BY THE ENGLISH MAIL

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 805, 30 April 1910, Page 15

BY THE ENGLISH MAIL

NEWS SUMMARY. THE PUBLIC SERVICES OF PEERS. AN INTERESTING RETURN. London, Marcli 1?. A return, prepared on the motion of Lord Onslow, showing the public services of members of the Upper House, Ims just been issued, and is of considerable interest at the present political juncture.. The number of Peers is now 622, including two , Archbishops and twenty-four Bishops. The/number of' Peers who have held high office is very large, as the following details show:— Privy Councillors 112 Sat in the House of Commons before going' to the Upper House 148 Attained rank of Vice-A,dmiral or . Lieutenant-General , 7 Hehkhigh judicial office ' IS Held high political office (Cabinet; etc;) 43 Been Lords-Lieutenant, Viceroys, or . Governors-General 20 Been High Commissioners or Governors '.....'. 24 Been! Under-Secretaries 51 Been Ministers or Ambassadors 2 The: report also shows the number of Peers at various dates, between 17G5 and 1909. In 1775 there were 201, and in sixty years the number was more than doubled, standing at 423 in 1835. ■/■':. BRITISH AGRICULTURE. . The distribution of land in Great Britain .in shown in the acreage and livo stock returns just issued by the Board of Agriculture, as follows:—Total area, 50,212,000 acres; cultivated, 32,183,000 acres; rough, grazings, 12,848 acres (of which 9103-acres are in Wales). Percentage utilised, farming. or grazing, 80.1;. woodland, 4.9. Notwithstanding the fact that the farmed area was reduced by 28,813 acres, the number of - separate holdings of land.'. increased by 542. The present total number of small holdings in Great Britain is 340,554. With regard to crops, the.total area of wheat, barley, and oats in 1900 was 6.409,761 acres, showing an increase of-66,673 acres (1 per cent.) from the recorded -for- these three crops in 1908.. The recovery of acreage was due to the large extension of tho wheat area. The total acreage under hops in 1909 was 32,539 acres, as compared with 38.921 acres in 1908 and 44,938 acres in 1907. With regard to live/stock., tho number of horses Inst year was 1,552,993, an; increase of 7322 over the - previous Tear; cattle. 6,905.134, an increase .of 115.843;.5heep,- 27.i19.730, an increase of 498.(589; pigs, 2.823.452, a, decrease of 442,595... . v ■ ; THE PUBLIC TRUSTEE. . British -Public. Trustee;, has just issued his . second • annual ■ report of the work of his department during 1909. It is a very satisfactory document, showing, that the department,. although only in its second year, has made both ends meet/ and turned last year's deficit of JE3271 145.'6 d., into a profit of ..,£244 9s. 3d. The total value of business of all kinds dealt'with in the two years amounts to about the fees for the year 1909 have trebled tho fees of-1908—namely, .£13,738, against' <£4460. No fewer than three hundred wills have been deposited with the. Public Trustee for safe <ustody.: ,"; ', ' EX-M.P.' SENTENCED. ■' At the Old Bailey Mr. P. Horner, exM.P., :was indicted for forging and utter-, ing certain telegrams. The charges arose out of the :■ sending of a report to tho "Daily Mail" referring, to an alleged hostile demonstration against Mr. Lloyd George at Falmouth in January, the accuracy of which was; denied by the Chancellor. Counsel,: for the. .prosecution said' ; tho indictment: was framed -under ah' Act' of Parliament ': which made it an offence for, anyone to forge and uttera:, telegram quite'apart from any intention to. defraud. He. stated: that the defendant ;sent..telegrams in ;tho name of Mr. W. Kirby, a- well-known contributor to the "Daily Mail," and the fact that , those telegrams .were signed "Kirby" ensured their insertion. Evidence was given with ai;..view!/, to proving ;the telegrams were, sent : in defendant's'... handwriting, and Mr. W... Kirby , denied! :writing the • telegrams.: The'accused was.found guilty and sentenced; to-six weeks' imprisonment 1 ■ in the.-./second' division..'.■.;.',''.,. :'.■', ■ : ! ~ .: .J30.000 TRAIN. ; : ) v ;".-'■ i.No less,a sum than has been spent by the South-Eastern-and Chatham ltailway Company on sis Pullman cars, which will constitute the boat train, for their Continental service. -The cars are decorated/in the Renaissance,' Georgian; Louis XVI: (two), Adam, and Louis XV styles. The. most beautiful- of these are the Louis XVI. The parlour car in this 'style is of finely, marked satinwood,. with, panels inlaid with green and red floral, decoration. The Adam, parlour;car is of finely mottled peartree of rosy hue, inlaid with holly. The carpet is of.blue' velvet pile, and the chairs of blue velvet to match. The' Georgian car.ihas'finishings of mahogany with panels of Spanish: curled veneer, inlaid with' satinwood' marquetry on the'panels, friezes, and , pilasters, after the Georgian Another important improvement in this line will he the hew station at Dover, which is'-to cost .£140,000. . STEANGE POISON CASE. • The unprecedented charge of murdering his old mother by frightening her to death.was brought at the Birmingham Assizes against John White, aged 50, a Coventry toolgrinder. Mrs. White was found lying dead in her house on Janu-. ary 9. On the table beside her was a glass, which proved to contain diluted cyanide of potassium'. White was arrested and charged with -murdering his mother,, but when the post-mortem examination, was held no trace of poison could be discovered. The cause of death could not be'ascertained, and the medical men were' driven to the conclusion that Mrs. White .died from some external cause, such as fright.'The theory put forward by the prosecution at the trial was that White gave the diluted poison to his motherland that she ■ died from fear after smelling and tasting it!. The prisoner was found guilty of attempted murder, and sentenced to penal servitude for life. ". ■ ■•. '. HOSPITAL RAIDED. ' : Remarkable - scenes were witnessed at the Crewe .Isolation Hospital recently. A jerious epidemic of diphtheria broke out in the town a 6hort time ago, and the hospital is crowded with children who have been stricken down. The authorities forbade visiting by relatives, on tho ground that. it was detrimental to the : patients,, and'this decision caused great resentment. Nearly 200 fathers and mothers assembled outside the institution on a Sunday afternoon, and when refused admission tried to force an entry. The police were called,. and attempted to pacify the gathering. The parents declined to disperse, and finally some men stood with their backs to the wall, and more than a dozen women climbed on to their husband's shoulders and scrambled into the hospital grounds. Thence they found their way to the diphtheria ward, and on obtaining a glimpse of their children through the windows refused to go away. Finally they had to be removed. The authorities have decided that their decision as to admission shall still hold good; but bulletins are to be posted in the town daily announcing tho condition of tho patients. CIVIL SERVICE ESTIMATES. The Estimates for the Civil Sorvico and the Revenue Departments for 1910-11 have just been issued. The total amount required is .£00,008,102, divided ns follows:— Civil Services proper- ,£42,685,4-10 Post Office 19,828,250 Customs and Excise •... 2,230,400 Inland Revenue 1,324,000 Under Class VII of the estimate for services requiring a vote on account the [ following items appear:— Prince ■ and Princess's of Wales's visit to South Africa .£40,000 Government hospitality 10,000 International exhibitions 54^50

MAGISTRATE AND EMIGRANTS. At.Clorkenivell Juvenile Court an officer from a Waif and Stray Society, of the Caledonian Road, presented to ilr. Bros, ' the magistrate, two .young lads whom the workhouse authorities, "through the society, proposed' to emigrate to Canada. , The. consent of a magistrate was necessary. Mr. Bros, having sent for two ' new shillings, presented each lad with one of the coins, which he referred to as the 'lung's shilling." He advised each of them to keep the shilling until they had another, and then to "put both of ? them away." Then, with a kindly expression of his host wishes for the boys'. ' futures in the Far West, the magistrate i signalled, with a smile, that the little i jceremony was ended, and the lads left with faces beaming with pleasure at the cheering message that would hearten then on their start in life in a new ' world. ' FEWER CHILDREN'S DEATHS. .' In reply to a question in the House of Commons, Mr. John Burns has supplied the following interesting statistics on the percentage of deaths of children under five years of. age. The figures are per 1000 living:— 1901 ; 54.1 15)06 ; 45.3 1904.., 51.6 1007 40.9 1905 „. 44.7 1908 40.9 To this may be added, regarding infantile mortality, that in the decade from 1898-1907, infantile mortality for England and Wales was 143 per 1000 on the average, with a diminishing yearly figure, and that in 1909 it was only 109 per 1000. CLAIM TO £7,000,000. Seven million pounds' worth of property lying in Chancery is being claimed by Mrs. Hunting, of Westgate, Peterborough. The property includes land of enormous value in Islington. Tho story is that, during the eighteenth century, a young man named • Mobbs, of rather humble hieans,: living .at Pytchley, near. Kettering, fell in love with a lady of-high birth, who came from London to Pytchley Hall during the hunting season, and, his passion being reciprocated, the couple made a runaway match. The lady owned several acre 3. of land in Islington, which has since been built upon, and has enormously increased in value; and, apparently the contention is that the descendants of the runaway, couple have up to the present not come into the possession of this estate!—" Standard of Empire."