GENERAL SUMMARY.

Colonist, Volume XV, Issue 1500, 9 February 1872, Page 2

GENERAL SUMMARY.

The Prince of Wales is convalescent. His recovery was retarded by a painful affection of the hip. The Archbishop of Canterbury ordered the discontinuance of special prayer for the recovery of the Prince, on December 28.

The papers publish a letter from Her Majesty the Queen, in which she says she desires to express her deep sense of the touching sympathy exhibited to her family by the whole nation, and for her dear son. The feeling, says the Queen, shown by the people during the painful and terrible days of the Prince's illness, their sympathy with herself and her beloved daughter, the Princess of Wales, and the joy manifested at the improved health of the Prince made a deep and ineffaceable impression upon her heart. Such manifestations by her people was nothing new to her; she had met with the same sympathy ten years ago, when asimilarillneßS from that disease under which her son was suffering, lemoved. from life the best, wisest, and kindest husband that ever lived.

A letter is published, the writer of which is informed, on the authority of one well posted regarding the secret societies of Europe, that the Prince of Waleß was not suffering from typhoid fever, but from attempted poisoning by a secret agent of the International Society, that organisation having, it is said, resolved upon the death of the Prince ; and the public assertions of some of its members are urged as corroboration. The Herald editorially declines to endorse the story.

Alarmed at Mr. Gladstone's republican tendencies, the Conservative section, led by the Duke of Somerset and Viscount Halifax, are seeking to form a coalition with the Tories, for the purpose of electing Mr. Bouverie to be Speaker of the House of Commons, instead of Mr. Brand, in the hope of thus being able to compel the retirement of Mr. Gladstone.

A Cairo (Egypt) letter says that a report is current to Hie effect that Sir Samuel Baker, and the men exploring Central Africa for the head waters of the Nile, have died of starvation. One report states that his men mutinied and shot Baker; another states that only Baker and his wife are left of the expedition.

At the installation of the Conservatives Mayor of Limerick, a tumultuous mob alternately hissed on the mention of the PriDce of Wales, and cheered references to Home Eule for Ireland.

The ship Edward foundered off Falmouth; all lost.

In Glasgow, a large road waggon, propelled by steam, and carrying heavy boilers, while passing through the street, surrounded and followed by a throng of children, the boiler exploded, and five children were killed and seven seriously injured. The recovery of the latter is doubtful.

A grand demonstration has taken place in honor of Sir Charles Dilke.

The floor in a crowded court-room, at Killiclagban, in Leitrim, Ireland, gave way while a trial was in progress, precipitating 300 people a distance of forty feet. The number killed is unknown; thirty are badly injured, most of them fatally.

The Government having refused to help the Royal Geographical Society to organise an expedition to search for Dr. Livingstone, the Society appeals to the people for assistance, and. great efforts are being made to start an expedition during this month.

The ex-Emperor Napoleon is reported to have said on New Year's day, " I will give Thiers six months of the presidency of the French Republic, and by that time Gambetta will be in his place, and the change will be favorable to the Imperial cause.'*

A despatch from London to New York says the total number of deaths from smallpox in London during last year was 8000 ; the average for ninety-one years preceding was 6000. Medical journals call attention to the alarming increase; warns the public to use all precautions and appeals to the Government to interpose, and to frame rigid sanitary regulations, establish special hospitals, and carefully quarantine infected districts.