ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 68, 24 March 1843, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Preservation of Magna Charta.— -Sir Robert Cotton, while collecting his literary treasures, being one day at his tailor’s, disbpvered that the raan'held ih ; his ’hahd, ready tb ‘Out up ; for measures,. the original Magna Charta, with; all bf signature. He; bought tlraisiriguiar curiosity for a trifle, and recovered /C m tbie maimer what had long been * given for lost—Note to'Pepy's Journal. ' < : and a' Gentlbman.— The Dtike : when in New York* -went evepihgtinih coach to a party.. On the*'

following morning he was: called; upon for the fare by the driver, who himself : —“ If you please, sir, are you*?the man as I drove last night ?” “ Yes,” was the reply. “ Well, then, I’m the gentleman who drove you, and I am come for my half dollar.” Sporting Anecdote. —A few days ago, as T. Hair, Esq., was driving to Wolverhampton in his gig, near the Broad-waters, he saw a gentleman beating a turnip field with two dogs; they flushed a covey of birds, and the gentleman singled out one and shot at it; he wounded it on the back, which caused it to soar in the air. Mr: Hair noticing the direction taken by bird, drove rapidly till he got in a line with it, and it dropped within arm’s length of his gig, Mr. Hair catching it as it fell. The distance which the bird flew after being wounded was about 400 yards. A couple of shots had penetrated the bird near the centre of the back. The Late Marquis of Hertford. —The personal property of the late Marquis of Hertford has been sworn under 700,000/., the duty on which will amount to 10,000/. It is stated, on the best authority, that the report of the executors being about to commence £f civil action against Suisse is totally without foundation. It was at one tirfid -thought that a dispute would arise with respect-.to the property left by some of the codicils, in consequence of their being without a date ; but all has been amicably arranged. The executors are allowed by law twelve months from the death,of the late marquis to pay all or any of the respective bequests to the several persons therein named; but whether they will avail themselves of such a privilege in the ease of Suisse is not at present known. It is said that he intends shortly leaving England to join his wife. We have it from good authority that the resent prosecution of Suisse was not with the consent or wish of the present Marquis of Hertford, and that many extraordinary facts in reference to this singular case were kept from the public eye. Her Majesty has assured two noble dukes, it is said, that she will not fail to visit the west of Scotland next summer. The Bank of Manchester had been compelled to liquidate finally, through the misconduct of the managing director, Mr. Burdekin, who had absconded, leaving a deficiency of 13,000/. in his accounts. This bank was the firfit establishment of tlie kind formed in England, under the law passed in 1825, allowing banks to have an unlimited number of partners. It had a paid-up capital of 700,0007. and upwards, and seemed to have a first-rate connexion, but the vicious system of allowing customers to overdraw, and allowing the directors to., help themselves to cash, ad libitum, had brought it down. Tight Lacing. —The framers of preventive laws, no less than private tutors, and schooL masters, should remember that the readiest way to make either mind or body grow a,vrv, is by lacing it too tight.— Southey.