CLIPPINGS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 249, 6 December 1878, Page 3

CLIPPINGS.

(From the Home Papers.)

" Atlas " in the World says :—The sessions at the Old Bailey opened last week with a splendour which ordinarily characizes these civic tribunals ;the judges and sheriffs gorgeous as to their robes, and bearing in their hands large bouquets of flowers, the modern substitutes for the handfid of herbs vvhieh in former days * used to be strewed about the court to act as disinfectants to its tainted atmosphere. The under-Sheriff, too, was a truly gratifying spectacle, adorned as usual with black m silk bow to his hair, lace ruffles and frills, j •and court sword. But why, Mr UnderSheriff, mar the effect by wearing inappropriate continuations ? Breeches and black silk stockings are the proper garb for the nether man when the upper is arrayed in court costume. Black dress trousers, shiny, and slightly baggy at the knees, are incongruous. No calves, do you say? Ask any descendant of the late lamented J. de la Pluche, Esq., as to how art may be made to supplement defects of nature in • this respect. The Contemporary Review for September can hardly be called very interesting, ! though the parting words with which Mr ] ,* Freeman bids farewell to Mr Fronde's i ~ " Life and Times of Thomas Becket" do not lack animation. "I conceive," he says, " that since men began to write his- i tory at all, not many fco-called historical narratives have been written which have no utterly departed from tbe truth of fact as Mr Froude's ' Life and Times of Thomas j Becket.'" " I know one parallel, and j only one; that is ' The Annals of an : English Abbey.' I know of no other writings professedly historical in which | page follows page in which it is really safe to follow the rule of contrary. A * large part of Mr Froude's narrative can only be used negatively : when we have read his account and have not yet turned to his authorities, we do not know how _ things did happen, but we know one of the ways in which they did not happen. Now, though there one other writers who . are very untrustworthy, I know none beside Mr Froude who has reached such a depth of untrustworthiness as this.-' The thing is quite distinct from mere ordinary blunders, springing from ordinary ignor- ; ance or ordinary carelessness. Mr Froude I has plenty of them too; but more blunders | of this kind would not lave given Mr "Froude that specin. character which is » wholly his own, and which no oneelse can •dispute with him." Two English sailors who arrived in the Thames in the ship Atlantic, brought over -with them two bears from a port they 9 had touched at. On the journey one died, •but the other was muzzled and chained by the two men-in order to be taken to a repository to be sold. On getting outside the docks the brute broke tbe leather muzzle and furiously attacted his two guardians, compelling them to relinquish their hold of the chain. He then capered about on his hind legs for about ten i minutes, making desperate attempts to seize horses and foot passengers, and fiually succeeded in securing a wolf-hound {which had annoyed him by* barking at him) and fatally crushed the animal. One i of the owners, in the meantime, procured a bludgeon, got behind the beast, and felled him to the ground. The animal's •carcase was sold for 10s. This is the view taken by Truth, of the Affghan imbroglio :—"The Affghan question i 6 not a difficult one to understand.. Our north-eastern frontier in India is defended by a range of lofty mountains with two or three passes in the hands of fierce, independent tribes. Beyond these mountains is Affghanistan, which is thus described by a competent authority :— •-* It •is a land of rocks, sand, deserts, ice, and snow. Take a small force there and you are beaten, take a large one and you are starved." ' The Affgbans are brave, warlike, and treacherous, and they have no intention of becoimngthe feudatories either of us or of Russia. Beyond Affghanistan are the Russians and Central Asia. To attack India a Russian army would> start from Herat. It is no easy task to.get an army there, and to reach our frontier from thence the army would have to march above one hundred consecutive days,* to traverse Affghanistan, and to force the defiles of the monntains. If the Aifghans were anxious for annexation to us it might be to our advantage to occupy their country. But the reverse is the case, and if we were permanently to oooupy it we should have, after fighting for it, to garrison it as though it were a hostile territory. Even, therefore, with Shere Ah, the ruler of Affghanistan, playing fast and loose with us, annexation is a costly and questionable policy, and one which up to now has deprecated by successive Indian Viceroys. The Army and Navy Gazette says:— 11 Two anecdotes of British military life in Cyprus are being mysteriously-circulated. One tells how a Bombay Lancer, carrying despatches, was attacked by three Greeks, from whom he managed to wiibdra-w to a convenient distance, only to wheel about, ■charge with couched lance, and transfix one of the three would-be robbers; the other two fled. The second anecdote relates that a Goorkha was waylaid by -six Gieeka.- The Goorkha managed to

kill four of his assailants with his kookerie, and was then himself killed. That such occurrences should happen without becoming publicly known has to be accounted 'for; consequently, the repetition of the stories is generally accompanied with the statement that 'the affair had to be hushed up.'" An extraordinary bicycle ride is reported. Mr W. T* Britten, captain of the Clarence Bicycle Club, last week rode'from London to Bath and back. Including stoppages for refreshment, the whole distance, 212 miles, was covered in twentythree hours fifty-five minutes. This is said to be the longest run that has ever been accomplished in one day. All honor to the inventive genius of the Richmond hotel-keeper whose dinner bell contained the item of " Swans, one guinea." "But I havn't had any swans!" protested the astonished guest. _ "* It's the view, sir, from the hof>en winder," explained the waiter, pointing with a fork towards a Thames eyot. "We don't charge for swans in a back room."