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South Canterbury Times, Issue 5012, 21 May 1889, Page 4

The House of lords Discontinuance of Writs Bill, introduced by Lord Carnarvon, provides that, if it shall appear to the House of Lords that any peer has been guilty of discreditable conduct inconsistent with his position as a peer, and if the House presents an j address to the Queen praying that the writ of summons issued to such peers may be cancelled, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty by warrant to cancel such writ, and the peer shall cease to be entitled to sit in the House of Lords.

A very remarkable will is Lbafc of Horatio O'. Onderdonk, brother of the Methodist Bistiops of New York and Pennsylvania, by which he leaves between £600,000 and £BOO,OOO upon the following extraordinary conditions: —No heir must be an idler, sluggard, spendthrift, profligate, drunkard, gambler, use liquor or tobacco, go hunting or fishing on Sundays, attend races, enter a barroom or porter-house, neglect to rise, breakfast, and be ready for business by 9 a.m., or get married before he or she is 25 years old. The will also denounces “my infamous son John,” and gives all future Onderdonks the privilege of abusing John. Upon this hint the lawyers will, says the New York correspondent of the Sunday Times, move to have the will set aside, and the property distributed by the Probate Court. The Chicago Journal supplies the following information concerning what the new United States Ministers take to drink :—“ No member of President Harrison’s Cabinet is a , total abstainer, though Wanamakor publicly frowns upon intoxicants. Mr Harrison likes a swallow of Irish whisky now and then, Blaine is a connoisseur of French wines. Windom enjoys a dinner at which each course has its appropriate stimulant. Tracy is fond of a pint of champagne at lunch. Noble likes malt drinks and indulges every day in a i bottle of imported ale. Miller seldom takes anything but rye and selzer, while Eusk swallows his corn juice plain. Elijah Halford has never tasted whisky, but has sipped champagne now and then on convivial occasions.”

In the course of a recent argument a question was put to Sir H, James as to the legality of the trusts and syndicates being formed in England. He said : “ I have looked at some of them—the salt trust for instance—but I do not know enough of them. All I can say is, if these syndicates carried on their business in America they would have very sharp justice shown to them there.” The Master of the Rolls : “It does nob strike me as clear, if there is a combination' to buy all the salt in the kingdom for the purpose of raising the price 70 per cent beyond what it would be, Ido not feel at all clear that that is not an illegal combination.” Sir H. James: “ According to the common law of America and our common law it is illegal."— Lam Times.

Bombay has just lost by retirement one of its most popular officers. Culonel Sexton is one of the few men who rose from the ranks in the Crimean days to a high position as a combatant officer. At the “soldiers’ battle” of Inkerman Colour-sergeant Sexton, as senior effective non-commissioned officer, assisted in collecting the reports and calling the roll of the survivors, when but 80 men of the 95th Regiment answered to their names. Subsequently Sexton served with his old corps in India during the Mutiny as lieutenant and adjutant, and not long afterwards joined the Indian Staff Corps. He has now left India a full colonel and in receipt of a pension of over £llOO a year—no bad thing for the recruit who joined the British army with no idea, like Napoleon’s soldiers, of carrying a marshals’ baton in his knapsack, or even a colonels’ allowances.