Miscellaneous.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2810, 15 February 1878, Page 2

Miscellaneous.

At a meeting of the Home Bale League in Dublin, on Dec. 22nd, a resolution was carried censuring the Conference Committee for throwing doabi on the possibility of holding th« conference in Dublin in January. Mr Butt was in the minority, and Mr Parnell in the majority. Mr O'Connor Power went with Mr Farnell against Mr Butt. It was rumored in Dublin a few days ago that Mr Butt is likely to resign his mem* bership of the League. :. The death is announced at Wychling, near Sittingbourne, of Mary Butler, a *idow woman, who had attained the remarkable age of 103 years. Up to the last two or thiee months she was able to get downstairs and more about with considerable actirity, but for the last few weeks she has been confined to her bed* room, though she retained full possession of her mental faculties to the last. The deceased's husband, George Butler, died at the age of eighty-fire, twenty years or more ago. She was born at Goudhursr, near Cranbrook, Mid Kept. She leares behind her a large family in the third and fourth generation. Her own children are themselves old men and women. . William Shipman, of Bipley, completed his 100 th year last week. He hti'been working for the Butterly Company up to ninety-seren years of age. Shipman keeps a tollbar near Golden Valley, and is a well-known character. He was born in 1777, and was for some years engaged in military serrice. He has been a. man of steady habits and temperate living. > Shipman has been thrice married, and is at present in possession of all his faculties; .

Enough has transpired to show that France was much nearer a amp <f 6lat than was generally supposed. Marshal MacMahon had a strong reactionary Cabinet ready for formation when, whether at tho hint of Prince Bismarck or under some other pressure, he accepted M. Dufaure as Prime Minister. When the Chambers meet after the Christmas recess some very important disclosures as to what was really contemplated are likely to be made. A committee will be moved for and almost certainly appointed, to inquire whether orders were actually given for a military. coup d' itat, and, if so, by whom. This committee may elicit much information, but there are certain facts as to the counsels tendered by Lord Beaconsfield to the Marshal, and the attitude assumed by the great house of Bothschiid, that are not likely to come to '.he light. A breach of promise case against a clergyman was to hare occupied tho Master of the Court of Exchequer. The plaintiff, Miss Emily Dalton, who lives at Ferry Lodge, near ICilruth, county Clare, seeks to recover £5000 from the defendant, the Her. Jeremiah Donoran, who is a Protestant clergyman, at one time stationed at Tralee, county Kerry, but now rector of Conesboro', County Ar> margh, and her first cousin. It wai alleged that the promise to marry wai made in 1873, subsequently in a more for* real manner in writing in 1875. The reverend defendant married another lady in August last. The inquiry, which is for the assessment of damages, judgment haring been allowed to go by default, had to be adjourned owing to the High Sheriff ot the city omitting to call a jury. ■„:,-■ The ex-Queen Isabella of Spain, and the vanquished Don Carlos, are once more figuring actirely in the intrigues of Europe. Her indignant Majesty chooses to disapprove of the approaching marriage, of her son, the King of Spain, with his cousin. She has taken the exceedingly unwise t{en of. demonstrating her digpleasure with, the prospect of their nuptials, by seeing a great deal of hwrion a cousin, Don Carlo*, in Paris. The scandal at last reached such a point that, in deference tq representations made by the Spanish Government, it . began to be a question M. Dufaure's Cabinet whether they should not request Don Carlos to leave the French capital. Queen Isabella, upon this, wrote a letter, which appeared in some of the French papers, angrily protesting against the treatment to which she, as well as Don Carlos, was exposed, and comparing the attitude of the Spanish Government with that of the French Government and the Count de Chambord. Thia comparison is not exactly relevant. The Count de Chambord did not make . war on the accepted Government of his country. Don Carlos did. The Count de Chamborg hai withdrawn all claim to the crown of hii country ; Don Carlo* has not. Meanwhile, Den Carlos arrived suddenly in London on New Year's Day, and the Spanish Parliament, it is said, will consider when they meet, whether the a.x-Queen Isabella, hasnat by her unwise, unpatriotic, uumaternal conduct, forfeited all claim to the pension which she now receives from the Spanish Government.