NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6422, 17 June 1882, Page 7

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Victor Hugo has had a slight stroke of apoplexy. Of the 3,735,536 people in Scotland. 231,602 speak Gaelic. The condition of the Czarina's health causes auxiety. . , A partial reconstruction of the British Cabinet is cxpccted to occur. Congress has a bill to punish persons WHO*use profane language iu any post-office. . A census of the elephants in the United States shows the number to be just seventy-" seven. M. dc Lesseps has fixed upon the year ISSB as the time for the opening of the Panama Canal. " Major Baring is suffering from typhoid fever at Simla, but is progressing satisfac-

torily. ~ . There are ovur 0000 licensed gin mills itf". New York, and nearly 2000 that are unlicensed. A Middleboro, Mass., photographer hae orders for 10,000 photographs of Tom Thumb and wife. .A minister at Rich.nond, \a., recently swooned while marrying his old sweetheart to another man. During a riot at Fraukford, Ireland, a number of persons reported to have paid rente

were fearfully beaten. The rumour that the Archbishop of Canterbury will resign unless his health improves soon is not coatradicted.

According to a Madrid newspaper, a Commission is about to negotiate a commerciar treaty between England and Spain. There is a marked increase in the numberof the tlieological students in Germany. In IS7O there were 1536 ; last year, 2354.

The anniversary of Mr. Green's imprison--mcnt was made the subject of reference in* something like 1000 ritualistic churches. It is proposed to—light the Milan (Italy) railway station with four largo electric lamps' capable of developing a 24,G0tt-candle power. .Second thoughts arc.sometimes best, which is a good reason why a man who attempts to commit suicide by drowning should be abfe to swim. 1

Captain Roudaire's startling scheme foe making a great inland sea to the south of Algiers and Tunis is attracting a great deal of

attention. ' e Japan has rice to export to the value of about £0,000,000. Trade is depressed, owing to the state of the currency, which is said to

need reform. Cyprus has got a new Constitution". .Thfc Legislative Council will consist of IS members —six olEcial, nine Christian, and i three

Mahommedan. King Thcbaw of Burmah has putf£b death an. inferior wife, two half-sisters- of . the Chancellor of the Exchequer, aud fifty of

their relatives. v - : The Presbyterian Church of Ireland con* sists of 557 congregations, with 621 ministers, 2,093 elders, 7,077 deacons, aud 103,548

communicants. Cardinal Howard was designated by Leo XIII. to represent the Holy See at the coronation of Caar Alexander 111. The Cardinal

ia an ex-life guardsman. The preliminaries of a contract have been siened for the construction of two torpedp batteries in the Dardanelles and two in thfe mouth of the Bosphorus. It has been determined, at a meeting held in the London Mansion House, to establish homes in connection with the Church of Englaud for boys and girls. The saving in lighting the South Kensington, Eugland, Museum with, electricity by the Brush system, as compared with gas, is 60 per cent, or £420 a year. When the last mail left India the cholera

epidemic, which had carried off so niany valuable lives at Bombay, was reported al-

most entirely to have subsided. An English fit in has recently shipped to_a mill near Brussels a double driving belt /5 inches wide and feet long, and it is to transmit 650 indicated horse-power.

jSow-street Police Court, .London, was recently engaged in the trial of a couple of professional pugilists who had been arrested for engaging in a prize fight in a church. Navigation at St. Petersburg opened this year on the 30th March, which is the earliest on record excepting 1522, when it opened on the ISth March, and closed in December. At Rome the municipality is about to place a commemorative plate on the facade, of J house on the Mercede-square, occupied by Sir Walter Scott during the last year of his life. Bon Aincna has been completely defeated by French, troops in Algeria. He has himself escaped, but nearly all his fighting men are said to have been either killed or'takssi prisoners. It is stated in Constantinople that, notwithstanding appearances of friendliness between Germany and Turkey, the relations of the two countries have recently become less cordial. ~ Prom Teheran come reports of a Russian caravau having arrived at M.ervfrom. Askabad-. j It was said also that au officer had been des-

patched from the latter place with presents for the Slerv chiefs. The population of British Burrnah has gtown in ten years from 2,7-4 *, 1-1S to 3, /36,171, and only 12* per cent, of the increase was by immigration" Of the people 37 per cent, are Buddhists and 2J Christians. If rumour be true another Republican leader has been estranged from President Arthur. It is said General Grant is displeased with him because he did not appoint General Beale to a Cabinet position. Mr. Healy, M;P., with the assistance of Mr. Parnell. M.P., lias drafted a bill to ammend the Land Act of ISsl, aud embodyiug the principles which, as they contend, can alone make the measure valuable. The new screen, intended as a memorial of Etonian officers killled during the Ashantee and South African campaigns, is being erected in the chapel at Eton College. It is composed of white stone richly carved. Nine massive Norman coffins have heen discovered under the floor of the Chapterhouse of Bristol Cathedral. The sculpture upon the covers of some of them, although, very old and somewhat rude, is exceedingly interesting. Soap-bubble parties arc now the rage, so the fashion papers say. The "rage" comes in when the father of the family sits down to his evening smoke and finds his favourite pipe sodden with water and his mouth full o£ soap and bad language. The United Service Gazette understands that Prince Albert Victor of Wales will not make another sea trip, but that it is probable that he will join the Military Academy at Woolwich in the autumn. His younger brother will make the navy his profession. The introduction of the electric light in the C4rand Opera House, Paris, has, as might have been expected, greatly improved the icoustical properties of the building. Of course, the incandescent system can produce ao disturbance of the atmosphere and no lisated gases. The St. Gothard Tunnel is constantly patrolled, and no one is allowed to enter it unless he has some legitimate 'duty to perform. No special means for ventilation has yet been idopted, but it is very likely that the trains \nd locomotives will soon be provided with the electric light. Speaking of Jumbo, the Paris Figaro observes that " nowhere out of England could you find people so devoid of common sense is to send six dozen oysters, at five francs a .lozen, to an elephant, while the workhouses ire full; and unfortunate men and women die ;n the streets of starvation." It is stated that the military authorities in [ndia have resolved that in future reliefs all the movements of toops are to be made by :<jad and not by rail, it being held that jxpsrieuce gained by long marches is invaluible alike to officers aud men, in addition to naking tkem robust aud hardy. A crowd, estimated to number 10,000, recently assembled outside the premises of ;he Salvation Army in Oxford-street, London. Much horseplay prevailed, aud iu some nstances sticks were freely used. Upwards )f 200 constables, besides a large stall of letectivc officers, were on the ground. Mr. R. H. Wood, J P., -an inhabitant of Xugby, has intimated that he is about to :onfer a gift on that town, comprising a freelold site of 10 acres, a new hospital for H0 jeds, and ample endowment to maintain the nstitution in proper workiug order. The ,-alue of this gift t-o the town is estimated at £30,000. . ... A despatch from Richmond (V lrginia) mnounees that a meat lire has • ocpum< here, destroying the Petersburg railroa.>ridge, three toUcoo. factories, M.ytfljaoco item manufactories, the Tredegar a.i . .'. l * ironworks, several Uour null, k- ;e vorks, and twenty dwelhii--]io.i=e., ihrce >ersons were killed. The" !o,s u estimated ,t yoo,ooodol. . Two destructive fires were "oporwca at Wh on one day recently. Ine hrst iecurred in the Gorman quarter of t:ie town ,f Boessenfalva on Sunday, where it destroyed 0 dwelling-houses and 50 out-buih.mgs. Ihc ccond took place in the town of IVks, OU he Danube, v. lien "200 houses and 4S other welling were reduced to ashes. At Bocs3enalva a considerable number oi horses and :attle were burned to death.