Miscellaneous.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XI, Issue 643, 5 January 1859, Page 5

Miscellaneous.

Paul Morphy and his Great Chess Match with LowENTItAL.~-.Paul Morphy, tho winner of the first prize in the great chess congross of American players, held last year in New York, and perhaps the finest chess-player tho age has producod, was born in the city ot Now Orleans on the 22nd of June, 1837. Paul was tho second son of his parents. His earlier years were passed at school, and he became, in Decombor, 1850, a student of St. Josoph's College, at Springhill, near Mobile, Alabama, whence he graduated" in October, 1854, but remained at Springhill another year as a resident graduate. Since that time Mr. Morphy has devoted himself to the study of tho law, with tho intention of entering, at no distant day, the bar of Louisiana. Paul's father was fond of tho game of ; chess; and was accustomed to play occasionally with his brother, Mr. Ernest Morphy, and his brother-, in-law, Mr. Le Carpentior. Tho boy Paul was wont to watch their encounters with so much apparent interest, that his father, in 1847, when Paul was ten y^ars of age, explained to him the powers of the pieces, and tho laws of the game. . In less •than two years he was contending successfully, on even terras, with the foremost amateurs of New Orleans. One peculiarity of Paul's play, during the infantile stage of his chess life, while, his-father and his brother were his chief adversaries, used to create considerable merriment. His pawns seemed to him a hindrance^ and his first work, upon commencing a game, was to exchange or sacrifice them all, giving free range to his pieces; after which, with his unimpeded queen, rooks, knights, and bishops,he began a fierce attack upon his opponent's forces, which was often valorously maintained until it resulted in mate. During the year 1849-50, Paul contested over 60 " parties" with Mr. Eugene Rousseau, winning fully ninetenths. Mr. Rousseau is well known from his famous match with Mr. Stanley in 1845, and from the Tact that he played ; more than 100 games even in Paris, with' itieseritzky,'of which the great Livonian won,only a bare ; majority. In May, 1850, Lowenthal, the distin- j guished Hungarian—with whom Morphy's match in i London has been contested —passed through New Orleans. On the 22nd and 25th of that month he i played with Paul—at that time not thirteen years ' of age—in the presence of Mr. Rodsseau, Mr. E. : Morphy, and a large number of amateurs. The first game was drawn; the second and third were won by the invincible young Philidor. Prom this , time until 1857 Paul encountered many of the j leading American players, and with' uniform sue- ' cess. It was with the prestige acquired by these victories that Paul Morphy arrived in New York on the sth of October, 1857, to take part in the first congress of the American Chess Association, and the first prize was universally conceded him, . even before the entries for the grand tournament had been completed. He overthrew, either in the grand tournament or in side play, one after another of those men who had been looked upon as the .magnates of the American chess world, and out of eighty-nine games, contested with the leading American players, including such distinguished names.as those of Calthorpe, Fiske, Fuller,.Lichtenhein, Merache, Montgomery, Paulsenj Schulten, and Stanley, he succeeded in winning eighty-five. The most" notewoithy features of- his-chess charac- ; ter are the remarkable rapidityof his combinations,' his masterly knowledge of the' openings and end-' ings of- games, and the wonderful faculty he possessej^of playing .blindfold.. So far,he has beaten,; has^encountered Injhis country. With Mr. Bird, ; one of the strongest'5 metropolitan players, he has i played twelve games, only losing one. He has also been victorious oyer Boden, Owen, Barnes, Lower, &c, comprising almost all our men of repute in the metropolis. In his match"with Herr Lowenthal, ' the first winner of nine games was to be the victor. The stake was to be £100 a-side, and the play to take place four days a week. Herr Lowenthal's play did hot come up to the expectation-of his admirers, and Mr. Morphy obtained a comparatively - easy victory over him,-winning nine games to three \vith'three draws. Herr Lowenthal's temperament is one unsuited to match play, whilst Mr. Morphy is calm and self possessed in the extreme. The games,-as a whole, are not first-rate, although in some cases, the combatants played in the most masterly style. Mr. Morphy's approaching match with Mr. Staunton will cause more excitement than has ever before been experienced 'amongst chess

players, opinions as f° their relative chess powers being v&x\o\xs.~Huddersjield Chronicle.

The Memorial r Church at Cawnpore.---From Lucknow to, Cawnpore is, now a summer morning's' ride; but into every inch of the way between these henceforth historic sites are trodden immortal memories ! and that dreadful road, at one end of which a mortal terror sat not many months ago, as the shadow of the horror which sat at the other; was daily and hourly, at that terrible time, traversed by the throbbing and terrible arm of England. With the losses sustained in this latter scene, which our. heroes reached too late.for the rescue, there mingle no consoling thoughts of. any kind that can be gathered on mortal ground; and the^ first idea, therefore, with a view to consecrating perhaps the bitterest memory that our country preserves, was to hand over the well which it haunts to the keep of religion. It was originally designed that-, a memorial church at Cawnpore should arise over the very, grave of the martyrs; but it is found now the great distance of the well from the mission station and other considerations, render it ineligible as the actual site of the sacred edifice. It has been determined therefore, to mark the dreadful spot itself by some monument of a simple though lasting kind, and to build the church which, though it need not be large, must, 4 from its monumental character, be of good, architecture, and therefore expensive), in, connection with the mission, buildings already existing near the native town. ; The simple piety of soldiers on the spot had anticipated the former portion of this new design, by rearing a cross near the well; and t the resident chaplain has already taken steps for expanding this mark into a memorial of greater monumental pretension, on the precise spot. The committed propose, therefore, to associate themselves with him in carrying out this portion of the design to its completion"; and they announce further,'their desire to promote the views of those who, having —like many of themselves, they say—lost friends at Cawnpore, or elsewhere,-in' this Indian war, may wish to raise special monuments connected with the architecture of the church. — Art Journal. " Religious Freedom in Franci^.-— The 'Times ' Paris correspondent, writing on the 6th, says: —The Debats of to-day contains a letter addressed to it by a member of the Protestant consistory of Lille, with respect to the recent arrests at Maubeuge. One of the objects of the letter is to correct some inaccuracies in the account given of the affair by a Belgian journal, by the Debats. It appears-that for nearly a year past Protestant worship has been celebrated at Maubeuge. Itwas ! opened officially, legally, and publicly, arid with the requisiteaulhorifation of the municipal authorities. Divine Service lias been . peaceably and. regularly performed according to tho usages of tho Reformed Church of France. A parage of the letter warrants the inference that the mere existence

of this quiet and decorous Worship' gives offence to certain parties, who are '-not. named or indicated. On tlm llth of July a. procos. verbal was drawn up against tho clergyman and the, principal members of the congregation and transmitted to the Procurcur Imperial. In.forty-two days tho commissary of police signed to the assembled congregation, and to the officiating minister," that°tho K'ofoct had > annulled tin* municipal authorisation, ivino sorvico was interrupted by tho gondarmes, and by tlm arrests of the clergyman and of those of his parishioners, who wore convoyed to prison, where they remained until tho 26th of August. They refused tho release offered thorn on the ovening of the 22nd, not,, as a Belgian paper snid, from a wish to fairc im eclat (cause scandal;, but in order to have time to transmit to the Pro-curcur-Gonoral and to the Minister of Justice their complaints, dated from the prison at Maubcugo, of the violenco exorcised on a congregation and ' its pastor. The letter says-—" What they wished, and what they still desire is, that the law should be plainly interpreted, and by the organ of judicial power, as regards the right of tho Reformed Church of Franco to distribute to all its people tho spiritual bread and the pastoral care of which they have need." The Debats says that this wish is superfluous, for that numerous decisions of the Supremo Court have definitely settled the jurisprudence on the matter:—" The previous permission of tho administrative authorities is necessary for religious meetings, as for all other meetings, and however much ouo may regret the decision of the prefect, he did not overstep legation when he annulled the authorisation granted by the municipal authority. Every tribunal in France would, therefore, be obliged to decide that, by meeting subsequently to the communication of the profeot's order, the Protestants of Maubeugo committed an offence foreseen and punished by the law. We readily grant* that it is not so easy to reconcile this state (already of old date) of our legislation with the declarations of our constitution respecting liberty of worship. But the Dissenters of Maubeugo ought to know that their only resource against the decision of the prefect is to appeal to the minister, from the minister to the council of state, and from the council of state to the senate, charged, as it is known, with the guardianship of public liberties." Benefit Societies.—There is a-financial world of which city capitalists know little. Yet it reckons its funds by millions, while the total of'persons interested in it comprises mote than a third of the entire population of England. According to the annual report just issued by the Registrar of Friendly Societies, the number of these associations now in existence in England and \Vales, is about 20,000,. with funds exceeding £9,00b,000. The number of members is more than 2,000;000, and if each member could Ije taken to represent an average family of five, we should thus have 10,000,000 of persons directly or indirectly connected with such undertakings. For relief in sickness alone they distribute annually £1,000,000. Thevgeneral statistics with regard to them are vague, because tho registrar can merely get returns from those who are willing to make them, and although .'there is a disposition generally to comply with j. bis both from a desire to do what is right, and also probably to advert the distrust that would result in cases where publicity is avoided, thfrsecretaries in many cases are uneducated men, and And eyen the filling up of the simplest form a matter of some difficulty. The information thus far obtained is not very encouraging as to the general system of management, but upon the whole, perhaps, the results oX the investments ofj the poor thus shown are not wors&ithan those which! noblemen, members of parliament, merchants, pro-j fessed financiers, and speculators have contrived to1 attain in the management of railways, joint-stock banks, and enterprises of all kinds. As honesty is the great essential, this is not'surprising, since there is reason to hope that the ordinary population of Jtoe^puntaJiaxjLJj^ class whose tone was not.onTyTdeveloped during the commercial crisis, but is still made painfully apparent at almost every meeting of great companies. One danger that besets friendly societies is the tendency to drinking and feasting. In the returns of expenditure charges of-this kind have constituted •^constant item. But there,has been a satisfactory disposition to yield to remonstrance on the subject. The registrar last year sent out about 500 circulars pointing out that such an applioation of the funds ■was not in harmony with the legitimate purposes of a'friendly society, and from the replies it appears that "in most; instances' a meeting of the members was called, and that, after the point had been discussed, the necessary reforms were made. "The tenor of the letters shows," it is added, " that the majority of the members were thankful for having had their attention called to the subject." Another source of difficulty arises from the frequency of injudicious investments from over-confidence being reposed in persons in the business world. Thus it has been found that a large amount of money has been placed in the hands of the societies' treasurers, of private banks, of brewers and manufacturers, on notes of hand, in buildingi and loan societies, &c. In the accounts of an estate recently thrown into the Bankruptcy Court,.where the,partners carried on business as bankers, tanners, shof manufacturers and brewers, it was stated that theuhsecuredcreditors included no less than 36 friendly societies for a total of £5,196. At a meeting of a large firm of brewers held a short time back it also turned out that 44 societies had their funds , invested with the firm, and the same has happened with several late bankruptcies. According to the Act regulating friendly societies, the trustees are restricted to investments' in the public funds or savings-banks, or in advances to members on life policies, accompanied by satisfactory personal securities ; 700 letters recently sent out to give warning, to that effect are believed to have wrought a considerable amount of good "by causing the withdrawal of the funds from many insecure and illegal investments." One of the inquiries issued by the registrar related to the length of time the respective societies have been established, but only 3,073 answers were obtained. From these it appears there are 230 societies that have existed between 50 and 100 years, and 20 whose date extends over a century. The average seems to be about 20 years. , About 32 years is stated by the registrar to be^a sufficient time for a society to arrive at its maximum liability, and it appears that ten per cent, of the existing societies are in the condition of having safely passed this point. Among the societies which have the largest number of members are several bodies called " Orders." Thus, the Manchester Unity of Odd Fellows boasts of 276,254; the Ancient Order of Foresters, 135,000; and the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, 37,000. One of the most successful examples is the Royal Standard Benefit Society. It has existed 30 years, has distributed £97,363 in sickness, superannuation, and other allowances, and has a capital of £40,623 in Government securities. Its creditable career is attributed mainly to the honest and careful superintendence throughout the whole period of Mr. Hunter, its secretary and manager. A class of societies variously termed sharing, dividend, Birmingham, or Tontine ■ Societies, . which divide annually nearly all their receipts, are shown to be constructed on fallacious principles, and to have uo elements of permanence.. Out of fifty established in London during the last twenty years only twelve -are now in existence. Of the aggregate £9,000,000 belonging to friendly societies, £1,431,543 is in the English and Welsh savings-banks, and '£1,944,991 in the hands of the Commissioners for the reduction of the National Debt, making the total thus invested £3,370,534. With regard'to the winding-up, of these societies, the registrar is frequently consulted as to the proper mode, and he details a painful case—that of the Mutual Insurance Benefit Institution, with about 1000"• members, established forty years ago, in which, although the original tables were certified by well known actuaries, it was ultimately found that an expenditure of £7,926 for sickness allowances, &c,*j had been taken out of premiums received for annuities, for-sums payable at death, and for endowment of children, the greater part- of which will be lost to the contributors!