EXTRACTS FROM LAST MAIL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 232, 30 September 1868, Page 3

EXTRACTS FROM LAST MAIL.

The Scots Fusilier Gruards are about to abolish their pipers. Two deaths occurred in London from the use of chloroform by ladies undergoing surgical operations. The grand ceremony of the marriage of the youthful Emperor of China took place at Pekin in March last; 120 young girls, from 11 to 19 years old, were admitted to the palace on the previous evening as candidates; 7 were choson from this number, who had to submit to an examination before the Empress mother, whose business it is to make the choice. Her and tbe prince's choice fell on a young lady named Minkdeu, who is said to be very beautiful and 11 years of age. The total cost for interest aDd management of the national debt was, in 1858, £28,627,103, iv 1868, £26,571,750. The Duke of Devonshire has erected at his own cost a Wesieyan Chapel at Woodland, Wesieyan preachers have labored in the district for nearly a century. The English branch of the Roman Catholic Society for the Propagation of the Faith has now a Missionary College at Millhill, Middlesex, where twelve students are being trained for missionary purposes. In 1700 there was uo lawyer in the Isle of Wight. In 1 588 one came to live there, and was driven out of the island. The American Bible Soeiety has completed the electrotyping of the Arabic Scriptures, by which 120,000,000 people will get the Bible in a pure and attractive form. This great work has beeu some 28 years in progress; and by the courtesy of the American Society in presenting the British and Foreign Bible Sosiety with a full set of these electrotype plates, the translation ceased to be the property of a nation, and became a gift of the whole Church to the millions of Asia aud Africa. Thus fhe Gospel goes back from the West to the lands whence it came. In the schools of Beyroot one may see not only Greek and Maronito children, but scores of Moslems, boys and girls, reading the Scriptures and learning passages by heart. The Emperor- Napoleon, during his stay at FoDtaine bleau, has given his attention to the American invention for sinking wells instantaneously, and which has been improved uuder the direction of his Majesty. Eight pumps, worked by a. hot-air engine, are now in operation in the park, aud cau throw 2,655 litres of water per hour iuto the English river formerly supplied by the Belle Eau fountain. Trebizond was the" scene of a horrible tragedy on June 7. No less than 17 persons fell victims to tbe attack of a madman in a few minutes. Of the attacked four died instantaneously, 10 are mortally and three slightly wounded. Each person received but one blow in the chest, and that near the region of the heart. The assassin has been domiciled in Trebizond for about four months, where he sold old iron in a stall in one of the most populous streets in the town. He commenced his butchery in the open day about 3 o'clock in the morning, using as his instrument of destruction a knife sharpened at both sides. Having fastened the knife to his •wrist, the blade turned inwards, he walked the street in which he lived striking at all those who came within his reach, taking

care, after each stab, to conceal the kuifj so that his victims were at the moment in doubt who had attacked them. He would have killed many more if he had not received a blow of a stone on the head from a young man who perceived what, he was at. This so stunned him that the bystanders were able to seize him and hand him over to the police. Persons immediately interested in the subject are seriously discussing the feasibility of widening the river for a mile or so below London-bridge. There is only one difficulty — money. The cost would be enormous, and the expenditure ou the Thames Embankment would be a trifle compared with the sum required. The Journal des Debats says that rumors having gone abroad that the ex-Empress Charlotte intended to return to Mexico at the call of a very powerful party, it made inquiry on the subject of her health, aud ascertained from the most reliable source that, 'though her condition is now improved, her reason is still profoundly affected. It sometimes happens that she appears quite well. She then speaks, or reads, or plays, as in the best period of her life, but with a melancholy recollection of the days she 3pent in Italy aud iv Mexico.'