MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1691, 22 July 1879, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

A strange story comes from Mhow of an occurrence which took place there on Good Friday. About the Ist March, a robbery of troop money took place from the guard room of the 3rd Hussars. Four men of that regiment were suspected, who had been on sentry duty that night, one of them being Private Soruton. On Good Friday, he and Private Gray were allowed out for a few hours. Private Scruton changed his clothes and put on shikar kit, taking his rifle and nineteen rounds of ammunition. He went straight thence to the married quarters, fired at his wife, and threatened to shoot anyone who came near. After this he went out into the jungle. On the occurrence being reported to Colonel Blundell, he ordered Captain Napier to go in search of the man with a part of his troop and to take him prisoner, but not to use force unless absolutely necessary. About 530 p.m. tho same day Captain Napier succeeded in finding him, and called on him to surrender himself. Instead of doing so, Soruton deliberately knelt down and took aim at Sergeant Fraser, but fortunately missed him. Captain Napier then ordered one of the troopers to fire on Soruton, which ho did, tho ball striking him in tho head and killing him on the spot. At the Derby Police Court William Smith, an old man, one of the overseers of the parish of Hosforth, near Leeds, was charged with fraudulently obtaining the sum of £143 11s 4i from the Midland Railway Company. From the evidence it appeared that in Nov., 1874, June, 1876, and February, 1878, tho Company received demands from the prisoner for poor rates to tho amount named in respect of property which they owned in Hosforth. These amounts were duly paid. On examining the books of the prisoner, in consequence of certain suspicions having been aroused, it was ascertained that no rates were allowed on those dates by the parish authorities, and it was alleged by the prosecution that the names of the magistrates who appeared to have signed tho demand notes were forged. Tho prisoner was committed for trial.

Prince Bismarck has submitted to the Federal Council a proposal of the Prussian Government for the appointment of a committee to prepare the draft of a Bill for the regulation of the railway system of the Empire. It is proposed that tho committee shall consist of nine members, two being nominated by the German and Prussian Governments respectively, and one each by the Governments of Bavaria, Wurtemborg, Saxony, Hesse, and Baden. The members will be authorised to consult experts, and to obtain material for their deliberations from their own Governments. The Imperial Chancellor will appoint the president of tho committee. Another mysterious crime has just come to light in Paris. The decomposed body of a young woman with a rope tied round her neck was found in the Seine. At first it was thought to be a case of suicide, but investigation proved it to be one of murder. The body turned out to be that of a servant named Elise Rouok, who came from Belgium a conple of months ago to seek a place in Paris. She disappeared shortly after her arrival. Tho rope round her neck, on being examined, was found to he broken. Divers were sent down into the river, and they succeeded in finding a large stone, to which was attached tho remainder of the rope. The body, thus weighted, must have kept at the bottom of the Seine till the constant action of the water broke tho rope. A portion of her clothes still remained intact, and in a pocket were discovered some jewellery and money. This fact would lead to the inference that robbery was not the motive of the crime.

Tho “Shen Pa o” (Shanghai) in a recent issue publishes a letter from a mandarin iu Shansi, North China, relating to tho famine stricken districts. In the Taiyuan Pa, tho capital of the province, and its suburbs, the Government Burial Board buried no less than 12,000 corpses of persons who died of typhus, whose relations were too poor to provide for their funerals. The number of mandarins who died of fever was about 300. In tho four southern departments, Pinyang Fu, Chiang Chow, and Chiai Chow, only about three-tenths of the population remain, the rest being dead or gone elsewhere. In the two districts of Yuanchu and Hoching in Chiang Chow only ono-tonth is left. Cannibalism has become too common to bo taken any notice of. People who have money left are afraid to have public funerals when members of their families die, lest they should attract attention, and tho bodies be eaten. The three public soup kitchens at Taiyuan Fu use a hundred piculs of rice every day. Rice still costs one tael five ’mace per bushel (of about twelve catties). An inquest was hold at tho Guildhall, Abingdon, before Mr Morrell, one of the University coroners, on the body of Mr Percival Pott, son of the Archdeacon of Berkshire, who died from tho effects of an accident. Mr Coles, commoner of Worcester College, said that ho and tho deceased, who was an undergraduate of Koble College, were driving in a dogcart on Sunday, and as they were turning a sharp corner deceased whipped the horse into a gallop, and was unable to check it. Tho vehicle was upset, and deceased was thrown out upon his head, and sustained severe concussion of tho brain and hcemorrhage, in addition to an injury to his neck. Ho was unconscious till ho died. Tho jury returned a verdict of accidental death, .and .called tho attention of the local authorities to the dangerous nature of tho turning. At the Bankruptcy Court an application wae made to Mr Registrar Brougham to register the resolutions come to by tho ■creditors of Edwin Clark, civil engineer, of Westminster Ohambeis, Victoria street, lately trading with W. H. Punchard, under tho firm of Edwin Clark, Punchard, and Co., as contractors. Tho petition was presented tho early part of April, the liabilities being stated at between £700,000 and £BOO,OOO. The first meeting was held on tho 30th of April, when a joint statement of affairs was presented, showing total unsecured debts £54,865, debts fully secured £780,500, debts partly secured £54,980, tho value of the securities being £37,948, and assets £198,019. A separate statement of affairs was also p*oduced, showing total unsecured d»bts £54,796, and asset* £3lO, in addition to which there are certain other assets incapable of valuation. Resolutions were passed liquidating the estate by arrangement. Registration was ■ordered. Whilst strolling over his estates in the mountains near' Avila, with his young wife, the Date of Medina-Coeli, tho premier peer 95(J grandeo of Spain, accidentolly stumbled

over his gun, receiving the contents of both barrels in the body, and was mortally wounded. Ho waited for help, loaning on the Duchess until succour came, but despite the assistance of the local surgeon and of the eminent army surgeons sent immediately from Madrid by special train, the Duke expired about six o’clock next morning. Ho remained conscious until the last moment, received the rites of the Church, and consoled those around him. The Dukowas twenty-eight years of age. He was married twice, his first marriage being with the daughter of the Duchess Alba, a niece of the Empress Eugenie. He was married again again last year to the daughter of the Marquis Torecilla.- His unhappy fate caused a great impression in Madrid, the King expressing his sympathy with the widow, who is only nineteen years of age. An influential meeting of the representatives of Limited Liability Companies was held at the Westminster Palace Hotel, to consider the Government Banking Bill. Thirty-one Banks were represented. Besolutions were adopted expressing a strong feeling in opposition to the establishment, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed, of Banks with the qualifying title “reserved liability.” A committee was appointed to take steps in furtherance of the views of the meeting. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, speaking at tho annual dinner of the Association of English County Bankers, at Willis’s Booms, referred to the Banking Bill brought before tho House by him. It had been delayed, he said, until the excitement occasioned by recent events should have passed away; but ho hoped to be able to pass a measure this session which would be of benefit to the banking community. Prince Alexander of Bulgaria, on arriving in Yienna, was welcomed by the Bulgarian Deputation, who reverentially addressed him in German. Tho Prince heartily thanked them, also in German, and added that it would ever bo the first object of his Government to work for the welfare of the Bulgarian nation. On his arrival the Prince exchanged friendly greetings with Count Bcrchem, Councillor of the Gorman Embassy, whose father is an intimate friond of his. Prince Alexander is accompanied by his aide-de-camp, Herr Non Eiedcsel and secretary, Her Stoilow, the Councillor of Appeals at Sofia. At tho railway station tho wife of a great Bulgarian merchant presented him with a bouquet. Ho paid a visit to Prince Eeuss, tho German Ambassador, and then held a reception in the Imperial Hotel, where he is staying, of some members of the Bulgarian colony hero, with whom ho talked about his experiences during tho Bulgarian war of 1877, and he promised to receive a deputation of their wives. Next day he had a special audience of tho Emperor, which lasted more than a quarter of an hour. The Prince was taken to the Palace in a slate carriage, and received with princely honours. He wore a Busaian military uniform. Erom the palace be called upon Count Andraasy, and conferred with him for more than an hour. The material of which thick armour should bo made, says Mr Barnaby, is now tho subject of anxious experiment in Germany and France, as well as in Italy and England. Steel and other alloys of iron are so little known or understood, that there is a large field for experiment open for the armour plate maker and for the artillerist. Steel has been tried many times alone, and in combination with iron, but it never gave enough satisfaction to secure its adoption until experiments wore made at Spezzia with plates 55 centimetres thick, manufactured by Schneider and Co., at Oreuzot. With these tho Italian Government were so well pleased that they are plating the Dandolo and Duilio with such plates. Those of us who visited the French Exhibition last year may have seen a stool armour plate produced by this firm, bent to the form of a turret, 33 inches thick, and weighing 65 tons. Those who went to the works at Creuzot, by favour of Mons. Schneider, may also have seen an ingot of cast steel, suitable for making an armour plate, and weighing 120 tons. Tho rival firm of Teno Noire exhibited armour plates of steel which hud not been hammered, or rolled, or otherwise forged. They were simply cast plates, tempered in oil, and annealed. Judging from the admirable series of specimens and tests and analyses, the manufacture has already attained a large degree of precision, and is full of promise. I believe that tho Italian Government will shortly test some of it with tho big Elswick gun, and it may be that blocks of cast steel will revolutionise the manufacture of armour by making the rolling operations unnecessary, and bringing down tho cost to that of ordinary largo castings. The French Government have also made many experiments with steel armour at Havre, but have not yet satisfied themselves that they should give up wrought iron. Experiments with steel in England have shown that steel can be made of great hardness, so hard that it will break up all projectiles which strike it, and that it will not suffer seriously in doing so. Sir Joseph Whitworth has obtained some most remarkable results in this direction, and he is still pursuing the inquiry. Within a recent period, geologically speaking, a largo portion of Arizona and the Colorado plateau has been converted into a desert by the drying up of an arm of the Gulf of Californio, cut eff from the sea by silt brought down by tho Colorado river. Some years ago it was proposed to refill tho old sea bed, now known aa the Yallcy of Death, by turning into it the water of the Colorado. General Fremont has been urging another plan. He says that a canal ten miles long would lead the waters of the Gulf of California to the bed of a lake, and another cutoff, fifteen miles from tho upper end of the lake, would admit the waters to tho great basin, parte of which are 350 feet below the sea level. Six months are estimated as tho time required for the work, and tho cost one million dollars. General Fremont, as the Governor of Arizona, lays great stress upon tho value of this engineering work in reclaiming desert land in that Territory, in which purpose the United States is not strongly interested at this time. But tho new inland sea might prove serviceable in opening up a water route through Southern California of value to commerce, and in this respect of some national importance.