General News.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3748, 31 December 1880, Page 2

General News.

THE FALK LAWS IN PRUSSIA.

The Catholics in Prussia intend to show their dissatisfaction with the Falk Laws Amendment Act lately passed in their favor by abstaining from taking part in the festivities at Col< gne. Meetings on the subject are being held by the Ultramontanes all over the • country. At Munster, the capital of Westphalia, one of their strongholds, Herr Windhurst, the Parliamentary leader of the clericals, remarked: —"The Catholics, it is true, rejoice at the finishing of the Cathedral, but its accomplishmeat should only be celebrated after, the return of the Archbishop to Cologne, and I am convisced that it would have entirely accorded with the views of Frederick William IV. if the festival had been postponed till then. We will, therefore, keep ourselves apart from the ceremony, and our Rhenish brothers will not forget to give to the Emperor the things which are the Emperor's, and to God the things that are God's.!'—From our Paris Letter.

The Northern Whig describes the member for Northampton in a more favourable light then we have been accustomed to see him.—"Mr Charles Bradlaugh, attorney's clerk, dragoon, agitator, Republican, Secularist, Mai* thusian, journalist, and lecturer, is also a remarkable man—one of those men whom you could not meet in the street without turning round to look after. With a splendidly built body, massive head, and /, well cut face, he is in every way fitted for 'the career he has chosen and led for 30 years. One thing must be said of him; whatever his speculative opinions on religious and social subjects, he has been before,the public constantly for half 'generation, and in all the fierce attacks made upon him I have never heard a, single charge against' his privte character. This is something to say when wereoollttot what manner of men some of our would* be demagogues have been and arc. Anyone who has seen him in Hyde Park haranguing a multitude that could only be numbered by the ten thousand, is not likely to forget him. With his trumpet like voice and perfect gesture, he can sway them it will, and yet a mob of his gathering has never done an illegal ae*, while they have swept away many grievances. Mr Bradlaugh is, beyond all comparison, the most powerful platform speaker in England—it remains to be seen what he can do in a House that has tamed and broken so many wild spirits.

The following remarks on gossips and scandalmongers, which we clip from oar Tauranga contemporary, apply also to the Thames, where we should imagine the acme of gossiping his been attained by those tattling individuals whose zeal counterbalances their discretion, and who* like the renowned woodman, are inflated with the exuberance of their own verbosity. " The mendacity of some of the gossipmongers in Tauranga exceeds all bounds. The most innocent act of any one of these people that take a fancy to honour with their attention is sure to be grossly misrepresented, the most reoklesa statements being thrown without the . slightest regard to truth. We were informed lately of a glaring case in which some so-called ladies have been freely circulating the most abominable slander about some of their neighbours. The statements made so confidently by these persons, we are assured on undoubted authority, are' without a particle of foundation. If these ladies would take a word of advice and attend to their household duties instead of spending their time in gadding about and idle gossip, it would prevent a good deal of mischief.*'

The Wanganui Herald says:—"Some mischiefieus wag has circulated the report that, when the telegram announcing Ayoub Khan's defeat was read in the House of Lordi, the cheers of the - Bishops were among the * loudest." The statement is very likely to be true if Professor Sheldon Amos is to be beliered. la his last book, "Political and legal remedies for war," he remarks, it may be noted that in' spite of the presence of the Bishops \p the House of Lords, a public remonstrance on the part of them, against, entering into war. from some regard to J the general interests of religion and. humanity is unknown. In the case of the China war of 1857, there were only four Bishop? who sided with the majority against Lord Palmerston's government whichhad initiated aa reckless and needless a war as England has committed itself to. Some of the most eminent Bishops of the /.' present day, as the Bishop of Gloucester, and the Bishop of Peterborough hare on well known occasions gone out of their way to protest against the intrusive rhetoric of phi!antropic adcocatea of peace, and to call especial attention to the virtues and excellencies incident to war and the profession. —' "■ oTWoman! Woman! What nextP— The passion for hanging a vast quantity of fanciful objects on pendant ohains about the female waist has so gained ground that they now hang, in Paris and London, chains on both sides, and from these hang * a greater number of odd objects than ever before. An eccentric lady startled the. guests at a reception by recently appearing with what appeared to be the skull of an infant pendant from her chatelaine. It turned out to be that of her pet monkey, properly polished and furnished with small crystal eyes.

The United States Ooremmeat has des* patched a man-of-war to Oaba, one of the . ". Sooth Sea Islands, to inrestigate recent .. murder* there. Ihb laureate of the Irish Land LeafS*. must be an incendiary person to judge from the effusions he i» sending to the Nation. A recent number of lhat journrl contained four stanzas of a League song signed " T.D.5.," supposed to be a member of Parliament. i One of the stanzas explains the future policy ' ef the anti-renters this:— " ' No; we shall leave untilled, unsown, The lands, howerer fair, " ;. From which an honest man was throws. Upon the roadside bare. As if a curse was on the spot That saw suoh hateful deeds; . We'll leave, the empty home to rot, The fields to choke with weeds. These ara the things that thall be done, So swears our banded host-^- * In the name of the Bather, And of the Sod, And of the Holy Ghost! --. The three other aUasaj end with th« fame [ lßTOoation. > ■- - • ,' t . Twin.—The election Commission '•■'', ■bows that in the matter of briWry and Corruption, Liberal and Oontamtini , agents are alike as two ptti&rio feet, oaito " Corsican Brothers,"—Looii and Fabien de Franobiie. \