English News.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 82, 3 February 1876, Page 6

English News.

A certain "Captain Montagu," who falsely represented himself as a survivor of the Balaclava charge, has been arrested as a madman.

Theodore Tilton (says a late New York paper) received one vote in Brooklyn for Secretary of State ; Elizabeth Cady Stanton one for Sheriff; and Pope Pius one for Charity Commissioner.

A minister of one of the - parish churches in the island of Skye occupies the pulpit which his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather have filled in succession, and he is training a son to be his successor.

As a sign of improvement of the condition of Hebrews in Russia, the fact that the Czar has given a commision in the army to a young H-tbrew named Frehmann is worty of mention. Frehmann is the fir^t Hebrew that has been made a Russian army officer.

Mr Carlyle declines with scorn the degree of LLD, conferred'on him Harvard Uinversity. American universities, he says, are (t semblances," their degrees the " silliest sham feathers," and that " lie should be asked to join in heading your long line of D.D.V and LL.D.'s, a line of pompous little fellows hobbling down to prosterity onthe crutches of two or three letters of the alphabet, passing on into the oblivion of all Universities and small potatoes," is more tLan he can bear,

The Zanzibar correspondent of the 1 Western Morning News/ says: — -"'The barque Pauline has arrived at Zanzibar with coals for her Majesty's ships. When off Cape St. Rogue, South America, a sight was presented that made the crew aghast — nothing less than the great serpent engaged in conflict with a whale. It had wound itself twice around the whale, and was twirling it with tremendous velocity, lashing the water into foam. The noise could be distinctly heard on board, and after battling* for some time both disappeared. |The serpents length can be imagined. It had two coils around a full sized sperm whale with thirty feet clear at each end. Its diameter was from 3ft to 4ft. They saw it twice afterwards. Once it came very near the vessel, and raised itself about 60ft out of the water, as if to attack them. I have questioned men and officers, trying to find out any discrepancy between their statements, but am a convert to the belief that it was seen." Another naval officer writes to the * Western Morning News' to precisely the same effect; and the officers of her Majesty's ships on the station are said to be convinced of the truth of the story.

Considerable commotion was caused on October 29 in the neighbourhood of Duke Place, by the dissemination of the report that the assassination of the Rev. the Chief Rabbi, Dr Adler; had been attempted by a lunatic, a Christian, in the Great Synagogue. It appears that as the Rev. Mr Keizer was about to commence the afternoon service, an individual, whose name is at present unknown, drew a pistol from his pocket, taking aim at the Chief Rabbi. This is, however, contradicted by a statement that he determined upon firing at the Rev. Mr Keizer. But it is not altogether clear against whom he intended to direct his fire. With great presence of mind one of the congregation rushed towards the madman, wrenched the pistol from his hand, and the culprit was immediately seized. The revolver had six chambers loaded, and a considerable number of bullets were found in his pockets. On being removed in custody, he asserted that he had been " deputed to kill all the Jews." The offender has recently left a lunatic asylum, of which he had been an inmate for some time, and we are informed that he has been handed over to his friends, who will doubtless see - that he is debarred from doing serious mischief.

A terrible cyclone had swept over Texas, destroying life and property. In Indiana, out of 300 houses, only five are left standing. When the storm was at its height, the water in the river rose 6 feet in two hours, the wind blowing a gale, and driving* the water and breakers through the city at the rate of fifteen miles per hour, sweeping everything in its way, scouring the plain in the rear of the city for ten miles to the depth of seven feet. Several small settlements, numbering a total population of 150, were also swept out of existence, making, with 250 lost in Indiana, a total of 400 lives lost. The stench in the city from the putrifying of the dead, with the stench from the animals, was most intolerable. A party of Mexicans began to rob the dead bodies washed to the plain four to six miles at the back of the city. The scoundrels chopped the fingers, hands, and ears, off men and women to obtain jewellery. As soon as this was heard of a party of. citizens went out and killed five Mexicans, whom they found at the devil's work. Lowest barometer occurred on the afternoon of September 16, when it stood at 29,88, with a maximum velocity of wind of 86 miles per hour. Thousands of drowned cattle are streWn over the prairie south of the town, and several light coasting steamers are lying from six to eleven miles inland. Galveston and other places were submerged, but the most serious losses were at Indianalo, a town of 1500 inhabitants at Matagbda Bay. Su ascriptions for the relief of sufferers are being raised.

A telegram' dated London, 18th January, says-:— - A Cabinet Council was held on the 18th, to consider the scheme of Count Andrassy. The ' Times ' urges the complete adhesion of Franco and Italy to the scheme.

An experiment has been ordered at Woolwich to discover a mechanical means of puddling iron ore by using Indian coal.

An English capitalist is negotiating the purchase of the Egyptian Railway. The Powers singly make verbal friendly representations to the Porte respecting the scheme of Count Anprassy.

General Iznatieff and Count Zichy have overcome the disinclination of the Porte to listen to representations concerning reforms.

Although the mind, of the Cabinet is : unchanged, Ministers maintain their individual opinions. The mail steamer China returned to Galle with her engine disabled. ' The s.s. Otago, which arrived at. the Bluff on the 26th, brings cable telegrams, to the 15th inst.

Mr McAllister, Premier of Queensland, has been banquetted at Glasgow. The Lord Provost was in the chair, and a large number of the leading merchants and several old colonists were, present. The Queen will visit Coburg on the 10th of April, and -afterwards proceed to Baden.

Money is easier, and foreign exchanges are more favorable. The Coraling was wrecked in the Humber en route to Goole. A wheat cargo and four lives were lost..

Obituary r—rMajor-Genepal Hamley, Acting Governor of Souf-h Australia from February, 1868, to February, 1869.

Wh-aat is firmer,

Dv Faure, Minister of Justice, and Deon Say, ' Minister of Finance, have resigned.

M'Mahon has issued a proclamation in which he states that the country requires repose, and asks for an honest trial ofthe present institutions.

Until 1880, M'Mahon is alone entitled to propose any revision.

The French crisis has ceased. The Ministry remains unchanged.

The Duke and Duchess of Abercorn celebrated the 43rd anniversary of their marriage by a ball given to .their servants (100 in number) at Baronscourt on the Bth Dec. Everything passed off with great eclat, of course, for .the Duke does everything en prince. He is the original of tiie Duke in Mr Disraeli's novel " Lothair."

A great Jesuite College is to be erected at Marseilles. The site has cost £10,000.

The first school for women ever known in the Ottoman Empire has just been instituted at Cairo by the Khedive.

A Company with a capital £300,000, and a limited liability, has been formed to carry on the business of Messrs Virtue and Co., the publishers, of the Art Journal and many high-class works.

The Queen of Holland, who has the reputation of being the cleverest and most learned woman in Europe, has been dangerously ill of a fever, but is now recovering

The Dundee Police Commission, by twenty votes to . two, have resolved to purchase the Law for a public recreation ground for the citizens. The usual Hallowe'en festivities at Balmoral did not take place this year in consequence of the recent death of one of the Queen's leading tenants.

The great army clothing factory of Sir Peter Tait, at Limerick, has been closed for want of orders. Six hundred hands are thrown out. in consequence. The Moderator elect of the Established and Free Church Assemblies next year are respectively Dr George Cook, of Kirkcudbright, and Dr M'Laughlan, of St. Columbia's Gaelic Church, Edinburgh.

The Marquis of Waterford has had a narrow escape from being killed while hunting near Curraghmore. While leaping a stone wall his horse threw him out of the saddle, fell, and rolled over on him. He was picked up insensible, but proved to be not very severely hurt.

A disastrous fire has occurred at Memel, in East Prussia, a town inhabited principally by: Jews. Eight thousand of them have been rendered homeless by it, while hundreds were severely burned, and not a few lost their lives in the conflagration. The Rev. J. B. Wilson, Presbyterian chaplin to the forces in Ireland, was struck down by apoplexy while conducting Divine service at the Curragh Camp on the 7th inst., and died the same evening, never regaining consciousness after his seizure with the fit.

Professor Hollo way is one of the chief sufferers by the Turkish repudiation. His loss is«set down at £150,000, and it is alleged that he has philosophically written it off as a bad debt. The Professor would seem to be as good a hand at swallowing pills as at selling them.

Work has been commenced on the submarine tunnel to connect Dover and Calais. The preliminary sounding are being taken, and it is reported that thus v far the engineers are very well satisfied with the results obtained. The chalk tunnelled out will be removed by means of pneumatic tubes, and a current of air will be introduced to secure ventilation,

The, largest deer forest in Scotland is said to be owned'by Sir Ivor- Guest, who has just added to his already very extensive deer forests in Ross-shire the forest of Monar, in Western Ross.'

The Edinburgh, ladies are all crazy about cookery, in, consequence of a School of Cookery having been established in the city under the . patronage of the Duchess of EdinHurghV the Duchess of Buceleuch, and many other High born ladies. The classes are held at present in the lecture-hall of the Museum of Science and Art, and on the occasion of the opening lecture, manyhundreds ot ladies had to be refused admittance for want pf room. That not a few of the amateur cooks are, of high station, the number of carriages with crests and coronets on their panels which wait at the Museum entrance for them proves. On Saturdays, however, a humbler class of pupils is taught, the admission to the morning classes being 4d, and to the evening class 2d. The success of the movement in Edinburgh has caused the Glasgow ladies to agitate for the establishment of a similar school in their city, and a Committee has been appointed to make the necessary preliminary enquiries. The newspapers are always discovering some new excellence of the Princess Louise. Praise of her skill as an artist and sculptor having become a little hackneyed, they are now proclaiming her wonderful .knowledge of needleworkj and especially bf lace. Show'her a bit of that article, they say, and she will at once tell you if it is genuine or not, the country from which it comes, and the century in which it was worked, while any little flaw of a stitch or 'iwo is certain to be detected. Her Royal Highness is said to be equally skilled in other kinds of work, down fo the plainest, so that her recent acceptances of the office of president of an establishment for disposing .of the work of gentlewomen in reduced circumstances is very appropriate. The Queen, as most of yourreaders are probably aware, is no mean hand both with the needle and the spinning wheel. A fire, said. to be the most destructive that has ever occurred in Glasgow, broke out in that; city about 3 p.m. on the 12th November, ih r the spinningmill of Messrs Robertson, Greenheadstreet, Fast End. The Messrs Robertson's mills cover an area of eight acres, and form a square, the eastern' side of which has been destroyed. Before the fire engines reached the spot, the fire was beyond control, and it soon leaped over Mill-street, and seized hold of another large mill owned by Messrs Young, Strang, and Co., and. a dwel-ling-house, adjoining. „. These were also destroyed before the progress of the flames could be stayed, though the whole work of destruction occupied no more than two and a half hours. The part of Messrs Robertson's mills destroyed was four storeys high, 320 feet long, and' loo, feet deep. It contained; 86,000 spindles, and gave employment to 500 hands. Messrs young, Strang, and Co.'s mill was three storeys high, and had a frontage of 240 feet. It contained 1000 looms, and employed nearly 600 hands. The dwelling-house burned was a substantial four-storey building. The. total damage to property is estimated at £300,000, and the insurances amount to less than half that amount.

Among the lower classes in Lancashire there still lingers a belief that a man may legally sell his wife ; and such a sale actually did take place very recently at Blackburn, near Preston. Henry Duckworth, an occasional porter at the railway station there, was drinking in a public-house with a number bf other men, when his wife, a comely buxom woman about thirty years of age, entered and asked him for some money. Duckworth said to her " I wish somebody would buy thee," upon which William Robinson, a machine maker, about twenty- three years of age, remarked, "I'll buy her." Duckworth at once made a bargain with him, and articles of sale, of which the following is a copy, were drawn up and signed : — • "November 4th, 1875.— This is to certify that I, Henry Duckworth, do hereby sell my wife for fourpence to William Robinson. Witness my hand (signed), Henry Duckworth. — Witnesses : James Mourne, Michael Clark, William Robinson." The . buyer then regaled the company with two quarts of ale, and he and the woman went home to his house together. The next afternoon they again visited the publichouse, where they met with Duckworth, and all seemed very comfortable together. She declares that she will not leave Robinson, and Duckworth says he is quite satisfied with the bargain,

Mr Jamison, agent of the Bank of New Zealand, at Lawrence, is about to be removed, to Masterton, Wellington. The Nelson Government have dispensed with the services of Millar, F.S.A., as Provincial Engineer. — Poor Millar !

The Wesleyan Conference at Wellington has appointed a committee to devise measures for the recognition of communicants ' who. . or not Church members, and to take steps for the establishment of a Central Methodist High School. They have commissioned the Rev. Mr Buller to select four young ministers in England "during his approaching visit, and passed a resolution in favor of a union between ■■ the various branches ■df the Methodist Church in New Zealand.