MISCELLANEA.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 6, Issue 292, 27 July 1865, Page 3

MISCELLANEA.

Lobd Campbell’s Last Reflection. —The North British Review states that—“ One eyenidg, after the late John Richardson’s illness had lasted for some time, Lord Campbell, conversing after a dinner party at his house in London, happened to speak of his friend, and he remarked that he thought the Church Service should contain a prayer for preservation from lingering sickness rather than from sudden death. The conversation was prophetic. That night was the last ofLord Campbell’s life; and he passed away, as he wished to do, in the fullness of vigor and usefulness.” Uselessness of Eaething Potatoes. —By drawing up the earth over the potatoes in sloping ridges, it is deprived of its due supply of moisture by rains, for when they fall the water is cast into the ditches. Further, in regard to the idea that by thus earthing up the number of tubers is increased, the effect is quite the reverse; for experience proves that a potato placed an inch only under the surface of the earth will produce more tubers than one planted at the depth of a foot. “ Now gentlemen,” said Sheridan to his guests, after the ladies left the room, “ let us understand each other. Are we to drink like men or beasts ?” Somewhat indignant, the guests exclaimed, “ Like men of course.” “Then,” he replied, “we are going to get jolly drunk, for brutes never drink more than they want.” Thought. —How, like the shadow upon the dial, thought is ever returning to the place of beginning—where we first began to love; to the homestead and the trysting-place; the playground and the grave-yard. That “ truth is stranger than fiction ” is a fact abundandly demonstrated every day of our existence. The criminal records of the courts, —the startling revelations that are almost daily made in the newspapers,—terrible occurrences which are continually going on around us, developing the wickedness of human nature when abandoned to the influence of the grosser passions,—all tend to establish the truth of the maxim, and to go to show that the actualities of life too often surpass the wildest dreams of romance.

An Editoe’s Tale.—The Knickerbocker gives an account of a wonderful dog belonging to one of its carriers. The carrier, falling sick, sent out a boy to deliver the papers, who, being unacquainted with the round, was preceded by the dog, who stopped at the door of every subscriber and wagged his tail, never niissing one in a list of six hundred. At the door of all subscribers who had not paid for their paper for a length of time, the dog was heard to howl.

An Apple-Teeb Hedge.—An American farmer says:—“ The best live fence I have ever seen was an apple-tree hedge. The owner began to shear it when it was two feet high to make it grow thicker, and at six years old it would stop cattle, or a dog if he cared to come out with a whole skin.” It appears by the new “ Directory for Dorset” that of 196 professional and tradespeople in the Island of Portland, 21, or nearly one-ninth, bear the name of Pearce. When a local corps of artillery volunteers were raised, 15 out of the 60 men comprising it bore the name of Pearce. “ I think,” said a farmer, “ I should make a good Parliament man, for I use their language. I received two bills the other day, with requests for immediate payment; the one I ordered to be laid on the table—the other to be read that day six months. ’ A Domestic Question. —When the butler marries the housekeeper, may he be said to lead her to the high menial alter P The 14th Regiment.—A telegraph from Adelaide says, it is understood that a detachment of the 14th Regiment will go there when they can be spared from New Zealand. —Independent