MISCELLANEOUS.

Auckland Times, Volume 2, Issue 54, 23 January 1844, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

Tobacco Versus Women.—A curious circumstance connected with the cultiq of tobacco in Virginia is worth noticing. The planters, in the beginning of the 17th century, being all by.che!ors, regarded themselves merely as temporary sojourners in the colony. The London Company, which was established in 1606 for the colonization of Virginia, with a view to their steadiness, sent out a number of respectable young women to supply the re with wives. These ladies actually sold for 1201 bs of tobacco being the quantity considered eqvivalent. to the expenses of Ihe voyage.

*d GUrry—flu: romance and of war.—Sir Charles Bell, the en urgeon, it is well known Waterloo after the 3 to the wounded, and study hfe profession on the : of battle. Renter a Memoirs ■ jast puhi we find a letter from Sir Charles, of which the following m an extract: -*) write to you, after ■ • at home, engaged in Consequently disenchanted of the horrors of the of Waterloo. After I had beea fi. e days engaged in the prosecution oi my object, 1 found that the best eases-that is, the most horrid wounds, left totally without assistance were to be found ia the hosoital of the French wounded, This hospital was only terming: they were even then bringing these poor creatures in from the woods, it is impossible to carry to you the picture of human misery continually before my eyes. What was heart rending in the day was intolerable in the night; and I rose and wrote at (our o'clock in the morning to the Chief Surgeon Gunning, offering to perform the necessary operations upon the 'French, At six o'clock I took the knife in my hand, and continued incessantly at work till seven, in tho evening: and sc second day, and again on the third All the* decencies of performing surgical operations were soon neglected While I amputated one man's thigh, there lay at one time thirteen, all beseeching to be taken next-one full of entreaty, one calling upon me to perform my promise to take him, another execrating. It was a strange thing to feel my clothes stiff with blood, and my arms powerless with the e*erdon oi* using the knife; and more extraordinary still, to find my mind cairn such variety of suffering ; but to give one of these objects access to your feeling* was to allow you- anaeq* for the performance of a duty, it was. less painful to look upon the whole than to contemplate one object- \ I first went round the war; wounded prisoners, my sensations weie very extraordinary. We had ev< where heard of the manner in which these men had fought—noth.?. c surpass their devotedness. In a long ward, containing fifty, there was no ex* pression of suffering—no one spoke to his neighbour. There was a resentful, su.'len rigidness of face, a fierceness in their dark eyes, as they lay hali in the sheets. • e 4 I was interrupt ed, and now I perceive I was falling in. to the mistake oi attempting to eon~ vey to you the feelings which took possession of me amidst the miseries of Brussels. After being eight days among the wounded, I visited the field of battle. The view of the field, the gallant stories, the charges, the individual instances of enterprise, and valour, recalled me to the sense which the world has of - Victory" and " Waterloo." But this was transient: a gloomy, uncomfortable view of human nature is the inevitable consequence of looking upon the whole as I did—as I was forced to do. It is a misfortune to have our sentiments so at variance with the universal sentiment* But there must ever be associated with the honours of Waterloo, to my eyes, th 8 most shocking signs of woe—to my ears, accents of entreaty, outcry from the manly breast, interrupted forcible expressions of the dying—and noisome smells. Softening the Expression. -- * That's a thundering big falsehood !** said Tom. "No,'] replied Dick, "it's only afuL ruinating enlargement of elongated veracity f Harry took off his hat, elevated his eyes, and held his tongue, "Do you mix much in societv?*'— "Not exactly; for the little 1 take I generally drink neat,"