(FROM THE HOME NEWS.)

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2930, 6 July 1878, Page 2

(FROM THE HOME NEWS.)

A Berlin telegram says that according to intelligence received-from St. Petersburgh Queen Victoria congratulated the Czar on the attainment of his sixtieth year. • It is understood that the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg - Schwerin will shortly be betrothed to the Grand Duchess Anastasia, daughter of the Grand Duke Michael of Russia.

The Cologne Gazette says:—According to news from various sources, Vera gasaulitch has not fallen into the hands of the police, but is in safety. By a secret order of Major-General the police officers of St. Petersburg have been ordered to discover and arrest Vera Sassulitch. It is also confirmed that the Crown Prosecutor has protested against tihe verdict of acquittal by the jury. - We hear from Odessa that the people there are subscribing with enthusiasm towards the funds of the Moscow committee for fitting out volunteer cruisers. It has been proposed to form volunteer crews among the fishermen of the Black Sea,, and it is stated that the officers of several of the ships have already been selected. .

A Greek gentleman who has just returned from Athens says that the current of feeling in favor of England is wonderfully strong; all over Greece. Not only is this the case in the towns, but the peasants, who take a keen and intelligent interest in foreign affairs, are always arguing, "if only England will take us with her we shall be all right;" This correspondent thinks that besides the Greek army, which would make a respectable figure, there would be a large number of •volunteers, if their pay were guaranteed by England. The Emperor of Eussia (writes the Paris correspondent of the Times) is said to be very downcast. The explosion of the sentiment of which the acquittal of Vera Sassulitch is the signal, the rumors of the movement in Bulgaria, the attitude of the Boumanians, the probable policy, of the Turks, and the hostility with .which Europe has received the treaty of which General Ignatieff claims the paternity, seem to weigh heavily on him. ' All -these considerations, added to a need of money, which is becoming daily most pressing, lead to the supposition that Russia will abandon her unbending attitude, and will agree to a compromise which will enable her to conform to European law without wounding the national susceptibilities. '■ The Manchester Chamber of Commerce at their last quarterly meeting, after an animated discussion, passed by a majority of twjo, a resolution calling the prompt attention of the board of directors to the passage of the troops from India through the Suez Canal; the bearing of the action on the pacific character of the Canal, and its possible influence on the commerce of this country. This motion was the modified form of another, in which the action of the Government was condemned as destructive to the neutrality of the Canal, and consequently highly injurious to commerce.

The Eev. W. Tranter, of West Hambam, near Salisbury, has just completed his 100 th year. He is understood to be the oldest Wesleyan minister in England, and, although he retired from full ministerial duties some years ago, he has since frequently preached in the Wesleyan Chapel, Salisbury. He is at the present time in pretty good health. Lord Cranbrook (Mr Gathorne Hardy) has written a Jfarewell letter to the ViceChancellor of Oxford University, expressing his sense of obligation to his old constituency, and his intention to do all in his power to further the interests and and privileges of the University. The following are the particulars of an extraordinary attack upon the Archbishop of St. Petersburg a few days ago. As. customary in Eussia during Eastertide, masses of peoplo had. assembled in the Cathedral of St. Petersburg to take

part in the usual all night service. The midnight part of the service was over, and the Litany was being chanted by the archbishop on a dais erected in the middle of the cathedral, whpn a man about 30 years of age was observed trying to force himself towards him. (Suddenly, as the archbishop was bowing before the sacred image of the Virgin Mary, the man threw a large stone at him, which narrowly missed the prelate's face and fell upon the dais. A cry of horror and rage rose at this sacrilegious act. The crowd round the dais swayed round, and Oegan clamouring for the culprit; but the archbishop shared no part in this expression of feeling, and with a calmness that was of the highest order of heroism, continued chanting, and in the next verse of the LUany implored forgiveness for the miserable sinner who had thrown the stone at him. In the meantime the people nearest the man. seized him and tried to tear him to pieces. The cathedral, however, was so crowded — 9000 persons were crammed inside standing—that the pressure of his would-ba assailants prevented any harm being done to him, and gradually the crowd swayed him and others nearest him out of the building. There he wafi promptly seized by the vergers and car- 1 ried off to the vaults. Most of the 20,030 people gathered inside and outside the cathedral dispersed an hour afterwards With the belief that the attempt upon the life of the archbishop was due to the .Nihilists, but subsequent police examination; showed that the culprit was insane, and had no idea of what he had done. His name is staled to be Michielovsky, but his antecedents are unknown. At present, pending examination, he is confined in the Spagski prison; i General commiseration, has been expressed for the archbishop, who is deservedly popular at St. Petersburg. A Frenchman, Eugene Chantrelle, has just been found guilty of (he,murder of his wife under circumstances of exceptionally atrocious cruelty. The miserable woman was originally a pupil in a school opened by Chantrelle at Edinburgh, whom he seduced, and whom, to hush ap matters, against his will he married. All that he.could do to induce her to leave Him, so that he might retain, minus any encumbrance, the money he had received from the marriage, he did. He treated her with the most persistent brutality, beat her, starved her, insulted her, threatened her life. Finally, he insured his wife's life in an Accident Insurance Company for £1000, and one morning she was found dead in her bed, suffocated apparently by an escape of gas. Suspicion was aroused, and it wa« discovered that she had been poisoned by opium. The case was purely one of circumstantial evidence, but it was proved so clearly against Chantrelle that not one of the jury dissented from the verdict of guilty, and this in a country where, as it is in Scotland, the verdict of a ma(ority is binding.

Travellers returning from Russia (according to the Times correspondent in Paris) say that there is an uneasiness which is ill-concealed. Great hostility is manifested towards General Igaalieff. The friend who told me this said he had heard last week in one of the most brilliant drawing-rooms in St. Petersburg a conversation in which a young Russian proposed to wager a large" sum that General IgnatiefF could not speak for three minutes without one of the following phrases:—" I never tell falsehoods." "You may believe what-I I say." " I tell you it, so it is true.'* " I am like my father, I always speak the truth, on my word of honor,; and you know I seldom give it." "Believe what I tell you." " What interest have liv concealing the truth?" "People are wrong not to believe me." " Falsehoods are useless when one has good intentions." "I have done everything, and lam the most attacked." " iSchouvaloff has always- jeopardised the success of our schemes." "If I had been listened to that would not have occurred." "The? Turks know that I have done it for their good; I need not go on if you do not believe me." I have written these sentences at the dictation of my friend. The curious thing is that everybody in the company, even official personages, laughed, and that nobody accepted the wager. Still, this is the general who but yesterday directed: the whole Russian policy, and the very persons who are amused at this criticism of him would not dare to blame him before the Emperor.