GENERAL NEWS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 110, 17 March 1870, Page 6

GENERAL NEWS.

An economical old gentleman of seventy-five was recently buried, in Connecticut, in the same suit of clothes which he had worn at the weddings of his four wives. One hundred Georgians, principally from the northern pai*t of the State, have been converted to Mormonism and removed to Utah since last spring. Four elders have been labouring in the State. The " Quebec Mercury " publishes a list of thirty vessels built at that port during 1869. The aggregate tonnage was 24,125 tons. Seventeen other vessels of 14,825 tonnage in the aggregate, are now on the stocks. It appears from the " Almanach de Gotha" for 1870, which has just appeared, that the Pope is the oldest of European sovereigns, being 77 years old ; Duke Leopold of Anhalt is second, at 75 ; and King William of Prussia third, at 72. It may be in the recollection of our readers that an inquest was held at Fraughlougb, near Castleberg, in November, 1864, on the body of John White, who died from the effects of a beating given him, on the 18th of that month, at the above place. A verdict of wilful murder was returned against two men, named Maguire of Gortnagrace, in the county of Donegal. Both fled to America. It appears that they could not find rest abroad, and at all events one of them found his way back to his native country about a year since, living, as he thought, unobserved, at the Alt near Glenties, But " murder will out." That terror to evil doers — irrespective of class or creed — Constable Dee, of Castlederg, finding that the birds had flown, used his descriptive powers to such good purpose in that very unenviable, but useful registry and directory, "The Hue and Cry," that one Constable Murray- of the Grlenties Station, in his random readings of that work of reference, thought he knew some one at the Alt very like the person that was looked for by Constable Dee, and, the latter having received this information, at once proceeded to the G-lenties, and there, sure enough, he found his man under the name of John M'Loughlin ; and he is now lodged in Omaha Jail, awaiting his trial at the next assizes for this county. By the last mail we learn that a man, apparently forty or forty-five years of age, standing on Blackfriars Bridge, suddenly turned round to the bystanders, and saying, "Good bye, old friends," jumped over the balustrades into the river and was drowned. Mrs. Sykes, who was shot in the late colliers' riots at Sheffield is in a most critical condition. The slugs are still in her body, and they occasion such accute pains that her death is expected daily. A hundred and eighteen sparrows have been offered upon the altars of science. As was the case with the Pagan sacrifices, their entrrils have

been carefully inspected, in order to furnish guidance to the enquirers. But it has not been in search of the cabal[astic information to be derived from I quaint contortion, or the credited, I though impossible, absence of the heart, or some other vital organ, that the sacrificial knife has been bared. The contents of the stomachs of the victims have been examined, tabulated, recorded. Three culprits alone, out of thic? hecatomb of the favourites of Cytherea were proved, by the unsparing search, guilty of having lived for the past twenty-four hours upon grain. In fact, there were three thieves but of the 118; all the other victims had worked, more or less, for their living. Beetles and grubs, and flies and larva; of all obnoxious kinds had been their diet. In 75 of the birds infants of all ages, from the callow fledgling to the little Pecksy and Flapsy that could just twitter along the ground, hardly any but insect spoglie were detected. What would the starved and industrious pioneers who have reared their wonderful temple and city by the Great Salt Lake have given for the aid of an army of English sparrows against that greater and more formidable host of grasshoppers which thrice all but annihilated the settlement 1—"1 — " Builder." There has been an exhibition of type setting by females at the Memorial Hall, in Albert Square, Manchester, the principal object of which was to show the system of teaching girls the art of composition. A goodly number of printers attended, and a lively discussion ensued as to the effect of the employment of female labour in that line upon the prices charged for printing. No definite resolution, however, was arrived at. A man, apprehended at Tarporley, Cheshire, the other day, for begging, was found to have a bank-book, from which it appeared that he was in the habit of depositing his surplus gains in the post-office savings' banks of the towns through which he passed. In the last generation, and indeed even later than that, younger sons of good families who had " outrun the constable," and dreaded Whitecrossstreet or the Fleet, used to find protection from importunate creditors by obtaining a seat in Parliament. The new Bankruptcy Act, which comes in force in England at the beginning of the present session, has a special clause with reference to M.P.s. It explicitly declares that the privilege of Parliament does not exempt from bankruptcy, and that if a bankrupt is a member of the House of Commons he cannot sit or vote for twelve months after the order of adjudication, unless within that time either the order is annulled, or his creditors are fully paid. If the order of adjudication is not annulled within the year, the seat of the member will be declared void and a new election ordered. The following extraordinary outrage is reported. One morning lately, at half-past three o'clock, the village of Ewell, near Epsom, was thrown into a state of considerable commotion by a loud report, which was at first supposed to proceeed from the powder-mills near the village. The facts of the case, as far as could be ascertained, are as follows : — The wife of a man named Spooner, residing inWest Street, was preparing her husband's breakfast, and in the course of so doing went into the yard for sonic coals, when she saw a man leave the coal-cellar. She screamed and ran back into the house, the man following her. Her husband closed with him, and in the course of the scuffle which ensued, the stranger threw a beg containing something, which proved to be gunpowder, upon the fire. This act was followed by a loud explosion, which shook down the greater part of the house. A railway porter, who was sleeping in the adjoining dwelling, had four ribs broken, and was otherwise seriously injured by the party wall failing upon him. The stranger, who, it appears, escaped injury, stabbed himself immediately after the explosion, and expired from the effects of the wound, after confessing that he had stolen. the gunpowder from the mills for the accomplishment of his purpose. Jealousy is supposed to be the cause of the outrage. The railway porter lies in a precarious state ; and the man Spooner is not expected to survive the injuries he received. His wife escaped by running into the street at the commencement of the struggle between the two men. Several more prosecutions against tradesmen for an infringement of the Sunday Trading Act of Charles 11. were heard lately at the Marylebone Police Court. Mr. d'Eyncourt expressed the difficulty which he experienced in dealing with such cases, taken under a statute nearly 200 years old, and adjourned the hearing for seven weeks, in order to consult his brother Magistrates. The " Ouest " of Angers states that a lamentable scandal has just occurred at Loire. The second priest of that parish has eloped with one of the religious sisters who teach in the girls' school. The fugitives are supposed to have proceeded to Paris. A gentleman of property, residing not very far from Athlone, has been obliged, in order to save himself from the assassin's bullet, to remove every bush and scrub from the front of his mansion, in order that a concealed murderer may not be able to shoot him in his domestic circle.