhine, where dinner was 'prepared.
This evening the University gue;3t^ will be
entertained in the splendid old JSsadtdberg-
Schloas by the Grand Duke himself.
Last night a monstre meeting to ok place in
the Jubilee Hall, which was brilli; vatly illu
minated by electric arc lamps, and h andsomcly
decorated. Between seven and eight thousand
persons j,were present. After the« opening
speeches a choir of male singers performed
Schefl'el's last Lied, which ho compose d shortly
before dying expressly for the annh tereary, of
his beloved Heidelberg. It is one of iiScheli'ePs
best compositions, and was received with en-
thusiastic applause and encored, altl iraugh the
music by Lachner, of Carlsruhe, is ind Afferent.
ijduriii
Spint i
>aboui
lit is [
a grd
\ who f
i justiJ
vain [
seusi|
| the
| new
ia
is to I
'and 1
l noxid
fshortl
jabolil
;uatio
ipeopll
, At|
^inany
;of
the
Will,
fdicedl
3?utti|
that
becau
systeil
seJ!ect|
neighl
feeSjiff
Yetifi
than ll
is co|
small I
great. |
prints
the ]
of tl
and '
thee
suit
is
choos
on i
mitteJ
are frf
honesj
silenc
debt. J
times!
for ra
dutv I
the"
wage
parerj
than I
poor
mia
quJ
Serf
ha]
in<T
oil
nrpwirm of inrrpdnlitv • and the Attonipv- i King'8 Bromley, Staffordshire, was solemnised in St.
pression or mcreauuly , ana tne Attorney . IJeter,s CImrch) Eaton-square, yesterday afternoon.
General of the Province, who is at present j New Colours for the Botes.—The presenta-
in London, has received a formal contra- i tion of new colours to the Buffs at Dover by Prince
diction of '-he whole story from a private I Albert Victor will take place on Friday next. _ The old
! colours which have been in the regiment since it was re-
its Way thither. Siam, after all, is not much | source. Nothing now remains, perhaps, but to forme(J m 1853 will be deposited in Canterbury Catha-
mora than round the cotnei of Jajoan, and. we 1 theorise on the relation of the,, renort to one pr , draj. „ The regiment tas a famous fiehiin/s record*