ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 101, 18 July 1846, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

For some days past, considerable excitement has existed in the neighbourhood of the Stock and Royal Exchanges, by a report that several aldermen engaged in railway speculations had been served with writs for their liabilities. One alderman, it is said, has received 175 of the epistles of " Johu Doe and Richard Roe ;" another has had sixty-five ; and a third thirty-three. The rumour goes that several civic worthies have winged their way to more warm and more sunny climes, and that there are others ready for an early flight. More, however, will be known when the judges of the Central Criminal Court require the attendance of the City authorities. — Juhn Bull.

Gladstone on Colonial Railways. — The' most important business that has been transacted by Mr. Gladstone, since his accession to office, relates to colonial railways. On the 16th instant a number of gentlemen connected with railway projects for the colonies waited upon Mr. Gladstone, by invitation, to state their views respecting the best method of regulating railway legislation in the colonies, and to learn the intentions of Government on that head. The same parties were assembled, our readers will recollect by Lord Stanley for a similar purpose, on the Ist of December last. Or, more properly speaking, they were assembled to hear his lordship prescribe regulations for all colonial railways. These regulations were exceedingly objectionable ; and accordingly strong representations against them were made by several gentlemen, apparently with little effect. On Friday last, Mr. Gladstone, by a few questions, elicited the opinions of the^deputations, and then intimated his own views. He did not think it expedient, he said, to attempt to dictate regulations to so many and so various countries, as, what might be easily practicable and advantageous in one, might be the reverse in another. At the same time, he considered it his duty to impart to the Legislature of each colony the benefit of this country's experience. He, therefore, proposed to address lo the Governors of all the colonies a circular despatch, containing recommendatory suggestions. The draft of this despatch Mr. Gladstone read to bis visitors ; it is a lucid communication, evincing a comprehensive acquaintance with the state of the colonies, and appears well calculated to serve as a guide to correct legislation. Its leading suggestions are as follows : — That ten per cent, shall be paid up on the capital to be employed previously to any colonial railway bill receiving the royal assent in this country ; that provision shall be made for the conveyance of the royal mails, and for the transit of troops, police, ordnance stores, &c. ; that where electric telegraphs are put up, ?he management of them shall be under the control of Government ; that a revision of tolls shall be made periodically on the basis of a seven years' average and fifteeu per cent, maximum profit ; that the State shall have the option of purchasing, atthepnd of twentyfive years of the current receipts of the company. Some other clauses relate to the inspection of accounts, provision for the public safety, and the notices required to be given in the colony. Mr. Gladstone evinced anxiety to impress on the minds of the deputations that it was his desire to give the freest scope to individual enterprise, and to leave matters, as much as possible, between the capitalists of this country and the Legislatures of the colonies. At the close of the conference, Sir John Rae Reid, on behalf of all the gentlemen present, expressed his hearty concurrence in the views of the Colonial Minister. These were not mere words of compliment. The assent given by the deputations was sincere, cordial, and unreserved. The contrast was remarkable, as 'it was gratifying, between Downing Street on the 16th instant, and Downing Street on the Ist of December, 1845.— Colonial Gazette, Jan. 21. The subjoined notification has been stuck up in all the principal churches in Paris :—: — " A.t the request of the Roman Catholic bishops of England, expressed to the Archbishop of Paris by the Bishop of Melipotamus (Dr. Wiseman), prayers will be offered up to God during eight days, reckoning from the present day, on the occasion of the immaculate conception of the blessed Virgin Mary, for the entire return of the English nation to the Catholic, apostolic, and Roman faith." On the night of the 27th January, when the Premier divulged his new tariff, the House of Commons was crammed with members ; and the spare seats with peers, among whom was Prince Albert and the Duke of Cambridge. M. Guizot has now a great majority in the Chamber of Paris, and peace is not likely to be disturbed between France and England.

Cromwell in Ireland. — Bat certainly, at lowest, here is a set of military despatches of the most unexampled nature ; Most rough, unkempt ; shaggy as the Numidian lion. A style rugged as crags : coars, drossy : yet with a meaning in it, an energy, a depth ; pouring on like a fire torrent ; perennial fire of it visible athwart all drosses and defacements : not uninteresting to see ! This man has come into distracted Ireland with a God's Truth in the heart of him, though an unexpected one : the first such man they have seen for a great while indeed. He carries Acts of Parliament, Laws of Earth and Heaven, in one hand ; drawn sword in the other. He addresses the bewildered Irish populations, the black ravening coil of sanguinary blustering individuals at Tredah and elsewhere : " Sanguinary blustering individuals, whose word is grown worthless as the barking of dogs ; whose very thought is false, representing no fact but the contrary of fact — behold, I am come to speak and to do the truth among you. Here are Acts of Parliament, methods of regulation and veracity, emblems the nearest we poor Puritans could make them of God's Law Book, to which it is and shall be our perpetual effort to make them correspond nearer and nearer. Obey them, help us to perfect them, be peaceable and true under them, it shall he well with you. Refuse to obey them, I will not let you continue living ! As articulate speaking veracious orderly men, not as a blustering murderous kennel of 'dogs run rabid, shall you continue in this Earth. Choose!" — They chose to disbelieve him ; could not understand that he, more than the others, meant any truth or justice to them. They i ejected his summons at Tredah ; he stormed the place ; and according to his promise, put every man of the garrison to death. His own soldiers are forbidden to plunder, by paper proclamation; and in ropes of authentic hemp they are hanged when they do it. To Wexford garrison the like terms as at Tredah ; and, failing these, the like storm. Here is a man whose word represents a thing ! Not bluster this, and false jargon scattering itself to the winds ; what this man speaks out of him comes to pass as a fact ; speech with this^mau is accurately prophetic of deed. This is the first King's face poor Ireland ever saw ; the first Friend's face, little as it recognises him — poor Ireland ! Carljlc's Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell. A tunnel, two miles long, is about being proposed to Parliament by a company, commencing at Hampstead and terminating at the site of the Fleet-prison, where it is to emerge on the level of that site. No houses need be purchased until the tunnel approaches the surface so near Fleet-market as to render the foundation of the houses above dangerous. Its greatest depth will be about ninety feet below the surface.

Cape of Good Hope. — During its occupation as a Dutch colony, it had twenty-eight governors, and since it has been under British rule, it had had eighteen. By this it will be perceived, that the changes in its administration have been frequent, and what might naturally be expected to ollow, the policy and characters of its governors have been vacillating. It has generally been ruled very much after the ideas of those, who presided for the time being. The government is nominally vested in the Governor, and Executive and Legislative Council, who are all appointed by the Crown, or with its approbation and consent. Under this system of government, it has been the misfortune of the Cape colony to be placed ; and the advantages it has p <ssessed under some, have been counterbalanced by others, and not unfrequently the salutary regu'ations rnavle by one, have without any reason, in the minds of the colonists, been annulled or set aside by others ; which of course has tended to foment discord, and produce a feeling of opposition to British rule ; this has prevented the advancement of the colony, and retarded its usefulness, by giving license to crime, that otherwise would not have existed. Of late years, however, although the Government still rema-.ns the same yet they have been more fortunate in the individuals who have presided over it. In regarding the British colonial system, it appears remarkable that the British nation, generally so mindful of political rights, should place it in the power of distant Governors, to rule their colonists with almost despotic sway, and their growth and rise to be at the option of any one individual, who may arbitrarily crush or paralyze the efforts of industry, and the development of resources. Many cf the inhabitants of the Cape complain of this policy, but look forward to the adoption, in the course of time, of an elective Legislative body, which will give them some share in the government, and prevent not only misrule, but undue taxation, and a misapplication of its funds in the various improvements which government may authorize. — Wilkes' Exploring Expedition, 1842. A bill was about to be introduced to take off the remaining restrictions on the religion of the Roman Catholics. Friari, monks, &c^

will soon be seen in the streets of the towns of England, as in Paris, Madrid, and Lisbon, after this bill has passed. Religions hauses, however, are to be registered, and visited by certain authorities. No bills relating to Ecclesiastical Courts will be introduced in the present session. Courts of Requests, to adjudicate all sums of £20 and under, are to be constituted throughout England. Mess. G. and W. Ormond, of Bond-street, have received orders to supply 45,000 sets of accoutrements to the Board of Ordnance, for the use of the militia. The older is to be completed without, delay.

First Exhibition of the Mauritiu Agricultural and Horticultural Society. — The greatest rarity displayed here was a plate of beautiful Nectarines, the first we have ever seen in the colony, grown by Mr. Huguenin of Plaines Wilhems. This de* - licious fruit can evidently be cultivated with success here ; ami Mr. Huguenin deceives great credit for having introduced it, atfd\still more for his liberality in distributing cuttings of it. Mr. Newmen's Queen's Pine Apples were, as might have been expected, very beautiful, and obtained the first prize ; the second for this fruit was awarded to an ex-apprentice Alexis Rose, who was also successful in obtaining the first prize for cucumbers. We anticipate excellent effects from this circumstance among that important part of our population ; and we doubt not that immense improvement will take place in their modes of culture under such a stimulus. 'The prize for water melons. was ohtairied by an Indian ; and Mr. Bickagea produced a Pomegranate of such striking beauty and excellence, that a prize was awarded to it, though not named in the programme as an object of competition. We believe that no individval that took part in the proceedings of this memorable day, for such it certainly is, felt any other sentiment than that of solid satisfaction. The objects of the institution are not only so perfectly unobjectionable, but so decidedly praiseworthy, than even ascetics and utilitarians could find no fault. Having said this much on the past, we beg leive to throw out a few hints respecting the future, in addition to those of last week. In the first place, recurring to an article we wrote some months since, we would strongly recommend prizes to such cottagers as kept their houses and gardens in the best order, as well as those who reared the best stock. Many of our cottagers di>play a considerable degree of taste in this respect, and possess many of the comforts of civilized life. The cleanliness and order of many of the dwellings of the ex-appren-tices, would well bear comparison with that of the most prosperous agricultural labourers in England. The change which has taken place in this respect within the last ten years, without any such fostering influence as this society will afford, leads us to anticipate the most pleasing results from the efforts of its members. We know many who would gladly have gone to this exhibition, but feared they would" be deemed intrusive among the society they expected to meet in such a place. Now we think that if a part of our magnificent bazaar were appropriated to these displays, and a band in attendance, thousands would gladly pay for admission, and thus materially aid the fund*s of the institution, besides extending the emulation it is calculated to excite. We know a town not containing one third the population or wealth of Tort Louis, where from thirty to fifty pounds are raised quarterly in this way, at exhibitions of this sort. We are well aware that the bazaar is rented by those who sell there ; but we do not think auy of the venders would object to yield their places for a day for such an object ; especially as the chief part of the business there is over before the place would be required for the exhibition. We once more repeat, that the promoters of this institution have our fervent gratitude for their philanthropic efforts, and trust that all their expectations of improvement both in the producers and the produce will be- more than realised. — Watchman.

Statue of Her Majesty at the Royal Exchange. — On Tuesday the colossal statue of her Majesty, which hSs lately been placed in the centre of the Royal Exchange, was- divested of its coverings. The statue is executed by Lough, the eminent .sculptor, and is formed out of one solid block of white marble, upwards of nine feet in height. At three o'clock the members of the Gresham Com--mittee walked from Mercers' Hall to the Royal Exchange, and witnessed the removal of the holland wrappers that had before hidden the statue from public view. When the cloths were taken down, loud and continued cheers resounded from those who had. assembled. The front of the statue faces the great western entrance, and it is generally considered an excellent colossal representation of her Majesty in person.

Largbst Factobt Building in v *hbWorld. — The central part of the Portsmouth (American) steam, factory, which is 204 feet long, is now two-thirda up, and

should the weather continue favourable, will be covered before Christmas* The eastern* wing, of 150 feet, will be built in the spring, and the western wing, of 150 feet, will probably be built in (he course of next year. The centre part is to be six storeys high, the wings five storeys. Height of the lower storey 13 feet, of the -other storeys 12 feet. The length of the front will be 504 feet, or about a tenth of a mile. There will be about four acres of Mooring in the Portsmouth factory. Number of spindles, 50,000 ; numbeif of operatives from 1,200 to 1,500. In the rear two parallel buildings, two storeys high, will he extended 100' feet" Daclc from the junction of the main building with the wings ; and between those buildings, 50 feet from the main structure, the boiler house is to be erected. The foundation of the chimney, which is to he 140 feet high, is laid, and is in progress of erection. A gentleman who has been travelling the last year in pursuit of information 'respecting manufacturing establishments, and who has visited more than a thousand factories, informs us that the largest factory building he has seen or heard of is at Manchester •in this State, which is 440 feet in length. There is no factory in England to compare with it for size.— -Portsmouth Journal.

Association of Ideas. — A Stag, dining near Capel Court, made a strange-mistake the other day, which only proves that whatever is uppermost in the .mind is sure to. come out. He wanted some potatoes ; but unwittingly cried out, " Here, Mary, bring me a plate of mashed railways." — Punch.

Monstrosities of 1782. — At no period of the world was anything more absurd in bead-dress worn than at this time. The body of the towering erection was formed of tow, over which the hair was turned, and false hair added in great curls, bobs, and ties, powdered to profusion, then hung all over with vulgarly large rows of pearls or glass beads, fit only to decorate a chandelier ; flowers as obtrusive -were stuck above this heap of<finery, which was surmounted by broad silken bands or great ostrich feathers, until the head-dress of a lady added three feet to her stature, and the male sex, to use the words of -the Spectator, "becamely suddenly dwarfed beside her." To effect this, much time and trouble were wasted, and great personal annoyance was suffered ; heads when properly dressed " kept for three weeks," as the barbers quietly phrased it ; that they would not really " keep" longer may be seen by the many recipes they give for the destruction of insects which bred in the flour and pomatum so liberally bestowed upon them. The description of " opening a lady's head" after a three weeks' dressing, given in the magazines of this period, it would be imagined, would have taught the ladies common sense ; but fashion could reconcile even the disgust that must have been felt by all. Constant headaches and illnesses were the result of this fancied ornamental decoration, and physicians and moralists told their. most alarming stories of its effects upon the health, but all was unheeded. — The Art Union. Very deplorable accounts are given in the London papers of destitution of multitudes in that clt/. Instances are mentioned of men and women, reduced to skeletons, -remaining in bed all day because they had no food. One case is given of a man in despair shaving* atjtempted to murder his brother and wife in order to relieve them from misery.; he -also attempted to hang himself, but, being prevented, he poisoned himself. The brother, who was seventeen years of age, was so stunted in his growth, and so poverty-stricken, that he appeared to be not more than twelve years old. "~He was such a picture of squalid misery as to horrify both .the coroner and jury." The poor wife stated that her deceased husband was an exceedingly sober, hard working, steady young man. Several cases had occurred of children dying, because their mothers (as the verdicts^ express it) " wanted the common necessaries of life ;" and it appeared, from a report of cases before the Lord Mayor, " that the streets were crowded with poor halfnaked children, who had no human being to guide them, many of whom were sent by their parents to beg or steal ; and others, without parents or friends, prowling about, disregarded by the officers of the Union, and, in fact, encouraged in the practices of poverty and vice by the depraved people with whom they necessarily come in contact."

Railways in Jamaica.—- <• On the 24th* Jfov. tbe railway from Kingston to Spanish town was opened to tbe public. Three days l previously a pleasure trip had been undertaken, when the Railway > Company invited the Earl of Elgin, the Governor, the Vice-ChahceTlof, tbe Speaker of the House of Assembly, whir the elite of the colony ; and 1 after an experimental journey, which was accomplished with , speed, secnrity, and entire freedom from any j untoward occurrence, the party sat down td i dejeuner, provided by the Railway Company at the Victoria Rooms. Great praise was awarded td the good service and gpod conduct of the negroes — men who not long since were emed incapajbl* of voluntary labour, but

who, working Side by side with their European brethren, had proved themselves deserving of their newly acquired rights, and gave assurance of their fitness in time to discharge the most important duties of society. Edward Riley, a London dustman, has been proved next of kin to Major-General Riley, who died lately at Madras, leaving property" to the amount of £50,000. He has treated his fellow workmen to a new suit 4>f clothes each, and means to give a grand entertainment to all the dustmen of London, at bis mansion in Argyle Square. Dr. PoUi, of Milan, known to the medical world by his remarkable researches on the blood, has just communicated to the Scientific Congress at Naples, a proceeding to render salt water drinkable by means of electricity. His Excellency Chevalier Bunsen, last week, paid a visit to the New Zealand House, for the purpose if inspecting the various articles of furniture made by M. Levein, of New Zealand woods, imported from the company's. settlements. His Excellency expressed himself highly pleased with the various specimens exhibited to him, and said it was his intention to give M. Levein instructions to prepare some furniture for his Majesty the King of Prussia.—Colonial Gazette, Nov. 15-

An Enlightened Duke.—The Duke of Buckingham appears determined to prevent those .railways to which he is opposed from completing the standing orders of the House l«y November 1846, as he has by November 1845. He has still lookers-out around his estates, and a stranger cannot go into Buck- i ingham but he is closely looked after to see if he is a railway surveyor. Saturday was market-day at Buckingham, and at it were many of the neighbouring farmers. Word was sent that some railway surveyors were ■ carrying on their avocations on the Duke's estate at Hillsden, and off went the farmers J from the market as fast as they could make horse flesh carry them. The Record recently contained an advertisement, calling the attention of '' Christian capitalists" to a scheme for the extension of evangelical truth, t requiring an outlay from £2000 to £5000,^iud insuring 15 to 20 per cent, interest on the sum expended! j

Singular Attachment. —At Corrie ofi Torridon, on the 4th inst., a Mr. Murdoch, a native of Ayr, died, after a residence of thirty years. On hearing of his demise, a number of relations came from Tolly to carry away his remains ; but the Highlanders came forth en masse, armed with bludgeons, exclaiming, "He has been one of ourselves these thirty years, and we will not part with him!" They accordingly took the body by force to Dornie, and afterwards interred it in tr eir own lonely churchyard of Annat. —lnverness Courier.

To Sweeten Butter. — It has been discovered by Arthur Trevelyan, Esq., of Wellington, whilst lately engaged in making some experiments, that 2^ drachms of carbonate of soda, added to 31b. of either fresh or salt butter possessing a disagreeable flavour, renders it perfectly sweet. Soda produces the same results when added to other culinary greases, as dripping, lard, &c.

The Kettle and the Cricket. — Mrs. Peerybingle going out into the raw twilight and clicking over the wet stones in a pair of pattens that worked innumerable rough im.pressions of the first proposition in Euclid all about the yard — Mrs. Peerybingle rilled the Kettle at the water butt. Presently returning, less the psttens.; and a good deal less, for they were tall and Mrs. Peerybingle was but short, she set the kettle on the fire. In doing which she lost her temper, or mislaid it for an instant-; for the water — being uncomlortably cold, and in that slippy, slushy, sleety sort of state wherein it seems to penetrate through every kind of substance, patten rings included — had laid hold of Mrs. Peerybingle's toes and even splashed her legs. And when we rather plume ourselves (with reason too) upon our legs, and keep ourselves particularly neat in point of stockings, we find this for the moment hard to bear. Besides, the Kettle was aggravating and obstinate. It wouldn't allow itself to be adjusted on the top bar — it wouldn't hear of accommodating itself kindly to the knobs of coal — it would lean forward with a drunken air, and dribble, a very idiot of a kettle, onthe hearth. It was quarrelsome, and hissed and spluttered morosely at , the fire. To sum up all, the lid, resisting Mrs. Peerybingls's fingers, first of all turned topsyturvy, and then, with an ingenious pertinacity j deserving of a better cause, dived sideways in — down to the Very bottom of the Kettle. And the hull of the Royal George has never made half the monstrous resistance to coming oat of the water which the lid of that Kettle employed against Mrs. Peerybingle before she got it up again. It looked sullen and pigheaded enough, even then ; carrying its handle with tri air of defiance, and cocking its spout partly and mockingly at Mrs. Peerybingle, as if it said, " I won't boil. Nothing shall induce me !" But Mrs. Peerybingle, with restored go"«d huaaour, dusted her chubby

little hands against each other, and sat down before the Kettle— laughing. Meantime, the jolly blaze uprose and fell, flashing and gleaming on the little Haymaker at the top of the Dutch clock, until one might have thought he stood stock-still 1 before the Moorish Palace, and nothing was in raotiou but the flame* He was on the move, howevftf, and Had his spasms, two to the second, all right and regular. But his sufferings when the clock was going to striks were frightful to behold ; and when a Cuckoo looked out of a trap-door in the Palace, and gave note six times, it shook him each time like a spectral voice — of like a something wiry plucking at his legs. * ♦ ♦ Now it was, you observe, that the Kettle began to spend the evening. Now it was, that the T£ettle^ growing mellow and musical, began to have irrepressible gurglings in the throat, and to indulge in short vocal snorts, which it checked in the bud, as if it hadn't quite made -tip its mind yet to be good company* Now k was, that after two or three such vain attempts to stifle its convivial sentiments, it threw off all moroseness, all reserve, and burst into a stream of song so cosy and hilarious, as never maudlin nightingale yet formed the least idea of. So plain, tooj Bless you, you might have understood it like a book — better than some books you and I «ould name, perhaps. With its warm breaih gushing forth in a light cloud which merrily and gracefully ascended a few feet, then hung about the chimney-corner as its own domestic Heaven, it trolled its song with that strong energy of cheerfulness, that its iron body hummed and stirred upon the | fire ; and the hd itself, the recently rebellious lid — such is the influence of a bright example — performed a sort of jig, and clattered like a deaf and dumb young cymbal that had never known the use of its twin brother. That this song of the Kettle's was a song of invitation and welcome to somebody out of doors ; to somebody at that moment coming on towards the snug small home and the crisp fire ; there j is no doubt whatever. Mrs. Peerybirigle knew i it perfectly, as she sat .musing, before the hearth. It's a dark night, sank the Kettle, and j the rotten leaves are lying by the way ; and I above, all is mist and darkness, and below, all is mire and clay ; and there's only one relief in all the sad and murky air ; and I don't know that it is one, for it's nothing but a glare, of deep, and .angry crimson, where the sun and wind together, set a hrand upon the clouds for being guilty of such weather ; and the widest open countiy is a long dull streak of black.; and there's hoar-frost on the finger post, and thaw upon the track ; and the ice it isn't water, and the water isn't free ; and you couldn't say that anything is what it ought to be; but he's coming, coming, coming? — And here* if you like, the Cricket did chime in ! with a Chirrup, Chirrup, Chirrup, of such magnitude, by way of chorus ; with a voice, so astoundingly disproportionate to its size, as compared with the Kettle ; (size ! you couldn't see it!) that if it had then and there burst j itself like an overcharged gun ; if it had fallen a victim on the spot, and chirruped its little body into fifty pieces; it would have seemed a natural and inevitable consequence, for which it had expressly laboured, The Kettle had had the last of its solo performance. It persevered with undiminished ardour ; but the Cricket took first fiddle and kept it. Good Heaven, how it chirped t Its shrill, sharp, piercing voice resounded through the house, and seemed to twinkle in the outer darkness like a Star. There -v/as an indescribable little i trill and tremble in it, at its loudest, which suggested its being carried off its legs, and made to leap again, by its own intense enthusiasm. Yet they went very well together, the > Cricket and the Kettle. The burden of the song was still the same; and louder, louder still, they sang it in their emulation. * * There was all the excitement of a race about it. Chirp, chirp, chirp i Cricket a mile ahead. Hum, hum, hum — m — m ! Kettle making play in the distance, like a top. Chirp, chirp, chirp! Cricket round the corner: Hum hum, hum — m — m ! Kettle sticking to him in his own way ; no idea of giving in. Chirp, chirp, chirp ! Cricket .going in to finish him. Hum, hum, hum — m — m ! Kettle not to be finished. Until at last they got so jumbled together, in the hurry-skurry, helter-skelter of the match, that whether the Kettle chirped add the Cricket hummed, or the Cricket chirped and the Kettle hummed, or they both chirped and both hummed, it would have taken a clearer head than your's or mine to have decided with anything like certainty. From the Cricket on the Hearth, by Chas. Dickens.