ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IV, Issue 176, 20 May 1854, Page 5

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Hee Majesty the Queen was to open Parliament in person on the 31st .of January, ! The Hon. E. H. Bouverie, M.P., is likely to fee the new Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, to be qreated by virtue of the Act of Parliament of last session. Sir Kobert Harry Inglis has announced his intention to resign his seat as one of the representatives of Oxford University, assigning his declining health as his reason for withdrawing from the turmoil of political life, for which, in his sixty-eighth year, he feels himself unequal. ." Much more than any other living man," the Times remarks, " he has illustrated the force of what English people are proud to call ' character.' People may, or may not, have valued his opinions; but all respected, admired, and even loved the honest, hearty, genial, courteous o-entleman, who spoke the whole truth, as1 he held it, from his whole soul, with no respect either of persons or circumstances, and apparently with no other object than to record a clear testimony arid to quiet his conscience. As a politician, Sir Eobert may be considered as perhaps the last of his race. His retirement, in the immediate prospect of University Reform, is an omen. The right honourable baronet possibly feels that his vocation is gone. Sir William Heathcote and Mr. Roundel Palmer are spoken of as candidates to be proposed by his friends; but he will have no political successor." Considerable difficulty is experienced in getting sufficient able-bodied seamen to man the vessels about to be put into commission ; and it is feared the justly unpopular system of impressment will/have to be resorted to. Some war-steamers for the Russian navy, it .is reported, are being built in the river Tyne. Lord Palmerston's attention having been called to the circumstance, ,he has written to the builders for information. The papers report the sea-faring population of the north as indignant, and assert that no Russian war-vessel would be allowed to leave their ports. Several railway accidents are reported, with loss of life. The novel ceremony of consecrating an English abbot had been performed by Cardinal Wiseman in the church of St. Gregory, at Rome. The abbot elect was Dr. Burder (who about eight years ago abandoned the English Church), Superior of the new Trappist Monastery of St. Bernard's, in Leicestershire. Rumours are afloat of an intention to establish in London a monster glee society, numbering at least a thousand voices, which it is proposed to select from amongst the best musical societies and circles in the metropolis. The Judge of the Leicester County Court has decided that a man is not to be held responsible for the extravagant expenses of his wife after he has cautioned the tradesmen with whom she deals, even though he should live with her after giving such caution, and while the debt is contracted. A new plan of building carts and other vehicles has been discovered, by which a horse can be made to draw a load one half heavier than by carts as at 'present constructed. The new vehicle has four wheels, and when the horse is harnessed the foremost pair come to about the middle of his body ; the weight is thrown on the axles. " " A great quantity of snow fell during the Christmas week, the country presenting more of the appearance of an old English winter than had been witnessed for many years. Several accidents are reported, and in the hilly districts many sheep have been lost. The Times reports that "large numbers of sheep were dug out of the snow on the mountains of the isle of Man, in January, and in the greater number of instances life was preserved. Iv one case a blackbird was found by the side of a sheep under the snow, and also lived. In many districts the birds were so tame as to fly into the dwelling-houses; in some instances, however, they died shortly after." Iv some parts the snow thawed very rapidly, occasioning much loss of property ; while in the midland districts, railway communication has been temporarily suspended. The following we extract from the Doncaster papers. " The inhabitants of the lower part of Doncaster, lying in the valley of the river Don, were, on the 18th January, surprised with one of the greatest floods that has occurred in that town for the last sixty years. In the field in Marshgate the water was seven or eight feet deep at

the least, and was bursting through the wall next the pavement in countless streams. A strolling player's booth in the middle of the field was half submerged in the flood, and the proprietor and his family found it necessary to remove to their caravan on the canal bridge. Several women and children were taken out of the houses in Marshgate in the afternoon, and found shelter among their friends and relatives in other parts of the town." Other subjects, in addition to the Strikes and the War question, are disturbing the tranquillity of the mother-country. One is, the reported interference of Prince Albeit with foreign ques- \ tions, evidencing a leaning towards the petty German Courts dissonant with the popular English ideas ; another, riots in the rural districts, occasioned by the high price of all descriptions of food ; and a movement for the general adoption of the "hirsute appendage" to the male face. The Spectator remarks :— " The two fables of the day are that Prince Albert has been sent to the Tower, and Lord Derby 'sent for' by the Court or by the Cabinet. The latter report is helped by a high Tory organ with a contradiction, couched in the form of a denial that Lord Derby would comply with the request either to form a new Ministry or to aid the present. We may be sure that his compliance -has not been tested. The other rumour is only the crowning absurdity in a series of systematic assaults upon the Prince Consort. Etiquette withholds the simple denial that ought to be easy until Parliament is in session to take ' authorized' cognizance of popular rumour : and the Queen's husband remains for weeks under a stigma, and the duped public under an anxiety. " The charges against Prince Albert, above referred to, which involve accusations of unconstitutional interference with the Cabinet, have at last attracted the attention of the ministerial journals. On Monday last the Morning Chronicle, on Wednesday the Times, and on Wednesday evening the Globe, had an editorial article jjon the subject; and the writers, without pretending to know more of Court or Cabinet secrets than other people, contend that the accusations against the Prince Consort are either destitute of th« gravity imputed to them, or that, if intrinsically important, they are utterly unworthy of credit by a sensible and reflecting people, being founded entirely on anonymous authority." The following on the moustache movement is also from the Spectator. "How to JBeabd Society.—We have to confess neglect of an important movement-, which consists partly in the suspension of another important and truly national movement. The primary movement consists in the gradual protrusion of the hairs that naturally grow on the upper lip and chin of the adult male population of the United Kingdom, at least so far as that can be coaxed out of the diffidence which inclines those important ornaments of the human face to retire from sight, like in a cloud of lather. It is obvious that the continuance of this movement involves the suspension of the national razor movement ; yet, notwithstanding the anti-shaving league, we do not hear of any agitation among the cutlers like that amongst the farmers. There is no fear that the Weisses and Mechis will be ruined. Railway guards, stone-masons, and other revolutionists, came forth in beards, and yet there does appear upon the face of society a considerable fidelity to the razor. That, perhaps, as well as the demand for export, is the reason why no Louis Napoleon of Sheffield takes upon himself to confront the universal movement and rehabilitate an imperial power to ' shave society.' The movement has an advantage quite peculiar to it, inasmuch as the argumeuts on both sides have all the amusing elements of the ridiculous. The present custom is absurd. To foreigners who come from nations unmutilated in the face, the aspect of men stalking in public deprived of the distinctive ornament of the muzzle, and thus reduced to stubbled and rough copies of women, is more amusing than imposing. The North American Indian, who shaves his head and leaves a tuft in the centre for the convenience of his enemy in taking off the scalp, is actuated by a higher sense of honour than that which actuates Englishmen in compelling them to shave the muzzle and leave two scraps at the side for that domestic enemy, the favourite child, to tug at. The custom therefore is ridiculous ; but the revolution is scarcely graver. The artist, who tells us that the beard is better than the shaven chin—personal com-

fort, which tells us that the operation of shaving is a daily torture —or common sense, which tells us that the fur upon the lips and round the throat in harsh weather is a natural " comforter" —have strong grounds on their side ; but when the physician interposes, and gravely assures us that the national malady of consumption may be warded off by the natural respirator, and especially when the distinguished member of a ; public department heads the anti-razor movement, representing the movement as essential to public health—it may be said material improvement is beginning to revel among the soap-suds. One is prompted to ask whether the preacher practises; and perhaps a contemporavy can tell us whether the great apostle of this bearded doctrine is himself an exemplar of his mission ? It is one that can only be taught by example, not inculcated by doctrine or ordered by statute. We have a compulsory vaccination act, but a compulsory anti-shaving act would be tolerated only in Bussia—or the Bank of England. Soldiers shave or grow by regulation, but civilians might at least claim freedom of action. The Police have not been required to grow a handle by which to be bearded ; but the authorities at the Bank, it is said, have put down certain rising moustaches, perhaps as dangerous to the safety of that institution. Such is our custom of tyranny in trifles: we grant a freedom to religious and political principles which we deny to the capillary principles; we. admit private judgment on the most important questions, and deny it on the question of the morning !" We observe in another column a statement that the Durham police had adopted the moustache.