NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 807, 29 April 1871, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

The troops taken prisoners at Paris were about 180,000 ; the fortress guns captured, 1500; field-pieces and mitrailleuses-, 400. The gunboats on the Seine and the locomotives and rollingstock were likewise appropriated by the victors. The rumour about the cession of Pondicherry has excited English society as nothing in this war has excited it. The demand is felt as a direct blow to England We have discussed the matter at length elsewhere, but we may here remind our readers of two points. It is extremelydoubtful whether the Treaty of 1815 would not be legally binding on the Germans—whether that is, they could venture to send troops to Pondicherry, except as a declaration of war ; and, secondly, whether it gave the right of cession to anybody jit all. We of our free grace, to keep up a historic tradition, restored Pondicherry to the French ; but we did not restore it to the Germane, or to anybody except our old historic Indian foes. Perhaps the best step, with M. Gambetta's consent, would be to occupy Pondicherry—an affair of three days—as a measure of Indian precaution, and let the Germans get it if they could. We should risk war, but it would be on a ground which Germany, unless she wanted war, would avoid.—" Spectator." Mercantile messages between Great Britain and India, over the lines of the Indo-European Company and the Indian Government cables, were recently without any transmission, between London and Bushire, at the head of the Persian Gulf, a distance of about 4,400 miles, and again between Bushire and India, a distance of about 1,100 miles. The messages were thus forwarded between the countries with only one transmission, a feat hitherto unexampled in the history of the electric telegraph. Jmorts are being made to establish during the summer months, direct working, without any transmissions, the whole distance from London to ■tuirrachee. A veteran named Edward Crouch, who was 110 years of age, lately died

at Torpoint, Devonshire. The deceased was one of the crew of the Victory at Trafalgar, and was also present with Lord Howe at the action of the " glorious first of June," in 1794. During his latter years he enjoyed a pension from Government, and his memory continued good until his death.