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BRITISH AND FOREIGN ITEMS.
The State Engineer of New York in his
annual rep. it expresses the belief that
the canals have outlived their usefulness
and must go. , '
An action is proceeding in Dublin
against Oscar Wilde for a sum for the
anesthetic commodity of manure for his
farm in Craig County, Galway.
Thieves took the sale from the Roman
Catholic Church at Western Super Mare,
England, lately, and broke it open by
throwing it over the rocks. ' '
There is no truth in the report that
threatening letters have been addressed
to the Pope or to Mgr. Boccali, the Papal
private secretary.
The German Government has ordered
the demolition of the vast Danish works
of defence at Dippel, as they are no
longer regarded as useful. Owing,
to throats of the American
Fenians against the life of Judge Don
man, he is surrounded by a police guard
over while upon the judicial bench.
Because so few JOWB understand the
I Hebrew language, a synagogue at Rochester,
N.Y., has adopted for use an English
transition of the ritual.
The patrons of the Tichborne claimant
have bought the celebrated Granville
Hotel for him. The claimant will shortly
be released from imprisonment.
It is no wonder they want to build another
Suez Canal. The directors of the
present company are about to declare an
annual dividend of 18 per cent.
The Sultan has granted an increase of
salary to the Grand Vizier from £250
to" £750 per month, and to the other members
of the Cabinet from £200 to £300 a
month, Up to
the end of the year 6,358 claims,
amounting in the aggregate to £2,900,000,
had been allowed by the International
Indemnity Commission sitting at Alex-
andria R
A giantess named Ann Dunn died in
London recently, aged 39. She weighed
nearly 50lb., was nearly 6ft. high,
and measured round the shoulders over
8ft.
A party of French working men have
been on a visit to the United States to
extend the cause of internationalism. The
New York Times and Herald denounce
them as incendiaries and impostors.
An English writer says that if the
Chinese ports are shut by a war with
France a supply of tea can be drawn from
India. He says the India plant is, to
begin with, superior to the Chinese ; it
is prepared by machinery instead of by
natives who adulterate it, and it is
stronger.
The late Mr. Newsham, J. P. and D.L.
the county of Lancaster, has left a
large part of his picture gallery and china,
worth £00,000, to the Preston Corpora-
tion, for the new art gallery of the town.
Official returns published in Toronto
show that 1,984 failures occurred in the
Dominion of Canada during the past year,
the liabilities amounting to 10,000,00
dollars. For every 48 traders there was
one failure.
The number of bankruptcies in the
United States during the past year was
9,184, against 8,738 in 1882. The liabilities
amounted to 172,000,000dol., and
the average was one failure to every 94
traders.
A young man, who was recently engaged,
as clerk in an auctioneers' office at Hunt-
ingdon has just become a baronet. He is
now Sir Horace Blakiston, his seat being
Sandy Brook Hall, near Ashbourne,
Derbyshire.
The Dublin Irishman states that Mr.
Edmund O'Donovan, the ill-fated war
correspondent in the Soudan, left his
money to the Irish National Party, to
which he belonged in his youth, before he
started on his last journey. The
spirit of business in England
sometimes causes strange results. As an
example of its extremes, a North Country
shipowner is cited who sold his sailing
vessels to his Bona and then competed
with them with steamers. j
The Chicago papers mention an interesting
family meeting. The Rev. Wm.
H. Elder, the new Archbishop of Cincinnati,
is one of seven brothers who all
met after a separation of 50 years on the
occasion of the nomination to the archie
episcopate.
1 Japan is about to have a bourse A
member of the Austro-Hungarian Embassy
in Paris is understood to have been
asked to formulate the legal rules for, such
an institution. It is to be located at
Yokohama, where there are a number of
Americans who will teach the Japs a few
tricks in the trade
The sale of English cotton is rapidly
diminishing in China, because they do not
make good rags after being worn out garments.
The economical Chinaman uses
cotton rags to make the thick soles of his
shoes, and pays a higher price for native
cloth so as to have the rags good and
durable. I
" A man with uncurtained legs" is the
description of a kilted Scotsman, given
in a San Francisco paper.
A daily home journal publishes a pathetic
article entitled, "A Sad Drowning,"
from which it may be inferred that the
editor knows of some very cheerful drown
ings, if he would only unbosom himself.
The Figaro, of January 12 puts the
number of suicides in Paris for the year
1883 at 4,000. It says the number is
unexampled, and accounts for the increase
by the pace at which we live."
1 The two Swiss guides who accompanied
the Rev. W. S. Green on his mountain-
eering trip in New Zealand have succeeded
in climbing Mount Kabru, one of the
Himalaya peaks, 2000ft. in height.
According to the latest English census
there are estimated to be nearly 4,000,000
British absentees living abroad. | Of these
2,881,107 were in the dominions of foreign
powers, 89,7G8 were in India, and 938,934
were in the colonies.
In Berlin a society has been promoted
to protect society from the Christmas
card nuisance. Mr.
Finnigan, President of the Californian
Agricultural Society, recently delivered
an address at Sacramento, on the
occasion of the opening of the State Fair.
He remarked that the great industry of
the state will be the growing of fruits.
There are already 100,000 acres of grapes
planted, which are used for wine and
brandy making for raisin making, and
for shipping to Eastern cities.
From Moscow a singular outbreak is
reported in the schools, an epidemic of
St. Vitus' dance. It appeared first in the
Of .' girls'
school in the Basmannaia quarter,
and showed itself, the account says,
" simultaneously," though on that point
evidence may be required, in 18 different
houses in which schoolgirls reside.
The Australian Borneo Land Co. has
secured 100,000 Boris in Borneo.
Victoria has a Musselman population of
2,800,000, and of 400,000 Christians and
lOWE.
Bret Harte was a guest of the Duke of
St. Albans at Eastwood Lodge during
Christmas week.
Rosa Bonheur, the celebrated genre
painter, who has been quite ill, has recovered
her health.
The destroyed portions of the Belgian
House of Parliament are to be rebuilt on
the old plan.
The society journals of London are not
popular with the class they are designed
to interest.
A mob took a man from a Virginia
gaol and murdered him for a felonious
assault on a farmer.
Austin's lace factory at Long Eaton,
near Nottingham, his been burned. The
loss is £100,000. i
Monsignor Savarese, the intimate friend
of Curci, has been received into ''the
American Episcopal Church. >
The Home Secretary has sanctioned,
as an experiment, the employment of
police as recruiting sergeants.
It is rumoured that the Nihilists to
conUy attempted to murder General
Greater, chief of police of St. Petersburg.
' .
Lord Ernest Hamilton, a. younger son
of the Duke of Abercorn, has left the
Hussars in order to become a stockbroker,
The number of Scotsmen and Irishmen
in the British army are decreasing, while
the increase of Englishmen is comparatively
large
The will of the late Lord Overstone was
proved in London on December 31. The
personal estate is sworn at £2,118,803.
Mr. Gilbert took to writing librettos
for comic operas because the critics reviled
him for going too far in a namby-pamby
play. The
recent death of the seventeenth
wife of Brigham Young still leaves fourteen
of that dignitary widows among the
living.
A female highwayman, with a revolver
in her hand, relieved a gentleman of his
watch during a recent feast at Guadalupe,
Mexico. '
A Muskogon barber's sign roads : -
Stranger stop, they board forego Nor
idly pass along. . ,
Man wants but little hair below,
Nor wants that little long. ,
An American " interviewing reporter"
has been sent by the editor of the New
York Times to test the interest; taken in
political matters of the first importance.
He waited upon a certain number of the
leading bankers, merchants, lawyers, and
other professional men for the purpose of
ascertaining how many of them had read
the President's message. The reporter
made 324 visits. He found that out of
! 324 readers of the New York Times, belonging
to the most intelligent and best
informed classes 108 had read a the presidential
message from beginning to and while
30 had read parts of it, and 189 had
not read it at all
At a meeting of the Edinburgh Gospel
Temperance Union a deficiency in the
finances was partly explained by the fact
that £100 had been paid to Mr. Francis
Murphy, the lecturer, for four weeks'
work ; besides which his hotel bill of £52
had been paid. One of the members of
the union said that Mr. Murphy would
hardly go anywhere without a cab.
The New York Times introduces to the
world a new kind of girl," a very
original and extraordinary young person,
who has been wrongly put together by
Dame Nature, for her left leg is' attached
to her right shoulder, whilst her
right arm occupies the place where the
left leg is usually found. There are
advantages and disadvantages, thinks
the American paper, in this phenomenal
displacement of limbs ; but it is not
sure that the latter do not outweigh the
former. It is convenient, for instance, to
have a hand where the foot should be,
since pins dropped, or any other small
object can be picked up without stooping.
A rug also can be held in his place whilst
1 it is being swept, or a "oat dragged. from
under the bed," or a prayer book picked
up at church without attracting the
slightest notice. But in spite of those
and other advantages such as being able
to display " a silk stocking and a neatly
fitting kid boot," the New York Times
points out that the young person would
be seriously inconvenienced when, on
receiving, say an offer of marriage, she
wished to throw her arms round her
suitor's nock. How, again, when the
marriage ceremony was being performed,
would the bridegroom, in compliance with
the clergyman's injunction, be able to take
the bride's right hand in his. Altogether,
it reaches the conclusion that the new
kind of girl is father to be pitied than
not and, supposing she really exists, we
think she is
Speaking of the ignorance on which
Irish agitators more especially work, the
Spectator says suit should not be for-
gotten that O'Donnell could not read,
learning even his alphabet in prison, and
that most of the money subscribed to the
secret societies comes from exceedingly
I ignorant persons, who are under a penny
I went belief that accused Irishmen are
always condemned before trial. There
seems no limit to popular credulity. Not
a fortnight ago, 20 grown men of a hill
tribe in India-not savages, but ordinary
| MusBulmanB-flung away their lives by
rushing on British guns to prevent a surveying
party from carrying away the
Ttikht Sulaiman, or Throne of Solomon,
a conical mountain more than
7,000ft. high." ' '
I Thirty thousand pounds, half in money
and half in shares, is what Mr. Pickwell
is to sell his photographic steering re
, cordor for to the Self-Registering Ships
Co. The principle of this ingenious in
London is to have a moving shoot of
sensitised paper underneath the ship's
compass ; this latter is perforated, and
through the perforation comes a ray of
light from a lamp above, the ray impress-
ing, of course, the moving sensitive film.
The photographic record thus secured
tells the captain whether the steersman
has done his duty, while the owner at
home, at the end of the voyage, has trust-
worthy evidence whether a straight course
has been taken or no.
On the 20th November last, an action
for counterfeiting their brand was brought
before Chamber of Correctional Tribunal
of the Seine, by Messrs. Chandon,
successors of Moet and Chandon, of
Epernay, against Mr Aug. Garnier,
restaurant keeper, formerly Maison
Baratria It was a serious affair, for it
was based on a fraud that law punishes
Bovoroly ; but the debates gave rise to a
suite of incidents which on many occasions
provoked in the audience a general
hilarity. Primarily, the first witness,
whose deposition was corroborated by all
the others, gave the tone to the audience
by a lively and interesting explanation for
those consumers who were cheated by a
fictitious "Moot" wine, on which the whole
affair rested Effectively Messrs. Chan-
don and Co. taxed M. Garnier with having
for many years given to his customers, in
bottles bearing their labels, a wind which
did not proceed from their cellars, i When
a client > called for some " Moet and
Chandon," a bottle was brought on which
a bona-fide label had been gummed, but
the cork of which bore the mark of
another house, while the waiter had hidden
in the folds of his napkin a cork
stamped with the brand of Moet and
Chandon, and with a dexterity worthy of
t Robert Houdin, he caused the cork he
had just drawn from the bottle to disappear,
and drop on the table of the client
the veritable cork of Moet and Chandon
which he held in reserve. Thus the
trick, " Moot a la Clef,", was practised and
every one was satisfied, the clients,
because they were convinced they drank
the brand of Moet and Chandon ; the
waiter, because he rolled on a percentage
which which was to be given him
on every bottle of Meet à la
clef and the restaurant keeper, because
he pocketed 16 francs for a bottle
of wine which had cost him about 1 franc
50 cents.. This fraud must have caused a
. I J
considerable loss to Messrs. Chardon and
Co, After a brilliant speech by M. Paris,
advocate at Bolivia, whose competency in
this sort of law-suits has been known for
a long time, and the defence by M. Raolo,
whose task was most difficult, the facts
having been proved and recognised, and
in accordance with the request of the
Public Minister who concurred, the Tribunal
condemned Garnier to 15 days' imprisonment,
2,000 francs fine, TO francs
damages, and the Insertion of the judgment
in 10 Paris and provincial papers the
maximum of each insertion to be 300
francs. The
United States Senate has adopted
resolutions asking Mr, Folger for reports
tending to show the fraudulent under-
valuation or classification of, imported
wools, and instructing the Foreign Committee
to make inquiries respecting the
settlements and trading stations which are
being established in the Congo Valley,
and report regarding any action which
would properly be taken by Congress or
the Executive for the advancement of
American trade in those parts.
Between January, 1877, and the close
of last year, 1,027 persons received the
golden cross and diploma 'conferred by
the G crinan Empress of all of small sur
vaults in Prussia and Alsace-Lorraine who
have uninterruptedly remained in the
same family for forty yours. '
A letter received from the captain by
the owners of the steamer Nisero, which
was wrecked on the coast of Sumatra,
states that the wrecked crew, who were
taken prisoners by the Achinese, have
been cruelly treated by them. The
Achinese demand £25,000 ransom, which
the Dutch authorities have refused to
give, and have sent an armed expedition
to obtain the release of the captives.
1 General Lord Wolseley has been offered
and has accepted the Senior Wardenship
of the Wolseley Lodge of Freemasons, at
Manchester, which was consecrated on
March 28, last year. The lodge is conducted
on temperance principles,
Several inaccurate reports have been
published respecting the ' Queen's new
book. Contrary to what has been stated,
the volume is already printed. For
many weeks past a copy of the work has
been in the Queen's hands, and several
presentation copies have been distributed
to personal and private friends. The
book is in one volume octavo., It contains
some eight portraits and numerous
full pages woodcuts. The work will probably
be in the hands of the public some
time next month.
Oscar Wilde is going to be married.
He is now lecturing in Ireland, and it is
there he met her. She is a Dublin girl
a Miss Lloyd, a piece of the late Sergeant
Armstrong, very well known and very
much liked in Ireland. To her other attractions
. she adds the important one of
money. The poet will not be dopondbht
(happily for him and her) on his publishers
for his bread-and-butter.
While Mr. Chamberlain j is devising
pains and penalties for shipowners it is
worth noticing that during the year just
closed the shares of nearly every British
steamship company have been depreciated
to an'nlarraiug extent. The number of
passengers rapidly increases, but the
freights are rapidly decreasing. Carrying
facilities have exceeded the increase in
British exports for the simple reason that
exports are at a standstill, preparatory, it
is feared, to an actual and not merely a
relative decrease.
The death is announced of the Rev.
Andrew G. Fuller, of "Wolverhampton,
one of the founders of the Baptist
Missionary Society, at the age of 85
yours He was formerly a missionary in
South Africa. For many years he was one
of the most popular of Baptist
ministers in London and the country,
and he was the author of a variety of theological
works.
A New York contemporary states that
it is evident that Lord Tennyson received
l.OOOdol. for the little poem " Early
Spring," that appeared in the Youth a
Companion It contained 48 lines, or
205 words ; so that each The cost over £4,
and each word about 20s. the
Americans have discovered that
Mr. Matthew Arnold borrowed his
" sweetness and light from Swift. The
Exchange quotes the following passage
from the famous apologue of the Bee and
the Spider, in " the Battle of the
Books" a "Whatever we have got has
been by infinite labour and research, and
ranging through every corner of nature.
The difference in that, instead of dirt and
poison, we have rather chosen to fill our
lives with honey and wax:, thus furnish-
ing mankind with the two noblest of
things- sweetness and light."
An amusing blunder has, it appears,
just been committed by an Irish contemporary.
the Irish It on Id, in publishing
what purports to be a portrait of Mr.
Justice Denman, with the inscription,
Justice Denman, the man who murdered
O'Donnell," fell into an extraordinary
error. Instead of the features of
Mr. Justice Denman being represented, a
capital portrait is given of Mr. Charles
Russell, who so ably defended Carey's
murderer.
The champion definition of a " Mother
in-law," is the " brimstone of the match,"
but there is a mixture of books sold in
London called "Mother-in-law," alias
"Old and Bitter." There is also a mix-
turn called " Princess Teck," alias
"Stout and Mild."
An extraordinary scene is reported as
having occurred recently at Derribong
county Donegal. An immense crowd of
the peasantry assembled, and, after
assisting at a mass which was offered up
for the repose of the soul of Patrick
O'Donnell, who was hanged at Now gate
for the murder of Carey, they proceeded
with a coffin to the graveyard, where it
was deposited in the family burying
ground. The people all knelt round the
grave in prayer. An immortelle rested on
the coffin, on the place of which was inscribed,
"Sacred to the memory of Patrick
O'Donnell, executed in London December
17, 1883." A aura of £35 was
subscribed for the purpose of of erecting a
monument. Resolutions were passed by
the people thanking their American
friends for their assistance during O'Don
noll'B trial and also thanking Victor
Hugo for his advocacy of the murderer's
cause
A new system of boot construction has
been devised by Mr. G. E. Parker
Rhodes, late of Her Majesty's Consular
service. The boot is intended more especially
for the army and other branches of
the public service. It consists of a stout
inner solo, to which the upper leather is
secured, and under which is a second or
immediate sole, and under all a third
solo, which is affixed to the two
former by brass screws. The upper is open
from near the top to the top or
in an ordinary laced boot, and over this is
a piece technically known as a " vamp,"
and resembling a gaiter front. This
vamp is laced to eyes attached to the
solo, the laces being fastened round the
ankle It is claimed for this but that it
is considerably cheaper in first cost and
far easier in wear than the ordinary boot that
it can be readily cleaned out after a
dirty march, and that the wearer can solo
his boots himself by simply unscrewing
the old solo and screwing on a new one.
A case of death from extreme joy has
recently occurred in Paris. A dressmaker
in the Rue St. Denis, who, some time
ago, during the course of her business,
had acquired a good competency, disposed
of her shop with the intention of retiring
upon the proceeds. The money thus obtained
was stolen from the place where it
was kept, and the luckless woman was
thrown out again on the world to seek her
livelihood. She accordingly went into service
as a housemaid, and was fulfilling the
duties of her altered position, of lion
she received intelligence that the chief
who had robbed her of 60,00. had afterwards
escaped to Belgium and was prospering
in trade He had set up as a wine
merchant, and his affairs had flourished
so well that he apprised her of his intention
to refund her all the money he had
taken, and was about to send her 25,000.
on account. Upon receiving the letter
Mdlle Lambert fell to the ground, and,
on a doctor being sent for, it was found
that the poor woman had expired from
cerebral congestion caused by joyful excitement.
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