General NeWS.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5115, 9 June 1885, Page 2

General NeWS.

Poor Lady Stewart has never lifted up her head since the news of her husband's death was communicated toiler. She had only been married eight years, and was devoted to him. They have two little bojs. -. Great credit is due, says the Standard correspondent, to the Coldstreams and Australians for the astonishing work which they performed in a day, having cleared a space a hundred yards wide, through the bush, for two and a half miles in length, on the road out to Haodoub. This would have been a heavy piece of work in any climate ; but under the" ion • of the Eastern Soudan it is really extra* ordinary, and shows what can be accom* pSished by men working with a will. A memorial, signed by nearly three* fourths of the.members of the City of London Corporation, has been addressed to her. Majesty's Ministers, urging the repeal of the law prohibiting marriage with a deceased wife's sister. The memorialists—among whom are the Lord Mayor, the ox Lord Mayor, the two. Sheriffs, the Recorder, the City Chamberlain, and twenty of the twenty nineDepu* ties—say :—" The prohibition- of such marriages has been repeatedly condemned by large majorities in the House of Commons; it has become a part of our juris* prudence through a doubtful interpretation of Scripture; it is habitually infringed, without loss of respect, by persons of admitted virtue, who do not believe that they are acting at variance with religion or morality ; and a law which, like this, fails to secure the general assent of the community, ought, in our opinion, to be abolished. We therefore urgently appeal to her Majesty's responsible advisers to take such steps as may be needful to carrj the desired reform into effect."

Han Qua, the Chinese banker in Cantoo, is said to be the richest man in the world. He is estimated to be worth £280,000,000. * - The Queen has received a present from Scotland which might almost be understood to be a reflection upon our present military operations. -It is a' handsome little plough, complete, manufactured; entirely out of old swords, dirks, and spears—a very literal way of turning the spear into the ploughshare.

Travellers out on the red hills, says a California paper, have often shuddered at tfre sight of horned toads,. which are as numerous as blackbirds. The ugly crea* - tures are as much dreaded as rattlesnake!,. but a Chinaman spent all Bummeritnd fall gathering them. Recently he made a shipment of two thousand of the toads to San Francisco, from arhich place they will be sent to China. The toads are there converted into various kinds of medicines, which sell very high. For the cure of chills of fever they are said to be the finest things known. A toad is plaoed in a flask of whisky for several weeks, .and then the stuff is sold as a tonic—Sun.

The skating rink erase is bearing fruit. The telegraph informs us'that tiro younf couples—the first pair being, fifteen and nineteen respectively,* and the second seventeen and nineteen—hare eloped front Brooklyn, New York.. They met "at a skating rink, and the wild gyrations on the rollers produced the above result. Two divorces soon.