ENGLISH ITEMS.

Grey River Argus, Volume III, Issue 199, 23 April 1867, Page 3

ENGLISH ITEMS.

f-- A telegram from Cairo announces that two large stoam-tugs have passed through .rj ithe fresh- water canal and arrived in safety ■vjffi-' A Bill for an Imperial guarantee of a ygipl^kf L 4,000,000 to the Confederate H | nment of Canada is to de introduc.*^--H I srliament. H V .birmingham Bank is expected to H |"1 in the pound. -: ".Heath, is announced of the Rev. ■ ler Hill, D.D., late Professor of I. I in the Glasgow University. \\\ G °^ cons iderable opposition, an !''F een introduced into Dr CunnTiChurch at Crieff. Large audiences Wlhe church. k $ 1)000 persons at the East End of % re s »ff er i n g c l ee P distress from v, x loci and fuel. /«S° Smart, the veteran organist 'U.*ier, has died at the age of 89. '■ \icct states that three young ' f<7 Bitty passed their examination ' nty of Apothecaries. IX Ibrated Tichborne Baronetcy Jv; : » S to have been definitely J |;ln the 15th February the ' . * lat Alsford rang out a merry ' Br of the arrival of the long- ' lor at the estate. ; ' Bd Greenland, the Manager of 'Ranking Company, who was t ( 1 n O^ober for swearing to a \'- V ;ement °f '^ ie a fl i " rs °f the ComIs been sentenced to 15 monthb' lment with hard labor. I. » w Confederation' of the North ft 1 Provinces will only include 1 ntia, New Brunswick, and the », Newfoundland and Prince \ Y s l an d decline the union at prei^ H n I jan dseer's lions have been M 1?^ * v P os iti° n at the base of ' YV, .IMonument. Trafalgar Square, \ ■ ie l e S rai Ph l nie fr° m London to " « w& Qn opened to the public. A 1 ftventy words, from London to l^Wg 14 ? s 6d> will reach Tient1\ '«ort of Pekin, in twelve days, V b there is steam transit to V vngkong, &c. q ( 1 ■pf Mr William Dargan took 1 \ln on Feb. 7. He had been & Ik 1 ' aDOll t a fortnight, and for 1 \ » ;nere nac * k een little or no 0 I I » over y- ne deceased, who 4 Iff Ireland, was born at the — r|" c present century, and was ; /{Tn railway contractor and and \ I e was ie son °^ a g eu tlenian : -|f aving received a good eduii /laced in a surveyor's office, ; » A^nent being under Tclford of the Holyhead road\

Rayidiy advancing in his profession, he obtained the contract for the Howth road, and for the first railway in Ireland, the Dublin and Kingstown line. Indeed, there was subsequently scarcely a public work in that country in which he did not take a prominent part. He will, however, be best known as the founder of the Industrial Exhibition in Dublin in 1553, liis ultimate loss in connection with which is believed to have reached some L 20 ,000. Before the exhibition opened his advances amounted to nearly LIOO,OOO. At the close of that exhibition he was offered, but declined to accept, the honor of knighthood. Mr Dargan was at one time largely concerned in flax growing, and was a steam-boat proprietor. Like many other capitalists, he felt severely the effects of the monetary panic of last year, and was compelled a short time since to ask the forbearance of his creditors, which was readily granted ; and it was said to be highly probable that his estate would not only pay 20s in the pound, but th.it a considerable surplus would remain. Soon after this, to him no doubt distressing even x , his health began to decline, and he has unhappily not survived to see his affairs extricated from their temporary embarrassment. Under the pressure of the gale on Feb. 5 some of the anchors holding the Great Eastern on the "gridiron" at Liverpool yielded, and the enormous vessel drifted to the eastward — that is to say, nearer the centre of the Mersey — aud grounded on the soft mud, where the receding tide left her, it is said, "in comparative safety." Various estimates are given as to the distance the ship dragged her anchors, the master of one lusf asserting that it was at least 150 feet, and another shortening the distance to 40 feet. She has not suffered in the slightest degree, aud will at once be replaced on the grdiron. One of the smallest elephants over imported into England has just arrived at Liverpool, in thu ship Frigate Bird, from Rangoon. This curiosity is only 3 fuet high, very docile, and, on its way up from the ship to the house of the naturalist who bought it, went into a public-house, and, inserting the end of its trunk into a jug of beer that was on the bar-counter, sucked up the contents, much to the surprise of those present. It is stated that it has been determined to provide a residence for the Prince of Wales in Ireland, where the prince will in future spend some portion of every year. The resident population of the United Kingdom in the middle of the year 18G6 is estimated by the Registrai'-General at about 29,935,404! 1,013,070 births and 665,859 deaths were registered in the year 1860; but it is considered necessary to add one-third to the births and one-fourth to the deaths registered in Ireland to compensate for defective registration, and this brings the births up to 1,061,819 and the deaths to 689,273. This leaves a natural increase of. 1020 daily, which is reduced to 459 by deducting the recorded number of emigrants, viz., 204,882, or 561 daily. There is no record of additions to the population of the United Kingdom by immigration. The birth-rate of the year in the United Kingdom was 35-47 per 1000, and the death-rate 23-03. Mrs Eliza Holden, of Queen's road, Bayswater, an eccentric lady, of intemperate habits, who, some years ago, was in posfession of L 30,000, has been found burned to death in her bedroom. She had beeu reading, and, it is supposed, drinkine a portion of her usual " every other day allowance," a bottle of wine, a bottle of brandy, and a quart of ale, when the bed-clothes crught fire, and smouldered. The unfortunate woman tumbled under the bed, and was discovered there, suffocated. The coroner's jury returned a verdict of "Accidental death." At a coroner's inquest in Wiltshire, the other day, the foilowiug extraordinary dialogue took place : — Coroner (to old man, husband of deceased): Had your wife a cough when you married her I Witness : Yaas, znr. — Coroner : Then how came you to be so foolish as to marry a woman with a cough ? Witness (scratching his head) : I don't know, zur. I s'pose I liked her. — Coroner : But why did you not have her examined by a medical man before you married her'/ Witness: Si>' ,emed healthy enough to I, zur. — : I wonder yon married a woman with a cough. I think if persons contemplating matrimony were to give a surgeon a fee for a certificate certifying that the woman was of sound health, it would prevent many melancholy spectacles we are often called to witness. The wife of Mr Martland, a farmer at Bursceugh, near Wigan, having • missed a large sum of money that she had hoarded in a meal-bag, 72 sovereigns were, after a search, found in the adjacent holes of rats. A thorough examination of the bottom of the r Great Eastern shows that during the four years she has been afloat siuce she was last cleaned there has been no marine accumulation of the slightest consequence on her plates. Some years ago a young girl, whilst practising singing in the parish church of Spalding, Lincolnshire, was bitten by a bat which alighted on her faco. Since that time she has been frequently attacked with fits of long sleep, and will remain in this state for some weeks. These attacks have become more frequent. On a recent Sunday, during the hours of Diviue service, she fell into one of these fits, and was conveyed out of church. It is said to be a paralysis of the brain, and presents an interesting study for the medical profession. •? The prolonged inquiry into the recent fearful catastrophe at the Oaks Colliery, near Barnsley, was brought to a conclusion oil Jan. 31. AH the stores of science and practical experience in mining were ransacked in vain to enable the jury to decide how the accident happened and who was to blame. They gave -no decision on those points. Their verdict in substance says: — "That there Avas no evidence to show how the explosive gas became ignited ;" and they added, " that it was unnecessary to make specific recommendations respecting the working of mines so as to afford better protection to life, because Government has the subject in hand, but the jury considered a more strict inspection desirable." ' The inquest arising out of the Stafford- • shire explosion was also concluded on the same day. The jury found that the explosion was accidental, arising from an accumulation of gas in the lower workings of the mine, in consequence of the upsetting of a wagon in a doorway — that this accumulated gas was exploded by the unlawful exposure of naked lights — that means should be taken to compel a more strict observance i v *he_colliery rulea for

the protiction of Ufa, and concluded by strongly urging (like the jury atßarnsley) the necessity of additional inspectors. It is worthy of remark that tlje Act of Parliament empowers the Government, by an Order in Council, to appoint as many inspectors as may be deemed advisable. A sad accident has occurred at the carriage department of the Lancashire,£and Yorkshire Railway Company, Oldham road, Manchester. A body of men were at work on the hoist sending up quantities of timber from tho lower to the upper storey. A waggon-load had just been got on the level, and was about being pushed off, when two of the chains supporting the hoist snapped asunder, and the men on the hoist, table, timber and all, fell in one confused mass. The timber, which was in planks and boards, was much broken up, and several of the unfortunate men were completely buried under it. Three were picked out dead, or in a dying state, and seven others were found more or less hurt, some of them having sustained compound fractures, and all of them suffering much from tho shock. They were removed as soan as possible to the Manchester Infirmary. On a recent morning Sproatley Grange, a farm-house, near Hull, was destroyed by fire. Mr Robinson, who had resided there 48 years, and who was nearly SO years of age, his wife and two daughters, several men and two maid servants, were the occupants. All escaped but Mr and Mrs Robinson ; upon which their youngest daughter returned, if possible, to save them. She reached thoir bedroom, but could not return, and all three weie suffocated. The youug lady was engaged to be married in a short time.