MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 185, 8 May 1847, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Tea Plant jn France. — The Journal dcs Debats states, that the experiments which have been ma ie for introducing the culture of the tea-plant into France had fully succeeded, and that the tea plant has been found to thrive as well in Angers as at Hyeres, under the warmest climate of Provence. Principal Lee, in a late address to the students of the Edinburgh University, stated that in 1583, out of the 33 persons to whom the government of the University was confided, 13 could not write their names.

Ship Canal. — The British Government is seriously considering the project of constructing a ship canal around the falls of St. Mary, thereby opening a communication for the largest class of vessels with Lake Superior. A survey of the route is now in progress. The length of the canal required is only two miles, and the. estimated cost but 200,000 dollars. — American Paper.

The Fleet Ditch. — This water course was only, during the past week, enclosed, ill-

led up, and built upon at Camden Town. No vestige of the Fleet river now remains open, although ten centuries ago vessels of three and even four hundred tons, as it is recorded, were moored in its waters. The Danish fleet anchored off the site where Holborn-bridge is now acknowledged, when the destructive onslaught took place between the Saxons and the Danes, upon the spot where now exists the Church of St. Clement Danes.— Morning Advertiser, Nov.

Predominancy of the Church. — According to the last return of the Registrar General for England and Wales 70 per cent, of the population are baptised, 90.7 per cent, are married, and 85 per cent, are buried according to the rights of the established religion.

Suicide. — Mr. Alsager, the official assignee, and who, in addition to this office, was well known as City correspondent of the Times, possessing considerable influence in commercial c:rcle.s, where he was universally esteemed, committed suicide, on Monday morning, by cutting his throat, at his residence, 26 Queen Square, Bloomsbury. He had long been in a depressed s^ate of mind on account of private affairs. M. Le Verrier, the discoverer of the new planet, member of the French Academy of Sciences, has been promoted officer of the Legion of Honour. M. Galle of Beiliu, who first observed the said planet, has been nominated member of the same order.

What is a Railway Surveyor? — A rough-looking Irishman (says the Liverpool Courier) presented himself, on Wednesday last, at the Watch-office, in Feuwick-street, as an applicant for the police force. In reply to the clerk, who inquired what was his profession, he said — " And sure, sir, 1 am a surveyor." "A surveyor of what?" asked the clerk. " Faith, and I am a railway surveyor." "A railway surveyor?" asked the clerk, with some surprise. f ' Yes, sure, your honour, and didn't I always carry the poles."

Colloquy. — The following colloquy took plaTe lately, between an inquisitive gentleman aud his butcher boy : — " What are your politics 1" said the gentleman. " The Queen's sir." " What are the Queen's ?" " Mom, sir." " What's your name?" " My name," replied the boy, "is the same as father's." " And what is his name?" said the gentleman. "It is the same as mom." " Then what are both your names ?" " Whoy they are both aloike," said the boy. The gentleman turned on his heel, and the boy shouted "Anything more, sir?"

A High Stake. — The Toulonnais has the following almost incredible account: — Two men, named Jallibert and Pelissier, the first a sailor, and the other a journeyman, played at cards, in the guingette of the Porte d'ltalie, for a bottle of wine, which was drunk. Whether this bottle was preceded or followed by otheis is not stated, but the men must somehow or other have lost the right use of their senses, for the parties agreed to stake their heads on a game at bowls. They went out and played. ~ Pelissier lost, and returning into the house conceived himself bound in honoi to pay his stake, and quietly laid his head on the table for his opponent to do with as he pleaded. Jallibert took up a knife, and made a deep incision in the neck of Pelissier, but the sight of the blood brought him back to his reason, and he bolted out of the house, and was no more seen. Pelissier was taken to the hospital, where there are some hopes,' though very blight, of saving his life. — Galignani's Messenger.

Schism among the German Watee Doctors. — We learn from a hydropathic patient, on whom we can rely, now in Silesia, under Preissnitz, that a new sect has sprung up in that district, which adopts a system directly opposite to that of the great hyc'ropathist of Grafenberg. The new party, instead of giving the copious libations of cold water prescribed in the original system, recommend a total abstinence from the drinking of water, and effect their cure by a long continued thirst ! They so far follow Preissnitz, as to keep their patients, for a series of hours each day, wiapt in wet blankets or cloths; but the patients are rigidly restrained from the drinking of water, and are restricted in their diet to such a few slices of stale bread daily as they can swallow without drink. On two days of each week only, they are allowed a cup of soup, and a small piece of animal meat, and are kept on that routine for many weeks. The consequence of this treatment is, that patients of the most robust habits are soon brought to skeletons. In a few desperate cases, it is said that the new treatment effects a change of system that is for the time beneficial, whilst in most other instances it is fatal to the unhappy invalids. Indeed we understand, on the whole, that there are not any well-authenticated cases of cures being effected by either system which would not have taken place by temperate diet and exercise, and by the remedies prescribed in regular msdical practice. — Scotsman.

Up to the present time, the Scott monument costs £15,650. There are 56 niches yet to be filled with statues of the principal characters in Sir Walter's works.

Spontaneous Sounds in Iron and Stone. — Singularly illustrative of the much disputed property affirmed by the ancients of the sound emitted at sunrise by the statue of Meranon, in Lower Egypt, is the singular phenomenon of sound occasioned by the vibration of soft iron produced by a galvanic current. It was first discovered by Mr. Sage, and since verified by the observations of a French philosopher, M. Marian. The experiments were made on a bar of iron which was fixed at the middle in a horizontal position, each half being enclosed in a large glass tube, around which were wound sp'nals of copper wire. A cord of copper wire was afterwards substituted for the two helices, and placed with its axis coincident with the axis of the bar. On completing the chcuit, the longitudi .al s~omuJ, although feeble, could be distinguished, the bar of iron being a little lengthened or expanded in the direction of its axis. The origin of the sound has, theiefoie, been attributed to a vibration in the interior of the iron bar, or a new arrangement of the molecules, an explanation which has been more than once advanced for the mysterious phenomenon ot the same kind connected with the history of the Memnouian statue.

Delights of a Country Residence near Genoa. — The view, as I have said, is charming; but in the day you must keep the lattice blinds close shut, or the sun would duve you mad; and when the sun goes down, you must shut up all the windows, or the musquitoes would tempt you to commit suicide. So at this time of the year, you don't see much of the prospect within doors. As for the flies, you don't mind them. Nor the fleas, whose size is prodigious, and whose name is Legion, and who populate the coachhouse to that extent, that I daily expect to see the carriage going off bodily, drawn by myriads of industrious fleas in harness. The rats are kept away, quite comfortably, by scores of lean cats, who roam about the garden for that purpose. The lizards, of course, nobody cares for ; they play in the sun, and don't b'te. The little scorpions are merely curious. The beetles are rather late, andhave not appeared yet. The irogs are company. There is a preserve of them iv the grounds of the next villa ; and after nightfall, one would think that scores upon scores of women in pattens were going up and down a wet stone pavement without a moment's cessation. This is exactly the noise they make. — Dickens" Pictures from Italy.

The elder Pitt and the elder Fox. — Pitt was undoubtedly one of the greatest masters of ornamental eloquence. His language was amazingly fine and flowing : his voice admiiable ; his action most expressive; his figure genteel and commanding. Bitter satire was his /orte; when he attempted ridicule, which was very seldom, he succeeded happily : when he attempted to reason, poorly. Buc where he chiefly shone, was in exposing his own conduct: having waded through the most notorious apostacy in politics, he treated it with an impudent confidence, that made all reflections upon him poor and spiritless, when worded by any other man. Out of the House of Commons he was far from being this shining character. His conversation was affected and unnatural, hi> manner not engaging, nor" his talents adapted to a country, where Ministers must court, if they would be courted. Fox, with a great hesitation in his elocution, and a barrenness of expression, had conquered these impediments and the prejudices they had raised jigainst his speaking, by a vehemence of reasoning, and closeness of argument, that beat all the orators of the time. His spirit, his steadiness, and humanity, pn cured him strong attachments, which the more jealous he grew of Pitt, the more he cultivated. Fox always spoke to the question ; Pitt, to the passions : Fox, to carry the question ; Pitt, to raise himself: Fox pointed out, Pitt lashed the errors of his antagonists ; Pitts talents were likely to make him soonest, Fox's to keep him First Minister longest.

Extent of the United States. — The United States have a frontier line of more than 10,000 miles. We have a line of sea coast of 4000 miles, and a lake coast of 12,000 miles. On« of our rivers is twice the size of the Danube, the largest river in Europe. The Ohio is 600 miles longer than the Rhine, and the Hudson has a navigation of 120 miles longer than the Thames. The single state of Virginia is a third larger than England. Ohio contains 5,120,000 acres more than Scotland. From Maine to Ohio is further than from London to Constantinople, and so we might go on and fill pages, enumerating distances, rivers, lakes, capes, and bays, with comparative estimates of size, power, and population. — New York Sun. The patriarch of the American Catholics died lately at Constantinople ; he was 90 years old.

An Original Letter of Grace Darling's. — We have been favoured with the original of the following letter, written by the lamented Grace Darling to Mr. S. Burton, the Sailor's Missionary, in reply to one sent by him relating to her conduct at the wreck of the Forfarshire. The letter is written in a neat and unaffected hand-writing, and emits evidently that meek Christian spirit for which the memory of Grace Darling is revered as much as for hei heroism and self devotion :—: — " Dear Sir, — I reed, yours Dated 9th Inst., for which I begg to return my sincere thanks for the good advice Contained in the same. May the Almighty, who alone Enabled us to do what we did, Enable me to make good use of your advice ; you needed no Apology for your letter, for I assure you it was very welcome ; although I am but a very weak Christian, yet I hope to be found in that fold whose Sheapherd is Jesus Christ our Lord and Savour. I can say that I rejoice in everything that T think tends to the advancement of his Kingdom. lam at a loss to explain myself better, but my parents learned me to read and wright the Church of England Catechism, and the General Assemblies Short Catechism, which I admire as a beautiful little Book. I am well Provided with a good Bible, and if it Please God to open them to me, I may be enabled through the assistance of the Holy spirit, to gain the pearl of great Price. I am, Dear Sir, with sincere respect and good wishes to a Minister of Jesus Christ, " Your most Obt. Servant, " G. H. Darling. " Longstone Light, March 22d, 1839. "Rev. S. Burton, Post-office, Exeter, Devon."

Ingenuity in Smuggling. — A novel instance of the ingenuity exhibited by smugglers occurred recently at one of the quays near the London Custom-house. Two cases were imported from Hamburgh, said to contain furniture, and on examination of the packages by the officers of the revenue, each case was found to contain a chest of drawers, the whole of the drawers being empty. Suspicion was, however, aroused, and the officers instituted a rigid examination into the workmanship of the articles, when it was discovered that behind false backs 100 lbs weight of manufactured tobacco and cigars were secreted. A Glimpse at France. — There is little "more than one variety in the appearance of the country, for the first two days. From a dreary plain to an interminable avenue ; and from an interminable avenue, to a dreary plain again. Plenty of vines there are, in the open fields, but of a short, low kind, and not trained in festoons, but about straight sticks. Beggars innumerable there are, everywhere ; but an extraordinary scanty population, and fewer children than I ever encountered. I don't believe we saw a hundred children hetween Paris and Chalons. Queer old towns, drawbridged and walled : with odd little towers at the angles, like grotesque faces, as if the wall had put a mask on, and were staring down into the moat ; other strange-hke towers, in gardens and fields, and down lanes, and in farm-yards : all alone, and always round, with a peaked roof, and never used for any purpose at all ; ruinous buildings of all sorts : sometime an hdtel de ville, sometimes a guardhouse, sometimes a dwelling-house, sometimes a chateau with a rank garden, prolific in dandelion, and watched over by extinguishertopped turrets, and blink-eyed little casements; are the standard objects, repeated over and over again. Sometimes we pass a village inn, with a crumbling wall belonging to it, and a perfect town of out-houses, and painted over the gateway, " Stabling for sixty horses ;" as indeed there "might be stabling for sixty score, were there any horses to he stabled there, or anybody resting there, or anything stirring about the place but a dangling bush, indicative of the wind inside, which flutters idly in the wind, in lazy keeping with everything else, and certainly is never in a green old age, though always so old as to be dropping to pieces. And all day long, strange little narrow waggons, in strings of six or eight, bringing cheese from Switzerland, and frequently in charge, the whole line, of one man, or even hoy — and he very often asleep in the foremost cart, come jingjing past : the horses drowsily ringing the bells upon their harness, and looking as if they thought (no doubt they do) their great blue woolly furniture, of immense weight and thickness, with a pair of grotesque horns growing out of the collar, very much too warm for the midsummer weather. — Dickens' Pictures from Italy.