DE OMNIBUS REBUS.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 525, 23 February 1876, Page 3

DE OMNIBUS REBUS.

Arrangements for sending Chinese legations abroad are proceeding. Ministers have been appointed to the United States, Pern, and Japan. The Bernese Old Catholic Synod, sitting at Porrentary, has unanimously decided that celibacy on the part of the priesthood, and auricular confession, are to be optional. The Manchester Town Hall, the largest building in progress in England next to the London Law Courts, is now nearly completed externally. Mr Robert Crawford, a working man, has been elected “ senior magistrate” by the commissioners of the newly constituted borough of Milngavie, in Stirlingshire.

M Sebille, a French architect, has obtained a patent for damp-proof bricks. He injects bricks, tiles, &c, with tarry products of coal distillation, and finds them perfectly impermeable to humidity. The monument to Edgar Allan Poe, author of “ The Raven,” “ The Bells,” and other remarkable poems, was completed at Baltimore recently, and dedicated with imposing ceremonies.

A coroner’s jury at Bradford has returned a verdict of “ Accidental death ” in the case of a youth who appears to have amused himself by pressing down the valve of a steam boiler when the gauge indicated 701 b to the inch. An explosion followed, and the lad was killed.

An Oriental museum has been lately opened at Vienna, which is very curious and complete; It consists of fourteen rooms assigned to China, Japan, Egypt, Persia, Turkey, Tunis, and Morocco. A well known Orientalist, Baron Hoffman, is at the head of this new establishment.

Another explosion has occurred at the Hounslow Powder Works, belonging to Messrs Curtis and Harvey, by which three green charge mills, situate on the southern side of the works, in Twickenham parish, were blown up, and their contents destroyed. Fortunately no person was injured. The FremdenUatt says that the skull of Mozart, whose tomb has not yet been discovered, is in the possession of the Aulic counsellor, Professor Hyrtl, who preserves it in a crystal case. Professor Hyrtl had this relic from bis brother, who received it from a gravedigger of the cemetery of St Mark. The New Zealand Herald is responsible for the following:—“The visit of the U.S. ship Tuscarora caused some little stir while she was in Levuka harbour. Her officers are pleasant and gentlemanly, and the crew evidently enjoyed their short visit to Levuka. As a matter of course, there was a little jollification among the latter, and one or two amusing scenes occurred in consequence. For instance, an officer, accompanied by a stalwart sergeant of marines, encountered a tar in almost the last stage of helpless intoxication. You had better take that man, said the officer. I guess he’d better not, replied the sailor, yet retaining such a glimmer of sobriety as served to warn him of his danger. Nonsense, take him, cried the sub-lieutenant. I guess I’d better not, replied the sergeant in his turn. Well, he can’t be left here in this state, was the observation of the officer ; what had better be done ? Will you come on board quietly, Bill, without any bother? Well, I don’t mind if I do, if you’ll stand drinks. Right, cries the sub. Three of Sturt’s best P.B. settled the disputed point, and the Tuscarora was again rejoiced by the appearance of her erstwhile recalcitrant son.” The corn crop of the U nited States is, it is stated, the largest ever grown. The opening of the season was uncommonly favorable for ploughing and planting, and the area planted was much larger than usual ; first, because the crop of 1874: was short, and it was absolutely necessary to supply the deficiency, that the stock of cattle, sheep, and hogs of the country might be made profitable; and further that the large breadth of ground sown in white wheat the previous fall, and which was largely winter killed, might be utilized. The total corn crop of the State of Illinois is estimated for the present year at the enormous amount of 300,000,000 bushels. The rest of the corn area—or, in other words, the region which produces a surplus that enters into the markets of the world—will probably produce two;thirds as much, making a total of 500,000,000 bushels. These two-thirds, however, represent about the quantity required for feeding purposes and home use ; the amount raised by Illinois —namely, 300,000,000 bushels—may be considered, therefore, as the surplus crop of the whole country.

On December 4th, Mr Thomas Carlyle’s eightieth Jbirthday, an address was forwarded to him signed by upwards of a hundred men and women of eminence in art, science, and literature, including Professor Darwin, Mr John Forster, Mr W. E. Forster, M,P., Dr Hooker, Professor Huxley, Sir John Lubbock, Lord Lyttelton, Mrs and Mrs Theodore Martin (Helen Faucit), Mrs Oliphant, Sir W. Stirling Maxwell, Professor Max Muller, Dean Stanley, Alfred Tennyson,. Miss Thackeray, and Anthony Trollope, tendering the expression of their good wishes. The address said: “ Not a few of the voices which it would have been dearest to you to hear to-day are silent in death. There may, perhaps, be some compensation in the assurance of the reverent sympathy and affectionate gratitude of many thousands of living men and women, throughout the British islands and elsewhere, who have derived a delight and inspiration from the noble series of your writings, and who have noted also how powerfully the world has been influenced by your great personal example. A whole generation has elapsed since you described for us the hero as a man of letters. We congratulate you and ourselves on the spacious fulness of years which has enabled you to sustain this rare dignity among mankind in all its possible splendour and completeness. It is a matter for general rejoicing that a teacher whose genius achievements have lent radiance to his time still dwells amidst us; and our hope is that you may yet long continue! in fair health, to feel how much you are loved and honored, and to rest in the retrospect of a brave and illustrious life.” With the address was forwarded for Mr Carlyle’s acceptance a gold medal engraved by Mr George Morgan, and bearing on one of its faces a medallion of Mr Carlyle by Mr Boehm, and on the obverse the words, "In commemoration : December 4th, 1875.” Silver and bronze copies are struck for the use of subscribers, with a few for presentation to public institutions^

The following letter appeared in the Times of November 25th .—'‘The safe and easy

route between the Atlantic and the Pacific by the Strait of Magellan—thus avoiding the delay, icebergs, and stormy seas of the passage round Cape Horn—is year by year becoming a more important ocean bye way. In view of this, the announcement in the Times of this morning that the long impending difficulties between Chili and the Argentine Republic, touching territorial rights in the Strait of Magellan, are assuming a serious character, is not without interest to some of our countrymen. When in New Zealand last year I found a large and influential party —in Otago more especially supporting a proposed line to England, via the Strait, and though this has been postponed in favor of the present trans-Amercian route, via San Francisco, there is little doubt that it will ultimately be carried out. For such a line the importance of an abundant and cheap supply of coal in the Strait is obvious, and fortunately, the country down to the very beach teams with thick and extensive beds of fair steaming coal. And yet it will hardly be believed that a product of such vital necessity for the profitable navigation of the Strait has been placed under a monopoly, Chili, pending the dispute with Argentine, coolly assumed proprietary rights over the debateable territory, and granted to one individual the exclusive privilege of working coal mines in the whole of Patagonia and Tierra Del Fuego, with the exception of some few acres round the little town of Sandy Point. This princely concession, which has still about 20 years to run, and extends over a tract of country larger than all Germany, has been conveyed by the original concessionaire to a Chilian Company, who have worked a coal mine in the neighborhood of Sandy Point in the easy way natural to those who hare no competition to fear. At any rate the supply is not equal to the demand, and passing steamers have from time to time been unable to obtain what they required. Whichever Government, whether by arbitration or other means, ultimately acquires possession of the Strait of Magellan, it is to be hoped that the maritime nations of the world will obtain the abolition of a monopoly so unjust and so opposed to the liberal commercial spirit of the age. Apart from its bearing on maritime interests, the present policy is adverse to the settlement and development of Southern Patagonia—a country which, by personal observation of its grand ranges of long-woolled sheep country, heavily timbered forests, and other natural resources, I did not by any means find to be the barren, howling wilderness commonly represented by the few who have visited it.”