NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2981, 8 July 1878, Page 2

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

(fbom the times.) Pabis, May 15, FOECE OF EXAMPLE!

One is sometimes tempted to believe that there is a contagion in evil which spreads . with fearful rapidity over the whole world. A short time ago Vera Zasulitch shot General Trepoff; a few days ago Hodel fired at the Emperor of Germany, and: yesterday Okubo, the second Directing Minister of Japan, was murdered in the streets of. the capital by five assassins on his way to a Cabinet Council. Okubo was the promoter and defender of all the reforms which have marked the recent rise of Japan. He was one of the conquerors in the last insurrection, and for these reasons was held in special horror by the defenders of the suppressed abuses. The partizans of feudalism knew that in him they would destroy one of their chief adversaries. By a strange contrast, too, while in Europe it i% socialism and anarchy which have prompted to assassination, in Japan it is reactions :rOkubo, who came to Europe in 1873,.1ett behind him a character for firmness, frankness, and enlightenment. Jriis loss is a public misfortune for Japan. All the - assassins have been arrested. ,

PARIS EXHIBITION. The success of the Exhibition continues to exasperate a part of the French Press. The provincial loyalist papers, for instance, narrate that the Prince of Wales put on his hat when "Vive la Bepublique I " was cried, and said, " When I uncovered I thought they were going to cry ' Vive la France !'" There is not a particle of truth in this. I was close to his Koyal Highness when the scene occurred. If the Prince put on his hat, it was'because the crowd, the* wind, and the rain prevented him from keeping it longer in his hand and his head exposed. As to the words imputed to him, they are a complete fiction. A3S AGED COMMUNIST. Garcin, the Communist, lately convicted of taking a prominent part in the assassination of the two Generals, has had his sentence commuted to hard labour for life. He is over 70 years of age. BTXSSIAN CBUISEBS. . ; Paeis, May 8. The Estafette, a sensational paper, publishes .the following .extraordinary and doubtful statement :-r :t "For. some days numerous detatchnbents of Eussian-sailors have been passing through France and embarking for America, some at Havre and some even at Liverpool. Only yesterday a detachment of 30 sailors in plam dress passed

through Paris. We conversed with the officers at their head, and this is wbat they told us : " 'Besides the Cimbria, there are three other large steamers in America bought by Russia, to which crews from the Baltic fleet are being secretly despatched. The object is to take England by surprise immediately on war being declared, to destroy the transports sent with troops and material from the Colonies before measures of precaution have been thought of, and to interrupt the different lines of communication between the various colonies. Privateering will be only a secondary question, on account of the impossibility of getting rid of the prizes.' " These officers are seitiog out with a firm conviction that the expedition will fully succeed, and have not the slightest doubt that war is a settled thing, tho diplomatic negotiations being merely dcsigat i to gain time. This afternoon a a fresh detachment passed through Paris."

The Estafette is highly favoured in being thus lei into the secret of Russian machinations. Berlin, May 12. EMPJHoa William's attempted (fihst) ABSABSINATION. The more we learn about Hodel's antecedents the blacker becomes his character. At the age of 13 he ran away from his stepfather, and, roving about for awhile, was eventually arrested and placed in a house ; for the education of juvenile vagabonds; and offenders. On this occasion a Leipsic public school, which, he visit 3d before taking to the: fields, gave' him a certificate in which he was called a confirmed thief. After a two years' stay at the Zeitz Reformatory, he was apprenticed to.a tinsmith at the same place. Though a quick and clever boy, his conduct in his new position was so bad, that when, after two years' misbehaviour,~ his irascibility caused him to niake a murderous attack upon a fellowjourneyman, be was sent back to the Reformatory. Thence he went to different masters of his craft, until he espoused Socialism as a more eligible trade. PBGPABATION FOE INDIAN TBOOPS. Alexandba; May 4.

The passage of the Indian contingent through the Suez Canal enroute for Malta is expected with much interest, a*)d I am able to add one or two fHcti to my notes about it last week. The hiring of so many sailing vessels as transports, which has been much criticised on account of the extra difficulties with sailing vessels in the canal, is not without a good reason. A considerable cavalry forca comes with the contingent, and the accommodation on board a sailing vessel for horses is much better than than afforded*by a steamer. The whole length of the ship between decks can be fitted with stalls. This is why half the transports pre sailing vessels. The steamers with them bring taem in ow. The fleet comes in three-divisions, and by the 17th all are expected to'arrive off Suez, when they will at once enter the Canal. The little town of Suez is already i:# great excitement. The construction of the Canal robbed it of its old transport trade, half the houses are empty, and its popt|latiov has sh'unk to about 5,000 inhabitants. This event will bring back for a moment _ some of the old animation. The military hospi.al which the English built in the time of the Abysisinian war is being put in order on the chance of any sick arriving ; while 150,000 -gallons of water are to be in readiness for the ships, and the four floating tanks at Suez will pat them on board in three journeys. The preparations for this supply of Water furnish a curious proof of the respect, shown by the British authorities for the religious prejudices of the. native Indian troops. The .water is generally conveyed from shore ~to tank pnd from tank to ship by means of leathern hose. But the leather might be viewed with dislike, just as were tbe greased cartridges; so ' new 'canvas" hope has been ordered specially, and is now being got ready at Suez. Coal is ready for delivery at Port Said, which has become a great coaling station. Three British ironclads will meet the fleet there.

INDIAN FAMINE. Madbas, April 20. Q'he famine is slowly dying out everywhere ; the survivors are, as a rule, recovering health and strength, and the small quantities of food imported by sea and railway show that the p%>p-e have a sufficiency o£ grain for present use. Some districts, of course, have improved more than others, but all, I think, have ceased to be a rource of anxiety to the Government in regard to the control of relief measures. There is much poverty and pauperism still, and these adjuncts of famine must continue to be felt for a long while, but our mortality returns show a very great' and important reduction, and we hear but little this year of the pestilences which so generally accompany famine—namely, cholera and small-pox.

AGBICULTUBAL UNION. At a Conference of 6CO delegate agricultural labourers helt. on Saturday at the Memorial Hall, London, under the presidency of Mr Joseph Arch, a resolution was passed pledging these present in case of war occurring through the refusal of "the Government to accept a Congress or arbitration, to use all their influence to prevent their fellow, laborers from enlisting in the army. AN OLD PAPER SOCIETY.

Protestant Holland numbers among its numerous charities an " Old Paper Society." The Rom- \ Catholics of the Ketherlandß (1.200.CC0 in number) send annually to the Pope the proceeds of the sale of old magazines, journals, pamphlets, and books. During the past year the society has acknowledged 41:J,COOlbs of waste paper, this was sold for 10,000 florins, and the amount has been forwarded to Home. POPULATION OF -THE UNITED KINODOM. The Registrar-General states as follows his annual estimate of the resident population of the United Kingdom. He puts the population of England and Wales in the middle of this year, 1878, at 24,854,397, or 307,088 more than in the middle of last year; the population of i Scotland at 3,593,929, an increase of j 33,212; ot Ireland at 5,433,640, an increase of 97,245, which, last number appears very large indeed. The total population of the United Kingdom is stated at 33,881,966, or 437,547 more than at the corresponding period in last year. BEVISION OF THE AUTHOBISED VEBSION. The Revisers of the Authorised Version' of ,he New Testament met on Tuesday at the Jerusalem Chamber for their 80th Session, and sat for seven houvs. There were present—The Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, who presided; the Bishops

of Salisbury and St. Andrew's, the Deans of Westminster, Rochester, Lincoln, and Lichfield, the Master of tho Temple, Archdeacons Lee and Palmer, Canons Lightfoot and Westcott, Principals Brown and Wewth, Professors Moulton and Roberts, Drs.. Angus, Hart, and Vance Smith, Prebendaries Humphry and Scrivener—in all 21 members, with Mr Troutbeck, the secretary. The company carried on their revision to the end of the 14fck chapter of St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians. PKOG-KESS OF THE GJIEAT FBIENDLY SOCIETIES.

The statistics as to the progress made during the past year by the Ancient Order of Foresters and the . Manchester Unity of Odd Fellows, the two great affiliated friendly societies, hare just been completed. The Manchester Unity on the Ist of January numbered 526,802 mem*' be*s, showing an increase of 8432 during the year, in spile of 16,589 having seceded or been suspended, and 6629' having died during last year. Of' the 28,792 who joined the Order, 21,807 were under 25 years of aqje. The net gain was less by 3500 than the average of the fire preceding years.— another evdience of the general depression of trade. In 1874 the increase was 15,000. The rate of mortality in Great Britain had been 139. The funds possessed by different lodges and-the payments for sick benefits have not yet been ascertained ; but £67,347 were paid on the deaths of members, and £23,642 on the deaths of members' wives. The Foresters on the lilt of January numbered £521,416 financial and 11,879 honorary members, an increase respectively of £11,897 and 282. The court funds amounted to £2,209,31,9, and the district funds to £287,841, an increase of £148,299 in the former, from which sick benefits are paid, and of £3893 in the latter, from which funeral benefits are met.' The deaths in Great Britain numbered 5288, about the average ; but the sickness, which averaged 829 days per member, was less than in 1876.