NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1024, 17 January 1882, Page 2

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

New York. The United Irishman contains little that does not relate to the Chicago Convention. One article says the League in America will collapse unless the Convention adops a revolutionary programme. Another article suggests the holding of a private Convention of those Delegates who are favorable to an organisation of the “ resources of revolution ” in opposition to Mr Gladstone’s “ resources of civilisation.” This plainly foreshadows the belief that the Convention will not take a sufficiently advanced ground to please the advocates of the use of dynamite. Half-a-dozen editorial paragraphs suggest that the delegates representing the trustees who retain the skirmishing fund should surrender it to the Convention for immediate use. Rossa is very sore upon this subject ever since he was deposed from the management of the fund. The following subject is commended to the attention of the Convention :— “ Irishmen can for a few dollars command an engine which will do as much destruction in England as a Gatling gun costing thousands of pounds can do in Ireland. We hope they will not overlook the extreme combustibility of London. No city in the world would be more readily consumable by fire. It eon - tains such quantities of spirituous liquors

«uoh stores of brandy, rum, and wine, flood of petroleum, mountains of coal aud timber, such immeasurable masses of inflammable substances, and it is built of such wretched materials, that the Irish inhabitants might easily wrap London in a crimson conflagration which would appal the world and avenge seven centuries of wrong. Let us hope the Convention will consider this. There is no time to be lost. It is quite evident if we do not kill them the English will kill us.” December 20. Guiteau’s trial is exciting great astonishment and indignation. The lack of dignity by the Court, the liberty of action and license allowed the prisoner, and the irregular modes of taking evidence, have surprised English and American lawyers. Guiteau continually assails witnesses where the evidence does not pleaseliim with “Liar,” ■“ Coward,” “ Sneak,” &c. His brother-in-law and counsel are lecturing to raise funds and sympathy for him. The opinion is growing that he shot Garfield for notoriety. One witness aaid Guiteau told him he was going to Washington to imitate Booth. The experts summoned on either side held a consultation, and agreed as to his sanity. The judge said he received €OO letters a day, threatening to avenge Garfield if Guiteau were acquitted. Several persons are sworn to kill 'Guiteau. A package was sent him containing rope. Postmaster James proposes to shorten the mail delivery between San Francisco and New York 24 hours. Smallpox is an epidemic in Chicago. The Sunday liquor traffic law is dead in San Francisco, owing to general non-observance.

THE SITUATION - IN IRELAND. New York, December 10th.—The Tribunes London special says : — There is no rift in the gloom that hangs over Ireland. On the contrary, crime and violence increase, and an unmistakable spirit of hostility is spreading. On this side of the Channel the Lord Mayor’s establishment of a fund for the ladies who have lost their income through the non-payment of rents, has been followed by a much more important step. He has decided to start a fund to aid the Property Defence Association. The Government was asked by the Lord Mayor whether it objected to the fund, and Gladstone answered that it was not a matter in which he could interfere. The Premier is bound to act cautiously because the Lord Mayor is a strong Tory. English hostility toward the Irish increases, and this animosity has largely increased since the Stafford and Derry elections showed the depth of Irish resentment. O’Donnell's blunder at , Derry, and all the help which the Home Rulers gave their candidate, proved useless. The election was a decided victory for the Government over the Land League. The Carlton Club is not over pleased w’iln Sir Samuel Wilson’s approval of the Land Bill, nor his argument that the Act does not go far enough in cancelling the existing laws. Sir Samuel Wilson is a successful Australian squatter, but no politician. He is not noted for extravagance, but rather otherwise. It is improbable, therefore, that he w ill persist with his threatenen petition. France. France is exciting Europe by its preparations for war. The works at St. Denis have deen doubled ; 900 new cannon have been cast. Heavy appropriations for ordnance passed the Chambers. Germany is also largely manufacturing cannon.—A statement was published in a Paris journal that Bismarck, uneasy at the cordial relations between England and France in Egypt, had proposed that England should annex Egypt on her sole account, promising active support. The German Minister in London emphatically denies the statement.—Baron Vaux fought a duel with Prince Murat for an article in a Paris journal. He wounded his challenger severely. President Grevy has a telephone between the Elysee and the Opera Comique and Theatre Francais. He intends giving a series of telephonic “At Homes.” The Consuls-General of the Seine have reported in favour of constructing a canal connecting the Atlantic with the Mediterranean.—Prince Bonaparte has received a large sum for bis interest in the Monaco gambling tables. — Four hundred people were killed by the bursting of a dam at Algiers. FAILURE OF ANGLO-FRENCH TREATY. Paris, Jan. 7. The negotiations Jbetween the English and French Commissioners for the conclusion of the fresh Commercial Treaty have now been finally broken off, and Mr Cross, the British delegate, has returned to London. The Paris papers to-day, in their leading articles on the subject of the termination of the negotiations, almost unanimously profess anxiety that the treaty should be concluded between France and England. Germany. The political situation in Germany is darker than ever. The controversy between Bismarck and Nindhurst put an end to all hope of a Parliamentary coalition between the Conservatives and Clericals. Richter attacked Bismarck’s financial policy so effectually in the Reichstag that none of the Government representatives were prepared to reply, and the debate terminated suddenly. The Liberals claim it as a great triumph.

The German Government are arranging to have all Transatlantic steamers converted into cruisers if necessary. Germany is commencing negotiations with England for the cession of Heligoland. Prince Bismarck has, in a telegram to the leaders of the Conservative party, thaked them for their promise of continued opposition to the Progressists, whose aims, he asserts, are “ dangerous to the Throne and to the Empire.” In a recent interview with a Jewish merchant, Prince Bismarck is said to have declared that he was greatly opposed to the anti-Jewish agitation. Rumors have lately been current in Berlin that Prince Bismarck, although he said a day or two ago that the result of the elections neither surprised nor annoyed him, really intends to resign. He is reported to have said : — “ What can I do when the only Parliamentary majority I can hope for must be formed by the Clerical party ? But to this party I will not bow.” The rumors may, perhaps, have had their origin in an article which appeared in the semi-official Post, which, after stating that Prince Bismarck intends to return to Berlin this week to lay before the Emperor his “proposals respecting the entire position of the Government as affected by the outcome of the elections,” adds that the Chancellor had “expressed himself weary of being made the butt for all the wickedness, baseness, calumny, and envious insinuations of forty-five millions of people.” Berlin. Field Marshal Count von Moltke, now over eighty years of age, is to be somewhat relieved of the onerous duties he has hitherto discharged. He will receive as his assistant or adlatus Count Waldersee, now Chief of the General Staff of the Tenth Army Corps. IMPERIAL MANIEESTO IN GERMANY. January 7. An Imperial rescript, addressed to the Prussian Ministry, has been made public to-day. The document strongly asserts the right of the exercise of the Imperial prerogative, throughout the Empire and insists that the oath of allegiance taken by Government officials binds them to abstain from agitation in support of the Government at the time parliamentary. Russia. The Nihilists in Russia are becoming bolder, and have given out that they will prevent the coronation of the Czar, unless he grants them certain concessions wMKi they have specified. A special cßncil is shortly to meet at St PeterArg for the purpose of reorganising the Zemtsvos and other provinciaWinstitutions. The council will be awisted by private persons not. occupying any official position. A further reduction of the Russian military budget is announced, but doubts as to the authenticity of the report prevail. Con stantinople. The Constantinople correspondent of the Daily Telegraph writes : —“ lam in a position to inform you that, notwithstanding all that has taken place, the town of Merv will shortly be occupied by Russian troops. The Sirdar Toukhme, one of the chiefs of the. Tekke Turcomans, has arrived at Merv to negotiate on behalf of the Russian Government the submission of the Turcoman tribes. Meanwhile, and in view of the occupation of that town, the Russian railway on the eastern frontier of Persia has been completed as far as Kizil Arvat, and a depot of arms has been established at Askabad. The Russian authorities trust the occupation will be carried out peacefully without serious opposition on the part of the British Government. The same correspondent, however, now says that no confirmation has been received of the reported occupation of Merv by the Russians ; and “ it scarcely seems likely that such an occupation has taken place.” Information from “ various sources,” however, “ makes it pretty certain that recent negotiations with the MervTekkes have terminated successfully, and that these tribes have adherents of Russia, which will exercise a sort of protectorate over them.”