DE OMNIBUS REBUS.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 208, 8 February 1875, Page 4

DE OMNIBUS REBUS.

Lecocu’s opera boufle, “ Madame Angot,” is now being played at three theatres in Home, at one of which it is produced twice a day. The distressing disaster which befel the Cospatrick off the Cape of Good Hope, has, says a Melbourne exchange, directed attention to the subject of fires at sea and means for their prevention. Mr P. O. Haudfield, a naval officer of experieuce, has a scheme for the prevention of such calamities. He recommends that all passenger ships should be fitted with a reticulation of perforated iron water pipes of from half an inch to one inch gauge, lining every beam and carline of the lower hold and ’tween decks, in connection with sea-cocks so arranged as to be under command from the upper deck, and worked in conjunction with pumps of sufficient power. Mr Handheld intends to send a model of his apparatus to the Philadelphia Exhibition.

The following extract from a letter from the Rev James M'William to the Rev A. Stock appears in a recent issue of the New Zealand Times. The occurrence described took place on the West Coast;—“ As I returned from Fox ton last Sunday night along the beach, I observed a small but densely black cloud descending across ray path to the very earth. As soon as I had ridden into it, as it were, all at once I noticed a bluish flame streaming from my beard. I rubbed it, thinking for the moment that it was actually on fire, but of course felt no heat. I then noticed also that a similar flame shot up from each of my mare’s ears, and streamed from her forelock, mane, and tail. She was terrified, and shied, reared, wheeled, and did all she could to get away from the cause of her fear, but to no purpose. At last, seeing her efforts were in vain, and feeling no hurt, she was induced to go on, the flame remaining as long as we were in the cloud, perhaps a quarter of an hour. La Patrie publishes the following with reference to the relations between Russia and Germany—“ Russia is convinced that soon, though not immediately—in two or three years about—she will have a terrible struggle with Germany. I point to this time, not arbitrarily, but because it is certain that the former country cannot sooner have completed her armament, and more especially her railways. This prospect is generally taken for granted by the people, and the Court of St 1 Petersburg is so fully prepared for a conflict that it believes it knows the casus lelli —a demand by Prince Bismarck, supported, according to the German manner, by the opinions of jurist consults, as complacent as experts, for the restoration of the German Baltic provinces. Herr von Moltke is prepared for the contingency ; he has taken his precautions in consequence. A mass of spies spread over Livonia and Courland, a carefully studied plan of campaign, complete to its smallest details, the Russian language taught to the officers, railway waggons adapted to the Russian Hues,’ 1 &c, &c. A late telegram from England informs us that there is fearful trouble in the Anglican Church at Home with reference to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is said not to be a member of the Church of England. The telegram says:—“ The controversy about the baptism and the confirmation of the Archbishop of Canterbury still continues in the Church journals. The facts appear to be these; I)r Tait was born in Scotland, of Presbyterian parents, who cared little about baptism. When he was an infant he was at one time very ill, and was supposed to be dying, and he says that at this time his nurse, an old Scotch woman, baptised him. This baptism would be a good one, even in the eye of the Roman Catholic Church, if it were done with the proper intention and with the essential worcis. But no evidence exists of these facts, and no other baptism was ever administered to the child, who is now Archbishop of Canterbury. When he grew up to be« a young man he became an Episcopalian, and when he was a student at Balliol, Oxford, he was confirmed by Bishop Bagot. After the confirmation the Bishop learned that Mr Tait had never been baptised save in the way just described. The Bishop sent for him in great distress. ‘Mr Tait.’ said he, ‘confirmation cannot be duly given to any one who has not been validly christened. I have confirmed you in ignorance ; go and be baptised for security’s sake, and then come to me again for confirmation.’ Mr Tait declined to do anything of the kind, and thus the case stands. If he was not validly baptised, his confirmation was void, and all the subsequent sacraments administered to him and by him are void also. He has ordained about 300 priests, but, if he himself has uever been validly ordained, their ordinations are void. The Bishop of Winchester has been asked to take some steps in the matter, but he has declined to do this, although admitting that ‘ the subject may be of interest to Churchmen.’ May be! I should think it would be, of all subjects, the most interesting, at least to the 300 clergymen who have been ordained by Archbishop Tait, and who, if he be unbaptised, have never been validly ordained.”