General Summary of European News.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1800, 9 October 1874, Page 2

General Summary of European News.

The English pilgrims arrived at Pontigny on the 2nd September. The party numbers 313, and includes Bishop Manning, Earl Gainsborough and other members of the nobility. The great German Sangerfest was held at Waterloo on the 2nd September. The eruption of Etna shows no signs of abatement. The inhabitants are fleeing from the villages at the foot of the mountain, but is thought no harm will be done. The direction taken by the lava streams is remote from cultivated parts of the mountain.

The anniversary of Sedan was observed throughout Germany as a holiday. The .Prince of Wales was present at a banquet in the evening.

Russia has sent special agents to the Republican and Carlist head quarters to report on the military positions of the contending parties.

, It is reported that an order will soon be issued in Berlin expelling from Prussia all foreign priests, monks, and nuns. Thero is a rumor that Spain has proI posed to sell Porto Rico, in the West Indies, to Germany. This has since been contradicted, but not officially. Bazaine proceeds to England shortly. . r Victor Hugo declines the invitation to the Peace Congress at Geneva. He says peace cannot be established until another war has been fought between France and Germany, and points to the hatred between the two countries. He declares war will be declared between the principles of monarchy and republicanism. A great strike of cotton operatives at Bolton has begun. Four mills; employing 13,000 persons, have stopped. The Trades Unions throughout the manufacturing districts are collecting subscriptions for idlers.

A latter from Marquis de Safraga, Charge d'Affaires of Carlists, regarding the •hooting of some of the [Republican prisoners in Olothe, says the Republicansoldiers had previously shot and bayone tted Carlists' who were wounded and lying in the hospitals at Olothe. No one regrets the sanguinary character the. war assumed more than Don Carlos, but when an enemy will not respect the ordinary usages of civil warfare no means are left for Royalist generals but retaliation. Apprehensions of a second year of Indian famine have ended. There i§ a partial failure of crops in some districts, but no greater than in ordinary years. The newspapers in Paris publish an official despatch acknowledging that the Royalists fired on the German gunboat a Albatross and Nautilus. The despatch declares the vessels were endeavoring to effect a landing of armed men under the pretext of exercising crews, and in conclusion says that the Carlists will recognise no combination of Serrano and accomplices, but will exact respect for the Spanish territory and resist the bravado with which the German Government have endorsed the acts cf their gunboats. The sttamship Alexandria, which was sunk in ther Mersey by a collision with the Spanish steamer Tomes, has been raised and taken into the dry docks. She had only ballast on board. The Tomes has also been docked.

The ship Euxine, oa a voyage from Shields to Aden, took fire and was destroyed. Twenty-one of the crew escaped in two boats and arrived at St. Helena after a voyage of 1100 miles, during which neither boat saw the other. The third boat, containing the remainder of the crew, has not been heard from.

Five hundred laborers of tke' English Agricultural Union have sailed for Canada.

The German Government will not interfere with the internal affairs of Spain.

A letter fram Bazaine reviews the late war between Germany and France. v Bazaine complains that he was a victim of' the army; that-the nation had but two supporters —the Emperor and Thiers.' He says he would not have attempted to escape had McMahon i«en fit to lessen the severity of his captivity, and co %• i

siders now that during his trial he should have employed the same weapons as McMahon, and shown how the latter was defeated and evacuated Alsace, and was one of the first authors of the army disasters. McMahon was as unfortunate at Sedan as he had been at Metz, as Trochu and Ducrot were in Paris, and as Bourbaki and Chinchart were in the east, but he forgot all this when he became President.

American News. Operations for the Presidental election are again commencing in New York. It is said that Grant's re-election is certain. H. H. Hall left San Francisco for the east on the evening of his arrival from Australia.

Agatha States died in New York on Sept. 2nd.

The champion swimming race between American and English champions—three miles for 1000 dollars—was won by Johnson, a Londoner.

There have been scenes ef violence and murdar in the south-west of the United States, the " w«ir of races " being the exciting cause.

Arrangements are in progress for laying a trans-pacific telegraph from San Francisco to Honolulu.