ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 181, 24 April 1847, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

It is rumoured among the different circles in the west of this country that our most gracious and beloved Sovereign has offered £55,000 for St. Michael's Mount, but that the sum asked is £75,000> \ A more appropriate marine residence cannot exist; and we trust that the report will not prove to be without foarirlationV — West Briton. ' The Observer says, " The novel Mght will soon be witnessed of many hundreds of men employed in the ve.y heart of London in the construction of a railway. The London and South- Western Company have now got possession of nearly all the property necessary for the extension oi their line to Hungerfordfbridge, and the most active preparations are making for commencing the construction of the works without delay. There will -be a magnificent station at Hungerford-bridge. The extent and style of the erection may be inferrei from the fact that its cost will exceed. £100,000. The expenses of constructing the extension line from Nine Elms to Hunger-lord-bridge, including the purchase of property, will nor, it is supposed, be under £600,000, making, with the station, £700,000, or the enormous sum of £350,000 per mile. King op the French. — Louis Philippe has just attained his 74th year. Notwithstanding his grea age, and notwithstanding the laborious and harassing life he has always led, his majesty is in the enjoyment of excelr lent health and s'rong h. Judging from his looks, there is every probability that he will live long enough to render it unnecessary for his son, the Due de Nemours, to exercise the regency with which he is provisionally invested. The king himself is often stated to plant himself stoutly on his legs, and to exclaim, • There will be no legency — uo regency E tell you!" At the Italian Scientific Congress, Professor Mayer, of Bonn, gave an account of his researches upon the influence of galvanic currents on the motion of the hear . The result was, that the current arrested entirely the pulsation for the time that it lasted ; the motion being restored when ti c galvanic influence was withdrawn. The cause imagined was not so much paralysis or spasm, as a mechanical effect of tumefaction of the parts. In consequence of the extraordinary extension of the Goodwin Sands in the direction of the "Bunt Head," it has been found necessaiy to move the light- vessel half a mile further to the westward, in order, to cover the shoal ; and the buoy that marks the extreme end of the Bunt Head, 60 fathoms further iv a south-westerly direction. A shoal has also sprung up in the Gull Stream, in the direct track of the navigation. We hear, on good authority, though we have.no personal knowledge of the fact, that Mr. Hudson, after having, up to the present

time, nearly the whole of his immense wealth vested in railway stock now conceives it prudent to draw out some portion of his capital with a view to other, and, in some respects, surer investments. His operations are, however, on so cautious and limited a scale, as to be quite unfelt. We have heard £4000 weekly named as the extent of his sales, as he seems unwilling to excite any alarm, or even to have his intentions known. If these statements be true, they afford some grounds for assuming that, in the opinion of this shrewd and successful speculator, the tendency of prices for some time to come will be rather to decline than rise. The value of Mr. Hudson's railway property is estimated at nearly one million sterling. — Britannia. The correspondent of the Morning Chronicle gives the following gossip from New York :— " You may get some idea of the travel to and from New York city, by the estimate of the number of arrivals by two only of its avenues of access — the eastern and western. By the steamers of the Hudson River, the arrivals last week were 20,484 ; the departures 18,444. By the steamers from Boston, arrivals 3951, departures 3928. And (if I may arrest here another bit or two of fugitive statistics for your readers) New York, by a late city report, contains over 200,000 buildings, over 2,500,000 windows and doors, over 150,000 chimneys, over 20,000 awnings and lamp-posts, over 5000 pieces of shipping, over 35,000 fences and walls, and over 30.00U trees. The arrival of passengers at this port, during the month of August, were — from Great Britain, 7284 ; France, 4570 ; Belgium, 1360 ; Bremen, 1050 ; Hamburg, 961 ; Holland, 451 ; Norway, 210 ; Sweden, 115; Prussia, 97; other parts, 214; total, 16.212."

The Blind Traveller. — The celebrated blind traveller, Lieutenant Holman, returned to this country on Thursday evening, after an absence of upwards of six years, during which time he visited Portugal and Spain, Algeria, and all the places in the Mediterranean, penetrated Egypt and Syria, crossed the desert to Jerusalem, and finally made an extensive tour through the least frequented parts of the south-east of Enrope, including Hungary, Transylvania, Servia, Bosnia, &c. As on all former occasions, this extraordinary man iravelled perfectly alone. We are happy to say that be has returned in perfect health and snirits. — Atlcs.

Horrible Military Execution in Russia. — A letter from St. Petersburgh gives an account of the execution of a soldkr for the murder of a non-commissioned officer, against whom he had a hatred. The murder was perpetrated under horrible circumstances. The murderer entered the sleeping room of his \ictim, where lie stabbed him with his bayonet, and then cut the body to pieces with a razor, and, putting them into a sack, threw them into a canal. The sentence was, that he should pass through the ranks of his regiment, receiving blows from sticks till death should ensue. He went boldly through his punishment, singing a war-song ; but at length his voice failed, and he fell. The surgeon on examining the body, declared that life was extinct. — French Paper.

Ladies' Shoes. — If shoes were constructed of the shape of the human foot, neither too large uor too small, and making au equal pressure everywhere, corns and bunions of the feet would never exist. But, unfortunately, s.hoes are seldom made after this fashion ; and in ladies' shoes especially, there are generally two signal defects — first, the extremity of the shoe is much too narrow for that .part of the foot (namely, the toes) which it is to contain ; and, secondly, for displaying as much of the foot as possible, the whole of the tarsus and metatarsus is left uncovered, and the pressure of the shoe in front is thrown eutirely uoon the toes. The toes are thus first squeezed against each other, and then pushed out of their natural position ; and all the projecting points, chiefly where the joints are situated, are pinched and tormented, either by the neighbouring toes, or by the leather of the shoe ; and thus it is that corns of the feet are generated. — Sir Benjamin Brodie.

The Favourite M exic an Stimulant. — Every nation loves to intoxicate itself, and the Mexican boasts of the most nauseous invention for the purpose among the discoveries of man. Pulque, the national beverage, is the juice of the Agave Americana, fermented. The original process by which fei mentation is produced is one which we shall not venture to detail ; but the liquor obtained from the section of the plant is drawn up by the rude syphon, and poured into dressed ox-hides. The taste is mawkish, and the f-mell is noisome. Yet, to the Mexican, ii is nectar aud ambrosia together. Pulque is to him meat, drink, and clothing ; for without it the world has no pleasures. The most remarkable circumstance is, that it is without strength. Thus it wants the charm of brandy, which may madden, but which at least warms ; or aquafortis, which the Pole and the Russian

are said to drink as a qualifier of their excesses in train oil ; but the Mexican would rather die, or even fight, than dispense with his pulque ; and if Santa Anna had hut put his warriors on short allowance of the national liquor before his last battle, and promised them double allowance after it, he would probably have been, at this moment, on tbe Mexican throne. — Blackwood's Magazine.