GENERAL SUMMARY.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3447, 12 January 1880, Page 2

GENERAL SUMMARY.

San Fbancisco, Dec. 23. Six ladies from the Sacred Heart Conrent, Chicago, go to New Zealand to found a convent of the Order there. Over two million white fish eggs are forwarded by Mr R. J. Creighton, per ! Australia for the Government. They were shipped in prime condition, packed in mountain ice brought from the Sierra Nevada Range. Cardinal Manning appeals for subscriptions to relieve the distress in Ireland during the coming winter, where hunger and want are expected, such as was never known since 1847* Baker Pasha has started. He first visits Aleppo. He has no executive authority, bat his powers enable him to make a thorough investigation iito all

branches of administration, and report directly to the Sultan. < At an explosion of fire-damp in a coal mine near Chemnitz, 10 were killed. At a meeting of Irish sympathisers, held in Glasgow, a resolution was passed calling for the impeachment of Lords Beaconsfield and Salisbury. A tenant, evicted by Lord Fermoy, struck him with a cudgel on the steps of the Limerick Club, and felled him to the earth, where he lay insensible for some time. His assailant received fire years' penal servitude. In the North of Ireland the landlords are generally reducing their rents from, ten to twenty per cent. War is progressing between the tribes of the West Coast of Africa, and the j British Fatal force has consequently been increased. The British expedition up the Niger destroyed two towns, and returned to Bonny. * , Heavy floods in the Isthmus of Panama submerged the railroad almost the entire length, flooding out the natives along the line, and destroying much property. The passengers from the steamers could not land at A-spinwall, and the steamers went to sea to escape the hurricane, which wrecked several vessels in the harbor, and destroyed apportion of the Pacific Mail Company's wharf. Two hundred passengers and freight were delayed. Sixty Mahommedan refugees were starved at Sofia London, December 21. A Calcutta despatch says executions continue in the palace at Mandalay. Five princesses were recently murdered. The Burmese Ambassadors are still at Thetmyo. • Press prosecutions and rioting prevails at Madrid. Floods in Hungry and Transylvania have done great damage. Severe frosts alone prevented Grossevardian and other villages sharing the fate of Zegedin. Lemovar, Arad, and several Transy 1 vanian towns were suddenly inundated and many houses fell in. The level country is sub* merged. Thousands of inhabitants are fugitives, and many have perished. The distress is extreme. The famine extends to four of the pro* vinces of Silesia. Bread riots occurred in Ravenna. The Rev Arthur Wagner of St Paul's Church, Brighton, has joined the Church of Borne. The assassin who fired at Viceroy Lytton, in Calcutta was a native of Ben* gal, and has a grievance against the Go* vernment. He was recently discharged from the Allahabad Lunatic Asylun. The Irish agitation continues unabated. Parnell delivered a highly inflammatory speech, at Liverpool, amounting to a challenge to the Government to arrest him, but no notice was taken. The Grand Jury at Carrick found indictments against the accused agitators, who are to be tried in Dublin. Excited meetings have been held all over the country, at which pikemen paraded in, strong force. No overt act was committed, however. Evictions continue, and the agitation in English and Scotch towns progresses, considerable money being raised. About forty thousand people attended the Hyde Park Sunday demonstration in favour of Ireland. Wesley's morning chapel in London was seriously damaged by fire. The frescoed ceilings were irreparably injured. Wesley's pulpit was saved. Contracts have been let for three sections of the Canadian Pacific railroad ' in British Columbia. The line will be pushed forward vigorously at both ends. Three transcontinental roads in the United states are progressing at the rate of two miles a day. The Northern Pacific will have a terminus in Oregon, and the other lines end in San Francisco. . ■ , *.■ .;„■ '.. ■: ■■■■ .-. An 1 American colony is being established at Hawaii for sugar cultivation. Several families have already started for the islands. DeLesseps has sailed for Aspinwall. Grant will accept the presidency of the Nicaraguan Canal Company when formed. He visits Nicaragua during hit West Indian and Central American tour. Ignatieff's appointment as .Russian Ambassador at Home has created great excitement in Vienna Court circles. •& The new Spanish Government adopt the Cuban Reform Bill of their predecessors, which will pass without amend* ment. The political situation is very critical in Madrid. The steamship Eldorado, with ninetyfive passengers and a crew of sixty lascars, put into Plymouth to repair damages from a storm in the Bay of Biscay. The crew were paralysed with fear and abandoned their duty, and the male passengers worked for thirty hours baling, which saved the ship. The winter palace at St Petersburg has been illuminated by an electric light as a precaution against attack. Several military officers have been arrested for complicity in the attempt on the Czar's life at Moscow, when his baggage train was blown up. The police are powerless against Nihilists, who are found in the highest social circles of the empire. The Czar has appointed a commission to consider what reforms are practicable. •■ ■ British funds are being applied for the relief of starving Mussulmen in Eastern Roumelia. The Rhine is frozen, and people cross the river on ice at Bingen. The Seine is also frozen. A motion has been made before the Lord Justices of Appeal for the release of the Ticbborne Claimant, seven years having expired since the first sentence. It is claimed that the other sentence of seven years should run concurrently. The ruling by the New York Supreme Court on the Tweed trial regarding cumulative indictments has been accepted by the Lords Justices as a precedent for opening the case. This shows the in* timate relations between English and American jurisprudence. Gordon Pasha is still detained in Abyssinia, and a Catholic Vicar Apostolic has been imprisoned by King John. The latter will be released owing to the representations of the Pope. Active preparations for war are going forward between Egypt and Abyssinia. The French Chambers have appointed a committee Lto inquire into the disciplinary punishments in New Caledonia. Twenty-six Russian peasants were recently tried at Kieff for forcibly occupying land not belonging to them. They were sentenced to periods of imprison*

ment. varying from fourteen years down to four years. Baker Pasha has fixed the Turkish force in Asia Miuor at sixiy thousand, which he will use as a reserve in time of war. The plan has been approved. Irish relief meetings are. being held in the large centres of population of the United States and Canada. San Francisco is organising a powerful committee. Resolutions denunciatory of the land system of Ireland, and expressing sympathy with the Irish people, and requesting the President to represent the wish of the American people in favor of a peasant proprietary to the British Government have been introduced in Congress. la contravention of the Munroe doctrine. Congress will authorises the resumption of one hundred million of forfeited railroad grants, which will then be open for settlement and homestead entry. O >c thousand pikemtn surrounded the platform at an anti rent meeting in County Mayo recently, at which Daly, the agitator, was present. Catholic clergymen took part in the proceedings, and a, priest presided. An International Exhibition will be held aJgßome in 1882. ' The Dachecs of Marlborough has written to the Times appealing to England for funds towards the relief of the distress in the West of Ireland. The Times warmly supports the appeal. The Presbyterian Synod of Long Is* land by a two-thirds vote sustained Dr Talmage by dismissing the appeal from the decision of the Presbytery. In this case he won't secede. The Vatican has congratulated the Irish clergy on their attitude with reference to the political agitation in Ireland. The Government has granted pensions of £500 to the widow and £100 to the mo her of Sir Louis Cavagnari, murdered at Cabul. The Englishmen won the several days' bicycle race at Chicago, allowing the Americans a handicap of a hundred* miles. Three men were killed and several wounded in a boiler explosion on Her Majesty's ship Pelican. Hubert—a returned Communist—states that torture is practiced at New Caledonia, f The funeral of Dowager Countess de Montys was celebrated with much splendour. The Empress Sugenie returns to England. The Imperial Government are forming a reserve of ten thousand men in Canada, composed of Dominian Militia for service at Home or abroad. A brigade of pioneers and surveyors left France to prepare for cutting the Panama Canal. The New Bedford whaling barque Mercury has been frozen in and abandoned in latitude 71.0 N., long. 172 W., Oct. 24. The crew were brought to San Francisco by the whaler Helen Mar. A severe Arctic winter has set in. and fears are entertained for the entire whaling fleet. During 1879 thirty fishing vessels were lout, belonging to Gloucester, Massachusetts with 210 lives. Relief contributions have been made for the widows and orphans. The General Council of Switzerland were memorialized to take steps to repress the Mormon propaganda,.but declined in view of the promise that the American Government would suppress polygamy in Utah.

The commission of Canada Agents in England are severely censured for deceit practiced in sending emigrant out. Fifteen men of this class are objects of charity in Montreal.