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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 256, 31 October 1870, Page 4

A Stinging Epigram. — General Leboeuf, to whose incompetency many of the defeats experienced by the French bave been attributed, has been styled " The StrsDgers' Guide to Paris." Thb Otago Times says that Mr. Baxter and Dr. Cumming are not to he allowed to take to themselves the credit of having foretold the recent events in Europe. Napoleon 1., like Saul, is also, according to a contemporary, among the prophets. Speaking to Count Montholon at St. Helena, 'he said, "In fifty years France will be Republican or Cossack." This was in 1820, and this is 1870. Some spiritualists in Melbourne however, not content with this prediction of the deceased Emperor, have been questioning his shade regarding the present war. They have

been rewarded with the following communication, written in a bold style in pencil : — "The war is over, and peace has been established. The peace is not a lasting one; it is but a truee — a prelude to a more decisive and bloody war." "With unpardonable remissness," adds the Age, the Imperial spirit has not dated his communication. We are therefore left to conjecture when the eventoccurred,and how the end of the contest was brought about" — and also, we may add, whence the communication wa3 sent.

Bismarck in the Saddle. — The New York Commercial has the followiug graphic anecdote of the great Prussian Minister : — The world may soon have an opportunity to know -whether Bismarck is as valiant in the field as he is wily and sagacious in council. A despatch states that he has assumed command of bis regiment of cuirassiers, aud is now with the army of the Rhine. We can give our testimony to his personal appearance as a soldier, having witnessed his bearing and horsemanship upon the occasion, a few years ago, of a review of troops in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris, where Napoleon, the King of Prussia, and the Czar were likewise present. Bismarck, tall, impassive, accoutered in a white uniform, his feet encased in a pair of Wellington boots, and wearing a silver helmet, presented as soldierly an appearance as a connoisseur would wish to gaze upon. Sixty thousand infantry, artillery, and cavalry, were in the field that day, and as the squadrons came dashing by in front of the august quartette, no one iv all that brilliant array ' ' looked " the warrior more thoroughly than the "man in wiite." He sat upon his jet black steed as firmly as a rock, and from beneath the bars of his vizor his large, grayish blue eyes scrutinized the deploying columns with the keenness and gravity of a field marshal. Often did we hear the question whispered through the crowd of spectators ; " Wonder what Bismarck is thinking about ? It would have been a hard question to answer if we had nothing but that calm, grave face to judge from ; so full of intelligence, and yet so utterly beyond all interpretation. While the crowd still wondered, the horse of a French chasseur, startled perchance by the roar of guns at the other side of the plain broke from the column aud bore down in the direction of the " white figure," plunging and rearing as if it would have trodden the silent horseman under foot. Tbe danger was imminent ; hundreds of necks were stretched to note the result, but the grave countenance betrayed not the least emotion, nor did the calm, thoughtful eyes once glance round as an aide-de-camp spurred forward, aud seizing the enraged animal by the bridle, turned its head in the direction of the line of march. A feeble cheer greeted the act, but the sentiment of all was expressed in the remark of an Englishman : "A cool fellow, that Bismarck."

A telegram from London of the Gth September says : — Agents here, it is said' have negociated for Braistad Park, in Kent, as a residence for Napoleon. The Chinese had Artesian (?) Wells, two thousand years ago. Phsenology was in vogue "with the Hiudoo Brahmins a thousand years ago.