General News.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4610, 13 October 1883, Page 3

General News.

It is proposed to open the tomb of Shakespeare in order to ascertain whether the MSS. of his plays were buried with him, acd also to measure the bones, in order lo settle the point whether the bard was tall or short. At a time when Chsisdom, to use the words of Mr W. S. Lilly,' 'is throwing off almost everywhere its public allegiance to the faith that mainly had made it what it is," we are confronted with the startling fact that there has been rekindled in Islam, that is to say among 155,000,000 Mahommedans, "an enthusiastic eageraess, a definant zeal of religious profession, which has singularly immpressed every careful observer of Eastern life."

Last year the actual expenditure on the British navy was £10,756,453. Men are born with two eyes, but with one tongue, in order that they should see twice as much as they say. The greatest female landowner in England Is Baroness Willoughby d'Eresby, who has an income of £50,000 from land.

It is understood that a rnle of art is reversed in the burlesque actress. She nrast learn to paint before she.can draw. r A reporter who has been investigating the Bey. C. Strong's misson work, speaks of a woman who said she didn't know what she would have done but for Mr and Mrs Strong. Her husband was ill of consumption, and they took him away to the Convalescent Home where he was rapidly improving. I'm sure Mr Strong has a good Christian heart," said she, " because it doesn't matter what religion you are— if yon only want help that is enough for him. I, belong to the Wesleyan Church, but when I asked the. Wesleyan people to , assist me, they didn't know me." "At first," put in another, " we thought he was a funny sort of a minister to treat all kinds of folks so familiar like." This is the man whom the Melbourne Presbytery are try ing to persecute. ' The following piece of sarcasm appears in the Australasian, in referring to the Melbourne Town Clerk:—Lord Macaulay and Mr E. G. Fitzgibbon represent, in their literary compositions, two different styles. One of the points of difference is the length of their sentences. Macaulay's are short j ""Fitz's" are long. In his last letter to The Arguß the Town Clerk's sentences averaged over an inch in length. Of the two writers Macaulay is the clearer, and, perhaps, on the whole, the greater. ,