NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Western Star, Issue 143, 3 June 1876, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Sarah Steele, a young woman, has been committed for trial at Birkenhead on a charge of bigamy. Both husbands attended in court, and on being confronted with her first partner, Sarah threw herself into his arms and said : * Alec, is that you? They told me you were hanged in Glasgow years ago.’ The steam-ship Bessemer, now lying in the Millwall Docks, was offered for sale by auction, but the auctioneer failed to obtain a bid.

Arthur Orton, being ill, has been removed from his ordinary cell at Dartmoor prison to the infirmary.

It is stated that subscriptions are being raised for the purpose of sending an ‘ expedition to Australia to collect all the evidence possible that may be favourable' to the Tichborno Claimant.' Mr Guilford Onslow and other ‘ friends of the cause' will bo the members of the commission.

The Calvinistic Methodists of South Cardiganshire have resolved that no candidate for the representation of the County be countenanced by them unless he declares himself in favour of the disestablishment and disendowmont of the Church of England. The present county member is a Conservative.

Drummer Dewer v aged about seventeen, one of the fifteen musicians of the Ist battalion 15th regiment, who played ‘ St. Patrick’s Day’ on the 17th March, at Aldershot, was sentenced by the court-martial to twenty-eight days’ imprisonment in the military prison, North camp. The Dublin Daily Express says: —An ewe belonging to Mr William Carroll, of 14, Mary-street, Dublin, and Curragrague, near Nenagh, gave birth to live lambs on the 3rd instant, at Curragraguc. One was a tup, and the other four ewes. They are likely to live. The Countess Combermere assembled a largo party of leaders of fashion at her London residence, when a spelling bee was arranged. Tha interrogators were Lord Eliot and Mr Knox; and the umpires Lord Guilford and Sir W. Fraser* M.P. Several prizes were adjudicated, and the principal one was gained by the Lord Mayor, who had for final opponents, amongst others, Viscount Halifax, the Bight Hon. Robert Lowe, M.P., and Lord Hampton. Vice-Chancellor Hall, on the 17th March, granted an order for the compulsory winding up of tao Co-operative Bank on the ground or its insolvency. It was stated that the failure of this hank has been caused partly by the resemblance of its name to that of the bank with which Mr Banner Oakley is the Cooperative Credit Bank. # A bill has been introduced into Parliament by Sir Thomas Chambers, intended to remove doubts with reference to certain colonial marriages. The Australian Colonies have passed acts in their local Legislatures legalising marriage with a deceased wife’s sister, and these acts have from time to time received the Royal assent. This confirmation has not boon withheld by her Majesty under the advice of either the late Liberal or the present Conservative Government. It does not follow, however, that such marriages, though valid in the Colonies, are valid hero. On the contrary, tha status and legitimacy of the children have been called in question, and. conflicting opinions are held by eminent English lawyers on this subject. This, however, is not all. It is believed that the children of such marriages are debarred from all rights of inheritance of succession to real estate, either in England or Scotland.

Tho Mexican revolution has spread widely. Diaz has been proclaimed General-in-Chief of the Liberating Army. Several officers of tho Federal Army have declared and levied forced loans on people. At Jay men, Oxare, 20,000 revolutionists were attacked by General Alatowe with National troops without dislodging them, after several hours fighting, The bandits Gondales and Garsis, two of the chief rebels, were killed in attacks on Rancho do Galera and Paracuava. Captain Benito Meya, a moat desperate bandit, finding himself surrounded, feigned dead, but, being discovered, sham was turned into reality. National troops are in pursuit of rebels everywhere. ■ Ptarmigan or white grouse from Norway have been sold in London at 8d and lOd each, and Norwegian or wliito hares at Is 6d to 2s each. The markets were glutted with foreign game and wild fowl.

The boiler of the locomotive of a ballast train, when half-way between Kilmarnock and Irvine, on the Glasgow and South-western Railway, burst. Five men were killed, and nine others injured. The Newcastle Chronicle says there has seldom, if ever, been so much unemployed labor in the North of England as at the present moment. There are eighteen collieries ‘ laid off’ in the county of Durham, and 10,000 iron-workers have been idle for months. Tbo officers and men who have proceeded on the Arctic Expedition are for the most part men of fair complexion. The crew were selected thus: —A large cube of ice was placed in a tub, and as each man presented himself, ho was directed to stand with bare feet on the ice whilst particulars were taken of Ins age and experience. The time when distress was clearly evinced was carefully noted, and the most enduring men were selected.