NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Southland Times, Issue 3317, 6 February 1879, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

(Argus Oorrkspondent.)

Scvci al incidents of moment are reported fiom the Continent. The news which reaches us fiom St. Petersburg is indicative of the

internal troubles that Russia has yet to face. The agitation among the student continues. They complain th it having drawn up a petitiou to the Czarewitch, the Prefect of Police

prom"s2d to bring them an answer, bnt, instead oc doing so, surrounded the colleges with 2000 Gondaimes and Cossacks, by whom 200 arrests were rorde. The Cossacks are, moreover, said to 'have used their whips,' and several students were injured. The lecture hal-s have now been closed, and fresh disturb- * ances are. expected. The governors of University towns .have received orders to rigidly enforce the laws prohibiting public meetings. In Sc. Petersburg a proclamation was 'issued forlvdding unauthorised persons to carry

aval-.

The return of the Emperor of Germany to Borlin, aud his lesumption of the reins of Government, is au event in which all Europe rejoices/ The fact that the streets of the city were lined by civilians as guards is an omen for good, notwithstanding the propagandist conspiracies of socialism. Kindred questions have beon occupying pabiic attention in Italy. The Cairoli Ministiy has fallen before a combination of the more conservative Opposition and ccrtian sections of the Left. It is a remai kable fact, when. we recall- the history of recent years, that there is no city in Europe where freedom of discuss-on has wider scope than in Rome. But the freedom that obtains there, as in otber parts of the Peninsula, is not without its dangers, and these have been made the more vivid to the imagination by the late attempt to assassinate the King, and the subversive efforts indicated by the throwing of bombs amongst innocent people, as at Florence and Pisa. The late debates have turned chiefly on the' limits, repressive or preventive, which should be allowed to political action/.such as

that of the clubs which have been formed in

the name of " Unredeemed Italy." The issue has been complicated by electoral questions. Signor Cairoli, who appeared scarcely recovered* from bis wound, was enthusiastically received, but he failed-to maintain the status tjriio in -argument ; aad, Signor Depretis lias succeeded to the Premiership. Amongst the names* that.have been published of the gentlemen on whom the Legion of Honor has been conferred there are, in the grade of officers, Messrs Arthur Macalister, J. J. Casey, Edward ■ Combs, and Thos. Keefer. (Canada). Messrs G. C. Xevey, Josiah Boothby, . Jules Joubei t, and P. L. Simmonds are appointed chevaliers. - A letter has been pub' s shed :n -the Irish papers, wrltteu by Sir Bryan O'Loghlen to a friend at Kilrush, stating that he hopes to be in London in February in time to take his seatrin tJie House of Commons., .Thit he ( will then visit the electors of Clare, and afterwards resign his seat, sq that it may be , taken up by a gentleman who can reside per. manently in Ireland.- On the day that the Parliament met, the Speaker stated that he had received certain despatches from the Governor oE Victoria in lespect to the election of Sir Bryan O'Loghlen for Clare. Mr Knatchbull-Hugessen is, again introducing a bill to amend the 'law relating to colonial marriages. . The Echo says -that a nice little dispute.'has arisen in reference to the Hatcham vicarage. Mr McColl some t"me ago took charge of the church, at the- invitation of the Rev. Mr Tooth", the understanding being that be should ultimately have the living. Mr Tooth has, however, retained the whole of the' endowment and the burial fees,' and- has applied for the marriage fees also. Mr McOoll has now been doing Mr Tooth's workjfor a i considerable time at, a very small stipend, aindnow MriTooth ivvants: him to give it up, J having altered his- mind about resigninsr. The lith of December is a memorable day Jin the annals of. the Royal Family. Seven•teen years, agb-it; was; fatal to the Prince Consort ; ten years later it brought a happier augury, in the. crisis' which, -.gave life back to •the J;Prince of Wales,, when the , watchers waited ; round his- bed expectant of, death ; and how, :by a remarkable coincidence, the same day of the week; as well •as the same day of the mbnth;/it has carried off the Princess Alice, who was ; herself both her father's and her brother's nurse. The Princess Alice ;: we call her, for by that name she has been long known and . loved J amongst us ; but as the Grand Duchess of: Hesse-Darmstadt, she was greatly beloved in the country of her adoption. She" has,- while still in ; the prime of womanhood/} fallen $; victim to her own motherly devotion during an epidemic of diphtheria. This disease has shown itself at various points during the last autumn. London has suffered severely in some of its suburbs ; one instituiioa has reported 40 cases. But the outbreak in the palace at Darmstadt has peculiar features. The physicians who have reported on the case say that'an epidemic of diptheria has rarely been observed of so sharply limited an extent. Within eight days (from the 6th to the 14th of November) six members of the Ducal family were attacked. First, on the 6th, the Princess Victoria, who is 16 years of age, was prostrated, by infection froni without, though how it was communicated is not known. In the night from the llth to the 12th — the dates are of scientific interest— the Princess Alice, aged six, was attacked ; the next day, the Princess Mary; the next night, the Princess Irene, the next day. again the young son and heir ; ahd the day 'after, the Grand Duke himself. | Of the entire family' only one daughter es-

caped the infection. The little Princess Mary, only 'four years old, died by sudden suffocation, after four days' illness. The Grand ' Duchess herself was seized some time later.' " The physicians state that no member of the household (in all 60 persons), no nurse, , no physician has been infected ; and that I "it is th'erfore 'clear that all the cases have ' been produced "by direct infection, doubtless by kisses." The' Berlin correspondent of the Daily Telegraph/ supplies ' gome details from the highest Authority :—", After the death of the youngest child, and during the illness of the Grand Duke "the other children had been sent to, Old Stadtschldss to be out of the way of the infection. Princess Alice had'herself been .far from 'well for some time-past, but went to the railway station 'to' see the Duchess of Edinburgh pass on her way from Stutgart to London. At the station she felt the shivers premonitory of fever, and on. returning home took to her bed Jat once. Next morning her doctors discovered 'the first symptoms of diphtheria. The ' Grand "Duke, though then" just declared out of danger, was still confined

to Kis roOm, and in a sbate of great weakness, but was able to be with her during the last days and until death ensued. He is utterly broken dowh J r and prostrate. The Princess' was 'not allowed to see her children any more after the malady' declared itself. She suffered intensely, 'and was at her wprst on Friday afternoon ; then she rallied, seemed better, and was 'able to take nourishment, but suddenly collapsed into total unconsciousness at 2 on Saturday morning, and passed away ' calmly at half-liast 7 precisely. With her to the last as medical" attendants were her own -Dr-Barzt, as well as Dr Jenner, sent from Windsor by the Queen, and "Jaeger," called in from Munich." In proposing the address of sympathy Earl Beaconsfieid said — You who r know her life well can recall those agonising hours when she attended the' dying 'bed of her illustrious father, who had sketched put her studies and formed her 'tastes. You can recall, too, the , moment at which she attended her Royal brother ot a time when the hopes of England * s'eemed'to depend on his life — (cheers) — and now you can remember too well how, when the whole of her own family w,ere stricken by a malignant disease, she had been to them the angel of the house, till at last her owri vital power was, perhaps, exhausted, and she has fallen. There.is something wonderfully piteous in the. immediate cause of her deatb. The physicians wlio" permitted her to watch I .over, her suffering 'family enjoined her under no circumstances whatever to be tempted into an embrace. Her,, admirable, self-restraint guarded her through the crisis of this terrible complaint in safety. ' She remembered and observed ~the injunctions of her physicians. But it became her lot to break to her son, .quite a youth, the death of his youngest "sister, to, whom, "he was devotedly attached. The boy was so overcome with misery that the agitated mother clasped him in her arms, and thus she received the kiss of death. I hardly know an incident more pathetic. It is one by which poets might be inspired, and in which, the professors of.the fine arts, from the highest to the lowest branches, whether J in painting, sculpture, j>r gems, might find a V fitting stfbjeet o| commemoration."