NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Evening Star, Issue 3669, 25 November 1874, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

t A novel scene took place on August 21|at * T ew Palles, county of Limerick, which, for for the pist thirty years, has been notorious for faction fights, resulting in murder and other outrages. At the request of Archbishop Leahy, the Oblate Father held a special mission in the chapel, where all the factions attended and solemnly vowed before the altar never to barm each other again. The men also renewed baptismal vows, holding at the same time a lighted taper in each hand. The majority likewise took the .pledge for five years, the publicans undertaking not to open their houses on Sundays, A novel application .of the telegraph has been devised in France—the transmitting copies of maps and diagrams. A numerallygraduated, semicircular plate of glass is laid by the telegrapher over the map to be transmitted, and a pencil of mica attached to a pivoted slip of metal, also divided into numbers, is allowed to move over the plate Looking through a fixed eye-piece the operator traces out his map on the glass with the adjustable mica pencil, and, noticing the numbers successively touched on the plate and on the moving metal .arm, telegraphs them to his correspondent, who, by means of an exactly similar apparatus, is enabled to trace out an exactly similar map. An old Catholic priest in Switzerland is about to follow Father Hyacintbe’s example, abandoning celibacy. St. Agnes Lifeve, of Biel, in announcing his bethrothal to a Pro testant lady, says, “ I marry because I wish to remain an honorable man. In the 16th century it was a proverbial expiession to say ‘ as corrupt as a priest,’ and this might be said to-day. I marry, therefore, because I wish to get out of the Ultramontane slough.” During the last two years sixtyseven Roman Catholic p icsts have been convicted of immo.rtality in France and Switzerland. In view of such facts, he says it is time to restore by marriage the good name of ‘ the Romish priesthood, wbigji the misconduct of too many o£ its members has covered with infamy. ♦

A tax upon edible snails is the' latest proposition of. the impecunious Paris authorities. A similar duty on oysters is also contemplated. This, however, is nothing to a tax on bachelors advocated in a recently published pamphlet. The writer suggests that from twenty-one to twenty-five all single men shou d pay one-twentieth of their incomes; from twenty-five to thirty onetenth ; from thirty to sixty one fifth ; and from sixty to seventy a still greater proportion. After that age single blessedness may be indulged in free of expense. By means of this duty the writer calculates all other taxes may be abolished, as the least it would bring in would amount to over L 23.000.000. The Roman Catholic Bishop of Nottingham reproved a priest the other day for walking with a woman on his arm, and her hand in his. The priest asked the bishop to whom he was talking, “lam the Bishop of Nottingham,” said his lordship, “ But we have no such bishop in the English Church,” replied the pries. “Oh !’’’ exclaimed the bishop, “ then you belong to the English Church. lam delighted to hear it, and I beg your pardon with all my life ; but L wish you would not wa’k about in your uniform.”

The Women’s Whisky War, which recently threatened to hand over certain towns and cities of the.United States to the wholesome dominion of cold water, has at length reached England. A skirmishing party began operations in Liverpool on September 6. But the tactics of the ladies who engaged in the “Temperance Crusade” were different

from those employed by their American sisters'. The latter appealed to .the fine sentiments of the publican by pausing in {rout of his shop and o fie ring qp prayers that he might be led to see the error of his ways. In some oases the object of this intervention stove in bis rum barrels and let the pernicious fluid ran down the gutters. In other cases he remained unregenerate, sat on a beer barrel and jeered. But it is not the publican to whom the Liverpool ladies appeal. They wish to reach the hearts of the licensing magistrates, in the words of the ad vertisement calling the meeting, they desire “ that the blessing of God may rest upon the Women’s Temperanqe Crusade, and that the hearts of the licensing magistrates may be inclined not to increase the facilities for drinking, but to do all in their power to reduce the number of public houses, which are causing so much suffering and sorrow to ourselves and families.”

THE AUSTRIAN POLAR EXPEDITION. We have the welcome news that the members ef the Austrian Expedition to the North Pole, after two years’ absence, have arrived at Waldos, in Norway. People have begun to dpspajr qf eyer hearing of them again and to mourn them as lost. They had, it seems, to abandon their ship, the Tegethoff, and they travelled on the ice for ninety-six days in sledges. They were rescued by a Russian ship. All were well. One of the party had, however, died. They discovered beyond the 80th degree of North latitude an immense country of mountains, and traversed it to the 83rd degree without finding its limits, or any signs of animal life. They named it Francis Joseph Laud.

MURDER OF AN OFFICER BY A SOLDIER. One <jf tfie most atrocious and qold-bloofied murders which have been perpetrated for some time was committed on September 12, the unfortunate victim being Captain John Dent Bird, 20th Hussars, and his murderer a private in D Troop of the same regiment, named Thomas Smith, It appears that the troop in question, which was commanded by the deceased officer, was undergoing its annual course of musketry practide,° and twenty men of the above troop had marched from barracks for the purpose of firing their second p' riod in the third class —i e., at 25,0 and 300 yards- The rifle ranges at Caasar’s Camp are only a short distance from the cavalry barracks, and half an hpur after marching out the squads had completed their

five shots at the first distance—2so yards—and had returned to the 300 yards’ range ; when, as at the previous butt, there being two targets, one man from each squad was enabled to fire simultaneously. iSergeant Fairhead, the non-commissioned officer in charge of the left squad, as right-hand man, had just delivered his first shot, and was in the act of stooping to record it on the register which lay on a camp stool just to the front, when a shot was fired close at his side, and he felt the bullet almost touch his face. Captain Bird, who was standing three or four feet in advance, and midway between the two squads, received the contents of the carbine in his right shoulder-blade, the bullet passing through his body and coming out at the breast. He sank gradually to the ground, turning completely over on his back in his fall, and Sergeant Fairhead thought he had a fainting fit; but on the captain pointing to his breast and unbuttoning his patrol jacket he perceived that he had been shot. The sergeant asked him “Who did it?” and he thought the very faint reply was “I don ! t know.” He then, turning to the squad, asked “Who fired that shot ?” to which no reply was made, the men for the moment being apparently dumbfounded. Walkingup to Smith, seeing him laughing, Fairhead put his band on his shoulder and said, “ Tom Smith, was that you fired that shot ?” to winch Smith replied, “ I done it; who else do you think did,” at the same time unbuckling his waistbelt, and throwing his carbine on the ground as a'token of surrender. That the murder was wilfully premeditated there can be no doubt whatever. On the previous day the same squad, under the same officer, were out at “judyiu;' distance drill. ’ when the murderer was remonstrated with by the deceased officer for leaving the ranks without permission. On his offending a second time,Captain Bird sentenced him to seven days’ confinement to barracks for insubordinate conduct on parade, and it is said that while bring escorted to the guard-room after the fatal occurrence he said to the corporal in charge, “ He won’t give me any more seven days. ” There is also every reason to believe that the sergeant-major of the troop (Donald by name), who, fortunately for himself, was absent from the class firing, was also intended by Smith to be one of his victims, as he expressed regret that Sergeant-Major Donald was not going, as he ‘ 1 particularly wanted to see him.” Captain Bird, who was only ..thirty:two years of age last May, entered the army in the Madras Cava’ry in August, 1859, and joined the 20tb Hussars in April, 1862, becoming captain in AprP, 1871. _ The affair has caused quite a sensation in Aldershot, where the deceased was well known and highly respected. The accused—who has repented of the deed—has been committed for trial.