ITEMS BY THE MAIL.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1447, 5 October 1878, Page 3

ITEMS BY THE MAIL.

THE BRITISH MUSEUM. The removil of the natural history and other scientific departments from the British Museum to the new building at South Kensington is likely to give rise in a mild form to a modern “ Battle of the Books.” When the projected changes have been carried out, the British Museum will bo reduced to the library and the galleries of antiquities, classical and oriental. The scientific corps of the Museum, although their literary necessities are to be liberally provided for by grants for the purchase of libraries adapted to the special needs of their several departments, are understood to be something less than content with this arrangement, and to bo inclined to claim important sections of the existing library which are proper to their own pursuits. It seems rather dilil mlt to believe that such pretensions, which, logically carried out, would involve partition as well as redistribution, can be entertained or. put forward in earnest; but they have some show of reason in tho

cm! oinplatod misfortune of tlio separation of tlie collection of illustrative specimens from the literature which is conversant about them.

RUSSIA AND ENGLAND IN ASIA

In pursuance of his notice, Mr Denison asked the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs on Monday night “ whether any inquiries have been made to her Majesty’s Ambassador at St. Petersburg as to the aim, object, and purposes of a reported military expedition under General Kaufmann to the south of the Oxus, threatening the town of Balkh, which is in Afghan territory.” Mr Bourke’s answer was that “ inquiries have been made at St. Petersburg on the subject referred to, and the matter has received the attention of her Majesty’s Government.” We may infer from this reply that the report upon which Mr Denison’s question was founded lias been confirmed by the inquiries made at St. Petersburg ; and that, the fact of the expedition having been ascertained, the question of its “aim, ob ject, and purpose is the quest ion now receiving the attention of her Majesty’s Government.” It does not appear to us that it need detain them very long. The object—the only possible or conceivable ob ject —of such a movement on the part of Russia is not only obvious, but, as we point out elsewhere, has been openly recognised and imputed to that Power by a former English Minister, and that, so far as wo collect, without eliciting any very serious protests from the Russian Government against the justice of the imputation. Lord Clarendon declared that a Russian advance upon Balkh could only be made for purposes of aggression. But will the present Government, so soon after Lord Beacon slield’s “ smooth savings ” at Guildhall, feel able to use equally' plain and straightforward language ? AN UNDERGROUND TELEGRAPH.

The work of establishing an underground telegraph between Frankfort,-on - the - Main and Sbrashurg is being rapidly pushed forward, and the wires have been laid down as far as Mannheim. When the trench in which the cable has been laid is filled in, certain marks are made at fixed places along the line, so as to enable the engineers (o difcover, in the event of any rupture of communications, the points at which repairs are required. The wire will be brought into Strasburg by way of Kehl and the Austerlilz gate, and will terminate at the building in which the Central Administration of Telegraphs has its headquarters. The Frankfort and S:rasburg cable is the seventh of the kind which has been laid down by the German administration of Telegraphs, and it has been constructed upon an improved plan. The seven conductors contained in the cable are all formed of seven copper wires, two and a half inches in diameter, twisted together, each wire being covered with a coating of isolating material. The seven conductors, thus isolated from one another, are placed together and twisted lengthways. The protecting armour of the cable consists of twenty-four wires about the twelfth of an inch thick, rolled round the conductor; next comes an iron tube, then a layer of asphalte, with a lining of hemp ; and a second layer of asphalte over all. The alloy of the metals used, the composition of the isolating materials, and even the degree of electric resistance, are all determined with mathematical precision. THE PEACE OF WEDMOBE. There was a great gathering on Wednesday in the quiet Somersetshire village of Wedmore to celebrate the thousandth anniversary of the signing by Alfred the Great of the peace of Wedmoro. Papers were read and speeches made by Mr E. A. Freeman, Professor Earle, Bishop Clifford, and others to prove the probability that Alfred lived at Wedmore, and signed the peace there which terminated hostilities between him and his enemies. There was a special service in the parish church in the morning, the Bishop of Bath and Wells preaching the sermon. At midday there was a meeting in the Assemblyrooms for the reading of the papers. In the afternoon there was a public luncheon, and in the evening a public meeting. A number of American bishops, who are staying with the Bishop of Bath and Wells, were present at the celebration. AN INFANTS’ CEMETERY. At the Birmingham police court on Friday week, Ann Pinscnt, a midwife, was charged with concealing the birth of a child of an unmarried woman who had been confined at her house. The prosecuting counsel said that since the prisoner had been first arrested some extraordinary revelations had been made. The skeletons of no fewer than eleven infants had already been found buried in a garden adjoining the prisoner’s house. The learned counsel added that the body of the child in question had not yet been found, but it was known to have been born alive, and to have been seen alive some hours afterwards. On the following day the child was alleged by the prisoner to have died from convulsions. The prisoner was remanded for a week. THE AGAE-ELLIB CASE. Yice-Chancellor Malins had before him on Monday a petition by Mrs Agar-Ellis, a daughter of Lord Camoys, against the carrying out of a scheme framed by her husband for the education of her three children—whom lie lias made wards of Chancery—as Protestants, she being a Roman Catholic, and alleging that she married Mr Agar-Ellis on the strength of a distinct promise that the children of the marriage should be educated in the Roman Catholic faith. The ViceChancellor, in giving judgment, said that oven a positive promise by a father that his children should be brought up in a religion other than his own, coidd not be held binding upon him, and could not he enforced, although the wife might have contracted the marriage relying upon it. By the law of England, and by the law of Christianity, it was the duty of the wife to submit to her husband, and if Mr Ellis had made up his mind to have the children educated in the Protestant religion, it was her duty to submit to his wishes, and by that means only could she bring about the happiness of her family. Tire petition was dismissed with costs; and an order was made that the children were not to be taken again to a Roman Catholic church, that they were not to bo taken to confession, and that Mrs Ellis was not t o inculcate in their minds any of the distinctive doctrines of tire Roman Catholic Church until further order. The case came before the Court of Appeal on Thursday, but their lordships ordered it to stand over till after the long vacation. In the meantime the wife was not, without the consent of her husband, to take the children to a Roman Catholic chapel, nor to confession ; and the husband was not, without the consent of the wife, to take them to a Protestant service.