EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 3, Issue 132, 10 April 1880, Page 3

EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE.

(From the latest Colonial Papers.) London, March -f. It has transpired that the man who recently attempted to assassinate General Molikotf, is a 1 Ihristianised .lew named Modetsky. The culprit has been summarily tried, and convicted, and ho is to be executed to-morrow, sth instant. March 5. .Modetsky, tho-Nihilist who attempted tho murderer of General Melikolf, was hanged at St. Petersburg to-day. Hu steadfastly refused to disclose the names of any of his accomplices. There was an imineii.se assemblage of people in the streets, and the military and police paraded the streets in strong force. During the preparations, for the execution tho police made numerous arrests of persons suspected to be concerned with the recent outbreaks. March G. The latest despatches from the seat of war in Afghanistan show that very little fighting has taken place during the past week, hut that active preparations have been going on among tho hostile tribes for renewal of offensive operations. These preparations culminated in an advance by a large body of Afghans upon Ivohistao. Tile British governor was Compelled to tly before the advancing insurgents. The second reading of the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill has been carried by an immense majority in the Canadian House of Commons.

China is preparing hoavilj' for war The Uussiiui ilillknlty is the principal cause, luit there is on the part of China a defiant attitiiJu generally to foreigners March 7. An alarming accident has occurred on board the new double-turret ironclad Dnilio, at La Spczio, in the Gulf of Gonna. The armament of the Duiiio consists of four lUll-tou Armstrong gnus, each :i:>ft long, and, while exercising with these, one of them burst. Tun ot the sailors were curiously wounded by the explosion, and the ' turret or the Dnill'j i id I •-' i riviia.l.iiiJ lu ia n::ii .. ,\ slight diplomatic diiiienlty has ■i nT 'is i it-, i.i coiisuqii-j.iOo of tlio refusal ho lonner to comply with ae il, ,n iof Russia for the extradition of it iii-iii named llartmann, who is charged with having been an accomplice iu the lvceut attempt ou the Emptor's lite at Mwcow. The French Govern - uient has deported Jlartiuaun lo Englaud.

March S. There is a popular movement in Kinland for independence. It is orli.:i:illy announce I tint tin; Archduke liudoif, Crown Prince of Austria, and heir apparent to the Austrian throne, has been betrothed to the Princess Stephanie (Jlotidc, second daughter of the King and Queen of Belgium. [The Archduke Undou' was horn August. 21, 185H, and is therefore in his 22nd year. The Princess Stephanie was horn May 21, I S(i4, and is thus a little under I(i vears of aye.] The Earl of Beaconsliold has advised Her Majesty the Queen to dissolve Parliament at Easter. The fact of this advice having been tendered has been formally announced to both Houses of Parliament, and the Liberals have expressed themselves satisfied. In the House of (louiuions tliv aim mioomuut was warmly cheered by the Liberals. The dissolution will take place on the 2:>rd instant. It is generally understood that the question of the Home Rule is to be inado the principal feature in the Conservative programme in the forthcoming general elections, as the obstruction of tho Home Rule party is pratial y the cause of the dissolution. Chang How, who concluded the Culdja treaty with Russia on behalf of the Chinese Empire, has been impuached. March 0. The Earl of Beaconsfield has addressed an important communication to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (the Duke of Marlborough), which has been published, and is regarded as a manifesto of the Government. In this manifesto the Premier treats chiefly of the relations between England and Ireland, and the policy and tactics of tint Homo Rule party. lie claims that the action of the Government has had the ell'cet of defeating the arts of the Irish agitators, both in and out of Parliament. He lays great stress on the promptitude with whioh the Government look steps to afford relief to tho sufferers by the famine in Ireland, and insists that the interest til England and Ireland, are inseparably connected with each other. Any disunion must be ciihimiteous to both. The noble Earl also expresses a hope that the 1 ulara of both parties will repudiate [ tile vicious and absurd claims put forth I by tho Home Rulers, against whom.

ho _ would warn the people of Great] Britain and Ireland, as being actuated by a desire to destroy tho essential bond of unity that should exist in a great tuition like ours, Tho Premier also challenges tho opiniou of the country on the policy and administration »f his Government. Ho holds that the presence, and, perhaps, the ascendancy 11 f England, in the great councils of ; Europe, is essential to the presorva- ; Hon of peace, and this ascendancy, lie points out, can only he acquired by unity amongst her own people. Tile February returns of the Board of Trade, just published, show the imports for the month to have amounted to i'.'i.'1,200,1)00, an increase of over four and a half millions: and the exports to have been $ 10,500,000, or an increase of over three ami a half millions.

The Royal Commission on agriculture, appointed last year, have issued a report approving of the purchase of waste lands with money from the Irish Church Surplus Fund. A lengthy and animated debate on Jules Ferrier's Education Bill closed to night. The clause discussed was that prohibiting Jesuits from giving education in France, and on division, the clause, was rejected. March 10. The Home Rule parly, through their leader, Mr. Shaw, (member for Cork), have promptly replied to the allegations and arguments contained in the Premier's communication to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland by issuing a counter-manifesto, the Premier is charged with having excited the worst passions ;jf tho ignorant end unthinking, and also with having insulted the Irish by his actions in reference to their representatives in Parliament. The manifesto also accuses the Government of having been guilty of gross and cupablo neglect of the interest ami wants of the Irish people, and warns the people of England that if there is any alienation of the loyulty and attachment of Ireland to the sister' Isle, it will be entirely owing to the .systematic neglect and insults of the British Government, more particularly during the regime of the Conservative party. The manifesto concludes by appealing to the sense of the justice of the British yoople, and asks them to elect a Parliament that will satisfactorily settle the H'i'eat question of Home Rule for Ireland.