NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5370, 1 February 1879, Page 7

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Gladstone's daughter ia a student at Cambridge Co.le^e. T e han tHom-st woman ia Europe is said to lie the Queen of Italy. Tbe income of the native peasantry of [ndia averages £2 per annum. Adt-lina Patti has snub »*-d the modistes of Pari* by orders for opera toil-u» at Veinua. The young D ike-«f tNurtolk will soon be of as>e t *h*«it h* wil enjov an locume of £400,000 fr >m bis Sheffield estate. I c is again runoure.t tint Sir Fitzroy Kelly is ab »ut to retire from the bench. He is now years of age and nearly blind and de *f. Tne R »jah of Pooree, who is now serving a-ta convict for h .ving put oue of his subjects to death, bai been deported to the Andaman Islands S'toer AH, the Ameer of Cabul, has a hooked nos-\ a fullun ler lip, arched eyebrows -bowing disdain, and a mild expression generally. " vfter the Turtle*' is the name of a now '>ook brought ouc tu Loudon, which contains the Guildi.a'l speeches of the Premiers for thirty-one ye rs. Dr. Mary Walker is said to have become insane. Tne appalling tendency of pantaloons 'o bag at the knees is ind-el calculated to shatter the strongest intellect. I he i*ros* yearly value oi house property in Parishes inc-ased from £15,314,025 in ISG2, to £23 475.557 at the present time, or nther more tbau 50 per cent. A French-nan who died recently has left Gari'a'di and his two sons, Menotti and Kicciotti, his heirs to all his property, which, amounts to a considerable sum. Mr. iluskiu uever advertises any of his w>»rk-, and never sends any copies out for review. Tbe result is that many who want his works have difficulty in finding them. The possible dangers attending the use of red and green tapers have recently formed the sui>j ct of re investigitiou in England, and their use his beeu strongly condemned. Sddmau has invented a prices* for making Bri unoia-metal articles soporous, by he&ting them f-r 15 or 20 seconds to five degrees t)el->w their ineltia"-poiut ia a paraffin bath. Private theatriralaars all the rage fn England, and " tbe Hon. &lrs. Harry Needham gran by marriage to the Earl of K,ilin« rey/ ; has made her debut at the Globe. Before the late war Servia possessed 17,460 Batiare miles, with 1,360,000 inhabitants." Now, her territory extends over 19,800 square miles, with 1,640,000 inhabitants. Frau German, the famous lady physician an<l Leipzig professor, died on the 10th December. She was both the heart and head of ttie uerman agitation against oompulaory vaccination. Ttie Emperor William continues to be feeble notwithstanding all flattering reports io tbe contrary, de is irritable and retires etrly. Ia his occasional scrolls the Empress watches him coustautly. A new brake has been tried on some of the English railways, by means of whick trains running at the rate of 50' miles per hour c*n be stopped within a dut&nce of less t»»an 70 yards. Tue Scotch papers atata that Mr. Hunter Blair, of Duoskey, who intends to join the Benedictine Monastey at Fore Augustas, has i given £20,000 to complete the bnilding of the monastery and colleges Trie Prairie Farmer states that Great Britain has one sh-ep to each two aeres of land ; Germany, France, and Spain one io each live acres ; and the United States has one to each fifty-six acres. In every peri d of life, at all seasons of the ye«*r, and from the tropics to the poles, in every clime and couotry, the temperature of the human body in health is the same to a degree—that is, 98* Fahrenheit. With the exception of a few towns on the coast of Ciiiua there are in all that empire scarcely a dozen Hebrew families. The Jews are hardly knovvn in China, and only the learned are aware of their existence. Baroness Mary Itulak Artymowska, 25 years of age, moving in the best Russian society, has, says the Estafette, been banished to Siueria for forg-ry, fraud, and bribery, leaving debts to tbe amouut of 2,000,000 roubles. Mies Lyd'a Mary Fay, a missionary of the American Episcopalian Church in China, has just tlied at Chefu, She has laboured in the cause twenty-eight year*, a id was the most ac rompliahed anl successful of lady missionaries tnere. Sweetening of brandy is carried to sach an extent that the British Customs recently stepped some large consignments, from wellknown firms, on the plea that the spirit was liable to the duty of 14i per gallon levied on liqueur*, instead of the ordinary spirit duty of 10. sd.

The Pope's title is " Bishop of Home and Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of St. Peter, Prince nf the Apostles, Supreme Pont (F of th • Universal Church, Patriarch of the West, Parnate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the Temporal Dominions ot the Holy Roman Church." A " clasp sample envelope" has been approved of by the United States Post Office Department—a small tin box with a moveable clasp, which can be opened without difficulty by the inspectors and be used for the transmission of samples of flour, sugar and powder, d substances, or small, sharppointed instrument?, such as come within the class of matter heretofore unmailable, excluding, of course, liquids, poisons, glass ami explosive substances. I Madam Taglioni has beauty and exquisite grace still, a.though in her seventieth year, -ibe is a woman ot much wit and cultivation, and is g nerally lik-d in London, where she liv--s. She is ooa- too old to visit abroad, but at her own parties she welcomes with vivacious charm people of the very best society. Untd very lately she gave lessons in dancing and deportment to the "daughters in th-- nobilitv and gentry," but this is now beyond her strength. Mr. Carlyle, although now past eightythree, is so well and strong that ho has been making a recent visit to Scotland. His pleasant but simple home in Cheyne Row, Chelsea—a house nearly 200 years old —ia presided over by his niece, Miss Aiken, an amiable lady of middle age. In the bright garden the coufortably smokes, and twice every day he walks abroad among the quaint] and uitow street of Chelsea, one of the oldest and moat interesting parts of London. Elks as beas's of burden have been tried icro3S the Atlantic. At a recent fair in Minnesota a splendid team of elkß was shown vhu;h could draw abn gf with two passen;crs at the rate of sixteen miles an hour, mil were so w-ll brok.-u in that a woman night drive them. The experiment, however, has been made before, as in Sweden it one time elks were u-e l to convey couriers, jping able to travel over 200 mile 3 per diem irht:n attached to a eladge. The use of the whistle in military operations, in preference to the trumpet or >u_;le, is advocated by Brevet Lieut.-Colonel rweutyuiau, of the 10th Hussars, who has published a pamphlet containing some brief instructions on tue subject. Lieut.-Colonel I'weniymau alleges that when in close proximity with the enemy, or in night surprises, a trumpet or bugle call frequently un-es the alaim, while the whistle is quite as *ff;ctive and for les3 uofcieeable. A communication fiora the Admiralty declares there is no truth whatever in the report of au interview with the Duke of Edinburgh while at tfalifix, published recently in a N'ew York journal, in which His Royal Highness was made to say that he looked upon th« author of England's new "peacewith honour" policy w.th a feeling of the utmost disgust; that . the acquisition of Cyprus was in no sense a gain, arid that the 101 st Regiment was nearly, all sick, since it went there, aud had lost a great many men in consequence. Mrs Clara S. Foltz has been called to the Cal.f-irnian bar. The Echo says :—" Mrs. Foltz i« a widow, who has pursued her studies under difficulties that would have discouraged most m> n, having no property to speak of, and five small children to provide for. Most of the time she h is done her own housework, and has occasionally delivered lectures to eke out a subsistence. She has now passed successfully through a severe examination. A womau that c m do all that for herself is likely, we should say, to take good care of her clients." Lord Newry, who has claims on the estate of the late Mr. Montague, the actor, is grandson and heir of au old Irish peer, the Earl of Kilmorey. Lord Kilmorey has a large estate in England as well as in Ireland but is far more fond of a natnral son, to whom he has given his own name (Xeedham), than of his grandsons. This son—a very popular man, who has served in the Life Guards —in an athletic some time ago ran a race with his half (illegitimate) nephew, Mr. JSeedham. Lord Newry has always been much given to theatrical society, the Garrick Club, tee. He baits agood character, and would not be likely, to ba a hard, creditor, but he thinks hia creditor should hare paid hia debts.