MAIL NEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 4106, 25 April 1876, Page 4

MAIL NEWS.

Only thirteen out of the 450 passengers by the steamer Jeddah were saved. The captain, chief officer, two engineers, and thirtyeight of the crew were among the drowned. . A telegram from Rome says Pius IX. has made a remarkable exception to the role he has never before broken daring his long Pontificate by granting a dispensation for the marriage celebrated here on Wednesday between Miss Story, Protestant, the daughter of W. W. Story, the well-known sculptor and author, and the Commendatore Peruzzi, Catholic, brother of the Syndic of Florence. The Roman Catholic marriage was first celebrated, but without mass, in the Barberini Palace, by the Acting Parroco of St. Bernardo, under instructions from the Holy Office, Some of the extreme Ultramontanes express much displeasure at this act of the Pope’s, which came directly from himself after long, and to the parties 1 interested vexatious delays had been caused by the Clerical “ring ” which shuts in his Holiness. It will be remembered that Gregory XVI. granted one dispensation for a mixed marriage to be celebrated in Rome—that between a Roman Catholic lady, Countess Bentivoglio, and a Protestant gentleman, Mr Middleton.

The latest news from the Cape states that there exists a great demand for labor, farming operations in many places being suspended through the Government paying very high wages for railway hands. The verdict at the inquest on the railway accident on the Great Northern Railway line in England, censures the directors for their system in conducting such an enormous traffic on a single line. Weaton, after defeating Clark in the pedestrian match in London on February 16, cont'nned to walk, announcing that he would walk 180 miles in forty-eight hours from the tims of starting. He finished next night, having made 180 miles and 660 yards in forty-eight hours, making two and one half laps around the hall and forty yards beyond the task he undertook.

The largest revolving gun that has probably ever been manufactured is now in the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, where it has been designed and constructed, to assist the investigations on the subject of fog signals. It is a revolver, with five chambers, firing successively through an open-mouth barrel, and moving, on a kind of truck. It weighs nearly two tons, and appears to be very ingeniously contrived.

Havannah advices of 30th January state that on the 26th December BrigadierGeneral Montaur, with a Spanish force of about 5000 infantry and cavalry, attempted to dislodge the Rebel force of 4000 in the Siguen woods. The rebels opened fire from masked batteries, with heavy slaughter. Henry Reeves, an American, with 2000 mounted Rebel infantry, simultaneously charged the Spaniards, catting them up fearfully. The Spanish troops retreated in retreated in disorder, with the loss of 114 officers and 642 men.

The * World’ says ; —“A peculiarity in Mr Farjeon’s story, ‘ An Island Pearl,’ is that it was sent to the printers in somewhat the same form as the foreign telegrams are reeled off from Wheatstone’s apparatus. The instrument used for the purpose was a ‘ typewriter,” the patent for which belongs to an American company, which is famous for its rifles and sewing-machines. One can ‘ copy’ almost as quickly with this instrument as with an ordinary pen, but then it has the recommendation of costing L 23, and not being quite sc portable,. It may prove ‘a boon and a blessing to men afflicted with writer’s cramp—we beg pardon, scrivener’s palsy.” A chatty correspondent of the ‘World observes ;—*Tha widow Wainwright is willing to dispose of the manuscript her husband left behind him on his departure from Newgate for L2OO. The clergyman who interested himself on behalf of herself and family dissuades her from pub ishing the composition on her own account, on the score that it would not pay. lam sorry to think that the reverend gentleman is wrong.” A young lady—Miss Lake—daughter of a Congregational minister at Bristol, committed suicide by drowning herself in a pond. She htj,d taken an active part in the Female Suffrage movement, and her mind had become affected.

At a recent sitting of the Dover County Court, a Jew furniture-dealer claimed L 5 13s for the hire of a sofa, which he admitted was not worth LI. The judge characterised the system pursued by the plaintiff as most ruinous and scandalous, but gave a verdict for plaintiff, payable by monthly instalments of Is. Under this decision it will take nearly ten years to clear off the debt. The quarterly report of the Medical Officer of Health for Dover contained the following paragraph The death-rate is seventeen per thousand; one old patriarch died at the ripe age of ninety-eight. This old gentleman illustrated the adage that married life is conducive to longevity, as he enjoyed the society of four wives, and became the father of twenty-eight children,” [How would the longevity argument apply in the case of the wives ?] Professor Tyndall, according to the London correspondent of the • Cardiff Times,’ is overwhelmed with congratulations. Ho is marrying not only rank but wealth. Lady Claude Hamilton is an heiress, and her daughters will eventually benefit by her riches. By his marriage Professor Tyndall will become associated with a very consider-

able portion of the peerage, for his father-in-law designate is uncle to Jill those numerous and charming nephew - and nieces who have found husbands and wives in “ Most Honor.able” and <f ßight Honorable” families. The wedding is to take place in March, and already the bride elect, who is about two dozen years younger than her janc6, spends a considerable time in making scientific experiments with him. Sarah Chandler, the child who was sentenced some few months back by the Spalding magistrates to fourteen days’ imprisonment and four years’ subsequent confinement in a reformatory, for plucking a geranium, but who was afterwards liberated, was apprehended on January 27, on a charge of stealing a new cloth jacket from the shop of Mr Tharratt, of Spalding, the property being found in her possession. One of her chief supporters on the occasion of the Chandler demonstration was charged as a receiver of stolen goods, and remanded on bail.

The Great Western Kailway, which has now the longest mileage in the United King* dom, is preparing to have the fastest trains in the world. The two “ Flying Dutchmen ” —one of which runs from Paddington at 11,45 and reaches Plymouth at 6, and the other of which starts from Plymouth at 8.30 and arrives in Paddington at 2.4s—are at present almost, if not quite, unequalled for speed. But Sir Uaniel Gooch hopes to re iuce the journey by one hour, and is having locomotives built which are expected to run at seventy miles an hour. A book entitled “Edward the Seventh,” by.the author of “The Coming K.,” has created some sensation. The ‘ World ’ calls it a blackguard work, reeking of blasphemy, indecency, and disloyalty, and in personal abuse, and hints that it was written by the present proprietor of the ‘ Weekly Despatch. ’ Respectable papers refuse to advertise it. The labors of the International Committee for the construction of a submarine tunnel between England and France have resulted in the establishment of perfect agreement on all essential points,