Provincial and General.

Otago Witness, Issue 1476, 28 February 1880, Page 7

Pr ovincia l and General.

A MISTAKEN BAILIFF.

A rather amusing incident (says the Post) occurred in Wellington a few days age, and one which is likely to cause "trouble" to somabody. There are in this city two persona of the same name. One of them occupies a high official position, is a leading member of his church, and a strict teetotaller. The other is neither so high, so religious, nor perhaps so abstemious as his namesake. The first is rather proud of the fact that he owes no man anything, but the second is not so fortunate. In fact bk owes a good many men something, and as a natural result he has bad occasion to appear at the Resident Magistrate's Court on one or two occasions. Having been ordered by Mr Mansford to pay one of^ his debts within^ a given time, and having failed to do so, a distress warrant was taken out and given to a bailiff to execute. The bailiff knew where Mr lived, of course, and gaily marched off to do his duty. But it so happened that it was the wrong Mr whose residence he knew. However, v/heu he reached the house he walked in by the open door, and with a bland smile produced his warrant and proceeded to make himself comfortable. It was not for some time that he could be made to understand that he had got into the wrong house, but when he discovered that fact he took his departure with considerable promptitude. We leave our readers to imagine the horror of Mr • at having his goods and chattels seized for the non-payment of a beer bill.

THE NEW CALEDONIA OONVIOTS.

The leader of the Communists who recently lauded at Auckland is M. Augusta Rockquards, formerly a lieutenant in the Garde Nationale. He gave the following sketch of himself to a Herald reporter :— " My name ia Auguste Rockquards, single, and formerly a re* sident of Paris. lam a lithographic printer by trade, and worked at it in France and England, in the latter country for nine years with Day and Sdut, of London, and subsequently for three months at Birmingham. In 1868, during my stay in England, I took an active part and interest in the movements of the London Radical Clubs, as being to some extent in harmony with my Republican principles. Having made some money I returned to France, and I remained there till the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870. On tha commencement of the war I was mads a lieutenant in the Garde Nationale, and served throughout the first siege of Paris against the Prussians. On the organisation of the Commune I threw in my lot with that movement, under the belief that it would give to Paris and to France those political rights of which they had been deprived under the Second Empire. When Maomahon's victorious troops poured into Paris, I and a number of Communists made our way out of the city, but were captured at Bevie. Here a line regiment wa3 engaged in shooting Communists in batches. The commandant did not seem to have much heart for his work, for after several squads of prisoners (six in each) had been shot and another squad had been put up against a wall (of whom I was one), the commandant ordered his men to cease firing, saying, 'I have shot enough today,' and ordered the survivors to fall in under a guard. I was sent with Rochefort and other prisoners to Fort Boyard, at Larochelle, and departed to New Caledonia in 1871, by the ship Laquerriere. Some of my present comrades were sent out in the same year, and others later, some as late as 1875. Soon after my arrival in New Caledonia, Rochefort was sent out and placed at the Isle of Fines, where I was assigned to him < as servant. Rochef or t's escape was managed easily, as I have occasion to know, being privy to it; A person employed on the mission of attempting to rescue him, took an opportunity of seeing me, and said, ' I have come here to get away a certain person — only one — and this is he," pulling out of his breast a photo. I looked and saw that it was Rocheforb. Steps were at once taken to aid Rochefort in escaping, plans arranged, and a number of letters passed to him for delivery, from some of the leading Communists in Noumea, to their friends in France. Of course there was a lady in the case as usual, the wife of a member of the National Assembly, who had a soft spot in h^r heart for M. Rochefort,, and she succeeded, through her husband, in getting matters so* arranged that Rochfort's flight was a matter of very little difficulty. A good deal of money was spent over it, however, of which the person possessing the photo, pulled off a cool thousand. With regard to the treatment of political deportees at the Isle of Pines there is little to complain about. Each person gets daily one and a half pound of excellent bread and half a pound of fresh meat j also, tea, sugar, coffee, pepper, salt, vinegar, and mustard in addition. For all labour done by them they are allowed a plot of land to raise vegetables for personal use." The imprisonment does not seem to have broken M. Rockquards. He possesses extreme Democratic principles, and when asked whether the moderate Republic now existing under M. Grevy would not be satisfactory to himself and friends, he said, " No ; it gives an instalment only of that full and free exercise of political freedom which Frenchmen ought to enjoy."

A WELLINGTON MYSTERY.

We clip the following from the New Zea. land TimeH :— "For a long time past the town has been filled with mysterious rumours in connection with the sudden disappearance of one of the citizens some months ago. Rumour is not slow to mix up a guilty love and murder with the affair, and also to particularise the method by which the body was got rid of— rumour giving out that it was cut up and burned piecemeal, and that for weeks the neighbours complained of the peculiar and disagreeable smell. There may be nothing whatever in the rumour, and we only give it for what it is worth. It is said tho police have been investigating the matter for months past, but hitherto the mystery has remained a mystery still.' TAMMANY ORGANISATIONS INT J*EW YORK.

It is sometimes said that New York is not an American city, and the large number of the foreign-born population gives some justification to the saying. The Tammany organisation (says an English paper) has from the first, been in the hands of these men, and in their list of candidates for office in the city in th& coming year, lately put forward, the absence* of nny native-born American whatever seams; rather curious. There are 12 posts to-be filled, and for these there are proposed seven Irishmen, three Germans, a Frenchman, and— it is odd to meet htm in such queer company— a Scotchman. On this list the Ifew York papers comment with some bitterness! For, asthey truly urge, if it is carried in its entirety, Americans will have nothing whatever tojl'&y to the lower municipal' business. It is needless to add that the seven Irishmen have been nominated for the places of honour, the Ger« mans being- merely thrown in to catch the German vote, and the other unite to give ty touch a variety,

THE FOUNDATIONS OP PAUPERISM. " The Medical Press aud Circular asks : Is pauperism hereditary ? or does it depeudnpon our social surroundings aud customs ? or is li; a moral poison which we ourselves foster, rendering ourf elves responsible for the w«ulta over which wo have so many complaints, aud about which so much haa been written 1 ! luoseart very important questions. The profession is painfully intersstsd in pauperism, for it has fee°n publicly declared over and over again that ono-fourtb, or upwards of 1,000,000, receive gratuitous medical treatment; m London (b>tv O. Trevely&n), and that our population baa been pauperised by tha medical profession ; for, according to the first report of the Medical Committee of the Charily Organisation Society, " tbera is no one clas=t o£ ohai-it-.c a which is doing so much to pauperise the population, to undermine their independence and s?lfrespect, and to discourage habita of providence as the medical charities." The moral prison which leads men and women to our hospitals and charities is a sure indication of its presence ia out social fabric, but it is only one form of it. It may be seen in evevy park of our bodUl life, and we are afraid we "hall tej it more in the future, after we have educated our young generation in what are virtually pauper schools, where education is given for nothing, and where what is most valuable is thus lowered, go that by a very easy descent and computation the receiver of State aid in childhood will look for further assistance in other thing 3 leaß valuable, and the spirit of pauperism will tal-e such a firm foothold that it will be impossible to eradicate it. One of the gtsat tendencies of our age is to get something for nothing ; it may be place, power, position, or faaao, so thai; the contaminating influence of th-o social miasma ia not confined to one strata of society.

AN OLD SETTLER.

By the sudden death of Mr George Hampseman on Friday last, at Akaroa. (says thePrtas), New Zealand loses one of her very earliest settlers. Mr Hampleman was born near Hamburg in 1799, and was consequently in his 81sfc year. He came to New Zealand on a whaling cruise from Sydney in 1835, and finally get tied in Peraki in 1836, being the first white resident on Banks Peninsula. Shortly afterwards he purchased from the Natives a block of land on the Peninsula 15 miles square for a small cutter and some blankets. This transaction gave rise to the celebrated Hampleman land claims, which have been before successive commissioners and Governments up to the present day. In fact, the deceased was preparing to state his claims before the Native Commissioners who are expected to sit shortly in Akaroa. During the latter years of hia life he devoted all his energies to the prosecution of the land claims, and was by this means reduced to comparative want. The deceased was a keen and intelligent man, and could tell many a Btory of bygone days. A rather extraordinary thing was that he had, through hia long intercourse with English-speaking people, forgotten his mother tongue— German. In bis diary, which was regularly written up for many yeara after his coming to New Zealand, many intereeting aocounts occur of the incursions of Bloody Jack and the Native quarrels. His life In the hands of a competent biographer would form an interesting page in the early settlement of New Zealand.

CONHNED IST A LTJNATIC ASYLUM.

A curious narrative has reached us during tbe last few days (says the Wellington Post), About six months ago a well-known spiicitor of Wellington received a note from an^ iumata of the Mount View Asylum, asking him to come and see him, as he was confined there entirely without cause. The solicitor at once applied to the Government for the nectary order, which he obtained. An interview with rhe patient convinced him that the case demanded investigation. He next obtained permission for Dr Diver to examine the supposed lunatic. The reßult of thiß examination was that the patient— who, we may explain, was a well-to-do farmer, residing in one of the Wellington country districts— was pronounced perfectly save, and immediately released. About a month ago the released Mr A came to town, and informed the same solicitor that his wife had given him into custody a day or two before for using threatening language lo her. He was imprisoned for one night, and iv tlw morning no one appeared against him. He was informed, however, by a friend that another warrant for lunacy was out against him, and he Bought tho solicitors advice as to what he should do. Dr Diver, being satisfied that the man was perfectly rational, again interested himself in the case. This time he look Air A to Dr Johnston, and an hour's complete examination resulted in both doctors agreeing that the man was in the full possession of his reason in every eenae of the word. Mr A subsequently accompanied the solicitor to his office and made a fresh will, a former one having beea drawn up unieservedly in his wife's favour. Sinca this occurred we believe the psraecuted one has not been molested. There are two points about the Btory, as related to us, which, if correct, demand inquiry. One is tha statement that Mr A , while in the Asylum, was not allowed to communicate with his friends, and after some months' confinement only sucoeeded in getting a letter Bent to tbe solicitor on promising to pay, aud paying, a bribe of L 5; the other is the man's assertion that one of the doctors who signed the certificate for his committal was a personal enemy, wiih whom he had had an altercation only a flhort time previously.

COnCLTJSIVB.

A short time ago a Wellington morning paper vigorously attacked the Wellington correspondent of the Manawatu Times fcr having impugned iiß theories re the comet, In reply, the up-country journal mildly explains— first, that it has never written a solitary line about the comet ; eecondly, its Wellington correspondent did not write about the comet j thirdly, it has not had a letter from its WelHogtou o .^respondent since the comet made its firafc appearance ; and lastly, it happens to have no Wellington correspondent at all.

NOT TO BE OUTDONE.

A clergyman of Thornhill, Dumfriesshire, was lately examining the parish school. In the course of examination the Bible-class was brought forward. After many questions had been aaked and answered, greatly to tha satisfaction of the minister, he proposed that any boy might ask him a question, as he mishc then have an idea what particular information they wanted. A pause ensued. At last a bright-looking boy said, "Sir, I would like to ask ond."— " Well, my little man," asked the minister, "what ia the question you are to ask ?"— " Sir," said the boy, "what was the nee of Jacob's ladder when the an^ete had whigs ?" The minister felt taken abask, took out his snuff-box, and looked at the boy. " I think, my little man, that is the very question I should have asked at the class, and I will give sixpence to any boy in the claas who will answer it." After a somewhat long pause, one little fellow, third from the bottom, held out his hand. " Well," said the minister, " can you anflwer that question?"— "Yts, air." "Well, what was the use of the ladder when the angels bad wings?"— "Oh, sir, the angela were poukin' (moulting) at the time, and couldna flee." The minuter j« tftkjog ft n iw great fa that boy.

THE END OP A MISSPENT LIFK.

A young ma", the son of an English baronet, lately diofl in America. Ha had boon a ne'er do-well.'wiihafuiidof high sentiment, warm, heartednero, and " gocd-feUowisoa,' but with a l^lentif ul lack of brains and euergy. Ho poisoberl himself in an obsonre town in fcho btates, leaving bohina him a letter addressed to a friwiul. What a 'tale it unfolds of a light ano airy nature, nnd the misspent life of its poss nosßorJ— "My dear Jack,— Thirly-six hourago T signed my own death-warrant ; for 24 hours I kept up ray spirit?, bub the last 12, a<« you havo more thau ones noticed, I turned » UtUe blue. Philosopher I believe myself to do , but &tlll I am fond of life aud living, and it le hard. I find, to make up one's mind to cv* one's self off from a world which, though far fiom parftch, is, after all, a vevf loveable world Knrdvst of all, to leave old f cicada hkn yourself, sfcMiiich, true, and tued, from the htht «o the bitter end. I don't want, at this late honr, when the curtain ia about to fall on the last acb of tbo drama of a miwpent life, to eulogise, but I npoak truth when I say I fool leaving you— yos ! I feel ifc dteply. An for thac Bood-hftwrted foul Kfetbulls, who would lot me live in his ranch, rido his horses, eat his food, aud never shov/ that I had outlived my welcome, may ho havo the happiness aud good fortune he deserves. Tell Boodle and Hantinglon fhal in my last honrn I thought of them an of my best friends. Telegraph the event to Eoche, at the Clarendon, and arrange vrim Roche about my bills. I owe him about 160 dollars. He can draw on Sir Thomas, if Sir Thomas knows, and I imagine he will duly receive. The rest I leave to you. Good-bye, dear old fellow, and in tbo af tor-time think ns kindly as you can oE your old frisnd,-— Tom E, Bkey'oh."

COAL BRICKS.

The system of utilisation of small < coal which has be w so long known in France is about ts bo introduced into the Durham coal trade on a, large scale. At ono of ihe largo collieries of tho M;-.iqu?s of Londonderry, briquette machines are being erected by a Leeds xuin fur the manufacture of br;quett?.B, or compressed fuel of small coal. I'< is stated fciu»t, at a cost far preparing, mixi-g, and makiug of about la per ton, aa excellent fuel can be made from the waste ov email coal. In Franco tho use uf briquettes so made is on a large scale— one company alone producing SOG,OOO tons yearly ; but the system has not, up to tba present, been largely adopted m England. It is probable, however, that 5E the attempt now being roade at the London deny collieries prove successful, it will soon be followed extensively in the north.

EXTRAORDINARY COINCIDENCE.

The following story ia vouched for by the Thames Star :— " Some months ago the community of a North New Zealand town wa3 thrown into a sfcuto of painful excitement atthe suicide of a highly respectable young man who lived for some time ia their midst. Some time afier tho sad affair, a Mend of his— our informant—was shown by the ueaeased's widow three letters addressed to the unfortunate young man. They were from friends in different parts of the world, and, sir.uige to say, all three had been written on the same day aud at the samo hour, or about tho exact time when poor took away his own life. The senders oi the letters had not been regular corrctpradents of , a:sd Ihe fact of their all sifclin? down to write to htm at the hour of his death in an exceedingly strange and unprecedented coincidence."

DIVOKCE AND MARRIAGE.

Before Sir J>.mes Hannen, in the Divorce Divisioo, ontb.6l6l.ii of December, aouvioueauit for nullity of marriage came on for hejiring. The petitioner, the well -known actress, Miaa Emily Fowler, ioj 1867 married Mr John Frederick Fenuer, who, a f'tw months afterwards, left her, and she had never since soon him. Believing him to be dead, and the prescribed period of seven years having elapsed, sha^n 1876, married ilia respondent, Mr John K. Pemberton. Some time afterwards she found that at \he lime tfuit marriage was contracted her firafc husband was alive, a'i<l she now sued for a decree of nullity. Ifc was shown thai; tho first husband was alive at the time of i the marriage, and that ha had married a lady in Liverpool, with wkom lie lived until his death in 1877, and a decree nisi was ordered.

SAVING THREEPENCE!.

Somo men (says the Hera'd) aro said to be too hi;' for their bootd, and other* are too sharp for thkc trade. Tho other day Manaena, the well-knowa Native chief, came into Napier, and, of co«r,;e, wanted bis boots polished. He prunled out a BotnethiHg to the bootblftclc in the vicinity of the Ma&ouic Hotel, and, jmtting his foot ob tho box, operations at once commenced. One boot hhviutf been polished, tho proprietor of tho industry demanded cash before proceeding wilh tho other foot. "Nature's nobleman" resented the idea of his credit beiiig insufiiciout to meet the liability of a sixpence, and ctarnly commanded the wielder of the bruahos to go on vnfck hin job. The order was rr.ei; by a refusal unJesa the ulu wjs forthcoming. A Kativrt chief ia not proud •where money i 3 to be Raved op made. Manaena walked off to another "black" with one boot poliohed fur nothing, and then paid tbe opposition man 3.1 for brightening up the other loot, thug saving 50 per cout. by rmt paying <ash on tbe hall-complelion of a contract.

GERMANY IN THE SOU HI SEAS

Tho following fvr>m the Berlin correapondeufc of the London Time 3 gives eomo inlereaMng details of tlia steps taken by tho German Go-vernm^ntinc-nneciiojiwiihthoSaraoan trade: — The griafo-st efforts have beea uiado by aU circleß to reserve the Gorman coloi.y ou tb« Samoa Inlands which has been founded by tkt> home oi Godefroy aud S-uis at H.nnbur#. General satisfaction has been mow producl by the fact that Prince Biemarck han declared himeelf ready to propose to the Geniuii Parliament to support the now limited company by a financial contribution from iho Empire. Tho newly-formed German South Ss-< limited company will ba (stablished wiih about eis;ht, to ten million marks capital. It uutierUked all that the old c .mpany di-1, undor certain taxes which will ba fixed by acommh-ion whose jwe6idv.nt the German Consul G- uer,U «i Ire b*moa Islands in to become. The grjat housea engaged ia tl.is financial eoifrprwe ftillbetoe 131iuohi'o;)or, the DioConto-Ge^elLc'-affc, tho Handelsgesallschaf r, Uot')xohiici wt Frankfort, j»nd the Non lduutsche Bank afc Hamburg. Tho GoVtirniTient giLuvincees Cue yi.a>ly iutoresi, of tho invested capital at 4| pnr cant for 25 y^arß up to tho maximum of 320,000 marks. Tha company binds ilitelf to pay b.ick in later years the Government outlay. As Boon as the contract ia concluded and the guarantee of the interest granted, tiie old German Commercial aad Plantation Company o! the South Soa Islands will receive 1,200,000 marks to pay off their remaining dobts. Should tbePariiament refuse their approval, mortgages will be issued to the amount of this sum, and the remaining creditors of the company will be satitfied with a second issue of mortgages. This arrangement , will be binding up to the Ist of June,

ABSUKD SUPERSTITIONS.

It will be romemberodg (says tho Post;) thai ..n tbe occa'iion nf Ilia '-I'oiraca trageily we protested against tho totally unnecessary aud revolting practice a-iop'ed of UavinT tha bodies in the position in which Uu-y were found until after tho inquest. Wo kavu from the Now Zealand Herald that a child was discovered near Auckland the other day tbe messenger vent to acquaint the police returned' with a message that the child wot not to bo removed or touched until the arrival of the police. The body of the child was consequently k-»pt on a piece of bogging on the marein of tho creek until the return of tho mossengar from Auckland, but the commoa-peci.se of fcbe father rovoUod against tho injunction, and, in ac2ordauca with his instincts as a parent, he removed tho body of hu child to bis home. The coroner, Pr Phiisun, pointed out to the jury at the m qussfc that tha idea that a dead body may not be touched or removed before the ai rival of the police or jury was a complete faUaoy and bad no foundation in law. Ihe Herald, in comwienlinEj on the awe, says :— "It will be reineinbored that somo time ago a constable in a rural district, who was made acquainted with the fact that a woman had committed suicide by ha»giog in the settlement, would not cufc her down or permit anyone rise to do so, pending an inquest, and waa promptly dismissed from the service tor his simplicity. At Wellington a worag ca=e occurred a year or two back. A child had fallen into the sea, and was drowning. It did not appear to bo dead, fw some convulsive motion was apparent, and a man went mto «w wat^r in bring tho bodjr out, when a yell aroee from fcbe crowd, wavsiing him not to touoli it till the a) rival of Iho rolieo! Tho .man hoatated, and ratired. IS aaems ,^arc% credible that Mich superstition could pxir-t m tUo nineteenth centu^, in an Anglo-Sfcxon commuDity."

NATURAL GAS IN AMERICA.

Tho Ainrriciww, thanks to their natural advautaKfs, will soon have a monopoly ot the mai.utaoturo oi lampblaclt. In Baveral parts (,f tbe country, especially in Pennsylvania are louutaius or wtlls ' f na«.ural gafl, from whicb an undimliuAecl flow has continued to pour evr-r sinca they wore bored. Attompts^u soino ca^es succefisful, have b .en made to secure gas and uso ifc for metaUurgioAl operaUonn, t.w liohUng of town«, anrl the hating of steam boilers. The famous MurraynviUa well yieids nbout 60 000 cubic fuel, of gas per hour, and though a lnrga propmtfon is slill ft "owed to cvaaty, in a ehorfc time it will bo all ulilis.d for the manufacture of tha finest lampblack. Ijie operations axe uimnle hi the extreme, for tae l as hua oDly to be led to burners m the sheds, where tho smoky flame is mado to impinge upon plates of iron, which sre speedily covered with th« soot, and are then scraped over proper receptacles. Tho product will shortly amount to »s much as two tons per day, and tne owners of tho well will, if the gas supply cntmues, speedily maka a fortune, for the raw material costo nothing, and the oxpenao of manufacture is an insist.) cant fraction of the pneo at whicii lampblack sails. SUGGESTED KEFOEJNI IN TAUGHT SHOOTING.

The " OMbI" in Bell's Life, ** rang to a Busreß'ion noade by the Globo,. tfcafc the thurdela* target used in rifle shoot.m* fhould oeof the same mzs and shape as an infantry Boldier kneeling : the seooud-olasß target the ngure .of an infantry soldier standing j the firat-claw fcka ficrara of a cavalry noldiwr monoiod. says :— '-that is not a bad id™, for targ:fc at present inWie rJ i emble nothing whatever that a man is likely to shoot afc iv eari^t, either #as a Poldier or a BporUnnan. They ara (ui ? g*Uve of no warlike idea, aad yet I suppose tbe object of training meu to be marksmen is not tnab they may win cup* \n time of peace, but tha. they may prove efficient aoldiera in tirao of war To the man who has never fired at anythine; except a square white target, with a black cirolo ja the middle of it, a human being must be altogether a pnzzhng object to vm at. hence the ludicrous expenditure ot ammunition in a battio in proportion to the killed and wounded. In the Pexuasular War, when the old flmtlock musket was the only weapon of precision (?), it was calculated, I beIwe, that about a million cartridges were expended for every inau killed outright. Of course, with tho present straight-shooting breech-loaders, the k»uk would have been different, but even now the peromiitra of shots that prove fatal mus be vTy small In the late Zulu <^r, when our mon v;ere blwmg. at closely-packed passes of savages, the exocuUon done was really by no menus grpat, when you take into constderatwn tbe wonderful combination ot rapidity and preoidon in the fipa of the inodorn weech-loadtr. It ia an established maxim thai; ' every bullet has its biiM.' Aud jet. nf/o wo L«.ve proof positive that some 90 per cent, ot the bullets fired in action are nniortnnaie foundlings, deprived of their natu^ rights, cas. looae upon the world, and hilUed {nowhere. L think this anomaly misjht to a, certain extant bo rectified, if men woro accustonxed m time of peace to fire at obj^oJa aoinewh^t wFembW those which will oonfroas them m tbe fisld of baitle. It would be well, too. if offices were ta-ight how to ffcoot strawht wibu their revolvera. Oae o[ C-; iewayo's induna», who w»3 prPßont at Isondlwhaßn, na» described to a moj vr of tbe 13ta how he ongag-.d in sin?U combai, with two Euglma officers, and how each ouwtied hw revolves at him withm half-a-d.z'-n p;ci» with no other ivroli Urn two or threi Iriflirggia^a { f t hasten. Jho hablera vwie U'o« way l«ive been— pro bably wio-flurrie I, but I doubl whether you would find one «.fnVr m ten who J^ ej« troubled himself to become P ffi cientiu ihouse of tlw wftapon up<n which aloaa hie life wn-t depend in ao»ion-f«.r the rvgnton Bwocd, I takfl it. id move for show than u<e.

THE EXPERIENCE* OP A RUTURSED COMMUNIST.

M. Humbert, ex-ronlrlbutor to the Pore Duchone, who recently j "turned to hw native bnd fcoTV) Npw CUledonia, may h"«aui to have had a " well-filled existence " siitee n.j eefc loot in Franca ; »nd this iv spice of hi" announrenwnl that -••-« mosnfc to live a rrtimd life. In the npace ftf six mouth : he has been einuted a member of the Municipal Council >f Paris (to tbe groat rt <•<>.'« d of " lionet people " and "moral order"). Ho has bee/\ ma^rir-d. not lißforo tlv alt-r, bm. \>n Mmiai°vrc Ja Maire, girt with \Ai tri c bmvd soar? ; he han bntwi seutf^cod to four months' impr;Bonment for inßulting the mv;i-itrflC7_over <;).o tomb of a e'eceased Mluw-Couuuuuist and coovict ; be ha* been dffrta'.ed in an "lectinnopring contetit with a men mu<ic-rate Radical ; nnd his last exploit has Lean to tight a, duel with tf>e editor o£ La Lauterne, which was fortunately bloodless, owing not so muc'u, however, to the com. batanfs being unworthy of each other's steel as to the sreel being unworthy of tho combatants, for one of ihQKWords snapped. Citizen Humbert wob to have been iccarcerated for hit insult to the magistracy, or rathar againss courts-martial, on the 3rd December, but he asked for 15 days' grace, which waß allowed to him, and he only commenced hie four months on trhfl 18ft of January, 1880.