Miscellaneous.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 396, 23 August 1856, Page 6

Miscellaneous.

Our readers are aware that telegraphic com-, municntion is now extended to Constantinople, and also from the Bosphorbusto Scutari. It. is now confidently stated that "the wires are very shortly to be carried, via the Archipelago and Levant, to Alexandria, down the lied Sea to Bombay, wi ere they will merge into those of the East India Company's (which extend'across the Carnatic) to Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, and Australia. Also, that a company has been for some time in existence waiting to cany out this project, which, vast and chimerical as it may appear, has been pondered over by men of practical skill, and sounded to almost as great a depth as the waters have been through which it wilt pass." •■. It is stated that the Government are about to introduce a series of resolutions in the House of Lords immediately, giving power to the Crown to appoint four peerages for life, and at no time to exceed that number. They are to be termed ' Lords of appeal,' and are to enjo}' during their natural life, all the privileges of hereditary members of the House of Lords, with the annual salary of ,£5,000, inclusive of any pension to which they .might be entitled from their previous judicial services on the bench. A committee of the Governors of the Wellington College met April ]4th, in the Palace of Westminster, for the purpose of making arrangements for the ceremony of laying the first stone of the college by the Queen on the 3rd of May. . ■ ■ Dlbate ox the Fall of Kars.—The following were the terms of the motion submitted to the House by Mr. Whiteside on the 241h April: | "That while this-House feels it to be its duty to express its admiration of the gallantry of*the ! Turkish soldiery, and of the devotion of the ■ I British officers at the siege of Kars, it feels it to be equally a duty to express its conviction th-Jt the capitulation of that fortress and the surrender of the army which defended it, thereby | endangering the safety of the Asiatic provinces of Turkey, was in a great measure owing to the want of foresight and energy on,, the part of her Majesty's 'Administration." GKN Ti:rtAr, Williams axd his Brother Officers.— Respecting the English officers connected . with the defence of '■Kars, the last accounts just received have left General Williams at Tiflis in.good health, he was previously confined with fever and a liver complaint. Major Teesdale remained with General Williams—both were frequently visited by the Russian General Mouravieff, wlm overwhelmed them with 'attentions.' Major Thompson and Colonel Lake are in the neighbourhood of Moscow. The troops of Ondo have tendered their services to us to a man. A portion of them for a short time hesitated, under the apprehension that they might be compelled to shave; on being assured that the bushiest of beards wore"no objection, they enrolled themselves at oiice. The villagers experience astonishment and delight at receiving prompt and '-punctual payment for everything required from them for ihe public service, and at being permitted to give or to i withhold whatever they please. . ■ A letter from Calcutta says—"l am told that the allowance granted by Government to the i 10l temple atPoo:e,has been discontinued under orders from home. The abolition of this grant has been an object with Indian missionaries and philanthropists I'or some years." Much-abused ' Hiawatha,' we hear from.. America, has taken hold, in an almost unprecedented manner, of the popular fancy of our Transatlantic cousin-. Towards the end of March (half a year after the publication of this poem) 30,000 copies had been'sold^ and the sales wr* going on with unabated vigour. The following paragraph is taken from a Boston newspaper:—"The' beautiful three decked ship 'Miniehaha' (named from the heroine of Longfellow's chusming poem of 'Hiawatha') was most successfully launched about noon on Saturday "last, from Donald M'Kity's yard at East Boston. The occasion was one of unusual interest, and attracted a very large concourse of i people, who reut the ait with their huzzalis as

the ' Minnelmha' gracefully glided into the embrace of the ' laughing'waters' (her namesake)". . The 'Boston Atlas' says that the notorious Barnum, who has handled millions, and who lias heen held up as a most pleinlid specimen of Yankee thrift, stands in a public court to say that he now takes in lodgers—that this is his only source of livelihood, and ili.il lie has only twenty-five dollars in cash and two suits of clothes left! New York is to have one of the largest and finest parks in the world. The whole area of the -park will be about eight hundred acres. It will stand nearly in the centre of the Malmttan Island, on which New York stands, and will stretch through more than half of the breadth of the Island from the Hudson to the East river in its widest part. It is wild and romantic in its scenery, and if it is laid out with taste, says a New York letter, will make altogether the most picturesque wild and romantic city drive there is within the limits of any great town in the world. Canada.—Few here (Toronto) are at nil apprehensive of a war with the States. If England had been crippled seriously in the llussiati war, then we should begin to feel alarm at the warlike thunder of their press and stump orators. While statesmen are talking about war, our merchants are discussing the propriety of sending a commercial agent to Washington, to represent Canadian interests, and the New York Chamber of commerce is strongly recommending an extension of .reciprocity with Canada. The passing of the Militia Law last session has' placed Canada in a better defensive position than ever it was before. The women of Leicester met at the Towuhall lately, to give expression to their views on the rights of women question. The hand-bills stated that no men would beadmiUe<l,'ejcctptinjr, of course, gentlemen of the press.' The meeting numbered about two hundred females of the operative class. A Mrs Wood ford was voted to the chair,, had the principal speaker was a-Mrs. Wig-field.- It was unanimously resolved to support the motion of Sir Erskine Perry for a revision of the marriage laws, and a petition to the House of Commons praying that it might be adopted, was agreed to. The proceedings, which were conducted with greutorder and propriety, terminated soon after nine o'clock, by the singing of the National Anthem. It was agreed, with one dissentient, not to support.Mr. Dilhvyn's measure for introducing flogging as a punishment for sviie-beaters. . . BeBAXGEr's EIMGRAM ON THE IMPERIAL, PiiiNCK. —Bcanger is taking revenge for the slights put upon his literary brethren by the present rulers of France. His sarcasms, it is true, are not printed in France, but they circulate in copies by thousands and thousands, and are chanted in the cafes and workshops, in spite of the police. Here is the old singer's epigram on the Imperial Prince. : 11 est Hollandius par son pere, II est Ecossais par sa grand mere, II est Anglais par alliance, ■' II est Espagnol par naissance, Qtielle malheureuse chance Qii'il ne manque a 1' enfant de France Que d'/etre tant soil pen Frangais. French compositors who have lost their living by the system of suppression arc finding, we are told, a new -resource in copying these Beran»er verses and other clandestine productions of the '.same class. — Allienceum.

Imperial Sdpkrstition.—-According to my informant, peace; mi«rht have been proclaimed on Friday, but the Emperor thought that an unlucky day ; it might therefore, have been so yesterday*, but it was put off till to-day, for this reason, that in the gospel uf to-day, (Quasi modo Sunday, us it is'termed,) there occurs from the 20tht. chapter of St. John this passage : — " And Jesus came, and standing: in the midst of his disciples, said, Peace be with you." This 'was deemed too excellent a coincidence to be allowed 'to escape ; and consequently the proclamation was fixed forlo-day, ai the hour of the last mass. My infonnani, relating this incident, added : "'There are two who are full of these kind of superstitions, the' Emperor and , Oiioff." Paris Correspondence of the Man= Chester Guardian. Punch was si-ized in Paris the last week in March for the first lime for several months. Its offence was the picture representing the EmpeMr standing by the cradle of his infant, while a figure of Liberty in the act of coming forward saysj " May I not be godmother. ?".