NOTES AND QUERIES.
A TORONTO newspaper announces that Viscount Bury, eldest son of the Earl of Albemarle, is anxious to represent a Canadian con- stituency. It is an ambition creditable to the individual, and likely to be useful to more than himself. There would be many advantages if the sons of our nobility could thus perform a legis- lative apprenticeship in the Colonies. They would return to the Legislature at home filled with most useful knowledge, and justice to the Colonies would no longer be at the mercy of the Office in Downing Street. But that is not all the advantage to be gained : in those rougher and freer scenes, they would deal with public business where it has more "go," more personal life, more heart and set purpose in it. There is no doubt that in the Colonies a man may see working some of the first principles of political go- vernment and liberty more nakedly than he can in our highly ar- tificial system. He would deal with men more as Hampden and Pym had to deal with them, and would come back to England to deal with his countrymen less like machines and more like human beings.
The Board of Health Bill has been withdrawn, and something is evidently the matter. Meanwhile, the cholera has arrived, and we have done little to stop it. Some months ago, a number of benevolent gentlemen proposed to raise a fund in order to place one section of the Metropolis in as perfect a condition as could be secured within the time. It would have been done, but that somebody, backed by official authority, contemplated a more ex- quisitely perfect means of action ; and a practical improvement was shelved in favour of that which is still an ideal perfection. The House of Commons cannot bring to a close its legislative ex- ertions on the subject of electoral corruption—it desires to be so perfect and so safe ; and it is threatened with being cut short in those labours by another kind of corruption—the corruption of the very air within the House. Phosphorctted and sulphuretted hy- drogen, the emanations of the unreformed Thames, invade the
Members in their places, and threaten to turn them out. Lord Dudley Stuart " drew attention" to the 'noxious effluvia which en- tered the House on Thursday night'and Friday morning last week; but what is the use of paying "attentions" to these visitants? 'It would have been as much to the purpose if he had moved that they be ejected by the Sergeant-at-Arms. Having neglected to grapple with the difficulty at its source, suffering the Thames to continue the cloaca maxima of the Metropolis, aided by a cloaca minor, it is said, still closer to the Honourable House, MeMbers now reap the fruits of their lathes. The influence of bad air has increased, is increasing, and threatens not to be diminished. It is stronger than the Members ; and Sir William Molesworth warts the House, that if they sit much after July, they may expect a yet more potent invasion. What a libel upon our progress ! The Legislature will be driven from its post invaded by the lowest re- fuse of civilization.
Lord Palmerston joins in the Parliamentary endeavour to render Russian securities illegal. A hint for Mr. Urquhart: cannot that deep-seeing gentleman discover in the move, a project on the part of the Czar's principal ally for relieving that potentate in difficul- ties from the payment of dividends ?
The best of all ways to prevent the Russian invasion of England, is to shut up that Power in its own dominions, as Admiral Dundas and Sir Charles Napier are doing. But suppose either of those artistes were to fail : might we not have an explosion of Russia through the Dardanelles or the Sound, with a serious inconveni- ence to our own coasts ? Mr. Philip Howard has mooted this sub- ject in our own columns and in the United Service _Magazine; but the question has not been answered. In these days of free trade, how are we to be sure that a Paul Jones, oven of &Nab growth, may not be turned against us, and defy our attempt to put down the trade in privateering ? Ten per cent, it is said, will pay the smuggler • and there is more than one British portthat would yield a higher rate than ten tier cent on the enterprise of a dashing anti-protectionist in that line: The Ministers have pro- bably had this contingency in view; and of course no party feeling has prevented the adoption of Lord Hardwicke's suggestion—a re- serve squadron for our home defence.
A practice is increasing in the courts of law which is entailing considerable trouble on parties to law-cases. Some judges appear to labour under a nervous disease which makes them get out pf any difficulty by suggesting "a reference." Now it so happens that the laws relating to references are extremely incomplete. For example, either party retains the option of withdrawing even at a comparatively late stage ; and the party which seems likely to lose may thus frustrate all the labour and expense. A genuine arbitration, a real settlement of differences by an umpire em- powered to decide finally and absolutely on a case submitted by two volunteered referees, might save the pockets of litigants ; but at present the only thing saved with any certainty appears to be the time and responsibility of the judge.
Experience in the East and taste in the West having suggested an urgent claim amongst the military for free cultivation in the matter of the beard, the authorities at the Horse Guards, after much meditation, have agreed to grant free trade in that matter. The legislative protection of the razor, however, is not entirety abandoned by the Horse Guards. To the Army, at home as well as abroad, is granted the permission to let the beard grow, with certain exceptions. "A clear space of two inches must be left between the corner of the -mouth and the whisker, when whisk- ers are grown ; the chin, the under-lip, and at least two inches of the upper part of the throat, must be clean shaven, so that no hair can be seen above the stock in that place." Of course there are some reasons, sanitary or sesthetical, which dic- tate the provision for a clearance of two inches on the cheek and on the upper part of the throat : would there be any objection on the part of the Horse Guards to state those reasons?
Once more has the bill to permit building upon the Hampstead estate, against the will of the late proprietor, been thrown
out; and the favourite Heath is preserved from encroachments upon its outposts. We agree with the Times, however, in thinking that the time has come for closing this vexatious contest. The interests of both parties would be promoted by a final conclu- sion. It is now admitted, that notwithstanding the celebrity of Hampstead as a place of favourite Cockney resort, it is really an ornament within the Metropolitan circle such as few capitals in the world can boast ; it is public land which ought not to be lost to the public. Hampstead is associated with many memories, be- sides the love of the humbler classes for it; though that also is not to be despised. It was one of the Holland family whose in- tercession preserved for the public a group of trees near "Tbe Spaniards" tavern, and almost opposite that still nobler group of pines which ought not to be destroyed. It is, the determination to preserve the real Heath that induces the people of Hampstead and their allies to prevent the Wilson family from building on out- Vine parts of the land which are not really within the common, and which would probably be rendered more valuable if the preserva- tion of the Heath were rendered certain. If the Wilson family should sustain any loss by the extinction of their manorial rights over the common, the redemption of that loss would be to the Metropolis worth its proper market value ; and by a prompt settle- ment of the feud any substantial inconvenience to the famll3r might be terminated, as well as the public apprehension in regard to the Heath.
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