English News.

Bruce Herald, Volume IX, Issue 897, 13 April 1877, Page 3

English News.

— -» The number of visitors at the Smithfield Fat Stock Show was nearly 140,000. The largest number in any previous year waß in 1864, when 128,000 visited the show. Although a travelling people, few Americans have ever gone over the length or breadth of the Union. The Atlantic steamers bring over thousands to Europe who have never crossed over to California ; far more Americans truvel in Switzerland and Palestine than cross the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevadas; more go up the Nile than the Columbia River. It is compu'ed that at the present rate a; which the Holy Scriptures are issued by the Bible Society, 615 years must elapse before the whole world can be supplied wiih copies, whereas if every moderate drink r in the British Isles would but refrain from beer, wine, and spirits for only six months, tho sum of mo»ev thus saved would be sufficient to buy 700 000,000 copies of Bibles, ie., one copy for each of the benighted heathens at present without the means of grace. A gentleman was almost torn to pieces by dogs at Farnborough. Dr Turner, during a temporary absence from home, placed his three dogs — a mastiff, a bulldog, and a ret.ie.er — in the stables of the Alma Inn, at Farnborough, &nd directed his brother, Mr Henry Turner, a protea3ional gentleman, of London, to look after thgpj. ]EJe went to feed them on Monday morning, whpp the mastiff sprang upon bim, the other two doge following. The gentleman's cries brought assistance, and he was rescued with difficulty. It was found that his upper >ip WfiS bitten off, his nose and cheeks frightfully £ or Pi his stomach tore up, and bis tbigbs and Ipgß badly mapgled. He was removed to the bjjrrey Pointy Hospital, but is not expected to survive. One of tho living curiosities at BarntitH'e menagerie and circus is a man tattooed from h/&_d fo foot. His name is Constentanns, a Greek by birth ? end it is stated that he was one of the party who penetrated Chjneee Tartary for mining purposes sopjo years ago, and engaged in an insurrection there. The natives captured him and two of hi* companions, and insiead of putting them to death, adopted the more cautious plan of tattooing their bodies and setting them free. The process of tattooing oppnpipd six hours a day for three months, and the torture inflicted w&a so severe that the captives used to beg for death instead. Captain Constentanus was the only one of the trio wbo survived the ordeal, and he carries about on bis person one hundred and eigljtys-eight pictures of men and animals and geometrical figures. For some months past vessels have been engaged conveying shot and Bhell to the furls on the English Coast, which are now in a more efficient condition of defence than has ever been ths case

i mring England^ history. It has been * decided that every British fort shall be i made a torpedo Btation, so tbat it would i be in a position to attack an enemy ximultaneodaly with guns and torpedoes. Hitherto it has been a recogni&ed prin- : eiple that a fort could not stop a modern man-of-war armed with guns of equal . power, but a vessel would be unable to , oass a well-armed battery protected by torpedo defeuces. The number of pins produced daily in England ia 50,000,000, of which Birmingham produces 37,000.000, leaving 13,000 000 aa the production of London, Stroud, and Dublin, where pins are also made. The weight of wire consumed unuually in the pin manufacture of England is about 1227 _ tone, or 2,857, 1201 bs. The Minnessota Supreme Court have a decision sustaining the constitutionality of the Inebriate Asylum Law, by which a tax of 10 dols. per annum is levied upon each saloon-keeper and trafficker in liquor for the maintenance of an asylum for inebriates, now in course of erection at Rochester. An outbreak of typhoid fever in Saiford is reported. A number of cases have occurred in the Crescent and immediate neighbourhood ; and as nearly all the families in which the disease has appeared are supplied from the same dairy farm, it is thought the milk has become polluted. The Medical Officer of Health i 9 investigating the matter. The vicar of a populous parish in the north of London and the father of our youngest colonial bishop has hit upon an ingenious method of overcoming the much-vexed burials question. Recently he informed the parents of a young lady, who were members of a Baptist church, that he regretted nob being able to read the burial service over the remains of their daughter ; but as a female pauper was to be buried in an adjoining grave, and the interments were both to take place at the same time, his conscience would allow him to stand between the two and read the service over the body of the pauper, adding that no one would notice his use of the words " sister" and " body" instead of " sisters" and " bodies," or that he made any departure from the usual practice on such occasions. The most surprising circumstance is that ihe compromise was accepted. — ' Manchester Guardian.' The appetite of the mouse for bank notes might, one would imagine, have remained for ever unknown for want of any one to supply so expensive a repast. But a French geutleman has just involuntarily made an experiment which conclusively establishes the fact. He had left notes of the Bank of France to a value of 250 francs, with other papers, iv the drawer of an escritoire, and on going a few days afterwards to take them out, found the notes reduced to the condition of pieces of lace by the bites of the voracious rodents. He has doubtless profiled by the lesson, and the example will probably warn other people also not to leave bank notes in drawers to which mice are likely to get access. A native merchant by name Narain Rungiah Chetty, living at Prodaher in the Cuddapah district, has for more than two months past been feeding at his own expense upwards of 2000 people, each daily. He commenced by giving cooked rice, and the number of applicants for his bounty rose to 8000 After a fortnight he discontinued giving rice and substituted a ' paste made of ragib, known in Tamil as " kooloo." This, it is stated, he is continuing to supply at considerable cost Narain Rungiah Chetty has no stored grain with him, but purchases what he requires in the Madras market at six measures tho rupee, and it is carried by rail to Prodaher. The ' Madras Athenaeum' expresses its opinion that pour encourager les autres a kind word or a brief friendly recognition from Government to Narain Rungiah Chetty would not be out of place. The vicar of a parish in South Yorkshire lost a cockatoo last Sunday. He instantly sent for the village bellman and ordered him to cry the lost bird. The belman had conscientious scruples and objected, but the vicar insisted, and the Sabbath keeping villagers were amazed to hear the bellman proclaiming that a valuable cockatoo belonging to the vicar bad been lost, tbat a reward would be paid for its recovery, and any person detaining the bird would h.s prosecuted. The cockatoo was afterwards found in the vicar's garden*