CURRENT GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6572, 9 December 1882, Page 3 (Supplement)

CURRENT GOSSIP.

The Emperor of China ha 3 completed the twelfth year of his age, according to Chinese reckoning, though in reality he is only eleven.

The Japanese Prince Arisugawa-no-Mya was recently received in audience by the Russian Emperor at Peterhof, and presented to the Czarewitch the insigna of the highest Japanese order. Archibald Forbes says in the North American Review that the American army is superior to the English army. Mr. Forbes has just been married to an American lady, and could not with safety have said otherwise.

The Q'leen of Madagascar is dangerously ill. It was reported that she was dead, but in order to allay the anxiety- of the people she was brought out on the verandah of the palace, so that she might be seeu by the people. Dr. Piisey left no will. Upon the death of his son l'hilip he destroyed one which he bad made. For one consequence the Orphanage, which lit: maintained in Oxford m.der certain sisters, is to be broken up. Dr. I'usc-y's works were bet up in tvpe at the Orphanage bv the girls. Baron says Nature, has under consideration an expedition to the Arctic next summer, and is engaged, in company with Mr. William Schonlanck, of Berlin, a gentleman much interested in. geographical discovery, who is at present visiting .Stockholm, as tothe detailed arrangements for the same.

Sir W. 11. Gregory has written a letter from Venice urging pleas in extenuation of the conduct or Arabi and his fellow captives, and claiming tor them a fair trial and the exercise of clemency. He also suggests certain internal lli-forms in Kgypt, and recommends the ievving of a Malay regiment as the Khe Sive's Guards.

A correspondent of a contemporary says

--"I had hitherto considered that our great family of the Smiths wasthe largest in the'world, ■ u't according to a recent statistical account then- are in Germany 0'29,257 persons who answer to the name of Muller, hence every seventy-third inhabitant is the owner of that name. ,.

During his recent tour in Ireland the Viceroy visited Maamstrassna, and inspected the hovel in which the Joyce family were massacred a short time ago. He was escorted by a strong detachment of Fusiliers and mounted police, and as a further precaution, detached bodies of police were stationed along the route from Leenane to Maamstrassna.

Signor Favali, of Uouato—that is all we know of him—married a London lady, with whom he lived in connubial bliss, and to mark his satisfaction he has now left by will a tragic opera to the Queen, and a sum of money to the Corporation, the latter to found annually, in perpetuity, marriage portions for three poor girls, natives of the city wherein he himself had been so matrimonially fortunate.

The proposal to build a catheilr.il for the anti-diuct.-t: of Westminster, adjoining Cardinal Manning's present residence in the Vauxhall-road, at a cost of £100,000, but which was temporarily abandoned five years ago at the request of his Kminenee, has been again renewed, and subscriptions are now .solicited towards carrying out the project. Th.; plans of the cathedral, which is to be in the early Gothic style, are already prepared.

Karl Nelson, addressing a meeting at Salisbury, said there might be extravagances iu the Salvation Army, but it had done a blessed work against intemperance. What had it shown? Why, that previous eilbrts had not taught the lower classes sutlieiently. M uch of the persecution which the Salvation Army bad endured, he believed to have been the result of the fear excited in the minds of the sellers of drink.

A writer in a London journal says :—1 never s-iw anything like th« excitement in town last Weilnesday when the news came of the victory at Telcl-Kebir. The previous suspense had been undoubtedly great, although happily shortlived. It might bo a small battle, hut the issues were great, and the eyes of all Hurope were upon us. Hence delight was visible on every countenance as soon as the result was known. Utter strangers congratulated each other in the street; there were crowds at all the corners, and almost a free light for the latest editions of the "dailies," which must have done a

•.■oaring trade. At tho military clubs, of coursr, the excitement was keenest. Kvery room was thronged ; not a chair or n riaper was to be had. Men hung about the telegraph notice-boards half a dozen deep ; and the boy bringing the " tissues" or the "tape" from the telegraph machine was mobbed.