English and foreign Items.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 820, 8 September 1870, Page 3

English and foreign Items.

In one week 12,000 immigrants landed at New York from Europe. On the 6th June, died at Dorpat, the famous Russian navigator and Polar explorer, Admiral Baron Wrangel.

A whirlwind has carried away 80 houses in Transylvania. Up to latest accounts 200 bodies had been found in the fields, and 14 in the river at Shartsburg. In Prussia, the number of recruits for the contingent of 1870 is 95,540, or more than in France.

Large stores of war material are being accumulated in Montenegro. The Eastern Budget states that a consignment of ammunition is expected to arrive shortly, via Raguaß, and the Montenegrin chiefs are said to be in close and frequent communication with the .Russian consul in that town. In the death of Lord Arthur Clinton (says the New York Times) a miserable, profligate, and scandalous life has come to an end. There was scarcely any folly of which this besotted young man was not guilty. He had a fine career before him, but lie very soon managed to contract vast pecuniary liabilities, not always in an honorable manner, and then he found it easy to swindle his creditors. A seat in Parliament was obtained for him, but it suited hid taste better to dance " break-downs ' in theatres and concert halls than to make his appearance in the House of Commons. He frequented the most dissolute society to be found in the British metropolis, and at the time of his death was being looked tor. by the police on a charge of the most revolting kind. He declared his innocence of that accusation, and it is to be hoped with truth. Evil and wrong-doing enough had been crowded into his short Jife. llu was the son of the Duke of .Newcastle, and was only in his thirty-fourth year. The following paragraph on the success of ' Lothair' is from the Observer:—-"Mr Disraeli should be a proud and happy man. f he demand for ' Lothair' still continues unabated, and great complaints are made in the provinces that it cannot be procured from the circulating libraries. It is now in its seventh thousand. Messrs Hachette and Co. have purchased the right of translating the work into French, and Tauchnitz has obtained the right of publication in his popular edition on the Continent. But the most remarkable fact, which shows the interest felt in the tal, is that Messrs Appleton, the well-known New York publishers, desired to enter into an arrangement with the Anglo-American Telegraph

Company for telegraphing the whole novel to New York in 48 hours, evidently convinced that the ten days' start whieh would thus be obtained over other American publishers would amply repay the cost of the experiment. The only reason why the plan was not carried out was that the directors of the Associated Cable Companies considered that, having at the present moment only two cables at their disposal (the 1866 cable being under repair), the transmission of the contents of a three volume novel might interfere with the regular business. We trust that the directors will, now that the fair season has arrived, lose no time in putting their third cable into working order, when they will doubless be very glad to avail themselves of such offers as those made by Messrs Appleton. We cannot help regretting that Mr Disraeli has been debarred from the honor of being the first author whose woA was sent complete through the 3000 miles of Atlantic cable."

It is worthy of remark Jb these days, when the evidences of a vitiated popular taste are so apparent, that never since its establishment ha 3 Punch contained a line whiob a lady might not safely read. This was a principle which Mr Mark Lemon most scrupulously adhered to, as the following incident, communicated to us by a personal friend, amply testifies. On one occasion he had to leave town for his residence at Crawley before the week's number of Punch was ready for press, but he stipulated that a proof should be sent to him late on Saturday night. He got the proof as he was going to church, and on hastily glancing it over he detected a double entendre. He at once took the train for London, hunted up the printer, and had the objectionable matter removed, substituting for it something which he wrote on the spur of the moment. To this jealous watchfulness Punch has been indebted for its great reputation The follies and vices of the age have been at all times unsparingly dealt with by "our facetious contemporary," but justice has always been tempered with mercy, and sarcasm has never degenerated into spite. Mr Mark Lemon's loss will be felt by readers of Punch in every quarter of the globe, and their name is legion.—Lancet. Trench thieves seem possessed of a fertile invention. The other day (says a French paper) a lady went into a haberdasher's shop, Rue Richelieu, and bought a pearlgrey silk dress. The shopman had noticed a tolerably well-dressed man standing at the door after the arrival of the lady and seeming to wateh all her movements. Stepping up to the cashier's desk the lady drew a 200 franc note from her purse. At that moment the man outside rushed into the shop, gave the lady a box on the, ear, and tore the note out of her hands. " I had forbidden you to buy that dress," cried he, " but I watched you, and you shall not have it." With these words he hastened away, the lady fainted, and the persons employed in the shop, supposing the intruder to be an offended husband, made no remark and let him go. When the lady recovered, the proprietor of the establishment expressed his regret at this violent scene, and pitied her foi being dependent on so brutal a husband, "My husband! " cried the lady eagerly. " Sir, that man is not my husband; Ido not know him, and have never seen him." The pretended husband was a daring thief.