English News.

Clutha Leader, Volume IV, Issue 160, 3 August 1877, Page 7

English News.

The Ringarooma, with the Suez "mail, arrived at Port Chalmers on Sunday. The following are the chief items of intelligence: — London, June 8. Her Majesty is in good health at Balmoral. Intelligence reached the Admiralty thib week of an engagement having taken phjce off the Peruvian coast, between Her Majesty's ships Shah and Amethyst, and the Huesca, a turreted ram, built two years ago in England for Peru. Her crew had joined a revolutionary president, and committed piratical acts against British subjects. She was met with by two British ships off Ho on the 29th May, and engaged. She made her escape after dark, but was so damaged that she had to surrender to the Peruvian squadron. There was no casualties on the British side. Particulars of this affair are looked forward to with great interest, as it is the first instance in which any of the modern ironclads of Her Majesty's Government have been in action. A return just published shows that the grand total of militia, yeomanry, and efficient volunteers is at present 263,909, which gives a percentage of 6*36 of the male population between 15 and 35 years of age. The House of Commons met on the 31st May, after the holidays. Mr Sandford called attention to the omission in the " Blue Book" of any reference to Lord Salisbury's conversations with the Due Decazes and Prince Bismarck, and asked if it were true that Russia had proposed the localisation of the war. Mr Bourke said the conversations alluded to were entirely confidential, that no such proposals had been made by Russia, and that when the question of peace came to be discussed it was one that would concern Europe, and the European Powers would consider they had a right to share in the deliberations respecting the future. In reply to Lord Blcho, who wished for some assurance from the Government as to their preparedness to meet any emergency, Mr Secretary Hardy stated that while the army was main** tamed on a peace footing as the nucleus of a larger force for the purposes

of: war, he ha,d not lost sight of the necessity of being prepared for what he hoped was not a probable contingency. On Tuesday, the Sth, Mr Gourlay and Mr Ed. Jenkins endeavoured, unsuccessfully, to raise a discussion upon the neutralisation of the Suez Canal. . The Prisons Bill gave rise to many complaints from the Irish members as to the treatment to which the treason felony prisoners were alleged to be subjected. On the same day correspondence was laid before Parliament showing Lord Derby had communicated to the,jßussian Government that England would look upon any attempt to blockade or interfere with the Suez Canal as a menace to India and a grave injury to the commerce of the world, and that any such step would be incompatible with the maintenance by Her Majesty's Government of an attitude of passive neutrality. The Egyptian Government have prohibited the importation of Mr Gladstone's pamphlet on the Eastern Question. In the cricket match between North and South, at Prince's, on the Ist May, Mr W. G. Grace in the first innings of the South scored 252 runs, not out. The first yearling sale of the season took place at Middle Park on the Snd inst., when 45 lots realised 11,285 guineas, or an average of 273 guineas each. The highest price (for a bay colt by Hosicrucian) was 1500 guineas; At a meeting of the shareholders of the Suez Canal at Paris, great satisfaction was expressed at the determination of the British Government to prevent any interference with it at all hazards. The German papers state that a league is being formed in Russia for the rejection of all English products until England shall abandon her sympathy for Turkey. Italian papers announce the arrival at Rome of five cases of presents from Queen Victoria to the Pope. A serious robbery of securities, principally Egyptian bonds, was committed in the express train for Paris, between Calais and Boulogne, last Saturday morning. Scrip to the value of LIOO,OOO, forwarded from London, was stolen from the van under seal. Mr W. H. Hodgson, one of tho solicitors to the Treasury, was stuck up on the 28th May, at Blackheath, when returning in a closed carriage from Greenwich with his sister and niece. The robbers, who were masked, presented pistols at the heads -of the driver and Mr Hodgson, and compelled him to give up all the money he had about him. The same men have since attempted another robbery under arms near the same spot. The robbers were apparently of good address. On the following day Mr Stephenson, an auctioneer, returning from Keighiey, in Yorkshire, was stopped by five armed men between Burnley and Brierfield, who bound him hand and foot and left him on the ground, after robbing him of L 260, the proceeds of a sale. In neither case have the police obtained any clue to the offenders. Samuel Brown, a smack master, and his wife, at Lowestoft, are under remand, charged with murdering their three children by poison. Mr James Young, of Barnstown Castle, J.P. for Roscommon, was shot dead with a revolver in his own avenue, close to the town, on Saturday last. He was struck by three bullets. The murderer escaped, leaving his cap on the ground. Young was very popular, and no cause is assigned for tha murder. Temple Bey, nephew of the Bishop of Exeter, and physician to the Sultan, has been summarily ordered either to go to Batoum or quit the Sultan's service, for informing him that many of the shells fired by his troops on the Danube contained no powder. Lord Carnarvon entertained the Agents -General and a number of Colonial Governors now in England on the occasion of the celebration of Her Majesty's Birthday. An inquiry has been commenced before the Wreck Commissioner to consider the presumed loss of the Cairo, from London to Melbourne, and it has been adjourned for the evidence of mastors of vessels who saw wreckage supposed to belong to the Cairo near Tristan D'Acunha. A resolution in favour of disestablishment has been carried by 4GO to 78 votes at the meeting of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland. The Rev. Mr M'Conochie, and other well-known Ritualistic clergymen, have also pronounced in favour of disestablishment. Lord Ilaughton presided on the Ist inst, ut a meeting in St. James's Hall, in favour of Mr Jacob Bright's bill extending the Parliamentary franchise to women ratepayers. The Duke of Norfolk is stated to have offered an asylum in England to the deposed and exiled Bishops of PadI erborn and Ernland. | At the Miners' Conference held at Durham, Mr Macdonald, M.P., said the best cure for the present depression in the coal trade was to limit the production. A committee was appointed to make inquries relative to foreign competition, and to emigration as a means of relieving the labour market. A large gathering of Czechians was held on the Liska Mountain, near Prague, last Sunday, at which the Pope was burnt in effigy, together with

copies of his late a nti- Russian allocution. A number of the parties have been arrested and will be prosecuted,. The Lady Godiva pageant, after being in abeyance for seven years, was revived on Monday at Coventry. There were 70,000 visitors, and the affair wag> a £.r*-at success. In celebration of his jubilee, the Pope received 5000 pilgrims on Sunday, the 3rd inst. The same day Victor* Emanuel had a grand review, it being the anniversary of the declaration of Italian liberty. There are now on the Thames two gunboats which have been built for the Turkish Government. As they cannot leave our shores, they will, we are informed, probably pass into the hands of the British Government for, as the phrase goes, "a mere song." The ironclad built on the Thames for the Porte can, we believe, be removed, inasmuch as tho Turks were sharp enough to commission her before the war broke out, and international rules will allow sufficient coal to be taken on board to carry her to her first port. It is stated that many North American naval officers and engineers have gone to Russia to serve in the Russian navy. Passing through Germany, they stated that many more are coming, aud that a steamer with a cargo of torpedoes is en route from New York for St. Petersburg. At a reception at Liege during tho annual fete the King of the Belgians stated that in consequence of the very grave aspect of affairs in Europe laige sudsidies would have to be asked for the army. A correspondent of the Globe, in Russia, states that a commissariat officer at Odessa was discovered adulterating flour about to be sent to the army with lime and other substances. He was immediately tried, and shot within 24 hours after the discovery took place. The Government trust that this summary execution will put a stop to these practices, which caused so much suffering to the Russian soldiers durin«* the Crimean war. The Globe hears from a trustworthy source that tho Russians as yet havo no fish torpedoes on the Danube or in the Black Sea. The only kind hitherto despatched to the seat of war have been the pole torpedoes. Mr Stephens, late captain of the Barracouta. is not, it is said, altogether satisfied with the result of tbe recent court-martial. It was suggested, when a member asked that the proceedings of the Court might ba laid on the table of the House, that there was some suspicion of a flaw in the prosecution, and we believe that Mr Stevens is desirous of having the minutes submitted to tho law officers of the Crown, or some high legal functionary, in order that this question may he decided. The General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland was recently engaged for several hours in considering the case of Professor Smith, whose article on the Bible in the " Encyclopedia JBritannica" is said to have created great consternation in the Church and in the country. A motion lor the suspension of Mr Smith, who is one of the professors in the Aberdeen Theological Hall, was proposed. Professor Smith made a statement, in which ha expressed his willingness, considering the state of feeling in the Church, to undergo a trial, and intimated that he would apply to the next meeting of tho Presbytery to frame a libel against him. The result of a long debate was that, by a large majority, the motion to suspend the professor was adopted. INDIA AND THE 'EAST. Tho Messageries Maritimes mail steamer Meikong, from Galle to Marseilles, was totally wrecked off Cape Hafforn, South of Cape Guardapui, before entering the Gulf of Aden. No lives lost. The Meikong was 3600 tons and 500 h.p. The rebellion in Japan continues, and threatens to spread, although the Government are said to be pouring troops into the disaffected districts. Thousands are said to have perished fighting. The fortification of Aden is now undei* the cohsiderafion of the Government of India. It is reported that the Government hold 40,000 troops in readiness for shipment from Bombay, and several men-of-war in the Persian Gulf. Volunteer corps have been started in Bombay, as in Calcutta and Madras. The editor of the Mahimidin newspaper, Madras, has collected L 30,000 for the Turkish sick and wounded fund. The number of people engaged on the reliei* works at Bombay is now 370,000, and in the Madras Presidency 800,000. 'I'he famine distress is decreasing. OBITUARY. The Queen ofthe Netherlands, aged 59 ; Marshal Cabzera, 07 ; the Earl of Shrewsbury, 46; the Earl of Orkney, 74 ; Lord Erskine, 75 ; the Downier Marchioness of Lothian ; Mr Thomas Arnold, Metropolitan Police Magistrate, 74; Dr Horatio Powys, late Bishop of Sodor and Man ; Mr" Weeks, 8.A., 70; Sir J. S. Cowed Stepney, Bart.; M. Ernest Picard, French senator ; Sir J. P. Kay Shuttleworth, Bart., 73 ; Mr David Urquhart, 72 ; the Rev. G. Perks, ex-President ofthe Wesleyan Conference, 67 ; Admiral Sir Stephen Lushington, Dart,, JS; General Sir Watkin Williams, 77 ; Sir Henry Peily, Bart., M.P., 33; Mr W, Jt Frsst, R.A., 66.