The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-11-10
FOREIGN ITEMS.

LAST year the value of the eggs i'm
ported into England was e2, 670,231.
EARL RUSSELL is so old and feeble that
he has to be lifted into and out of his
carriage.
A FRENCH Senator is compiling list
of all known engravers of artistic dis
tinction. The number exceeds $4,000.
Miss EMILY FAITHFUL has started q
penny local newspaper in London, which
is meeting with encouraging success.
SINCE the Crimean war England has
reduced her national debt from $780,
100000 to e712,000,000 Persons now
living may see the debt extinguished al
together. Then again they may not.
THE third wife of the Khedive of
Egypt has taken in hand the education
of Egyptian girls. Several fourishing
schools have been started by her, and it
seems likely that the time-honored ORR
entail prejudice against the education of
women will at length be overcome.
THE rapidity with which the Germans
adopt every improvement in means and
methods of warfare is shown by the fact
that all the guns carried by the ships of
the German navy, or mounted in the
Notifications on the shores of Germany,
are reech-loadlng rifled ordnance.
THE colonies and dependencies of
Great Britain embrace about onethird
the surface of the globe and nearly one
fourth its population, comprising thirty
nine administrative divisions, of which
three are in Europe, eleven in America
Ton IN A friro IN ein -,
Oceanica.
THE Republic of Guatemala is the first
State which has made the trade in wine
and spirits Government monopoly
From the LIST of January, 1878, private
families are prohibited, according to a
decree of the Government recently pro-
mulgated, from importing wine and spir-
its into that country, and from the LIST Of
July following the whole of the business
passes into the hands Of the Government
BISHOP STRossMAYER, of Hungary, has
an income of nearly 100000 a year.
Canon Liddon, who lately visited the
magnificent Bishop, was charmed with
the man and amazed at the medieval
splendor of his establishment. Every
day in the year he gives dinners to forty
or fifty poor persons, In church build
ing, as in the other thing" said the Bish,
op, " the nearer we get to primitive way
the better"
THOMAS FRASER DUFF, a noted archi-
tect, died at Chantilly, France recently,
aged forty-six, owing, it is said, to deep
emotion, caused by the heroism of his
youngest boy, who saved child from
drowning at great risk. Mr.. Duff was
one of the few descendants of Fyfe Mac
Duff, the hero of the battle of Stirling in
Scotland, gained by King Kenneth II.
over the Picts in the ninth century. The
Earl of Fyfe represents the family.
THE sportsmen of Liege, Belgium,
have offered prize for the cat of great
est speed in the city. The method of as
certaining the superior animal is of a
ludicrous nature. The cats are to be
brought in boxes to the public square on
a certain night, and at midnight are to
be released. The distance between the
square and the houses of the owners of
the several cats is to be measured, and
the cat making the greatest speed to its
own backyard is to receive the prize.
THE French Free Masons have long
been divided upon the question as to
whether a belief in the "Grand Archi-
tect of the Universe" should be a dog
ma of their order. At the recent Ma
sonic Convention in France the second
clause of the constitution, which ran
thus: Freemasonry holds to the princi-
pie of the existence of God and of the
immortality of the SOUL" was altered by
an immense majority to Freemasonry
holds to the principle Of an absolute
freedom of conscience and to the brother
hood of mankind. 1t excludes no one
on account of his belief"
THE Kingdom of Bantam, on the Isl
and of Java, is tributary of Holland.
1t is rich and happy kingdom, and
from time immemorial has been governed
wholly by women. The King is indeed
man, but he is merely figure head,
dependent on his Council of State, which
consists of three women. All the sol
dlers, military, State and county officers
are women, the men of the community
being merchants and farmers. The Kings
body-guard is a battalion of picked am
azons, who ride man-fashion, armed with
lance and musket, which latter they dis
charge at full gallop. The capital city
is defended by two well-kept fortresses.
AT Kanthalai, Ceylon, there is a mag
nificent tank on scale so enormous that
it would now cost more than So, 100000
to erect it. Still more remarkable is the
great store tank of Kalowewa Its cir
conference is supposed to have been
hardly less than thirty miles, and it was
kept full by two rivers. Channels ex-
tended from it over fifty miles, which
conveyed an unfailing supply of water
to certain large store tanks and thence
to minor village tanks. The Ceylon
Governments propose to gradually restore
many of these great works. Here we
see how the ancients prevented famines.
THE Belgians have hit upon new spe-
cies of amusement-cat racing. The last
great meeting looking place at Belcele,
near Bonsecours. There were seventy
entries for the principal event. The an
finals (who were in previous training, it
is to be presumeD were taken some four
miles distance from the village, and
there let loose in presence of the Burgo.
master and an immense gathering of
rustics. The first prize, silver coffee.
pot, was carried off by Minette, a pretty