GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8842, 2 April 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

A LIVERPOOL DOCTOR'S SUICIDE.

An inquest was held in Liverpool lately on the body of Dr. Howard Arnold (43), nephew of the late Matthew Arnold. The deceased had an attack of influenza about three months ago, and since suffered fron insomnia, and became very depressed. He went to his surgery and was followed by his wife, who found on the table a letter addressed to her, as follows :—" My darling,—How I love you in my despair after these three months of insomnia and terrible depression. I feel death is preferable to insanity. Ask Robert to look after Aleyne. He will, I know. It is better for yea that Igo now than remain a drag on you. How happy life has been with you. What an angel you have been to me. Yet this cure has killed me. My last thought is of you, my darling. Forgive me, sweetheart, forgive me. It is for the best, dear love, dent love." Dr. Howard Arnold was found on the couch in another room, and died in a few minutes. Two bottles were found near which had contained prussic acid, and a letter addressed to a fellow-practitioner asking him to do the best for his children. A verdict of suicide whilst in a state of temporary mental derangement was returned. GENERAL BOOTH OS THE ARMY'S LAWSUITS.

General Booth addressed a large meeting of his supporters in Jixeter Hall, and dealt at considerable length with his own family's and the Salvation Army's achievements. He devoted a large part of his speech to confuting the adverse criticisms made upon himself aud the Army in the press and elsewhere, characterising these comments as being based upon complete and wilful ignorance. The work of the legal department of the Army was, he said, becoming enormous. They did not like litigation, but had not yet soon their way to sitting down and submitting to injustice when th« law could give them redress. The Solvation Army were great lawkeepers. They were not the lawbreakers at Eastbourne. (Great cheering.) Last year they hud about one hundred lawsuits, and now there were about sixty pending. They already had two or three solicitors. They now wanted a clever barrister. Mr. Booth spoke at great length upon his reception in foreign countries he had visited, and maintained that the vast uncultivated areas in Australia and Africa might be made the salvation from misery of all the poor and wretched in the United Kingdom and thousands besides. POLITICAL ACTION AND CHRISTIAN MORALITY. Much significance is being attached in Nonconformist circles to a conference which is to be held shortly for the purpose of inducing a greater interest in "Christian citizens" of all parties arid denominations in public affairs. The promoters of the conference announce that the discussion will tend to reveal the imperative necessity of applying the fundamental principles of Christian morality to political affairs, and particularly to legislation dealing with the temperance question. The real importance of the conference is derived, however, from the fact that it has the concurrence of men like the Bishop of London, Mr. Newman Hall, Dr. Parker, Colonel Griffin (President of the Baptist Union), Dr. Clifford, Dr. Bowman Stephenson (President of the Wesleyan Conference), Dr. Gibson, and Dr. Donald Fraser. Attendance at the conference will be taken to indicate subscription to the opinion that political action should express the principles of Christian morality. THE SLAVE TRADE. Emin Pasha has once more been heard from. His letter adds another to the many exposures of the African slave trade, He writes : —" During my march to the Albert Nyanza I saw and heard fearful things. I followed the track of one of these robbers, named Ben Chalia, for six days, and in that time counted fifty-one fresh corpses worn to skeletons, thirty-nine of them with their skulls beaten in. If I had only arrived here eight days sooner, my good people would have succeeded in preventing or punishing such inhuman cruelties. About 1209 slaves, twenty to thirty of both sexes chained all together, are said to have been dragged to Meneo. Twenty-seven of them, among them four women, met us halfstarved. They had succecded in escaping." A ROMAN TIC LONDON ELOPEMENT. It was ascertained one morning lately that a young lady named Hewitt, residing at Milton, of considerable wealth, had eloped with her father's groom. Miss Hewitt left home suddenly", and nothing more was heard of her until her father received a letter from her, addressed from Harris's Silver Grill in the Strand, paying she was going abroad with one she dearly loved. The young lady is only 15 years old. A MODERN DANIEL. General Booth had a queer experience in Calcutta. A big enough building could not to be got for him. For lack of better accommodation, a circus manager's kindly offer of his large tent was gratefully accepted. There was some fear lest the lions and tigers immediately behind the platform should fail to appreciate the Army's singing and "volley-firing." Just as the General began, reports the War Cry, the lions set up a roar loud enough to drown the sound of many waters ; but, it piously adds, " the God of Daniel was at hand, and in response to the exercise ol faith the roaring was stopped." BABY FARMING.A HORRIBLE CASK. A coroner's jury at Plympton, after a hearing extending over seven hours, returned a verdict of manslaughter against a woman named Hockley, who was charged with neglecting an illegitimate child of a general servant. Hockley was at one time in good circumstances, her father having been Queen's harbourmaster at Shanghai, and about four years ago she was left £4000. Since then she has tried various avocations, but ultimately settled down as a baby farmer. Other children placed with her have died, and in two instances after having beon insured. The present case was a horrible one, the child's limbs having been bent or broken until they grew in all directions. ROMAN CATHOLIC RELICS. Judgment has been given in the Chancery division in the suit of Petre v. Ferrers. The parties concerned were members of an old Roman Catholic family, and on the Petre estate in Essex there was a private chapel in which mass was celebrated. Many years ago, certainly before 1867, an altar-stone and certain relics in question in the action came into the possession of the family, and were used in the chapel of the family. In July, 1885, by virtue of a clause in the settlement, the trustees granted a lease of the house and estate to the defendant, Mr. Ferrers, for a term of years. On September 7, 1890, shortly before the termination of the lease, the altarstone and relics were removed, contrary to the wishes of the plaintiff, by one of the defendants, Miss Petre, and were handed over to Cardinal Manning. Mr. Justice Romer now thought the articles should be replaced, and made an order accordingly. A REMARKABLE CASE OF LONGEVITY. Madame Anastasie Rtiseaux, a Frenchwoman, has died at the age, it is said, of 118 years, near Kishenau or Kichenev, a town of Bessarabia. The venerable dame, who had so long weathered tho world and the climate of Russia, had been for many years superintendent of a school for the daughters of the nobility, and retired with a pension from her post at the age of 92. She had entered the school as a teacher when it was founded during the reign of Alexander I. For the past twenty-six years Madame Reseaux was in a homo for the aged, and enjoyed excellent health, despite her advanced and exceptional age. BURIED ALIVE. The following sad story is reported from Montauban : — A young married lady, Madame Joffis, living at Mirabel, near Montauban, had a cataleptic seizure when in childbed. Two days passed, and there was no sign of returning animation, which, indeed, was not expected, as the lady's friends all believed her dead. The funeral was arranged and carried out, and the mourners returned to the house. Shortly afterwards the undertaker casually remarked that when the corpse was put into the coffin he noticed that the bed was slightly warm where the body had lain. On hearing this the husband went to the burial ground, and had tho coffin taken from the grave and opened. To his horror, he then found the body turned over, the shroud torn, and the fingers of one hand bleeding, as if from ft desperate attempt to remove the coffin lid.