MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 193, 5 June 1847, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

Copper Boats ! — We have been informed of the introduction of a novelty in river and port navigation, which, if it bears out all that is claimed for it, cannot be long before it comes into general use. It is nothing less than a boat of copper, made of four sheets ou]y, stamped to due form by powerful machinery, and rivetted together. It is 23 feet long, 5 feet wide, and has four times the strength of wooden boats, and requires onethird only the power to propel at the same speed as a wooden boat of the same dimensions ; one-third less weight ; no caulking, re-nailing, or pointing is required ; and when worn out, the metal will sell for three-fourths of the first cost. Dingies, cutters, gigs, ships' boats, race boats, and others from 10 to 60 feet, may be made in four pieces. Their strength has been tried by dashing them against rocks, and running a-head against stone piers ; and it appears almost impossible to sink them. — Mining Journal.

Banking in India. — The gross capital employed in banking operations in India was £9,442,903, and upwards of £4,000,000 belong to the chartered banks of Bengal, Bombay, and Madras, which are established under the sanction of the Court of Directors of the East India Company, with the approbation of the Board of Commissioners for the affairs of India. The aggregate paid up capital of these establishments, including the last half year's profit, is £2,006,141, and their deposits and circulation £2,281,946. Of these sums, £1,708,436 is retained in bullion or invested in the Government securities, and the remainder, viz., £2,579,651, employed as advances in loans and discounting bills at the chief town of each presidency. As the bankers are prohibited from dealing in foreign exchanges, their operations are necessarily confined to the possessions of the East India Company. The other ten are joint-stock banks, established on ihe same principle as similar institutions in England ; and their aggregate paid-up capital, including profits and reserved funds, is £3,539,727, and their deposits and other liabilities £1,625,089, making together a banking capital of £5,164,816, of which sum £682,398, is retained in cash and government securities, and the remainder, viz., £4,482,418, employed in advances on various descriptions of securities, discounting bills, and in carrying on exchange operations with India, China, and England, under the management of boards of directors elected by the shareholders. — Daily Paper. Mr. Oastleb. and the Factory System. — We extract the following deeply interesting passage from a speech made at Wakefield on Monday by Mr. Oastler. Having observed that Robert Owen, of Lanark, was the first who suggested the adoption of a Ten Hours Bill, Mr. Oastler gave a brief narrative of the labours and sacrifices of Mr. N. Gould on behalf of the factory children : — " He died of a broken heart because he could not curb the covetousness of his neighbours. I have, said Mr. Oastler, visited that man's grave ; 1 have laid this hand upon his coffin, and I have vowed to his God, that come weal, come woe, if I have the power, his work shall be completed, and the Ten Hours Bill shall become the law of the land. (Cheers.) He had been forty years living in a manufacturing district, and although he had heard of the sufferings of the blacks in the West Indies, and had been enthusiastic in the cause of their emancipation, he had never giv^n himself the trouble to know that there was a factory slave in England. And how was he converted ? It so happened that he was one night a visitor at the house of Mr. John Wood, of Bowling Hall, Bradford, the largest manufacturer of worsted in the world. During the evening

Mr. Wood said — ' Mr. Oastler, I wonder that with all your philanthropy and zeal for the emancipation of the blacks, you never turn your attention to the factories.' 'Why, what is there to do there V *Do you not know V ' No, I know nothing about the factories, what is the matter V ' Why the system we carry on here at Bradford is the most awful that can be imagined ; we work children, some only five years of age, in every mill in Bradford from six in the morning till seven in the evening, allowing only thirty minutes for dinner — that is, 12| hours. In my own mills I give them ten minutes more, but that is all. There are mills where they work fourteen hours, and some fifteen hours a-day.' I said, 'It is impossible. Human nature can never endure it.' 'Well, but,' said he, * they do endure it.' *' After some further conversation on the enormities of the factory system, Mr. Wood requested him to write a letter on the subject to the Editor of the Leeds Mercury. At four o'clock the next morning, as Mr. Oastler was going off, he was informed by the servant that Mr. Wood requested an interview with him. " I went," continued Mr. Oastler, into the bed-room ; " Mr. Wood, sitting up in the bed, had a small table by his bed side. Two wax candles were burning, and between them was placed God's holy word. He was reading it. •O my friend,' said he, ' before you go I want you to give me your solemn pledge that you will endeavour to get these poor factory children emancipated. Their condition is so heavy on my mind that I cannot rest, and every word I read in this sacred book is like an arrow to my soul.' There was a picture of a penitent mill-owner ! I did give him my hand, and did promise from that moment to endeavour to emancipate the factoiy slaves, and the very same day I wrote a letter upon the subject to the Leeds Mercury, which letter has been the foundation of that great movement through Yorkshire and Lancashire called the agitation for the Ten Hours Bill."

The Sack op Madgberg. — Here commenced a scene of horrors for which history has no language — poetry no pencil. Neither innocent childhood nor helpless old age, neither youth, sex, rank, nor beauty, could disarm the fury of their conquerors. Wives were abused in the arms of their husbands, daughters at the feet of their parents, and the defenceless sex exposed to the double sacrifice of virtue and life. No situation, however obscure or however sacred, escaped the rapacity of the enemy. In a single church fiftythree were found beheaded. The Croates amused themselves with throwing children into the flames ; Fappenheim's Walloons with stabbing infants at their mother's breasts. Some officers of the League horror-struck at this dreadful scene, ventured to remind Tilly that he had it in his power to stop the carnage. "Return in an hour," was his answer ; " 1 will then see what I can do ; the soldier must have some reward for his danger and toils." These horrors lasted with unabated fury, till at last the smoke and flames proved a check to the plunderers. To augment the confusion, and to divert the resistance of the inhabitants, the Imperialists had, in the commencement of the assault, fired the town in several places. The wind rising, rapidly spread the flames, till the blaze became universal. Fearful indeed was the tumult, and clouds of smoke, heaps of dead bodies, the clash of swords, the crash of falling ruins, and streams of blood. The atmosphere glowed, and the. intolerable heat forced at least even the murderers to take refuge in their camp. In less than twelve hours this strong, populous and flourishing city, one of the finest in Germany, was reduced to ashes, with the exception of two churches, and a few bouses. The administrator, Christian William, after receiving several wounds, was taken prisoner, with three of the burgomasters; most of the officers and magistrates had met an enviable death. The avarice of the officers had saved 400 of the richest citizens, in the hope of extorting from them an exorbitant ransom. But this humanity was confined to the officers of the league, whom the ruthless barbarity oi the Imperialists caused to be regarded as guardian angels. Scarcely had the fury of the flames abated, when the Imperialists returned to renew the pillage, amid the ruin and ashes of the town. Many were suffocated by the smoke ; many found rich booty in the cellars, where the citizens had concealed their most valuable effects. On the 13th of May, Tilly himself appeared in the town, after the streets had been cleared of ashes and dead bodies. Horrible and revolting to humanity was the scene that presented itself. The living crawling from under the dead, children wandering about with heartrending cries, calling for their parents, and infants still suckling the breasts of their lifeless mothers. More than 6,000 bodies were thrown into the Elbe to clear the streets ; a much greater number had been consumed by the flames. The whole number of slain was reckoned at not less than 30,000. — Schiller's IMrty Years* War.

The Clockmaker in Barbary. — The clock of the " Jamaa Kebeer?' the great mosque at Tangier, being much out of order, needed some skilful craftsman to repair it. None, however, of the " Faithful" were competent to the task, nor could they even discover what part of the machinery was deranged, though many put forth their opinions with great pomp and authority ; amongst the rest one man gravely declared that a Jin, or evil genius, had in all probability taken up its abode within the clock. Various exorcisms were accordingly essayed, sufficient, as every true believer supposed, to have expelled a legion of devils — yet all in vain : the clock continued dumb. A Christian clockmaker, "a cursed Nazarene," was now their sole resource ; and such a one fortunately was sojourning in Tangier — " the city protected of the Lord." He was from Genoa, and of course a most pious Christian ; how then were they, the faithful followers of the Prophet, to manage to employ him ? The clock was fixed in the wall of the tower, and it was, ofcourse a thing impossible to allow the Kaffer to defile God's house of prayer by his sacrilegious steps. The time-keeper Moakkeed reported the difficulty to the kady ;♦ and so perplexed the grey-bearded dealer in law and justice by the intricacy of the case, that, after several hours of deep thought, the judge confessed he could not come to a decision, and proposed to report upon the subject to the kaid, advising that a meeting of the local authorities should be called. " For, in truth," said the kady, " I perceive that the urgency, of this matter is great. Yes ' I myself will expound our dilemma to the kaid." The kaid entered feelingly into all the difficulty of the case, and forthwith summoned the 6ther authorities to his porch, where various propositions were put forward by the learned members of the council. One proposed to abandon the clock altogether ; another would lay down boards over which the infidel might pass without touching the sacred floor ; but this was held not to be a sufficient safeguard; and it was finally decided to pull up that part of the pavement on which the Kaffer trod, and whitewash the walls near which he passed. The Christian was now sent for, and told what was required of him ; and he was expressly commanded to take off his shoes and stockings on entering the Jamaa. " That I won't" said the stout little watchmaker ; " I never took them off when I entered the chapel of the most Holy Virgin," and here l.c crossed himself devoutly. " and I won't take them off in the house of your Prophet." They cursed in their hearts the watchmaker and all his race, and were in a state of vast perplexity. The wise Oolama -j* had met early in the morning ; it was already noon, and yet, so far from having got over their difficulty, they were in fact exactly wheie they bad been before breakfast ; when a greybearJed Mueddin, who had hitherto been silent, craved permission to speak. The kaid and the kady nodded their assent. " If," s.aid the venerable priest, " the mosque be out of repair, and lime and bricks have to be conveyed into the interior for the use of the masons, do not asses carry those loads, and do not they enter with their shoes on V* " You speak truly," was the general reply. " And does the donkey," resumed the Mueddin, " believe in the One God, or in Mahomed the Prophet of God 1" " No in truth," all replied. " Then," said the Mueddin, " let the Christian go in shod as a donkey would do, and come out like a donkey." The argument of the Mueddin was unanimously applauded. In the character of a donkey, therefore, did the Christian enter the Mahomedau temple, mended the clock — not indeed at all like a donkey — but as shch, in the opinion of " the Faithful," came out again ; and the great mosque of Tangier has never since needed another visit of the donkey to its clock. — Hay's Barbary.

* Judge. f Learned men.