ENGLISH ITEMS

Waikato Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1451, 20 October 1881, Page 3

ENGLISH ITEMS

President Gai field died at Elberon, Long Branch, New Jer-ey, at 10.3.) p.m., on the 10th September. He had been taken there on the 6th inst. moie as a forlorn hope than from auy belief in the possibility of bis recovery. Pya'raia had oven thon sot its seal upon him, and glandular abscesses, aggravated with lung troubles, and finally (supposed emdolism of the heart, earned of the heroin sufferer in the seventy-ninth day off hib maityrdom. Everywhere the emblems of mourning are visible, and citizens of every cieed, class, condition and party regaid his untimely taking off as a personal bereavment. To none but the Chief Magistrate of the Gieat Republic could these affectionate sentiments be dibplayed. Rising by his own superb manhood from grinding poverty to the chieftainship of the nation, he icpresented Americanism pure and simple. The official autopsy found that the ball, after fracturing the right eleventh rib, had passed through the spinal column, in front of the spinal canal, fracturing the base of the first lumbar vertebras driving a number of small fragments of bone into the adjacent soft parts, and lodging just below the panel ea», about two inches and a half to the left of the spine and behind the peritoneum, where it had become completly encysted. Tho immediate cause of the death was secondary hemmorhage from one of the meseratic arteries adjoining the hack of the ball, the blood rupturing the peritoneum, and nearly half a pint escaping into the abdominal cavity. An abscess cavity, pix inches by four, was found in the vicinity of the gall bladder, between the liver and tiansvcise colon, whkh weic strongly interadheient. A loug suppurating channel— due to the bun owing of the pus — extended from the external wound, being in the loin muscle^ and light kidney, almost to the light groin. Evidences of severe bionchitis were found, <md bronoho-pDeumoni i of the right lung (the lower poitions), and though much le^s in extent of the left luug, it contained no abscesses, and the heart no clots. The only other oig.m affected was the left kidnej , which contained a small abscepp, near its sui face, about one-third of an inch in diameter. Queen Victoiia telegraphed to Mis Garfield, " Words cannot express the deep sympathy I feel with you. Mxy God suppoit.tud comfort you as he alone can !" A Coufeience called at Westminster by the National Land League, and intended as a dcrnonstiation in favor of " fair hade" principles, was very thinly attended. Tho ht Leprer Stakes at the Doncastei Meetinsr, September 14th was Avon by Iroquoifi, Geologist second, Luoy Glitter third. Bet t ing just, before the sstait was 100 to 30 > 'gainst Iroquoi^, 4 to I against Ishmacl, and 13 to 1 against St\ Louis. Loid Kcmnare is spoken of as Lord Lieutenant ot lielnnd, lo succeed Loid Cowper. His family nimc is Biowne, and his i evidence Killarney House, County Keny. He i s a Roman Catholic. The Doteiol court-maiti il acquits the officers of any blame in the matter of the explohion of that vessel in the Straits of Magellan, and fiud-> the cause to be in the accumulation of gas in the coal bunkei-*, which had not been opened fiom tho time | of leaving England. A conflict has taken place in Dublin between the police and the public, caused by some soldiers making some insulting remarks about the Pope. Fifteen persons Aveic wounded. Bishop Nulty, of Meatli, advises that the Land Bill have a fair t'ial. Bonfires were lighted over a large poitiou of the North of Ireland on the 4th as a mark of gratitude to Mr Gladstone in passing the Act. A fire at the L'Oiient docks, Havre, caused damage of 25,000 fianc«. The city of Lima has petitioned the Brazilian Congress to tieat for an armistice, with a view to the withdrawal of the Chilian army. The new Russian paper Fiee Woild, published in German, has made its oppearance. It advocates constitutional government, and is equally opposed to revolution and reaction. China has agreed to allow telegraphs across that empiie, and Ru&sia has already entrusted the «voik to the Danish company which laid down her own wires, and which is virtully, though not ostensibly, a Russian enterprise. A Mexican boy was scourged to death in Huachuca, AT., on complaiut of a white girl to her father that ho had inBulted her. Afterwards the girl confessed she had only told the story " for fun," and now the white men justly fear Mexican retaliation. The successful shipment of frozen meats from Australia has clearJy established tho ease with which carcases may be brought from the Antipodes, the only difficulty being in packing and freezing at the outset. These shipments are being closely watched by the merchants in the American trade. At a meeting at Kiltullah County Galway, Laikin, of the N.Y. Irish World, made a violent speech, in wLicli he declared that Irishmen should not pay rent except at the point of the bayonet or the mouth of the cannon. He declared the Land Act a fraud. At theDoncaster September Meeting, 13th Scomber, the Champaign Stakes, for two- year -olds, was won by Kerrnesse, Dutch Oven second, and Nellie third. The Great Yorkshire Handicap was won by Pctronel, Teviotdale second, Syracuse third. The Trades Union Congress in London, on September 14, condemned any return to protection. It is officially announced that the French Government consents to prolong the commercial treaty three months from the Bth September. A general order has been issued by the Commander-in-Chief expressing the the Queen's high approval of the bearing and discipline of the volunteers at the Edinburgh Review. Lord Derby, speaking at a meeting held at Southport on the Bth, and referring to the condition of oropa in England, in oon«

nection with the opinion that English Agriculture ia to be destroyed by American competition, and the trade by protective duties, is reported to have said that the material prosperity of Great Britain had received a check. He considered it only a temporary fluctuation, as individuals or nations aie subject to. A later despatch from Manchester says the closing of mills in Lancashire which uso American cotton is now vory general. Colonel W. Crossman has been selected 1 by the War Office to proceed on a tour of special service for the purpose of inspecting and reporting upon the arrangements wluoh have been made in our principal colonies for their protection by means of submarine defence. Colonel Crossman proceeds in the first instance to , Hongkong. The executive committee submit resolutions to the National Land League Convention at Dublin on September 14th declaring that the cause of the political and society ills which are impoverishing the country is the detestable system of .lhcn rule, and that the people can never be prosperous and content until they enjoy the right of self-government, for m iiich they will never cease to struggle. The Coercion Act is denounced as having been devised in a spirit of malignant hypocusy, and executed tor the gratification of private vindictivencss, and for the suppression of admitted public rights upon men who bore a heavy share in the movement which led the Government to initiate the Land Bill. The Land Bill is chaiacterised as ladically insufficient, and cannot be accepted as a just, wise, or even temporary settlement of the question. The convention is invited to solemnly jjledgc itself to determined adherence to the principles of the Land League until its aims aie accomplished. It is decided to establish a Labour League, the executive committee to be affiliated with the work in conjunction with the Land League, but to be composed entirely of representative bunaftdc laboiuers. The objects aie the extension of the franchise to labourers, the return of labour representatives to Parliament, and the establishment of a peasant proprietary. Lefroy, the Brighton murderer, is writing his own obituary. The farmers are threshing, and the result is poor indeed. In the North of Scotland the root ciops will be an almost total failure, and in li eland the potatoes beriously damaged. It is lumoured that tho King of Wurtemburg has been converted to Catholicism. The Empeior William and the Czar met at Dantzic on tho afternoon of tho 9fch instant, The meeting was mont affectionate , tho potentates .appeared deeply movbd, and kissed each other several times. The greetings between the Czar and the Crown Piince, who, with Bismark accompanied his father, was very warm. The Czar also conver&ed with Bismark for a long time. Tho Russian secret police were in the streets on the arrival of the Emperors. Gambetta was loudly cheered foi saying, in a recent speech, that Sedan would have been wiped out if France had more steadfast hearts, and if virtue, patriotism, independence, and disdain for material enjoyments moie largely prevailed. In concluding his speech, he expressed the wish that treaties concerning free trade might speedily be concluded. The speech was loudly cheered.

Tin? Jewish Relief Fund in Victoria now exceeds 111300. An exhibition of hygiene, including in this teim tlie pieservation of health and sanitaiy appliances, and of means for saving life on land and at sea, will be opened at Berlin on June Ist, 1882. In connection with his hoieutifio explorations ot tho Bay of Naples, M. Dohin has iutioduced the telephone, and dwovcis that the divot and boatman nveihoad can converge intelligently and quickly with each other An Ameiiran paper says: — Mr Charles Stew.ut f'.irnell has two biotheis, one of whom is a cotton -planter in Georgia and a Land Leaguer, while the othei, who owns an est tte in Kilkenny, Ji eland, is a stiong CoiiMUViitive. In the .'•hooting at Wimbledon, England, for the International Tiophy, the •mind tot.il f-coios were as follows: — ■Scotland, 1774; England, 1711; Wales, ICSG ; lieland, 1612. There weie twenty competitor in o.ich team. T his is the fit st yt.ir that Wules has competed for the tiophy. liAvid piogiessis being made with the l.ulwav p.issinu; through the Alps. The Ailbprg- tunnel is advancing at tho rate of moie than 200 yaids per month, and the lines of approach will be undertaken ahoitly. At the St. Gothard tunnel preparations aie being made for propelling the tiains by electricity, the mountain toiients — the lleuss and the Tessin — offering souices of an almost unlimited supply of electro-motive foice. It is an old traditiou of the Greek Church that tho inebmtiun of Noa^i was clue to his being tempted by the devil with a pipe of tobacco. That fascinating individual, James Ist, in his " Couuterblast," describes smoking as "a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, hdimfule to the braine, dangerous to the lungs, and in the blacke stynkinge fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible stiggian smoke of the pitte that isbottomle">se." Dear old man ! Pope Urban Bth excommunicated everybody who took snuff in church, and at one time tho offence of smoking in Russia was punished by amputation of tl\e nose ; still the production now exceeds 2,000,000 tons, so that the stynkinge furae thereof is appreciated pretty largely for some inscrutable reason. Divokce~and Suicide. — The Europe, of Brussels, publishes some curious statistics of suicides attributed to unhappy marriages. According to this statement, in Sweden, out of every 1,000 suicides, those of 16 men and 24 women were said to have resulted from matrimonial misunderstandings of incompatibility of temper. In Norway, the figuros were 21 men and 18 women ; in Prussia, 48 men and 51 women ; in Saxony, 26 men and 29 women ; in Italy, 75 men and 76 women ; in France, 138 men and 164 women. It is remarked that the largest number of these suicides occur in France and Italy, where divorce does not exist. Scene at a I<Vneeai,. — At an inquest held by the coroner for East Middlesex upon the body of a girl of 18, name Annie Culling, who had poisoned herse her grandmother, Mrs Green, stated that deceased spent all she had to gratify an immoderate love of dress, and that the immediate cause of her committing suicide was that she was not allowed to wear some new clothes which she had purchased. Deceased, it appears, was much liked by her neighbours, who regarded her as a modest, unassuming, lady-like girl, and they took exception to Mrs Green's statement On the occasion of the funeral a large crowd congregated outside the houso and hissed and groaned at Mrs Green, whose mourning coach had to be guarded by two policemen. Some of the crowd followed to the Manor Park Cemetry, a distance of about six miles, and hooted Lira Green at the graveside, declaring that deceased was driven to commit suicide by her grandmother's cruelty. On returning, some difficulty was experienced in getting Mrs Green safely indoors, and a noisy demonstration took place outside the house, dead dogs and oats being flung at the building. An attempt to burn Mrs Green's effigy was stopped by the police,

Death of Sib Josiah Mason.— Sir Josiah Mason died at his residence at Erdington, near Birminghan, at 8 o'clock on Thursday evening, aged 86 years. He was born at Kidderminster, and began life as a shoemaker. He was afterwards a carpet weaver, and about tho year 1815 came to Birmingham, where he entered business as a jeweller, gilt toy maker, split and key ring manufacturer, and steel pan maker. The last trade he continued up to a few years since, when his business was taken over by a company that is known as Perry and Co. (Limited). For soveral years Sir Josiah was in partnership with the late George Richard Elkington, electro-plater and gilder, and the firm known as Elkington and Mason, subsequently engaged in the copper smelting business. Sir Josiah accumulated great wealth, and, being childless, and in search of a praiseworthy sbject, to the promotion of which his wealth might be devoted, he built an orphanage at Erdington, at a cost of £60,000, and endowed it with lands and buildings at a cost of £200,000. Sir Joseph was in his 76th year when this work was finished. He bubsequently built a acience college, which was opened last October. The cost of the college and furnishing was about £60,000, and the original endowment cost £110,000. The plan of the college, however, has been lecently enlarged, by the addition of an art department, and Sir Josiah then increased his benefaction to the college. He took an active inteie&t in the orphanage and college until his illness, which resulted in his death. He was cieated a X.0.8. in recognition of his munificent gifts.