English News.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XII, Issue 824, 30 January 1868, Page 2

English News.

The colleagues, in the General Post-office, of the popular novelist, Mr Anthony Trollope, gave him a farewell dinner at the Albion Tavern, on the 30th October Tae usual neat and complimentary things were said on the occasion. And in reply, Mr Trollope wished to be understo jd that his severance from the office was not final, but, like the tallow chandler who retired from business, he hoped to rejoin them on “ melting days ! ” The last act connected with the late intended prize fight in England came off the other week, when Baldwin rushed up the stairs at Bell's Life office, broke open the door of the room —which had been locked by Messrs Westhall and Woodstock, on hearing of the approach of the ruffian and another prizefighter —and demanded that the former should give him an order to receive £2OO. As this was not complied with, he seized Mr Westhall by the collar, and using some of his most choice expletives, swore that be would knock his brains out with the stick he held over him. After a skirmish, however, the ruffian was got out of the office without any serious mischief being done. From Birmingham we hear of a Syke Champion, who will not be unkmwn here, distinguishing himself in the atheltic field. The sporting papers have recently been recording the feats of Alexander Macdonald, a draper in Birmingham, originally of Kilmuir, Troternisb, Skye. During the summer he carried off prizes for putting the stone, tossing the caber, throwing the hammer against some of the most distinguished athletes. Cavanagh, known as the Irish champion, lately challenged any man in the midland counties for a match at throwing the hammer, the prize being a fifteen guinea cup and the championship, Macdonald accepted the challenge and defeated Cavanagh, so that he is now champion, and must accept any challenge given him. When told that he could make money by his late match, he said that he did not compete for money but for nationality. He has offered to throw a 281 b hammer and put a 281 b. stone against any man in England, for £lO a-side and upwards. At the Thames London Police Court, Mr Joseph Cartwright, the parish clerk of St. Andrew Undershaft, in the City of London, and residing at 164 Cannon Street Road, St. George-in-the-East, came before Mr Benßon

jto make an application on behalf of a seaman named William Lyons, who accompanied him. He said that on the night of ! 21st August last a serious fire broke out in a house situated in Cannon Street Road, ; Lyons was on the spot, and hearing that the inhabitants of the dwelling were not all | rescued, he rushed into the open doorway jto render assistance. He found a woman iin a passage, surrounded by flames and smoke, in a state of bewilderment. She i must have perished if he had not dragged j her out of the house. After he had succeeded in getting out of the doorway, he j mounted the burning staircase, and when .he got on the landing, he forced his head and ( shouldersthrougn a small window to obtain

breath. The people shouted out, “ Save the child ! ” Lyons ascended to the various bed-rooms, and groped in the dark among the bed-clothes- to discover if there were any children sleeping, but they had all escaped. It was one of the most awful sights the applicant ever witnessed to see him emerging from the smoke of a second floor window, and feeling for a waterspout or some kind of projection to assist him in his descent. Finding the floor beneath his feetgetting too hot, and being nearly choked with the smoke that was pouring out of the window, he dropped on the pavement, a height of at least 50 feet, and was picked, up insensible. He was placed in a cab and removed to the London Hospital. For ten days he lay insensible. The applicant visited him there, and found that he was so dreadfully burned that he has lost the finger nails from each hand, and the sight of the right eye. His right ear was also burned, and he has no use in his left arm, which was in a sling. After being in the London Hospital for two months, where he was treated with the greatest humanity, he was discharged upon an out-patient’s ticket. His relations can do nothing for him ; they are all very poor, and can scarcely find bread for themselves. The object of the applicant in bringing the case before the Court was to see if he could obtain something to assist him until he is able to go to sea, and to save him from the degradation of begging from door to door. He is a widower with one child eight years old. A gentleman, well-known in the Court, begged leave to indorse all that Mr Cartwright had stated. He doubted whether Lyons would be able to go to sea again. Lyons here said that lie thought he could go to sea when his burned hands got well. Mr Benson said he had seldom, if ever, heard of a case of greater daring and bravery. He wished the funds at his disposal would enable him to assist the brave and suffering man as he deserved. A case of this sort deserved the greatest possible commiseration. He hoped the publication of the case would induce the benevolent to come forward and assist him. He requested Me Cartwright to come again in a few days, and he would then state his intentions in favour of the sailor whose unexampled courage and defiance of danger were certainly without precedent.

THE MANCHESTER EXECUTIONS. The Manchester Examiner states that on the day of the Fenian executions, it printed 192,645 copies, which it believes to be the greatest weight of newspapers ever printed and issued in one day from any office in the world. The quantity of paper consumed was above 33,0001b5, or fourteen and a-half tons. The total number of pages printed was upwards of one million and a-half. The public were supplied.at the rate of 35,000 per hour, or nearly 600 per nainute.

THE FENIAN STEPHENS. The first of the Fenian organisers, James Stephens, has published a letter in the New York papers, dated from France, where he now is, as he himself confesses, in a state of destitution. He can hardly “ spare the price of a postage stamp.” When he gave his last coin for that purpose he did not know where he was to get food for next day. It was his desire to return to Ireland months ago, but he had not the means. He speaks bitterly of treachery which he will in due time unveil. He is not well in health, but sicker in mind than body. He will “allow no subscription to be made for him—better death than that.*' He denies that he has had luxuries at Irish expense, and he still cherishes the inflexible resolution of working for the cause “for which he lives,” and in token of this signs himself, as formerly, “C. 0.1. R.” (Chief Organiser Irish Republic). MRS YELYERTON AND HER LOVE LETTERS. The following letter has been addressed by tliis lady to the New York Herald : I notice in a recent number of the New York Herald , that, in accordance with the practice of ancient and modern authors, I am about to give readings from my own writings. I must ask you kindly to correct the error, and try to explain that the “ Yelverton correspondence ” alluded to is nothing more nor less than the love letters written to my husband, Major Yelverton, prior and subsequent to our ill-starred marriage. They were written by the silvery moonbeams that light the shores of the ! classic Mediteranemn, for one beloved eye alone, or by the still more mystic shores of the Bosphorus, in sight of the very tower where Hero pined until Leander breasted the treacherous wave. They were the first outburst of a young heart, believing with earnest faith in all that is beautiful in God’s creation —the first bloom of the plum, the first perfume of the bud, which after-time destroys. Whatever their merits as literary productions, whatever their interest as emotional effusions, Ido not inquire. To me they are the only relics of “ love’s young dream,” now that the heart is broken and the object they were addressed to —dear to me—-a nameless wanderer, unknown, uncared for. Those letters are the sepulchre or funeral urn, which contain the ashes of all that ever was, of all that ever can be, and it would seem like a desecration to me to expose them for the criticism or amusement of the public. True they have been brought before the astonished gaze of bewigged lawyers to interpret or misinterpret, to the best or worst of their ability, according to the side they were engaged in. True, that two judges on the bench have been moved to tears in quoting them. True it is that most people have an invincible curiosity about love letters, for the reason given by the brilliant French poet : Qui que tu sais voici ton maitre 11 est, il fut, ou il doit etre. Those who have not been in love wish to ascertain precisely what it is like ; those who have wish to renew, if only for a moment, the pleasant delusions. I shall be most happy to contribute to these Elysian dreams by rendering, to the be3t of my ability, the loves of Heloise and Aberlard, or n’importe • pwi, but I must respect the green turf now ( growing over the grave of my own. —1 am, , sir, yours truly, Thekesa Yelvev , 'ON'. — Albemarle Hotel, Oct. 21, 1867.

VALUE 01? LAND IN NEW YORK Lots on Broadway bought, scarcely two hundred years ago, • from the native Indian, fora handful of wampum, ora string of beads; from hard-headed Dutchmen and prudent English men* in colonial times, for a score or two of pounds ; and from sharp Yankees in our own days for a few thousand dollars, are now worth half-a-million or more. The proprietor of the New York Herald, paid for a lot, about fifty feet in width, and a hundred in length, the sum of 750,000 dollars, of which amount 250,000 dollars were paid toßarnum, the celebrated showman, for the lease he held, and raised upon it a structure of white marble, which is said to have cost at IeastBOOjOOO. The piece of ground next to the Herald building, one hundred feet in length and fifty-six feet in width, was purchased by a New York insurance company for 350,000 dollars, and upon it they are constructing an edifice which will cost 800, 000 dollars. A thin slice of land, only four feet in width, and a hundred feet in length, lately brought the large sum of 75,000 dollars. The lease -mark it, the lease only—of another Broadway lot was but a few days since sold for 200,000 dollars, although within the last few years the same lease had exchanged hands at the comparatively insignificant price of 25,000 dollars. A ; merchant'bullfc a warehouse which, with the ground, cost him 400,000 dollars ; its value is now estimated at 800,000 dollars. A bookseller bought, some ten years ago, the Society Library building in Broadway for 150,00 C dollars, and a few months since sold the lot, after the building was burned down, for 450,000 dollars. The purchasers are raising upon it a structure which is to cost a million. —The Broadway Magazine.