Miscellaneous.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 496, 5 August 1857, Page 5

Miscellaneous.

The appearance of the vineyards in the South of .France, and the'favourable weather, have created an expectation of an abundant vintage this year. The King Consort of Spain has fallen into such contempt with the public that the audience of the Italian Opera no longer pay him the compliment of rising when he enters. Malicious stories are circulated with great eagerness that the King and Queen not only quarrel but proceed to blows.

The " Times" Vienna correspondent says that travelling in Austria, formerly a pain, is now a pleasure. " During my journey to Pesth and back again, my passport was not once ssked for."

The Honourable Neil Dow, " father of the Maine Liquor Law, " arrived in Liverpool on the 20th April. The friends of ? the Great Temperance League " welcomed him on landing. In reply to questions, he denied a statement made in a letter by Mr. Gough, that" the Temperance cause in the United States is in a most distressed state; that the Maine Liquor Law is a dead letter; that there is more liquor consumed now in New York State than I have ever known, more in Masschusetts, and more everywhere. "

Mr. Gough, he said, had but lately returned from Indiana and the Western settlements, where there is a great deal of intemperance, more especially among the Irish. The Irish everywhere are the greatest praciisers of intemperance, and the Germans the same. In Indiana they have com and potato sprits as plentiful as water—indeed, more so; and the Irish and Germans indulge in drinking to excess, Mr. Gough had just come from Chicago, where the Germans and Irish thus indulge; and where this intemperance causes vice and crime and poverty, everywhere they are to be found. This was what probably gave occasion to the statement.

Mr. Baines has invented a self-acting safetyapparatus for preventing accidents in the use of " hoists " from the breaking of ropes. It was tried at Messrs. Fender's warehouse in Manchester. Four persons had been lifted in the hoist, and the ropes were then unconnected. But the self-acting apparatus failed to act; the hoist fell a great depth ; and the four gentiemen suffered fearfully —one, Mr. Shaw, died the same night. Mr. Baines himself was on the hoist when the disaster occured.

" Everybody " remembers the Transit, Government transport-ship, that broke down at the naval review in 1855, but notwithstanding was selected to carry the Ninetieth Eegiment to China, and had to return twice to port before she got clear of the Solent, with a hole in her bottom. This notorious ship, with her freight of fighting men, so sadly wanted in China, has broken down again. A letter from Corunna, dated April 16, tells how—" Here we are ! done up! Two days Bay weather sent us in here to be fresh-rigged. You never saw a worse seaboat in your life, —crank, top-heavy, and everything that's badj We have everything we could wish in theway of provisions,—only two days' salt since we came on board* But such an old tub you never saw: the rigging never set up, or anything secured ; we had hard work to keep the masts "from going over the side; if she had pitched instead of. rolling, I am sure the foremast must have gone over the bows. We had to get tackles across the decks from side to side to brace the rigging in to save the spars; in fact a greater tub to roll I never knew. She is top-heavy. lam certain she will never weather the Cape, or she will deceive all on board both soldiers and blue-jackets. She is a disgrace to the British Government, and more so to the dockyard authorities. If she is lost, I only hope my diaiy will be found to condemn those who sent her to sea. You may think what she must be when I tell you for a truth, that there are not one dozen men (troops) on board with a dry hammock, every seam in her deck is letting in water. They had to give, or at least did give extra grog. "