MISCELLANEOUS.

Grey River Argus, Volume VI, Issue 376, 11 June 1868, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

The marriage of the Crown Prince of Italy to his cousin the Princess Margherita has been fixed for the 22nd April. In Westminster 2,000 summonses have been issued for rates in arrear, owing to the repeal of the compounding act. The report of the reconciliation between the ex-Lord Chancellor and Mr Disraeli is denied authoritatively. The report of his haVing shaken hands with Mr Disraeli is untrue. A town's meeting at Birmingham has resolved : — "That, in the opinion of this meeting, the rate paying clause of the Reform Act is producing great hardships and misery, and ought at once to be repealed. " The Government has resolved to send out Mr Angelo, the African traveller, to the Somala country, to inquire into the alleged existence of British captives there, and provide him with means with which, if possible, to effect their liberation. It is stated that Dean Stanley has declined preferment to the Archbishopric of Dublin, notwithstanding its high emolument. The reason assigned by him. for declining was his insuperable reluctance to go into what he regarded as social and literary banishment. Explanations, it is said, have passed between Mr Disraeli and Lord Chelmsford. Lord Chelmsford, it appears, was appointed Lord Chancellor on a distinct understanding that he might be asked at any time to make way for Lord Cairns. Mr Disraeli had relied on this in arranging to appoint Lord Cairns ; Lord Chelmsford had utterly forgotten the existence of such a condition, but, on the production of his own letter to Lord Derby, he has admitted Mr Disraeli's perfect right to do ' what he did. The Owl says it is probable that Mr Disraeli will recommend her Majesty to confer upon the Duke of Athole the Thistle that is vacant by the death of the Earl of Rosebery ; also that Sir John Trollope, M.P. for Lincolnshire, is among those whom Lord Derby has recommended j to the Queen for a seat in the House of Lords. The Terrible, having been detailed to the coast of Asia Minor on transport service, and attached to the expedition of excavation which has been for some time labouring at Ephesus, has arrived at Valetta with the monster Turkish gun so famous in the history of Stamboul, which has been obtained for the English Government in exchange for two Armstrong pieces of cannon. The ship also conveys some packages of antiquities exhumed at Ephesus, to add to those before deposited in the secret wooden shed at the British Museum. She has, besides the above, some fine and valuable ancient armour from Rhodes. The last-named acquisition will probably be seen by the public before the second, although both are to go to the British Museum. The breech-loading arms competition is now reported upon. Three prizes were offered ; one of a Ll,ooo for the best in all respects, one of L6OO for merit in the breech mechanism, and L4OO for the best cartridge. All the arms submitted failed to give complete satisfaction, and tho prize of Ll,ooo was not awarded. The prize of L6OO has been awarded to Mr Henry's gun. This arm is a small-bore (455-inch) rifle, very similar in the arrangement of its breech action to the wellknown Sharp's carbine ; that is to say, the breech is closed by a sliding vertical block, which is depressed for the admission of the cartridge by a lever underneath the trigger-guard. The piston or Btriker passes diagonally downwards through the breech-block, and is struck by a hammer. The Boxer cartridge is employed with the gun. A man named Westcott is in custody at Hoxton, London, charged with having murdered his son, a boy, by throwing him into Regent's Canal. A boy saw him looking at his son in the water without apparently making any effort to save him. •On being placed in the-cell prisoner said, " I hope nothing serious will take place, as I am innocent." He afterwards said, "This affair might turn out very serious yet ; I mean the a affair of my boy being drowned. " Dr. Ferand, a French physician, has just succeeded in re-uniting the finger of a cook, which had been lopped off and thrown away. The severed part recovered both warmth and sensitiveness. The ship Matilda Atheling has been chartered by the Government for the conveyance of a large number of Fenian and other convicts from Chatham and the other convict establishments to Gibarltar. At the lato meeting of the Atlantic Telegraph Company the discussion was very animated, and it ended in a resolution to abandon the attempt to raise the new capital required to pay off the AngloAmerican Company, in order to amalgamate with that company. The Rev. Fielding Ould, Rector of Tattenhall, has refused to read the burial service over the body of a poor old pauper widow, on the ground that Bhe was a Mormon. It was well known that during her illness she renounced Mormonism, and placed her faith in Christ, but the rector, when told this, still refused, and the body was interred without burial service. M'Lablanche, a distinguished citizen of Lyons, died recently, and the Catholic clergymen refused to read the burial service because he was a Freemason. A Protestant clergyman, with more common sense, was found to officiate. In consequence of a demand by the weavers of an increase of wages, Me3srs. Salt, Sons, and Co. have closed their large works at Saltaire. Their employers stated that if it could be shown that they were paying less tkan other employers, they would readly rectify the difference. The weavers struck work that day, and on Wednesday they induced the "duffers" also to strike work, and the proprietors then anticipated the remainder. 3,000 hands are thus out of employment. One of the latest Paris fashions is a " ladies' nose protector " — a case lined with fur, to be affixed to the nasal appendage. A new article of jewellery has just been introduced into the Paris fashionable world. This is a bracelet intended for ladies whoße husbands are decorated with the cross of the Legion of Honor. Reductions of the cross i» all the variety of enamels of which the original is composed from a chain which encircles the wrist loosely over the ordinary bracelet, and for untitled ladies forms a substitute for the armorial bracelet worn by persons of rank. When, as is not unfrequently the case, the husband has several "decorations," each one is introduced into the bracelet. It is. not likely that the fashion

will be initatecl in Englaud, for the reason that there aro very few ' ' decorated " ' people there. — Court Journal. The Alia Calif orina on tains the following : — " Harmon Edgar, of Martinez, exhibited to us last evening a common barnyard rooster which has no head and yet j is alive and hearty, relishing his food and sleeping at uight as well as the most perfect of his race. About two weeks siuce, I the cook at Sturgis' Hotel, at Martinez, chopped off the head of two chickens, threw them into the woodshed and left them. Soon after he sent a man to pick them, ar.d only one was found dead, the other, having recovered from hes fright, was walking about the yard. On examination, it was found that the hatchet had cut clear through the head, just where it joins tht, neck, leaving no trace of the eyes, auricular orifices, bill or tongue, and j leaving him, in fact, no head at all, al- 1 though it is possible that the least possible amount of the brain is left. Edgar took the headless chicken, lubricated the stub of its neck carefully with sweet oil occa- j sionally and fed it with a spoon, and it is now as well and healthy as any rooster in the world, to all appearance, though unable to see, hear or taste anything. The food is introduced with the spoon directly into the throat, and is perfectly digested by the bird. The headless creature will raise its back like a cat, on a hand being passed caressingly over it, and when it goes to sleep it turns its nee'e about so that its head, if it had any, would come under the wing. Etf#ar and his chicken are at the What Cheer House. Such cases have occureel before, but the chicken is a curiousity nevertheless. A Loving Sweetheakt.— The following letter was the cause of much amusement on its being read during the trial of a recent breach of promise of marriage case . — " My dear, sweetest Duckey — I am so happy to hear from you so often — it affords me sich grate plesher. You always was so deer to me I hope you will sune be deerer. You now I never hinted nothing about marriage and I never mean to — take your own time for that. I 3hal always remember the old saying,' procrastination ia the theef of time, but mother says nothing should be done in a hurry bat ketching' flees. , The fondest wish of my heart is that we may sune become one. Do you ever read . Franklin's extracts — Ids remarks concerning marriage is deliteful. Our hearts, he sez, ought to assemble one another in every expect ; they ought to be hextergenious so that our union may be mixed as well as uniting — not like oil and water, but tee and shugar. Surely I can feel for the mortal watts when he sez:— "The rows is red the i vialits blew, Shugars sweet and so are you." Mother sez that matrimony is better to think upon than reality, I remain till death or marriage, your own sweet | candy, Mary Ann. N. 8.—1. —1 had a knssin married last month, who sez there aint no true enjoyment but in the married ! state. Your sweetis clove, Mary Ann. P.S.— I hope you will let me now what yon mean to do as there is four or five other fellows after me hot foot, and I shall be quite uneasy till I here. Your lover sweet, Mary Ann. "—Extract. On March Cth, there was an extraordinary scene in the parish church of St. Edmund the King, Lombard street, one of the principal churches in the city. The Rev. Joseph LeycesterLyne "Brother Ignatius," had been announced to preach to men only, and at the time appointed for the commencement of the service there was not a seat to spare, yet large numbers of men came flocking in until the whole area of the church was densely packed. This being a double parish there are two gallaries, one belonging to the parish of St. Edmund the King, whose inhabitants appear to be liberal and enlightened \ people, who opened the space at their command to Mr Lyne's hearers; the others, not quite so liberal or amiable, who neither occupied the space themselves nor allowed others to have access to it. With the exception of the small space under the control of these exclusionists, the church was densely packed, when Mr Lyne, accompanied by the Key. P. G. Hill, rector of the parish, made his way to the choir stalls. The litany service was intoded by the curate, after which Mr Lyne ascended the .pulpit. At this time there was a complete panic in the church. Some three or four hundred persons who had been quietly waiting outside, in the hope of some time or other gaining admission, made a desperate rush, knocking over, without any ceremony, those who had occupied forms in the central aisle. Two or three fights ensued at the western end of the church, aud there was a good deal of exclamation of "Popery" and "Puseyism." Looking down from the pulpit, Mr Lyne, younger than most of those who were present, selected for his text the words of the 21st chapter of the Book of Revelation, verse B—"But8 — "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and sorcerers, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with firo and brimstone." His denunciation of .such of the wicked as were included in the text was most awful.