THE RUSSIAN PUIEST'S WIFE

Manawatu Herald, 30 August 1881, Page 4

THE RUSSIAN PUIEST'S WIFE

Thf-re is only one happy womau in Russia ; it is the priest's wife ; and it is a commor mode of expression to say, " as happy Asa priest's wife." The reason why she is happy is because her busbnnd's position depends upon her. If she dies he if deposed and becomes a mero layman ; his property is tukrn away from him Hml distributed, half to his children and half to the Government. This dreaded contingency makes the Russian priest careful to get a healthy wife if he can, and makes him take extraordinary trood care of her after he ha» got her. He waits upon hor in the most abject way. She muse never get her feet wet, and sho is yetted and put in hot blnnkelf" if she has so much as a coidin her. It is the grontest possible good fortune for a girl to marry a prient, itifinit3ly better than to be the wife of a noble.

Monument to Loud Bkaconsfield — The national monument to the late Lord Beacousfield, which was to take the form of an enlargement of Hugbenden Clmrcb, does not seem to appeal very strongly to the public taste or to national gratitude. It was sup-posed that the £5000 or £GOOO necessary would be raised in a few days; but up to the preseqt time £300 has not been collected. The New Claimants. — It will be comforting for the New Si£ Rogers to know that.there is one nearly insuperable objection to the re-opening of the suit. The late Sir Roger Tichborne is dead by Act of Parliament. After the great trial which relegated Arthur Orton to a convict prison for fourteen years, the Trustees of the estate obtained a special Actjj»»<ttnrer*td "enable them to pav^w^jKmouß costs in defendin^tlwwilW^H^a? yT^sniuie ii -"tw<»*, ' reciteoTkhat Roger Tichborne was drowned lin the Bella, and died without issue. This statement must be reversed by a new Act before any fresh proceedings can be taken ; and Acts of Parliament, whet her public or private, are by no means easy to obtain in these days of obstruction. But it is hardly probable . that anyone will seek seriously to ermjjate the misdeeds of the unhappy nobleman now languishing in penal servitude. There would be still Jess chance if it were widely - known that the unwieldly Orton had dwindled down during his incarceration from six-and-twenty stone to barely eleven and that he is a prematurely aged grey-haired old man. Pneon is not a bed of roses in England.