ENGLISH.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 63, 13 March 1873, Page 2

ENGLISH.

~ /ttisiam? &Mch with x^erenc&';ib'!;ltlie''Ck>lo'^B' *w*aß brought -for- , f^a&mjtKe;^ reference :^ occupation of -waste lands. 'Motion. negatived.: The House beptowed .but. little encouragement on I 'McMaito^r^

'•.''"'' The Auckland Evening Star has ',' the foilowing paragraph:—" The Commissioners appointed to enquire into the charges brought against Mr. Eyes have reported in favour bf his removal to another station. We cordially approve^ of the recommendation; Send him to Timhuctoo or Kamschatka, or better still, put him "'up the spout.' If it is imperatively ' necessary that he should have a billet at the expense of the country, make him . Government washerwoman or plenipotentiary to the court of Te Kooti." The Loafeb in: the Street. — The Deep Sea Fishing Company has promised . fair; their last cargo sold well, better than I should if I were cut up into pounds. The trumpeters sold as high as sheep, at least I heard some one say so who ought to know. I take a deep interest in this spec. I went deep-sea-fishing myself a * while ago with some friends. We went to Sumner and slept in a tent. We arose next morning at early dawn and launched the boat; We partook before starting of an airy breakfast of champagne and bread and cheese. We subsequently found this was not a good thing. We proceeded "under the" care of Mr J — D — into the vasty deep— we hove' lines over and fished. Some of us wished for rock-cod, some for moki— l wished I was on shore. In spite of the ■ pleasurable excitement I felt in taking part in developing a new colonial industry, I felt subdued, as it were, before I had been five minutes in the boat. " A life on the ocean wave " may be exciting, but it don't suit me— pot much. I felt as if my heart and lungs were playing leapfrog — doctors have since told me this is an impossibility, but those were my symptoms. I felt happier when I saw, others looking as if they would have given half-a-crown to be appearing in the obituary column of that morning's issue of your journal. I felt more peaceful after that. After a time Mr J— D — said he thought we should catch no fish, and that perhaps we had better return ; I have respected and loved J. D. from that hour. We caught one fish about 2\ inches long. We intend going again soon when the Deep Sea Fishing employes have well found out the real feeding grounds of the trumpeters, et hoc genus omne, but we don't mean having champange and bread and cheese for breakfast. -• 'Tis a glorious charter, deny it who can, That's breathed in the words I'm an Englishman." Just so. I often feel like that. We are a great and glorious race — we Englishmen., I try to feel like one sometimes—like a -proper one you know. I can drink with a man and call him " old fellow," 1 and ask after his wife and kids, and laugh at him (behind his back of course) the next minute I can smile sweetly when, men, whom I don't care two straws about, are abusing my best friend, and never say a word in his defence. Above all, I can applaud the man who assigns selfish motives to the most disinterested actions, and who makes it & point to run down all men who occupy a better position than himself. I can take part in this sort of thing as well as most manly Britons, aod feel, as we all do, better after it; < but I cannot go the length some fellows do. I cannot persuade myself that we are such fine fellows after all. As humbugs we do shine. One quarter of our population lives by humbugging the other three, and we are thus virtuous and happy; but I can't think we are a model for the whole would. I think we fancy ourselves ever so much too much, without any cause .whatever for doing so. * Such is my opinion, but I cannot help respecting the patriotic credulity of men -who think otherwise. I have heard in my time some extraordinary statements made by men ahout their native lands, but few to equal the assertion of a gentleman in Oamaru the other day. In replying to some toast he made the following remark , __«' Not only were the sons of Caledonia able to defend their country against the invader for seventeen centuries, but they might claim to have given civilisation to all Europe. I'm an adopted Scott myself, as yoa know, hut this gentleman slings a , jfaalo over Caledonia that's hardly a tailor's £t, you know. I should like thet speaker. J feel I should. — Canterbury Press. Just before going to bed, eat two pigs' feet* and a cold apple pie. In less than an hour you will - see a snake larger than . a hawser devouring light blue-haired, children which have just escaped from a ; monster with sorrel eyes and a redbot overcoat. -*-' . ■ v 7' 77'-', * '-. DESCEiBiNG the Inebriate Asylum at Ward's Island j the • Wew York Tribune' says :-^Within the past four years , aboui one hundred women have occupied rooms, in the Asylum, 7^, Oi yj these y nearly onethird have been ladies moving in the 7|»ighe*rt -circles: o^ middle-aged andef nearly all : : 'had'y been '7marmd.;y7.;;7;7';7 , ;7'-'; l ;r: ; 7i ? 7 -, ; 7;.<-7/; ., •.>'_'; _ * 7;'& RraSIAN C6£6sY-i00,006 GrOWQt Ids 7 iNmi^^ Supennt-enden , from Indiana this morning; where he met, l 7*o !*£#, ': 777 .. 7'':x7

according- to agreement, a portion of the committee representing the Russian emigration, recently alluded to. The 7 40,000 Russians, , who propose to emigrate and settle in Nebraska, are what are called Memnonites, their religious faith being something between the Baptist and the Qaaker. They went from Prussia to Russia in the time of Queen Catherine, and now, under the present Czar, they are obliged to join the military service or leave the conntry. Ten years' time was given them to make up their minds what to do, whether to bear arms or to emigrate, j Some of the allotted time has passed, and they have determined to emigrate and try their fortunes in the New World, where the air of libery can be breathed by all. Tbey are to leave by installments, and according to age. They are a splendid class of people—honest, industrious, and intelligent — and will add greatly to the wealth and development of this State, or any other place where they may settle. Russia and Khiva. — The Russian papers publish various particulars about the dispute between Russia and Khiva. The Khan of Khiva is described as. a 'young man of twenty-seven, with great military ability and insatiable ambition, who openly proclaims his determination not to leave a foot of ground to the foreign invaders in Central Asia, and has been for some time securing allies for a. campaign against Russia. He not only sent his emissaries into the Russian territory of Mangischlack to stir up an insurrection among the Kirghiz, but dispatched an embassy to Calcutta to apply for the assistance of England. The Viceroy advised a reconciliation with Russia, upon which the ambassador replied — '.This cannot he, for Russia has deeply offended the Khan-; she has not even sent him a despatch sealed with golden seal, though he is quite equal in rank to all other sovereigns. ' At a great council held by the Khan, some of the members declared themselves opposed to a war with Russia. Yet Mourand, one of the Khan's uncles, then rose and said: 'When I was a boy, people were already talking of the danger of a Russian invasion. This danger was averted; the Muscovite fears us. I have grown old, and have not seen a Russian yet, nor shall we see them in our country. But if we act like cowards,and give up our prisoners, our power wi'l depart from us, and Khiva will be shamefully subdued. ' This speech made a great impression upon the council, and it was unanimously resolved not to yield to the Russian demands. Three Russian columns have now been sent against the Khan from Biseh-Akti, Karakoum, and Ust-TJrt; But it is expected that they will find the task of conquering Khiva a hard one, as the Khivans are brave and enterprising, and have a large army. A Trial has just taken place before the Court of Assizes of the I-oiret, tfte details of which are worthy of occupying a conspicuous place amongst the records which are so familiar to readers of peculiarly French horrors. The tragedy which formed the subject of investigation took place in May last, at a small farm called Herbage, near Mareaux-aux-pres; f'le victim was a young woman of twenty- j eight, and her murderers were her own j parents. The atrocious circumstances under which the crime was committed are amply indicated in -the following brief extract, which refers to the discover*-**- of the body of Elizabeth Durnnd in a field close to her own home :— This unfortunate young woman, abandoned by her father, ill-treated by her, step-mother, compelled to beg food during the greater portion of her existence, was the victim pf 9 crime unprecedented in its cruelty. Her stomach had been ripped up by a blunt instrument, and the Intestines, when the body was j found, protruded thrpugh a gaping wound; the mouth was filled, with e&jftb. gnd gravel; the face, the neck, the breast, the shoulders were covered with wounds; and the murderers, finding they had pot succeeded in despatching their victim speedily enough, strangled her, after having hacked her about in the most brutal and revolting manner- Under her feet, which were tied together, a gr-aye bad been dug, into which the body was thrown after the crime had been perpetrated. The step? mother, realising the enormity of the criiiiey and fearful of the fate which a "waited her on its disclosure, committed suicide by hanging herself. The police, distinguishing some coppection . between the suicide and the sudden disappearance of Elizabeth Durand, at once arrested the father of the •victim, 5 and^ on questioningthe youthful son and daughter who wit-, hessed the* crime, were informed as to the whereabouts of the body. l^The evidence 1 ; given; .before i .the i Court hy;, the. brother^ofj the victim was such as, the reports of thej proceedings tell us, made the; flesh creep.; The principal author pf the crime, 7how«.j ever—* namely, the father^aUhough found guilty without circumstances, escaped the capital sentence, and was ' condemned to; •^■^'^^ y 77<7: '*$?■,•}

■-. A - Cheerful Peospeot.— A corres- ,, ponden t , who signs himself "H . H.," writes to the Australian Israelite thus: — " In a course of lectures lately delivered by Mr -James Smith, he has propounded the idea that the world will be destroyed by a wave of fire which is fast approaching; probably , that gentleman has arrived at such an hypothesis from 'the^-idea suggested by Doctor Lindley Kemp*, who Bays — Is it not probable, it may be asked, that the time will come when the globe itself will come to an end ? And if it be so, can science detect the provision that is possibly made for this consummation bf [all things? We have seen that the atmosphere has for long been undergoing a change; that at a very early period it was charged with carbolic acid,. the carbon of which, now forms part of. animal and vegetable structures.. We saw also that* at first, it contained no ammonia; but since vegetation and decomposition began, the nitrogen that existed in tbe nitrates of the earth, and some of the nitrogen ofthe atmosphere have been gradually enteripg into new combinations, and forming ammonia; . and the quantity of ammonia, substance at first non-existent, has gradually increased, and, as it is volate, the atmosphere now always contains some of it. The quantity has now become so great in it, that it can always be detected by chemical analysis.. There is an evident tendency of it to increase in the atmosphere. Now, supposing it to go on in- i creasing up to a certain point, it forms with air a mixture that, upon the application of fire, is violently explosive. An atmosphere charged with ammonia is liable to explode whenever a flash of lightning directly conducted passes through it. And such an explosion would doubtless destroy, perhaps without leaving any trace: of, the present order of things." Barmaid Shows. — The Niw York Herald writes : — " What is a barmaid Bhow and what are barmaids ? It would perhaps be more convenient to look at the barmaids first, The barmaid is the agent of the British publican in dispensing beer to Britons. She (for the sex is a female is a bedizened creature, a frivolous creature, a hard-worked creature, whose duty it is to stand behind the bars of English liquor stores and pump beer for the multitude, reciving in exchange the pennies for the landlord and air the maudlin stuff which men are capable of uttering in a woman's ears for her own share. How shocking this must be at times can be calculated by the ratio in which drinking induces immoralities to bubble filthily from lewd lips, This is her lot year in and year out} and what wonder if she is generally weak hf the end, and something to be hidden away from the eye of day ? It is, in fact, a huge school of gradual debauchery for women, from whose depths but a favored few, a very few can escape. Amid the blaze of the tawdry gin palace she drinks in the infection in the air; perhaps she assists the process by draughts from the brandy keg, at first, to put a flash in her eyes, at last as a necessity of her feverish existence. The barmaid is generally a -physical attraction, chosen for her points by the landlord as one would choose a horse. She must up this appearance, and cultivate slang as another portion of their stock-in-trade. The refined taste which in England demands this sad exhibition of womanhood has, however, of late gone a; step further aijd gpt tflgethey 4n e^hibltlonof this very class; Pifty flasqy girls were set behind fifty bars in a place -on the suburbs of London, and the British public were invited to come and guzzle beer,- and in guzzling , to note their admiration of the barmaid to their fancy by droppipg a ballot. to her favor, Apprise of a gold watch was to he the geurdpn Vof her who took the most money and received the largest number of votes. And the British public oa*me in its thousands to swilj, to talk slang, to grizzlef arid to , vote that fifty girls might be booked as surely for perdition as their nonsense: cotild inspire. But then, to: look beyond and abserve the thousands 4 of barmaids, 'in London longing for and enjoying the fame of Miss Somebody, who could pump ad much more beer, and talk so much slang { Jt. js, safe to say - that, 3 BO,thiog ; .more demoralisting than this system exists ■in apy country. . . ... This system can never flourish iu America; ,while manhood respects ; itself.- Our faults we . are'; not unwilling to avow, jbut j**£djs steady and universal degradation of woman gan never find a place 'here, jt ,is -weli knqwn that the beirigs \ t who^ make Igigfif mdepus . in ...'.the .concertr .Baioqns tajce .lost before they reach them, and that the- > hells rare-only existent* through, the laxity of 'the: -police i or thelaw/iboth -rb/j^hjeh-ye^.h-dpel-. ■'Wifeel Teihed ted^the fatter fiiby ''"'^fie^nex^ . Legislature; by doming thera irre vqcablyi But ; that a7 widespreadt system • for the dembralisatio^TySof s^omen7 ; suiph 7 aisi^theV } ;pV-**^£*^^

At a New Year's dinner an absent 'minded guest rose and apologised for the bad cookery and poor wines, under the suppositipn that. he *was at his own table, to the great annoyance of his hostess, and the inexpressible indignation of his own wife.