ENGLISH MAIL NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 550, 27 July 1869, Page 4

ENGLISH MAIL NEWS.

Among the superstitions of thp past age which are not yet exploded, a peculiar belief in the eißcticy of the rain water which falls on Holy Thursday or Ascension Day still remains in pome of the villages of Warwickshire. In a village a few miles north of Rugby, several old women might have been seen on Thursday last busily engaged in catching the falling rain, which they carefully bottled for use during the ensuing year. On inquiry what peculiar properties the water so obtained was supposed to possess, and to what purpose it was intended to be Applied, a venerable old woman said that the water had the property of preventing heavy bread, and would keep for a year. Every week when a batch of bread is baked a tcaspoonful of the water ib added to the leaven, and this causes the bread to be light. At least, so the old woman firmly believed, and great was her joy at having been enabled to secure such a plentiful supply of the water for use during the coming year, "All roads lead to Rome ;" all suitors go to the English law courts. Now it is a nun seeking redress for alleged ill-treat-ment ; now it is a beggar asking protection for hi? person ; now it is a king asking protection for his property. King George of Hanover, or as he would style himself George, King of Hanover, and his son, the Crown Prince, filed a bill before ViceChancellor James, lately, against the Bank of England, the Duke of Cambridge, ami the Duke of Brunswick, respecting a Bum of L 600,000 invested in Consols. It is not often that such a number of " swells" are in tho court at once. The Cork Examiner states that the Rev. W. B. Buckley, a Roman Catholic clergyman of that city, is now amenable to arrest, under process of the Court of Exchequer, for contempt in . not paying income tax, Mr Buckley holds, it is stated, that as the profession to which he belongs is not recognised by law, and as he did not enter it for profit, and receives only voluntary offerings, to which he has no legal claim, he ought not to pay the tax. The Examiner sees in these reasons strong ground why " the income of the Catholic priest should not be treated in regard to this impost in the same way as the income derived from more certain sources and better assured by law." Captain Madden is an Irishman and an Orangeman, At an Orange meeting the other day, he delivered a speech condemnatory of Mr Gladstone and his Irish Church Bill. This is an extract from it : —"Mr Gladstone, backed up by the Pope's Brigade, who are honester men than himself, and assisted by a host of Scotch and English radicals, has got himself into power, and gulled the English people by a long course of lying and misrepresentation. They find they have a majority in the House of Commons, and they are doing all they can to bully the minority, no matter by what means. If an honest member stands up to speak, and it does not suit Mr Gladstone to hear him, he just gives his head a shake, and immediately the Pope's Brigade, et hoc ' genius omne, commence a series of booings, shoutings, and cat-calls, that make people wonder whether an average cock-fight is not better conducted than the British House of Commons." The municipality of Nanterre have just performed their annual duty of choosing a rosiere. There were only four young ladies who put up for the much-envied prize, the choice falling on a wineshopkeeper's daughter. The young lady, as your readers may be aware, must be of irreproachable morals, and not over 22 years of age. She receives a dot of 300 f. and a marriage trousseau, including a gold watch, chain, and eiir-rings, in return for . which ghe has to collect the offerings at the local church during the year. The task of the municipal bigwigs in examining a young girl's character and morals is naturally very difficult and delicate, and no surprise can therefore be expressed if they are sometimes. " taken in." A few years ago their choice fell on a girl who had led a queer life in Paris, but who had returned to her native Nanterre and reformed. On another occasion the rosiere, after receiving the compliments and congratulations of the curate and municipal body, went up to the Mayor and said, (t Well, now that you have done so much for me, what are you going to do for my chUd r—Echo. A case of considerable interest to English readers has just come before the Civil Tribunal of Lyons, It was a demand made by the heirs of a certain Major Martin from the municipality of that city. Jt appeared from the evidence that Major Martin entered the service of the East Company as a common private, and died at L.ucknow in 1800 at a good old age, leaving a fortune of L 480,000. In a will, dated a few months before his death, he left a portion of his property to his relatives, but distributed the greater part among charitable institutions, and especially those of Lucknow, Calcutta, and Lyons, Among the numerous clauses of the will was one by which the city of Lyons, where the testator had long resided, was bound to devote an annual sum of LjijOO to the liberation of prisoners for debt, The relations of Major Martin, basing their claim on the law of the 22nd July, 1§67, which abolished personal imprisonment in civil and commercial cases, maintained that the capital representing the above-named interest of LSOO ought to revert to them. The city of Lyons very naturally resists the claim, and as the case involves several important legal questions, it is not likely to be finished for some time. Accounts reach us that are truly appalling, The .same report comes from Finland, Livonia, Esthonia, and Courland, from the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia, and Lake Peipus, from the lowlands of Poland, and from the denselypeopled towns along the Baltic coast. There is no seed- corn to be had for the crop of this year ; bread, having long been obtainable at fapiine prices, has now become unattainable at any price ; pestilence has made its appearance, and is adding its horrors to the overflowing cup of misery pressed to the lips of the stricken people of thoze unhappy lands. Here is a picture of the scene, as described by a writer at St. Petersburgh :~- li Fields lying waste; villages depopulated ; private houses turned into hospitals; fever-parched skeletons tottering from the doors of overcrowded places of refuge ; children wandering over the country in gaunt and squalid nakedness ; crowds of men, driven to desperation by long misery, and ripe for any outrage, roaming the streets night an 3 day,'' A letter from one of the central 'district's of Esthcnia says:— "AU heart

work is gone out of the peasants. Their once fresh and hopeful faces show only the blankness of despair. Children are deserting their parents, parents their children ; some wander about the country, begging and plundering > others flock into the towns to swell the aggregate of want and misery already gathered there, and perish in scores by famine and disease. Crowds have to be turned away for want of means to supply their need, and their imploring faces haunt me night and day." r-Ncw York Tribune. The Times of India has been thrown into considerable excitement by the announcement in a Madras paper that Mr Waymouth Gibbs, formerly tutor to the Prince of Wales, has received the appointment of legjil member of the Governor-Gene-ral's Council, in succession to Mr Maine. The Bombay Gazette calls this a surprising report which requires confirmation, but the Times of India fears that the report is only too true, and that a job is to be inflicted on India." " Nine-tenths of the community are consequently asking 'Who is this Mr Gibbs?' and the remainder, | ' What has he done to bliow himself fitted to occupy so distinguished and responsible a position ?' To both these questions only one answer can be given : 'He was tutor to the Prince of Wales.' It is felt, therefore, that, however the appointment may turn out, Mr Gibbs will owe his position, not to the operation of the principle of natural selection, but to Court influence — the persistent pressing, probably, of 3ome half promise made years ago. " The Indian journal adds that many admirabry-quali- . tied men could have been found, both hi England and India, to take this post. There are Mr John Bruce Norton, Mr Fitzjames Stephens, and Mr Hobhouse, for instance. Certainly, if this appointment has been made, there appears a just ground for complaint. Maine, author of ■ the admirable treatise on "Ancient Law," we know, and Stephens aud Norton we know, but what manner of man Mr Gibbs is must be left for the decision of time. He is no doubt a gentleman and an excel lent tutor, but he is no lawyer, except in the sense of having "eaten his dinners" at one of the Inns of Court. Not much more than a week ago a man took up his stand one night at the lifeboat house at Broughty Ferry and commenced " holding forth" to the audience which soon collected. His discourse was in no way different from that of most of these revival preachers, and he appeared to be — if not au able— at least an earnest preacher. After he had finished he crossed to Tayport, and commenced there, and a poor woman taking pity on him asked him home at the conclusion to get some refreshment. He was served with an excellent tea, and the best room in the house was set apart for his accommodation. It is said, however, that during the night he rose, perhaps while sleeping, and by some means or other got into another room where the purse was kept, and after abstracting the contents, about half-a-guinea, disappeared from the village before daylight. Next day a poor woman, without bonnet or shawl, presented herself at Broughty Ferry Pier, where she made inquiries regarding this preacher. She claimed to be his wife, and said that she was following him to give him into the hands of the police for assaulting her on the day before he left Dundee for the Ferry. She threatened, if she got hold of him, to " put him from preaching" for some time to come, and we heartily commend the good woman's " sentiment." — Dundee Conner.