NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 83, 28 November 1874, Page 7

NEWS IN BRIEF.

New York hafi a " professor of floral emblems." A monument to Mendelssohn at Liepsig is spoken of. Mr. Foster, the new Judge of the United States Disrtict Court'of Kansas, has astonished the lawyers of that region by requiring them not to smoke or -wear their hats in Court. During the recent deep sea soundings in the Pacific, a depth of 4,655 fathoms, nearly five and one-third miles, "was found off; the coast of Japan. Monsignor Bianchi, the Papal N 'ncio at the Hague, has received the Grand Cross of the Order of the Dutch Lion. The St. Louis delinquent tax list occupies 160 columns of the • Times ' of that city. There is said to be a wonderful girl in Ohio, who, when blindfolded, can tell colors by touch. Waltham, Vermont, has reached the highest point of Municipal happiness. It has no tax levy and no paupers. The Nile is now higher than it has been for twenty years, and fears are entertained that the sluices -will not be able to carry off the flood. Should disaster not occur, the crops will be enormous. The last stone of the Vendome Column was laid recently, and the workmen placed a tricolor on the summit. The ' Presse' announces that the construction of the o ter girdle of forts for the defence of Paris will be commenced in. November, and i»ill,giTe employment to nearly 2,000 men.

The ' Alta California' says that the cost of living in San Francisco is higher than in any other northern city, with the possible exception of New York. Mr Bancroft Davis has boon appointed Ambassador of tho Government of the United States at Berlin. Riel, the leader of the insurrection in Manitoba, has been re-elected to a seat in the Dominion Parliament for one of the districts of the province. A story is afloat that Marshal Bazaine's agont in England has been making special efforts to obtain for him the rooms in St. James's street, London, once occupied by the late ex-Emperor of the French. The Tichborne drama has still another phase to pass through. It will come before Parliament next session in the shape of a bill that has been prepared under the sanction of Chancery to declare the title of the infant heir, and to authorise the trustees to raise a sum .of £90,000 for the costs of the late trial. The bill is over one hundred pages, and describes the family property at large, recounts all the family titles back to 1866, and gives a narrativo of the disappearance of Sir Roger, followed by a history of Orton, and his proceedings since 1866. A citizen of Portland has a wedding suit in which he has been, married four times in tlurty-six years. A despatch has been received at Madrid from the Governor of Porto Rico which contradicts the intelligence recently published in London that an earthquake had occurred in that Island. In Boston a hearse without lanterns is considered very oldfashioned. A vessel named the Victory has arrived in Sydney after a passage of 145 days from Manilla. Naturally enough, everyone interested had given her up for lost. Such a passage is, we believe, almost without parallel in these later days.