NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2708, 21 October 1871, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Mr E. W. Took, the father of the person who wan tried for the Eltham murder, has announced his intention of prosecuting superintendent Griflin and inspector Vi ulvaney for perjury, and a committee is being formed in Greenwich to raise subscriptions for defraying the expenses £of the defence of young Book. The Saturday lie view has a long article on the Colonial Army of New Zealand, in which the writer points out the IVlaoii is no mean foe "oes into the question of colonial defence, explains why the colony must not look for Imperial military support, and concludes by stating “that, though the colonists feel they have met with little sympathy from the Home Government, and that they were exposed to great danger by the withdrawal of the Im perial troops at a moat critical moment, yet the sore feeling which thus originated has now almost entirely disappeared. A time of peril caused the ill-feeling ; and now that the peril has disappeared, so also have the ill-feelings which originated in it, and her Majesty lias at the present moment no more loyal subjects than her New Zealand colonists.”

The news of the calamity to the Mega-ra, created a great sensation in England. The petty jealousies and miserable personal quarrels amongst the officials at W hi eh all gave in this instance borne alarming results, and the letters of Mr Heed, the late chief naval constructor, on the subject in the Times are far from reassuring as to the safety of our navy, many of the iron clads composing it being, as ho avers, and apparently with °justice, unlit for ocean service. A Home paper referring to the vessel’s loss, saysMr Childe s’ exploits in matters marine, and Mr Cardwell’s feats of arms in the military department, almost justify the taunt of the Duke of Somerset, when en caged in the congenial work of throwing out the Ballot Bill, that the present Government was the most unlucky that had existed its bills could not pass, its ships could not sail, and its armies could not march. The Paris correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette, of the 29th, says that Thiers is reported to have given a vast amount of information to the committee inquiring into the causes and conduct of the late war. He found England, he said, hesitating and desirous of acting with Russia, and when he got to St. Petersburg he met with sympathy from the population and the Czar, and though he said he could not declare war, he was most favorably inclined towards France. He was bound in some way to Prussia. Every one at St. Petersburg assured him that the Cabinet at Berlin would accept reasonable proposals. Thiers then went to Italy and found that the King most distinctly I ivored Franco. He called a Council of the Ministers and Generals, and Thiers said, “You have 300,000 men; march 100,000 on Lyons ; you are covered by Switzerland and the Alps, and wi ! l have nothing to fear bv making a diversion in our favor.” The King and his Generals were for adopting this plan, but the Cabinet refused to consent. A foreign paper says that General de Wimpfen, who succ ed«d Marshal M ‘Mahon in command of the French Army of reserve on the day it capitulated at Sedan, is strongly of opinion that the army might, by a bold and well-sustained etfoit, have ; broken through the bonds that encircled it. He gives the following as the text of the famous letter he addressed to the Emperor Napoleon : Sedan, I hqve decided to force the line extended before the positions of General Lebrun and General Ducrot, Let your Majesty place yourself in the midst of your troops, and tbev will hold it an honor to open a passage for you.” He adds that while he was preparing for the combat, he suddenly discovered a Hag of truce over Sedan. Had the Emperor followed his counsel, a large portion of the army might have broken through. He state, that when by the Emperor’s order, be opened negotiations with Prince Bismarck, the latter demanded as the terms of peace an indemnity of four mil.iards and the cession of Alsace ami Lorraine. The Paris correspondent of the London Times on the 28tli ult., writes “ Disquiet ing rumors continue to arrive from Lyons, and wc arc beginning to receive from the south of France sonic accounts of the effect which the discussion of the dissolution of the National Guard produced on the large cities, in which that body still exists in full revolutionary vigor and force. The attitude of the population of Lyons in particular seems to be much like Paris during the few w ee ks immediately preceding the Commune. The’ government of the city is in the hands of September appointed by Gambetta, but there reigns above them, as there did here, a committee of National Guards which meets in' the Faubourgs and elects its own officers and assumes much the same independent attitude as regards military authorities as the battalions of Belleville and Montmatro did in the early days of March. A strange agitation in favor of the immediate dissolution of the Chamber is being carried on, indeed, one is almost afraid from the look of things in the south of France that when the new elections occur, it will be the signal for a conflict which will prove how right those were who were in favor from the beginning, of the disarmament ol the whole body. The latest English journals bring a long and interesting report of an action for the possession of a Newfoundland clog, tried at Croydon, before Baron Bramwell. The defendant who had an actual possession of the dog claimed that he was seven years old, was lost in 1807, and was recovered in April, 1871 having been found in a railway refreshment saloon at Richmond. On the other hand, the plaintiff, who was the widow of the late Lord Justice Selwyn, contended that the dog was only two years old, and bad been brought up from his infancy by her and her personal attendants. Loth parties swore positively to this state of things respectively, and appeared to be firmly conviueed of the justice of their case*. The

witness, however, of the greatest force and weight was the dog. By order of the judge, he was brought into court, and, although he had been in the custody of the defendant since April, he evinced the most lively signs of recognition of a personal attendant of the plaintiff, who. it was claimed, had had him under her care when a puppy. Baron Brainwell summed up the merits of both sides of the case in a neat and succint manner, the immense Newfoundland dog, of a jet black color, with white chests and paws, being seated at his side during the whole time ot the delivery of the charge of the jury. Under the charge of the court, the jury found a verdict for the plaintiff, being influenced by the undoubted testimony of the dumb animal.

Among the recent deaths in Germany, savs the Pall Ala.ll Gazette, there is announced that of a man whose character and career supplies a curious commentary on the principle of “ hereditary genius ’’—the eldest son of Wilhelm von Humho’dt. He had in common with his father and uncle both name and wealth, but beside this absolutely nothing. He was all his life long—and a long life of seventy-five years it was—what ia called in Germany a “sondering, which in his case meant rather more than our “ queer fise. ” Among the various feats whereby he laid claim to distinction among his contemporaries must be reckoned his spending his last twenty years or so exclusively in bed, although endowed with the most vigorous health, and not even being able to impair it by this long-drawn-out freak. As to the rest of his career, all that can be said of this small scion of a great house, is that he was proprietor of the estate of Ottmachau, in Silesia, which had been given to his father as a reward for his services to the Prussian State. Also thst his death took place in Berlin, and that he was buried at Hegel, the sepulchre of his namesake.