NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Southland Times, Issue 938, 22 April 1868, Page 2

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

The following items are taken from the " Home News": — Parliament has met, but beficve noting it* proceedings it will be convenient to mention a few changes in its components. We have a new Solicitor-General, Mr Brorf-, Q.C., member for Helston, who succeeded Sir Charles Selwyn, promoted to a T.ord Justiceship on thp retirement of Sir John Kolt That jud^eship was offered to Sir TJounrloll Palmer, out he had v.n ide-a oK boinsj shelved, intending fco be Lord Chancellor. Sir Charles was: m^H'liep for <\mbrid,i>e University, which has electee! in ?i)s place Mr Beivsfurd j Hi-no. la<e Ml\ for toke (which tho Conservatives have lost), and one of the proprietors of the v Saturday Keview.' He had a. sharp contest with Mr Cleasby, a. hiirhlv orthodox bur. little known lawyer, j The pious Morton Peto cannot sit, beimj a bankrupt, but refuses to give up his seat for Bristol, because his party there are not ready with a candidate, so Bristol is half disfranchised, j But a much more important Parliamentary rearrangement is under consideration. "The health of the Earl of Derby has been so injured by repeated attacks of gout that his retirement at no distant date is certain. Sundry persons have been in a great hurry to announce that he had done with politics, and he was so alarmingly ill a short time ago that jthe worst was feared, but he has rallied, and may ere long be able to appear in the House. But his successor in the Premiership must be selected, and three courses are open to him. ' He may advise the Queen to set a ducal nobody at the head of the Government, to please the Conservative peers, or there is choice between Mr Disraeli and Lord Stanley. No doubt Mr Disraeli ought to have the place. He has made his party, kept it together, and led it to victory. But the Conservatives hated Canning, and did not like Peel, because neither was born in the purple, and both had the insolence to possess talents which gave them precedence over well born dullards. The same may be said of Disraeli. But he is the only man of genius in the Cabinet, and certainly cannot be spared from the Commons. Lord Stanley is a cool, able man, but he has enough to do at the Foreign -office. He is said to consider that Mr Disraeli should be Premier. The situation is not easy, but there is another solution for it. The Irish question comes up at once, and its result may make Conservative arrangements needless. Meantime, Government has set some work before the Commons. The first bill presented by the Government was against bribery, and proposed to establish a tribunal of three barristers to hear election petitions and appeals from revising barristers. But the House made a demonstration against parting with its powers. It might have ceded these, as recommended by a committee, to the judges of the land, but it objects to an inferior tribunal. This bill will come to grief. We have a timid measure permitting seven of the great public schools to reform themselves, if they like. We have the Scotch Eeform Bill, which affords a new proof of Mr Disraeli's cleverness. He got Scotch help on the English bill by making the Northerners believe that he meant to do great things for them — give them many | new members and the like. Now he has given them a bill worse than that of last year, and offers only seven new members who are all allotted in Conservative directions, and when they murmur, and hint at getting better terms from a reformed Parliament, he cynically advises them not to run after Jack o'lanterns. There is to be an Irish Reform Bill early in March, and an Education Bill when it is ready. The Irish Habeas Corpus Act has been suspended for another year. So much for Government initiative. Mr Gladstone has introduced a bill for settling the Church-rate question, and the Church, if wise, will accept it. The old machinery is left, out of deference to the Church party, but all power of compulsion is taken away — no person to be rated unless he attends vestry and undertakes to pay what may be imposed. The Dissenters cannot exactly resist this, but some of them grumble ungraciously at being " only " entirely relieved, and having no victory humiliating to the establishment. A committee on Admiralty accounts is conceded, and a great exposure is expected. No architect has yet been appointed for our Palace of Law, and Government has prematurely pulled down houses that brought in an enormous rental. Nothing else of interest has occurred in Parliament except that an endeavor to get better holidays for bankers' clerks and others has been frowned upon by the great mercantile i authorities, Mr Goschen saying that it j is a most serious thing to interrupt j London business for a single day, and Mr { Thomas Baring remarking that the paucity of holidays in Protestant countries i gives them commercial advantages. We mentioned in our last that Earl Russell menaced the world with another letter. It has appeared, and it on Jlrish affairs. Except, however, that there are some smart party slashers in it, the production is not remarkable. He would pay the Catholic priests. But Mr Mill has issued his ideas on the same subject, and they are, as he fairly says, revolutionary. He wants Government to buy np the Iriah land, compulsorily, and sell it to the tenants. Nor will he allow that England is justified in retaining her hold on Ireland, if the latter can he clearly seen to desire separation. On both points Mr Mill is at variance with English statemanship, and his pamphlet would be unimportant but that it is mischevious, as it carries the name of a great man to the aid of the disaffected, Even the Americans express wonder that any Englishman can fail to be aware of the gigantic importrnce of England to the world, to religion, to civilisation, to freedom, and the absolute necessity of preserving her, tafe and strong. Were England, they say, to sink out of her place, it would be

like an eclipse, but who would miss Ireland? At any price, therefore, we must resist a measure like separation, which would weaken England by establishing an alien and hostile power close at her doors. The Americans are clearsighted enough. In Earl Russell's pamphlet he formally makes over the leadership of the Liberal party to Mr Gladstone, of whom he professes the warmest admiration. There is no doubt that Mr G!a Istone will eielong be called upon 10 till a more prominent place than he now holds, and this may not be an inopportune date for mentioning that with all his honesty, energy, industry, and genius, there is something which he has yet to acquire before he can mike himself a popular leader in the Commons. He is so terribly in earnesc about everything, however small. It may be a defect in the nature of English gentlemen, but it is v fact that they hate to be solemn over trifles, and like a; leader who treats such matters in an off- j hand way. Lord Palmerson knew this, j Mr Disraeli knows it, but Mr Gladstone, > if he knows it, will not profit by the lesson. The Trades' Unions have tried to make Mr Gladstone their convert, and a deputation of teD, headed by Mr Potter, had an interview with them. It was a bold experiment, but the self-sufficiency of the unionist orators enabled them to lecture the great statesman, and forbad them to see that he was reading them in return a series of rudimentary lessons of which he evidently thought them in need. Of course he in no degree pledged himself to do more than consider their, views, but he condemned some of their practices as " worthy of savages." They denied that the unions sanctioned coercion, but of course this w.n mere evasion. The-Re-form Ldd^ue mis humbly imitated the America of its idolatry, and has come to a difference with its president, the celebrated Beales. A resolution was proposed at a council meeting, to the effect that the Irish church ought to be abolished immediately. Mr Beales, as a lawyer, with some ideas of the rights of property, proposed to save vested interests. The Leaguers would not hear of this, the Irish clergy were spoken of as thieves and robbers, and in spite of an indignant protest by Mr Beales agrainst revolutionary doctrine, a protest which he insisted on having entered in the books, the original resolution was carried for thrusting the Irish clergy into the streets. We shall have some pleasing revivals of Jacobin operations, if this kind of doctrine "obtains" with the many. Fenianism, upon this occasion, we can luckily dismiss in a brief paragraph. The prisoners made in England are committed for trial, and in Ireland a Fenian has been sentenced to fifteen years for treason-felony,, and two editors, Sullivan and Pigott, have been condemned to imprisonment and fine for seditious and inflammatory publications. The story of 2Esop's trumpeter has naturally occurred to all — such writers do more mischief than any single combatant. In Cork the mob has been very riotous, and has attempted to rescue prisoners, and has ( stoned the police, who at last turned to bay and inflicted severe chastisement. The loyal address from Irishmen here received upwards of 20,000 signatures, and has been presented to the Queen, and | suitably acknowledged. The police continue to assert that they have captured almost every Fenian for whom there was reason to care, but Fenian writers naturally deny this, and state that there is a great but invisible army ready to spring up when wanted. Foreign politics present few points of interest, but certain writers are working very hard to persuade us that there will speedily be an outbreak in Turkey that j will precipitate the solution of the Eastern question. They even fix the place of the explosion, and put it; in the heart of Bulgaria, the province which lies south of Wallachia, and north of Soumalia, in which is Constantinople. Servia, on the north-west of Bulgaria, is, under its ambitious Prince, at once to rise in arms, and invoke the niemorr of Czerni George, who set the cross above the crescent. But it is thought that these announcements are premature, and that there is much exaggeration in the account of the ramifications of disaffection. Russia, however, says that she has but to give the signal, and half the Turkish empire will rise, as will Greeca, which instead of cultivating her resources, and doing some good for herself, is clamouring about an idea, and sending money to keep up the rebellion in Crete. Coming westward, we find the Holy Father lecturing ladies on their garments, and abusing M. Duruy the French Minister of Instruction, for suggesting that they should learn philoso- ' phy. The Pope has been splendidly un^ grateful this year. He is in his chair by virtue of the exertions of S.S. Napoleon and Chassepot, yet he sends the Bacred present, the Golden Rose, to the Queen of Spain (whom he singularly compliments for her virtues, and should have enumerated them), instead of giving the holy cap and sword to the Emperor of the French. In France, the Press Bill is still in debate, but Government gets its own way. The measure is, in spite of all shortcomings, something in advance. The increase in the army is being made with all energy, and the Invalides itself- is being made into a repository for belicose purposes. France may mean peace, but by April or May she will be uncommonly well prepared for battle. Baron Haussman, who may be regarded as her viceroy, has succumbed to a delicate influence, of the class which used to be all potent in the days of Louis XIV., and Paris bristles with epigrams on " the ruler of the ruler," and the millions of francs which make that civil list. The Emperor himself, who was understood to have resisted the attempts of some Imperialists, more dynastic than even their master, to curtail the scant privileges which the Press Bill was to give the: journalist, has become very popular in consequence, and people sang Queen

Hortense's son* round his carriage. Very | amusing is the last story from Paris — at one of the theatres it was designed to show the sea-fight in which Le Vengeur was sent to the bottom by the English, nnd of course, the ten times exploded falsehood that the French ship went down with the captain and the men crying "Five la JRepubUquef was to be revived. But it would not do to cry that now. Carl vie and others have long refuted the story, and the French themselves have given it up. When Le Vengeur went down her captain waa safe and comfortable in the English cabin, and her men w*r> bellowing for aid which the English sailors were giving with all their might. Mr Adams, the admirable American Minister here, retires, and the loss will be much felt. This gentleman discharged his difficult duties most admirably, and during all the complicated troubles of the war, and the discouragement of feeling that a large and influential section of the upper classes wished well to the antagonists of the North, Mr Adams managed to conduct his business without acerbity. He wishes for repose, and has one of the finest libraries in the world to retire into. We await with interest the appointment of his successor. President Johnson has designated General M'Clellan, who did not exactly turn out the Young Napoleon whom the popular voice at first declared him to be, but who was a gallant soldier, and a man of character. He would be welcome here. But the legislature has to confirm the appointment, and at present the legislature of the Union appears to be agreed upon one point only, and that is the absolute duty of preventing the President from doing any one thing which he desires to do. , There is another resolution for his impeachment under consideration. General Grant was led into a quarrel with him in reference to Mr Stanton (whom the President has again turned out, nominating General Thomas, and whom Congress orders to keep his place) and Grant is now thought to be so completely in the hands of the Republicans-r-the Radicals — that he will lose the support which he expected from the Democrats at the Presidential election. If the American journals had not i England to abuse and menace, it is difficult to say what, comfort would be left to them, arid even this is diminishing. Our new minister, Mr Thornton, has been cordially received by the President, j and several of the leading journals have recovered their temper, and are pointing out that one day of war with England would cost more than all the damage of a dozen Alabamas, and moreover that though of course they could successfully invade Canada, the British might be able elsewhere to hold their own and a little more. . The armament mania, says the ' Siecle,' has seized even the Roman States into which soldiers are rushing, and where bullets are in large stock. Who can be surprised at this when we find a celebrated preacher, Father Hyacinthe, thus apostrophising the sword in the Church in Notre Dame : — " Give us, Almighty Lord, on the fields of battle that faith which we received on the field of battle — that faith of Tolbiac which has constituted our grandeur, and which it is sought to take away from us. Let the blood of our young men, too precious to be wasted in idleness — to be cerrupted in the pleasures of an unworthy peace — be poured out in war. Out from my scabbard sword of the Lord — Q-ladius Domini et Gideonis—Out and do thy work ;, do it quickly and do it well." A man at Detroit has skated 60 con-, secutive hours for 500 dol. Towards the last, blankets had to be held up about him to keep the wind from blowing him over. Mr Anson Burlirigame, the United States Minister in China, has notified to his government that he has accepted an appointment from the Emperor of China to assist in modifying treaties with friendly European Powers. He has not resigned his embassy for the United States, but as he cannot be permitted to exercise any foreign agency in connection with that for which he was appointed, his successor will be immediately nominated. : " A respectable inhabitant of Angleur (Belgium)," says the 'Meuse' journal, " a few days ago found that he had been robbed of a bank-note of lOOOfiv The most active researches were made by the police without effect, when, on opening the door of his apartment two days back, j he was agreeably surprised to find the missing note nailed to the door !" The Chamber of Justice (Kammergericht) has annulled the decision of the tribunal of Berlin, which condemned the Deputy Twesten to two years' imprisonment for abuse of language in the Chamber. It has sentenced him to 300 thalers fine, and an imprisonment of four j months in case of non-payment. The Berlin journals give an account of a curious ceremony of the burial of the ' Police Gazette' in that city. Letters announcing the decease of that journal [ were sent to a number of persons connected with the press and their friends. | The funeral procession started from the ! printing-office, preceded by a band of music, to the place of interment. Compositors dressed in black paper carried the I body. A humorous funeral oration was then pronounced, after which the journal was plunged into a tub of printer's ink and so buried. A French - restaurateur in New York is about trying the experiment of introducing horseflesh in that city as food. ! He says its rivalry may have the effect of reducing the present exorbitant price of I beef. John Jacob Astor, junior, a well-known citizen of New York, died in that city on Jan. 17, in the 65th year of his age. He was the second bod. of the late John Jacob Aator, and the brother of William B. Astor. | " A distinguished party," says the [ ' Presse,' "have just made an excursion through the sewers of Paris. Among; them were the Princess de la Tremoille,; the Countess de Coetlogon, the Prince of Solms, the Counts de Quincy, de Mercy-

Argenteau, de Trevy, de Coetlogon, ami" Duval de Beaulieu, and others. They decended at the entrance on the place dtt Chatelet, and went in a vehicle all along the Rue di Bivoli. At the place de la Concorde they entered the boat to proceed by the great collecting sewer as far as the Rue de la Pepiniere, where the excursionists emerged into the upper air, much surprised at all they had witnessed." The death is announced at Paris* age<J 95 years, of Madam Louis Ducis, net Anna falma. This lady was Bister o£ Talma, and married the nephew of the. poet Ducia. In the painting by Robert Fleury, at the Theatre Frangais, and re-> presenting the last moments of the gaeatactor, she appears seated near the dying man, whose hand she holds. . A letter from Pesth mentions' that; Generals Klapka and Plercze are getting up a grand ball in Pesth, to which the Emperor Francis Joseph is to be invited. In 1849 the emperor would have taken off their heads. The Emperor of Austria has given orders to the .Ministry of Marine at Vienna to make all the necessary preparations for an expedition to Eastern Asia. The expedition, which is entirely carried out at the expense of the State, is to be under the command of Admiral Tegethoff. ', The heir to the throno of France, who enters his 13th year on the 16th of March, will take his first communion in, the month of May. The household of his highness is now composed as follows :-— General of Division Frossard, governor j Captain Duperre, of the navy; Colonel de Viei d'Espeuilles, of the cavalry ; and Chefs de Batrilion Lamey, of engineers, and de Ligniville, of infantry, aides-de-camp ; M. Bachon, equerry ; Dr. Barthez,medical attendant ; M. Filon, preceptor and Madame Bruat, gouvernarite. The apartments of the prince are in the Pavilion de Flore, opposite the Seine. , v ; The emigrant agent of Ohio, in a re^ port to the governor of that State, says that more Frenchmen and /Italians- hare been naturalised in the United States last year than ever before. He attributes the increased immigration from the Continent to its disturbed political condition and severe military exaction:. . ; A step showing much loyal and good feeling, says the 'Malta Times, 1 haslaterly been taken by the elected members of the , council of government in this island. These gentlemen, who are all native Maltese, have solicited the governor, Sir Patrick Grant, to obtain at an early date a portrait of our Most Gracious Soverign Queen Victoria, with the object • of hangingitup in the tapestry-room of the palace, where the council holds its sittings Her Majesty will be asked to condescend to sit specially for this loyal purpose. It is also proposed 'to erect a statute of her Majesty in one of the : public squares of Malta." Prince Salvadbre Iturbide, grandson of the Emperor Iturbide, shot in Mexico in 1823, has just entered the Pontificial Zouaves. He is a young man of 20, whom the Emperor Maximilian had adopted, and the cost of whose education, at Sainte-Barbe was defrayed by the Mexican government. A special decree of the late emperor conferred on him the title of prince. - ' Galignani' announces the death of M. Leon Foucault, of the Institute : and ; Paris Observatory. M. Foucault was a, scientific contributor to the 'Journal des Debats.' M. Prevost-Paradol concludes an obituary notice of the deceased savant in these words : — " Let us" hope that the darkness has now disappeared, and that his soul which thirsted for truth, is bathed in light. If the noble and ingenious curiosity which was the vivifying fira of hia life,, and gave a never-ending charm to his conversation, is now entirely satisfied, he has received his reward." The funeral was attended by Marshal Vaillant, General Morin, Etienne de Beaumont, Prevost-Paradol, Emile Ollivier, &c. The Turkish journals announce the death of Darbohor Rescind Pacha. He was the last pacha appointed by the late Sultan Mahmoud. Though he filled the ofllce of War Minister three times, and that of Sirdar Ekrem- twice, he was unable either to read or write. , , r The * Charivari' publishes a woodcut in which England, in the guise of an astronomer, is represented looking through a telescope at the star Theodoras in the far distance, and, in consequence, never sees the well of Fenianism open at her feet, and into which a fall seems imminent. The ' Journal de Paris' relates a curious circumstances which is taking place at Desenzano, in the Province of Brescia, in Italy :— l( The Hotel da Forta-Veccbia, built upon piles on the shore of the Lake of Garda, is gradually sinking at the rate of six inches a day ; the ground floor has already disappeared. This immersion ia taking plaice imperceptibly, and without any shock. Every means of preventing it have been employed, but without avail. Numbers of persons have come from a distance to witness the singular spectacle. The preprietor of the hotel, who was at first in despair at this misfortune, at length, determined to charge a fee for admission to the house, and has already received a sum of money which will go far to compensate him for his loss. A scientific commission is about to visit the spot to open an enquiry," A correspondent of the "' * Debats,' i writing from Some, says :— " The works of fortification are still prosecuted with, great activity. The whole of the wall surrounding Some is being crowned with battlements ; part of the covered gallery leading from the Vatican to Fort St. Angelo is being repaired or reconstructed; but I ought to say that the sand-bags have disappeared from the parapet of the Pincian. The military administration hat at last admitted what was obvious to all, namely, that no attack coiild possibly be attempted on that aide.' 1 ' . ,\ On January 30th, about four o'clock in the afternoon, while 200 or 300 people, men, women, and children

inainly passengers by the Ohio and Mississippi Eailroad train, were crossing the Mississippi on foot, the ice suddenly broke loose and floated down the atream. The people ran hither and thither in terrible fright. They could not get off at either shore, as the ice had floated the yiver banks, and a broad open space of water intervened between them and the land. It seemed as though the loss of life must have been fearful. Thousands of citizens gathered on the levee and watched the scene with incense excitement. Jiuckily the immense field did not break, .and after floating the distance of two jblocks, it pressed against a steamer on ;the Missouri shore, from which planks were pushed out, and all the terrified jpeople ware rescued. No one was i injured. An Akron, Ohio, newspaper pub:lishes the following, which appareutly "means business :"— " As there is & gang of scoundrels hanging around our city, watching an opportunity to break into some house, store, or shop, those in favor of forming a Vigilance Committee, • tD hang such fellows upon our lamp-posts, are requested to meet at the office of the ■ mayor, on Saturday, Jan. 25th, 1868, at six o'clock p.m." "Whilst there seems to be some danger of a new engulfment of the still partly burried sit© of Pompeii, another ancient city seems to burst into life. Traces of a, large ancient town near Castranova, in Sicily, high up on the plateau of the Cassera mountains, have been discovered, .«nd excavations are to be set on foot •without delay. Meanwhile, the director -of the archaeological mesuem, Professor Cavallero, has had a minute topographical rplan of the ruins prepared, and expectations of vast and important " finds " are current throughout the archsological world. The Vienna journals announce the marriage of the Archduke Henry with Mdlle. Hoffmann, an actress. The cere~mony took place on the 4th, at Botzen, *nd immediately afterwards the newlywedded pair left for Innspruck and Italy. The bride is 26 years of age and the archduke 38. The * Meridional' gives the details of an act of vengeance committed at Cucuron (Vaucluse) by a young girl named Eelicie Pelicot, who had been jilted by one Gasquet. The latter had contracted a marriage with another woman, and on thie wedding-day was passing through a hall of the Maine, after having signed thenecessarypapers, when Felicie, dressed in male attire, suddenly crossed his path and discharged a pistol at his head, inflicting a wound near the right ear. She was immediately arrested. The wounded man is expected to Burvive. The Military Tribunal of Florence has just tried Major the Marquis Federigo Carandini on a charge of embezzling 1153fr. from a sum confided to him by the Minister of War for purchasing books for the garrison library of Brescia, of which he was the director. The accused was condemned to six months' imprisonment and degradation from his grade and honors. A letter from Kome, in the " Corriere delle March," states that thß sum to be paid for the dispensation asked from the Pope on the occasion of the marriage of Prince Humbert with his cousin the Princess Marguerita will be £4000. A touchingly simple will was left a days ago, by the German Pastor Holzapfel, of Beifnitz It consisted of this one line only: — "My soul to God, my body to earth, my money to our deaf and dumb hospital." The property of the deceased, who had led a most rigorously abstemious life, amounts to about 70,000f1. The Spanish government, which had already deprived the Infant Don Henry, brother of the King Consort, of his privileges and decorations, has just suppressed his pension of 6,000 douros (sfr. each) on account of an offensive letter which he had addressed to the Queen. The " Moscow Gazette " contains the following from Belgrade: — "Everything here points to war. "Within the last few days the government have received from Hamburg some thousands of needle guns in addition to those which were brought last year in considerable number. The equipment of the first class of the landwehr is nearly completed. About 60,000 soldiers are to be put on a war footing. The people are 'enthusiastic, and several voluntary subscriptions have been made. A fruit farmer in Ohio is planting a mammoth orchard, which will consist of 5000 apple trees, assorted kinds, 10,000 peach trees, 6000 pear trees, standard, 2000 dwarf, 2600 cherry trees, 1500 plums, six acres of quinces, 20 acres of. ~BKrannrlx»rHea^^2o_acres of raspberries, eight acres blackberries, IS" acres of grapes. A greater part of the trees are already dug. The King of Prussia has just presented fo the city of Paris his bust, executed in marble. King Louis 1. of Bavaria has also given a similar work of art, representing the late Maximilian 11., in whose honor a fete was given at the Hotel de Ville, in 1857. The two busts will be placed in the gallery of sovereigns who have honored th" civic authorities of Paris with their presence.