GENERAL SUMMARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2105, 28 June 1894, Page 35

GENERAL SUMMARY.

Stagnation in demand for Irish linens, owing to delay in the disposition of the Tariff Bill in the United States, is about to compel the failure of one' the oldest and best known firms in Belfast. According to tha Northern Whig of May 29 all creditors will be paid in full. J. M. Barrie, the novelist, was lying in a critical condition in London on May 29, suffering from pneumonia. The disease has extended to the second lung.

It is positively denied in London official circles that there is any truth in the story, published in Berlin on May 28, that Germany had protested to the Government of the Independent Congo State against the recent convention with Great Britain.

An American committee, engaged for the past five years on the work, completed on May 23 an English memorial in the shape of a costly marble bust to the poet John Keats. It will shortly be unveiled in the parish church at Hampton.

The anniversary of the birthday of Queen Victoria was observed throughout England. Church bells were rung, flags displayed, and Royal salutes fired. The official celebration did not take place until the 26kb. The West End of London was especially decorated. The Prince and Princess of Wales and other members of the Royal Family witnessed an elaborate military ceremony known as " Trooping the colours" on the parade ground. In Victoria, 8.C., three days were devoted to the festivities. The city was crowded with people from all parts of the Pacific Coast. British residents in San Francisco celebrated the affair by a great gathering at the California Midwinter Fair, winding up with a banquet at Ann Hathaway Cottage.

The Rev. James Skerrett, a young Presbyttrian minister at Glasgow, has been suspended from the ministry, deprived'of his church, and barred from the privileges of full commission for the heinous offence of meeting a female member of his congregation three times in the open street and conversing with her. No suggestion of impropriety was made against either the minister or the lady. The severe action of the synodical commission before which the case was brought raised a rumpus. The town of Wolverhampton, in the black country, enjoys a new sport introduced by the colliers, that of a fight between a rat tied to a peg in the middle of a table and a man with his hands secured behind his back. The man bit the rodent to death with his teeth, but received many wounds from the little animal before he accomplished it.

The Prince of Wales, Duke of York, and other male members of the Royal Family, who supped with Baron Alfred de Rothschild on Sunday, May 20, have given a shock to decorous old-fashioned English men and women by converting the occasion into an orgie. Madame Patti and her husband were there singing, and dancing was indulged in during the evening. A convention of the Parnellite party was held in Dublin on May 22 under the presidency of Mr John B. Clancey. During the course of the opening address Mr Clancey said the Parnellites would continue to vote against the Government for tho rest of the session. Mr Timothy Harrington had nothing to hope from the continued existence of the Government. They musk, he said, bring about a dissolution and substitute another Government for the present one. The London Globe of May 23 lays the conviction is very etrong that an immediate dissolution of Parliament ia probable. Very much importance is attached to the fact that Government does not show a desire to push the Budget, and the Welsh Disestablishment Bill is apparently shelved in favour of Scotland's Local Government Bill.

Six Radical members of the Senate of Cambridge University voted "No" on May 26 to thß proposal to confer the honorary degree -of Doctor of Laws upon tb.B Duke of York ; 137 voted "Yes." The Princess of Wales is understood to be much annoyed by the opposition, and the bix are doomed to social ostracism.

Mr Gladstone, in a letter published in the Voce Delia Verita, Rome, en May 19, says in reference to the Irish question : " They " (the Irish) • ' undoubtedly show a great example of obedience to law, but, while they are irreproachable in that respect, the Nationalists are divided among themselves. 1 believe the fault lies with the same group of Parnelllte3. The result is deplorable, for discotd is the chief obstacle to the progress of tho Irish cause. Happy would be the men who could make it cease."

Baroness Rjquez, mother of Mrs Maybrick, now undergoing sentence of imprisonment for life in Liverpool upon a conviction of having poisoned her husband, has sent a letter to the London newspapers* accompanied by a pamphlet which is said to give the latest evidsnde collected in favodr of the prisoner. The pamphlet is chiefly devoted to affidavits from different parties that Mr Maybrick was in the habit of taking large quantities of arsenic. The baroness aeks for the assistance of the press. It is understood that the refusal of the Home Office to reopsn the case is due to the fact that the officers are in possession of secret adverse evidence.

General John Hewston, a well-known San Franciscan", was arraigned on May 30 in the Olerkenwell Police Court, London, on a charge of killing a street musician named Barton. Hewston states that he was passing through Gray's road, and when near Acton street some street musicians assaulted him. The general raised his cane to ward off a blow and the ferrule, by accident, penetrated Barton's eye, and caused his death at the Royal Free Hospital. Hewston insists that the affair was entirely accidental, but bail was refused in the case.

A despatch from Calcutta, received in London on May 19, says :— " The president of the Currency Association has urged upon the Indian Government the necessity of ascertaining the intentions of the Secretary of State for India regarding Council Bills, as the situation is intolerable." The menu of a banquet to -Admiral Erben and officers of the cruiser Chicago, in London, on May 24, was a 16-page brochure illustrating prominent events in the naval history of England and the United States. It also contained portraits of Admiral Erben and Captain Mahan. Miss Ida Wells lectured on May 29, before the Democrat Club, London i She had a large audience. After the lecture a resolution protesting against lynchings in the United States was adopted, and the secretary was ordered to forward a copy of it to Mr Bayard, the United States ambassador. " Henry Morley, LL.D., the eminent Asian scholar and writer, died at Garisbroek, lele of Wight, on May 14-j aged 72. The National Liberal Confederation of Great Britain issued, on May i 4, a call for a conference at which Liberal federations throughout the kingdom were expected to be present to express an opinion on the questipn of the abolition of the House of Lords. The conference is to be held at Leeds on June 20. The yachting season at Cowes opened on May 14. Prince Henry of Battenberg and a brilliant company were among those who witnessed the races. The events were not of great importance. In the 2£ rate class the American boat Memcien was the winner. At a political reception at the National Liberal Club on May 9, Lord Rosebery commented upon the fact that newspapers' had declared the Government was in a critical condition. If the Government bad oioly a majority of two it would persevere and fight to the end. The Government, said Lord Rosebery, were always in a critical condition. Sir W. V. Harcourt was glad to assure his friends that he was neither dead nor dying — he was not aware of even being blind.