NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3096, 20 January 1879, Page 2

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

(fbom thb home nbws.) ""■ *•^1 ■'■ ■■:- • <>1 -:;■■■ >■■: -■:if:rt«h f..,f - ■.•i>..r vn7. '■ ; An ex-Australian* who is now « mem* ber of the Indian Viceregal Council, Sir A. Clarke, hating noticed in the Madras Presidency indications of the land being auriferous, sent' for Mr B. Sinyth, a mining engineer, froni Victoria; and 1 that gentleman has discorerecl. at Wyhaad a gold-bearing reef twenty-fire milies UJtuj, some of the ore in which has yielded iwo hundred ounce* of the precious metalr-to ■tiie t tpn,r;,;■,;•,• t ;';,;,;;,';; ; ■;;!". "^'..Jw ■•■ ' The Cologne Gazette, adverting to the consequences of a war between England and Afghanistan, remarks that.the^danger of 'a' collision between England and .Russia in Central Asia is less remote than English newspapers appear to imagine. There "are Russian troops at present stationed no more .than seven or eight days' journey from Merv, and the distance from Mery to Herat might be .traversed in twelve or lifteen days. The road li*d« through fertile districts, abounding m food for miW/attdcbjßast,! >only about a third part of the distance being steppes. It ought to be born in mind, says the Gazette, that Sussia has an army of :iC3,OOO7nie» ijnijhecrCaucaiut, awhieh might without difficulty be conveyed across the Caspian to the mouth of the river Attreo. Once there, Merv is within easy reach. -~~.-, One of the'most deplorable effects of i banking catastrophe U that it shakes the confidence of the poorer classes is all such establishments. In a case of robbery at the Birkenhead Polic«icourt last week, it was stated that the prosecutor, a labourer, was so frightened by the failure at Glasgow that he withdrew £60 ha had placed in a bank at Birkenhead. Tke EDor fellow was at a loss to know where to eep his money in safety, and his wife | carried it about with her in her bosom* wrapped up In a handkerohief ehelbsedTn a bag which she hung about, her neck. Two women were charged with stealing the money, and remanded in order to see if it could be found. f

. The semi-official Provincial Correspondeuce of Berlin publishes an article upon the attempt on the life of King Humbert. It say*:—** The world is becoming more and more conscious of the fact that there is spread over the whole of Europe a net- ' work' of secret revolutionary societies through whose pernicibus operations all that is most preoiOiisand most! sacred in every well-ordered State, is enfiompafltd by imminent dangers. > Suoh impressioni cannot but strengthen the conviction that the further spread of this evil: itamlyGto be prevented by a clearly intended and decided cp-operation of all the' forces which take their it'and tipon the present order of society with strong and resolute 'Governments. ■■;'; ••■ ■.:■:"•'■ ••;.; f^-.-'- :-^,---u% Some sensation has been created in the religious world by the secession of Mr Orby Shipley, n?the>; #ell j known High Ritualistic clergyman, to the Gharch pf Home. He i s good enough Jo explain, in a letter to the Times, his reasons for taking this step, l'l&9t!iiejrfinl's6Mi,:'iii; t a. preacher and. a writer m the Church of England, he volunteers a confession, he has been inculcating the doctrines of the Catholic Church. He; would,,, in fact jwe are given to understand, have gone over te Home long ago, were it not that he had held by the iright of private judgment. He now finds that private judgment ■ is*a mischievous delusion,; therefore* he subjects himself in all things to the Church of Borne;: and, he adds, he has no doubt that maily of his Ritualistic brethren will ] feeVbojuntT 'to;, do the ':;Bajdde';:tßinijlv;!itt is an ppyiouß criticism ,iapoh_: 'tjjjit statement, which suggests, by 'ttJie^By, a logical, puzzle' something like - that as to the value of the. stric^res of Epimenides on the veracity of the Cretans, that if Mr iOrby Shipley had not exercised the right of private judgment he cpuild not have joined the communion of Home. His letter in the Times has evoked a good deal more correspondence from Ritualistic clergymen, and it is satisfactory t :if rather startling, to know what is the real difference between the Anglican Ritualists and the Boman Catholics—nothing more, it seems, than this, that the Bitualists absolute]y reject the doctrine of Papal Infallihility, whence it would follow that the Ritualists arcl in identically the same position as the Old Catholics, whose Coryphffius is Dr. Dollinger.

Lord Coleridge, in recently charging the grand jury at the Bristol assizes, referred at some length to two cases of murder in the calender, and remarked that the real source of both crimes was drink. Persons sitting in his position must, he said, be tired of saying what was the veriest truism in the world : that if they could make England sober they could shut up nine tenths of the prisons. The large majority of criminal oases began, or ended or were connected with the publichouse and drunkenness. He admitted that they could not make people good by Act of Parliament, and his own view of absolute prohibition was that it led to the vice of hypocrisy and concealment. Still, the vice of drunkenness was a national disgrace, and a considerable factor in any distress uuder which the working classes suffered. They should all, therefore, endeavour to check the evil.