NEWS IN BRIEF.

Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 156, 31 December 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

What drives France to such bootless, senseless undertakings abroad is simply disappointment, humiliation, utter disgust with matters as they are tit home. It is but the instinct of the mauvais coucheiir, who after tossing and turning in his bed for the whole night long, must in tho end start up and go forth with his gun in the morning and kill something, lost in liis frenzy he should kill liiin«df. Tlie four Englishmen who wen* captured near Smyrna by brigands while shooting in the neigh bom hood of the town, have beer rolea«ed on payment of a ransom of seven hundred and fifty pounds. A womnn entered n Snlfurd tramcar on its journey to Pendleton, and was suddenly taken ill. The conductor stopped the car and went to a public-house for" some biaudy. On his return it was found that the woman had given birth to a child. The Bishop of Kxeter, speaking lately at a diocesan conference expressed the hope that ere long a Hill would be introduced for the compulsory retirement of incompetent clergymen, whatever position they held in the Church, compensation being made for existiug claims. He acknowledged the value of trained women as workers in the Church, but there must be no setting aside of remembrance of the fact that we were Protestants. Earl Spencer has visited Cardiff, and disti United prizes to the student* of the University College of South Wales. Lord Spencer said that education in scientific principles underlay onr manufactures and our farming processes. Germans and Belgians were to be found in almost .1 1 English centres of industry, Germany and Belgium having for years given an education beyond the mere language of iheii* own country. The Paris Charivart, speaking of the recent report that Bonaparte's ashes had been stolen, remarks : — " Let him sleep in the midst of that French people whom he loved so well, and whom he caused to be so well massacred." Scarcely a newspaper existed in Japan twenty years ago, and now there are 551. Jubilee sixpences are now (etching over 2s a-piece. The other Jubilee silver coins are still very seldom found iv circulation, though great quantities of shillings, florius, crowns, and halfcrowns have been issued from the Mint. The Lord Chancellor has submitted to the Burton Town Council the names of fifteen gentlemen proposed to be appointed to constitute a Borough Bench of Magistrates. The list includes eight persons connected with the brewing industry. Lord Derby in a letter on Disestablishment, writes that the maintenance of the Church Fstajlishment in England on its present footing must depend on the will of Parliament, and practically on the will of the House of Commons, for the Lords are not likely to take on themselves the responsibility of permanently resisting the decision of the constituencies deliberately expressed at a general election. Anton yon Werner is now at Baden-Baden in connection with the picture he is painting representing Kaiser Wilhelm in the midst of his family on his ninetieth birthday — the Jubilee present of German residents in Englaud to Queen "Victoria. Snow fell in tho uoith of Scotland and North Wales on 11th October. Snowdon, Cader Idris, and Berwyn, are covered with snow. Snowstorms are also reported from the Midlands, Cumberland and Westmoreland. "It cannot be too widely known," writes a mrdical man, " that cream separated by machinery from pure milk, before it has cooled, is a full substitute for cod liver oil. In several hospitals it has already quite superseded the nauseous oil. The Mayor of Argonia, Kansas, has given birth to a fine boy. As that is something out of tho usual line, it may be added that the Mayor of Argonia is a woman. Mrs. Susanna Salter, the only woman Mayor in the world. A Wisconsin judge, in order to accommodate two lawyers who desired to return home an speedily as possible, recently allowed them to argue the case on a train. A monument to Gambetta is to be erected in the Place dv Carrousel in Paris. Two hundred and eighty thousand French citizens contributed to the fund. Padre Luis, a Portuguese priest, and a peasant were bitten by a mad wolf in July ; the priest hastened to Paris and placed himself under Pasteur, while the peasant remained at home. Luis recently died from hydrophobia, but the peasant has shown no signs of the dread disease. An American paper says : — Rev. Mr. Spurgeon, the famous English preacher, is reported to have decliued an offer of .£IB,OOO for delivering 100 lectures in America. Mr. Spurgeon must be very unlike some Englishmen. The body of a Swiss tourist, who perished four years ago when ascending one of the peaks in Canton Valais, has just been found in perfect preservation. It was completely encased in ice, which hul thus arres ted natural decay. Snuff-taking is to \>c resusitated this winter by Parisian dandies. So the young men are hunting up their ancestral snuff-boxes, and studying family pictures in order to acquire the graceful style of taking a pinch of suuff practised by old Court gallants. The will of the late Professor Spencer F. Baird of the Smithsonian Institution bequeaths all his property to his widow during her life, and then to his daughter during her lifetime Should both die without heira, what remains is to revert to the Smithsonian Institution.

A peculiar liojior law is in force in Rockland county, Ga., where but one person in the county is permitted to sell liquor. He is appointed by the grand jury, can sell for medicinal purposes only, and cannot keep on hand more than ten gallons of spirits. Tho London Telcgiaph finds 113 out of 550 peers worthy to sit in Westminster. The balance are black sheep, and they aie hopelessly eccentric or congenitally stupid. Tho Telegraph suggests that the peers pick out a small minority aud let them do the legislating for the crowd, and theicby remove a genuine obstacle to ical liish reform. A general order has just been issued to tho army, which fixes the minimum height of recruits for all medium cavalry regiments ut <'»ft Tin. When the Trafalgar, the new warship, is complete, she will displace 11,940 tons of water, and will h.i\e cost not far short of £900,000. The latest development of the Salvation Army ingenuity aud enterprise is an exhibition *of thank-olVeiiu^, which will be held at the Clapton Training Home, in connection with the anniversary of thnt institution. The object of this display is " to give ercry corps, officer, soldier, and friend an opportunity of presenting a portion of their goods as a token of their thankfulness to God for raising up the Salvation Army." Contributions in kind of all sorts are invited, either for the use of tho cadets in the training homo or for sale. „ A Clareraont, N.H, man died tlio other day while signing his will. At Quayquil, Ecuador, it has been found necessary to impose henvy fines in order to abolish tho custom indulged in by both men and women of sending chaffing aud immoral messages by telephone. A belief prevails in England tlmt. John Morley or Lord Jfosebeiy will in the course of time assume the leadership of the Liberal party, and become Prime Minister on the accession of the party to power. A farmer near Virclen, Manitoba; lias made an affidavit to an average yield of 51 bushels of wheat to the ncre from 15 acres. At Blackburn, the jury awarded Thomas mitton, a cotton weaver, .£IOO compensation for having his eye knocked out by a loom-shuttlo. Anthony Gilkn, clerk to Messiu Vagliano, foreign bankers', Broadstreet, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court tho other day to having forged and uttered bills of exchange, whereby his emploj'ers had been defrauded to the amount of £71,000, and was sentenced to penal servitude for ten years. High license is woiking satisfactorily to all parties in Arlington. Ga. It fixed the whisky license at ,Cl6O, aud two nieu at onc3 paid £320 into the Treasury. Of this £2(KJ will bo used in building a Fchoolhousc, and the town feels rich with its balance of £120 in bank. The t Salvation Army has commenced operations in Rome, and ita organ announces that Captain Laura has quite won the hearts of the Romans with her lambouiiue, although she is yet hardly able to speak a word of Italian. The oldest tombstone in Gctnmuy was hitherto mipposed to have been one at Worms, dated 900 ad. But at Zahlbach, a village near Mainz, a tombstone has just been discovered with a Hebrew epitaph, aud dated 806 A D. Dr. Barnardo, the philanthropist, of London, has secured 5000 acres of land in the north-western part of the Dominion of Canada, and pro-" poses to make of the entire block an industrial farm wheie homeless lads of London may be sent.' At the opening of the season Lord Tollemache wrote to each te ant on his estate, saying he would present every cheese prize winner with .£f>o worth of bone manure, and every farmer receiving a highly commended card with £25 worth. At the London Dairy Show his lordship's tenantry took fivo out of six prizes offered for Cheshire cheese, and to each of the five winners will be presented £50 worth of manure. Upon the arrival of the " Jubilee Fifty " officers of the Salvation Army, who left London in August for India, Commander Tucker found a cheque for £1,100, which had been sent to him to assist in maintaining the work of the army in that country, The donor, who has amassed a large fortune mainly in India, recently gave a cheque for £5000 towards the same object. The Cincinnati Commercial pays that a girl who was married recently at Covington was only 14 years old, and wore a schoo'-girl's attire.