The Brecon Reporter and South Wales General Advertiser

r TO WK TALK. BY O-UPO SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT. --+- Otw readers will understand that too do not hold ourselves respon 7 $ibhfor our able Correspondent's opinions, THE great feature of the Wimbledon meeting this year was the enthusiastic reception awarded to the Belgian riflemen, who had come all the way from their own country to be present at what they called our Tir National de Wimbledon." On the ground, from Lord EIcho, the representative of the Rifle Association, down to all ranks, they re- ceived a most cordial greeting, so cordial, indeed, that it seems to have astonished as well as del Ighted them. Their commanding officer, in j replying to the noble lord's welcome, said that their object in coming over was not; so much to carry away prizes, as to cultivate a friendly feel- ing with British volunteers, to fraternise with the great English nation, and to make closer acquaintance with this country, which is the mother of liberty, whose institutions had spread and been copied in every land where freedom existed and was valued. Hearty cheers for our Queen from the foreigners, and equally hearty cheers for the King of the Belgians from our volunteers, testified to the mutual good feeling which prevailed. At other places they have been feted likewise-at tue Guildhall, and at the Crystal Palace, and at a public dinner, where the Belgian Ambassador, speaking in the name of his Sovereign, Parliament, and people, returned .thanks for the "magnificent reception" which his countrymen had received from all classes in London. Lord Elebo, in the course of a few remarkg, in which he pointed out similarities between the Belgian and English character, f observed that Belgians, like Englishmen, "did not desire any glories of conquest or any rectifications of frontiers; like them also they deprecated any I attempts in this direction, come from what quarter they might;" observations which called "the Belgians to their feet, and caused them to '-cheer continuously for some minutes. The pro- ceedings were altogether of a most interesting -nature, and cannot fail to increase the friendly .feeling which already exists between the two • countries. I THINE if we had what has been termed a little "'enlightened despotism." in this country we should be better off than we are in a great many respects. Here, for example, is Sir John Hay, the •; new junior Lord of the Admiralty, declaring that for the last four or five years the number of men who enlistinthe navy has been diminishing at the rate of 2,000 per aimurn, notwithstanding tfee increase that has been made in seamen's pay. And yet this difficulty of procuring recruits could easily be remedied by practisingalittia of the aforesaid en- M lightened despotism, for cities swarm with a mul- a tude of wretched boys, who are practically forced ¡¡ by a terrible destiny to swell the ranks of the criminal population, and- our workhouses are crowded with pauper lads, whose future fate, at the best, is doubtful enough. Why should not the State take possession of them; and send them to training schools, where they could be turned into sailor lads? Such a career would be one of the greatest blessings that could happen to them. It would save them from continual pauperism or worse, and the cost to the country would be no more than it is at present, seeiug that they are already fed, clothed, and taught either in workhouses or prisons. The experiment has been already tried in a small way at the Poplar, workhouse with the greatest success, and there is an association, of which Lord Shaftesbury is president, to effect the same object. Why not, as has been suggested, turn Greenwich Hospital into a large training school? By adopting some such plan as this an almost endless supply of sailors would be furnished both for- the navy and the merchant service; pauperism and crime would be diminished, and large numbers of human waifs and strays, instead of being a terror or a burthen to society, would be ■ • ■ provided with an honest and honourable calling. > MR. FARNALL, the Poor-law Commissioner, has u presented his report on the condition of the sick poor ia-workhouses. He reeommends the aboli- tion of pauper nurses, and the erection of hospi- tals for the sick apart from the workhouses- changes which the recent, investigations have proved to be absolutely necessary. Now that this question may. be considered as far advanced towards a settlement, it is only justice to remem ber that to Mr. Ernest Hart, of St. Mary's Hospi- tal. Dr. Austie," of Westminster Hospital, and Dr. Carr, of Blaekheath (the three commissioners ap- pointed by the editor of the Lancet), is the credit due of having called public attention to the horrible condition of the London workhouse in- firmaries. THE" Jamaica Committee" are in a fix. Now that Mr. Buxton has retired from the chairman- ship, because he condemns their project of having the late Governor of Jamaica tried for the murder of Mr. Gordon, and that Mrs. Gordon herself has declined to prosecute, on the ground that her husband would not have approved of anything vindictive, they don't see their way to getting Mr. Eyre indicted for murder at the Old Bailey. As Mrs. Gordon ia the person chiefly interested, and as she declines to interfere, perhaps the committee will come to the not unreasonable conclusion that the matter had better stand as it is; most assuredly, if they do not, they will incur all the odium which Mr. Buxton, their late chairman, anticipates, and provoke a triumph for Mr. Eyre which they would not relish. THE report of the Select Committee on theatres and music-halls has been published, and is to the 'same purport as I mentioned it would be in one o my recent letters. Theatres and music-halls are to be placed on the same footing. They are to be under the supervision of the Lord Chamberlain with regard to licensing the buildings and with re- gard to the censorship over the performances. This last provision will, in all probability, be un- palatable to some of the music-halls; but it will, if properly carried out, prevent the exhibition of much, dreary indecency; of course, I speak of the lower class of places; not of the Oxford, Alhambra &c., where, so far as the stage is concerned, there is little to offend and much to please both eye and ear. A NEW dyama e4i considerable interest has been brought out at the Princess's. It is called the Huguenot Captain, and is by Mr. Watts Phillips. The company is a very good one, comprising, as it does, Mrs. Stirling, Mr. Vining, Mr. George Honey, and to her well known actors. The ballet, cos- tumes, and scenery, are remarkably good; of the last mentioned a view of old Paris is especially so. The plot is of the sensational kind, and although the dialogue is in parts stilted, the good acting and the gorgeous accessories make the Huguenot Captain well worth seeing. BLIND TOM, a negro boy pianist, and a musical prodigy, who has created a great sensation through- out the United States, has arrived in England, and will shortly make his appearance in public. IT maybe hoped that the fate which has over- taken Mrs. Allen, the lady who falsely accused a gentleman of assaulting her while in a railway carriage, will put a check on such charges, which were becoming alarmingly numerous. Five years' penal servitude is by no means too much for such an offence, and the judge who tried the case very properly declined to attend to the jury's recom- dation to mercy. THE patience of Chief Baron Pollock has been at length rewarded. It was known that that learned and able judge would retire when his party came into office in order that his seat might be filled by'a Conservative lawyer. Accordingly he gives place to Sir Fitzroy Kelly, who by his ability and standing at the bar well merits the promotion he has at last obtained. Z.

SUMMARY OF PASSING EVENTS. "— THE war in Germany is still raging, and the hope that France could successfully mediate be- tween Austria and Prussia on the one hand, and Austria and Italy on the other, appears to be out of the question. Victor Emmanuel refuses to accept Venetia except by conquest, and rapidly the Austrian soldiers are departing from Venice, leaving the Italian army an opportunity of ad- vancing. Another battle has been fought be- tween the Prussians and the Austrians, and again the former have been victorious, and their success has enabled the Prussians to advance upon Frank- fort. On receiving intelligence of this the Federal troops evacuated the city, and the Diet removed to Augsburg, Indeed, in all instances the Federal States of Germany, which had promised to support Austria, have cowardly withdrawn from her support when it was needed. Austria has to fight alone; her forces are large and they are also brave, but they lack that needle-rifle, which appears to carry all before it-therefore Prussia conquers and is likely to conquer. The other Powers of Europe are beginning to take alarm; they would not permit Prussia to be the ruling Power of Germany. The Moscow Gazette has an article showing that, Russia is far from being an unconcerned spectator of changes that may arise out of the war, and hints that she will not quietly- submit to any dominant Power which may be dangerous to the European equilibrium; she has not yet abandoned her neutrality, but is arming so as to be ready to meet Prussia., should her despotic desire induce her to take. possession of territories which would interfere with1 the balance of power in Europe. England has hitherto been entirely neutral, but it is not unlikely that she may join in a congress with France and Russia to enforce peace, should Prussia persist in unfair demands. IT appears that Spain is not by any means satis- fied yet with Chili and Peru, and she is preparing a larger fleet to go and punish the inhabitants of these provinces for boldly supporting their rights. She will find, probably, that liberty is not so easily trampled down. A dreadful account reaches us from Madrid; in that city there was an insurrec- tion, and the crown of Spain was in danger. Twenty-one sergeants, it is said, who took part in this insurrection, were brought out, strongly guarded, and made to listen for two hours to a discourse on the enormity of their crime, and at last they were ranged in line to be shot. The discharge took place; nearly all the men fell. The firing still went on until two hundred rounds had been shot. The special correspondent of a Lon- don paper says "I saw one man raise himself three times and fall again on his knees, with his arms ex- tended in a direction from which a piercing voice was heard to shriek I Federico-Federico The soldiers theri approached the corpses, turned some of them over with their feet, and, still perceiving signs of life in some of them, discharged a last shot point-blank. All was then over; the bodies were thrown upon tumbrils, and the regiments filed off, some to an air from Norma, and some to one from Semiramide." Thirty more, said this cor- respondent, were to be shot in a few days. The Spaniards are Christians, of course, but .their con- duct does not appear very Christian-like. We do not say the traitor should not be put to death, but in a civilised country he surely should be killed with some attention to decency, even if humanity is to have no place in the arrangements. A GREAT noise was made some time ago con- cerning the Moldo-Wallachians, because they had elected a king to rule over them who was a Russian prince without consulting the Turkish authori- ties, and this was contrary to treaty. It was thought that the Sublime Porte would punish the bold inhabitants of these provinces for their daring, and eoon we heard of troops advancing in that direction; but the latest news informs us that Prince Charles of Hohenzollern is to be acknowledged by the Porte. This was a bitter pill, doubtless, for the Sultan to swallow; but it appears that his Majesty is poor, and the new hospodar is to be saddled with a double tribute. Even Imperial pride and political prejudice are subjected to commercial tests in our day; and those who will not fight for their convictions will make a sacrifice of them for an adequate pecuniary compensation. WE have nothing much to record in politics. All the members of the new Administration in the Commons have been re-elected except Mr. Patten" the Lord Advocate for Scotland, who has been thrown out for Bridgewater. An attempt was made on Monday evening to draw out Mr. Disraeli, and induce him to lay before the House the line of policy he meant to adopt; but, beyond assuring members of the willingness of Government to legislate for the welfareof Ireland, their endeavour to find employment for the people, and stop the current of emigration, nothing else was elicited. One mode of giving employment to the Irish would, said the Chancellor of the Exchequer, be by making railways throughout the country, for which he should have to ask Parliament for a loan. GENERAL PEEL, the new Minister for War, has exercised a very decided opinion on the superiority of breech-loaders over muzzle-loaders, and sass that the worst of the former is much more efficient than the best of the latter description, and his first act in taking office was to order the number of breech-loaders about being supplied to the army to be increased from 40,000, as ordered by the Marquis of Hartington, to 200,000, which, he hoped, would be in the hands of our soldiers before thecloseof the present year. The breech-loader will, therefore, in a short time take the place of old Brown Bess and her many successors. Eng- land, of course, cannot be an indifferent spectator to what is going on elsewhere; and though we may not be called upon to interfere in the warfare around us, we shall, if we are wise, profit by the experience more dearly bought by other, countries. IT is sad we should, halve occasion to notice so many accidents and casualties which arise out of carelessness, or want of ordinary forethought; and we have to refer to a case in which there was evidently much gross and culpable neglect on the part of one or other of the parties concerned—we mean the collision which took place in the Channel between one of her Majesty's screw sloops, the Amazon, and the Osprey, an iron screw steamship belonging to the Cork Steam Shipping Company. The two ships ran into each other about one o'closk in the morn. ing; both were steaming at full speed; the night was clear; each, it is said, showed the regulation lights, and each saw the other for a quarter of an hour before they struck, and yet each went on full tilt against the other, and struck in the wide Channel. The merchantman was so cut and crushed below the water-line that her engine- room was at once flooded, and her passengers and crew had barely time to get into a boat, or to clamber on board the Amazon. In five minutes from the time of the collision she went down, and, catching her boat as she sank, capsized it, and several of those who had sought shelter in it were drowned. It happened to be a clea-r, calm night, otherwise many more lives would have been lost. An inquiry into the aifa-ir is being instituted in Parliament, both as to the nature of the accident and the efficiency of battering rams for the naval service, seeing the sudden effect the blow of the sloop had upon the merchantman. A TALE of murder and felonious suicide reaches us from Brighton. Dr. Warder's third wife died under very suspicious circumstances; an inquiry into the cause of her death had commenced, and was adjourned for further scientific evidence as to the contents of the stomach, but before the re- assembling of the jury Dr. Warder was found dead, his death having been caused by a large quantity of prussic acid. A jury which inquired into the cause of his death, after hearing evidence, brought in a verdict of felo de se, and the wretched man was interred at midnight, according to cus- tom, without the rites of Church burial. A VERY salutary example has been made of a lady" who, a short time since, feloniously charged a gentleman, who was travelling in the same carriage with her on the London and North Western Railway, with repeated criminal attempts upon her. The jury found her guilty of perjury, and the Recorder disregarding a recommendation to mercy, sentenced the prisoner to five years' penal servitude. There are no doubt occasionally some ill-conditioned ruffians whose conduct to unprotected femalea merits the severest punish- ment but while we would not spare the lash to such a class of offenders, we are not the less grati- Red to see the law boldly administered in the interest of the unprotected male. OUR readers will learn with satisfaction that up to the present time all has gone on well with the Atlantic telegraph expedition. The splice of the cable has been successfully made, and the paying out has continued satisfactorily for some days, and we hope to hear every day of the progress of the great work, until its final and successful accomplishment.

MANIFESTO OF THE EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA TO THE HUNGARIANS. The following Royal manifesto has just been issued at Pesth To the faithful peoples of my kingdom of Hun- gary. The hand of Providence weighs heavily upon us. In the conflict into which I have been drawn, not voluntarily bat through the force of circumstances, every human calculation has been frustrated, save only the confidence I placed in the heroic bravery of my valiant army. The more grievous are the heavy losses by which the ranks of those brave men, have been smitten, and my. paternal heart feels the bitterness of that grief with all the families affected. To put an end to the un- equal contest, to gain time and opportunity to fill up the voids occasioned by the oampaign, and to concentrate my forces against the hostile troops, occu- pying the northern portion of my empire, I have con- sented, with great sacrifice, to negotiations for the conclusion of an armistice. I now turn confidently to the faithful peoples of my kingdom of Hungary, and to that readiness to make sacrifices so repeatedly displayed in arduous times. The united exertions of my entire empire must be set in motion, that the conclusion of the wished-for peace may be secured upon fair conditions. It is my profound belief that the warlike sons of Hungary, actuated by the feeling of hereditary fidelity, will voluntarily hasten under my banners to the assist- ance of their kindred, and for the protection of their country, also immediately threatened by the events of the war. "Rally, therefore, in force to the defence of the invaded empire; be worthy sons of your valiant fore- fathers, whose heroic deeds gained never-fading wreaths of laurel for the glory of the Hungarian name. "Vienna, July 7, 1866." "FRANCIS JOSEPH.

WHAT WILL BECOME. OF AUSTRIA f The Times military correspondent, writing from the head-quarters of the Austrian army, says;—" The army of the North has thrown its whole energy into one blow and failed. Successful in Italy, contrary to all expectations, Austria has failed in Germany; what now remains ? Will Franca support the Italians, and Russia strike a blow for conservatism ? Nothing more is possible here but to draw back the shattered remnants of a great army and strive to hold a position at Brunn or Olmutz, or fall back on Vienna. It is probable that you, sitting at home in England, may know more about the future than we, who are at the seat af war, can possibly determine. Silence is no longer forced upon us, but what is left to say? If even part of what is whispered in this time of depres. sion be true, Austria's fate is now in foreign hands. and our best course is to return to Vienna, where along we can make sure of a post, and decide there on what is beat to be done in order to enable us to follow tha operations of this army.

\/f RS. WINSLOWS Soothing Syrup, for jJUL children cutting teeth, has gained a greater reputation in America during the last 15 years than any remedy of the kimd ever known. It is plea- sant to take, and SAFE in all cases; it soothes the child and gives it rest; it relieves griping in the bowels, or wind in the stomach, and cures dysentery or diarrhoea, whether arising from teething or otheE causes; it softens the gums and allays all irritation* No mother should be without it. Fall directions oa ■•aeh bottle. Pra# Is. -Sold all chemist the J\ijlg9