NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 37, 12 February 1881, Page 4

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

{Home i\ r €tos'Decpmber 80 ) At this, which ia essentially the BeaeoD of good cheer, it ia ngreenble to find that the Colonies onn contribute their share of materials for' feasting. Tbe scheme for importing freefe fooci from the Antipodes has been further tested Btid , with umioubteij , success, That njaßnificent p^feraehip the Orient, which is flffod with one of the BellColeman. refrigerators, has juot. brought, borne a cargo of good thiopß, nil of them freeh and in excellent order. A luncheon was given on board to try the viands, and the goes s had every reason to be satisfied with tbeir fare. Lnmb cutlets, roast poose, haunch of rauttou, ham, pork, filets de ba-uf, all these were offered and greatly fippreciatod. It is said that no fault conld be found even by the most critical, except, per haps, that the beef wr.s a little too dark for English taste. The epithet dork applied to bepf ha? a suspicious twang about it no doubt, as peopla hero huve bee;:) accustomed fo consider that the peculiar property of " horse." But thc j roost fastidious gouTja&nd could not have said a word in dispraise of the Sydney oysters, the fresh *' snapper," nod (he Murray Bay cod. The Australian fruit too was excellent — strawberries, pineapples, oranges, and all. Some very sensihle remarks from practical people followed the luncheon. Sir Daniel Cooper spoke widely when he advised n cautious developmont of tbe trade. The demand should bring the supply, not vice vstsa, or ibevo might be no real permanence in the undertaking. The great and chief difficulty to overcome is the prejudice which prevails in this country against imported foo3. This can only bo ejected j gradually, and by convincing those who ! aredcu' tful or antagonistic that Co'onial produoe is quite as good while it is ever 80 mu^ii cheaper than our own. Small-pox is committing dreadful Tavogea among; tha Canadian Indians who people the scanty and widelyseparated settlements on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrenoe. They are said to \Jo dying in huu<?re3s; ond panic has seized th« survivors, and they flee from the dead and dying, leaving the former unburiod and tbe latter uncared for, to seek refuge in the woods, where their trails are marked by Unpsof corpses. On being informed of this state of allure, the local Govern merit immediately gave instructions fo a physician in the adjoining county to proceed with medicine to the relief of the euffarera. Tbe provincial authorities at Quebec having learned that th» doctor in question was a political opponent, rescinded the order they had issued in the interests of humanity, and have left the panic-stricken district to itself until a medical man of their own political stamp can reach it. This Btory sounds improbable. The provincial nutb' rities, if they found that the doctor was a political opponeut, would be more likely to send him to a district ravaged by ema!l-pox fhan to depute the teak to one of their ''own political Btripe." Sara Bernhardt has paid a visit to Edison, and has expressed her roya! approval of the man who has given the world so much. The interview must have been effecting if not emborrassing, for Sare, with the frank cordiality of j her profession, squeezed tbß great inventor's band, and exclaimed rap turoualy, " Yes 5 he is a greet man, his head jb beautiful " This comptiment was followed by others more touching to the scientist, as ehe enlarged at length upon his various inventions, dieplaying an extraordinary knowledge of tbe details of all. As to the greatest, the electric light, ehe expressed her conviction that it was especially adapted for theatrical illumination. lie brilliancy and i-s power in showing up natural color would render it unnecessary for actors to plaster tbemeeivee over with chalk and rouge ; hence it would be ensier for the spectator to follow closely the emotions depicted upon an actor's face. Sara then honored the phonograph by reciting through it severs! long passages from her more favorite plsye, ond it is said that the instrcment reproduced with marvellous precision all the tones and inflections of her very telling voice. Last of ali,she prophesied thot Edison would certainly succeed in solving the great question of domestic lighting by electricity. The prosperity and recuperative elasticity of France may well be the envy of the world. It is not ten years since the milliards were paid to Germany, yet the country is better off now than ever. It has been possible to diminish taxation by 120,000,000 francs this year without endangering the equilibrium, of the Budget. The workhouse is unknown, and charity: does in France all that the Poor-rafe does in England. Yet there have of late beeo -deficiencies in the wine crops in conqev quence of the ravages of the phylloxera wbioh may be estimated at hundreds of millions of francs a year. The Paris correspondent of t' c Times explains the exceptional good fortune of Franice by three causes — first, the geographical frontier and the even attribution of agricultural and industrial resources; secondly, the thrift of her people; thirdly, the democratisation of creditin other words, the universality of investment in Government end other securities. The French farmer is hardworking, economical, and sober, apd gets all tbe land can yield. "The head servant of a private house here, who has often filled my glnes at fabl6," writes the correspondent of tbe Ttmh, " has caved enough to bring him !in £700 a year. He has been for twentyfive years in tbe same situation, and does bis duty as strictly bb he did the firßt day of his aervice. He seldom goes out, never takes anything between meals, and all he gains is carefully pat BBide." Imagine an English butter doing this ! Again in the middle class households of France every child'B future is provided for at his cradle by tbe earnest efforts of its parents, and it is rarely tbeir fault if they do not succeed. It is only among tbe workmen end artisans in the large towns that there are exceptions to this rule of frugality. Here there are improvidence and drunkenness, and, us a consequence) Communism. [ ' Lord Ly'tton responded to thetoaetof the House of Lords aft a banquet given

the other night, at Fishmongers' Hall, «o General Roberts. In the course of his speech his Lordship said be should assuredly tak'O;ver£ early opportunity of dealing fully with the subject of the Afghan war in bis place in the House I of Lords. He felt persuaded that when all the facts were fully known ond fairly considered tbe unbiassed opinion of the country would neither question tbe imperative and supreme necessity, and absolute justice of the Afghan war, nor yet hastily sanction the complete abandonment of all the practical objects for which it had been eb successfully carried on. Wer was a bill drawn upon human life, and a liability co solemn and so VRSt should never ba incurred for any purpose less precious than national safety and national honor, If, {hen, for thia purpose, and that only, the Government Jacurrad, corcsientiously, deliberately, and unavoidably this war, why, then, repudiate the nations signature to tho instrument when presented for acceptance, scaled with the blool of brave men, an<l emblazoned with tho fume and glorious records of heroic deeds ? This was fo proclaim tbe most atrocious and peroicious of docrineF. It was to repudiate those high duties which fairly devolved upon a nation, and bring war clowo to the foulest, because the most brutal of human sacrifices. Lord Lyttcn spoke in terms of high praise of General Roberts, who, be remarked, ! had been exposed in common with the Government which he served bo well, " to that which ho could only character- ! 138 as the moat malignant and cruel calumnies that wero ever heaped upon a man." In reference to dramatic training the great Mrs. Siddons once said: — "I was married at sixteen to a naval officer, and soon after that I appeared on the stage for the first time. I never took a lesson ; never had any dramatic training. I played Portia in the Merchant of Venice tho first time I was ever on the .stage, and that with only a week's notice and but one rehearsal. I never had the least instruction, about gestures ; was never told what to do ; nobody said a word to me about the stage business. I made a success at first, and from that time to this have never lacked engagements. I say this to show you that dramatic training is not necessary to make successful actresses. I have tried always to be myself, and to be entirely natural." IitEXAND. ' ; In Limerick on December 19, as two police constables were proceeding through Irishtown, they observed 0 body of civilians, about thirty in nunir her, drawn up on the footway in a byestreet. They seemed as if they were being drilled by somebody, and on closer observation they saw a soldier in uniform standing a few paces from the men. They heard him giving the word of command. The police proceeded towards the party, but the moment they ! appeared in sight tbe soldier fled 1 through a back street and got away. The civilians did not disperse, but picked up stones and threw them at the police, who ran behind a dead wall. It is stated that the civilians pursued them through several streets, flinging etones after them, and that it was with the utmost difficulty they escaped with their live?. A large force of constabulary then turned out, but they did not succeed in making any arrests during tbe night. In the morning, however, Corporal Michael Kelly, of the 10th Regiment, quartered at Curragh Camp, at present on furlough with his wife, was taken into custody. He was found in bed in a house in Irishtown. | Lord Kenmare is about to leave Ireland in consequence of the condition of his neighborhood. He has lately built a new house at Killarney, and recently employed a skilled carpenter to finjsb some windows, to the exclusion of lopal workmen. He received notice that, if this man was not immediately dismissed the house would be burnt down. Last year, in consequence- of the distress, Lord Kenmare borrowed £20,000 from the Board of Works in order to give employment to his people. : On Dec3mber 23 a vessel, containing a large cago of American arms, was seized in the river It is stated that the ship, which is a Norwegian vessel named Juno, left Queenstown for Baltimore, laden with iron and arms, and was driven back by Btresa of weather into tbe Shannon, where she was boarded, and thence brought to the port of Limerick in charge of the master ; and a party of men who recently arrived from America are under police surveillance. The vessel is the same that lately put into Passage, where it was boarded by forty and a quantity of rifles taken out under , very suspicious circumstances. Stress of weather was then also alleged as the cause of its presence, and the appedrance of a band of young men when it put into the Shannon made a curious coincidence. The ship has been towed up the Shannon, and has been in charge of a guard of marines and seamen night and day, and has also been under the strict surveillance of the constabulary. j The arms have all been removed and conveyed under a military escort to the i Castle Barracks, where they are now in charge of a strong detachment of the 9th Kegiment. : A determined attempt was made on Dec. 18 by about 2000 persons to wreck the residence of Mr. Charles Downing, J.P., Bonnicoulan, Mayo. He had been personally serving ejectment notices on some tenants, and was protected by police. Mr. Downing was armed with a rifle, and a great crowd followed him to his house. Here the police kept them at bay at the point of the bayonet, while Mr. Downing escaped on a car to Ballina, where he took train at midnight for Dublin. The police occupy his house. Other wealthy landowners have left this part of the country, and one magistrate has resigned the commission of the peace. The Land League meeting which was announced to be held at Cullohill on Dec. 19 for the purpose of denouncing tbe conduct of a landlord in putting, as alleged, a number of tenants into the bankruptcy court for non-payment of rent, was proclaimed. Early in the morning a military force ef 200 men of the 10lh Hussars, and between 300 and 400 of the 20th Foot, together with ammunition and ambulance waggons, reached Maryborough (Station, whence

they proceeded immediately to Ballyragget, the nearest station to Cullohill. They were under the command of (Pol. Parsons, Brigade Depot, Naas, and Major RusseF, 14th Hussars. At Cullohill the members of the Land league branch decided to remove tbe place of meeting to Durrowj a few miles off. Having assembled there,, a long parley was held by Messrs. Marum, M. P., Mr Lalor, M.P., and the Key. Mr. Rowan, with Mr» Hamilton, KM., who declared that he would prevent the meeting, although: it was urged that this was hot the meeting in the square, concluding as follows : — "We vtd going to show the G-overninent and the people of England that we are able to fight them with their own tactics — and that we are orgrn'sed to a man, but we are not going to be led into a trap—men without arm§ in tbeir hands to Contend against buckshot. Now, my friends, we are not able to contend against them. Whenever the people of this country have got a hundred thousand breechloading rifle"' we might contend against them. But we have not got them, and what we have to do is to disappoint tho (government in the butchery they planned for the people today. I will ask you, as your representive- — as a Land Leaguer I will ask you — to go home quietly, and to show the English Government that we are able to meet them on their own terms — to show them that we have tactics equal to their own, and to tell them that the time may come when wo may. be able to use other tactics. Anything we could have said at a meeting to-day would not have enlightened you one hit. There is not a man here that does not know what we would have said if this meeting were held — they knew it all before we came. I have promised to say nothing on the land question and I will not. Go home, then, quietly, and I will engage we will make the Government answer for their conduct in another place. We protest here, as free born men, we protest against the action of the Government to-day in preventing this meeting, as unconstitutional. Let us separate quietly and orderly, and I would ask that none of you would enter a public-house this evening. The crowd continued for some time to remain in the square, and a few minutes after Mr. Lalbr had concluded speaking, a body of 100 men with green sashes galloped briskly past, sweeping defiantly by the Hussara. Nothing, however, disagreeable occured, and in a short time all the people dispersed. The most intense excitement prevailed throughout, and indignation was expressed on all sides. Land League meetings were also held on tho Curragh, at Trim, at Howth, and in some other places on the same day.