GENERAL NEWS.

Colonist, Volume XII, Issue 1276, 17 December 1869, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

There is a talk of the abdication of the, French Emperor in favor of the Prince Imperial under a regency. The Hippodrome of Paris was destroyed by fire on September 29. The edifice being of wood, and no water being at first obtainable, the flames made a clean sweep of everything they met with. The Independence Beige gives currency to a rumor that a proposal for a general disarmament, in which France would take the lead, was seriously discussed between the Emperor Napoleon and Lord Clarendon, The Russian CtoverDmenthas.discovereda new method of raising money in Poland; it has confiscated the money of Peter's pence received by the Polish clergy. The Czar of Bussia is Buffering from severe moods of melancholy. In the winegrowing regions of California, wine is cheaper than milk,

A labge public meeting in Pe«th, the capital of Hungary, has petitioned the Emperor of Austria for the suppression of monasteries. jF.ws,hithertoprohibited, are now admitted to University chairs in Austria. Dr. Mauthner is Professor of Ophthalmic surgery, in Innspruck University. .. A tiieaty of-commerce between England and Spain is about being consummated. . Mr. Chester, a member of the Alpine i Club, lost his life by falling over a precipice.' [Why don't those Alpine fellows come to New Zealand and explore for quartz reefs? There is climbing enough.] Trade in Portugal is depressed. A solution of water-cresses is an antidote to the nicotine poison in tobacco. Steep the tobacco in it. The footrand-mouth disease amongst cattle still continues in London and vicinity. Kerosene oil removes rust from steel. Ik Leipsic, in Germany, there are fortyseven printing firms, which employ 1000 men, 450 women, and 160 apprentices. There are also 100 book-binding shops, employing 400. binders and 160 apprentices. A "school for^ttie benefit of young printers has been established there, and is attended by 120 pupils. The Viceroy of Egypt has ordered from a Paris firm, sugar-making machinery to the value of 3,000,000 dollars.

The Lydia Thompson troupe of "blonde burlesquers" cleared 75,000 dollars in forty - five representations in New York. I The expenses of the United States (3-overnment for the fiscal year ending September 1 are 585,000,000 dollars. There is now a " Fenian Cougress" in session at New York, but it is slimly attended and attracts little notice.

The "West India and Panama Telegraph Company announce that they have given the order for the manufacture of their cable.

A despatch from Bombay has been received in New York, over the French cable, in eight minutes after it was sent by the Bombay office. The National Education League.— Arrangements have been made to hold a conference at Birmingham, on October 12th and 13th, as a public inauguration of the operations of the League. Mr. Jacob Bright, M.P., and other leading educationists, have signified their intention of being present.

" Death by misadventure" is the verdict given at Walker, Northumberland, in an inquest regarding the death of a woman from injuries sustained by a piece of wire entering her eye and piercing her brain. The deceased was looking through a keyhole, when a person inside pushed the wire through.

'. French copper pieces are now so common in London that many tradesman, to save trouble, take and pass them, and urge those who refuse them to do the same.

A Jamaica, coinage of nickel for pence and half-pence has been manufactured. Am" old gentleman, named Taylor, while picking up some fallen apples in his garden, at Monkhopton, near Bridgnorth happened a day or two since to stumble against a stand on which two beehives were placed, and overset them. The enraged insects immediately swarmed round him, and stung him about the head so severely that he died the next day in great agouy. ;

CoMPULSOiiY Vaccination.—A meeting was held in London, on Saturday, of the Anti-VaccinationLeague. A resolution was passed requesting the Government to suspend the vaccination laws till inquiry could be made regarding the advisability of repealing them. The resolution was seconded by a working man, who said that his child was all over small bladders from bad vaccine matter having been introduced into its blond.

The Moroions; are discussing the propriety of abolishing polygamy at Utah; David Smith, the son of the founder^ has been denouncing the practice in his sermons. A despatch from St. Louis states that the Indians are still troublesome in New Mexico. Trains are attacked and much stock run onv

Samuel Prestout, a conductor on the Boston and Albany Railroad (United States), was fatally burned at ,Newton Mass., on August 30, by the explosion of gas in an empty oil tank on a ffeigijjb train.. A steam boiler, exploded; on October 1, at an agricultural fair near Indianapolis, in Indiana. Nineteen persons were killed and nearly 100 injured.

Funds sufficient to build a railroad between San Diego, an important port on the Pacific, California; and the Gila River have been subscribed,.-, and llpsecranz and Sedgwick will inaugurate -the work.

A coBRESPOiSDEsrT suggests the usei. of a galvanic battery instead of a " cat" for the punishment of criminals. He is of opinion that a daily succession of shocks for a month would be worse than" a.flogging. Mb. James Torxa of Scotland, has presented 10,000 guineas for the permanent endowment of a chair of technical chemistry in the Andersonian University, Glasgow, with liberty to found scholarships and bursaries in connection therewith. An American who owes a tiill in London can now pay it in four hours by simply going to Wall-street New York and purchasing a document known as a "cable transfer," a device born of the great Atlantic Telegraph enterprise, wereby the equivalent of the money which he gives in New York will be immediately delivered to his creditor in London. Isr September last, a musical jubilee took place at Sydenham Crystal Palace. There were 8000 performers, the ringing of bells, the clanking of anvils, and the firing of cannon. It is stated that 39,463 persons were present. A writer in a London paper, in condemning the employment of women in printing offices, states that "there are always.in London alone at least five hundred (!) compositors out of work, any one of whom could work cheaper, better, and cleanlier than any female compositor."

Off October Ist, a fire occurred at 69, Moscow-road, Bayswater, London, by which seven lives were lost.

At Hamburp, Professor Faber'a speakingmachine is being exhibited. It is said to articulate various words, and even to answer questions and simple sentences with wonderful distinctness.

On September 28, a man named Charles Martin, a shoemaker, of 7, Little Suffolkstreet, Borough, London, cut the throat of a woman named Sarah Ann Wright, aged 20, who was living with him, and then attempted suicide. He was committed to Newgate for wilful murder.

On September 21, the Court Theatre of Dresden, Saxony, was totally destroyed by fire.

Homowat's Pius.—lt is difficult to determine what is the more trying to health, intense cold or excessive heat, though everybody knows that sudden transitions from the one to the other teem with disease, which may in mo3t instances be staved off by an early resort to these purifying, regulating, and strengthening Pills. This well known and highly esteemed medicine affords a safe and easy remedy for almost every constitutional wrong which climatas, changes* or dietetic errors can engender, and effectually removes any weakness self-indulgent habits may have induced. In all conditions of the system bordering on disease indicated by apathy, listlessness, and restlessness, Holloway's Pills will prove especially serviceable ia begetting a vivacity appreciated by both sound and sick. — Advt.