NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2245, 9 May 1881, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

LOBD BEACONSFIELD'S SUOOESSOB. A late telegram in a San Francisco paper says —The prospective demise of Lord Beaconsfield occasions talk respecting his successor in the Conservative leadership. Lord Salisbury is ambitious, but his Toryism is unaccommodating, and he is not popular personally. His mind is capricious, and he would lack tho hearty support of the rank and file. A vast majority of the Tories prefer Lord Cairns. He is less irreconcilable, has broader views and more popular sympathies, but the high and dry aristocrats dislike oue not born in their own order. Lord Cairns is a lawyer of humble origin, and is also for strong evangelicism. The selection of Lord Salisbury is improbable, and supposing that Lord Cairns' health permits, he is the coming man. If the Tory party cannot agree on him they may choose a wooden figure, head like the Duke of Richmond. Lord Cairns has strengthened his position by his slashing attack on the Government in the Transvaal debate. His was one of the greatest speeches ever made in the House of Lords. Another telegram to the same paper says:—Beaconsfield is particulary anxious to see his old private secretary, Lord Bowton, for the purpose of giving him instructions regarding his memoirs and private papers. These are of incalculable value from a historical point of view, and Bowton, who possesses the dumbness of an oyster, is the only man in England, except the author, who has been favored with a view of this precious collection. It is understood they will not bo published until at leaßt ten years after Beaoonsfield's demise. They deal largely, of course, with men now living.

THE LABOUOHEBE LIBEL CASE. The public interest felt in the Lawson v Labouchere case, says the " Home Ne we," completely eclipses that taken in any other social topic It will probably occupy at least the whole of next week. As yet the attention of the Court has been chiefly occupied by Mr Labouohere's orcsa-exumination of Mr Edward Levy Lawson, and exceedingly clever it is admitted to have been. Among the different points which Mr Labouchere was anxious to establish were the deliberate insertion by the proprietors of the " Daily Telegraph " of improper advertisements, charged at a epecially high rate, and the non-exislence of any claim on the part of Mr Liweon to be a confcientious persoD. With a view to prove this latter assertion, Mr Labouchero dwelt chiefly on the Christmas Day and Q-ood Friday articles whioh used to be published in a journal whose proprietors are of the Hebrew persuasion, and on the circumstances under whioh Mr Lawson differed from Mr Gladstone. Mr Lawson protested that the issuo was one of high Imperial policy ; Mr Labouchere proceeded to ask Mr Liwson a number of questions as to the geographical situation of Epirus, Thesoa'y, Herat, Merv, and Oabul, with a view of showing that Mr Lawson's knowledge of these matters was exceedingly Blight. Mr Lawson refused to answer them. Yesterday, March 23rd, Mr Labouchere commenced the examination of Mr Lawaon's chief witness, Mr Montagu Williams, a well-known Old B liley barrister. To enable our readers generally to understand the character of this cause eclebre we will very briefly recapitulate tho chief faots whioh have led up to it. A £ w years ugo Mr Labouchere, tho proprietor an 1 editor of "Truth," waß on terms of fam'lmr acquaintance with Mr Edward Levy— v .e had not then taken the additior al name of L i w; on —and with his family. The friendship ?ensed, and Mr Labouchere, after two or thr o years during which he had contributed for the most part Oily articles to tho "World," Blurted a journal of his own, " Truth," in which he assailed the whole house of Levy-Lawson with marked emphasis. Between eighteen months and two years ago Mr Lionel Lawson, Mr E. L. Lawson's uncle, died, and Mr Labouchere wrote in " Truth" what ! was, he contends, a friendly paragraph about him. This particular composition provoked Mr Edward Lawson to a pitch of unconirollablo indignation, and a few nights after its appearance Mr Lawson assaulted Mr Labouchere in King William street, just outside the Beefsteak Club. The next day Mr Labouchere sent Mr Lawson a challenge to a duel. Mr Lawson,

after taking the advice of one or two friends, deolined to accept it. Upon this Mr Labonchere wrote to Mr Lawson, and published in the next number of " Truth" a long letter, in which he called him, amongst many other things, a coward, a disgrace to journalism, a literary reptile, and so forth. This is the letter which forms the gravamen of,the charge of libel made by Mr Lawson against Mr Labouchere, ar.d now subjudice. We have since learnt by cable that the jury were unable to agree to a verdict, and the case was dismissed. ASSASSINATION OF THE OZIE. The Emperor of Russia was assassinated in St. Petersburg lost Sunday afternoon (March 13th). He was returning about half-past two in a closed carriage from a military parade at the Bid<ng Sohool. When he had reached, while driving along the canal, a spot a few paces from the Kojusbni bridge, a young man who wa» looking on threw a bomb, which exploded, blowing in the back of the carriage. The Emperor, who was unhurt, alighted, and an officer who wos driving behind the carriage in a Bleigh immediately sprang out and seized the young man, who thereupon presented a revolver at the Emperor, but the 'officer grasped his arm and prevented his firing. In the explosion six of tho Oossack escort and several persons around were injured. According to one report, an officer ran towards the Emperor and asked whether he was hurt. His Majesty replied, very calmly, " Thank God ! I am untouched. Do not disturb yourself. I must see after the wounded." While he was speaking another man approached, in the confusion, and threw a second bomb, which exploded at the Emperor's feet. Uttering a cry for help the Emperor fell insensible upon the pavement. He was immediately placed on the sleigh by the attendant officers and driven to the Palace, where medical aid was procured. Both, of his Majesty's legß were broken and lsceratod, the lower part of his body was severely injured, and the left eye forced from its socktt. Another account, however, says the face was only slightly disfigured. The Kmperor's case was at once seen to be hopeless. He recovered consciousness for a few moments, when tho sacraments were administered to him, and he died shortly afterwards, at about a quarter to four o'clock. The Czarewitch and other members of the Imperial family were present. A supplement to the " Official Messenger " announced his Majesty's death, the Imperial standard was lowered halfmast high, the bells tolled, all the cafes, and inns were closed by the police, the officers and troops were confined to barracks, and Council of State was immediately summoned. All the Ambassadors called at the palace during tho afternoon, and telegrams announcing the terrible event were despatched to all tho foreign Courts and to the governors throughout the empire. The remains of the Emperor, embalmed, and clad, according to his own wish, in the uniform of the Preobrasohenski regiment, will be removed on Saturday from the Winter Palace to the cathedral in the fortress of St. Peter and Paul, and will there lie in State until a day or two before the funeral, which is appointed for Sunday, the 27th inst. An Imperial manifesto announcing the accession to the throne of the Czarewitch, under the title of Alexander 111., was promulgated on Monday. It is as follows: " We, by the Q-raco of God, Alexander HL, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Bussias, Czar of Poland, Grand Duke of Finland, &c., hereby make known to all our faithful subjects that it has pleased the Almighty in His inscrutable will to visit Bussia with heavy blows of fate, and to call her benefactor, the Emperor Alexander 11., to Himself. He fell by the hands of impious murderers who had repeatedly sought his precious life, and made their attempts because they saw in him the protector of Bussia, the foundation of her greatness, and the promoter of the welfare of the Bussian people. Let us bow to the unfathomable will of Divine Providence, and offer up to the Almighty our prayers for the repoße of the pure soul of our beloved father. We asoend the throne which we inherit from our forefathers, the throne of the Bussian empire, the Czardom of Poland and the Grand Dukedom of Finland inseparably connected with it. We assume the heavy burden which God has imposed upon us with firm reliance upon his Almighty help. May he bless our work to the welfare of our beloved Fatherland, and may He guide our strength for the happiness of all our faithful subjects. In repeating before Almighty God the sacred vow made by our father, to devote according to the testament of our forefathers the whole of our life to oare for the welfare, power, and honor of Bussia, we call upon all our faithful subjeots to unite before the altar of the Almighty their prayers with ours and command them to swear fidelity to us and our successor his Imperial Highness the Hereditary Grand Duke Nicolai Alexandrovitch. Given at St. Petersburg in the year of Our Lord 1881, and the first year of our reign." The ceremony of taking the oath of allegiance to the new Emperor, Alexander 111., was held in the Winter Palace at one o'clock on Monday afternoon. The Emperor and the Czarina, on driving to the Palace (a St. Petersburg telegram says) were surrounded by an immense and deeply sympathetic crowd, the people pressing so thickly round the carriage as to compel it to move only at a walking pace. Fervent exclamations of sympathy in their bereavement and expressions of deep veneration for the murdered Emperor were showered upon their Majesties as the carriago passed along. At the Palace, when all were assembled, the Emperor came from the Cabinet in which the remains of the late Emperor lay, betraying the deepest emotion, which rendered him. almost unable to address the assembly. He called upon all present to keep the dead Emperor in faithful memory, and to preserve the same fidelity towards himself as they had Bhown towards his father. On the conclusion of the ceremony a salute was fired by the cannon of the fortress. The open space in front of the Palace was crowded with people, when at half-past two the new Emperor and Empress passed through the crowd on their way to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan, amidst deafening acclamations. ATTEMPT TO BLOW UP THE MANSION HOUSE. On March 16th an officer on duty at the Mansion House discovered in a window recess under the private apartments of the Lard Mayor, overlooking George street, a package enwrapped in brown paper that had been ignited. Ho immediately extinguished the flame and conveyed the parcel to the Upper Thames street Police station. It was there examined, and from the description given by the police, it appears that within the brown paper was a deal box, strongly bound with iron, about twenty-four inohes square by five in depth, containing fifteen pounds of coarse blasting powder, which half filled the box. The remaining space was filled up with brown paper and old newspapers, a powder bag, and a portion of an old carpet bag. A hole had been made through the lid of the box, and in this aperture a fuse had been introduced, communicating with the powder. The fuse had reached the brown paper which was within the box immediately above the powder, and it is perhaps_ owing to the circumstance that brown paper is so difficult, of ignition that the policeman who carried [the box to the police-station escaped from an otherwise certain death. Another account states thai, the attention of the policeman to the packet was drawn by a woman who lived in the neighborhood, and on his observing that some paper attached to the end of the box was alight, instantly smothered the fire. A closer examination then disclosed that the box, which is about twonty-eight inohes by twentyfour inches wide, and five inches deep, and strongly bound with iron, contained 151bs of coarse gunpowder, lying loosely on the bottom, filling tho box about one-third full. It was covered with a number of pieces of old newspaper, a canvas bug, and a cirpet bag, both of which had evidently boon used to carry the powder. An ordinary fuse ran from the gunpowder through a hole in tho box to the paper outside, which had been found alight. The fuse would therefore have caught, and an explosion would have oeourred in a second or two but for the fortunate arrival of the policaman. No arrests have been made. Several persons were employed at the time in the neighbourhood, working on the new electric light apparatus, and many of them would doubtless have been injured had the gunpowder exploded. The Lord Mayor was not at home at the time, and, indeed, no one was in the part of the building where the box was placed, so that if it was intended to injure anyone inside, the attempt would have failed. As no one was seen near at the time, the police are not over sanguine about being able to detect the guilty parties.