LATER ENGLISH NEWS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1139, 9 December 1879, Page 2

LATER ENGLISH NEWS.

Auckland, December 9. Ths following items have arrived by the mail steamer Tanjore, which has arrived at Albany, bringing news to October 22nd :

Political canvassing, in view of a general election, is going on. Professor Fawcett, in speaking on the Irish question, said that it would be better for the Liberal party to be excluded from office until the youngest werie grey with age, than to obtain power by any compromise with Home Rule, tending to dismember the Empire.

Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, in a speech at Birmingham, defended the annexation of Transvaal, and showed that the Liberala offered no opposition at the time that these measures were taken in hand.

Lord Lyttelton, at a Liberal banquet, said that if the Liberals were returned to

power, the Afghan policy would be reversed, Cyprus given up, and national finance placed in a sound condition. The Franmere baby-farming case has concluded. John and Catherine Bayne were charged with the murder of three children entrusted to their charge, convicted on the minor charge of manslaughter, and sentenced to penal servitude for life.

General Tchensiff has been appointed Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, and will co-operate with Admiral Uskenborg, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific sta'tion.

Russian papers state that if war occurs between China and Japan, Russian sympathy will be with China.

Information has been received at New York that the commander of the United States war steamer Hackawang, from Asia to the Samoa Islands, states that if Governor Gordon had annexed Samoa or established an English protectorate, he intended to protest against annexation of Pagapago harbor and its use as a coaling station ; and that he would take his vessel there to protect the station if necessary.

Adolphous Rosenburg, publisher of Town Talk, has been sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment for libelsupon Mr. and Mrs. Langtry, and lias had to enter into recognisances of LIOO to keep the peace for a further term of eighteen months at the expiration of the sentence. For libel on Lord Landesborough, he has been sentenced to six months, and for libel on Mrs. Cornwallis West, to six months. The judge regretted that he was unable to add hard labor to the sentence, and said that the prisoner's offence should not have been treated as a first-class misdemeanour, not as a felony. The printer of the paper was ordered to enter into recognisances of LIOO to appeal for judgment when called upon. India, November 7.

Rewards are offered for the capture of the men concerned in the attack on the Residency at Cabul as follows : —SO rupees for the Sepoys, 75 rupees for a captain, and 100 rupees for a field officer. A Committee has been appointed by India to arrange the despatch and collection of Indian contributions to the Melbourne Exhibition.