English News.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 7, 22 December 1869, Page 2

English News.

Mr Gladstone's visit to her Majwty has and the right hon. geutleinan left Balmoral on September 25. Tho anght hon. gentleman, accompanied by Mrs Gladstone and daughters, has arrived ;at Hawarden Castle, Flintshire, whore ho -will remain four or five weeks. Mr Gladstone has been suffering from illness. A •orrespondent gives a"gloomy picture of his feneral appearance on his return from Palmer Castle, where he had sought reJjose, He says :—" The three weeks of absolute repose and sea air have apparently <done nothing towards improving his health, and lie looks infinitely more careworn, and «eemß to possess even less constitutional -vigour, than he looked a few days before the close of tho session." The same correspondent says he has seen Mr Gladstone •seven times since his return to London, *nd that " the sunken eyes, the pale face, the nervous glance, the shambling gait, the •stooping shoulders, the quick, shirking movement, all betokened a nervous system in a high state of tension, and a physical frame in a condition of lamentable exhaustion." It is to be hoped the picture, though the work of a friendly hand, is greatly ■overdrawn.

The alarm in the cities on the west ooast of South America, owing to the prediction of M. Falb, that some great convulsion of nature would visit and destroy the •coast about October 1, has been raised to a fearful height bj shocks of earthquake having been felt at Copiapo, Tquique, Arica, and many other places. Business was at a standstill, and the people were flying in all directions from the supposed •doomed localities.

It is now .confidently asserted that, in •addition to closing Woolwich and Deptford dockyards, the Government has decided on the abolition of Sheerness as a aiaval establishment, as soon as the requisite arrangements connected with the change can be carried out. The only dockjards and naval establishments which will thus be retained are those at Chatham. Portsmouth, Devonport, and Pembroke! The Woolwich dockyard, which in some form or other has been in existence for 300 years, was closed on September 17. The Admiralty have notified within the last few days their willingness to sell or let the dockyard. It is worth, at the lowest computation, a million sterling, and assuming that Government were willing to accept a to pay only 21 per cent, on the value, it would produce an annual rental of £25,000.

A correspondent of an English paper suggests the use of a galvanic battery instead of a " cat" for the punishment of criminals. He is of opinion, that a daily .succession of shocks for a month would be worse than a flogging, and free from all chance of inflicting permanent injury. Mr James Young, chiefly known as the proprietor of certain paraffin oil works in Scotland, has presented 10,000 guineas for the permanent endowment of a chair of technical chemistry in the Andersonian IJniversity, Glasgow, with liberty to found scholarships and bursaries in connection therewith. M. Armand, a French savant, has stated to the Academy of sciences that he has discovered a sure antidote to nicotine. The antidote is nothing less than the common watercress. It destroys the poisonous effects of nicotine, and yet does not alter the aroma of tobacco. A solution of water-

may, therefore, be employed for steeping the leaves of tobacco, and would thus ..-effectually divest them of their noxious properties; moreover, a draught of the same will act as a euro antidote to nicotine.

A Swedish chemist has come to the conclusion that the Egyptian mummies are not all, as has been said and believed for thousands cf years, bodies embalmed by any proeess of. preservation whatever, but that they are really the bodies of individuals whose lives have been momentarily suspended," with the intention of restoring them at.some future time, only the secret of preservation has been lost. He took a snake,* and treated it in such a manner as to benumb it ..as though it had been carved in marble, and it was so brittle that had he allowed it to fall, it would have broken into fragments. In this state he kept it for several years, and then, restored it to life by sprinkling it with a stimulating fluid, the composition of which is his secret. ; The professor is reported to have sent a petition to the Government requesting that a criminal who has been .condemned to death may be given to him, to trcaf.m the same manner as the suake, promising to restore him to life in two years.

A romantic esno of cutting and wounding at Stratford-on-Avon has had a romantic termination. The prisoner, Charlotte Burchell, a young girl, attempted to cut the throat of Arthur Stephens, the son of a farmer with whom she had lived, and threatened to renew the attack unless be eloped with her. He consented, and they walked all night through a storm of wind and rain ; but on reaching Stratford next day, the girl was arrested, and taken before the magistrate. Stephens, howover, refused to appear against his sweetheart, and tijg discharged

It is stated that the Bishop of Lichfield is improving in health. His lordship is staying at Whitby, and the bracing air seems to have a beneficial effect upon him. Robert Moffat, the African missionary, now in his 75th your, is purposing to return to his native land. The 200-mile journey in waggons over the uutracked country, and bridgelcss currents from the Kuruman to the Orange River, is an arduous undertaking for him at his advanced age, but he retains his full vigour of mind, if not of body. The cruise of the combined Channel and Mediterranean fleets, under the flag of the First Lord of the Admiralty, is now at an end ; and the results of the trials and observations made are of much practical interest to the country, which has learnt with satisfaction that it is in possession of a thoroughly seaworthy and fairly efficient iron-clad squadron— -on» which, despite all its defects, is second to none in the world. The Lancet, in an article on .the subject of high-heeled boots, remarks that '"the custom of wearing high boot-heels, and those,,too, so much smaller than the actual heel of tho wearer as to aflbrd no solid support, but only a balancing-point, is a source of much mischief, because it thi-ows the centre of gravity of the body so far forward that a free and gracefully erect carriage is impossible, and there being no firm support to the heel, ladies are very apt to twist the ankle suddenly by overbalancing themselves ; and then the effect of driving the foot constantly forward into the toe of ,the boot is to produce a very ugly and painful distortion of the great toe joint."

The following professionals will form the cricketing team for Australia :—J. C Shaw, A.. Shaw, J. Oscroft, F. Silcock, Villsher, Marten, Jupp, Pooley, Griffiths, Humphrey, and Southerton. The will be made early in October. " ° It is rumoured in well-informed quarters that Sir H. F. Young, who was LieutenantGovernor in 1847, will succeed Sir Philip Wodehouse as Governor at the Cape. The last West India mail brought intelligence of fresh earthquakes at St. Thomas, but no lives had been lost.

During the festivities at Koenigsberg (in Prussia) on Sept. 13, in honour of the visit of the King, a deplorable accident occurred. Owing to the crush of spectators, the railings of a bridge gave way. lwenty-four dead bodies, to persons of various ranks in sooietv, wire recovered from the water. ■ *

The explosion of petroleum in a lighter at Bordeaux on the 2Sth of Septembecaused tht destruction of nearly twenty ships that were lying at the wharves The lighter was drifted by the floo.l tide anionthe shipping, and, unfortunately the autho° rities attempted to extinguish the flames by submerging the boat. The consequence of this was that large patches of burning oil floated on the water, and being carried by the rising tide, set fire to manv distant vessels that otherwise would have been safe.

London Theatrical Gossip. Miss Julia Mathews has concluded a most successful tour through the provinces. Una clever young lady is indeed in great request just now. She commences a lon* engagement on October 25 at the Standard Iheatre, where she will once more play the Grand Duchess. The Christmas arrangements are already perfected at Covent Garden Theatre, where Miss Julia Mathews will sustain the principal character in the comic opera " Le Chalet."

Mr Jefferson terminated his engagement at Booth's New York Theatre on Sept. 18 He has been wonderfully successful. The treasuier of the theatre was compelled to erect an extra ticket-office to accommodate the crowds that this gentleman nightly attracted.

Clarance Holt is now part-proprietor of the Theatre Royal at Croydon. Lady Don has been doing a round of her favourite characters in Portsmouth and other provincial towns. The press seems unanimous in pronouncing her acting and singing excellent, and she has been drawing overflowing houses. Professor Anderson and his talented daughters have been once more before, the English public at Greenwich ; and Wizard Jacobs has been porforming at Heme Bay, Scarborough, and other fashionable water-ing-places.

Mademoiselle Victoria, the youthful and talented " Queen of the Lofty Wire," has been engaged for Australia for the whole of the year 1870.

Tom Lenton's Australian Boys have migrated farther west, and made their appearance at the Royal Amphitheatre and Circus, Holborn, at its opening on Oct. 2. The company is one of the largest, best, and most skilful that has ever been brought together in this coimtry, and Lenton's pupils are amongst the leaders of it. While the Boys were travelling in Australia with the Japanese troupe, they got up some of their leading tricks, such as the tub and ladder balancing, and now perform them with a greater finish and neatness than the " Japaneso " do. George Fawcett will play at the Olympic shortly as Micawber. He is a versatile actor, and will do well in London.

It is reported that Lyster is in Italy, on the look-oat for some lyric artistes for .iu3t.ra!h — Eure>p!"m Watt.