ENGLISH AND EUROPEAN NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9075, 8 June 1888, Page 5

ENGLISH AND EUROPEAN NEWS.

[per s.s. arywa.] A SINGULAR JUBILEE CELEBRATION. Mr. Assuetox Smith, whose marriage was recently reported, is celebrating Her Majesty's Jubilee in a remarkable manner. He has caused to be planted on the slopes of Moel Rhiwen Mountain, North Wales, a Plantation composed of 630,000 trees, [early 200 men have been constantly employed since tho Jubilee in planting the trees, which, when completed, will bo so arranged as to represent the words and figures "Jubilee, 1857." Each letter measures 200 yards long and 25 feet wide. The first treo of the letter " J " was planted on Her MaCesty's Jubilee Day. SAD SUICIDE OF A GIRL. On April 18 the Dublin coroner held an inquest on Miss Maria Monks, who committed suicido under sad circumstances. On Monday night she visited a suburb to inquire after her sweetheart, who had failed to visit her. On being informed that- the young man had been taken ill and died she became frantic with grief. Her body was discovered in the Grand Canal, into which she had thrown herself. HEALTH OF THE QUEEN. Currency has been given, says the Lancet, to an idle report that tho Queen has of late been suffering from sleeplessness, which a resort to simple and obvious expedients has been found incapable of alleviating. Our contemporary is glad to be ablo authoritatively to state that the rumour is entirely without foundation, and that Her Majesty is now, and has been during the whole of her visit to Florence, in the enjoyment of her wonted health. THE SITUATION IN EUROPE. The situation, says the Times, is exceedingly grave, not for France alone, but for Europe. Everything tends to show that Franco is rapidly passing into that condition, well-known in history, in which she acts as an explosive force governed by none of tho ordinary calculations of politics. There are already abundance of dangers to the peace of Europe, and the steady darkening of the reports from Berlin concerning the Emperor's health bids us prepare for further complications which may occur at any moment. When to all the other elements of mischief we add France in a condition which renders any folly or extravagance possiblo, it will bo admitted that the outlook is sufficiently alarming to sober the most optimist observer. f

AWFUL TRAGEDY IN PARIS. A report of an awful tragedy comes from Paris, in which the actors were a father, mother, and son. The mother was in the last stage of consumption, but the son's devotion to her seems, on the neighbours' testimony, to have been something almost approaching to worship. The other evening his father permitted himself to be overcome by his friends, and to take much more intoxicating drink on the excuse of drowning his sorrow" than he ought to have done, and he returned dead drunk. The son greeted him with the angry words, " You are unworthy to be a husband or a father, and I would like to throw you out of doors." The father pushed forward to go to his wife's bedside, and tho son picked up a knife from the table, saying, " Let mother alone to die in peace, or I shall commit some cripie." Then seized by a sudden mad determination, he added, "As I could never love you again after this, I will die with my mother. He went to her, imprinted a long kiss on her lips, and then plunged the knife into his own heart. The shock so affected the dying woman that she expired almost simultaneously with her son.