NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1718, 5 February 1874, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

On November 16, at the Athenseum Assembly Rooms, Birmingham, a spiritualistic service was being held, and in the course of it a medium named Benjamin Hawkes, a toy dealer of New street, in this town, addressed the meeting. He spoke for fully half an hour, appearing to be in his usual health, and then he described with startling vividity a seaiice in which the Apostle Peter had manifested himself to the assembled spiritists. Peter had clasped hands with him, and he (Hawkes) felt the close pressure of the Apostle's grasp. From this he argued that it was quite possible to understand how Thomas of Didymus thrust his hand into the Bide of "the Personification of Divine Love." The instant these last words were out of the speaker's mouth he fell back on a chair behind him. There was great excitement, for the meeting believed Hawkes was under strobg " spirit control." A few seconds elapsed, and a surgeon came up to the medium, and found him dead. The meeting broke up in wild confusion. A new mode of raising money to meet the necessary and daily expenditure \n the Tichborne defence, originating with Mr George Chapman ; late of* New York, has come before the public. The chief features, as originally proposed, were to have an historical picture portraying Ihe trial scene in court, including judges, jury, lawyers, and defendant, painted by some eminent artist, to be disposed of by lottery after the principle of the art union ; - that each subscriber should be entitled to ■ an engraved copy of the work, with a chance of becoming the owner of the original picture. This plan, however, has been modified in consequence of the law bearing upon lotteries not permitting the idea to be carried out in that form. The same scheme has now been introduced - tinder the Limited Liability Act. The . capital is L 20,000 in one shilling shares. The case of the Bank forgers, it appears, ■ is not to end with the trial and convicti6n - at the Old Bailey. One of the condemned persons, George Macdonnell, has placed in the hands of the Bank solicitors a statement of his alleged dealings in America ./.with, two members of the New York . , detective force, named Farley and Irving. He asserts that they met him when he landed in order to arrest him ; that they said they had succeeded, after great difficulty, in having the arrest entrusted to them, and promised to dp their best to help him,' on condition of his handing ... over to. them the proceeds of his London forgeries; Macdonnell declares that he gave them a large quantity of bonds v and jewellery, on the understanding that part of it should be used in the meantime in preparing his defence, and the rest returned to him afterwards. He accuses the two detectives of appropriating the proceeds to their own Hie. He now makes this confession in order to exhibit them in their proper light.. He alleges that his intercourse ; with them has been of long standing; and . refers to letters which passed between them last September. If a charge like ! this, which, coming from such a quarter, must of course be viewed with suspicion, can be supported, the demoralisation of the New York police must be worse than anything we have yet seen in the London force. Irving and Detective Farley have accordingly been arraigned before the , Police Commissioners of New York, with what result we have not yet been inf; formed. The Bank of England is. certainly to be congratulated on the thoroughly successful measures it has taken for the punishment of all persons concerned in the notorious American forgeries. ; ■■' 'The second annual report of Mr Kinder, late : of Her Majesty's Mint at Hongkong, and iiow Director of the Imperial Mint at 3 Osaka,' has just been received, and shows ~'~ "'the i activity and regularity wjtoh which the coinage^ operations, of Japan are carried „; on. '^Jt appears that the gold coins struck ;;',, during the, year, amounted to a value of „; about five millions sterling, and those of (>.. silver to about LBOO,OOO. The .aggregate ! dumber of pieces passed for issue being . i L 26,151,206, being an increase on the previous y6ar of 10,647,228 in the number lof coins, and of L 1,600,000, 600, 000 in value. The design of. the coinage .has been changed, so as to indicate the. value in large Japanese characters on the reverse, . while on the obverse the value has been introduced in Roman characters. The denominations of the gold pieces are equal respectively to about L 4, L 2, Ll, 10s, and 4s, while of silver they range from 4b downwards. In concluding this report Mr Kinder remarks that it is eny couraging to be able to state that the Japanese and European officials work har- " . nxiniously, and that the operatives are ' well-conducted and also very regular in , their attendance. , Mg* Vere3, the Bishop of the Island of St. Pierre, near Newfoundland, has been assassinated by a man named Emile Pelletierj who subsequently, gave himself lip to the authorities. A boy, twelve years old, named Griffin, has been sent for trial at Belfast for killing his father by stabbing him. He says that he committed the act for the protec- , tioh of his mother, whom his father was beating. ; : Canon Taggiasco has presented a gold pen to the Pope, sent to his Holiness by the Roman Catholic soldiers among the English garrison at Malta. In address • 'accompanying the gift the donors express ;'- J the hope that the Pope may soon be able ' to announce with it the triumph of the ' Church. "; According to the Royal Warrant relaf ;, tive to the Army Medical Department ' just promulgated, the pay of a surgeon . after, fifteen years' service in. that rank I will be 17s 6d a day. ;<r At Cambridge the scheme for extending • 'i local examinations to young men over eighteen years of age has been considered -by the Senate and approved. Sir Henry Holland's personal estate ,, has been sworn under L 140,009, and that 1 '6t Sir Edwin Landseer under L 160.800. „.; _ .,| t TheAldershot season has closed with " ait interesting and brilliant sham fight. The'lOth and 20th Hussars, 93rd Highlanders, 19dj, 38th, and a few battalions of the 14th and 16th formed the attack- , ing force; the defenders wefe the Scots Greyßj'part of the 20th Hussars, 79th Highlanders, and battalions of the 103 rd 1 arid the Rifle Brigade. A consignment of ammunition and artillery, supposed to. have been manufactured in Birmingham, and destined for 1 the Carlist forces, has been intercepted at Newport, Monmouthshire. The material , ' it pow in charge of the police authorities,! ' ' •w'ti'o' ' wait- instructions from the War Office.

Mr Plimsolls efforts have not been in vain, for the other day no less than 15 vessels were ordered to be detained in Aberdeen harbor for survey as to unseaworthiness. The notorious yacht, Deerhound, has returned to Plymouth Sound after a most tempestuous voyage across the Bay of Biscay. Her captain, Colonel Travers, states that although he has during his absence in Spain fallen into hostile hands and suffered two months' imprisonment, he succeeded in accomplishing his mission, 25,000 stand of arms which he took out with him being now all safe in the Carlists' possession.