MAIL NEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 5991, 25 May 1882, Page 4

MAIL NEWS.

RUSSIA'S POLICY. • Vanity Fair,' with regard to the supposed intentions of Russia towards India and Great Britain, says:—"What Russia intends is very obvious. She has no intention of attacking India, defended by its native army and its English commanders and organisation. She looks, as General Stolieteff avowed to Shere Ali, to an insurrection of the Mussulmans of India. This she is endeavoring to obtain by the action _of England in Egypt against the Sultan—action which means to be so decided as to make every Mussulman take up arms against England as in a holy war. Then Russia, who offered to the Sultan in 1821 to suppress the Greek insurrection, will offer her services to England to suppress the Mussulmans of India and to ensure the final triumph ol 'Christianity and civilisation.' This assistance once accepted, Finis Britannia." THE IMPRISONED IRISH SUSPECTS. According to a correspondent of the 'Freeman's Journal' the suspects in Enniskillen Gaol seem to have the prison pretty much in their own hands. On St. Patrick's Day they all assembled in the exercise-yard wearing large bunches of shamrock, and responded with "loud and vigorous cheering" to the serenade of a multitude outside the walls of the gaol who sang "God save Ireland" to the stirring strains of a brass band. The governor at this point thought it wise to interfere, and, after having first asked them not to make any demonstration, threatened to lock up the first man who attempted to cheer. Thereupon, says the correspondent who tells the story, "the challerfge was immediately taken up by the suspects, and, standing side by side, three loud salvos of cheers rang out upon the air. Thereupon the governor and the warders disappeared precipitately, leaving the ground in possession of the suspects. Falling into procession the prisoners then marched around the yard, two abreast, singing 'God Save Ireland,' 'The rising of the Moon,' 'The White Cockade,' 'Home, Sweet Home,' 'The Harp that Once,' 'O'Donnell Aboo,' etc. No punishment has been served out to any of them as yet, and, having regard to the fact that the suspects have agreed if anyone of them is unjustly punished or put in the ' solitary cell' that the other thirty men will either take him out again or share his punishment, it is not probable that the authorities will resort to extreme measures with them." What a change must have come over the spirit when such a scene as this can have taken place in such a centre as Enniskillen.

BREACH OF PROMISE IN GERMANY. Actions for breach of promise are so rare in Germany that, when one does occur, it is interesting to read the details. A Miss Constance Kirschner recently brought an action of this kind against her faithless swain, a goldsmith, named John Fundel, in which she sued for the fulfilment of his promise, or, alternatively, damages to the amount of Ll5O. In the present state of the law in Germany, the Court could not award the fair plaintiff any pecuniary compensation ; but the defendant was formarly adjudged to be guilty of breaking his promise, and, further, legally bound to marry his betrothed. The judgment having been duly communicated to all the Matrimonal Courts in the Empire, Miss Kirschner has the satisfaction of knowing that, if her truant lover will not marry her, he cannot marry any other lady in Germany. A PROBABLE CONGRESS. Russian diplomacy is adroit enough to : extract some advantage out of present difficulties. There may be no wish at St. Petersburg for war, or any thought that Russia could come well out of a contest with Germany and Austria combined. Even among moderate and intelligent men, however, there is a conviction that the oftener the settlement of 1878 is re-opened the more it may be shaken and weakened, Russia now holds the same attitude towards the Treaty of Berlin which France did for half a century to the Treaty of Vienna. The latter feeling was the key to Napoleon the Third's passion for congresses and the readjustment of frontiers. In the case of Russian statesmen it manifests itself simiI larly. They have always been in favor of a conference or a congress, by whomsoever proposed. It is quite natural that they should be nibbling at the same idea again. They perceive that a congress might be utilised to embarrass Austria in the Balkan Peninsula, and to hamper England and France in Egypt. The leading Panslavist organ of Russia, the ' Novoe Vremyma,' has begun to advocate a Congress almost passionately as the only escape from a general war. It suggests that this country should take the initiative, as being the one least interested in the subjects to be considered, and having the greatest freedom of action. It anticipates that France and Italy, as well as Russia, would cordially support the proposal, but it does not conceal from itself that there would be opposition to it at Berlin and Vienna. In fact it is one the dangers which Prince Bismarck has been trying to ward off since the troubles in the Herzegovinia began. He has urged Austria to put forth all her strength to crush the rising peremptorily and completely, lest it should spread over the Peninsula and furnish a pretext for foreign intervention. —* South Australian Register's' correspondent. THE IRISH SUSPECTS. It may surprise your readers to learn that there are now over 600 " suspects " lodged in what Mr Healy would call the Government dungeons. For a Prime Minister who exposed the horrors of the Neapolitan prisons this is an awkward circumstance. It is not the Irish members alone who do not like it. The conscience of the Liberal party is beginning to be touched, and the iron is entering the soul of all consistent friends of freedom. Thsre are strange stories put in circulation about the ill-treatment of some of the prisoners. The Parnellites allege that for trifling offences they are condemned to long periods of solitary confinement, as, for instance, when Mr Parnell himself got a week for attemgting to bribe a turnkey to take out a letter and post it. There is doubt if the provisions of the Protection Act authorise such treatment as this, and a discussion is threatened among the flood of Irish grievances which continue to deluge the House of Commons. Sir Arthur Otway lias given notice of a motion which will put the Castle authorities on their defence. Mr Healy has a very mysterious letter from one of the suspects, making grave charges against the officials at Kilmainham, but he will not show it to the House, nor would he accept Mr Gladstone's invitation to send it to the Government unless on condition that an English official should be sent over to investigate the charges. Possibly the Government will comply with his stipulation after they have heard the nature of the charges. It cannot be unknown to them that in their administration of the Protection Acts they have gone against the sympathies of their Radical followers. The latter fear that Mr Forster is either nervous or too much influenced by the Castle officials in his dealings with the suspects, It is reported that he has been meditating a destruction of the Parnell party as a check on the outrages which have been carried on among them. Mr Parnell himself would in that event be removed to a provincial gaol, where he would be more rigidly guarded. The " suspects " have assumed far larger and more serious proportions than were ever anticipated by Mr Forster himself. They have far exceeded the highest estimate of the House of Commons. A member was loudly cheered the other night when he declared that last session he had cordially supported the Government in the passing of the Peace Protection Acts, but had he thought that they would ever be carried the length of putting 600 men in prison without warrant or trial he would, never have given a vote for them. —lbid.

CLIMATIC ECCENTRICITIES. There is every prospect of a summer no less abnormal than the winter has been. Farmers already begin to fear that it may be too good for the crops. Present indications are that it will be dry, and in the south of Europe there are already apprehensions of a drought. The Rhone is now lower tlian it has ever been in the memory of man. There is not -"• >ter enough in it to work the mills on its bunks. Some of the Swiss lakes are begin.'ing to give out. Steamers on the Lake of Constance can no longer touch at some of the ports they usually call at, and passengers have to be landed in small boats. From France also there are many complaints of want of moisture. Not the least remarkable of them comes from the coast of Brittany, where sardine-fishing has been ruined. Not a single sardine has appeared in waters which formerly swarmed with them at this season. Brittany alone expects to lose 15,000,000 francs through this strange failure, which has been deemed worthy of consideration by the Academy of Sciences. M. Blavier, a meteorologist, who has bestowed special attention on the vagaries of the Gulf Stream, attributes to them the disappearance of sardines as well as the abnormal winter we have enjoyed. What meteorologists should do next is to attempt to reconcile the destructive floods which have visited the Mississippi Valley with the unseasonable sunshine which has prevailed on this side of the Atlantic. M. Blavier has some reason for laying the responsibility on the Gulf Stream, for it has been guilty of serious irregularities elsewhere. Great fields of ice have drifted down into the track of sailing steamers, and a number of them were frozen-in for days together.— Rid.