NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Press, Volume XXX, Issue 4068, 10 August 1878, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

[From the " Spectator. "J DEGREES FOB WOMEN. We observe with pleasure that the decision of the University of London to admit women to all their degrees has already borne fruits. The Council of University College, London, have at ouce determined to provide for women systematic instruction in regular college classes. In most subjects, the junior classes for women and men are to be separate. The senior classes are, as a rule, to be open to both, and those classes which are already open to both — like the fine art classes and that on the philosophy of mind, — will remain so. A great deal of fear Is fait in some quarters lest women should be tempted to learn more than will be consistent with their physical wellbeing. But that is, we believe, chiefly a question of age and individual organisation. There are women, —and very clever women, too, —who are broken down by a very slight amount of intellectual work, —who are specially susceptible of acute head-ache. But there are also men, —though not so many, — with the same constitutional defect. And for the most" part, women's health is much more improved than endangered by light but steady intellectual work. If it sometimes increases neuralgic pain, it constantly cures the tendency to hysteric affections. THB HODKBATOB KLBCTEIC LIGHT. The "Times" publiehed on Monday an account of the " moderator electric light," an improvemement by M. Rapieff, a Russian gentleman, upon the "Jablochkoff light," the firet in which the electric current was divided. The Rapieff light is obtained by a current of electricity consuming pencils of carbon, kept together by simple clock-work. The light is steady, so brilliant that it is thrown through opaline globes to temper it, and very cheap. No details as to price or time are, however, given, and no indication as to an important point, the amount of trouble which the changing of the carbon pencils will involve. It is at this point that all electric lamps break down, no light suiting the public which cannot be managed by a man without scientific knowledge. THE atICBOPHOKB IS SUBGEBY. Accoording to Sir Henry Thompson, the microphone has already been turned to account, in the discovery at a very early stage of one of the most painful of diseases,—stone. By its aid, the existence of very minute calculi can be discovered in a stage of growth at which it is comparatively easy to crush them, and so prevent the necessity for more d ingerous operations; and the only danger appears to be lest a too powerful microphone ehould be used, —one which would so magnify all the minor sounds as to give to the touch of the surgeon's instrument on the walls of the organ affected, a sound as striking as its touch upon a minute calculus. If so much has been effected already by the application of the miorophone to the artificial sounds effected by a surgical instrument, there is surely reason to hope that before long it will be applied with equal success to the natural and softer sounds of the contractions of the heart. HAhVBY AND VIVISECTION. This day week the Boyal College of Physicians commemorated the tercentenary of Harvey's birth, by a banquet in the library of their institution in Pull Mall, when many speeches were made by both physiologists and statesmen glorifying Harvey in one breath, and the recent restriction of Vivisection by Act of Parliament in the next. Harvey was no doubt a very great and, on the whole, a very good man, who made a most, important discovery, and verified it needleeelv enough and cruelly enough to instruct his King, who was not in any need of knowledge so obtained, by vivisecting deer in his presence. Whichever of Harvey's experiments might or might not have been sanctioned under the recent Act, there is no question but that the agreeable scientific treat which he gave his Sovereign at the expense of the wretched deer would have been penal (and most justly penal) under it; and we are happy to think that our present Sovereign, if we may judge by her letter to a recent congress on " the prevention of, cruelty to tmimals," would be the first to condemn the prurient physiological curiosity of her predecessor. Grrat as Harvey's noble qualities were,—and remembering, of course, that he lived in a time when this kind of humanity was far less common than it is now, we must not be too hard on him for wanting it,—humanity of this kind at least was not one of them. Tet we think we discern in the speeches of the physiologists of the Royal College of Phyeiciivns a sort of undertone of extra-gratitude towards Harvey due to this comparative indifference of hie to animal suffering, coupled as it was in his case with a brilliant discovery, under cover of which they find it easiest to attempt the justification of the practice of painful vivisection. j A TEBBIBIE COLLIERY ACCIDENT. ! A frightful accident occurred on Friday week m the Wood pit colliery, belonging to Messrs Evans and Co., about five miles from Warrington. The gas, from some unknown cause, suddenly exploded, and of 248 men in the mine upwards of 200 were killed. Every i possible effort was made to explore the ! workings, the miners volunteering for the work—which was extremely dangerous—in scores at a time, but nothing could be done beyond slowly bringing out the dead bodies. The distress is, of course, most terrible, in one street every house having lost a member of the household, and the pit not being in connection with any Friendly Society. As yet nothing is ascertained of the cause of the accident, though it is supposed thilt gas had made its way into the mine from a distant working, and exploded on touching an uncovered light. DEATH OP THE KINO OF HANOTBB. George V., the last King of Hanover, and grandson of our own George lIL, died in Paris on the 12th inst. Though unhappily blind, he was not a bad king, as kings go ; he was fairly popular, and made in 1866 a brave stand for bis throne. His subsequent refusal to recognise accomplished events was according to the etiquette of kings, who always think it their duty to plead that they are beyond dismissal, and the consequent sequeetration of hie private fortune waa an act of oppression. It is rtated that his son, the Crown Prince Erneet, will rurrender hie claims to Hanover, end call himself "Dukeof Cumberland," if hia property i> restored, but other arrangementß may be made. If the Hoheszolleriie do not intend to take the Dukedom of Brunswick for themeelvee, they may be willing to let Prince Ernest, who Jβ the next heir, inherit on the death of the present Duke, and so allow the second oldest line in Germany to remain regnant. The oldest ie the Mecklenburg family, which indeed can claim precedence, Becoming to its own annale, of any prince in the -world, except the Mikado and the M»li»»mi. of • Oodeypow.

stbwabt's vtobkixo womek's hotel. A great philanthropic experiment, commenced by the late Mr Stewart, the millionaire, of Near York, and completed by his widow, haa failed. IT- erec'ed a grand hotel for working women, in winch 1000 women wore to be resprct-ahly lodged and fed for a doilnr a day. There »vre refectories, lavntarie», libr riea. and ■Iγ .-wing-rooms, on the larjjost Bv-Jile, the furniture alone costing £60.000, an! flip total outlay, irreepeei ive of site, being £750,000. Tho hotel was opened I about two months ago. but the working women of 2few York would not enter it. Only fifty persons took rooms, and as the expenses exceeded £100 a day, without reckoning rent, the building has been cl >eed, and will be converted into an ordinary hotel. The true reason of failure appears to have beon the absurdity of certain rule?, to which all inmates bound themselves to submit The working women wero forbidden to see nny male friend, however closely related, in their own rooms, «r to ask him to any meal in the common rooms ; or to stay out after eleven o'clock, or to purchase any furniture whatever, or to introduce any room ornament*, or to keep any living pete, canaries included. They decided, therefore, that they preferred inferior lodging-houses or poor cottages, to the grand hotel where they wero treated more strictly than children are, and were, in fact, under penitential discipline. The experiment would not, however, havt> been abandoned so soon, but that Judge Hilton, Mr Stewart's executor, and a man with decided opinions, believed the whole scheme to be a foredoomed failure. Hβ saya womcti i want to be married, and nny scheme, which forbids that is sure to end badly. A PHILOSOPHIC SriCIDB. A curious suicide has _ taken pl.ice at. Windsor. Count Aubriet de Pevy, who drowned himself there in tho Thames on Wednesday, left a document, to be pi>iced "at the disposal of any inquest and the Press," in which he states that the sudden death of his wife, "who was only twentyeight, handsome, beloved by all, in France and here," had broken hie heart, and that ho agreed, with Montaigne, that he had nothing to complnin of, since though there wus but one way of coming into the world, thore were i a hundred of getting out of it, of which he choee the cleanest, —death by water. Ho hoped to find hie wife in the more ethereal body in which he oxpeoted at once to find himself. This body " has our shape and form, is like U9, but more beautiful, less or more, according to what we are worth." This life he regarded as " but a kind of experimental hell, where bad and good are mixed in disorder." Ho believed in an immediate judgment after death, and in the subjection of the wicked then to very severe laws, though a door was al» ays left open for their repentance. For himself, he held himself '• safe—not saved, which is ridiculous," and not the lees β-ife apparently for taking the time of hie exit from this "expprimcnt.nl hell into hie own hands. But one would have liked to ask him—who believed apparently in a real judgment, and subjection to spiritual authority—why people were ever placed in an "experimental hell," if they were to leave it, as soon as they were tired of it. The authority who placed them thore must surely be as competent to decide the time of exit as tho time of entrance. THB CHINESE TAMINB. Sir Rutherford Ahock writes f o Monday's "Timee" that though ruin has now fallen in some of the famine-struck districts of China, and that by the month of October it may produre good reeults, till then none of the poor croatures dependent on the relief fund—which is all but exhausted—will have a chance of any other means of support. A hundred thousand families are thus dependent, and the relief committee in China urgently telegraph for £5000 at once, of which the collectors here can now only forward about £800. Let us offer Sir Rutherford Alcock a p-ac-tical suggestion. We have received from China a grotesque, but pathetic little picture book, painting the horrorir. undergone in the famino districts, the stripping: of the trees of bark a* well as leaves, the eating of the thatch off the the feeding on the dead, the selling of boys and girls into slavery, each rough print accompanied by an explanation of its drift in Chinese, which, we need hardly say, would have been quite lost upon the preeent writer, had not the friend who sent it kindly given a ehort translation of the meaning of each. A great multiplication of this little book; with the Chinese explanations and English interpretations, and the appeal of the committee for help on the cover, would, we are persuaded, touch laore minds and hearts than any mere circular. It brings home what famine means, at once vividly and with that pathos which is all the deeper for its quaint a'ud grotesque character. WILLIAM cr/liLEN BBTANT. America has lost one ot her beet poets in William Cullen Bryant—on© of the very few poets who was ever at the same time a buc-ci-esful journalist. The "N«w York Evening P.jet" wae always, under hia management, a journal of high character and no li'tlo influence, and though as a poet Mr Bryant could not exactly be placed in the highi st or even the second rank, hie poetry was really beautiful, and partook in the highest degree of that curious and almost rarifiad refinement, in which, oddly enough, American literature seems to surpass oven the literature of the Old World. Mr Bryant died at a

great age—eighty four, in full possession of all hie faculties. EIiKCTOBAL COBBUPTION IK THB BTAIB3. The Americans are washing theirdirty Jinen in public, with very little result, except to diminieh still further confidence in public men. On the one side it appears to be proved that Secretary Sherman did wri'e a letter promising a post to a man who offered, if he obtained the post, to falsify the Louisiana returns ; and on the other, Mr B. Levisee, a member of the Electoral College, sent up from Louisiana, has sworn that the Democrats offered him £20,000 to vote for Tilden, whom his Tote would have seated. He refused, demanding £40,000, which however was not obtainable. He says ho never intended to take the money, and informel Mr Pickin of the offer twenty-four hours before the votes of the College were counted. Hβ names the agents who promised the money, ono of them a clerk, namedlAsher, formerly in the Shreveport B*nk. None of the accusations ac yet come home to Mr Hayes, and none >re equal to legal proof that a vote in tho Electoral College was fraudulently obtained. The Democrats, however, are confident of success, and say that the evidence once complete, they will apply to the Supreme Court to seat Mr Tilden. That ie improbable, but American Ministers are being summoned from foreign Courts to give evidence, which, looks like earnestness.

The Americans are still reading the " confessions " and letters published in the course of the inquiry into Mr Hayes's election, and still disputing whether the Democrats do or do not mean to unseat Mr Hnyes. We ruther think they do. Mr Potter certainly admits as much, stating that it is quite fair to submit the legality of the election to tho Supreme Court, and many Democrats go far bayond Mr Hayes. Their idea, we are told, is, if the frauds are substantiated, to wait till after November, when both Senate and House will be Democratic, and then "lock the m-.'chine," by refusing all votes whatever until Mr Hayes and the Vice-President resign. The power of election will then pass to Congress, and they will seat Mr Tilden. That eeems to us a rather dangerous policy, ac Mr Hayes may refuse, and the people hold the Democrat* responsible for the anarchy produced by locking the wheels. A much fairer way would be to impeach Mr Hayes for a directly corrupt nomination to the Chief Judgeahip of New Mexico, and abide by the result of the trial. ["Pall Mall Budget."] AFBICAIf EXPLORATION. A report from the African Exploration Fund Committeo of the Royal Geographical Society, for th« consideration of which a special meeting of tho society is to be held next Friday, states that the council have finally determined to despatch a email expedition to explore the country between Dar-ee-Salaam and the northern end of Lake Nyaesa. Mr Keith Johnston has been appointed commander, and he will be accompanied by a second European. He will leave England for Zanzibar in October next. The council, at the same time, have made a second grant of £SCO to the exploration fund. The report of the committee, which is signed by Sir Rutherford Alcock, draws attention to the purport of the instructions framed for the guidance of the Belgian Mission lately despatched to Africa by the International Commiwion Bitting at Brussels. These instruction! are eminently pacific—ac the committee think they ought to be in erery case in which an exploratory expedition is despatched, whether scientific, missionary, or commercial in its object. They are te the"effect that in all their operations the head of the party mart rerc ember that , hi* mission ic-eventially peaceful, and consequently that he will have veeoaae to force

only in eelf-defence and at tho la«t ex'ronuty. To this general principle must be ndded the instruction to pay for nil U.at, i< r> quired, whether labor, ;ood, or stntiot.e,, «■ d if need bi> for it right of way peacefully en-pdod; end ihe Commi'tee t\r>' uf opiriou that no better rule rrtild be dieirert for t!;o cmduat of any exnlurntory expedition, <\<A lothing moro U needed thms the fnithful adherence to such rules of aetionto jus'.ifv tVconlinwd prosecution of exploratory work, with all its contingencies. PROHIBITION OP USDKSIUAUI.K IVMUMSANT3. A Hill has be , n i> triuiuce.t into ' or-grew at Washington by Senator Snrgrut " 1 ■■■ iemulate immigration," whi/u will, if i' ti.enmos law, pu' an end to tin- Chinese '' lifli • sit v" on PiiciGe <vn.<t by » ?imrle and < if . fu»l method. rht» first nivi-O' , in :fee* it ii l.'tul to bring to the Uni't'i Siito« imv juniper, luniitk , , ojn"ict, ctinii; •■■■] ('i-)t. iiuhni ; !!..r |v>liticrtl c <nvio't» or criini":ii-), hi!y ii,o\ neaf and dumb, linini'd, >.»r n iiri:i per«on, i r oie uimblf to support him- if', T :i' y ,•■ "? v kid-nappt-d or transported tignin-rt. hit will, or uny pereon uud- % r a c n'r&it for the labor of »uh person, or uny person brought or ci>tni <j for the practice of immoral t-ajm or o'ei.;> hone, oraiiy piTion or piTro'B by or throug'i whoso pres.-iee in the United States the i to hisfi. tutions thereof would bi- endfirgeroc). 'J he second tee.ion provide* that unjoi.o of the D' ited State* having intercourse with foreign countries eh'dl he authorised f'oni tim» to time to enact Mjrrh liwe or ni»V« eueh p <Hoo or sanitary renulitinnn m may be i-.«voss:iry io pr-'veiit iho briniii'ig nr l,n 'ins; of »uv <\f the olaeeos of p< rutins mentioned to or n< uny port or pl.-ico williin Miv of any State ; imd any »ueh Sitvti , is ii , l> , uu'lutrin.-d to pr.>vide by law or r. gu'ati->n from time to time for tho return of smy person or pei-*ons belongini; to euch clas»o-> to tjie plnee of his emb.rkivtion, and to preepribf p.'iriltiiM nnd (inee, to bo udminietcred ni'd recovpri'd in uiy State court or i«ny district, court of tlie CTnited States, for any violii'ion of t!ie lit sect ion of tho A.ot, or lv>r any vioktiou of a;,y laws or reguliitions rnmie or presertbi'd by any State under and by virtu- , of (hu nntliority contained in the 2nd eeoMnn of the Act. A BALtOON AUTKXTURH. The voyagere by a bullocn which nacended recently from the Pomona Gwrdena at Manchester met with whft' ii termod in the nocounts given of tho affair a " moat exciting adventure," but which almost merited tho title of a lamentable accident. The intrepid aeronaut* nmde a most PUCdSsfnl ascent, but their d> econt wus very much fcho of succepsful. Tho bnlloon was wuftid c;uly alotg by the wind in the direction of lluddewlield, and was eomowhero iw the *ky not far from that, place when it was turned over by a aeries of pquttlle. Tho two X'lyngvrt managed by grmping tho rojue to iwi.iii immediate death, and ono of them ultimately succeeded in climbing to tho vnivo and opening it. The balloon rapidly descended, rtud when about forty feet from the ground the heraes of the adventure either frll or dropped to tho ground, fortunately escaping wi'.h their lives, but not without, severe injury. In the meantime h biilloon, supposed to be the en mc, is reported to have oomo down somewhere near Leeds, to the surprise a»id nlirm of those who witnessed its dotieout, and whose bewilderment was inorensed by tho f:vct that the car contained only a " dog, two overcoa'B, and a pack of cards." The etory is an illuetrution of tho risks attendant on b'lllnon voyngee in . unsettled seasons. Such weather as we have experienced lately ia not fnvorahla for terrestrial expedition)*, still leae for flights into celestial regions. THE OttOSSBB KWUftTRaT. The naval cuninission of inquiry into the loss of the Q-roßsnr Kurfurst is now occupied in collecting all the evidence obtninnblo respecting the cataetrophe. It is stated that all the reporte received tend to show that, tho accident was due to the misunderstanding <j£ an order which wae correctly given by the officer in charge. The Preueswi arrived at Wilhemshaven last week wi'h tho survivors of the crew of the Grosser Kurfuret. Firo thousand porsonn assembled to witness the landing of the men. When dfrmforii'g hie men Count Monte, the captain of tho loet vessel, thanked them for the perfect composure they had preserved in the face of dent.h. A diver has mndp nn inepeetion of the wreck of the Grosser Kurfuret, and found that the vessel was in two halves, one lmlf lying keel uppermost; and the otlflr half having a mnpt. ptandirg. Tho diver thinks the ship reoeived a twist, wliei her boilers exploded. He says that the aide of the ship ia torn away for ahout twenty feet, but that the depth of the bremjh is not, moro than threo or four feet at it« wideot part. . HIS MAJrSTr OF DAlJOanjr. News from the Capo Coant. s.iys that thu King of Dahomey intends to refuse payment of tho balance of the fino imponed l)_v the English. H»r ship Pioneer h"a pane up to Fernw.do P6 t-o hiring Coimul Hopkins to pabiver with the Kin , ?. Tho steamer Congo brings r>ewe that on t.ho KH.h of May threo English men-ofwnr were at anchor off. Whydih. The captain of the Congo wag inftructfd to call thero to t tike on board 200 punchnoneol , oil, tho halnnce of tho fine imposed on thoKiiijj of Diiho r niy, but. the surf was so heavy that no oornmuiiiVation could be mado between tho stenrmr and the show. It wae generally understood, however, that even if tho Congo rould have tulten the oil on board, it would not have bwwi sent down by the Kina for shipment. It ie rumored that the French are treating with the King with a view of bringing the whole of the coast of Dahomey under the French protectorate. CANADA AND THB ENGLISH PHKMIKU. Some resolutions passed at ii inn-Ming in Canada approving of the foreign policy of the Government were recently eeiit to Lord BeacoDsfield. In acknowledging their receipt Mr Algernon Tumor wrote : —" In accepting with sincere.gratification those resolution?, tho Prime Minister rejoices to feel that ono bond of loyalty, -patriotism, and affection unites this country to her colonies, and that the honor of the British Empire is as sarred to

Canada ac to England. The sympathy twinced by the Dominion has touched the lumrfs of j£< gliihmen, and, England may well lie proud of the spirit which animates the people of her distant colony." THB POPB'S HBAITB. A telegram from Borne eaye the Pope ia daily declining in health and strength, and the physicians have pronounced his removal from the Vatican to be indiepensiiblo to hi« recovery. The majority of the Cnrdinala, nevertheless, opposed his departure. The R' man correspondent of the "Cologne Gazelle" write;* that the Ouria intends, from fear of European conflicts, to withdraw oisehulf of the Peter's per.ee which ha« bef-n deposited in English Bunks, and to propose to the Pope to employ it in the purohiso of landed property. A NEW OAKBIKE. A carbine, the barrel of which is made of a specially prepared bronze, has bean recently submitted by a hardware manufacturer in Vienna, with the sanction of f.bo Minister of War, to the Technical Committee of tha Austrian Army, and experiinenta with it, ura being made at tlie present time. The ciilibre, length, system of rifling, and pattern ucnorally of the new weapon are exactly siuulur to those of the Werndl carbine ; the only difference between the two being in the meutt of which tho barrel is constructed. Compared with the steel, it is cltumed for the bronze barrel that it poeseeeea greater elasticity and toughness, with equal hurdnesH; that it is more durable, the grooving b -ing less aTapidly deteriorated by tho pueaago of the bullet; that it is mucii easier to fceep clean, and that, ac the metal doee not rinf, it is not liable to become injured br nfglee! ; and, finally, that while costing originally no more than the steel, the bronze barrel _is always worth, as old metal, 50 per cent, oi iis first cost. Before the weapon wa» laid bf fore the comtnittoo 300 rounds had airily, according to tho statement of the inventor, been find from it; bui no doterioruiion of the bore could be discerned. Five hundred more rounds were afterward* fired from tho carbine, by order of the committee, in rapid succeeaion, the cafes of somo of tho cartridges being purposely torn before they were need, and the barrel being cleaned after every twenty-five mm de. At the conclusion of thij trial the csrbine shot as accurately ac at the begim ing, and the interior of the bore v&9 found on examination to be practically ur. njured and in as good condition as ever. The inventor of the epocial bronzo used, which ie & mixture of pure copper and tin, chemietsliy cleansed from all oxiHes by moans of plioapbo U', hai taken out a patent for its pinployment in the manufacture o! all fire-arms

The " Official ftfeiaenger " of St. Peters iniTg publishes an appeal of the Moscow Scoiety for subscriptions for the organ'uafc.on of the volunteer fleet, " in order to defend the iust cause ia case the adversary of Kmsifi should provoke war." In St. Petersburg contributions will be received by the witch.