HOME AND FOREIGN.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1480, 14 November 1872, Page 2

HOME AND FOREIGN.

A small body of secedera from the International commenced a conference in London on September 16. The principal business transacted was a resolution of secession from the original International. curious discovery is stated to hare been made at Pompeii, namely, a glass bottle, still full of oil. The liquid is to be analysed to ascertain its greater or less degree of preservation. For stealing three oysters a railway servant in England has been sentenced to twelve months’ imprisonment. In London recently a man named John George Lawrence stole certain articles, valued at <£l, from his father, Edwin Lawrence. He was tried for the offence, and sentenced to seven years’ penal servitude. The master of a workhouse in the vicinity of London lias discovered an easy method of settling whether a person is chunk or sober. His plan is to require any over festive pauper to say distinctly “Truly Rural;” and if he cannot he pronounces him to be drunk. The guardians of the workhouse have sanctioned this test. The Emperor of Germany’s rent-roll is $ nice two millions,

Believing that the cabs now in use in London are defective in several pai> ticulars, the Council, of the Society of I Arts offer prizes amounting to £l2O for five of the best improved cabs of any description. From the Ist April to the 14th September the English Treasury receipts were £31,503,751, an increase of rather' more than two millions and a half over the amount in the corresponding period of last year. The expenditure had reached the sum of £32,841,403. On the 14th Sept. the balance in the Bank of England exceeded £5,000,000. Intelligence was telegraphed to London on the 17th Sept., from Bombay, that letters from Dr. Livingstone, of date July 2, 1872, had been received at Zanzibar. The illustrious traveller wus still at Unyamyerabe, was in good health, and was waiting the arrival of Stanley's second expedition. A. quasiofficial article in the Bien Public threatens vengeance against French Government clerks who betray secrets to newspapers, tho immediate cause of this menace being recent premature disclosures respecting the rove nue. Many other breaches of confidence on the part of employes are mentioned; and, without joining some Republican journals ip advocating a general dismissal of Imperialist functionaries who are suspected of propagating news damaging to the Republic, the organ of the Versailles Prefecture says ihat efficacious and immediate repression is necessary.

A very curious old rapier has just beeu fished up from the bed of the Seine in front of the Mint, This weapon, which belongs to the sixteenth century, is magnificently worked, and bears the arms of Montmorency cut on the silver hilt, which is richy ornamented with precious stones. Upon the Made the letters F. 8,., suggested to signify Francois Roi, are engraved. The intrinsic value of this rapier, which has remained for 300 years in the bed of the river, is said to be about £l5O, but it would be hard to estimate the pi ice it will leich as a c *riosity.

On the 26th August the Mr. Jaraieson, of St.. Matthew's Church, Glasgow, arrive! at Charing Cross in excellent condition, though as brown, as a gipsy, after fooling every inch of the space that lies between the metropolis of England and the Register Office, Edinburgh. The time spent, on the road was 18 days and a forenoon, and Mr Jamieson never started till after breakfast, not walked in the heat of the day. His route was the old coach road between the two capitals, passing through Carlisle, Greta Bridge, Poncaster, Huntingdon, &c. Mr Jamieson carried a knapsack on his shoulders, weighing 26lbs. As he had doffed every shred of the clerical uniform, the people he encountered opened their minds quite freely to him, and the adventure and experience he had on the road were instructive as well as amusing.

There is the greatest curiosity in Paris, according to the correspondent of the Daily News, as to the cause of M. A bout's airest. It appears from a Paris telegram dated 17th September that the German authorities assign the publication last year of sosie articles upon Alsace and Lorraine as the reason for the anest. The French Foreign Minister (M. Rknuaat), in reply to the French Literary Society yesterday, said that the Government had telegiaphed to Berlin and Strasburg on the -subject, and he hoped that it* energetic intervention would be the means of M. About's speedy release. M About is imprisoned at Strasburg, and is said to be debarred from all communication, even with his wife. It is hardly likely that he will be long detained io custody, and a writer of his capacity and fame will be sure to make most lucrative <'copy" out of his imprisonment at Strasburg.