THE ENGLISH AUGUST MAIL, VIA SUEZ.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4223, 2 October 1874, Page 3

THE ENGLISH AUGUST MAIL, VIA SUEZ.

The s.s. Albion, Captain Underwood, bringing the English Suez mail of the 7th August (due here on the 3rd instant), arrived in the harbor at half-past eight o'clock yesterday morning. Erom the telegrams and journals she brings we make tho following extracts; — ENGLISH. While the Queen and Prince of Wales were at Aldershot, witnessing a sham fight, the Prince of Wales was thrown from his horse, but sustained no injury. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh are travelling on the Continent. The Px-ince of Wales gave a fancy dress ball at Marlborough'House on July 22. The cos- , tumes were scarcely ever surpassed for variety and magnificence. The whole affair was a brilliant success. The Marquis of Salisbury’s gax-den party at Hatfield, on July 11, though attended by many lloyal and noble guests, was partly disordered by a severe tempest. Princess Louise, in the garden of Drapers’ Hall, distributed medals and money prizes for cultivation of window plants by poor people. Addresses were given by the Marquis of Lome and Dean Stanley. An annuity of £15,000 has been voted to Prince Leopold, with a barren protest only from Mr. Taylor. The Prince, having met with an accident soon after his arrival at , Osborne, has been confined to his room, and though there is no cause for alarm, some time must elapse before he can be fairly restored. The Duke of Connaught is about to be stationed at Norwich with the 21st Hussars. Preparations are being made for His lloyal Highness’s recsption. The Emperor of Austria has arrived at the Isle of Wight. The emigration returns show a great falling off in the number of departures from the Mersey. During the last six months there were 49,000 fewer than during the same period of 1873. Letters from Amexica give discouraging accounts. The Stuart-Mill Memorial Fund has closed. The amount slightly exceeds £2,000. The two-hundredth anniversary birthday of Dr. Isaac Watts has been celebrated at Southampton. A nexv township called Shaftesbury Park Estate, near Clapham Junction, consisting of dwelling-hoxxses of a superior character for the working-classes, was formally opened on 18th July by Mr. Disraeli, Earl Granville, and the Earl of Shaftesbury. This excellent moye,ment shows one mode of' solving a question which has long perplexed Parliamexxt. West Ham Park, near Stratford, costing. £25,000, has been opened by the Mayor, accompanied by the membex*s of the Corporation,. amidst great local rejoicings. A movement has been initiated at a public meeting, xxnder the presidency of the Duke of Manchester, for the formation of a society for the protection of railway passengers, to assist sufferers from accidents, and to endeavor to improve railway management. A court-martial on Admiral Randolph for endangering the squadron under his charge terminated in an unanimous acquittal. In the action against Mr. Pugin, architect, on a charge of having libelled Mr. Herbert, R.A., the jury acquitted the defendant on the ground that the letters, though scurrilous, were not libellous. Mr. Gladstone appeared as a ■witness in the case. The temperance fete at the Crystal Palace on the 22nd July was attended by nearly 40,000 persons. Dr. Punshon has been elected president of the Wesleyan conference, and the Rev. Gervasi Smith, secretary. .Mr. Albert Grant has been unseated, for. Kidderminster, on tho ground of corruption and the expenditure of money on festivities. He was condemned to pay costs. Sir W. Fraser, Conservative, is elected in his place. The Ministerial whitebait dinner at Greenwich has been revived by the Conservative Administration. .An ambassador from . King Coffee has arrived at Cape Coast Castle with £I2OO towards the war indemnity. A large number of traders have also reached the coast, and affaire are quiet in the interior. It is in contemplation to provide an aquarium and summer and winter gardens near 'Westminster Abbey at a cost of £200,000. Lecture and conceit rooms and picture galleries are embraced in the scheme. Subscriptions have reached the Mansionhouse for the relief of the Indian famine to the amount of £130,000, while contributions in other parts of England will bring up the total to £200,000. Recent advices from India state that there were 600,000 persons employed on the relief works, while 66,000 are receiving charitable relief. The prospects of the crop aro reported to be good. Mr. Ward’s large oil painting, “ Luther’s First Study of the Bible," purchased by subscription, has been presented to the British and Foreign Bible Society. Great interest has been excited by the comet which has been visible nightly in the northern sky. It was remarked that during the whole of the period the weather was tremendously sultry, with severe and fatal thunderstorms. After a protracted inquiry the inquest upon De Groof, the flying man, has been concluded. The jury returned a verdict of death by misfortune, acquitting of blame the proprietor of Cremome Gardens, but expressing the opinion that such perilous exhibitions should be prohibited by the legislature. A . horrible description by Mr. James Greenwood of a fight between a dwarf and a bulldog at Hanley, which appeared in the Daily Telegraph, excited a great sensation. The Hanley authorities deny the accuracy of the report, and rewards offered have failed to any information, Mr. Greenwood,_ on visiting the town again, failed to identify the house or street in which the fight is said to have taken place, so that many persons pronounce the account to be an invention. The Goodwood Races were largely attended. The weather was fine. The Stewards’ Cup was won by Modena, the Goodwood Stakes by Scamp, and the Chesterfield Cup by Durham, an outsider. The Goodwood Cup was won by Doncaster.

The international yacht race from Havre to Southsea, was won by Mr. Wood’s schooner Corinne. The Florida took the prize for yawls, and the French yacht Message for cutters. The annual cricket match between Harrow and Eton has been played at Lord’s. Fifteen thousand persona passed the gates during the two days. The game was won by the Etonians by five wickets. In the match between Nottinghamshire and Middlesex, the former won by 21 runs. Some members of the Middlesex Bicycle Club raced from Bath to London last Monday. The winner, Mr. Walker, will be captain for the coming year. At a sale of thoroughbred yearlings at Middle Park, several horses fetched from 2000 to 3000 guineas each. The struggle between the fanners and agricultural laborers approaches its end. The men are virtually beaten,, finding increasing difficulty in supporting the lock-out. The executive council at Leamington have passed a resolution offering the men the alternative of emigration or migration, or dependence on . their own resources. To secure harvest work , they are freed from all union restrictions. The funds for several weeks have been dwindling. Fifteen hundred have emigrated, and funds are available to expatriate 1000 more. In Suffolk some farmers have engaged men for the harvest work without requiring them to surrender their union ticket. In the midland counties there is no deficiency of hands. The laborers’ march has been continued through Yorkshire, where sympathy and cash have been freely contributed, but the band has dwindled gradually down to twenty-seven men. An Edinburgh printer has been brought before the Lord President iu the Court of Session, and severely reprimanded for the careless and imperfect printing of the record in a case before the Court. The Atlantic telegraph cables were interrupted Giving to injuries caused by whales. The death is announced‘of Sir Charles Fox, the eminent engineer, and the builder of the Exhibition building of 1851 in Hyde Park, and of the Crystal Palace. He was the youngest son of Dr. Fox, of Derby, and was born in that town in 1810. He studied for some time, for the medical profession, hut subsequently relinquished it, and was articled to Mr. Johu Ericoson, then in business at Liverpool, and whom he assisted, among other things, at the trial of locomotive engines at Barnhill, on the Liverpool and Manchester railway in the year 1829. He was then placed by the late Mr. Kobert Stephenson on the London and Birmingham railway, then in course of construction. Since the year 1857, Sir Charles has practised in London as a civil and consulting engineer with his two elder sons. He was knighted after the opening of the Exhibition of 1851, together with Sir W. Cubitt and Sir Joseph Paxton. A bicycle race for £SO, over a course of twenty-five miles, has been run at Sheffield. Cheques for the purchase-money of Northumberland House and the legal expenses connected with the transfer were passed at the weekly meeting of the Metropolitan Board of Works. The Duke of Northumberland and Earl Percy receive £497,000-for the mansion itself; a further £2OOO is payable to His Grace for Nos. 2 and 3, Nortbmnberlaud-court ; the stamps amount to £2500, and the solicitors accept £IOOO in full satisfaction of their costs. Some discoveries which, have been made prove that the manufacture of pottery was carried on in Nottingham at a much earlier date than is generally supposed. As men were excavating on the site of the old Parliament Street Chapel, at the lower corner of George Street, they came on an old kiln, in and near which they found jars, jugs, and flat-bottomed pots of mediaeval manufacture, and all of a red clay body, with the upper portion of the outside covered with green salt-glaze. They afterwards found three other kilns, and more pieces of the same description, and a number of fragments of encaustic, tiles, with coats .of arms, and one or two with inscriptions. The works must have been in existence as early as the latter part of the fourteenth century. On 16th July, Chatham Barracks were set on fire by the workmen preparing gasfittiugs .for a grand ball, given by the officers of the Royal Engineers. The libraries and messrooms were entirely destroyed. On the same day a fire broke out in the telegraph storeroom of the General Post Office, hut the exertions of ; the firemen confined it to that room. Eifteeu fires happened in the metropolis on the same .day. The most destructive was at a large timber yard at Eotherhithe, fronting the Thames, belonging to Gabriel and Sons. A few days later immense destruction to property occurred by fire in Southwark Street, Blackfriars, originating in the premises of Messrs. Hunt and Co., playing-card manufacturers, involving the loss of £10,000; and on the 28th July the premises of Messrs. Wright, Sellars, and Layman, wholesale druggists, Southwark Street, were utterly consumed. . On the same day Liverpool was the scene of an appalling conflagration. The magnificent landing stages, just united into one structure 700 yards in length, and costing £250,000, took fire through an explosion cause/l by plumbers, and all efforts failed to arrest the fury of the flames till the vast platform and buildings had been destroyed. The shipping escaped. In Shropshire, the Ercall, a large timbered hill near the Wrecken, has been on fire several days, and owing to the long drought the moors, commons, and railway embankments are continually blazing. The Marquis of Waterford was married on the 21st of July at Badminton Church to Lady Blanche Elizabeth, only daughter of the Duke of Beaufort. lii tho iron and coal trade the contest grows weaker - . The miners’ strike iu Scotland has been terminated by, the submission of the men to the masters’ terms. The Kingswood colliers have* returned to work, pending arbitration. In South Yorkshire the miners are in revolt against their own oificials, and refuse to ratify the terms arranged with the employers. The leaders are bitterly denounced, and acts of violence are feared. The Dudley colliers have also refused to be bound by the terms of settlement proponed. In Birmingham Lord Penrhyn has given notice that no unionist will be employed at Bethesda. Mr. Ashton Smith has withdrawn his look-out at Llanberris. Tho Leicester strike continues. The Wimbledon Eifle Meeting closed on the 19th July, by the presentation of prizes to the winners by Princess Christian, and a review before the Duke of Cambridge. The muster of Volunteers was unusually small. The proceedings closed with a sham fight. The shooting was pronounced up to the average. The Queen’s Prize was won by Private Atkinson, of Stockton, who also carried off' the Olympic Prize. There was a tie with Kae, of the 31»t Lanark. The International Trophy, contested by three countries, was won by Scotland by thirteen points. The Elcho Challenge Shield was won by the. Scotch, England being second. The University Challenge Plate was won by Oxford, and the China Cup by Middlesex. The Ashburton Shield, contended for by nine public schools, was taken by Marlborough. The Kalarpo Cup, competed for by England, India, and Canada, was won by the mother country. EMIGRATION OF FARM LABORERS. On Thursday a batch of locked-out farm laborers from the district of Newmarket left Liverpool for Canada, in tho Allan steamer Sarmatian. The laborers take with them their wives and families, the total number of emigrants being about 150. They go out under the arrangements made by Mr. Joseph Arch with the , Canadian Government. The Times correspondent writes:—“ Seventy or eighty of those people from Bast Suffolk passed’through Newmarket on Tuesday, and were to have slept there, but there has been an outbreak of small-pox in Newmarket, and it was thought unsafe for them to leave the railway station. They therefore went on to Cambridge. At half-past eight’ o'clock yesterday morning another party of equal numbers left Newmarket. They came from Bunvell, Fordham, Cheveloy, Exning, and other villages in this neighborhood, and were accompanied to the station by some 200 of their friends, who cheered them lustily on leaving. The parting was less sorrowful than might have been expected, and the tears shed, on the platform at least, were chiefly by those who stayed behind.

As one of the party said, “ We cannot be worse off in any country;” and though, perhaps, caution would suggest some reservation before assenting to this proposition, Canada must be a poor country indeed if it does not supply better propects than the union pay of 9s. a-week for a man with a wife and family. The union emigrants now receive a free passage to Canada, and the union allows them a small sum besides. The sale of the little hit of furniture in the cottage supplies £2 or £3, or if that resource is wanting, the neighbors club together and raise a little money for the emigrant’s benefit. Many of them will have relatives or friends to welcome them when they go “up country,” and Canada therefore will scarcely be to them like a strange land. Many were the exhortations of the emigrants to those left behind to be sure and join them by and by. ‘ Don’t wait for no . letter, but come right away!’ ‘Yes,’ was the answer, ‘we shall all be emigrating before long.’ I have said enough to show that many, if not most, of the union laborers who linger on will soon have no choice between leaving their villages or leaving their long-cherished union. It is a hard struggle either way. As yet they cling both to the union and the village, but no work at harvest . time means grinding penury for the rest of the year. Many stay on still under the persuasion that the farmers cannot do without them, and almost distrusting the evidence of, their own eyes in this harvest business. The illusion must soon pass, of course, and all the sooner as Michaelmas approaches and the notice to quit their cottages taxes effect. Then, if they remain staunch to the union, Mr. Ball may expect more numerous candidates for a free passage to Canada.” FOREIGN. The monument to be erected by the French Government on Swiss territory, in recognition of the generous reception given to General Bourbald’a army in the last war, is to consist of a granite column, the frieze of the pedestal having twenty-two enamelled escutcheons representing the arms of the Swiss cantons. The column will bear the inscription—“ 1870-1871, the grateful French Republic to the Helvetic Republic ;’’ and there will be two bronze groups—the first, called “ the Arrival,” will represent a French soldier exhausted with cold, hunger, and fatigue, falling into the arms of a Swiss peasant and his wife; while the second, “ the Departure,” will show the same soldier bidding adieu to his kindly hosts. The Spanish Government have hit upon a new plan for forcing the people to take their bank notes. All the shopkeepers are compelled to take the paper under pain of fine and imprisonment, and of trial for treason should the refusal be persisted in. In France, the Assembly has decided to continue the state of siege. M. Gambetta made a vehement speech, reproaching the Monarchists for rendering all government impossible. M. Brisson, in interrogating Ministers respecting their policy during the recess, used very excited language. The prorogation was felt as a relief by all Europe. The first number of M. Rochefort’s Lanterne, published at Brussels, was seized at Strasburg. M. Rochefort has been refused a domicile iu Austria. In Spain, on the 16th July, Don Alfonso, with 80,000 men, took Cuenca, sacked and plundered the town, made 200 Republicans prisoners, and carried off artillery, muskets, and other munitions of war, levied heavy contributions on the inhabitants, and retired after forty-eight hours’ possession. In Germany, the attempt to assassinate Prince Bismarck has immensely added to the Prince’s popularity. The expression of indignation throughout Germany was unanimous. Within three days nearly 1000 congratulations were received by telegraph from sovereigns and statesmen downwards. The affair will prove a disastrous blow for the Catholic party, whom the public hold responsible for the crime, despite all disavowals. The crime had long been premeditated, and Kullman was a fortnight in Berlin watching for an opportunity. He is twenty-one years old, and had left his home at Magdeburg twelve months ago. His father vends fried eels. His mother has been for years in an asylum, and he has long been a violent member of the Catholic Society at Satzwel. The activity of the police has been quickened. Prince Bismarck continues at ICissingen, and is . gradually recovering from the shock. He frequently appeal’s in public, and is always enthusiastically received. Two slight wounds in the arm and hand have been treated with ice. No permanent injury has been sustained. The raising of his hand to his head at the critical moment probably saved his life. An interesting little establishment has just been broken up at Trebizond under circumstances which have created, if not a “scandal,” at least a sensation in that place. It appears that for some time past Trebizond has been kept in a state of uneasiness owing to the proceedings of this household, which. consisted of a father, six sons, and one daughter. Delightful as was the charm which reigned over their domestic circle, it did not extend beyond the hearth, for, unfortunately, the, family weakness was murder. In a brief space of time, the eight persons composing tho family managed to get through, according to the Trebizond correspondent of. the Levant Herald , no fewer | than 235 murders. Out of this number the gentlemen of tho family were each responsible for thirty murders, while the young lady only committed twenty-five, though, but for the .premature interference of the authorities, it is considered probable that she would have completed an equal number. The predecessors of the present Governor most ungallantly caused her to be arrested, together with her amiable parent and four of her brothers. It is not stated what became of the remaining brothers, but the poor old gentleman was hanged about three weeks ago, and two of his sons met with a similar melancholy accident on the 25th of last month. The other two and the young lady are still languishing in captivity, and much anxiety is felt on their behalf, for unless the local judges take a lenient view of their offences on account of their youth, they have but a poor chance of resuming their position in society. Altogether, it is a sad story ; and it is not surprising that these young people and their misfortunes have of late been the talk of Trebizond. Tho Bishop of Posen was arrested on the ,27th July, to undergo the fifteen months’ imprisonment to which he was sentenced. Another bishop for the illegal appointment of •priests, was fined 200 thalers, and for refusal to appoint six priests in certain districts 18,000 thalers. The thousandth anniversary of the Norse occupation of Iceland is being celebrated by flocks of distinguished visitors. The King of Denmark with his fleet, and an American expedition from Aberdeen, including Mr. Bright, has repaired to Iceland. The Brussels International Conference for discussing the best means of ameliorating the horrors of war is now in session. Warned by her experience in relation to the three rules for neutrals extorted by America, England insisted on certain reservations, especially in regard to maritime warefare, and Russia having conceded them, General Hereford was sent as our representative. Baron Jomini, the presumed author of the project, has been appointed president. Thirteen States are represented. Turkey and Portugal hold back, while America formally declined. After the verification of credentials on the 29th July, a committee was appointed to draw up a programme of proceedings. The sittings are to be in secret. INDIA AND THE EAST. A railway is to be constructed along the coast from Colombo towards Galle. Professor Mimyeff, of St. Petersburg, is at present , investigating Buddhist .writings and ruins in Ceylon. The steamship Navarino has made the voyage from Loudon to Colombo, including stoppages, in twenty-seven days. The autumn crop iu Western Bengal is in a precarious state from the want of rain. Much scarcity is apprehended in some densely populated areas. Disastrous floods have taken place in Northern India. A class for medical lady students is likely to bo formed in the Madras University. Lady doctors are increasing in India. Disturbances are reported from Abyssinia,

and Magdala is invested by a rebellion.') tribe. Disturbances have also taken place in the Gulf of Oman, in which a British man-of-war had to take a part in demolishing piratical forts. ANGLO -AH STB ALAS lAN NOTES. A museum of Australian and South Sea curiosities has long been exhibited at Crystal Palace. They belonged to Mr. Pain, of Melbourne, and a woman named Manuis, who quarrelled, and appealed to the Court of Chancery. Mr. Justice Malins ordered the non-removal of the collection till the cause had been determined. A sale took place of the Claimant’s property last week, when the articles fetched large prices. A writ of Jiabeas corpus for the release of Orton was applied for before two Courts by Mr. Cobbett, and peremptorily refused. Sir Henry Barkly’s youngest son has died suddenly at the Cape. The Eirebraoe divorce case has again heen brought before the Court on the question of alimony. The Court strongly urged liberality towards Mrs. Pirebrace.