DE OMNIBUS REBUS.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 241, 18 March 1875, Page 4

DE OMNIBUS REBUS.

The New York papers of the 15th of December contain details of the capture of the two burglars who are alleged to have stolen the boy Charles Ross at Philadelphia. One of the men was fatally wounded, and during his last hours confessed that he and his companion were the abductors. A detective subsequently identified him as a man who had long been suspected of complicity in the Philadelphia case. The dying burglar did not tell where the child was or what had been done with him.

The German periodical press (the Academy says) is commenting upon the marked and extraordinary dearth of readable poetry in the book-marts of Germany at the present time ; and it points out how utterly the reading of poetry has passed out of the sphere of men, and is now nearly limited to that of women. Nearly all the extracts and selections from the best works of the poets of Germany are floated into publicity under the titles of Presents for Ladies,” “ Mother’s Albums,” and “ Daughter’s Poetical Extracts.”

On the 16th inst the British ship Despigadera, lying at anchor at Meigg’s Wharf, San Francisco, was found to be on fire. She had arrived the day before with coal from Sunderland, and the latter is supposed to have ignited in consequence of the hatches having been battened down too long. The vessel was towed out into the stream and flooded.

The results of 1874 in California:—Wheat, value 35,000,000 dols ; gold and silver, 100.000. dols; manufactures, 50,000,000 dols; wool, 6,000,000 dols; wine, 4,000,000 dols; miscellaneous industries, 15,000,000 dols; total, 210,000,000 dols. Forty million sterling for one year. The addition to the population for the same period has been 50.000,

The Bessemer saloon steamer was taken out to sea on January 7th by the contractors, Earle’s Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, and although not pressed sufficiently to exert the full power of her engines, she attained a speed of more than eighteen miles an hour, or about sixteen knots. The trial was not made under the conditions of the measured mile trials, nor was the intention of it so much to test speed as to test the strength and sufficiency of the engines and boilers. There was some wind and sea throughout the run past Flamborough Head and back, and the low ends of the vessel—which were frequently almost immersed—acted most satisfactorily, and certainly gave steadiness to her lengthway, as she exhibited no tendency to pitch whatever. Mr Reed, 0.8., M.P., and Sir Spencer Robinson, who attended on behalf of the Bessemer Saloon Company, were much pleased with the results of the day’s steaming. The two sets of paddles worked well together, but the working of the two independent sets of engines and boilers in the same ship is a novelty which requires attention, and which may render a private trial or two necessary before the official trip of the vessel is made. The news is telegraphed from St. Petersburg that a mission has arrived from the Atalik Ghazee with the indemnity for a Russian caravan said to have been plundered on its passage through his dominions. Yakoob Beg, in remitting the sum asked on behalf of one of the two first Russian adventurers who appeared at Kashgar, has especially protested against the assumption that there was any real charge against his own Government that could be sustained on evidence. His letter points out that the other Russian merchant found no difficulty in coming or going or trafficking, and was perfectly satisfied with the measures taken to facilitate his trade; that the wares said to have been robbed were never shown to any one, and might not have existed so far as the Kashgar officials were made aware; and, finally, that all local inquiry has failed to obtain any trace whatever of the alleged outrage on the claimant, which was heard of first when he got safely back into Russian territory. Nevertheless, the messengers of the Atalik Ghazee say openly that the Prince has resolved rather to pay the indemnity suggested to him than run any risk of incurring the enmity of so powerful a neighbour as Russia. And as he is at present likely to be involved in a serious struggle with China, hardly less formidable so far as Kashgarian independence is concerned, his conduct under the circumstance is not difficult to understand.

The plot to assassinate Prince Bismarck, alleged to have been discovered in 1873, does not promise, says an exchange, to turn out so well for the Prince’s purpose as the attempt of Kullmann. Instead of declaring himself the chosen instrument of the Centre, Duchesne says that the letters sent to the French archbishop were written by a fellowworkman, and that he signed them when he was drunk. In fact, the whole business was a joke. The portentous gravity of a German official is ill-suited to the unmasking of hoaxes, and at Berlin the alleged plot seems to have been accepted as gospel truth. At least, we prefer this explanation of the recent disclosure to the alternative theory that Prince Bismarck really thought that any good purpose could be answered by the pompous publication of a cock-and-bull story fifteen months old. The Ultramontanes are not in luck just now; but they can hardly be so unfortunate as to stumble on a second adherent willing to do them so much harm as Kullman would have done them if he had succeeded in his attempt. It must be admitted, however, that the circle of the Prince’s enemies is increasing ; for, according to the Nord Deutsche Zeitung , the New York Uerald has “ entered into a conspiracy with Count Arnim to slander and calumniate the German Empire.” One cannot help regretting that the late Mr James Gordon Bennett did not live to see this new dignity conferred upon the journal he loved so well. The Brisbane Courier has despatched a special correspondent to Singapore. In stating its reasons for doing so, the Courier observes “ The Torres Strait mail service has brought us into such close relationship with the Strait settlements that we have for some time felt the necessity for a closer aquaintance with our Asiatic colonies from an Australian point of view. Singapore has for the last fifty years, ever since Raffles got permission to hoist the British flag and to declare it a free port, been one of the great eastern emporiums of trade. During the past year there have not been wanting signs that the beneficent influences of law and order are likely to extend themselves over the whole Peninsula of Malacca. Singapore is not unlikely, therefore, to become a much more important centre of territorial government than it has been. It is proposed to construct a line of telegraph intersecting the hitherto neglected forest and high lands of the interior. This, it is anticipated, will have a most material effect in rendering the country accessible to a colonising populat'on. Densely peopled as it once was, strange to say it is now very thinly inhabited, much infested by tigers, and though known to be very rich in minerals, little has been done to reap any harvest from the abundant natural resources of this rich and fertile country. The Chinese, however, are now getting a footing, and are being encouraged by the more intelligent native Malay chiefs. It may be anticipated, therefore,, that Singapore will, ere long, under the spirited guidance of Sir Andrew Clarke, become something more than a mercantile emporium. It is evident that it must be, and indeed is, a most important link of contact between the British dominion in Asia and the growing colonies of Australasia.” “ CEdipus,” the scientific writer of the Melbourne Leader, referring to the observations of the late Transit of Venus, says:— “The whole of the reports of the observation of the transit agree in one unexpected particular. The photographs are entirely free from the black ‘ligament ’ which in all former observations by eyesight seemed to connect the planet with the sun’s limb after it had fairly entered within its circumference. This was a difficulty in noting the precise time of inner contact. It is known that Jthis was an optical deception. There was no ligament, but the disk of Venus appeared smaller to the eye from the encroachment of the glare of the sun all round, except at the point of contact. This seeming ligament disappeared suddenly at the instant of Venus passing within the sun’s circum ference, the glare being then equal all round. There is no such source of deception with the photographs. One other novel phenomenon has been observed. The sun’s corona was eclipsed by Venus before the planet made outer contact with the sun’s disk. This is taken to be a direct proof of the existence of a material coronal atmosphere.’

A popular preacher enriched his sermons occasionally with this jewel : —“ Remember, I.beseech you, that we are sailing down the stream of time, and must inevitably land in the ocean of eternity.”

A new and rather important settlement has lately been formed in the western portion of the Canadian Dominion. The colony is composed of emigrants from a country to which emigration is little known, and consists exclusively of the members of a particular religious sect. These settlers are “ Mennonites” from Russia, a communion which was founded by, and takes its name from, a reformer called Menno Simonis, a man of great eminence in the days of Luther, and of very considerable ability but eccentric views. They resemble in their doctrines and severely ascetic and puritanic mode of life the early Anabaptists, though they repudiate any connection whatever with that sect. Desirous of greater freedom for their religious and educational peculiarities than they could hope to find within the realms of the Czar, more than two thousand of these sectaries, having left their homes in Southern Russia, have, after their long and trying journey, at length arrived in Canada, and settled on the Red River, some miles below the rising town of Winnipeg. Their prudence and thrift are much praised, while the energy and hardihood which they have learned in the severity of their native climate, particularly fit them for the trials they will have to undergo and the obstacles they will have to encounter in the wilds of Manitoba. Several hundreds more are preparing to start, and doubtless, if the settlement succeeds, great numbers of their co-religionists will be attracted to the same spot.

A curious discovery (says the Hanhes Bay Herald) has been made in the Pourerere district by a native whilst out fishing. He writes as follows:—“ I have found a stone, which got caught in my hook while I was out fishinsr, on a fishing ground called Ngatahuna, distant from shore three miles, and forty fathoms deep. At first I thought 1 had a fish, but on pulling it up towards the surface it showed a bright yellow colour, and I found it was a stone exactly the colour of gold. After lying in the boat a short time, it changed again to the colour of the copper on a ship’s bottom, and when landed had assumed the shining colour of silver. It is about 501bs weight, and has fifty-one sharp embellishing projections, or points, which are very beautiful, and can only be compared to the sun in the heavens. I have never seen anything like it before* so worthy of admiration. What can compare to the works of God 7 There is a reptile in the sea that has great knowledge or skill in carving stones ; and it is through that mankind gained their knowledge now practised in carving. The skill of this reptile is very superior to that of man, who cannot compete with it. I have never seen anything on shore which in any way equals this stone in beauty. If Europeans had it, and polished it, it would be very nice.”

The terras of the arrangement between British Columbia and the Canadian Dominion have, says the Pall Mall Gazette, been published, and it may be taken for granted that the demand for secession which the people of the colony in the far west had founded on the alleged breach of faith by the Government of the Dominion will now rapidly die out. British Columbia, it may be remembered, exacted a high price for her accession to the union of the British North American provinces from which Newfoundland only at present stands aloof, and the Dominion Government was willing at the time to pay, or to promise to pay, the price, which was nothing less than the construction of a line of railway from the head of the chain of the great lakes to the Pacific, The Dominion Government, however, found that the cost of the proposed Canadian Pacific line would be enormously great, and failed in all their efforts to have the contract taken up by an association of capitalists. The Colonial office has been successful in mediating between the contracting parties, and has weighed the just claims of British Columbia to a strict performance of the contract against the Canadian pleas for delay. In regard to the promised Pacific Railway the Dominion Government, so to speak, “ renews the bill a pledge is given that the scheme will be completed within the next sixteen years. But to satisfy the immediate demand of the British Columbians, the Dominion agrees to bear the cost of opening up a local line of railway in the Pacific colony and to clear a road for ordinary wheel and baggage trtffic from the head of the great lakes to the coast. If the colonists in the Far West are satisfied with this, no one else has a right to complain ; but the arrangement certainly relegates to a very distant future the realisation of those visions of empire and colonisation that were so trusted when the Dominion was founded seven years ago.

It was apprehended, says the Pall Nall Gazette, that the fall of the Panthay kingdom in Yunan would bring to nothing the patient and energetic efforts that had been made during many years to open up an overland trade with Western China by way of Burmah. But the re-establishment of the Chinese power in Yunan seems likely, on the contrary, to favor the development of commerce, which will be more easily affiliated to the eastern and coastwise trade of China under the existing Viceroyalty than it could have been under the rule cf the Panthay Mussulmans. The expedition which recently left British Burmah under the command of Colonel Horace Browne, one of the officers of the Burmah Commission, will not, as was reported, attempt any new route, but will follow the track of Mafor Sladen’s expedition of 1867-68. It will start from Bhamo, on the Burmese frontier, and will make for Talifa, lately the Panthay capital, by way of Momein and Yunan, At Talifa the Yangtse will be struck, and will carry the expedition down as far as Shanghai, The Indian Mail says;—“ Colonel Browne is accredited to the Viceroy of Yunan by passports from Pekin, and is accompanied by two attachesfroru the British embassy at that city. Mr Ney Elias, who received a gold medal from the Royal Geographical Society for boldly penetrating alone and unarmed into Mongolia, is a member of the expedition, and P>r John Anderson, who goes as scientific officer with a small stasfif of Eurasian and native collectors, is already well known ag & member of the former expedition to Bhamo and Yunan, and author of a valuable work on the country through which he passed. If the present party succeed in reaching Shanghai, they will be the first Europeans who, at least since the days of Marco Polo, have ever made their way through China from the west,"