English News.

Clutha Leader, Volume III, Issue 152, 8 June 1877, Page 7

English News.

The Ringarooma, with the Suez mail, arrived at Port Chalmers on Sunday. The following is a general summary of the news under date 13th April : — General Grant is about leaving America to make a lengthened tour is Europe. Two thousand men are now employed night and day upon the Paris Exhibition building. The trial of the prisoners for the turf fraud, when they obtained £10,000 from the Countess De Foucourt, commenced yesterday. The Iris, the first steel man-of-war constructed for the British nay}', was successfully launched at Pembroke dockyard yesterday. Proposals in favour of fostering native industry in Canada have been defeated on two occasions recently, the majorities being 31 and 49. A large box filled with dynamite cartridges was found on Tuesday at New York in a cask of wine landed from the Hamburg Company's steamer Frisco. The London School Board are providing rooms for babies, in order that children may be able to attend school whose services are required to attend babies at home. Parliament reassembled after the Easter recess on the sth. On the 10th Mr P.A . Taylor's motion for the abolition of flogging in the navy was re- ; jected by 164 to 122. In consequence of the'tcommercial depression, the White Star, Cunard, Guion, and National. lines of steamers at Liverpool are for the next three months only to run fortnightly to America instead of weekly. A meeting held at Ottawa on the 10th instant adopted a memorial to the Canadian Senate requesting it to urge upon the Government the desirability of originating and pushing on public works to alleviate the present destitution.

The Japanese Government are engaged in an attempt to introduce sheep, with the view of converting the hills into pasture land. The editor of the Turkish Punch has 1 can sentenced to three years' iinpii>onment for the publication of a cartoon offensive to the Government. . ' The Rev. Malcolm M'Coll has published a pamplet entitled " The Eastern Question : Its Facts and Fallacies." It is warmly criticised by the Ministerial Press. An English firm has been successful in tendering for over 20,000 tons of < iron for America, in spite of the competition of the American manufacturers and the heavy import duties. Advices from Warsaw, Kieff, and Moscow, give deplorable accounts ofthe internal condition of Russia, and allege . that the Czar is driven to the alternative '. of foreign war or revolution at home. The revenue of the year ending 31st March was L 78,565,000, against L 77,131,693 for the preceding 12 months. The chief increase was in the : property and income-tax, £1,171,000. i The revenue exceeded the estimate by L 153,000. A dispute has arisen between the United States and Russia in consequence of the latter prohibiting American whalers from cruising in the sea of Ochotsk. Massachusetts merchants assert that this was the cause of the loss of half their fleet in 1876. i The ship Gareloch, lately arrived at i Liverpool from San Francisco, was boarded off Pitcairn Island by two boats, : the occupants of which stated that all were well on the Island, but the rats i had eaten all their crops of wheat, and they were badly in want of corn. i In the Irish Probate Court Judge : Warren has upset the verdict of the i Jury in the great Westmeath will case, when they decided that undue influence had been used to obtain the making of the will in favor of Lord Longford. The Judge's decision will ba appealed against. At the opening of a Free Christian Church in Birmingham, on the 2nd instant, Mr Chamberlain said he felt sure that the time was approaching when they would see the separation of Church and State. The Burial Bill would offend all the ratepayers of the country, and would not satisfy the dissenters. Extreme Finzel and Sons, of Bristol, owners of the largest sugar refinery in the world, have failed for half a million. They attribute the ruin of their trade to the French bounty system. Lord Derby has stated that the commission which recently sat at Paris prepared a draft convention fbr the abolition of the system, and the various Governments are now considering it A correspondence has been published between Mr Jas. Ashbury, M.P., and Mr Gladstone, relative to a statement mado by the former regarding the large profit alleged to have been made by the sale of the late Premier's pamphlet on '• Bulgarian Horrors." Mr Gladstone states that he has been an author for 40 years,' but all his gains during that period have not come near LIO, OOO. At a meeting of working men held in Hyde Park on Good Friday, Mr John De Morgan stated that an attempt would shortly be made to enclose a* portion of Hyde Park for the aristocracy. He added that he would have to go down to Richmond to pull down some fences which had been put up by the Duke of Cambridge, for they must teach even Royalty that no one should steal the land from the people. In an article which appeared in the Daily Telegraph a few days ago on the subject of acclimatisation, in which special reference was made to Mr [ Edward Wilson's efforts, it was stated tbat a couple of green and yellow Australian paroquets which made their escape two or three years back from a cage in the neighborhood of Lincoln's Inn Fields had bred and multiplied to such an extent as almost to drive the sparrows from that metropolitan oasis. The great walking match between O'Leary and Weston, for LIOOO, came off at the Agricultural Hall last week. It commenced directly after midnight on Sunday, April Ist, and was concluded late on the night of Saturday, the 7th. O'Leary had the advantage nearly throughout. Weston retired at 11 p.m., having walked 510 miles, whilst O'Leary accomplished 520 miles two laps. On Friday there was 30,000 people in the hall to see the competition. Colonel Steinberger, of Lamoan notoriety, is avenged. His enemy, Captain Stevens, of H. M.S. Barracouta, has been dismissed the service, not for any doings connected with the incidents at the Navigator's Island, but for other matters. The Court was of opinion that each of the eight charges was proved, and the sentence was that Captain Stevens be dismissed from Her Majesty's service. The first charge was that Captain Stevens asked Mr ; Gain, the paymaster ofthe Barracouta, for L3O out of the ship's chest, and requested him not to enter it in the cash account, after Commodore Goodenough | had refused an advance of LIOO to J meet the expenses of entertaining the Governor of Fiji and his suite. Other charges were that on June 16, 1876, he had made an application to the Commodore for a court-martial on Mr Gain on several charges, well knowing them to be false and vexatious, and that he had in other ways behaved towards Mr Gain in a harsh and unbecoming , manner.

Mr Walter, MP., proprietor ' of the Times, has been attacked and robbed by three men in Koine armed with stilettos. He was not injured. Several arrests have been made. It is supposed that several generals will shortly be gazetted asfeeld-marshals. The names are mentioned of Sir Wm. Codling ton, LordStrathnairn, and Lord Napier, of Magdala^ Her Majesty the Queen is in good health. She left Windsor for Osborne on the 28th March, and the Court will remain at the Isle of Weight until the early part of May, when the Queen will proceed to Balmoral. Active preparations are being made for commencing the works of draining the Zuyder Zee. The cost of reclamation will be nearly £1,000,000, but 500,000 acres will be added to Holland, estimated to be between £50 and £60 per acre. Every creditor of the Western Bank of Scotland, the liquidation of which commenced 19 years ago, has been paid in full with interest. The liabilities amounted to £6,134,000. Each shearholder has been paid £72 on every £125 share paid up. A motion brought forward by Sir Robert Anstruther to pay to the heirs of the Earl of Dundonald the arrears of half-pay due to him from the time of his trial until his restoration to the navy, was carried without a division, after a speech against it by Sir Thomas Northcote. Tyrannical acts are still reported from Turkey. The pupils of the military school at Constantinople having signed a petition for the recall of Midhat Pasha, they were summoned, and the writer of the petition ordered to receive 200 lashes. He died after receiving 100. - A report has been received at the Admiralty from Commander Long, of H.M.S. Fantome, giving a detailed description ot the measures carried out by order of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty for the improvement of the site of the monument erected in Kealakekua or Karakakoa Bay, in the island of Owhyee, to the memory of Captain Cook. The Admiralty, with the concurrence of the War Office, gave directions for 12 old 32-pounder guns, which were in store at Esquimalt, being conveyed to the Sandwich Islands, for the purpose of forming' a suitable fence. The monument is a plain obelisk of concrete, 27 feet in height, erected on the shore, and close to the spot where the great seaman fell. The expense of its erection was mainly borne by English subscribers interested iv the island, among whom were the late Lady Franklin, Rear- Admiral Richards, Mr Follett Synge, &c. The seaward base of the obelisk bears the following inscription : — " In memory of the great circumnavigator, Captain James Cook, R.N., who discovered these islands on 18th of January, 1778, and fell near this spot on 14th of February, 1779. This monument was erected in November, 1874, by some of his fellowcountrymen." The European Mail of April 13th, quoting apparently from one of the London medical journals, gives the following information regarding the health of the Pope : — v The medical history of the Pope during the days of last week when his condition roused such trepidation at the Vatican is, we have authority for stating, the following : — Having shown manifest symptoms of weakness as long ago as March 12th, when, in attempting to read the allocution, he broko down at the third paragraph and was unable to proceed, he was warned by his physicians to desist from all exertion or source of excitment whatever. He observed these injunctions with obvious advantage, till a few days ago, when, receiving some French priests, he suddenly gave a sharp cry, and complained of severe pain in the right leg. The prelates around him and the priests tried to induce him to withdraw to his apartments, and were sending for assistance, but he declined, and forbade any one being sent for until he had spoken to each of the French dignitaries in turn, and bade them farewell with his benediction. The effort, however, cost him much, and on regaining his apartments he had one of those epileptoid seizures which generally follow his exertions of mind and body when in pain. In bed he still complained of his right leg, but all anodyne treatment was withheld, as his pulse was extremely low. By the 22nd the pain had disappeared, but persistent insomnia and anorexia had left him so weak that his medical advisers had recourse to a restorative regimen, accompanied with the free use of Bordeaux. After keeping his bed for 60 hours consecutively, he rose, with the consent of his physicians, and has transacted some business every day since, though he has had to be carried to and from his apartments in a chair. The insomnia and general languor, however, have not yet been overcome, and the closest attention is paid to every symptom, so as to obviate any sudden failure of vitality, which might be followed by irremediable collapse."