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New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 197, 12 January 1877, Page 15

Mr. Pope Hennessy, Governor of Barbadoes, has performed a very generous action. Since his arrival in that island he has been subjected to a series of petty annoyances and insults at the hands of the planter clique, for simply doing his official duty without favor or affection. Lately these insults culminated in a bundle of papers being thrown in the Governor's face while out driving with Mrs. Hennessy and their infant child. The bundle struck the child. It was flung by a Mr. Brewster, the proprietor of the paper thrown, and the number thrown at Mr. Hennessy contained a caricature of Lord Carnarvon. Mr. Brewster was prosecuted, and, though ably defended, was convicted and sentenced to two months' imprisonment and hard labor. Here was a tempting opportunity for a Governor to assert his authority; he had only to let the law take its course and it would afford him redress for the provocation he had received. Mr. Hennessy did nothing of the kind. When the sentence of the court had been confirmed, he drove to Mr. Brewster 's house and informed his wife, that he pardoned her husband, and that as the latter had always held a respectable position he wished to save him from the indignity of an arrest. If Mr. Brewster and his fellow-citizens cannot appreciate such a noble-minded act, they do not deserve a Governor like Mr. Pope Hennessy. — 'Pilot.' Some disturbances occurred at Liege, Belgium, on Monday. In the morning about 7,000 persons left by train on a pilgrimage to Montaigu. When the travellers returned at night large crowds assembled at the station and hooted them. The crowd hustled them as they walked along the streets, and soon blows were exchanged. The police had to interfere, and an inspector while protecting a priest who was being iostled by some young roughs, was stabbed in the back with a poniard. He was taken to a chemist's shop, and had his wound dressed, and was then removed Ito his home on a stretcher. The assailant has not yet been discovered. The police agents were at last obliged to draw their weapons to restrain the riotous mob, which, overawed by that act of determination, refrained from any further violence, but kept up their hooting and shouting until midnight, when, the last of the pilgrims having returned, the demonstrators retired to their dwellings. Will the Eastern question be ever finally set at rest ? According to history it has formed a subject of discussion for over two hundred years, and we seem to be as far from a settlement of it as ever. Pepys, writing in his diarj as far back as October, 1663, remarks upon the vast amount of talk there was in his time about the " Turke's proceedings," mentioning that " the Turke goes on mighty in the emperor's dominions, and the princes cannot agree among themselves how to go against him." Well, here we are 213 years afterwards, talking as much as ever about the " Turke's proceedings " and about the princes being as far from agreement as ever " how to go against him." Shall we ever hear the end of it ? There are now only two conspicuous parties in the Chamber, says the Paris Correspondent of the ' London Morning Post,' the Republicans and the Bonapartists. Legitimists and Orleanists have shown no signs of political life during the recess. They are almost forgotten by universal suffrage. Marshal MacMahon is as popular as ever j he is respected by the army ; and if France to-day were interrogated, public opinion would accord national gratitude to the Chief of the State. The 'Pioneer' of Allahabad says:— "We can state authoritatively that the Prince of Wales's letters to her Majesty while on his Indian tour urged frequent complaints of the discourtesy of the Political Department in their demeanour towards the native princes, and of harsh treatment of the natives on the part of the AngloIndians generally. These letters, it is represented, were laid before Lord Lytton on the eve of his departure, with an emphatic request from the Queen herself that his special efforts should be directed towards a reformation. Hence, we suppose, the famous Fuller ' Minute ' of the Governor-General, which has exercised the minds alike of the native and European community forming the circles of society at the three Presidencies." Some of our exchanges appear to be startled by an item of news which appeared a short time since in some of the Protestant journals. It concerned the Rev. Mrs. Phebe Hanaford, a Universalist minister, and narrated that she had recently performed the marriage ceremony at the wedding of her own daughter. But that is only one of the rather unusual maternal offices which the Rev. Mrs. Phebe has performed in her ministerial capacity. She first tried her hand on her son, to whom she gave Univeraalist " Holy Orders " a year or two since. He is now preachiug, like his mamma. After ordaining her son, marrying her daughter must have seemed a ver} commonplace I performance to this " reverend mothor."