SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

Ashburton Herald, Volume II, Issue 521, 9 December 1879, Page 2

SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

(Per Sydney Mail Steamer at Auckland. ) London, Oct. 8. Political canvassing is going on in view of a general election. Professor Fawcett, speaking on the Irish question, said it was better for the Liberal party to he excluded from office until its youngest members were grey with age than that it should obtain power by any compromise with the Home Rulers that would lead to a dismemberment of the Empire. Sir M. Hicks-Beach, speaking at Birmingham, defended the annexation of the Transvaal, and showed that the Liberals offered no opposition at the time the measures were taken.

Lord Lyttelton, at the Liberal banquet, said that if the Liberals were returned to power the Afghan policy would be reversed, Cyprus would be given up, and the national finance placed in a sound condition.

The Tranmere baby farming case has been concluded, the Bayne’s having been convicted of manslaughter and sent into penal servitude tor life. Russian papers state that if war occurs between China and Japan, Russian sympathy will be with China. Information received at New York advises that the commander of the United States war steamer Hackawanga, from the Samoan Islands, states that if Sir Arthur Gordon annexed Samoa, or established an English protectorate, it was intended to protest against the annexation of Pagopago Harbor, and its use as a coaling station, and he would take his vessel there to protect the station if necessary. Adolphus Rosenbury, the publisher of “Town Talk,” has been sentenced to eighteen months’ imprisonment for libels on Mr. and Mrs. Langtry, and has entered into recognisances of LIOO to keep the peace for eighteen months after the expiration of the sentence. For a libel on Lord Londesborough he was also sentenced to six months, and to six months for a libel on Mrs. Cornwallis West. The Judge regretted being unable to add hard labor to the sentence, and said the prisoner’s should not have been treated as a first class misdemeanor, but as a felony. The printer of the paper was ordered to enter into recognisances of LIOO to appear for judgment when called upon. Indian advices to Nov. 7, state that rewards have been offered for the capture of men concerned in the attack on the Presidency at Cabul. The rewards are graduated thus : —SO rupees for sepoys, 75 rupees for a captain, 100 rupees for a field officer. '

A committee has been appointed in India to arrange for the despatch and collection of Indian contributions to the Melbourne Exhibition.