NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 157, 2 July 1880, Page 4

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

At a recent meeting the Irish members of Parliament finally approved ' their Land Bill, which contains a clause giving the tenant evicted for nonpayment & rifeht to compensation, the amount for which he is in arrears to be deducted from such compensation.— -The cost of the Afghan w-r is now stated at upwards of £13 000,000, and will probably be more. In reply *o a question from a member, Lord HartiDgtoo said : — Although anxious to withdraw the troops at the earliest moment, regard must be paid to their hpelth, and to the engagements to which England's honor is committed. It will not be possible to withdraw as soon from K»miahar as from Cabul, and the trieodly tribes must be protected.— There is a great demand for American cattle at present 3280 were shipped from New Yoik in one week, besides Bheep, horses, &c. ' Orders ore now in the Western States for 16 000 extra he*ds of bullocks. — The New York Tribune's London correspondent writes >hat the oountry is bewildered by Ministerial irresolution. "There is only slight, if any improvement, in tbfl tone of feeling among the Liberals below tbe gangwoy toward the Government, and fresh occasions for discontent are daily occurring. John BiTorley. in the Pall Mall Gazette, and Sir Wilfred Lawson, iv ihe Houee, are taking the leading part in tbe Sir Bartle Frere demonstration, and remain unsatisfied with Mr Gladstones conoes eibns."— 'A large Conservative gathering was held at Bridgewater House, on . May 19th. The assemblage included Lords Salisbury and Carnarvon, Sir Stafford Northcote, Mr Cross, Lord Be&consfieJd, and Sir Robert Peel, who addressed the meeting. The ex-Premier declared that tbe country " is eminently Conservative, that Radicalism is only a temporary force," aud intimated that tbe present administration might break up sooner than was generally expected. •—Harvest prospects are good throughout Ireland. An immense area has been planted in potatoes, which, as new seed has been extensively used, came up well. — Mr Jordan, captain of the Canadian Cricketers, playing at Leicester, has been apprehended as a deserter from the 2nd Horse Guards.—- A dozen villages on tbe Black Sea coast have been destroyed by a popular outbreak. The insurgents numbered 2000, and were made up of police, gymnasts, militia, armed villagers, and brigands of all kinds.— Bismarck has been offered 130^000 dollars a year, by an American newspaper man, to write for his journal —one article ri week. The offer was declined with thanks and smiles.— 'The Pall Mall Gazette has en article reviewing the' financial position of New Zealand, which concludes as follows: — "It is certain that, beyond all cavil, during three years tbe colony must en-

counter great financial difficulties. Fortunate seasons may possibly carry it through the first, but candour compels the admission that, according to present facts and appearances, collapse is quite as probable as success. At all events it is high time that (here should be a cessation of the voluminous, persistent, and barefaced puffery of the 'Britain of tbe Antipodes,' not ooly h^re in London, but up and down the wbolecountry, not omitting the remotest corner of it. The Government and people of New Zealand have had far more of English money than is good for them or for us, and they must now prove by actual remittances that they can pay the interest and sinking fund on tbe old loans by other means than contracting new ones.—Lord Beaconsfield surprised everybody by his recent speech, delivered to the members of his party assembled at Bridgewater House. It was expected that they had been called together to hear tbe last speech and confession of the ex-Premier. Nothing of the sort. Lord Beaconefield takes defeat with tbe utmost apparent philosophy, and in the very hour of his fill, speaks with a vigour that had rather forsaken him during his later days in office. He professes to be surprised that Mr Gladstone should have accepted high office after so often saying he bad done with political controversy, though be must know what everybody else knows, that office was thrust upon him hy tbe leaders of the Liberal party. Far from thinking of retreat himself, he says he never gave the slightest ground for Buch a supposition, and openly assumes the leadership of his party. For the first time (he Conservatives seem to feel that in spite of their minority they may still show a front of opposition in Parliament. Curiously enough, too, they have already succeeded in filling up two places vacant by Mr Gladstone's Government re-appealing to their constituents. The Home Secretary at Oxford, and the Lord Advocate of Scotland, at Wigtown, were both superseded by Tories, and Mr KoatchbullHu^gesseD, who was raised to the Peerage to make room for a Liberal, has been succeeded by an old-fashioned Tory. There can be no talk as yet of a Conservative re-action, but these facts show a desire to keep the balance of parties rather more than the general election has left it. .