The Old Country.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 7369, 17 November 1898, Page 4

The Old Country.

(FROM OTTB ENGLISH CORRESPONDENT). Lokdon, October 8. Mr G. F. Watts, the veteran artist, suggests the erection of a gallery in London to contain inscriptions recording heroic deeds in humble life Ihe memorials will be published in terra cotta. Mr Passmore Edwards has offered to erect such a gallery. Mr Watts purposes commencing with the brave story of Alice Ayers, who lost her life in saving the livea of her master's children when the house caught fire. The action of a London constable recently is also worthy of such commemoration. Attempting to arrest a ruffian at Kingsland, he was stabbed by the latter in the abdomen, groin, and chest, but released him only on the appearance of other policemen, who secured the offender Then, though weak from loss cf blood, the constable walked to a cab rank, drove to the station, and formally identified the prisoner. A few hours afterwards he was dead.

Nobody seems to know what has happened to the Emperor of Chin*. There are reports that he has been killed by arsenic, by strangling, and by red-hot irons, that he has committed suicide, 'that he is dying, and that he rs living in a state of tutelage. What ia certain is that the Dowager-Empress and Li Hang Chang are all-powerful, and that they are hostile to Great Britain. The mob inPekin stoned and threw mad at Europeans and their Chinese servants, and the British fleet and German warships have harried to Taku. A detachment of Cossacks from Port Arthur and twenty - five British marines from ] Wei-hai-wei have been sent to Pekin to protect the Europeans. The United States is sending the warship Baltimore and a ganboat from Manila to Taku. The Ministers at Pekin demanded the punishment of those concerned in the assaults on Europeans, and the demand has been complied with. Reforming officials who advised the Emperor are decapitated or exiled. Rebellion is spreading in the provinces. Linley Sambourne in Punch represents " The Artful Dowager " taking " The >'on of Heaven " by the ear, and saying, " Reform, indeed '. I'll reform you ! Go and stand in the corner till I tell you to come out!" A plebiscite on the prohibition question was taken throughout the Dominion of Canada recently, resulting in a temperance majority. The question on the ballot papers was—" Are you in favor of the passing of an Act prohibiting the importation, manufacture, or sale of spirits, wine, ale, beer, cider, and all other alcoholic liquor for use as beverages *" The voting was as follows : AFFIRMATIVE. Majority. Ontario 17,582 Nova Scotia ... 17,840 New Brunswick ... ... 13,715 Prince Edward Island 6,160 Manitoba ... N.W. Territories ._ ... 1,992 British Columbia 53S 62,926 NEGATIVE. Quebec 51,290 Net affirmative majority 11,636 The total vote, of which no details have been cabled, is regarded as too light to warrant the introduction of a Government BUI. The result in Quebec is attributed to French dislike for such measures. It is estimated that the plebiscite cost the country L60,0G0. Since 1867, when the Dominion Government came into being, repeated attempts have been made to secure prohibition legislation ; two Royal Commissions have collected quantities of evidence on the matter, and a resolution in fivor of ultimate prohibition was passed by both Canadian Houses as long ago as 1884. Local Option Acts in some sections have met with success, in others with apparent failure. Tn France, at last, M. Brisson's Cabinet has decided upon Dreyfus' revision ; that is, it has decided to send the whole of the documents in the Dreyfus case to the highest French Court of Appeal, the Cour de Cassation, to jronounee whether the judgment of the Court Martial passed in 1894 is good, or should be quashed and a new trial ordered. The Cabinet deliberated for four hours before reach- j ing this conclusion, and it is said M. I Brisson had to exercise extreme pressurn upon his colleagues, and the official an- I noqncement includes the statement that " The Minister of Justice is addressing in- j structions to the Piocureur-General for the immediate prosecution of any person making an attack on the army." It is difficult for j Englishmen to understand the terrible dread of •' revision " which has taken possession of so large a proportion of Frenchmen. A writer in the current Contemporary Review explains it by the influence of Clericalism. " The General he says, "is entirely made np of officers who arc devoted to the Church. One of the fir sr. results of the revision of the Dreyfus trial would be to reveal the sinister pirt which clericalism has played in the whole affair, j and to call public attention to the encroachments of clericalism upon the army." Among ! the minor excitements of the week in rela- { tion to this care have been Major Estherhazy's allegedSconfession published in the Observer,-«nd ia secret chapter ot" French history describing the real reason of M. •1 asimir-Perier'a resignation of the French Presidentship in 1894, which appeared in the ;Daily News. The Estherhazy " confession" was to the effect that he had forged the famous bordereau at the order of his military superiors; in fact, that he wan guilty of the offence for which he was recently tried and acquitted. He has since declared the "confession" an imaginary one. »The story about M. Casimir-Perier is that he sacrificed himself, that is, resigned his high office in January, 1895, to appease tho wrath of the German Emperor, which had been excited by the doings of French spies. These, it is said, had twice tampered with despatches from Count Miinster, the German Ambassador at Paris, to his Imperial master, and such an act was treated by the Emperor on the same footing as an invasion of German territory. It may be as well to mention that no one outside the General Staff knows ' exactly what acts of treason were charged against Dreyfus.. EEis trial was secret, and nothing has transpired except the bordereau, or list of papers he was alleged to have forwarded to the German Embassy. The German Emperor is said to have recently declared, ,ju private conversation, his belief in Dreyfus' innocence.