English News.

Clutha Leader, Volume IV, Issue 161, 10 August 1877, Page 7

English News.

The manufacturers ot gunpowder ia France have, within the last lew days*, received overwhelming orders from tha Government. A little lad, aged nine years, fell into a chopping machine at a farm neat* Goole, and was killed, his head being completely cut off. A double-barrelled breech-loading pistol is to replace the present anti* quated weapon as part of the armament ofthe Lancer regiments. Thd importation of dead meat from America into Britain having proved so successful, it is now about to be 'Commenced from Austria, contracts having, been entered into for the supply from Vienna, of the carcases of 50,000 sheep and 4000 oxen^to be deiivetdt in London during the next six months. The ' Medical Press : aiid Circular states that at the next meeting 0-r" Convocation at the University of London ifc is intended if possible to carry a resolution praying the Senate to rescind their decision in favour of the admission of women to degrees in medicine. Jt is also said that upwards of 200 medical men have signed a petition to the same effect to he presented to the Senate. At Camden Street, Walworth, at the age of 62 years, Thomas Thomson, better known as Old Torn, a man of enormous bulk, has just died. Mis weight at the time of his decease was 28 stone 4 pounds, and he is supposed to have been the heaviest man south of London. His occupation was that of " house-breaker," (a man employed in the demolition of houses). A few years ago he met with an accident, but shortly previous to his death his health was impaired only by gout. It appears that the condition -of morals as Well as of hygiene among the canal population is very unsatisfactory. A case was brought before the Runcorn magistrates some few days ago, when the evideuce adduced showed that the marriage " law was frequently ignored, : and^thaD the buying and selling of wives 'occasionally occurred. We have fre* queiitly pointed -out that, on sanituary and moral .grounds, the inhabitants otV these floating dens ought to be the subjects of some special legislation.— -The Lancet. The papers report that the King of Bavaria -has devised for himself a singular amusement. Near his chateau of Hohenschwaugan, in the Bavarian Alps, he has had constructed a "reproduction of the cottage of Hiendig, as it was represented at Bayreuth in the first act of the Walkure. This first act is to be performed there during- tke starry summer nights to 'come. The singer Vogl and his wife will appear as Siegmunti and Sieglinde, and the King, costumed as a warrior of the primitive ages of Germany, will traverse the near iake in a boat drawn by swans. A bill before the United States Congress has been referred to tlie Committee on Naval Affairs, the object of which is to obtain a granc of -50,000 dollars for a decidedly novel and daring scheme, viz, the planting of a 'colony within 400 miles of the North ISoie, for the purpose of accomplishing at leisure the feat from which Sir George Nares and his brave companions have returned baffled. The scheme has received the support ofthe United States Geographical Society, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Academy of Science, the members of former Arctic Expeditions, and many eminent men of science in the United States. Thus it is not improbable that Congress will grant the sum asked for — modest enough, certainly. With reference to the boring operations at Messrs Meux's brewery, resulting in water being obtained at a depth of 1004 feet, Mr Alfred Langly, Engineer to the Gieat Eastern Railway, states the result of a. boring he has recently completed at the Lough ton Station on that line. Chalk wav reached at 243 feet from the surface of the ground, passing through a thickness of it amounting to 648 feet 6 inches. Below this there, was a thickness ot -37 feet of chalk, containing layers of green sand, followed by 123 feet 6 inches an the gault, and finally a bed of 31 feet 6 inches of gault interspered with pebbles. The boring terminated at a depth -of 1092 feet 6 inches below the surface, this being, Mr Langley believes, the deepest in or near London. Billoir, the Frenchman, who killed his mistress, cut her body into pieces, and threw them into the Seiue, was guillotined on Thursday on the Road Point of the Rue de la Roquette. On the previous evening he played 'Cards with the keeper in his cell. At one next morning the fatal truth was made known to the convict by his companion at cards, whom the -.murderer regarded at all times with special disfavour. Billoir's answer was simply a sneer. "Yes," he said, looking contemptuously upon the officer, " I thought it would be you who would convey the information," Then he retired, and slept tranquilly until the arrival ot the exeeu* tioner-. About halt-past two the crowd was cleared off the spot where the scaffold stands, arid the gloomy machine was wheeled out and fixed. A small detachment of gendarmerie on horseback were stationed below the guillo= tine. The prisoner's last words before stepping on the platform of the guillo* tine were, " au revoir, mon pert," ad» dressing the priest-. Death seemed ta I be instantaneous*