ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 109, 15 August 1846, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Mareiage in High Life. — The marriage of the Hon. Miss Mary Constantia Clifford, second daughter of Lord Clifford of Ugbrooke, to William Vavasour, third son of Sir Edward Vavasour of Hazlewood Hall, Tadcaster, took place on Monday, Jan. 19, in the Catholic Chapel attached to Allerton Park, near Green Hamraerton, Yorkshire, the seat of Lord Stourton, whose lady is aunt to the bride's mother. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. J. Bridge (S. J.) in the presence of the contracting parties, and of others of the neighbouring gentry. The bride was given away by Lord Clifford, and after the ceremony they left foi Harrowgate to pass the honeymoon. A ball and supper at the park concluded the festivities of the wedding-day. — Western Times.

The Order of the Garter. — Siace Sir Robert Peel came into office no less than eight garters have been placed in his gift, which have been conferred on the Duke of Buckingham, the Duke of Beaufort, the Marquis of Salisbury, Earl Talbot, the Earl of Powis, Earl de Grey, the Marquis of Abercorn, and the Marquis of Hertford. — Glasgow Herald.

Alterations in the Naval Uniform. — In the alterations of the naval uniform paymasters and pursers are to have two epaulettes instead of one, as at present, as well as the masters and surgeons. — Ib. The Court of Directors of the East India Company have presented Mr. Waghorn with the sum of £300 in consideration of his zealous and useful services, and of the expenses which he has incurred in the establishment and during the progress of steam communication between Great Britain and India. The South Nottinghamshire election concluded on the 25th Feb., in the triumph of Mr. Hildyard (Protectionist) over I<ord I4nr coin, by a majority of about 6&0»

The Oregon question is still unsettled. On the 16th March, the Earl of Clarendon moved for copies of such portions of the correspon-. dence with Mr. Pakenham, our minister at Washington, relative to this subject, as Lord Aberdeen might think it consistent with his public duty to furnish. The Earl of Aberdeen, in reply, admitted that h was natural for the public to feel anxious /or authentic information on this important topic, but declined, upon the grounds of inexpediency, to produce the correspondence; he assured the house, however, that he entertained sanguine hopes of the satisfactory adjustmeut of the dispute ; that though it was possible that these hopes might prove delusory, yet, the Government were determined on a forbearing, conciliating, and moderate course, in as far as such policy could be pursued without any sacrifice of honour, or the interests of the country. The New York Express, however, states that a committee of naval gentlemen had been making a tour of examination, to enquire into the condition of the steam navy ; and it is said that their report is very unfavourable. So far as war steamers gq, there were none fit to be named as really effective vessels. Jn the management of the various Mexican mining companies great reductions of expenditure are taking place, and they are likely to obtain further benefit by a reduction in the price of quicksilver. Hitherto that indispensable article could only be procured from Spain, but the quicksilver mine discovered at Guadalaxara a short time back is making a very favourable progress, and some sanguine persons even anticipate that the time is not far distant when Mexico may cease to depend for a supply of it upon the mothercountry.

News for Port-Wine Drinkers. — The total shipments of Port wines from Oporto during the past year, as appears by the Customhouse return just received, amounted to 80,789 pipes ; of which were exported to Great Britain, Jersey, and Guernsey, 21,872 pipes ; to Brazil, 3,465 ; to the United States, 2,671 ; to Hamburgh, 775 ; to France, 10 ; to other ports, 1,996 pipes. From the Australian, July 10, 1846. The tariff bill was still in the Commons. We had understood the corn part was to be detached and debated separately, and sent up to the Lords for better dispatch, in order that the ports might be opened for Indian corn or maize. It seems this is not the case. Government, however, are importing maize on their own account, for the use of Ireland. The protectionists contest the new tariff in all and every article. The greatest stand was made on timber. But every thing had been carried by good majorities, up to the 24th of March. Opposition seemed quite useless. But the greater battle is still to be fought in the Lords. There is danger there still. The Americans seem to be gradually coming to their senses on the Oregon question. Still there is danger. If war takes place, it will be as popular a one as England ever undertook ; and privateering (alias buccaneering) will be the order of the day by both nations. It will be a deadly and a plundering feud on the high seas. An officer for the Carysfort, man-of-war, was not appointed until the 21st March. We need not therefore expect the new Governor for a few days. Mr. F. Dillon Bell had been approved of by the Queen as Prussian Consul at New Zealand. The 24th regiment, formerly under orders for this colony, had been ordered to India ; and the remainder of the 65th regiment, consisting of 600 men, was to be sent out to Sydney immediately. Poland seems to be in a dreadful state from the discovery of their plot against the three Powers. Russia, Austria, and Prussia, are all hunting down the disaffected. Three thousand of these insurgents have fled to the Carpathian mountains, between Gallioia and Hungary. The peasantry of and about Crac jw were destroying the insurgent Poles under circumstances of great barbarity.

An Italian Bandit. — " GaetanoYardarelli was a native of Calabria,, and one of the earliest members of the revolutionary society of the Carbonari. When Murat, after for some time favouring that society, began to persecute it, Vardarelli fled to Sicily, and took service under King Ferdinand. He was then twenty six years years of age, possessing the muscles and courage of a lion, the agility of a chamois, the eye of an eagle. Such a recruit was not to be despised, and he was made sergeant in the Sicilian guards. On Ferdinand's restoration in 1815, he followed him to Naples : but finding he was not likely ever to rise above a very subordinate grade, he became disgusted with the service, deserted, and took refuge in the mountains of Calabria, There two of his brothers, and some thirty brigands and outlaws, assembled around him and elected him their chief, with light of life and death over them. He had been a slave in the town ; he found himself a king in the mountains. " Proceeding according to the old formula

observed by banditti chiefs both in Calabria and in melodramas, Vardarelli proclaimed himself redresser general of wrongs and grievances, and acted up to his profession by robbing the rich and assisting the poor. The consequence was, that he soon became exceedingly dreaded by the former, and exceedingly popular among the latter class ; and at last his exploits reached the ears of King Ferdinand himself, who was highly indignant at such goings on, and gave orders that the bandit should immediately be hong. But there are three things necessary to hang a man — a rope, a gallows, and the man himself. In this instance, the firsr two were easily found, but the third was unfortunately wanting. Gendarmes and soldiers were sent after Vardarelli, but the latter was too cunning for them all, and slipped through their fingers at every turn. His success in eluding pursuit increased his reputation, and recruits flocked to his standard. His band soon doubled its numbers, and its leader became a iormidable and important person, which of course was an additional reason for the authorities to wish to capture him. A price was set on his head, large bodies of troops sent in search of him, but all in vain. One day the Prince of Leperano, Colonel Calcedonio, Major Delponte, with a dozen other officers, and a score of attendants, were hunting in a forest a few leagues from Bari, when the cry of ' Vardarelli /' was suddenly heard. The party took to flight with the utmost precipitation, and all escaped except Major Delponte, who was one of the bravest, but, at the same time, one of the poorest, officers of the whole army. When he was told that he must pay a thousand ducats for his ransom, he only laughed, and asked wherebewasto get such a sum. Vardarelli then threatened to shoot him if it was not forthcoming on a certain day. The Major replied that it was only" losing time to wait ; and that if he had a piece of advice to give his captor, it was to shoot him at once. The bandit at first felt inclined to do so ; but he reflected that ihe less Delponte cared about his life, the more ought Ferdinand to value it. He was right in his calculations ; for no sooner did I the king learn that his brave Major was in the hands of the banditti, than he ordered the ransom to be paid out of his privy purse, and the Major recovered his freedom. ; "But Ferdinand had sworn the extermination of the banditti with whom he was thus ( bliged to treat as from one potentate to another. A certain Colonel, whose name I forget, and who had heard this vow, pledged himself, if a battalion were put under his command, to bring in Vardarelli, bis two brothers, and the sixty men composing Tiis troop, bound hand and foot, and place them in the dungeons of the Vicaria.. The offer was too good to be refused ; the minister of war put five hundred men at the disposal of the Colonel, who started with them at once in pursuit of the outlaw. The latter was soon informed by his spies of this fresh expedition, and he also made a vow, to the effect that be would cure his pursuer, once and for all, of any disposition to interfere with the Vardarelli. " He began by leading the poor colonel such a dance over hill and dale, that the unfortunate officer and his men were worn out with fatigue ; then, v/hen he saw them in the state that he wished, he caused some false intelligence to be conveyed to them at two o'clock in the morning. The colonel fell into the snare, and started immediately to surprise Vardarelli, whom he was assured was in a little village at the further extremity of a narrow pass, through which only four men could pass abreast. He mads such haste that he marched four leagues in two hours, and at daybreak found himself at the entrance of the pass, which, however, seemed so particularly well adapted for an ambuscade, that he halted his battalion, and sent on twenty men to reconnoitre. In a quarter of an hour the men returned. They had not met a single living thing. The colonel hesitated no longer, and entered the defile ; but, on reaching a spot about halfxay through it, where the road wideued out into a sort of platform surrounded by high* rocks and steep - precipices, a shout was suddenly heard, proceeding apparently from the clouds, and the poor colonel looking up, saw the summits of the rocks covered with brigands, who levelled their rifles at him and his soldiers. Nevertheless he began forming up his men as well as the nature of the ground would permit, when Vardarelli hi raserf appeared upon a projecting crag. *■ Down with your arms t or you are dead men V he shouted in a voice of thunder. The bandits repeated his summons, and the echoes repeated their voices, so that the troops, who had not made the same vow as their colonel, and who thought themselve surrounded by greatly superior numbers, cried out for quarter, in spite of the entreaties and menaces* of their unfortunate commander. Then Vardarelli, without leaving his position, ordered them to pile their arms, and march to two different places which he pointed out to them. They obeyed ; and Vardarelli, leaving twenty of his men in their ambush, came down with the remainder, who immediately proc*»

ded to render the Neapolitan muskets useless {for the moment at least) by the same 1 process which Gulliver employed to extinguish the conflagration of the palace of Lillipufc. " The news of this affair put the king in very bad humour for the first twenty-four hours ; after which time, however, the love of a joke overcoming his anger, he laughed heartily, and told the story to every one he saw ; and as there are always lots of listeners when a king narrates, three years -elapsed feefore the poor colonel ventured to show his face at Naples and encounter the ridicule of the court."- — Dumas' Italy.

•"r. ax : N. Z. per ton, unpacked 10 0 0 .. 10 IST )ii. : black, in casks, per ton 15 10 0 .. 16 0 I'perm : do. do 55 0 0.- 60 0 )tt Butts': N. Z., per imperial ton .... 0 0 0. . 3 5 r-ra*EK.: Sawn plank, pei? per 100 feet .... 0 6 0.. 08 Scantling do 0 0 0. . 0 6 Furniture wood'do 015 0 .. 110 Jtaves: N. Z. per 1200 2 0 0 .. 2 10 Shingles: N.Z. per 1000 0 6 0 .. 0 8 Vhalbbone : per ton . . 135 0 0 ..140 0 Finners 0 0 0 .. 40 0 Vheat: per bushel.... 0 6 9 .. 0 7 /foot: Nl.N 1 . Z. per 1b. . . 0 010 . . 0 1 Do. Lambs' 0 0 10.. 0 1 0 0 Q 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2