ENGLISH AND FOREIGN ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 43, 23 January 1880, Page 2

ENGLISH AND FOREIGN ITEMS.

-♦— Blondin's daring exploits on the ropo in Vienna are just now the talk and wonder of the town. He calls himself the " Hero of Niagara," and performs at the building which which was used in 1873 for the exhibition. The latest thing reported of him is walking along the rope on stilts, blindfolded and backwards, at a height of 250 feet. No net is stretched belo^r him, and when half way across he feigns to lose his nerve, and, putting his hand to his forehead, wavers, leans, and then slips, and recovers himself. " A gasp of anxiety," says a report, "is heard through the hushed assembly j women scream and are carried out in fits." The Emperor and Empress have both been to see the extraordinary performance — but neither of them screamed. Blondin, the hero of Niagara, has returned to London. His success in Vienna has been great, and wo hear that he has been re- engaged to visit that city in May. Mons. Blondin gave the last two performances for the benefit of the hospitals and poor children — those entertainments being * patronised by the Ministers of Stajfce and the aristocracy of Vienna, and attracting over 80,000 persons. Mon3. Blondin was piesented by the committee of the two fetes with a souvenir, in the shape of a handsome" gold and silver goblet. . M. Victor Hugo, at the aupper|re. contly given to celebrate the 100 th representation of " Notre Dame de Paris," said, rather picturesquely : — "It is literature that makes nations chylus that Athens exists; it is by great. It is by the Homer and iEs* Tacitus and Juvenal that Borne dominates ; it is by Rabelais, Moliere and Voltaire that/France, Three cities only in history deserve the name of urbs, which seems to sum up at a given moment the whole of honor and intelligence. Those three cities are Athene, Rome, and Paris. The whole of Italy is expressed in the word Dante ; the whole of England in the word Shakapeare." "OuidaV' name is Rosa -dc la Rama, and she is the daughter* of a Frenchman. More information than this the most indefatigable interviewer has not been able to.ge.fc from the authoress. She lives in a lpveiy villa about two miles from Fiojenqe, "-jr where she is surrounded by Books;' pictures, and, what she prizes most than both of these, dogs. She has -a burying-place on her place for her dogs, where they are laid away witji a tendernftss that is not always bes*ow<»& on the human race. Ouida was au \inknown writer, glad to earn £ 1 a page for her magazine stories, whon her novel of " Granville de Vigne" made her reputation, and

now every novel she writes fiuds a ready market nfc-£7900. T^ fouumition of the old Temple of ApolfaiflrVount Cassia, in France, part of wnieh was converted by Sh Benedict into two Catholic chapels, P 5 - lias juat been discovered. Russia intends to people Saghaliei^ not only with convicts, but with Chinese emigrants, the first convoy of the latter having already reached Nikolaievsk, on the Amur. Chinese had hitherto settled only on the fertile banks of the tTsilri, but they are now to be induced to migrate, not only to Saghalien, but to the mainland on the Pacific Coast. Bessemer rails^ are rolled in five States of America— Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri ; Siemens- Martin rails in two states, Vermont and Tennessee., In 1819 the production of rails was only 24.318 tons, tut increased by 1856 to 156,000 tons, by 1870 to 620,000, and by 1872 to 1,000,000. In 1874 the production fell to 729,413 tons, but last year it rose again to 882,085, and it is fully expected that 1879 will see a turn-out equal to, if not more than, that of 1872. A movement has been commenced in France by private individuals with a view to drawing closer the commercial relations between that country « and the United States, and removing j . the restrictions Jfpon their trade. The Government h&s given its support to the movement, and a large meeting has been held in the circus in the Champs Elysees, which was addressed by several French gentlemen, and by Mr Fernando Wood, of New York.