EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1191, 26 September 1874, Page 3

EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN NEWS.

We make the following extracts from our files received by the San Francisco mail :—

There are rumors (says tho Alta California) that the Ashantees are troublesome again, and that they cannot be brought back to decency without another expedition. General Wolseley defeated them, captured and burned their capital city, but he did not disarm them nor despatch their King, and his excessive haste in leaving their country left an impression among them that if they had fled instead of fighting, they could easily have foiled the British. They learned tnuch from the campaign, which was their first lesson in the art of war as now conducted among civilized nations, and they have been busy for six months getting breech-loading rifles, the lack of which was one of their greatest disadvantages in the last war. They are brave and energetic, and good stock for soldiers.

The elevation of Prince Arthur to the Dukeuom of Connaught is sarcastically referred to by the Irishman as another distinguished mark of Royal condescension. The Weekly News considers it safe to assume that " there is no love lost between the noble and the Province he has wedded." As for either joy or anger being excited in the Irish breast by such a promotion, the only feeling it is calculated to inspire, the editor avers, is f" one of absolute wonder that the title chosen to adorn an English Prince is one thatraises up a legion of bitter memories of persecution and neglect endured at the hands of England."

The average American (says the San Francisco Chronicle) contemplates in stupid bewilderment the tenacious faith of the disciples of Confucids in the religious necessity that, wherever death may overtake them, their dust must be sent back to the Flowery Kingdom to rest in the bosom of mother earth. The Oriflamme, from Portland, a few days ago brought down over a ton of the mortal remains of Mongolians who had shuffled off their coils in Oregon. This queer cargo is to be shipped from this port to China. The fact that so thrifty a people as the Chinese should incur the great expense they do for such a purpose proves the strong hold which the custom has upon them. The mere preparation of the bodieß to be shipped costs 25 dollars each, and when the expenses of packing, freight, reshipment, &c, is added, it must amount to about as much as an industrious Chinaman, living upon the most economical principles, can save in a year.

The Alta California publishes the following telegram: — "London, August 12th.— The Mark Lane Express, in its review of the breadstuffs market, has the following in regard to the wheat crop: — 'We are now at the middle of harvest, and the wheat shows nothing to indicate average quality and growth, though some of it shows more than average ripeness. Some uf our contemporaries say crops will be two-thirds above the average, while some think it will be below the average. An immense amount of wheat is yet unharvested, and the increase of rain would be serious. There is great diversity of opinion about the crops in France and Belgium. In closing the review, the Express says. — 'We do not see how the.price of wheat can be much depressed.' "

At the late ball given by the Duchess Decazes at Paris, Baroness de D wore a turquoise satin dress with several white tulle skirts, over which came a tunique of old English lace which, it is stated from authentic sources, once belonged to Queen Marie Antoinette. The lace is valued ut £2400. At the previous ball at the Elysge, Madame la Marechal wore a splendid white dress set with lace and old diamonds, which, owing to the superiority of their cut over the present ones, were observed to throw out much more fire than even their largest modern rivals.

The new Postmaster-General (says an Aberdeen journal) is strongly in favour of reducing the newspaper postage to one farthing, but as the reduction, if carried out at once over the whole of the kingdom, would lead to a serious diminution of the revenue, it is probable that it may be preceded by the application of the farthing rate to the districts in which particular newspapers are published. By this plan the present carriage of single newspapers by railways would be superseded, very much to the convenience of the public. It is also rumoured that the telegraphic charges to newspapers will shortly undergo favourable revision.

The sale of the Tichborne claimant's jewellery and other effects for the benefit of crediters brought a large price.

The following telegram, dated New York, August Bth, relative to the affairs of the Prince of Wales, appears in the Alta California:— A London letter says : "A report has suddenly gained currency that the long-expected crisis had occurred in financial nffairs of the Prince of Wales, and the Ministry have made up their minds to propose to the House of Commons at the next session to pay his debts. The sum named is £40,000 sterling — four times the sum Toted in 1867 to appease the creditors of that pattern of royalty. One view is that the honour of the nation is concerned in providing for the debts ; the other is, that these debts are of a character which ought to be paid out of the accumulated fortune of the Queen. The latter view is based on the well-known fact that she baa been receiving, ever since the death of Albert, the whole income calculated at her accession to support the expenses of the Court in the usual degree of splendour; that her Majesty has, however, lived during this period, for the most part, in retirement, and that the cost of drawing-room levees and other royal pageantry has in fact fallen upon the Prince and Princess of Wales, whose income has been unequal to such a burden. The existing debts, or a considerable part of them, have, accordiug to this theory, been incurred in the discharge of those duties. Hence it is urged that the QueeD, who has kept money given her by the State for such purposes, ought to pay them. The Prince of Wales has forty thousand pounds a year, plus the revenue of the Duchy of Cornwall, which amounts to over one hundred thousand yearly."

A telegram, dated London, August 11th, published in the Alta California, says:— "lt is rumoured that Sir Alexander Cockburn will soon reaign the Chief-justiceship and be succeeded by Sir Wm. Baliol Brett, formerly Solicitor-general and now Judge of the Court of Common Pleas.

Laura Fair, the California murderess, freed by a sympathetic jury, publishes a card in which ihesayji: "I shall demand an humble apology from each person who has dared to traduce my character."

A move w being made in New York City to break up tho murderous system of baby-farming now in yogue in that place. It is shown by statistics that out of the 34,000 children born there annually, 2500 are illegitimate, and they, together with about the same number of legitimate children, are abandoned or otherwise disposed of by their parents. Recent investigations go to show that many of them are left with a certain amount of money with professional nurses and systematically starved or put where they will never bother their parents. Referring to a criminal who produced a pistol and blew off the top of his head to avoid arrest, the Alta California says :— " This way of escaping the meshes of the law is becoming fashionable among criminals, and it saves a vast amount of trouble Mid expense to the people."

It may be all right (remarks the Alta), but when the Czar of all the Jtussias extends an invitation to the son of the late Emperor Napoleon to visit his country and witness military manoeuvres, it looks like something meaning business for the future. Republics in Europe are looked upon as dangerous things for royalty, and some of the Empires and Kingdoms are being slmken by the clamor of subjects for a form of self-Government. England has already made alliances with Russia and Germany by royal intermarriages, and the prospects are that the embryotic Napoleon IV. will marry Queen Victoria's youngest daughter. This mixing of royal blood is doing more to secure aid and comfort to weak and tottering thrones than most of the people of those countries imagine ; and it will not be strange if it is the means of raising Prince Leopold to rule over the destinies of France.

# The Chicago Times of the Ist of August publishes a long and carefully-prepared article on stimulating beverages, and what an analysis shows them to be composed of. The bitters, appetizers, and cordials, which are advertised to cure nil the ills that flesh is heir to, are shown to be. by the chemist employed to analyze them, very questionable compounds. The "temperance tonics" were all found to contain a large per centage of alcohol. What certain classes of liquors - logwood claret and manipulated brandy, for instance — contain after they have been ''prepared" or " doctored" for the trade are fully set forth. California wines were put through the test and pronounced good.

Sir Charles Wheatstone recently gave some very interesting experiments with electricity to a private party of friends, at his residence in London, which make certain " spiritual manifestations" appear in a different light. By the aid of electricity he reproduced music, played in another room, on an instrument lying untouched and motionless before his audience. Also by the aid of his ingeniously-contrived apparatus he produced in a dark room, by simply stamping his foot, a crown of electric light in mid-air. Science is gradually undermining the quacks and charlatans who, coming into possession of certain knowledge, have used it to convince their ignorant fellow men that they are possessed of supernatural power. — Alta California.

Another man (says an American paper) has been guilty of working ten hours a day to support himself and family, in Brooklyn. But he was promptly hit on the head with a hammer, and instantly killed, by a " Society man," so he will not trouble any more. The idea that hungry and ill clad men, women, and children have a right to work ten hours to get money to buy food and clothing, was exploded long ago.

According to a New York paper, at the Buffalo Eaces, held on the 7th of August, the quickest trotting time on record was beaten by a horse called Goldsmith Maid, which trotted a mile in 2min. 15"tsecs.

One of the most entertaining announcements of modern times (says the Liverpool Weekly Albion) is that recently made of Lord Mayor Lusk's magnificent intention to give a banquet for the entertainment of the world of art and letters and all that therein is. The prominent men of letters, we are told, the eminent professors of painting, sculpture, and music, not of this country only, but of Europe, will be invited. Whom the meshes of this ambitious net may succeed or fail to succeed in drawing under the civic roof it will be curious in time to know. Mr Tennyson and Mr Tupper, we presume, may be expected to appear arm in arm, the latter with his blushing honours thick upon him, and possibly the gods will look down upon Mr Carlyle sitting at the distinguished board, confronted by the newest evolution of the eccentric eternities in the shape of the resuscitated Josh Billings. On the whole we agree with the London serial in anticipating "many invitations and more heartburnings." Among the Press celebrities, this same serial remarks, "it would hardly do to ask one of the two French journalists who fought the duel the other day, and not invite the other, or it would have to be fought over again."

M. x)ecroix, principal veterinary surgeon to the French army, states that the number of horses, mules, and asses in Europe is 30,780,000, France not included. Eussia figures for 1,800,000 head, Austria for 3,100,000, England for 2.666,200, Germany for 2,500,«00, Turkey for 1,100,000, Spain for 650,000, Holland for 3,000,000, Belgium for 2,600,000, Switzerland for 110.000, France, including Algeria, possesses 4,000,000.

In Paris the horse-butchers during the first quarter of 1874 have sold 2111 horses, mules, and asses for food. In 1872 the numbers were 1275, and in 1870, 980. The same progress is making in the provinces. The Society for the Propagation of the Sale of Horseflesh has just decreed a medal to M. Carder for his mode of preserving horseflesh. Some of this, which was prepared by him in February, 1871, and examined in April, 1874, was found to have presented every analogy to beef preserved by the best methods. — Union Medicale, June 9th.

A respected inhabitant of St. Denis, a little town just outside Paris, has been arrested on a charge of having poisoned his wife. The accused, whose name is Morcau, had beon established for the last four years as a herbalist, and was much esteemed by all who knew him. Ten months ago be lost hi 3 wife, to whom he seemed much attached, but yielding to the persuasion of some friends he married a second time but two months ago, his wife bringing him a very handsome dowry. One month after his marriage his wife fell ill, medical advice was called in, but nothing availed tv save her life, the doctors being of opinion that she had died of diphtheria. A cousin of the dead woman, however, maintained that her relation had declared that her husband had poisoned her. Enquiries were made, the husband was arrested, and the bodies of his two former wives were exhumed for the purpose of being analytically examined. The prisoner, by a strange coincidence, was brought to Paris in the same carriage that conveyed the viscera, &c, of his wives.