ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Evening Post, Issue 45, 31 March 1865, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

A few days ago the new Town-hall of Hulme, Lancashire, built at a cost of £12,000 was formally opened. A public dinner was^ given on the occasion, at which appropriate speeches were made. A wing of the building, which is still in course of erection, will be used as a public library, and another wing is in contemplation for the uae of the overseers. The members of the Maiden Bradley Rat and Sparrow Society held recently their fifth annual meeting. From the report of the honorary secretary it appears that 4462 rats and 1067 sparrows have been killed by the members for the past year. Since the formation of the society, five years fttfo, it has accounted for no fewer than 17,689 rats. On a recent afternoon a man and woman sought admission to the Derby Union Workhouse, but for want of an order the request was refused. They immediately turned back towards Derby, but in the Osmaston-road the woman was seized with the pains of labour, and in the open street was delivered. She was then taken to the workhouse, and received every attention. The list of causes for hearing in the Divorce Oourfc contains as many as 133, and there are besides 27 standing over by the consent of parties. A correspondent of an Inverness contemporary says that the fishermen of Portniahomack are under the imprussion that Admiral Fitzroy is the cause of all the violent storms that occur. " Confound that man, Fats rory ; he's just worse nor Sfine Bheag of Tarbat, for he has only to hoist that pig trum o' his to raise the wind 1" Mr. Richard Barrow, of Stavehy, near Chesterfield, the largest colliery owner in Derbyshire, and brother of Mr. W. H. Barrow, M.P. for South Notts, died recently. The deceased gentleman was the proprietor of the extensive collieries and ironworks at Staveley, Derbyshire, and employed nearly 4000 hands. His property is estimated at but little short of a million sterling On January 13 the Diuhess d" Chartres gave birth to a daughter, the first great grindohild of the last French king. The event took place at Ham Common, near Richmond. The news was immediately telegraphed to Queen Victoria at Osborne, and' to Queen Amelie, at Clar mont. A number of noblemen and gentlemen have combined for the purpose of presenting a testimonial to Cardinal Wiseman en the Bth of June next, beini? the 25th anniversary of his episcopal consecration. The idea is to present him with splendid gold altar service, and to invest any surplus that may remain in a Burse which is to bear his name in perpetuity. At the rent audit of Lady Molesworth, held at Tetcot a few days ago. a sacrifice of some £2500 was made in a Christmas present to the tenants. Upon one of the trains which travel on the Great Northern line, a com mum oat i>n has been effected between guard and passengers by means of a cord, and a small plank runs along the carriages to enable the guard to traverse the train. Djubtless the success of the experiment will be the test for its general adoption. Nunneries are to be established at Morwich on a grand scale. The number of sketches of all kinds left by Mr. John Leech is now ascertained to be about 5000, and they will be sold by Messrs. Christie and Manson in the middle of April. Application has, it is said, been made to Government fora grant to Mrs. Leech from the Civil List. Mr. Q-, Privlean, a Frenchman, exhibited recently in Hyde-Park some experiments upon an invention of his for instantaneously detaching runaway horses from carriages. While driving at a moderate pace he pulled a strap, and immediately the horses ran on, leaving the carriagQ with the traces attached to it. The plan is ingenious and simple. A strap is brought from the driver's hand like a second rein, which is conducted over the back of the horse, and is attached to another strap passing through the harness, saddle, and down to a lever on each side, which moves the tongue of the trace buckle. When the strap is pulled the tongue of the buckle is drawn out of hold and the buckle slips off the trace, the horse taking the harness with him. The cost of this new and simple invention is so trifling as to make its expense an object of no importance, looking at it as a precautionary arrangement. It has been determined to erect a monument in remembrance of the intrepid and lamented Speke, the discoverer of the great equatorial lake of |\frci, the Victoria Nya.iza, who, with his gallant companion, Grant, followed its waters to thp mouth of the Nile. Tha Hon. George Mifflin Dallas, ex- Vice President of the United States, and more recently Minister to the Court of St. James's, di d at his residence in Philadelphia on 31-st December. Mr. Dallas was descended of Irish parentage, and was connected by kin and marriage with Sir George Dallas, Sir Robert Dallas, and the poet Lord Byron. A letter received at Quebec, from the Magdalen Islands, dated Nov. 22, states that a bottle was found containing a paper, on which was written, "On board the barque Starlight, of Aberdeen, Nov. 20, 1864, 59 days out, from Hull, in long. 40.54 W., lat.

49.50 ; nine feet water in the hold ; no chance of saving ourselves. Thomas Burke, master ; John Nooman, mate." A small parcel has been washed up by the tide on the sands at Eiley, which, on being taken up. proved to be a bottle, wrapped up in a piece of silk, and tightly corked. When broken it was found to contain half a sheet of note paper, upon which wns well written as follows :—" Ship Louisa, off Deal, November 29, 1864. A merry Christmas and a happy new year to all our friends in England, from a party of emigrants to Auckland, New Zealand.'* Mr. Leitch Ritchie, the well-known author, died lecently at East Greenwich. Mr. Ritchie resided for several years in Edinburgh, while acting as literary conductor of Chambers's Journal. As an author, LQitoh Ritchie enjoyed an extensive reputation,, acquired by Some fortunate hits early in life, and which his industry and perseverance, combined with his natural talent and excellent taste, enabled him steadily to sustain throughout some forty years of hard literary labour. Some short time since a notice to the following effect appeared on the gate posts of the Dominican Chapel, Glenworth-street, and several other places of public resort in Limerick :—" Notice. —Lost, between Engineer'seffice and the Military-walk, a female boot. Anybody bringing same to Sergeant ,to the'barracks, will receive a suitable reward." There are still surviving 120 military offlceiß above the rank of captain who hold the Waterloo medal Of these 18 are generals, 22 lieutenant-generals, 24 major-gene-als, 19 -colonels, 24 lieutenant-colonels, and 13 majors. Three or four years since the number of officers wearing this medal (above the rank of captain) was 150. Mr. Richard Buxton, the self-taught botanist, died at his residence in Limekiln-lane, Ard wick, recently, after a very short illness, in the 81st year of his age. It is now nearly 20 years since Mr. Buxton — then a maker of children's shoes —wrote his " Botanical Guide to the Flowering Plants, Ferns. Mosses, and ALre found indigenous within 18 miles of Manchfster." This book was most favourably received by the public at the time it came out, and the short memoir of the J^ithor's life shows the power of a poor man to educate himself nnder advene circumstances. Mrs. Longworth Yelverton has, it is asserted, left the Roman Catholic Church, and now attends the ministrations of the Rev. Dr. Lindsay Alexander, the chief of the Scottish Gongregationalists. It is understood that the Lord Chancellor intvnds to bring in a bill next session to substitute stipendiary for ordinary borough and country magistrates. Caution to Sailors in Cold Weather. — Four of the crew of the schooner Edmond et Marie, of Caen, have jußt loßt their lives while in the port of Nantes. They had retired to sleep in a cabin, and in consequence of the cold had lighted some charcoal iv a sort of iron cauldron. In the morning they were all found dead, suffocated from the effects of carbonic acid gas emitted. Living in Cellars.— A recent report of Captain Lord, of* the sanitory police of New York, states, that in that city, with not more than a million of people, upwards o£ 2 2,000 live in cellars — a subterraneous population large enough for a small city in itself. Corporal Punishment at the Gaol. — At the last sitting of the magistrates at Darlinghurst gaol, a lad named Bragg, fourteen years of age, who had been nine times committed to gaol during the last twelve months, was charged with using opprobrious and abusive language towards one of the warders, and was sentenced by the bench to receive a dozen lashes with a birch rod. So little effect had the castigation upon the young incorrigible, that upon receiving it he turned round to the warder and said, " Give me a fig of tobacco, and you may whip me again. — S. M. Herald, Feb. 24. Poison in the Ball-room.— At a ball at Koningsberg, in Prussia, a few evenings since, a young lady suddenly fainted, and it was afterwards proved by the doctor who was called upon to render aid that her indisposition arose from the presence of arsenic m some grten ornaments iv her hair, and in the trimmings of her dress, which were of the same colour.