San 'Frisco Mail Items

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 70, 14 December 1886, Page 3

San 'Frisco Mail Items

[Per Mariposa at Auckland.]

(PER UNITED Plti>S \SS>)CIAfIOV ) Auckland, December 13 A prize fight for £100 and the championship took place at Hastington, Middlesex, on November 1 1 . One of the combatants was killed. Lord Charles Beresford has offerod to find and command a volunteer crew to man a ship to be attacked with torpedos. He has no faith in the torpedo system. It was currently reported in Detroit on November 20 that there was a conspiracy on foot to murder Michael Davitt, on account of his opposition to the extreme measures proposed by Eossa. The Eev Henry Ward Beecher, the popular American preacher, returned on October 31, better in health than in temper with the English people. The Plymouth Church divine was not wanted in the Old Country, where his orthodoxy was challenged on all hands. The Socialists marched on November 2 from fifteen outlying points to Trafalgar Square. The various bodies were headed by bands of music, and carried banners inscribed " By Heava ip, our rights are worlh fightingfor," " Work, for all is over," and " Work for none." Some of the paraders carried Phrygian caps on poles. Crossing Westminister bridce the band played " The Marseillaise." At the Government offices the attaches were hooted. Passing down Dowling street, the procession hissed Lord Randolph Churchill, and fairly howled with rage at the sight of the horseguard sentinel. When speaking began at the Square, 5,000 Socialists, 25,000 unemployed workmen, and 25,000 spectators were present. Hyndman, Champion, and Burns spoke. There were five platforms, at each of which resolutions were adopted calling upan the Government to relieve the distress existing among the workmen. A deputation theu proceeded to Lord Salisbury's house, and left a copy of the resolutions. Tlie meeting dispersed in an orderly manner, but the police had difficulty in clearing the Square. Churchill created a tremendous sensation by denouncing the London Corporation. He told the members that, although seeming to control the metropolis, they represented, in fact, but a small fraction of its population, and intimated that the best solution of the Metropolitan Government difficulty would be a transfer of the ppero *er to a ceLtral representative body. This is considered auother move by Churchill to push himself forward at the expense of the ±*rime Minister. The Court of the Queen's Bench was crowded on November 17th with fashionable and distinguished people at the trial of a second action for libel brought against Lord Chief Justice Coleridge by his son-in-law, Adams. It is declared that the Lord Chief 3 ustiee wrote a letter to certain personal fncads explaining- why lie opposed the marriage of his daughter — Mildred to Adams. Iv the letter, it is alleged, plaintiff endeavoured t> obtain his daughter's money by compromising her, so that she would ba compelled to marry him. The publ'cution of these libels. Adams contftndcid, consisted in showing the letter to the Earl of Melbourne, the Lord High Chancellor, and the Earl of Iddesleigh, who were induced to act as referees in the other action for , libel, based ou the Lord Chief Justice's letter to his daughter, endeavouring to dissuade her from marrying plaintiff by making severe attacks on his personal character. Melbourne and Iddesleigh occupied seats on the Bench. Fred Archer committed suicide at ( Newmarket on November 7th by i shooting himself with a pistol while deranged from the effects of typhoid fever, aggravated by the weakness due to the restricted regime which he j had followed to reduce his weight. He wae in the house of his sister at the time. The Prince of Wales sent her a telegram of condolence. It is rereported that Archer left an estate valued at £250,000. The Sporting World eulogises the dead jockey in a way that may be called extravagant. The funeral took place at Newmarket on the 13th, when business was suspended in the whole town. Among the mourners were L^rd Grosvenor, Baron Allington, Lord Calderosh, Messrs Tattersall, and a large number of persons on the turf One hundred wreaths were placed on the coffin.