BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1350, 30 January 1912, Page 3

BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

* NEWS AND NOTES FROM LONDON. THE ASSAULT ON MR. LLOTDGEORGE. London. December -i'. young man named Macdougal ha* been sentenced to two months' hard labour for assaulting tho Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr. Lloyd-George, accompanied by his wife and daughter, was driving back to Downing Street in u motor-car from the Horticultural lla.ll, Westminster, where ho hod boen speaking on woman's suftrage. The Chancellor had gone 500 yards from the hall when Macdougal suddenly stepped from the footpath and hurled through tho op=n window of the car a small leather bras«bound box, something like a dispatch™.x in size and shape. The missile passed Mip Lloyd-George and struck .the Chancellor m the face, narrowly missing tho leit eye. Macdougal stated that ho did not know the window of tho car was open. Ho had merely intended to break the glass, not to hurt the Chancelloi. EAST-END APACHES. Charged at the Old Bailey with rioting, assault, shooting with intent, and causing grievous injury, eight meh of an East-end band of hooligans have received sentenoes ranging from twenty-one months' hard labour, to be followed by three years' penal servitude, to. twelve months' hard it!? o '?'- "otißo took place in the street, w a publichouse, outside a police court, and even within tht walls of tho court itself, where witnesses were threatened with revolvers. Some members of the gang have not been arrested, for their victims were afraid to prosecute them. do great is the reign of terror in the East-end that witnesses had to bo brought to court on warrants, and one of the most important of them vanished during the trial. £4,000,000 TO CHARITY. More than £i,000,000 has been bequeathed for religious, educational, and charitable purposes under wills proved in this country since January 1 of this year, oncnalt ol tho sum being left by twelve testators. The bequests for public uses under ninety wills, disposing of estate valuod at were over .£3,500,000 —equal to more than one-fourth of tho estato from which they were derived. I üblic bequests of large amounts are usually those of childless persons, aud ■.hero is little, if any, evidence in tho wills which come under probate of nuf i.- or ' lasty bequests to charities, lho objects for whicli money is bequeathed seem for the most part to have been chosen with care. HUGE FLEET ABSORBED. Arrangements have been made, subject to ratification by the shareholders, for the acquisition of all the ordinary shares ot toe union-Castlo Company, by the Ivoyal Mail Steam Packet Company and by Elder Dempster and Co., Ltd., and details ot the arrangements are being forwarded to the ordinary shareholders.' Two great shipping kings, Sir Owen Philipps, aud Lord Pirrie, are the men at the head ol this dramatic deal. The mercantile licet under one control may be set out as follows :— Koyal Mail Pacific Steam a iS'»'un Elder Dempster ."i"": 113 345 m TTn IJIPO ?< t a « d Holt 31 200 ' 000 Union-Castlo 43 320,490 280 1,287,950 CHARING CROSS BANK TRIAL. ,S r -ft-!?. 11 ® tr ,', al the Old Bailey Allied William Carpenter, manager ol the defunct Charing Cross Bank, was lound guilty on charges of having ob- , "J™, various , sums ranging from .£lO to iotlO on false pretences, with intent to defraud, and sentenced to two vcars' imprisonment 'in the second division.' Mr. Bodkin, tor the prosecution, in addressing the jury, laid emphasis on the wording ot tne advertisement and the figures published, and contended that the defendant there adopted a means to deceive the public, and that, in consequence, he was guilty of fraud. "Did you overyear of a bank," he asked, "investing its deposits in pictures by a young artist (the cousin of a well-known artist) pictures that had the glory of iurner's skies and the beautiful scenery of Constablo's combined? That is where somo of these people's money went." AN EAST LONDON "LUNG." At their last meeting this year the county council unanimously decidcd to surrender the lease of tho land which 'forms part of the Shadwoll Market site .to the King Edward Memorial Committee. Tho seven /acres of the market cost the corporation ,£140,000, and tho corporation has generously offered to dispose of the land to the committee for half that sum. The County Council's share of the site consists of a I?aso over a river wharf situated therei and valued at .£14,000. The committee proposes to lay out tho site as a park, which , the County Council has agreed to maintain. The need _ for an East London "lung" has been insisted upoa for a long time past, and by'the new park, situated as it will be 011 the. river bank, shouid form one of the healthiest and vivifying playgrounds for youngsters of the slums that has ever been provided. THE "T.P.0." Tho annual avalancho of Christmas letters, cards, and parcels is already descending upon tho G.P.O. Every department has been working at high pressure for some days past, and a great army of supernumeraries—totalling about 100,000 men—has been called in to assist in dealing with the abnormal traffic. At this time of tho year no department is busier than tho homo mails section, which controls tho travelling post olEce. The Christmas letters for the North, for instance, are thrown into bags which are ' taken to Euston, and put on board the Northern travelling post office, which leaves for Aberdeen at 8.30 p.m. each evening. This train is exclusively a G.P.O. train. With somo 50 sortingclerks and porters aboard tho train loaves Euston, and the work of sorting Christmas letters and making up- mail bags, which /ire dropped at the villages through which it passes, goes on incessantly until it steams into Aberdeen at 7.30 ■ in the morning. So great is the pressure this yoar that three Northern "T.P.O.'s," as they are called, will have to be run in duplicate, and perhaps 11 triplicate. It will be necessary, too, 'o duplicate the Western "T.P.0." GOVERNOR-GENERAL'S POWERS. An interesting Canadian constitutional ca.se has been occupying tho attention of tho Judicial Committee of the Privy Council—the supremo tribunal of Empire. The appellants in tho case wero tho Attorney-Generals for the Provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova 1 Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba. Prince Edward Island, and Alberta, tho respondent being the Attorney-General for tho Dominie' of Canada. Tho question was whether under the Canadian Constitution tho Governor-General in Council had power to frame and refer to the Supremo Court questions as to the constitutional powers of tho provinces, as to the effect of provincial statutes, and as to tho interests of individuals who might be unrepresented upon such reference, and to require the Supreme Court to answer such questions. Tho appellants denied this power, and the Judges have reserved their decision. MURDERED AFTER A DANCE. Accompanied by her sister Isabella, Miss Janei Stephenson, the daughter of a farmer, was returning from a dance along the lonely road between Sedgefield and Butterwick, near Stockton-on-Tees. Suddenly Jonas Marshall, the son of a neighbouring farmor, sprang out of tho hedge and, without saying a word, fired a double-barrelled gun at them. Isabella was wounded, and Jane, who cried out: "Don't do that," was shot dead the moment after. Tho man, who is believed to have been enraged by Isabella Stephenson's refusal to encourage his attentions, then swallowed some carbolic acid and shot himself. It was not. till three hours Inter that tho girls were discovered, and near by Marshall's dead body, 1.-iibflla Stephenson died the following evening. .Ell',ooo IX PRIZES. Condition}, under which the test? in the military oernpijmn competition will bo conducted have just bean annDunood hy I

Hip War Offic*. The prizo list amounts to -111.1)00. 'T' v "i machines which a.ro submit foil to Jill the flying tests and are uol suviinlpr} prizes T\ill receive rCIOO each. No c.ojnpjjiiU'ir is to take more than -t-injw. Tho \\nr Office is to have the option ol buying auy prize-winning roarhino for xm\). Anions other lost?, the competing aeroplanes must earn* a live load ol 155011). ior four and a half hours, maintain an nMilurio of -1500 feet for an hour, attain n speed of fiftv-fivo miles nor hour when loaded. The prizes will l>o awarded bv Ihe War Office on the recommendation of a committee of judges. "WAROPLANES." Severe criticism upon the present War Olhce ineptitude with regard to the development of the aerial art as applied to warfare was made in a recent interview by Mr. Joynson Hicks, M.P., the chairman of the Automobile Association and Motor Union. "Do you realise the position that Great Britain, is in to-day?" he asked. "By dint of persistent questioning in the House of Commons last session, J elicited the fact that vro have twelve efrectiv© aeroplanes. Fiance has 250, but it iras again admitted that an ctiectivo aeroplano must bo ablo to fly from /0 lo 8U miles an hour, and just beioro the session closod I forced an admission from tli© War Office that they th o so-called 'effectives' which can fly GO miles an hour. Whiat, then, is the War Office doing? Holding a competition in July next for designs with no promiso of orders, as there was attached to the French competitions, ihat means no aeroplanes for at least another months. On tho ' other hand, France, in addition to her present fleet, is going to spend' nearly three-quar-ters of a million this year, and Germany one and a half millions." ' A RUNAWAY WIFE. The elopement of a daughter of the late Mr. Peter Robinson, the West End draper, was tho subject of a recent suit in the Divorce Court. The petitioner was Mr. Owen Talbot Price, wiio claimed a divorce from his wife, Marion, and tho co-respondent was Sir. Joseph Hewlett Brooke. Mr. Barnard, K.C., said the marriage, took place in 1900. Mr. Price was_ a solicitor, but his wife, who inherited .£IO,OOO a year from her father, Mr. Peter Robinson, persuaded him to give up his practice. In 1907 they met Mr. Brooke while hunting—a sport of which they wcro both fond. In 1908 Mrs. Prico ran away with the co-respondent to Paris. Mr. Price went over to try to induce his wifo to return, but slio refused to sec him. "She was stopping at the Elysees Palace Hotel with Mr. Brooke," he stilted. "I sent a card up asking if she would see me, and she wrote back, 'Certainly not"." Mr. Price was granted a decroe nisi, with the custody of his child. CRUISER AND LINER. In tho Admiralty Court the President (Sir Samuel Evans) has given his reserved judgment in the proceedings arising out of the collision between the cruiser Hawke and the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company's liner Olympic in the Solent on September 20. The judge said ho thought the Olympic, having the Hawke on her starboard side, ought to have got out of the Hawkc-'s way, aud that the Hawke was never the overtaking vessel. Ho accepted tho suction theory advanced by the Hawke, and was satisfied that she did not starboard, as alleged. The,cause of the collision was that the Olympic came too close to the Hawke. He found that the collision was solely duo to the faulty navigation of the Olympic's pilot. Tliero must be judgment for Commander Blunt in tho action against him, and as regarded the cross-action brought by the Admiralty, judgment ifiust lie entered for the Olympic on the defcnce of compulsory pilotage. FATAL FLOODS. Disastrous floods have been experienced in South Wales in consequence of heavy rains during the past few days. Two lives were lost owing to the' collapse of .i bridge, £cven houses were washed away, a' number of pits were forced to cease work, and nearly a thousand tinplato workers were rendered idlo. The fatalities occurred at Aberdare. Two youths were standing on a bridge when, the structure collapsed, and they were precipitated into the swollen river, and carried away by the powerful current. At the village of Glyncorrwg the Corrwg River rose to a great height, and the inhabitants of cottages near the river bank fled up tho mountain side. Half an hour afterwards the houses wero flooded, and a number of them collapscd: Miss Sarah Howell, a, school teacher, was drowned in tho swol-' lon river Ogrnoro after saving the life of one of her pupils. AN IRISH WEDDING. An extraordinary story was told in the Irish courts when a petition for a declaration of tho invalidity of his marriage, was brought' by Mr. William Acland Usher, of Eastwell, Loughrea, County Galway. Aocording to evidcnco given, on the night of April 22, 1910, a Roman Catholic priest went to the house of the petitioner's mother secretly and admitted Mr. Usher into tho Roman Church in a bedroom. Afterwards Mary Caulfield, a servant, employed by Mr. Uslict's mother, was brought into tho room and married by tho priest to the petitioner in tho presence of one witness: 1 Tho petitioner s contention was that the marriage was subsoquently found to luavo a fatal flow m tho fact that thcro was only one witness instead of the two required by the decree of' the Council of Trent and the famous No Temeve decroe.