ENGLISH NEWS. EPIGRAMS. [From Blackwood's Magazine for March.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 209, 31 July 1847, Page 2

ENGLISH NEWS.

EPIGRAMS. [From Blackwood's Magazine for March.]

The Scottish Guardian says :—": — " In the picture department of the GUsgqw Philosophical Society's Exhibition, the visitor will be interested by No. 75, which is an etching of two dogs' heads, by her Majesty Queen Victoria; and 23, an etching by his Royal Highness Prince Albert. Her Majesty's etching is particularly well done."

Death of Mr. Clowes. — We regret to state that Mr. Clowes, senior, the eminent printer, of Duke-street, Stamford-street, died on Tuesday evening, after a short but severe illness. Formerly the correspondence of all the public offices went free ; but when the penny postage was established, that privilege, together with Parliamentary and official franks, was abolished. The different offices of Government paid for official postage, in the year which ended 31st March, 1846,£1 21,817 : 7s. It is estimated that on the yearly supply of the London market — 150,000 beasts, and 1,500,000 sheep — the saving, by railway conveyance, is £675,000.

Jenny Lind and the Students. — At a certain German town last autumn there was a tremendous furor about Jenny Lind, who after driving the whole place mad, left it on her travels early one morning. The moment her carriage was outside the gates a pack of rarai pant students who had escorted it, rushed back to the inn, demanded to be shown Jenny's bedroom, and swept like a whirlwind up stairs iuto the room indicated to them, tore up the sheets, and wore them in strips as decorations. Au hour or two afterwards a bald old gentleman, of amiable appearance, an Englishman, who was staying at the hotel, came to the breakfast at the tabled' Mte, and was observed to be much disturbed in his mind, and to show great terror whenever a student came near him. At last he said in a low voice to some who came near him at table, " You are English gentlemen, I observe ? Most extraordinary people these German students ; as a body raving mad, gentlemen." "Oh no," said somebody, "only exciiable, but very good fellows, and very sensible." ." By heavens, sir!" returned the old gentleman, still "more disturbed, " then there's something political in it, and I am a marked man. I went out for a little walk this morning after shaving, and when I was^gone" — he fell into a terrible perspiration as he told it — " they burst in:o my bedroom, tore up my sheets, and are now patrolling the town in all directions, with bits of 'em in their button holes." — In the confusion ► the students had gone into the wrong room. Considerable sensation has been created at Rome, in consequence of the Pope having himself preached a sermon on the 13th inst.,

on the occasion of the Festival of Kings. The custom is for the preacher, when the Pope enters the church, to leave the pulpit, and go and receive the orders of the Holy Father. Pius IX. inquired of Father Ventura at what part of his sermon he had arrived t At the second, replied the Monk. Very well, father, rejoined the Pope, I will finish your task, give me your insignia of preacher. The Pope put them on, and then ascerided the pulpit, to the great amazement of the crowd. As the sermon proceeded, tears were in every e)e; but it was towards the end of the sermon that the general feeling was excited to the utmost pitch, when the Holy Father, turning to the Holy Sacrament, implored the blessing of Heaven on his suhjects. A Marabout, named Sidi Abdallah, held in great veneration by the native population of Algiers, has just died there, aged 110 years. For tweuty years he had not left his house, except to take a bath, and then always by night ; and during the same length of time he had not cut his beard or hair. The natives declare that he never beheld a French visage, so that unless by hearsay he could not be aware that Algiets had fallen into the hands of the Christians. Surgical Operations without Pain. — In our Journal of last week, we engraved the new apparatus for rendering surgical operations painless. The subject continues to excite the greatest interest both in and out of the profession ; and some striking cases have been reported. On Saturday, the new process was practised at King's College Hospital, at St. Thomas's Hospital, and at the Westminster Hospital, in the presence of numerous medical men. Three patients were operated on successfully at King's College Hospital; at St. Thomas's also, the finger of a boy was taken off without pain ; but at Westminster Hospital the process was not successful. On Tuesday, Guy's Hospital wa3 crowded by members of the profession from all parts of the metropolis, and from the country, to witness two operations. The first case was that of a boy twelve or fourteen years of age, for lithotomy (or stone). When brought intu the theatre and bound as usual, Mr. Robinson, of Gower-street, the inventor of the apparatus, offered the pipe for inhalation to the patient. At first he refused to be operated on, on account of the many persons present. By some tact the pipe was introduced, the nose closed, and- in two minutes Mr. Robinson said the patient was ready. The operation then commenced, and in one minute more the stone was removed by Mr. Morgan, the operator. The boy was removed to his bed, and visited by the surgeons, and on being, shown the stone, "Ah,' : said he, "you never took that from me ; I knows I never felt it." The next case was sill more extraordinary : — The patient was a man about thirty years of age, suffering from congenital hernia, the operation for which is, perhaps, the most severe and prolonged in surgery. When | brought into the operating theatre, be readily took the " vapour." From four to five mi- i nutes the word was given to Mr. Key, the operator in this instance, by Mr. Robiuson, to commence the operation. From the commencement to the completion of the operation, the patient was u.ider the knife from fifteen to twenty minutes. On his recovering, he was asked by those around him if he had felt pain, and replied " Not in the least; he rad been looking at those gentlemen outside, up there." He alluded to numbers who could not gain admittance, and had availed themselves of the skylight of the theatre. Messrs. | Morgan and Key pronounced the result to be most perfect and astounding. At the Royal Infirmary, at Edinburgh, Dr. Duncan has amputated the limb at the middle of the thigh ; after the patient had inhaled the vapour of ether for about two minutes ; he then became quite insensible to pain, and the operation was proceeded with, the anodyne influence being maintained during its progress by the continued administration of the ether. The proceedings did not occupy above ten minutes, and were most successful, as, throughout 'the whole time, the insensibility to pain was complete. What formed a very remarkable trait in the operation, was the consciousness on the part of the patient of all that was going on. His eyes continued open, and he readily answered the questions put to him, describing, with great calmness, that he felt no pain of any kind. — Illustrated London N&os. Nursery Rhymes. — An ingenious antiquary, Dr. £. F. Rimbault, has proved the antiquity of the following Songs of the Nursery :—": — " Sing a Song of Sixpence" is as old as the 16th century ; " Three Blind Mice" is found in a music-book, date 1609 ; " The Frog and the Mouse" was licensed in 1580 ; " Three Children Sliding on the Ice" dates 1633 ; " London Bridge is broken down" is of unfatbomed antiquity ; " Girls and Boys come out to Play" is certainly as old as the reign of 'Charles the Second ; as is also " Lucy Locket Lost her Pocket," to the tune of which the song of " Yankee Doodle"

was written. " Pussey-cat, Pussey-cat, where have you been ?" is of the age of Queen Bess ; " Little Jack Homer" is older than the 17th century ; " Tlie Old Woman Tossed in a Blanket" is of the reign of James the Second, to which Monarch it is supposed to allude. The Greatest Stand ever made for Civilization — The inkstand. — The Man in the Moon.

Bait, hook, and hair, are used by angler fine ; Emma's bright hair alone were bait, hook, line. Faraday was the first to elicit the electric spark from the magnet ; he found that it is visible at the instants of breaking and renewing the contact of the conducting wires ; and only then. Around the magnet, Faraday Is sure that Volta's lightnings play; But how to draw them from the wire? He took a lesson from the heart: 'Tis when we meet, 'tis when we part, Breaks forth the electric fire. M.