GENERAL SUMMARY. [Dates From Europe to December 20.]

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 137, 16 January 1886, Page 4

GENERAL SUMMARY. [Dates From Europe to December 20.]

The British Bhip Magician, from Cardiff for San Francisco, was sunk in collision with the British ship Ben Douran, which left the latter port on September 4 for Queenstown. The Ben Douran put into Pernambuco in a damaged condition. The crew of the Magician had also arrived there. Spurgeon, the eminent preacher, is suffer ing from heart disease, and is permanently broken in health. The fund for the benefit of Jas Stephens, ex-head centre of the Fenian brotherhood, now amou' ts to £1,700. The Duke of Wellington represented Queen Victoria at the requiem mass for the repose of the soul of the late King Alfonso, on Saturday, Dec. 5. There is a mad-dog scare in London, and policemen are provided with long iron rods having slip nooses at the lower end to hunt canines with. There have been fiftysix cases of rabies reported this year in tho city. At a Conference in Liverpool on Dec. 15 of the representatives of the Atlantic steamship companies, it was decided that the present treight rates were profitless. The question of the amount of increase to be made was referred to a future Conference. An advance of fifty per cent, is considered probable.

Free Trade and Protection. A special despatch (Dec. 13) from London to the " New York Sun" says the question of free trade versus fair trade has been brought prominently to the front by the champions of both systems. The Cobden Club has awakened to the alarming strength of the anti freetraders, and declares that if their strength continues to increase for a few years more at the same rate, they will probably be able to effect vast fiscal changes. Alarmed at the prospect, the Club is now begging its wealthy members to subscribe for a propaganda fuiid, with which to combat the protectionists. The Tories, on the other hand, are cleverly using President Cleveland's message to make a point in favour of protection. They pay that the United States is so burdened with surplus revenues that it will soon be compelled to remit money duties on imports ; not from any love for free trade, but because it is necessary to exhaust the surplus somehow. The Liberals have issued a counter manifesto, showing that thousands of operatives are out of work in the United States as the result of protection.

Fire and Loss of Life. At Plymouth, on December 13th, a tenement house in Love-street, a low squalid neighbourhood, took fire, and a terrible calamity resulted. The flames burned Tapidly and fiercely, and whi n the fire was at last subdued 12 human bodies were found among the ruins. Two others were missed, and in all probability they, too, have been burned to death. One un fortunate was smashed to pieces by jumping fromahigh window to thestreet. Several occupants of the burning building in their fright, ignored the fire-escapes, and throwing their bedding to the pavement (forty feet below) jumped from the windows. A number of these had their legs and arms broken by their fearful leaps. A harrowing instance of the calamity was the appearance of a youth named Bickford, who, with a little sister in one arm, hung suspended from a window by the other for some minutes, until the flames surrounded him and caused him to lose his hold and fall to the ground. He had both his legs fractured ; the child was also severely injured. The firemen worked heroically in saving life.

The Tonquin Scandal. A despatch dated December 13 to the New York " Herald," from Paris, says the plot thickens every day, and new light is thrown on what is called the Tonquin scandal. Each revelation damages the prestige of the French army. Mud has been flung about freely, and much of it has stuck. Before the Parliamentary Committee ende its labours, more than one statesman's reputation will be ruined. Jules Ferry seems irretrievably lost. He stands convicted of having wilfully perverted facts at the time of the Langson disaster by suppressing essential passages in Tonquin despatches, while the startling disclosures in Audrery's report of the Jl'h show that the ex-Premier was calmly signing concessions for mines, forests, and pasture lands, which General De Courcy declares to ha* r e been the merest myths— will-o* the-wisps to lure people into " pestilential marshes." The honour of an ex-Mini?ter-of- w ar is also compromised, if it be true as is suspected, that he communicated private state papers about Tonquin to the press. As the Parliamentary Committee warms to its work, more surprises are expected. Colonel De Courcey telegraphs, December 14, that he had captured a number of fortified caverns and a large quantity of arms and ammunition in the Marble Mountains. Numerous war junks had also been sunk.

Burmab. A despatch from Rangoon, Dec. 16th, says eleven Furopeanp, who were working for the Bombay and Trading Company, on hearing of the rupture between the Burmah and Indian Government, tried to reach Manipoor. On the 20th of November they were overtaken and murdered by Burmese troops in a steamer belonging to the King, and commanded by a palace official It ie alleged that Tynedeh, the Burmese Prime Minister, was implicated in the massacre, and the inhabitants of Ransroon are therefore indignant that he should be allowed to I retain his office.

The Balkan Muddle. A despatch from St. Petersburg, Dec. 13. saya Russia had made overtures to Prince Alexander, offering to assent to the union of Bulgaria and Rouraelia, on condition that the policy of Bulgaria shall be subordinated to Russian policy. Russian agents are actively intriguing at Belgrade to dethrone King Milan in favour of Prince Karageorgeovtch. Despatches from Belgrade, December 16th, say the weather was intensely cold, and soldiers at the front are suffering severely. A number of Servians froze to death while asleep. Bulgaria had accepted the proposal of the Powers for an international commission to demarcate the Bulgarian -Servian frontier under certain reservations. She wishes the commission to consider fairly the recent victories of the Bulgarian army. The Porte had sent a circular to the Powers in reference to the mission of the Turkish delegates in Eastern Roumelia The Porte explained that the situation there is precarious.

From the Soudan. Despatches from London on the 15th December say grave news has been received from the Soudan. The Arabs are advanc ing, and it is now clear that although strenuous efforts have been made to keep the facts out of tbe papers, the situation in Egypt is serious enough to compel General Stepheneon to leave hastily for the front. The garrison at Eoshest appears to be cut off and besieged, and the little

steamer Lotus, while with her gun shelling the enemy, was hit several timeß, Koshest is strongly fortified, but ie is a hundred miles south o£ Wady Haifa, with several small cataracts between. Three fresh regiments were ordered to reinforce the British advance, and hurried to the tront. Later dispatches say the rebels had pillaged and burned Torkat and other villages.

Panama Canal. A Paris special of December 13 says Dg Lesseps is indignant over American oriti cism of the Panama Canal. He is especially irritated at the suggestion that the French people will soon tire of supplying cash for the Canal, and that the United states can bny it cheap. He avers that the 1 Company will never cell the Canal, but, as a matter of fact, investors will ultimately receive dividends which will probably equal those of the Suez Canal ; that the French nation will never desert the enterprise, and that he will live to sail through the Canal himself.

Fillibusters Checked. The Custom-house officers boarded, on December 17th, the steamer City ot Mexico, lying at Brooklyn, Mew York, and seized a large quantity of arms and ammunition found in the hold. Since the death of the King of Spain, the revolutionists in Cuba and their sympathisers in the United States have renewed their endeavours to give Cuba her freedom, and the loading oi the City of Mexico with arms was but a part of what is said to be an extensive scheme to seize the island. The authorities believe more arms are stored under the coal, and that they were put in while the ship was being repaired, which she was in November last, at a cost of £38,000. The scheme has been considered for some time. Alter taking on gome men at Brooklyn, the vessel was to drop down to Newport, leave news for a further detachment, and then proceed to Florida foi the last contingent. She was then to proceed to a small island near the S E coast oJ Cuba, where a landing would be made, and the arms transferred to Cuba seci'etly in steam launches. The seizure was made by the surveyor, who declined to give clearance papers until he had inspected the steamer.

The President's Message. The Congress of the United States convened for the transaction of business on December Sth, and on the day following President Cleveland submitted his message. The document is voluminous — the largest issued by any President in tho past twelve years. On the topic of foreign relations, the message is brief. The relations of the United States with all foreign powers are friendly. In considering the question oi inter oceanic route=,the President is favourable to the maintenance of the Monroe doc- | trine; heopposestheNicaraguaCanalscheme on the ground that it is bad policy for the United States to acqui c new and distant territory, and to incorporate remote interests with our own, but the Tehuanlepec ship railroad project is regarded with favour. He recommends provision be made for a new boundary line between Alaska and British Columbia ; that extraordinary means be taken to protect the Chinese in the United States from outrage; speaks of the desirability of legislation on the subject of intercolonial copyright, or of its being treated by specific treaty ; suggests that the conditions of the fcxtradition Treaty with Great Britain be re-arranged and enlarged so as to embrace other criminals in addition to those already specified. The message favours the suspension of the coinage of the silver dollar, and also points out the need of reform in Navy Department. The postal revenue has fallen off during the year, owing to a reduction in the letter postage. At the same time reduced taxa tion is recommended, as the general revenues are in excess of the actual needs of an economical administration. The message recommends the appointment of 3ix commissioners to deal with the Indian Question ; praises the energy with which the anti- Mormon law has been enforced ; and, in conclusion, the President re-states and re affirms his position on the Civil Service rule "I venture to hope," he says, " that we never shall again be committed to the system which, upon every change of administration, inspires an immense army of claimants for office to lay siege to the patronage of the Government. l>oubts may well be entertained whether our Government could survive the strain of a system which distributes public positions purely as a reward for partisan service " The English press generally praise the " message " for its conservative tone,*while American journals, even those of Mr Cleveland's own school of politics, are disposed to regard the document as a tame affair, and not up to mediocrity as a State paper. They complain that comparatively trifling topics are treated, while matters of national importance are omitted altogether.