MISCELLANEOUS.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 539, 1 July 1869, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

Mr Topham, a gentleman farmer, and brother of a Protestant clergyman, was shot dead at Boffana, County Tipperary, on Thursday, April 1. Two bullets entered his head. No arrest was made, and the cause of the assassination is not known; but deceased is believed to have had a dispute some time since about land. Cardinal Cullen, in his Pastoral, states that all Catholics who encourage Masonic balls are ipso facto excommunicated. The O'Donoghne writes to an Irish paper to say that he did not attend the Dublin masonic ball as had been reported. "I did not," he says, "receive an invitation,

and even if I had been invited it would have been impossible for me, as a Catholic, to have been present." Dr Crum Brown was elected Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh. The death of Mr Wm. Bradbury, of the well-known publishing firm of Messrs Bradbury and Evans, is announced. He died at the age of 70. Two gentlemen, Messrs Mohr and Hubener, have arrived in Natal, commissioned by the Prussian Government to inspect and report upon the country of the reputed gold fields near the Tatin. The Ritual Commissioners, says the John Bull, have recommended the omission of the present lesson for Evening Prayer on the third Sunday in Lent, containing the story of Dinah. Patrick Neligan was committed on April 1 for trial at the next Kerry Assizes, on the charge of inviting two soldiers of the 81st Regiment to take the Fenian oath and join the conspiracy. A correspondent at Rome states that the Queen of England was among the sovereigns who congratulated the Pope upon the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination. The presents sent to his Holiness on this occasion included olives, oil, wine, cheese, corn, lambs, calves, hams, jewels, money to a large amount, and warlike stores. In addition to these a battery of field guns was expected from Poitiers. A competition of trotting horses took place in Paris at the Palace of Industry, when the first prize was gained by a Russian horse, driven by a real Monjik in a drowski, the animal going over a space of about 2,500 yards in four minutes and four seconds. The second prize was won by a French mare. The Gertrude, from Rio Grande, which arrived at Queen stown on the 26th of January last, and sailed from the latter port on the 30th of January for Silloth ; and the Glasgow, which sailed from Boston, United States, on or about the 24th of November last, for London, have not since been heard of.