MISCELLANEOUS.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 386, 7 September 1875, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

The practice of naming flowers after private friends or public characters is, says the Pall-Mall Gazette , very pretty; but it may be suggested that a little care in the selection of epithets bestowed on such names would not be amiss. Otherwise it is difficult to say whether poetical compliment or covert satire of the sponsor is intended. What shall we say, for instance, of the descriptions appended to the names given to three new roses, just “ sent oat ” by a leading nurseryman, which we find in the advertising pages of last week’s gardening papers? First shall come a lady, and, if the language is rather glowing, we trust that it is not on the whole displeasing to the fair prototype :—Miss Hassard —Beautiful delicate pinkish flesh color, large, full and fine form, very sweetly scented. First class either for exhibition or general purposes.” But the next is so ludicrously inappropriate that we only reproduce it in the assurance that the original bearer of the name would have smiled at the incongruity of the epithets; “John Stuart Mill.—Bright clear red, large, full, and beautiful form, of great substance ; well adapted for exhibition purposes, being also of strong constitution and free habit. Quite distinct.” Last comes a clergyman, himself a distinguished rosarian, and we hope his parishioners recognise the portrait “ Rev J. B. M. Camm.—Very bright rosy pink, most pleasing colour, large, very full, and fine globular form ; very sweet, constant, and thoroughly distinct; growth vigorous.” The moral touch, “very sweet and constant,” is peculiarly appropriate to a clergyman, and will perhaps reconcile his admirers to the allusion to what some might deem the physical defects of a rosy pink complexion and too globular form. The following, with reference to Saghalien, the island recently ceded by Russia to Japan, is from an English paper ; —Just where the River Amoor takes a sharp right angular turn to the left (as you stand on the Japanese insular line, looking towards the coast of China and Russo-Siberian Asia), there is a mountain ridge of narrow proportion and low height, which alone separates the Amoor from the sea, and the existence of which precludes Russia from possessing a direct road by water, open to all seasons of the year, right up along the frontier of China and across Siberia into Asiatic Tartary. The Ochotsk mouth of the Amoor lies between the Alemba Islands and Behring’s Straits, and is icebound for six months of the year, for which period the trade makes an enforced pause. Up to the direct line of the Amoor from the mountain just indicated reigns perpetual summer. It was by “ understanding its maps,” when it drew a frontier line by treaty with China, that Russia obtained possession of the whole country of Chinese Asia, from snowy Siberia up to the Baikal and the Kiachta frontier. The Chinese thought only of the river below, but the Russians claimed it all along, and so by “ geographical right” and “ geographical wrong,” as in the case of our own Vancouver frontier line, the Chinese were outwitted by the more skilled Russians, as were the English lords_ and geographers by the more astute Americans. Now, the great aim of Russia has been to utilise this open portion of the River Amoor. She has made a road and portage over the mountain ridge, and established a small fort at the sea base, preliminary to opening a port and a railroad. A telegraph she has already. Opposite the point indicated lies the Japanese island, Saghalien, Here a few years ago the Russians asked permission from the Japanese Government to make a small settlement for fishing purposes and repairing ships. They obtained this permission, and after a few quarrels with the natives obtained a permanent settlement. They have dug out coal and discovered metals and minerals. They next divided the island between themselves and the Japanese. They have now, as we learn by telegram, obtained entire possession of it, and with it a coaling station for their ships on the Chinese coast ; a trade by the Amoor right up through Tartaiy; a direct sea-shipment for the Chinese tea trade, so long carried by caravan across Siberia and Kiachta to Moscow. So progresses Russia while other nations sleep, by making her diplomacy subsidiary to her commerce. “ Some important alterations,” the Sydney Morning Herald remarks, “ have recently been effected in England in the Merchant Shipping Act, which will of course be in teresting to mariners on this side of the globe. Regarding the survey of merchant ships, the following provisions have been made : —< Except as hereinafter mentioned no British ship shall proceed on any voyage

from a British port unless the committee of management of Lloyd’s Register of British and Foreign Shipping, or the Liverpool Underwriters’ Registry for Iron Vessels, or some other corporation or association approve ! for the time being for this purpose by the Boaid of Trade, has first classed and given a ticket of the classification of such ship to the owner or owners thereof, provided that the Board of Trade, if at any time the survey or requirements of the said committee or association appear to them to be insufficient, may, after giving six months’ notice to the owner or owners of such ship, declare the surveys or requirements of such com mittee, registry, corporation, or association to be insufficient, and thereupon the same and every certificate of classification founded theieon shall cease to have any effect for the purposes of this Act.’ These, however, are modified by a proviso which declares that such certificates or qualification shall not be construed as amounting to or despensing with a proof of sea worthiness. Under any other act, the powers of the Board of Trade are not to be affected. But if any vessel is suspected of unseaworthiness, the Board of Trade has the same power as was formerly vested in them. Many shipowners who previously objected to the system of compulsory classification are now upholding the scheme on the ground that it is preferable to the powers entrusted to the Board of Trade for surveying vessels.” “With the utmost unanimity,” remarks the South Australian Register, “the two Houses have agreed to address the Queen in favor of the annexation of New Guinea to the British Empire, in the Upper House nearly every member spoke, and with the solitary exception of Mr Hay, warmly supported the motion. That hon gentleman has apparently come to the extraordinary con elusion that it is rather desirable than otherwise that a foreign country should have possession of the island; in other words, that one of the main entrances to the seas in which British trade is carried on to a very large extent should be guarded by a power which in all human probability will sooner or later be at war with England. We can admire in theory that principle of distribution of labour in the founding of colonies which the hon gentleman advocates, but we are not prepared to carry it to the romantic length of inviting a probable foe to take up an eligible position at our very doors. In the Lower House, the speaking was confined to the Commissioner of Crown Lands and the Hon Arthur Blyth, the address being afterwards agreed to without a dissentient voice. Care was taken by Mr Boucaut to point out that the Government did not propose to undertake any responsibility for the colonisation or management of New Guinea, and this fact will have to be still more definitely set forth in the communications accompanying the addresses.” With reference to the proposed removal of Cleopatra’s Needle to England, Major-General Jas. Edward Alexander writes to the Times —“ I have only just read in a letter from your correspondent in Egypt a paragraph to the effect that a gentleman had arrived in Alexandria with the intention of transporting to England the prostrate obelisk presented to the English by Mahomed Ali Pasha, in 1820; and your correspondent adds that the expense of transport will be borne by this gentleman’s private purse. Aslamthe gentleman referred to, I should be glad if you would allow me to correct an error into which your correspondent has unwittingly fallen. It is true that I have been to Alexandria at my own charges to consider the feasibility of transporting the obelisk in question to England, and I am glad to say that I found the monument, with its hieroglyphic superscription, in perfect preservation, and its transport a matter of comparatively small difficulty and expense. Skilled engineers have concurred in reporting that the obelisk can be safely conveyed to England and erected on the firm site already allotted to it by the Metropolitan Board of Works on the Thames Embankment at the cost of £IO,OOO, just an eighth part of the sum expended by the French Government in the transport and erection of the obelisk now standing in the Place de la Concorde at Paris. But the further statement that lam piepared to bear the expense of transport is erroneous. While I have already given much time and trouble to the facilitating the removal of this beautiful monument, and am fully prepared to devote much more of my time to the accomplishment of this object, I am not prepared to bear the expense of it. Nor do I think that any private person, however, rich, should be allowed to undertake what seems to me a national duty. The obelisk was presented to the nation as an acknowledgment of the valuable services rendered to Egypt in the beginning of the century ; it is a work of art of a unique character, and its transport will, I trust be the subject of a Parliamentary grant.”

The Athenceum states that arrangements have been made for the publication of Mr Mill’s correspondence with Comte, but, owing to objections which have been raised by persons who are mentioned in the correspondence, it will not be published for the present. An account of the capture of a notorious convict is given by the South Australian Register\ of July 30th : —“ Sergeant Bentley arrested on Wednesday, the 28th instant, James Hurley, a notorious escaped prisoner. He has had an adventurous career in crime, and for a long time evaded the police of West Australia, by shifting, often under various disguises, from one to another part of the colony. On June 2Gth he escaped from Rockingham, twenty-five miles from Perth, as a stowaway on board the barque Armistice, bound to Wallaroo with timber, and arrived on July 13th. The offender is one of the great Cornhill burglars, and having been convicted of burglary and several other offences on April 10th, 1865, at a Criminal Court in Loudon, was sentenced to ten years’ penal servitude. He was sent out in 1866 to West Australia in the convict ship Corona, and was liberated at Perth on a ticket-of-leave in May, 1872, In May, 1874, he was the ringleader of a band of burglars, some of whom were sentenced to seven years’, and Hurley was ordered to have three years’ penal servitude. In 1874 he again received a ticket of leave, but it was revoked, as he was convicted of being found on the premises of a Perth citizen with some felonious intent. He was brought to Adelaide by the Wallaroo mail coach on Thursday, and will be taken before Mr Beddome today, at the City Police Court. The prisoner is sft Sin in height, 45 years of age, and has a determined-looking cast of countenance. The man’s apprehension is due to the prompt action of Inspector Peterwald, who caused him to be arrested as soon as information of his whereabouts was received. He was working near Kadina when captured.”