Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1858-10-09 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

EPITOME OF NEWS.  FROM China, a somewhat unexpected piece of intelligence has been received, which, although coming from an unu,nal source, there seems to be but too good foundation to believe. The report to which we refer states that the authorities at Canton pretended to put no confidence in the treaty of peace, and countenanced attacks on the allies whenever a favorable opportunity presented itself. The French squadron, we are informed, was, on 21st August, the date of the intelligence in question, preparing to proceed to Cochin  THE unfortunate sufferers by the recent failure of the Western Bank of Scotland have been subjected to another calamity, by the additional demand made upon them for the payment of £lOO per share. As will be observed from a statement which we publish in another column, this, with the former call, makes a payment of .£125 on each share of .£5O, showing a total loss of £173 per share, and the payment must he made within one month from the date of the demand being made.  WE puL:ish in another part of the Herald of to-day the painful intelligence of the burning, at sea, of the screw steamer "Austria," which left Southampton for New York on 4th September last. The vessel, it is supposed, must have been about three-fourths of her way across the Atlantic when this sad calamity occurred, the origin of which has not yet been ascertained. On board the unfortunate steamer were no fewer than between 400 and 500 passengers, nearly all of whom, it is feared, have met with a watery grave. The majority of the passengers were emigrants from Germany, and it unfortunately happens that the agents of the company have no list of their names. The accounts represent the number of the steamer's boats as being inadequate for calamitous emergency ; but the hope nevertheless is indulged that they had beeu instrumental in saving a few, while some, it is believed, have been picked up by other vessels.  A LAMENTABLE instance of parental depravity and its sad results has recently been divulged at one of the London Police Courts. The case was that in which a cutler, named Robert Johnson, was charged with the non-maintenance of his daughter, a girl about 18 years of age. From the evidence elicited in the course of the painful investigation, it appeared that the young girl had, on a previous occasion, attempted to commit suicide, by throwing herself from London Bridge into the Thames. To this rash and inconsiderate step, she informed the magistrates, she bad had recourse under the influence of a dejected state of mind, induced by the cruel conduct and unnatural treatment of her father. After the death of her maternal guardian, the education uf the unfortunate girl, as well as that of other sisters and brothers, had been undertaken by a relative ; but such, nevertheless, were the base ingratitude and inhumanity manifested by the heartless defendant that he coolly told the former that they might go into the streets and obtain a living for themselves. The result of -such advice was the course adopted by one of the unhappy gids which we have indicated above. Nor, strange to relate, did the grey-haired delinquent seem to be greatly moved by the unenviable position in which he was placed ; and the bench sentenced him to one month's imprisonment—a punishment, it must be admitted, by no means superadequate to the magnitude of the crime.