General News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 262, 10 May 1878, Page 15

General News.

♦_ ; . A correspondent writes to the Times :,—'.' Three Welsh Pilots by whose arduous exertions nine men were saved from the mast-head' of the steamer Pioneer on Puffin Island on the 25th January on 'being' asked by one of Lloyd's agents what they expected for their services, immediately replied, ' We have got what we wanted— the lives of the men.' "

Upon the arrival of the Prince of Wales's train, on Tuesday, February 5, at Slough, a soldier got out of a carriage, and remained i upon the platform watching the huntsmen, alight. When' the prince left his saloon the soldier stood gazing at him, but did not salute. ' His royal highness was evidently surprised at the man's want of military courtesy. The prince sent a railway official to ask what regiment he belonged to, when the soldier replied the 11th Hussars. The reply was conveyed to the prince, who then drove away The Russian papers state that an appeal has been made to the Government from Alexandropol for a grant of money to cleanse the town. Owing to the passage of 70,000 sick and wounded through the town since the war began, and the neglect of the local authorities to disinfect the place, the streets and the houses are filled with disease, and all- who can leave the town are preparing to" do so The deathrate is fifty.five pp.r mille. At Tiflis the operations of one branch of ...the Bed Cross Society are entirely suspended, all doctors bein°- dead. ' At Penza small-pox and measles are so rife that all the public Schools and institutions have been- closed by order of the Government The official report states every house to contain an invalid. Near St. Petersburg the small-pox— a ' species of the Persian plagues-has broken out among the lurkish prisoners interned at Gatchina, and is causing great alarm at, the capital. , MR. Thomson Wellpark^stablished, Church, Glasgow, is one of that, class of persons vfkoie brain's are periodically ? affected— to wit, every time a fall mpbn occurs. that hehas allowed "his prejiidices to ratrun his discretion would be false, for the simple but satisfactory^onihW he .is wholly void of discretion. This halfcrazed—if riof wholly mat individual has had whatever little equanimity he possesses upset by the intelligence that the hierarchy is about to be restored to Sfetftiand.-, This was gall and vinegar to the bilious temperament of 'Mr.' Thomson, he recoiled from the contemplation of the proposed restoration with as much dread as does a do£ afflicted with rabies Ww^ter. At length a bright thought penetrated Ms full brain, and forthwith^ acted on it by sending the following to the Pope :—« lf your proposed Papal hierarchy in consistory be promulgated an interdict against it will be demanded from the Supreme Civil Court in Scotland, and the laws of the country rigidly enforced against it. We have not heard that this message has given the Pope any senous apprehensions, nor is it likely that it will cause him to relinquish his intention. In the meantime we would advice Mr Thomson's friends ; to look carefully after him, for when a Scotchman spends money foolishly, as he has by sending this telegram, he cannot possess mens sana in. corpora sano. — Universe «' We (Ulster JEmnwer) are much gratified' to learn, through a communication of the Maggiordomo to the Bishop of ijpwn and Connor, that one of the latest acts of the illustrious Pius IX before his death, was to raise tojthe highest rank of the Roman prelacy, as « Cameriere Spgreto Wanumerario, ,' the distinguished and amiable President of Maynooth Collge,Dr. Russell. TJiis was a fitting compliment to i him and to the College on his recovery from the lite severe accident which befehiin. And as that accident caused universal sorrow to Dr. Russell p numerous friends in the College and elsewhere this thoughtful and sympathisng act of bis Holiness wll give universalsatisfaction, for no one has^more friends or deserved it better " Bismarc* has some designs upon Belgium, and, whatever these may be, they certainly bode no good to either the country or Europe" at large, femcc the persecution, of the Church began in Prussia, large numbers of Prussian priests have been exiled, and many of them have settled in Belgium, lhe great man now fancies that these inoffensive exiles are troubling his waters, the same as the wolf thought at one time that the lamb drmking in the brook below him was troubling his, and so he has- of late begun to complain about agitations carried on across the borders by _" Ultramontane emissaries." He has also asked the Belgian. Government to have a list of all the Prussian priests^settled in"Belgium drawn up and forwarded to him. Belgian papers say that this is surely a "statistical enquiry," but whatever its object may be, it can he done for no good purpose. By and-bye we shall hear that it is_ a danger for Germany to have such a priestridden country* as. Belgium at her side, and steps will be taken to swallow it up the same 'lift Alsace arid Lorraine have been swallowed up. ?^ g l a^' T10;T 10 ;! 155 ' x .S^W^eing power most directly interested, had better look out. - • '

The following interesting item appears in the fflgter (Ireland") Exammer :^"£he Queen-hfe most, graciously been pleased, on the application of the Key.; John Grainger,'; D.D. recto* of Broughshane, to send a gift of JJ2 to the widow of John Stewart, a Peninsular veteran, who has die&at Skerry, near Broughshane, at an advanced age, leaving his widow totally unprovided, for. John Stewart, enlisted in the Armagh Militia so long ago as 1806, and from it volun. teered mto the line daring the Peninsular War." Happy Mrs Stewart ! Your wants have. been provided for by "Her Gracious Majesty. You will-not miss-poor John's little eaming's, now that you have received the -« royal bounty." Her Majesty, whose queenly heart, they say, is always open, to the appeal of the distressed, has stepped down from her throne to make you happy with— ten dollars t When we see such an instance of the tender regard entertained by Victoria for her soldiers we can do nothing but wonder how disaffec tion could creep into the ranks of the British Army, orhow an Irish.. man wearing her colours could he bard-hearted enough to desert them. — i J uot, , . ' The great and most unjust disparity which exists between the numbers of parliamentary voters in Great Britain and" those in Ireland is soon to he again brought under the 'notice of the House offfrUUU by Mr, Meldgn, M,p, for KJM«* ft* ;teff, £Q lon § ojpt

posed to any advance towards justice to Ireland, has at last admitted that the number of voters in. Ireland "ought to be increased. An amendment is, it is said, to' be moved to the effect that the very small constituencies in Ireland ought to lose the power of sending members to Parliament. This is rigtt,- for some of these seats (Portarlingtoa, for instance,) are completely, in the hands of the nearest landlord. But the amendment is no answer to the motion. Both ought to "be "carried, and the result would be most beneficial to Ireland. — Universe. ' ' He jvasa smart Yankee who stopped up the boastful Frenchman hy telling him that he need not brag so much about the wines of Ms country, f of, that they- had forty-three champagne factories in New < Jersey "jdity. , Smart'as he was, his impudence is eclipsed by what is .actually taking place at, the other side of the Atlantic at present. Russia leather is made in Connecticut, Prench lace is woven in New York, Italian marble is dug in Kentucky, Marseilles linen is 1 produced in Massachusetts, ' English cassimere is made in New Hampshire, Parian art work comes from a shop in Boston, Spanish mackerel are caught on the New Jersey coast, and Havana cigars are rolled by the million in Chicago. says that the Marquis of [Salisbury is to be the English, •plenipotentiary at the approaching Congress, and humorously suggests that he shall take with Mm the million-pound bank note which the Bank_of England keeps jji_a frame. _It would overawe the other plenipotentiaries by proving how~wealtTryT2hgland is:~ Government might "borrow it on the security of a sixpenny income-tax. "Why couldn't they do nothing.?'" asked "one a few days ago, speaking of the Ministry ; " why couldn't they: keep out of the Conference, out of Servia, out of Greece, oat of despatches 1 - Speech is silvern, and silence is golden." " Yes, 'A remarked- an American who has come over to admire Europe, " and to_ speak, big and swallow your words is Britannia' metal." . ■ ","/ ~ , " _ Some twenty years ago, when' Cardinal Wiseman presided over the Catholic Church in 'England, he lad occasion to consult with Baron Lionel de Rothschild on a matter of business, and for that purpose accepted an invitation to lunch at the Baron's ,-seat of Gunnesbury. While the party were at lunch an English lady, the wife of a cabinet minister, called on the baroness, who.went out and asked her to join the party at lunch, explaining that the only' stranger present was the' cardinal. The ministerial lady drew herself up rather coldly and begged to be excused, ♦• as she made it a .matter of principle never knowingly to break bread with a Romish priest." The baroness, with the sweetest of smiles, assured her how sorry she was to have wounded her unwittingly, and added, " you know, my dear, I am not a Christian, and so can't be expected to enter into these feelings." At Bristol recently an officer on removing to the workhouse an elderly woman named Scores, apparently in a destitute state, found in her room four trunks. They were very weighty, and bound up with carpet. . In them coins were discovered to be packed so elaborately that it took nearly two days to unpack the money — £154 10s. 6d was in silver, £9 10s in gold, and £20 0s Id in coppers. It is said that at a recent dinner the Duke of Edinburgh ordered up champagne to drink to the Russian triumph in the taking of Plevna, and that all the English officers present left the room. What shall we say of the Que6n being represented atVicto* Emmanuel's funeral by a lord-in- waiting 1 Is it thus that a ns> A i the champion ot constitutional principles, should associate itself -aA . the grief of all Europe hastening to Rome to honour the constitutional King 2>ar excellence ? Italy will not easily forget this conduct of the British Government.— Courrier d'ltalie. We are excelled and driven out of even our own market with regard to almost every mortal thing by, our American cousins. The latest successful rivalry has to do' with the coffin trade. It is said that the Americans are exporting coffins to London and selling them here at prices little more than half of those charged by our own undertakers. Where will our American friends stop I Not content with inundating us with all soi'fcs of inventions, with no end of washing machines, apple-parers, egg-beaters, window sashes, doors, panels, wainscoats, &c, they have commenced to send across the Atlantic ready-made furniture of all kinds with which we cannot compete, and they now have made an attack on our coffin trade by the introduction of coffins with patent handles and reversible lids of a superior make unknown to England. This is really going .too far ahead \— London, Universe.