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SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.

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SPIRIT OF THE PRESS. MR. REED AD THE XAVT. The Times is sure that Mr. Reed's attack on the Govern- ment is attributable to public spirit alone, and that hi3 allusion to Mr. Gcscher.'s "cVmmercial acquirements," though a little unwise, is only introduced as an objection to the system under which our navy is ruled. If Mr. Goschen has been in making up his mind about navy shipbuilding, who has placed the eouutry in a position to depend on the result of his individual reasonings ? How was it that while Mr. Reed was in office the task of cla- mouring for these powerfufships, in which we are now so deficient, devolved upon the press, and not upon the Constructive Department of the Admiralty ? Why .did the Constructors devote their attention almost exclu- sively to the development of the Hercules type of Ironclad, 'instead of recognising at once the superior claims of the stronger type of fighting ship? Justice to Mr. Goschen compels us thus to turn the tables on 3Ir. Reed. And yet, <personal justice satisfied—a point for us of comparatively little importance—we cannot but concur largely with Mr. Reed in the complaints which he makes. The knowledge which Mr. Reed possesses of the foreign Navies must be within the reach of the English Government. It cenuot be intended that we should apply to every. in ternl t i,) ntl difference, of whatever kind, the principles of the "Wash- ington Treaty, or that we should expect gold to take the place of iron in every European "quarrel the future may have in store for us. And yit we are told that, after two years of Mr. Goschen's a "while we arc standing comparatively stil, half-a-dozen other Powers are making the most rapid and surprising advances, and, for the first time since the introduction of armour, are surrounding us with ships more power- ful, both cruising and non-cruising, than even the most powerful of our own." Is this the mature will of tho country ? Will England be satisfied with such, a posi tion as this ? We hazard, on Mr. Goschen's accession to power, the assertion that we could not wait two yefirs while he was learning his duties. Parliament and tho country have waited with a patience we did not anticir^ t. yt is every one now satisfied with the result of tittj £ ineness ? RAILWAY ACCIDENTS. Earnestly deprecating r.eproach, says the Standard, foi endeavouring to make anybody needlessly nervous, we may nevertheless observe that the events of the last few days are scarcely calculated to comfort those whom circumstances compel to put their lives and liuibs in the power of our great carrying companies. The sensation caused by the collision at Kirtlebridge has hardly had time to subside, and only the less impressionable of those who were simply frightened out of their senses by a disaster which proved fatal to so many of thair fellow passengers can have got its sights and sounds out of their eyes am ears. Yet already the minds of the travelling public have been diverted from the consequences of the Caledonian station-master's over-zealous dis- charge of his duties by a series of fresh calamitcv. Of isolated misadventures to porters and others while ex- ecuting perilous strategic operations in front, or in the midst of, masses of trucks and carnages in motion, no one seems to think much, though the annual tale of prevent- ible mortality thus occasioned equals the population of many a small village, and represent a substantial loss of wage-earning, oiead-winning, household-supporting power to the nation at large. The system under which such tilings are possible must be a v-ry long way from perfect, and bitterly as railway companies complain of their piv- aent liability to actions for damages, we cannot say that the public Las any reason to suppose that its safety ttoul be promoted by the removal of the incentive to careful management which the dread of heavy pecuniary mulct* in some measure supplies. THE LIVINGSTONE -JONTP-OVEnSY. If it be true, says the Daily Jens. that Dr. Livingstone has sent a friendly letter to Dr. Kirk, and that a full reo conciliation has taken place between two old companions in research, the world will be glad. The least pleasant feature of all the revelations that lately reached its witii legard to the great traveller waa the suggestion that 1.9 considered himself tue victim o: some sort of or ill-will on the part of Dr. Kirk. and that Dr. Kirk, on the other hand, was not slow to comnlxin' of the irritable nature and vexatious letters of Dr. Livingstone. Locking at the peculiar position of Dr, Livingstone, and-at the most unrortunato aoeidents which happened in succession to the supplies tor-vardod bv Dr. Kirk, it is easy to understand wi l to make apology f0'r such misapprehensions as may have arisen. In inore°.dec- ant circumstances, and with fuller information,' Dr Livingstone would seeni to have considered it and necessary to re-establish friendly relations with the consul at Zanzibar, and to assure him that the complaints made in the letters from rnyanvembe irsr-i directed against the Banians and Arabs soIeiy," not against n ^patched them from Zanzibar. All s wel! that ends well. It was difficult to believe that Dr. Kirk should have been moved by any envy or dis- like to Dr. Livingstone into wilfully sending oti these sup- plies by messengers whom lie knew to be untrustworthy; ana it was difficult to believe, on the other hand, that Dr. Livingstone siiould have been led into fancying himself the object of a speeies of indirect persecution. Vie trust the explanations now made will be satisfactory to both alùes, and that we shall hear no more of a disagreement which, vaguely reported, produced a uistinctly painful im- pression on the public mind. FLOGG-IXci GAROTTISIIS. The Telegraph, in referring to the controversy on ficHn garotters, say*:—We have to deal witii a class of -.nui Utteily iost to all reason, to all sense of humanity to all those motives by which civilised man is guided, u any beast. The lash is our sole resource, and !1.8 lung as it proves effective, it must not he iMd aside. Tho question at issue is so simple that tiic-r • :s really no room for doubt. Does the use of the cat terrify garotters ? If it does— and about so simple a fact there can be no matter of douet-our duty to ourselves comes first and our duty to the garotter second. Charity begins at home. Much as we may object to use torture, we must use it as guardians of the puHic. It is beside the mark to argue that if we were logical we Ot:6h also to us", tho rack and the thumbscrew. object is to inflict rhn maximum of acute physical anguish with the minimum of permanent injury. This result is best attained by the cat. And by the cat'' we shall hold, until we find either that it is inefficient as a deterrent, or else thet there are other modes of punishment equally effic.icio' and less dangerous. The first object of criminal law is i.ie repres- sion of inhuman olxences. An i although it may often be difficult, to discriminate betwe "i one kind of assault and another, and although tl", W..o have to administer the law may often be unwilling ami reluctant to face so great a responsibility, yet tiere can be no doubt that the hands of justice would be greatly strengthened if it were, in each case of assault accompanied by violence, left to the magistrate or judg? to order flogging, in addition to the ordinary punishment. That the question is one of dnnculty we uo not for a moment dispute. It lies upon the bo-rder line between two con- flicting pi-iziciplei;-one, that the aim of punishment is to Slake the culprit himself better; the other, the stern com- mon-sense view of the English law, which teaches Ult that the object of law is the repression of wrong-doing, and that violence and brutality must be fought with their own weapons, Meantime, the questions which we have to ask ourselves are these: Do--s the flagging of garotters diminish the number of garot-te robberies and, secondly, 18 it not our duty to put down and trample out brutal 41imes by any means that happen to lie ready to out lands ? COMMERCIAL T HEAT IE3. Xow that a Commercial Treaty of some sort appear* tst be secured, says the Pail Mall Gazette, 1:; would be well that both the partisans and the adversaries of the measure should make up their minds what it s that this country really surrenclei-3 in bin ling itself by this kind of engagement to France. Let us consider also what the country gams. It gains in the first place an important, imme :iate, ana tangible advantage to its shipping interest. And next :t secures for free trade a foothold on tllo Continent, not, indeed covering as much space as it did under the Lmpire, but still large enough to furnish a leverage for opening sorno day the great markets close to U3, iuanittly uioro advantageous than auv 7;osi:;on which the system could hope to obtain" irl the absence o. a treaty. We are greatly afraid that 31. Chevalier overrate the stability of free trade in France as a whole. It is univer- sally found that the opinions or uraiudiees most ooswnc- tive of free trade are those which, in their most respective form, are allied to pat;lotism, and which, in then creditable shape, amount to irrational dislike ot foreigner. Now, all these feelings have been enormously sti-mulated in France by the results of the war. We think, moreover, that M. Chevalier is under another far from unnatural delusion. He is an Imperialist who rose to great dignity under the Empire. He does not. therefore, thoroughly recognise the amount of unpopularity, obvious enough to others, which free trade has contracted through its special association with the Imperial Government. It is quite true, indeed, that in the long r'.m, Imperialism, though not perhaps the English, would gain a great advantage in France by having a monopoly of free trade opinion; and probably -"D Chevalier is more influenced than he is aware by this con- sideration. He seems to feel that, if M. Thiers could only be kept to his stubborn protectionism, he would be an easier adversary to deal with some day an the field of commercial policy; and such a feeling as this naturally produces dislike of a treaty which converts the President of the Republic into a qualified free-trader against his will. But, from our point of view, few things would be more unwise than to stake the success of free trade in France on the fortunes of the French Imperialists. PBINCB NAPOLEON. Whatever the Revue Politique prints is generally so well I worthy of attention and respect that we are sorry, says the Globe, to find the current number very angry with the English journals for condemning the conduct of the French Government in the Prince Napoleon-Thiers affair. "What right have the English," it says, ,who are in excellent health,' to give lessons in legality ? Yes, it sits well on the English journals to give us lessons in legality It -Its well uoon a people that has no hesita- tion in breaking the law, when the public safety is in ques- tion TH not England the classic land of bills of indemnity? We will not speak of lyricia-lilw, that bold and extra-judicial Anglo-.Saxon invention. And at tke bottom of all the alivice she gives us, whether we incur her approbation or ber blame, If you seek well for it there will always be fuand n grain of contempt." Whether that be so or not- and we admit that recent events during the last f-jw years havo not inspired tho English people with y great respect for France—«what would you say. Gentlomou Republicans, especially you i; -m; "ii'! d o: -J, if we were to unearth your ri«s r'rom the iw.ipiM.bia purlieus of Leicester- N Hqv.:i :MI sen a t!s»: tu out of th a country on the justifiable pi-yt'-x -i t je.r ?■■o.yii'.igst' ntiou )ig»,ast the land that pro- tect« the! r t-y an opportunity, find eiult-av.o :!• ,-a :.i* > tua miuds of our poace- lori •• w.im*.i t.>;a <:■> no:ions of pililige and hij'1- i 1-

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