EUROPEAN ITEMS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3051, 6 April 1881, Page 3

EUROPEAN ITEMS.

The Dublin cori'espondent of the Times remarks that " no more remarkable contrast can be imagined than that which has been presented between tho excitement in the House of Commons and the calm which generally prevails in Ireland. It is a curious and interesting political study. The country which a few weeks ago was lashed into fury and ready to do any desperate act is now silent and motionless, as if under the influence of some mesmeric spell. It is hard to realise the fact that so great a change has been effected in so short a time, but the fact is incontestable."

A kind of paved road has been discovered leading from the granite tomb near the Sphinx to the Temple before the second Pyramid. Two pyramids have been opened in the neighbourhood of Sakkarah, to the north of Memphis, which were erected by two kinks of the Sixth Dynasty. Thousands of incriptions cover the rooms and passages of the monuments, and thus making the discovery of the highest importance for the study of tho Egyptain language and history. Antiques aro very scarce and dear this year.

How long docs Lord Beaconsfield calculate upon living ? He is seventy-six this year ; but ho is furnishing his new house in Curzon-street in a way which seems to imply that he intends to rival all the public men of our time in what Brougham called the tricks of longevity. The furniture is all artistic, much of it marvellously artistic ; it is all costly, and it is intended to be so complete and gorgeous that it will rival the dreams — tho Oriental dreams —of Lord Beaconsfield's youth as a novelist' Heceptions — banquets — entertainments of all kinds are to make the house historical.

" Lex" exposes in the Times a ridiculous instance of rcd-tapeism at tho Bank of England, where, ho says, a Chancery order for the payment of a sum of money was " stopped" because an official in tho audit office had spelt " favour" without a " v" !

Mr Gladstone is looking in afresh quarter for rovenue. It i 9 believed that an enormotis business is done in the sale of wine in this country by pcoplo who have no licences bnt who procure orders among their friends for French and German win<' merchants, ibtrict orders have been issued from the

Excise to look up these gentlemen, who make themselves liable to a fine of £100. Lord Mayor M'Arthur may begin to feel uncomfortable or proud according to his views. The fiat has gone forth which probably makes him the penultimate Lord Mayor of the City. His successor's successor will be Lord Mayor not of the City only, but of all London. Among the measures which Ministers have in hand —excluded this session because of the pressure of Irish legislation —is one for creating out of London a great corporation, and making its rulers .into a great Parliament, with the Lord Mayor f ov chisf. According to the Temps, the following are the conditions of peace which Chili intends to impose upon Peru and Bolivia : — The cession of Autofagasta and district, the surrender of tho allied fleet, the payment of a war indemnity of £20,000,000 by Peru, and £10,000,000 by Bolivia. Pending payment, Chili is to occupy Callao and take possession of and work afc her own profit all the guano deposits and the copper and saltpetre mines belonging to the two Governments. As neither Peru nor Bolivia has or is at all likely to be able to borrow the amount of the proposed indemnity, the Chilian occupation, if these terms are insisted upon, may be regarded as permanent. The severity of the winter is still being keenly felfc in some parts of Europe. In the Tyrol all traffic has been suspended for days by a snowstorm. In Galicia fifty-one miners were overwhelmed by the snow, and j six were frozen to death. In Bosnia sleighs have been seen in the streets of the capital for the first time; and great numbers of wolves have been ravaging the flocks. In Spain the floods continue to cause much suffering. The latest telegrams from Seville describe the condition of the town as lamentable. Tho Guadalquivir has risen to an unprecedented height, and the country is under water as far as Cadiz. In Seville itself communication can only be carried on by boats. The postponement of tho marriage of Prince Rudolph of Austria -with the Princess Stephanie Ims been justly attributed to the delicate health of the Princess. This is an error. The family council assembled some little time ago decided that it would be wiser to put off the wedding until the bride had attained her seventeenth year. Meanwhile, pavtly for pleasure and'partly for policy, the affianced couple are seen much together in Brussels, sometimes walking through the public promenades, sometimes sleighing along the country roads, and every evening, seated side by side, they occupy the royal box _at the Theatre de la Monnaie. This studied publicity of the mutual seeking of each other's society gives the lie direct to the fantastical reports of the Italian journals.