EUROPEAN ITEMS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 843, 16 January 1883, Page 2

EUROPEAN ITEMS.

The people of Eastern Roumelia, which now forms a province of Turkey under a Christian Governor-General, are agitating for the formation of that province into an independent nation. It is now authoritatively denied that the envoys from the Queen of Madagascar were subjected to surveillance or treated as prisoners during their stay in Paris. It is reported that the wife of Archduke Rudolph, of Austria, has been threatened, and a gang of Italians have been arrested on a charge of conspiring to murder the Prince.

M. Leon Say, late French Minister of Finance, is prostrated by a severe : ’attack of the gout.

The Danube is still flooded, that river having inundated various towns upon its banks. Seventy persons hare perished by drowning since the flood commenced. An English agent having visited the Vatican and had several interviews with the Pope, asserted that he represented England in a semi-official way. Mir Gladstone, however, emphatically denied that the Government have in any way entered into communication with the Court of Rome. The matter has created great sensation in England, and Mr Gladstone’s denial is questioned in a good many quarters.

Amongst the troops ordered to return home from Egypt are the remaining batallions of the Highland and Iri. h brigades, and they are now under orders to start immediately. A fatal affray is reported to have occurred at Alexandria between some Turkish and Egyptian members of the police force. Several deaths resulted.