Pontypool Free Press and Herald of the Hills

THE FATE OF DR. LIVINGSTONE. Sir Roderick Murchison, in a letter to The Times, states tl1:\t lle is in posession of information which en- tirely contradicts the statement Lhat Dr. Livingstone lwd nived at Zanzibar in January. Sir Roderick hdS a letter from Dr. Kirk at Zanzibar, dated the 5th of March last, and no new" of Dr, Livingstone had then been heard for a long time. Sir Roderick Murchison ands that he can now no longer entertain the opinion he formed last year that Livingstone was proceeding alollg the eastern shore of the Lake Tanganyika, and that at the place called CJjiji he would meet with pro- visions, medicine, and letters, which were sent there from Zanzibar, inasmuch as Dr. Kirk states that ivory traders hare recently arrived from the very region ill question and had heard nothing of him. Sir Roderick now Fuggests another hypotuesis :-If Livingstone, when at the Southern end of the Lake Tanganyika, satisfied himself that its waters were about 1,800 feet above the ea, as stated by Burton and Speke, he would necessarily infer that they could mlt flow north- ward" into the much higher equatorial lakes. In this case he would abandon the northern route, and follow the river or rivers which issue on the west coast of Africa, and be first heard of from one of the Western Portuguese settlements, or even from those on the Congo. Sir Roderick is still hopeftù as to the doctor's safe return.

A NEW NOTION OF CALAMITY !The diminu- tiun in the number and valuation of wrecks," says the Governor of the Bahamas, has deprived numbers of tbeir former sources of employment alld protit.[Will no one be kind enough to throwaway a .hip on the Bahamas for the benefit of trade

A RUMOUR AND ITS CONTRADICTION. The following paragraph is from the Pall Mall Gazette:— It is not generally known that the Home Secretary, amongst his other mel cieB, ha, signed a free pardon for Sir Eardley C Eardley. A little whi e ago, as we must all remember, this yonnn gentleman was convicted of bigamy, and sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment—a sentence which was re- garded as a light one by those who followed the details of the case. His release is said te have been demanded on the score of failing health, which rendered it necessary that he should change the melancholy climate of Coldbath-nelds for the sunshine of Southern Europe. If so, then we are afraid Mr. Bruce has been imposed upon aud not only Mr. Bruce but Mr, Childers who, though he happens to be a near rela- tive of Sir Eardley's, would never have asked his colleague for the convict's release had he not been persuaded that the young man's health was such as to demand instant change of air. The truth is that ever since his release, at any rate, he has shown every sign of sound health and a cheery spirit; moreover, the necessity of flying abroad seems quite to have disappeared, and the design to be abandoned. Of course, it may be that the interesting criminal is only waiting to redeem his promise of departure till he is married again. The mis- fortunes of this well-bred bigamist suggest the question whether it would not be better, instead of restoring Gibraltar to the Spaniards, to convert it into a sanatorium for gentle- man convicts in delicate health. To this, Mr. Wilkinson, of 44, Lincoln's-inn-field, replies in The Times:— My attention has been called to the statements in The Timet of to-day about "jr K Eardley which you have taken from the Pall Hall Gazette, and which are so incorrect tht I hope you will withdraw them and publish this letter. Neither Mr. Bruce nor Mr. Childers had anything to do with Sir E. Eardley's release. I applied for it in October, 1868, without Mr. Childers' knowledge (he being on the Continent), and it was granted by Mr. Gathorne Hardy in the following December. On the first occasion, in October, Mr. Hardy refused to discharge him on the ground of his having partially re- covered between the date of the medical officer's certificate and the subsequent inquiry but Sir E Eardley having be- come worse, a second certificate was sent to the Home Office, aiji Mr. Hardv appointed the Medical Director of Prisons to make a special repoit on the case. In consequence of this report, on the 9th of December, the remaining portion (seven months) of the sentence was remitted on condition of his leaving the country and not returning during the residue of his sentence. These terms have been strictly complied with, and Sir E. Eardley has since been and is still abroad. It is also, I am sorry to say. untrue he has since shown every sign of strong health," but, on the contrary, by the last accounts, his health had only slightly improved, and was still bad.

SECRET HISTORY OF THE BUDGET. The London Correspondent of the Scotsman professes to give the secret history of the Budget, upon what he con- s ders to be trustworthy authority. He says :— There haa been a great deal of speculation as to which part of the scheme was Mr. Gladstone's, which part was Mr. Lowe's, and which part had been insisted cn by Mr. Bright. The information on which I write this proves that the Budget was really Mr. Lowe's en- tirely, and that the whole credit of its invention must be attributed to him, though the Government, of course, share the responsibility of his proposals. In the Treasury itself, it might be supposed that if any- one had been in the Chancellor of the Exchequer's con- fidence it would have been Mr. Stansfeld, the Third Lord of the Treasury. Mr. Stansfeld, however, learned the financial provisions of the year for the fiist time from the Budget speech. Mr. Aytoun, the Secretary of the Treasury, was equally in the dark. The cabinet had only known what the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed since the previous Tuesday. The budget, you will remember, was delivered on Thursday week. Up to the Saturday before, even Mr. Gladstone himself knew nothing of the scheme. Mr. Lowe was It-ft to himself, with full confidence in his skill and.dlligence. On the Saturday Mr. Lowe laid the whole scheme before Mr. Gladstone, and the Pre- mier at once gave it his hearty support. Did he, then, contribute noihing to the scheme? Nothing but a correction. He went carefully through all Mr. Lowe's calculations, and he found a single error of £2,400. It happened, however, that this errer came in a very critical point of the calculations, and affected a good many of them. The results of Mr. Gladstone's discovery was that certain Treasury clerks had a hard day's work on Monday to reconstruct the calculations. By Monday night all was ship-shape." On Tuesday the budget passed the Cabinet, and on Thursday all the world was let into the secrets, which had been thus remarkably well kept.

AN APPEAL. We have much pleasure in re-publishing the following letter, and trust, by our doing so it may assist the object of the benevolent writer :— A girl named Caroline Hunt, aged twenty-six, a dressmaker by profession, is afflicted with a terrible and incurable malady (lupus of the lace.) She has ex- pended all her earnings and is unable any longer to support herself. For some years she has been acandi- date, for a £20 annuity from the Clapham Incurable Home, but nearly 500 votes are necessary for election, and after trying for several years she has only been able to obtain fifty. An effort is now being made to raise J2110 before the next election, on the 12th of May, which would enable her to purchase the requisite number of votes and secure the annuity at once. The distressing nature of the case is increased by the fact that her sister, agtd 19, has the same dreadful complaint, and is, as well as herself, entirely dependent on charity. Both girls bear the highest character. Contributions will be most gratefully received by Miss Constance Smith, 35, Eaton-square, or by Lady Herbert, Wilton-house, Salisbury. I remain, Sir, your faithful servant, MARY ELIZABETH HERBERT. Wilton-house, April 15.

VISIT OF AN ENGLISH BOY TO THE CAMP OF LOPEZ. The following interesting letter, from a Work sop boy to his mother, has been sent for publication. The boy, it ap- pears, was resolved to view the camp of Lopez, and he ran a\VfoY during Ids holidays for that purpose. The letter is dated Monte Video, Feb. 15, 1869 :— When I wrote you last, I told you that I was going to Paraguay. Well, I have just returned, after having endured great hardships. I arrived in Asunsion and Conxepsion, the capitals of the befurenamed country, on the 7th, and I paw the allied army and then went outside the city for a league or two. As I went up in the steamer I saw all the fortresses where the bloody battles have been fought, and they were all in ruins. When I got to my destination, I saw that the cholera was raging there. When we saw this, we knew it was healthy in the mountains, where Lopez and his army were. "Well," I said, "let us go there," and my friends said, No, no if we go there Lopez will make us serve in his army." I said, "Well, we had better do that than die of cholera." Well, they consented, and we went about fourteen leagues up the mountains, when an escort of Lopez s troops came on us, Seized us, and took us before Lopez, and I knew we should be sure to have to work at either one thing or another. Well, we had been working in the foundry for four days without almost anything to eat. At first they thought we were Brazilians, and all they gave us to eat was a piece of dry hide and some herbs, and hardly any water. I knew Lopez's wife was English, and one day she came close past me, and I spoke to her, and she at once told Lopez, and he let us enjoy overselves as much as we liked. We saw how they lived, and we saw female battalions go through their drill and everything. And from the mountains we could see the capital Asuncion, quite distinct through the glass. We saw a force of Bra- zilians come out towards the mountains. At once Lopez ordered 18 regiments to go out and meet them. Just didn't I tremble in my shoes. The Paraguayans won the battle, and we saw the Paraguayans bring all the booty of the fight to where we were. It appears there were 2,000 Brazilians in the fight. They killed 1,200 and brought 200 prisoners, and the others escaped. Paraguay is a magnificent country. There are monkeys, snakes, boars, crocodiles, and birds of every plumage. It was splendid. I could imagine it something like Paradise. Lopez had been driven from every strong- hold he possessed, and is now in the mountains. Where we were there is a splendid plain for leagues, on which grows everything. Before he went to the moun- tains he ordered every family in Paraguay there, and they all went, and there it is, just like living in a town, but the houses are different. All they have is a hide to sleep under. The day we left Lopez, he or- dered a small force to go round the country and to kill everyone that had not gone to the mountains as he ordered them. The way we got away was by luck. The Admiral in Monte Video ordered a small gunboat to go up to Asuncion, and the captain to go to Lopez and bring away the English there that wished to leave. We. of course, took the opportunity of getting away, but many wished to remain, and would not oouie away. The cholera is very bad in Buenos Ayres, and we have had several cases. I am quite thin with my trip. The heat is something awful in Paraguay. I am quite well, and all the same.

ARCHBISHOP MANNING on EDUCATION. In the course of a sermon preached by Archbishop Manning last Sunday, at St. George's Cathedral, in London, on behalf of St. Mary's Orphanage, Green- wich, his grace said that every nation which rejected the name of God in education exposed itself to all the evils of intellectual error and of moral corruption and as an instance of that he might point to the first in- fidel French Revolution, which deluged that beautiful Christian land with the blood of the martyrs. The only security for nations was fidelity to Christianity. Legislation could not procure it; legislation might punish the crimes of men, but it could not govern the intellect, direct the will, cultivate the heart, or touch the conscience, except when that legislation was sub- ject to the law of God. The only power to educate man- kind was that power to whom the command was given by God—" Go forth and preach to all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Education without Christianity was impossible. They often heard about the distinc- tion between religious and secular education, but that was a delusion in itself. They might separate educa- tion and instruction if they would, but they could not separate education and religion. Instruction meant the teaching of the young in reading and writing, the languages, and so oil; but education meant the teaching of the intellect, the training of the "wilL and the refining of the whole nature of a man. To teach reading, writing, and arithmetic was not to teach the distinction between right and wrong, and the knowledge of the distinction between right and wrong, and also the lessons of morality, were impossible without Christianity, Mo- rality without dogma was impossible. Christianity without dogma was impossible. To know God and His Divine Son was to know dogma, and in dogma rested Christianity, and from this flowed the moral laws. To educate without Christian dogma was to educate without Christian morality, and without that conscience was not known, and the will was not trained, and the intellect was stunted and narrowed. No intellects were more stunted than those of the scientific men of this day whorejected the revelations of God and referred the perfect development of man to the beasts of the field. The education of England had always been a Christian education, founded by St. Au- gustine. The great universities of England, of which men were to this day so proud—the endowed schools, founded by ecclesiastics in ancient times, were all the fruits of Christianity. Christianity was to this day cherished by the great mass of the people, though it was terribly mutilated by that which separated England from the infallibility of the Church of God—by that terrible mutilation which three hundred years ago struck down the fairest flower of the Church. Never- theless, mutilated though it be, it survived to this day, and he hoped the day might never come when any scheme of education for our people would be adopted in which there would be an attempt at the delusion of separating religious from secular instruc- tion. Surviving that great wreck of 300 years ago, the Catholic Church of England still remained—a small one—but still, deriving its light from the Holy See. strengthened by faithful Ireland, firm and incorruptible against all influences of the world, it was forming its own sysiem of education once more. There was a time when the Catholics in this land were robbed of every school and university they possessed, and com- pelled to send their children our the seas for educa- tion. And over the seas they went, and back they came, and the first fruit of our harvest was, that out of all this persecution and system of penal laws arose a noble list of colleges in the land. Far be it from our land when education should be separated from religion.

THE POPE AND THE LOTTERY. A letter from Florence gives the following particulars of the drawing of a lucky number in a lottery, which unhappily are not only avowed to exist, but are under the especial pro- tection of the Government:— Thanks to Pius IX., lottery gamblers in Italy have just made a great hit. On Sunday last, the 11th of April, 18C9. Pius, ninth Pope of his name, celebrated the 50th anniversary of his first mass, which he said at the age of 26. This last number also corresponds in the lottery player's guide book with the word mass," as well as with money." Nothing could be clearer to all those who had cah to stake and faith in the usual rules, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of per- sons played upon the numbers, 11, 69, 9, 50, 26. In the Florence weekly drawing of Saturday last all those numbers came out of the wheel. It was what is called a qune-that is to say, a gain on the whole five num- bers. Those who had backed them all to come out won sums enormous in proportion to the trifling ones they had staked, and the gains of those who had only backed four Or three of the numbers were also very great. Incredible stories are current of the fortunes made by indigent players—for it is the poor who chiefly support the lottery. There is no doubt that the Govern- ment has had to make very heavy payments to winners. It is an old belief with numbers of persons in Italy that Pins IX. has the" evil eye," and in thi instanCt the Italian Treasury may well share that opinion. But what goes out to-day comes back to-morrow, for nothing stimulates the Italian propensity to lottery- playing more than a brilliant hit of this kind.

PUBLIC OFFICE SERVANTS. A few days since, a return was published for the information of Parliament, showing the increase and diminution which took place within the year 1868, in tile number of persons employed in all public offices or departments, and in the salaries and emoluments re- ceived by them. The largest increase occurred in the Post-office De- partment, the number of persons engaged being 610. and their salaries amounted to £28,230. There ap- pears to have been an actual decrease of three persons on the Inland Revenue staff, but an increase in the salaries amounting to JB76, and in the expenses to no less than £77.242 Is. lOd. There had been also an ad- dition of £(j,715 12s. 3d. to the charges of the Privy Council Oflice. Twelve persons were added to the staff of the Foreign Office, their united salaries amount- ing to £1,202 10s. 7d. In the Admiralty the number of persons employed increased by three, the ad- ditional charges being £3,354 10". 8d.; and in the navy and victualling yards at home in 1868, and abroad in 1867, the staff was reduced by the removal of four persons, whose services cost £2880 10s. 2d. There was an increase of 21 persons in the prisons depart- ment and convict establishments, involving an addi- tional expenditure of .€4,224 2s. 7d. The additions during year amounted in the aggregate to 708 per sons, and to £150,682 17s. 6d. The principal decrease was in the War-office and military departments, 19 persons having been dis- charged, the saving thus effected being £1131 7s. lid. With a slight increase in the Treasury staff there was, nevertheless, a diminution in the expenses amounting to £2,870 10s. 6d. and in the Public Record-office, too, although four were added to the number of persons employed, there was a reduction of £1,131 15". 6.1. in the expenditure. The total number ot persons dis- charged was 27, and the total reduction of the expendi- ture, 0J. 3d.

THE PAPAL FETES AT ROME. The correspondent of The Times, writing from Rome on the 13th instant, has given the followillg description of the fetes held in that ancient city, in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Pope Pius IX :— I must encroach on your space to describe sach spectacles as Rome has never Seen before, certainly never on an occasion similar to that which called them forth. The Pope disappeared immediately after the mass on Sunday indeed, he went to one of the grand salles of the Vatican, where a refection had been pro- vided for the most distinguished persons present at the ceremony. About 800 or 900 had been invited to par- take of tea, coffee, chocolate, and all those varieties of pastry and sweets they know so well how to get up here. Thret: tables were laid, at one of which sat the Pope, the ex King and Queen of Naples, and Count of Trapani, I believe the Grand Duke Vladimir, and other foreign princes and men of note. At the other two tables were placed the Cardinals and superior em- ployes, a crowd of chamberlains in their elegant medio Snanish costume of black velvet and many of a lesser grade stood. His Holiness was very merry, and laughed and talked much, principally with the last of the Bourbons, and after remaining with his guests an hour rose and left In the afternoon there was a re- ception of about 2,000 persons, when addresses were presented and read, by which the Pope was much gra- tified and evidently affected. As evening approached the scene changed, and not only all Rome, but all the inhabitants of the Roman States, thronged down to St Peter's to offer the homage of their respect to the Pontiff. It was not an assemblage merely of fine ladies and gentlemen who had come in dashing equipages to gaze upon a specta- cle, but of all classes, and especially of the peasants in the varied and pretty costumes of AlbanoandFrascati, of Genzano and Nettuno, and a host of other places. What a scene it was for an artist! Seven bands played in harmony, and a hymn of congratulation, composed expressly for the occasion by Gounod, the author of Faust, was sung. First it was sung in a piano tone, then forte, with a band accompaniment, and lastly was taken up and repeated by a mass of voices, thus growing and swelling up on the ear in a most delicious and effective style. On the conclusion of the hymn the Pope appeared at one of the side windows and gave his benediction to a large mass of persons. The tops of the Colonnades were crowded, so were the win- dows of the distant houses, and not merely the Piazza, but the streets leading into it were choked. May I sav that there were 40,000 people present? I really think so, and a most imposing sight it was. There were some acclamations near the church, but for such a mass faint and few, and then they allgallopped and bustled off to see the Girandola on Sail Pietro, in Montovio, or Mont d Oro, to be somewhat pedantic. Usually it has been on the Pincio, bur, for some reason or other, this site was abandoned. Yet its distance seemed to produce no effect on the hunters after novelties. Seats were erected, and 35,000 tickets were sold, but many certainly had not the value of their money. Some of the effects of the fireworks were magnificent, especially the first, when a temple of light grew out of the dark- ness, and a shower of stars of all colours was dis- charged into the upper air but those who have seen such exhibitions at Paris or at our Crystal Palace will have been disappointed. The whole terminated with a complimentary inscription to the Pope in characters of blazing light:—"Pio IX. P. M., S. P. Q. R. 11 Ap. MDCCCLIX. V ota omniuslli." Yesterday we had a review of the Papal troops in the Borghese Gardens. Again Gounod's hymn was sung, and so that scene passed away, and expecta- tion was on the alert for the evening. To say that the city was one blaze of light is but the naked truth. There were, however, beautiful, curious, and most effective devices; there were fountains of tire and gardens of fire, brilliant transparencies of the Pope the facades of some of the churches, of the Minerva especially, were very striking. I drove round every part of Rome and saw nothing finer than the grand old mausoleum of Adrian, above which a large sun shed its rays, casting their reflection on the waters of the Tiber than the column of Trajan, the storied sides of which were brought distinctly into view by concealed red lights in the forum beneath than the group of the fountain, in the Piazza Navona, where every figure was thrown out in bold relief by the same concealed and mysterious agency. Every obelisk in Rome, too, pointed its luminous needle to the sky, and no finer point of observation Wall there than from the bottom of the Via Condotti, from which, on locking back, was seen the obelisk on the summit of the steps of Trinita di Monte, to the right of the obelisk in the Piazza del Popolo, and to the far left the brilliant and gigantic cross above the Capitol; and so terminated the fetes in honour of the jubilee of Pius IX. All the Sovereigns of Europe sent their congratula- tions, either by autograph letters or by special Minis- ters, and some sent valuahle presents. Our Queen sent her congratulations by telegraph. Of the more splen- did offerings I must reserve my description. Those from the people, as they have arrived, have been placed on raised benches or counters, or on stalls, round the Court 0f the Papagallo, and another smaller court leading into it. There are a calf and sheep and lambs from Nettuno, and twelve rifled brass cannon from Catholics, Roman and foreign." There is grain from Mentana, and linen from the Israelitish University of Rome." And there are oxen, and Etruscan vases, ancient and modern imitations, raw silk, brigand hats, maccaroni, and copper boilers, wine in abundance, potatoes and charcoal, artichokes, IJUts, and apples, corn and sausages, and oil,—I put them down as they come,—and, in short, a host of other articles of agri- cultural and industrial produce.

A GALLANT RESCUE! General Custer, a d'shing cavalry officer of the United States Army, has recently managed to rescue two of his countrywomen from the Indians. It was a long chase, and it led the pursuers into Texas before the Indian camp was sighted. The two ladies who had been carried off were young—one eighteen, and the other twenty-four. They belonged to highly respect- able families, and were taken captives in Kansas. The story of their treatment by their captors, says General Custer in his report, is a recital of such bar- barous cruelties and enormous indignities, that it is surprising how civilised beings could endure them and still survive." The Indians declined to release them, but the General managed to cut off three of the leading Cheyenne chiefs, and gave notice that he would hang them to a tree if the ladies were not in his camp by a certain hour. The limb of the tree was chosen and the cord got ready, when a small party of warriors were seen coming towards the camp wi'h the women. General Custer does cot state that the chiefs were liberated, but we can readily credit his story about the joy and gratitude of the unfortunate ladies on finding themselves once more in a place of safety. The 19th Kansas cavalry had marched 300 miles to the succour of their fnends, and generally they were obliged to content themselves with a very short supply of food.

A COURT-MARTIAL. A court-martial sat on Saturday morning in the Royal Barracks, Dublin, for the trial of Captain Neame, 2nd battalion 16th Regiment, who has been thirteen years in the service, on two charges—Firstly, scandalous conduct unbecoming an officer and gentle- man, in having, in the mess-room of Richmond Bar- racks, on the 20th of February last, in presence of brother officers, told Captain Norman Griffith, of the same battalion, You —— drunken captain, you want to be kicked," and having kicked him. Secondly, conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline in having, when asked by Captain Ingles, his superior officer, what caused his nose to bleed, wilfully made the following false statement in reply :—" 1 hit my nose against the chimney." Captain Pullen, tbefirst witness, deposed that about midnight on the 20th of February, Captain Griffith said to him, in the mess-room, Well, Sam, when are you coming up to my room to supper?" The prisoner, turning towards Captain Griffith, said, Well you —— drunken captain." Captain Griffith replied that he was no drunken captain. The prisoner repeated the offensive observation, and added, "Would you like to be kicked ?" Captain Griffith answered, You won't do it, for if you did I would strike you in the face;" adding, "You had better do it The prisoner kicked Captain Griffith with his knee, and received in return alight blow on bis nose, which made it bleed. He regarded the affair as a joke. Captain Iugles came in shortly afterwards, and in answer to the question, "What is the matter with your nose?" the prisoner said, "I hit it against the mantel-piece." Captain Griffith struck his fist against the other hand, and laughed, as much as to say he did it. He remarked to Captain Griffith that his con- duct was very foolish, and if he had thought the prisoner's conduct scandalous or unbecoming he would have ordered him under arrest. It did not occur to him that Captain Ingles asked the prisoner what made his nose bleed as his supe- rior officer, or at all officially. Lieutenant Tabb gave a similar account of the rencontre. He thought the prisoner kicked Captain Griffith in fun. The latter was excited when he strjick the prisoner, but the excite- ment did not arise from the kick. Captain Griffith, who is under arrest for his conduct on the occasion, corroborated the evidence of the pre. vious witnesses, and stated that the matter was entirely in fun, that there was no ill-feeling between him and the prisoner, and that the latt. r joined him in hit. room shortly after the occurrence. The inquiry was then adjourned.

EXECUTION OF SHEWARD. The last act of a terrible tragedy is over, and the Extraordinary Murder at Norwich," which has occu- pied so much space in the papers for some time past, has now become a matter of history. William Sheward was executed on Tuesday morning fort-he murder of his first wife, Martha Sheward, in June, 1851. It is scarcely necessary to recall the circumstances of the case—the strange confession made by the convict at the Wal- worth police-station in December, 1868 (up to which date he had been an almost unsuspected man, though he had been repeatedly questioned by his wife's rela- tives as to her disappearance), his removal to Norwich, his lengthened preliminary appearances before the local magistrates, his trial before Mr. Baron Pigott, and his condemnation to death. The attempts made to save Sheward's life by an application to the Attorney-General for a writ of error, on the plea of informalities in the trial before Mr. Baron Pigott, and the appeal for mercy, also made to the Home Secretary (who declined to inter- fere), are fresh in the public recollection, as are the anonymous letters which were sent to the clerk of the Norwich magistrates, and which sought, extraordinarily enough, to show that Mrs. Sheward was still alive. On Monday the Home Secretary not having given his deci- sion on the memorial presented on the prisoner's behalf, several documents were received by him from persons in Norwich and elsewhere, urging him to commute the capital sentence. In the course of the afternoon a gentleman from the office of Messrs. Sharpe and Co., the agents for the prisoner's solicitor, had an interview at the Home Office, and it was intimated to him that the Secretary of State would not interfere with the sen- tence, and that the law must take its course. Remorse seems to have preyed strongly upon the convict's mind, and notwithstanding that his friends were taxing their ingenuity to obtain a short further lease of life for him, he persisted in continuing the con- fession which he had already begun at Walworth four months previously. At the time of his death, Sheward was about 57 years of age, but he looked much older, doubtless owing to his having carried about with him for years a weary load of remorse and anxiety. For the last few weeks he suffered fr- m rheumatism in the ankles, which had confined him to his bed a good deal. His behaviour in the gaol was good, and he was an attentive recipient of the religious advice and consolation which the prison chaplain (the Rev. R. Wade) offere 1 him. The wretched man had to be assisted to the drop by two warders in consequence of his rheumatism. While the executioner, Calcraft, was completing his prepara- tions the convict trembled a good deal, but to the last he showed a considerable amount of nerve. It was also stated that he had slept pretty well during the night he declined any breakfast, however. He died without any very violent struggle. The execution took place in private, under the pro- visions of the new Act. Four local reporters and the representatives of the metropolitan pre8S were present, wit.h the Sheriff. the Chaplain, and a few of the prison staff. Au inquest was held on the body of the convict.

HIS CONFESSION. The following confession was made by Sheward, which sets at rest the doubts previously entertained by a few as to the certainty of his guilt :— City Gaol, Norwich, April 13, 1869, 2.45 p.m. "THE VOLUNTARY CONFESSION OF WILLIAM SHEWARD, UNDKR. SENTENCE OF DEATH IN THE ABOVE PRISON. "In the year 1849, November, I placed a box of money, having £100 in it, in Mr. Christie's possession, for him to take cal e of for me. In the year 1850 and to June, 1851,1 drew from that box £150, during which time my wife wanted me to bring the box home. Mr. Christie asked me if he might make use of the money. My wife seemed determined to fetch the box herself. I knew he could not give it to me. "On the 14th of June, ig51 Mr. Christie asked me to go to Yaimouth to pay £1,000 to a captain of a vessel laden with salt, to enable him to unload on the Monday morning. On Sunday morning, the 15th I was going to Yarmouth on the above errand. She (my wife) said You shall not go. I will go to Mr Christie and get the box of money myself and bring it home.' With that a slight altercation occurred. Then I ran the razor into her throat. She never spoke after. I then covered an apron over her head and wellt to Yarmouth. I came home at night, and slept on the sofa down stairs. On the Monday I went to work; I left off at four o'clock and wen. home. The house began to smell very faint, with that I made a fire in the hedroom and commenced to muti- late the body. Kept on until half past nine p.m. I then took some portions of the body and threw it away, arriving home at half-past ten. that night slept on the sofa again. Went to work again the next day, went home in the after- noon about four o clock, and did the same. The same night, again. On Wednesday went to work as usual left off early, and went home. C irried sonie more portions in a pail basket to another part of the city. Thursday.—Work same, and returned early. The head had been previously put in a saucepan and put on the Are, to keep the stench away. I then broke it up and distributed it about Thorpe cams home and emptied the pail in the c ickey in Bishopgate-street, with the entrails, &c. I then put the hands and feet into the tame saucepan, in hopes they might boil to pieces. On Friday I went to work, and went home early and dis- posed of all the remainsof the bodv, hands and feet included, that night, because I knew x shouid not be able to be home on Saturday until late. "On Sunday morning I burnt all the sheets, nightgown, pillow cases, and bedtick, and all that had any blood about them. The blankets, where there were any blood, I cut in small pieces and distributed them about the city, and made off with anything that had any appearance of blood about them. The long hair, on my return from Thorpe. I cut with a pair of scis-ors into small pieces and they blew away as I walked along. I also state I never saw or knew my present wife until June 21, 1852, twelve months after the occurrence. "I hereby give authority to place the above facts to tho Home Secretary and Baron Pigott: but I request that this may not be published at present. "Taken in the presence of the undersigned, this 13th day of April, 1869. "WILLIAM SHEWARD." J. GODWIN JOHNSON, Visiting Magistrate. ROBERT WADE, Chaplain of the Norwich City GaoL JOHN. HOWARTH, Governor of the said Gaol.

The Times has a leader upon the above confession, in which the following remarks occur:— All doubts respecting the justice of his sentence must now be dlfmlsed. HI circumstantial confession agrees com- pletely with all his former and 1? oonrf-t—t even to minute particulars with the ascertained facts. He once asked a metropolitan constable, for example, whether in his first confession he charged himself with wilful murder. The meaning of the inquiry is now apparent, since he states that the murder was committed in the heat of an altercation. It is worth notice, again, as a point iu confirma- tion, that the surgton who examined the remains in 1851 was of opinion that the hands and feet had been immersed hi some non-corrosive fluid—probably hot water. Sheward now confesses that he boiled them, in the hope of reducing them to fragments. He states that he never knew his present wife until twelve months after the murder, and that the sudden passion in which his crime was committed arose from a standing quarrel about money There was, in- deed, some evidence at the trial to show that he knew his second wife at the time of the murder, or, at least, within two or three months after it; but mistakes of a few months may easily be made at a distance ef eighteen years in matters which at the time called for no particular notice. If the motive now assigned by the convict seem a slight occasion for so heinous a crime, that is nothing more than a common characteristic of the most brutal murders. A more shocking and disgusting narrative has never, per- haps, been laid before the public eye but there was sufficient mystery about the case to render it worth while for the whole story to be explained. Now that we have all the facts before us, it will still remain, as we have said, an extraordinary chapter in the annals of crime, and that in more lespects than one. In the first place, this is clearly a murder which would 11 ever have lJeen discovered except: or the prisoner's own confession Nearly eighteen years had elapsed since it was committed, and it had passed out of recollection. No ore was on the watch to observe traces of the murderer, for, in point of taut, it was nut known, and barely surmised, that the victim had been murdered. It was notorious, indeed, that a murder had been committed at Norwich in June, 1851; but it had never been so much as suggested that Mrs. Sheward was the person murdered. It is true it came out at the trial that some of the wife's rela- tives were not satisfied with the account Sheward gave of her disappearance. One of them was said to have asked him point-blank, "What have you done with my sister?" and, on his explanation that "she went away and left him penniless," to have replied, "You are a false man; my siiter never went away and left you." But, what- ever suspicions they might have had of Sheward, no one connected his wife's disappearance with the dis- covery 01 the remaiBs of a murdered woman in the neighbourhood of the city in which Sheward lived. Perhaps the medical evidence is mainly responsible for this singular oversight. The surgeons gave all opinion that the murdered woman was about twenty-six years of age, or less, and the police accordingly announced that the remains were those" of a young female between the ages of sixteen and twenty-six years. It is true they asked for information" of all females who may have been recently missing;" but, as Mrs. Sheward was fifty-four at the time of her disappearance, the discrepancy in age may easily have allayed the suspicions of her relatives. StIll, it is a sinpular fact, and shows upon what slight points the discovery of a crime may sometimes depend, that though it was known in Norwich a woman had been murdered, and it was also known by persons intimately concerned thai a woman had disappeared, no one should have put the two facts together, or maue so mucn as an inquiry into their connexion. Still more astonishing does this failure of justice appear m the light of the circumstances confessed by the prisoner. It now appears that he protracted over a whole week the ghastly process of dividing and dispersing his wife's remains. There is something almost incredible—and for the sake of human nature we trust unique—in the brutal insersioility with which the prisoner enacted this prolonged butchery, re- turning to his hideous task evening after evening, in the intervals of his work, and calmly goinz to sleep every night between ten and eleven with the mutilated remnants of his wife still lying in his house. The spectacle is too sickening to to be dwelt on. But it adds another astonishing feature to the case that during all that week nothing should have occurred to raise a suspicion in the inhabitants of a busy part of a busy county town that this piecemeal murder was being enacted among them-that Sheward should have gone home every evening to his horrible employment, and every night have carried out his ghastly burden and emptied his pailful of human blood down the public drains of the town, and no one should have surmised anything amiss, or have noticed the absence of his wife. On the morning of; he murder he ac- tually went on an errand he had previously intended to Yar- mouth, leaving the murdered body of his wife covered with nothing more than an apron; it was only to relieve him- self from inconvenience that he at length began to dis- pose of the body, and it was not until the remains had been completely made away with, at the close of the week, that he toi-k the trouble to destroy the bedclothes, which would have afforded unmistakable witness to a deed of blood. Per- haps this very callousness and insensibility assisted him in escaping suspicion. But it must still appear a most siugular coincidence that during seven days the flagrant evidences of such a crime should have lain exposed without the slightest concealment in an empty hou^e, and no accidental visitor, no relative, no friend should have called and detected something amiss. Circumstances seem to have been c >m- bined in the most unaccountable manner to shroud this barbarous crime from discovery. Sheward himself pre- sents not the least extraordinary matter for reflection. His insensibility at the time and his deliberate barbarity appear, as we have said, incrediole and yet it is this insensible savage who eighteen years afterwards is struck with such remorse of consc etice, or with such mental agony, that he makes an entirely voluntary confession, and brings upon him- self the penalty of death for a crime which everyone but him- stlf had forgotten. The story might have been constructed by some ingenious hand to expose the cruel abominations which may lie hid in the human heart under all apparently un- ruffled surface, and to oisplay at the same time the fearful and irresistible sting of conscience. The maxim that "mur- der will out has been again vindicated, and all the more conspicuously from the signal failure of human sagacity. The crime will leave a deep impression, and it may recall to the public mind at least one similar mystery which still re- mains unexplained. But we trust our common nature will never again be thus disgraced, nor the agents of justice so long and so discreditably baffled.

SAVAGE LIFE IN ENGLAND. The following is a picture from an official report of life amongst the nailers of South Staffordshire Thirty year's experience amongst the nailers tells one they are the most immoral people in England. I could write on this subject what I hope no man would believe, saving from his own observation. I have known facts which are not fit to be named. Here men and women cohabit and propagate in unions connected by no marriage service, and, strange to say, the poor law seems partly to blame for this, for the unmarried woman receives Is. 6d. a week for each child and 2s. for herself, which is no inconsiderable boon to the un- married mother and father. This is, in many cases, an insuperable bar to matrimony and a premium for adultery. One peculiarity struck me very forcibly when, thirty years ago, I came to this parish-namely the extreme recklessness of infant life. Pregnancy is looked upon as a curse the death of a child, if in a burial society, a blessing-a source of open, outspoken congratulation. Excepting the sins of lust and drunkenness, the nailers are not vicious. There are no highwaymen amongst them, no burglars; they will poach and steal from gardens for food in bad times, but the use of the knife is almost unknown. I forgot to say there is among the nailers a great deal of negat've murder, i e., a child is not let live newly-born children, if slightly premature, re- quire so much of the little cares" which a mother only can give that when these are withdrawn th.y fade away. The little nailer, reared in his earthern or quarry floor, promoted to the forges, prematurely elevated to the nail-block, lives, when trade is good, what may be called a jolly sort of life, for he is never sad, though he grumbles much. Give him a little animal food and a good deal of beer. aid he is as happy as he can con- ceive it possible for him to be. No mechanics' insti- tute reaches him no lectures, however amusing no concerts, fiddle they ever so sweetly, ever have him to spend his hard-earned pence on them. He will go if you promise him beer will go to church or chapel, give him old clothes and a cup of beer he will serve you like a dog, fight you or for you, if you will but give him beer wounds of his tenderest affections may be plastered up with beer and all this applies to one just as much as the other. Indeed the women have more manly qualities than their husbands; and in their free fights the wife is often the victor. Their houses are the worst, in whatever neighbourhood they settle. The broken panes, where pieces of paper fill the place of glass, pilfered nail-bags keeping out the cold the quarry or mud floor on which are three or four naked children sprawling unwashed the ling fire in this land of coal, a round deal table with three rickety legs, deal board smoothed on the upper side, with four legs, actin g as a chaise lounge, a three-legged pot and a tin kettle, furnish many a living-room. Enter their sleeping-rooms, as I did this morning, fresh from the summer air, and you must hold your breath and rush to the window and throw it open. There lie husband and wife and two sick children. A young man of 25 in the same bed with a daughter of 19, brother and sister. In a corner a truss of straw, covered by a bag or two, is the bed of two more little ones no blankets, no sheets, no washing apparatus-in fact, a certain article, more celebrated for its use than ornament, is the only wash-hand basin they have ever known. Asanillus tration of thevalue of their household furniture, I will mention a fact which recently occurred in our parish. A brother surgeon, in an evil moment, driven mad by the unwonted chink of a few superfluous sovereigns in his pocket, purchased some small houses in the Bull- ring. Time wore on and no weekly shillings coming in tnm his tenants, he issued a distress on the poor wretches. One tenant paid a shilling, and was allowed to remain one was allowed to remain because I certi- fied they were too ill to be removed; the third was sold up, the furniture upstairs and down realising 3s., and all dear at the money. Friends who appear to know tell me they live in this way so as to be defiant of county courts or even landlords. They dress the girls sometimes very smart, but no man ever saw a nailer with a new suit. The best men can earn from 16s. to 21s. a week, women as much as 9s., children from 2s. upwards.

MR. BENJAMIN HIGGS'S LIBRARY. "The choice modern library of well-bound standard books "—as the auctioneer styled the collection re- moved from Tide End House, Teddington-has been sold by Messrs. Hodgson, of Chancery-lane, London. The books were almost all modern, and had evidently been purchased very recently. Prominent in the col- lection were the sporting books of the late Mr. Surtees and John Leech—" Spunge's Sporting Tour," "Ask Mamma," Handley Cross," Facey Rom- ford," and the rest. That Mr. Higgs had thought something of house planning and estate management may be inferred from his posses- sing several important works on architecture, including Fergusson, Gwilt, Wightwich, and Macdonald; Johr- son's "Farmer's Encyclopaedia," "The Book of the Garden, and similar works. Natural History, in its various aspects of the useful and the beautiful, seems to have possessed peculiar attractions for Mr. Higgs, for he had all Lowe's fine works on ferns, British grasses, beautiful-leaved plants, and Morris's History of Bri- tish Birds: their Nests and Eggs," "British Butter- flies," &c The sale included also "Colenso on the Pentateuch," The Bampton Lectures," and kindred works, with such books of reference as Bagster's Biblia Polyglotta Versio Germanica et Gallica," 2 vols. Almost the entire range of British historians were represented, but the prominent feature of the col- lection was the illustrated books-picture books of all kinds-with a complete set of Bohn's Libraries, beau- tifully bound in "calf gilt." Indeed, almost every book was in half morocco gilt edges," or morocco gilt and red edges," half red morocco, gilt edges," "half calf gilt," or half russia gilt."

The career of Mr. Benjamin Higgs may serve to point a moral or adorn a tale," but immediately and practically it furnishes work for the lawyers as well as the detectives. Who are the rightful owners of the waifs and strays left behind by the runaway? The Guarantee Society entered the premises and sold a portion of the property but in the meantime execution on the Tedding- ton property had been obtained by a creditor named Kuhl. The sale was then stopped by the execution creditor, other claimants came forward, and eventually the sheriff took out an interpleader summons to know what was to be done with the property. On Monday, Justice Brett barred the claims of others, and the sheriff was to resume the sale for the execu- tion creditor.

The MARCHIONESS of LONDONDERRY'S COLLECTION OF OLD SEVRES. The vory collection of old Sfevres of the late Marchioness of Londonderry was, on Friday last, sub- mitted to public competition at the rooms of Messrs. Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, before a large assembly. There were forty-six lots, and they realised the enormons sum of £ 6,900. The following were the principal objects:— Lot 34.—A pair of beautiful vases and covers, turquoise, painted with roses in circular medallions, mounted with open work rims, handles and feet of ormolu, 12in. high- 86 guineas (Agnew). 38.—A beautiful rose-du-Barri ewer and oval-shaped basin, with white and cold scroll border, encrusted with flowers in colours, exquisitely painted with flowers in colours in ten medallions-235 guineas (Earl of Dudley). 39. A very fine cabaret, green, richly gilt; consisting of two-handled plateau, teapot and cover, sucrier and cover, milk jug, and two cups and saucers, exquisitely painted with trophies by Buteux—135 guineas (Boore). 40. A very beautiful cabaret, consisting of triangular- shaped plateau, with open-work border, sucrier and cover, cream jug, and cup and saucer, green, richly gilt, exquisitely painted with Cupids and trophies in pink, in medallions, by Rocher-345 guineas (Earl of Dudley), 41. A splendid large campana-shaped vase and cover, tur- quoise, richly pencilled, with gilding, white and gold scroll handles, with wreaths of foliage in relief, gilt, exquisitely painted with a camp scene, young soldiers playing cards, in a large medallion in front, a bouquet of flowers on the re- verse; lTJin. high; on chased ormolu foot-135 guineas (Davis, Pad-mall). 42. A matchless oviform vase and cover, turquoise, with cords inrelief, gilt, exquisitely painted with a seaport and figures by lorll1, in a large medallion in front; a naval trophy on the reverse, 141]1. high-860 guineas (Earl of Dudley). 4.1. A beautiful circular table, with shelf beneath, of the finest old French marqueterie, the top formed of a large plaque of old sevres, painted with roses in colours on white ground, with turquoise border richly gilt, a turquoise sevres vase on the shelf beneath, beautifully mounted with ormolu —300 guineas (King). 44. A beautiful old French table, the top formed of a very fine oblong-shaped plateau of old sevres, rare ruse-du-Barri ground, with green scrolls richly gilt, awedallion of flowers in colours on white ground in the cent re, the sides inlaid with four plaques, painted with flowers between green trellis pattern, a shelf beneath formed of an oval plaque, painted with flowers and tour shaped plaques of rose-du-Barri, richly gilt, the whole mounted with chased ormolu-200 guineas (Davis, Pall-mall). 46. Old Black Buhl Furniture.- A magnificent cabinet of old black buhl, of architectural design, with three pairs of glazed folding doors between pilasters of black buhl, of the finest quality, enriched with boldly chased masks, cupids, vases, and mouldings of ormolu, designed in the grand taste of the time of Louis XIV. This splendid piece of decorative furniture is one of the finest known—about 21ft. long and 6fc. high—3,800 guineas (Durlacher, of Bond-street, for the Marquis of Hertford). This WM the last of the Marchioness'* oollection

EPITOME OF NEWS, BRITISH AND FOREIGN. In a suit against the insurance companies who held liens on his museum Barnum has recovered 200,000 dols. In the French Legislature, the other day, it was stated that France's naval position is better now than at any former period. A pamphlet is announced in Paris under the title, Influence of the Volocipede upon the elections of 1869. What enormous profits do eminent literary men make AI. Victor Hugo is to receive no less than 200,000 francs, or £ 8,000, for his four volumes entitled L'Homme qui Rit. By the death of Judge Dobbs a vacancy occurs on the bench of the Irish Landed Estates Court. The deceased judge was sixty-three years of age. He was called to the bar in 1833, and became a Queen's counsel in 1858. He sat as member for Carrickfergus from 185ï to 1859. Neither Lord Stanley nor Sir R. Palmer voted on Monday night in the division on the disendowment clause of the Irish Church Bill. The New York Revolution newspaper declares its mission to be "to turn everything inside out, upside down, wrong side before." An autograph Jetter of Daniel Defoe was sold last week in London for £ 40 one by John Dryden realised £ 30. A short time ago the body of a man was found floating in the Hu<1son, at New York, with a knife in his breast. It has now bùen identified as that of Frederick Weser, an Austrian nobleman, who went to America in 1866. No light has been thrown on tbe tragedy. Scarcely had Princ Arthur left the borders of Tip- perary when another murder was committed. On Saturday morning, as some people were drhing into Limerick, they discovered in a ditch by the roadside at Phillipstown, near Cappawhite, the body of a respectable farmer with his head beaten in. He is about forty years of ae, and apparently in good circumstances. It is reported the murder was agrarian. It is stated that at a recent Parliamentary inquiry, counsel asked a question, "You called upon Mr. Roberts- what did he say J" Opposite counsel objected. Point argued half an hour; the committee cleared the room to consult, gave permission for the question to be put, and witness then said Mr. Roberts wasn't at home. Two very serious cotton-mill fires took place en Satur- day night last. At Livesey, near Blackburn, Mr. Swain's mill, containing nineteen hundred spindles, a building six storeys high, was utterly destroyed, the damage being esti- mated at £ 10,000. The other fire was at Roy ton, near Old- ham, and the damage is there calculateù to be nearer £ 15,000 than £ 10,000. A Naval Court Martial has been held on board her Majesty's ship Duke of Welling'on, in Portsmouth Harbour, for the trial of Navigating Midshipman G. Filmer, serving on board her Majesty's ship Duke (If Wellington, but doing duty on board her Majesty's ship Victory, on a charge of drunken- ness while on boaid the latter ship. The Court found the charge proved, and sentenced the prisoner to De dismissed from her Majesty's service. The Regulation of Mines Bill, just publisnea, con- tains useful provisions for increasiIJg the safety of those employed in mining, but it will do nothing to prevent tbe immoral employment of women, who may be seen in canvas trousers ami jackets, shovelling coals and grimy with coal ùust, at Wigau and other places. The principle of the bill introduced by the Italian Ministry, putting an end to the exemption from the conscrip- tÍJn hitherto granted to young men in training for the priest- hood, has been approved by the Chamber, the votes being 223 against 25. An attempt is to be made to settle the dispute in the Manchester building trade by arbitration, and Mr. Rupert Kettle has consented to act, with the endeavour to bring about an arrangement. All agitation on either side is to cease peuding the inquiry. At Preston the strike of weavers continues without any apparent change. The aid given from the public purse to Maynooth College since its foundation, in 1795, has amounted to about £ 1,100,000. The King of Bavaria's marriage is again announced, and this time quasi-officially, with the Emperor of Russia's beautiful and youthful daughter, the Grand Duchess Marie. The example of Mr. Geo. Peabody has been followed by Mr. A. T. Stewart of Kew York, who has given no less than six million dollars for charitable purposes. The bulk of the money is to be expended in building two large hotels, one for single working young women, and the other for single working young men. The New York papers describe the plan of the new institutions at great length. The Post-office estimate for the year ending the 31st of March, 1870, provides for the conveyance by post of official correspondence, inland and colonial, expected from the Government departments, amounting in the year to 17,959 900oz., on which the postage, if paid, would exceed £ 200,0U0. Last year the estimate was for only 14,121,300oz. At the Birmingham sesion8, the other day, two thieves escaped punishment because the recorder ruled that articles descrihed in the indictment as deal boards fixed to a building" should have been described as "woodwork be- longing to a building." The Globe at some length shews that at common aw the Prince of Wales is only a life-peer. A Welsh colony is about to be started in Kansas. A tract of 100,000 acres of land has been secured. Mrs. Ann Smith, of Riley-street, Chelsea, went to sleep while sitting near the fire the other morning, and fell against the grate. Her clothes caught fire, and she was so severely burut that she died shortly after her arrival in the hospital, whither she was conveyed. The O'Donoghue writes to an Irish paper to say that he did not attend the Dublin masonic ball as had been re- ported. "I did not," he says, "receive an invitation, and even if I had been invited it would have been impossible for me, as a Catholic, to have been present." In 1868 the number of emigrants leaving Irish ports was 62,190—a decrease of 19,534 compared with 1867. The Queen of England was amon the sovereigns who congratulated the Pope 11pOn the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination. Only fourteen Popes have lived as Pius IX. has done, to celebrate his 50th anniversary of priesthood. Belgium sent him on Sunday last a present of a golden desk, enriched with precious stones and Germany, besides an aùdress bearing a million of signatures, of which thir- teen were those of Princes, offerej presents valued at £ 200,000. With a proper teacher of their own sex, and with suitable dresses for the preliminary practice, ladies can ob- tain such a command over the velocipedes in one week's prac- tice, of &Il hour daily, that they can ride side-saddle-wise with tbe utmost ease.New York Sun. The bill of casts in the case Martin 1'. 1\Iackono- chie having been carried in for taxation, an offer was made by Messrs Brooks and Co., the proctors to Mr. Mackonochie, to pay, without the expense of taxation, £ 1,500, which under the advice of tbe proctor and solicitor of the association, the council decided to accept, and their supportters in the country will be glad to near that the sum of £ 1,500 has been paid. "-Chvrch AssociatÙm Monthly Intelligenccr. According to the Antwerp papers, Belgium is likely to be the scene of more strikes, the carpenters and cigar makers being about to follow the example of the colliers of the Borinage. A new Baptist chapel is now in course of erection in Everton-road, Liverpool. 011 Saturday morning some of the workmen, in removing a block of stone weighing between 3 cwt. and 4 cwt., placed it upon a newly-built arch. The latter at once gave way, precipitating the whole of them into a vault beneath. The block of stone fell upon a man of the name of Elliott, and he was immediately killed. Charles Snowden Fairfax, a descendant of Lord Fairfax, died ill. Baltimore on the 5th inst. lie was formerly Speaker of the California House of Representatives. The Irishman states that the collection for the families of the Fenian prisoners has already produced the large sum of £ 2,192. The Gaulois announces that the cashier of one of the largest insurance companies in Paris has embezzled a sum of 1, i60,000 francs. Less clever than lr. Higgs, he allowed himself to be caught, and is now at Mazas. He had been thirty-nine years in the company's employ. The chairman proposed to hush the mattel lip, and offered to put down £ 20,000 towards making up the defalcations, but, the Gaulois adds, the other directors refused. There is a great disturbance at one of the London clubs, owing to the blck. balling, a few days ago, of a very popular and unexceptionable candidate. The North China Daily News says it is rumoured that an edict has heen issued by the Chinese Government prohibiting the cultivation of the poppy in China, and that the edict is likely to be strictly enforced. The news will, it is thought, send up the price of opium. Mr. Diraeli has been suffering from an attack of gout, alld was absent from the House of Commons on Monday night. From a few words which passed in the Court of Queen's Bench on Monday it would appear that there is a possibility of the action Saurin v. Starr" being re-0pened. The junior counsel for the dfendants in the late hearing stated that his leader, Mr. )Ielllh, had been" instructed to move," but was unable to attend the court in consequence of illness. The motion was allowed to stand over for a weck. In the Court of Exchequer the judges have refused an application for a new trial in the case of Lows v. Lord Brougham. This was an action by a dentist at Carlisle to recover a sum of £ i56 17s. 6d. for artificial teeth supplied to the late Lord Brougham, and also for repairing sets of teeth, visits, &c. The defendant who was the brother and executor of the deceased, paid £ 82 into court. and pleaded never in- dehted as to the rest of the plaintiff's claim. At the trial during the last sittings at Guildhall, before the Lord Chief Baron, tbe jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff with £ 105 damages, including the money paid into court. In a well-written leader, the lIIorning Herald main- tains that there is no section of the community more tho- roughly at its wit's ends to know how to provide for its rising generation than that which consists of gentlemen or of those who aspire to be gentlemen. The bar is crowded the medical profession is overstocked and there are far more lawyers than there is litigation or prospect of it. Architects jostle one another on the pavements for which they would fain design handsome frontages; and builders are rapidly learning to dispense with their services, just as railway con- tractors endeavour to do without those of engineers. There was very near being a catastrophe at Nice last week. An alarm of fire was given at the Théâtre Franijais. The audience began to rush out en matse. Luckily some few people had sufficient presence of mind to see that it was a false alarm, and they did their best to calm the panic, and were so far successful that no lives were lost. The boy'who kindles the lightning putin too much sulphur, and the result was a flash so vivid that the audience thought he had been borrowlllg fire from Prometheus or some other incendiary. Mr. Ward Hunt has given notice of the following amendments to the excise resolutions: To exempt male servants under eighteen years of age from the duty of 15s. To raise the stand3rd of weight below which carriages are to e taxed at he lower rate of duty from 3 cwt. t@ 5 cwt. To impose a uniform charge for armorial bearings of £ 1 Is., whether borne on a carriage er otherwise. Advices from India inform us that Miss Carpenter IS compelled, by continued ill-health, to return to Eur0pe, which she does by the mail of tbe 10th April. Her interest, owever, in the special work she was desirous of inaugurat- lUg seems unabated, as she purposes returning to India in X ovember next. The GaJette of Saxony relates an incident which t00k place at an auction sale, at Cassel, of the horses of the Elector of Hesse, confiscated with the rest of his fortune by thc King of l'russia. A superior officer, a Ilessiau bought two of the finest at a very high price, nd paid down the money at once to the Prussian commissioner. He then drew out a reyolver from his pocket and shot them both dead, On Sunday morning the schooner Elizabeth, laden with coal, on her voyage from Sunderland to pundee was struck by a heavy sea off Newbiggen, on t1e i\orthU!11ber- land coast, and foundered. The crew jumped into the sea, and held on to portions of the wrck. The captain, the mate, and a seaman died from exhaustion, after being seve- ral hours on the wreck. The caiptain fellrn to the sea while being rescued, and was drowned. Another bit of clerical gossip if' that Bishop Colenso has concluded a Dew volume In continuation of his previous di sertations on the Pentateuch, and at the last date was con- sidering wheter e would come to England to publish it, or entrust it to his fnends here, and remain in the Court Journal. The Government Bill for amending the law re- lating to the Militia enacts that the militia, when in training, may bú placed under the command of general officers of the regular forces. It gives power to attach such officers to the militia regiments. It abolisbes the property qualitication for militia officers and decides that no militia volunteer who has been on a regiment for one whole period of training shall claim discharge on the ground of defective enrolment. The circumstances of the attempt on the life of the Viceroy of Egypt, reportd some few weeks since, have been investigated by a commission of foreign consuls, who have come to the conclusion that a very foul conspiracy had been formed for the assassination, not only of the Viceroy, but of his whole Court, on their visit to the theatre. The same commission has also investigated the attempt made to explode detonating balla under the viceregal train on the railway. 1 he safe of the Safety Fund Building, Philaaeipnia was broken open on the 4th inst., and upwards of 1,000,000 dollars in available funds were stolen. A seriou Eoutbreak of cholera has occurred at Herat and Ferah, in Central Asia. The chief trophies o fthe Abyssinian expedition, pre- sented by the army to the Queen, aTd by the naval brige to the 1\dmiralty, are to be seut to Wolverhampton, tor dis- play at the South Staffordshire Exhibition. A bill has been brought into the House of Commons by Mr. Dixon, Mr. Kinnaird. and Mr. Goldney, to amend the Adulteration of Food or Drink Act I860 by extending its provisions to drugs. "J. F.—Received all right. I find this advertise- ment comes very expensive to me each time, and wish you could find out a cheaper way and let me know in answer to this. Why not call to see me as an old friend ? I should be happy to see ycu."—Advertisement in The Times. "One 'monster shop' has issued circulars asserting that no machine-stiching is done for the establishment. The Rouse in question gets all its work done in 150 convents, 1"y hand. We are to have a reunion, to consider this competi- tion with the ordinary workers."—Court Journal. Another application to Archbishop Manning by the English Amnesty Committee, to allow a petition in favour of the release of Fenian prisoners to lie in the Roman Ca- tholic churches has been refused. The set of Russian sables presented by the Emperor of Russia tc Patti, during her recent visit to St. Petersburg, is valued at 3,000 guineas. The Figaro states that the celebrated Sister Patro- cinio, dressed in black, with a black velvet cara-co, a hat with a black feather, and wearing white gloves, was present, the other day, in the diplomatic tribune at the Corps Legis- latif. and that her features are strongly marked and hy no means stamped with the devotional expression usually ac. quired in convents. "It is in the interest of everybody connected with Ireland, and, therefore, of every British subject, that no time should be lost in the settlement of the Church question. Tho two years it has already occupied have done much to aggra- vate the land difficulty, and to delay its solution."—Times. Mr. Andrew Johnson, ex-President of the United States, has completely recovered from his recent serious ill- ness, and has been making speeches in Tennessee. In one of these he announced that he should, as a private citizen, continue the warfare he had begun against usurpation, and that he was bent, not broken, by cares of State. Mr. John Orrell Lever, formerly M.P. for Galway, who has been in the Bankruptcy Court since October, 186.6, received his order of discharge on Saturday. The amount in the hands of the assignees available for dividend is about £ 1,300. Father Ignatius has been holding a series of services during the past week at his monastery at Norwich, assisted by two monks of the English order of St. Benedict. The senices have been of the usual ultra-Ritualistic character. The general public have been admitted to witness them on payment of Is. each. A robbery committed in Hungary has caused a great sensation. Some unknown burglars broke into the glasa manufactory of Duboka, near Pazega, and carried off a chest containing arsenic. The object of the thieves appears to have been to get possession only of the poison. The Minister of the Illterior promises a reward to any person who can gi7e a clue to the discovery of the perpetrato r A rich American lady, Mrs. Hill, well known in Xice, has been drowned whilst bathing in the sea. K otwith- standing very active researches, the body had not been found. Two convicts under sentence of death—Macdonald, at Chester, for the murder of Jamet Nally, at Marple and Wiltshire, for the murder of Harriet Kurse, at Bedminster, have both been reprieved. Wiltshire it may be remembered lately made a murderous assault upon the warder of the Gloucester Gaol where he now lies. Two Americans, on their way to the Rio Grande, were shot by the military on the road, robbed of their money, and hung up to the trees as rebbers; but it appears they were innocent travellers, who were rcturning with tlleir gains to Texas, having sold their stock at Saltillo, so it has been proven by the letters and note-books that were found upon their persons. They must have had some 2,000 dols. On Monday, Mr. Finney, manager of the English Joint-stock Bank (Limited;, was charged before the Lord Mayor of London with having made false entries in the books with intent to defraud. Defendant was apprehended at his residence, Queensberry Lodge, Elstree, Herts, on Saturday evening, and there being no public conveyances in the neighbourhood he had a horse put to his carriage and drove the officer to London, his groom taking the vehicle back and he remaining in custody until Monday, l'he offence being a bailable one the police cannot be said to have showed hinl IilUch courtesy by making the arrest on Saturday night. After a lengthened hearing he was remanded. According to a report in Berlin, the Prussian Liberals are about to bring in a bill f.jr the purpose of grant- ing pensions to the German volunteers of 1813. The Paris Temps thinks that if such a project is really entertained, it must be regarded as a reply to the recent measure of the Emperor Napoleon in favour of the old soldiers of the Empire. There has been a stormy scene in the French Chamber. In a discussion on the budget of the Minister 0. Agriculture, M. Thiers declared that the commercial liberty of the Government, like its political liberty, was" a mere farce." At tbis there was a tremendous uproar, and the Presiient tnreatened to call the veteran orator to order. M. Thiers replied that he submitted to the authority of the Pre- sident, but appealed to another and still higher authority, that of public opinion. The example set at Stockholm by Prince Oscar of Sweden of giving lectures on popular subjects to working men is about to be followed at Brussels by the Count of Flanders. The subject of the first lecture—or conference, as it is called—will be The Co-operative Societies of Germany." Mr. Joseph Ilbery, who retired from the office of station-master at the Lime-street station in Liverpool, six- teen years ago, has just died at the age of a hundred, having been born in 1769. It is stated that he was able to take his usual walk-at least two miles a day-until four weeks ago At the Bicetre Hospital, Paris, a man who has been asleep there seven months and three days has just died. On the morning of his death he woke up and swallowed a pint of chocolate, also the same quantity of broth and some wine. A resolution proposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his budget, by which the shilling duty on foreign corn is to be remitted, will not take effect until three weeks have passed. The Earl of March, eldest son of the Duke of Richmond, was on Saturday elected for West Sussex, in place of the Hon. H. Wyndham, who has succeeded by the death of his father, Lord Leconfield, to the peerage. Mr. Edmund Yates, who it is well known holds a high position in the General Post Office, has been visiting those towns :n which newspapers with the largest circulation are issued, with the view of ascertaining the opinions of the newspaper proprietors and others interested in the subject of cheaper postage for printed matter. The best bicycle velocipede journey at present per- formed was made one day week, Ly Mr. Booth, the cham- pion of skating, who did the whole distance from London to Brighton fifty-two miles) in seven and a half hours. Mr. Booth arrived at Brighton in time to get a bath, have lis dinner, and catch the last train to town. This beats any similar journey on the same road by two hours, some of the down-hill being done at the rate of a mile in three minutes. An English swell-mobsman, in Paris, who has been passing himself off as an Indian officer, has been arrested at the Grand Hotel on the Boulevards. Several jewellers of the Palais Royal are among the victims of the prisoner, who had been throwing diamonds in the laps of certain actresses at the minor theatres. One shopkeeper let him have goods to the amount of £2,000. Mr. Thorn, the prosecutor of the directors of Overend, Gurney, and Co., will, it is said, conduct his case in person against some of the ablest lawyers living. A gentleman of Madras has obtained the sanction of the Board of Revenue for sixty odd acres of land, called the diamond mines, in the village of Kunupurthy in the Cud- dapah hluq, on a lease for five years. An annual assessment of 100 rupees is to be paid to Government. Over 200 licenses have now been issued for the Sutherland gold rteld s, and new diggers continue to arrive. Experienced diggers are making about £2 a week, and green hands from los. to :20s. The permission to the London "Bobbies" to wear beards and moustaches has already had its effect. All the men on the lobby of the House of Commons are cultivating both and the very rapid growth of hair on the faces suggests to the obseryer that the extraordinary vegetating weather must be as favourable to the sprouting forth of human hair as it is to that of foliage. To Clergymen and Parish Clerks.—Ten Pounds Reward.—Wanted, certificates of the baptism of the folkw- ing persons:—Richard Cox, about 1766; Ann Cox, about 1770-1; Mary Cox, date unknown, but between 1760 and 1770; and Marriage Certificate of the parents of these persons. The father's name was Richard, and the mother's name is believed to have been Mary. The father is said to have been a farmer or a farm labourer in Berkshire, somewhere in the neighbourhood of Wantage, Wallingford, or Abingdon. The above reward will be given for the above certificates by Messrs. Desborough and Son, solicitors, of 3a, Finsbury-place south, London.Advertisement in The Times. On Sunday night the series of Sunday Evenings for the People," arranged by the National Sunday League, was brought to a close at the Freemasons' Hall, London, wliich waa crowded almost to suffocation. A paper on the Sick Poor of Paris," written by Mr. Blanchard Jerrola, was read and afterwards a selection from Rossini's "Stabat Mater"' was given with full orchestral accompaniments, the band and choir consisting of 100 so.oists, and the principal parts being sung by Miss Palmer, Miss Coles, Mr. Mason, and Air. Jennings. Mr. Jerrold's paper showed that last year the number of sick persons in Paris who were relieved at their own homes was 66,486, that the sick poor comprised 3 per cent, of the population of the city, and that the average cost of relieving each patieut was only lis. 8d. per annum. I was mentioned in the paper that the municipal authorities iu Paris, headed by the Prefect of the Seine, organise and superintend the charities of the city in conjunction with the sisters of mercy.

THE MARKETS." MARK-LANE.—MONDAY. Fresh up to Mark-lane this morning the arrivals ef English wheat, coastwise as well as by rail, was limited, but the quality was good. A quiet feeling pervaded the demand for both red and white produce at the late reduced quotations. There was a good show of foreign wheat; transactions were confined to aClual purchases, and the buginess doing, conse- quently, was restricted in prices 110 change took place. Floating cargoes of wheat were dull. Other kinds of pro- duce afloat were purchased cautiously. Moderate supplies of barley were on the stands. For all descriptions the trade was heavy, at about late prices. Malt was dull, on former terms. The Sh0W of oats was amply sufficient to meet all lequirements. Sales progressed slowly, at previous quotations. Beans were inactive, at late rates. Peas commanded but little attention, and at last week's prices. The flour market was quiet, at stati nary currencies. Linseed and rapeseed were heavy, and there was not much inquiry for agricultural seeds. Cakes were neglected. METROPOLITAN CATTLE MARKET.—MONDAY. The market was well supplied with foreign beasts and sheep, for which there was a good inquiry, at improving prices. From our own grazing districts the receipts of beasts were only moderate, but the quality was tolerably good. The trade was very firm, and an advance of fully 2d. per 81b. was established in prices. The best Scots and crosses realised 5s. 8d. per 81b. Owing to the shortness of the supply, much steadiness was noticed in the demand for Lnglish sheep, and a considerable improvement took place in prices. The few Downs and half-breds in the wool on sale were in request, at 6s. 4d. to 6s. 0d. per 81h. As regards clipped sheep the enhancement was more apparent, the top quotation varying from 5s. 6d. to 5s. 8<1. per SIb. Lambs were purchased to a moderate extent, at from 6s. to 7s. 8d. per 81b. Calves were disposed of at previous quotations. l'igs were quiet, on foimer terms. POTATOES. These markets are well supplied with potatoes. The demand has been only to a moderate extent, at our quota- tions. English Regents, 60s. to nos. Flukes, 60s. to laos Scotch Regents, 60s. to 130s.; Rocks, 60s. to 80s.; and French, 40s. to 70s. per ton. HOPS. Moderate supplies have been on sale. Business has been restricted on the whole, but there has been some inquiry for fine parcels, and prices have shown no change. Mid and Kast Kents, .£2 10s. to jt.7 7s.; Weald of Kent*, £2 to £4 108.; Sussex, .£2 to .£.3 15s. Farnhams, £.8 10s. to £6; Country, £3 10s. to jM Bavarians, £2 tc t3 10s. Belgians, £2 to £3 Yearlings, £2 to jM 10s.; and Americans, £2 to £8 10s. pel cwt. WOOL. Since our last report the demand for colonia woo has heen quiet, and a want of animation has cha- racterised the inqUIry for English qualitie3. In prices, however, no change has taken place. Current prices of English wool.—Fleeces: Southdown hoggets, is. 3d. te Is. 4d.; halt-bred ditto, Is. óld. to Is. ötti Kent fleeces, Is. 4jd. to Is. 5Jd. South-down ewes ana. wethers, Is. 2ld. to Is. 8td. Leicester ditto, is. 3d. to 111. Sid. Sorts: Clothing, Is. 2d. to Is. 7d, ;combing ,11. to Is. (tyd, perIb.