NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 122, 27 August 1875, Page 11

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A lace dress and shawl, and other laces, formerly the property of the Empress Eugenic, and worth .£SOOO, were found recently at a Washington pawn shop, where they have been pawned for JBSO. It is stated that Sir Charles Gavan Duffy intends permanently settling in Ireland, and that he contemplates re-entering the House of Commons for an Irish constituency. Profiting by the sad experience of the Holyoake disaster, most of the churches in America are having the doors altered to swing outward. The executive of the Irish Home Eule Confederation of Great Britain have issued their last monthly report, future statements concerning the organization being to be transferred to the columns of the ' United Irishman,' the first number of -which will be issued on June 5. This journal will, it is announced, be the mouthpiece

of 100,000 Irish electors, and will keep a watchful eye upon the proceedings of their representatives in the Imperial Parliament. In Germany there are nearly 100,000 more women than men. Icg two inches thick will support a man ; at a thickness of three inches and a half it will support a man on horseback ; five inches of ice will support an eighty-pounder cannon ; eight inches, a battery of artillery, with carriages and horses attached ; and, ' finally, ice ten inches thick will support an army — an innumerable multitude. Harateau, the communist who urged the shooting of the Archbishop of Paris, has died at New Caledonia. Isaac Butt, in one of his speeches, compared Sir Hicks Beach, the Irish Chief Secretary, to Lambro — the mildest mannered man who ever scuttled ship or cut a throat. Mr S. Eoyce stated recently, before -the New York Liberal Club that the annual death-rate among the laboring classes is 55 in every 1000, while among the wealthy it is only 15 to the 1000. j As a substitute for the guillotine, an American inventor has laid before the French Government a self-acting machine, which takes the condemned out of this world in a twinkling, and the now apparatus only costs £4-00. A recent return states that the amount of suitor's stock and cash in the hands of the Court of Chancery is .£60,425,400; the mi- I claimed dividends in the Bank of England reach to over a million j j and about a million and a half lies to- the credit of the Intestate ' Estates fund. Gabriel Max, a German artist, is said to have produced a painting with a most extraordinary characteristic. It is a representation of the face of the Saviour. At a distance the eyes appear to be closed, but as one advances they seom to open gradually until they bend upon the spectator a mournful and pathetic gaze, j This remains until the visitor gets quite close to the painting, ■when they are again closed. J A dog show has been opened at the Crystal Palace, and 1178 ! animals of all kinds and breeds a,re exhibited. The Princess of j Wales has won a first prize for a fine St. Bernard. It is stated that the English Government will issue a Eoyal commission upon vivisection. Cardinal Manning has written a strong letter condemning" the practice. Three new field-marshals are to be appointed in England. Tho first-named is the Prince of Wales. The next is Sir John ! Fitzgerald, who entered the army in 1793, eighty-two years ago, and the third the Marquis of Tweeddale, who entered in 1804, and served under Wellington in Spain. The tardiness with which the 'honor has come to the veterans is made conspicuous by its bestowal upon the Prince, who never smelled powder when there was any danger in the operation. During the rille match, Colonel Bodiue, one of tho American j competitors, made fourteen bull's-eyes out of fifteen shots at a dis- ! tance of 900 yards. ! Dublin proposes to take the lead of all other literary centres in tho matter of establishing a School of Journalism. Professor Gori, of Rome, suggests to have capital punishment inflicted by wild beasts in the.Colosseum. The professor has not been inapt'y named. A man's rank in Siam is indicated by his attendant slave. This last bears upon a tray the badge which designates his master's position. Tea-kettles of golp and silver, plainer ornamental, a.re patents of the highest grades of nobility, aiid are presented by the king as commissions of office. • _ Before hereditary surnames came into use, men were distinguished from iheir fellows by some personal peculiarity or employment, or by residence. Ono John was called " the Smith," another John " the Carpenter,-" one was Gurfch of tho Vale, another Gnrfch. of the Wood. The practice obtains in many districts of England to this day.