MULLTUM IN PARVO.

The finest specimen of lace in the world is •said to be one that Was exhibited in England last year. It is a magnificent rose Venetian point flounce, six yards in length, and nearly of a yard wido. It is valued at anore than one thousand guineas, and shows what ftrt can do with a little thread. =-A young Parisian who lately came suddenly *Se his end by the knife of a comrade, was fouud %>b be curiously tattooed. Beneath his breast a serpent raised head in the direction of the heart, and all around were inscribed ; " I have been deceived in the past ; the present torments me j the future frightens me." The deathwound was at the words, " I have been deceived in the past." — The funeral of a celebrated Irish piper, Patrick Bohan, took place on April 9, in Glasneyin cemetery. When the Queen and the Prince visited Ireland in 1861 Bohan played before them on board the yacht Victoria and Albert in Kingston Harbour, and during the Prince of Wales' visit he played at the Chief Secretary's Lodge in Phoenix Pak. —A paper chimney, fifty feet high, has lately men put up at Breslau. Compressed paper pulp is stated to be one of the least inflammable of substances, and to make an excellent material for fireproof doorg. # — The crops of beetroot for sugar on the Continent of Europe have increased from 1,749,545 in 1880-81 to 2,135,000 tons in 1883 4. The increase has been most remarkable in Germany, where, it is prophesied, every farmer will turn his cornfields into beet. The competition of cane-producing countries is not feared. — Simon Shorter, Birmingham artisan, has presented Mr Gladstone with an axe made by himself. The axe is of solid steel, with an old English oak handle, with Mr Gladstone's armorial bearing on one side, and a Staffordshire knot and couplet on the other.

—Baron and Baroness Alphonse de Rothschild were lately summoned from Paris to London on account of the illness of Baroness Lionel. The night express had just gone, so a special was ordered. Again on reaching Calais the boat had just gone ; again a special boat was ordered, and at Dover a special train. — Memoirs of Signor Mario are shortly to be published at Bologna. The story will be of no little interest to English readers. Mario is •reported to have said that "his most pleasurabla successes and fast friendships were made in England with the English people." —The Bulgarian National schools in Macedonia have adopted many of the Protestant Sunday-school hymns. — Last year 92,124,443 persons travelled over the New York elevated railroad.

— The recent Luther celebration, ifc is said, produced about 7000 Luther publJcations, from 300,000 to 500,000 copies of some of them being issued.

— The Roman Catholic clergy no longer oppose cremation, which is becoming very common in Italy.

— No American steamer has over gone through the Suez Canal with a cargo. —In the attack on Bacninh, the French forces made use of captive balloons for observations, heliographs for signalling, pontoon trains, and other scientific resources. — The property pawned last year at the fortytwo French Mont de Piety's was valued at nearly £2,000,000 of which that pawned at Paris amounted to over £1,200,000.

— The Panama Canal will not be straight or of uniform width ; the general width will be about 50 yards, with expansions along the line to permit vessels to pass one another with ease. The cut at the deepest point will be nearly 150 to ICO yards deep and 300 yards wide.

— It is now clear enough (says the' San Francisco Bulletin) that the manufacture of oleomargarine in New York is not confined to the tallow of neat cattle, but that the most unwholesome animal fats have been worked into these compounds.

—In the naval dockyards of Russia there is now far more activity than for some time past. Six new war vessels were to be launched before the end of the present summer. Tho strategic railway line between Bialystokaridßaronovice, and that from Homel to Lunienviec, which were both surveyed last autumn, are to be constructed with all possible dispatch. — Emperor William on his birthday received two splendid vases from some person whose name is not given. The Emperor was delighted with the gift, which is believed to be from President Gre"vy of France. Bismarck said he hoped the day would soon come when he could have a chance to make France as happy as some one had made the Emperor. —A shark recently captured at Tabogar, Panama (according to the Toronto Globe), was " 33ft long, and had a mouth large enough to take in a horse. A photograph of the carcass was taken with a man standing upright between the jaws. . , > — The site of tbe Black-hole of Calcutta has been discovered and excavated, and the excavation has been filled up and decently paved over, A handsome tablet of white marble, bearing a suitable inscription, ia about to be placed near the spot. — The Russian police have suppressed a school-book written by a French teacher, because it infringed on the Czar's prerogatives by speaking of " the Majesty of Nature."

—The aristocratic Rue Royale Club, Paris, at a general meeting, the Prince dp Sngan in the chair, declared itself dissolved. No allusion was made to the well-known cause, namoly, that one or more members had been guilty of cheating at play with marked cards. The club will be re-formed under another name.

—Queen Victoria dines at 5.45 in '" ing, the Emperor of Brazil a1 : , h " ?f c « Yen ' and the Emperor of Ger, ,^'i"t adetho °^ tween. -^ an^ *»»« w »y b»-

ing to tho ar^ I?kdian journal ha 9, accordfor ™ * dtolMw Athen^um, been started -«Q Express purpeea of advocating the romarriage of laAi&'a widows and the reduction of wedding expenses, which Indian custom render costly. In a recent numb'sr of the now OVgau we are told seven liindoo widows announce their readiness to re-enter the marriage state. In one case the widow is only twelve years of age. ' — Dr Horman Kerr says that the ,-innual mortality from intemperance in Great Britain is 40,500,

~ T .he first gourney's were made this year at JiriPhtote dri an electric railway about a mile \SI\ S l cb Jlas beeu constructed at tho edge of tne beach, starting opposite the entrance of the Brighton Aquarium, and running eastwards. v ii j re 1? a sin P le ornamental car, which will hold about & dozen persons, and the speed w limited to six or eight miles an. hour, though a much higher rate can be attained. The car runs almost noiselessly, and b worked by a stationary engine^ which sends a current along the metals —Mr James Webb, pearl-button manulacturer, of Birmingham, in examining a number of recently acquired Australian shells, discovered, deeply embedded in one of them, a beautiful pearl, weighing 31 grains, and which was pronounced by an eminent jeweller to be worth .at least £100. Although in its rough stfcfcQ, the gem is of great lustre, and far more brilliant than pearls are, as a rule, after they have been polished. —The "tour expenses" of the highest Indian officials (the Times of India says) are a ratherheavy item. In the first year of Lord Ripon s viceroyalty his peregrinations and those of his* councillors cost the country no less than £90,856, while the travelling expenses of all the local governments during the same period were £20,888^ The latter sum is not excessive, but the Government of India weremore extravagant than Usual. The amount in 1880 81 was nearly double what it was in 1873-74 and moro than troble the charge for 1874-75. —The headdress., of the Highlanders is not the most expensive of those worn by English troops. It costs £2 9s 3d, and its accompaniment 4s 3d, aad lasts eight years, at an annual cost of 8s 3|d. The bearskin of the Foot Guardscosts£4os 9d, lasts six years, atan annual cost of 14s lOd; and the bearskin of the Second Dragoons with the hacklo feather, costs £3 14s 3d, lasts six years, at an annual co*fc of 123 9d. The brass helmet costs from 17s 9i to £1 10s 2d, and lasts six or eight years, atau annual cost of less than 4s. The cheapest headdress is the cloth helmet of tho Engineers and Artillery, which costs 6s, and lasts four years, at an annual cost of Is Od.

— An advartisment appears in the Dublin papers offering a reward of £2000 for the recovery and lodgment, either with Cardinal M'Cabe or in the Dublin Probate Court, of the last will and testament of the late Mr James Egan. The testator, who had carried on the business of a woollen manufacturer and merchant, in High street, Dublin, and died in 1866, bequeathad the bulk of his -enormous property, amounting to close on £1,000,000 sterling, to the late Cardinal Cullen for charitable purposes. This testamentary disposal of the property formed grounds for lengthened litigation by several of Mr' Egan's relatives, who claimed shares of the testator's money, - On a summer night of 1882, a woman in Hogsby parish, in Sweden, saw a shining object fall from the sky, disappearing behind a stable.^ Search was made for the meteorite, according to the statements of the woman, but without success. Last autumn (according to Nature)it was, however, accidentally discovered near the spot indicated, and has now been forwarded to proper quarters in the town of Oskarshamn. The surface of the meteorite appears as if it had been welded from various substances. It is about the size of a billycock hat, very thick, and weighs a little over 141b. —Paul Frederick, eldest brother of 7 the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, having been converted to the Catholic faith, has renounced his hereditary rights in favour of his younger brothers and their offspring. Tf the brothers' families become extinct, fcbo throne is to revert to the family of Paul Frederick, providing the successor becomes a Protestant.

— Lord Lome is making an attempt to introduce the whitefish of tbe Canadian lakes into . several rivers and lochs in the west of Scotland, Half a million eggs of these fish reached Inverary from Canada recently. —Mr Labouchere, in view, of the recent dynamite outrages in England, says : "It may become necessary for this country (England) to exact a passport from every Irish-American who comes here (to England) from the land of which the son of an Irishman is President." —The Indian papers state that King Theebaw, whoso acts of despotic cruelty were at one time so notorious, continues to exhibit himself m the character of a "reformed monarch. ' In addition to the recent improvements introduced by him into the administration and laws, he has just issued a proclamation announcing important reforms in the financial system of his kingdom. -A. Clinton, Mass., clergyman announced that ho would preach Sunday week from tbe longest votse in the Bible, and would not announce his text, but would give a silver dollar to every member of the Sunday school who would find out what verae it was. On Sunday he rocsived thirty-eight; correct answers, and distributed thirty-eight silver dollars to the fortunate children. —Mr Gooderhain, of Toronto, has given 1.000.000d0l for a Methodist University— the largest donation yet known in Canada for the cause of education.