ENGLISH MAIL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7646, 25 May 1886, Page 6

ENGLISH MAIL NEWS.

From English newspaper files received by the Kaikoura and Mararoa last night we extract the following items : .IRISH PRESBYTERIANS AND HOME RULE; On April 7 a deputation from the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland had an interview with Scottish members of Parliament to submit to them their views on the present state of affairs in Ireland. Mr. Whigham said that the Presbyterian Church in Ireland included in its membership about half a million of people, and the Presbyterians were among the most peaceful, industrious, and moral of tho people in Ireland. They had been associated for 200 years with their Roman Catholio fellow-countrymen under difficulties and disabilities. They had helped Roman Catholics to gain emancipation, and tho Roman Catholics had also helped them to gain their liberties. What they apprehended was that if the contemplated measure was passed all this would be changed, and the result would bo to put power into the hands of those who would use it to exclude Protestants from the south and west of Ireland espooially. They felt this was almost a certainty. Dr. T. Martin observed that the measure which it was stated Mr. Gladstone was to introduce was not designed to redress grievances, but to confer legislative independence. If it were & question of redressing grievances they would not appear in opposition to it. -England, he admitted, had dealt hardly with the Irish population, and the Presbyterians had suffered with their Roman Catholic fellow-ccuntrymen. If England was going to do an act of penance for the wrong they had done they should do it at their own cost, and not offer the Presbyterians up as an atonement for those wrongs. It was said the minority would be secured with guarantees, but it seemed to them impossible that any guarantees would satisfactorily protect the interests which were at stake. The Irish Parliament would be chosen by the same class who at present elected the majority of the Irish representatives —that was to say, one olass and one creed. In that class there were three powerful motives —the first, hatred of England ; the second, antagonism to Protestantism ; and the third, a modified form of Communism in the shape of Socialistic theories in regard to land. In the long run the organised, far-seeing, and intelligent clergy of the Roman Catholic Church would prevail in such a Parliament as was suggested, and would injuriously affect the interests of the Presbyterians. The chief prosperity of Ulster dated from the time of the union, and it was feared that, b\ the breaking of that union, there would be a falling away. On that question there was no difference of opinion in the Presbyterian Church. Dr. Francis Petticrew was afraid that Education would fall into the hands of the Roman Catholic hierarchy to the great injury of the Presbyterians. The Home Kule movement had unquestionably assumed the aspect of a struggle for ascendancy on the part of the Roman Catholic clergy. There would bo a determined opposition on the part of the Protestants to do anything in that direction ; and in the long run it would end in civil war. The deputation expressed their wish to give any further information, and several members put questions. It was indicated in the answers that the Presbyterians objected to any form of a legislative body in Dublin. They did not object to any extension of local self-government such as might be given to England and Scotland, for what they claimed was equality for the three countries. They were strongly of opinion that a large and liberal measure of legislation with regard to the land was necessary ; but they were not favourable to any plan for legislative independence. Further, they did not think it would be advisable to give Ulster a connection separate from the south and west of Ireland, their desire being to remain in union with Great Britain and with a united Ireland. The Chairman (Sir D. Currie) expressed to the deputation the pleasure of the members of Parliament in having met : them and heard their views, and in the name of the members thanked the deputation. MR. GLADSTONE'S POLICY OF SURRENDER. An extraordinary crisis (says the London Daily Telegraph of April S) has arrived with this day in our Parliamentary history. We are to see the foremost statesman of the nation, the veteran leader, whose brows are silvered with fifty years of political life, rise in that place from which he has uttered so many patriotic sentences, to propose that the United Kingdom shall be—in fact if not in form—diminished and dismembered. A sense of the amazing character of the proceeding, a dread of the consequences, whether the Prime Minister succeeds or fails; a wondering retrospect of all the chequered events by which we have been led to this strange and sudden policy of surrender — these feelings mingle in the general mind, and seem to weigh heavily upon the lips and hearts of men. Expectation is on tiptoe to know how even Mr. Gladstone, with all his command of rhetorical device, can bend unwilling English words to th« duty of proving that he has honestly come to such a conclusion, and that the proud and just people of Great Britain must reluctantly follow him. Will he glory in the unwonted task which he has set himself this evening, or will he approach it with real or affected grief and repugnance ? All passions inspire him by turns ; he can be eloquent for anger, for shame, for sympathy, for hope, for apprehension. On which string of the many sounding lyre of his genius will he elect to play to-night; or does he intend to sweep forth a diapason upon them all, to indict England and Scotland at the bar of international equity, to console and eulogise blood-stained Ireland, to depict the past and the future of our relations with the island in such terrible colours that the consciencestricken and trembling House of Commons will lay the destines of the Empire in his hands, and humble themselves at the feet of Mr. Parnell and his forgiving myrmidons ? "Time was," Cowper writes, speaking of England, "when it was boast enough, in every clime and travel where we might, that we were born her children." Now, strange to say, the frenzy in certain bitter quarters is to disown connection with the great Motherland ; and we are to hear Mr. Gladstone close his long career by devoting his vast experience and wonderful gifts to the service of those who offer to the Imperial Parliament the alternative of a mutilated union or a perpetual obstruction of its affairs, diversified with assassination, cattlemaiming, and seditious clamour. Outside the country itself foreign Governments watch these astonishing proceedings with an attention absolutely rivetted upon the Bills of Mr. Gladstone. The enemies of England rejoice at what they call the first token of her fatal decadence ; the friends of England and her faithful colonies gaze at the spectacle with suspended breath ; and, if Mr. Gladstone could still be ambitious, the most prodigious egotism that ever burned in a human breast might surely be satiated with the concentrated interest which will have him for its focus when he advances this evening to tha table for the purpose of introducing his Bill. OUTRAGE IN IRELAND. A former named Timothy O'Shea was fired at and dangerously wounded on April 5 near Croom, in county Limerick. Two men, named Scanlan and Cremins, have been arrested in connection with the outrage, but the former was discharged. O'Shea identified Cremins, and stated that he was driving a pig from Carrigheen, and that at a short distance from the place he was fired at by some men who lay in ambush behind a ditch. Cremins was disguised, but immediately after the shots were fired two handkerchiefs fell off the man's head, and be was enabled to recognise him. The first discharge did not wound O'Shea, who took to flight ; but by the second shot he was dangerously wounded in the neck and head. O'Shea some months ago prosecuted some persons in the neighbourhood, and had one Of them convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment, which he is at present undergoing, O'Shea was boycotted for a time, SINGULAR MURDER TRIAL IN PARIS. The Investigation of a singular case of murder has been commenced in Paris. About four years ago one Euphrasie Mercier quietly assumed possession of the house and property of her mistress, Mdlle. Elodie Menetret, who, she said, had gone abroad and left her in possession. Mercier then had prepared a document, which stated that in consideration of the payment of 1800 francs a-year her mistress had let her house to her, and a receipt stating that 4200 francs had been paid for the furniture and one year's rent in advance. She at the same time contrived to sell her mistress's silver ad dresses, and to draw her dividends.

She • realised in this way 40,000 francs, which she invested in other securities. She was engaged improving the property at Villemonble when she had a visit from an illegitimate son of her sister named Alphonse Chateauneuf. He suspected her story, and his suspicions were confirmed by papers he found in a drawer which he examined one day in his aunt's absence. He suggested that his aunt should pay him 25,000 francs, but she remained deaf to his proposal. Ha then returned to Brussels, where he sent an account of his discoveries to the police in Paris. An examination was made of the garden, and the charred of a woman were found buried in it. Amongst them was one false tooth and & small fragment of gold with which another tooth had been stopped. The books of the dentist of Menetret were then examined, and it was found that in 1857 she had a false tooth, and that in 1871, one of her decayed teeth had been stopped with gold. In the room of the house occupied by her, the fireplace showed traces that it had been used for burning a large quantity of animal matter. Euphrasie Mercier was then taken into custody. She denied that she had any connection with the disappearance of her mistress, who, she says, iB still alive, but whose address she cannot give. Chateauneuf is to be examined for the defence, and will receive a safe conduct permitting him, although a deserter, to come to France. INCENDIARY FIRE IN MANDALAY : ATTACK BY DACOITS. A large incendiary fire occurred on the night of April 1, in the southern portion of the town, outside the walled city. A gang of abqut sixty dacoits attacked and attempted to loot a house in tho town. The inmates resisted them pluckily. The sound of tiring brought down Inspector Ford and his polioe. When the dacoits were attacked by the police they fired the house to cover their retreat. The fire began about one a.m., and lasted till three. It spread with great rapidity, and before it was extinguished two large blocks, comprising some six hundred houses, were totally destroyed. A considerable portion of the houses destroyed were mere huts. One dacoit was wounded and captured, and the gang was traced some distanoe to the east, outside the town limits. A serious feature in the recent fires is that a number |of people are thereby left houseless. During the fire there was muoh excitement in the oity and town owing to the sound of the firing. THE EASTERN CRISIS.

The semi-official Fremdenblatt, in announcing the despatch of- six Austrian torpedo boats to Suda Bay, states that this measure has been taken in order to allow of an effective blockade being established in conjunction with the Powers in the event of the attitude of Greece rendering such a course necessary. Her Majesy's ironclad Superb has arrived at Su<ia Bay. The Porte has formally notified to Prince Alexander that the Turko-Bulgarian agreement regarding Eastern Roumelia has been sanctioned by the conference. It at the same time addressed a similar communication to the Greek Government. Prince Alexander (according to a Sophia telegram) had accepted the decision of the Great Powers, as signed on Monday by the conference at Constantinople, because it was now set forth as a European decree, and not as a Turco-Bulgarian convention. The Prince, however, declared that he would guard his rights regarding article 1 of the decree. The British ironclads Agamemnon and Sultan arrived on April S at buda Bay. The whole Greek fleet is now (April S) at Salamis. Next week Austrian Lloyd steamers will take further quantities of cartrides and other munitions of war to the Pirajus; others will follow with horses, riflv-s, aud torpedoes. The British Government have, it is stated, resolved to greatly strengthen the naval force in the Mediterranean in view of the threatening attitude ol Greece.