Miscellaneous.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 522, 4 November 1857, Page 4

Miscellaneous.

England, the United States, and the Bat Islands.—What have we to do with the Bay Islands? We have never advanced any claim to the possession of them. "We have never professed any intention of appropriating them. We objected to the occupation of Ruatan by Great Britain because we held that occupation by her to be inconsistent with the terms of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. -We required of her that she should put a stop to the dissensions between us by a cession to Honduras, a third and neutral party, of possessions to which Honduras had always advanced a claim. To this requisition from us Great Britain finally assented. There our concern with the matter ended. How Great Britain should cede the Bay Islands, and how Honduras should receive them, were matters for the consideration of the two contracting parties. If it is an infringement upon the independence of Honduras for that State to consent to a provision excluding slavery from the islands which she receives from Great Britain, surely ice are are not called upon to assert for Honduras what Honduras does not choose to assert for herself. If our Government has seriously undertaken to interfere with the efficiency of the anti-slavery clause in the Anglo-Honduras Convention, then our Government has been guilty of an act as foolish as it was unwarrantable. If, on the other hand, our Government has only attempted to adulate the native Buncombe by a semblance of opposition to that clause which was expected to vanish away in the course of public negotiation, what language would be too strong to describe a piece of diplomacy so silly and so disgraceful? Mr. Buchanan has promised the country an era of common sense, decency, and patriotism. Abundant opportunities for the display of these qualities was assured to him by his thoughtful predecessor, and it was really quite superfluous in the Senate to afford him this fresh occasion for their manifestation. The mischief, however, has been done, and we do sincerely trust that the President will make haste to redeem his pledges and to gratify public expectation by undoing it. It surely cannot be too late for him to learn that the actual position of affairs in Central America is not such as to justify an American Executive in throwing away the fairest possible chances of securing our legitimate influence in that quarter of the world on an insane attempt to {manufacture illegitimate relations for the benefit of the Pro-Slavery extremists of the South. It is flatly impossible for us to prevent Great Britain from filling the position in Central America to which she is fairly entitled as the first commercial nation of the globe, and the second in rank of American Powers. This every statesman knows, as every schoolboy might know it, and the only matter open to consideration by ourselves is whether we shall take up a policy of cordial co-operation with England in

affairs of importance to both Powers, or whether we shall take up an attitude of absurd and unprofitable isolation. If Lord Napier has really made a proposition for a new treaty, let that proposition be met by the Administration fairly and upon its merits, with no arriere-penstes ot anxiety for the possible slaveholding Southern republic, but with a frank, business-like, and honourable regard to the permanent interests of the existing Union, the honour of the American character, and the legitimate expansion of the American power.— New York Tribune.

Diting Made Easy.—Science is beginning to take strange with the sea, not merely in the form of monster ships, huge enough, so runs the boast, to outride any gale and to override the most huge wave off" the Cape of Storms,'' —not merely in those magical threads by aid of which France and England exchange notes minute by minute, and England is to be able to buy its cotton of America at a quarter of an hour's asking. " Diving made easy," is to be the next thing, if our contemporaries are accurate in their report of M. Danduran's experiments, made the other day in the Thames, "ofi" the New Houses." By aid of a flattish copper bell, traversed by a tube of gutta percha, "a fanning apparatus, which sets in motion a current of air sufficient for the diver, no matter how profound be the depth to which he decends, and a leaden saddle, which he bestrides, " habited in a light water-proof dress, "it is maintained that the process of exploring the depths of the sea can be largely extended—carried on with increased safety and satisfaction —and at a third of the price of the equipment hitherto worn. M. Danduran is a French civil engineer, and has already so far convinced the marine authorities of his own country of the utility of his invention that it is already (our contemporary states) "placed in some of the French seaports by desire of the Government,"— Athenceum.

A French Agricultural Intention. —At the last sitting of the congress of learned societies of the departments, M. d'Hliers, of Orleans, gave the agricultural section some interesting details respecting the coating of corn, of which he is the inventor. This system consists in enveloping the grain, by means of some glutinous substance with manure, such as animal black. The results of the experiments made in the Sologne, on land of so worthless a description as to be let at 3f. the hectare (2J acres,) have been he states of the most satisfactory description. The coating is effected by means of a cylinder, invented by M. d' Illiers, and the patent was disposed of by him to Messrs. Parker and Co., of London, corn fac- j tors, for a sum of £20,000. The expense of coat- j ing amounts to about 35f. per hectolitre of corn. This system may also be employed in all articles of garden produce, beetroot, &c. The congress warmly thanked M. d' Illiers for his communication.— Galignani's Messenger. Troubles of an Inspector at an Indian School.—The inspector enters; all the boys rise, put their right hand to their forehead, and shout, " Salaam, sahib!" The teacher, an olivecomplexionedman, with smooth, shining black 'j hair, with a curling moustache, with a: ..bristling *! beard, with a white rope buttoned on the left hand side, comes forward, and makes the nearest approach to Eastern prostration which'his Western superior will allow. The English inspector returns the salute of the boys, and j disposes of that of the teacher with an action ! rather than a word; the action implying partly " I am very much obliged to you for your civility," partly, " Stand up; I also am a man." The salutations are over; business commences. Let us adopt the dramatic notation, and endeavour.thus to exhibit what follows:—lnspector. —" Mulvjii, let me see the register of attendance." Karim Caksh, teacher of the school.—" Sahib, it is here." Inspector. —" I see you have 100 boys in daily attendance; that is "very good." Teacher, —" This number is entirely to be attributed to your good fortune and your personal excellence." Inspector.—"l shall now call over the names. No boy is to speak whose name is not called. Let each boy as he is called answer " Here.," Omnes.—" Yes, sir, Here." Inspector.—" Silence!—no boy is to speak whose name is not called." Omnes, each to his neighbour.—" You are not to speak till your name is called." Inspector.—" Silence!" The first five boys answer to their names; the sixth is absent. Inspector calls his name.—" Shir Singh!" Several voices. —" Shir Singh is ill." Inspector.—" Silence. Did I not tell you that only the boy whose name is called is to speak? If a boy is absent let me know it by his silence. Nobody is to answer for him. I shall begin again." Inspector calls over the first five names with the same success as formerly. He approaches that rubicon, Shir Singh. "Now, take care, no one is to answer; Shir Singh!" Small boy.—"Shir Singh is ill." Inspector.—"Who said that?" Omnes.—"Please, i sir, Ramlall.". Inspector reads Ramlall a serious lecture. He impresses the duty of silence, and emphatically demands that no boy .shall speak till he is spoken to. Before he has finished, the two neighbours of the culprit turn round and enforce the inspector's remarks by desiring Ramlall to hold his tongue. " Why does he interrupt when the sahib is speaking?" Inspector turns round to the fresh interrupters, and upbraids them:—" Yes, but you are committing the same fault; why do you talk without orders ? All are to be quiet till they are told to speak." Chorus of many voices, each boy addressing his neighbour.—"Be quiet, why do you speak without orders?" Inspector despairs. He struggles through the roll-call as he may, and feels that he is met at the outset by the first great Asiatic difficulty — incontinence of speech. — Frazer's Magazine for June.

Military Mess Expenditure.—Our anticipation that his Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief would grapple ere long with the monster " mess expenditure " has been realized. An order has gone forth for a rigid limitation of the charges for the dinners, and for the exclusion Irom the mess table of such expensive wines as claret and champagne. Two shillings per diem is to be the maximum price for each officer's dinner, and m consideration of the means of subalterns the Prince Eegent's allowance for wine, of which only a portion of the officers were accustomed to partake, is to be appropriated to the common use in reducing the actual expense of each officer to Is. 6d. Thus each in-

fantry subaltern will have 3s. 9d. per diem f n other necessaries of life... Every father who h a son in the army who regularly calls u pon i£* to contribute something to the lyoung O ffl P pJ? expenses, must feel extremely grateful Z £. s Duke of Cambridge for this bold and ham?v i novation upon long established usages and ah ses. They had reached an alarming heiVfe*" Every week's ' Gazette' announced three or In,, resignations or removals, the Horse Guards w regularly besieged with complaints from crMi tors or parents, and there was hardly a com" manding officer who was not pestered -witC representations of one kind or another arisin out of the embarrassments of the junior officer We dare say that in some corps, wher* money is abundant and the habits of luxury in grained, the limitations will be unpalatable but generally speaking, the measure must be ponii lar. Every officer ought to take a pride in seconding the efforts of the Commander-in Chief, to benefit the service, and in showing that he <the. junior) can be as well content to dine off the joint as the retired; generals wK O take their daily refection at the club. Besides Sir Colin Campbell is sure to detect the slightest symptoms of trickery, and it is certain, as he makes the discovery of any attempt to baffle the wishes of the Commander-in-Chief, that condign punishment will follow. The "Mess" although in its extravagance a great evil, is not the only source of expenditure which it has become necessary to destroy. There are many other indulgences, to the root of which the axe must be applied. Nevertheless, the reduction of mess luxuries forms a good beginning. A thrifty habit introduced into one branch of outlay induces a corresponding modification of expenditure in other superfluities. The British officer finding that he cannot make a display in one branch of his " domestic economy," will discard pretension in others. His mufti and his dogcart, his stakes at ecarte, his hospitalities in his quarters and in the country hotels, will come to be looked at as follies; and in the fulness of time we shall find him admitting, practically, that simplicity of life in garrison is as becoming in the soldier as courage and endurance in the field.— United Service Gazette.

Hay Tea foe Cattle.—At the last sitting of the Academy of Sciences, M.lsodore Pierre read a paper on the chemical ingredients of what agronomists call the de foin, or hay-tea • being an infusion of hay which is administered to calves in order to make them gradually pass from milk.to solid food. In order to analyse this liquid, M. Pierre made an infusion of 16|lbY of good hay in distilled water, keeping it for a space of six hours at a temperature of about 90 deg. centigrade (194 deg. Fahr.), then drawing offthe water, and renewing the infusion on the residue. On evaporating the liquids, he obtained 1310 grammes (nearly 31b;) of a dry extract entirely soluble in water, being 15.94 per cent of the weight of hay employed. The latter retained its natural colour after the operation, and on being dried emitted very nearly the same sweet smell it had before, and might have passed for common hay of good quality. It was found to have lost 28 centigrammes, (43 grains) of azote, out of 146 which it had contained before. In a second operation, in which the infusion was continued for 15 hours, at a temperature of about 25 deg. centigrade, ( 250 deg, -Fahrenheit)" the quantity of dry extract obtained was 19.57 per cent, and the hay lost 20 per cent of its azote. The extract, on being analysed, was found to contain 2 per cent of silex, | of phosphoric acid, 1| of lime, \\ of soda, 1^ of potash, and one fifth per cent, of magnesia. M. Pierre hence concludes that haytea is an excellent beverage for cattle; that hay may lose one-third of its nutritive qualities by infusion; and that consequently, when hay has been exposed to continual rains, the effect must be to deprive it of a considerable quantity of nutritive matter. — Sell's WeehlyJMCestenger.