ENGLISH ITEMS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4954, 7 February 1877, Page 3

ENGLISH ITEMS.

Owing to various assertions and insinuations in some of the newspapers, Mi-. Gladstone has deemed it desirable to address a letter to Mr. Adam, the Liberal whip, in which he renews the expression of his determination not to resume the position of leader of the Liberal party. He has on several occasions declined to appear in public owing to the danger that might arise of his motives being misunderstood upon this point. At an ordinary meeting of the Liverpool Town Council, the sum of £SOOO was voted unanimously as supplementary to a previous grant of £IB,OOO, for the purpose of building a public reading-room as an addition to the Public Free Library. The £IB,OOO originally accorded for this purpose was granted out of the library rate. The £SOOO voted is to be taken out of the surplus borough fund. The £23,000 for the reading-room is supplementary to a public library and reading-room, which has already cost upwards of £120,000. The funeral of the late Lord Chief Justice of Ireland took place at Dublin recently. The procession was of a very imposing character, all the Judges being present, the Corporation going in state with the gilt coaches and an escort of horse police. The professors and graduates of Trinity College attended in their robes, and there was a vast line of carriages, nearly the whole of the Irish Bar following. Business was suspended in the city until after the remains of the Chief Justice had been interred in the Protestant cemetery at Mount Jerome. It is understood that Captain Nares has a complete answer to the charge made against him with respect.to the inadequate supply of lime juice to his sledging parties. Documents throwing light on the subject are about to be published by the Admiralty, and these will prove that every possible medical precaution was taken to ensure the health of the men. The stories that have recently got abroad are exaggerated, and based upon erroneous assumptions. Had it not been for the official pride which becomes more reserved the harder it is stung, a full explanation of the facts would by this time have been laid before the public. At Wolverhampton recently, Francis Longland, licensed victualler, of Kingthorpe, Northamptonshire, and Thomas Warren, farmer, of the same place, were charged with conspiring to defraud the treasurer and secretary of the Wolverhampton Race Committee by running a three-year-old horse named Sphinx in a two-year-old race under the name of Glance. The horse had run at Birmingham the day previously as a three-year-old, and was afterwards painted, his tail cut, and otherwise disfigured in order that he should not be recognised. The prisoners were admitted to bail, themselves in £2OO and two sureties of £250 each.

The Brussels journals contain an account of a failure in an attempt to launch a flying machine made by an Englishman named Simmons. This construction is a sort of, immense kite, about 50ft..in diameter. According to the intention of the designer it was io be raised perpendicularly,', in the usual rifanner, with a cord ; then, on attaining l a certain altitude, it was to assume a horizontal (position and float on the air, a car containing the aeronaut being suspended to it, Ten soldierb took the cord and three times attempted to fly kite, but each time it fell heavily to the ground ■ after rising to a height of 30ft. The inventor' then said that there was not sufficient wind, and proceeded to pack up his machine amidst the jeers of the spectators. From the following report it would seem that Mr. Sergeant Cox, in the ardour of; his spiritualistic inquiries, has been neglecting hia; law :—"At the Middlesex sessions, onNovelm-| ber 5, Mr. Sergeant Cox'had before him Janies Edwards, who had been convicted at the last sessions of attempting to steal.a watch, and on whom sentence was then postponed that inquiriesmight be made regarding him. Ithaving been proved that the man had been previously several times convicted, the Judge now .passed sentence of five years' penal servitude. Prisoner: 'What! Five years for attempting only; yecan't do it.' The prisoner was removed to .the cells ; but shortly afterwards Mr. Sergeant Cox discovered that he was indicted for attempting to steal, and not for stealing, and he was accordingly replaced in" the'dock. Mr.' Ser-' jeant Cox.—' I find, Edwards, that you were convicted of attempting to -steal-only,-and not, as I supposed, of stealing.' Prisoner—- ,' Didn't I tell yer so when you sentenced me, and that yer , couldn't give me five years ?' Mr. Sergeant Cox—'Well,-I am sorry that X can't. I will give you the most the law allows' me, and that is two years' imprisonment, with hard labor.' Prisoner—'That's a saving ofthree years.' " ■■<<"■'■ The Gibraltar correspondent of the New York Herald writes as follows :—"The United States steamer Gettysburg, on her passage from Fayal to Gibraltar, discovered a coral bank hitherto unknown, in lat. 36 deg. 30 min. N., long. 11 deg. 38 min. W. She anchored on the bank and surveyed it on November 17 and 18. She was obliged to put in to Gibraltar for coals and repairs, having experienced very severe weather and suffered some injury. She returns to continue the search for dangerous depths as soon as the repairs are completed. The least depth found was thirty fathoms, but her commander had no doubt that the coral comes to the surfacs at some points near the anchorage. Twenty miles west of the bank a depth of 16,500 feet was found ; between it and Cape St. Vincent 12,000_ feet. _ The bank is rich in valuable coral of light pink shades. The discovery has created quite a Btir in British naval circles in Gibraltar, it being considered almost incredible that with so great a number of vessels passing over or in its vicinity it should have remained unknown up to the present time. Full details of the discovery have been sent by the commander of the Gettysburg to the Navy Department, Washington, by mail."

Notwithstanding a strong indisposition in the Courts against inflicting the sentence of death, there are at present seventeen condemned criminals in the prisons of France. In a few of the cases it is expected that the extreme penalty of the law will be commuted. It does not seem to be generally known that a torpedo school, under the superintendence of Captain Arthur, R.N., has been silently but surely at work for some time past laying down torpedoes round our coasts at every suitable point and This torpedo service has gradually attained such development that one can imagine some happy island, with internal resources sufficient for its own maintenance, able through its agency to dispense in toto with anything in the shape of an army or fleet, ' In replying to a valedictory address presented to him at the British Consulate, Shanghai, on November 23, Sir Thomas'Wade, who has for many years represented the British Government in China, made the' followirg remarks :—" I feel convince.d that the barriers between them and outer nations once away, there will be nothing to hinder the Chinese from becoming in intelligence and strength the equals of the greatest powers upon earth ; and although I should regret that selfinterest held any place in connection with this belief, I shall hot deny my pleasure in the conviction, equally strong, that our interests here will nut be better served than by the development of China to her own advantage." A charge of murder, which causes much excitement, is being heard at Bow-street before Mr. Vaughan. The accused, aM. Henri de Tourville, a Frenchman naturalised in England, a barrister by profession, is charged with murdering his wife, an English lady, in Tyrol, by throwing her over a precipice near the S ( telvio Pass. The Austrian authorities . have demanded his extradition. By his wife's death the accused became entitled to property worth about £30,000.. He had been previously married to another English lady, who died five years ago, leaving one boy and property worth £40,000, of which M. de Tourville receives the interest. His first wife's mother was shot under circumstances that caused suspicion,to attach to hia, but a coroner's inquest decided that death was accidental, though de Tourville was blamed for incautious use of firearms. .In the defence it is being argued that, apart from the question of guilt, "he, being an English subject, cannot be surrendered to a foreign power.