General News.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4804, 2 June 1884, Page 3

General News.

That " Chinese" Gordon is a man of deep religious convictions the following incident (says Vanity Fuir) illustrates in a Tery remarkable way : —Whsn the army authorities had tardily decided that, in the eTent of his accepting the Belgian mission to Congo, General Gordon need not resign his commission in Her Majesty's service after all, he was summoned to the War Office. As Lord Harrington could not wait to receive him, the Adjutant-General did so, and communicated the decision of the Government. Then, seizing upon an opportunity that probably seemed favorable^/or picking up a useful hint or two, Lord Wolseley began to speak of affairs in Egypt:—" We have got into an awful mess about the Soudan," said be. "It will all tome .right in the end," answered Gordon confidently. '" I wish I could see in what way,' 1 said his lordship ; "matters appear to be going from bad to worse." Gordon replied: " Yni needn't worry yourself about that; I know it will come all right in the end." "flow so," asked the other. "If you want to know," said Gordon,."read that"—and he banded his lordship a book. The Adjutant-General .took it, possibly expecting to find that it contained an elaborate scheme for the /•s'fence, reform, and government of the Egyptian territory. Nothing of the sort; it was the De Imiiatione Christioi Thomas $ Kempis. The revised verisonof the Old Testament will be issued complete, it is said, in September, An almost incredible crime was attempted near M'Oormick, on the Augusta and Knoxville Eailroad. As one of the down trains was running along at full speed the engineer discovered a child on the track. He barely succeeded in stopping the train when only a few yards from the boy, who was found to be securely tied hand and foot to the iron rail. The railroad men unbound the little fellow and took him on to Augusta. There are strong suspicions as to the parties who sought to cause the child's death.

By the articles of the marriage treaty on behalf of the late Prince Leopold between the Queen and the Prince of WaldeckPyrmont, the young widow will receive the following annual sums as income:— £1500 from Prince Leopold's estate, £5000 from interest o,f her own dowry of £100,000, '-.and £60C9 from the British Parliament. , New South" vWales is said to have lost ten million sheep out of thirty millions by the recent drought. . The British training-ship Warspite has rescued 50,400 children from poverty and degradation and trained them for the sea.