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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 242, 3 October 1876, Page 4

The London correspondent of a southern contemporary says.*— We have a notable visiter here at present in the person of Mr Josiah Hewson, who is the prototype of Mrs Beecher Stowe's far-famed "Uucle Tom." He was born in the Uuited States in 1789, and after being held in slavery for forty-two years made his escape to Canada. In ISSI he came to England and collected £1000 for the establishment of an educational institution for colored children in Canada. Through Hewson's energy, schoolhouses have also been erected in Chatham, Ont.rio, under the title of tbe Wilberforce Educational lostitute. At one time these establishments were on the verge of ruin, and to _ave them Hewson sacrificed the whole of his scant savings, amounting to over £500. He has now come back to Englaud in hi3 eighty-eighth year to ask his friends iu this country to help him in theae personal losses. Hia case has been taken up by several wellknown philanthropists, and I have no doubt " Uucle Tom " will speedily obtain to the full extent of his necessities the help he solicits.

An eminent engineering firm in London has received letters from its representatives in Russia which announce that the Russian squadron in the North Pacific is -to ba at once r. due «d to two small vessels, the others beiug ordered Home, via Suez Canal, as soon as possible. It is added that the Black Sea squadron is to be at once reinforced by three ironclads from th. Baltic, which are to sail for the south as soon as ihey can be got ready, but not in company, so ns to avoid anything like a demonstration. Somo hands have actually been taken from tbe private Russiau _hipyard_ in order to push on the refitting of these ironclads in the briefest practicable period. The spiritualists of Sydney have suffered a terrible sell. The Echo relate, that tince the seance that was held to ascertain tho result of the boat race between Trickett and Sadler, scores of people have sat around tables until their amis ached and they themselves felt riuiculou-, trying to gel some communication horn the spirit world to allay the universal anxiety respecting the fate of the newly won championship, and in several instances the table tipped Trickett as the winner in the match wiih Luraaden. But the most explicit communication was one received through the planchette on Saturday night, the 26th ult., when a spirit announced himself as James Hansen, boatswain of the frigate Wasp, one of the fleet under Sir Hyde Parker, with Nelaon second

in command, at the battle of Copenhagen in 1801. The Wasp— according, to Hansen — got ashore to the Great Belt at the time when the Danish fleet" was defeated, and he with other, died in tbe battle. This old nnval hero waß interrogated as to his knowledge respecting the boat race, and he very civilly wrote to say that he did not himself know what the result was, but he thought he could ascertain. He left the planchette for a few minutes, and then returning, the pencil wrote in a clear and vigorous style of handwriting, "•I am told Trickett won easily by 10 leogthe." The telegram which was received in Sydney the followiDg Monday morning, to the effct that the» match had fallen through, proved rather trying to believers in spiritualism.