CONTINENTAL NEWS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 410, 25 February 1870, Page 2 (Supplement)

CONTINENTAL NEWS.

♦ • The results of the Spanish elections are Bummed up thus: —Monarchists, 510,000 votes j Republicans, 149,000; Catlists, 89,000. In tub committee on the Factory Bill, a witness from Dundee was asked, " When do your girls marry?" He replied, "Whenever they can meet with a husband*" The French executioner gets 4,000 francs a year, plus 9,000 francs, out of whioh he has to keep the machine in order, furnish the "accessories," pay the carpenters and hearse, &c. His two assistants get 1,500 franca each. IjEtters from Eome state that 480 bishops have signed the address to his Holinoss praying for the definition of infallibility. It is, however, considered certain that the Pope will not accede to the request unless this number is very largely increased. The parricide Bkluerk has been guillotined nt Beauvais. On the " toilette " being commenced, ho offered considerable resistance, exclaiming, " This scaffold dishonours my mother!" He died, howvevor, with firmness, and with signs of repentance. The opeba-ookbs of Babjs have been recently treated to a novelty in the shape of a " chorus of mutes." The performers move their lips, and gesticulate as if they were singing, but not a sound is produced by them, all the musia being supplied by the orchestra. The Austrian War Office has entered into an agreement with the railway companies of the empire, in pursuance of which such railway employes as are liable to military servico will, in case of war, not be summoned to the ranks, but form a Military Transport Corps, which will be stationed on the linos of railway in the vicinity of the field of battle, and direct the transport of troops and war material. A deplorable accident from fire-damp, by which seven workmen lost their lives, took place a few days back in the mines of Brassac (Puy-dc-Ddme). One of the men had perceived his lamp reddening, and had only thought of giving the alarm by his cries; so that the wick soon became a focus of heat sufficient to cause an explosion. The Council of State have just accorded permission to a French landed proprietor to commence legal proceedings against the keeper of a lunatio asylum and also against the department in which the asylum is situated, for damages sustained by him in having his farm buildings set fire to by a patient who had escaped from the establishment in question. The; Paris Omnibus Company have just discovered an ingenious system of robbery which appears to havo been practised to their prejudice for some time past. The number of passengers is marked by a dial, worked by a lever, and which can only be pnt back at tho end of each journey by an inspector, provided with a particular key. It appears, in consequence of suspicions, a conductor has been detected in the act of unscrewing the glass plate at the buck of the tell-tale, and pushing back the latter to falsify the number of passongers cp.rried. A pew days ago a man named Lachambre hung himself from the branch of a tree, in the Forest of Rary, in France. Although the body was discovered before it was cold, no one thought of cutting it down, because there was a doubt which of the authorities of the two neighbouring districts had jurisdiction on that Bpot. The corpse remained suspended for a whole day, some of the relatives of the deceased keeping watch, and a crowd of spectators flocking to the spot A Bonn correspondent complains of the constant duelling among the students of that University. Encounters often take place without even the pretext of a quarrel, and, as tho phrase is, merely for the honour of the respective corps. In tho spriu j of 1867 one of these duels terminated fatally, auu another life was recklessly sacrificed in the summer of 1868, leaving out of account many severe though not mortal wounds inflicted in several other misnamed " pffaira of honour." The Vceu, of Menfcz, relates the following:— " Mgr. Dupont dea Loges recently presented to the Pope, in the name of the Convent of the Sacre-Cceur, in his diocese, a magnificent gold pen, on which was engraved the arms of his holiness. ' Ah!' said Pius IX., on receiving it, ' this is to sign the acts of the council.' The Bishop ;of Mentz then touched a spring in the holder, and drew out a thousand franc note. ' I understand,' added the Pope; ' that is for the ink and paper.' '■' Sujce the death of Kero, the setter, there has never been such lamentation at the Tuileries as oa Friday night. Jocko—tho illustrious Jocko—the onvied favourite of the Empress, then died—some a natural, others a violent death. A prince of scienee from the Alfort veterinary establishment ittended him, and gave it as his opinion that Jocko languished for the freedom of his aboriginal existence —the poor ape took an " irreconcileable" view of •lis brilliant captivity. But it is whispered at Court ihat he was was taken off by treacherous poison. A subject of conversation in diplomatic circles is a scandal of which a princesa of the Imperial family of Austria has made herself the heroine. The Archduchess Elizabeth, tired of the monotony of conjugal life, fled recently from the chateau of Seclovitz, abandoning her husband the Archduke Charles Ferdinand and her four children, in order to see the world. She was, however, overtaken at Hamburg just as she was about to embark for the United States. Tho archduchess is 39 years of age, and is a daughter of the Arohduke Joseph of Austria, Palatine of Hungary, and consequently sister of the Queen of the Belgians. M. Cremieux supplies to the Journal de Paris a long and painful account of the cruel treatment of the Jews in Roumania. Some shocking sufferings haro been inflicted on these people in consequence of a recent circular issued by the Minister of the Interior, ordering the expulsion of ell Jews from the rural districts. The order was carried out harshly and unrelentingly by the prejudiced agents of the Government. In the village of Bacan the Jews were plundered, beaten, and driven out of their homes in mid-winter, and two children perished from exposure The modern Roumanians have some right to boasi that they are the descendants of tho ancient Daoii, for they inherit at least their barbarity. The progress made in the construction of Cologne Cathedral during the year 1869 was very satisfactory. Tho northern tower has reached a height of 180 feet above the ground. The state of the southern part was so bad that a great deal of the masonry had to be removed, 20 feet, however, have been rebuilt. The scaffolding for 1870 is almost ready, and the stone required has been purchased. The restoration of the masonry is continually progressing, and according to tho assurances of the architect, the cathedral will be completed in 1875 as far as the oruciform ornaments, should the subscriptions amount to 250,000 florins a year, as they have lately done. Tite Pbench papers state that a few days apro tho representatives of an English company, formed for the construction of a new port at Andresselles, be tween Boulogne and Calais, and for the organisation of a service of peculiarly constructed steamboata between Dover and the new port, had an interview with the French Ministers of public works and of commerce on the subject. The Emperor also saw tho representatives of the English company, and appeared to think their proposal deserved attention. Nothing definite had, however, resulted so far. The municipalities of Calais and Boulogne are strongly opposing the scheme. State Emigration.—A contemporary is not surprised that the movement in favour of national emigration, which is gathering force with a rapidity to whioh there is scarcely any parallel, and which is a movement far transcending in importance either tho Irish land question or the education question, or any of the other of the political cries of the day, should find obstinate and determined opponents among the supporters of the Government. This is an obstacle, however, whioh the advooates of emigration must be prepared to encounter and to overcome. No 'Jovernment likes to bo forced into a new task, and there are special reasons why the present Ministry should desire to evade this popular demand for State emigration. But our contemporary furnishes a precedent for affording State aid to emigration, founded upon what is already done to relieve pauperism. The public already contribute £8,500,000 a year to the relief of tho poor. This is our precedent and our example. The State has already recognised that its duty is to relieve poverty. Yet thia is, strictly speaking, no more a national daty than to help those who oannot get work at home to emigrate.