CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXXI, Issue 10314, 5 April 1894, Page 5

CURRENT TOPICS.

If honest man get their own when rogues fall out, it is no less true that rogued are sometimes benefited, when it is the honest men who. quarrel. Forty-four prisoners at Nice have recently had occasion to congratulate themselves on this fact. During the proceedings in the police, court of that town a violent dispute arose, between the Judge or Magistrate and the Government Prosecutor. Warm word* were exchanged, after which the latter withdrew from court in a huff. Thereupon the Judge called on the cases, and as no evidence was tendered he discharged the prisoners, to the number, as stated, of, forty-four. The discharged ones, however, have only enjoyed a brief spell of liberty* The Court of Cassation, the highest appellate court in France, has annulled the forty-four judgments, aud the prk aoners are once more under lock, and kcyi awaiting a second trial.

After commenting upon the unfounded report of Mr Gladstone’s intended resign nation, and having paid the Premier * eulogistic tribute, the St Petersburg paper Novosti goes on to criticise very severely the “Chauvinistic utterances” of sucn leading British politicians as Mr Bailout and Mr Chamberlain. “It is high time,” says the paper, " that the systematic, and bellicose agitation led by such men as Mr Balfour and the representative organs of the Tory Party should cease, if they are not to provoke ill-blood enough to lead to a dangerous issue. The cries of danger to India, Egypt, Afghanistan, Siam, &o„ are as idle as they ara mischievous. Such speeches as that! recently delivered by Mr Balfour are very strongly to be deprecated. They are not patriotic, unless we are to understand that the ulterior object of the British Tory orators is to provoke a quarrel with France, or with France and Russia. It is this kind of aggressive Chauvinism on the part of the English Opposition leaders and the Opposition press which', in the pacific interests of Europe, cause one to look with the gravest anxiety on the natural possibility of Mr Gladstone’s early retirement.” The St Petersburg Viedomosti expresses itself on the same subject iu similar terms, and with similar sentiments towards Mr Gladstone.

Something like the incident in Oattf, wherein the young officer returns as though nothing bad happened, to the wile who is mourning him as dead, has been enacted in real life in Paris. A man fell down in a fit in the Rue Ravez, and befove he could be taken to a hospital ha expired. The body was identified as that of a news agent named Feyraulie, carrying on business in the Rue iS&nche des Pommiers, and it was forthwith taken to the address indicated, Mdme. Pey raulie, who was much affected when she heard that her husband was dead, identified the body and had it taken upstairs to a bedroom aud deposited on a bed. The poor widow, as she supposed herself to be. lighted some candies, after the fashion in Roman Catholic countries, and placed them round the bed. She then remained for sometime in prayer over the body. Soon after she went downstairs, but was thunderstruck to see her husband walk in in good health and spirits. He had beard nothing of his supposed death. The body of bis double was promptly removed to the morgue.

The Kiel! correspondent of the Daily Ncvjs euppliea some further details of the closing of the British and Foreign Bible Society’s magazine in that city by order of the Civil Governor, Count Ignatieff. Hie Excellency’s Intendant, accompanied by a Commissary of Police and two guards, paid a domiciliary visit to the Society's premises about midnight, and proceeded to make a minute revision of the polyglot' contents of the magazine. The shop was locked up and sealed by the Commissary. The party then went to the private residence of the Society's local agent. This gentleman's private cabinet was ransacked. The police, not understanding the papers written in several foreign languages, packed them up and sent them to the local Censor’s department. The domiciliary visits lasted from midnight until four o’clock in the morning. Th« Governor's latendant stated that the magazine would be closed for six months. In reply to the inquiry whether, at the end of six months, the Society's privileges would be restored, the Governor's repre* sentative said, “We shall see." It seems that the Eieff authorities entertained some suspicion of Stundist literature being circulated by the Bible Society—a suspicion which has no foundation whatever. Count Ignatieff, however, is a strong Panslavist and Anglophobe, and the merest suspicion of this kind would readily lead him to set his inquisitors in motion. On the other hand, the Government and the Holy Synod have always manifested the greatest con” Bideration towards the British and Foreign Society. All the Government railways carry the Society's Bible packages free of charge, and grant free passes to the Society’s travelling agents; and for some time past (an Odessa correspondent states) the whole of the printed and polyglot works have been admitted into Russia tree of duty. •