ENGLISH ITEMS

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 174, 8 June 1871, Page 7

ENGLISH ITEMS

Small-pox has made its appearance in Preston.

The two recent elevations to the Peerage raises the number created since Mr. Gladstone's accession to power to eighteen. An old provincial journalist, Mr. Simpson, of Devizes, died lately in his eightieth year. Mr. Simpson was proprietor of the " Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette" for more than fifty years. An old sailor, named William Mannell, who acted as quartermaster on board the Victory at Trafalgar, died lately at Greenwich, in his nientyseventh year. We understand that the Queen has been pleased to confer upon Mr. Blount, who has been lately acting as Her Majesty's Consult at Paris, the honour of the Compani.nship of the Bath.

It is stated that the Treasury has granted Sir Spencer Robinson a pension of £540 per annum as controller, in addition to his half-pay.

In arranging the rate of exchange for the year 1871-72 between the Indian and English Governments, the value of the rupee has been fixed by the Duke of Argyll at Is. lid.

According to a supplementary estimate, the amount required to replace the store supplied from naval yards for the relief of Paris is £50,000."

The Dover Toung Mens' Christian Association have, by majority, decided not to allow " Punch " to lie on the table of their reading-room, on the ground that it is a ' publication contemptuous of relgious influences, if not absolutely hostile to thorn."

At a metting of the Social Science Association in London, Sir Walter Crofton, chairman of the Board of Irish Prisons, said he thought the State should have the management of all prisons for this class of offenders and that a good system of prison labour should be adopted.

A right-of-way case has been decided at the Exeter Assizes, in which a brother of the Attorney General's was plaintiff, and a Mr Parlby defendant. The case lasted nearly ten days, and cost about a thousmd pounds; yet according to the counsel for the defendant, the right-of-way could have been purchased for fourpence a-vear.

A meeting under the auspices of the Liberation Society, was hfld at Pendleton Town- Hall and a resolution was passed expressing satisfaction that Parliament would shortly be called upon to apply the principle of disestablishment to all the established churches of the kingdom.

At Manchester Assizes, Mrs. Smith, widow of Mr. G. H. Smith, consulting engineer, Manchester, who was killed in the Harrow Railway accident, obtained a 53200 damages against the London and North- Western Railway Company.

The " Telegraph " considers that the postal reforms proposed by Mr. Monsell are excellent. They will benefit the poor and the rich. Mr. Monsell thinks that the changes have in them an element of finality, and that they shut out the need of further reforms. If finality is a word unknown to English politics, and if Mr. Monsell is so far too sanguine, he has none the less fashioned a bold and statesmanlike reform.

Field-Marshal Sir John Burgoyne, in a letter to the " Times," expresses his opinion that promotion by selection must inevitably be either a lottery or an abuse. The only practicable system would appear to be that which exists virtually at present — to adopt the regulation formally as one of selection, and to apply it to such distinct cases as may be found from time to time to be desirable, and on all other occasions to recur to seniority.

The fatal cases of small-pox in London, which in the two previous weeks had been 227 and 213, further declined to 194 last week. Of these 194, 96 were unvaccinated, 74 vaccinated, 1 inoculated, and 23 . unknown. The weekly rates of morality per 1000 of the population in the following places were : — Wolverhainpton, 14 ; Portsmouth, 15; Nottingham and Shieffield, 20; Newcastle-on-Tyne, 21; Edinburgh, 23 ; Birmingham, Bristol, Bradford, Leeds, and Hull, 24 ; Salford, 25 ; London, Norwich, and Sunderland, 26 ; Manchester, 27 ; Dublin, 28 ; Leicester, 29 ; Glasgow, 35 ; and Liverpool, 41. — Scotch paper, March. Mr Roebuck addressed a crowded meeting in the Cutlers' Hall, Sheffield. The Mayor presided. Refering first to the disestablishment of the Irish Church, Mr Roebuck asked, Was it a wise and just measure, and ought it to to have been passed by the man who passed it? He declared that the object of the measure was to get into office, and stick in it, and that it had rendered the government of Ireland moie difficult. The Westmeath Secret Committee wasan attempt to shift the responsibility' from the shoulders of those who had incurred it. He deprecated the "release of the Fenian prisoners, declaring that America was not our ally but our bitter enemy. He denounced the Irish Land Bill ; and while giving his meed of praise to those who brought in the Elementary Education Bill, he complained that compulsory powers were left to be exercised by the school boards. With reference to the Franco- German war, he said both sides were in the wrong, but the Germans were the cleverer of the two, and had manifested a keen desire for vengeance and dis-

played pride, hypocrisy, and vain glory. He warned the Liberals of Germany that they had rivetted the chains around their own hands. He condemned the meek and injudicious conduct of the Government, and said our strict neutrality had brought on us the hatred of both belligerents. We were hated by Russia and America because we were rich and flourishing, and because we enjoyed greater freedom of speech and action than they did. The future Government of England would have to meet the Irish difliculty — the difficulty of discontent at borne, and a united feeling of hate against the English people. Therefore, they must be prepared to make sacrifices for their country's honour and welfare. He had every confidence that the English people would stand by their country in the hour of clanger, and exert themselves manfully for her glory and her security. The address was received with great cordiality.