MISCELLANEOUS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 95, 30 December 1843, Page 379

MISCELLANEOUS.

Education. — Education stands on the basis of everlasting duty — is a prime necessity of man. To impart the gift of thinking to those who cannot think, and yet who could in that case think : this, one would imagine, was the first function a government had to set about discharging. Were it not a cruel thing to see, in any province of an empire, each- strong man with his. arm lamed ? How much crueller to find the strong soul, with its eyes still sealed, its eyes extinct so that it sees not ! Light has come into the world, but to this poor peasant it has come in vain. The four-and-twenty letters of the alphabet are still Runic enigmas to him; and that great spiritual kingdom, the toil- won conquest of his own brothers, all that his brothers have conquered) is a thing non-extant for him — an invisible empire ; he knows it not. Heavier wrong is not done under the sun. It lasts from year to year, from century to century; the blindest sire slaves himself out, and leaves his blinded son ; and men, made in the image of God, continue as two-legged beasts of labour ; — and in the largest empire of the world, it is a debate whether a small fraction of the revenue of one day (£30,000 is but that) shall, after thirteen centuries, be laid out on it, or not laid out on it. Have we governors, have we teachers ; have we had a church these thirteen hundred years ? What is an overseer of souls, an archoverseer, archiepiscopus ? Is he something ? If so, let him lay his hand on his heart, and say what thing. — Thomas Carlyle.

Elliptical, Convex, Metallic Float, and Diminished Wheel, For Steam Ships. — Mr. Robert Smart, of Bristol, has taken out letters patent for apparatus for propelling steamers, which promises (as, indeed, experiment places beyond doubt) to give to all steamers fully a knot per hour extra speed, and, however surprising it may appear, the wheel is many hundred times lighter than the common wheel. It is not nearly so subject to accident, lessens vibration and undulation to the smallest quantum, and has the extraordinary property of checking a ship in half the time required with any other wheel, by which collision will often be prevented. These advantages are, according to the testimony of scientific men, certain to be derived from this invention : and if this be the fact, then steam navigation has from this time received a greater boon than any since i;s commencement. The most scientific men have approved of the plans, and prefer them to anything ever yet produced as propellers, and we heartily wish the inventor that success which his ingenuity deserves.

Hint to Emigrants. — An acquaintance of Bailie M'G — , of D — , made a greirous plaint to him one day of the hard times and the impossibility of scraping together a livelihood in this wretched country. The bailie's own experience ran directly counter to these dolorous croakings, for his industry had realized a handsome competence; but he knew too much of the world to attempt proving to ths complainer that ill success might be partly his own fault. He contented himself with remarking, that i£ was surely possible for a tradesman to draw together a tolerable business. " Not in this country," his friend repeated. " Weel, then," said the bailie, " what say ye to emigration ? I have heard that some push "their way geyan weel at Hobart Town or the Cape." " Yes," replied his desponding townsman, " that might be the case aince in a day ; but, if there is business there, there are mair folk now than get a share o't." " Weel, it's may be true ye say," rejoined the bailie, whose policy it was never to contradict any man directly ; " but ye might gang farther —ye might gang up into the interior." " There's naething," said the inveterate grumbbler — "There's naething there but kangaroos." The worthy magistrate was something nettled at this pertinacious hopelessness, and concluded that kangaroos were a tribe of native savages, among whom a careful pedlar might make indifferent good bargains. He replied hastily, " Weel, aweel, and is na a kangaroo's siller as good as another man's?" — Chambers' Scottish Jests.

A Philosopher.— Maclaurin, the able expounder of Newton's Principia, and professor of mathematics in the College of Edinburgh, could not yawn without dislocating his jaw. At the same time, his instinct of imitation was so strong, that he could not resist yawning when he witnessed that act in others. His pupils were not slow in discovering and taking advantage of his weakness. When tired of his lecture, they either began to yawn, or open their mouths in imitation of that act, and prelection was immediately interrupted. The professor stood before them with bis mouth wide open, and could not proceed till he rang for his servant to come and shut it. In the meantime, the conspirators effected their escape.

Statistics op Nonconformity. — George Hadfield, Esq., of Manchester, stated, at a meeting held in that place, the following striking facts, from the last Report of the Manchester Statistical Society : — That .there were in Manchester 38 churches and 100 Nonconformist places of worship ; 13,025 children in Church Sunday Schools, and 29,925 in those of Dissenters. That in 1835 there were in Wales 998 churches and 1,091 dissenting chapels; in Cornwall, 221 churches and 322 chapels; in London, 246 churches and 306 chapels; in Lancashire, 292 churches and 581 chapels; in Yorkshire, 250 churches and 1,047 chapels; and, finally, that, in 1841-2, the Church and Churchmen contributed £90,821 to the missionary societies, whilst the contributions of Nonconformists to missions, for that year, were £245,940. — Nonconformist.

Familiarity. — ■Familiarity is a suspension of almost all the laws of civility ; libertinism has introduced it into society under the notion of ease.