Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1886-06-26 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

NEWS NOTES.  We deem it right to state that we do not identity ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]  IT seent3 rather strange that the remains of a King, who was insane and whocommitted suicide, should lie in state as a public show. But this has been done at Munich in the case of the illfated Sovereign of Bavaria. In Germany "the divinity that doth hedge a King" appears to be more strongly felt than in any other country of Europe. The insanity of Otto, who has succeeded Ludwig, is so hopeless, that he cannot be made to understand the change of condition he has undergone, and it is believed that he will go to his grave without ever knowing that he was a King.  COLONEL LOCKHART and his party, who were on their way to join the Afghan Boundary Commission, which has not yet finished its labours, have found themselves unexpectedly placed in awkward and perhaps dangerous circumstances. In a telegraphic message from Shirawagar, they were reported to be surrounded, and unable either to advance or retreat, but in a later tele. gram from Bombay, it is stated that they have been made prisoners by the Chief of Badakshan, and are now confined in the fort of that place. Perhaps the chief, in the customary style of Italian and Greekbrigands, expects to obtain a heavy ransom for their release.  FROM Melbourne there has come a message announcing that the French flag has been hoisted in the New Hebrides, belonging to the Meleuasian group of South Pacific Islands, of which New Caledonia, a French penal settlement, also formsa part. It was at Erro-Manga, in the New Hebrides, which have a large population, that the Missionary Williams was murdered. The shipowners at Sydney has turned the islands to good account by conveying therefrom freights of odoriferous sandal-wood to China, where it is extensively used in the temples. Our Australian Colonists appear to have a suspicion that the French Government intend to make another New Caledonia of the New Hebrides.  THE House of Commons has decided that the cost of Parliamentary elections shall be paid, like all other elections, by the community but there is some reason to doubt if this decision will be sustained by the House of Lords. In many cases the official charges made by the Returning Officers in connection with the late general election were as large as if no Corrupt Practices Act had ever passed through Parliament. Charges which go 'beyond all reasonable bounds amount to a continuance of the property qualification in Parliamertary candidates.  THE proceedings connected with the election of a new Parliament are in active progress before the present one is dissolved. The manifesto of Lord Hartington has now taken its plane side by side with those of Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Chamberlain. No long interval was allowed to lapse between the issue of the Prime Minister's address to his constituents and his departure from the metropolis to embark in another brief Midlothian campaign. He has found an opponent, not in any Liberal seceder, but in Colonel Walker, a Conservative. The number of candidates already in the field belonging to the Conservative party, and to the GlAdstonian and seceding sections of the Liberal party, have been published; but these numbers are undergoing alterations every day.  A SITADOV has been cast over one department at least of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition at South Kensington by the death, at his residence in London, of Sir Alexander Stuart, the Executive Commissioner for New South Wales. Sir Alexander, who was a native of Edinburgh, became general manager of the Bank of New South Wales at Sydney in 1851. He obtained the post of Colonial Treasurer in 1876, and acted as Prime Minister of the Colony from 1883 to 1885. The news of his death must have caused great and general regret in Sydney, where he was highly esteemed.  SPORTSMEN have no prospects before them this year of a successful shooting seasonin the Highlands. The snowstorms of last winter, which continued from the beginning of December till the middle of May, proved very destructive to the grouse, and the survivors are in the poorest possible condition. Nesting-time was much later than usual, and few nests have been observed among the heather containing eggs. In these circumstances sportsmen, looking to their own interests in the future, should give a year of grace to the grouse. The severity and length of the winter had also the effect of nearly exterminating hares and rabbits, few of which are to be seen among the mountains.  MANY had an idea that the severe winter would be followed by a hot and dry summer, but this expectation has not been hitherto realised. It can hardly be said that June has as yet made amends for the shortcomings of May. The agricultural proverb about "rain in June keeping corn in tune," only applies to moderate falls of rain, followed by glowing sunshine and wafts of balmy air. Farmers have been op much troubled by the lateness of the season, that they feel anything but satisfied at the prospects of a general election.