NEWS IN BRIEF.

Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 68, 17 September 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

According to Lloyd's Register, tho total tonnage of the mercantile marine of Great Britain is about 9,000,000 tons. Next comes that of the United States with 2,000,000 tons, and closely following are the British colonies with 1,500,000 tons. The new tonnage built during 1 886 seems to show that Great Bricain maintains its rank. Statistics as to tho strength of various navies are less satisfactory, not through showing a special weakness on the part of the British navy, but that in proportion to the tonnage to be protected in case of war Great Britain might be less favourably situated than other countries which have a smaller mercantile marine. Efforts to civilise the Coroados of Matto Groaso are inspiring the people of that province with hopes of ultimate success. The Coroados are said to number about 10,000. President Cleveland has ordered that the decision of the War Department to restore to their respective states (including the Confederate States) the flags and standards captured during the civil war is not to be carried out, as neither authorised by law nor justified as an executive act. The President declares that any direction touching the final disposal of the flags must originate with Congress. Thomas Jolly, of Plymouth, was determined to end his life. When his body was discovered in the North Quay it was found that both his leg 6 and arms were tied together. Previously he had been showing the string, and declaring that he intended to so tie his limbs, and then drown himself. Jolly was, at the time he committed the crime, wanted at the police station for brutally assaulting his wife. The heat seemed to tell most severely upon the officers at the late volunteer review. A curiously large proportion of them are men with a lot of superfluous flesh, quite unequal to the " double " with the glass at 80 in the shade. The result was that many of them had to fall out soon after they got into Buckingham Palace Eoad, much to the amusei ment of the crowd, who mercilessly chaffed them. Mr. Henry Bayley, one of the managing directors of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, was killed at Sidcup on 7th July. He was driving with a friend, when his horse bolted, and the carriage was wrecked. Mr. Bayley'B coachman was killed also, and his friend seriously injured. On the 2nd July Mr. Isaac Slack, a large farmer at Skirworth Hall, Cumberland, after attending a meeting at Ousby, was found dead by the roadside, about a mile from home. His wife, who was much depressed by the event, committed suicide two days after by taking poison. M. Lippmann, the well-known savant, has recently proposed to the French Academy of Sciences the substitution of a new unit of' time for the ordinary second, which he regards as an arbitrary and variable unit. The unit proposed would be an electrical resistance which can be shown to represent an interval of time — the resistance, say. of a cube of mercury. M. Lippmann gives a method of practically determining the unit by means of an artificial resistance and condenser — apparatus which he considers likely to be more constant than the standard clock. It takes three weeks to perform a marriage ceremony among the upper classes in Japan, and it is generally conceded that the clergyman earns his fee. The proprietors of the Sheffield waterworks confirmed the terms of agreement for the sale of the undertaking to the corporation equivalent to a purchase price of rather over £2,000,000. Lord Ronald Gower has offered to present to Stratford-on-Avon a handsome and costly Shakesperian monument, designed by his lordship, a plaster cast of which is now in the Crystal Palace. From Orenburg to Ekaterinburg the country is declared to be thickly dotted with asbestos deposits, while near the Verkni Tagil Iron Works is a hill, called the "Sholkovaya Gora," or Hill of Silk, which is stated, to be entirely composed of asbestos. The mineral is said to be of the best white quality, and adapted" for all important purposes to which asbestos is applied. In the Goroblagsdat district of Perm similar deposits crop above the surface, and any " quantity can be obtained for nothing, the mineral possessing no value in the Ural region. A drought prevails all over Europe, and there' is much injury to crops. The water supply of the great cities is seriously affected, being tainted and very scanty. Steel-fiamed cabs are now being manufactured in England, with a view to lightness and greater durability than if wood were used for the purpose. , If Professor Seeley is right in his belief of a coming time when a hundred millions of the Anglo-Saxon race are to spread the knowledge of the English language over the greater part of the habitable globe, there will be a grand future for English authors. A German newspaper devoted to forestry says that for forest -culture in Germany there is a decided preference for American hickory.

Scotch farmers are experimenting in ilax-raising with good results. Elizabeth Garrett, the unmarried sister of the President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway, is said to have the neat little sum of £4,000,000 at her command, and this is increasing rapidly every day. Colonel Wintle was lately fined by the Portsmouth Magistrates for refusing to have his child vaccinated. The defendant, who is an abstainer and a vegetarian, declared he would rather go to prison than pay. The President and Council of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers have sent a letter of congratulation to Lord Armstrong, as a past Preaident of the institution, on his elevation to the peerage, this being the first instance in which a mechanical engineer has been so signally honoured. Among the poor people who received gifts at Griinsby, on the occasion of the Queen's Jubilee, was a woman named Anno, who, for tho last fifty years of her life has been an invalid confined to her bed. Tho case was brought to the notice of tho Queen, who Bent a cheque for £3 for the old lady, " who has spent a Jubilee in patient suffering." Hereafter each division ©f the Gorinau army will be provided with a "lighting carriage," which will contain a steam engine, apparatus for producing electric light, and reflectors. The intention is to light up a camp and surroundings so as to make surprise impossible. The Bangalore Spectator States that the ammuniti<Jb. usually in possession of the infantry stationed there has been withdrawn from the men, and stored under lock and key, owing te the cases of unfortunates running a-muck. At the Memorial Hall, Farringdon street, Mr. Henry Richard, M.P., was chosen by the deputies of tho three denominations — Presbyterian, Independent, Baptist — as their chairman for the ensuing three years. It is reported that Mousignor Scilla has informed tho Pope that the time has not yet arrived to establish a nunciature, or apostolic delegation, at London, although some official link between England and the Vatican seems not only expedient, but imperative. A new carving-knife works on the scissors prinoiple. It is repotted that an English syndicate, under the name of the Mexican Land and Improvement Company, has .purchased 600,000 acres of land in Chihuahua and Durango, Mexico, with 4,400 horses, 2,500 cattle, and 40,000 sheep. The troops who wore engaged in the operations in the Soudan—British, Indian, and Colonial alike— are tojbe permitted to wear the Egyptian bronze star, which the Khedive is anxious to bestow upon them. Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone, one Sunday afternoon, entertained at tea, in the grounds of the residence of Lord Aberdeen, at Dollishill, all the haymakers in the district. The proceedings commenced at three o'clock by Mrs. Gladstone playing a hymn. Mrs. Coventry, who preferred a charge of assault against her husband at the Thames Polico Court, London, said that he had blackened both, her eyes some sixty times, had thrown her out of the window, fracturing her ribs, and had jumped on her. He was now sent to gaol for fourteen days.