Pontypool Free Press and Herald of the Hills

DREADFUL MURDER NEAR WIGAN. On Tuesday night, in last week, at Ackhurst Hall Farm, Mr. Houghton, the farm bailiff, and his wife left home on a visit to a neighbour, leaving- the house' in which were five children, in charge of the eldest daughter, aged twelve. On their return, when they had reached a pit which stands thirty or forty yards from the front door, Mrs. Houghton saw, a short dis- tance from the brink, a white substance, which she at first thought in the twilight was a Hock of ducks, but which on closer inspection proved to be the dead body of her eldest child, Anne, lying in a small pool of blood, with which also her clothes were plentifully bespattered. While one stayed to raise the body, the others rushed forward to the house, the back door of which is in the gable end of the barn, and the mother called anxiously for her second daughter, Catherine, There was no reply at first, but soon the voice of the little girl, who is only nine years- old, was heard from a pasture field divided by a hedge from the path to the dwelling-house. Her frightened Is that you, I mother?" having been answered in the affirmative, she was soon in the arms of her parents, telling a fearful story to the people who were summoned from the farm I by the horror-stricken father, who had rushed thither t with his hands and clothes wet with the blood of his daughter. The little girl's story was to the effect that a man, ap- parentlya collier, came to the door and asked if William Houghton lived there. The sister Anne said he did, but he was then down at the hall. No sooner had she replied, than, raising a heavy hammer, he struck her a vinI61it hlow on the forehead, hut not felling her he pursued her round the little kitchen, striking with the liammer as he ran, aifij be- spattering the walls and noor witji hlood. She escapeli hy^ the open door, and turned to the inglit to make a circl1 it of' barn, apparently in the hope of reaching the hall, but after following for a couple of seconds the villain turned back, and, proceeding at once to the front of the houses in- tercepted the child by the pit, and, with another blow of the heavy hammer, must have struck her dead on the spot where she was found. Successful so far, the ruffian now returned to the house, where little Kate, who had heard her sister's screams followed by an ominous silence, remained in great alarm. First the murderer struck her on the back of the head with the hammer, and then dealt her several blows on the shoulders but not able to stun her so soon as he wished, he took the little thing by the throat, and after squeezing it tightly he threw her over the hedge already spoken of into the pasture field, where, bruised and terrified, she shivered in the inclement weather, not daring to move until roused by her mother's voice. Two boys who were in bed upstairs were not aware of what wa" going on below. The only booty the wretch had obtained was a silver watch; the money being kept upstairs, where he had not ventured. A hammer such as that described, with hair adhering, was found in a neighbouring wheat field. A reward of £ 50 has been offered for the apprehension of the murderer. At the inquest on Friday, Elizabeth Houghton, the mur- dered girl's mother, after giving some preliminary evidence, said:— On Tuesday night I left home at a quarter-past six, and ITIY husband went out with me. He was going to Wigan by train, and I was going to milk at the farm. We left the children all right in the house. A.'y hushalJd did not go to Wigan, as he missed the train; so he joined me at the farm. After- wards he went down to the railway to meet Mr. Roper, and I waited his return. About twenty-five minutes to eight we left the farm together. We met our underlooker, Thomas Parkinson, in the lane, and he walked with us till we came opposite the pit in front of the house, and then I walked leisurely on. About twenty yards further I saw something lying on the grass. Having a can of milk on my head, I could not see what it was that looked so white, so I waited till my hnsband came up. when I said, "What dost think this is ? Is it. the ducks that have stopped out? He stooped down to look, and said, "Oh no it's our Annie, and she is dead. He ran back at once to tell Mr. Roper. Parkinson stayed with the body, and I went onto the house. All there was quiet; the baby was asleep in the cradle, and the fire was burning. I called "Kate," and she answered from the other side of the hedge, "I am here, mamma." I went to the place, and found she had just risen from the ground. I asked her what was to do, and she replied I will tell you, mamma. Where's our Annie? Have you found her!" I said, "We have found her; but what has been to do, and she replied, A man's been and struck our Annie on the head with a hammer, and she blcd, amI she ran out and him after her, and then he came hack and hammered my head and back. Then he threw the hammer on the dresser, and got hold of my throat with both hands, and brought me out of the kitchen, and threw me on the flags. He held me there, and then he kicked me, and then he got hold of one arm and threw me over the fence, and 1 could not speak. When I came that T could speak I dared not, and lay still waiting for you coming.' She (Kate) did not hear anything more of him, only she thought she heard him leave the house. After that I took Kate down to where Parkinson was, and then I carried Annie's body into the house and found she was terribly injured about the head. As soon as my husband returned with Mr. Roper, information was given to the police. We found the body about twenty minutes to eight. Kate was hurt very mueh. She is bruised on the head, but she complains of her back most, where she was hammered, and she thinks kicked too. Her thumb is also hurt, and there are scratches and finger marks on her neck. The only thing we have missel1 from. my house is my silver watch. The ribbon guard had been torn off and thrown into a drawer. The watch had been left in a small box on the chest of drawers. The drawers were all open, and had evidently been meddled with. The inquest was then adjourned for a fortnight. Several persons upon whom slight suspicion has fallen have been taken before the girl Kate, but tip to Eriday evening no one had been identified.

A LOVER'S LETTERS. In the Dundee Sheriff's Court, the other day, the case of "Hamsay v. Allen" for breach of promise was heard. The plaintiff was a domestic servant, and the defendant a farm servant; and the damages were laid at £250. Several gushing letters were read. Tn one of them dated West Mams, 13th October, 1865, the writer says :— i hope to see you soon again for f weary every day when i dont see your reed and rosy cheeks, with your bonny bright blue eyes, and your bonny row of ivorys, and your coal black hair in ringlets hing. Aw the ids that ere i did was courting a pretty maid but i never intend courting a nother but your selfe as long as I have breath to draw, for your charming looks is so entising I love you far better than ever I loved anybody else since the first time ever i saw JIm but Isabella dear still hopeful be for my heart shall never sever from the till the very day i die. Though set with snares the highway he and many a fiendish throwngh o may His watch- ful providence convey me safe a long. In another, dated 11th October, after referring to a time which must elapse before his wishes could be con- summated, he says:— Then youl he in full bloom like the first rose in summer with your red complexion for I am sure we wyuld be happy- sitting round the fire in the fore night and you reading the hermit of the glen and after all that away to your night's rest in each others arms as i tell you often about. luve will venture in whaur it daurna will be seen far far would i travle for them that i love especially for you my dear Isabella. Again, on the 30th October he writes Thare are not so many good looking lasses like you here about or anywhere else that ever 1 saw under existence in my lifetime, and I would be very happy to share the rest of my days with you, but women are very deciding and I can- not depend upon them for you are as oft as down and as sweet as honey to me I always love to see your red and rosy cheeks from tiie first tin ever [ was with you, but you were so saucy that you would never speak, but i willlern you to speak, and the courting to begin, for grey pese alyvays on the look out. In the next dated 9th November, 1865 he gets still more ardent in his professions of attachment, saying :— ¡ I am sure he would live a happy life after we was married and remind each other of our by gone days of old for its time never part till death s in/if rsiis, 't'm t w1 SilP'always trust providence for i am sure he is kind. and hope to see you friday night, for I wearte t (J see YOIl for I never saw one that 1 loved half 50 well as what I love you. In the next letter, dated the 14th November, he says:— I love you as well as Estuace loved Li das, (evidently re- ferring to the hero and herone in the Hermlt of the Glen before mentioned,) i would forsake all and follow you i have such a notion of you, suppose you do not think it and i have loved you from the first time ever i saw you and will do that or i get you altogether to my selfe and i hope that will not he long for i am sure we would live happy together a happy live- and nobody would live half so happy as we would do for I would like to have everything that we would need before we joined in wedlock bonds. One of defendant's witnesses being absent the case was adjourned.

ACTION FOR ASSAULT. The case of "Gent v. Rae" occupied the Court of Common Pleas several days last week. It was an action to recover damages for an assault and false im- prisonment, the plaintiff being a gentleman farmer at Padbury, Bucks. The defendant, Glennie, was his brother-in-law, and the other defendant was a policeman. For fourteen years the plaintiff had lived a widower, but in November of last year he married Mrs. Harris, his house-keeper, and this no doubt excited ill-feeling in some members of his family. The plaintiff was, on the 3rd of July, seized in the town of Buckingham and taken to Dr. Armstrong's asylum for lunatics at Peckham-house, where he re- mained until the 1st of October. The plaintiff's case was that, although he might have shown some eccentricities, and although he had given way to habits of drinking, still he was perfectly sane. He was severely cross-examined as to his alleged drinking habits, and asked whether he never sent for as much as four gallons of gin in the week. He re- plied—"Good Lord deliver us from all our sins.. Never we never drank a bottle full before dinner. I was sometimes irritable, but not violent. I never tried to strangle my first wife. I decline to say whether 1 ever beat her. She ran away from home on several occasions when she was mad. She came of a mad family. She did not leave through my violence. I did not on any occasion follow her with a gun. I could not live with her for the last thrt- e or four years of her life. My eldest son was lame and walked with sticks. I never broke those sticks over him. I struck at him with one of them, and it broke against the door. I never fired at him, nor threatened to shoot the lot of my children. I never threatened to cut my son William's throat. I struck him with a gun barrel because he called me a liar. I never used to flourish a sword ahou t and terrify people. I never run one into one of my son's legs. I never walked about the premises naked. 1 never said that I was the Marquis of Anglesea. I gave directions that I should be buried under a particular apple tree in my military cloak, with my gun on one side and my sword on the other. I have a hawk which we call Bishop. When Mr. Glennie came to me the last time before I was confined I did not brandish my sword in his face. I did not take him by tlv throat and say that was the way in which 1 should like to throw some farmers I had quarrelled with into the river. Miss Rosetta Gent deposed that her father was some- times violent and sometimes silly, that he had struck her, and that she thought he found fault with her with- out a cause. He used bad language and practised the sword exercise to frighten his neighbours. He told the servants not to mind what his (blank) son said. In cross-examination it was elicited that the young lady had been charged by her father with stopping out late, and that she awl other of his relatins opposed a marriage upon which he had set his heart. The jury gave a verdict for the defendant.

The Daily Aews, in commenting upon the case, re- marks :— Many questions are raised by such a case as this. It is entirely evident that there can lie no hard and fast line laid down, on one side of which persons are to be considered sane, on the other side of which they are to be treated as insane. The plaintiff in this case seems to have been sane abroad and insane at home. He was probably one of those persons whom drink maddens, but who, when perfectly sober, are tolerably harmless and inoffensive. The conflict of evidence if conflict it can be called where both sides spoke the truth—is easily ac- counted for by the fact that one side spoke of Philip drunk, the other of Philip sober. In such cases the insanity is fitful and temporary, but it is insanity nevertheless. Mr. Gent was about three months in the asylum, and, as during that time he would be under regimen, he seems to have recovered quickly and completely. But it would have been very unsatisfac- tory had "a family which had so evidently suffered severely from his insane moods been held liahb for damages because of his rapid recovery. \Ve are only beginning to recognise that the insanity produced by drink is as real, though it may not be as incur- able, as that which arises from more occult causes. Habitual drunkenness is itself a form of insanity, and is beginning to be treated as such. Inebriate asvlums are already in full and beneficent operation in the United States, and are beginning to be estab- lished in this country. The action of whi-h we have been speaking was evidently brought under the im- pression that the law drew a distinction between iu- sanity produced by drink and other forms of the disease. But the clear ruling of Mr. Justice Smith set that question at rest. If it is dangerous for a man to be at large the law allows his friends, on scientific testimony to the fact, to restrain his liberty; and it is for a jury to judge, when that power has been abused. In the case of Mr. Gent the jury decided that the power had not been abused, and public opinion will sanction their verdict.

LONGFELLOW at ROSSINI'S FUNERAL. On the 14th inst. there was celebrated in the church tof Santa Croce, in Florence, a funeral service for Rossini, m which the perfnrmance of Mozart's Requiem constituted the chief feature. It was a very grand and Solemn affair and a correspondent of the Daily News, who was present, writes the following incident:— As I left the church, and whilst still standing on the flight of steps, before descending into the Santa Croce E<j1iare, my attention was arrested by the singularly engaging and in- tellectual countenance of one who had 1ikewise been present to hear the Requiem. A gentleman perhaps some sixty years of age, with silvery locks and beard, accompanied by a lady, a youth, and two young girls, wag gazing from the top- most step on the crowd in the square as it flowed onwards past the statue of Dante. Whilst watching with curiosity the human stream hefore him, he was himelf an object of keen, undisguised, yet respectful intercst to a party of young Angl.Italian girls only a few steps off. I could overhear one saying to the rest, "I am sure it must be he, he is so like the prints. At length one of the young girls drew near to the lally accompanying the silver-haired stranger, and said, "Pray excuse the liberty, but is not that Mr. Longfellow?" "To be sure it is," was the reply. Oh, 1 am so happy I have seen him" was the instant and spontaneous exclamation that really is a treat; that is worth a great deal more than the Requiem." The young Anglo-Italian then retreated to rejoin her own party, but her remarks had been communicated both to the American poet and to the two girls whom he was holding by the hand, and with a charming frankness they all came forward and spoke a few words of natural and simple courtesy; there was also a kind shake of the hand, facts which 1 have little doubt will, throughout the whole lives of those to whom they were addressed, lend a sweeter perfume to the verse of Evangeline and Hiawatha. G.:c

THE TERRIBLE DISASTER ON THE OHIO RIVER. CINCINNATI, Dec. 6. On Friday night, at about half-past eleven o'clock, the steamer United States, descending the river, and the steamer, Amcrica, ascending, came in collision at Rae's Landing, about two milt s above Warsaw, on the Indiana The America struck the United, States on the right-hand side, forward of the steps, cutting into her a considerable distance, and causing her to sink to her main deck in two or three minutes. The United States had some petroleum on her deck, to which fire in some way was communicated, and almost as soon as the steamers came in collision, they were in flames. The cause of the disaster is said to have been a confusion of signals. Trj* whistle, of the America was twice blown, hut the pilot of the United States apparently did not hear it, Mid the America again signalled by two blasts of bur whistle; this time the United States answered, but it was too late. Mr. Ole Bull, the celebrated violinist, who was a passenger on the America, represents the scene which followed as fearful in the extreme. He believes that at least seventy lives were lost. Twenty ladies were burned or drowned. Two newly-married couples were saved, and it is said tha.t one such party is missing. All of Ole Bull's party were saved, but the baggage of the whole company was lost. It is believed that one only of the passengers on board the America is lost, and this fact is largely attri- buted to the coolness and courage of her officers. The pilot stood at his post until the pilot-house was burning around him, and lie was obliged to leave to avoid suffo- cation. The destruction of these fine and costly steamers, resulting in such a terrible loss of life, and fears for the fate of those who are missing, have cast a gloom over the entire community. Among the victims were the Rev. Robert J. Parvin and the Rev. Mr. Rising. The Rev. Mr. Parvin was one of the most widely-known clergymen of the Episcopal Church, owing to his prominent position as Secretary of the Evangelical Educational Society, and his connection with other departments of the missionary work of his church, lne Rev. Franklin S. Rising was the Secretary of the American Church Missionary Society.

SHOCKS OF EARTHQUAKE. On the night of the 12th November a very severe shock of earthquake was felt at Peshawur. It was unusually severe, so much so that many persons sprang from their beds and rushed out of their houses. literally trembled, and some damage was sustained. The shock lasted, it is said, over sixty seconds. On the sa.me night, at Fort Attock also, a smart shock was felt. A severe shock of earthquake is reported to have oc- curred at Dera Ismail Khan also, early on the morning of the 12th instant. 0 Lahore experienced a shock of an earthquake on the night of the 12th, shortly after midnight; the vibrations lasted about four minutes. Jubbulpore, also, was visited by an earthquake at about five o'clock on the morning of the 17th instant. "The shock," says the Delhi Gazette, "lasted about a minute, and though not severe was very distinct and generally felt. Charles Dickens must have felt a similar shock in England, when he described it as a huge beast shaking himself under the bed, and our informant says he cannot give a better description, unless it be the effect of heavy thunder on the hills. Some of the natives in the city are said to have rushed out of tb 1 to look for the locomotive engine, which t' 1 t loose from the railway static

CASE. "ore the espect- .»fter her n, lisud- al property into it, shipping for Australia." d, against the earnest entreaty jhe remained in Australia three years, never asking any maintenance. She then came back to Ireland, and her husband met her at the boat, and besought her to return. She offered to do so, on condition that she should be at liberty to leave his house when she pleased. Tha.t condition he refused, and she then went to London, and supported herself for several years by her skill as a high-class milliner. She never clamed alimony during the six years of separation until now, and her claim was for £200 a year. Judge Battersby said it was one of the most extraordinary cases that ever came before him.. The facts were the oddest he had ever known. There was not the slightest imputation on either side. Counsel added that there was not the least allegation of any impropriety, beyond that she "acted with caprice." The judge decreed £40 a yeal. as alimony.

glisttllitntoiis Intelligence, HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL. THE COST OF THEATRICAL MANAGEMENT.— A writer in the Daily gives some details of theatrical management. The expenses of a large first- class West End London theatre are estimated at from JE420 to £480 a week. As a rule the receipts are below the expenses the loss ia made up by some lucky hit, when they are largely III pxcess. Christmas is the best theatrical season in the year; summer is the worst, except when it is wet. About j6500 a. year is spent on colours and canvas. The gas bill comes to £30 a week, but at Christmas the moon generally costs the manager at least £20 a week on its own account. One of the difficulties of a manager is getting actresses to play the parts of women—they all want to show their legs (usually padded) as fairy princes, and so on. Ballet girls get about D; a Week, and the writer vouches for their morality. The traffic of dramatic authorship varies very much. Three or five act plays, when not paid for by a percentage on profits, usually cost from £200 to ,300, or from 0 £3 to £5 every night they are acted. The price of a good burlesque varies from jB-50 to £120. Farces are seldom worth more than £10." A POACHER CAUGHT.—The preserves of Lord Poltimore, near Exeter, have latterly been visited pretty frequently by a gang of poachers, one of whom was brought before the county magistrates on Friday. The man gave the name of John Smith. He was met by a police-constable on the old Tiverton road at three o'clock in the morning with a bag on his back. Think- ing the bag might contain a sheep, the officer demanded to know its contents, whereupon the man struck him with a thick cudgel and threatened to run a knife into him. They had a desperate struggle together, and the officer got the best of it. The poacher had in his bag eighteen rabbits, just caught, "nd a good supply of poaching instruments. A farmer hearing the cries of the officer, rendered assistance. Smith's house was searched, and there a gun, powder and shot, and every requisite for poaching were discovered. He was sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment with hard labour and bound oyer to keep the peace for twelve months after the expiration of the sentence. FATAL OCCURRENCE.—At the Liverpool Assizes two men, named Culshaw and Almond, were charged with having, at BUliscough, on the 27th September, caused the death of Henry Ashton, a beerhouse keeper, On the day in question the prisoners and the deceased were all drinking freely at the beerhouse of the latter, and, after some wrestling, the prisoners put the old man (who was uncle to Culshaw) into an oak chest, keeping the lid open. Shortly afterwards another man came to the beerhouse, and because he would not pay for some beer they threw him also into the chest, breaking the neck of the deceased, who was sleeping at the time. The prisoners were sentenced to four months' imprisonment with hard lab;>ur. UTILIZING YOUG PKEKS. —Mr. Gladstone is going to utilize the young Peers, says the Spectator. Lords Camperdown and Morley, Lords-m-Waiting, are to represent departments not relJresented in the Upper House, and, as the Daily News cleverly puts it, to realise the port's thought, "They also ser. e who only stand and wait." Lord Lansdowne, too, being too rich to takcSIIuall pay, is to be an unpaid Lord of the Treasury. It is very nice, all this, and not unwise, but what provision is to be made for apprenticing young Commoners ? 1 he Peers have already twenty years'pull upon the Commous, aud this arrange- ment will give them twenty-five. THK WRECK OF THE GOSSAMER.—A painful incident in the loss of the GossamCr off the South Devon coast was the drowning of the captain and his wife. They were newly married. Shouts brought the captain, Thompson, on deck when the vessel had missed stays and was Hearing Prawle tPoint. For Heaven's sake, where are he exclaimed. To the last moment he remained with his wife on deck. One of the crew, an admirable swimmer, begged to be allowed to take the lady ashore, but the captain declined the offer, and held his wife firmly in his arms. The man who had offered the help swam safely ashore, and a wave sweeping over the ship washed the captain and his wife overboard, and they perished within sight of each other. A FAMILY FEUD AND RECONC:LIATION.—The Gazette de Cagliari gives a curious account of the ex- tinction of a feud in the island of Sardinia, the details of which strongly resemble those of the reconciliation of the two Corsican families described in Alexander Dumas' romance of Les Frferes Corses." In the pre- sent instance thefétc took place in the village of Agius, where two hostile bodies, who, for more than two ye ITS, had been persecuting and murdering each other, had agreed to forget their animosities and join hands in friendship. The two hostile families entered the church simultaneously, amidst the ringing of bells and accbmations of the peo}-,le, and ranged-tlu.mRel YeS on opposite sides, namely, the Chilgoni, the Vasa, the Malu, the Maleju, and the Luzzu, more than sixty in number, along one wall of the building; and the Muzzedu and the Cossu, fifty-four in number, on the other. The curé, M. Sechi. then pronounced a dis- course on mutual forgiveness, which produced a deep sensation, and the hostile parties, moved even to tears, threw themselves into each other's arms, promising a permanent reconciliation. After leaving the church the two families separated to take a frugal repast, and then met again at the house of the curé, who received them in the presence of the authorities and confirmed the friendly compact with a suitable exhortation. GONE TO HEAVEN.—The following incident oc- curred in Charleston, South Carolina :—A little girl had lost her brother, and on going to school the next j day, a little playmate noticed her grief, and asked her I' the cause. This was soon told, with the addition that little Willie had gone to heaven, and she could not see him. Her little friend asked her if she was certain he was gone to heaven, and was assured that there could be no doubt of that, for mamma said so. Then," was the instant rejoindt-r, "I know where heaven is, for I saw where they put him, and I know the way." The little mourner had seen the place too, and not knowing the way she started with her guide as soon as the infant school was dismissed. It was late at night, and the earth was wet with those angel tears—the dewdrops, when the two friends were fouud crying at the grave, because as the sister said, they had come to the door of heaven, and Willie would not let them in, nor even answer.EJitOl"s Drawer in Harpers New Monthly Magazine. A FORT ON FIRE.—The Xev York Herald re- ports a conflagration of a mot unusual and disastrous character, involving no less an event that the des- truction of a United States fort just within the entrance of the harbour, the fortification in question being none other than the celebrated and renowned Fort Lafayette, around which cluster so many incidents of historic note, pregna.nt with the memories of the numerous disloyal men of prominene of our nation who were confined within its strong walls during the late rebellion. The conflagration found origin in the following man- ner :—It appears that about ten minutes before one o'clock in the afternoon fire was discovered from the side of an old and unused chimney on the land side of the fort, where one of the labourers of the engineers' department, named Joseph Minew, contrary to the orders of his superior, lighted a fire beneath a shed covering the casemate on that side for the purpose of warming his dinner. The fire had gained considerable headway before it was discovered. AN UNFORTUNATE RmIEo !—There is a pause just now In the number of "dreadful murders" and shocking suicides" in Paris, writes a correspondent. However, the following may act as a "warning voice." A young student, aged eighteen, lived with his wIdowed mother in an attic in the Boulevard Malesherbes in a neighbouring attic lived a pretty milliner, which cruelirony calls a "Bird of Paradise," from the elevation of their dwelling-places, aged seventeen. The two lovers connected their windows by a thread, and so exchanged notes." One evening at dusk, the poor student undertook the perilous task of walking along the roof to visit Juliet. A few steps taken, and Romeo was picked up in the street a life- less mass of mangled flesh. THE SEBASTOPOL BELL AT WINDSOR CASTLE.— The magnificent bell captured at the siege of Sebas- topol, and presented to her Majesty the Queen, on her arrival at Windsor, was placed upon the north terrace of the Castle, where there is also one of the largest guns taken in that memorable seige. It has been hung in the Round Tower, just over the steps which give access to the apartments in the centre of the great tower, near the cannon which sweeps the sole entrance to the ancient "donjon keep," in which King John of France and King David of Scotland were prisoners in the reign of Edward III.; and where Charles I. was confined by the Parliament, when Windsor Castle was under the governorship of Colonel Venn, in 1648. The weight of the bell is 17 cwt. 1 qr. 211b. The bell, which has a rich and sonorous tone, bears, in the Russian language, the inscription, Sevastopol—Nicholas Sanctus," and a record of its weight in poods. CAPTURE OF A "WILD MAN."—An extraor- dinary character has been captured in a lonely shed at Egerton, Kent, in the person of Frederick Naasch, a Belgian soldier, who for some months has been wander- ing about the Weald of Kent, clothed in rags, and living on roots, berries, and offal. His appearance when ap- prehended was grotesque in the extreme. The article which did duty for a coat consisted of patches of old rags quilted over and over again, in many places to the thickness of an inch. His nether clothing was of the same description, and these were his sole attire. He was barefooted, and car- ried a quantity of stinking fowls' legs, some putrid flesh, and pieces of fish in a pair of worn shoes, which he had under his arm. One good habit he retained, for a piece of soap was found upon him when appre- hended. He was sentenced by the Ash ford magistrates to ten days' imprisonment, but was too ill to be re- moved. The Belgian Consul at Dover has been com- municated with, and the poor fellow will be received by that gentleman and sent on to Ostend as soon as he can be removed. TERRIFIC STORM.—On Saturday morning the town of Towyn, on the Welsh coast, was visited by a tremendous storm of hail, accompanied by vivid flashes of lightning and Leavy peals of thunder—a very un- usual thing at this time of the year. It commenced about half-past eleven, and lasted ten minutes. About two miles from the town, on a farm called Braichyrhiw, seven sheep were killed by the electric fluid, and a woman who was crossing the same field was blind for a considerable time. The h:1.ilstones were as large as marbles. Had it not been calm at the time a quantity of glass must have been broken. COLLIERY EXPLOSION NEAR WIGAN.—Another colliery explosion took place in the neighbourhood of Wigan, on Monday, at the Norley Colliery. About nine o'clock a party of men descended the downcast shaft, conveying with them a pony, which it was in- tended s-hould work in the tunneL Mr. J. Peet, one of the managers of the colliery, left the cage at the five-feet mouthing and just as the other two men, who occupied the cage, and pony reached the tunnel, an explosion occurred, the effects of which were quickly visible on the pit bank by a cloud of soot ascending the upcast, and the customary indications in the down- cast. The ventilation was quickly restored, and Mr. Thompson, the manager, and others descended the pit, but learned little of the effects of the accident. At a later time it was supposed that the gas was fired at the extremity of the workings, where a number of men were cutting across a step. The number of deaths was not ascertained, but it was thought six had perished. Five others were severely burned, one fatally it was feared. Only two bodies were brought to the surface. THE RETORT COURTEOUS.—An excellent say- ing of a noble Lord who has been recently returned to Parliament has been going the rounds of the club. While addressing a public meeting on the day of polling some one in the crowd called out, Does your mother know you are out ? a piece of slang now going out. To which his Lordship replied, "Yes, she does and your mother will know I am in at four o'clock." This is as good as the remark made by another youthful military and successful candidate, who was taunted with the remark that He had not gone through the goose-step." Yes said he, "I have gone through it, and 1 wish my opponent would do the same, for then it would make him upright." CARTE OF A LUNATIC DINNER.—Odd fish, in- cluding pike and sword fish. Broth of a boy, mock- tail, and P soup. H bone and cold shoulder. Chops and changes. Ducks and drakes, and March hares. Boiled owls. gammon, and hanklill Chine. Larks, coxcombs, and fan- game. Magpie, piebald, and mad- cap pudding. Hot eodlins, gooseberry and April fool, puffs and flummery. Sweets of office. Vegetable ivory and evergreens. Brawn and muscles. Green- wich rolls and Peckham Rye bread. Sauce of the Xile. Cakes and ale. Pippins and cheese. Dessert—Fruits of the Ejection, meddlers, olive branches, apples from the Dead Sea, cherry ripe, oranges and lemons, City plums, regular jam and game preserves. Win-s from the wood and spirits from the deep. The whole to conclude with T., sober-water, and weeds in the gar- den.—Punch Almanack. A STALACTITE CAVE. — A stalactite cave has been discovered in the rocks near the Clifton statiOlI of the Bristol Port and Pier Railway. The cave has been explored to the distance of some 20 or 30 yards, under the superintendence of Mr. Wilkinson, the manager of the line, and many beautiful stalactites have been disclosed, some of them extending from the roof to the earth beneath, and which from their size have for the present prevented the further- passage of the explorers. Some bones of animals and birds have also been found among the soil, including part of a skull which would seem to be that of a hyena. The cave is apparently of considerable length and depth. THE LASH AT CHATHAM.—During the last few days some of the most violent of the convicts sen- tenced to penal servitude at the Chatham convict establishment have been guilty of riotous and mutinous behaviour. After an investigation, insti- tuted by the director of convict prisons, three of the most prominent of the rioters, men of most desperate character, were ordered to receive three dozen lashes each in addition to other punishment. The corporeal pm ishment was at once carried out within the walls of the prison, and its severity was proved by the cries of the men, which were heard outside the walls of the prison by the other convicts, who were engaged at their work. All the convicts concerned in acts of insubordination, or in a-saults on the wardens, will forfeit all claim to having any portion of their sen- tences remitted. THE RKCJRD AND THE LATE MR. DRUM- MOND. The Record, in a notice of the approaching celebration of the marriage of Loid Percy, eldest sou of the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland, to Lady Kdi h Campbell, eldest daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll, pays the following unconscious testimony to the erratic brilliancy of the late Mr. Henry Druinmond, and Lord Percy's supposed inheri- tance of his eccentric humour. Our ontemporny says, Lord Percy is maternally, the grandson of the late Henry Drummond, nd it is announced that there will be a gnnå display of rockets at eight p.m. on St. Martha's Hill." TIIK PRESS IN FRANCE.—The Eh ctoir, a French journal, gives a list of the press prosecutions which have taken place in France since the enactment of the new law of the 11th of last May, and the amount of the fine inflicted in each instance. The number of prosecutions has been 64, and the fines amount in all to 121,f»57f. (:?4,878).. La Lantcrnc stands out most conspicuously in the list. On the 14th of August its editor was sentenced to fourteen months' imprisonment and fined l,400f. and again on the 28th of August to fifteen months' imprisonment and l,200f. fine. Some of the fines were as low as 50f. The shortest term of imprisonment was twenty-three days. Several of the condemned papers were altogether suppressed. The Electeur abstains from all comment in publishing the list, but mentions that five fresh prosecutions have yet to take place. ELECTION PETITIONS.—On Monday there were were only "five election petitions for counties on the files of the Common Pleas, and not more than ten are expected. The present number of petitions is sixty- four. When the list is complete, the three appointed judges—Mr. Justice Blackburn, Mr. Justice Willes, and Mr. Baron Martin—will go circuit-" to try the petitions, and the proceedings under the new Act will R be assimilated to common law. On Monday, Mr. Justice Willes decided the cases'before him on Satur- day, and reported. In several he ordered" particulars" to be delivered of the several charges. In the Hull case he held that the petitioners could not be sureties, and ordered the £1,000 deposit to be made in five days. In cases where there were two members petitioned against, one deposit of £1,000 to be sufficient. In the Bodmin case the petition was sustained, as the money was paid into court. His lordship heard a number of other applications under the Parliamentary Election Act. SINGULAR CASE OF POISONING.—Dr. Caffe, in the Journal des Connaissanccs Medicates, describes a case of poisoning by nitro-benzine, which occurred a short time ago at Stuttgard. A vigorous young man of twenty-four, who was engaged in emptying a cask of artificial oil of bitter almonds by means of a syphon, hereby unconsciuusly introduced some nitro-benzine into his system. He did not discover it at once, but continued to work for two hours longer, when he was seized with headache, vertigo, and stuttering his face assumed a bluish tint, and he fell down in a fit. Vomits were administered without success, and he died on the following day. Upon dissection the whole body emitted a strong smell of bitter almonds; ecchymosis was remarked on the stomach and other organs the liver was extremely yellow, and the milt large, friable, and red. The most remarkable circum- stance in this case is, that the poison remained so long inactive. THE FOUNDERING OF THE SHIP BORDERER.— The ship Borderer, from Penang, bound to England with a full cargo, was wrecked off Struys Point on the 27th of October, and almost immediately after striking foundered in deep water. The crew sounded the pumps immediately after, and found that she was filling fast; the sails were then let run down and the boats got out. The first one, the starboard lifeboat, unfortunately capsized while being launched. The port lifeboat was then got out without any damage, into which the second officer and ten of the crew got, and passed astern. The third boat, a large cutter, into which the captain, first officer, and the remaining por- tion of the crew went, was next got out, but was slightly stove. By this time the fore end of the ship was under water, and while the boat was being shoved off from the quarter she disappeared—the royal masts breaking off after the hull was out of sight. Not more than 15 minutes could have elapsed from the time the vessel had struck until she totally dis- appeared. The following are the names of the missing men :-J ohn Offen, chief officer; John Hinde, second (1fficer; J. Sullivan, boatswain Charles Richardson, John Jones, Vincent Mannet, James Phillips, John Patterson, John Vinneca, George Harrison, Henry Howard, Andrew Mason, carpenter. SETTING FIRE TO A WORKHOUSE.—At the Maidstone Assizes, on Saturday, a tramp named Clark was charged with setting fire to the Mailing workhouse. Prisoner had collected some wood in the tramp ward and set fire to it, bringing with it the clothes of another tramp named Brown. His conduct at the time and in the court was such as to lead to a suspicion of his sanity, and after the jury had found him guilty, and he had been sentenced to seven years' penal servitude, his lordship said he would cause an inquiry to be made into his state of mind.

EPITOME^OF NEWS, BRITISH AND FOREIGN. Two garrotters were sentenced at the Leeds assizes to imprisonment with hard labour and twenty-five lashes. One of them, upon hearing his sentence, said using very foul language; "Say 14 years, and if 1 come back I'll kill you. I hope you'll get the cat in hell. Victor Hugo has written the following letter to M. Alfred Sirven, who had asked if the great writer was really going to start a paper:—"A false report, my dear friend. I have, as you know, pledge 1 myself never to co- operate with any French political paper until American, or, at least, English liberty prevails in France. The word Emperor" excludes me, as the fact" Empire exiles me. A cordial shake-hand. VICTOR HUGO." A grampus 20 feet long by 10 feet girth has been captured at Gleen Strand, near \Yexford. A communication from M. de Lesseps, in reference to the passage of the French Government schooner, the Levrette, through the Suez Cenal, from one sea to the other, states that six vessels belonging to the Egyptian fleet are also about to make the transit The writer adds :—"Thus, then the route is open and practicable for vessels of small burden. The light flotilla, which the Viceroy is about to send to the Red sea wil1 complete the experiment, and in six months ships of from 2,000 to 3,000 tons will triumphantly traverse the Isthmus, either sailing or by steam. An outrage of a character unusual on an English line of railway was perpetrated on the London and North Wes- tern line, at a late hour on Friday night. As a train was leaving Edgbaston for Birmingham, a man suddenly leaped into the box occupied by the guard, threw a quantity of naphtha into his eyes, and taking advantage of the tem- porary blindness thus occasioned seized a box containing about £ 70, ann made his escape. A man who has been four- teen years in the employmen of the company, and who is presumed to have known that the box contained the day's receipts at OLe of the stations, is in custody and a sum of £ •27 has been found in his possession. A young plumber, namfcd Buck, met his death in a horrible manner at Plymouth, the other day. He was en- gHged for the time at the Cattedown Vitriol Works, and by some misadventure he fell into the pan of boiling liquid. The poor fellow lingered for some time in the greatest agony. The following remarkable advertisement appeared in The. Times on Friday ,Tudas Iscariwt.— £ 50 will be paid for Information Leading to Apprehension, but 110 cure no pay. Communicate with The Italian Court of Accounts has rejected a demand made by Rear-Admiral Count I'ersano, who was condemned to the loss-m his grade on the 15th April, 18C7, for faults committed at the battle of Lissa. It is a curious incident that the first President of the Board of Trade was Richard Cromwell, the last is Mr. Bright. Wm. Molesworth used to say that Mr. Bright was the Cromwell of the 19th century. The recent proving of a will firings with it a mourn- ful reminiscence. The personalty was sworn under £120,000. Tile will was that of ir ichobs ChinnelT Sir Xicholas Chinnery had bequeathed the whole of his property to his daughter and only child, who perished with him in the dreadful railway accident at Abergele, an,1 stipulated that should her children not live to attain vested interests in the property, the same should be divided amung eertain religious societies. Another international exhibition is preparing, and this timPCologne is to be the place selected. The year 1870 has been fixed already, and the Prussian Government is said to have taken the necessary preliminary steps. The Crown Prince, it is supposed, will be the patron or "protector.' Capitalists and industrials are already busy securing funds and looking out for a proper site. The Queen has now fifteen grandchildren alive and the number is likely, as we hear, to be shortly increased -Court Journal. Weston, the American pedestrian, who was to have walked 5.000 miles in H O day" has abandoned the task after accomplishing 300 miles of the journey. The Italian papers state that the completion of the Mont Cenis Tunnel is to be celebrated by a great Interna- tional Exhibition at Turin. Government will ask the Par- liament to vote 3,000,000 francs towards the expenses. Among the passengers who arrived in Liverpool in the steamer Iowa, from ew York, on Saturday, were the celebrated Siamese twins, it is said, en route for Paris, where they are to undergo the operation of being severed. They were accompanied by several of their relations and friends. Mr. Gladstone, in his reply to the address of the women of Lancashire, says It has so often been my lot to feel that any efforts I had endeavoured to make for the public good met with a far more than just appreciation, that my words may appear unmeaning when I make, very unfeignedly, a similar acknowledgment in the present Instance, This need not, however, pre- vent my returning my grateful thanks to yourself and to all who have signed the address, nor my adding the assu- rance that their kind and generous language will at once stimulate and sustain me in the arduous labours which must devolve upon the present Government in connection alike with polifical and social objects." The Examiner says that the first Ministerial fruits of household suffrage show that every prophecy of subver- sive change in the Constitution has been falsified. Not a single artizan has heen returned to Parliament, or a Eingle demagogue; and, on the first opportunity, a Government has been formed as essentially ConsErvatlye in its elements as any that have gone before it in recent years. The Drogheda inquest has closed. The jury re- turned a verdict of manslaughter against one of the two soldiers of the 9th Regiment, which one they could not determine. By an imperial ukase just issued at St. Petersburg, all Poles in the Russian army who have no prospect of pro- motion to the rank of officer may, if they desire it, obtain an unlimited furlough. It is supposed that the object of this measure is to limit the numher ef Polish officers, the large proportion of Poles in the Russian army having of late caused some a)arm among the military authorities. The Times states on authority that there is no truth in the rumours as to the unsatisfactory state of the Bishop of Lincoln's health. Mr. J. S. Mill, writing from Avignon, to one of his friends III town, assures him that in the event of a vacancy in Westminster resulting from the petition agafnst Mr. W. H. Smith, he has no wish again to offer himself for the seat. "It was not," he says, "from auy personal pre, fereuee that I eHhanged a more agreeable, and I hope not less usefui, mode of serving my opinions, for the position of a Member of Parliament, and the return to my foitner occupations is so great a Ileasure that It would require a clear case of public duty to mduce me to quit them. I do not think such an obligation exists in the present case." Sir Watkin William Wynn, in thanking the electors for returning him to Parliament, faid "It is a position which for more than a century and a half has been the most prized distinction of my family; it was preferred by my great grandfather to an ear dom. by my father to an earldom, by myself to a peerage. Times and circumstances have tin- dereone creat changes, but one thing has nev< r changed -the he:irtfelt~gratitude of the house of Wynnstay to the electors of Denbigh." A newspaper at one penny is about to he started called St. Crispin. It is to be the organ of the boot and shoe trade. The number of girls entered for the Cambridge Local Examinations, held last week, was 401 v-41 juniors and 160 seniors against 232 enterell. last jear. The number pre- senting themselves for examination in the London centre has increased from (j to 13)L L'he girls we. e examined at sixteen centres-Hanbury, Birmingham, Bmliton, Bristol, Cambridge, Caiinoca, Derby, Iludderslield, Leeds, London, Manchester, Norwich, Pleading, Sheffield, Wakefield, and York, six of the towns being new centres The proportion of senior girls to junior was two to three, while the propor- tion of senior boys to junior was less than three to sixteen, and this c'uparity seems to be permanent. e have the authority of a magistrate that game, although so high as to måKe a never sweet-smelling police- court unendurable, is stdint for human fonll-indeed.. is to be preferred in that state A man » as charged at-Wands- worth with hawking hares without a license, but as the nstal>le could not prove that the 111 >11 had sold, or offered any of the hares fur sale, he was discharged. The six liaivs brought into court diffused sueli a strong gamey odour, that one of the solicitors present requested they might be re- moved at once. The magistrate said that although a hare might be high when brought on to table, and per, OilS scarcely able to sit 111 the room for the smell, the meat when cut would not be found affected by it. "Never," continued he "send a hare from the table because it may be high." Directly a hare was cut, and the gas had evaporated, it would be found that the flesh was good to eat I The Frontier Index newspaper, we are told, con- stantly mons its office westward, keeping about sixty miles beyoud the end of the Union Pacific Railroad. Mdlle. Schneider is "oing to Egypt.! Kat fewer than 7,000 fellahs are engaged in building a theatre on the Esbekich, opposite to Shepherd's Hotl, at .Cairo. The temple will soon be reared, and Mdlle. bchneldr will then sally forth to resume Cleopatra's sceptre. She is to receive £ 2,000 for fifteen representations, a subvention of £ 8,0 0 and carte-blanche for the engagement of a troupe The latest fashionable three-volume novel bears the laconic title of Mad. The woman Gabriel, one of the principal accused in the late case of husband-poisoning at Marseilles, and who was condenmed to hard labour for life, has just died III the hospital at Aix. Count Chorinski, who was some time b3Ck con- demned to imprisonment for life in Germany, with his mistress and accomplice, the Baroness d'Ebergenyi, fer poisoning h1s wife, has gone raying mad, and has to be con- fined with a straight jacket. Å woman was apprehended at Salford the other day on a charge of stealing sixteen rats. X ear Castle Pollard, in Ireland, the other night, a man named Cunningham went out to steal potatoes. Be filled his sack, hut in returning, when resting it on a paUni. the sack slipped off, and the cord getting round his throat strangled him. The following notice appears in the votes and pro- ceedings of the House of Commons Sir 11. Bulwer.- To move a resolution in favour of adopting yote by ballot for the future election of Members 0f Parliament." Nearly every newspaper of any eminence has been obliged to reduce its price. The lordly Times came down to threepence when the paper duty was abolished, and rumour says it is to be further reduced to twopence. Bell's Life was the last to effect the operation, and now the Weekly Dispatch is announced to be reduced to twopence at the beginning of the new year. The testimonial proposed to be presented to General Peel on his retirement from political life now amouuts to about £ 900. The testimonial is expected to be presented to the gallant general at n public dinner 4 Huntingdon, but the date has 110t yet been fixed. Monsieur Joseph Perier, regent of the bank of France, the only surviving brother of Casimir Perier, died on the night of Friday, aged eighty, from the consequences of an operation, which he bore with extraordinary fortitude. Some time agü he knocked himself against a ladder at the door of his house in th3 Rue Rivoli, and badly bruised one of his legs. The wound took such an unfavourable turn that amputation was judged necessary, and now this milch rç- spected gentleman has died prematurely, though at a great age. At a public-house ill London, the other day, a man was diinking beer when his companions, in joke, poured a little ammonia into it. He was taken ill, and died in a few hours. One of the Prime Minister's sons, Mr. S. E. Glad- stone, of Christ Church, Oxfor, has been ordained by the Bishop of Winchester. Ile will be licensed to the curacy of the church of St. Alary-the-Less, Lambeth. At the North "Tilts election a voter was applied to several times for his vote. This, however, he resolutely refused to gIve, "For," said he, directly after I voted last time, the bread rose and I made up my mind from that time that I'd never vote any more. A man named Ymm was comcted at the Worces- tershire sessions of assaulting two police-officers, and sen- tenced to eighteen months' imprisonment. It has since been satisfactorily proved that he was seven miles from the place where the assault was committed at the time of its commis- sion, and he has been granted a free p.rdon. An alarming collision between a passenger and a goods train took place on the Midland Railway betweell lansfield and ^Nottingham on Saturday evening, when up- wards of forty persons were reported to have been injured. The journals of Genoa announce the arrival of Verdi, the composer, in that city, to spend the winter. During the past week eighty-three wrecks have been reported making for the present year a total of 3,35. The Right Rev. the Archbishop of Canterbury has been elected President of the Corporation uf the Sons of the Clergy, in the room of his right rev. predecessor in the archi- episcopal see. Those who know the business capabilities and the largencss of heart that distinguish Archbishop Tait, will agree that the governors did well in appointing him to pre- side over a charity for the relief of poor widows and children of clergymen. It is related of a Parisian portrait painter that, hav- in" recently pamted the portrait of a lady, a critic, who had jut dropped iI, to see what was going on in the studio, ex- claimed, It is very nicely painted but why did you take such aI ugly model? It is my mother," calmly replied the artist. Oh. pardon, a thousand times cried the critic in the greatest confusion you 8re right-l ought to have perceived it. he resembles you completely." Why is a 1)alt1 head like Paradise ? Because it i. a bright and sh\nÎ1¡g place, where there is no more partinlt and more dyeing, and, adds Lord Derhy "Thank Jove no more Whigs: The Good Wishes of the Season (specimen).—Christ- mas is the season of good wishes. Old Mr. Bullies at dinner said to a man who had helped him to his liking, "Sir, may you live to see your contemporaries grandsons have the Almanack. It is stated to have been arranged between the Com- missioners of Inland Revenue and the Post-office that next yar the collection of the dog tax in Enland and Scotland will be partly undertaken by the Post. office. l'nder the new arrangement the tax will be received and licenses issued at any money order office. A young girl, only sixteen, named Esther Bourne living at Englefield Green, threw herself into the Thames near the Bells of Ouseley. at Old "-indsor, about a month ago, in consequence of having heen advised to briiak off an acquaintance with a young man to whom she was attached. The body was only found last week. The jury found a verdict of temporary insanity. On Fridav evening, as the Oldham luggage train was being brought into the Rochdale Railway Station, the pointsman discovered the b0dy of a man undernath one of the waggjns on the rails cut in two, and presenting a sheck- irlg sight. It was found to be the botly of Charles Howartli. a gardener, who reshled near the station. Howarth evidently must have been crossing the line in a very dangcrous place, instead of going to the station by the public road. A n extraordinary incident i reported in connection with the journey of the Irish mail from London on Saturday. When n8ar Mo sty 11, North Wales, a passenger was seen to 8tretch forth his hand and fire a pistol at the moment that an up-train from IIolyhcad was passing, ami it is believed that thc shot was aimed at the driver and the stoker. 1\fr. D. D. Home, the spiritualist, has taken to giving readings. The topic of conversation is still the late elopement of a young heiress in her teens with a gallant Emign. The flight was interrupted, and the marriage will take place in the usual orthodox manner, the kind. hearted parent follow- ing the example of the forgiving fathers in a1l domestic dramas, and blessing his children.Cv1(j.t Journal. In the late Presidential election Iowa gave 105.3S4 votes for negro suffrage and 81,119 against it. l'his clothes about S00 uarkies with the panopoly of the elective fran- chise. The United Service Gazette comments on the serious falling off ill the Royal farine service, but supposes it js anticipatory of the doom which is hanging over the whole corps. Tla Times protests agamst the reduction in the strength of the mOót useful ímj hardworking ann of th" service. At the Liverpool Assizes, on Friday, a collier's widow recovered £ 100 damages for herself, and £ 50 each for her two children, for the loss of her husband, who was killed by the neglience of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company, 111 not fencing off a part of their linc near Chorley, wherehy he and a horse btlongillg to hi;) father-in-law were killed. A luggage train on the Egyptian railway was destroyed by fire the other day, and the passengers "by the overland mail arrived at Malta with nothing but what they stood in. Two fine elephants and a young one were destroyed, The question so imporldnt to publicans, whether money due for beer fuppUed on credit can be recovered, came before the eounty court judge at Reading the other day, in an action in which a beerhouse-keeper, who had pro- vided lodging and partial hoard, for a labourer, as is common in that part of the country, and had sued him for the amount of his score. The j'ldge held that the well-known Act ap- plied to all sales of beer in hotels, inns. or beerhouses, whether to inmates or not, if the beer was consumed on the premises, and that no action could be brought for the re- covery of the money. A petition has been decided on aainst the return of Sir Edmund Lacon and the Hon. F. \Yalpole, the Conserva- tives sIttmg members for North orfolk. The local authorities are taking legal proceedings against the parish priest of Corno Giovine, near LotH, who, in explaining the Gospel to his congregation, said that" all who purchased the ecclesiastical property sold by the government would b excommunicated." A Vermont editor writes obituary notices of delin- quent subscribers, and in this way brings them to book. Intelligence has been received at St. Petersburg from Tiflis, that an attempt has been made to assassinate Mr. Taylor, the British consul at Erzeroum. :0 cause is assigned for this act, nor any details given. Sprats have been so very plentiful on the Harwich eoa st that the farmcrs have been manuring the land with them. The New York papers of the 10th publish Presidnt .Tohnson's message, and condemn it in very severe terms. Alluding to the refusal of the Senate to her it read, the Tribune says that "Congress never expressed more truly the spirit of the nation than when L trampled con- temptuously npon this miserable message, and left it to he swept up with the dust, and dirt. and waste paper of the floor. A large number of people have been convicted and fined at Shrewsbury for using bad language in the streets. One woman was proved to have cursed and sworn without cessation for two hours and a-half The John Bllll is g-lacl to learn that. mainly owing to the great exertions of Commander Pim, there will be held early next year, under the auspices of the City Carlton Club, a great Conservative h;UJfluet, to which Her Majesty's late Ministers will be asked; and a great ban, of which the Duchess of AhercOl n :1.11(1 other ladies have consented to be patronesses. Upwards of 4,000 are expected to dine, and the tickets are already at a premium. The Lancet has satisfaction in stating that its repre- sentations of the condition of the soldier's lock-up" at the Cambridge Barracks. Portsmouth, has produced a more powerful effect than the many. official reports which had been previously made. The engineers have prpared plans fur (Yreat improvements, and they are already in the hands of the authorities at the War Oftice for official sanction. At the Guildford Petty Sessions on Saturday, Frederkk Hppth, a stocking-maker, was charged with as- saulting Ir La Farque at Godalming on the day of the poBing for the West Surrey Election. The Bench'thought the charge had been proved, and the chairman said that under the peculiar circumstances the case could hardly be called one of common assault the magistrates had there- fore deternuned to avail themselves of the full power COlI- ferred upon them by Act of Parliament, and instead of giy ng tlw defendant the option of a TIne, which miht lJe paid for him by other pal tics, he would he sent to the" ands- worth House of Correction for a month's imprisonmelJt and hard labour. ir Culling Enrdlev, Bart., w1w in.T uary last wa,,¡ sentenced to a tern1 of imprisonment for bigamy, has been relensed, through the iJlfluence of the late Government. For some time pat his state of health was such tiiat the medicnl autlwrjtjes of the House "f Detention ordered his removal to the infirmary. Mr. Mill has writtell a letter, in whiel1, whi1st re joicin at the success ot Liberal principles, he regrets tile failure of the glb-rt to return working-class caml1<latcs, and uigestbe woruuig nel1 to pie's tluir c'aims to direct rc. presentation. Except for the strange perversity which too often characterises otli-ial views, The 'l intes would be disposed to discredit the report that the estimates are to be cut down hy a large reduction in the force of Royal Marines. Our con- temporary thinks it impossible to imagine a more fatal lllis take. If we can afford, as may Iwr11aps he the case, to clIspense with 10.000 men, let the. 1U,OUO go, but the hst who should ;0 are certainly the ll-larines. The Hon. Auberon Herbert, D. C. L., i" taking a tnur ill the West of England on behalf of the Workmen's llitemational Exhibition, to be held ill London next year. A t Plymouth 011 Friday evening he addressed a large public meeting. Both political parties in the country werc, he said, joining heartily in thc movement, ller Majesty's late Min sters had given assistance in the most cordial md friendly manner. An extraordinary accident occurred to a horse last wee k at Canterbury. Tile cart in whieh the horse was har- nessed was u8ed for the conveyance of pigs, and onr that was in the vahicle made it" escape, leaping from the cart on to the horse's back. The horse, being startled at this, stumbled broke its neck, and died instantaneously.