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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 944, 15 February 1871, Page 3

A Gazette of the 31-st January issues new regulations under the Patents Act, 1870.

On the 4th February an elderly woman named Eliza -Adams deliberately attempted to commit suicide by jumping into the river Avon, Canterbury. She was fortunately observed, and after some trouble taken out of the water, but was &o exhausted that she had to be conveyed to the Hospital.

The new minister for St, Paul's Pres byterian Church, Christchnrch—the Rev. A. F." Douglas —arrived in Lyttelton by the s.s. Maori on the 4th February. He was met by a deputation from the elders and finance committee of the church, and a hearty welcome tendered him.

A recent number of the London Spectator contains an article headed by the suggestive monosyllable " If," in which •the writer takes into consideration the rumored understanding between Prussia and Russia. The probabilities pro and con. are carefully examined, and the writer evidently thinks there is as yet ?<>od around to doubt the correctness of the report. As to the position England should take, if it is found to bo true, the Spectator says: —" We cannot doubt far a moment that it would be our duty to resist, and to strike as powerfully and as effectually as we could at this menacing alliance. For it implies a bold and shameless breach of faith in both parties to it, Prussia being as much bound as Russia by the Treaty of 1856, and having just as little right to release her cosignatory for her own ends as Russia has to release herself. We cannot bring ourselves to believe that the foreign policy of the new Germany is to be inaugurated by such a flagrant piece of treachery as this. But if it be so, why there is no conceivable inference left for us but that the great power on the growth of which England had rejoiced more than any other country except Germany itself, until indications of aggressiveness and ambition began to show themselves, is to be used unscrupulously and lawlessly fur the disturbance of Europe, and not for its wise and pacific development. If Germany herself celebrates the attainment of her majority, the arrival of the era when the King of Prussia accepts the Imperial crown, by helping Russia to tear up, without an excuse, a treaty on which the peace of Europe depends, what is left for us but to declare ourselves at once, and before it is too late, determined to prevent the rivetting of this ascendancy on the neck of Europe ? That England has nothing to win and everything to lose by war, all Europe knows. But England has even more to lose by any repudiation of European honesty and sincerity with her connivance, than she has to lose by war. Life in Europe would be simply intolerable, if the two gigantic powers of Eastern and Central Europe were permitted to treat the contracts of the past a« a tabula rasa, and to inaugurate precisely such a future as best pleased them. Our only course would, under such circumstances, be to strike early, and to strike hard. We ought immediately to give such aid to France as, combining with the astonishing elasticity which the Republic has already shown, would enable it to fight an equal battle with the Germans, —conditioning, of course, that in no event should the war be permitted to Jake an aggressive turn."