General News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 399, 3 December 1880, Page 15

General News.

The Pope has issued an encyclical letter, dated the 30th Sept., extending to the whole Catholic Church the observance of the feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius, the Slav apostles. His Holiness adverts to the solicitude of the Popes for the Slav countries, and thanks Providence for affording him the opportunity of testifying his paternal affection for them. — Nation. The Orangemen threaten a series of anti-Land League demonstrations in the North of Ireland. A number of Agricultural labourers forcibly prevented a farmers' Land League meeting at Shanagarry and denounced the farmers for being as tyrannical as the landlords.

The Duke of Argyll, by a recent speech at Ballachulish, has thrown the religious world of Scotland into a ferment. The Duke stated that Episcopalianism in Scotland is "an exotic," and the phrase seem 9to have been generally interpreted as a term of vituperation. The monks of the order of St. Benedict who kept watch over the tombs of the founders of the Savoy dynasly at Hautecombe, on Lake Bourget, in Savoy, are not to be disturbed by the recent decrees on religious corporations ia France. The Treaty of 1860 between Victor Emmanuel and Napoleon 111. expressly exempted them from all French interference.

Two convicts have been discharged from the Ontario State prison after serving two years, because of undoubted proof that they were innocent of the burglary of which a jury had found them guilty. The case against them rested on the perjured testimony of a policeman, whose motive was revenge. A large wolf was killed a few days since on the farm of Mr. James Thomas, Murrellsfontein, in the Stormberg. Mr. Thomas's boys were out on the bills with a couple of dogs when the. wolf was discovered and attacked. One of the dogs fastened on to the wolf's throat, and although dragged down the mountain side and into the river below — a distance of five hundred yards — the dog maintained its hold of the wolf's throat until the boy* came up and despatched the unwelcome intruder. — Guard Man.

We read frequently of the drowning of good swimmers, who suddenly sink in the water without any apparent cause. The common explanation of such an accident is that the swimmer is seized with cramps ; but an English naval officer offers a different solution of the phenomenon. He bases his theory on his own experience. His ship was lying for a long time off Aden Harbor, and it was the practice for cricketing parties to swim from tne vessel to the shore every evening, having their clothes sent in a small boat. Of course there was a race to see who would get to the beach first. The writer, in the course of a sharp struggle for the lead, opened his mouth to breathe, and some of the spray flying in the wind got into his throat and took the passage down the trachea. " I could neither," he says, " get any breath in nor any out, and I soon began to feel I was dying on the top of the water. There must have been a dozen men close to me, but I could not speak, much less call to them. I kept swimming on for the shore. In about thirty seconds my senses began to leave me. I ceased swimming, and my legs went down, when luckily for me they touched the bottom ; a violent jump helped me to cough up the drop of water. I staggered on shore and fell quite exhausted on the beach, much to the surprise of all the men with me." It is the opiotiion of this gentleman that many fatal accidents to swimmers are due simply to a drop of water in the windpipe. A conclusive proof that they are not due to cramps is the fact that a man rescued within two minutes of sinking in this mysterious manner is always found to be beyond all hope of resuscitation. — Buffalo Courier, Mendicancy is forbidden in Paris and the neighbouring villages. But under various pretences it seems to be more prevalent than it has been known for a long time. Some of the persons who beg in Paris have known better days, and are dainty in their language. A gentleman said to an outstretched palm : " I have not a sou about me." "Sir," exclaimed the worthy mendicant with a sneer, '"I have not specifed the species of coin." London. October 11. — The Irish priests throughout Ireland, yesterday appealed to their congregations, deploring the continuation of the outrages, and also the condition of the peasantry. Numerous titled landlords are fleeing from their estates in fear of their lives. The Government has resolved to arrest the first agitator violating the law.

The BirminglMvi Post says — " No Irish need apply." This appears to be the inscription now written up over the door of the House of Lords. Three bills, in which Ireland is specially interested, have been presented this session to the peers, after having been passed by the House of Commons, but the second Chamber has rejected them all. The County Court Bill was one— it was a useful measure, but the Lords would not have it. The Compensation for Disturbance Bill was auother — it touched their interests as landowners, or they chose to think it did, and &o the Lords threw it out. On Wednesday, the third measure came before them — the Registration of Voters Bill — and out it went. The object of this bill was to assimilate the Irish registration to the system in force in England. Lord Spencer urged them not to give a further handle to agitators by rejecting a harmless measure ; Lord Granville appealed to them with special earnestness "not to give, absolutely without debate, an ignominious rejection " to a bill which the Irish members had promoted, and which the Government approved. Not a speaker endeavoured to reply to the appeals from the Ministerial bench ; Lord lltdesdale and his associates simply divided, and threw out the bill by a majority of forty-two to thirty. Knowing the condition of Ireland, the peers must have cast off all sense of responsibility when they rejected this bill, for in doing so, even without considering its merit, they virtually told the Irish people that so far as they arc concerned there shall be no remedial legislation for Ireland.

Almost every week I notice foolish and servile assertions that Pnncers Louise is delighted with Canada, and that anything to the contrary is a miechievious invention. That the Princesß dislikes either the people or the country is false, but is perfectly true that she very much dislikes her residence there ; and it would be odd if she did not. An eminent Canadian said to me last week : "Of course she does, and everybody knows it and understands it ; there is nothing to resent in the fact." The Princess is separated from her family, has none of^ her friends near her, and is inevitably out of the court swim," which to those who have been accustomed to a court, is an intolerable deprivation. As to the visit of Her Royal Highness to this country, it was quite a sudden idea, and was resolved on after Innce Leopold's accident, and Her Majesty's command for his immediate return. I hear that the Queen has expressed her desire that the Princess should go back to Canada as soon after her return from Germany as may be convenient to her.— Canadian Paper. • .P« Basutos » who were held up as paragons of native excellence in all things becoming men in the true sense of the word, are a lot of arrant cowards, but full of an immense amount of swagger, which is so often taken for true coniage. Maseru and Maiateng are held by bat a few men compared with their numbers. And if these Basutos really lad any courage they would have stormed these places and destroyed the garrisons. But they have never attempted a hand-to-hand assault, the only means by which these places, temporarily fortified af they are, can be taken. Their mode of assault at Mafeteng is merely to harass the garrisons from behind rocks and stones. Then eight hundred or a thousand gather on some open ground at a safe distance, and rush on at hoadlong speed towards the camp as if they ■were making a charge to overthrow a regiment of cavalry or infantry in the open. Within range of the fort their swaggering leader is knocked over with a bullet, here and there a few saddles are emptied by the same means ; and forthwith they head round and contemplate their victory from a safe distance.— Graaf Eeinet Advertiser. +v. *. üBP£u B P£° ial despatch to the New York Freeman's Journal announces that the Pope has named Dr. Michael Corrigan, now Bishop of Newark, N.J., to be Coadjutor of the Archbishop of New York, with the right of succession, and with the title ot Archbishop inpartibus. , ,- rh f. murd er of Lord Mountmorres is still a fertile subject of public discussion. The Government have offered a reward of £1000 tor information leading to the conviction of the murderers, or any of them, and a free pardon to any one implicated, except the actual murderer, who will confess the crime. As for the two men, Gannon and Bweeney, who have been arrested on the charge of complicity in the crime, they were brought up on remand at the close of last week before Mr. Dennehy, R.M., at the Courthouse of Clonbur, but no evidence against them was forthcoming. The police inspector, however, having made an information that he hoped by that day week to have additional evidence," the prisoners were, on the application of +w *4 0W £ Solicitor, remanded until that time. The latest news is that Air. Cullen, the County Inspector of Galway, has been suddenly called away by telegraph to Cong to investigate some new circumstances which have juat come to the knowledge of the police, and O tbe ? eyed wiU throw Borne h 'S hfc upon the tragedy.— iVaitow,