NOTES OF THE MONTH.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 480, 31 December 1875, Page 4

NOTES OF THE MONTH.

(. Spectator , October IG.) The Sultan’s partial repudiation of his debt has been the chief topic of the week. No further explanation of this act has been offered, and no extenuation vouchsafed. The second half of the interest on the £2.000,000, or £6,000,000 sterling, is, as we explained, to be paid in bonds bearing 5 per cent interest, issued at par, whereas they are worth only 30 per cent of the par value, and the total affair is, in fact, a composition effected by violence, of 12s 6d in the £l. This might be endurable if the interest now offered were secure, but, as we have urged elsewhere, there is nothing to prevent Constantinople repeating the process, and very much to induce it. There has been much talk during the week of action by the Bondholders, but they are, of course, quite powerless, and none of the Governments are disposed to interfere. The Due Decazes may probably instruct the French Ambassador to remonstrate against the repudiation of bonds secured on special taxes, but as the interest on the loan of 1855, guaranteed by England and France, is to be paid, the Powers have no locus standi. The Khedive has not as yet followed the example of the Khalif, but his difficulties are believed to be sewere. The Lords of the Admiralty have rather astonished the world by their minute on the results of the late Court-Martial on the loss of the Vanguard. They Justify the ViceAdmiral in command for continuing the rate of speed through the fog, though they consure him for an opinion which he incidentally expressed, that it is within the discretion of leaders of divisions to act, with regard to speed in a fog, independently of, and contrary to, the orders of the Admiral. They also disapprove the signal made by the Admiral for the alteration of formation, as not tending to keep the squadron so much under his control as another signal named would have done. They declare the loss of the Vanguard to have been chiefly due to the slackening of the speed of the Vanguard, and to the improper sheering out of line ordered by Lieutenant Evans, of the Iron Duke ; and they justify Captain Hickley in increasing speed so far as to recover his station, “he being warranted in supposing that Her Majesty’s ship Vanguard was maintaining the speed at which she was going when she was last in sight.” As to the absence of the fog-signal in the Iron Duke, and the Unreadiness of everything in the Vanguard for pumping and closing the watertight compartments, the Admiralty Minute says not a word. The incapacity which the catastrophe elicited, seems ultimately traceable to the “grey matter” of the Admiralty’s brain. The annual election of a Governor of Ohio came off on October 13th. It was this year of great importance, as the struggle had become one between the advocates of “ hard” and “ soft” money, and was expected to show the feeling of the Western xqen on that important point. The Democrat candidate, AJr Allen, is a leader of the Inflationists, while his Republican opponent, Mr Hayes, is strongly for a resumption of cash payments. Up to the very day of the election both parties were confident, as the Democrats carried the State in 1874, and the Republicans have the Administration behind them. The result was the election of Mr Hayes, by a majority of 4000, in an unusually heavy vote. In lowa also, which the Democrats felt confident of carrying, they have been defeated by crushing majorities, the House of Representatives being almost unanimously Republican. The Democrats will allege that this change is owing in great part to General Grant’s “ appeal to Protestant feeling”— that is, to his denunciation of State grants for sectarian education —but. though that may have* had some influence, the vote is understood to show that a paper-cur-rency platforna will xuin tfy.e party which adopts it. The State Committee of the Bavarian has passed, by eight to seven, an address to the King, in which they state that they represent the majority of the Bavarian people, acd that this people is losing its attachment to the Crown, seeing that one prerogative after another is resigned to the Empire, which does not represent on all points the interests of all Germans. The tone of the address is, one of indignation with the Ministry and the King, and if it is passed,-the Cabinet must resign, or govern in defiance of Parliamentary precedent. The Chamber, however, though it contains a email majority of Ultramontanes, has not accepted the address yet, and before the vote is taken the whole influence of the King and the Government, which is very great, will bo exerted against acceptance. A secession of a few members is the more probable, because the laws which irritate the majority 'were passed by the Imperial Parliament, and cannot be repealed by the Bavarian one. The majority, moreover, are indisposed to drive matters to a point at which an open collision between the little kingdom and the Empire would be even probable. They cannot, while opposed to the King, rely upon the Army. Lord Carnarvon’s scheme of Confederation advances in South Africa; The Dutch - fitetwMte iignifed their readiness to con- I i-sUMrifyitibieot to certain reservations about to iU.fjetacal.to send delegates. Sir : , HSprj Barky?, who has from 'the first been J lhi'mrcal td'xhr : his I cdjled Parlia- I Boent together for the l()thi November, and --‘iris "understood that the Premier, Mr Molteno, will then propose that delegates be sent, either on the ground that his objections have been removed by Lord Carnarvon’s second despatch, or with avowal that public feeling is/ unexpectedly strong in favor of E^^atjon, n p;T%fe seems to be no doubt result in a large ybich has struck the ,tne,raople. Tf~ it were posSaPii9Pt| to reiTain..Cape of tho Confederation, all , serious oppositiqnrßrbhld varpsh. The South Africans, like will probably insist on a new capital, nearer to all the provinces, and wiR locate it a good I civilisation. ~ ■ -; ’ ; )uff. presided at the department Y and Trade” in the Social ress, and the most interesting ddress was, as might be exraphic personal touches. In period of the Anglo-French treaty of 1860, he spoke of otives for encouraging Free ce, and especially Free-trade . “ You recollect, I dare say,” '< of course, no one remembered), phrase, ‘the future beenemies the Communists, and nly their John the Baptist,’ ’’ ot solely the wish to berald ]

prosperity to the masses which made Louis Napoleon so anxious for a treaty with England; he had also been deeply imbued, said Mr Grant Duff, with the idea lately expressed by M. Lavaleye, in a parody on one of the scriptural proverbs, “ The fear of England is the beginning of wisdom,” and he knew that if he did not make it the interest of France to be at one with England, he should be forced, by the high pressure of that time, to pick a quarrel with her. Accordingly the treaty was concluded, and by virtue of its provisions and the effect of the “most favored nation clause” in that and other treaties, it came about that after only three years the value of our trade with France and Belgium had more than trebled. Mr Grant Duff then went on to review the prospects of the next few years, using the recent papers printed by the Cobden Club, to show where there is danger of a retrograde movement, and why. But Mr Grant Duff is essentially more literary than economical. To shut him up in a politico-economical discussion is like putting a cover over a chandelier, or twisting up fine hair in curlpapers. When he fell into statistics, he became indistinguishable from any other man,