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Our Tonbon Corresjjaitbenf.

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Our Tonbon Corresjjaitbenf. (We deem it right to state that we do not at all times Identity ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.] The London daily papers have lately contained one or two paragraphs, prominently printed in their leading pages, descriptive of the weather In Scotland and of the scenery in Aberdeenshire, which have excited attention as being after the style of Her Majesty's Diary, published some years ago. As a matter of fact, these paragraphs formed a part of the ordinary Court circular, which is sent round to the me- tropolitan journals every evening in what is called "flimsy," that is to say the whole of the copies are written ,at one impression upon thin paper, and every journal gets precisely the Bame matter. There are then- Band ? of readers who turn to the Court circular almost the first thing when thsy open the papers, for the infor- mation there ia both varied and interesting. It ia not always confined to such announcements as that the Qlleen walked out, or that Princess Beatrice rods on horseback, or that Prince Leopold drove to the Glassalt Shiel. But the niceties of des- cription are really a study in themselves and the die. tinction drawn between those who accompany and those who "attend" her Majesty, are always worth noting. There is nothing which appears in the Court Circnlar that has not been previously submitted to the Queen's private secretary, General Sir Henry Pouaonby, and the paragraph above alluded to, des. crib:ng some of the beauties of Scottish scenery, was 10 much like the Qaeen's style that there is little doubt of its having been written by the Sovereign herself. When the Court is at Balmoral, the matter which the circular contains is telegraphed to London every night; but when her Majesty is at Windsor or at Osborne, it is sent to the capital by train. In the fine autumnal days which we have lately had, days that seem to have been thoroughly appreciated In the neighbourhood of Balmoral Castle, frequent drives are taken by the Queen and the Empress Eugenie, who is staying at Abergeldie Castle, placed at her Imperial Majesty's disposal by Queen Victoria. The bereavements and misfortunes of the Empress have of late secured to her a considerable share of public notice, and the sternest Republican would not grudge to her Imperial Majesty that amount of sympathy which she has received. Strange how one single decade alters the fortunes of the most illustrious dwellers upon earth I In 1818 the late Emperor Napoleon was a special constable in the streets of London, when the British capital was threatened with insurrection; in 1863 he was the most powerful sovereign in Continental Eu- rope, and had joined his armies with those of Great Britain, Tarkey, and Sardinia, in beating back the Russian Czar from the banks of the Danube. In November, 1869, the Empress Eugenie set out from Paris to open the Suez Canal, a gigantic work connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and owing its inception to the genius of a French engineer. Her progress from Europe to Africa re- sembled that of a conquering heroine; and her recep- tion wherever ahe went was in every way befitting her exalted rank and station. In 1879 she is a widow and childless, an exile from the land which she assisted to rule, but commanding the sympathies of those who knew her in the greatness of her days, and who remember her charities in those times of calamity which so often fell upon France. The Princess Louise, by the advice of her phyei- cianp, ia about to pay a visit to this country, with the object of avoiding the rigours of the Canadian winter. Her Royal Highness, with the Marquis of Lome, left this country for the great British dominion in the West, on the 16th November last, in the splendid steamer Sarmatian; and after a very tempestuous voyage arrived in Halifax Harbour on the 25th. When the new Governor-General and the Princess arrived there, a telegram was waiting for them, conveying the intelligence of the death of Princess Alice's youngest child, to be followed within three weeks by the Bad news of the death of the beloved Grand Duchess of Hesse herself. The last winter, one of the severest known in these islands for many years, was exceptionally mild In Canada indeed it was colder by a great deal in Lon- don than in Ottawa. Bat this cannot again be hcped for so far as Ottawa is concerned; and the Princess, who had intended to postpone her visit to England until the spring, has been recommended to come before, the chances being that our winter wiH not be 80 cold as that of last year, while that of Canada is likely to be colder. A temperature which freezes the broad rolling waters of the mighty St. Lawrence is na'urally one that would be avoided by any one not in the strongest of health and we all hope that the Princess will be benefitted by the change of air and ICene. The fact that the Cabinet separated without naming a day for the reaesembling of Parliament seems to have been taken for granted that the recess will be allowed to run its usual course, and that there will be no meeting of the Legislature until February next. At present the two Houses stand prorogued until the 1st of November, so that a royal proclamation may Boon be expected further proroguing them to a more distant date. A prorogation of Parliament cannot extend beyond three months at one time; bat the utmost of that limit is never reached. Last year the period ran from the 16th of August to the 31st October, this year from the 15th of August to the 1st November, thus showing only a couple of days' difference. Twelve months ago, Parliament was summoned for a December session to provide for the cost of the Afghan war, which was done by lending India two millions sterling, without interest, In order to pay for it. That war, it was hoped, had been brought to a close by the Treaty of Gundamak but its unfortwoate re-opening on the 3rd September by the massacre of our Embassy at Cabul, was the basis of the expectation that the expenses of the second campaign would now have to be provided for. It may be added that Parliament, whenever it meets, whether in November, December, or February, will do so for the last time. It will have run its seven sessions—an age which no Parliament has attained since that dis- solved by Lord Palmerston in July. 1865, and which had lasted six years, one month, and six days. The military operations before Cabul have once more attracted public attention to the wild and singular country of which that historic city is the capital. The experience of Afghanistan supplies an instance of a land which makes ne advance towards civilization, although the civilizing influences repre- sented by the presence of British territory are situated not far beyond its boundaries. As large as France, as mountainous as Switzerland, and in the winter as cold as Greenland, in the summer the scorching heats of the tropics pass over it, and their effects are felt in the enervated character of the people. The hill tribes are fierce and untameable, and they answer to the descrip. tion given of Ishmael of old. It is nearly a thousand years since Afghanistan, having formerly been a part of the Persian and Greek empires, was conquered by the Tartars, a race which has never had the reputation of being a humanizing agency. To this day the wosd II Tartar is synonymous with barbarism and ferocity; and the settlement of the country by the Mussulmans did not nil contribute to the development of its re- sources or the onward progress of its people. Never at rest, and in a chronic state of anarchy, the inci. dents of a thousand years have been repeated in our own times; its rulers are either tyrants or puppets, oppressors of their subjects, or too weak to keep those subjects from overthrowing them. True to the creed of Mahomet, they hate the infidel foreigner, and as we have seen, take every opportunity of exterminating him. Amid the anxiety caused by the renewed outbreak in Afghanistan there is one satisfaction and that is found in the termination of the war upon the adjoin. ing Continent. It is barely twelve months since dis- tant rumours of troubles in Soath Africa reached this country but little more notice was taken of disputes with the Znlu" than there had been of quarrels with the Bisuto?, the Boerf, and the Kf ffirs, of which there h",d b-en imcy within the past half century. Very few evi n knew the aame of the Zulu King; those who bad beard it found it unpronounceable; some had been hr. uht acquainted with the presence of the Zulus in South Africa through the writings of the Bishop of Natal; while, as there was a Bishop of Zululand in the colonial church, many would not have been surprised to learn that the country was a British possession, one of those vast and indefinite territories which make up the wide-spreading continent of Africa. We have since been made aware of the fact that Zaluland was an independent kingdom with a powerful army, which her Majesty's High Commissioner in South Africa de- clared it to be imperative, in the inteiests of Natal, to break up. This has now been done, and the mystic king of that wild region is now a State prisoner at Capetown, not in the primitive costume of his race, but wearing a Tweed suit and a high hat, settling down for the re- mainder of his days in the centre of African civiliza- tion, and himself possessing many of the attributes of a civilized being. As the First of November approaches, there is a flutter of active political life amid the municipalities of England and Wales, in connection with the annual choice of Town Councillors. This is one respect in which England stands out prominently as compared with her continental neighbours. In France, for example, the Mayor or Prefect is appointed by the central authority In Paris, not so much to preside over the interests of the locality as to subserve these of the government in the capital. He is in fact a servant of the dominant party in the State, and can be dismissed at the pleasure of the Minister of the Interior if that functionary fails in his duty towards his party. When, in the time of the Emperor Napoleon, Baron Haussman was Prefect of the Seine, Paris had what was called a Municipal Council, but this body had no control whatever over the lavish expenditure upon the reconstruction of the City, which was all ordered by the central government for the City to pay for. It is only to imagine this principle being applied to London -the Home Secretary, on his own responsibility, ordering an expenditure of several millions in public improvements, and the taxpaying public having no voice whatever in the matter-to show the great difference between the modes of local government. Fortunately, in England the mayors of our boroughs are not officials appointed by the State, but gentlemen selected by their townsmen to represent the dignity of their own municipalities, and to protect the interests and promote the welfare of their own communities. The Electric Light seems to be still making its way. In London it has been extended from end to end of the Thames Embankment, and a few night3 ago was first displayed on Waterloo Bridge. Its brilliancy stood wayfarers in good stead on one or two nights when a dense fog, driving up from the Essex marches, Bettled down upon the giant city, and well nigh blotted out the light of the ordinary gas lamps. So thick was the fog at times that cabdrivers, being unable to see two lamps ahead of them, were obliged to use the greatest caution in making their way through the shrouded streets. In the regions illuminated by the electric light, a strange unearthly glamour was thrown over the spectral scene. The form and substance of Waterloo Bridge were totally blotted out; and as with a sorrowful deep sound the river rolled between the two densely- peopled banks, silent as the night itself, the line of white lights seemed like so many lamps suspended in the air, the only signs of life amid a vast opaque space, black, cheerless, and impenetrable to human vision.

THE ENTRY INTO CABUL.

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CABUL DESCRIBED.

ft* Hltstc(hrirc0us Intelligent,

THE MARKETS.