NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1110, 17 February 1872, Page 2

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

The West Coast portion of the English ; mail has been brought on 'by the steamer Charles. Edward, which arrived [%t Grey- ; mouth i; yesterday./ The frUowing^are some of the principal items contained in - our San Francisco and English files .;— - f . • i'The; President of the United Stetes dm recommended Congress to subsidise tro ■ New Zealand and Australian line, and it will undoubtedly^be .carried this session. The Neivs oftm-jP(N-ldaa.ya, however, that it shouldir.ibi^ygl^^p.havef Mr Yogel in the field at Washington, armed .asjie is at all points with statistics and data . bearing reference to r the? subject. "TPhe Blue Book containing his masterly speech certainly "cbvers the" 'whole ground." The whole statement is clear and succinct, and we doubt whether there is a mani on the Pacifig-rc-^sing: the' term in itsbroa/1 senflQ-r^wKo ,:sq y thoroughly^undqrstandg the question, -as th'prg & certainly no one. who has workod harder for the line. The "snow blockade on -the .Union Pacific road, although the first stoppage on .the ■ .trans-continental, route, since its completion, has not proved of very serious imporjs. This road is now completely openvto tuayej. as befprejr witb^tjhp :geytainty that no delay will ocgur again, ay special provisions haye been made to, pre? vent its recurrence, "by the employment of " snow ploughsj" v snow^fences, &ci The winter has been so far unexceptipnally severe in the United States generally,lbut travel has been comparatively little impeded. The merchants, .and general travelling public are niaking ; iheir f trips to New York just as usual. The Dacotah, a sister vessel to the Nevada and 6J Jtl?B'^e>b" Linp. having been 'completely overhauled aqq refitted, is reported as having" left New York to take her place on the Australian route. She is well known a3 a splendid, vessel, and it is, understood that t$ soW assheca^ be > brought .tq $^jWsothß . steamers, wi}} run '< throijgh" from Soft Francisco to all the leading ports of th§ Hawaiian Islands, New and Ausr tralia without requiring a second stiam? ship (as, at the present time) to Qonneqi) at Honolulu: ;.: \ . ;; ;-;•':; .;;';. ;^;; ." 411 fears and anxieties of a drought t Jn California this year have been removed. There have been several heavy rains—, storms that have extended to all parts of this State, and -to the adjoining States and Territories^ A heavy rain-storm set in on December • l^thj continuing, for several days^ the^ d^est v pbrtionß of \the State receiving a good share. The farmers . are jubilant, and- already . .business pros- - pects begin to look up. The crops thia year will doubtless excel those of former years. Upwards of •S,OM,OO<JdQI. worth more of wheat will be exported this year than last.: In some parts of the State some damage was done by ■ flooding the valleys, carrying away .bridges, arid;pbstructing travel "for a few days.. The prospects for a large crop look bright, and the year 1872 ! will be one^ of the most noted in the progresa and prosperity^of Califonji^. , ' >. ; c A terrible affeir ooourred in Saline county, Nebraska. A; party of immigrants, with their families, were passing through the county westward, when, the cold in^ creasing, they concluded to camp light a fire. They were on a piece of high prairie and several miles away-from any house; but some three miles from them was a piece of timber. After unhitching their teams, the men started for.tiiis timber to procure fuel. Not returning for . several hours, the women left their children and started to hunt for. ihein. This is all that is known ? sayethjit ujßst day tlie bp^ieß of se^ente^n pepiofis, yrSo had perished from /the intense coldj were found. The children, who were left in the waggons, were the only survivors of the party who had started to procure homes in the West. i .: Brigham' Young, in custody of the United States Marshal^ appeared before Chief Justice M'Kean under indicfinlnt for murder. The Court-room: was crowded to sujbe^tion, Much anxiety was eyince4 on the part of the Sfoyraqns. but not the least show;of disprder?br djsfes T ppjst to the Court. The Hon. C. H. Hemstfiad^ancl Thomas Fitch were counsel for the prisoner, and :United States' Attorne y. Bates for the prosecution. ; Homstead moved that the prisoner be admitted to 1 bail, on the ground that ho was an old .man of 71 years of. age, and in feeble health. He - had come four hundred miles to miiet this and all other charges, and his physicians certified that imprisonment would imperil.his life. Bates offered no opposition to bail, but suggested that if baU be taken it should be fixed at 500,000d01. Judge MtfCean, in his decision, 'said ; The Government pf the Unitetl has no gaol in this ; dty for holding prf. soners arrested on processes issued from the United States Courts. The prisoner is reported to be the owner of several houses in the city* It is Optional for the prisoner to make. such oflfer. In any event the Marshall will 1 look to it that

every cemfort be provided for ffie prisoner, remembering that he is an ; old man. I decline to admit the defendant to bail. On leaving the Court Brigham Young tendered the ■ Marshall his residence on South Temple street, which was accepted, and the prisoner drove him to his own house. Brigham was perfectly cool and unconcef hed. A great riot occurred on the 30th November, at Bolton, on the occasion of Sir Charles Dilke's lecture ,on- "Representation and Registration." The meeting was filled two hours before the time announced for commencing, two thousand tickets haying been distributed. The crowd outside thus prevented admission stormed the hall. Iron bars, stones in showers, and other missiles were hurled through the windows, which were literally riddled. Many persons were hurt. Sir Charles spoke briefly, aud a petition was passed in favor of a more complete registration and representation. The Temperance Hall, where the meeting* was held, is a complete wreck. The meeting only lasted an hour. One of the most destructive fires that has occuired in London for some time ■ broke out. on the premises of Messrs Millestro and JollifFe, chemical manure makers, Bull Head Wharf, Rotherhithe, on the morning of December 14. The conflagration has laid in nuns property estimated at over a quarter of a million in value. Owing, however, to a short supply of water, and the difficulty caused by the approached to the scene of the fire, the firemen were unable to get efficiently to -work for some time. The flamed, in consequence, spread to the King and Queen Granary, one of the largest in England, andto another granary, .containing 60,000 qn. corn. Besides these buildings, the King and Keys public-house and , many other houses were destroyed, and ' considerable damage was done to premises in Bull-yard, and to the Thames Dock Wharf. The origin of the fire is unknown. £ ■ One of the most pleasurable sensations of the month has been the issue of the first volume of, Mr John Forster's " Life of Charles Dickens." The eagerness of " the trade" to get hold of the book was

extraordinary. The whole of the first edition wa3 instantly sold off, and a second is in course of publication. The volume o mtains matter that is news not only to the public, but to members of Mr Dickens's own family also: In autobiographical passages ho himself states that when a child of ten years old he was obliged, owing to his father's troubles, to hire himself out as a tiny assistant in the establishment of a blacking-maker, and that for a long time he was in! sticking labels on blacking-bottles, for which service he received so small a guerdon, that between its smallness and tho inability of a child to control his passion for pastry and the like, he was often at tho end of the week very hungry and without the means of satisfying his hunger. He says that the impression made upon him by humiliation and hardship are so strong that it "made him cry" ao long after as the birth of his eldest son. The volume describes his his early successes, but does not come down to that time when his domestic rearrangements becarao the talk of the country. Tho work is dedicated to the great novelist's two daughters, Miss Dickens and Mrs Charles Collins. The accounts of the famine in Persia are, if anything, worse than before, aiid there are still four months and a half to pass before the early -harvest. Many of the Persians themselves think that a speedy rainfall even now would cause relief, this view being grounded on the belief that there is still much grain in store, and that the prospect of a good harvest and fall in price would bring it all ont. But there appear the strongest grounds to fear, aq utterly destitute have the people become, and so completely has the demand for labor ceased owing to the general ruin, that even if an abundance of grain was thrown on the market, the bulk of the population would not have the wherewithal to buy it. A Rio de Janeiro correspondent of the Frankfort Journal gives an account of the brawl between some of the crew of the •: Nymph and the Brazilian police, by which . it appears that patriotic indignation has been spent on rather an unworthy object. In the first place, the Hotel Central, wtere the brawl occurred, appears to be ' a place of very doubtful reputation, where people would naturally expect a row, and where parents of young midshipmen, even Of the "exemplary character" ascribed .' to the German visitors, would rather have the police interfere to turn them out. It does not improve the case that the visit was paid at night. In the second place the police came to the Hotel Central in one cf their ordinary rounds to see the house cleared and shut up at the prescribed hour. : It is not uuusual for young men to engage in a struggle with the police on such occasions, even in Berlin, and the correspondent of the Frankfurt Journal believes that the sailors, who were enjoying their wine, did resist the police ; an act that would in any case justify their arrest.