ENGLISH ITEMS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1184, 15 May 1872, Page 2

ENGLISH ITEMS.

The Lancet says it is understood that the Home Secretary, immediately after the opening of Parliament, will lay on the table of the House of Commons the tiir-he has framed upon Hie Report of the Contagious Diseases .Commissioners. The new Act will consequently be very tail .if not exhaustive in, its prpyiflions, and a large part of it .will not is anticipated) provoke imich opposition. The Liberator, the official organ of the Liberation Society, says that Mr Miall has decided on again testing the opinion of the House on the disestablishment question, but that, instead of repeating the motion of last year, he will move for the appointment of a Royal Commission, to inquire into the origin, amount, and application of any properties and revenues in the hands of the Church of England, and expressly with the view to obtain the information required for the purposes of disestablishment and' endow* ment; • - ' ; ; ■■* : . During the transformation Bcene in the pantomime at the Hanley .Theatre,, it was discovered/that three out of four of the strands of a stout rope used for hoisting a structure on which were five youag women and children, had been cut. 1 The remaining strand snapped just after the machinery had been set in" motion. Had either of the ropes parted when' the performers were suspended in the air, the girls would have been precipitated a depth of 40ft into the chamber below the stage. Suspicion has fallen on three men who were recently discharged from the theatre for. drunkenness, and one* of them, has been taken into custody. , : ;■ ; The British ViGe-Consul at the city of. Bolivar writes to the Consul-General at Caraccas :— An old woman named MariquitaOrfile has discovered an efficacious remedy for the yellow fever and black vomit, which has completely cured several persons after the medical men had declared they, could only live for a few hours. This remedy is the juice of the leaves of the vervain plant, which is obtained by bruising, and is taken in small doses three times a day. Injections of. the same juice are also administered. every two hours, until the intestines are completely relieved of their contents. All the medical men here have adopted the use of the remedy. . ■ A child, eight years of age, h&fl|&d in the Middlesex JEospitalj from scalds produced by thVuse of an extemporised vapour-bath. The boy's mother put him in a chair at home, with a blanket around him, and underneath she placed a bucket of scalding water, into which she dropped a red-hot iron heater. In less than a minute the child screamed to be lifted up. The whole of the skin of the thighs and lower part of the back was so scalded that it came off. The great Parliament of the Gipsies, which is held once every, seven years, took place this year, on 2nd February, at Canstatt, in Germany, out of deference for King Joseph Reinhard, who is ninetyeight years of age, and not able to undertake any lbng journey. Delegates of all gipsy tribes attended' the Parliament to deliberate on common interests. At the Greenwich police court, Mrs Louisa JEtobinson, of Thornton Heath, Croydon, was summoned for sending a servant in her employ, who was suffering from small-pox, in a cab to the infirmary at Lewisham. No notice was given to the proprietor of the cab that the servant was suffering from an infectious disease, and the' same day the cab was used for ordinary purposes. The defence was that the defendant had acted under the direction of the family medical attendant. Mr Patteson said it was highly dangerous to the general public that cabs should be so used unknowingly, and he should impose the full penalty of L 5 and L 2 costs, or one month's imprisonment A sad case came before Mr John Humphreys, the coroner, at Mile-end. An inquest was held on the body of John Thornhill, aged six, the son of a draper's assistant. The mother stated that her husband's health having broken dfyhn, his employers dismissed him. After that the wife sold the furniture arid parted with her clothes to support her husband and to prevent the three children dying. She asked him to go into the workhouse, but he refused. At last she induced him, three weeks before Christmas, to allow her to apply to the Whitechapel Board of Guardians, but they said that the whole of the family must go into the workhouse, which her husband refused to do. The parish doctor afterwards visited the deceased child, who was ill, and the mother stated that she told him and the relieving officer several times of the starving conditi^Mof her husband and children, but coulcr^et no relief. Eventually Thornhill was admitted into Mrs Gladstone's Home at \V*oodford, and his wife and children went into the workhouse, where the child John died. The mother said she was sure that if the parish had given her and her family a little food the boy's life would have been saved. The doctor who made the post mortem examination said the death hBd been accelerated by want of food. A juror suggested that it should be called starvation. Ultimately a verdict of "death accelerated by want of food" was recorded. A decision just pronouncedby the Paris Court of Appeal rather reminds one of the good old days when Ministers weie lavish of " lettres de cachet." Nearly two years agoM. Teulat brought an action against Prince Raymond de Broglie for having had him shut up in a lunatic asylum.' M. Teulat had been tutor to the children of the Prince's brother Auguste,,. and when Prince Auguste died he began to persecute the Princess with professions of love ; following her about, running under, her carriage in the street, pelting her windows with pebbles at night; Under these circumstances, and with the approbation of the prefect of police, Prince Raymond interfered, had M. Teulat examined by two medical gentlemen, and on their certificate he was conyeyed to a private asylum. On his release M. Teulat brought an action for damages . against Prince Raymond, but he was defeated, and.. the Court of Appeal has.^now confirmed' the decision of the Lower Court. Owing to several disgraceful letters which M. Teulat wrote to the Princess threatening to make revelations, it is doubtful whether his passion was inspired by love or the hope of gain. He is not a person jrho excites much sympathy. Still exception is taken to the judgment of the court, which sets.forth " that the letters, acts, professions, and menaces, organised for the persecution of the Princess could only proceed from a forgetfulness of the respect due to the family, and a contempt for public morals, or else the rashness or a

madman." Teulat is therefore denied damages, because if he is not mad, he behaved like a madman.