EUROPEAN ITEMS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3008, 15 February 1881, Page 4

EUROPEAN ITEMS.

The fortunes of some rioh men in London are sometimes mystorious in their origin, whatever publicity may subsequently be given to the method of their distribution. One of the most problematical of all was lately submitted, to arbitration in the courts of law, and excited the greatest interest among tho lawyers. Tho fortune is in Consols, no investment whatever having been made by the testator. The money, which has been accumulating until the last legatee should como of age, now yields „40,000 per annum. It emanates from the Golden Dustman immortalised by Dickens in " Our Mutual Friend." Tho wealth has already passed through two generations ; and this third consists of three girls and a boy, amongst whom the income will be equally divided.

Lord Kenmaro is about to leave Ireland in consequence of the condition of his neighbourhood. Ho has lately built a new house at Killarney, and recently employed a skilled carpenter to finish some windows, to the exclusion of local workmen. He reoeived notice that if this man was not immediately dismissed the house would be burnt down. Last year, in consequence of the distress, Lord Konmare borrowed £20,000 from the Board of Works in order to give employment to his people. In consequence of recent heavy rainfalls tho river Irwell, between Manchester and Salford, has risen to an extraordinary height, and the Broughton district in Salford" is now flooded in a serious manner. Whole Btreets of houses are several feet deep in water. Several works havo stopped, and many persons have had to bo rescued by means of carts and cabs. Todmorden and distriot have also been visited by heavy and disastrous floods. The Colder has overflowed its banks, and at Shade a breach thirty yards wido was made in the river wall, the torrent rushing along the road at a tremendous space, and bursting into cotton mills, workshops and dwellings, whioh were quickly submerged to a depth of three or four feet. Great damage has been done to machinery, material, and household furniture. Fields and roads are submerged, and trafflo has been stopped. The Rooski Courier lately received from Moscow publishes tho following intelligence from Yenesaisk, a town in mid-Siberia: — " ' Again political exiles are arriving,' is tho word in everyone's mouth. Nine have just arrived j of these six were exiled from Moscow by Count Albedinsky, and are nnder orders to proceed further inland. For the moment they were exposed to our murderous climate. ' We have no mercy to expect wo are forgotten,' they say to the people. Having lost all hope of returning to Russia they are in a most despondent state. Only yesterday a girl attempted the third time to commit suicide by eating lucifer matches. She was saved by propfc application of remedies ; but will rescue always be at hand ? We Siberians havo seen many exiles during our life, but we have never seen such grief, such tears, such hopelessness, as presented by these nine exiles, who do not know their crime, who do not know how long they are exiled for, and where their destination lies,

and who must not writo a word in their letters about their condition. A common convict knows what ho is transported for ; his term of imprisonment is told liiro by his gaoler. These wretched political (prisoners know nothing, ili.y aro Jei't in dark anxiey ar..i uospaii'. _Lr:?c ""' not the only suffereri. .Li'i'o.u .''.'./'i.vr.sk ■■■■ '•■■''■•: ;i political prioner: —' Wo aro nine here—ail exiles ; one of our number has just been sent away. His wife, Mdme, Belief., remains in hospital mad. The exile of her husband further into the wilds of Siberia drove her out of her mind.' From another place, a political exile writes: —' The arrival of a fresh exile from Russia has completely unhinged me. I work as a smith receiving a shilling a day. When I earn nothing I live on potatoes and onions. When I work in the field I often think of the luxurous days of my childhood, T had no thought of labour/ At Balagansk an exile, who was once secretary of the Odessa Corporation, keeps himself from starvation by. carrying about water at so much the bucket. His wife is at Ekaterinoslaff, and his children are scattered about Russia. ' Everywhere at Bolagansk,' one writes, ' may be seen anguish, and what is worse, almost

actual starvation. At Popitch the exiles have no money to L', t ; an. At Belsk thero is a student glad to __.ii 15s, a month. At Verknoyarsk twelve exiles live huddled together in a tent. These are often without food."

Tho French Senate have' adopted the bill for the secondary education of girls. During c debate the Duo de Broglio moved fl ic oj mission of "moral teaching" curriculum on *^ c S r °nnd that it was likely to bo atheistic aJ made some remarks on M. Eerrv's religu? us opinions, which the Minister, on rising to ;*<_ ly, requested the Senate to leave out of the question and to consider only his public actions. M. Ferry said that the morality he wished to be taught to girls was that which would make them love and respect duty, the law, their country, and their God, and he added that the Right could no longer use violence to get hold of the consciences of children. This led to some uproar, but ultimately the "moral teaching" clause was maintained by' a majority of 56, and the bill was read a second time'by IG-1 votes to 121. War is afi expensive amusement. The other day a Fre_ch- popular writer expatiated on the many milliards of francs that had been expended _y France in its war with Turkey. The Rvussmn Minister of Finance, in a" document drawn; up to meet the eyes' of Russia's .fore.gr. creditors, laments the fact that Russia's Eastern war cost her twelve hundred millions o. r&mbles. This statement is probably far beloW tbe truth, as it takes into account the regu.tar authorised expenditure only. The loss to the State by tho peculations of army contractors is not mentioned, aud the loss caused by the depreciation of the paper currency ia likewise kept out of the Russian Ministerial statement. The Minister proposes to meet the acknowledged deficiency by creating five new taxes, and be likewise thinks that the State would be benefitted by turning the capitation into land tax. The capitation yields a revenue of sixty millions of roubles. The Minister states that the financial difficulties occasioned by the war have been considerably increased by the recent bad harvest and the prevalence of famine in many large districts of the Empire. The Marquis of Ripon's health continues to excite uneasiness in political circles in London. It is feared that he will not be able to stay long in India, and that his anticipations when _c set out tliat this would be the case are being realised. Accordingly there is already some speciilation as to who will be his successor. If it was only a year or two later, and the Turkish question was nearer what Mr Gladstone hopes to be a final settlement, Mr G-oschen would be picked out. There is no prominent member of the Liberal party who would make so good a Viceroy.

An exceedingly unpleasant circumstance has arisen in connection with the approaching marriage of the Crown Prince Rudolph in Vienna. It was stated that the Prince's wedding orders had all been sent to Paris. The new furniture and fittings of the Hradschin, the palace at Prague, which is to be the residence of the Crown Prince after his marriage, were, among other things, alleged to have been ordered from the French capital. Among the Vienna manufacturers this intelligence created the greatest excitement. The Burgomaster interviewed the Lord Chamberlain on tho subject. As a reply, the Emperor has requested the Municipal Council to countermand all the orders given in preparation for tho great civic festivities, and to give the money to the poor.

At Newburyport the other day, says the Herald, an Englishman and a Yankee engaged in a game of brag. " Well," said John Bull, "we onu beat you on guns. We have a gun at tho Woolwich Arsenal that when it is fired the report is 'card in Australia." " Guns," said tho Yankee, becoming excited and jumping to his feet, " gun 3 ! why wo have a gun here in America that was fired off in 1876, and you Englishmen hain't hoard the last of it yet."

On Dee. 23 a vessel, containing a large cargo of American arms, was seized in tho river Eergus. It is stated tbat the ship, which is a Norwegian vessel named Juno, left Queensland for Baltimore, laden with iron and arms, and was driven back by stress of weather into the Shannon, where she was boarded, and thenco brough to tho port of Limerick in charge of the master; and a party of men who recently arrived from America are under police surveillance. The vessel is the same that lately put into Passage, where it was boarded by forty .Fenians and a quantity of rifles taken out under Tory suspicions circumstances. Stress of weather was then also alleged as tho cause of its presence, and tho appearance of a band of young men when it put into the Shannon mado a ourious coincidence. The ship has been towed up the Shannon, and has been in charge of a guard of marines and seamen night and day, and has also been under tho strict survillance of tho constabulary. The arms have all been romoved and conveyed under a military escort to the Castlo Barracks, where they are now in charge of a strong detachment of the 9th Regiment.

A new work by Ouida, entitled, " A Village Commune" is now in preparation. It consists of a passionate protest against the application to a regenerated Italy of tho Code Napoleon, and a picture of the kind of oppression on which, according to the author, the peasants aro now subjected.

A naval officer who had tho opportunity of a close inspection of a figure-head recently picked up at sea by tho Girl of Devon, expresses his strong conviction that it is the figure-head of tho missing trainingship Atalanta. He gives a description of the figure, and adds, " There aro no signs of its having been in collision, but it appears to have been forcibly torn away. The bolts (iron ones) remaining are so rusted and corroded that no marks are discernible. The figure is cai-vod out of yellow pine; the nose appears to have beon damaged and replaced with new pine." The latter fact is significant. When it was reported that the Girl of Devon had picked up a figurehead, supposed to be that of tho Atalanta, the Admiralty wired out to know whother the nose was of a different wood to the rest of the figure. Captain Grant says that from its size, careful carving, and the way it has been painted, it is not like a merchant vessel's figure-head.