LATE MAIL NEWS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2213, 21 April 1880, Page 2

LATE MAIL NEWS.

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Lord Hartington referred to the domestic legislation of the Government, and concluded by declaring that the Liberal party can grant no special favor to any class or any interest, and that it can only undertake that while securing the power of the British Empire, the safet3 r of our own country, and maintaining its possessions, it will engage in no policy of disturbance or uncalled-for annexation.

The King of Burundi died of smallpox. Luring bis fatal illness order s were given for the massacre of; numbers of people in the hope that the sacrifice would propitiate the offended deities, and that Thcebaw’s life would be saved in this manner. No less than 700 piersons were sacrificed at Mandalay under an excited spirit of fanaticism thus aroused. The Catholic convent established in that city was attacked. The Chinese Government, having repudiated the late treaty made by their Ambassador Cluing How, under which a large portion of the province of Kuldja was ceded to llussia, arc determined to insist on the original agreement fora retrocession of the entire territory. The Chinese Government have directed their military commander in Kashgar to assume an armed occupation of the district in dispute. With this object, a force of 20,000 Chinese have crossed the frontier.

The deplorable fate of the Czar is thus referred to by the Loudon “Times” of Feb. 20. —“He who used, like his father, to walk in the streets of the capital alone on foot without an}' escort, or ride in a sledge drawn by a single horse, confident and familiar like a father in the midst of his children, now hurries through the city at full speed in a closed carriage, with the windows drawn down, amid the silent and terrified crowds. Four Cossacks cover him like a moving fortress,clearing the route by their shouts to make way.” As a step in the direction of the permanent settlement of the affairs of Afghanistan, the sovereign control of the

Province of Candahar lias been conferred upon Sirdar fib ere Ali Khan, who, since the occupation by the British, has as a native Governor, administered its affairs most satisfactorily, under the supervision of Lieutenant-General Sir Donald Htewart. Mr Mechi’s annual balance-sheet of his farm at Tiptrec shows a deficiency for first time in fifteen years. In 1878 he had a profit of USBO lbs Id, in 1871) a loss of Lib!) 12s 2d. If oven Mr Mcchi could not make a satisfactory balancesheet last year, what must have been the position of most farmers, who have neither his enterprise nor his advantages ? At Ottawa Canada, on the evening of Saturday Feb, 11 a covered sleigh conveying the Marquis of Lome and the Princess Louise was upset, and dragged by the horses a distance of 400 ymrds. Both the Marquis and the Princess received bruises, the former having also a slight contusion on the forehead. An ollicial medical bulletin reports the Princess Louise to have greatly recovered from the shock, the injuries sustained by her Loyal Highness being a slight cut on the right ear, a contusion on the side of the head, and considerable straining of the muscles of the neck.

On Sunday Feb. 15 the Lev. C. H. Spurgeon preached for the first time, since his late severe illness, to a crowded congregation in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London. In the course of his discourse he said that the rulers of the world in these days talked about the vulgar crowd—the ignoble herd. They unscruponsly overthrew kingdoms, and made the world crimson with blood and murder, England was following that dangerous polio}'. Her rulers were making bloody wars and oppressing nations, and they encouraged and consoled themselves with the reflection, “ Wc are a great people ; and, by Jingo, do what we like, it will come all right in tire end,” But they should remember that pride went before a fall. The proudest and haughtiest of men and nations would yet be brought low, and God’s chastisements, when they did come would be terrible even unto destruction.

(Ju Saturday, Feb. 14, at Leeds, Jobu Holtum, a gymnast, was charged before Air Bruce, Hie stipendiary magistrate, with unlawfully wounding Elijah Fenton, a market porter, in the Princess’s Concert Hall, in that town on the previous night. Holtum had, during the week, been giving performances showing extraordinary strength in the handling of heavy clubs, cannon-balls, Ac., and on Friday night lie oll’ered a prize of UoO to any person who could catch a ball fired from a cannon as he (Holtum) had done on several consecutive nights. The challenge had been accepted by three men, apd, a cannon having Leon placed in position oil the stage, a suitable cartridge and a bull weighing 71b were rammed home. ’When Holtum

called upon those who had accepted his challenge, Elijah Fenton presented himself, stripped off his coat and waistcoat, and standing about six yards away from the cannon’s mouth, declared that he was ready, and placed his hands in a position to secure the projectile. An attendant fired the cannon, when, to the horror of all present, the ball struck Fenton in the forehead and knocked him down. He managed to crawl olf the stage, and at first it was thought he was not much hurt. Shortly afterwards, however, the case assumed a much more serious appearance, and Fenton was removed to the Leeds General Infirmary, where it was found that he had received a compound fracture of the skull, and that his recovery was almost hopeless. The stipendiary magistrate remanded lloltum until Tuesday. Mr Hobson, the proprietor of the Princess’ Concert-hall, promised that the performance in question should not be repeated on his premises, but stated that lloltum had been performing on the Continent in this way foi live or six years, and never had an accident of this kind before.