ENGLISH MAIL NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 638, 19 February 1870, Page 4

ENGLISH MAIL NEWS.

Thefqot anfl mouth, diseasp h.as b,een making great havoc among cattje in various parts of Britain. Strange to say, even human beings have been attacked by it. A woman whp had been frequently in! contact with cattle laboring under the diseasg, at Forb.es, in isqrays.hire, #as. found to be hersejf aiftscted with unmistakeable symptoms of the murrain. (Only about thirty licenses were taken put in t^e month of November by wprkerg on the Kiidqnan diggings. They have since entirely given up thpir operations, qwing to the severity qf the snow storms. It was stated at a i;ece.nt meeting of th,e Edinburgh Geological Society that the average number of diggers at Kildqnan durjng the summer' waa2oQ, and that the gold found up to the en,4 qf August was, valued ab L 12,000. The largest nugget was aboijt the sige of a walqut, and was worth I^B. Qn November 2, in the middle, qf the night, the people at Dartmquth, on the opposite side of Halifax Harbor. N.S., were awakened b;y cocking a.% if in a cradle, and at tha same moment the atmosphere was filled with a sulphurous matter. Tb,e sky at the time, wa^ covered with, thipk clouds.. Fortunately no damage was dqne to life or property. The mqst remarkable part of the matter is the fact that nothing was experienged of the shock at Halifax, although the two places are qnly 'separated by the breadth of the harbor, which at this point is only two miles and a half. A fire br.oke out qn Novem,ber 7, in Paris, at tlje residence qf M. Schneider, in the parti inhabited by Madame Asselin, mnther-in-law of that gentleman's son. That lady, beirig on the point of leaving for Creqsot, had put U P in' a small casket jewels wortl) 300,000fr, and, in. addition, had left in the drawer of her toilette-table bank-notes to the value of 200,0CO"r. All that property was I. elides a quantity of valuable furniture. Strange to say, not one qf the diamonds and other precious stones was fqund in the ruins after, the conflagration had been extinguished. Water .really must be very scarce in Edinburgh, judging by the following dialogue which took pla.ce at. the last meeting of ttye governors of Heriot's Hospital .'— ln reference to one of ..the items, Mr Hope said: "I see there is ' tablebeer as usual.' What does this mean ?" The Lord Provost : "It just means that it is as strong as it was last year." Mr Hope : " I understand it was proposed to discontinue it. in the committee, and that is the cause of its being put in 'as usual.'" The Lqrd Provqst : "There is a great scarcity of water." Mr Hope : " \Vhen, we get a new supply of water we will stop the beer." A St. Petersburg paper tglls the following singular stony : — A short time ago the chief magistrate, in one. of the principal towns of Southern Russia was robbed of a silver dinner service. A few days after he was invited to supper at the house of the Director of Pi lice, and saw, much to his amusement, the missing plate on his host's table. Ne^'t day he rep<>rted the circumstance to the Grown Prosecutor, who in. his turn communicated it to the governor of the town. The latter then simply requested the director.of police: in a polite letter to return the stolen plate. This, was done and nothing more was. said about the matter. A wild scene was to be witnessed at Cairo on the prophet's birthday. The prostrate bodies of fanatics were ridden over by the Sheik of TBekree, live snakes were eaten, glass crunched and swallowed, bodies slashed with swords, cheeks and breasts pierced with slurp metal instruments, . which were left sticking in the wounds. they, made, and hundreds of men and boy 3 shrieked and writhed, and wrestled, in what professed to be a mad ecstacy of religious fervour. . All this was gone through in the public . streets, in broad daylight, and in the presence of. as many lookers-on as could be crammed into the narrow thoroughfares, as could crowd toge^h^r on the flat roofs, or could see from the windows of the houses, or at the gratings iof. the mosque at which the festival culminated. . : Our lady readers would feel an interest in learning a fact which the daily papers mentioned in recording the marriages of the daughters of the Duke of Abercorn in Westminister Abbey, but that it has been contradicted by the Duke of- Marlbb'rou>li —namely, "that. the beautiful lace which was so profusely spread over the dress of the Duchess of-Marlboroughwas the very same: lace whicfr formed part of : the spoil taken by John, th,e great Duke of Marlborqugb, in hisiwars in Flinders/ a century and a half . ago. " The 'Bfenheim lace, as it i 3 called, is: said to. be simply priceless. The Duchess of Abercorn nasseyen daughters in all ;. six of these are married, and not one below the rank of a Countess, while one is already" and the other two are* Duchesses in prospective, being married to the heirs 'of the houses of rMarlbqrough and Buccleuch. A correspondent, writing to tha Dotty Neios on the subject of Dr. F^atKerston and Mr Bell's visit to England, says ..: — "lam glad to see that Dr F^tlieirstdn is on his way to England to p|eadftTi'^ cause of the colony in person. If knows more about the necessities and trie resources of New Zealand tliEi^aWofcher, it is he. \am not sanguine that his, mission will pivi^t^^fy^ejfeot, but th,e fact of its, failure wjffT^wve the Colonial Oifice and-i.ts . sel£-s£tiiM|e<3 supporters without excuse, arid will remove all . blame.- in, ; the, eyct[. qf thinking men fromi thevCt^qnists^.if iliey •should Ijria,nsfer, their allegiance^ from a mother,: who will, do nothing for. them, to a cousin^ who willdo all. Bitterly grieved aa.i shou,ld bje at; such an end of- New Zealand as a British : colony, 1 should not be su/prised to see it, and I for one should, consider the

Colonial Government fully justified in taking steps to bring about this result." The southern portion of the Thames Embankment was formally thrown open to the public on November. 24. Sir John Thwaites, as representing the Metropolitan Board of Wqrks, delhgccd a brief addj^Sa *qn thp occasion, in the course of which he ventured to assert that if mnnipipal bodies had fair play, they would not b,e lacking it} the promotion qf efficient self-government, l'|}e opening ceremony was succeeded by a dinner; Considerable surprise and alarm has been caused by the fact that a la,rg<3 portion of the Embankment on the opposite, side of the riyerappears to be gi ; adually giving way. The pavement lias parted; and feftrs are entertained tha|, shpuj^ a hard Winter. ae| in, the whole of this . great work will be ruined. It i§ supposed that this is in some measure, if iiot entirely, due tq the operatiqns in connection witu the Metropolitan District Railway cutting, now in course of fqrmatipn. The state of the infirmary wards at S,t. Pancras Workhouse has caused a great scandal. Constant remonstrances have been made tq the guardians, by the resident medical officer and others, but nothing was done in the way of improver ment. At last the Qoroner d^ided tQ hold inquests on tHe persons; dying there. Since then, " The Horrors pf St. Pancras Intirmary,'' an,d "The IVLassacres ftt St. Pancras," have been daily headings of paragraphs in th« newspapers 1 Mr Solly, formerly President of the Royal College of Surgeons, -and others, have testified to the improper s{ate of the wards ; and. juries havej over and ,p,ver again, brought in verdicts tq the effect that the.- death was accelerated by the state qf the infirmary. This has goue on, and probably would haye pontinued, without any attempt at improvement, but fqr the strong pressure of public opinion.. In the meantime, a national lias been laid" bare,. wljich' will, popsiijly, berfnioyed before long. On September 4 the Duke of Edinburgh, paid his visit to the Mikado, when a totally "unexpected compliment wag paii him, of which the Japanese officials had, gaid nothing to the B/itish Legation. The upper windows o f th,e houses along which he passed were all closed and s,ealed with paper bands, -that no "peeping Toms" might "look down" upon him. This is neyer done in Japan except for the Sovereign. It was done forthe Shogqon when he was virtually the ruler, and now for the Mikado, and, of course, in a Daimio's own capital his people pay him the same respect, but no Japanese prince ever receives the compliment from his imperial master, and, trifjitig as it riiay seem to Europeans, it was a most significant evidence to the natives of the estimation in which the Mikado held the s,on of liig nv)3t useful ally, His Imperial Majesty received his guest on ; perfectly equal terms, The Prince offered him a magnificent diamond snuff-box, which he placed in His Majesty's hand himself, and the Mikado received the splendid gift with evident dejiight, which he repeatedly expressed. Lord Mayor's Day was observed in Lqndoii much in the same way as it has been celebrated in former years. The new chief magistrate,' preceded by the usual civic procession ; went in the state coach from Guildhall to Westminster, tliere to be : presented .to the Lord Chief Baron, and to receive the congratulations of the judges on His election. The weather was not all that could be desired, fo. 1 early in the day a steady, dqwnpour of rain materially interfered with the full enjoyment of 'this popular London holiday. The state carriage; which has been thoroughly, renovated, looked remarkably well. In the evening the Lord Mayor entertained her Majesty's 'Ministers.. at a. banquet. The principal speakers were the Prime Minister, the Lord Chancellor, the Chancellor oftii'e Exchequer, the Hohie Secre^ tary, Lord de Grey arid Ripoh, and the Lord; Mayor. Oil November 19 a number of DevoVlshire gentlemen resident in London presented to the Lord Mayor, who is a native of Exeter, an address of congratulation on his accession to so high a civic dignity, , ■„.< • ._