ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 179, 17 April 1847, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Arrival of Her Majesty at the Isle of Wight. — Portsmouth, Nov 18. — The royal party arrived at the Clarence-yard, Gosport, at a quarter after twelve o'clock this day. On the royal standard beinj; hoisted in the yard, announcing her Majesty's arrival in the garrison, royal salutes were fired from her Majesty's ships St. Vincent, Victory, and Excellent, and they manned the yards. Her Majesty and the royal family, on alighting from the carriages, were received by Lieute-nant-Gen, the Hon. Sir H. Pakenham, K. C. 8., Admiral Sir Charles Ogle, Bart., Rear- Admiral Parker, C. 8., the staff of the garrison, the colonels and commanding officers of the troops of the line and marines, and the captains and commanders of her Majes'y's ships St. Vincent, Victory, Excellent, Vengeance, Penelope, Rattlesnake, and Crocodile, Capt.-SuperintencLent Carter, and the officers of the Victualling Establishment, and Mr. Mean*, superintendent of the Southwestern Railway, were also in attendance. A guard of honor furnished by the 2nd regiment, was on the ground, and saluted her Majesty as she passed to the Fairy yacht, which had been previously broughf alongside the jetty. On getting on board her Majesty and the Prince were received by Captain the Right Hon. A. Fitzclarence, Commander Crispin, and the other officers ; and in three minutes from the arrival of the train, the yacht, with all the royal party on board, pushed off from the wharf and ' steamed out of

harbour. On passing the St. Vincent, Victory, and the other ships, (being previously dressed with flags,) their crews heartily cheered, and when opposite the Platform Battery, a*royal sahjte was fired. The only man-of-war at Spithead was the Scourge, which, not having guns to salute, manned yards and cheered. The royal party arrived at Cowes soon after one o'clock, and the carriages being in waiting at Trinity-wharf, her Majesty and the Court, landing under a salute from Cowes Castle, got to Osborne-house in a few minutes. The Fairy was navigated to Cowes by Commander Crispin, under the direction ot his Captain, Lord A. Fitzclarence. The day was remarkably propitious for her Majesty's journey. The Fairy returned to the harbour in the evening. Mr. Dyce, the arlist whose new~style of fresco painting is to be placed in the New House of Lords, has had her Majesty's commands to execute a painting in that style, of consideiable dimensions, for Osborne House. The Journal dcs Debuts announces that the annexation of the Republic of Cracow to the dominions of Austria had been officially notified to the Marquis ot Normanby by the Prussian Minister, on Tuesday, and to M. Guizot by the Austrian Minister on Wednesday. That announcement had produced an extraordinary spnsation in Paris, and created a panic on the Bourse. It is calculated that £260,000 are paid weekly to railway labourers in England.

The Proposed Expedition under General Flores. — On Thursday evening last Mr. Forsayth, the principal searcher of the Customs, accompanied by olhei officers, boarded the ship Glenelg, lying off Gravesend, and, after inspection, seized her for a contemplated breach of the Foreign Enlistment and Equipment Act ; and yesterday morning he also seized the Monarch and Neptune, steamvessels, lying in the East India Docks, Blackwall. It is understood that all the three /essels form part of an expedition which is being secretly fitted out in this country with the intention, by hostile means, to effect a revolution of government in a state of South America with which we are on terms of peace and friendship. When the Glenelg was seized there had just been received ou board 250 men, under pretence of their being emigrants, but who, it is understood, arp intended to serve as soldiers or marines. The Glenelg is a fine ship of 1200 tons, and was heretofore employed in the East India trade ; and the Monarch and Neptune are steamers of a large class, particularly the former; until recently they vere the property of the General Steam Navigation Company. The Monarch was in the Leith trade, and the Neptune plied between London and Hamburgh. It is said that Mr. Forsayth is in possession of information concerning them that leaves no doubt of all thiee vessels being ultima. ely condemned as forfeited to the Crown. — Times, Nov.

The Stranded Steamer. — A Mr. G. Taylor, of Holbech, near Leeds, suggests the following plan far floating off the Great Britain :—": — " To place a balk along each side of the vessel, capable of resisting or sustaining a pressure of 2,000 tons. Assuming this to be the weight of the vessel, he proposes to lilt her in twenty parts at the same time (the whole weight pressing upon the balks) by means of what he calls crutches, which are a novel application of the wedge and lever combined. All the appaiatus required is placed upon the vessel herself, and at the same time it raises a weight of 2,000 tons it will give a force towarls the water equal to 400 tons weight." Mr. Taylor, has, we understand, (says a local journal) had much experience in lifting enormous weights, and possesses a thorough knowledge of the nature of vessels, and is therefore enabled to appreciate the difficulties which will attend the removal oi the Great Britain.

Irish Labourers Abroad. — >A letter from Paris has the following :—": — " Such is the demand for Irish labourers on railways in France, tha: they can earn sf. to 6f. a clay, while the native workmen only receive 3f. to 3yf. — Dublin Evening Mail.

The Season and the Crops. — lhe last three weeks of dry weather have enabled the farmers to finish the wheat sowing. The ground is open and the soil friable, so that the young plant will have every chance of coming up quickly and evenly. Where the seed was sown before the last rains the plant is well above the ground. The colour of the young plant is very fresh and healthy. The fiist and most important step to another wheat crop has, therefore, been got through as well as could be wished. The turnip crop continues to improve ; the withered leaves have in general fallen off, and been succeeded by new and healthy ones. At one time the appearance of this crop was very threatening, the too rapid growth of the plant having produced a strong tendency to rot, but heavy rain and a cooler temperature has set all right again, in this neighbourhood, at least. A friend of ours finds, on turning over his potatoes, that the proportion of those which

have rotted since they were taken up is five per cent. This is much the same as rotted last year under the same method of storing. Owing to tie clearness of every kind of food, the farmers are almost giving away their lean pigs to save the cost of keeping them through the winter, but fat pigs, fat cattle, and fat sheep, keep their prices. There is still plenty of grass in the fields, and both cattle and sheep are doing well. We hear no more of the disease amongst the cattle in this neighbourliuod. — Liverpool 'l imes. According to letters from Brussels, all the attempts hitherto made by the Progresista lead rs to induce the Infante Don Enrique not to return to Spain, or, at least, not to sign a retraction, h;id proved vain." General Prim, who lately waited on the Prince for that purpose, was equally unsuccessful. King Leopold, it would appear, had lost much of his popularity in Belgium. Va-ious caricatures had been published since his return in ridicule of him, which greatly annoyed his Majesty, and measures of repression, similar to those which have existed in France sinca 1835, are to be shortly submitted to the Belgian Legislatuie.

A Joke. — A woll-known physician, is very much annoyed by an old lady, who is always sure to accost him in the street, for the purpose ot telling over her ailment. Oace she met him in Broadway, and he was in a great hurry. "Ah ! I see you are quite feeble,' 1 ' said the doctor, " Shut your eyes and show me your tongue." ' She obeyed, and the doctor, quietly moving off. left her standing there for some time in this ridiculous positioD, to the infinite amusement of all who witnessed the funny scene. — American Paper. The Augsburg Gazette announces, that the Duke of Devonshire was expected at Athens, where it was said he was to proceed charged with a special mission to effect the cession of the Greek Government of the island of Egina to Great Britain, in compensation for the guarantee of the Greek loan given by the Cabinet of St. James's Among the many interesting discoveries at Herculaneum, is that of the tailor's thimble, open at the end, as in the present day. It is mentioned as a remarkable coincidence that one vote carried the American tariff of 1824 ; one vote the tariff of 1828 ; one vote in each House carried that of 1842 ; and by one vote in the Senate the tariff of 1846 has become a law. Captain Michelet, of the Eugenie, lately arrived at Havre, from the Havannah, states that, during a violent storm which occurred near the latter place, he and all his ship's crew beheld a cloud of white frogs fall into the sea round the vessel. The deck, he states, was literally covered with them. v The hull of the old Leviathan, formerly a 74, and one of the crack ships that figured conspicuously at the battle of Trafalgar, and formed one of Nelson's weather division, was taken on Monday to one of the uppermost inlets in Portsmouth harbour, generally called Bombketch Lake, as a mark for the shot and shell practice from the Excellent.

Mortality in two of the Queen's European Regiments in the East Indies. — The Gazette of the 13th October, contains ihe names of 323 soldiers of the 60th and 86th European regiments, who died in the East Indies in June last.

True Dignity. — A woman, examined last week at the Greenwich Sessiont, said — " I live by hawking. 1 sell all sorts of netted needle-work to ladies. I never sold such low things as lucifer matches!" Thus, it seems, there is an aristocracy of hawking — that eschews brimstone! — Punch.

Honest Christina. — The French papprs give a very minute account of the various robberies of plate and jewels committed by Queen Christina before her flight to France. A few days ago, some rebellious Spaniard (he had no doubt been in England) affixed to her carriage a placard, bearing — "Goods carefully removed." — Ibid.

The L. S. D. Liberator. — The statue of O'Connell, by Hogan, has arrived in Dubr lin. It is described to be very like the Agitator, and as all accounts agiee in stating that the statue is a fine bit of chiselling, we do not for a moment doubt the likeness. We piopose for the inscription a single line — "He relieved his country — of £22,000 a-year. — Ibid.

Death of M. Ouvrard. — This distinguished financier died in London on the 23rd October, aged 76 years and ten days. The immediate cause of his death was inflammation of the lungs, combined with organic disease of the heart. His illness lasted ten days. He boie his acute sufferings with the firmness and resignation of a stoic, and retained his self-possession and all his faculties till within half a minute of his dissolution. The Epoque, in announcing his death, says :—: — " Julien Ouvrard was a grocer at Nantes, when the Revolution c f 1789 broke out. Being a good calculator, and very bold in his

speculations, he succeeded in less than 15 years in placing himself at the summit of fortune. He was successively journisseur in xhef ol the French armies, a secret negociaiur in England, the intimate friend of Fouche, a prisoner of state under the Empire, muniiionnaire g4.n4.ral of the foreign armies of the invasion, and of the F;ench army in Spain in 1823, and prisoner for debt at Ste-Felagie. He has died, after having written a work on finances and voluminous memoirs."

The late Victories in India, — Mr. Wyon, of the Royal Mint, has received an order irom the East India Company for the execution of 30,000 medals, to commemorate the victories of Moodkee, Ferozeshah, Aliwal, and Sobraon, to be presented to the officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates of the Company's and the home troops which took part in the same. The 16th (the Queen's) Lancers and the 31st (Huntingdonshire) Foot, now on their passage home, will soon after their arrival have new colours, with badges commemorative of their Indian victories presented to them. Political Prophecies. — Davenant prophesied that England would be ruined by a debt of two millions ; Hume was quite certain that a national bankruptcy would occur if the debt rose to one hundred millions. There appears now to be little solicitude as to the effects of this character when it is not far from eight hundred millions.

Well Answered. — Dr. Cooke Taylor, at the recent meeting of the British Association, gave a brief account of the course pursued at Trinity College, Dublin, as to the vivd voce examination of students there on entering — a*system which often produced odd answers. On one occasion the Rev. John Martin was examining a class in hydrostatics, and asked a not very popular student, " Mr. Spencer, what would be the consequence if I thrust you into a pond ?" the examiner's object being to test the student's knowledge of the law, that water rises in proportion to the weight of the body immersad. The student, not being able to give a solution of the question, it was put to his neighbour, Mr. Plunket, " What would be the consequence if I thru>t Mr. Spencer into a pond ?" " 'Pon my word, Sir," was the reply, " I think it would be of very little consequence." Another student being examined on Locke, where he speaks of our relations to the Deity as those which we most neglect, was asked what relations were most neglected ; the youth answered very coolly, " Poor relations." Origin of the Word " Toadeater." — At the final overthrow of the Moors, the conditiou of the Morisco population in Spain was scarcely better than that of the Helots of Sparta, or the Fellahs of Egypt under the Mamelukes. The Castilians, too idle to work themselves, and too proud to wait upon each other, made use of alieus, who, as in the East, often rise to confidential situations. Such were the favourite attendants and pagea — the very humble and obedient servants of all work, whose satisfied masters lavished on them the affectionate diminutives mi todito, mi todiia, " my ail, and everything," the true etymon of toadeater. — Quarterly Review.

Salopian Field Sports. — The partridge and pheasant shooting of the months have afforded very good practice. We have had our fair quota of Londoners with their Mantons, who likewise afford some incidental sport to their rural friends. On one occasion, there was a good run between a cockney and a winged cock pheasant in the swedes, the bird appearing to play at bo-peep with his pursuer, who exclaimed, "Ah! she knows better ncr wenter to rise again !" Another took post under some trees, calculating, as there were a few " plower," as he called them, wheeling about, that one of them might take a fancy to alight on the timber, and sit for a portrait. There were several chanpagne pigeon-matches, but the corks — the spirit being " up to the mark" fled higher than the birds, and were better shots than the shooters, for they generally contrived to hit the ceiling; whereas some of the latter wouldhave missed the house. Upon the whole they afforded capital exercise for birds. — Shrewsbury Journal.

Superstitions respecting Bees. — A writer in the Athenaum, under the head of " Potk-Lore" gives the following curious particulars in reference to this subject : — " Some years since a gentleman, at a dinner table, happened to mention that he was surprised, on the death of a relative, by the servant inquiring " Whether his master would inform the bees of the event, — or whether he should do so ?" On asking the meaning of so strange a question, the servant assured him that bees ought always to be informed of a death in a family, — or they would resent the neglect by deserting the hive. This gentleman resides in the Isle of Ely — the anecdote was told in Suffolk ; and one of the party present, i\ few days afterwards, took the opportunity of testing the prevalence of this strange notion by inquiring of a cottager, who had lately lost a relative, and happened to complain of the loss of her bees, " Whether she

had told them all she ought to do?" She immediately replied, "Oh yes ; — when my aunt died, I told every skep {i. c. hive) myself, and put them into mourning." &. have since ascertained the existence of the same superstition in Cornwall, Devonshire, Gloucestershire, (where I have seen black crape put round the hive, or on a small stick by its side,) and Yorkshire. It probaLly exists in every part of the kingdom. I should be gad to ascertain whether it prevails in Wales ; — though, from its being known in Cornwall, I have little doubt that its origin is earlier than the Saxon invasion. You can probably also inform me whether this custom be known on the continent of Europe. The mode of communication is by whispering the fact to each hive separately. I believe there are many other singular notions afloat as to these insects. In Oxfordshire, I was told that if man and wife quarrelled, the bees would leave them. The account of their generation from the blood of a calf leads to the beautiful episode in the 4th Georgic. I have not had (owing to my profession) much leisure or opportunity for inquiries into these matters ; but I think the suggestion of Ambrose Merton so excellent a one that I have forwaided the above matter rather to elicit than communicate information. The same gentleman to whom I have above referred as testing the story of the bees, is often requested at the Vernal Equinox to allow his ash saplings to be split, for the purpose of passing ricketty children through them at sunrise. I have seen five or six trees in one year that have been so split, and bound up again ; and if the spell were effectual, the cures should be numerous, — foi all the trees had recovered."