MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1091, 12 October 1869, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

A commission has been appointed under the Irish Church Bill for commencing arrangements to organise the Church. A cargo of meat preserved in ice has arrived from the Eiver Plate. The Thames tunnel has been closed, having been bought at one-third of the original cost by a railway company. In consequence of the illness of Mr. Gladstone no whitebait dinner was given this year. It is proposed to erect a bishopric in Burmah. The commissioners of the Exhibition of XB5l are maturing a scheme for annual international exhibitions of choice and select articles. Permanent galleries are to Le erected at Kensington for the purpose. It is proposed to erect a tablet to the memory of John Keble in Westminster Abbey. The Finsbury Park has been opened at a cost of -695,000. The working men have held a conference on the subject of the patent laws, Sir Eoundell Palmer presiding. He strongly urged their total abolition, but failed to carry the meeting with him. Mr. Edmond Beales has been promised a County Court judgeship. A son of the V iceroy of Egypt is studying at Oxford. A soldier has been sentenced to penal servitude for life for committing an outrage on a child, and then throwing her over Dover cliffs. A man has been committed for trial for shooting Capt. Lambert in Ireland. Mr. Churchill, the consul at Zanzibar, has returned to England on sick leave. He expresses the fullest confidence in the safety of Livingstone, and believes he went in search of the south side of the lake Albert Nyanza. The north side was visited by Sir S. Baker. Instructions have been received at Ottawa to have the gunboats on the Canadian lakes ready for immediate use. Eumors of a Eenian movement are supposed to have been the cause of the order. Mr. Jefferson Davis has been making a tour through Scotland, accompanied by Dr. Charles Mackay. A brisk competition is at present being carried on between the rival steamship companies trading between Liverpool ana Dundalk, and for several days past passengers are carried between the two ports at a fare of 6d. each*— -viz, 3d. to Dundalk, and 3d. back again. John Eoberts, the billiard champion, is a bankrupt in London. He ascribes his failure to losses on a trip to America. His debts are £1429. The King of Sweden is expeoted to visit England in September. The hon. Mr. Sladen, of Victoria, and SirEobert Eamsay, late Colonial Treasurer of Queensland, are at present in Scotland. A well-known old colonist, Mr. Edward Hamilton, has taken his seat in the House of Commons for Salisbury. He was just in time to take part in the Parliamentary requiem over the Emigration Board, which is about to be abolished. The summer drawing of the Eussian Government lottery took place at St. Petersburg on July 13. The fortunate winner of the £28,000 prize is a subordinate clerk in one of the banking establishments of the capital, who became possessed almost accidentally of the successful ticket. Mr. T. Dicker, late editor of the Melbourne Mining Gazette, has started a paper in London entitled Dicker's Australian and London Gazette. It is intended for circulation at home, and is very admirably got up, containing a vast amount of colonial information on mining and general, matters. ' Miss Ellen Barber is writing a series of Emigration Papers for the working classes, upon Victoria, Queensland, and the other Australian colonies. Another outrage is reported from Tipperary. As Mr. Brereton, a respectable farmer, was, with his wife, driving from Thurles, a man named Slattery, who lay in wait behind a ditch in a lonely part of the road, stopped his horse, and hurled a large and jagged stone, at Brereton, breaking in his skull fearfully. Mrs. Brereton supplicated for mercy without effect. Brereton has been unconscious since, and his life is in danger. Several pieces of bone have been removed from his skull. Tho cause of the quarrel was about land. The accused has not been arrested. Eight men, who have been for some time past in Trim Gaol on a charge of conspiracy to murder Mr. Gargan, steward to Mr. Farrell, of Moyanalty, were brought before the magistrates at Kells on July 23, and after a lengthened investigation remanded for a week. On being brought into the town they were loudly cheered by a crowd of people who had assembled to greet them, and the mob subsequently made a violent attack on a Crown witness named Magill, on whose information the prisoners were taken into custody. The police had considerable

difficulty in saving him from their hands, Stone-throwing was resorted to, and several of the police were much hurt. The excitemint at one time rose to a serious I pitch, but was finally subdued through the exertions of the Roman Catholic clergy of the town. On August 7 we heard that an attempt to murder has been made at Farmer's Bridge, near Tralee. The victim is a wealthy farmer named Flynn, and the assailant is also a farmer named Cahill. They were returning from Tralee fair, when a dispute arose, Flynn interfered to make peace. The party went into a pub- j lie-house, except Cahill, who went into a | neighbouring house, brought out the tongs, went stealthily to Flynn, and suddenly inflicted three terrible blows with them, knocking him senseless. Flynn's nose was broken, and his skull smashed in. The case is hopeless. Cahill fled to the mountains, and the police pursued and overtook him. f. When they were about to shoot him he surrendered. It is reported from Cork that an attempt has been made to assassinate the clerk of the North Chapel in that town, but no cause is stated for such a murderous attack. The Habitual Criminals' Bill has passed. Henceforth, when a person has been twice convicted of felony, the Court may make it a part of the sentence on the second conviction, that after the expiration ofhis term of imprisonment, the convict shall be called upon to clear himself, if he is found in circumstances leading to the presumption that he is living dishonestly. On a third conviction he is to be sentenced for life.^ This will clear the air of the professional criminal. The unsettled condition of Ireland continues. We have constantly had to record murderous outrages in various parts of the country, and others must now be added to the fearful list. A My. Warburton, High Sheriff of Queen's County, was shot at and severely wounded on the 19th July. The crime was committed in open day,, and with great deliberation. Fortunately the gun was raised too high, and the greater part of the charge fell upon Mr. Warburton's hat, but severe injuries were inflicted upon the unfortunate gentleman, from which he is now slowly recovering. The outrage is said to be agrarian, and as usual the assassin has escaped. A large sum has been subscribed as a reward for the detection of the parties connected with the outrage. Mr. Warburton was only twenty-six years of age. Lord Olonbrock also has received a threatening notice. At the Kildonan goldfields, Scotland, a good many of the old claims have got run out, and those working on them are doing little or no good. They are consequently getting disheartened, and, as there is no prospect of new ground being marked off for them, they will be forced to give up the diggings. In the month of July ninety-five licenses were applied for. Great activity is being shown in fitting up St. Peter's for the -Ecumenical Council The Mount Cenis tunnel makes rapid progress. It will be opened next year, when a grand exhibition will be held in Turin to celebrate the event. Mr. Forbes, a merchant of Boston, now in Madrid, has been empowered to make overtures to purchase Cuba for the American Government for one hundred millions of dollars. The purchase appears improbable. The marriage of the Crown Prince of Denmark with Princess Louise of Sweden has been celebrated in Stockholm. The Government of Prussia have decided that owing to the progress which has taken place throughout .Europe, the armament of the Prussian troops should be changed. The new needle gun has been adopted by the Minister of War. The Emperor of Austria has received an address from the Austrian and Hungarian delegates. Both express sentiments of attachment to the Emperor. The statement by the Minister of Finance says there will be an improvement of seven millions of florins as compared with the estimate. A German Railway Congress has been opened at Vienna, at which several important lines were projected. A colonel in the Russian army has committed suicide because he was struck by the Czarewich. The Emperor was much affected, and compelled the Grand Duke to attend the funeral. Intelligence from Mexico states that General Vega has organised an independent confederation in the Northern States. The Californian Republican Convention has passed a resolution declaring it to be the duty of the Government to demand full reparation for the injury inflicted by the British Government and people on American commerce during the rebellion. It is also in favor of Chinese immigration, but against Chinese suffrage. Mr. Seward has visited California by the Pacific Railway, and had an enthusiastic reception. Fifteen gunboats under construction at New York have been seized by the United States Marshall on the complaint of the Peruvian Minister, who alleged they were intended for an attack against Peru. A plot against Ameer Shere Ali has been discovered at Kabul. Timos, Shore's nephew, and the supposed instigators, have been arrested, sent into British territory, and placed under the surveillance of the Indian Government. There is a smart controversy going on just now among the Freemasons in England. A worthy brother, having spent several years in Australia, has returned, announcing as the fruit of his sojourn the discovery of various ancient mysteries. The Babylonian and Greek astronomy are Sronounced to have been organised by 'reemasons, and the Assyrian monuments in the British museum to be nothing but illustrations ofthe same great fact. The discoverer, pf course, has not been without the countenance of some of the more ignorant, if met by the contempt of the better informed. Some of the masons are, however, very indignant at an attempt to represent that the key of cuneiform and 1 heiroglyphic literature should be claimed to have been picked up by chance and hidden away as a masonic secret ; and they call on the inventor to publish his contribution, if he have any, to the stores of general knowledge, as they want no covert possession of it. Ministers have labored hard in the teeth of a violent opposition to pass several important measures, including- bills for leasing the telegraphs, and relative to bankruptcy, endowed schools, habitual criminals, Scotch education, retirement of invalid bishops, and compound householders. The measure^ lost were Locke King's Eeal Estate Intestaoy Bill, Marriages with Deceased Wife's Sister Bill, University Test Bill, Eegistration of Trademarks' Bill, Abolition of Capital Punishment Bill, the Protection of the Property . of Married Women Bill and many others. Mr. Eyland's attacks on the expenditure of the diplomatic service induced the Government to promise a searching enquiry. The suite of Overend, Gurney, and Co. against the directors, seeking to make them liable for £2,500,000 of paid up capital, has been decided in favor of the defendants. Chief Justice Cockle, of Queensland, has been knighted.