English News.

Bruce Herald, Volume IX, Issue 892, 27 March 1877, Page 3

English News.

« According to the testimony of a missionary among the Chinese in California, there are in that State about 60,000 natives of China. A bullock which has just been slaughtered at Lingdale, Guisborough, was found to have in its stomach a pocketknife and the heel-plate of a boot. The declared value of paper imported for printing and writing this year was £582,774 ; last year in the same period of 11 months, £399,377. At Leeds Assizes, George Fox, bank manager, Bridlington, was sentenced to eight months' imprisonment, for fraudulently altering his books. Among the latest consumers of Kid'derminister fabrics are the Chinese, for whom small squares of carpets on which to say their prayera have been made in considerable quantities in that town. Ten gunboats have taken up a position to prevent any attempt, of the Russians to cross the Darube, and batteries are being rapidly constructed on the heights commanding the river. What a business Mr Bass does ! A trifling rise in the price of hops makes a difference in his profits of £400 a week j but a thunderstorm, often makes a difference to him of £10,000 in a single brewing. — * Mayfair.' The illness of Prince Adolphus has proved to be a severe attack of typhoid fever. He is the fourth member of the Royal Family of England who has been attacked by typhod within 15 years. Writing from Pera, Mr Sala says : — All that the spirit of intrigue ca*a devise, that the iust of power can conceive, that the greed of gold can long for, that the genius of mendacity can invent, is patent here, is flourishing, rampant, and shameless*. An inquest was held at Hungerford on the bodies of Inspector Drewitt and constable Shorter, who were, it is sup~ posed, murdered by poachers. The jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against all the four poachers who have been apprehended. •The explanation gi,s?en of the alleged hoax by which her Majesty's ship Goshawk was recently despatched to Gibraltar from Queenstown is that the telegraph clerk mistook the word ** Gatway," wri'.£en by the Sjeeret^ry to the J?irst Lord of the Admiralty— perhaps not too legibly —for «« Gibraltar." Experiments were m,ade with the 81---ton gun, with fche view of ascertaining whether a shell could be sent through the armour-plates of a vessel so uninjured as to explode in the interior of the ship. The results showed the practicability of this icfea, as the shell when t|red pierced the f|rßt target apcl .(Jo^bled up a second one placed behind it. "^he Qreat t^estera Railway Company, it issaid, are endeavoring' to extend the practice of employing female clerks on railway work. At most of the Metropolitan and Central Railway offices female clerks 1 are now employed, and it is found fihai; jifapy ;uqfc opjy* do merp work tha,n men, but they do it in- a more complete fashion, are less flighty, and- more trustworthy,: ■ y. Soise workmen engaged at the ejection of a znanse at Randalstown, near ißtally.mena, had a drinking bout when .one of their number proposed to pay for balf-a-pint of whisky, to be given any man in the company who would 4 r U*k it at b draught. Thomas Rogers, 18 years of age, drank- the liquor, and immediately fell ("4 into the arm,s of one of b|s cfrn?p^nions. .-■'•. * '■'* i.* \ Thirty years ago, in California^ men would fjock in crowds to catch a glimpse qf that ra re speptacle, a woipan. F IJarly 'ftu^moKning it was noised about |n the Canon camp "thai ; a woqjan had "arrived in the night. Everybody went to Ihe; camping ground, but: only the hem of & calico dress was visible. " Fetch her out£ we want to see her*" said the rough fminers to the husband. "My wife is sip|, M said be '»'" t'w«) b^ve been 'robbed |y the Indians, and we w ant •peat.".. ." JNtcb. her out,-' was the only reply. She cfcjpe to the door, they swung thei? hats, gave three chepys i^nd a t-jger^ collected #2500 in gold, pheet^d' again, and went; home 'Batisfied.--^ i^Ayy \ ... ;•*-■ ■■;. — w :. ...., j

The official newspaper of tbe Transvaal Republic mentions that on- the 9i.h November a patrol of 25 horsemen surprised 3000 Kafirs who had stolen a number of cattle. The Kafirs fled, but being pursued, 318 were killed. Birmingham has the reputation of being the worst " sweating " town in the kingdom. Cases have been known where part of a gentleman's coat was laid over the dead body of a woman lying in her coffin, whilst at another house wor,k was carried on for a large clothing firm whilst three children were ill with scarlet fever for a month. Chicago has now a pork-packing capacity of 50.000 hogs a day, and expects to pack more than half the western hog crop during 1876-77, counting both summer and winter. She packed last year about 1,600,000, to 560,000 at Cincinnati, which used to be the great pork centre. Commander Cheyne, RN. delivered a lecture recently on the discovery of the North Pole. He proposes the fitting out of a private expedition, the discovery to be borrowed or purchased for the purpose from Government for three and ahalf years, and balloons to be supplied under Coxwell's superintendence. The ship would, he proposes, advance by the channel west of Smith's Sound. He volunteers to command the expedition, and to lead tbe balloon party. A review cf the Soujtb. Yorkshire coal trade for 1576, published by the * Sheffield telegraph,' estimates the loss to the miners by their strike at the commencement of the year at £250,000, and to the railway companies through reduced carriage of coal at £120,000. 12,200 men were on strike. The reduced trade in the months of May and June is illustrated by the fact that in February one firm sent 4200 tons of Silkstone to London on one line of rails, and in May only eight tons ; another firm in February forwarded 9300 tons, in May only 67 tons. It ia satisfactory to be assured that the recent opening up of new collieries will next year increase the coal producing power of the district by at least 2,000,000 tons. Tbe increasing annual consumption of coal in London marks plainly enough the rapid growth of the metropolis. During the year 1875 the quantity of coal brought into the port by vessels, and to various stations by rail, amounted to 8,204,892 tons. Of tbis aggregate 3 134,546 tons were sea-borne, 3,134,846 arrived by railway, and 4594 tons came via canal. Thirty years ago, namely in IBlio, the coal brought into London was less than half the total named, being, in fact, 8.461,199 tons, and of which 3,392,512 tons were conveyed by vessels, 8377 tons by railway, and 60,310 tons by canal. It was about this time that a great extension of our iron roads took place, and this, of pourse, gave greater facilities} for the importation of coal. Comparison of the foregoing figures will illustrate strikingly tbe marvellous development of London and its suburbs in the past thirty years.