GENERAL SUMMARY. [European Dates up to November 22.]

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 81, 20 December 1884, Page 6

GENERAL SUMMARY. [European Dates up to November 22.]

The Prince of Wales entertained Edward J. Stanley and Jesse Callings, members of Parliament, and other advanced radicals at his palace at Sandringham, on the 21st. Distress among the English shipbuilding workmen is increasing. At the snip-yards on the Tyne, Clyde and Mersey, there is scarcely one-fourth the possible working force and power now in effoctive operation. Miss Fortescue, the actress, who obtained a verdict of £10,000 damages against Lord Gdrmoyle, son of Earl Cairns, has temporarily retired from the stage. A severe shock of earthquake, accompanied with a terrific explosive report, occurred on the night of November 14th at Clittieroe, Lancashire, about twenty-five miles from Manchester. The shock threw down horses in the streets, and caused great consternation and excitement among the inhabitants. A troopship with 2,000 marines, was ordered to proceed, on November 10th, from Portsmouth to the Jsle of Skye, to assist the police in restoring order among the crofters. There is no abatement of the excited feeling in Skye. Crofters from the neighbouring islands are flocking there to assist their brethren in maintaining their claims. Fully 2,500 crofters met a detachment of police on their arrival, Nov. 11, and conducted them to Uig : there they demaded the object of their coming, no satisfactory answer being given, the islanders conducted them back to the land-ing-place, and requested them to leave their shores. A dispatch of the 16th says news had been received that the crofters have resolved to submit unconditionally On the events of the week ending the 22nd November was the debate in the House of Commons on this subject. Sir William Harcourt, in behalf of the Crofters, denounced both emigration and eviction, and so general was the feeling in their favour thatthe Tories spoke with moderation. Several Conservative landlords have agreed to stay their demands, and a resolution asking prompt legislation for the crofters was carried unanimously. The leading farmers, at the same time, have callen for a wholesale reduction of rents. The " United Ireland " of November 21st states that it is the intention of the Nationalists to impeach Earl Spencer, Lord-Lieu-tenant of Ireland, for conspiring to murder, It says the Irish party is determined to force inquiry into Earl Spencer's acts. At a demonstration of workmen and socialists in Paris, on Nov. 23, several advocated the robbery and massacre of the rich. Two of the speakers who advocated moderation were kicked into the street. Shopkeepers in the vicinity of the meeting closed their places, fearing violence and pillage. The police were unable to disperse the assemblage, and were obliged to call the military. The troops then took possession of the streets. Bismarck is so terribly incensed against the Niedenwald conspirators that he will give no quarter. Evidence shows that the explosion was not directed against the monument at all, but was intended to kill the Emperor, Crown Prince, Chancellor, and other august personages. The Egyptian Cavalry repulsed an attack of the rebels on Suakim on the night of the 11th, pursuing the enemy with great slaughter. A despatch from Cairo, November J.sth, says a letter from General Gordon had been received by Wolseley, dated November 4th. This letter states that the steamer which bore Colonels Stewart and Power, Hebiw, the French Consul, and some Greeks left Khartoum on September 10th, and that Messrs Hansel and Leonides are safe at Khartoum. The latest letter received from General Gordon says: — "My position is very secure. The troops are in excellent health." The General adds, " The Mahdi regularly receives copies of European newspapers, by which he learns of the movement of the British troops." General Gordon warns the French Consul-General that Mahdi possesses the cipher code of M. Herbin, killed with General Stewart, and may make use of it. A despatch from Cairo, Nov. 21, says : The man who arrived here yesterday evening from Khartoum, says that the Mahdi's position is eighteen hours' march from Khartoum. Disease is making great ravages among his followers, fully 100 dying daily. Sheik Morganna, with a large force, had arrived at a point midway between Kassala and Berber to lend assistance to General Gordon. A cablegram, November 23, states that Lord Northbrook's report and the stories of the Nile expedition are droll reading. At Dongola the British soldiers and officers are in a bad way for want of arms and occupation, and for the want of glasses to drink out of ; and yet still more, for the want of something to Irink. All the whisky and wine was disposed of a couple of weeks ago, and the only beverage left is a villainous native compound made from dates, as dangerous and imflammable as benzine and native beer, which is like stale porter. A despatch from Dongola, Nov. 23, says the Khartoum expedition is advancing rapidly, thongh many boats have been injured. Michael H, De Young, surviving partner in the business, of the San Francisco Chronicle, was shot and seriously wounded, in his office on the evening of November 19, by Adolph Spreckels. son of Claus Spreckels the Sandwich Islands sugar millionaire. Dr Young was shot on precisely the same spot where his brother Charles was killed by young Kallock a few years ago. ITwo balls were lodged in his left shoulder, and it is feared the wounds will prove fatal. The cause was that the " Chronicle " had charged Claus Spreckles, father of Adolph, with swindling stockholders in the Hawaiian Commercial Company out of a million dollars. Spreckles, in turn, was 8 hot in the fleshy part of the arm by a clerk in the office. In the Presidental election, Cleveland secured 219 electoral votes against Blame's 182. The hitch was in New York, which oasts thirty-six votes in the Electoral College, and the Republicans were kept between hope and fear for nearly a fortnight, while a careful canvass of the States' vote was being made. At last, it was decided on the 16th, that Mr Cleveland's plurality in New York was 1,147, and the Republicans struck their colours. An ex- priest, Rev. Father Chiniquy, attempted to lecture in Russell Hall, Montreal, ,on Nov. 5, but was prevented by a mob of young Catholic students, who threatened to take his life. The hall was gulled. On the 6th he preached at the anning-etreetPresby terian Church, and was again interrupted by the students. They were expelled from the church by the police, , who severely clubbed several of them. Therioters tbfen marched through" the oity, yelling derisively in front of every Protestant cnurch. t ■' ' \

Germany In the /Pacific. • ; < A despatoh from Berlin, November 22nd, says the German Government is oredited with the intention of annexing several islands in the Pacific Ocean, as well as part of New Guinea. The "North German Gazette" makes a bitter attack upon English operations in the Pacific, and Bays the British High Commissioner recently inflicted a mock sentence of eight days' imprisonment upon the pirates of the schooner Stanley, who plundered several German mercantile firms at the Langhein Islands, and who, after massacreing a number of natives, took one hundred of them as slaves. The pretence of the Australians, says the ♦' Gazette," to humanity, has no basis in fact, and Germany is bound to insist upon the immediate annexation of the unclaimed islands in New Guinea, xf only for the purCose of protecting the natives from English arbarities.