English News.

Clutha Leader, Volume III, Issue 151, 1 June 1877, Page 7

English News.

Metz is to be reinforced by several thousand German troops. A Toronto butcher has been arrested for selling horse flesh as beef. Dr Cumming states that the return of the Jews to Palestine is not remote. Pnnce Charles of Hesse, father of the Queen's son-in-law, Prince Louis, is dead. A statue of Brunei, the famous enginnepr, is to be placed on the Thames Embankment. The Prince Imperial, it is rumoured, is about to issue a manifesto to the French people. The Prince of Wales has been appointed Captain of the Royal Naval Heserve Forces. In stature the Scotch average more than one inch and a-half over that of the average Englishman. The curfew bell has been rung 1 at Stratford-on-Avon after having been silent about twelve months. The consumption of beer in England last year was 35 1-10 gallons per head. In 1866 it was 29 2-10 gallons. - The Russian Government announces the discovery of valuable silver deposits in several islands of the White Sea. Two hundred and twenty-four more Communists have had their sentences remitted or commuted by Marshal MacAlahon. A man named Summershall, supposed to be insane, cut off the head of a little girl at Preston on Sunday night <( to save her soul." Among the recent deaths from smallpox in Marylebone, was a young lady aged 22, who, though the daughter of a doctor, was unvaccinated. A memorial from the principal employers of labour in Dumbarton, for the abolition of Fast Days, has been submitted to the Established and Free Church Sessions. A large grocery establishment at Bride-street, Dublin, fell in recently, burying in the ruins seven men who were working on the premises. Four were taken out alive and one dead. A little girl of twelve recently drowned herself at Besseges, France, because her mother scolded her several days for giving the cat a sausage. The child told a playmate that if she heard anything more about wilful waste she would commit suicide, and kept her word. Lord Walter Campbell, younger brother of the Marquis of Lome, has just been presented (says the London correspondent of the Manchester Courier) by his lady with a son and heir. Lord Walter married a lady of humble birth, who thus, however, became the sister-in-law of a princess. The Lord Chamberlain i^ to be congratulated on his energy rather than on the measure of success which has attended his efforts to discover a means of protecting playgoers from the dangers of fire in a theatre. The outcome of much deliberation would seem to be a resolve to insist on stone stairs. In charging the Grand Jury at Liverpool Assizes, Baron Huddleston said he found, as indeed did every person who occupied the position he did, that almost all the crimes that disgraced our country were attributable to the fatal propensity of drink — a propensity which was unfortunately increasing in a manner altogether appalling. Under all the circumstaHces he did not think he was exaggerating the importance of careful investigation of this great crime by those whose duty it was to set the legislation in motion, and by the Legislature to take steps for its prevention. The Bristol Post reports that at the Bridgend Petty Sessions, the Rev. Rees Prichard, vicar of Llandyvodgw, Glamorganshire, appeared in answer to an adjourned summons charging him with having used profane language, and also with assault. Evidence was given to the effect that the rev. defendant, during an altercation in a railway carriage, spoke profanely six times j and the bench inflicted upon him the penalty — imposed by an old statute — of os per curse. The charge of assault was dismissed. It was pointed out during the hearing of the case that the statute imposes 5s for every oath if the guilty person be in the condition of a gentleman, and 2s in the case of persons of low degree. There has recently been produced in pamphlet form a very interesting and instructing paper by Mr John Stott, manager of the Scottish Amicable Life Assurance Society, on " The M ortality among Publicans and other Persons engaged in the Sale of Intoxicating Liquors," being 1 the experience of the society named from 1826 till 1876. As the result of careful and scientific investigation, given in various tables, Mr Stott shows that "the publican class is ■undoubtedly the lowest in the scale of vitality, and consequently the most disadvantageously placed in relation to the "value of life," the mortality being "just about 50 per cent, above that of' the English Life Table, or the general male population of England above the age of 15." An extra rate of premium, amounting to 19s per cent, per annum, is necessary to cover the extra risk attaching to this class, and Mr Stott mentions that for a number of years past the Scottish Amicable has b«en in the habit of imposing an extra £1 'per cent, per annum in all such cases. The pamplilet is well deserving attention by all interested in this important subject.

A girl has died in Edinburgh, it is supposed, fromeatiugsweets poisonously coloured. The Chinese in the United States numher 108 000. Tlu-y all come from Hong- Kong, An Irish bookseller's catalogue reads: "Memoirs of Charles 1., with a head capitally executed." Washing-ton's body is said to have become petrified in its sarcophagus at Mount Vernon, Pennsylvania. The death of Julius Otto, the composerof more than eight hundred works, motets, choruses, and lieder, is announced. Col. Gzowski, of Toronto, is said to have made the offer to take the next Wimbledon learn to England at his own expense. Owing- to the increase of drunkenness in York, Saturday night inebriates are not to be bailed out, but kept m custody until Monday. The Emperor of Germany wears eighty- eight decorations on gala-days. This beats Menier, the chocolate maker, who has only sixtj'-one. Miss Lizzie Anderson, daughter of the late Professor Anderson, the Wizard of the North, is at present performingto good houses in Rome. The Bishop of Exeter says it isn't fair that when all other tradesmen have to close on Sundays the publicans should be allowed to keep open. New York is not a little annoyed at being* converted into a divorce court for English people, who, by R'oins' over mere, ana residing for a certain space of time, are enabled to obtain the desired decree. The quarrymen and miners of parts of Germany are in the habit of spreading on their bread a fine unctuous clay found in the crevices of the rock, which they call "stone butter," and eat with apparent relish. The horn of a deer in a perfect state of preservation has been found in the Camperdown Linen Works, Lochee, embedded in the centre of a sycamore tree. This curiosity has been presented to the Dundee Museum. The British Medical Journal says a report from Dr Stevenson, the medical officer for Islington, on a recent outbreak of typhoid fever in thut parish, regards the outbreak as clearly due to typhoid infection of the milk sold. Great floods have occurred at Bagdad, owing to the overflow of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. All communications are suspended, and great fears are entertained of malignant fevers and other diseases after the subsiding* oi' the floods. James Brown, alderman of Newport, Monmouthshire, and on three occasions mayor of the borough, was on Saturday committed for trial by the County Magistrates on a charge of fraudulently obtaining Ll5O from Mr Holtham, solicitor, of London. New York, March 24th.— The New York Times of to-day announces that the suit pending against Mr Tweed has been settled, it having been agreed that, Tweed having surrendered 250,000d015. to the New York municipality, he shall be released next Wednesday. In a case which came before the Clerkenwell Police Magistrate, it was proved that a man who had assaulted his wife had thrown at her a coffin containing the dead body of their child. The corpse fell out, and then he knocked her down upon it. He was sent to prison for four months with hard labour. Samuel Armstrong, a bookkeeper of Leicester, laid his head on the rails in front of an approaching train on the Leicester and Burton branch of the Midland Railway, and his head was immediately cut in two. In his pockei-, covered in blood, was found an addressed envelope, with the words, " Take care of my widow and orphans. Good-bye." The Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol writes : — " I have become definitely a total abstainer. I have not taken any pledge, but I am now just as settled in mv mind as if I had become ever so bound. I latterly took a little alcohol, but I find no difference between abstaining and non-abstaining ; still, as I may encourage some, I drop the alcohol altogether." The Jesuits are working hard to restore the dynasty of INapoleon, both | from hatred of the Republic and from | M. ii owner's promise to the Pope to reduce Italy to the status quo before 1870. Arrangements for this end have been secretely formed through Cardinal Chigi and the Jesuits with the Empress ' Eugenic and M. Rouher, countenanced, it is reported, by Prince Bismarck. Cook, the champion billiard-player, and Stanley, have had the honor of playing a game of 1000 up, at the Malborough Club, Pall Mall, in the presence j of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, the Prince Teck, and a numerous company of noblemen and gentlemen. The Prince expressed himself highly gratified with the fine play of both professionals, who, it is understood, have excepted invitations to repeat the entertainment at an early date. In order to facilitate the due observance of the Lenten Fast during the solemn session of Passion and Holy Week, says the Civilian, Mr Thomson has issued stringent rules respecting the curtailment of the luncheon time in the Savings Bank department. We hear he has received a commendatory letter from Cardinal Manning, but that Mr Whalley intends to ask the Postmaster-General to dispense with the services of the Jesuitical official.

An epidemic of stone-throwing has broken out among the London street 1 boys. Some Italian newspapers talk freely of suppressing the Senate altogether as an encumbrance and a bore. The work for improving the Tiber at Rome is to be immediately commenced with appliances from England. The hoUvSe and gardens formerly occupied by Goldsmith, are about be occupied by dwellings for the working 1 classes. The Roumanian peasant belongs to the " great unwashed," for it is supposed that but for baptism and an occasional shower, water would be unknown to him. At Liverpool Assizes a young man named Summer, weaver, 19 years of a^e, was sentenced to six months' hard labour for having committed bigamy at Preston. An English paper says : — A Scotch Sheriff may be described as a commissioner in bankruptcy, a county court judge, a stipendiary magistrate, a recorder, a revising barrister, and a coroner, rolled into one. The editor of a Berlin paper, Dr Wass, was, on Max-ch 14th, sentenced to three months' imprisonment for calling the triple alliance "a superannuated phenomenon," and applying to it other expressions which were held to constitute defamation of the Emperor. Prince William, of Prussia, who has recently entered upon his new duties as I a regimental officer in the Ist Foot Guards at Potsdam, has already, it is [ stated, conquered the hearts -of all his j comrades by his affable and amiable manners. He is exemplary in his attendance to his duties. He is an earty riser, and always among the first on the drill-ground. On duty he is assiduous and conscientious; off duty he divides his time between scientific studies and friendly intercourse with his comrades. Fifty or sixty people were crushed to death at the religious fair or mela held at Ajoodija, near Fyzabad. The crowd of Hindoo pilgrims from all parts of India was enormous, exceeding half a million. Owing to a rare conjunction of the planets, which occurrs but once in seventy years, this festival was of peculiar sanctity. Many thousands of people were conveyed by the Oudh and Rohikund Railway to the bathing place, and many thousands more failed to get there owing to wani of accommodation in the overcrowding trains. — Bombay Gazette. Baroness Meyer Rothschild, who recently died at Nice, had a singular fancy that she conld only breathe freely at sea. She ordered a yacht of SOO tons to be built for her, As it was not ready to convey her to the Mediterranean, she hired a Cunard steamer, and steamed round Spain to Nice. On landing-, she wished again to go on board. an;l sent for a steamer of the Messageries Imperiales from Marseilles, which she caused to be stationed in the harbour of Nice. Before her death, her yacht had arrived, and she died on board of it. Baroness Meyer leaves one daughter, who is the richest heiress in the world. I hear a commendable story of the Pope. The other day, at one of his Holiness's audiences, a lady poured into his ear a pitiful story of poverty and want. iC Commit your story to paper," said the Pope, and passed on. A few steps further down the circle was a devotee armed with a large bag 1 of gold, which he bestowed with much enthusiasm on the Vicar Apostolic. The latter instantly returned to the indigent female, and poured the whole offering into her hands, observing quietly, " Providence always supplies . the wants of the faithful." Everyone seemed delighted save the devotee, who, willing to minister to the needs of a Pope, was by no means satisfied at seeing his charity transferred to a pauper. But this is human nature, — Vanity Fair. There seems to be " quite a run " on in r ant prodigies, as Caleb Plummer w< uld say. The latest phenomenon is a child with two stomachs, of whom the following account is given in the " Orchestra " : — The wife of Thomas Hood, machine-maker, Peter's court, has given birth to a boy, who is declared by the unanimous opinion of the Dundee doctors to be endowed by nature with two stomachs. The two organs with which this marvellous infant is furnished are each of the greatest capacity for so immature a person ; and though he is only 12 days old, he has already made it clear to his parents and other near friends that he will reqtiire the nutriment of two ordinary children. His two organs, that are packed one over the other like the two kernels of a Phillippine nut, must be filled ; and it takes a deal to fill them. The worthy machine-maker of Dundee will therefore have to provide for this one child enough food for the sustenance of two ordinary boys, Against the inconvenience of providing food for twins for a single baby, th& father may set the eclat of being the parent or such a prodigy, though it is possible that his fame may be short-lived. What we deprecate is his giving his own name to the youth with the two scomaehs, for if the latter should grow to man's estate, what Epicurean delights are in store for him, and where will be the shadow of the brilliant and kind- hearted humourist, in the presence of a Tern Hood who has passed through -this vale cf ( tears with two stomachs.

From 80,000 to 100,000 horns were weekly used in Aberdeen for combmaking until the importation of cattle was prohibited. The stoppage of supply has caused great stagnation. Mr Valentine Baker's plans for the defence of Constantinople are being elaborated to the minutest detail. The Russians, to whom the outline of the scheme is no secret, admit that Mr Baker has proved himself a master of the art of fortification. — Court Journal. At the Leeds Assizes two women, named Mary Burke and Bridget Hattersley, were sentenced, the latter to eighteen months' and the former twelve months' imprisonment, for a robbery with violence, in Sheffield, on the Ist January. The victim was an old man nearly seventy years of age. An English paper has the following : — "The Sultan is the husband of one wife, and the Sultana is credibly reported to be a Belgian, very pretty, very clever, and once a pupil of Madame Elise. It is not the first time that a Western woman has held the Padishah in sway. The Sultan, who is somewhat of an ingenious youth, is reported to have inquired of his wife if she had ever met Lady Salisbui'y. l She was not of my set/ was the reply." Among the gifts presented to the Emperor William on his birthday there was an engraving by Prince Henry and a book bound by Prince Waldmar, the two youngest sons of the Crown Prince. Under the thrifty habits of the dynasty, each of its princes, it is well known, m order to become acquainted with the popular aspect of life, has to learn a craft. His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince is a compositor, and the German Emperor is a glazier. Mr Gladstone, replying under date March 20 to a Liberal gentleman at Wolverhampton, who had written to him upon the abolition of capital punishment, says :— " The subject of capital punishment is not one which I am disposed, individually, to stir, or even at the present time to examine. It seems to me that other public duties are far more urgently inoumbpnt upon the nation and on myself — for example, to labour that capital punishment and other much worse outrages be no longer, through or with our connivance, inflicted from day to day on the innocent sufferers subjected to the yoke of Turkey." The Musical Times says an unexpected testimony to the value of the system of sol-fa notation has been recently added to the many so constantly circulated by the partisans of the cause. It appears that the Key. Jonathan Lees, of the London Mission. Tientsin, North China, has sent, Mr Sankey twenty of the well-known songs, the words translated into Chinese, and the music of them printed in the Chinese version of the tonic sol-fa notatton He affirms' that these pieces "have already proved their fitness to deepen and cheer the Christian life in a most pleasant way," and that the Tientsin Church bids fair to be a musical one. There is at present living- at Saltbtirn-by-the-Sea, an old man named James Norris, who is in his 103 rd year He was. born at Corslmm, in Wiltshire, in the year 1775, and is now residing 1 with a daughter of his third wife. On the occasion of his 102 nd birthday, several gentlemen paid a visit to fclie brickyard of Mr John Hutton, Hob Hill, Saltburn-by-the-Sea, for the purpose of seeing him at work. He appeared to be in good health, but the water was rather cold for him. Notwithstanding this, he managed to load and wheel a barrow on which were 23 unbaked bricks, the weight of which, without barrow, was 2001 b. ' Norris has three daughters liring-, one of whom is over 80 years of age. A barber named Felix Adolphe, who cut his throat in the Rue Saint Honore, ! has, according to the papers, left behind him a letter which is curious enough to reproduce. Here it is : — I loved, hoped, and believed. To-day I doubt, despair, and hate. My heart has been killed ; let my body be so likewise. I exercise the only liberty that God has given to man, and that society cannot deprive him of, viz., that of destroying himself. I was born with a taste for j literature, and my parents made me a | barber. I was married to a good and ' handsome woman, but jealous fate deprived me of her. Accursed be the i man, accursed be the earth. I deliver my body to the worms, my hatred to the infernal spirits, and expire !" — Paris Correspondent. Rumours as well as hints would appear to show that " heresy " no longer ruins, but pays in Scotland. The latest " heretic" — but one — in the Free Church, Mr Knight, has, mainly, it would seem, on account of the notoriety he has obtained, become a Professor of Moral Philosophy ; and Professor Robertson Smith, of Aberdeen, is likely, according to a statement in a provincial paper, at one and the same time, to have offered to him a Professorship of Mathematics and a Professorship of Hebrew. As for the Rev. Mr Macrae, a clergyman of the United Presbyterian Church, who not only says that he does not believe certain doctrines in the Westminster Confession of Faith, but that a great number of his colleagues are of the same mmd — he is the lion of the hour in Scotland ; wherever he goes " loud and prolonged cheers " greet him, and if he wei'e removed from his position a hundred posts would open to receive him. Verily tempora mutantur, — Examiner,