Miscellaneous.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 377, 14 June 1856, Page 6

Miscellaneous.

A novel and somewhat exciting game of cricket mi the ice came off on the meadow known as Aston's Eyte, Long Meadow, on Tuesday afternoon last, between two sides chosen by two well-known cricketers, namely, Messrs. W.Bacon and T. Turner. The match, which was vey evenly contested, was witnessed by some hundreds of spectators, who took great interest in the s range proceedings. The play of T. Leaver and W. G. Armttstead, Esq., on Turner's side, was first rate, the former making fifty-nine (not out) whilst Messrs. VV. Bacon and J. Embling (Bacon givintr up his bat) efficiently assisted {.heir side with the long scores of fifty five and

forty three. The falls were not so numerous as might have been expected on such an occasion, which may he attributed to the lad that eveiy player was expert in the art of skating. Score —T. Tiirnei'sside, 128; \V. Bacon's side, 126. — Oxford Herald. The Prince of Wales " took the chair" the other day on a public occasion. The Prince bus been attending Faraday's lectures. Prince Albert, it so happened, was unable to attend—the chair was vacant—it must be filled The boy-prince took the chair, and to the surprise of many, behaved like other boys, with great modesty and, of course, good sense.— Illustrated News

Mr. Rogers has left several volumes —it is said five—of Memoirs. These are in the hands of the poet's executor and publisher, Mr. Moxon, and are " ready for the press. " Report speaks unctuously as to the contents. Rogers' personal property is said to be under j£2o,ot>o. The pictures and books are possibly worth £4-0,000. In bis later years Rogers lived ou an annuity from the bank.— Atheneeum.

A splendid meteor fell on Monday evening a little after dark, which must have bee" of uncommon size and brilliancy, as separate accounts of its appearance have been given from Havre, Ramsgate, Wareham, Rouen, Southampton, and other places. At great Grimsby, the intelligent spectators shouted out, " Oh ! look, the moon is coming down ! "

The statue of Charles I. at Charing-cross has just undergone some very necessary repairs. It has been raised one inch, and generally strengthened in its place; it having been found, on inspection, to have been only kept erect by an iron bolt of the thickness of only half an inch by three-sixteenths of an inch (which was considerably corroded) inserted into tiie rear hind leg of the ho.se. New spurs have b.-en gi >en to the King, and a bridle to his horse.

A strange method of suicide was adopted on Sunday evening, the 23rd of December A man ii; the prime of life, but whose appearance betokened poverty and misery, having entered the Grantham Arms, Leeds, and called for a pipe, he sat down moodily by the fire. After sitting thus for ten minutes, the man put a poker into the fire, and when it had become red-hot, deliberately put the red- hot end down bis throat. His tongue, throat, and under lip were very much burnt, from the effects of which he died the following Friday. The only information that can be gained about the deceased is, that his name is Thomas Barker, and that he came from B.dton, in Lancashire.

The Victoria Rifle Ground at Kilburn lias been hired by Government for rifle practice by the Foot Guards. The Royal Marines are practising with rifles at Chatham.

Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister. — A judgment pronounced-' last week in Scotland decided, overruling the settled conviction which has prevailed in that country from time immemorial, that marriage with a deceased wife's sister is not forbidden hy Scotch law. The circumstances were peculiar, the marriage in question having been contracted in England, between parties domiciled in England; and the decision affirming the legitimacy of the issue, may therefore be upheld on different grounds from those on which Lord Ardmillan rested it. But it involves one of two propositions, each of most serious importance—either, that a marriage in a foreign country, between Scotch citizens domiciled there, and good according to the law of that country, is good in Scotland although there held contrary to the natural or revealed law of God —»r that a marriage with a deceased wife's sister is not prohibited in Scotland as contrary to the natural or revealed law of God. Lord Ardmillan (our readers will remember him better as Mr. Crawford, late SolicitorGeneial for Scotland) negatives the first of these propositions and affirms the last. Either way, the consequences of the decision if it stands will be most momentous. If he is right, then Scotland herself, which has hitherto stood merely on the defensive, and deemed herself so secure, that she refused to accept Lord Lyndhurst's Act, is not only disarmed but actually and irretrievably in the enemy's hands—his dominion—his stronghold, from which he may effect at his leisure the conquest of the rest of the island. But does it also follow, as has been hastily inferred by the English press, that, instead of going to Altona or Dusseldorf, middleaged people desirous of being uulawfudy married will henceforth have merely to travel openly and unpursued to Gretna Green ? By no means. The judgment implies on the contrary, though it does not expressly determine, that according to the opinion of the judge, if he were sitting in an English Court, a Gretna Green marriage between persons in this relation to each other would not be good then, nor is a Dusseldorf marriage good now. The question, however, now that it has been raised," is pretty sure to be brought before the House of Lords. As regards Lord Ardmillan himself, he is a lawyer of sound but average acquirements, who had a good criminal practice at £the bar— Guardian.

The new church at Ambleside has recently been warmed by means of flues leading from a coke fire Owirig to some imperfection in the flues, a dele-

terious gas issued into the body of the church during the morning service, on Sunday sennight. Young children, being nearest the floor, were first affected, and about twenty of then followed [one another out before the adults took the alarm. At about the middle of the sermon the congregation rose in a body and went out, to the apparent astonishment of the preacher, who in his elevated pulpit, was unaware of the mischief. I n the churchyard numbers of persons fell on the grass fainting, convulsed, and moaning. .None altogether escaped injury. During the afernoon the druggist's shop was crowded with applicants for stimulant medicines—debihty and headache prostrating Uie population like a plague. None of the cases terminated fatally. Hepeated warnings had been given to the authorities for weeks past, by the ringers and others who had suffered from the fumes of coke, but no notice was taken ; and on Sunday last the doors were shut, and kept shut, by the churchwardens, whose practice is to go to the inus during prayers, to see whether any drinking is going forward, and who will allow no admission of air during their absence, or on their return. — Daily News. " The Victoria Cross is the name of the new order of merit which her Majesty has been pleased to create for the rewa-dof military and naval valour. It is avowed'V instituted to remedy the defect of means to do honour to the exploits of the common soldier and sailor, and the officers of the 'tower grades. Thus, it is a signal evidence that the'irffwtrous ruler of these realms comprehends the true strength of her throne. While its foundations ramify among the homes of the people, she may defy the shocks that sets tottering the seats held up by the bayonets or gilt sticks. The details of this wise and graceful institution will be read with interest. The cross is to be of bronze, with the inscription " For Valour.'' A blue ribbon marks the Navy, and a red the Army. Additional bars are to be added where the wearer performs a new act that would have given him the cross had he been undecorated. " Conspicuous bravery alone entitles to the honour. Objection might he made to this limitation, as an act of combining courage, with skill—a deed that saves a detachment or secures a position—demands recognition more than the deed of gallantry ; but it must be remembered that other distinctions are in the gift of the Queen ; and indeed the Victoria Cross would hardly be an adequate recompense for the first-mentioned act. The decoration is to be publicly given, and the name of the recipient is to be recorded in a general order. With the cross is conferred a special pension of JS IO a year, and each additional bar brings an additional annual £5. We trust that the institution will be as successful as the intention of its founder and head deserves it should be. Some day, perhaps, we shall hear of a Legion of Honour of those who save .ife, teach men how to spend it, and aid them to enjoy it nobly and wisely.

The Pitch Lake of Trinidad, and its application to Steam Fuel.—The Pitch Lake of Trinidad lias long been celebrated as one of the extraordinary productions of nature, but has been passed over, like many others of equal importance, unheeded and unapplied to any useful or prictical purposes. During the period in which the Earl of Dundonald (now Rear-admir..l of England) held the command of thj West India station, he had occasion in his official capacity, to visit the Island of Trinidad, where circumstances occurred to draw his attention to the mineral and other productions of that as well as of other settlements under that command ; and it having also occurred that one of the steam-vessels of the fleet was short of coals, the opportunity of testing the utility of the bituminous productions of the Pitch Lake presented itself, which his aotive mind was not long in rendering available to the exigency. From a variety of experiments made on the boiler furnaces of the vesse[ alluded to, the Earl of Dundonald satisfied himself of the character and value of the material, and he was not slow in applying it to a variety of useful purposes. Pipes were cast for the conveyance of water instead of cast-iron, withstanding a pressure of 140-lbs. per square inch, and effecting a considerable saving in cost. The local Government thereupon, gave his lordship a grant of about onethird of the surface of the lake, together with other property bordering on the lake and neighbourhood. Subsequently to this, his lordship purchased the estates contiguous to and surrounding the Pitch Lake, and is now, in conjunction with his son, Captain Cochrane, C.B , owner of the whole of the property enclosing the lake. The Earl of Dundonald having, with his accustomed acumen applied the bitumen to a variety of useful purposes, has, taken out patents of the United Kingdom and France, amongst which we may name the coating of telegraphic wires, the jointing of iron and of other pipes, in substitution of lead; a perfectly waterproof cloth for roofing, floor-cloth, &c.; a substitute for iron pipes, ships, and other structures, as a prevention against corrosion ; a perfectly protecting paint for the protection of wood and iron work generally The honorable Captain Cochrane has recently obtained a patent, or ordinance, from the local Legislature of the manufacture of economical fuel, for the service of steam vessels navigating the

"West Indian seas, and more especially the West Indian Mail Steamers, who are compelled to coal the voyage with coal sent from Englsnd, at great expense, the probable average of which is 40s. per ton at St. Thomas's, while the patent bituminous fuel is limited by the ordinance to 20s. per ton. The vessels trading from Panama to Australia may also be suppli d with this fuel, and its importance to the sugar plantations is incalculable, as it frequently happen* that there is a scarcity of coal in the Islands, and the supply of wood (its substitute) as frequently fails. The greatest facilities are afforded for shipment, as the pitch in its overflowing at various times has extended itself 600 yards into the sea, and formed a natural jetty for vessels to take in their cargoes from. There is no doubt that this is one of the most valuable applications of the bitumen, and which is calculated not only to confer a permanent benefit on the local interests of Trinidad by the employment of its labour, but will greatly benefit the neighbouring Islands, by the supoly of good and cheap fuel for all manufacturing purposes. The fuel has been proved, by trialo made on the Thames, on the tubular boiler of a river steamer, under the inspection of an Admiralty officer, and other engineers, to have evaporated 30 per ?cent. more water by tb« combustion of an equal weight of fuel and Mertbyr coal than was evaporated by an equal weight of Mertbyr coal alone, showing the great superiority of the fuel ;er se. A .y);pmpaiiy has been recently formed in London, iiuder an able directorate, for the purpose of carrying out the manufacture of the patent fuel in Trinidad, on the pitch property, and the steam-boat companies in those seas, as well as the manufacturing interests of the islands, will soon reap the benefit of its introduction. We have no doubt that this invention will prove of great benefit to the colonies, and especially to the island of Trinidad. — Mining Journal, January 2(>.

Prices Current.—Wool.