General News.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3686, 18 October 1880, Page 3

General News.

Another of those sad social cases of crime which have been so frequent in France of late came before tlie assizes of Charente Inj&ieure on August 16. The prisoner is the Comtesse de Tilly. She is about thirty-four years of age, nnd both on her own and her hnsband's side is connected with several distinguished noble families. Her marriage took place at Saintes fifteen years ago, and four children have been the issue. At first the union appeared to be a hnppy one, but the Countess falling into delicate health, her husband neglected her, and everituolly formed thp acquaintance of a workgirl in the neighbourhood, named Marie Marcchal, said to be remarkably pretty. The liaison went on for some time. At last the Countess heard of it, and determined to be revenged. She bought some vitriol, and as the girl passed by one morning on her way to work the Countess threw the corrosive fluid in her face. Mari Marshal was taken to the hospital, but all the efforts of medical science were in vain, and in addition to being terribly disfigured for life she. has lost the sight of one eye, and, it is feared, will be deprived eventually of the other. The Countess expresses no regret. She says she did not want to kill her, but merely to destroy her beauty, in the hope that her husband would then abandon his mistress. The Countess was acquitted., The verdict was applauded in Court. It j -was stated during the trial that the I b Countess, who did not intend to injure the r young woman sd much as she did, has placed 20,000 francs at her disposal. ; Prince Bismarck is determined to punish Hamburg for its Socialism. He cannot carry out his more youthful idea and destroy all such great cities as the hotbeds of revolution; but he wants to nwke Hamburg smart for its recent election of a Socialist, and he has hit upon a unique plan for doing this. Hamburg has for centuries maintained its freedom as one of the Hanseatic towns, and is to retain its freedom still. But the town has grown, of course, and most of the business of the port is new conducted in the comparatively new suburb of St. Pauli. Prince Bismarck has determined to include St. Pauli in the German Zollverein, and if this is carried out, the importance of the chief port -of Germany is doomed. The daily average number of foot-passengers passing through that district to or from Hamburg is 117,220,

.... that pi carriages laden with goods, 2991, besides 921 omnibuses and tram-cars, : < and about 938 other carriages (hacks and private carriages) conveying passengers. A customs line being established in the midst of this traffic would subject everyone that passes to be searched by the customs authorities, and every omnibus and tram«car would, upon arrival at that customs; frontier, be subject to a search. Sbme'd'ays since, a ypupg man/of good family, starting from a town in the South) of France, went up in a balloon, which he baß 'spent more than two years in conatructing. Curiously enough, as the sequel will show, he named it the Nautilus. The wind was. yiolent, and the '.^•llbbii sailed rapidly away in thedirec'ticin of the jMCediterranean. For many ':}'{jilayß. no news of it was heard. His father remained buried in the deepest grief. A telegram has just been received to the effect that some fishermen have found a balloon in a creek of the sea to the south of Cape Rosso, doubtless the Nautilus. But it was empty. Probably the enthusiastic yonug aeronaut had * lei Wed out in the endeaTour to save himself, and had been drowned,