GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4448, 22 June 1875, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

Irving’s “ Life of Washington,” which has outsold all hia books except the “Sketch Book,” has been newly brought out in two octavo volumes. Over 100,000 copies of the Washington have been sold. M. Dufaure, the Minister of Justice in McMahon’s Cabinet, gets up at three every morning and goes at his work. He once accepted an invitation to a ball, and went to it, to keep his word, for half an hour after he got up next morning. The King of Sweden has transmitted to the Riksdag a proposition, asking for 400,000 Swedish kronor, or about SIBO,OOO for the worthy representation of that country at the exhibition in Philadelphia next year. Last year the Riksdag ordered about $20,000 to be paid out for the same purpose. In Switzerland there was a marriage by proxy. A woman there was married to a man in America, the proxy being a neighbor and a man already married. The authorities are discussing whether this much-married. man has not committed bigamy. . They sold at the public auction in Pans the other day a revolver that has had many owners, and with which five of its owners had committed suicide.

In the course of a case brought by Emmanuel, the London jeweller, it was shown that he charged 20,000d01. for a necklace which was valued by a Paris jeweller at 7Boodol. It costs the Shah of Persia a little to buy a bonnet for his wife. There are fifty of her. One case -with that number of new bonnets was sent from Paris the other day directed to his Majesty at Teheran. Many Tipperary women make a pledge never to walk with, talk with, cook for, wash for, court, marry, or countenance, but let live and die as they like any man who will not vote for John Mitchel for Tipperary. M. Rouher’s “ parole if honneur" is likely to become as famous as his “jamais." He declared, “on his word of honor,” _ in the Assembly, that there was not, to his knowledge, any Bonapartist organisation operating throughout France, and now investigation has proved that this organisation exists, and that he is the head of it. The doctors appointed to examine into the case of Louisa Latteau, the Belgian fasting girl, whose “ stigmatisation” and abstinence from food are alleged to be miraculous, have sent in a report in which they say they are convinced that she is supplied with food. As to the marks of the “stigmata” the report says they can be accounted for as the result of a nervous affection. The unending criticism of Shakspere has produced as its latest book Professor Edward Dowden’s “Shakspere : A Critical Study of his Mind and Art,” which the Academy pronounces the best work of the kind that has been written in our language. A M. Pipet has recovered from the city of Marseilles 18,000 francs, the price of his wife, killed on her way to market by a shot in the streets during the revolutionary times of 1871. It is thought that a great many men in that city -will send their wives to market assiduously during the next revolt. An application for relief in Paris was supported by this recommendation : —“ This unfortunate young man is the only son of a widow who died without leaving any children, and he is the sole support of his aged father and young brothers.” The French Society of Veterinary Surgeons recommend for the prevention of hydrophobia, a police regulation to compel all owners of dogs and cats to notify the authorities whenever their pets are low-spirited or apparently ill. Not much for the authorities to attend to ! The “ Americanistes, ” who are to meet at Nancy, in France, next July, form a society of savants analogous to the Egyptologists in the nature of their study. They study America anterior to the discovery by Columbus—the monuments, the mounds, the ancient citiesj the inscriptions, &c. Spanish thieves stole from a church in their native land a bronze statue of the Virgin, “ larger than life,” and raised money on it in Paris, where it was reclaimed by the Spanish representative. All the occupation of Spanish consuls, says the New York Herald, now is to reclaim in foreign countries the treasures stolen in their own. The Augsburg Allgcmcine Zcitung gives an extract from the Leipsic “ Booksellers’ Keport,”

from which it appears that the number of works printed in Germany was the largest on record since 1849, and amounted to 12,000, including reprints and maps of all kinds. Theology, which had hitherto stood at the head of the list, fell in 1874 to the third place, jurisprudence and education taking precedence. Mr. Francis Pierce Connelly, an American painter in Florence, has instituted proceedings against some of the local journals for having stated that he and some other American artists had been in the habit of employing native artists in needy circumstances to produce works which they have forwarded to the United States as their own veritable productions, and thus have found a name and a market for themselves. Dore’s picture of the “Seventh Circle of Dante’s Hell” contains 900 figures. Those in the foreground are the size of life. They are grouped in a circle about Dante and Virgil, who are on a central eminence. It will be exhibited at the next Paris salon. Castelar writes.to Spain that the country flocked around Alfonso XII., because it was assured that Alfonso meant peace, but the people have found out their mistake. War is raging more bitterly than ever ; the Carlists have gained several important advantages and are continuing to raise men. There is no symptom of the end of the struggle. The murder in Home of the radical journalist, Sonzongo, appears to have been traced to its true source in the person of Signor Luciani, a defeated candidate. There was a personal quarrel, and Sonzongo defeated the election of Luciani. Upon his election depended his marriage with a rich lady. Baffled at all points, he hired a bravo to kill the journalist. The Count de Tocqueville, bearer of a name great in political thought, says of present French politics :—“ The Empite is dead, thank Heaven ! Orleanism was a bastard principle, and is buried. Monarchy by divine right has become forever impossible. There was nothing else but the Republic, and I became a republican, as every one must who understands the time he lives in.” The wild animals in the forests of the Eulengebirge, iff Germany, are put to great straits for want of food. The snow is not only deep but hard frozen, and many of the poor creatures almost destroy themselves in their efforts to penetrate through the ice to the grass below. Steps are being taken to supply them with food. Eagles, taking advantage of the weakness and exhaustion of the deer, attack them while still alive.