NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2883, 13 May 1878, Page 2

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

(from the home news.)

Mr Gladstone is just now silent in the House of Commons, but he is conspicuously before the public. On Saturday last (March 23) he-received a deputation of Greenwich Liberals, requesting him not finally to sever his connection with their town, and, in reply,- made a speech which, as a protest against increase of expenditure, even>at such a time as the present, the Credit Vote of six million*, and the continued distrust of. Russia by, the Government, the Times is constrained to criticise as singularly ill-timed and injudicious. As for' Mr Gladstone him* ~ self, he has just written a curious letter,, from which he seems to hare suddenly awoke to the fact that his appearances as a woodcutter before parties of mechanics en fete in Ha warden Park are rather ludicrous, and in which he announces that excursionists to Hawarden, must, for the future, expect only to see the Park, and not Mr Gladstone orchis family. A painful case has just been tried before Lord Justice Bramwell at Leicester. A Mr, William Bradshaw, charged with the manslaughter of Herbert Docherty at a football match, has been acquitted, though only after some little conflict of evidence and with^a recommendation from the jury that the rules of football should „.. bo altered. In the opinion of the side on which he was. playing, Mr Bradshaw did not transgress the letter of the Association Kules, and was a good-natured and humane person. , His opponents ««eem to . hare taken a different view of the matter, but there is no doubt that Mr Bradshaw did nothing that he was not strictly entitled to do, and that therefore he was in . no way legally responsible for the death of Docherty, who knew well what the rules of football, as played by/the Atsotion, are. Lord Justice-Bramwell did not see his way t'p recommending the change in the game desiderated by the jury, but mildly added, " I;think it would be as well for young men to try to make these accidents as- little likely toocour as possible."

On Tuesday,' March 12, there was an interesting, but not entirely satisfactory, discussion on the relatire merits of

breechloaders v. muzzle-loaders. Major {Solan pointed out that all Continental nations had already adopted or were -adopting the former, and thia in consequence of the .practical experience of recent wars. The muzzle-loader therefore required for its retention a much stronger case than was made out for it' on Tuesday last. Lord Eustace Cecil, Director of the Ordnance, adduced no stronger argument for the muzzle-loader than that he " was led to believe that the advantage would be on its side. 1' This scarcely sounds reassuring, and Lord Eustace Cecil might have fortified himself considerably if he had added the fact that several committees appointed to en-, quire into the question have reported in favour of muzzle-loaders, though, as, according to Lord Eustace Cecil,aErupp gun was not procurable at any of the experiments—a sufficiently astounding fact —it may be supposed that the breechloaders used on these occasions were not first-class specimens. . A man of the name of Morris Recce has given himself up to the Manchester police, stating that he was a convict under sentence of penal servitude for life for stabbing a policeman in London, and had escaped from Western Australia. As . nothing was known of him, he was rei manded for enquiries to be made, and was sent to the City Gaol. On entering that prison he was seen by one of the warders who chanced to be the very man in whose charge he had been for yearn in < Australia. The Prisoner has since been committed for trial on the charge,,of -■ " being at large without a license." We hear that an arrangement is likely to be made by which room wiUjjM^fcund for a Roman Catholic Chaplaiirwith the fleet in the Sea of Marmora, and elsewhere in cases in which the number of i Roman Catholic sailors makes their provision desirable. The " Vie " at Oxford is doomed. Its safety had been questioned, but the Town Council resolved, by a narrow, majority, to continue the license. However, the Vice-Chancellor's consent is also necessary, aud that dignitary prudently resolved to take advice. Accordingly Captain Shaw went down to inspect, and has now reported, as he probably Should report on many London theatres, that the place is unsafe for a large audience. The " Vie " does not boast of many ennobling associations, for the curious policy of the University is to forbid during term-time anything -of the nature of dramatic performances, while permitting, and thereby encouraging entertainments of the musichall variety. There is no, admission to Mr Irving or Mrs Bancroft, but a hearty welcome is extended to " Jolly Nash," or the " Immense Vance ;" and while Alma Mater would be shocked at a play of Sheridan, she has no objection to her youthful members joining in a chorus of •• Woa, Emma! "—Truth. ■- 7 ; One of the most destructive, fires which ■>.. has taken place in Belfast fora very great '' length of time broke out on March 13 in the distillery of Messrs DunviUe and Co,

It is thought that some spirit overflowed and came in contact with a lamp. There is no fire allowed in the department. It caught some other edifices, and there has been great destruction, and it is said that close upon £100,000 worth of property of 6ne kind and another has been ruined. The premises and stock are, however, insured.

Two mail bags were the other morning abstracted from the van of a goods train at Carlisle. Twelve bags were placed in the van at about half-past four, and the guard, being afterwards absent a short time attaching some wagons to the train, found at the moment of starting that two bags had been stolen. A number of letters were subsequently found in a field near the station, and the Post Office authorities being informed, search was made and both bags were recovered, and all the contents except a packet of stamped envelopes and a pair of earrings. A few days ago an important refrigerating apparatus was shown in operation at the American Preserved Meat .Stores, underneath the Cannon-street Railway Station, Upper Thames-street, in the presence of a large company, including Earls Ducie and De la Warr, Lords Dorchester and Rosebery, and several ol.her noblemen and gentlemen interested in the question of the food supplies of England. Mr D. Tallerman, the managing director, marshalled the visitors througkihe various chambers, explaining the several processes by which the air is exhausted and redistributed through the stores after passing through the refrigerating tubes. Commencing with the steam engine-house, Mr Tallerman showed how the air was pumped through several thousand feet of iron tubing to the refrigerating chamber itself. In this latter chamber the iron pipes are arranged in coils, each 160 ft. in length, on an inclined plane, and cased, as it were, in ice blocks at a temperature of 36 to 37 degrees. From this chamber the cold air is sent direct by. separate tubes to each storechamber, where the meat and other perishable food is stored. In these, through the double action of exhaustion and recirculation as cold or refrigerated air, and even temperature is maintained, whereby meat,fish, poultry, and vegetables can be kept for weeks, and if necessary even for months, perfectly fresh and untainted. The business appears to have proved so ereat a success that the principle is to be extended to other descriptions of food and to other countries Not the least gratifying part of the proceedings was the exhibition, and practically testing by the visitors in a cooked state, of some Canadian salmon and white fish, brought direct to London and supplied at an extempore luncheon.