CLIPPINGS FROM HOME PAPERS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 33, 8 February 1875, Page 4

CLIPPINGS FROM HOME PAPERS.

Id the Supreme Court at Dublin, the Lord Chief Justice fixed Monday, 14tb December, for the trial of the action in which William Lawder, Deputy-Lieut, of Leitrim, sues Petrooella Halberg for £10,000 damages for breach ot promise. Since the writ was issued, defendant has married Mr White, a gentleman of property in Leitrim, and is now resident at Florence. Application for postponement on the ground that the lady was enceinte was refused. Mr Henry Crawshaw, the head of large coal and iron firms in the Forest of Dean, has published a letter denying that the present condition of the markets warrants the further reduction the masters are now seeking to impose. He declares his intention to make no decrease in the wage rate. The communication has caused great excitement in South Wales and Monmouthshire, where the coal-owners have just given notice of a drop. A Madras telegram, dated November 30, reportß that an iron vessel of about 1700 tons, supposed to be the County of Perth, of Glasgow, has been picked up abandoned, and taken into Pondicherry by the steamship Assyria. " James Francis de Barr," said to be an Italian professor of languages, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment at the Manchester Police Court, for a series of thefts from tradesmen in Manchester. The prisoner's career, as sketched by his advocate, has been a remarkable one. He fought against the Austrian? in 1348-9, with Garibaldi and other leaders; in 1851 he was with the French in Algiers; (he Russian war saw him in the Turkish service at ICurß; in 1861 be joined the Confederate forces in New Orleans; at the close of the jivil war this irrepressible fighter carried his Bword to the republic of Paraguay; and from the service of Lopez to that of Cespedes, in Cuba, was a abort step. He contrived} |p get captured in the Virginiuo, but was Bpared the fate of the greater part of that vessel's crew. Then came a visit to New York, the return to Italy, and finally Belle Vue Prison. A great bicycle race of fifty miles for £50 and the championship took place on Monday at Wolverhampton between Keen and Stauloni Keen won, doing the distance in three hours, nine minutes, and nineteeu seconds — the shortest time on record. Stanton sustained a bad fall in the thirty-first round, and was obliged to give in. The Earl of Carnarvon has corrected an erroneous statement respecting the toleration of domestic slavery on the West Coast of Africa. lordship says : — The kings and chiefs, after asking' and receiving explanations, were fully satisfied with the announcement thnt any slave who may not wish to continue to live with his master, shall Dot hereafter be compelled to return to Mm by any court, English or native. It is therefore unnecessary that cruelty or any other cause should be established ; and he entertains no doubt that, under this declaration, slaves will be entirely free to Bjjay with or leave their masters, and that any attempt to interfere with, this "freedom will be effectively punished. The New York papers publish intelligence from Cuba announcing that a Spanish gunboat has seized a British schooner, suspected of conveying war materials to the insurgents, whil^ two and a half miles from the Cuban coast. A letter from Lieutenant Cameron States that he has been over the later tracks of Dr. Livingstone, and front native reports identifies the Luabala with the Congo. He hopes to follow it down to the West Coast of Loanda. An engine exploded at the Lseds Railway station. Part of the bojiler was hurled 200 yards, causing great damage to telegraph wires and other property. No person was seriously hurt. ; The first volume of the " Life of the Prince Conßort," by Theodore Martin, has appeared. , William H. Dame, a Mormon bishop, was arrested on November 19th at Parowan, in Iron county, Utnb, by a deputy-marshal, on an indictment for murder. He is charged with complicity in what is known as the Mountain Meadow massacre, some years ago. The Cape mail steamer Roman has arrived at Plymouth. The Transvaal goldfieldß are oreating an extraordinary

sensation in the colony, and quantities of gold sent down to Cape Town have caused a great rush up country of experienced and amateur diggers. On Saturday night, December 5, a shocking accident occurred on the Lesmah»gow branch of the Caledonian Railway near Larkhall, whereby John Kellochan, miner, Stonehouse, was killed, and another miner, named George/ Gordon, residing at Howlethole, Dal-j eerf, was serious y injured. It is sup-l posed that the two men had been I drinking together, and bad about six o'clock wandered unobserved on to the line at Cornsilloch Colliery siding, about one hundred yards from Ayr- road Statioo, when they fell asleep The passenger train, from Stonehouse, it nppPHis, has to shunt at this siding till the Lesmahagow train comes forward. While this was beiDg done a cry of distress was raised, and on the train being stepped it was found that Kellochan and Gordon had been run over. From the position ia which they were discovered, it js surmised that Kellochnn must have lain forward, face downwards, across the rails, his head beiug cut in two as if the wheels of the carriage had passed over it. When taken up he was of course, quite dead. Gordon's body was free from the rails, but his armß being extended one was very badly injured, and the hand of the other was so fearfully mutilated that the work of amputation had to be subsequently performed. A long correspondence between the Bishop of Carlisle and the Rev R. G. Collingwood, vicar of Irton and Drigg, near Whitehaven, has just been published. Mr Collingwood passed an examination in bankruptcy at Whitehaven, on September 23 last, when some extraordinary disclosures were made, the rev. gentleman admitting debts due to sixty-four creditors, to the amount of £24,000, his income being about £2000 per annum at the time. The bankruptcy was forced by one of the principal creditors, the bank of Whitebaven, to whom Mr Collingwood owed over £5000. The result of the proceedings was that the rev. gentleman made a composition with his creditors of 5s in the £l. The Bishop, in a lengthy letter, ?ays that "an awful scandal has been created, " and calls upon Mr Collingwood to " make reparation to the Church, which haa undoubtedly suffered from your unwise aud careless conduct," by resigning his living. Mr Collingwood replies in a letter of equal length, setting forth, in effect, that he has " great expectations," hints that he may be able to pay all his creditors in full at a future date, blames the unnecessarily precipitate proceedings of the Whitehaven bank as the cause of all his monetary difficulties, end concludes by flatly refusing to resign his cure, on the ground {hat such a step is not desired either by his parishioners or himself. The Bishop, in a second letter, says his sole purpose wms to let the diocese know what steps he bad taken in the matter of the bankruptcy, which, his Lordship said, has been a " terrible scandal," and rooslV injurious to the influence of the Cburcy " of which both you and I are ministers/' Mr Collingwood is a magistrate of tie county. I No official iutimatioo has been received on the subject of the new Arctic expedition, but it is believed that the command will be given to Captain Michael Culme Seymour, who will have for chief assistant and colleague Commander A. H, Markhara, the latter an experienced navigator of the Polar Seas.