ENGLISH AND FOREIGN NOTES,

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1170, 29 April 1872, Page 2

ENGLISH AND FOREIGN NOTES,

A Royal Academy Mendelssohn Scholarship has been awarded" to 'Miss Mary Crawford. There is, it is said, a probability that Aberdeen will soon have a fine new theatre and opera house. . > M. Eggimann, lately Swiss Finance Minister, has been, sentenced at Berne to four years' hard labor for fraudulent acts. ' " •■■•■.- The Presse of Vienna states that in" the Committee on the Constitution " fair pro-, gress is being made in the question of an arrangement with Galicia,, and a settlement is generally regarded ascertain to be effected." The other day a shot was fired into the house of a man named Quirke, a farmer. Quirke and his family were sitting at the fire at the time, arid as the window through which the shot was fired was shattered to pieces, the escape of the entire family is miraculous. Quirke and a man named Hanly have recently been disputing about the possession of some land. There have been no arrests. The Archbishop and: Bishops of the Church of Ireland have conveyed a request to the Dean of St. Patrick's that the Cathedral of St. Patrick's should be made available for a general thanksgiving service, to bo held on February 27, the day appointed for the national thanksgiving in St. Paul's. The Dean gave his cordial consent, and expressed his intention to carry out this object in a manner befitting the occasion. A cavalry pplicemah,. named Crotty, who was in Galway on temporary duty during the election, was stabbed in the breast, and seriously wounded, by a man named William Wade, wHdm he was ejecting from a public-house where he was creating disturbance. The constable had put Wade out of the house orice, but he returned in a defiant manner, and it was on being forced* out a second time 4 that he used the knife. Wade has -been, committed to the County Gaol for trial at the approaching assizes. The trial of Robert Kelly for attempting to shoot Police-Constable, Mullens, on. being arrested for the murder of Constable Talbot, commenced on February 9, in the Green Street Court House. The prisoner was defended by Mr.Butt, Q.C., M.P. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and a sentence of 15 years' penal servitude was passed. Previous to the sentence being passed Kelly denied having, been concerned in the murder of Head-Constable Talbot, or that' he in-, tended shooting any of the persons who pursued and arrested him. ] ,

There appears to be some foundation for the report that the Government are negotiating for purchasing the Irish railways. The directors of the Dublin; and Belfast Junction, in their report, say that during the past half-year negotiations had been renewed with the view of amalgamation with the Dublin and Drogheda Company, but no definite result had been

arrived at, and in consequence of the recent action taken by the Government 'towards purchasing Irish railways, the Board have intimated to the Dublin and Drogheda Company that for the present all negotiations should be suspended. • ..A demonstration, under 4he,auspioes of theHomVßuie Asaociationy was held on November 16, in? the Rosndßoom, Rotundd,/" To thank the people of Gal way .and.Kerry for. their assertion x of the principles of- the association," by their action in the recent parliamentary elections held in these counties. The meeting was very large, the body and galleries of the hall being densely crowded. The chair was taken by cMr Shaw, M.P. ; and amongst those who took part in the meeting were Mrßutt,M.P., MrMaTtin,:;M.P., Captain Nolan, M.P., Mr Blennerhaasett, 'M.P.., and the Hon. King Harman, D.C. The luck of the house of Rothschild is proverbial ; and it was pointed out as yet . another instance of that luck that, although the great bankers are very large owners of house property in Paris, not a franc's worth of damage had 'been done to them by the shells of either the Prussians, the Versailles troops,; or the Communists. But: it seems that the luck of the Rothschilds does not follow them into the law courts, for they have just been condemned to pay the trifle of 674,090 francs (L 27,000) for stamp duties due on the shares of different companies of which they are the agents, the said sum having been already paid to M. Gourde, the Financial Delegate under the Commune. It certainly does seem rather hard that . the State should refuse to accept the receipt of the Communal taxgatherers as valid, for, as M. Rothschild's lawyer pointed out, had his clients- refused to pay the Commune their establishment would at once been given up to pillage, and all the valuable property deposited there scattered to the winds. There 1 is good news from Paris for the . advocates of- "women's -■ rights. The Academy of Fine Arts is about to take into consideration the admission of female, members. The less chivalrous .'" Forty " . at the French Academy refused peremptorily to allow the question of the admission of female immortals to be discussed, even when the proposed candidate was George Sand, .who, in name at all events, is a man, and surpasses many an Acade^ mician in the vigor of her style and the originality of her ideas. Should tnV Academy fof Fine Arts decide to admit • femalaattists^lit will after all be no innovationfijiut only the revival of an extinct privilege ; for previously^ td ' 1789 there were many women who were members of it. Mdme. Vigee-Lebrun, the well-known portrait painter, was the last of the lady Academicians. Should the decision be , favorable, it is believed that Rosa Bonheur and Mdlle. Jacquemart, who has distinguished herself as a painter of portraits, will be"brought forward as candidates. A Military Committee is now sitting at - Berlin to inquire into the results of the employment of railways during the late war in the conveyance of troops, ammunition) provisions/ &c. It is found that when the distance is short, and a considerable force has to be conveyed, it will proceed more rapidly dn_ : foot than by railway.; An army corps of 36,000 men will go a distance of eighteen German miles in less time than if it were conveyed by a double ime of railway, and a distance of twenty-seven mile 3in less|time than if it- were conveyed by a single line. A saving of tinie is only to be obtained in forwarding large bodies of troops by railway when the proportion :< bf troops to German miles is as 2000 to 1 on a double line, and as 1333 to 1' bii-a single line. The French frequently suffered great losses from not observing this rule, while, on the .other hand, they surpassed the Germans in employing railways for the .conveyance of provisions. For this purpose so-cailed " magasins mobiles'* were formed, each of which contained ten days' provisions for an army corps, and was always kept ready on the line to be despatched wherever it might be wanted. V .A German paper reports that a strike of:a new kind has taken place at Valpa- * raiso. The governor of the district issued a decree some months ago which gave great offence to the physicians of the town^ Among other unpleasant duties imposed uponthem were those of visiting thesick poor at night by turns, and of holding fortnightly councils on sanitary arrangements, and they were forbidden to leave the town without Ihe permission ,of the authorities. Several negotiations took place on the subject,, but without success, and fourteen out of the sixteen physicians of Valparaiso have now struck work. The governor, nothing daunted, proposes to get over the difficulty b)r inviting twelve or more physicians from Europe to take the place of the malcontents, and the municipality has already voted a.sum of 10,000d61, f0r this purpose. The new comers will be given a free passage and an allowance of 200dol a month for the first quarter of their residence ; but as public opinion, judging by the press, appears to be entirely on the side of the local physicians, it is probable that those who may avail themselves of the governor's invitation will find that their undertaking is attended with more risk than profit. : . ■..•;'■

The VossiscJie Zeitung publishes some statistics relating to the educational establishments of Germany; ■ The number of primary public school in the entire empire is shown to be; 60,000; each affording instruction on an average to a hundred pupils. The ratio of pupils in proportion to inhabitants is 150 to a thousand. Brunswick, Oldenburg,, Saxony, and " Thuringa exceed this ratio, supplying 175 pupils to.every 1000 inhabitants. Mecklenburg and Bavaria fall: B hort of it, Blip* plying only 120 and 100 respectively. The secondary public schools are devoted to separate educational courses, preparing pupils for the universities, for the polytechnic schools, and for distinct trades and professions. The gymnasiums number 330>- the : pro-gymnasiums 214, the ,'Vreal gymnasiums" 14, and other secondary schools 483, and are attended by 177^379 pupils. There are ten polytechnic colleges'-j-two in Prussia ; and an academy for architects and engineers, employing 300 teachers and instructing 4428 students. There are, moreover,, 20. universities, employing ,1624 lecturersj and instructing 15.-557 students. Three universities accommodate above 1000 Btudents— namely, Berlin, Leipsic, and Munich? The total of public, educational establishments of all grades in Germany amounts to 61,072, and the number of pupils and students to 6,197,364, which is about one-seventh of the entire population. A melancholy commemoration might, - and probably will, ' be held this year. Precisely one century will have elapsed

since the first partition of Poland. Bosseau's advice to the Poles— that having been swallowed they should make them* selves as difficult as possible to digesthas certainly not been lost sight of; nevertheless, Poland was never more completely under the dominion of Russia, Prussia, and Austria than at this moment. Prussia, who has great digestive powers, has assimilated a far larger number of Poles than, either Austria, who, being so little German herself, cannot hope to Germanise her Polish subjects, or Russia, who cannot spare anything like the requisite number of educated offioials and professors for Russianising Lithuania and Poland after the manner in which Prussia Prussianises Posen. But. though in Galicia, and also in what Qsea to be called the kingdom of Poland, the Poles remain almost as Polish as ever they were, they have the annoyance of seeing in all parts of ancient Poland their three oppressors thoroughly united, not only on the Polish, but apparently on all other questions. Their former champion in Europe, moreover, has been dismembered like Poland herself ; and if France touches the Polish question again she can now only hope to do so from a Russian point of view. It is not to be expected that Prussia, Austria, and Russia will remain for ever, or indeed for very long, on good terms ; but taking things as they are, the prospects of Poland have never daring the last hundred years looked more gloomy than they do now. . A correspondent who signs his letter to us with the initials "C. B. 0." calls our attention to the report of the discovery of a new Moabite stone in a recent communication from Mr Lumley at Jerusalem to the Times. " Assuming," he says, " that Moses may have set up a trophy of this kind in the country of the Moabites, it is incredible that this people should have left it undefaced in a subsequent period in which they not only recovered their territory, but even subdued the Israelites, as we read that they did under their king Eglon. I willnpt dwell upon the slipshod style of the composition (which might imSrt tbat the Moabites gave God thanks it they had been worsted), nor the doubtful antiquity of what Mr Lumley calls the ( Sim&tio' character, nor make a difficulty 'about the alleged perfeotness of the inscription which bis Jewish friend has translated with so much ease and coni fidence. because one line of argument will probably be conclusive on this subject. I am convinced tbat Mr Lumley has been the victim of a hoax, and that if he fulfils his promise of bringing to England 'the declarations of people who know the history of the stone,' examination will . prove that they know too nwch about it." Mr Bright has written a very important , letter to the O?Donoghue, absolutely dis- ' claiming all sympathy with the Home Rule cry for Ireland. Hearing that some persons bad spoken of him as an advocate of "what is termed Home Rule in Ireland," he hopes no one will venture to say anything so absurd and untrue." "To have - two Legislative Assemblies or Parliaments in the United Kingdom would in my opinion, be an. intolerable mischief, and I think no sensible man can wish for two within the limits of the present United Kingdom, who does not wish the United Kingdom to become two or more nations entirely separate from each other." That is very good sense, and will have great influence in Ireland, for everybody there knows how heartily Mr Bright has sympathised with Ireland, and how little inclined he is to take his. stand on a Conservative position against popular demands. Could Ireland only have had Mr Bright for .Irish Minister instead of this trenchant young Marquis, who is bent on. getting credit with the Tories for dealing sharply' with Ireland, Mr Gladstone's and . Mr Fortescue's great .policy, might by this time, be yielding fruit. Lx compliance with a request preferred by the Mikado, the French authorities have formed a military mission, which . will shortly leave for Japan and be placed at the disposal of the Japanese authorities.. The mission is to be commanded by a lieutenant-colonel of the staff, who will have tinder him ten officers, of the staff, artillery, engineers, and infantry. Five of them will act as instructors to the . riailitaty institute, which It is proposed to organise after a plan similar to that adopted at St. Cyr and La Fleche. The officers will be accompanied by a certain number of non-commissioned officers of the various branches, and also by skilled workmen, the former chosen from the best instructors of the French army, the latter from the most skilled mechanics in the State manufactories, to the number of twelve or sixteen. The chief of the mission, Colonel Marquerie, is a practical, painstaking, and very popular officer, and an intimate friend of Baron Stoffel. The Japanese are also anxious to obtain jurisconsults of standing and reputation to teach their own lawyers the true principles of international law, which is often interpreted by consuls and diplomatists in a manner which creates confusion and disorder both among the natives and European traders. There is, as yet, no reason to believe tbat any of the eminent French lawyers who have so distinguished themselves within the lost' eighteen

months wili come forward to help the Mikado out of his predicamet t. The Postmaster-General hai forbidden the Telegraph Department to amperwlth private telegrams any more. He says in an official note ou the subje it that Mr Scudamore, in. stopping th messages about the strike among the; sjgriaUera, waa influenced " eiclusirely bVa sense # of public duty ;" but that the A* t of Parhatoont is so clear, and the i eceßstty of securing public confidence to he dopartment so paramount, that hp "cannot sanction" such proceedings, and they must not be repeated. Tha ; is a mont reasonable and considerate settlement of the dispute. The merciiants and the Proas must have fought till tl c question was settled, even at the risk f expelling Mr Scudamore from his post; out the inviolability of the messages once guaranteed, no one wanted him to be punished or even censnred by an act dictated by public zeal. We imagine, moreover, from some slightly obscure notices in the Dublin papers—though we are still not quite sure— that the remainder of the telegraph clerks have been reinstated without signing the falsehood originally demanded of them— that they were sorry for their rebellion, when they were only sorry for its failure. . , The Royal Geographical Society is about to despatch an expedition in search of Dr Livingstone, who is believed by those who guide the Society to be somewhere to the -westward of Lake Tanganyika, suffering from sickness 6v want of provisions. The expedition will be commanded by Lieutenant L. Dawson, R.N., will be accompanied by Mr Oswell Livingstone, a son of the traveller, and will consist of about fifty picked men. As Dr. Livingstone is her Majesty's Consul, and the public is subscribing liberally, and the expedition is certain to obtain much information, the Society thought they might ask for a supplementary grant from the Treasury. The Chancellor of the j Exchequer refuses to give a penny, alleging that the direction of the expedition is too uncertain, and that there are " other means" through which Dr Livingstone's safety may be reasonably hoped for. The. " other means" alluded to are not defined, bat most probably refer to Providential interposition, the only "means" known which cost nothing. We suppose the Government dreads a succession of expeditions^ or Bomo of the members of this one being lost ; but as it will start without a Treasury grant, the refusal of all aid wiU increase the popular notion of the contempt entertained at the Treasury for the graces of national life.