PARLIAMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHS (BY A FLANEUR IN THE GALLERY.)

Evening Post, Issue 223, 25 October 1865, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHS (BY A FLANEUR IN THE GALLERY.)

Who will say that Thomas Russell i 9 not an orator, after his separation speeches ? How he did —l wish I could use an Irishism, and say " slafe," but I won't —how he did slaughter the Ministry: much more proper that! He was much more forcible in his opening speech than in his reply, though that was telling enough, for his physical strength is not great, and he was evidently exhausted with the careful attention that he had paid day by day to the innumerable attacks that had been made upon him and his colleagues. He has not spoken since,but contented himself principally with working the mechanism of opposition, for he is to be seen constantly going about the House, stirring up here aud hinting there, to the evident mortification of Mr. Speaker's right-hand-neigh-bouis. In tho*e speeches, from which as an uruior 1 suppose be must be judged, there was nothing very striking as to delivery, only a calm earnest manner, and . a voice; rattier enfeebled by ill-health, but ' yet pitched in that key that reached every list u« i' in la-.: tioiue, an i does not gi'-ite upo i die car, even when raised in those passages which are given with the greatest force. Then comes the orator of the House, Mr. Stafford. T believe he is accorded, by common cuiiaunt, the palm-crown tor parlia* mentary eloquence, and not without deserving it. There is a calmness of deep thought, not that of manner only, and a dignity of demeanour as he rises to speak, which force attention ; and each word, as it falls from his lips, bears with it the impression of having been well weighed before it was expressed. To this conclusion I am the more led, from the belief that he speaks for the country quite as much as for the House; and to that belief * I urn again led, by the fact of noticing from my dark corner how frequently his eye wanders up to the gallery where those minions of the pen —the reporters —may be seen scraping away for dear life as he speaks. There is gene: ally something very cold in his address, and yet one knows and feels that beneath an Iceland's ice a Geyser is seething in the depths. Sometimes it .bursts forth, and when it does it blisters him on whom it flows, be he Premier or be he but a foolish Taranaki farmer, who, shielded by the title of Defence Minister, has had the temerity to call down his ire. That other and very noble feelings actuate him sometimes must be known by those who saw him when last session he spoke of the gulf a political earthquake had made between him and a friend, or when again, thissession, something choked his utterance as he spoke of the breaking in two of the country he had helped to form. He is a statesman and a leader —not one to follow another's lead, but rather to be himself the guide; and as such he has this session sprung forth from the ranks of the opposition to be its acknowledged head, and this with no preconceived intention, as I can learn, but simply that the disorganised body being without a head, fouuii him and acknowledged him.—New Zealuuiier.

The village of Maschia, Catania, containing 150 houses, has been totally destroyed by an earthquake. Several lives were also lost at Uiuii'liiielU, near Giavia. Many families are ruined. The m-iyor and subprefect of Acireale, with a few soldiers, have repaired to the scene of this disaster to assist the sufForurs. The emigration from the port of Cork alone of [>^t sons whose destination is the United States has been ascertained to be at present fully 1000 per week. The average number of transatlantic steamers calling at Queenatown for passengers is eight in a fortnight. Arrival op Major* General Breckenridge at Southampton. —A Southampton correspondent says: —" Among the passengers who have lauded here frjm the West India mail packet Shannon is the famousAmerican rebel Major-General Breckenri'lge, for whose apprehension a reward of 25,000 dollars has been offered by the United States Government. He was with Jefferson Davis two clays before the latter

was captured, and escaped from Texas in an open boat to Havana, where he took his passage for Southampton. His family found a refuge in Canada. He is a tall, handsome man, about forty-five years of age. He admits that the Confederate cause is irretrievably ruined. Major-General Breckenridge was Vice-President of the the United States tinder President Buchanan. He is a Kentuckian by birth. 11 Pbotectioh for Hulls of Vessels. — Very effective and cheap means are employed by the Cochin Chinese to protect the hulls of vessels from the attacks of the auger worm and other mischievous creatures. They use a lsixtura of a resinous oil with a resin, applied hot to the wood ; both the substances being special products of the lands on the hanks of the river Meikou. The tree which yields the oil often attains a height of more than 200 feet,and will furnish from three to five pints of oil per week. Boats made of the wood of this tree are said never to be attacked by the auger worm. The tree which yields the resin is somewhat similar to the former. M. Mariot, when in command of the Amphitrite lorcha, under Admiral Charner employed the native mixture on a boat which had been attacked by the molluscs, and at the end of a year it was perfectly free from any iresh attacks. — Mechanics 1 Magazine. The long-promised book of ex-President Buchanan, in which will be given a history of his administration, an American correspondent states, is at length in the hands of the printers, and will soon be published by the Appletons, of New York. It will reveal much of the secret history of the beginning of the war. The Independents of Naples announces that the subterranean theatre of Herculaneum is to be fitted with 60 gas burners, and that a royal decree is shortly to be published for the resumption of excavations in that locality. The Ballarat correspondent of the Melbourne Herald, October 2nd, says :— " Infor. mation came into town this afternoon to the effect that Dr. Saenger, of Smytbsdale, had been shot by a man named Jones, near the claim of the White Kitty Compauy. No less than four bullets were lodged in the doctor's body, and his life is despaired of. The subinspector, with a party of police, were promptly on the spot, and, it is said,succeeded in arresting the alleged murderer. No reason for the sanguinary outrage has yet been made puhHr."