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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 274, 21 November 1870, Page 3

A Royal Nurse. — A. correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette who has recently visited Darrasdadt thus describes the Crown Princess of Prussia and her labors in the hospital for the wounded: — "She ought to bo the mistress of the inward sentiments of the patients for Ihey al! seem to take her into ilieir inmost confidence. It was worth a journey from England only to see the faces of the sufferers lighten up as they refected the sisterly smiles on her. As sho passed along and stopped aud spoke to each, the invalid laid himself back on his pillow with an expression of absolute hien etre, and for the moment seemed to fiDd something more than an anodyne for his pain. Her passing along the wards applied tbe most infallible of tests to the cases. If her presence did not smooik the pain

wrinkles out of a man's face, or bring j someihing like a tranquility to bis drawn mouth, and cause a flash of light to his eye, you were quite sure to hear he was in an extremely bad way. Nor was it with the wounded alone she seemed the animating spirit of the place. Nurses, and doctors, and convalescents, walking about, all addressed her with the same ■cordial familhiriy — only tempered by their evident reverence and love. Military State of Victoria. — We find the following paragraph in the Governor's speech at the opening of the Victorian Parliament : — "Although in the lamentable war in wiiich tuo great European powti'3 are engaged, Great Britain maintains a position of strict, neutrality, -my Government have felt that every care siro uld be takeu to place our defences in such a position that the countrj may feel assured of safety in any contingency that may arise, Tho maU rial of war at our disposal is now ready at any time for effe tive use ; a small body of meu necessary for tbe immediate purposes of garrison duty have been enrolled, and •preparations bave been made for s> curing the colony sgainef. any attack to which it ■might be exposed.'' Strong Writing. — Duiingr the early part of the war, says tl.e Australasian, the Dublin Nation was constantly predicting the inevitable triumph of the French army, ami tl e overthrow of Prussia to be followed by the chastisement, if ■aot the utter annihilation, of "poifidious Albion," at the hands of Louis Napoleon. As none of these predictions ha\e beeu fulfilled, the Notion shri< ks and writhes with rage, and, figuratively speaking, launches a boft'e of vitriol at the heads of English journalists, concerning whom it writes in this choice phraseology : — "But see tbese gall-swollen London scribes — this legion of mean- souled liars. Abroad and at home, in the camp and in the city, their plan is palpably the same. It is to overturn a throne, aud to defame a people, to falsify and to invent, Wiih au indusny that merited well some cause not wholly infamous, they have watched and labored night and day as if the vilencss of their woik was loveable. To say that these fellows are a blot upon human nature, and a blaek disgrace to the profession they useso foully, is not to say one word too much. English journalism never had a very enviable name, but even such little reputation as it had is much imperilled now. Abroad, its writers have peeped and pimped, and listened by stealth, and 'betrayed important facts, and coined exasperating lies, unlil being no longer tolerable, they were kicked out of camps and into guard houses, aud hunted away as -noxious vermin. They bit and stung as long as they could, and when they could bite and sting no longer, their brethren iu -Great Britain took up the role, and stuck io it like bull dogs." Eoad Steamers. — An Indian paper says that one of the Road Steamers which was brought out to run between Kalka and Ura•balla has, as every one knows, tut ned cut an utter failure. A clever amateur, Captain Crompton of the Rifle Brigade, was handed over to the Postal Department, -and appointed to superintend its working on a salary of 500 rupees a month. He Las woiked very well, we doubt rot, though perhaps an expeiienced stoker might have been just as useful, but nothing he could do, would adapt the engine to the circumstances. It primed, it •stood still when wanted to go forward, the water seemed unsuitable ; the roads -were bad ; the bridges and culverts too weak for it ; in short it wss perfectly useless. A failure of this sort orly makes Govcrnmi-nt rise to fhe occasion. Il hiss read somewhere thst traction engines work beautifully in the neighborhood ol Leith, then fore tbey must Le got for India. So Captain Cromptou is lo be sent home immediately, "in order that he may devise an absolutely suitable traction engiue in conjunction with Mr. Thomson, the inventor." We hope Mr. Thomson is an affable man, but one thiug may pacify him, and that is, that iu spite -of the absolute failure of the Uni balla engine, it is said that, fourteen more have since been ordered ! It is clear there must be -a surplus semewhere. The Evidence of the Senses — Mamma : " How dare you slap your sister, George?" George: "She Jd-cked me whm my back was turned, antl hurt me very much, I can tell you !" Mamma: "Where did she hurt you?" <George : " Well, I can't azucly say where, because my back was turned, and .1 was locking another way !

The Coromaudel Gohlfehls are said to be turning out wonderfully rich stone. Revelations of a startling character, made in connection with the insolvency of Thorn and Walker, of Auckland, bave shaken confidence in commercial circles. Tlie liabilities are £105,264, assets £30,732. Planing Superseded. — A band-knife has been invented for cutting timber, iuslead of a baud-saw, whereby, under suitable arrangements, planks are cut from logs smooth at once, instead of being first sawn nnd then made smooth by planing, thus saving uot meri-ly much of the labor, but all the timber now wasted in sawdust, and shaviugs. Considerable excitement has been caused at Wintakereri by the elopement of a chief's wife with a youug countryman. She bolted a first time, was brougefc back, and reconciliation look place. She, however, doped ayain in a few days. An elegant orator proposes to "grasp a ray of light from the great crb of day, spin it into threads of gold, aud with thc-m weave a shroud in which to wrap the whirlwind which dies upon the bosom of our Western prairies." We fear the machinery will break before the fabric is through the loom. An Irishman engaged in driving a donkey was one day at a loss for the wherewithal to pay the toll. A happy thought struck him. As he reached the bar ht unyoked the donkey and transferred him to tho cart — dragging the cait himself containing the donkey. The keeper of the bar accosted him, demanding the toll. '■Toll,' 1 says Pat; "be jabers, ax the driver."