NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2587, 23 April 1877, Page 2

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

(FIIOM THE HOME NEWS, MJIBCM 10.) la the House of Commons, on Feb. 16, Mr Gladstone, pursuant to notice called attention to certain passages in Lord Derby's despatch relating to treaty engagements, and in the course of his speech took occasion to contradict a story that he, along with Lord Beaconsfield, Prince Bismarck and the Czar was in a conspiracy to place the Duke of Ediriburgh on the throne of the Sultan. ' On tbe same day in the House of Commons Mr Chaplin commented withseverity upon the autumn Bpeeches and pamphlets of Mr Gladstone, and asked the right hon. gentleman whether he intended by a definite motion to test the truth of- the allegations he had made against .the Government, and, to take the opinion of Parliament upon their conduct. This . was tbe only course which, as a man of honour, he could -:adopt. Here Mr Gladstone, intervened, and appealed to the Speaker whether' it was competent %. Mr Chaplin to indicate to him the only course which, as a man of honour, he had, to adopt. The .Speaker ruled that Mr Chaplin had exceeded"the limits of Parliamentary debate, on which the hon. gentleman, apologised and substituted the word "duty" for "honor;" We hear from Constantinople that the Porte has given Mr Valentine Bfn&r c&rte blanche to; frame a scheme" for the organization of a gendarmerie of 60,0(X) men, in which foreign officers will be employed. ' Tlfe Sultan is the husband of One wife, and the Sultana is credibly reported to be a Belgian, very pretty, very clever, and once a pupil of Madame TSlise. tit is not the first time that a Western woman has held the Padishahl in;'"sway. The Sultan, who is somewhat of an ingenuous - youth, is reported to have inquired of his wife if she had ever met Lady Salisbury. " She was not of my set," was the reply. ■"- The Dean^of Westmifißter presided on Feb. 17 at the first preliminary meet* ing of the committee charged with making arrarigetnnts for the celebration during the present year of the 400 th anniversary of the introduction of prinjting into England. Earl Stanhope, the American and the Belgian Ministers, Lord Hatherley, the Rev. Dr Stoiighton/ Sir Charles Reed, and Mr Theodore Martin were among the speakers. Resolutions were passed recognising the advantages which the art of printing had conferred upon mankind, declaring that its introduction into England by William Caxton was an event of national importance worthy of public commemoration, and expressing an opinion that a loan collection, of works and antiquities connected with" the- art would be the most appropriate form of celebration. . ;

An interesting experiment has just been made in the KiverDanube^ officer has invented an. apparatus for. fastening to a horse to enable it to cross a river without sinking, and the trial took place this morning. The officer mounted , his steed on the Buda side of the Danube, and actually accomplished the feat of swimming the river .on horseback at its broadest part, with a rapid current run? ning» He kept the horse's head up splen. didly while crossing, which occupied about twenty minutes. The military seem to think well 1 of this invention, and.it certainly has had a very severe test. The foundations, and the basement of the. theatre intended for the "Shakespeare Memorial," at Stratfordon-Avon, are being proceeded with, and the first stone will be laid on ; the 23rd of April next, by the Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire, the 'Jbtight Hon. Lord Leigh, Provincial Grand Master of the County of Warwick, &c, and the ceremony will be conducted with full masonic honors. The sum at present guaranteed v will only suffice for completing the theatre so far as to be available for use, but without any of the ornamental details, and a further sum of £4000 is required to enable the council to proceed with the library and picture gallery. . . j t .- Mr Jokn Lakin, a Waterlpb yeterap, has just died at Queen Anne's-gate, Windsor Great Park, in his ninetieth year. He took part in the whole of the Peninsular war with the 16th Lancers, and attained the rank of sergeant-major. He was afterwards appointed by the late Lord Harcourt as keeper in Windsor / Great Park, a post he filled until the day of his death—upwards of fifty years. In fact, he was the oldest royal servant of Her Majesty. He lived in the reign of four sovereigns, and he bad often said with pride that he. had addressed them all personally—viz.; George 111., George IV., William IV., and Her Majesty. I am able to say in contradiction to some statements which have appeared, that the Prince of Wales will not depart on his intended visit to the Antipodes this i year, the reason being that, were he to do so, it would be impossible for him to see all that he wished to see of our Australian colonies, and be back in time for the opening of the Paris Exhibition oa May 1, 1878. His Koyal Highness, who is President of the British Commission, is bestowing much time and attention on the work of furthering the success of the British section, going-even more into the details of the preparations, which already are well advanced, than he did in connection with the Vienna Exhibition of 1873, to the success of the English department of which his services so much contributed.•% I need not say that the programmes of the Prince's tour which have appeared since last week I announced that it had been decided on are wholly spurious-. No details respecting the journey, its character, or its cost have as yet been gone into.—" Atlas " in the World. There is some talk on the part of a certain section of the Liberal Scotch Peers to substitute the Earl of Eosebery for the Duke of Argyll as their leader in future. This young nobleman has rendered himself singularly'popular by his varied accomplishments, genial manners, and genuine humour, and people are not: likely to forget his positively SydneySmithian joke about the Queen's title of Empress being intended "for external application only." Moreover, on the question of education and of ecclesiastical pretensions—for the Duke of Argyll's attitude in regard to the Patronage A bolition Bill will not soon be forgotten—he is nearer the Nonconformist platform than his senior, while he has also certain Whig traditions or prejudices which form a recommendation to him in the pyes. qf statesmen like Lord Graavillc. At all events, the relative positions of the two noblemen will form the subject of serious consideration among Scotch senators oh the eve of the opening of Parliament. The Glasgow Corporation has just increased the salary of its town clerk to £3500 per annum. This is nearly £$00

a year more" than the salary of the Lord Advocate of Scotland ; £1500 a year more than the salaries of tno President of the Board of Trade, and the President of the Local Government Board ; it exceeds by a similar amount the salaries of the Comptroller-General of the Exchequer and Auditor-General; the Chairman of Customs, the Chairman of Inland Revenue, and it is £1000 a year more than the emoluments of the Postinaatcr-Gene-ral.