Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 - 1893), Tuesday 27 July 1886, page 7


OF THE

ENGLISH MAIL.

We are in receipt of London papers to June l8, by the arrival of the mail steamship, and extract as

follows :

On June 12 the Queen, who is still at Balmoral, went out, accompanied by Princess Beatrice and Princess Louis of Battenberg, and drove attended by the Dowager Marchioness of Ely. In the after-noon the Queen, with Princess Louis, and attended by the Dowager Marchioness of Ely, drove to Birk Hall, where Princess Beatrice met them. On June 14, the Queen, with Princess Beatrice and Princess Louis of Battenberg, was present at Divine Service in the parish church of Crathie. The service was conducted by the Rev W. W. Tulloch, B.D., minister of Maxwell Parish, Grasgow. On June 14 the Queea went out, accompanied by Princess Beatrice and Princess Lonis of Battenberg, and in the after-noon Her Majesty drove with the two Princesses.

The Queen is expected to return to Windsor on June 26, and after a stay there of three weeks the

Court will remove to Osborne. There Her Majesty I is to stay till the third week in August, when she will leave for Balmoral for her usual autumn sojourn. It has been arranged that the Queen is to

visit the Exhibition at Edinburgh on her way north I and she will reside for three days at Holyrood Palace, where she has not been for five years.

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales will, by command of the Queen, hold a levee at St. James's Palace, on behalf of Her Majesty, on Friday, the 26th inBt. Presentations to His Royal Highness at the Levee shall be considered as equivalent to

nrcsentations to Her Majesty.

r

The Prince of Wales is to be installed as Grand Master of Mark Masons on July 1. The ceremony ia to take place at the Freemasons' Tavern. The Prince will appoint Lord Kintore, Lord Egerton of Tatton, the Duke of Connaught, and Lord Kilmorey to the four principal subordinate posts.

The Prince and Princess of Wales will pay a visit to Lord and Lady Brooke at Easton Park, near Dunmow, on June 19. The visit will terminate on Monday.

" X scheme is on foot for making the South Kensington Exhibition a permanency. The Prince of Wales, it is said, in inclined to regard the new project with favour.

The Prince of Wales has consented to become the President of the Royal Commission in London for the South Australian Jubilee Exhibition, to be held in Adelaide next year.

During the Royal Agricultural Society's Show at Norwich the Prince and Princess of Wales will entertain a large party at Sandringham, from July 12 to 17. The Prince and Princess will also give two garden parties at Marlborough House next

mouth.

It is now definitely settled that the review of troops at Aldershot shall be held on July 2. The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge will be present, and al) the distinguished visitors from India and the Colonies will be invited to attend.

The Duchess of Albany paid a visit to the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic (Albany Memorial) in Bloomsbury on June 12.

Princo Albert Victor has completed his first year of service in the Army, having been gazetted to a lieutenancy in the 10th Hussars on Juno 17, 1885. Ho has been junior subaltern of his regiment ever since. His uncle, the Duke of Connaught, will have been eighteen years in the service on Juno 20, having been gazetted to a lieutenancy in the Royal Engineers, June 19, 1868, from the Royal Military Academy. The Duke of Connaught was three years a subaltern, his captaincy in the Rifle Brigade dating from May 1, 1871. He spent four years in the rank of captain, having been gazetted to a majority in the 7th Hussars, Aug. 7, 1875.

Truth says that the Queen is desirous of arrang-ing a marriage between Prince Henry of Prussia, the second son of the Crown Prince of Germany, and the Princess Irene of Hesse, third daughter of the Grand Duke. Prince Henry, who is an officer in the German Navy, was horn in 1862, and the Prin-cess will be twenty next month. Prince Henry is a favourite with the Queen, who made bim a G.C.B. when he visited her at Osborne some time back.

The project" does not meet with the approval of some of the most powerful personages at the Court of Berlin, who would prefer that the Prince should marry the Princess Alexander of Anhalt-Dessau.

The Due de Nemours and the Due d'Alençon have joined the Comte de Paris at the Château d'Eu.

Prince Jerom« Napoleon is about to start for Geneva, where he will temporarily reside.

Several American officers who served with the Comte de Paris on General M'Clellan's staff in 1862 have united in the proposal that he should seek an asylum in New York, They last week sent him the following tele-gram from New York, signed by several officers. General Daniel Butterfield heading the list :-" To Comte de Paris, Paris-Come to us. We old soldiers will welcome you. We honor your service to our Republic in its greatest crisis. No one is more respected than yourself and De Chartres by our veterans, who know your services and worth. A hearty welcome is yours here." General Butterfield received the following reply:-"Your kind telegram received with gratitude. In these painful days the hearty greet-ing of old comrades, coming from your great Republic, is a consolation and an encouragement. Unfortunately, at proäent America is too far, but a visit to your once distracted but now prosperous country would fulfil my best wishes.-Paris."

Count di Trani, brother of the ex-King of Naples, died on June 12 of heart disease. He was born in 1838, and married, in 1861, the Duchess Maria Louisa of Bavaria, sister to the Empress of Austria and to the ex-Queen of Naples. He leaves one child, Princess Maria Theresa, born in 1867. The Count was one of those who made a last stand at Gaeta for the Neapolitan dynasty, and afterwards

served in the Pontifical army.

Tickenhill Monor, near Bewdley, which is one of the oldest and most interesting houBes in England, is to be sold shortly.

Sir Hercules Robinson has left London to resume his duties as Governor at the Cape.

The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and the Countess of Aberdeen have left Dollis-hill for Dublin.

Lord and Lady« Dalhousie will reside during the autumn at Panmure House, their place near Car

noustic.

The sale of the Blenheim pictures has been put off until July 24, owing to the Dissolution interfer-ing with prior arrangements.

Lord Caithness haB left Southampton in his yacht, tho Francesca, for Aberdeen and the north coast of Scotland, intending to extend his cruise as far as

Iceland.

The Earl and Countess of Derby returned to town on June 16 from Holwood, where they have been passing the Whitsun holidays.

Sir Thomas and Lady Brassey will again enter-tain parties of visitors from the colonies at Nor-manhurst Court, Battle, on Saturday, June 19 and

25. ' .

I Baron F. de Rothschild, M. P., opened a bazaar

in the grounds of Winchendon Manor, BuckB, on June 15, on behalf of the restoration of the parish

church.

Lord and Lady Carnarvon have gone to Highclere Castle, where they intend to reside for several weeks, after which they are going to Wildbod.

Capt. the Hon. Arthur Manners is rapidly re-covering from the effects of his accident. He is now at Maiden Ereleigh, and hopes to be able to join his regiment in the course of a month or six

weeks.

The Dowager Duchess of Abercorn, the Countess of Lichfield, Sir George Armytage Bart., Sir Richard and Lady Baggallay, Sir Richard and Lady Nichol-son, and Sir Richard and Lady Garth aro staying at St. Lawrence-on-Sea, near Ramsgate.

The Duke of Bedford intends to cruise in Mb yacht, the Northumbria, during the next two months. The Duchess and Lady Ella Russell have gone to Norris Castle, near East Cowes, and about the middle of next month they will go for the autumn to Endsleigh, their beautiful place on the

Tamar, near Tavistock.

I Lord Eglinton, who has been cruising in the I Mediterranean for several months, returned last

week to Eglinton Castle, his health having greatly I improved, and he intends to pass the summer and j autumn in Ayrshire. Lady Eglinton is staying in I town for a short time with her mother, Lady I

Monson, before going to Scotland.

In the approaching open-air representations at Coombe Houbo of scenes of Lord Tennyson's play Becket, Miss Geneviève Ward will appear as Queen Eleanor, Lady Archibald Campbell as Rosamond, the Earl of Kilmorley as Henry II., and Mr. Her-

mann Vozin as Becket.

The Duke of Bedford recently purchased the Battlesdcn Park estate in Bedfordshire for about .£150,000. It is announced that the Duke intends entirely to dismantle the place, and that the man-sion, which was built, not so many years ago, at a cost of £60,000, is to be pulled down. Battlesden is within a short walk of Woburn Abbey, and it is the fourth seat in the county that has been bought by the Dukes of Bedford.

The ceremony of investing the threo new French Cardinals, the Archbishop of Rens, Sens, and Rheims, will take place at the Elysée in a few days. Presi-dent Gravy on this occasion will be surrounded by the Papal Nuncio and three delegates from Rome, and by the Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Publio Worship. This function may be taken os a guarantee that for the present at least all conflict

between the Vatican and France is at an end.

Sir Arnold Kembali has resigned his post as " Commissioner" for the Duke of Sutherland's vast estates. He is to be succeeded by Mr. Robert Brereton, who has had a very successful career in America and in India as a civil engineer and general administrator. A few years ago Mr. Brereton was offered the management of the Duchy of Cornwall estates belonging to the Prince of Wales, but he was not then disposed to accept such an appoint-

ment.

Queen Eleanor's Cross at Waltham is to be re-stored, at a cost of about £1550. Of that sum upwards of £650 has been subscribed, amongst the donors being Her Majesty the Queen. It is the intention of the committee who have been ap" pointed to carry out the work to bring the cross as near as possible into the condition in which it was when erected nearly six centuries ago. A petition for a grant in aid of the fund has been referred to a committee of the City of London Common Coun-cil for consideration and report.

The Duke of Bedford has made himself very popular on Iiíb Devonshire estates by announcing that he will forgive the accumulated debt of " royal-ties" due to him from the Devon Great Consols Mine, which is one of the most important centres of industry in the district, and he will forego his royalties till the mine again becomes a dividendpaying concern. The debt thus wiped out amounts to about £4000, and if the Duke had insisted on payment the mine must have been closed, as it can only defray the mere working expenses, owing to the severe depression in the copper market.

The Paris journals are filled with commentaries on the reign and death of the late King of Bavaria, and give many details about the forms which his madness took. It is stated among other things that he had a professor from Paris to teach him the savate, or use of the feet, in a way to replace the use of the fists. The reason why he did so, we are told was to make sure of getting rid of importunate Ministors when they insisted on communicat-ing face to face instead of conversing through an openwork screen of carved sandal wood. The moral the Republican papers draw from the lunacy and death of the King is that on ijhe Continent the fates are clearly against Monarchy.

Mr. Gladstone, accompanied by Mrs. Gladstone, left the St. Paneras Terminus of the Midland Rail-way yesterday morning, on his way to Scotland for the General Election. The right lion, gentleman was expected to arrive at the station at about a quarter past ten, but long before that hour a large crowd had congregated in the readway outside, and a still larger assemblage thronged the departure platform in the station. The Prime Minister, who was enthusiastically cheered, delivered a short address. At several places on the journey North addresses were presented to Mr. Gladstone, who replied to them in speeches dealing with the situa-tion. On arriving at Edinburgh he was received with great cheering by an immense crowd, but proceeded to his hotel without delivering a speech.

The body of the late King Louis of Bavaria arrived at Munich on the 15th June from the Castle of Berg, where it had been lying. The procession consisted of a few carriages, containing the clergy and the attendants. They .were preceded by the hearse. As the carriages proceeded slowly towards Munich the inhabitants of the villages on the road came forth with uncovered heads. In the course of the day large bouquets of flowers and wreaths

arrived from all sides, and the bed of the dead monarch was entirely concealed under thousands of white roses, whilst the floor was also strewn with roses. The Empress of Austria sent a bouquet and a wreath, with a message that she would have brought them in person but that the sad event had entirely shattered her nerves. The bouquet which was of myrtle, she expressly wished should be placed upon the breast of the King and the hands folded over it, and the wreath of white roses, which Her Majesty had arranged with her daughter, at his feet. When the body had left, Count Toerring gave each of the Guards who had been on, duty in the Castle a spray of flowers from the wreaths to place in their helmets.

Miss Mary Anderson arrived at Liverpool per steamship Britannic on June 17, reaching London the same day.

Mr. F. J. Dickens, son of the novelist, died at Moline, Illinois, on June 11, from paralysis of the

heart.

Tke death is announced at Constantinople of Server Pasha, Minister of Justice.

The number ef visitors to the Colonial and Indian

Exhibition for tlie week ending June 12 was 159,716 ; total since the opening, 873j5G9.

The first through train on the Canadian Pacific Railway will leave Montreal for Vancouver, the Pacific terminus of the road, on Monday, 28th inst.

The Whitsuntide Bank Holiday was observed on June 14, the weather being only partially fine. Large numbers of holiday-makers visited the Colonial Exhibition and other places of popular

resort.

The son of the Director of the Vienna Credit Anstalt, Alfred Ritter von Wiener-Welten, has been killed in a duel with an officer in Bosnia.

Letters received from Peshawur state the British soldiers there are the victims of constant outrages committed by Afghans, who commit acts of robbery and violence, and stop at nothing in order to gain

their ends.

Advices from Bucharest state that Prince Alexander is expected back in that city shortly, whence he will proceed to all the European Courts which expressed sympathy with Bulgaria during

the late war.

The Commission of Inquiry at Cairo into the alleged financial scandals in Egypt have unani-mously adopted a resolution for the suspension of the Director-General of the Diara. Both the natiye members were present at the sitting, and concurred

in the decision.

The Queen has been pleased to approve of Mr. A. Brown ns Consul at Newcastle, with jurisdiction over that part of New South Wales comprisad be-tween Queensland, the River Barwan, the Arbuthnot Mountains, and Broken Bay, for his Majesty the King of the Belgians.

Sir Saul Samuel, Agent-General for New South Wales, and Sir Daniel Cooper have been appointed to act for the New South Wales Government in connection with the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, in consequence of the death of Sir Alexander Stuart, the late Executive Commissioner.

A man named John Morrissy broke into the Abbey Protestant Church, Ferrybank, near Water-ford, on Juno 13, and carried off the Bible, together with some other articles belonging to the church, and then consumed some wine intended for church uso. He was arrested by two passing policemen as he emerged from the building.

The Crown Prince of Austria opened, on June 15, the Second International Inland Navigation Con-gress, which was attended by about three hundred 'members, including delegates from England, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Belgium, Sweden, and Hungary. The programing includes discus-sions on Inland Navigation and on Sea Canals with a view to cheapening Continental freights.

The trustees of the British Museum have pur-chased the MS. sketch books of Michael William Balfe from his widow. In these he noted dow* the

ideas for many of his most famous works, and the outlines of several never completed. They will form a fitting appendix to the autograph collection of the full scores of his operas already deposited in the national library.

The buffalo gnats, the pest of the Lower Mississipi Valley, have done a work of destruction among the stock of Tennessee. Reports of cattle, horses, and mules having been goaded to death by these insects are received daily. A coloured man was stung and choked to death. He was found dead, evidently a victim to the gnats, which swarmed, about the corpse.

A rumour has lately gone round to the effect that a new edition of the sumptuous Abbotsford edition of the Waverley Novels was shortly to appear. Possessors of this expensive work need not be alarmed at a fall in the value of their copies, as Messrs. Black, who have in their possession the engraved plates and wood-blocks of tho illustrations, have neither any intention of republishing them-selves or allowing any other person to do so.

The Dairy Conference at Derby last week, which closed with tho excursions to model dairy farms and butter and cheese factories connected there-with, brought forward many points of importance to dairy farmois in all parts of the world. Repre-sentatives of the dairy interest from various parts of the United Kingdom, and from the United States, France, the Netherlands, Australia, and Cape Colony, were present, and took part in the proceedings.

Mr. Bright is, it is said, to be made an honorary D.C.L. at the ensuing Oxford Commemoration. There was a time in his life when Mr. Bright would probably have refused the distinction, as there was a period in the history of Oxford when it would certainly not have been offered to him. But minds change as well as institutions, and the veteran Quaker Liberal will doubtless accept the proffered honour in the same spirit in which it will be bestowed.

On the occasion of the visit of representatives of the Colonies and India to Cambridge in July, which is being arranged by the Reception Committee by the Royal Commission for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, the use of the Fitzwilliam Museum will be granted for their reception on the part of the University, and it is the intention of the council of the Senate to propose that on this occasion honorary degrees Bhall be conferred on some of the distin-guished visitors.

Signor G. B. Amendola's statuette group of " Wedded," which realises in the round what Sir Frederic Leighton's popular picture was in the flat, is announced completed by the Fine Art Society. This work, over which the celebrated Italian sculp-tor has spent so much timo, is being "published" in two sizes-29in. and 15in. high respectivelyand in three states : silvered bronze, bronze, and terra-cotta. The copies now on view are beautiful specimens of Signor Amendola's delicate art.

Following Mr. Frith's lead, Mr. Sidney Starr has decided to throw open his studio to a number of art students. But Mr. Starr goes further than Mr. Fiith, for he proposes to organise a regular class, teaching his pupils drawing, pastel-work (in which he first gained distinction), oil and water color, and etching. At this rate art students will have quite a selection of first-class teachers to choose from, instead of being tied down to South Kensington or the Royal Academy schools.

The first of tho *' Mechanical Beggars " invented by Dr. James H. Aveling has been placed in the Colonial Exhibition, and is now busily begging for the London Hospitals. If every one who enters the Exhibition were to give but a penny, the amount realised would be about £10,000. The " Beggar " has two windows, through one of which may be seen a card in constant motion, with " Pray give " on it ; and through the othei, but only when a coin is deposited, a card with " Thank you " on it, which jumps up, and remains in view for a few

seconds.

It is doubtful if the telephone has been so largely introduced into any city as it has been at Stock-holm, where the number of apparatus in use at the end of last year was nearly 5000, the number of communications being about five millions, and the length of line 800 miles. The city has a popula-tion of about 200,000. , In 1884 the number of sub-scribers was only 2400. The subscription is about £7 a. year. Some long-distance telephoning has been tried successfully, a town fifty miles distant from the capital being now connected by telephone ?with that city.

The sentence of suspension for six months issued by Lord Penzance against the Rev. J. Bell Cox, in-cumbent of St. Margaret's Church, Prince's-road, Liverpool, for Ritualistic practices, passed on April 8, was on June 12 affixed to the doors of that church. By a local solicitor acting for Mr. Girdlestone, of London, the churchwardens issued a protest against tho decree of a purely secular tribunal being affixed to the church. The incumbent announced that he did not intend to

alter the character of the services, which on Sunday I

were of the usual character.

A now safety cartridge lias been introduced for use in coal mines. Tho idea is a novel one. Finely divided metallic zinc ia placed in a glass tube divided into two ports-one to contain the zinc, the other sulphuric acid. This cartridge is placed in the hole bored to receive it, and being clayed, the miner drives an iron rod into tho tube, which breaks the contracted part of it. The sulphuric acid is thus brought into contact with the zinc, and a rapid evolution «f hydrogen gas takes place. " A pressure is exerted by' the gas on the sides of the hole equal to 37,000 atmospheres," which rends

the rock.