English News.

Clutha Leader, Volume III, Issue 131, 12 January 1877, Page 7

English Ne ws.

The Austria!. Government are about to build an Embassy- house in London.

The amount of the last Hospital Saturday Fund collection in London was £5450.

A meeting at Ashton-under-Lvne adopted resolutions in favour of the Permissive Bill.

I'he Argus is- the name of what promises to be a high-class weekly, published in Liverpool. The Tanndtan and other British Colonies have received 721 awards at the Philadelphia Exhibition.

Signor Gavazzi is at present in Liverpool lecturing nnd preaching on behalf ofthe Free Italian Church.

The first edition of the life of the Prince Consort has been sold out, and a second edition is now ready.

The New* 1 vendor announces the Dairyman, a monthly trade journal for cowkeepers, milk-vendors, and dairy-farm-ers.

According to the Illustrite Zeitung, b Zurich printer has started a printingoffice in which the compositors are women.

Of Chamba, one of the Punjab hill States, with a ponulation of 130,000, it is stated that there was not a single case of violent crime in 1874.

The banns of marriage have been published in Paris between the Mar •guis de Pregalec, aged 85 years, and Mdlle. Valentine Herbert, aged 17.

It is announced from Rome thai all the Foreign Cardinals are shortly expected there to deliberate upon " certain important propositions put forward by the Congregation." The Goldsmiths' Company of London, hove resolved that £1000 be given to the Chemical Society to aid in the for•mation of a fund, to which £1000 has -already been promised, for the promotion -of -original research in chemistry.

The dog* census in Paris makes known that taxes are paid on 112,000 of those nnimals. It i*s computed that there are least 40,000 dogs unpaid for, making a total of over 150,000 -dogs in that ■citv — one to«verv dozen inhabitants.

Ex-Queen Isabella took luncheon at the Palace -at Madrid on Saturday, and held a reception of the Ministers and public authorities Her .Majesty was received with respect in the streets of Manrid.

It is proposed to establish a regular •carrier-pigeon communication through--out the county of Suffolk for police purposes, the headquarters to be nt Ipstvich, and the birds to be used by isolated houses, detectives, outposts, See.

I'he idea of boulevards for London* is ■warmly supported by the Foresters, and they have succeeded by their great in■fiuence in getting trees panted along tbe BoTough Road, and hope soon to -extend the forest to the i lack friars -Road, and so on to the West End.

Moody and Sankey are carrying on 'their mission work in the United States •with all the usual signs of excitement. As many as 15,000 persons have been turned away at one time for lack of room. They are going to visit all the principal Western cities in the States, The Neve Freie Presse announces that the Crown Prince -of Germany has made his debut as an author. Under the title "Meine Reise nach dem Mor■genlande im Jahre, 18fi9," the Prince described the incidents of bis visit to to the East. The present edition is limited to forty copies. The book is in -quarto, and consists nf about 150 pages.

5200 books were issued in Russia during the years 1873 and 1774. Ot these, 679 were theological, 322 legal, 113 agtfcultural, 247 geographical, 195 mathematical, 135 military, 34 scientifi, 224 medical, 438 philosophical, 94 artistic, while 1851 treated of lighter literature, and 447 were translations of foreign belles leltres.

The return of Metropolitan pauperism for the first week of October shows that the total number of paupers was 78,306, of whom 35,569 were in the workhouses, and 42,737 received outdoor relief. These figures show a considerable decrease of paupers as compared with the number during the corresponding period of the three preceeding years. The Punjaub may boast of containing the smallest pony in the world, if the following, as published in the Lahore paper, is true :— " His Highness the Nawab of Loharoo sent a remarkably dimininutive Nepauii pony, which is only eight inches high, as a present to the Young M aharajah of Puttiaia. The pony is a perfect miniatureof a thoroughbred horse, and is highly valued by the natives." The Morning Post hears that Mr Tal Prinsep is commissioned to proceed to India to paint a great historical picture of the proclamation of the Empire at Delhi. It is stated that the artist, is to receive £5000 for his work and £1000 for expenses. From his family •connection with India, and from distinguished artistic talents, we have no doubt Mr Prinsep will be enabled to embody on canvas a worthy representation of this unparalleled ceremony. Ths New York Belting and Packing Company have recently made a rubber belt, 331 ft. long and 4ft. wide, weighing two tons, for use in the New York Central and Hudson Railroad Company's elevator at the foot of 60th Street, North River, New York. The driving power to be, carried by this belt is estimated at 500 horses. It is believed to W ths largest belt evetf made.

There are '3388 prisoners in New Caledonia including 20 females. The population of Birmingham is 290,000, or one-tenth that of London.

The number of German newspapers published in the United States is over 300.

Two steamers have arrived in the Mersey from Canada with 1139 live sheep on board.

The army plates of the Inflexible and Alexandra, two of our recent ironclads, are about 22 inches.

Bismarck, remarks an Irish critic, pursues his rival. Count Arnim, with the perseverance of a bloodhound.

The guardians of the Cork Union have resolved to borrow £10,000 for the construction of new buildings.

Mr Charles M'Farel, D.L., J.P., of Magheramorne, county Antrim, has, it is believed, left two and a half millions sterling. The longest railway tunnel in England is the Stand Edge, on the London and North- Western, towards Huddersfield, which is three miles and 60 yards in length.

Sir Thomas Sutton Westpm has offered to purchase Temple Bar from the Corporation, he wishing to have it as an entrance lodge to his estate of Kilvedon, Essex.

Mr Scrivenor, the new director of Customs in Egypt, was offered a handsome inducement to forsake the service ofthe Queen for that of the Khedive. His salary is £3000 a-yehv.

The John Bull understands that Lady Roile has authorised her solicitor to pay over her munificent gift to the Cornish Bishopric Fund of £40,000 to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

An exhibition of no less than 900 of the best specimens of dogs was Opened at Brighton, under a very influential committee. The Prince and Princess of Wales and Prince Leopold are amongst the largest exhibitors.

Another miracle is announced from Lourdes. This time n man who had been deaf and dumb for the last 24 years, and was besides paralysed, is as well as ever he was again, thanks to the wonder-working waters cf the sacred grotto.

The Parisians propose to establish a modern Babel in connfetion with their great exhibition of 1878. The principal clubs of the capital have appointed delegates to arrange for an international rendezvous, to be called the Cercle Universel, where people of every tongue and nation may congregate for conversation.

The attention of the public analysts has been called by Mr R. Tatlock to the dangers attendant on the use of enamelled cooking vessels. He has, states the English Mechanic, made experiments on the enamels as found in commerce, with the result of obtaining a " fatal dose" of arsenic from one ounce of the enamel of a cooking utensil.

The New York papers publish a despatch from Salt Lake City, which states that Judge Boreman passed sensence upon John D. Lee, the Mormon " bishop" who was recently convicted of participation in the Mountain Meadow massacre, 19 years ago. The prisoner has the right, under the laws of the territory, to choose death by hanging, shooting, or beheading, and, having chosen to be shot, he was sentenced to be shot to death on January 2G, 1877.

Replying to the question raised by some Sheffield gentlemen as to whether the removal of a Sheffield steel business to America is legitimate use of English capital, Mr Gladstone says : — "The removal, however much to be regretted, is made in the exercise of a legal power to which he has no title to interfere. Retaliatory duties*, such as they suggest, are plausible in appearance, but he believes them to be condemned by all the great authorities of the present and past generations." General Garibaldi has written a letter to the Paris Radical Press. Though no admirer of the knout, he has longed to see a few hundred thousand Russians at Constantinople to put an end to the Ottoman " abomination," and he thinks every man with a sentiment of humanity ought to wish to see the Empire ofthe Crescent driven back to its cradle, Tartary. 'I'he General directs his wrath mainly to Austria, which, to seem " a little less odious and abominable," assumes the title of Aus-tria-Hungary; and he hints broadly to the natives of the Trentino that next March is a suitable time for them to commence operations against their oppressors. A peculiar process of hatching eggs, an American contemporary tells us, is adopted in China. The eggs are placed in tiers in large baskets, twice the size of an ordinary barrel, thickly lined with bay,, and carefully closed from the air by a tight-fitting cover of twisted straws. In three days' time the eggs are taken out and replaced in different order, those, at the surface being put in the lowest tier. This is repeated every third day for a fortnight, when the eggs are removed from the basket and placed on a shelf in another room, being carefully covered with bran. In a day or two the chicken chips the shell and makes its appearance in the world. The success of the method is attributed to the fact that the animal heat ofthe eggs being retained by; the basket, which is formed of materials not conducting caloric, is sufficient to support animal life and foster its development. | —Graphic. . -

The Empress Eugenic and Prince Louis Napoleon have arrived at Florence. Liverpool is compelled to erect an addional lunatic asylum, because thenumber of insane has doubled within ten years ft is' estimated that within the last 25 years no less than 400,000 panes of glass have been destroyed in London by thunderstorms. They don't call him Earl, or Lord, or any such thing*, though he has received a title. It is simply plain Disraeli, or. Dizzy, the same as ever. A recent sale of Rembrandt etching's in London brought 22,000 dollars — almost lUOO dols. apiece for little pieces of paper — few of them larger than a man's hand. A thief in a tobacconist's shop in Greenock left his false teeth lying* on the counter in his night raid for cigars, pipes, and tobacco. The plate was given to the police and the thief arrested. At the Liverpool police court, two women, named Wilkinson and Jones, have been sent for trial at the sessions, charged with child stripping. They had stolen clothes from no fewer than 16 children. King Alfonso's favourite diversions are riding and hunting. He is fond of English and French literary and historical works, and is often present at , the drill of his soldiers befora six o'clock in the morning. It has been, said that property nnd goods, &c, to the amount of L I OO, OOO are annually destroyed or damaged in this country by rats. A prosperous farmer in Berkshire declares that his rats cost him some L7O per annum. Mr Scott, an iron merchant of Edinburgh, having received an order for 400 tons of iron girders for the new station being erected in Glasgow, is having the girders manufactured in Belgium, and delivered in. Glasgow at considerably less cost than he can have them made in England. The death is announced of Mr Samuel May, the well-known theatrical costumier, his name is well known all over the United States, aDd his enterprise has made it possible to illustrate the British drama in places where otherwise it would have been difficult * to combine limited, means with credit- '. able appearances. * At a greai meeting of Good Templars i belong to Warwickshire and the adjacent counties, held in Birmingham, 1 Mr Malms, G.W.C.T., made an elaborate defence of the British representa- I lives on the question of the admission < of the negro race to the order in i America j and a resolution was enthu- i siastically adopted affirming the position ' taken by Mr Malms, and pledging* un- < ahated confidence in him. Mr Spurgeon, declining to attend an attrocity meeting at Kensington, writes: - — " There is no need for me to speak further, as my views are well known. If I could speak thunderbolts and glance lightning, I would exercise my fullest powers of oratory against the monsters i who have made Bulgaria a pandemonium. This Turkish Demon must come to an end by its own hideousness. England is aroused, and will have no more ofit." Mr Loftus Brock, one of the secretaries of the British Archaeological Association, writes to The Times to report the discovery of another fragment of the Roman wall of London. Five houses — Nos. 28 to 32 Camomile-street, close to the junction of the latter with Bisbopsgate-street — have recently been taken down for rebuilding, and the works of excavation have revealed a length, of about 36ft. of the ancient wall and a bastion. The wall is fully 9/'t. thick. The bastion projects on the northern side, and is rather more than a semicircle, and is solid. Jt measures abontl6ft. across. The heights vary from 2ft. to about 4ft. 6in., and the whole mass has been met with about 10ft. below the present level of Camo-mile-street. The British Trade Journal says :— • Some interest attaches to a parcel of muffs, collarettes, cuffs, &c, now lying in the Billiter-street warehouse of' the West India Dock Company, it being, so far as we can discover, the first importation of such goods from JVew Zealand. The skins of her aquatic birds, such as albatross, black swan, gannet, crested shag, paradise drake, &c, make up into very handsome muffs, and the muffs referred to are tastefully lined and otherwise well finished. But they do not appear to have attracted much attention from dealers in articles of the kind, and when offered at auction by Messrs Hale and Son on the 18th ult, failed to elicit competition. The reserve prices placed on the muffs were, by common consent, too high— thebest - being marked 40s $ and this may be 1 taken to have greatly contributed to ■ the unsatisfactory result. We under*- ■ stand that sinilar parcels are on the way i from New Zealand, but from what -we I can hear, they will fall flat on this mari ket, like their predecessors, unless | 1 marked at more reasonable figures. It . appears that the bird-skins of whicli the i muffs are made are of a very greasy 1 nature, and hence require a good deal . of preparation before they can be used, i This fact may partly account for the b high value put on tne muffs by shippers ;, at the Antipodes, who will, however, - have to abate their demands if they t would successfully initiate a bpanoh of ;. trade which caunqt be 6aid ;to hold out promise of great development.

England has waged .49 wars since 1300 j France, 38; Russia, 22 j Austria, 12 ; and Prussia, 8

A lady hps taught her large Newfoundland dog ro hold up her train when she is crossing muddy or dusty streets.

The Gunpowder Plot anniversary was celebrated in Derry by the ringing of joy bells and the display of Orange colours.

An oyster thirteen inches long and seventeen inches through was (according to Forest and . Stream, October 5,) recently taken from the bed at Green Bay on the Massachusetts coast.

Prince Henry of Prussia, the second son of the German Crown Prince, and second grandson of the Quenn, has successfully passed the examination qualifying him for service in the German navy, Beer drinking* in India is going rapidly out of fashion, and only one person in six now takes ale at tiffin and dinner. Twenty or thirty years ago half-a-dozen of beer at tiffin was no unusual allowance for. a man.

Seriouß inundations are reported from France. At Perpignan the suburb of Notre-Dame has been evacuated by its inhabitants, and - fresh disasters are feared. In tbe little town of St Laurent, near Perpignan, 200 houses are submerged, and the townspeople are in great distress, heavy rain still falling. Cremation is the metho i adopted for the disposal of the dead bodies of Brahmins. No Hindoo, however inferior his cast, is buried, unless his friends are too poor to afford to purchase fuel to burn his dead body. The ashes, &o. t of the funeral pile are usually consigned to some sacred stream.

The anniversary ofthe famous charge of the Light Brigade was celebrated by a dinner in London. It has been arranged; that in future only men who were actually engaged in the terrible Balaclava charge are to be admitted to the membership of the dining club. During the past year six of the heroes have died.

The Rev. John Hall, who has been on a vjsit to Ireland, has returned to the United States, and reports a remarkable change in the prosperity of the country within a few years. He says that wages are nearly as good in Ireland as in America, and the people can live there almost as well as in any other country. There seems some likelihood ofa nice little quarrel between the Pope and the French GoverntyeDt. His Holiness has recently seen fit to order the division ofthe Archbishopric of Lyons without asking tho assent of the Govern* ment, and a decree, has in consequence been issued forbidding the carrying out of this arrangement.

An enquiry has been opened at Halifax by Mr E. J. Smith, Crown Recteiver, into the revenues of the Halifax Vicarage. The prospective value of the vicarage was estimated at £4244 8s Id. Mr Mills, who appeared for the Anti-Vicar Rate Union,, suggested that the rate of £865 10s 7d levied on houses should be abolished, as recommended by the Select Committee.

We have already nearly all our telegraph and post-offices entirely in the hands of young ladies, and beyond keeping one waiting a minute or two occasionally while finishing a gossip, they seem to manage very well. W e are now expecting to have them in the booking-offices of our railway?. The Great Eastern has already some in their employ, and the Great Northern have tbe matter under their consideration.

Tn Sweden there are 121 printing offices, in 76 localities. They employ 676 male compositors, 159 female compositors, and 468 apprentices ; 165 pressmen, 30 female feeders, and 259 machine boys. In 95 offices there were 216 presses and 202 machines. Stockholm has 29 offices, with 135 machines. Of the total number of machines, 86 were of Danish make, 65 German, 19 Swedish, 14 French, and 11 English. Of the presses, 112 were manufactured in Sweden, and 34 in Denmark.

The Society of Engineers publishes the following details of the preliminary works for the tunnel under the Channel: — "The year 1875 Was profitably employed, theoutlavamounted t061,000f., half of which, or 30,000 f., had been expended in geological researches at the end of December. This year the surveys have continued on a larger scale. In 187,5, 1522 soundings were taken, of which 753 brought up specimens of the bottom of the sea." The soundings have been continued this year on the English side ofthe Channel. Greater progress in the formation of the company has been made in France than in England. The 2,000,000 f. required for the preliminary surveys have not yet been raised.

The depravity of the rising generation is tenible, Only ' lately we heard of boys twelve and thirteen -fighting duels about their school squabbles, and now we have an assassin who numbers only five summers I Bellot (Seine et Marne) is* the town which claims this infant prodigy. It appears that he had a little brother three weeks old,, who (to his thinking) had put his nose out of, joint. In addition, he was forced to pass a . great portion of his time in rocking the cradle ; so, to render any further rocking unnecessary, this juvenile (""Jain deliberately smothered his, brother. He has since declared that he attempted to kilt; the* obnoxious baby j fori* or five times, btit hfld; been Unsuccessful,

It has been decided to bold an industrial exhibition in Norwich next \etr.

The native Christians of Travancore, in South- India, have recently started a journal of their own, called the Travancore Times. '

The carbonized skeletons of two men have lately been unearthed at Pompeii. . Among the things fotind near by were eight rings*, six pieces of money, two pairs of earrings, two large armlets., each ornamented with thirteen pieces of half-globes, and 332 pieces of silver money. It is reported that a clergyman of the Church of England, the Rev. George Bartle, is about to publish a work, the contents of which promise to be as remarkable as the title. The book is to be called " Jesus of Nazareth, neither baptised nor slain by Jew or Gentile."

Dr Nix, in the Church Review, discovers that the music of the Moody and Sankey melodies is derived from the ballads of forty years ago. No objection. It was quite in order ior Moody and Sankey to convert the music as well as the singers. —^iew York Christian Union.

The first edition of" Burns' Poems/ Kilmarnock, 1786, with an autograph elegy of the poet prefixed, sold for £38 10s in London recently. At this same sale a copy of " Halliwell's Shakeapeare," 16 volumes folio (150 copies only printed), changed hands at the low price of £51. The death is reported in the Gaulois of a certain ancient parrot, who for the last 125 years has occupied the same perch in the Jardin des Plantes. He was the doyes of the parrots, and of late years was never known to utter a sound excepting* when the guardian made him wait for his breakfast, when he would exhibit the greatest rage.

Typhus fever is raging in Paris in rather an unpleasant manner. Some idea of the prevalence of the epidemic may be gathered from the fact that at the Charite Hospital one day recently, out of about 600 beds, 105 were filled with cases of typhus fever. Dr Decaiap.e states in the ' France* that the epidemic has not been so prevalent in the French capital for many a year.

The tunnel through the San Fernando Mountains has ju&t been completed, and is worthy of notice, and it is by far the largest on the Pacific coast. Its length is 6966 feet, while the longest tunnel on tbe Central Pari* fie Railroad, in crossing the Sierra, is not more than 1200 feet. From the character of the rock and the enormous pressure upon the timhers placed as supports, the tunnel will have to be lined with strong masonry throughout.

In a recent address by Sir George Campbell, M.P., to his constituents at Kircaldy, Fifeshire, he deplored the scandalous neglect of Scottish business in tbe House of Commons, and said he saw nothing" for Scotch members, if they were determined to remedy this grievance, but to unite together and make themselves troublesome — yea, even obstructive — to the Ministry. A portion of the Scottish Press suggests the propriety of agitating fbr a Parliament for Scotland, to sit in Edinburgh, or, in other words, Home Rule, for which Ireland has been long contending. A remarkable case of longevity, says the British Medical Journal, is reported in Virchow's " Archives," by Dr Orrstein, of Athens. The man, George Stravarides, died in Smyrna, at the age of 132 years. Although this Methuselah had always lived an irregular life, and had consumed an average of more than a hundred drachms of brandy daily, he retained full possession of ail his five senses, as also a complete set of teeth, up to the moment of his death. He also continued to the last to attend to the duties of his avocation— a baker. This man was born in 1743, in the reign of Mahommed L, and lived during the reign of nine Sultans. A horrible story is abroad concern* ing Mr Samuel Lester, of Shelter Island, who recently suddenly died, as was supposed at Norwich, and whose body was taken home for interment. It is to the effect that the person employed to fill the grave, while doing so heard strange noises corning from the coffin, as of a man trying to break his way out. The report continues that the man superstitiously jfied, to return soon after and hear the noises repeated $ that he finally filled up the grave, but said nothing concerning what he had heard until some days after. The coffin was after a while exhumed, and it was found that the .man had been buried alive, tbe evidences of a struggle for release from his awful fate being painfully apparent.— New Haven Palladium, September 19.

The s.s. Oriental w;as in the cyclone at 11.30 a.m. on Saturday, the 7th October, about 100 miles off Calingapatam. She passed right through the cyclone, and when in its centre experienced a perfect calm. Quite a number of birds and butterflies took refuge on the vessel when in the middle of the cyclone, and were so exhausted that, they suffered themselves to be caught by* the hand. The steamer lost three of* their boats, while two of the crew nearly lost their lives. On emerging from the centre, and passing through the storm ring, 1 the gale was terific The, direction of_ the cj'cldnc is supposed to have been , from; east to west. The period occupied by the vessel, in in passings through it Was about four 1 a half hours.-^Examiner. ;