ENGLISH NEWS.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 36, 9 February 1884, Page 4

ENGLISH NEWS.

The steamer Dovio brings nine days' later English news than was received by the last San Francisco mail. Our lilos are to Decem- 1 bor ltfth. Wo cull the following items :

Liberal Reform in Ireland. I In connection with the County London- 1 deny election, the address of Mr Walker, I Q.C., the new Solioitor-General for Ireland, | promises to support all the measures intvo- ! duced by Mr Gladstone for the good of j Ireland, and expresses the opinion that the Land Act of 1881 requires amendment. He , will support any measure which shall have : for its object the improvement and extension of the olauses relating to the acquisition and ownership of land. The address devotes attention to grand jury reform and the desirability of establishing oounty government boards, and states that a just and impartial administration of the law to all classes is the true policy of a Liberal Government. All Liberals will rejoice when exceptional legislation will no longer be necessary, The address contains no reference to the franchise question.

Beaoonsfleld Statue at Liverpool. The statue of Lord Beaconsfield, raised by public subscriptions at Liverpool, at a cost of over two thousand guineas, was unveiled by Sir Richard Gross, M.P., in presence of a large crowd, of which the prominent members of both political parties in the city formed a part. Sir .Richard, before performing the ceremony, said they were there to do honour to the memory of one of England's illustrious dead, and one of the most illustrious statesmen England had ever seen. (Loud cheers. ) The benefit of his country was the one guiding spring and motive of his life, in. order that she might maintain her dignity and honour abroad, and peace and prosperity at home. At night Sir Richard Cross presided at the inaugural banquet of the new Conservative Club.

Strange Burial Scandal. An extraordinary application for advice made to the Southampton magistrates has attracted some attention. A man named Rnssel said that his daughter was confined on Monday last, and the child died seventeen hours after birth. He applied to the Poor-law authorities for an order of burial, and on Thursday an undertaker camo with a tool basket containing shavings, into which he put the body and carried it away, notwithstanding protests from all the women present, his action having made the mother of the deceased child quite ill.— The Bench directed the man to be sent for, and he said that he made the coffin when he got home, and delivered it at the cemetery tho samo evening. — The Bench adjourned the matter until the afternoon, directing inquiries to be made in the meantime, and at the subsequent sitting the Chairman of the Guardians said he had seen the coiHn and was satisfied with it. — The undertaker was reprimanded for treating the dead child as if it had been but a dog, and tho matter ended.

The Strike of Lancashire Weavers, Our Accrington correspondent telegraphs : — ''The strike is now virtually confined to Blackburn and Padiham. Arrangements have been made in most towns for operatives to remain at work. An appeal for help for about 12,000 operatives on strike was issued on December 14th, and considerable support will doubtless be received. The decision of the Masters' Committee to call upon employers where there is no strike to run short time to prevent operatives at work from supplying those on strike will hasten the end of the struggle." At a meeting of the Central Committee of the North and North -East Lancashire Cotton Spinners and Manufacturers' Association held in Manchester, it was decided to x'ecommend that employers in districts where the hands are not on strike should run a short time, in order to prevent assistance being rendered to the strikers.

Literary Scandals. To the Carlyle scandal succeeds the Lytton scandal. When Mr Froude published those memorials which proved that had Mrs Carlyle been a less noble woman she would have fled from a life which at times was so miserable, the Avorld was set a gossipping for months. Now Lord Lytton, publishing his father's papers, has shown his mother, unable to suffer the irritabilities of her husband, did leave her house. He half excuses if not altogether condones the father's fault. Foy this indiscretion he is threatened by Lady Lytton 's executrix with the publication of all the letters which passed between husband and wife, along with an autobiography proving that Lady Lytton was a much-wronged wife. The testimony ot independent people is rather against Lady Lytton. There is no man who in his day was more ready to undertake chivalrous missions than the Chevalier Wikotf, the American diplomatist, author of "The- Reminiscences of an Idler." He was once half disposed to espouse the case of Lady Lytton ; but it is very clear from his book that he thought her temper wholly impracticable, and found her too obstinate to be championed. Lady Lytton's friends had better let the scandal alone.

Clerical Wrangling, The wrangle about the strong language used by some of the clergy in the pulpit with reference to social questions still goes on. One gentleman supposed that a quotation from a sermon or pamphlet referred to a statement by a preacher that he sympathised with "poor ignorant fellows," who were tempted by revolutionary methods, though he depre cated physical force. It now appears that it was Christ, and not a parson, who was meant. But the objector is equal to the occasion. He was misled, he said, by the personal pronoun "he," which ought to have been spelt with a capital letter !