General News.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 214, 16 October 1875, Page 6

General News.

Six thousand German families are preparing to emigrate from Prussia, on account of apprehensions of conscription. It is stated that the Pope has resolved to convoke the Vatican Council to discuss ecclesiastical reform. The Count de Chambord has written a letter in which he says he still has hopes that the Monarchy will be re-established in France. Prince Napoleon is in favor of the Republic, and in opposition to the restoration of the Empire, and has lately issued a manifesto to that effect. Ex-United States Senator Nye is hopelessly insane, and has been placed in a private insane asylum. He can neither read nor write now. China has engaged Confederate General Ripley to construct works on an extensive scale for the defence of the coast and principal rivers in that country. A new iron screw steamer, called the City of San Francisco, has been launched in Philadelphia for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. More revenue frauds have been discovered in Chicago, St. Louis, and Milwaukee, and arrets accordingly made. A Washington special says the discovery of these frauds is tlie real reason for the displacement of Commissioner Douglass, though he is in no way implicated. The A venir Militairc says that France has bought only 1500 horses abroad during 1875. Of these 351 came from Germany, 100 from Austria or Russia, and about 150 from Spain. The Duke of Connaught, whilst travelling recently in Egypt, shot and collected specimens of the curious birds of that country, also three large crocodiles, one measuring 20ft. in length. Garibaldi sufFers so greatly from rheumatism as to be obliged to use crutches, but his chest is as strong, his voice as clear, and his eye as keen as ever.

Thu Straits Times of the 9tli August says : —“ A telegram received yesterday by the agent of the Messageries Maritimes announces the total loss of the company’s steamer Neva, on the voyage between this port and Batavia, on the night of the 0-7th instant, she having run aground when only eight miles from Batavia. The passengers, crew, and mail were all saved. The telegram is not explicit as to particulars, but we understand the vessel is a total loss, though it is expected part of the material and cargo will be saved.” The Bendigo livening News reports that two men were working in the Perfect Cure Company’s mine, Crusoe Gully, a short time ago. One of them, the smaller, was working at the clack door of the pump, which is a considerable height from the bottom of the shaft. The stronger and more powerful man, who is also an excellent cricketer, was also working iti the shaft about twelve feet below his mate. The upper man was in the act of screwing a nut tight on a bolt connected with the pump, when the screw-wrench slipped ; he fell back on his head, and dropped down the shaft head foremost. The lower man, seeing his mate coming down, put out his hand, and had just time to catch him by the fore-part of the leg of his trowsers below the knee, and held him suspended head down until assistance arrived, when he was brought to the surface nothing the worse. The man’s escape may be attributed in a great measure to the fact of his mate being a good field, which sharpened his sight, gave him presence of mind, and made him a good catch. A bush marriage under peculiar circumstances was graphically described by Father Woods during the delivery of a lecture at Hobarton, as reported in the Mercury. lie had been unexpectedly called to marry a couple at Ellerslie, South Australia, where he had taken up a temporary residence. The ceremony was to be performed about four miles from Father Woods’ dwelling, but as heavy rains set in, and all the creeks were swollen, he determined to abide his time, and wait the subsidence of the waters. The rev. gentleman evidently regarded the affair in a cool philosophical light, almost equal to the frigid indifference of a scientist. It was the natural sequence of mutual attraction, he concluded, and no extraneous force could ei tiler hasten or retard the contract. So he thought matters might be allowed to rest until the return of genial sunshine. “It had rained incessantly,” observed the lecturer, “ and I thought they would not think a clergyman would come. But I little knew with what eagerness people would rush into this matter, although my experience in human nature was great.” The bridegroom suddenly rushed into his presence, and asked him why he had not come, “ as they were all waiting for him.” In vain he explained to the impetuous lover the dangerous condition of the creek ; the lover replied that horses could swim ; but the clergyman remained immovable. Next day the bridegroom repeated the visit, but the result proved similarly unsatisfactory to him. On the third day Father Woods determined to relieve the love-stricken man’s longings, and accordingly he started for the purpose of solemnising the matrimonial ceremony. He found the creek much swollen, as he remained on his side of the water, the bridal party assembling in full force on the opposite side. Matters at this juncture assumed quite a sensational aspect—only fifty yards of turbid and turgid water separated bride and bridegroom from coveted happiness. But, alas, for human obduracy—the Mediterranean sea might as well have intervened! Not an inch would the clergyman budge, notwithstanding the frantic and heartrending expostulations of the perspiring bridegroom. With unpardonable coldbloodedness, Father Woods then conceived the propriety of opening a parley. “ I’ll tell you what I’ll do with you,” said he across the angry stream. “You can hear me quite plain if I read aloud the service.” “Yes, yes,” yelled the frantic lover. “No, no,” shrieked the blushing bride. She remained inexorable, and would not accept the proffered condition. “Very well,” replied Father Woods, “ I cannot treat on any other terms at present.” Nearly a week elapsed before the couple were irrevocably noosed. Such is an instance of the inconvenience that frequently attended matrimonial alliances in the Australian bush. A rather startling statement of the tactics resorted to by the Papacy in its war against enlightenment and civilisation is made in careful detail by the Berlin correspondent of the Argus in his last communication. Evidence has been elicited in the course of some recent judicial trials in Germany and France, showing that the Vatican has issued orders to its priesthood to inculcate afresh the belief in witches, sorcerers, sorceresses, and demons in all subject to the influence of priestly teachings. A book of instructions has been issued, under the sanction of the Pope, called The Method of Liberating the Afflicted from Demons. This cheerful work is filled with the darkest spirit of the Middle Ages, when the belief in diabolical possession and agency spread so deep a gloom over human life. It leaves one in doubt which to wonder at most, the imbecile superstition and credulity upon which it is meant to work, or the impudent wickedness of the design to foster and encourage beliefs so hopelessly exploded. Of course the purpose to be served in such a policy is very clear. It is sought more and more to widen and perpetuate the breach between the Church and its followers on the one side, and the science, progress, and rationalism of the age on the other. The more gross the imposture, the greater the demand it makes upon the blindness and credulity of those to whom it is directed, the better fitted it is to answer this purpose. Such a policy as this, however, is a very desperate one. It can only succeed by annihilating the light of reason and science, drowning all human knowledge under a flood of ignorance, spreading the darkness of superstition over the mental and spiritual world, and confounding civil society in a state of anarchy and chaos. This is the best to be

hoped from success. But systems which can only exist by striving against the irresistible onward movement of humanity do not succeed but fail, and such endeavors can only recoil on the heads of their instigators, and make the ruin of the system more hopeless and complete. The statements made have a local application. At a time when the Roman Catholic priesthood among us are moving heaven and earth to secure a state subsidy for educational purposes, it is of importance to note the character which, under favorable conditions, they give to the education they impart, and its hostility to the truths of science and the principles of human progress. The following paragraph, which shows how much some people are still influenced in their conduct towards a man by the color of his skin, is taken from the Arrow Observer :—Not long since, a gentleman of color arrived in the beautiful city of the Lakes, and proceeded to an hotel to engage a bed. The landlady got shocked. “ Oh, no,” she afterwards said, “ I couldn’t think of giving him a bed. He was black- —he might have dirtied my sheets.” House after house did the poor fellow make his way to, but ah, no! they would not give him a place where he could lay his head. One hotelkeeper he asked, stared, started back, whistled, scratched his chin, and said, “No, no, can’t give you lodgings. Another—“ Get out, do you think I am going to ruin my connection by allowing you to take up apartments in my house? Oh, no!” We do not know what became of him at last, poor fellow, but the next time a black man visits Queenstown, we should advise him to try the effects of a whitewash brush on his face and hands, so that ho may not shock the hotelkeepers of the Lake city. The German papers have not mentioned a remarkable circumstance which occurred at Munich, and which for a time formed the main topic of conversation in the capital of Bavaria. On the day of Corpus Christi—or “ Frohnleichnamsfest” as the Germans, “ Fete Dieu” as the French call this solemn day—while the Archbishop was officiating in the Frauenkirche, the cathedral of Munich, a young man of from twenty-eight to thirty, in a grey coat, entered the church, rushed through the crowd, even through the barrier of soldiers round the high altar, pushing everybody aside. He placed himself in the choir behind the Archbishop, when the numerous priests present at the ceremony separated him from the prelate. It was no other than Prince Otto, King Ludwig’s only brother and heir apparent to the throne, who had escaped from his keeper’s care, and whose state of mind had hitherto been kept secret in spite of many suspicious inquiries. The Prince began to address the assembled people with a loud voice. He wished, as was the custom in the first centuries of Christianity, to make a public confession of his sins, and declare that he had once communicated while in a state of unworthiness. He desired further to excuse the King and Court for not having taken part in the procession. So speaking, he repeatedly fell on his knees, and it was only after a long and earnest persuasion on the part of the doctor and the aide-de-camp, who meanwhile arrived, that he was ultimately carried off. “ If the River Thames,” observes the Pall Mall Gazette, “ could give an account of the various articles thrown into it in the course of a year, or even in the course of twenty-four hours, the list would show a strange medley. Besides the dead bodies of numbers of murdered persons, there can be little doubt that its muddy waters conceal various articles of a heterogeneous description, perhaps not so valuable as those supposed to lie in the bed of the Tiber, yet interesting if only from their incongruity. At Bow-street Police Court, a porter to a bookbinder was charged with pitching a quantity of sacred literature into the noble river. He w r as seen by a policeman to throw a box from the Thames Embankment into the water, which, on being fished out by the pierman of the Waterloo Pier, was found to contain no fewer than 200 Bibles and Prayer-books. The prisoner, who could give no reasonable excuse for this strange proceeding, was remanded for a week, and at present it can only be conjectured that he is an advocate for the moral as -well as the physical purification of rivers. In the meantime it may be as well to point out that, if the object of casting books and pamphlets into the Thames is to elevate the condition of the fish, it would be as well to avoid placing works of a controversial nature before them, which can only disturb their peace of mind, and unfit them for the table, by throwing them into a state of feverish excitement. Such questions, for instance, as ‘ The Church of England—is it worth preserving ?’ are not likely to improve the whitebait or raise the tone of Greenwich dinners.”

The Somerset correspondent of the Brisbane Courier gives the following information of the last trip of the mission steamer Ellangowan to New Guinea :—“ After a thirty-two days’ cruise, she returned to Somerset on July 11. Her captain reported that she called at Yule Island, and landed stores for Signor De Albertis, the Italian naturalist, who is camped there. He was much in need of them, having been living for some time on bananas and snakes. With some dynamite among the stores, the signor soon provided himself with a dinner, killing and securing at one shot 250 fish, many of them large. He had lost his boat, four of his native servants (New Britain men) having bolted with her, and was greatly inconvenienced in consequence, although a partial substitute in the shape of a New Guinea canoe had been purchased from the natives, with which ho could paddle over to the coast of that land, about a mile distant. The signor complained of his poor collection of birds and insects made since his stay in those parts, and appeared much amused at the idea of the Chevert’s intended visit, remarking they would soon alter their minds if his experience were in their possession. After a stay of a week at Point Moresby, the steamer proceeded south-east along the coast fifty-six miles to Hood Point, and interviewed the natives of the village of Ula, who were very friendly, although greatly

astonished at the steam, and perfectly unable to comprehend the means of progression without oars or sails ; exchanged some trade for fish and fruit, and on the second day headed back for Port Moresby, calling off the native village of Kapakapa, which is most ingeniously constructed on piles, half a mile from the shore, in two fathoms of water. This novel mode of construction is on account of the hostility of a tribe inland, who are termed bushmen by the Kapakapas. The bushmen, possessing no canoes, are unable to reach the village. These people, after being induced to visit the steamer, could not be got rid of again until a thought struck the captain to order the engines to be moved, when they all rushed for the side of the vessel, and every ‘ man jack’ of them jumped overboard.” The Reichsanzeiger publishes an account of the field railway department in the German army. The first duty of this department, it says, is to make as rapid and accui'ate a reconnaisance as possible of the railways to be destroyed or restored, so as to obtain some idea of the extent of the work to be done, and of the material and labor which will be required. When the necessary arrangements have been made for destroying or restoring a railway, other detachments take over the management of the captured sections of the line, while the reconnoitring detachment goes to the front with the army. The principal lines of railway in Saxony and Bohemia were restored in this way in 1866. Ihe most important work performed by the field railway department during the war of 18/0 was the construction of the railway round Metz,, from Remilly to Pont-a-Mous-son. This line, which is about five miles long, was built in thirty-three days by 4000 workmen, under the direction of two companies of pioneers. The experience gained during the war not only showed the value of a field railway department, but also the necessity of organising it more effectually, and especially of giving its members some military training in time of peace. This has now been done by the establishment of the “railway battalion.” It consists, when on a peace footing, of four companies, and is recruited from artisans of various trades, so that it contains a fixed proportion of men for each of the various departments of railway work, as well as of smiths, carpenters, and miners. The only men admitted into the “ railway battalion ” as one-year volunteers are railway and mechanical engineers. They are practically taught the construction of railways, railway-stations, bridges, and tunnels ; and in order to make them thoroughly acquainted with all the details of railway work, they are made to take part in the construction of new lines, both under the State and under private companies.

A correspondent at Ragusa of the Pester Lloyd gives some information as to the seat of the insurrection in the Herzegovina : “The whole province,” he says, “is not more than 200 square miles in extent, about 30 of which are fields, 40 woods, 25 meadows, and 95 are totally barren. Barely a third, therefore, of the soil affords any provision for man or beast ; and even in favorable years the Herzegovina does not produce sufficient corn and maize for the wants of the inhabitants. As to manufactories, there are none whatever, except in the town of Focsa, on the right bank of the Drina, which produces woollen, leather, and iron goods, and keeps up a busy traffic with Ragusa. The popution of the province is a iittle over 200,000, one-half of whom belong to the Greek Church, the rest being either Mahomedans or Roman Catholics. As religion is in Turkey a much more powerful element than nationality, the Mahomedans, Roman Catholics, and Greek Catholics look upon each other as strangers, though they all belong to the same race. The Roman Catholics, indeed, are so hostile to the members of the Greek Church that they rather sympathise with the Mahomedans. In all the Herzegovinian insurrections the Greek Catholics have taken the lead, while the Roman Catholics have maintained a * benevolent neutrality ’ towards the Turks. The head-quarters of the present rising is the table land of Nevesinye, where there is a village of the same name with some 1200 inhabitants. The total population of this district is not more than 3700, and the correspondent thinks that if the Turkish Government would send adequate reinforcements to its weak garrisons at Mostar, Trebinye, and Bilek, it would have no difficulty in suppressing the insurrection.”

A considerable amount of the sensational element was imported into the case of Regina v. Baker, in which the defendant was charged with fraudulently inducing the Rev. J. P. O’Sullivan to celebrate marriage, heard at the Central Criminal Court, Melbourne, by the statements made in evidence by the yonng girl, whom, under Baker’s representations, the clergyman married to William Smith, the son of a hairdresser in Steplien-street. The evidence for the prosecution having been given to show that the girl was the daughter of Mr. Patterson, of Sandhurst, the prisoner called the girl herself in his defence, and asked her to say “ all she knew.” The witness immediately entered into a statement of her parentage and expectations, which could only be paralleled by an agony story in the London Journal. She said she had every reason to believe she was the heiress of large estates in England, and she based her belief on the following story : —She had lived with the Pattersons as their daughter at Sandhurst, but some years ago she received a message, in reply to which she went to the Shamrock Hotel in that town, where she met a lady, who told her she was her mother, and described herself as Mrs. Emily Cathcart, wife of a Colonel Cathcart “in the English army,” who was possessed of large estates. This lady stayed for about a month at the hotel, during which time Miss Patterson alias Cathcart frequently visited her, and was always received. as her daughter. At the end of the month the lady died, but the supposed daughter was never able to gain any information as to who Colonel Cathcart was. She had sufficient confidence

in her parentage, however, according to her statement, to place her claims in the hands of a solicitor, so as to obtain her rights.” As far as the prisoner was concerned, she stated that she had always looked upon him as her guardian. In cross-examination, len, the Crown Prosecutor, asked the witness whether she had been attending any spiritist stances lately, which she denied imperturbably, and, indeed, throughout gave her evidence in a collected but somewhat peculiar manner. As might be expected, her evidence created considerable astonishment in the court. His Honor Justice Molesworth gave his opinion of its worth in his charge to the jury, by calling it “trash.”

It is announced that the survey for a canal route across the Isthmus of Panama, now being carried on by Captain Lull, is progressing favorably, and that the result thus far is the discovery of a route much more favorable than was expected, in which the summit level, it is said, is far below that of the Panama Railroad, which is only 262 feet.

Soon after the accident to the Scythia, as the steamer Triumph, of Plockton, from Liverpool to Burghead, with a cargo of salt, was fifteen miles off the Lewis coast, a terrific shock was felt, as if the steamer had struck a sunken wreck. Immediately afterwards a large whale was seen floating near the ship, either dead or stunned. The steamer was found leaking so badly that she ran for Stornoway, where she will have to discharge. The carcase of a whale, 40ft. long, was towed ashore at North Inch, having been found dead in the Atlantic. It is supposed to be the one with which the Triumph was in collision. The New York Graphics London correspondent describes how London “snobs” ride with the foxhounds, the truth of which he vouches for : —“ We have in London a very curious institution called ‘splashing houses.’ If a snob wishes to make it appear that he has been riding with the foxhounds of a certain ‘ meet,’ he goes to one of the houses and pays three shillings at the door. A man meets him in the hall and says, ‘ Wlxat hounds, sir ? Kent, Surrey, Essex V and on being informed, he leads the gallant hunter to a stable where there is a wooden horse standing in a puddle of Kentish or other mud. The man turns a wheel ; the wooden horse kicks up his heels, and in five minutes the snob is covered with as much mud as he would have gathered had he been riding across country five hours. Then the splashed one, with whip in hand, walks up Pall Mall and Piccadilly, and tells those of his friends whom he meets what a glorious hunt he has enjoyed. This also is quite true.”

“From our north-western country,” writes the Brisbane correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald, “ comes a story of death of a most remarkable and terrible description. The sheep at an out-station on Goongarry being found in a scattered state, search was made for the shepherd, and after some lapse of time the body of the unfortunate fellow was found hanging by the leg in the fork of a sapling. It would appear that he had for some purpose climbed the tree, but losing his hold, had fallen, with one knee catching in a forked branch. . Near the tree lay his watch and clasp-knife, and he had evidently been endeavoring to cut away the branch in order to extricate himself from his terribleposition. Failing in this, he had endeavored to give support to the other leg by tying it to the sapling with his shirt. All his efforts, however, were useless, and he must have died a lingering and dreadful death in his solitude. When found, his head was nearly touching the ground, and one hand, evidently in the death agony, had clutched a tuft of grass.” The Educational Monthly says:—The following grotesque, yet solemn, prayer is a verbatim report, taken in the winter of 1562-3, at a Methodist meeting held by plantation negroes in a settlement near camp:—“ 0 Lord God of dis glorious universe, wilt dou look down in de omnipresence of dv eye upon dese dy collared children bowed upon de knuckle-bone dis night. Take a solemn peep upon us, and let a heap o’ light in. Dou knowest what dese dy poor darkies need. Dere be Sam, and dere be Jerry, and dere be Pompey. Dey are in dere sins, dat’s what I reckon. Help dem to git up and git from de wilderness of sin and come into de clearing of salvation. Take a solemn peep also upon de darkies in de oder cabin, who fiddle and whirl upon de bombastic toe, while dy servant fulminates words to de Ruler of all humans upon dis earth, wilt dou bress de Generals in de field dis night, if it be circumspection in dy eye. Bress de Colonels in de field dis night, if it be circumspection in dy discreet eye, and also bress de Union soldiers who carry de musket and chew de cartridge, fighting for de Stars and Stripes. Dey fight in a scientific cause, and be de bestest ob men ; but, good Lord may dey swear less and pray more. And finally, bress dy humble servant now supplicating dee in behalf of dese benighted darkies. In de language of de mighty Washington, dis world is all a fleetin’ show. To-day we are alive and hoppin’ around like grasshoppers ; to-morrow de sickle of death cut us down and spreads us out like grass in hay time. Many dere will be wid slick countenances, white collars, and fine clothes, who will find de gates shut against dem, while de blind old woman, hobbling on crutches, she goes straight in. Amen.” °