ENGLISH NOTES.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 818, 30 May 1871, Page 2

ENGLISH NOTES.

The Prince ot Wales is steadily growing balder. Preparations are being made at Aldershot for an experimental campaign on a large scale this summer. Mr Archibald Forbes, the war correspondent of the " Daily News," is to have the honour of the " Iron Cross," conferred on him. The Volunteers learn that the Snider will be an expensive tool to them. Formerly the ten rounds cost them sixpence, now the ten rounds will cost tenpence. Major- General Sir F. Chapman, the inspector-general of fortifications, has been instructed to submit without delay plans for a complete defence of the approaches to London. The " South London Press" says that, should Mr C. H. Spurgeon be spared, he will in August next preach his thousandth sermon. He will then make a special effort to raise £IOOO for new schools. Mr Home, the spirtualist, who acted as special correspondent to a San Francisco paper during the war, has gone to St. Petersburg. Mr Home has many friends at the Eussian Court, and was befriended by the late Emperor Nicholas. At a recent meeting of the London School Board, the motion of Mr W. H. Smith, M.P., providing that the Bible should be read in schools, and instruction in religious subjects be given therefrom was further discussed. Eventually the motion, having been incorporated with an amendment proposed by the Eev. Dr. Angus, which defined the religious instruction to be given, was carried by 38 as against 3 votes. The Eoman Catholic members of the Board took no part in the division. Architects, builders, and contractors, in Australia and elsewhere, where skilled labour is comparatively scarce and masons are few, will be glad to learn that they can import from England doorways and window heads ready for immediate erection, manufactured in cast iron, a material which in the United States has for some years past been very extensively employed for architectural constructive purposes. The iron is made to resemble stone by dredging it over, while still wet with the last coat of paint, with dry pulverised stone.