FRANKLIN AND THE CLAIRVOYANTS (From the Edinburgh Advcitser.)

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 654, 21 July 1852, Page 3

FRANKLIN AND THE CLAIRVOYANTS (From the Edinburgh Advcitser.)

Mr. Hill Hardy, of Trinity College, Dublin, well known for his mathematical talents and discoveries, and who for the last two years has devoted his attention to the study of clairvoyance, in a letter to the Dublin Evening Post, gives the following account of his inquiries in regard to Sir John Franklin : " Having tested the clairvoyant powers of the subject of the preceding experiments, I was na-> turally anxious to ascertain what account he would five of Sir John Franklin, whom all clairvoyants aye agreed in declaring alive. He has as yet made no mistake in describing either the living or the departed ; and, from the revelations of my previous Clairvoyants, I am inclined to place implicit confidence in the account of Franklin he has given me, which, at least, may lead us to entertain strong hopes of his safe return, as the boy emphatically pronounced him alive and now on terra firma. — I shall preface this important revelation by a brief account of those that have been made to me by seven Clairvoyants, from July, 1 850, up to last week. The first by whom I enquired I tested by mixing Franklin's name with about fifty others, some alive and others dead, and known to me as such. All were accurately accounted for. I therefore felt entitled to conclude that the Clairvoyante was equally correct when, she pronounced Franklin alive. All my Clairvoyants agreed so far as to indicate a longitude that gives the Noi'th East of Asia. The second said that '• he would never be found, but would come home himself" (alluding to the search). I shortly after this sent two Clairvoyants, whom I used to send daily to him together for a month or more ; they perfectly agreed, and gave his longitude as 17G£ East, placing him to the north ofthe country of the Tchekcqi ; so far I found him blocked up in ice. Some months elapsed, and I sent another, the gentleman who, after being with Franklin for two hours, until I had to recal him — his hands being swelled with chilblains — announced a letter from London, and read it at the distance of a mile as attested and published in the Daily Express ofthe 28th May last. He, on that occasion, described Sir John as encamped on the ice, and far from his ships, trying to make the land — considerably further to the west than I had previously found him. This account of him was published in the Belfast Mercury in June last. I had not an opportunity of investigating since I left him in this critical position until last week, when the account given by the boy seems to harmonize with all the preceding revelations. When asked to see him, he says — " Who is he ?" Again I replied — " That is not your business — express a strong wish to see him." In about a minute he stopped in China, and was greatly amused with the vast quantities of tea, the strange natives and their lingo, which he commenced mimicking, with what success I cannot tell. I again reminded him of Fianldin, when he said, "I see him alive and well, but a prisoner among Tartars in that part of Asia that is jutting out near America (in other words,- the Nortli-E.ist — he is many hundred miles from the sea." "I had not intended to furnish this until I had examined him more accurately. The boy gave Franklin's time as nine o'clock at night, it being two p.m. with us ; this would give us a longitude that cross Tartary. All I now wish to convey is, thai he is safe— on land — many hundred miles inland, in the north-east of Asia. The boy was not en rapport with me, and could not even hear me speak. I had to put my queries through another ; so there could have been no thoughtreading, and, indeed, nothing was faather from my thoughts than the result."

Duration or Life 4 mono the Clergy. — The fol lowing is an extract fioin the Medical Time* ' — *' This paper was the fir t of a series of communications which Dr. Guy proposed addressing to the society on the duration of life among the member^ of the several professions. A preliminary inquny into the bubjects, b ised on facts extracted from the obituaries of the Annual Register, was brought under the no ice of tho 1 Eiitish Association in September, 1846, and was subsequently published in the ninth volume of the Statistical Society. In that essay it was shown that the clergy are longer lived than the members of other professions, though they do not live so long as the population of England, and not so long by several years asagricuhural labourers. The facts contained in the present communication tended to confirm the results established in the former essay, by showing a very favourable duration of life among the clergy; but detailed comparisons of one profession with another were necessaiily reserved till the completion of the contemplated series of papers. The essay was illustrated by several tables; among 1 others, by tables comparing the clergy of cities and towns with those of rural places, the manied with the single clergy, and the clergy of past times with those of the present day. It resulted from these tables, winch were admitted to be based, on some points, on too small a number of facis, that the clergy of rural districts had an advantage ofmoie than two years over those in cities and towns, and th° marned of more than five years over the single. The duration of life among the clergy in the last three centuries appears to have been remarkably steady, with signs of recent improvement. The last table of the series contiasted tho average age, at death, of popes, archbishops of the Established Church, and Romish saints. The popes, being appointed very late in life, attained the greatest meaa age, exceeding that of the archbishops and bishops by about one year, the latter surviving the Romish saints by about two years. This abbreviation of life in the case of the saints of the Romish calendar may probably be attributed in pait to celibacy, in pait to the ascetic practices to which some of them were addicted." New Year's Eve in a Lunatic Asylum. — On the e\ening of the last day of 1851, the lunatic asylum at Colney Hatch was the scene of a most interesting spectacle, which took place under the auspices and by the direction of the visiting justices of that important and magnificent institution of the county of JWiddlpsex. 'J he patients, to the number of 400( females 230, males IGo") were assembled at six o'clock in the large exorcising I hall of the asylum, which had been most tastefully decorated for the occasion by the patients themselves, with evergreens and flags, supplied for tho purpose, by order of the visting justices ; and after tea had been pin taken of by the whole party, music and dancing comim need, and was continued for more than an hour,s>everul of the officers and visitors joined in the amusement, cheerfully endeavming to promote the happiness which it was evident the poor patients experienced. Other amusemtnt* succeeded, and parties were formed and paraded the. hall m the utmost ouler and regularity. Although a similar entertainment is given peiiodically to the patients at Hnnwell, this was the fiist tune the patients ol both sexes were associated in one cntciumuncnt ; and it is most gratifying; to recoid that nofnterteinineiU yet given to lunatics, since the introduction of the new system of treatment into the county, has been maiked with givator piopiiety than the one under notice. At tutio o'clock, cake, oranges, and mulled beei, worp supplied plentifully, and after the " National Anthem" had been sung with hearty good will by the 400 pnticnts, they returned to their respective wards, expressing themselves much delighted with the evening* onteitamment. Gnat prnise is dup to the medical ofticeis of the establitJiment, Drs. flood and Da via, for the veiy admirable aiiangemeuls made b}> thuiu on this occasion ; also to the matron, steward, and other officers, for thezetfl wiih which they rendered their sei vices to promote the enjoyment of tho patients. There wore a large number of magistiates and visitors pieieut.