NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 92, 30 January 1875, Page 7

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A Bill is before the Vermont Legislature making drunkenness a sufficient cause tor divorce. Deputations are expected in Ireland from America, India, Canada, and other parts of the globe to take part in the O'Connell Centenary. Jefferson Davis has been asked to serve as one of the board of directors of the proposed steamship line between Liverpool and New Orleans. Le Soi says that the Italian Government has notified Theirs that his stay in Italy is likely to disturb the harmony of its relations with France, owing to his violent attacks on the Government of Marshal McMahon. Mr Wilson, the donor of .£30,000 to the Melbourne University, is a native of the county Antrim, Ireland. London is to have a joint stock company for the importation of live Texas cattle. The capital is to be .£200,000, and the animals are to be transported in between decks of a number of ocean steamers. In the Biblioteca at Rio Janeiro, a discovery has been made of thirty-seven wood-cuts by Albert Durer, in fine condition, the subject being the " Passion of our Lord," and dated 1524. No complete set, it is said, can be found elsewhere. There are 700,000 gypsies in Europe, 18,000 in England. Their religion seems to extend no further than a belief in their annihilation at death, although an occasional convert to the Christian faith is made here and there among them. A large piano manufactory in New Haven has been fitted with a novel system of fire apparatus. In every twelve feet square throughout- the building is a projecting water spout with the end Boldered up. In case of fire it is expected that the solder will be melted, and thus a flood of water is let on. The Paris papers announce the arrival in that city of " General Dot," the rival of Tom Thumb. The gallant dwarf is of German origin, and his unprofessional name is said to be Leopold Khan. He wa» born in San Francisco, of parents of giant proportions. Tho new " general" weighs lSlbs. Not long since, at the meeting of a club in New York, a jelly was exhibited on the table and alongside of it an old •well-worn leather boot. The spectacle of the boot was a mystery until it was explained by one of the members that from the fellow of the boot the jelly had been made by some chemical process. Jelly for the table made out of old boots ! His Holiness the Pope, wishing to express his high opinion of the merits of Mgr. Fournier, Nantes, has created him Count of the Holy Roman Empire, and assistant at the Pontifical Throne,