NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1389, 29 July 1878, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

LABBIKINISM AT HOME. The mischievous practice which haa come to prevail among boys of amusing themselves by placing obstructions on railway lines, throwing stones at engine-drivers, and in other ways endeavouring to cause accidents, has now reached such a pitch that the magistrates find it necessary to inflict punishment as well as admonition. On at the Hammersmith police court, a boy wajpent to prison for four days and sentenced to receive twelve strokes from a birch rod for extinguishing a signal lamp near the Uxbridge road railway station, the magistrate expressing a hope that the sentence “ would be a lesson to other boys not to endanger the safety of the public.” That the sanguine view of the magistrate may be realised is much to be desired, not only for the sake of the boys, but also for that of the public —for what is sport to the one is death to the other. And although, as the magistrate explained, he did not impose the full punishment allowed by law on the culprit “ as nis mother had spoken well of him,” it must not bo forgetten that many railway travellers also have mothers who, if called upon to do so, would no doubt at the inquests held on the remains of their children speak in favorable terms of the deceased victims. In the meantime, it is as well boys should know that they sometimes incur real danger to themselves when in pursuit of their favorite pastime. On Monday an inquest was held at Paddington on the body of a boy, aged fourteen, who, while engaged with other boys on the metals of the Great Western Railway in throwing stones at passing trains, was killed by a train running over him. TBIAI BY JTJEY IN BXTSBIA. Trial by jury seems to have proved a greater failure in Russia than it has been in even the worst districts of Ireland. The “Cologne Gazette” says Every day there occurs cases in Russia when even criminals pleading guilty are acquitted by the jurors. Without mentioning the scandalous Sassulitch trial, we observe only that recently a young man who had stamped and sold gilt copper rings as gold was acquitted at St. Petersburg. Another man, who had shot a comrade out of revenge, was let oil with a short term of imprisonment. It is generally agreed now that the introduction of trial by jury was premature. A SOUTH AMEBIOAN EAETHQUAKE. The earthquake which destroyed the town of Cua, in Venezuela, on the 14th of April, also destroyed a large number of human lives. According to details brought by the steamship Hadji, which arrived at Havannah on the 19th of last month, 300 inhabitants of the illfated town, at the lowest estimate, were buried beneath its ruins. Cua is, or rather was, situated in the rich valley of the Tuy, about thirty miles from Caracas, and was surrounded by rich sugar and coffee plantations. At a little before nine in the evening, without any warning, all the houses fell at once. The great church, the pride of the region, was seen to lift itself into the air, and then fell with a tremendous crash. A fire kindled among the ruins completed the wreck of the town, and consumed many of the crushed and mangled bodies. In some families as many as ten lives were lost. The shock was felt at Caracas, where all the church bells were suddenly rung, and where many buildings suffered to some extent, but where, happily, no lives were lost. The streets were filled with frightened people, shrieking “ Misericordia,” and calling on the saints for help. The shocks were repeated from time to time, and continued up to the 3rd of May, when the steamer sailed. Thousands of people had left the city to seek safety in the country, and those who remained slept in gardens or public squares. The President and his family occupied a tent in Plaza Bolivar. In other parts of Venezuela shocks were felt with more or less distinctness, and a week after the first earthquake a part of the town of Ocumare, twenty miles from Cua, was thrown down. The destruction of sugar mills and other property lias been immense. THE ANTI-WIFE-BOOTING BILL. The clause in the Matrimonial Causes Bill, now only awaiting Royal assent to become law, under which police magistrates will be empowered, in cases of husbands convicted of aggravated assaults on their wives, to order, if they are satisfied that the future safety of a wife is in peril, that she shall be no longer bound to live with her husband, is likely to effect a considerable change in the matrimonial relations of many couples among the industrious classes. When a husband realizes that if he belabours his helpmate over the head with a poker, or smashes her ribs by kicks with hob-nailed boots, ho not only runs the risk of imprisonment with hard labor, but also that of losing the services of a hardworking slave, lie will probably think twice before ho strikes or kicks once. He will also be more inclined to reflection before violence by the knowledge that the magistrate’s order will have the force and effect in all respects of judicial separation on the ground of cruelty, and that ho will be compelled to support his released partner by a weekly allowance ; and that his wife, so long as she behaves correctly, will have charge of his children under ton years of age, if the magistrate is of opinion that this course is desirable. He can, if it pleases him, appeal to the Divorce Court against the magistrate’s order ; but it is not likely that his homo comforts, such as the liberty to smash and mangle his wife, will be restored to him unless he can prove himself to be an injured innocent. The effect of this law will no doubt bo most wholesome in many cases; at the same" time its provisions will have to bo enforced with much caution and judgment, for, although nothing can well exceed the brutality of some husbands, there arc not wanting instances of men goaded to desperation by the habits of drunken wives, and who are more fit, notwithstanding a sudden outburst of violence, to take charge of their children than their intemperate partners.