General News.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4759, 8 April 1884, Page 2

General News.

This is a specimen of the vituperation to which Mr Gladstone's policy subjects him from such critics as Lord [Randolph Churchill:—" The parties led by Mr Parnell and Mr Gladstone have too much in common to be alienated from each other for long. General destruction and all* round plunder are alike their pleasure, their duty, and their pride. In Egypt, under Arabi, a great patriotic movement was going on, when Mr Gladstone intervened and shattered it; from that dis» astrous day till now he has wandered amid the devastation purposeless and bewildered—has made no effort to reconstruct Egyptian society, made no effort to relieve from their burdens the Egyptian people, but haunted and distracted by the guiltiness of his invention, has added misery to misery, and woe to woe, till he has transformed the fair land of Egypt into a perfect hell upon earth."

In a billiard tournament at Birmingham, J. Roberts recently performed a feat which is said to be unique in the records of billiard-playing. His opponent, Shorter, started with a miss in baulk, Eoberts then giving the usual miss below the middle pocket, under the right-hand cushion. Shorter essaying a hazard from this, failed to score, and never had another opportunity of doing so in the game, as the champion ran right out with an ex« traordinary break of 602, unfinished, made in exactly 27| minutes. Starting with a cannon, he made 13 by all-round play, and got into position for the spot stroke, and there he stayed till he had compiled this remarkable break, pocketing the red no less than 196 times. When he had make 426 his ball ran a little above the spot, then he played all round the table for position, which he obtained with won* derful accuracy.

A settler in the '• far north of South Australia tells this sad: story of his experiences in that part of the colony :— " I hare been here fire months, and of 50 head of cattle I have lost all but two. Five months' idle time; my sayings of eight years all gone, and my family, whom I left as comfortable as any family in the colony, almost unprovided for. Stock is dying in thousands, and everything is going to the bad. There is no feed, little water, and rations are running short."

Paris has a remarkable class in its colony of ragpickers, forming a total of over 30,000 personß, a large proportion of whom have families to support, and manage to bring up a numerous progeny on. the meagre profits of the hook and the shoulder basket. Latterly the regular army has been increased by some 20,000 laboring men out of employ, who harp joined the regular ragpickers to keep themselves from starvation. The ragpickers occupy a region of lanes and alleys on the eastern outskirts of the town. They form among themselves a corporation, with its syndic and its officers. Though poor their quarter is decent, and far less miserable than some of the other poor quarters of the town. They have a rough-and-ready tribunal of their own, exercise a sort of local police, and main* tain order and decency in their quarter. The annual imports of the Soudan, where all the trouble is now existent, are estimated to amount to £2,000,000, while the exports exceed £11,000,000. There are 15,000 Christians and 40,000 Egypt* tians in the province. There are no jess than 1,000 commercial houses owned by Europeans and 3,030 by Egyptians; and a stock of merchandise to the value of £500,000 has accumulated at Cairo'and Souakim.

This is how a Riverina paper gives vent to the delight with which a shower of rain is welcomed in the arid districts of New South Wales. "How it rains! How gloriously it rains ! After months of heat, without one drop of the dropping .tears from Heaven ! who can say the earth is not blessed —yea, more than thrice blessed by the gentle eutpouring ijpf Nature's clouds? We are so blessed, and there is not one who does not exult with a loud exulta> tion. To-day the heavens have opened— the clouds have broken—rain has fallen* and man is again reinvigorated.

Java seems to be deservedly attracting increasing attention from travellers, one of whom, at present writing of his travels, warmly.extols it as a long narrow strip of the most fertile land in the world, with, many active volcanoes, and mountains over 12,000 feet high—an island still rich in oriental and mediaeval customs, studded richly with ruins of surprising diversity and architectural richness. He thinks that as the splendour of its flora has fewrivals, and that its rivers and seas are. stocked with.fish, its fields with birds of a plumage that only Australia can surpass, while in its forests roam the tiger, leopard, panther, rhinoceros, herds o( \ doer arid other game, the trees being alive with chattering crowds of many beautiful monkeys, one can see that the land is eminently a place for travellers, be they naturalists, antiquaries, or. sportsmen. But he urges that it is worthy of far more than the cursory glance of tv& average tourist.