ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 622, 20 March 1874, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Inspired by the success of the recent lectures on cookery at the . International Exhibition, Leeds has determined to establish a Yorkshire School of Cookery. Mr. Edmund Edmunds, a Solicitor, of Newent, Gloucestershire, who was tried aboul eighteen months since for the manslaughter of his wife, and was acquitted, has recovered 250 1. damages from the proprietor of a local journal winch had published an article commenting too freely upon his family history. The following curious decision was recently given by the Lord Mayor of London : —“ On a day named, a hoy of eleven, who was minding a pony and cart for a costermonger at Billingsgate, took it info his head to have a ride, and accordingly drove off to Greenwich. Next day he bar tered the pony for six shillings and a donkey, which he afterwards soldier twenty-five shillings. He wes Id ought before the Lord Mayor - , who discharged him,as he thought he hud “ no felonious intent.” A tradesman of Liverpool, who acted its a counter in a recent municipal electien, has recovered damages for libel from a fellow townsman, who had accused him ef having purloined two of the voting papers. The vicar of Belstone, Devon, and his wife, have been fined each 51. and bound over in 100/. for ill treating their son, a boy of fourteen Margaret Bixblanc, wlm, in June, 1872, was sentenced to death for the murder of Madame Biel, in Park Lane, but whose sentence was afterwards commuted has just died in prison. A Somersetshire farmer has been committed for trial for (he murder of a laboring man whom he knocked down for having remonstrated with him for riding against his wife in the highway. It is proposed by the French Go vernment to give up to the ex-Ein-press of the French the private art collection of (he late Emperor. The collection is nominally valued at 20,0007., but its actual worth is probably worth four times that sum. ■Marshall Bazaine has been transferred to his prison at St. Marguerite. His journey was kept strictly private, but the fact leaked out at Antibes, where his arrival was the signal for a storm of hisses from the crowd. Melbourne is not the only place where cricket can be played in December. It can be, and is, played in London. Mr. White, of Bermondsey, a cricketer, of no mean ability, has a saloon for winter cricket practice. It is formed panly by one 0 f the arches close to the Spa Hoad Station, and a peculiar .kind of felt flooring does duty for 'he green sward. Those who have practised here says ! that tire ball comes up from the pitch as truly as from a caielully prepared turf w cket. ’I heie is plenty of light generally during the day, and gas is used when this fails. Those who want to keep their hands in had hertet go and judge for themselves of the value of Mr W hite’s saloon. One would imagine that a Christmas turkey was about (he last thing a tradesman would think of “ adulterating.” A Norwich dealer appears to have originated the idea ; the process was simple enough, merely stuffing the body of the bird with pork, and thereby increasing its weight to the extent of four pounds. Tim trick hawever, was discovered, and a lawyer’s letter soon caused the price to be refunded. A County Court Judge has decided that a husband who 1 ins privately forbidden his wife to run in debt can refuse to pay her baker’s bill. Realism on the stage is certainly making progress. London can boast, (his year of a pantomime with real sheep, and real dogs, and a real suck-ing-pig, but the palm for originality must be given to a Bordeaux manager who announces the production of Red Biding Ifood, with areal wolf. Why could not the animal he borrowed for our Loudon pantomimes? The interest would be doubly heightened by the idea that the wolf might possibly turn crusty and swallow Bed Biding Hood in right earnest, to say nothing of sheep, dog, and little sucking-pig to boot A person, who considers himself “{he idoe: ill used man in the world.” is now in custody for an assault upon H.B.H. the Duke of Cambridge, committed in front of the Horse Guards. His name is C. Stoddert Maunsellimcl he is a retired captain of the 82nd toot. It appears that after telling the Duke that he had grievously wronged him, struck him twice in the chest with his fist. A constable witnessed the assault, but understood at the time that H.B.H. did not wish to prosecute, so that he only took the name and address of the assailant, who was subsequently arrested at a model lodging house near Oxford street. It is said that a lady is now “ reading in chambers ” with a conveyancing counsel of Lincoln’a Inn, with the determined view of fighting her way to the Bar. A Cambridge dressmakar bus in. vented a novel mode' of testing her work-people's honesty. Having weighed tfegmaterials' for It'cloak before' 1 ■ . i

she sent it to be made up, she found the garment deficient on its return, and sued the sempstress for the missing pieces, but was, defeated. Masewell ITorlock, whose counsel begged for mercy for him on tie ground that he was the son of a county magistrate, and having spent a fortune of l0,00(Jf., was wandering about in a state of semi-drunkenness hardly knowing whaf he did, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to a charge of uttering fictitious cheques. Two previous convictions comprising seventeen distinct charges of fraud, were howeverproved against him, and he was sentenced to seven years’ penal servitude, and seven years' police inspection. A man who was. found “drunk and incapable ”in the street, excused himself by saying that it would not have happened had he not undertaken for a w«ger to eat a pound of raw sprats, and drink a bottle of rum.