NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Evening Star, Issue 4183, 24 July 1876, Page 4

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

In the Court of Bankruptcy a dividend of 2s,in the* pontiff’was declared on the estate •of Benjamin Higgs, formerly cashier of the Great Central Gas Company, who absconded in 1869, after embezzling about L 70,000, the f mojtey of his employers. The Duke of Cambridge has, notified that it is contrary to the rules of the service for soldiers to take off their caps and cheer the Queen; and .that the proper way to show respect to Her Majesty is to salute in the usual military fashion, ~ ‘Vanity Fair’ says : —We are able to announce that the accounts of the expenses connected with the Prince of Wales’s visit to India show that the sum of L 60,000 voted has not been exceeded.’ Tt Will, therefore, not bd necessary to ask for fttiy farther vote of money. ’V ’ ; Upwards bf.L32,200 was realised by the sale by auction qf ( the first portion, of the Collection of modern pictures, chiefly of the fearly English school, formed by the.,late Mr Wynn Ellis. The-sale took ' place last Saturday, at the rooms ; of Messrs Christie, j Manson, and Woods ; and tho chief feature

was the purchase byMrAguew of Gainsborough's portrait of the Duel)ess of Devonshire for 10; .100 guineas. Metropolitan Pauperism,—The following were the totals of the number of paupers' in the metropolis on the last day of the fifth week of April, 1876 : —lndoor—adults and children, 36,088 ; outdoor—adults, 28,489; children (under 16), 17,725 —total, 81,302. Corresponding total in 1875, 90,162; 1874, 99,590; 1873, 107,401. Total number of vagrants relieved ‘in the metropolis on the last day of the sth week of April, 1876, 600. Population of the metropolis in 1871, 3,254,000. The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., according to the * Levant Herald,’ proposes to visit tho plains of Troy during the coming autumn, in order to explore the site of the discoveries of Dr. h'chliemaun.

It is said that Mr Santley will retire after the present musical season. If so, it will be a great loss to the public. With the ■first of July a new quarterly will appear, entitled ‘ Matter and Spirit Its vocation will bo to discuss scientific questions, and also all matters connected with religion, from a Christian point of view.

' The Duke of Devonshire has sold from the Holker shorthorn herd Grand Duohess of Oxford 29th to the Hon. G. Brown, of Canada, for 2,500 guineas, the highest price ever yet paid for a female shorthorn in England. Keith Banffshire was recently the scone of a disgraceful riot on a Saturday night. A servant girl was by order of a medical gentleman removed from her employer’s house, suffering from cruel and aggravated injuries, alleged to have , been inflicted by her employers. About 1 2,000 people assembled, and after burning an effigy, smashed the windows and utterly wrecked the employers’ dwelling-houso. The inmates escaped injnry by taking refuge in a back kitchen. The' disturbance lasted till an early hour on Sunday, and the police wore powerless to interfere.

Mrs Craik, the author of ‘John Halifax, Gentleman,” is erecting a drinking fountain under a railway arch near her residence in Kent, with the singular addition of a constant supply of penny loaves and a moneybox. The idea is that wayfarers will pay for what they take. American papers announce that, in consequence of massacres in the Black Dills by Sioux Indians, an expedition 2,000 strong, chiefly cavalry, with Gatling guns, and Jed by Generals Terry and Chester, lias started oivwhat is practically an organised war of extermination.

The Southern delegates to the great convention of Good Templars, which has just been held at Louisville, have refused to recognise the principle of negro equality in the Good Templars’ movement. It is therefore highly probable that a division on this subject will take place in the organisat.on. In the House of Commo s on July 2, Mr Whalley asked the Home Secretary with reference to his refusal to grant relaxation of rules relating to interviews with 'convicts in the case of Castro, alias Orton, alias Tichborne, whether Lie had seen in the public journals a letter from the cousin of the convict, Mr A. Biddulph, stating that on a recent visit he found him ‘ more than ever like the youth he had known in former days, the Roger of the Chilian photograph and whether, on this and other grounds, he would grant permission for an interview to those who on the trial expressed opinions as to his identity formed upon his appearance at that period, and who may now desire to rec insider their evidence on that poinL Mr Cross said there was a rule in the House that

questions should not be argumentative. He thought, however, it was open to argument whether Mr Anthony Biddulph-was cousin to the convict. He had not seen iu the public journals the matter referred to, and could not grant the request. JS'o “other” information had reached him. An application was made to Vice chancellor Malms recently on behalf of a “young nobleman,” whose name was not mentioned, to restrain certain persons, who for the present are also to be nameless, from parting with acceptances for LG,OOO, given by tht “young nobleman” iu question, in consideration, it appeared, of the sum in cash of LG. His Lordship made an order restraining the negotiation of the acceptances, and suggested that it would be well if the bills were brought into court and deposited with the proper officer fur safe keeping until the title of the defendants (who were of the Hebrew persuasion) could be determined. His Lordship also ordered the motion to stand over until the first motion day in the Trinity sittings (13th June). A curious case capie up in the second division of the Edinburgh quarter sessions in Juno on appeal from the Lord Ordinary (Lord Craigliill). A gentleman of moans

named Gai drier, residing near Melrose* brought an action for the purpose of having a young woinau named Mary Gardner prohibited from calling him her father. From the evidence brought forward at tho first trial it appeared that Gardner, whilo courting the lady who afterwards became his wife, discovered that she waa enceinte ; notwithstanding this he married her, and a week or two afterwards, she gave biith to a child, tho defender in the case. Tho fact was kept aeecrtt, and Mr Gardner denies that ho in tho father of tho child, though till tho present trial ho made no public avowal to this effect. The Lord Ordinary found for tho pursuer, but the .second division have now reversed the decision, holding that Mr Gardner,* by partying the lady, knowing her condition, took upon himself the burden of being the reputed father, and that he is not now, alter ■ twenty years’ silence, entitled to deny the paternity. n: a.-, . ..