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VgpTl,! -~~ TOVTN TALK.

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VgpTl,! TOVTN TALK. BT OUR SPECIAL COEEESPON )ENT. -+-- em- readers will understand that we do not hol4 ourselves Tepen- siblefor our able Correspondent's opinions. --+- THE chase after, capture, and examination of the miserable German tailor charged with a great crime has, as my readers are well aware, formed the chief topic of the week. Even the auspicious visit of Prince Humbert, the heir to the new throne of Italy, has paled before it. Yes, the morbidity, if I may use the word, of all classes of society has been excited to an unnatural, and, I think, reprehensible tension. And for what ? To catch a glimpse of, or hear small gossip about a man who, if he be guilty, is ,after all, neither more nor less than a very common- place ruffian-indeed, not even what is called a great" criminal-whom mere chance, or want of alertness on the part of the authorities, enabled to escape for a time, and by that escape and the consequent pursuit to magnify himself into a hero. For surely no real hero, whether Nelson, Welling- ton, or Garibaldi, ever received a more sensational reception on touching the shores of Britain thaa. did Franz Miiller, though it was plain that the public did not intend', sympathy with him, to judge by the shouts and yells of the crowd. I was present at the examination, conscious of the fearful issue at stake,"and the scene to me, both within and without, was hideously 'grotesque. A tiger was expected, but, lo! a seeming mouse appeared. People, in fact, were disgusted, and the term is not too strong that thejnan did not look up" to the crime with which;,he was charged. )n truth, the brand of Cain is not imprinted on his brow or even indicated by his j physique. What! I heard a costermonger say to a friend, that little under- sized cove knock over a big man like Muster Briggs and toss him out of a railway carriage afterwards, and do it all in a:minllte or two It's all gammon; he couldn't any more do it than my donkey that's my thinking, there, now." Now, without offering an opinion on the costermonger's assertion, I must dechre)t as my'belief that, inas- much as very notorious criminals almost invariably have their imitators, to give such undue notoriety to such a case as Mutter's is] but to offer an in- centive-a spur, to criminally-diseased minds, who may be only meditating crime; for it is, unfor- tunately, too true that, to certain morbidly-dis- posed people, any notoriety, no matter how ob- tained, is what fame is to thefgreat and good. "9 Touching this Miiller case, how true is it that good comes out of evil! For instance, the celerity and uprightness -with, which the authorities of the Northern States of America acted with reference to his extradition has put the English press in a good humour with them. Nothing could have been more fair or in accordance with the extra- dition treaty than their conduct in this case, not- withstanding the noisy harangues of men like Mr. Chauncey Shaffer. Apropos of America, political pundits are of opinion that the recent capture of Atlanta, the capital of Georgia, by the Federals, and the almost certain capture of Mobile, which is to follow, they say, will bring about a peace. It is also believed that a similar result will ensue if General M'Clellan be elected to- the presidency. But I no more believe in a speedy peace than I do in the probability that little Mac will defeat Abe Lincoln," who is, at present, the favourite candi- date by long odds. At all events, if a peace be imminent, it is rather singular that an advertise- ment (anonymous, it is true) should so recently have been put forth, inviting subscriptions to a loan of £50,000,000 sterling to the Confederate States. While leading M.P.'s are lecturing and address- ing their constituents in the provinces, it is posi- tively stated in town that the veteran M.P. for Rye, Mr. Mackinnon, is to be raised to the peer- age again, that, in anticipation of a general election, much work is being carved out for the revising barristers—far instance, in the southern division of the county of Lancaster alone, no fewer than 14,000 objections have already been made; also, that Mr. Henley contemplates resign- ing his seat for Oxfordshire. The last rumour, however, I am in a position to contradict. Last week I said that, in certain circles, I had heard political motives assigned as the prime cause of the present pleasure trip of- the Prince of Wales. Since then, I have heard it further affirmed that his Royal Highness's visit to King Christian is at the instigation of the British Cabinet, and for the purpose of trying to dissuade the Danish King from carrying out the alliance at present on the tapis between the Princess Dagmar and the heir to the Russian throne. Such a rumour, however,"is scarcely to be credited, for, deserted by England, the poor king cannot prudently refuse a double alliance with Russia—for, of course, you have heard that King George of Greece is to marry a Russian princess. Another reason for my disbelief is, that in Court circles it is pretty well understood that their Royal Highnesses' visit to Denmark did not have the Queen's full sanction. So that, perhaps, if not one of mere affection, the visit may be a chi- valrous and significant protest against the policy of our Cabinet with reference to Denmark and the Duchies. Apropos of Royalty, I hear asserted as positive facts that the Princess Helena is to be married in the coming spring, and that Prince Alfred is to spend a year in the University of Bonn, where, it will be remembered, the late Prince Consort passed several years of his life. While talking about companies and speculation, many a good man and true is just now wincing with shame at the scandal to all honest commercial enterprise, caused by the report of the official liqui- dators of the affairs of a certain ,bank, which represented XI,06,461 irrecoverably lost, out of a paid-up capital of £ 179,195! It is a monstrous result; yet whose fault is it ? There were., I know, good sterling men among the directors yet, in spite of that fact, we are told that £2,644 ) were advanced upon a lady's watch, bracelet, and 1 ring, which articles realised in the best market only i!80! But the quantity of this kind of security in the report is legion: in a single sentence, out of £ 20,000 '-securities of this nature only £1,200 has been realised. ill-algri this frightful .mismanage- ment, directors took £ 2,987 as fees. In how far, I would ask, has the management of this Unity Bank been proved better than that of the British Bank, or that other establishment over which Colonel Waugh presided? Scientific men-lovers especially of geographical study-a,re grieving sadly at the lamented death of poor Captain Speke. How similar was his end to that of Bruce—both world-wide travellers and dis- coverers. Both believed they had made out the source of the Nile; both returned in safety to their native land, after encountering the perils of starvation, climate, savage beasts-more savage men, to die by accident--Bruce, by a fall down his own stairs while handing a guest to his car- riage Speke by the chance discharge of his own fowling-piece while out shooting! This traveller's loss is a calamity to geographical science, and casts a gloom over the meeting of the British Associa- tion that scarcely found its compensation in the ever welcome presence of Livingstone. Z.

OUTLINES OF THE WEEK. —.*—

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DEATH OF CAPTAIN SPEKE, THE…

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rp,v TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

REFUSING TO BURY THE BEAD;

A SUSPICIOUS OABE.

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