British and Foreign News.

Hastings Standard, Issue 217, 11 January 1897, Page 4

British and Foreign News.

Mr Sims Reeves, who returned in November from a tour in South Africa where he celebrated his seventy-eighth birthday, proposed last month to pay his first visit to the United States. All going well, lie will tour across the American Continent to San Francisco, whence he will sail for Australia, a country in which also he will then sing for the lirst time. The election of Mayors for boroughs throughout England and Wales resulted in the return of 150 Conservatives, :}:( Liberal-Unionists, 110 Radicals, while in eight cases the politics of the gentlemen elected are not stated. Details are published respecting the compromise on the Manitoba schools question. All schools are to be national, under provincial control, and subject to the same regulations and inspection. Teachers must be properly qualified by passing certain examinations. Sc-cular school work is to occupy the whole day except the last half-hour, when representatives of any religious denomination will be allowed to come in and instruct the children of their denomination in case the parents are willing. An extraordinary Star Chamber Court, presided over by Bishop Nulty, is reported by the Westmeath Independent to have been held recently in the Palace, Mullingar.; It was composed of the Bishop and his vicars. Six parish priests who are Parnellites, were summoned before it, and were charged with holding political opinions which are in opposition to the Bishop's temporal and spiritual influence. It is stated (says The Times) that the charges were vague, but they included the reading of Independent papers, a practice which they were required to give up ;and that Dr. Nulty holds that the Bishops must be the dominant force in Irish politics, who alone are to have the selection of the political leaders. Mr Edgar Holland, merchant, and managing director of the Santa Barbara Gold Mining Company, was shot in the office of the company, Drury Buildings, Water-street, Liverpool, by an actress named Catherine Kempshall, under singular circumstances. Miss Kempshall, who is about 30 years of age had some time ago brought an unsuccessful action against him in London for breach of promise. While sitting in his office with her solicitor, discussing terms of settlement, she drew a revolver and lired three shots, all of which took effect. Mr Holland is in the hospital, and his assialant is in custody. Two of the wealthiest merchants of Patras, in Greece, M. Frangopoulos and M. Ivollas, were attacked on the 15th November in the street by an Anarchist. M. Frangopoulos was stabbed to the heart and died immediately. M. Kollas was slightlywounded. The murderer said he had no ground of enmity towards the victims except their wealth. The crime is the lirst of its kind in Greece, where, owing to the comparatively even distribution of wealth and the absence of extreme poverty, Socialist and Anarchist doctrines have as yet made little progress. The sixtieth anniversary of the Queen's accession will occur on Sun-

day, 20th June, and the State Thanksgiving Service, which is to be atteuded by Her Majesty, the Royal Family, and the Court, as in 1887, will be held on Tuesday, 22nd, either in St. Paul's Cathedral, or in Westminster Abbey. The British Parliament will be opened by commission on either Tuesday, 19th., or on Thursday, 21, according to present arrangements. There is not the slighest chance of the Queen opening Parliament in person. Her Majesty has not been seen at Westminster since the first day of the sensational session 1880, and it would be impossible for her to open Parliament again unless a variety of special arrangements were made lor her accommodation, including a lift. There has been much excitement and consternation at the Court of Vienna in consequence of the discovery that the Due d'Orleans is not qualified for the decoration of the Golden Fleece, which was conferred on him recently by the Emperor Francis Joseph, and if he is to remain a Knight Companion of that " most noble, ancient, and honorable Order," the statutes will have to be altered. A new Knight of the Golden Fleece must have had Roman Catholic ancestors on both sides for eighteen generations, and his pedigree must be without ilaw or stain for the same period. It appears, not only that the Regent Orleans married an illegitimate daughter of Louis XIV. (Mademoiselle de Blois), but also that the late Ducht ss d'Orleans (Princess Helena of Mecklenburg-Schwerin), the mother of the Com to de Paris, was all her life a Protestant, and a member of the Lutheran Church.