ODDS AND ENDS. (From late European papers.)

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 198, 22 April 1848, Page 4

ODDS AND ENDS. (Fro m late European papers.)

At Ashley Down, near Bristol, a large asylum is being erected at a cost of £10,000, for a sect known as Mullerr.tes. — Not long ago an eminent special pleader was at Drury Lane Theatre, seeing the play of Macbeth. In the scene where Macbeth questions the witches in their cavern, "Whatis't you do?" they answci — ( 'A deed without a name." The phrase struck the sagacious lawyer, and he immediately remarked to a friend, " A deed without a name ? why 'ris void." — The 7a6Waiserts that some circumstances which had been revealed in confession to Puseyite clergymen of the church of England* have afterwards

become publicly known, and that journal attributes those disclosures to the fact that several of these clergymen are married.— la the year 1737, Thiee per Cent. Consols obtained the price of 107 per cent., which was the highest ever known ; and on the 20th September, 1797, when the failure of the attempt to negociate with the French Republic became known, they fell to 471, the lowest point they ever reached. — A correspondent of the Sunderland Herald advises the young men in shops to start a " Don't-court-the-lugses - who-go-a-shopping - after-six-o'clock - league." He thinks it would be effectual. — Anticipating another scarcity of provisions, the treasury have reappohited twenty- three of the one hundred and twenty naval and military officers who served under the Relief Commission in Ireland last yeai, in guperintendmg the dktiibution of provisions. — The average earnings of 420 piisoners at Pentonville piison, for the last year, w.is £3 3s. 2£d. — A gentleman lately inserted an apology in the shape of an edvertisement in the Times, toi passing a friend in the street without speaking. — A mechanic in America has invented a machine for seminaries* which, by means ot steam, not only warms the room but flogs t he boys on a graduated scale, according to their offence. — In conspquence of the disposal of the property within the coniiucs of the Old Gaol at Ayleshury, the body of Johu Tawell, who was executed about two years since for the murder of Sarah Hart at Salt Hill, has just been dismtered by order of the visitin<* justices, and again buried within the precincts of the New Prison. — Ten Sisters of Charity of Camhray aie on the point of taking their departure for China. So zealous are the sisters that the superiors of the sisterhood are obliged to make a selection from the great number who offer themselves. —Mr. William Ray Smee estimates the annual income of Great Britain at £488,000,000, of which amount only .£185,000,000 or rather more than one third, is charged with income tax.— An American paper has this advertisement : — " Twj sisters want iva&hing."-— Theodore Hook, when diniiitr with thi author ot a work called Thiee words to the Drunkard, wa* asked to review it. "Oh, my dear fellow, that I have already ilona in three woid< — pass ths bottle." — The.Pope has requested that the sums subscribed for the erection of monuments throughout hit states shall be applied to the more useful purpose of erecting an asylum for aged persons at Home. — At the flitting of the Bavarian Chamber of Deputies on the 19 h ultimo, a motion for the total abolition of lotteries was unanimously adopted.— lt is stated that arrangements are making, and nearly completed, between the English and French Governments, for the acceleiation of the mails ; and that, if carried out, the despatches from London will arrive in Paris at ten o'clock in the morning after being posted. — According to the Augsburg Gazette, the French Government havude»patched Count Lallemand and M. Eugene Bate, from Constantinople into Syriu, to inquire into the state of affairs there, particularly as to the condition of the Syrian Christians. — The Minister of Finance in B.hiuiu has given oiders to the Customs' officais of thelrontiei^, tint for the future personal examination oi passengers, especially of femules, shall not take place unless almost certain indication* of fraud shall exist. — Captain M'Manns, of the Mississippi Volunteers, says Burritt's Christian Citizm, weighed 180 lbs. when he went to Mexico, and has returned weighing but ( )0 : War wastes men's substance. Col. Carroll, of Virginia, has recently entered on a novel speculation. He hat purchased a large island in Chesapeake Bay, and stocked it with black cats* He intends to trade in the fur of the animali, which is said to be valuable.— The New York Commercial Advertiser relates, as a fact, that an agricultural labourer having invested fifty dollars with his employer, who said the interest would be three dollars a-year, took him (the employer) three dollars at the year's end, to pay the interest; for taking care of the money ! — Lord Stowell, who never was a sportsman, being asked what his brother, Lord Eldon, usually killed when he was at Encombe, answered, " Nothing but time."— A lady who was a strict observer of etiquette, being unable to go to church ODe Suuday, sent her card ! — A «ag in Pennsylvania not long since purchaaed a fine horse. Returning from a ride a few days afterwards, he said he had discovered a quality in this animal which added fifty dollais to its value — it shied at a bum bailiff! — The New Yarh Sun mentions the bewilderment of a country Jonathan the first time he saw an elephant — ' ihunderand spikes,' exclaimed he, ' what critter with two tails have we got here ?'— A vessel which arrived at Bristol, from Odessa, has brought ten casks of itussmn potatoes.— Some Danish horaes luve been imported into Dundee, and have been sold at good prices.*— The quantity of goal's wool imported into the Uuited Kingdom in 1847, was 1,2»7,3201b5.— Mr. D. Mac Dermott, of the Munster bar, has been appointed Roman Cathalic Secretary to the Board of Charitable Bequests; a post vacated by the death of Mr. R. O'Carroll, The nomination to the office wai virtually vested in Archbishop Crolly. — A person being asked what wai meant by the realities of life, answered— " Real estate, real money, and a real good dinner, none of which could be realised without real hard work."— ln the space of 713 years England and France were at war 262 years —The Commissioners of Woods and Forests have erected a gymnasium on the ground at the foot of Primrose hill, which will be open to the use of the public under certain i emulations. — "Pa, has time got legs ?" •• Yes, Tom, and mighty long ones. Why do you ask ?" •• Because the papera speaks about lapse of time, and folks as has laps must have legs to make 'em of, you know." — The good-service pension at the disposal of the Government by the death of Captain Willes, has been confened on Sir John Ross. — Earl Fitzhardinge has given oi dors that all parties, farmers or gentlemen, who supported the Hon. Grantley Berkeley, at the recent election, and who may be found sporting on his lands, are to be warned off.—*" Revenons a nos Moutomi," as the young lady who had been learning French by the Hamiltonian system said, when she gave up camphin^, and returned to the primitive tallow candles.— The following strange notice was posted up last week in several parts of the church of St. Thomas d'Aquin in Paiis :— " Found in the Rue de Bao piecei af the True Cross. The person who lost them may reclsim them at the sacristy of this church."— The Rev. A. Smith, of Airdrie, hat been comecrated coadjutor to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Glaigow. — A new fever hospital is about to be erected in Edinburgh, where fever ia very prevalent. — The time-table of the London and and North Western Railway Company hai become so voluminous. that an inrex is requisite to facilitate its examination. — A lobster, suck as has been seen in Europe, was brought over by the Cambria from Halifax. It weighed no less than twenty-six younds. — The Glesgow testimonial to Sir Harry Smith took the form of an epergne, valued at £i5 l), which having been presented, Sir Harry returned a very handiome letter of thanks. — The express train from London to Liverpool, via the Trent Valley line, will perform the distance — viz. 200 miles — in five hours, or at tlie rate of forty milei in the hour.— A gallant New England knight of the quill, describing a country dance, says, " The gorgeous strings of glais beads now gliuten on the heaving bosoms of the village belles, like polished rubies resting on the lurfacc ot warm tpple dump* lings.'^