LATEST ENGLISH NEWS.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2664, 31 August 1871, Page 2

LATEST ENGLISH NEWS.

A carrier pigeon bos been caught at Lowestoft, with a number of French postage stamps and letters attached to its wing. It is supposed to have been sent from Paris during the late siege,, aud hitherto escaped detention. ’ Mr James Grant, late of the London Mam : trig Adi;ti'lUtr 3 ‘has pearly completed his new history of th 6 newspaper press. The Court Journal says it will■ fcdntain curious revelations about some members of the London press. ' A droll dramatic story comes to us from England. Last month; : oh the third night of a theatrical season‘in Efceter, at the hour appointed for beginning, ip all shjj auditorium there Was enough''to damp effectually the manager’s Thespian enthusiasm. He-sentdiis-sole-auditor to the box-office to get bis money back, aud the play was postponed, not for that night only, but indefinitely—for the manager left Exeter in disgust. We have seen or beard of thin houses, but never, except upon a singlomccasion, of one so attenuated ias this. When, in his younger days,, John Kemble,was managing a .theatre in Portsmouth! England, hp wag playing but tfcfep times, a weak. v A jolly

mariner, who wanted a play, but who was going to sea the morning after an off night, commanded a performance—paying the whole expenses of the house, upon condition that nobody but himself be admitted to it. So itary and alone ho took, hj s place in the middle of the pit, listeninwith great gravity, applauding with proper discretion, ami occasionally stopping the acting whip he went out to moisten his clay. Kemble, after lie had become a, famous and prosperous man, used to tell the story with his accustomed solemn humor. ~ , Reports from % country show that the thunderstorms on the 15th and 20th of June •were unusually severe. In some the crops were very much affected, especially barley, the blades of which have now assumed a yellowish appearance. At Bradgate, hailstones of an enormous s : ze feli, some as pigeon's eggs. At Sowerby, near Melton Mowbray, 21 sheep were killed under a tree, while at Little Glen, a cow belonging to Cant. Goodchild was struck by lightning. At Bow, in Scotland, a gardener named James Johnson, was killed by a flash of lightning while cutting grass in the grounds o£ Mr John Denniston, Armidale. At Leeds, the shop of Mr Hardman, chemist, Wood-house-lane,; was struck,by the lightning and aet on fire by k the electric fluid. At Derby, two apertures were made in the root ot a house by a ball of tire. In a solitary row of houses at Leicester a pile of chimney stacks were shivered to atoms. • Early on the morning of the 21st of June, it was discovered that another'trade outrage has be6n Committed in Sheffield. The victim is John Gill, a brickmakcr, whp has taken the cbntract for a large quantity of bricks required in the making of a loop line, connectifi* the South Yorkshire railway with the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnthire system at Damall. Gill has been a member of the Brickmakers’ Union for several years, but for some reason or other he left it a few years a<re, One of the rules of' the I|uiou is that a°b rick maker canlioi: open a yard for himself until lie has been two years in the Society, and Gill, having recently become his ■own master, sought to rtjoiirthe Union. He was then told that] he would have to remain in the Union two years before he could open a yard for himself. Besides, the officials did not seem to be willing to allow him to rc-en-.ter; and one of. them waited on the builder who was giving him work, and stated that Gill was not able to work on his own account. Gill lost the work, but a fortnight af , o be obtained the contract Jor making the bricks for the railway, and ho opened his yard at Attercliffe, which is one of the suburbs of Sheffield, and near the loop line. He made a second attempt to Settle matters, bfft failed. On the 20th, • when ho and his men left the yard, about 40,000 bricks were in process'of drying. On the 21st, it- was discovered that 18,000 had been walked, lipoil, and thus entirely destroyed. • Sovcial men were seen in the yard'at midnight, and on their discovering that they were seen they all run away in the direction of Sheffield. The Sporting -Gazette-. says: rumored in Courtly circles hut I wri e under correction—that the Queen offered to’ elevate her son-ib-law to the rank of a duke, but that the honor was respectfully declined, with the full consent of the Princess. I understand, -moreover, that this sensible determination will be carrjed'still further, and that, on her visit to the family of her husband, the Princess elects to be deemed simply one of the family, and claims only the position which would have been apcoidcd to any bride in his own sphere whom the heir to the house of Argyll might have selected. With the view of more effectually fulfilling this intention, it is understood that the Princess will take no lady in waiting for her on her visit tp the Highlands, and that, shonli any ceremony render the assumption of 1 state’ absolutely necessary, the Lady Elizabeth Campbell, sister of the Marquis of Lome, will act as ‘in attendance’ on her Royal Highness, ft seem? that the newly-, married couple,do ndt-contemplate any continued residence with the Court, inasmuch as, I hear, the Marquis is looking out for a suitable mansion in town.” Madame Dudeant (George Sand) is reported to be better remunerated for her writings than any female author alive. By her new contracts with the Iterue. <h>« Dvaj Month’* she is to have 2(H) francs a column (L 8), the colunms not - o exceed 500 words, retaining the right to publish her contribution in book form, , . ' The success of scientific books v» quite remarkable. Professor TyndaPa “Fragments of Scienpe” went of like a new novel—better than any new novels do. The success »f this work, and pf Huxley’s,“ Lay Sermons,” has led the publishers to announce a singular collection by Herbert Spencer. The tit le of this volume will be " Recent Disi eyeries in Science, Philosophy, apd Morals,” and will Consist of Mr Spencer’s latest papers on-these subjects.