Extracts.

Auckland Chronicle and New Zealand Colonist, Volume 2, Issue 11, 18 October 1843, Page 4

Extracts.

Church of Scotland.—Those of our readers who are members of the Church of will peruse the following paragraph with some interest. It is an extract of a letter from Edinburgh, dated in January last:—We have, as yon will have noticed, much trouble and division in our Church at present. It has at last assumed adetermined appearance, rather than yield their conscientious principles, give up the emoluments of their office, and trust to a devoted people to go out of the establishment with them and supply their wants. A physician in Paris, on visiting a case, found an Abbe playing at cards in the patient's chamber. Struck by the unfavourable aspect of the Abbe's face, he informed him that he had not a moment to lose t but must be carried home instantly. The Abbe, overpowered with terror, was taken to his lodgings, where, for several days, he was bled, cupped, and purged, till he was brought to the brink of the grave; yet his face still bore the appearance which had so much alarmed, the physician. The brother of the patient at length arrived from a distant part of France, and asked what was the matter with his unfortunate relation ! " Don'i you see," said the bystanders, " his mouth is all on one side ?" " Alas !'' he replied, " my poor brother has had his mouth on one side these 40 years."ArnoWs Hungerian Oration. A song, a word, a flower, a few strains of music, nay, even one note, will suffice to restore the link that time has broken, and the associations connected with the past; and memory, like the golden hues of departing day, whilst it invests each object with a borrowed lustre, leaves it that mel'owed softness which is so peculiarly its own. Sympathy.—lt is only from those who have themselves suffered, that we may expect sympathy or consolation in our distress. A heart that has bled for its own can seldom be hardened to another's woe,

"Adventure of a Blue Jacket." In Bent ley's Miscellany, is a true story of a sailor, of the tough old school, who took a garrisoned fort, near Calcutta, by mistake, when he was drunk, having swam of from his vessel, scaled the walls at, midnight by way of a frolic, frightened the Dutch garrison, who thought that the English had effected a breach, and sent them scampering out at the gates as fast as their short squat legs could carry them. The old tar then composed mimself for a nap on the ramparts, and, having slept off his drunkenness, began wondering how he had got into the fort, what had become of the garrison, and how it was that he was absent from his ship, which was lying in the river hard by. The rest of the story shall be told in the writers own words :*-•-- "Jim rubbed his eyes. He pinched bis legs, and, walking up to a tank, actually drank three mouthfujsof water before he could believe that he was awake. He then strutted up to the ramparts, and convinced himself that he was in his proper senses, for there lay the two frigates, and there floated the union jack, for which he had often risked his life. « Shiver my! timbers, but this is a queer go !' said he, and with that, he twitched up his trowsers as usual, and shook the pigtail, which then hung from every sailors head. The vessels, perceiving a man thus expose himself", began to fire at him. *■ Avast there !' shouted Jim; but, as they did not hear him or attend to him, he ran to the principal battery, and, climbing up to the flagstaff, pulled down the Dutch colours and hoisted up a ragged old turban he found lying in one of the streets. The commanders of the vessels thought this extremely odd. Something strange had evidently happened, so they sent a boat on shore, bearing a flag of truce, carried by the first lieutenant of one of the frigates. Unmolested the party marched up to the fort, and as the gates were open, unmolested they marched into it. Not a soul did they meet, till Jim strutted up to them. ' Hollo, you sir, what's the meaning of this?' said the first lieutenant to Bunting, in a voic& of anger, for it was sadly injra dig. for an officer of his rank to have been thus sent off to parley with a common sailor. ' What's the meaning of this?' • Please your honour, 1 hope ' you wont be angry, leeftenant, but, or other. I've taken this place. The enemy have cut the painter and sheered off.' " What !' cried the superior, ' You took the fort ?' Jim nodded, « An'u pray, who the devil gave yon leave to do so, I should like to know? get on board, sir, directly.* Ay, ay, sir,'replied Jim, respectfully, instantly doing as he was desired. In the meantime, the lieutenani had formally taken possession of the place by running up the British colours ; then writing a most pompous despatch, in which he recommended the real capto* to be tried for leaving his ship without permission, he sent it back by a young midshipman, remaining behind himself, with half-a-dozen sailors, in order, as he expressed it, to garrison the fort. Strange to say, his recommendation was attended to, and Jim Bunting brought to a court-martial, who most reluctantly were compelled to find him guilty, adjudging him, however, to undergo the least possible punishment that could be inflicted for so glaring a breach of discipline. Jim felt highly indignant at the turn things had taken. He could not help thinking himself,an ill-used man; but he bore it stoically. When, however, he heard the verdict delivered ; when he heard himself pronounced guilty, he ouce more hitched up his nether garments, and exclaimed in an audible voice as he left the cabin. * D—n my eyes if 1 take another fort as long a s I live.' Preservation of Magna Charta. Sir R Cotton, while collecting his literary treasures, being one day at his tailor's, discovered that the man held in his hand, ready lobe cut up for measures, the original Magna Charta, with all its appendages of seals and signatures. He bought this singular curiosity for a trifle, and resovered in this manner what had long been given up for lost.— Cornish Juryman s Legal Hand-Book. Tee-totalism.—The tee-totallers of Boyle, county of Roscommon, have given to the parish chapel there a present of a magnificent chandelier, silver crucifix for the altar* The value of both exceeds £SS,