ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 169, 13 March 1847, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

At a public meeting of the inhabitants of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields it was resolved on the motion of Mr. Hall, churchwarden, to establish public baths and wash-houses in that parish. Dr. Bledow, one of the finest chess players in Europe, has recently died at Berlin. The European domestic cat, when introduced into India, seems endowed with the power of destroying snakes as she would have done mice at home ; no sooner does one make its appearance than she pounces upon ic. A shop has been set on fire at Norwich by the sun's kindling a quantity of luci.'er matches which were lying in the window. It is surmised that several fires of mysterious origin were caused by the same meaus. A convent, the inmates of which consist of ten or twelve sisters of charity, has recently been established in Queen-square, Bloomsbury. The dress of the sisters is entirely of black. Besides administering jeligious consolation, they dispense temporal necessities to the sick poor. The Grand Duke of Tuscany has approved of a company formed for the construction of a railway "from Leghorn to the Roman frontier, near Chiaroue. On Saturday, the 22nd August, it was publicly made known that on Monday a penny subscription would be opened to purchase the discharge from the 7thHussars, of Matthewson, the soldier who had been flogged for answering *' Holloa !" to the sergeant, and had given evidence of the flogging of poor White. On Monday at twelve o'clock, one hundred pounds had been subscribed, the surplus of which, after purchasing the discharge, was to be handed over to the man, whose continuance in the army was impossible after the way in which he had disclosed the facts to the Coroners's i arv - , .

Meadow Grass. — It is a common practice in some parts of England, but more particularly in Wiltshire, to rail off the meadow grass in spring for sheep, in the same .manner as is done with turnips ; enclosing them on such a portion of grass as they may finish in one day, leaving space for the lambs to get through and feed on the fresh grass. This is certainly a most laudable practice, as it makes the most of the grass, and manures the field equally and to great perfection. One acre of good grass in Wiltshire is considered sufficient to serve five hundred couple for one day. The Topic in depicting " Egypt as it is," shows that three-fourths of the exports of the Nile find their way to this country or to our colonies. Letters from Palermo state that the roads Sn many parts of Sicily are openly infested with brigands. Mohammed AH, according to the Topic, has, by his own admission, spont about five millions sterling in the attempt to establish manufactures in Egypt. For his buildings and machinery a Fr-ench company lately offered him— £l2,ooo. An advertisement for a contract to light Lisbon with gas has been issued by the Municipal Chamber. The oil-growers oppose this improvement as detrimental to their interests. The Dumfries Standard contains a very interestingmcount of dramatic performances by the inmates (lunatics) of the Crichton Institution. "The Railway King" was the piece represented. Ap annual average of about £330,000 has been collected on account of the Free Church of Scotland for the last three years. It is said that the Princess Royal of Denmark has contented to be divorced.

In the lowest districts of Manchester and Leeds out of 1000 children born 570 die before they attain their fifth year. The Universe says that 33,000 copies of the Scriptures have been sold by the colporteurs (hawkers) in France in the last three months. By the American laws, according to Frederick Douglas, there are 71 offences dooming a slave to death, for not one of which is a white man punishable. One hundred and eleven millions of people are directly subjected to the government monopoly of salt in the Ea; t Indies. The policemen oh the South-western railway frequently pick up partridges killed by flying against the wires of the electric telegraph. The Devonshire Chronicle says that for the old notice of " tea made and water boiled," in the neighbourhood of Tauuton, the genteel er spirit of the day has substituted, " tea and coffee accommodation." Some excavations have been made in Corfu, upon the site of the capital of the ancient Corcyra. The monuments found were believed to be contemporaneous with the Persian war. At the annual hop dinner at Canterbury, the duty was set at £220,000. It is stated that the weaving of Brussels carpets, coach lace, &c, hitherto only practicable by manual labour, can now be effected by power looms. In excavating for the Wakefield and Goole Railway a human skeleton 7ft. 6in. long was found near Snaith. There are in- Connecticut 137 cotton mills, 123 woollen mills, 37 paper mills, 323 coach and waggon factories, and 32 clock factories. The total number of omnibuses now traversing the streets of London is 1490, giving employment to veiy nearly 4000 hands. The earnings of these vehicles vary very much, on some roads being as high as £4 per day, and on others as low as £2 ; but taking the lowest average, we shall then find that there is spent in omnibus rides in and around tho metropolis, the large sum of £2980 per day, or £1,087,700 per annum. Persons can now be conveyed as great a distance for sixpence as would formerly cost five times the amount ; besides, the whole is so regulated, that there is a comfortable means of conveyance at all hours, from eight o'clock in the morning till twelve o'clock at night, to all parts of the metropolis, and for .miles beyond it in every direction. The following humourous anecdote of Mr. Baron Platt is related by the Somerset County Gazette : — " The worthy Baron travelled nearly all night, in order to be in Wells as early possible on the following morning. On reaching one of the inns on the road, finding that Boniface had retired to the arms of Morpheus or his better half, his lordship attacked the door with such vehemencj, that locks, bolts, and bars, flew back, and admittance was gained in a trice. Having fortified the inner man, his Lordship was proceeding from the room he occupied to his carriage, when he met ' mine host.' ' What have I to pay V he asked. * Oh, nothing, nothing,' was the answer ; 'we don't charge butlers when they bring their masters here.' The woithy Justice shook his sides with laughter, at the idea of her Majesty's representative being taken for a butler, and the sides of the generous host shook under very different emotions when he discovered that he had made so great a mistake."

Egyptian Justice. —An anecdote will illustrate the position in which the Copts, for example, are placed. Two or three years ago, a man belonging to that race appeared before Mohammed Ali to present to him the accounts of a certain farm: the receipts amounted to 15,000 piastres, at which his highness was pleased to express much pleasure. But when the other side came to be exhibited, and it turned out that the disbursements had been 20,000, anger succeeded to satisfaction. The pasha became furious, made no inquiries, instituted no examination, but, actuated solely by disappointment at not having so large a sum to receive as he expected, ordered the unfortunate man to be beaten under his window till he died. Two European consuls, I am sorry to say, were present, and made no remonstrance. It afterwards turned out that the man's accounts were perfectly correct. — 'lopic.

Very Good. — The Philadelphia United States Gazette says: "The Boston people have had an earthquake, and are naturally proud of it. Our brother of the New York Tribune is jealousf or the honour of New York, and is devising ways and means to get up an earthquake there. Let them quarrel it out, say we. Boston may quake, and New York may quake, but, after all, Philadelphia will be the Quaker city. "-^-Cincinnati Herald. The Royal Academy of Science of Berlin has elected as a corresponding member M. J. P. Secchi, a Jesuit of Rome. This is said to be the first instance of a Jesuit becoming a member of the Berlin Academy.

A Ship aground over the Thames Tunnel. — On the Bth September, the tide ran out so low in the Thames, that the Venezuela steam ship, bound to Havre, soon after leaving the St. Katherine Dock Steam-Pac-ket Wharf, being deeply laden with passengers and goods, grounded right over the tunnel, where she remained for two hours, when the tide flowed and she got under weigh again. Some alarm was felt for the safety of the tunnel, but not a brick was started, although the Venezuela, which is a very large ship, laid right over the tunnel, and no damage whatever was done to the works. The Marley Tunnel, on the South Devon Railway, near Ashburton, a part of the line now constructing, has partially fallen in, with fatal results. The brick-work being considered firm, the scaffolding of a portion of the tunnel was ordeied to be removed; while the workmen were engaged in taking away the supports, the arch cracked, and the structure to the extent of fifty yards fell in. The men were buried in the ruins ; and four were so much injured that they died in a few minutes after they were got out.

Japanese Uses for the Fan. — In Japan, where neither men or women wear hats, except as a protection against rain, a fan is to be seen in the hand or the girdle of every inhabitant. Soldiers and priests even are never without them. In that country, they serve a great many different purposes. Visitors receive the dainties offered them upon their fans ; the begger imploring charity, holds out his fan for the alms his prayers may obtain. According to Siebold, the fan here serves the dandy in lieu of a whalebone switch ; the pedagogue, instead of a ferule, for t|ie offending school-boy's knuckles ; and a fan, presented upon a peculiar kind of salver to the high born criminal, is said to be the form of announcing his death doom, his head being struck off at the same moment as he stretches it towards the fan. — Book of Costume, by a Lady of Rank.

Origin of the War between France and Algiers. — In relating the well-known incidents that gave rise to hostilities between France and the Dey of Algiers, Count St. Marie goes back to the remote cause, which, by bis account, was a lady. In the time of Napoleon, the Bey of Tunis had a favourite female slave, for whom he ordered, of an Algerine Jew, a costly and magnificent headdress. The Jew, unable to get it manufacture 1 in the country, wrote to Paris ; the head-dress was made at an expence of twelve thousand francs, and the modest Israelite charged it thirty thousand to the Bey. The latter was too much pleased with the bauble to demur at the price, but, not being in cash, he paid for it in corn. There chanced just then to be a scarcity in France ; the Jew sold his grain to the army contractors, and managed so well, that he became a creditor of the French Government for upwards of a million of francs. Napoleon fell, and the Bourbons declined to pay ; but the Jew contrived to interest the Dey of Algiers in his cause, and remonstrances were addressed to the French Government. The affair dragged on for years, and at last, in 1829, on the ere of a festival, when the diplomatic corps were admitted to pay their respects to the Dey, the latter expostulated with the French Consul on the subject of the long delay. The answer was unsatisfactory, and the consequence was the celebrated rap with a fan or fly-flap, which sent its giver into exile, and converted Algeria into a French province. On visiting the Kasfr-ab, or citadel, at Algiers, Captain Kennedy was shown the little room in which the insult was offered to the representative of France. It is now used as a poultryyard. " Singular enough," says the captain, " as we entered, a cock, strutting on the deserted divan, proclaimed his victory over some feebler rival by a triumphant crow — an appropriate emblem of the real state of affairs." But the conquered cock is game ; and although sorely punished by his adversary's spurs, he returned again and again to the charge. — BlackwooiTs Magazine,

Thebes. — We reached Thebes, or rather Luxor, which is opposite to it on the eastern bank of the Nile, in the night ; and as before going to bed the wind had sunk to a very gentle breeze, we gave orders to anchor there. Somehow or other, notwithstanding our determination not to make an unnecessary halt anywhere short of our ultimate destination, we could not reconcile ourselves to the idea of passing by Thebes in the dark — our resolution, which had valiantly resisted the Pyramids, staring us in the face, as it were, broke down in anticipation before the fallen majesty of those stupendous remains, and we even agreed that we would indulge ourselves with a partial peep at them. And so we retired to rest to dream of obelisks and sphinxes, and awoke to behold the sun rising above the colossal pillars of the Temple of Luxor, and tinging with rosy light the summit of the lovely obelisk of pale red granite, whose sister has been transported from this sublime solitude to adorn the Place de la Concorde at Paris. A fragment of fourteen, gigantic columns faces the river :

this was my first view of the architecture of ancient'Fgypt, and — shall I confess the truth to you ? — while lost in astonishment at the might and massiveness of what I beheld, I could not detect in the emotions they excited any of that delighted admiration which, has filled me with enthusiasm at the sight of monuments far less imposing. " This is stupendous, indeed," said I to myself, " but is it beautiful ?" and candour answered, " No !" — Mis. Romer.

M. Arago. — Of all scientific men now living, there is none whose fame is so universally diffused, and whose authority is so often invoked, as M. Arago. The squatter on the banks of the Mississippi is as familiar with his name as the dweller of the Quai Voltaire. His dicta are as often quoted in the Delta of the Ganges, as in the city washed by the Thames ; and this reputation is not among the followers of science, or even its would-be votaries. It is strictly popular. All who look forward to a coming eclipse, or an approaching comet — all who endeavour to prognosticate the vicissitudes of weather, and look for the lunar phases — all who are exposed to the visitations of the hurricane, or endeavour to avert the falling thunderbolt — all appeal to the name of Arago ; rightly or wrongly, they quote his supposed or imputed predictions, and profess to pin their faith on bis oracular voice. In short, there is no savant living whose name is at once so universally known, and whose authority is so universally popular as M. Arago. But what says the august scientific conclave itself to this ? What is the verdict of academies, and institutes, and learned societies, where the equals of M. Arago sit in judgment? How does the estimate of their perpetual secretary of the Institute accord with this popular exaltation ? In general, the great public, little capable of guaging the merits or measuring the authority of philosophers, takes its cue from the community of science itself, and the reputations of savans issue,' ready formed, from the halls of those societies, whose members alone can be considered competent to form a correct judgment of their high merits and attainments. But the present case is a singular exception. Here the public has decided for itself, and not only passed an independent sentence, but one which is by no means in accordance with the opinions of the sages of the College Mazarin or Somerset House. The popular supremacy of of the director of the Observatoire is not confirmed by the voice of his colleagues. The incense offered at the shrine of Arago by the profane crowd of the uninitiated has had the effect of all praise which is immeasurably in excess ; it has provoked opposition and re-ac-tion. The attempt to assign to M. Arago a niche in the temple beside the high notabilities, and to place Mm in juxta-position with the Newtons, the Laplaces, the Lavoisiera, and the Davys, is treated with contemptuous ridicule ; and among the inferior crowd of the professors, the terms " charlatan" and " humbug" are not unfrequently heard in association with the name of this popular scientific idol. The cause of this singular discordance of judgment will be found in a due examination of the things which M. Arago has said, the things which he has done, and the things which he has written ; for, unlike most savans, M. Arago has not been merely a man of the closet — he has been eminently a man of action. In the political changes which have agitated his country, he has taken a prominent pat t, and the philosopher has often been forgotten in the politician, the legislator, and even the citizen-soldier. If we would, then, form a just estimate of the character of thisdistinguished man, free alike from the depreciating spirit of some of his rivals, and the preposterously exaggerated eulogy of some of his crowd of partisans, we must take a glance at the circumstances of his life. M. Arago is now in his sixtieth year, having been born in 1786. — Dublin University Magazine.

Introduction to President Folk. — There was no public reception during my very short stay, but 1 had the honour of being presented to the President. At eleven in the forenoon we arrived at the White House, under the shade of our umbrellas ; from the intense heat, a fire-king alone could have-dis-pensed with this protection. It is a handsome building, of about the same size and pretensions as the Lord Lieutenant's residence in the Phctnix Park, Dublin ; but, much as I had heard of the Republican simplicity of the arrangements, I was not prepared to find it * what it was. We entered without ringing at the door : my kind guide, leading the way, passed through the lower premises, and ascended the staircase, at the top of which we saw a negro, dressed very plainly, in clothes of the same colour as his face. He grinned at us for a moment ; and, calculating from the respectability of my companion that I did not mean to steal anything, was walking off, till he saw me, with a simple confidence which, seemed to him too amiable to be allowed to suffer a betrayal, place my umbrella in a corner before entering the gallery leading to the private apartments; he immediately turned to

correct my error, informing me that if I had any farther occasion for its services 1 had better not leave it there, "for someone would be sure to walk, into it." I of course took his counsel and my property, and proceeded till we arrived at the door of the President's room. My guide knocked, and the voice of the ruler of millions said " Come in." Before obeying this command, I of course left my unfortunate umbrella outside : this done, I walked into the presence, and was introduced. At the same moment, the watchful negro, the guardian spirit of my endangered property, thrust it into my left hand, with another and stronger admonition to ray simplicity ; but this time his tone of compassion for my ignorance had degenerated into that of almost contempt for my obstinate folly. In the mean time, my right hand was kindly shaken by the President, according to custom : he told me to be seated, and conversed with much urbanity. I, of course, trespassed on his valuable time but fora few minutes, and then departed. He was sitting at a round table covered with papers; another gentleman, 1 presume a secretary, was seated at a desk near the window, writing. Mr. Polk is a remarkable looking man ; his forehead massive and prominent, his f.atures marked and of good outline. The face was shaved quite close, the hair short, erect, and rather grey. Judging from his dress and general appearance, he might have been either a lawyer or a dissenting minister : his manner and mode of expression were not incongruous with his appearance. — Hochelaga. It is not a singular fact, but it is, notwithstanding, a fact which some of our readers may not be ignorant of, that sparrows and other small birds which happen to perch on those mysterious lines of communication, the telegraph-wires, are destined, ever and anon, to suffer severe shocks of electricity, the effect of which is (though we never witnessed the phenomenon) that they drop down, not dead, but half dead with amazement and terror. The shock, if severe encugh, would destroy them. Electricity can be administered in doses which would kill a horse. Peihaps by transmitting through the telegraphic wire a very powerful charge, the unhappy sparrows, along the whole line from London to Yarmouth, might be cut o/F. This, in a case of necessity, or as a matter of cruel curiosity, might be employed as a means of getting rid of these vermin. It is not uncommon or extraordinary to see at least a hundred of tt ese feathered depredators on one mile of wire. The length of the whole line of which we speak is 146 miles. A shock strong enough to destroy sparrow life, would, with these data, cut off from the land of the living, at one fell and faial swoop, not less than 14,600 of these pernicious little creatures. One thousand miles of railway would in like manner, and ■with tbe same conditions, be the death of 100,000, Even supposing that death does not ensue, yet how miserable will be the state of these little animals when the whole island is covered with a veritable network of telegraphic wires. Fatal twigs these for tiny feet ! The whole family of sparrows will be paralysed. The fowls of the air will be electrified. People as they talk with each other aud whisper to each other, in unheard communion, at the distance of 1000 miles, will be causing serious inconvenience to the feathered race. If Lord Palmerston's dream should be realised, and London should begin in a few years to con.mune by telegraph with Calcutta, how terrible the visitation to our fellow bipeds with feathers. Each word — each letter will be a shock. To us it may be pleasing so to hold intercourse with each other — to the little sufferers it will be shochii g. We tremble to think of the consequences, and heartily recommend the case to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to animals. Dog-carts sink into insignificance when compared with this wholesale palpitation — this universal twittering and consternation — among the feathered tribes. How many a sweet song will be interrupted — how many a little throat si- i lenced — very suddenly indeed, when this mischievous machinery shall be brought into universal play. — Cambridge Advertiser.

Haybon and the Battle of Waterloo. — Of all the numerous class of pen-and-ink and pencil commentators on the margins of public library copies of popular 'works, none, perhaps was more remarkable, and certainly none more pardonable, than poor Haydon, the historical painter, whose melancholy death created so great a sensation a few months ago. What he wrote in the books that fell under his perusal was always to the purpose, and he never shrunk from the responsibility of it, his name or initials being always appended to his remarks. Several volumes in the Leeds public library bear these marks of his propensity to add manuscript notes, and the following examples, taken from a single volume, will, no doubt, be found interesting, not only on account of the character and personages which are the subject of them, but also on account of the character of the lamented writer. The volume we allude to is one of Sir Walter Scott's Miscellaneous Prose Works, that con- i

taining Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk ; in which Haydon wrote several remarks, continued through many pages, upon passages relating to the Battle of Waterloo. To a note mentioning the death of the remarkahle Life Guardsman, Shaw, he wrote "I gave Sir Walter this — Wilkie and 1 had np in my painting-room several Life Guards who were in the battle ; one Hodgkins, heard some one groaning in the yaid of La Haye Sainte, where the wounded man had been removed ; he turned and found Shaw : Shaw said, ' I am dying!' the other swooned away, but the putting him into a spring cart to take him to Brussels at daybreak, loused him ; he turned to look for Shaw, who was dead, with his cheek lying on his hand. Shaw was a model of mine, and as strong as Hercules. I had five models in the battle ; three were killed ; all distinguished themselves. I told the Duke this at Walmer,.lB39, and he was much interested. It. B. Haydon, Dec. 9, 1839, Leeds." In another place, where Sir Walter has quoted the words of the Duke of Wellington — " Never mind, we*ll win this battle yet," Haydon wrote as follows :—": — " This was to the Austrian, General Vincent. Mr. Arbuthnot told me. He said to the Duke, in the thick of the fight, ' You have got an infamous army.' ' I know it,' saiJ the Duke ' but' we'll win the battle yet.' In his despatches he calls it * the most infamous army I ever commanded.' See Despatches, H." At the passage mentioning the death of Lieutenant-Colonel Canning, Haydon states. " Lord Fitzroy told me, the orderly who carried the Duke's desk was killed : Canning picked it up, and said, 'What shall (I) do with it?' 'Keep it,' said Lord Fitzroy, ' for the Duke.' Sh«jftly after he was killed, the desk was found, rifled, the next day." Where Sir Walter narrates, in his assumed character of Paul, the conversation he had with the Duke of Wellington, in which the latter, otl the hypothesis that he might have been driven from his- position at Waterloo into the wood behind, asserted that he could have made good the wood against the French, Haydon records the opinion of another General, Lord Hill. " I dined at Lord Palmerston's in 1833 ; on my right was Lord Hill ; as he lived at \\ estbourne-green, and I in the Edgvvare-road, he set me down. Whist with him, as Sir Walter Scott told me what he asked the Duke, I determined not to let the momsnt slip. I said to Lord Hill, " Was there any part of the day you despaired at Waterloo, my Lord ?" " Never" said Lore 1 Hill : " there was no panic — we were a little in advance — and I never had for a moment a doubt of the result." — "These being the opinions of the first and second in command. Commanders of Divisions — Colonels and Captains are never to be listened to ; they can't s,ee three feet before them ; enveloped in smoke, blood, and wounded, they think it is all going to ruin without seeing an inch of the field. I ask pardon for taking these liberties with a book of a public library ; but having been intimate with Sir Walter, and knowing the Duke and Lord Hill, and having met them, heaH them speak of the battle, it is a duty to add authentic facts for the sake of the ladies and gentlemen of Leeds. We are passing away of this generation, and in a few years the Duke and Lord Hill and all will be going. Sir Walter has left us, and then these little written additions by one who lived at the time may not be without interest. I apologise for the liberty, but must be forgiven. — R. B. Haydon." Upon the speech put by the French into the mouth of General Cambrone, erroneously supposed to have been killed, in refasing quarter, " The Imperial Guard can die, but never surrender," Playdon thus relates the words which he himself heard from the British commander, at Walmer, on the Bth October, 1839. " I heard the Duke say, 'at the very time the French made Cambrone utter this fine bit of poetry, he was a prisoner at my quarters.' " " The Duke said, * I did'nt let him sup with me ; he broke his honour to Louis ; and I bowed him and his companion into another room.' " It is due to the memory of poor Haydon, that, although he apologised, as has been seen above, for the liberty he had taken with the book in thus writing his remarks in it, he did not content himself with making this amende ; but he voluntarily, and without any suggestion or^hint on the subject, purchased a new copy of the work, and presented it to the Leeds library to replace the one he had, as he would seem to have supposed, so improperly disfigured. — Leeds Intelligencer,