MAIL ITEMS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5006, 10 April 1877, Page 3

MAIL ITEMS.

The Judges of the Common Pleas have had before them a case in which a firm of merchants sued llcuter’s Telegraph Company for loss occasioned through their having acted upon a telegranTwhich had been sent to them by mistake. The Court held that the telegraph company did not guarantee everybody against the delivery of messages to the wrong persons, even though those messages had to go to the remotest parts of the earth. To impose such a responsibility would be to hold that there was a greater liability than the law could imply from the nature of the company or the business carried on by them. Judgment was therefore for the defendants. The Leeds Mercury says that much interest has been shown at the Middlesborough iron market in specimens of Messrs. Hopkins, Gilkes & Co.'s homogeneous iron, manufactured from ordinary Cleveland pig metal. Twisted specimens were exhibited, and it is said the

same metal made into rails will bear a strain equal to that of steel rails. Messrs. Hopkins, Gilkes, & Co. have issued circulars to the trade, announcing this make as a new brand in the market, to be sold at £9 per ton. ’ The Financier says :—At the Bank last week about £198,000 in bar gold was withdrawn for transmission to Berlin on account of the German Government. The balance of that Government here is constantly increased by sales of demonetised silver, and its power to take gold from us is proportionately augmented. There is no expectation, however, of withdrawals on a sufficiently large scale to involve any strain upon the money market, as that would inevitably re-act upon Germany, where the financial position is still rather weak. It would seem that Prussia, in particular, is being heavily weighted by the charges of her enormous standing army. A man was recently brought to St. Bartholomew's Hospital on’account of haemorrhage resulting trom a ruptured varicose vein. The patient, says the British Medical Journal, was exceedingly exhausted, very anaemic, quite pulseless at the wrist, unable to speak, and in a most critical condition. The haemorrhage was quickly arrested ; but the use of stimulants and other means of restoration proving ineffectual, the only resource left was transfusion. Mr. Langton, who was in the hospital at the time, opened a vein in the arm with some little difficulty, as the vessel was empty. Mr. Hubert Weiss, house-surgeon, in a spirit of loyalty to his profession, allowed four ounces of blood to be drawn from himself ; this, after defibrination, was injected into the patient by means of a Ferguson's transfusionsyringe. No perceptible benefit was produced in the patient, bn account of the advanced stage of syncope to which he had been reduced before he-was brought to the hospital. He died within an hour. The coroner’s jury returned a verdict of accidental death, and expressed their appreciation of Mr. Weiss’s self-, sacrifice for the good of his patient. The Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald publishes the following extract of a letter written to a friend by Mr. Carlyle : —“ A good sort of man is this Darwin, and well meaning, but with very little intellect. Ah, it’s a sad, a terrible thing, to see nigh a whole generation j of men and women, professing to be cultivated,: looking around in a purblind fashion, and finding no God in this universe. I suppose it is a reaction from the reign of cant and hollow pretence, professing to believe what, in fact, they do not believe. And this is what we < have got to. All things from frog-spawn ; the gospel of dirt the order of the day. The older I grow—and I now stand upon the brink of eternity—the more comes back to me the sentence in the Catechism which I learned when a child, and the fuller and deeper its meaning becomes— ‘ What is the chief end of man ? To ■ glorify God, and enjoy Him for ever.’ No i gospel of dirt, teaching that men have des- 1 cended from frogs through monkeys, can ever set that aside.” Our contemporary adds— | “ Some time ago Mr. Carlyle was beard to > say that he was seeking his way back to the • simple faith of his childhood, convinced that ■ there was more in that than in all the wisdom of the illuminati.” ,

The London correspondent of the Dundee Advertise}' says ;—“lam in a position to inform you that Mr. Gladstone has stated within the last few days to a friend that the Church will be compelled to claim spiritual independence, and that she can only secure that result through disestablishment. If Mr, Gladstone has been driven to adopt the principle of disestablishment, he has hot, however, reached the more advanced position of disendowment. He is prepared, when the proper time arrives, to maintain the rights of the Anglican Church to a large part of her endowments. This is, of course, a demand to which the Liberals can never accede, and it is possible that differences of opinion asito the endowments of the Church may retard the cause of disestablishment. Under the title of The Portrait, a hew weekly shilling journal is about to appear, which, in the words : of the prospectus, will “ illustrate the time we live in, by photographs and memoirs of those who adorn or disgrace it.” Writers “of ability and of known modosty” will be invited to supply their own memoirs, “ which will not be charged for as advertisements.” : Among the first portraits published will be those of the Earl of Beaconsfield, Mr. W. E. Eorster, M.P., I 'General Tchernayeff (with a memoir by Mr. Archibald Forbes). """ - - - “Atlas,” of the World, has learnt that■ Sir Henry Havelock and several other members of the House of Commons are resolved to offer a strong opposition to the compulsory retirement of any officers below the rank of major. Why they draw the line above the. rank of captain is not very plain ; for if compulsory retirement for any cause except old age is desirable, it ought to be applied to all ranks. The only thing which can bo said in support of Sir Henry Havelock's view is that in reliance On the five years’ rule many majors have held on in order to obtain the command of a regiment. The Duke of Cambridge, on the other hand, espouses the caute/of the lieutenant-colonels, and is making a strong endeavor to have the five years’ rule 'abrogated. The fact is, a proper flow of promotions can only be effectively managed by a combination of promotion by selection and liberal induced retirements. • The following are the names and weights of the crews in the late University Boat Race ; CAMBRIDGE. St. lb. 1. B. G. Hoakyns, Jesus .. .. 11 3 2. G. T. Holmes, Clare 11 4 3. J. C. Fenn, First Trinity .. ..116 i. T. W. Lewis, Cains 11 13 5. S. G. Pike, Caius 12 10 0. C. Gordon, Jesus 13 5 7. T. K. Hockin, Jesus 13 6 C. D. Shafto (stroke). 12 2 G. L. Davis (cox.) 7 7 OXFORD. st. lb. 1. Miller, Exeter 10 9 2. Cowles, St. John’s .. .. .. 11 4 3. Stayncr, St. John's.. .. .. 13 2 4. Grenfell, Baliol 12 11 5. Booth, Pembroke 13 3 0. Mulliolland, Baliol 12 4 7. Pelham, Magdalen 12 » Marriott, Brasenose (stroke) .. 11 7 Beaumont(cox.)