ROUND THE WORLD.

Mt Benger Mail, Volume 17, Issue 850, 22 August 1896, Page 4

ROUND THE WORLD.

Lord Hugh Cecil made a speech of unusual brilliancy in support of the Education Bill in the House of Commons. It was his maiden effort, and was marked throughout by a finish of style, a quietude of delivery, and an earnestness of conviction whioh amounted to eloquence, and quite captured the House. In voice, manner, and accentuation Lord Hugh is a very striking reproduction of Lord Salisbury, and those who remember the present Prime Minister in the House of Commons as Lord Robert Cecil were inclined to give to him the tribute paid to William Pitt on making his maiden speech by Edmund Burke, who remembered his father, the great Earl of Chatham, in the House of Commons: "He is not a chip of the old block ; why, he is the very block itself."

Baron Hirech will still continue to give rise to many conflicting paragraphs in both foreign and British papers. The sum to be dealt with—£3s,ooo,ooo—is so enormous that it is little wonder that even a will containing so many as twenty-three clauses fails to adequately meet the case. It is not at all likely that the outside public will ever know the whole facts of the case, for many of the numerous codicils will be kept, so far as is legally possible, private from all but those immediately concerned in the matter. " The Jewish people are my children and my heirs," said the baron on one occasion, and in his will he has carried this sentiment out to the very letter. The baroness, of course, is amply provided for, and so is the little grandchild Lucienne, but it is to the colonisation soheme and to many Jewish charities that the bulk of the property will ultimately come. Meantime there is trouble, because many of the executors hesitate to undertake the stupendous work of distributing the millions; and some of them have retired from the responsibility altogether. The baroness has considerably lessened the difficulty and saved a great deal of impatience and possible ill-feeling amongst the Continental Jews by making arrangements for £7,000,000 to be given up immediately to the philanthropic institutions which her late husband had most at heart. The' European Economist' publishes some facts with regard to the growth of population in the various countries of Europe during the decennial period of 1885-95. The aggregate increase was 29,922,800. Some States have advanced greatly. For example, Russia added 12,510,800 to her existing population; Germany, 4,522,600; AustroHungarv, 3,502,200; Great Britain, 2,452,400; Turkey, 1,100,000; and France, 67,100. There are only two survivors in France of Napoleon's Grand Army, and one of them, M. Baillod, was recently decorated by President Faure with the cross of the Legion of Honor. Baillod is lo:> years old, and still reasonably active, though after Waterloo he was discharged from the army as a consumptive.

The death has occurred at Clooney, West Clare, of a man named Conway, at the age of 111 years. The deceased had been bogranger on the estate of Lord Inchiquin, and almost to the last was in perfect possession of his faculties. He used to walk two miles every ."Sunday to mass. He bad a distinct recollection of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, iu which he took an active part. The present members of the great house of Rothschild number no fewer than eleven barons. Lord De Rothschild and Barons Alfred and Leopold live in England ; Barons Alphonse, Gustav, Edward, Adclphe, and James in Paris; Baron Nathaniel Meyer in Vienna, and Baron William in Frankfort. From inquiries made in Paisley amongst the people who had entrusted funds to Abercrombie, the missing Glasgow accountant, against whom the Glasgow police have issued a warrant, it appears that he had received from Paisley clients sums amounting to at least £50,000. Of three legal Arms specially concerned two had given over £IO,OOO each for investment, and the third £7,500. Private persons had also advanced various sums, one gentleman and his wife to the extent of over £II,OOO. Abercrombie had influential family connections in Paisley. At the Electrical Exhibition being held in New York a message has been sent round the world. Mr Chauncey M. Depew wrote a despatch as follows: Nature's treasures, and science utilises electric power for the grandeur of the nations and the peace of the world." This was sent by President Chandler, of the Postal Telegraphs Department, who was sitting at one side of the table in the Exhibition, and opposite him at the other side of the table was Mr Edison, waiting to receive it after its long journey. Mr Chandler transmitted it at 8.34 over the wires of the Western Union, through Chicago, Los Angeles, .Sin Francisco, and thence to Vancouver, Winnepeg, Montreal, Canso, and London, which it reached at 8.38. Thence it was sent through Lisbon, Gibraltar, Malta, Alexandra, Suez, Bombay, Madras, Singapore, Shanghai, Nagasaki, and Tokio. The message was returned by the same route, and was received by Mr Edison in fifty minutes after Mr Chandler had started it. The message was reported from each of the places mentioned as it reached it. This is the fastest piece of international telefraphing which has ever been accomplished, 'he message cost at tariff rates 152d0l 5-c. In Paris the manager of a clipping bureau whose agency reads all the papers of the world, recently made a calculation as to who is oftenest mentioned as a public character. Napoleon I. stands first, although this is probably in consequence of the passing fashion of things Napoleon that set in some | time ago. Then comes the Emperor of Germany, then Prince Bismarck, and in the fourth place Mr Gladstone. One of the most remarkable botanical curiosities in the world is iu the possession of Mrs Le Clerc, of Quebec. It is a potted American Beauty rose bush, whose flowers have perfume only from midnight until daylight. During the rest of the twenty-four hours they are perfectly odorless. The fragrance begins to exhale precisely on the stroke of twelve.

John Ruskin is evidently near the end of his life. His memory is gone completely, and he imagines that he is in danger of starvation. He has given away enormous sums during his long life, and it is a fact that his generosity has left him comparatively poor.