NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 230, 17 January 1877, Page 2

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Great activity prevails in the Royal arsenals, and several powerful men-o'-war, in addition to those already commissioned, are being got ready for sea. In consequence of the successful trial of the 100-ton gun at Spezzia, made by Sir William Armstrong for the Italian Government, the Admiralty purpose having a 200-ton gun constructed. It will be fifty feet in length, with a bore of forty-four feet, and diameter of twentyone inches. The charge of powder will be 9501b., the weight of shot 6,0001b., and its length five feet. It will be capable of throwing_the shot twelve miles. Speaking at the annual dinner at the Portsmouth Sailors' Home, Admiral Elliott said that if England were brought into antagonism with any foreign nation to-morrow, he was convinced that the superiority of our seamen and officers over those of other nations would be proved to be as great as ever ifc was in the days of yore. He believed that they were more scientific, had a more thorough knowledge of the weapons they had to use than at any previous period, and that their moral elevation would give them increased courage in the day of trial. In the event of a British force being sent to occupy Constantinople and the lines across the Peninsula between Yenikoi and Bojuk Tchekonedche, about sixteen miles from the capital, and extending from the Sea of Marmora to the Black Sea, it is understood that Lord ISfapier, of Magdala, Governor of Gibraltar, will have the chief command, and Sir Garnet Wolseley and General Lyons have divisions. Mr. Joseph Hector Garrick was gazetted on the 21st inst. Attorney-General for Fiji. A Mr. Alderson, lately returned from Australia, where he was for twelve years, has put in a claim to a large property at Warrington, which had been disposed of under the supposition that he was dead. Operations are about to be taken against Dahomey. A whits regiment will be employed. The .acting administrator at Lagos has penetrated in a steamer to within twenty miles of Abomey by river

and lagoon. The new commodore on the station, Captain Sullivan, sailed yesterday in the Tourmaline for his destination. The intelligence that Mr. Pope Hennessy is to be transferred to Hong Kong has given great satisfaction at Barbadoes. The great majority of the persons awaiting trial there for the riots in April were at once discharged by the special judge sent from England. Some excitement has been caused by a statement that a young English lady, under age, entitled to a considerable property, is detained against her will in a Parisian convent by direction of her stepin other. Lord Lyons has taken the matter up. A horrible murder of a young woman has occurred in Paris, the body being found floating in the Seine. It has created great sensation. Thousands visited the morgue, and the police had to form the people in line. The body has not been identified. Germany does not intend to take part in the Paris Exhibition of 18T8. A lawsuit at Turnhout, in Flanders, has caused great scandal among the Ultramontane party. During the trial it was discovered that certain documents produced to defeat the claim of a Mr. Dam to certain property in the hands of the Capucin monks were forgeries concocted by some of the superiors of the latter. The tribunal ordered the restitution of the property, and severely condemned the proceedings of the monks. The principal forger was a superior named Vierpej'el, who died some years ago in the odour of sanctity. The cannon purchased for the Turkish Government, which were seized by some bondholders at Antwerp, have been given up to the Turkish representative by order of the Belgian Courts. The sentence upon Dr. Strousberg by the Court of Moscow was simply banishment from Russia. Kallmann, who made an attempt on Prince Bismarck's life two 3 r ears ago, has violently assaulted liis gaolers in the Wurzburg Penitentiary, and has in consequence been sentenced to two years' additional imprisonment. Proceedings against Captain Keyn, c-f the Franconia, have been instituted by fchc public prosecutor at Hamburg. The principal Minister of public worship has decided that cremation is not in hannoii3 r with present legislation, and cannot be tolerated under any circumstances. A terrible crime has been committed at Vienna. A postman was murdered by a man to whom lie had just delivered a registered letter. He was then robbed of money contained in the letter, to the amount of 10,000 florins. The registered letter was a plant. The murderer, an Italian, has been arrested. M. Leon Sue, a cousin of M. Eugene Sue, cashier of the Messageries Company, has committed suicide. He had read so much lately of dishonest cashiers that his mind became affected, and it led him to doubt his own integrity. He shot himself in the churchyard at Pesse. The Russian police profess to have discovered a political plot in Poland. The Roman Catholic Bishop of Lyttoniese, in Volhynia, has been arrested, and several priests. Mr. Cobbett made an application at the Westminster Police Court for summonses for conspiracy against Messrs. Gladstone, Lowe, and Stansfield, in connection with the trial of the Claimant. The request was refused, and he was told he could apply for a mandamus if he thought proper. Commander Cheyne, R.N.. an old Arctic sailor, has stated in a lecture at Tunbridge Wells that he is prepared to proceed to the farthest extremity north possible by vessel, and then by ballooning he would surmount the ice difficulty. On Sunday last 1,000 persons assembled in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, to commemorate the execution of the so-called Manchester martyrs. There were no speeches, but prayers were said, and the graves of other Fenians visited, the crowd dispersing quietly. There having been several deaths from hydrophobia in Glasgow within the last three weeks, a raid has been made upon the dogs in the city, and 1,500 destroyed. The Nelson ironclad has been launched from Messrs. Elder and Co.'s yard, in the presence of 50,000 spectators. Mr. Isaac Butt, M.P., is suing the proprietor of the Dublin Daily Express, a Conservative organ, for libel. The damages are laid at £IO,OOO. The Intrepid, whaler, has brought home relics of the expedition to Regent's Inlet in search of Sir John Franklin, belonging to the ships Hecla and Fury.

Foot-ancl-mouth disease, whit 1 nearly been stamped out from the herds I of cattle in Surrey, has again broken "within the last few days among dairy * stock. The municipal elections throughout England have been favorable to the liberal party ; in many towns they secured ! majorities where they had previously minorities. The Court for Crown cases reserved, consisting of thirteen of the judges, have decided by a majority of one against the conviction of Captain Keyn, of the German steamer Franconia, for manslaughter in causing loss of life through running down the Strathclyde off" Dover. The majority of the Court decided that the English Courts had no jurisdiction in the I affair. Ward, the Hull merchant, who was rested in Fiji, has been committed for trial on several charges. A charge of murder, which causes much excitement, is being heard at Bow-street, before Mr. Vaughan. The accused, aM. Henri de Tourviele, a Frenchman naturalised in England, and a barrister by profession, is charged with murdering his wife, an English lady, in Tyrol, by throwing her over a precipice near the Stelvio 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 live years ago, leaving cne 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 him, but a coroner's inquest decided the 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. A gigantic turf swindle lias been discovered. It was concocted by persons who represented that people betting under their auspices were sure to win. I A Parisian Countess was defrauded out of £IO,OOO. The principal agent is supposed to be a man ri' J ' ( '0 ters, with numerous aliases, TTy \iefore tb' n Lord Mayor last JT stance of the Russian carrying out frauds in that country. was then admitted to bail, and bolted. Lord Falmouth proposes that foreign horses shall not be allowed to run on English courses unless English horses are per- • mitted to contest all races in the country to which the horses belong. An international regatta on the Thames has been very successful. It is to be repeated annually. This year none but British subjects competed, but it is expected that others will on a future occasion. A four-handed match at billiards, 1,000 up between W. Cook and S W. Stanley against T. Taylor and G. Hunt, came off on the 20ch inst. The game was a very exciting one, and Cook and his partner won by only one point. A case is before Sir Richard Malins, Vice-Chancellor. in which the title and estates of Sir Francis Vane, Bart., are claimed by his uncle, Sir Frederick Vane, on the ground that Sir Francis's father was born before wedlock. On the 10th November, after the report of Lord Beaconsfield's speech at the Mansion House dinner had reached him, the Czar, addressing a deputation of nobles at Moscow, used language regarded as warlike. Turkey is also making every preparation for war. Her ironclad fleet is ready to enter the.Black Sea. In all the Russian ports in which torpedoes have been laid down, navigation is forbidden during the night, and only allowed during the day under the direction of the guardship. By the end of December Turkey will have 30,000 troops on her frontiers