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New Zealand Mail, Issue 879, 4 January 1889, Page 24

His Majesty the baby King of Spain has been promoted out of the hands of his nurse into those of a governess. The young monarch is hardly old enough yet to begin the study of the Spanish alphabet, but he, nevertheless, has his governess. The lady who has received the appointment, which, by the way, is worth £7OO a year, is Misß Davenport, an Irishwoman. Miss Davenport has lived in Spain the greater part of her life, and is more Spanish than the Spanish themselves. The competition for the post was very severe, although it was conducted privately and under the nomination system. When Miss Davenport has finished her task of teaohing the young and kingly idea how to shoot she will be entitled to a life pension of £SOO per annum. At the most she will only be in attendance upon His Majesty for five years. A letter from Cracow announces that the police of Moscow have discovered a cellar in that city in which dynamite bomba were being made. When the police entered the cellar they found in it a man who, in reply to their question as to what he was doing, said “ I am baking gourds.” They found that he was engaged in filling a bomb with dynamite. The man was seized, whereupon he drew aknife from his waistcoat andattempted to commit suicide, but only succeeded, in wounding himself in the chest. On examining the pockets of the prisoner the police found papers showing that he was a Nihilist named Ostungkof, who had been condemned for life to the mines in Siberia. Later on another Nihilist named Petrof was apprehended in the neighbourhood. An inspection of the cellar led to the discovery of several bombs, together with a small sack of silver roubles. It is believed that a fresh plot against the Czar was on the point of being carried out. The police are seeking for other suspected persons. The Scotch (says St James’ Gazette) are very canny indeed, and it seems that they are even too canny to commit suicide. M. Emile Durkheim has just contributed an article to the Revue Philosophique in which he shows that the number of people in Scotland who commit suicide is only 34 per million. Italy and Spain can alone improve upon this. In Italy there are 31 suicides per million, while in fche land of manana there are only 17. Doubtless the Spanish expectation that to-morrow will cure all ills accounts for the smallness of these figures. It is not worth while to commit suicide when the dawn of tomorrow morning will clear away all your troubles. In Denmark the number of suicides takes the enormous proportion of 267 to the million. This being so, it is not surprising that Hamlet should have thought a good deal about self-murder.