PENRITH HERALD and East Cumberland and Westmorland News =================================================== SMALL NEWS ITEMS. MILDNESS OF THE SEASON. - Two young gooseberries were seen by MR. J. DOUTHWAITE, growing in MR. TEASDALE's garden, at Dufton House, on the 10th inst. A MELBOURNE TELEGRAM announces that Victoria is experiencing an intensely hot season, and the weather is very dry. A COMMITTEE consisting of LORD LANSDOWNE, President, MR. CAMPBELL BANNERMAN, M.P., the Quartermaster-General, MAJOR-GENERAL ARMSTRONG, SIR JOHN ADYE, and SIR WILLIAM DRAKE, is now sitting at the War Office, to inquire into the organisation of the Control Department. M. DE CHAUDORDY, the new French ambassador to Switzerland, was officially received by the Federal Council on the 8th inst. IT IS STATED that several well-known barristers have applied to the Lord Chancellor for "silk", and it is expected that early in the term, some appointments will be made. DR. CAIRD, the Principal of the Glasgow University, is to be called over the coals for heresy. His particular offence is differing from the belief of a certain elder. THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF WALES left London on Saturday night for Russia. They travelled from Charing-cross by a special train to Dover, and a considerable crowd mustered on the platform to take leave of them. MR. LAYARD will have another serious complaint to make at Madrid. An English steamer, the ' Ellen Constance ', was fired into by the Spanish flagship as she was leaving Porman. Not content with this, the flag-ship ran into her and sank her, drowning three of the crew. THE REV. J. CROMPTON, Free Christian Minister at Norwich, who recently seceded to the Church of England, is about to seek orders in the diocese of Exeter. Several of MR. CROMPTON's congregation at Norwich have joined the Church of England. AT THE MANSION HOUSE POLICE-COURT, LONDON, a serious loss has been sustained through the death of the chief clerk, MR. G. C. OKE. The Lord Mayor, in making this announcement, eulogised the ability and zeal which MR. OKE had always displayed as the confidential adviser of a long succession of civic magistrates. THE CARPENTER, BOATSWAIN, and six seamen of the British barque ' City of Durham ', of Sunderland, bound to Rio de Janerio with a cargo of coals, were brought before the East Stonehouse magistrates on Saturday, and each sentenced to ten week's imprisonment in Exeter Gaol for refusing to do duty when at sea. ASSAULT ON A HUSBAND WITH A HAMMER. - A woman named ANN FIELD or SANDERSON was accused before Sheriff HAMILTON, at the Summary Court, recently, of having assaulted her husband on the 4th inst. The panel denied the charge, but as it appeared from the evidence that on the evening of the day in question, she dealt her husband two blows on the head with a hammer, the sheriff ordered her to be kept at hard labour for sixty days. POISONING BY MISTAKE. - The village of Creek, the scene of the recent poisoning of MRS. GULLIVER seems unfortunate. An inquest has just been held there on the body of an old man, named THOMAS SIMCOE, a small farmer, who died from partaking of a pudding in which "Cooper's Dipping Composition" had been mixed in lieu of egg-flour. It seems his wife, an old woman of 70, made the pudding, mixing with it the powder, which was in a cupboard with other condiments, and which she supposed to be egg-flour. She and her husband and grand-daughter partook of it, and all became very ill afterwards. The old woman and her grand-daughter recovered, but the old man succumbed. He was put to bed and went to sleep, but never woke again. He was found dead by his wife's side.