ENGLISH ITEMS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 181, 31 July 1880, Page 4

ENGLISH ITEMS.

[From the " European Mail."] BRITISH RULE IN CYPRUS * The Queen's birthday celebrations in Cyprus were heartily joined in by all classes all over the island. For once Greeks joined with Turks, Christians with Mahomedans, and Larnaca, Limasol, and JN'icosia vied with one another in demonstrations of loyalty and afiection to the Queen of England. General Biddulph showed the assembled notables that the value of exports and imports in 1879 was considerably more than thrice as great as it was only two years ago. In 1877 the amount reached no more than 16,000,000 piastres; in the following year it gave a great bound upwards to 40,000,000, and last year showed another big increase, the -figure being 53,000,000. As all the inhabitants must have participated to a greater or less extent in the profits, derived from this great expansion of trade, We may safely assume that the material condition of ,the Cypriote's is largely superior fco what it was when the island * formed a fattening ground for hungry Pashas. THE NEW VICEROY OE INDIA.. The Marquis o£ Ripon has arrived at Bombay. His Excellency who appeared to be in capital health, was received by Sir. J. Ferguson, the military officials, the heads of the departments and the chiefs of the services. There were present large numbers, of Portuguese Catholics, headed by Dr. Meurin, the Catholic Bishop of Bombay. The objections to Lord Ripon's religion which have found expression at home are neither felt or expressed by any section in India, not even by Scotchmen. The loyalty of the native princes has once more received ample demonstration by the money offers made by them in connection with military operations in Afghanistan : — The Maharajah and Maharani of Baroda, have each given 10,000 rupees, for the support of the families of the Guides who died in defending the Cabul Residency last September ; Maharajah.Holkar^OOO rupees for same purpose; or towards a memorial in honor of the defence ; the Maharajah of Bulrampore, one lakh, to provide allowances for the families of the native soldiers killed in action and rewards for those distinguished for gallantry ; the Nawab of Rampore, one lakh, maid of the sick and wounded soldiers, British and native ; Thakur Pertub Rude Singh and Oude Taloombar, 400 rupees, for the families of the killed. These donations have been accepted with cordial thanks. Besides the above, a subscription of 2,888 rupees was raised by the people of the Furruckabad district for the purchase of warm clothing for the troops. A TEEBIBLB "WINTER. General Krischanoffsky, the Govenor GPDPraI of Orenburg, hna reported to.i

tbe Russian Government that the unprecedented severity of the lost winter has caused immense destruction among the herds of Che Kirghie. The moans of transport have been consequently so seriously diminished that wcll-groiinded fears are entertained lest the present state of distress arooag (be tribes should develop into actual famine. In the district of Turgia, out of 860,000 head of. cattle, only 50,000 have survived the winter* In the town of Turgia the price of corn has risen 400 per cent, and that of hay 500 per cent. The famishing Kirghizes are selling their horses for a few roubles, having no means of feeding tbemv It ia reported from Semipalatinßk that in tie Paulograd district 1,000 camels, 6,000 heod of caltle, 26,500 horsep, and 5! 000 sheep hßva perished during the winter. In another district 200,000 sheep perished at once in a snowstorm. Similar losses are reported from all parts of Turkeßtan. The oldest people of the country declare they never bad so terrible a winter, THE KIHILIBT TRIALS. If anythihg-were wanting to demonstrate further the rotten state of Russian society and the absence of judioal fairness even of the most elementary kind, that proof is aff9rdcd by the Nihilist trials just concluded and tbe sentences protoouneed- by the Court. 1 Of : thej; tefa prisoners 'arraigned for participation in Socialist crimes it may be truly eaid that no one was even charged with being directly concerned in them. One unfortunate man was accused of haviofr driven a coacb in which one of the wou!d«be assassins escaped j another with having lent a horse to a conspirator for tbe purpose of Riding him in bis murderous enterprise; while the cborge against the third was that he bad acted as the agent of a revolutionary paper.. The evidence by which those accusations were supported is desoribed by all Englishmen who attended (be the trial as weak and unsatisfactory in (he extreme, while on the other band, the witnesses called to testify to tbe character of the prisoner^ and especially of Dr Weimar, werp, in spite of all tbe terrorism that officials broug' t to bear, most positive and unanimous in their testimony to tbe innocence of the accused. Dr Weimar is in personal bearing a gallant gentle* man k As a physician hie has devoted his time and skill to the services of his suffering countrymen. He was with the troops who crossed the Balkans under Gourfco — a splendid feat of arms, and is decorated with Russian and Roumanian orders. He was accused of having supplied Solovieff — the squalid and slinking wretch who lately fired at and missed tho Czar — with poison* As a proof, a chemist's book was produced, and Dr Weimar's name was snid to be there registered as the purchaser of poison On a certain day in February. But when the book came to be examined iii Court it turned out that Dr Weimar had bought the drugs in June for a definite purpose. Ke meant to poison the dog of a M. Petline, and this'statemeint was confirmed by the own r er ! 6f the hound. 1 Dr Weimar was , also accused of having provided Solovieff with a revolver, and to that charge he gave at least a: highly plausible answer. Solovieff had consulted him under a feigned name, had noticed a trophy of arms in bis room — snch a trophy as any army surgeon who had seen service might possess — and asked tbe doctor to select for him a heavy revolver for hunting purposes. Such were t)i6 accusations against Weimar; in this manner, with this reckleaneas, they were pressed, and the result is that the prisoner is sentenced to something worse than death. He is to be imprisoned in the mine for 1 5 years.