Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 December 1875 — News of the week. [ARTICLE]

News of the week.

FOKRIGN. The town of Arecibo, Porto Rico, was near ly destroyed by an earthquake on the Bth of December. Gen. Jovellar, the Spanish Minister of War, has been appointed Captain-General of Cuba. A Naples dispatch of the3lst says Mount Vesuvius showed a gradual increase of fire and smoke, and Prof. Palmieri had predicted a long period of eruption. A Lisbon* special of the 2lst says a Portu. guese gunboat had been ordered to the island of St. Thomas, in the Gulf of Guinea, to put down an alleged insurrection of the negroes. The election of Senators by the French Assembly has resulted ini the choice of thirteen Legitimists, four Orleanists, one Bonapartist and fifty-eigh't Republicans. Henry Wainwright, who was convicted of the murder of Harriet Lane in Whitechapel road, London, in September last, was hanged at Newgate on the 21st. He left a written statement acknowledging the justice of his seateace. A special from Berlin to the London Times of the 22d says it had been ascertained that the total number killed by the dynamite explosion at Bremer Haven was 128; wounded, 56; twenty of the injured were hopelessly maimed, and there were 56 widows and 135 orphans of victims of the disaster, for whose benefit it was proposed to raise a subscription fund of <75,000. A Vienna special of the 22d says eight} insurgent delegates had recently met at Jamnetza, in Bosnia, and unanimously rejected the Sultan’s firman, proposing sundry reforms, as unworthy of confidence. They had formed a sort of provisional government.’ The British training-ship Goliath was burned at Gravesend on the morning of the 22d. It was thought that twenty boys had perished. A Shanghai (China) dispatch of the 22d announces that Chen Lang Pin and Yung Heng had been appointed Ministers to the United States. According to a Vienna special of the 23d thirty-six Turks had recently been arrested for conspiracy to murder some of the Christian subjects of Turkey. It was reported that the Prince of Montenegro had negotiated a loan of ?1,000,000 and was about to interfere in behalf of the Herzegovinians. News had been received at St. Petersburg, Russia, on the 23d of the complete suppression of the Khokand rebellion. The neighboring rebellious tribes had also been defeated with very great loss. A report was current in Havana on the 23d that Wm. M. Tweed had arrived there on a schooner, and had been seen by several New Yorkers in that city who had known him by sight. A Cairo (Egypt) dispatch of the 24th says an expedition consisting of 12,000 men would start for Abyssinia atonce. It would be accompanied by every American officer in the,Khedive’s service. _ The death of Right Hon. Earl Stanhope, a well-known historian and essayist, was announced from London on the 24th. A Penang(Maiat‘ea) special of the 24th reports the capture of Kintah by the British troops and the flight of the rebel l leaders to Pal an e. A Berlin telegram of the 26th says the leading American residents of that city hadcalled a meeting for the purpose of protesting against the strictures of the German press on America! character in their com. ments on the Bremer Haven plot. Herr a correspondent of the Schlesische Zeitutiq, has been arrested and maltreated by Turkish troops in Bosnia, and the Berlin Government has been asked to interfere. , ‘ 1 A Madrid dispatch of the 26th says the royal palace at Barcelona had been almost entirely destroyed by fire on that day. A St. Petersburg dispatch of the 26th says the disorders in Khokand would soon be made the occasion by Russia for the annexation of the remainder of the country. The recent threatened bread riots in Montreal were averted for the time being by the employment of between 1,000 and 2,000 laborers to work on city improvements at the rate of seven cents an hour.

DOMESTIC. A report that Secretary Bristow had ordered to be paid to the Union Pacific Railway Com- . pany the sum adjudged due by the Supreme Court is pronounced erroneous by a Washington telegram of the 23d. A large gas-main running under Federal street, in South Boston, Mass., exploded on the 23d with a loud report, tearing up the pavement for a long distance. The street was thronged with people at the time, and many were buried under the debris. A grainhouse was badly shattered and the foreman instantly killed. A number of persons were blown into the water and drowned. The number of victims as far as ascertained up to the morning of the 23d was as follows: Killed, 20; fatally injured, 4; seriously hurt, 9; slightly, 3. Seven persons were missing and were supposed to have been blown into the water, in addition to those already' taken therefrom. The Bank of Brandywine, at West Chester, f’a., made assignments, on the 22d, for he benefit cf its creditors. It was thought depositors would be paid in full. A suit in the. Circuit Court at St Louis against the Sy&ouri State Lottery, managed by Murray, Miller & Co., charging them with usurpation of their franchise and praying for judgment of ouster, was decided on the 23d against the defendants. An appeal was taken to the Supreme Court The Commercial Loan Company and Savings Bank of Chicago suspended on the 21st. It was reported that depositors would realize about eighty cents on the dollar of their claims. An advance in railroad freights over the different routes between Xbe East and West Las been recently est ablished. 1 At Augusta, Ga., two men named Tilley and Ratcliffe recently fought a duel with pistols, in which, the former was badlywounded. He died the following day. A violent earthquake shoek was felt in Richmond, V*., on the night of the 22d. The guests at the different hotels were so alarmed from the rocking of the buildings as to assemble in the parlore en deJiabUU, ready to leave. The alarm was genera], the shock being felt in all parts of the city, and citizens leaving their domicifth in fright. The, governor of Pennsylvania has nar-

, doned Xi'ngo Parks and several others of the miners convicted In Clearfield County of con spiring together for riotous purposes. The annual report of the Southern Claims Commission shows that there were considered during the past year 1,561 cases, involving nearly (4,000,000. Up to the date of the report the commission had considered 22,000 cases in all, and 12,000 were still waiting to be investigated. The number of claims allowed the last year was 775, involving about (500,000. to the amount of (3,300,000 were disallowed. " ’ It was thought in Boston on the 23d that the number of lives lost by the gas explosion would be reduced to five, as several who were reported missing had appeared all safe. One or two s os the wounded would probably die. The Executive Committee of the Michigan Agricultural Society, sitting at Detroit, decided to hold the State Fair five days, commencing Sept. 18. The location was dot decided upon. Dispatches received at San Francisco, Cal., on the 23d from'San Diego state that a revolution was in progress in Northern Mexico, she Yagui Indians were in revolt, and Gov. Pesquiera had levied a special tax to carry on the war. One dispatch is to the effect that the revolutionists had attacked San Rafael, the capital of Lower California, killed Gov. Villagrana and twenty-nine other persons, and had possession of everything. It was also reported that a portion of Pesquiera’s forces had entered Arizona. Under instructions from Judge Knight, of the Circuit Court, Chief of Police McDonough,’of St. Louis, notified the managers of the Missouri State Lottery that no further selling of tickets or dx-awings would be permitted after the 23d. ! The lowa State Horticultural Society has been called to meet at Des Moines on the 18th, 19th and 20th of January.

A Washington telegram of the 2Qth sajs it appears from official correspondence that the Mexican Secretary. of Foreign Affairs had stated, in reply to a request of our Minister to Mexico for permission for regular United States troops to follow raiders across the border, that the Mexican Executive had no authority to grant such request without the consent of Congress? Minister Foster said in reply that the acknowledgment by the Mexican Government of its inability to restrain the lawlessness of its own citizens would afford the strongest possible argument to all advocates of the acquisition of territory there may be in the United States. Mr. Foster further said that the citizens of Texas must be protected, and if protection did not come from the Mexican Government it must come from ours. A recent Philadelphia dispatch announces that there had just been received in that city a formal acceptance by Pope Pius IX. of an invitation by tlie Centennial authorities requesting His Holiness to give his recognition to the enterprise by contributing to the Exposition works of art from the galleries of the Vatican or from the workshops over which he has control. The letters of the Pope are couched in the warmest terms of friendship for the United States. Patrick Kanen, who was recently convicted at Cleveland, Ohio, of manslaughter for starving his idiot son to death, has been sentenced to the Penitentiary for ten years. At Cincinnati, a few nights ago, Mrs. Lawrence dropped a coal-oil lamp, which was broken. Tie fire caught in the carpet and In her clothes, and in a moment she was wrapped in flames, and was fearfully and probably fatally burned. Her husband and daughter made efforts to save her and were themselves badly burned about the hands. Q The mercury in the thermometer rose to eighty degrees above zero at Mempnis, xTenn., on the 25th. It was reported from San Francisco on the 25th that United States troops had gone to the Sonora frontier to protect American soil from invasion by the Mexicans. PEHSONAL. At Milwaukee, on the 21st, Philip Weimer, a distiller convicted of revenue frauds, was sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment in the County Jail and to pay a fine of $2,000. John S. Taft, a Government Gauger, was sentenced to the State Prison for five months and to pay a tine of (2,000. The polygamist, George Reynolds, was sentenced at Salt Lake on the 21st, by ChiefJustice White, to two years’ imprisonment and to pay a tine of SSOO. Reynolds took out an appeal and was released on (10,000 bail. President Grant was present as a guest at the seventh annual dinner of the New England Society, Jn New York, on the 22d, in commemoration of the anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. Many other distinguished persons were in attendance and responded to toasts. Thejuryinthe recent trial of the Bowen libel suit against the Brooklyn Eagle found a verdict for the plaintiff, aSd fixed the damages at SI,OOO. The other eases of libel are to be tried next term. The Moody and Sankey services in Philadelphia on the 26th were largely attended, and Mr. Moody said the morning meeting was the most encouraging one he has held in this country. The inquiry-rooms were crowded both afternoon and evening. The jury in the trial at Leavenworth, Kan., of Embry, for the shooting of Col. Anthony, returned a verdict on the 24th, of not guilty, after a consultation of about five minutes. W. C. Whitson, Associate-Justice of the Supreme Court of Idaho, died at Omaha on the 25th of paralysis, aged thirty-eight.

I POLITICAL. At a special election in the Seventh Judidial District of Illinois, held on the 21st, T. Lyle Dickey, of Chicago, was chosen Judge of the Supreme Court of the Stale, to succeed Judge McAllister, resigned. A Washington dispatch of the 22d says the Granger cases, involving the question of the right of States to regulate the carrying rates of railroads, will be further argued before tire Supreme Court on the 11th of January. ’ President Grant has signed the bill farther extending the time of duration of the Court of Commissioners on the Alabama Claims to the 22d of July nex r . E ght lawyers of Franklin, La., a few days ago handed to Judge Mentz, of the Sc Mary’s Parish Court, a document, signed by themselves, requesting him to resign because, as tLey alleged, of his manifest incompetency and the interested motives which, in most cases, influence his judicial decisions. The Judge replied that he had trie(| to perform his duty faithfully and illy, and stated that, inasmuch as the signers of the , paper did not vote for him at the List electron, he should continue to administer the fauctions of his office until his constituents (ipeaniug. the colored people) called upon him to resign. The uiemoers of the bar talked of ap. pealing to the next Legislature to secure the Judge's impeachment by that body.