From The Examiner, 2 Jan. RETIREMENT OF LORD STRATFORD covite. Now this is not in the present set of the French fashion, which is all for the propitiation of the North. France has no mind THE retirement of Lord Stratford de Red- to try conclusions again with Russia, and her cliffe from the post he has so long and so government is well pleased at the removal of ably filled at Constantinople will occupy a a man from a post of observation who was place in history far more considerable than it sure to detect and raise the alarm against now does in the attention of the public. the first overt acts of breach of faith and Lord Stratford de Redcliffe has acted a great encroachment. It is not thought convenient part in the affairs of Europe. He has been to watch Russia too closely. For peace sake ever on the watch to guard against the the eyes are to be closed, and the policy is machinations of Russia. The cause of civil-not to see what might be matter of dissension, ization has had in him its foremost and most if not of quarrel. Widely indeed are we puissant champion. In knowledge of the mistaken if the retirement of Lord Stratford East he has probably never had his equal, de Redcliffe does not serve for a new deparand he has turned his thorough conversance ture in the Eastern policy. Certain we are with the Asiatic character and habits, virtues that it is an event which has long been most and vices, to the promotion of the policy ardently desired by the Government of Naadopted by our country for the preservation poleon III., and that it is regarded with joy of the Turkish empire. What Todleben was as the removal of a rock ahead, an impedito the Russians at Sebastopol, Lord Strat- ment to smooth accommodations with Russia. ford de Redcliffe has been to the European The intention of our Ministry is no doubt outworks of civilisation. He left no weak steadily and steadfastly to hold its course as point unguarded. He was ready with a heretofore, but the hand of a master, the eye counter-work, or a counter-move, against of the lynx, is withdrawn from the place every approach of the wily enemy. Russia where both are still most needed for the concould not take a step towards her long-de- duct of affairs, so that their currents may sired object without encountering the British not be turned awry and lose the name of Envoy. He was everywhere baffling her action. schemes, and confounding her devices. Menchikoff measured forces with him, and thereby only precipitated the defeat of his master's THE FATE OF GENERAL HAVELOCK. dearest projects. We firmly believe that no WHEN Parliament was voting inadequate other hand than Lord Stratford's could at rewards to this brave and triumphant soldier, that critical juncture have supported the his admiring country little dreamed that he failing courage of the Porte. He was in was already gone where the voice of honor, himself a host. We care not to be told of though never louder or more universal, will the faults of this truly great diplomatist. not reach him. The tidings of his sad fate We have eyes only for his great services. It have afflicted the public more intensely than is a satisfaction to us now to reflect that we any event of the Indian struggle, if we exhave never joined in, or countenanced the cept the news of its worst tragedies. We attacks which from time to time have surged doubt if the people of England in any of up against him. He was arrogant, opinion- their wars ever took a deeper interest in the ated, wilful, self-sufficient, overbearing; be it fortunes and career of a general in the field so, nay, stretch the list of faults farther, and than they took in Havelock's. In him they it is surpassed by his merits and services a admired the union of the greatest qualities hundred-fold. Thankless, however, in some both of the man and the soldier; they saw respects, have been his labors. The office of the achievements of sheer personal merit; saving is not often an acceptable one, and an eminence due neither to wealth, patronage, Turkey has been a froward, untoward patient or connections; a man of genius and energy under the care of its wisest and best friend. winning the highest professional distinction, We have not a doubt that the Porte rejoices with nothing but the brave heart and the at deliverance from its most faithful and suc-wise head; proceeding from service to sercessful guardian. Corruption, and every form of misrule, will feel easier when their great foe quits the field where he has so often made them quail and yield. No little joy, too, will there be at the French Court, to which Lord Stratford de Redcliffe has for some time past been bitterly obnoxious. He would not, could not, Russianise. He is unaccommodating. He is sturdily British, Turkish, anything but Mus From The Examiner, 9 Jan. vice, and victory to victory, proving his ability and prowess m a hundred Asiatic fields, until he reached the crowning honor of the post in which he fell, covered with as much glory as ever surrounded the name of a British hero. Havelock lived long enough for his country's service, and its renown, but not for a knowledge of its gratitude, and its hearty appreciation of its foremost champion. How it would have gladdened his noble nature to have known how generously public opinion for the Government now to represent the vindicated his claims, and extorted reward feeling of the country, and to mark in every more commensurate with his deserts, though way its sense of the services and worth of inadequate indeed after all. The gladdening the departed hero. His monument wants no thought might have been his at his dying hour, "My son shall find mankind his friend." But still we cannot look back at what has been done with any satisfaction, and its insufficiency must now strike every mind. The first proposal was £1,000 a-year, and had that arrangement been made, it would have requited Havelock's inestimable services up to his death with a sum of about a couple of hundred pounds or less; this was happily amended to a pension of the same niggardly amount, extended, indeed, to the life of his son. That son may be cut off by the sword or disease, and the rewards of the nation thus become a thing precarious, and dependent on the accidents of a life the most exposed to accident. Is this accordant with common sense and justice? Should not rewards be as substantial and fixed as the services to which they are due? Should it depend on the chances of life whether a requital of the most important public service should be thousands, hundreds, or possibly even tens? Surely the sensible course in a case of this nature is the grant of a sum of money, rendering at the usual rate of interest the income thought befitting. The Princess Royal is not dowered with a life annuity, and the same arrangement of capitalising should be adopted for still better reasons in instances like that of Havelock. As for the title thrown in to make weight, the baronetcy, the question may now arise whether it is really a reward or an incumbrance. Many a man with slender means has had to deplore the barren addition to his name standing in the way of his exertions to better his fortunes. A peerage for life would have beer the suitable honor for the lamented Havelock. It may be objected that this is not the time to revert to these things, but such is not our opinion, and it is at a moment of grief like the present that the people take the just view of what has been done, or left undone, for the reward of desert of the highest order. The event which has spread a sorrow over the land only to be likened to the grief for the death of Nelson, was not uncontemplated. There was a general instinctive feeling of apprehension that Havelock would never know the value which his country set on his services, and the honor and affection in which his name is held. We remember especially, that in a very admirable article in the Times on his merits, and the proposed requital, the very event which we have now to deplore was anticipated as amongst, not merely the possibilities, but the sad probabilities. It is place in Westminster Abbey, and will stand imperishably in the very noblest page of English history; his family should be the present concern. It would have cheered the hero's dying hour to have foreknown that those dearest to him would be the care of his admiring and grateful country. The loving study should be to do all as he would have wished it done. From The Mutiny of the Bengal Army. GENERAL HAVELOCK had seen perhaps more Indian service than any living man He had served throughout the first Burmese war, of which he wrote a clear and graphic history. In 1838-9 he went into Affghanistan, and only left it in 1842 in company with the avenging armies of Pollock and Nott; he had in fact remained one of the illustrious garrison of Jellalabad, throughout our terri ble disasters in that country. In the cam paign of Gwalior, in 1843, and in the Sutlej campaigns of 1845-6, he took a distinguished part, having in one action had two horses, in another a third horse, shot under him. It was after this that he became first Quartermaster-General, and subsequently AdjutantGeneral of H.M. forces in India. In his private life, and in manner, Havelock was the most quiet and retiring of men. He ate and drank little-sufficient only for the purposes. of life, and devoted his whole time to his profession and to his God. Religion was not with him a mere outward sign; it was a part, and by far the most important part, of his daily exercises. He had mourned over the idolatry-encouraging system of the Government of India, but he was powerless to prevent it. Nevertheless, he was one of those men who, in olden days, would have led the Crusaders to Ascalon, and whose deep enthusiasm would have inspired all around him with equal fervor in the cause. Who indeed that saw that spare figure, below the middle height, that pale thoughtful face, seldom showing any interest in the general conversation, but often lighted up by the latent fire within, would have thought him capable of mighty deeds? He would sit silent and meditative. He might be thinking of the yet possible destiny of India under a bold and God-fearing policy. The smile would gleam on his face, but as quickly die away, for what chance seemed there then of action for him? He was approaching the term of life, the end of his days, and all India lay before him calm and still, not a breath agitating her bosom, not even a ripple indicating the quarter from which a storm might T be approaching. The faith of our rulers in Who that saw him then would have be- And yet Havelock did all this. This day (27th November) intelligence has reached Calcutta that he is dead. Mourn not for him, my countrymen, for a nobler and a purer spirit never winged its way to its God. Mourn rather for India, that at such a crisis as this, a God-fearing soldier, a Christian warrior, as yet unsurpassed-in the present crisis unequalled by any should have been removed from the head of her armies! performed in Oude was the time at which it was done, with all India in commotion, all England in anxiety, and peculiarly sensitive to the service; while Havelock's unaffected but conspicuously asserted piety helped to endow him with the aspect of a conscious_instrument in the hand of Providence. The feelings of the man individually entered largely into his power of leading his soldiers, and into the estimate which his country has formed of his character. Instead of being a mere general officer, highly successful in field operations, he was but partially tried in those, Havelock brought to the art of war the feelings of chivalry, its earnestness, devotion, and self-forgetfulness: qualities in which he resembled Napier, whose monument is placed on one side of the square, and Nelson who would stand between the two.Spectator 23 Jan. From The Spectator, 2 Jan PROPOSED INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE ON THE SLAVE-TRADE TREATIES. A NEW idea has dawned upon those who are anxious for the economical redemption of the West Indies; or rather, two ideas have been put together, and a third has been struck out by the process. The want of labor in the West Indies is a matter only too notorious. The best source of all for the genuine supHAVELOCK'S MONUMENT. It is proposed ply of labor is Africa; but we stand excluded to erect a monument to Havelock, and a cor- from that source by circumstances that any respondent of the Daily News suggests for form of free emigration might be the pretext the site" the angle of Trafalgar Square cor- and justification for a spurious counterfeit responding to that which contains the statue carried on by nations that have traded in of Sir Charles Napier; of whom our de- slavery. Thus, the so-called plan of free parted hero was a favorite lieutenant." There African emigration conducted by M. Régis are other reasons for the choice. In reply to appears to labor under the threefold disadcomplaints that the recognition of Havelock vantage of arousing British jealousy, of beby the Government had not been originally ing in itself a very unsuccessful experiment, spontaneous and hearty enough, representa- and of setting the example to Spain, Portutions have been put forth that he rose to dis- gal, Yankee adventurers, and other slavetinction more rapidly than any officer of his traders, for reestablishing a slave-trade in rank-more rapidly even than Wellington. disguise. Various expedients have been But the claims urged in his behalf were not adopted to supply labor without seeking it of a kind that depend upon precedent, or from Africa; and the most promising sources could be regulated by it. It was far from have been China and the Hill regions of Inbeing a simple case of military success. It dia, which produce Coolies. But on trial would indeed be difficult to meet the exact that plan may again be pronounced a failure. amount of military trouble that would have The races are too weak for the English idea ensued if Havelock had failed in his advance of labor, and cannot be put in competition through Oude; still more frightful to think with good specimens from Africa. of the moral consequences, both personal and question still presses: the British West Indies political. In its nature his march appears to languish in the competition of the sugarhave been absolutely without precedent. trade for want of hands; our own subjects We have before had marches through hostile suffer injury through our philantropical polcountries, but never, we believe, such a icy, without success,in the extinction of the steady, persevering journey, through apparent slave-trade. Whatever may be the failure impossibilities, and in the midst of what of the Régis plan as its author designed it, looked like certain death. But what above it has undoubtedly opened the door for a all determined the estimate of the service new form of African emigration; and the LIVING AGE. DCCXXI. VOL. XX. 48 The MENT. Ministerial papers of this country are very anxious to put a spoke in the wheel of that EARTHQUAKES AND THEIR TREAT scheme. It is understood that the Emperor of the French has shown signs of yielding, and the plan may after all be abandoned: but what then? Both for the sake of our own West Indies and of those countries which need Tropical labor, it is desirable to find a source which may supply the want without reestablishing the African slave trade. Eureka! some journals, including the Ministerial Morning Post, have hit upon the source. They are for executing two great duties at once they would supply the want of labor in the Tropical English Colonies, and at the same time supply an appropriate punishment for the mutinous Sepoys. Let the Hindoos be branded "M. D.," [not Medicinæ Doctor, but Mutineer-Deserter,] and condemned to be beasts of toil for the benefit of those Whites whom they would have injured; the West Indies thus becoming a penal prison for the Sepoys, and recovering the supply which they have so long lacked. The idea may be specious, but it will not stand a moment's criticism. All the horrors, the crimes, the vices, the corruptions, that attended White-convictism in Australia would here be repeated (we say it without a pun) with an infinitely blacker dye. The workmen in the sugar-plantations, we can easily foresee, would be infinitely more active in the field of vice. The forms of atrocity would be such that their very existence would contaminate the world. At IT is calculated that more than 30,000 persons, some reckon 40,000, have lost their lives by the recent earthquakes in the kingdom of Naples. In some towns, Montemurro and Saponaro for example, the whole of the inhabitants have perished; in others, Brienza and Tramuttola, the greater part of all living beings were destroyed. In some places the earth opened, swallowing every creature on the face of it.. The details of this grand natural' phenomenon are altogether frightful; we must go back to times long past to parallel them. Exactly one thousand years ago, at the end of December 857, a similar catas trophe happened throughout Europe. that time, however, the ravages of the earth quake extended much further North than at present; even towns on the Rhine, Mayence among them, suffered severely. This proves that, after all, these commotions are losing in intensity, extent, and frequency; for whereas in former times the whole of Europe was frequently disturbed by them, and millions lost their lives, they are at present more rare, they do not extend beyond a single kingdom, and the losses may be counted by thousands. In that long interval there have been many other visitations, but none perhaps so extensively felt as that of 1755, in which the town of Catania was destroyed, a quay at Lisbon was submerged, and the commotion was felt even in this country, the water in Stonehouse Pool near Plymouth, with the boats upon it, being swayed to and fro like water in a basin that is violently shaken. On the whole, however, observation of the past appears to prove a decline, if not in the horrors of the infliction, still in the extensiveness and in the frequency. Something perhaps may be due to the hyperbole with which ancient writers wrote; but about some of the greatest facts which happened in public, such as the destruction of the quay, there can scarcely be any doubts and if we trust to the experiences of so short a time as a thousand years, we might accept the facts as evidence of a standing supposition that our old earth is gradually cooling down. The problem of the West Indies still remains unsolved. Notwithstanding the failure of M. Régis, the system of the preventive squadron has been broken through, and can scarcely be made whole again. The Times is for staving off the difficulty by a continuance of Coolie immigration; but, we repeat, the Coolie is a failure, not strong enough to keep out the African. It appears to us that the time is arrived when the whole subject ought to be reconsidered with a view to the best arrangement of all interests including the true interests of Africa as well as those of the West Indies and of the plantation-owning powers of Europe. Most civilized governments of the world are parties to the virtual alliance which is embodied in But there is one great fact which comes the Slave-trade treaties; and the best of all home nearer to us,-the total want of any tribunals for a reconsideration of the subject progress in the treatment of these great would be a Joint Commission appointed by phenomena. They happen mostly in counall the sta signataries to the Slave-trade tries where there is little energy, and where treaties, that Commission empowered to re-invention is cramped by the artificial bond view the whole subject and to report upon it. of bad government. In Naples we have an ! intensity of horror and an intensity of inertness. Travellers throughout the districts that have suffered in Naples see towns destroyed, with the inhabitants sitting upon the ruins, mourning, not acting. In Polla the cries of the victims were heard under the ruins; but no assistance could be had. The country people fled in fear; the thousands of men in the pay of the Government were not permitted to come, perhaps did not wish it; and there is reason to suppose that enormous numbers have perished through starvation or suffocation, though they might have been saved by the slightest exertion. It is the custom to leave everything to the Government, and the Government affects to act, but does not. While these events are proceeding, the official journal of Naples sp ontaneously pays worship to the King as to a god upon earth, towards whom his beloved people look, but look in vain; and obeys its instructions to make as light as possible of the ruin and suffering endured. In fact, Government is trying to hush up the earthquake. This is a natural consequence of the rule in a country where the sole object is to subserve the interest of the one man at the top, not of the body of the people; in a country where the journals are under the control of the clergy, as we see now in the case of a journal at Bergamo, whose editor has just made submission. Government, for the freedom and familiarity with which the lecturer handled the element ascribed in ancient times to Jupiter. But who does not feel, that if the Royal Institution were situated at the foot of Vesuvius, that the same bold and searching inquiry would be conducted into the volcano and the earthquake? Perhaps the boldest of us would never think of preventing the earthquake; but we know that we could not study it without profit; and even if we were not able to counteract its effect upon the globe, we should hope at least to adopt a style of building perhaps more light and elastic, and thus more suited to the neighborhood. No man can ever tell on the threshold of inquiry what its results will be; but inquiry itself is impossible in a land where the journals are instructed to hush up an earthquake, and are only permitted to exist so long as they make their news mere foot-notes to the sermons of the priesthood.. From The Literary Gazette. MDLLE. RACHEL. WITH regret we learn that Mdlle. Rachel, the great French tragic actress, died at about eleven o'clock on Monday morning, at the village of Cannet, near Cannes, in France. She for a long time had been laboring under a malady of the chest, and recently spent some months in Egypt, in the hope that the climate of that country would be favorable to her. Her Egyptian sojourn did her good, and she returned to France; but she was far from recovered, and was sent to Cannet, in the balmy south, and on the shores of the Mediterranean. There all that medical art could do for her was done, and at times. hopes of her cure were entertained; but it was written that she was to die. In our country we can scarcely enter into the mental condition of a people thus governed. If there still are restraints of prejudice, or even of authority in some few cases, we are in the habit of accepting every visitation as the stimulus to a new inquiry. At the present moment, in spite of the material interests engaged, we have volunteers or official investigators exploring mischiefs arising from the influences, natural or artificial, which are injurious to life. Incorporated Her father and mother, a couple named bodies are inquiring into the best mode of Felix, were Jew pedlars in Switzerland and cleansing our towns. Science anticipates Germany, and she was born on the 24th the suggestions of experience, and points to March, 1820, in a low public house in the danger from the use of paper tinted with village of Munf, canton of Argau, in the arsenical coloring matter: the hint is re- former country. Her parents afterwards obsponded to, and fresh evidence is brought tained their livelihood for some time by dealagainst the poison. The papermakers defending in second-hand clothes at Lyons, and their wares; and there is a thorough discus- about 1830 they went to Paris, where they sion, which will end, no doubt, in the acquittal carried on the same calling. At Paris they or condemnation of the accused. The whole sent out their elder daughter to sing in pubbody of graziers is placed under judgment lic houses, cafés, and dancing gardens, and for a course of feeding which tends to. results after a while they made Rachel accompany injurious to human health; and that is done her. A professor of a singing school fell in in a country where the meat is the best in with the girls one day, and, struck with the world; the graziers themselves not scru- Rachel's voice, proposed to her parents to pling to assist and patronize the inquiry. give her lessons in singing. They consented, The inquiry and experiments in electricity, but before long he found that the voice was conducted by Professor Faraday at the Royal better suited for declamation than for singInstitution before the Prince of Wales, might ing, and he sent Rachel to a professor of challenge suppression under a Neapolitan declamation who, finding that she had talents |