ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 103, 25 July 1843, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

(From the Edinburgh Weekly Register.) Commercial Treaty with Brazil. —From a state paper published by the Standard, we learn that the Brazilian Government has agreed to accept the British understanding of the terms of the existing treaty, which makes it binding till November 1844 ; but declines to accede to another treaty, at least before the expiration of the present. This determination had been come to before the arrival of our special ambassador, Mr! Ellis. •- A letter from Berlin, in the Journal du Frankfort, states that the marriage of the PrinceRoval of Hanover with the Princess Marie of Allenburg is to be solemnised on the 7th ot February'. About the middle of last February there was a grand ceremony at Venice, called the solemn inauguration of the railroad between Venice and Padua. The Patriarch, surrounded by all the first authorities, gave his benediction, and then delivered a very violent speech against such innovations as railroad travelling, which he thought would facilitate the introduction of books and opinions ! Remarkable Tenacity of Life. —The State Gazette of Stockholm contains a long account of a singular fact which occurred at Elfsburgs-Lelm in April last. A poor tailor, tavelling in that part of Sweden, accidentally fell into a coal-pit, and remained there for the space of thirty-nine days without food. At the date of the 27th of December he was stated to be doing well, though in a very feeble state. Extraordinary Story. —On Tuesday last, as two sawyers in the employ of P. Chaloner, Sons, & Co., ship-builders, Baffin Street, were employed in cross-cutting the limb of an oaktree, they came to what they considered a flaw in the wood, which, on examination, turned out to be a bird’s nest, containing six young birds, both in a state of perfect preservation at the time, though a little damaged, subsequently, by careless handling. The young birds are nearly full fledged, and must have been nearly ready for flight, when the closing up of the entrance to the nest entombed them alive. The exclusion of the atmospheric air must have been very sudden, for the bodies apparently retain all their juices, and exhibit not the least, symptom of decomposition. The hole in which the nest was built was six inches long by three inches wide, and it was enclosed in two inches of solid wood at the side nearest the surface. The birds, we believe, are of the ox-eyed titmouse species. We have transmitted to the Royal Institution the nest and its contents.

Sir Charles Metcalfe has been appointed successor to Sir Charles Ragot in the Government of Canada. His judicious conduct in Jamaica, where he managed to reconcile most discordant elements, commended itself to men of all parties ; let us hope that he will be equally successful in Canada.