ENGLISH ITEMS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 6, Issue 331, 11 December 1865, Page 3

ENGLISH ITEMS.

(PEOJI oua OWH LONDON COEEE3PONDEKT.) 26th September, 1865. The monthly budget of ill news is larger than usual, and contains the account of a great increase of the heavier class of crimes, such as murder, particularly of children; as as also the spreading of the cattle pest; it is to be feared the actual arrival of cholera. To begin with the first I may state that it would be folly to attempt to report the numerous cases of murder that have been perpetrated during the month, and I can only indicate a few that have caused the greatest sensation. One of the most recent of these has been that of an officer of the Royal Engineers, who was shot down by one of the men of his corps; and another is that of a lady supposed to be poisoned by her lover, although this latter may have possibly been a ease of suicide. But the most numerous cases are of child murder, which have been so many as to put it out of my power to particularise them. They are fearfully on the increase and many of them have a repetition of the same sickening details—being either suffered to perish through actual neglect or more violently destroyed. The Kent tragedy has not yet ceased to occupy the public mind. Miss Constance has at length made a confession of the particulars of her crime which are fully detailed. It was made to Dr. Bucknell who was investigating the state of her intellect. He has decided that she is not at present insane, but liable to become so if punished with solitary confinement. On the subject of her confession itself the Times has some pertinent remarks, to which I refer you. The cattle plague is fast spreading over the country, and causing much trouble to the agriculturalists. It defies all the skill of the vetrinary practitioner, which causes the greatest consternation'throughout the community, especially as it has increased the sphere of its ravages, and attack sheep, and, some say, man as well as cattle. A flock of sheep is said to hadt become infected and to have imparted the disease to cattle previously sound. Butchers meat has become enormously dear, and will, if this state of things continue, speedily reach a famine price. But it is not cattle and sheep alone that are taken with the disease for there has been a case where a man has been infected, —he being a veterinary surgeon of Sudbury ; and the papers say that other cases have occurred, resulting in death, with horrible suffering. Of the harvest we can now speak with more confidence than last month. Wheat will probably prove barely an average crop ; barley and oats still more below ; while tares, beans, and peas, will be above. These articles are now all nearly at one price—something over Is. per stone. Turnips were in good promising condition till lately ; hut now insects have become troublesome, and are doing much injury the full extent of which can hardly be estimated as yet. The Sweeclish turnip crop was a complete failure last year in several districts, and this was a heavy blow to many of the farmers, a repetition of which would be sad indeed.

The principal item of political news is the interchange of visits between the fleets of our French neighbors and our own. There has been, the greatest amount of cordiality manifested between the members of the two great navies; and Cherbourg, Brest, Portsmouth, &c., has been much enlivened thereby. Full accounts of which may be obtained from the public papers. The cholera, after carrying of thousands in Constantinople, and some parts of Italy, has travelled westward and appeared in England ; although there have not as yet been many fatal cases amongst us. Of gossip the last new thing has been the elopement of a clergyman’s daughter, Miss Crosse, with her papa’s groom, and their subsequent marriage. This event has furnished abundant material for the gossips, not being an every-day affair. The age of the young lady was 20, and that of her lover IS ; the cause of the elopement being the discharge of her lover, consequent upon the discovery of the young lady’s proceeeding and intimacy with t he lad by her papa. The case was brought more prominently before the public that it needed to have been, by the apprehension of the lad on the charge of abduction, and the appearance of the girl in the witness box of a London Police Court, where he was completely exonerated from all blame, she taking the whole upon herself. Papa has given his reluctant consent to the inevetable, and the loving young couple bave been married much to the delight of the vulgar crowd to whom they have been the idols of the hour. The Fenian Brotherhood movement in Ireland may be said to be crushed at last, but not before it was nearly ripe for action.

The seizure of a printing press,—that of the Irish Nation, the organ of the rebellion, was the first act of the Government. All hands—editor publisher, and workmen, were arrested ; —followed by many conspirators in Dublin, Cork, &c., in Ireland ; and Manchester and Liverpool, in England, Some fifty or more arrests have been made, and it is likely that many more will follow; hut the movement itself may be said to be at an end.

On the Continent the Kaiser of Austria and the Divinely-appointed King of Prussia have had a meeting, and the Sleswig-Holstein question has got advanced a step. Holstein is to be held by Austria and Sleswig and Lauenberg by Prussia, which also pays a large sum in cash to Austria in consideration of the great extent of territory she acquires. The arrangement is said to be only provisional, but such a one ought for ever to stop the mouths of those who sought to justify the conduct of the German powers in their aggressoin against Denmark. The loudmouthed German patriots, who claimed Sleswig because Holstein was German, and the two Duchies were not on any account to be separated, may put this arrangement •* into their pipe and smoke it.” The minor German powers talk of moving the diet, &c., but Austria and Prussia are not likely to yield to anything but force, and force is on their side. It is said that part of the price Prussia pays is an engagement to support Austria in her hold of Hungary and Venice. Meanwhile the Prussian King rules despite the Prussian Parliament, and Austria is endeavoring to conciliate Hungary. Spain has acknowledged Italy and received a special ambassador from King Victor Emanuel.