Miscellaneous.

Lyttelton Times, Volume X, Issue 614, 25 September 1858, Page 5

Miscellaneous.

The Bishop of London intends to cultivate "the acquaintance of the clei'gy of his diocese; and held a soiree at London House on Wednesday evening, when great numbers of the metropolitan clergy were present. The Bishop does not forget the "inferior" clergy—numbers of curates partook of his hospitality. About 11 o'clock, after supper, the company dispersed. - In reply to a request made by the Society of Arts, Lord Derby has promised four nominations to Government offices by competition every year to successful candidates at the society's examinations of members of meelianioo' -^a^' other institutions in union with it. Mr. Lay^rd has arrived in London from, his tour through, the disturbed districts of India. We lament to have to record an atrocious act of barbarity, the murder of the Key. Mr. Wilson, clergyman of the English Chnrch in British Caffraria. The deceased gentleman, a devoted and most exemplary Christian minister, had left East London for Fort Pato, some little distance from where he' was stationed, to hold afternoon service, and on his way he was murdered, and cut to pieces, his head stuck upon a tree, and his body, dismembered, hung upon ■the branches. — Guardian. Capture of a Eich Slater,—A letter from an officer on board the gunboat ' Jasper,' Lieutenant and Commander H. Pym, published in' The Times, says :—" We have captured and brought in, I may safely say, the largest and richest prize ever captured in the slave trade. She is a full-rigged and fast-sailing ship of 750 tons burden, with a full slave equipment, and provisions for their sustenance. She also had on board speciein gold to the amount of 2,260 ounces, Spanish and Mexican, or about £8,500 sterling. Her name and nation unknown. We captured her on the north side of the Mantanzas, on the 22nd of March; between 9 and 10 a.m., she having sailed from Havannah on the previous night, to purchase and bring over slaves for the island of-Cuba. We had rather an exciting chase for about four and a half hours. At 7 a.m., the ' Styx' (6 paddle, Commander Vesey) •hove in sight andgoined in the chase, but kept . astern of us till theorize was taken. She, however, stood on till we were within a mile of her, when she lowered her royals, but did not heave to until two more shots were thrown. ;We boarded and,examined her. She had no papers. Slave coppers were lying on the main-deck, and ;their furnaces in a case in the square of the main hatchway, marked '■" Marseilles," to which place they pretended' to be going. We also found slave-tins and spare plank for slave-deck, -marked, fitted, and/numbered, but not in its place, 350 " leagers," and 300 tons of water in them, an immense quantity of rice, farina, coffee, dried salt-fish, 18 puncheons of rum, and other necessaries. The Styx shares, but the Jasper will share in the proceeds of a prize taken the previous day by the Styx." iFuANCE.—The ' Times ' correspondent says on, the subject of the continued prostration of trade and industry—" We have only to examine the official returns published by the Government last: week of the receipts of the customs and .excise from the Ist -January to the Ist May to perceive that the commercial condition of the country continues very unsatisfactory. These returns exhibit a deficiency in that portion of the public revenue of .4,800,000 francs for the first' four mpnths of tho present year as compared -with tho corresponding period of tho year 1857. This is a demonstration in figures of acommmciaL crisis. Tho financial condition Is not, better. -Tho highest 'authorities in, the commercnU world attribute the stagnation to an fixcossVoT speculation, both in financial and oom-

mercial enterprises. They allege that France, having purchased too much foreign produce and overstocked the market with such manufactures, must now wait quietly until the consumption shall have reduced the stock on hand to its proper level. These authorities disapprove the measures adopted by the Government for giving an artificial value.to public securities at the Bourse, such as the circular of the Minister of the Interior to the Prefects recommending the administrators of charitable establishments throughout France to sell the landed property of those institutions, valued at 500,000, 000 francs, and vest the property in Government . securities. The same men are further of opinion that an improvement in trade will produce a corresponding improvement in financial enterprises, while the interference of the Government must be attended with consequences more disastrous than useful.

One of the weekly organs of the Government gave some confirmation to a report recently current in society, that Lord Derby was in treaty with Mr. Gladstone for the official support of the latter politician. Negotiations had been going on for some days. " Nor is there," so the Government journalist believes, " any solid difficulty in the way of a junction on the part of Mr. Gladstone with the present Government. Hence, during the present week that gentleman has seriously entertained the proposal. And, if it were possible for him to isolate himself, and to have regard solely to his own views and feelings, we believe that his accession to the Cabinet of Lord Derby would not be delayed another day. But there are few men who have passed twenty years in public life without having formed friendships and connexions which cannot be left out of view when circumstances like the present happen to occur. These connexions, we believe, form the main obstacle to that acceptance of high office by Mr. Gladstone which has been hoped for during several days past. We fear that the hope is, at least for the present, at an end."

Once more the attempt to connect Europe and America by an electric wire is about to be tried. The cable is on board two great war ships destined to submerge it beneath the At» lantic; and they were to start on their great enterprise on the 19th Jane. An experiment has been made, in the Bay of Biscay with 26 miles of cable and has been pronounced "quite satisfactory." The paying-out and hauling in machinery has been improved. The cable was spliced four times, and messages sent from ship to ship.

Another of those encounters -which have been ! so prevalent of late among the statesmen of the United States had occurred on the 12th May, after the adjournment of the House of Kepresen- I tatives. The combatants were Mr. Craige. of_ same State, and author of a hook entitled " The Impending Crisis." From words they came to blows, and it required the intervention of their fellow-members and others before the fight could be stopped. The Sergeant-at-Arms took Mr. Helper temporarily into custody. A number of ladies who were present were much alarmed. Mr. Helper, upon whom was found a pistol and knife, which, however, he did not attempt to use, was bound over to keep the peace. Religious "Revival" in Massachusetts. — In Massachusetts this revival is extremely active. I will not pretend to explain it. The power possessed by a brawny, ignorant, always blasphemous and frequently foul-mouthed orator to awaken the exquisitely delicate sensibilities of religion passes my comprehension. I cannot believe that convulsions and hysterics are conducive to the holy peace which religion ought to minister; nevertheless I am told on every side that "a wonderful work is going on." The wildest saturnalia of English ranters are indeed re-enacted in the churches of Boston; men and women by the dozen may be heard detailing their sins, and announcing, amid storms of glories and amens, their discovery of peace; prizefighters and pickpockets stand to announce, probably as an excellent joke, their conversions; but I very much doubt whether the evil, the ridicule, the disgust, that is occasioned by these exhibitions, do not far outweigh their alleged advantages. It is but just to say that the episcopal clergy and many of the enlightened orthodox ministers give no countenance to these proceedings. The negroes, however, with their happy knack of imitation, have caught up the prevailing burden, and their excitement is unbounded. A correspondent, writing from New Bedford, a large seaport in this State, says that in one of their meetings he has seen the women in such frightful convulsions, that six or seven men were scarcely able to control them. He gives the words of one or two " hymns " which he noted down, of which the following distich is a good specimen:—

" The debil and me we can't agree; I don't like him and he don't like me; " Chorus—l'm bound to meet my Jesus!"

Another melody had these words: —

"Noah built de ark and filled it full; Hail in de middle ob the air. De floods did come, and de women dey squall, Hail, &c." Feai'fully ridiculous as are these devout parodies, nothing can be more beautiful in its way than the chanting of them by a large coloured congregation. Every negro is a born musician, as whoever has seen the slave villages of the south Avill testify; and their full, rich, unrestrained voices frequently attract crowds around the dojrs of their northern chapels. If the extravagance and prurience of revivals were confined to them alone, in their present neglected condition, there would be. little. ground for surprise; but t must repeat that their recurrence is sad and inexplicable in a community that claims as its most precious'honor the title of Agio-Saxon. — Letter in the Post.

Tins Pacific Kailkoad and THEITELEdRArn Acuoss tiik PLAiNS.-^-The two most practical, if not tlje most important, questions which have been before tho present session of Congress—the Pacific Railroad and the telegraph across the Plains—have been adjourned over to December next, while the whole time of that body has

been frittered away upon the Kansas nuisance. This is a fair ■ illustration of the manner in which affairs-are managed by our legislators. As far as the Pacific Railroad is concerned no one doubts its usefulness ; but it may be said that the pretext upon which it has been laid over—namely, the difficulty of selecting a route, without creating sectional animosity—has some truth in it. But this is a difficulty which will never be removed, whether the Northern or the Southern route is adopted,—so that the question may as well be brought to an issue now as at a future time; but in regard to the-telegraphic connection between the Atlantic and Pacific shores, there Geems to be no obstacle in the way. It is a matter of the utmost importance, and the present time seems peculiarly favourable for its accomplishment. The line could be laid down on the route of the Utah army, and, in fact, might form almost a joint expedition. At the outbreak of the war in India it was proposed to establish a telegraphic line between that country and England; but owing to the refusal of the government to lend such aid as was deemed necessary, the undertaking was abandoned and may not be resumed for years ; for if in the exigency of the 'times the government refused assistance, it is not likely that they will offer it when peace is restored in India. So it is with our telegraph to the Pacific. Now that we are at war with Utah there is more inducement for our government to further such an enterprise than will exist when the war is over. Yet what a splendid consummation of the scientific and practical advancement of his age it would be to have such telegraph lines as those spanning Europe and Asia from England to India, and bringing the Atlantic to the Pacific across the American continent! In connection with the Atlantic telegraph this would be almost literally " putting a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes." But it appears it is not to be. The undertaking has been thrown aside for eight months at least, and the valuable time of Congress continues to be occupied, at the expense of such practical measures as these, with the eternal theme, —-Kansas.— New York Herald.

A New Breed op Sheep.—D. J. Browne, Esq., the head of the Agricultural Bureau of the Patent office, has received a very interesting letter from Mr. R. L. Pell, of Massachusetts, eon" cerning a new breed of sheep which has lately been imported from China. Three years since Mr. Theodore Smith imported three ewes from Nankin, from which he obtained in twenty months, seventy-two sheep. One ewe produced twelve lambs in fifteen months—three, four and five at a birth, and they commenced breeding at four and a-half months old. This breed is perfectly hardy, having endured the past severe winter without any shelter, producing lambs constantly, which bore the cold as well as the old sheep, and matured rapidly. They will not jump fences, either stone or wood. The flock were separated last season from a rye-field by a cobble-stone wall two and a-half feet high, over

jdrich^Jh^^ej^^texnDl^OAj^ass So^iimmsThe fibre of their wool is exceedingly strong and the fleece heavy. The mutton cannot possibly be surpassed, as it is entirely free from the strong flavour usual to sheep, and is tender, 'juicy,' and delicious. The tails are broad, and when properly prepared, much resemble marrow, and form a delightful morsel for the epicure.— Boston Advertiser.