English Extracts.

Auckland Chronicle and New Zealand Colonist, Volume 2, Issue 28, 15 February 1844, Page 3

English Extracts.

FsiitF.rt MaTIBIW recently ad ministered the temperance pledge io 4000 persons in Glasgow, including se> ril highly respectable individuals. In Ins addiess at Bree, in the County of Wexford, on the 4'h Octob r. last, he staled that 75 ptiesta had joined the ranks of Teetotalism, that Ri* chard Mti<grave, one of the most amiable men in Ireland, look the pledge that ilay fortnight, in the presence of thousands ; also the Karl of Erna at In Dublin mora than GOO ladies, headed by the Countess of' Claa« ricarde, had joined their ranks. (it ;ck or Death.—A court buffoon having offended his s iverelga, the monarch ordered bim to be brought before him, and with a stem countenance reproaching him, —''Wretch! yoa shall receive the pnaUameot you merit ; prepare yourself for death." Tbe culprit in great lewor lell upon his . ,ind cried for mercy, " I will extend no other mercy t> you," san) the prince, " except* permittinj; you to choose wlmt kind of death yoa will die. I lecids immediately, for 1 will be obeyed." ' I adore your clemency,'' said the crafty jester, " I choose to die of old age," ()»d Fellows. —The origin of Odd Fellows te of very great antiquity ; it wis established by tbe Roman soldiers, m the camp, during tbe reign of Niio, in the year fifiy-five. At that Uav thev were called fellow citixenn , the n;inio of t)dd h'ellows I en them by Titus Cesser, in the year seventynine, from the singularity ot their notious, and from their knowing each other, by sight or by sjaj, and for their ndOUt) t i lumnml their country. At the same time, as a pledge of friendship, he presented them with a dispensation, engraved oo a plate sf gold, hearing ditreient emblems, such a* the sun, the lamb, the lion, the dsrOSs, and the era-bl-ras of mortality. The tint account of the Order being spread in other countries is in the filth century, when it was established in S|min ; in tha sixth century by Kinp, Henry in Portugal ; and in the twelfth century it was established in France and afterwards by De Neville, attended by tWe French Knifghts, who formed a Loyal Grand Lodge of Honour in London, which order remained until the eighteenth century, when a part of them began to foira themselves into a union, whose object waste relieve its members who, thionijh di»tre»s, were compefled to travel in search of employment, which was supported by voluntary subscriptions, calling themselves the Loyal Am lm*. Odd Fellowr, tendon Tfivtss,