Miscellaneous.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 457, 21 March 1857, Page 7

Miscellaneous.

Some -WMtstable j&shernien have.made a strange discovery aiid a,handsome prize. They found a brigantine• on the Girdler Sand ; \ the corpse of the master was on the cabin-bed, with, a piece of canvas over the face; no living'being! was on hoard; The fishermen got the vessel to Whitstaple. It is Danish;, and,- with: the; cargo of wheat, is worth some £3000. It seems: that the vessel was abandoned by the crew after it went on ashore, during bad weather; the master was-killed by a breaker dashing him against the ladder. . -His Excellency the' Ambassador of Erance and the Countess de; Persigny recently paid a . visit to the Earl and .Countess of Derby at^ Knowsley, and. also honoured Liverpool with their presence. ' , Miss Florence Nightingale and her family have taken up their residence near the town of.Romsey, Hants; the inhabitants have presented the illustrious lady with a respectful address.A gentleman of highly respectable exterior iji a-first-.class railway carriage, the train having arrived at the terminus j and theiguard demanding the passengers' ; tickets, by^a slight mistake, . arising; irom inadvertence, produces his Ticket of Leave.- — Ficnch: At the opening.of the special winter assizes' for South Lancashire at Liverpool, Mr. Baron Alderson delivered an unusual lengthy charge,in the course of which he condemned in strong terms the present ticket-of-leave system. Judge Hallibuf tori, author of f Sam Slick,' ; has engaged to deliver an address on the 16th of November to the members of the Manchester Athenaeum. This address is to be followed by subsequent; ones during the winter from Lord Lytteltbn, Sir Robert Peel and Lord Stanley. The Secretary of State for "War, in answer to: an application to construst works of defence for the.port of Swansea,and the adjoining ;coast of .Glamorgan, states that it is .his intention, to ..propose a vote in the next year's estimates of ..his department, for the .defences of commercial harbours. A committee has been ordered to assemble "to determine upon the best sites and proper armament. Our, readers .may remember the_ case of the army tailor who.received £400 damages against the Times for reporting1 that he' Lad been flogged in the Crimea. Not content Avith this, an ■ action was commencedagainst the Illustrated London News for having copied the paragraph. After a little conversation it was .'arranged .that a verdict should be given to the ; plaintiif,. so as to carry costs, and that an apology should ap-. pear in the Ilbistrated News. ..A.second 'Daniel Lambert recently died at Debden in, Ess.ex-f--Mr. -James : MansfieM, who was - nine feet in girth, and weighs 33 stone. He was not above .the ordinary height. Mr. .Marlsfield was abutcher ; he. ; \yasof a sanguine and happy temperament; and. he lived ■to the age of 82. . . - Pkofowc Rbflectiok.—" I have often observed at a public -entertainment that when there is... anything . particular. to -be seen, and everybody wants particularly to see.it/ everybody immediately starids^jip,- and effectually.prevents anybody from seeing anything." ■ •

The Rev. F. CtosE.—Earl Fitzhardinge has contributed the sjim of £55 towards the fund which has, been raised for presenting a testimonial'to the* late' incumbent of Cheltenham. His Lordship's donation, which was forwarded to the Rev. Dr. A. M. Brown (of the Congregational Church), for payment, was accompanied by the following letter:—"German Cottage, Nov. 28, 1856.—My dear Dr. Morton Brown,-— Will you do me the favour to pay the amount of the enclosed cheque to the fund for the testimonial to the Rev. Mr. Close ; I have been his parishoner for so many years that I cannot see him quit the spot where he has laboured so zealously without offering a trifling tribute of respect at his deparbure—rMost sincerely yours, Fitzhaedijjge.—Rev. Dr. Browu, -OxfordStreet. Re-opening or St. Ja^ies's Church.—On Sunday afternoon, Dec. 7th, Dr. Tait, the recently appointed Bishop of London, preached his first episcopal sermon, on the- occasion of the re-opening of St. James's Church, Piccadily, after the recent alterations. The Golden Lectujieship.—On Saturday, Dec. 6th, the election for the Golden Lectureship took'place. The number .of candidates was 38, many of whom are popular preachers. From the first it was • considered that the election would be between the Revs. R. Bickersteth, Daniel Moore, C. Molyneux, and Dr. Crowly: and it was generally expected that Mr. Bickersteth would be the. successful candidate. Fortunately, however, for Mr. Moore, Lord Palmerston appointed Mr. Bickersteth to^the 'bishopric of Ripon, and that reverend .gentleman immediately f resigned in: favour of-Mi-. Moore., The contest, nevertheless, was remarkably severe and close, the Rev. Daniel , Moore being only .returned by one vote, the Rev. C. Molyneux being second. ; ;

The subjoined remarks on the fiscal condition of: Tasmania are from the ' Launceston Examiner' of the 7th February:—".A southern con,temporary mentions a rumourthat the ministry. influenced by the agitation throughout tlie country, intend to abandon the tariff alterations, and fall back.tipdn a directi house and land tax-^----the former at assessed value, and the latter at two pence per acre. Should this be. true we believe it will scarcely be more acceptable, to the country than the former, proposal. The fact is the "people are impatient of further taxation. They see a revenue of £300,000 frittered.away in useless salaries ;.the population daily diminishing ; commerce, prostrate—-arid still they are -threatened with increased burdens. We believe that nothing will satisfy the. public or improve our financial condition .but a vigorous application of the pruning knife, in cutting down the expenditure to reasonable dimensions."