HOME AND FOREIGN NEWS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1514, 7 March 1901, Page 12

HOME AND FOREIGN NEWS.

' (ELY LATEST MAILS.) ■ . L . •. . , A. CORRUPTION IN JAPAN. • It appears that, the Japanese Minister ..<*£ Communication s, Mr Hoshi Torn, -.Taras compelled to I'esicn. He was a -member of the Radical party, and . a member of the Cabinet. Hie courts dismissed the charges brought against him -of accepting bribes, but public opinion (Was- so strong that ho was forced to take ■this- step. There has lately been a •perfect epidemic cf charges of corruption against politicians, naval men, and 'contractors. Mr Hoshi Tom recently cynically admitted that Japan was pasing through a, necessary stage of corruption like England did in the Walpole ' days. ■ 7 ..AMERICA’S POLICY IN CURA. .. A rash, unwise remark made by General. Fit zh ugh. Lee in a speech at St. j Louis is musing the Government great concern. He openly declared that the .American flag was going to stay in Cuba, .; plus intimating that the promises of in- ■ dependence are not to be carried out. 7 This assertion has,- already been officially ‘ repudiated, and General Lee himself f jhas since explained that he meant Amer- . ,-icam control of ...Cuba would; continue ' until a stable Government had been established, r: The Oubaus, however, are 1 by -no ■ means.; satisfied - with this ex - - plana.tion, and General 7 Lee’s indiscre--1 - tion is litely to make difficult the very •' i:.delicate s negotiations now in progress " between ‘ the United * States authorities A'ikitd Cuba;Cubans have -been- asked to -■ 'assent;-to - a plan by - which Cuba is to i: have its own government, but give the United States a permanent* foothold in the island and a voice in its foreign affairs. The plan includes the establishment of American military and naval stations' at'Havana, Samtiago'yand certain other points requisite for the ! future defence of the Nicaragua "Canal. Cubans are; very sensitive about American interference with the future government of the island. General Lee’s 1 . untimely utterance is likely to cause considerable embarrassment to the. Goveminent.'. ' iy TEE STRIKE RIOTS IN ANTWERP. ; V; :( ' ] The recent dockers’ riots , at. Antwerp were, punctuated with sce-Ms of disgraceful bloodshed. At various places m the port a large number of men had accepted the conditions of work, and the strikers, irritated by this fact, attacked a goods train in the expectation of finding a contingent of provincial “blacklegs.” They discovered, however, that they had been* mistaken, and abandoned the attack.- In; another place a' dozen w r orkmen were beaten by 'strikers, and six had to be takento hospital. In the Rue des Peighes pblioe officer was disarmed) by the mob, and ' "; was only rescued by a police charge. '••yThree arrests were made. On. the Quad y 7 Rhin 1500 strikers made a demcnsfcra'Atiohr with weapons in' the shape of iron A 5 bars, and hurled! paving-blocks and 7 y drinking glasses at the police, while on 7Tthe Quai Qockerill 1000 more assailed . a band of workmen who were protected by a force of fifty police. : The burgoy master went aboard a Grimsby ship, and 7 ..-reassured .. the crew, who were ■; prepar--77 mg. for 7 a* -fight. The strikers .renew ed ,7; their rioting, the police drew . their .revolvers. and charged. They .fired a volley Tof ball and. twenty of ; or; the; rioters were wounded. Six of the; .' , pphceywerOtinjnred- Order was for the Ain-time 'T€b#i^'^y7T(^fQ^C9inetd^- of 125 ob-NUitv *.v..0 ‘. l ■;.. - . - * Jr - -AvAuAv-'. A .VO j- A A-Sy* GBJEOTTNG TO BE SOLD. 7yAA CChe proposed sale of the Danish West 'lndies fo v the!- United States has met . ' with, such strenuous opposition in the' islands that there is little doubt the Danish Government will, for the prez sent*, at arty rate, abandon the proposal. jA-;,,7The'.islands ;are, according to latest iV ' l despatches/, much divided on the ques- ” tron, but the decision rests with the population and 1 the anti-sale party is ; very determined.. The only paper that .. has advocated the sale is the Governmont’s organ, the Croix Avis,” an .r fartideNin which i-is supposed to have been inspired by the Governor, Mr Hedemann. -itr ;; official has unintentionally : given the anti-sale party a lift. He threatened' ,hhe. leader of the party to which ihe is op--7 Opesbd with dismissal from his office as vice-president of th , e Oolpnistl Conncii* : ' Mr ' Lowaetz, the vice-president, '’published the threat in the Press, with the result, of rallying the anti-sale party. _ NEW GUN MOUNTINGS. The six new armoured cruisers of the Cressey type are to be fitted with a mounting for their 9.2 in gun® that is

greatly superior to che mountings at present us eel for weapons of this calibre. The first of the new type has been made by Armstrong and Co., Elswick. It was tested lately at Portsmouth, an i gave satisfactory results: Instead oi manual power, hydraulic power has been utilised! for working the gun. This will give greater rapidity of fire and make the duties of the gun’s crew less laborious, thus enabling them to continue fighting, for a longer period. Another improvement is that r,ke gun s breech and the men working it are protected by a thick hood of hard steel strong enough to resist almost any attack from projectiles except at very close range. Moreover, that part of the machinery beneath decks is enclosed in a cylinder of armour, and the ammunition passes direct'■from the magazines to the gun by means of a protected hoist. The 9.2 in gun to be placed on this mounting is of the latest pattern. It is estimated to throw a 3801 b projectile a distance of fifteen miles.' The gun and mounting complete weigh nearly 150 tons. By the new arrangement, all the advantages of a battleship's barbettes are secured for the fore and ait guns of our new cruisers. The mounting tried goes into the Cressy, which is now being completed. BOMBA RUING THE CLOUDS. Hailstorms are the .dire enemies of vine-yard owners, for the great* stones spoil the crops, but it has been made apparent that by modern scientific means these storms can be The “Illustration” publishes pictures'of new cannon to prevent hailstorms by bombarding the clouds.. A congress was held in Padua, not- long ago on the subject, called together by Signor ot~ t-avi, an Italian Deputy, at which over a. thousand French, Italian, and Austrian members were present. The congress reached the following conclusions: In order that the action of the bombardment be efficacious it is necessary—(l) That the surface protected by a cannon should net be more than twentyfive hectares; .(2) that a battery should consist of eight to ten cannons to assure protection for from 200 to 250 hectares of vineyards(3) that the greater number of camions should be pointed towards the direction whence the .storm comes; (4) that during the first few minutes of the attack two or three shots* to be fired per minute, and then gradually slackened to one shot* every three minutes ; (5) that a charge of eighty 1 grammes of powder per shot is sufficient. An exhibition,: of the cannons was held during the congress 1 . Among them was the monster cannon of Signor A. Oruzzi, of Padua, and the acetylene gum of Signor Major a, Blanchi, of Turin. Another -congress will be held this year at Lyons. 7 . 7 , .7 ..7 GREAT FIND AT BANNOCKBURN. - .• ' ; ' , 7 .< .: ' •' . ; c • Samuel . McMichanp ploughman, of Closeburn, - Dumfriesshire, has just brought to light a potful of silver pennies that were buried probably 587 years ago,'or thereabouts, Samuel McMichan, being a ploughman who takes a pride in his furrow, rested his horses at the end of the field " he was working.a few days ago and cast his eye back along. the line ho had! followed to* see that’it was straight. It was not. His, critical eye noticed an unevenness in the ground, and Samuel McMichan stepped back over the clods of that, high-lying field to ascertain the cause. . He found that his : plough had broken open; am earthenware pot, and before him; lay scattered hum-' dredis of pieces r of what, in his homely, Lowdand way,* he. calledtinAV 7 WithCd capful of “tin” the- McMichan ~ went off and consulted the farmer, andmost Of the ‘‘tin”: turned out to- be' silver pennies of the reigns of - Edward 1., who annexed Scotland, and Edward 11., who lost it; There were over 2000 of them, ail in good preservation, each' ; measuring three-quarters - of am inch across. ’They weighed 51b in bulk. ; The oldest of'Hie- coins are those of King Alexander of Scotland, who ruled from ' 1249 ! to 1285 V There are also afew bearing the mint* mark of Waterford, in' Ireland.' The latest are those of Edward II;- whom the Soots cheerfully thrashed at Bannockburn in 1314. In 1313 Edward Bruce drove the English oppressor out of Nithsdale, and it is; suggested that some Englishman, being in a hurry to reach the border, put his 2000 silver pennies in a potsherd and hid it in the ground'. It would be interesting to know, the name of. the man who .thus lost what Samuel. Me-, Micham, 500 years later* found- ' Perhaps an antiquary l * will tell tie. But," at any rate, the Crown is claiming-the! pennies, as treasure-trove, so they will probably find'their yay into a Scottish museum ,fqr English visitors to look at: 1 - • r' - a -v;7- '.7 7 7,7? ~- 7 7 extraordinary triple sbi- : " CIDE. ; The/dead bodies of three girls lashed together with strips of flannel and with their, arms' round each other's necks were found in the, River Trent at Nottingham recently. There is no doubt that the girls de-

liberately committed suicide. Their names are Ann Ethel Mason, aged fourteen, Ethel Mary Dilkes, aged seventeen, and Mary Bickley, aged sixteen. About nine o’clock on the day the bodies were discovered a letter, two hats, and a cloth cap were found on the river bank. The letter, to which were attached two silver brooches, one marked ‘.‘Baby,” contained the simple and tragic words, “We have drowned ourselves,” and it was signed by Mason and Dilkes. In each hat was a purse.One -contained three rings and a farthing; in the cap were two pennies. The police immediately dragged the river, and at* one o’clock the three bodies were' re cover ed near the spot where the hats were found. The girls’ arms were clasped roiind each other’s necks. Tb© hair of the youngest girl was arranged in curling pins. The girls were old friends, and they lived in Snemton, a suburb of Nottingham. Why they deliberately planned their self-destruction is not known. On the previous night Bickley and Dilkes were out together, and their parents, had no cause to suspect that they contemplated the crime. Mason had threatened to commit suicide, but her mother, who heard her, did not attach any importance to the threat. Dilkes. was a hosiery hand, Bickley a eonfectioner’s assistant, and Mason a machinist. • VICES OF EDUCATION. Sir John Gorst, M.P., -Vice-President of the Board of Education, London, in a* recent speech, said that the vices of the elementary school system, were due- to* the mistakes or the central government, and condemned the system of payment by results. The. outcome of this system was tb&t. managers turned* the children into grant-earning machines. They taudit pupils subjects not because they were adapted to the circumstances of the taught, but because they were the best calculated to get bi-g grants front the Government. The children were educated by machinery- They were treated like performing animals, and drilled into a number of things which pleased the ignorant spectator who went to see an exhibition. But when the control was over and the child left school it sank back into the same stupidity from which it sprang, and in a short time forgot everything it was taught. He pointed to the legislation, of the Government* in 1889 in the direction of technical education, and said that it was now intended to make a* further step. Bills were laid upon* the tables of the House of Commons and the House of Lord's in the last session showing that it was intended to take in hand the technical instruction committees of the county councils* and other local, authorities to modify them so that* they might have the assistance of the advice of experts . and representatives of great educational institutions, and that these committees should be entrusted with the further development of higher education. Whether things would stop here, or 7 whether ultimately we should have one single authority for education of every kind it 'was impossible to say. VALUABLE 1 NEW RAILWAY BRAKE. M. Planta, chief engineer of the Lucerne tramways, after many years of careful study and experiments, has myented a system of brakes bunch superior to that iii use in Europe at the present time- 7/ ... .77'. oh: ;7 v;7 7 w:.*: The brake is mechanical and so power- , fui that it is able to stop a train travel-, ling at the rat© oLtwOnty-five wiles an hour within a distance of eight yards—, even on am • incline—while in a little over double this distance am express ’ with a speed of fifty miles an hour is brought to a standstill. The shock to, the travellers is even less than that.ex-, perienced with the ordinary, brake, and; it. is stated that the brake, may be .applied by a.passenger simply pulling the alarm-cord; 7:. - 7 '77 .7. 77 ' • 7 , . ; ; Mb Planta’s system, was recently tested at Lucerne by Government experts, r whO without reserve expressed their satisfaction .with the. new. system and recommended it strongly. The . brake way also "he applied to* electric or - steam trams. The Government is taking steps to have the TPlanta brake - adopted tliroughout Switzerland. A HERMIT MILLIONAIRE. ' Thirty years ago George Johnston, millionaire and! laird of the Fife Isle estate, near Dundee, vowed! that no 7 mail should see his face again, and he kept his vow. But now he is dead. His father, army officer, Indian tea planter, and smuggler, gathered a huge fortune, ancl settled on the Fife Isle estate. He was hard and morose, strange in habit, and violent in temper. Yet lie fell in love with Jean Douglas, the daughter of a peasant, and married her. She bore him a soli, and died. ' 7' That was a had day for George Johnston’s father. He brooded, they say, over his loss; his temper became un-

governable. His son’s was hardly, better. One day the son tied the father in a, carpet, threw him into a room, and . decamped to the woods. The polio© caught him, and he was sent abroad. Thirty years ago the father died, and th son returned to live a solitary, sordid life, without the touch, of romance which redeemed his father’s. Never once did he set foot across th© threshold of the dilapidated manor hiuse. A maiu cooked his scanty meals, but never saw him. She would lay the food down, ring a* bell, -and then withdraw. Only then wiouM Johnston come out of his den. Ho had a craze for purchasing th© tops of all the hills in the county. The Marquis of Bute proposed to construct a railway from Falkland Palace to* the town; of Falkland partly through Johnston’s ground, but .Johnston, would have none of it. When he died a box of 40,000 sovereigns was found, and bank-notes innumerable, stowed away -in odd corners. He never married, and his fortune, computed a,t five millions, is said) to go to his nephew, Lieutenant Mackgill Crichton, *of the Seaforth Highlanders 1 , . now serving in the Soudan. THE TOLL OF THE SEA. ' As compared with .previous' years, 1900 has been exceptionally, free from wrecks. But in spite ©i tms decrease the loss of life entailed has been- abnormally high. The disappearance of sailing ships from the commercial sea routes, and their replacement by steamdrs, is regarded as the main cause of the decrease in wrecks. While the abnormal increase in, the loss of life is due to. the fact that the vessels of to-day are larger in bulk than those of previous, years. In fact, it is estimated that with the collapse of one ox our big ships the number of lives placed, in .jeopardy is equal to* a dozen wrecks of & few years .ago. ' The. causes of maritime disaster are many, but the main are careless navigation, inefficient look-outs, paucity of lio-ats, and travelling at too high, a speed in fogs. Ten years ago, fire- was a very prominent factor among the causes- of disaster, but owing to* the fact that the principal shipping companies refuse to* take aboard passenger ships anything of an infiammable nature, the past year has been comparatively free from such accidents. Altogether it is reckoned that the value of the ship-property lost- from various causes during 1900 is about £3,~ 000,000, of which the value of “missing” vessels accounts for one-third. - ; The first steamer to be placed on the “missing” Tist last year was the British steamer Rosemorran, which left Baltimore on January 26 with , a cargo of wheat for Londonderry.- p- .7: .*. The list of warships and transports lost during the past year is also a/ehort one, America, France,;! Germany, and Japan being the only countries figuring in the list, .witn- a loss of one ship each. .7/.A''77 7: 7t -' PAINTER AND MILLIONAIRE:' Anders Zorn, the well-known Swedish artist, now on a visit to America, has been figuring in ; a sensational controversy with Henry Glay Pierce, a St. Louis millionaire. Pierce employed Zorn to paint portraits of himself, wife, and daughter, agreeing to pay £Bo® each. When the portraits were finished he refused to accept them, clainmiaig that they werd thereupon commenced a suit ih the St. Louis Courts, but the mat-ter w-ae settled out of court yesterday Thy Pierce paying £2400 for the and £250 ■' lawyers 1 ’ fees. A - Pieroe;,;says he would have won' the suit,* but* in that event the portraits would have belonged to Zorn, who, he believed, intended making' an improper rise*-y-of.Cithern. Therefore he decided! to pay for th© paintings, and means to burn them. Zorn, who is at present in New York, said to-day : Pierce phintin-gs have been pronounced masterpieces by ptmmsseurs. The trouble was 7 Uot:'th© fault of my art, hut simply rhy. refusal to bow down to Pierce’s millions.” RAT-RIDDEN BERLIN. Berlin is at present stricken with a plague of rats. The western part of the .city, and particularly the neighbotnrhood of Oharlottcnburg and the great Kurfuerstendamm thoroughfaife, is that which the rats have chosen as their abode. So *great ha© the nuisance become that the police have issued oyderg to - householders to put rat poison in their cellars and * other likely places. * Whether the poison will he so readily swallowed by the rats as the police hope is being doubted, and the rodents wi® probably retreat*to the small swampy lakqs hear the west of Berlin, whence they came. As a. more hopeful measure these rat-liaunted swamps are being dried up.

CANADA'S DIVORCE PROBLEM. The higher courts- of Canada and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council will probably have to decide soon whether a divorce in Canada is sometimes not a divorce. A very interesting point has arisen. M. Delpit, secretary to the Lieuten-ant-Governor of Quebec, obtained from the Roman Catholic authorities a decree of divorce from his wife, which the court of Rome, on . appeal, upheld. In previous cases of this kind, the decree of Rome has been accepted by the divorced party as legal, but Mine. Delpit’s advisers hold that such a divorce is invalid, and counsel an appeal to the highrest authority. The question is whether the decrees of the Roman Catholic Church are to be recognised by, and possibly to override, Canadian law, and it is of widespread interest by reason of the numerous inter-marriages of Catholics with Protestants. In many cases regal titles to- estates are. involved. In this case M. Delpit pleaded that Ids marriage hot! ■•>.''on - invalid, her- v r it 'v;zs -;A-_ 'lO 1 : hit'u tjj .v i-'v*; C.OjL'g.Vliiciil. Roman Catholic senators of Quebec have always refused to concur in divorce Bills granted by the State in cases of Roman Catholics, contending that the Church of Rome alone has jurisdiction. INFANT SLAUGHTER. IN FRANCE. In a communication by twio Nice medical men, Drs Balestre and Gilletta 4e St. Joseph, read at the last meeting of the Academic de Medecine, it was demonstrated that more than threefourths of the deaths among children could be avoided. Ignorance, carelessness, alcohol, and all other avoidable pathological trespasses have in six years killed 220,000 infants, and every year Franc©, by her own fault, loses a oorpe d’armee of 45.000 men. The industrial and mining towns and the large seaports. according to Drs Salestre and Gilletta, lost most children. SACRIFICE OF BABY. The educationalist Froebel evolved a system whose aim was to help the child’s mind to grow naturally and spontaneously. In 1836 he opened his first kindergarten school at Blankenburg. There was a conference of the Frcebel Society at Essex Hall, London, recently, and the principal paper was read by Mr Graham Wallas. Its title was, significantly enough, “A Criticism •of Froebelia.il. Pedagogy.” ‘ He said that the principle on which a child should be reared should be such as to enable it bo live best the whole of its life. Wo woke the baby up when it wanted to sleep, and fed it when it was not Hungry in order to form the habit of regularity in eating and sleeping. Such a habit might be disastrous to the members of a hunting tribe, but was essential to the inhabitants of a civilised town. It was necessary, declared Mr Wallas, to give up the principle, “Follow nature.” To Rousseau’s question, “Are we to sacrifice the child to the man ?” fee answered “Yes, in part.” The child •must not live as though there were no manhood, any more than the man must live as though there were no childhood. Froebel simplified top much both ‘ the child and the world in which he lived. A clever poor child who learned little at home and was always one of a class of fifty at school must learn from books if he were to learn' enough to make his v.-way to the intellectual life. It was y i especially from the great thoughts ■ of great men that his imagination must -he fired-and his ideals formed between „ the age of eight and twelve. * l /-:• 4. . •{ ; STEAMER’S AWFUL PERIL. Ihc Ha-mburg-American steamer Frisia, crippled and almost sinking, with several of her officers and crew injured, put into Queenstown the other morning, after one of the most perilous and exciting adventures in mid-ocean that even befell a vessel. Seven days previously the Frisia had left Hamburg for Portland, Maine, and Boston. When in mid Atlantic she encountered the full fury of a gale and a tempestuous sea. Her holds were lightly filled, and she was tossed about in a most alarming manner, and she heaved over at angles which were sometimes most dangerous. In the midst- of the storm a spare shaft, -with propellor attached, weigh- , lag many toils altogether, snapped the -steel lashings on the ’tween deck, and straightway took possession of the entire deck. The huge tail of steel with the enormous blades swayed from either port or starboard with each heavy and forbidding roll of the vessel. Every one of the crew who could

be spared worked hard and desperately in attempting to check this weighty fiend let loose. Many men were maimed and bruised, and they all seemed to be helpless. The shaft and propellor shot continuously from one side to the other, and at each lurch the shaft’s end struck heavily against the ship. Plates were punctured as if they were so much tin. After a while plates were ripped out altogether, and water rushed through the gaps. Finally, to the happy relief of everybody, the shaft disappeared through owe of the holes it had made and fell into the water. But the propellor remained behind to do more damage. At length the propellor crashed through the deck and dropped into No. 4 Hold. It smashed several pianos and made pulp of much valuable merchandise. Then it was secured and made fast. The abandonment of the voyage was imperative, and the vessel was headed back for Queenstown. lvi-L.-L.jaß E 1 A i'uU'O.'.ti) JuLixiO »* • On November 29 last the Hon. David Carnegie, being at that time AssistantResident at Lokaja, North Nigeria, was slain by a poisoned arrow, but the story of how he met his death at the call of duty has only just reached home. Information came to Lokaja that- the people of Taivari, behind Koto Karifi, opposite the town of Susso Kusso, on the banks of the Niger, had possessed themselves of rifles. Thither, with an escort of ten men, youpg Carnegie went to seize them. He had accomplished his work, and had returned to the river bank, when the chief Dangara, who was away at the time the rifles were seized, sent word to say that he (Carnegie) would not have dared to do what he had done had he been there -at the time. This was a challenge which, for the sake of policy, it was not well to disregard, and Carnegie and his little band turned back. At the town gate Dangara and his people set upon them, and Qarnegie fell with a, poisoned arrow through his thigh. Death came within ten minutes. _ With great bravery the little escort kept the natives off, and, without further loss, brought his body back to Lokaja. A punitive expedition set out for Taivari under Captain Cubit. After some delay it reached the town only to find it empty. Mr Carnegie, who was the younger son of the Earl of Scuthe.sk, was a young mail who had achieved much and showed brilliant promise. ? . He had travelled far across the West Australian wastes, through the great Sandy Deserts, narrowly escaping death from thirst several times. He had mapped out much, unexplored land, and had written the book “Spinifex and Sand,” the record of his expedition of 1896-97. He had worked, too, as a dicker and a miner. In Nigeria, where he had been, hut a, short while at the time of his death, he won much love and; great respect. MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF AN ARMY DOCTOR. The only definite conclusion which the St. Pancras coroner and jury could arrive at about the death of Captain Bernard H. F. Leumann at the Midland Grand Hotel was that the cause was asphyxia. How the asphyxia was set up remained a mystery. Captain Leumann belonged to the Indian Medical Service, but had been serving in Sduthj Africa, whence he was invalided home last October. After staying with his brother-in-law at Wallington, he went to ‘the Midland Grand Hotel last Sunday. Next morning he was found dead in his bed-room. A letter addressed to his brother-in-law was on the table. It ran: January 6.—Forgive me for all the trouble I have caused 1 you. I hope you in a short time will be aide to do this and forget all about it. I had my will drawn up yesterday, and posted it on to my agent, whom I have elected to give it you on your application for it. I trust you will, for it is most important, since it supersedes that which you and Mrs Sayers witnessed on New Year’s Day, and which I wish you to destroy. You will find one among the papers I handed Susan {his sister) last Tuesday. Please s ee to this. Forgive me for all the misery I am causing you. —From your affectionate brother-in-law, Bernard Leumann. Search in the room led to the discovery of a hypodermic syringe and! a box of cyanide of potassium. The syringe was one the captain used in India to inject serum into plague patients. He caught the plague himself, and had suffered from another complaint, to base the pain from which he was in the habit of injecting morphia. According to his relatives’ views Captain Leumann had 1 no occasion to commit suicide, having excellent prospects in the service. He was, however, of a somewhat despondent minidi When in

pain, and given to writing wild letters. When he visited his solicitor to make his will he said, “One doesn’t know what will happen.” A post-mortem examination led Dr Grubbe to the conclusion that the. death was not natural, and was due to asphyxia, but- that was as far as he could go. THE PORTLAND ESTATES. At I-lighgate Police-court Mrs Draco asked for a- magisterial order for ' Hie opening of the Druce vault in Tlighga r e Cemetery. In reply to Sir John Glc.er she said that lier name was Anna Maria Druce, of 31, Man eh ester-street-, Pors-man-square. She added that Mr Justice Jeune in the course of a trial to remove her husband’s father’s will on the ground that lie was not dead at the time the will was proved, expressed the opinion that the grave must be opened, and advised her to make an application to two justices of the peace to grant an order ll 'i li • 1 i . i iti 'L' -j - C A l . 1 Oil C Ail € i C i V. L (Mil D :A 11 V to open the grave. Mrs ivruce explained that this was a proceeding which should be taken under an Act- of William IV., and this the magistrate’s clerk said lie could not find. Mrs Druce retorted that she could bring the Act to the court. Sir John Glover said he thought it was a mistake to come to that court, because by a recent Order in Council the district in which the cemetery was situated was to be transferred frofn the Highgate Police court district to the Clerkenwell Police court district. Mrs Druce thought the case could be heard and settled before the end of tbe year. Sir John Glover said he was afraid she was too sanguine. Mrs Druce : I don’t want to make a great scandal, and bring the Duke of Portland —he calls himself the Duke of Portland, but he is not; I know who he is—up here and fill the cemetery with people. I want to do it quietly. If a lot of people came it would not be one grave only that would be opened. They would open them all. I will renew my application after 1 have iurnished the cleric with a copy of the Act to which I have referred. TERRIBLE -MASSACRE AT NANTING Reuter’s Agency has received communications of letters from Catholic missionaries in China to hand by the mail, giving further details of the sufferings of the Roman Catholics in that country. A Sister of Charity, writing from the “Maison cle Jesu Enfant,” Ning-po, on Nov. 20, says : All continues extremely quiet, but God alone knows the future. In Chili most of the besieged missionaries have been relieved, but this is not the case with the Mongolian missions, where many of the Belgium missionaries are still thought to be holding cut. We have much reason to thank God for the way so many thousands of the Christians remained faithful to tbe end. Despite threats, torture, and frequently the most painful death, apostaey has been wonderfully rare,' and that" principally among quite new Christians. At Nanting there was a regular massacre of the innocents. About 100 little boys, belonging to the Brothers, had taken refuge there when the! place was attacked and fired. The children, with two Brothers, took refuge on a high terrace near the sacristy, cud there defended themselves for several hours, at the same time witnessing the horrible massacre down below of between 300 and 400 Christians. When the church blazed 1 , the boys were simply being roasted and had to descend from the terrace. Nearly all were killed, but a few broke! through, and, led by a Brother, escaped to the orphanage outside the citv at Simla. There they begged for help from the Legations, but none could.be sent, and all were killed, the place being burnt a couple of days later. The little, fellows behaved most heroically, refusing apostalise, despite all threats. The Bio thers had refused to leave them, and seek safety in the Legations, lest fear should tempt them to turn. GENERAL POLE-CAREW ON THE WAR. Major-General Pole-Carew, Messrs H. E. Duke, Ivor Guest, and J. W. Spear’, M.’sP., were among the guefcts at the annual banquet of the Plymouth Mercantile Association. Replying to the toast of “The General Pole-Carew said that with the trouble still going on in South Africa he felt he ought not to be at that gathering. When he left Koomati Poort it •was thought that the war as a war was over, and that only more or less unpleasant police work had to be carried on ; otherwise he should not have come home. It was vary annoying that present disturbances should have broken out, and tiresome that it should continue. It was absolutely necessary that we should see the business out to the bitter end, and to teach the Dutchmen a lesson, t or a considerable period they had treated Englishmen in South Africa like dogs. This arose very largely from our own mistakes. The greatest of those mistakes was the continual giving way to the Dutchmen. We gave way after Majuba, and from that moment Dutchmen.

had considered our fighting capacity to be extremely small. This war had taught them that in a stand-up fight they had net very much chance against the British. Brit iha Dutch had found that continual asking and demanding had wearied our statesmen, and there had been all sorts of conventions and agreements made in their favour, simply because of their persistence, which had made us grow tired. Those mistakes were possible because the English people had not taken sufficient interest in the Empire. We were pleased to call our giving-way in South Africa magnanimity. That was a word absolutely unknown in the Dutch languageThe Dutch would call it weakness, and' they thought they could lick us, and they were going on because they thought that if they continued their opposition we should tire and make some compromise. He looked to all present to make that impossible. We must make the Dutchmen recognise that we were their masters. When, that was accomplished he felt sure they would become peaceable British subjects. Whatever mistakes had been made in higher quarters in connection with the war. the rank arc- file- and regimental officers liaa made very igw. No matter what expense was necessary, we must complete our task, and, .above all things, there must be no compromise. FRANCE AND BELGIUM. It is stated in Brussels that the principal argument to persuade the Military Commission to adopt active measures for the defence of Belgium was the affirmation that France had secret designs of annexation. To dispel any idea that we have a new international question, I may at once say (writes the correspondent of the “Daily Chronicle”) that the basis of the incident is the floating legend that General Zurlinden, in 1897, actually proposed some such scheme to the Council of War. lam informed at the Belgian Legation that the story is absurd. (In the other hand, Baron d’Anethan has acknowledged to a representative of He r ‘Temps” that he had from time to time seint clippings to the French journals which may have led to an erroneous impression. Probably the Belgian Government, at the invitation of the German Emperor, was glad to scrape together alarming reports to secure a grant from a reluctant Legislature. The inroads of Belgian subjects on French territory and the exclusive use of the Flemish language in French schools are a far more serious matter than the ambitious ravings of the Zurlinden and Mercier set.