English and Foreign Items.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 772, 24 March 1870, Page 3

English and Foreign Items.

The remains of Mr Peabody, the great benefactor of the industrious poor, were embarked at Portsmouth on December 11, on board her Majesty's turret ship Monarch, Capt. John Commerell, V.C., C. 8., for conveyance across the Atlantio to Portland, Maine, United States, and the ceremony was attended with all the respect and honor that could possibly be rendered where the last and most solemn of all tributes to the dead had already been paid by the Crown, the Government, and the nation, in the funeral service held over Mr Peabody's remains in Westminster Abbey. The screw corvette Plymouth, which had been sent by the President of the United States to convey Mr Peabody's remains to America, was to convoy the Monarch. The flags of the two great English nations floated together over the ships. The following verses, apropos of this subject, are ifrom Punch:—

Monday, Dec. 20, 1869. War-ships ere now have veiled their warlike stato,l And hid their bravery in mourning- grey, To bear across the sea a faneral freight— Great admiral, or great captain, passed away. Bat now what admiral's, what captain's bier Doth our majestic Monarch bear o'er sea, That thus in ashen grey she shrouds her gear, And half-mast llies her flag thus mouniingly ? Wherefore this mortuary chapel fair, Above this coffin, with immortelles crowned, These stalwart sailors with bowed heads and bare, In an unwonted death-watch ranged around ? Some mighty man of war this needs must be, Thus by an English war-ship grave wards borne, In a Columbian war-ship's company— One whom two nations wreathe their flags to mourn. He was a warrior—thus proudly borne, Thus proudly convoyed o'er sea to his grave, But one whose battle-fields no scroll adorn WheTe fame writes the achievements of the brave. He fought the silent fight with want and woe, They fight whose right hand knoweth not the deed Their left hand doeth, who no trumpet blow, Assert no merit, and demand no meed. A captain in the warfare, under Christ Captain in chief—'gainst suffering and sin, Who in love's strength, unpricing, and unpriced, Went forth, his victory over these to win ! On such a Warrior's body it seems well That Old World's war-ship with New World's attend, Augury of the time when love shall quell Warfare to peace, and turn each foe to friend. The London Weekly Dispatch of Dec. 25 contains tho following paragraph : —The New Zealand Commissioners are expected here in January or February, with powers to raise a force for the protection of the Colony. If the conditions be as favorable as represented, they are not unlikely to secure the services of a large number of officers and men from our Volunteers. Tho following cool proposition is made in tho New STork Tribune :-—" Tho United States have already a large portion of the gold-bearing territory of the earth, and need more. At one time it seemed as though the mass of tho population of the southern colony of Australia (Victoria) would seek admission to the American Union (!) The genius of its institutions is akin to and modelled after that of our great Bopublic, in an humble way. Its people have enacted tho ballot and debated the 'Homestead Law.' British bayonets checked tho tendency (!) If we are to make a demand for territorial compensation for the Alabama claims, would not, Australia, with its tempera to aud equable! climato, be better for us than wintry icebound Canada, with its new sham-noble governed population ? " The latest fashion adopted at home now amongst the fair sex is that of tho " Alexandra Limp," accomplished by taking the heel off one boot, and considerably raising that of the other. This fashion is derived from the Princess of Wales, who sinco she has been suffering from a white swelling in tho knee, limps slightly in her walk. "Truly," says the Illustrated Midland Nows," the vagaries of fashion are infinite Wo have gone back in tho matter of dress to mediaaval times —you may seo the cling- ' ing skirts that are worn now in any old

! print; of the period, while as regards tk« fashion of dressing the hair our girls al» most rival the eccentricities of their predecessors, who in the reign of Richard lIL, wore their natural hair in every form tliat could be devised. We have an engraving before us copied from a volume in the Harleian Collection. The worst of it is in the present day you never know where tha false hair begins and the real ends, so deftly is the chignon arranged ana so artfully are the colors blended together. While, as regards other follies of Fashion, we have not yet seen the last of the Grecian Bend before there is developed another form of torture, under the mysterious inscrutable title of the Alexandra Limp! The limp is produced (and we do not speak without authority upon this important question) by the lemoval of the heel from one boot, and tho adoption on the other boot of a very high heel—an invention that probably had its origin in the distressing lameness of the Princess who hears the name that has been given to this new folly."

A correspondent of the Field after relating an anecdote of a heifer getting into an hotel and rushing upstairs at 11 o'clock one night, to the great alarm of the inmates, says :—" One curious circumstance remains to be told. No. 6 bedroom was occupied by an Irishman, who, being a martyr to rheumatic gout, had been compelled to crawl upstairs by means of a stick in one hand, and holding on to the balustrade with the other. Such, however, was the terror excited by the unearthly row in the nest apartment, that with three bounds he sprang down the staircase into the hall. From that moment the rheumatic gout left him 5 he is now perfectly sound, and lean be called on to vouch for the fact." A parallel case is recorded in the Times. A correspondent of that paper, signing himself "L. 8.," says that on the 17th November he was travelling on the Midland from Manchester to London, racked with pain. "My weak body was in a profuse perspiration j flashes of pain announced that the muscular fibres were under the tyrannical control of rhematism, and I was almost beside my self with toothache," when the train ran into another. His next neighbors were thrown against eaoh other, but he was only thrown on the {opposite cushion, and ho got out perfectly well. In the most ungrateful manner he conceals his name lest the company should ask him for compensation. It would scarcely, however, do that, lest it should be prosecuted for curing people without a proper license. Extraordinary forgeries, it would appear, have been practised upon Lord St. Leonards, who writes as follows on the subject to the Times:—"l and my family have for the last twelve months have been the indirect subjects for attack by false telegrams and false orders to professional gentlemen of eminence, and first-class London tradesmen of every description, by which many of them have been put to serious inconvenience. We ourselves have suffered by false telegrams and letters to the absent, members of the family. After a time there was a lull. Then an order was sent to one house to make great marble alterations to a tomb in the adjoin- • ing church yard, describing the sort of marble and the length and breadth of the slabs, with a copy of the actual inscription, and a jeweller on the opposite side of the road was directed to send here diamonds of considerable value. Again these attacks ceased, and now an attempt has been made to procure diamonds of value by, for the first time, a forged signature of mine, which is perfect, and has been produced by tracing. I enclose the letter. I am not sure that the writer did not intend to steal the diamonds. This, like most of the other attempts, has failed, because steps were taken to ascertain whether the order was genuine. The affair has for a long time been under the care of the ■ best detective of Scotland Yard. As all other means have failed, the gentlemen who have been addressed think that I ought to endeavor to stop the evil by ask--1 ing you to be so good as to publish the last letter. Ido not hesitate to dp so, as I know how ready you are to open your columns to an exposure of any social evil." The letter referred to purports to be from his lordship to Messrs Emanuel, and is as follows:—"I wish to present my seven daughters with a locket each, in black 1 enamel and diamonds. I shall feel obliged by your executing the order for mo. I wish them to be round, and with my coronet (a baron's) and initials on them in diamonds, not to exceed £3O each. I leave it all to you, as I do not understand this kind of thing, and will you kindly acknowledge the order to me at this club. ,as 1 am leaving home for a few days? I wigh to present them on January 6. I 1 will write in-a week to let you know where they are to be sent to me, as I am not 1 likely to be at home for some time." \