... NEW YEARS DAY. Till 1751 the legal New Year's Day was on the 25th. o; March. W~ith the exception of Sweden, Rtussia, and Greece (the two latter still cling to thle. old style), England was the Jest European nlatten to adoot the new or Gregorian style of commiencinig the year Ona the 1st of January. Prom the seventh to the thirteenth century' the year in Englanld was reckonedl from ...

... THE PEACCE PROGSPECT. RUSSIAN STATEMENTS. [Reucter's Tclceram.] ST, PETERsmurto, December 31.-Astonishment is ex- pressed in political circles here at the continually recurring newspaper report that Russia intends crossing the Austrian or German frontier, or both frontiers. It is pointed out that the official intercourse of the RuEsian Government with the Vienua Cabinet is friendly, while ...

... EAREL Y EDITION, Dailxy Post Office, 1.30 a.m. - I FOREIGN NEWS, c'' _ ~~~~~~~I! L-Peuter's Tegrae22-,w THE EMPEROtR OF GERMANNY. BzranLTe. January 1.-The Emperor this morning re- ceived the congratulations of the generals and colonels of the Imperial Life Guards on the occasion of the New Year. His Majesty subsequently gave an audience to the Ministers and the Diplomatic Corps. FRANCE AND ...

... LADY BrRDETT-COUITTS AND THE POOPR I'-ND AGED. Writing to the 'ir-ee, the Baroness Bourdett-Couts says :-l the culurrtns oi the daily press At Thursday there appears the report of the death of an old rman named Assdell, aged eighty-eight. At the in- quest held a verdict was returned of natural deati, accelerated through Want of nourishment. The old man and his wife might, of course, have gone ...

... MINED THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS I1 FRANCE. The sensation which France produces on tk - E pressinnable f-eigner is first of all that of r' - exhilaration. Pris, especial!y. is electric. To-ih it a. any point anu you receive an awakinc shocL. Lbe i, it and you lose all lethargy. -Nothinn stasn r- Everyone visibly and acutely feels himnself alive. : tr,i: versal vivacity is contagious. You find ...

... TO-DAY'S NVEAT-aER FORECASTS. 0. Scotland, I. .. Southerld winds, freshening; dull. son_ I. Scotland, - .. - rain or sleet. 2. England N £ 'Z. England, sf.__ ) Sous.h-casfearly nr sscuthrelu siefe. trot 4. han. (:ocu-nTT'-. r fstroe7: w-e-ather dae1fftuf, hot prcwte E. England, S, (Lon-j s ,-Ulrrf. trifle seswn -tsptlces. lor & CbhnneL).' 6. Scottaid, W.. I, -yad suhrv-n 7. Englard, N W ...

... THE DRAMATIC 'YEAR. One of the very last deliverances of a famous authoress but recentlv removed from our midst was an essay upon a popular Shakspearean revival, in which, leaving her sub- ject for awhile, she deplored the fact that nowadays it swas scarcely possible to witness any representation in a London theatre without going away with a nasty taste in the mouth. Looking over the dramatic ...

... KEEP THE MOU71TH CLOSED. Some of us Who have attained to the dignity of middle. age may remember the time when George Catlin, the famous American traveller, startled nervous people by esolnly warning them of the danger of openinj their months. Carlyle, whose mouth, by the way, when he had anybody to listen to him, was certainly ' open to a very considerable extent, had emphatically tittered ...

... PASTORAL BY THE BISHOP OF LICEILELD. The Lord Bishop of Lichfield (Dr. Maclagan), in a plis- feral letter, deals at great length with the e'ilciencv of the clergy. He expresses a hope that some progress has been made in this direction ; but he is strongly convinced that much more ought to be done. In the fore front of the question. he says, ]ies the subject of ordination and its surroundings ...

... A VISIT TO TMR. PYNE'S CASTLE. I have (writes a correspondent of the Pail maIl Gazette) just returned from visiting Mr. Douglas Pyne, L.P., in his beleaguered castle of Lisfinney. It is a picturesque old ruin, standiun amid wild and rugged uplands that stretch from the banks of the Blackwater, to the base of the Knock-mail-down Hills. It is abont four miles from Lis- more, the Irish seat of ...

... A popular winter resort--Hot rum and water. New scheme for cettinc rid of creditors.-Pay 'em. A liquor saloon in Cutler, in-diana, was recently blown up by Temperance dynrnaiters. | The Sultan of Mocha at the Strand reaches its hundredth represettation to-day. M. Jules Simon completed his seventy-third year on Saturday. He was born at Lorient. Nine hundred thousand dog licenses were issued ...

... THE VISIT OF MR. H. GLADSTONE. The Grand Master of the County Fermanagh Orange- men has issued a circular calling a meeting of the members of that institution to decide the steps to be taken in the event of Mr. B. Gladstone taking part in the Dromore Home Rule demonstration on the 6th inst. At a similar meeting, held exactly four years ago, an Orangeman named Giffin was killed daring a riot ...