GENERAL SUMMARY.

Southland Times, Issue 609, 24 December 1866, Page 3

GENERAL SUMMARY.

SPECIAL TELEGRAMS TO NOVEMBER 12. The Australian August mails were delivered in London on the 14th and 15th. October. The Queen continues in perfect health. She has arrived at Windsor from Balmoral. Parliament has been formally prorogued to the 20th November. There is general belief that the' Derby Ministry will be ousted on the reform question, unless they are prepared with a most liberal bill for the extension of the franchise. The Keform movement is pushed on vigorously, under Mr Bright's leadership. He aims,*it is said, at the abolition of all privileged rights or orders, and a redistribution of property, thereby disgusting all rational and moderate liberals who are opposed to revolution. Sir Hugh Cairns has been appointed Lord Chief-Justice of Appeals. Mr Rolt, Q.C., succeeds as Attorney-General. The former will be raised to the peerage. The Earl of Clarendon is seriously indisposed. The Emperor Napoleon has returned to Paris in rather better health. It is reported that he intends to abolish the usual address in reply to the Speech from the Throne, on opening the Chambers, so as to deprive the. Opposition of the opportunity of opposing the Government policy. M. Thouvenel, formerly Foreign Minister of France, is dead. Baron Von Beust, who is personally obnoxious to the King of Prussia, has ' been appointed Austrian Foreign Minister. • It is rumoured that an alliance has taken place between Russia and Prussia, while Italy and Austria are on friendly relations. ■ The Pope has delivered two orations " against Italy and Prussia, stating that he is prepared to leave Eome if necessary. Judgment has been given for Bishop Colenso against the Colonial Bishopric Fund. A great fire took place at Hong Kong on the 26th October, lasting sixteen hours, and doing immense damage. The particulars are not yet known. Sir Seymour Fitzgerald has accepted the Governorship of Bombay, Jefferson Davis's trial is postponed till next spring. Two Fenian leaders have been sentenced to death in Canada. The Times urges the reconsideration of the Alabama claims. Mr Bright delivered great speeches in Dublin to excited multitudes, on Irish grievances. Seventy-five thousand Irish emigrated to America in the past seven months of the present year. A grand banquet has been given in Tipperary to the Hon, John O'Shanassy. Cholera in London is decreasing. The cattle plague has almost disappeared. The authorised sales of horse-flesh for food in France are largely patronised. The British Government has issued orders for arming 100,000 soldiers with the needle-gun. A grand rifle meeting at Brussels, between Belgian, French, and English Volunteers, has taken place. Eleven hundred of the latter were present. They won the two first prizes. A collision has secured at Edinburgh between the police and soldiers. The former were severely maltreated. Bituallism in the' Church of England is making rapid strides. The Standard Theatre, Shoreditch, London, has been burnt to the ground. Newmarket Races — Cambridge Stakes— Actae, 1 ; Thelia, 2 ; Caithness, 3. The famous jockey Grimshaw has been killed by the upsetting of a dogcart. Obituary. — Marquis De Boissy ; Rev. John Gould, 5.D., ; Mr G. Follet, Lady Harwick Searle, the Hon. G. Pellew, Dean of Norwich ; Sir William Robert Sydney, Lord Avory, Lord ' Plunkett, the Bishop of Tuam, Mr ; Fisher Hobbs (the agriculturist), Augustus Dickens, brother of the novelist ; Jacob Snider, the inventor of breechloaders ; Charles Alexander, the oldest Journalist in America; and Captain Ark wright. Mrs Iseline and three guides have [ been killed by an avalanche in. ascending Mont Blanc.