ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 774, 16 February 1877, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Captain Boynton has made an attempt to swim from Turin to Venice by the River Ro. He started, and expected to complete the distance in a week, but he was seized with a feverish attack at the end of three days, and compelled to abandon his project. Ten thousand persons have gone mad on Spiritualism and are confined in lunatic asylums in the United States, remarks the Globe, quoting from Dr Winslow, who frankly declares that “ all who really believe and who persuade others that they see or hear a the subject of hallucination and auricular delusions, and should be taken care of by their friends.” He adds “ It is a well known fact in America that the mediums become haggard idiots, mad and stupid.” The Ex-Imperial Family of Franco are not likely to be in want of funds just yet if we are to believe a correspondent of the Daily News contradicting a recent assertion that the late EiSperor Napoleon saved nothing. Ho calculates the Paris property avowedly held by the Ex-Empress and her son to be worth L 213,000, and their country estates worth L 320,000. In addition the Empress holds, under assumed names, a lage amount of landed and house property in various parts of France, while the Bonaparte family possess large estates in Spain, Italy (Civita Nova and Rome), Switzerland, Corsica, and England. As for the personal .proper 'ey, it is variously estimated from L 1,000,000 to 13,000,000. The Judge of the Liverpool County Court has decided that a railway company is bound to supply a first-class carriage free from tobacco Smoke if a passenger desires it. A precocious youth of sixteen is in custody on a charge of having fraudulently obtained, from a number of City of London firms, goods to the value of over LI,OOO. The National Sport of Spain is in danger. A bill is to be brought into the Cortes for the abolition of bull-fighting. The missing baloon, which started from Paris during the siege under the charge of a man named Price, and has never since been hoard of, is thought to have been discovered on the coast of Iceland, where the remains of a balloon have just boon found, the car containing some human bones and a leather travelling bag filled with papers so injured by wet as to be indecipherable. The Shah of Persia intends to pay Europe another visit in the spring of 1 STS to seethe French Exhibition. He will travel strictly incognito, and is likely to adopt the title of Boy ler Bey-i-Wm—Lore! of Lords of Persia. His Majesty is reported to be learning French and English so as to be able to dispense with an interpreter. The artistic tastes acquired by His Majesty during his recent visit have induced him to form a small museum in his palace at Teheran. At present his collection only consists of a few antiquities ami objects of modern art, but an advertisement has been put in the Gazette that the Shah is anxious to buy any suitable articles. Party feeling in France has prompted yet another disgraceful act of vandalism. In the Paris Luxembourg hang two tinv pictures of Napoleon 111, one representing the cx-Emperor at Solferino, and the other Napoleon in the midst of his staff. Two years ago an attempt was made to damage the latter painting by drawing a lino from the head of General Fleury to that of the Emperor, and last week some one succeeded by moans of a pointed instrument, in piercing the head of the ex-Emperor with such force as not merely to obliterate the face, but to leave a mark in the wall beneath. The other picture would probably have been treated similarly had it bung within reach.

Mr John Rose, tho Englishman who was I captured by tho Sicilian brigand Leone, has been released, it is said, upon paying a ransom of L4OOO. Ho appears to have been well treated, but was forced to make long marches, and at one time was hidden in a cave within a few feet of which tho soldiers wore searching. An “ Australian ” is now in England ready to pay the expenses out and back of an Englishman Who cares to go to tho antipodes and try and get back the “ Championship of the World ” which Trickett took to the antipodes. Tho young nobleman who last week enlisted at Woolwich turns out to be Viscount Maidstone, heir to tho Earldom of Winchelsea and Nottingham. After releasing himself by the payment of smart money he re-enlisted in the Royal Artillery, but the commanding officer refused to pass him for service, and it is said that he has since enlisted in a cavalry regiment. On Tuesday his name was before tho Bankruptcy Court. Recently a young man, convicted of robbing an orchard at Rhyl, was fined 40s. and costa. He was to have been married in a day or so, and his sweetheart set to work with him to break stones on the wayside in order to pay the fine. Since our last notes the weather has been very boisterous and cold, with much snow and rain, which have proved very disastrous to agriculturists in the North. Rivers have overflowed their banks, carrying away thousands and thousands of live stock. The Master of the Rolls has refused to grant permission to the holders of Egyptian Tribute Bonds (ISTl) to serve a writ on the Sultan of Turkey by delivering it at tire residence of the Turkish Ambassador in London. His Lordship said that it would be against the comity of nations to accede to such an application. A strange statement was made by Colonel Henderson at the anniversary of the London Cabmen’s Mission. After complimenting his hearers on the fact that charges of drunkenness against their body had not increased, and that a marvellous improvement had taken place in the return of lost property, he said that not long since two persons were quarrelling as to the ownership of a diamond necklace worth HOOO, and that the holder of it cut short the dispute by throwing it into a Hansom cab. the driver of which took it [at once to Scotland Yard. This story was cited as a proof of the confidence of the public in tbe integrity of cab-drivers (a manifest non se. quitur), and 'the Colonel expressed a hope that the men might be rewarded. A tradesman of Stafford was recently fined for an assault committed under very singular circumstances. It appears that he dislikes the smell of tobacco, and when the plaintiff went into his shop to buy a book, he instead of serving him asked him whether ho had any tobacco about him, and, on learning that he had, told him to go out of his shop. A mild suggestion that it ’Would be well to make a prominent announcement respecting this extraordinary antipathy to the fragrant weed so provoked his ire that the offender was seized and violently thrnst into the street.