EXTRACTS FROM ENGLISH PAPERS.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 91, 13 June 1843, Page 3

EXTRACTS FROM ENGLISH PAPERS.

Accident to Admiral Sir C. Nugent.— We regret to announce that a serious accident has happened to Sir C. Nugent. As the gallant admiral was leaving his bankers (Messrs. Drummonds), Charing-cross, he stopped to take a view of the Nelson monument erecting in Trafalgar-square. Whilst iu the act of minutely looking at the column, his foot slipped, and the gallant officer fell on the curb stone, the effect of which was a serious fracture of the thigh bone near the hip. Admiral Nngent was immediately conveyed to Charing-cross Hospital, where the most prompt surgical attendance was given, and every attention paid, and we are informed that the gallent officer Is going on very favourably, but from his advanced age (85) no sanguine hope of a perfect restoration to health can be entertained. No dangerous result is, however, at present expected. The gallant admiral lias expressed a wish not to be removed from the hospital until he recovers, as he feels convinced that every atteution will he paid to his wants and comforts. We ought, perhaps, to take this opportunity of stating that in this truly excellent institution, there are apartments in which individuals who may unfortunately meet with accidents, but who are in a situation of life able to maintain themselves, and pav expenses,, can be admitted without at all infringing on the public contributions raised for the relief of the unfortunate poor. Exhibition of Wild Animals before Her Majesty and the Court at Windsor. —Mr. Wombwell, who had been at Windsor during the past week, had the honour, on Thursday last, by royal command, of exhibiting before her Majesty, their royal highnesses the Duke and Duchess, and the Princesses Augusta and Mary of Cambridge, the hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg Strelitz, and the whole of the court, a couple of young male tigers only 14 days old, which were born at Reigate, and five lion cubs, by Nero, the descendant of the celebrated lion Wallace. These beautiful little animals were taken up to the Castle in baskets, by Mr. Wombwell, by whom they were exhibited to the royal and illustrious party., in the. new riding-school, where they were suffered to run about at perfect liberty. The lioness, the mother of the five lion cubs, caught cold shortly after their birth, and died last week. The young 1 ones have . since been suckled by a fine black and white bitch, which was also exhibited to the royal party at the same time. It may be observed, as it was stated by Mr. Wombwell to the queen, that the two young tigers were the second litter of that animal ever pioduce'd in England. Within the last 12 years, Mr. Wombwell has bred and reared, ivithin. the United Kingdom, upwards of 130 lions! Consecration oh 5 a Roman Catholic Bishop.—The Romanists are not behind us in providing for the spiritual wants of our fellow-subjects in the colonies and dcpendancies of the British empire. The’ Rt< Rev. Dr. Francis Russell Nixon, who was consecrated a few weeks since, will not be the' only prelate who will leave England for the distant diocese of Tasmania* or Van Diemen’s land. The Roman Catholics have selected one of their priests, who is to be consecrated next Friday* The ceremony, which will be a very imposing one, is to be performed at St. Chad’s cathedral church, Birmingham* His grace the Archbishop of Sydney is to be the consecrating prelate, and will be assisted by the Rt. Rev. Doctors Wiseman and Walsh, both bishops of the Roman Catholic church. Dr. Wiseman has undertaken to preach the sermon on the occasion. The bishop-eleet is the Rev. Dr. Wibon ; his title will be “ Bishop of Hobart town, Yan Diemen’s Land.” A very large number of the highest dignitaries of the Roman Catholic church are expected to be present at Birmingham on the day appointed for the con» secration. When the funds will allow it, it is intended to send Romish bishops to all our colonies. Extraordinary Application to the Guardians of Marylebone.—On Friday a meeting of the directors and guardians of the poor of the parish of St, Marylebone was held, Mr. S. Grange in the chair. A gentleman, describing himself as Dr. Smith, of Liverpool, made application to the board for permission to have two female pauper children at his disposal, for the purpose of being brought up as school teachers under a system peculiar to himself. Dr. Smith, who appeared about 45 years of age, stated that he was in the habit of obtaining poor, children, and bringing them up as teachers for schools and private families, giving them a firstrate education, and keeping them in food and clothing until the age of 21, when he got them situations in public schools or private establishments ; and would give a gnarantee to that effect to the guardians, if they would allow him to have the two children he had selected, between nine and ten years of age, from the Mary-

leborie pauper school; Mr. Bushill: Pray, how many children’s education have you completed in this way ? Dr. Smith: fourteen; all out of workhouses, and they are all doing well in the worid. Mr. Bushill: How do you train them ? Dr. Smith : Oh, that is a secret of my own. I travel with them throughout England, and they assist me in various scliopls. By Mr. Arland : lam a married man. married one of my own pupils, who came out of the workhouse. The young girls are under the superintendence of my wife when at home, but when out I superintend them myself. We put up at hotels and such places. Dr. Smith here handed in some testimonials from the head master of the Collegiate school, Camberwell, and the Grammar schools at Halifax, Sheffield, and other places. Mr. BushillCan you give the board a reference to any parish from which you have had children ? Dr. Smith : I had four from St. Margaret’s, Westminster ; my wife was one of them—l can refer you to her. By Mr. Ratlibone t I have carried on this system for 25 years. lam not assisted in my undertaking by any benevolent persons in Liverpool, nor would I have them know the nature of my establishment. Mr. Bushill : As you say your pupils have all turned out so well, caunot you give the board a reference to one or two of them ? Oh, no! I would not have them know for a world they came out of a poorhouse. One is married to a medical man in Liverpool, but she would not like to know her origin ; and, with regard to the others, if it was known they came out of a workhouse, it would blight their prospects in life. I never allow them to know, in my establishment, what each other has come from. Mr. W. Eyre : I suppose you will have no objection to give us some respectable references in Liverpool. Dr. Smith : Oh, I beg you will not think of making any inquiries in Liverpool; it would utterly ruin all my plans. I must protest against the board making inquiries at Liverpool, as the world is so fastidious, that my pupils, with their origins known, would be useless to me. Mr. Bushill: In what part of Liverpool do you live ? Dr. Smith : It’s just two miles across the river. God bless my soul, I forget the name of the place ; I have lived there two or three years. I have no objection to refer you to the Rev. Mr. Emertoh, curate of Hanwell, who has known me 25 years. Mr. Skinners You are a doctor of music, I suppose? Dr. Smith : No, I am a doctor of laws of the University of Edinburgh; it is an honorary title. The board, after some discussion, in which it was stated that there was a Dr. Smith travelling about the country with a parcel of female children, to excite benevolence, directed the secretary to make inquiries of the Rev. Mr. Emerton and others, as to the character of the applicant. The board then broke up.

Extraordinary Case of Desertion. —A soldier of the 90th depot (lately stationed here) was drinking* in a public house in this town, in company with a mason named M'Carty, when the latter said he should like to see how he would look in soldiers' clothes. The complaisant soldier immediately gratified the mason’s curiosity; and an exchange of dress was made accordingly. The soldier, after praising the martial figure of the mason, stated, that he should like to see if any of his comrade soldiers would recognise him in the mason’s clothes, and for this purpose he proceeded into the street, and has not since been heard of, having deserted in his disguise, taking with him 4s. 6d., which was in the mason’s coat! The ci (Levant soldier, excited by the fumes of the “ native” and his martial clothing, perambulated the streets, until the night picket most unceremoniously dragged him off to the guardhouse, where he remained until the morning, when the whole circumstance was immediately revealed, the corporal of the guard being surprised to see one of his comrade soldiers minus an eye (the mason being blind of one eye). The duped man was accordingly handed over to the civil power, aud he now remains in durance vile, to make amends to the offended laws of his country, for being made the dupe of another ! —and that, too, of an entire stranger.

Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. —On Thursday afternoon, about four o’clock, a sensation was produced along Princes-street by the appearance of the train of six carts linked together,- and laden with the immense rope manufactured by Messrs. Haggie, Gateside, for the tunnel near the Glasgow terminus of the railway. The rope was laid in longitudinal coils along the range of carts—it seemed to be about inches in diameter, and of very strong texture. The rope is upwards of three miles long, and weighs 15 tons, being 5 tons heavier than any line ever manufactured before. On the way up Leith-walk and Leith-street, nine horses were required to drag this ponderous load, but on reaching the level ground of Princes-street three of them were dispensed with, and the remaining six proceeded at a brisk’pace with their burden to the terminus of the railway. • TaiK Gaol Haunted.— On the night of Friday last, the much-to-be-envied individual occupants of those desirable apartments were suddenly aroused from their slumbers by the tremendous and unearthly-like bawling and B creaming in the upper cell of the old tower, occupied by the younger of the two lads conicted at the last Inverness assizes of issuing

base coin. The gaoler, who always sleeps id the tower, having entered his cell to ascertain the cause of so untimely a disturbance, found the culprit seated on the base of the window, cringed as round as a ball, and in a most pitiable state of fright. On . questioning him,'he said that, being' Wide awake, and lying in his bed, he distinctly saw a stout figure walking to and fro the length of the cell, at each time passing his bed, and the moon at the time shining directly in at the window, (the bed being opposite) caused him to see the object the plainer; for in passing the window it always darkened the rays of the moon, expressing itself at intervals thus “Do it, do it, do it.” His entreaties and appeals to the gaoler to have him removed, were couched in such heart-rending strains, that he was obliged to put him into another cell where two others were confined and slept together; but so frightened was he, that nothing would quiet him until he got between the two in bed, where his whole body shook all night like an aspen leaf, nor slept he any. He always had a most verocious appetite, but since the above scene he has eaten little or nothing. . This should act as a warning to all those in Ross-shire who are inclined to commit suck acts as might make them inmates of the Tain gaol, for they are not only watched and guarded by natural, but, it would appear, by supernatural gaolers. Not Exactly. —“Do you draw at all?”— > “ Not exactly ; but I have a blister that does.” “Do you owe much ?”—“ Not exactly ; but I live within the bills of mortality.”—“ Have you ever been among the blacks of Africa ?” “ Not exactly ; but I’ve been among the moors' in Scotland.”

Investigation. —There is no boundary to the human investigation but the capacity of the human mind, Whatever the faculties enable it to understand, it ought to examine without any restraint on the feedom of its enquiry, and with no other limit as to its extent than that which its great Author has fixed, by witholding from it the power to proceed further. When the means of conducting the human understanding till its highest perfection shall- have become generally understood, this freedom of inquiry will not only be universally allowed, but early and anxiously inculcated as a duty of primary and essential obligation;

The O’Connell Compensation. The coarseness of those who make a trade of assailing the liberator of his countrymen having been adopted by an English nobleman —a catholic, too, Lord Shrewsbury—Mr. O’Connell, in his admirable and unanswerable reply‘to the abuse of that noble lord, has the fdfibWrftg'beautiful, just, and appropriate passage, in reference .to the compensation which Ireland annually pays her champion for his unexampled services:— “I will not consent that my claim to ‘the rent’ should be misunderstood. That claim may be rejected ; but it is understood in Ireland ; and it shall not be mis-stated any where without refutation. My claim is this. For more than twenty years before emancipation, the burden of the cause was thrown upon me. I had to arrange the meetings—to prepare the resolutions —to furnish replies to the correspondence —to examine the case of each person complaining of practical grievances—to rouse the torpid; —to animate the lukewarm—to control the violent and inflammatory to avoid the shoals and breakers of the law—to guard against multiplied treachery—and at all times to oppose, at every peril, the powerful and multitudinous enemies to the cause. To descend to particulars :—At a period when my minutes counted by the guinea; when my emoluments were limited only by the extent of my physical and waking powers; when my meals were shortened to the narrowest space, and my sleep restricted to the earliest hour before dawn; at that period, and for more than twenty years, there was no day that I did not devote from one to two hours, often much more, to the working out of the catholic cause; and that without receiving or allowing the offer of any remuneration, even for the personal expenditure incurred in the agitation of the,cause itself. For four years I bore the entire expenses of catholic agitation without receiving the contributions of others to a greater amount than 74/. in the whole. Who shall repay me for the years of my buoyant youth and cheerful manhood ? Who shall repay me for the lost opportunities of acquiring professional celebrity, or the wealth which such distinctions would ensure ? Other honours I could not then enjoy. Emancipation came. You admit that it was I who brought it about. The year before emancipation, though wearing a stuff gown, and belonging to the outer bar, my professional emoluments exceeded 8,0001. —an amount never before realised in Ireland, in the same space of time, by an outer barrister. Had I adhered to my profession, I must soon have been called within the bar, and obtained the precedency of a silk gown. The severity of my labour would have been at once much mitigated, whilst the emoluments would have been considerably increased. I could, have done a much greater variety of business with less toil, and my professional income must have necessarily been augmented by probably one half. If I had abandoned politics, even the honours of my profession, and its highest stations, lay fairly before me. But I dreamed a day-dream

• —was it a dream ?—that Ireland still wanted me ; that although the catholic aristocracy and gentry of Ireland had obtained most valuable advantages from emancipation, yet the benefits of good government had not reached the great mass of the Irish people, and could not reach them, unless the 1 union should be either made a reality, or unless that hideous measure should be abrogated. I did not hesitate as to my course. My former success gave me personal advantages which no other man could easily procure. I flung away the profession—l gave its emoluments to the winds—l closed the vista of its honours and dignities—l embraced the cause of my country; and—come weal or come woe—l have made a choice at which I have never repined—nor ever shall repent. An event occurred which I could not have foreseen. Once more, high professional promotion was placed within my reach. The office of lord chief baron of the exchequer became vacant; I was offered it. Or, had I preferred the office of the master of the rolls, the alteraative was proposed to me. It was a tempting offer. Its value was enhanced by the manner in which it was made, and pre-eminently so by the person through whom it was made—the best Englishman that Ireland ever saw—the Marquis of Normanby. But I dreamed again a daydream—was it a dream ?—and I refused the offer. And here am I now taunted, even by you, with mean and sordid motives. Ido not think I am guilty of the least vanity, when I

assert that no man ever made greater sacrifices to what he deemed the cause of his country, than I have done. I care not how I may be ridiculed or maligned. I feel the proud consciousness that no public man has made more, greater, or more ready sacrifices. Still there lingers behind one source of vexation and sorrow ; one evil, perhaps greater than all the rest; one claim, I believe, higher than any other upon the gratitude of my countrymen. It consists in the bitter, the virulent, the mercenary, and therefore the more envenomed hostility towards me, which my love for Ireland and for liberty has provoked. What taunts, what reproaches, what calumnies, have I not sustained ? what modes of abuse ? what vituperation, what slander have been exhausted against me ? what vials of bitterness have been poured on my head ? what coarseness of language has not been used, abused, and worn out in assailing me ? what derogatory appellation has been spared ? what treasures of malevolence have been expended? what follies have not been imputed ? in fact, what crimes have I not been charged with ? Ido not believe that I ever bad in private life an enemy. I know that I had and have many, very many, warm, cordial, affectionate, attached friends. Yet here I stand, beyond controversy, the most and the best abused man in the universal world! And, to cap the climax of calumny, yon come with a lath at your side instead of the sword of a Talbot, and you throw Peel’s scurrility along with your own, into my cup of bitterness. All this have I done and suffered for Ireland. And let her be grateful or ungrateful—solvent or insolvent—he who insults me for taking her pay wants the vulgar elements of morality which teach that the labourer <s worthy of his hire; he wants the higher sensations Gf the soul, which enable one to perceive that there are services which bear no comparison with money, and can never be recompensed by pecuniary rewards, Yes : I am—l .'■ay it proudly—l am the hired servant of Ireland, and I glory in my servitude.”— From the Freeman's Journal.