NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3057, 2 December 1878, Page 1

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

' ' (FBOM. THE HOME NEWi.) . Tlie Nihilists, notwithstanding the strictest surveillance of the police, hare promulgated'in St. Petersburg-, a pamphlet under the title of " The Living Dead," threateninfeihe imtant murderfcf all perseoutors. (They intend pnUphing from Oct. 1, a regular revolutionisfnewspaper .named Land and Liberty. ' Copies of the above-named pamphlet havji betn forwarded to almost all the neiMpperi in this country, and'what. oeaHJM particular surprise ia,-that thofdjrjjfJPes, being eneloiedsflimbly inhpofcyrappers, have in .9^^'ir^tfinitfm; safely reached their d»rtination.witii<^Qtl>eing stopped by the ponce. The impression prevails that the llMiilist movement y has attained such dimensions as practically to defy the i»pressive efforts of the Russian authbrities. ,' it „ ' * The, Pope is now enjoying good health, and for tnis year we ,may consider his summer ; difficulties over. His Holiness is carried down in a sedan chair early every morning to a summer-house in. the Vatican gardens. He says mass in an adjoining ohapel, and then breakfast, after Which he takes walking exercise, and then returns to' the palace for the business of the day. Formerly Leo XIII. was fond of sporting, at any rate in that mild form usually affected by 'ecclesiastics in the country, called the roccolo, a sort of decoy for the netting of small birds in the autumn, and consisting of a thick plantation of bushwood and a system of nets, to which the unconscious victims are betrayed, by the unseasonable singing of some feathered comrades, blinded and kept in cages for the purpose. October is the month most favourable for this aniu&emeht, and Thear that a roccolo is being organised in the' Vatican gardens especially for His ' Holmess I,' whereat occasionally to divert his thoughts from the graver cares of the Church. M. Wallon, senator, and formerly Minister, has (Galignani says) just performed an act of courage under dangerous and difficult circumstances. On Sept. 21 four inhabitants of Paris, a M. Bayard and his two daughters, and a'gentleman friend of the family, were bathing in the early moraine at Petites-Dalles (SeineInferieure). They swam out somewhat farther than bathers are in the habit of going, when they found themselves being carried off by an undercurrent. They speedily raised cries of distress, but the beach was deserted at that early hour, and there were no bathers but themselves. ■ Si. Tfallon, whose residence is near'the tea, was writing in the study, and, alive .to the.danger of the party, be seized a life-buoy, hastened down to the beach, and tushed; into the'water .without' taking time to throw off even his coat. Almost at the same moment his second son, M. Ktienne Wallon, following his father's example, also rushed into the sea to assist in . the rescue. M. Wallon, aided by his buoy, soonreachedthe eldest of the young-ladies, who was supported above water by the gentleman referred to, who was almost exhausted by his efforts. Young M. Wallon soon reached the other sister, but when an attempt was made to gain the shore by the ;whole party the current proved too strong, for them. The danger was fearfully threatening, when four residents took a boat and went to the resoue. They succeeded in getting all the party safely into it—-Just as they were becoming thoroughly exhausted—except the father of the young ladies, who had been drifted away by the current, but who fortunately was landed by it at some distance—in terrible agony, however, for he believed that his ' children were lost. One of the young ladies was only restored to consciousness after long efforts.