MAIL ITEMS.

Evening Star, Issue 4122, 13 May 1876, Page 3

MAIL ITEMS.

POISONING CASE IN FRANCE. A telegram in the London papers, dated Paris, 14th March, states : -The great poisoning case which has occupied the Perigueux Court a fortnight, and been the subject of conversation in the province for upwards of a year, has terminated in the acquittal of two out of three of the prisoners. In a nutshell the charge was that' Garrigues, a respectable small farmer, after ruinine himself by making a gentleman of his son, who took a medical degree in Paris, was poisoned by arsenic by the son, who had an interest in stopping an alimentary pension of 600frs. a year for the support of his father. It was alleged that this son conspired with his mother and a servant named Is3ier, the reported paramour of the latter, to accomplish the crime. t)r Garrigues was fourteen months in prison, repeatedly questioned with that entrapping ingenuity familiar to French prosecutors ; and the theory of public rumor was entirely adopted by the Judge-Advocate and the President, that, because he was a doctor, he must have furnished his mother with the arsenic which poisoned his father. A mass of highly scientific evidence, accompanied by violent altercations between expert doctors, was tendered to show that arsenic was the cause of death; but the verdict acquits the doctor and the servant, and finds the wife guilty of poisoning, not with arsenic, but with vitriol. Extenuating circumstances, meaning the repugnance- of the jury to guillotine a woman, being found, she was sentenced to penal servitude for life. OUTRAGE ON A BRITISH VESSEL. The 'Gibraltar Chronicle' of 9th March gives the following particulars of the seizure of the San Francisco ll.:—Following close upon the outrage committed upon the British schooner Amalia by a Spanish guardacosta, we have to record another piratical attack and illegal seizure by the same force. The particulars, as furnished to us, are as follows :—"The British felucca San Francisco 11., Juan Alvarez, master, a vessel for many years past engaged in regular trade between Gribraltar and Tetuan, left this port on Tuesday afternoon between 4 and 5 o'clock with a valuable cargo, consisting in great part of British manufactures, bound for Tetuan. The wind was light, and her progress consequently slow. At about 7 o'clock', when between half a mile and a mile from Europa Lighthouse, steering south, a small boat \ came put from behind the rock and ran alongside the felucca. Her crew, consisting of Beven armed men, immediately jumped on board, and threatened to shoot the master and crew of the San Francisco 11. if they offered the slightest resistance or gave any alarm by shouting out; their close proximity to the rock, no doubt, rendering them apprehensive that they might be interfered with in their nefarious proceeding if an alarm were given. Having taken possession of the vessel, the escampavia towed her into Algesiras, where we are informed the cargo is being discharged and an inventory male of it by the Spanish custom authorities. From all that we can learn, there is not the slightest justification or excuse for this gross outrage. The vessel seized is, and has been for some years, a regular trader between Gibraltar and Tetuan. The Tetuan trade is of considerable importance to the merchants of Gibraltar. The cargo on board the vessel seized was of great value, consisting both of goods purchased in Gibralter and of merchandise from England and France landed at Gibraltar for transhipment to Tetuan. She had also on board several passengers for Tetuan, clearly proving the bona fides of the voyage. She was in British waters, and the course she was steering was the direct opposite of that which would have taken her towards the Spanish coast. Every pretext for overhauling this vessel was therefore wanting. There can be little doubt, we should hope, that unless the Spanish Government take effectual measures to put a stop to these aggressive acts, that seem to be increasing in frequency, the British Government will itself devise means for their suppression, and for the due protection of British trade and British ships.

A SHOWER OP FI/ESH. A special despatch to the ' Louisville ( miner Journal' from Mount Sterling, Ken tucky, U.S., conveyed the intelligence that on March 8 a most wonderful phenomenon transpired in that section. The correspondent says that during the sunshine and clear sky there fell from the heavens quivering flesh, which came down in large quantities and filled many acres of the territory. Hogs and chickens eagerly devoured the flesh, specimens of which were sent to New York for scientific examination. A late telegram says : After the publication ot Professor J. Lawrence Smith's analysis of the flesh whieh fell in Bath Country, other scientists admitted the plausibility of his theory, but inclined to-differ, basing their objections on the belief that Batrachian spawn contains no blood, traces of which were observed on shrubs and fences after the phenomenon. To-day Professor Smith, in an interview, says:—"ln the remarks I previously made to the Associated Press agent, I should have said that critical examination was made for blood corpuscles, but not the slightest evidence of anyof the kind was found. The matter obtained from the specimens was simply unorganised and gelatinous. The mere brown or reddish color is no evidence of blood, as most all original matter in a desiccated or semi-desiccated state when in contact with air assumes a more or less brown color. The mattei<examined was simply gelatinous, and as it fell from the heavens we must seek among the gelatinous products for its origin, and as this is to be found in the .spawns of certain reptiles', and as the spawn of the Batrachian species has been | known to have been transported as in this

case, I see ho reason for altering my original opinion." The flesh fall continues to excite the wonder of people not only of Kentucky but moat everywhere. Hundreds of letteis of inquiry were received from all parts of the country. FAILURE ON THE PARIS BOURSE.

Advices from Paris announce the failure of a well-known speculator on the Bourse, whose account for the rise in rentes, representing no less than L 6,000,000 sterling, had been closed at a loss of about L 250,000. The career of this individual appears to have been a chequered and remarkable one. About thirteen years ago he suspended payment on the Bourse with liabilities for about L 20,000, and subsequently returned to his native place, Marseilles, where his parents procured him a situation in a broker's office, on condition that he should not speculate again. Despite this injunction he again operated largely in stocks and shares, and in a short time amassed a sum of L 40,000. Thus enriched he returned to Paris, and speculated with such fortunate results that he was recently estimated to be worth about L 250,000. The whole of this Bum, however, seems now to have disappeared, and the forced closing of his stock, coupled with sales by priests and Legitimists, who wished to throw disoredit on the recent elections, accounts for the depression on the Bourse during the last few days.