MISCELLANEOUS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 330, 2 July 1875, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

A retired vocalist,. who had acquired a large fortune by marriage,".was asked to sing in company.—"Allovvjne," said he, to. imitate the nightingale, which 'does- not* sing after it has made its nest." ■ The ' Daily lieview ' believes that* the Duke of Argyll has been engaged ■for some time on a work wh th will shor ly appear under the title of-" Law in Theology." The work will prove a valuable supplement to that on " The Keign of Law." ' - The word "bawbee" took its rise from a copper coined after the death of James IV. of Scotland: Herewith many of the nobility, was slain "in the battle of Flodderi field. James left, a son, a year old, his heir. The effigy of the infant king was struck about the year 1414, upon a coin the value of a halfpenny. Because he was .so v.ery young, this piece of money was called the baby or " bawbee."

A Brooklyn paper ia of opinion tb.it a kind word will always go farther than a flat-iron.

The Southern Gross says that twelve hundred statutes are in force in New Zealand, in addition to a large number of provincial laws. There is no State in the world in proportion to its population burdened with such a waste body of law. No lawyer could master New Zealand law' in a lifetime, and the multiplicity leads to litigation. Consolidation ib wanted.

An anectdote about the present Speaker of the House of Commons tells how Mr. Brand stands npon his dignity. Mr. Disraeli was engaged to dine with the Speaker at his official dinner. Shortly after his engagement be received a command to dine at Marlborough House the same evening. He consequently decided to make' his excuses to the Speaker, but Mr. Brand iutimated that he could, not release the Premier on that plea, as he could only recognise it in the c.'ise of an invitation from the Soverign. Mr. Disraeli once bowed to his decision, and intimated to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales that his allegiance to the first commoner .of England prevented him, from obeying the command in question.

The London correspondent of the Melbourne Argusstiys: —"Dr. Kenealy, ex-Q.C, and actually M.P.,'was committed to prison for cruelty to his illegitimate daughter, and had his term of punishment shortened through the benevolent interference of Lord Chief Justice Cockburn, over whom; he. now pours vials of his vulgar wrath. -Why so many people who were acquainted with this fact have bad the delicacy to conceal it, notwithtanding this fellow's audacious" conduct, for so many months, is a problem that Dr. Kenealy himself ..would, of all men, be the most pdzzled to answer. But, as it seems to me, the time has now come when, no quarter should be given to hiih. The ' Thames Star' has some hard things .to say about the professional mining legal jumper.—"Such is life, dear boys; and such is the professional legal jumper—the individual who works under cover of the law. He is an animal whose habits we abhor; his tactics are such as should be classed with those-of the spy in war times and his fate —the nearest tree. Urifortuna'tely the" jumper is not amenable to martial 'law; If he were, his class would not be numerous, as physical courage is a quality unknown to the professional jumper. To sum up the jumper he is a sneak and a loafer. He lives upon the industry of others, and- is a drone in the public hive. He is an imposter, because he trades upon the innocence or ignorance of legitimate workers. He is a nuisance in that he promotes litigation and retards "the progress of honest labor. He is dangerous to' society, obnoxious to individuals, and-a common nuisance which is only tpl-1 erated from the'ihherent law-loving feeling which pervades the community in which his pernicious are exercised. Our Tairua correspondent sketched thejuniper as he appears at work-; vwe have' given his peculiarities generally. . =He is : theicurse of all goldfields, and his .extermination is a .consummation devoutly to be: wished." }