TOM PAINE'S DKATHBED.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 80, 5 April 1871, Page 3

TOM PAINE'S DKATHBED.

The following is copied front the journal of Stephen Grellet, the Quaker missionary (horn and brought up a Roman who wpnt unto all parts of the visiting the prisoner. 0 , immersed in their horrible dungeon?, and preaching the Gospel in all nation?. He w»s received by all the crowned beads of Europe with courtesy, and by many with friendship ; among whom may be mentioned the. Emperor Alexander of Rns»ia, the King of Prussia, the King of Bavaria, the King and Qjieen of Spain, and by the Pope of Rome (Pius VII), who gave him his blessing on parting : — In a village called G'"PPnwieh, in the neighborhood of New York, Grellet found Thomas Paine in a stats of destitution, forsstken of all his companions, and left to die like a dog. Grellet and a young Friend, by name Mary Rose<>e, ministered to him on his deathbed. Once while the latter was in the house " some of Paint's deisf.ical associates came to the door, and in a loud, unfeeling manner, said, ' Tom Paiiie, it. is said you ntv turning Christian, but we hope you will die as you have lived,' and then wpnt away. On which, turning to Maty Roscop, he said, 'You pee what miserab'e comforters they are.' " One day he asked her if she had read any of his books. She replied that /The Age of Reason once cdme into her bands, but after reading a little of it she threw it into the fire. "I wish all had done as you," he replied, "for if the devil has ever had any agency in any work, he has had it in my writing that book." Afterwards, more than once, she heard him crying, " O Lord, Lord God," or "Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me!" It is said he wrote much during his last illness, whenever he was free from pain. Mary Roscoe repeatedly saw him writing. What it was is not known ; but says Grellet, "If his eompauious in infidelity had found anything ro support the idea that he contiuued on his deathbed to espouse their cause, would they not eagerly have published it ? " An American paper chronicles the death of Gporge Giles, who was born in England in 1670. and, when quite a lad, was seized by a press-gang in London, and forced into the Navy. He witnessed the famous mutiny of the Nore, and saw some of the mutineers flogged. While on an expediition under Nelson he managed to desert, and eventually escaped to his old district of Southwark, Philadelphia. He resided there until misfortunes and ojd age drove him into a benevolent institution there, known as the Old Man's Home, in which he died last mouth at the patriarchal age of ninety -one. Mautial Beaming. — The following definition of martial bearing is reported in the Delhi Gazette as having been given by a constable at Jnhhulpore not long einee : — Magistrate (to cousiahle) : What leads you to suppose that these meu are deserters ? Constable : Their martial bearing. Magistrate: What do you mean ly their martial bearing ? Constable : They were very free with their money, were drunk, swore a great deal, aod wanted to fight. Magistrate: Is that your definition of martial bearing ? Constable : Yes sir. Captain Nelson Provost, who recently arrived from a fishing cruise in Ochotsh sen, has in his possession a moss agate weighing about half-an-ounce, and a small piece of quartz containing several dollars iv free gold, which were taken from the stomach of a codfish caught there during his late cruise. The Piscatorial Acclimatisation Society should endeavor to propagate that rich breed of fish. The Nayy — Admiral Wysp, ot a recent dinner, in answer to the toast "The Navy" replied that "tho officers and men were most efficient, but ihey wanted ships they could sail and fight in, which be diil not believe tiiey hod at present." The Captain and Cerberus to wit.

Manures. — Few things deceive the farmer moro than that of the value he sets upon wet straw as a compost, for it is by no means of a spongy nature, like sawdust or peat, to absorb urine or other moisture in cow-houses or stables, but it is a bulky product of the farm, and litters everything. It is easy enough to get straw under foot in the farmyard and well wetted, and dirted, but the value of such wet dirty straw as manure or compost in which to grow plants would hardly pay for its being carted to the field. When leaves of trees, straw, aud i he like get rotted down to leave mould they lose in bulk but not in value, for | they have to come to that pass before ihey can be taken up into the new vegetables, and therefore they are only advanced a . stage, and that in the right direction, by being reduced to powder. In horticulture an ordinary compost for the potter's bench would be made up of equal parts by measure of loam, peat, leaf-mould and sand ; and no one would question for a moment that such a compost or soil extpiisling over acres of a farm would {/row fine crops of all ordinary agricultural productions. In ordinary cases loam would be the staple soil, and compost for such a soil would consist of the proper application of small quantities of the other ingredients, as peat, leafmould and sand. Salt applied to a green field usually dpepeus the green of the grass, anil kills the moss in old pastures, I but for want of knowing the proper dose :to apply, I have seeu a field salted ■"liberally," but instead of producing arass for milch cows it produced mushrooms, and the moss and grass came off like a shorn fleece. Examples clearly point that manure, without guano, or the like, should not be used as a simple, but compounded with other bulky ingredients, in which it should be buried, and that for reason* which will be best understood by practical men, when I remind them that many crops do best when the manure has been first partially exhausted upon a previous crop. A Sydney paper says that delicious pineapples are now being sold in cartloads in the streets of Sydney at from Is to 2s a dozen.