ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 224, 22 September 1847, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

i Prince Albert has given seventy-six head of deer to be killed for the poor of Windsor and of the neighbouring parishes. . The Paris Court of Cassation has decided that a Roman Catholic clergyman, who had ceased for years to fill the functions of his ministry, and had even become a Protestant, was not justified in marrying. According to a German paper, the distress is so great in Hungary, that the poor are grinding the bark of trees to make into I>read. Mr. Saunders, the Great Western secretary, gets £2500 a-year ; Mr. Gooch, locomo-

tive superintendent, £1000: Mr. Clark, general superintendent, £750; Mr. Pyke, head accountant, £550 ; Clark, Bristol superintendent, £550 ; Ashbee, of Exeter, £325 ; and Graham, of Gloucester, £180. The King of Prussia, taking into consideration the existing scarcity, suspended all the balls and entertainments for the winter, and sent to the magistrates of Berlin 10,000 thalers, the sum which the court balls would have cost, to be distributed among the poor. Mr. Robert James Mackinson, son of the late Sir James Mackinson, whose memoirs he has written, has been appointed Lieute-nant-Governor of the island of St. Christopher. The Courier de VAin states, that butchers' meat has become so dear at Scbaffhausen, in Switzerland, that permission has been granted by the authorities to expose for sale the flesh of horses, asses, and mules.

The New York customhouse shows that the number of emigrants who arrived there last December, was, from Great Britain and Ireland, 4230; France, 1243; Belgium, 1082; Bremen, 752 ; Holland, 450 ; "Sweden, 118; other ports, 97 ; total, 7972. A petition, signed by six hundred and for-ty-eight members of the Catholicclergy, demanding an immediate and total abolition of slavery in the French colonies, has been laid before the Chamber of Peers by Count Montalembert. Among the signatures there are seventy-seven of the cures of Paris. During the first week in March nearly 7000 carcases of beef, mutton, and pork, were received at the Newgate and Leadenhall Markets from Scotland. The amount expended on the new buildings and fittings of the British Museum, from Michaelmas 1823, to Christmas, 1846, was £606,500 19s. sd. The Second Chamber of the Estates of Hanover have passed resolutions proposing the revocation of an outrageous provison in the game laws of 1840, by which it is allowed to fire at poachers who take flight. A note which was lately paid into the Bank of England was dated the 28th July, 1736, No. 94, value £25. This note, which had been out 111 years, would, at compound interest, have produced £6400 at 5 per cent, interest. The benefit at her Majesty's Theatre for the distressed Irish and Scotch produced upwards of £1300 in aid of the general relief fund. The surgeons of the metropolis are taking steps for the purpose of raising a monument j in Westminster Abbey to the memory of John Hunter, the celebrated surgeon. The last report of the Register-General shows that of the men married in England in the year 1844 — 80,337 signed their names, and 42,912 made their marks in the book ! Of the women only 67,176 wrote their uames, and 65,703, or 49 out of every 100, made their marks. According to the Indian Examiner, the cost of raising the revenue of the East Indies is 20 per cent, of the gross receipts. It has been computed that the consumption of tea in the United Kingdom is l§lb. to each head of the population ; but in Cauada, where the duties are moderate, the consumption exceeds 51b. per head. An official return lately published at Berlin shows that in 1846 the printing presses of that city struck off 40,560,000 sheets for different works. In 1827 the number was only 19,245,317. A new Roman Catholic Church is to be erected in Sheffield, towards which £8,290 has been subscribed ; an anonymous donor contributing £3,000. According to the Jeicish Chronicle, the present Jewish population of Tunis numbers 40,000. The number of synagoues, and other places of Jewish worship, is 30. A patent has been taken out by Mr. Parke's of Peckham, Surrey, for making coffins of glass by a mould, or of thick plates of china joined together by a durable cement, or of wooden cases lined with plates of glass, united by a mixture of fused glass and borax. It has been computed that Mrs. Butler's demand of £100 a night would, in the part of Juliet, amount to four shillings a line for the repeating of every line. A correspondent of the Times proposes a sure and simple means of preventing such mistakes in the administration of medicines as have recently been attended with fatal results. He would have all liquid poisons, dangerous medicines, and embrocations not to be taken inwardly, sent out either in coloured or flat bottles with coloured Übels, and all powders of a dangerous nature in coloured papers. A strange act of incendiarism is reported in the Journal d' Elbeuf, at an inn at Orival. A rat, spying that a lantern-door against a j stable wall, was open, snatched the candle, lighted as it was, between its teeth, aud carried it off into the hay-loft, which was soon in a blaze. The fire was, however, soon got under. What became of the culprit is not recorded.

According to the Medical Times, the numbers of students in the French schools of medicines is about 1800, 800 of whom are in Paris. A letter from St. Petersburgh says that the Emperor has just issuetl a ukase, declaring that Jews in the army shall be allowed to be promoted to the rank of lieutenant. The late Benjamin Winthorp, the barrister, has left funded and other personal property to the amount of £350,000. His will, with eight codicils, all in his own handwriting, was found j in the celler of his private residence. The number of letters which passed through the Post Office in St. Martin's-le-Grand on Monday— St. Valentine's Day— was 422,000; of newspapers, 145,000. Restiictions in testamentary grants, &c, calculated to prevent marriage — such as an annuity of £100 to a single woman, to be reduced to £50 in the event of her marrying — are declared by the law to be void, on grounds of public policy. The cost per mile of English railroads has been 160,750 dollars — of American 43,650 dollars. A man, praising porter, said' it was so excellent a beverage, that though taken in great quantities, it always made \\\mfat. "I have seen the time (said another) when it made you lean." " When ? I should be glad to know," inquired the eulogist. " Why, no longer since than last night — against a wall." A gentleman from the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, of the name of Falls, being asked if he was one of the Falls of Dunbar (once well-known merchants there) replied, " No, I'm one of the Falls of the Clyde." J

Steam Communication with Sydney. — Aprospectus has been published intbeSytfwey Morning Herald, of a proposed India and Australia mail packet company, to be established in London, with a capital of one million, for the purpose of communicating by steam with India, China, and the Australian colonies. In the prospectus it is stated that the profits of the Peninsular and Oriental Company for the year ending 30th September, 1846, amounted to £245,000, or twenty-four per cent, on the capital invested. The vessels of the proposed company are to be of 1,000 tons register, and it is intended to run a packet (in the first instance once a month) to Alexandria, to correspond with a packet from Suez, to Aden, Ceylon, Madras, and Calcutta — and another packet from Ceylon to Sydney direct (via Singapore.) The following reasons are adduced for establishing the proposed additional line of packets :—: —

Reasons fob establishing thje proposed ADDITIONAL LINE OF PACKETS. — The importance to great Britain of steam communication with India cannot be too highly appreciated. All our public despatches as well as commercial and domestic correspondence being forwarded by the overland route, which regulates the mercantile transactions between Europe and Asia, and which will ultimately constitute the communication with Australasia. Important, however, as is this route to Great Britain, many of the European nations consider that it promises to be of still greater importance to them, for it has already given the facility of acquiring accurate information of our Indian possessions, and the knowledge thus acquired has excited their merchants to watch with attention for any opportunity which will enable them to participate in the trade of the East. Great changes are on the eve of taking place in Egypt, which will considerably improve the means of transporting merchandise through that country, and consequently diminish the cost of transit ; and it is a well ascertained fact, that a very trifling diminution of expenses in that quarter will cause a great importation of Indian and Chinese produce into the ports of the Mediterranean. It behoves England, therefore, to lose no time in preparing to meet such a change : and if it be her desire to maintain her present supremacy in the India and China trade, she must be the first to take advantage of the most

available routes. France and Austria already occupy half the route to India with their steamers, the former having upwards of forty sail, and the latter above thirty engaged in the transport of mails and passengers from every port in the Mediterranean to and from Alexandria and the Coast of Syria ; and it is a lamentable fact, that the British possessions in the Mediterranean are obliged to rely for much of their communication upon French and Austrian vessels. France at the present time has three packets every month from Marseilles, and the Austrians two from Trieste, to Alexandria and the Coast of Syria, whilst Great Britain, with all her extensive Eastern possessions, has only two between England and Egypt, and one between Suez and Calcutta. The population of the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Sea is rapidly incfeasing in numbers and wealth, and those countries

daily offer a more lucrative market for Indian produce, the improvements in steam navigation, combined with the changes in the channels of trade, will enable them to place mercantile steamers in the Red Sea, and thus participate in a share of what they conceive to be the enormous wealth inseparably connected with the India and China trade ; it is thereto le obvious, that unless the Red Sea be previously occupied by British steamers, Austrian and French packets will soon be seen crowded with English passengers for Aden and tbe East, as they are now seen quitting Alexandria for Malta, Trieste, Marseilles, &c, &c. Our Indian Empire, with a population exceeding one hundred million British subjects, with an annual revenue of nearly twenty millions sterling, and a maritime trade of nearly thirty millions sterling, being nour governed by orders transmitted through Egypt, a moment's reflection must convince every one of the great importance of establishing means of more frequent intercourse, otherwise a trifling accident might leave India without any communication from Europe for a considerable perio.l. Moreover,' whatever promotes economical and rapid intercourse'between India and England tends materially to strengthen the bonds of union by the inculcation and preservation of English feelings, and adds to the 'political security, territorial improvement, and consolidation of our vast and incalculably important Anglo-Indian empire. Should Great Britain be engaged in war with any European power, every attempt would doubtless be made to interrupt our communication with India, &c, through the Mediterranean, and should any such interruption take place, it might seriously affect the security of our eastern possessions. On the other hand, the introduction of additional steam communication would prove of inestimable importance to Great Britain, by affording the means of transporting her warlike forces and stores from Europe to Asia, or- from Asia to Europe, with the greatest possible celerity, and a rapid means of intercourse between India and Europe, by either the Red Sea and Egypt, or by the Persian Gulf and Syria, would multiply the resources of Great Britain and secure the defences of her distant territories. It has already been noticed that French and Austrian steamers arrive at Alexanderia and Syria more frequently than the English, and the indefatigable Mr. Waghorn has demonstrated that much may still be done to accelerate and economise the transport of mails, passengers, and merchandise. If a line were drawn along the route from London to Australia, it would be found to pass through many of the richest and most populous countries of the world ; the production of ' articles at each end and along the line which are consumed throughout its whole extent is very great, and at no distant period depots for trade will probably be established, and if not formed by Great Britain will be occupied by foreigners ; it is therefore self-evident that British capital and skill ought to be devoted without delay to pre-occupy this, channel for employment. It ouly remains to state that British interests imperatively require an additional service of colonial steamers between England, Gibraltar, Malta, and the East of Europe, as also in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, at least twice a month, which shall carry passengers and merchandise at the lowest possible rates consistent with comfort, security, and despatch. The increasing extent of the mails, and the augmenting number of passengers, have for some time past required a weekly communication with India, &c. ; moreover it is highly important -that this extensive line of intercourse should not be dependent upon a single Company, but that a collateral line should be established, by which her Majesty's Government and the public may derive the benefit of fair competition by means of a weekly mail to and from India. Repeal and Famine. — The famine has taught the empire an important lesson as to Irish repeal. For many years past that country has been convulsed, and the empire harassed by the loud and threatening demand for the repeal of the union, and the incessant outcry that the Irish people are perfectly equal to the duties of self-government, and that all their distresses have been owing to the oppression of the Saxon. The wind of adversity has blown, and where are these menaces now ? Had Providence punished them by granting their prayer — had England cut the rope, as Mr. Roebuck said, and let them go, where would Ireland have been at this moment? Drifting away on the ocean of starvation. Let this teach them their dependence upon their neighbours, and let another fact open their eyes to what those neighbours are. England has replied to this senseless clamour, this disgraceful ingratitude, by voting £10,000,000 sterling in a single, year, to relieve the distresses which the heedlessness and indolence of the Irish had brought upon themselves. We say advisedly, brought upon

themselves. For, markworthy circumstance! the destruction of the potatoe crop has beep jast as complete, and the food of the people has been just as entirely syre.pt away in the, West Highlands ,of Scotland as in Ireland, hut there has been no grant of public money to-Scotland. The cruel Anglo-Saxons have given it all to the discontented untaxed Gael in the Emerald Isle. — Blackwood's Magazine. i The Worxsop Spreadoak. — The celebrated roof of Westminster Hall, the span of which is among the greatest ever built without pillars, is little more than one-third the width of.the Worksop Spreadoak : — the branches of which would reach over Westminster Hall, placed on either side of its trunk, and have nearly thirty-two feet to spare, — and its extent is nearly thirty feet more than the length, and almost four times the width of Guildhall in Ahe city of London. The rafters of Westminster Hall roof, though without pillars, have massive walls on each side to support them ; but the tree-bongbs, of sixteen feet more extent, are sustained at one end only. Architects, who know the stress a staircase, of even eight or ten feet in width, has upon the wall into which the side is built, can alone fairly estimate the excessive purchase which branches on either side, spanning from outhough to outbough 110 feet, must have on the central trunk. — The Plough.

The New Port op the Mebsey. — lhe rise of Birkenhead is one of the most remarkable events in the history of commerce. To something like the rapid, go-ahead, constructive energy of a colonial community, has been added the artistic refinement of a highly cultivated society ; with the commercial vigour of England or the United States, the leading men of Birkenhead combine the princely spirit of the aristocratic merchants of mediaeval Italy, and the artistical faculty for constructing cities as a whole, which seems to have been lost since the ages of antiquity. The immense docks are backed by a town planned to be symmetrical, salubrious, and comfortable for all classes ; with a park for their recreation. No sooner are the gates of the unfinished docks opened, than there enters the first trade-ship. Simultaneously with the establishment of Birkenhead has been the establishment of free trade. Commerce, political freedom, and art, have all presided at the birth of Birkenhead. Liverpool seems to look with a Carthaginian jealousy at the institution of this rival on the opposite shore ; at least the corporate authorities of, Liverpool do so. The jealousy is as natural as it is short-sight-ed. The history of the affair illustrates the imperfect* wisdom which lurks in the saying, "A penny saved is a penny got." Liverpool derives a revenue of nearly £230,000 a-year from dues imposed on the goods and ships entering its docks, and derives £80,000 from town dues; of that joint revenue about £150,000 have been applied, not to the accommodation of the great transit trade of the port, but to speculative investment in dock-building and the ease of local burdens. The Birkenhead people have only taken powers to levy moderate dues on vessels using their docks, not on the goods at all. For their profit as traders they trust to the growth of trade ; and they will not run the risk of keeping down that growth of trade, in order to keep down the nominal amount of local rates. Liverpool has acted on the very opposite plan ; she has maintained atoll-bar at the mouth of the Mersey, and has applied the toll to save the pockets of her citizens from direct demands in the shape of local rates ; but, of course, what they save in rates, they lose manifold in the stinting of their trade : for, great as that has been, it might have been greater. Their penny saved is many a penny lost. The free competition of Birkenhead necessitates the removal of the toll-bar, and the trade, not only of Birkenhead, but also of Liverpool will benefit by the removal of restriction. No doubt, the apportioning of the benefit, will, in some degree depend upon the start taken at first ; and the absence of the Liverpool dignitaries from the festival of the week, seems to indicate a sullen adherence to the obsolete policy, rather than a recognition of the new necessity. The interests of Liverpool will suffer proportionately. — Spectator,

Trigonometrical Survey. — A return, moved for by Mr. Hume, has just been laid before the House of Commons, containing an abstract of accounts relative to the trigonometrical surveys that had been carried on by the government, in England, Scotland, and Ireland. The accounts commence as far back as the year 1791, and it appears from them that the total expense from that date to January last, for the survey in England .was £608,617 12s. 9§d. ; in Scotland, £36,322 12s. Of d. ; »nd in Ireland, £817,512 14s. 6|d. ; total £1,462,522 19s. 4§d. The surveys had been engraved, and since the year 1825 had been sold to the public, Of the English map, up to 1846^ ninety sheets had been published, of which 92*71 1 impressions had been sold, producing £35,540 3s. 6d. ; of the Irish, 1,946 ibeets have been, published, and 119,000 impressions sold ; the gross return being £24,3o9

10s.. The electrotype process has been rendered available in the more recent, conduct of the service, and the following account is given of its introduction in the Dublin office for the .purpose of facilitating the multiplication of copies of the Ordnance map of Ireland, " An electrotype apparatus has been in operation for some time at the Ordnance Survey-office, Dublin. It is constructed to admit four of the copper-plates of the Towland Survey being copied simultaneously, and its average rate of production may be taken at four pounds of electro-copper daily. An additional apparatus, of equal capability, is in course of erection, and may be expected to be ready by the 31st of March next. The process has been principally employed in obtaining duplicate copper plates of the Ordnance maps of Donegal, on which to engrave the numerous additions, &c, which are necessary to make them equal in minuteness of detail to the maps of the southern counties of Ireland ; and it has in this way been the means of saving the cost of- re-engraving the original survey, the change which has taken place in the face of the country since that survey was made being so considerable that the requisite corrections could not possibly have betn made on the original copper sheets. The apparatus will be similarly valuable in the reversion which is to follow the Ordnance maps of the other northern counties of Ireland. It is at the present j being made available for taking copper plates of 'the railway commissioners ' map of Ireland, upon which it is intended to engrave the boundaries of the poor, law ( unions and electoral divisions, a map of that kind being at present required by the Government. A similar application of the process was made in 1845, by which the 'land tenure commissioners ' map of Ireland was produced. Lastly, this valuable art has been applied to the multiplication of copies of such of the survey copper-plates as were liable to be worn out by the number of impressions required from them."

Austria. — First Publication of Debates of the Austria Diet. — The Augsburg Gazette of the 14th of March contains a remarkable sign of the times. For the first time the debates of the assembly of the states of Lower Austria are published. The debates began on the Ist, and were closed on the Bth instant. They were carried on with much spirit. .Among them may be mentioned in the first place the royal rescript of the resolution of the states in June relative to the taxes for 1847. The states have resolved on an humble petition of the King, that he would take into consideration a reduction of the taxation especially on the necessaries of life and on stamps. As a compensation to the revenue, an universal income-tax is to be recommended. Another topic discussed by the assembly was one on which the states have been intent for some years, the improvement of cross-country roads between the provincial towns, to communicate with the great roads. A committee has been appointed to draw up a report of plans of roads in other countries, to be laid before the next assembly of the states, which will probably take place in May. The royal resolution of December 14, for the abolition of the rabots and tithes [the taxation so complained of by the Galician peasants] officially announced to the states, was most cordially received, and the states unanimously resolved to petition the King for certain regulations necessary in order to carry that abolition into effect as speedily as possible. A very interesting debate arose on the educational measures of the government, and especially on the necessity of means for the improvement of the condition of parish schoolmasters. For this purpose a committee was appointed. The most important point, however, was the question of the representation, of the commons (dcs vierten oder Burgex-standes). All the share which they have hitherto had in legislation has been confined to attendance on the opening of the States Assembly to hear the government statement of taxation, after which they are required to retire before any discussion commences. A few years since they were not allowed to enter the house, but to I stand in the doorway and listen to the proceedings. At the recent session, ontheocca- ! sion of a question of taxation, Count Breuner (a genuine Tory in the most liberal sense) put a question as to the mode in which the commoners had been reduced from their old constitutional rights to their present minimum of representation. Count Breuner understood the royal message calling the fourth state to the assembly as an admission that they had a right not only to hear, but also to take a deliberate part in the proceedings. He proposed that it was now the duty as well as the right of the commoners to claim a share in legislative measures. This proposal led Baron Yon Stifft into an historical statement of the legislative functions of the commoners, from the opening of the Austrian Assembly to 1790. Several speakers followed in favour of the suggestion made, and Count Breuner's proposal was unanimously supported. There is good reason, therefore, ror supposing 'that we

shall find the fourth state, at the next assembly no louger in their late passive situation, but assuming a share in the discussions'. — Daily News. A Good Marksman.' — " The powa*er-pl*y being finished, we fired at a mark. ' Seedy Tayeb Boocassera of Wazan, whom God had blessed with an unerring eye — the prince of marksmen — chanced to be present. To him we referred to judge who amongst us was the best shot. A pile of stones, with a small pebble or a flower at the top, was our target. Many good shots had been made, but the beardless Alee put us all to shame ; seldom did he miss the flower, and Boocassem declared him to be the victor. , When the firing ceased, Boocassem offered up a prayer to the Lord of all creatures for the welfare of the ' whole party. ""Seedy Boocassem,' said the sheikh, ' there is one shot yet to be fired, and that too by the finest marksman amongst us : so get ready your gun. And here,' continued the sheikh, holding out an egg, ' who is there that will put this egg between his ankles, and stand by yonder aloe for Seedy Tayed Boocassem to break it t * " There was a dead silence — no one moved from his place but young Alee. The boy ran forward, kissed the hand of Sheikh Mohamed Biteewy, and soon placed himse'f at the aloe with the egg between his' ankles. " ' In the name of God,' taid Boocassem, as he poured in the powder, and rammed down the wadding of palmetto rind; and ' God be propitious,' said he, as the ball rolled down. The cock of the gun was pulled back, the priming was poured into the pan, and Boocassem, squatting on the ground, levelled his gun. " * Am I properly placed V said Alee. " ' Bring up the left leg more;' said Boocassem : ' that will do.' " The long gun seemed as steady as if it had rested on a rock : every man held his breath. Bang went the gun, and Alee's ankles were besmeared with the yolk of the egg. " ( Thank God !' said Boocassem ; and we shouted one and all. "Young Alee came forward, and Seedy Tayeb Boocassem laid his hands on him and blessed him, prophesying that at some future time he also would be able to perform the feat of breaking the egg. 'But beware, boy,' said he, ' attempting it until you arrive at such perfection as never to miss your mark ; for I remember, some years ago, when I was at the holy city of Wazan during the feast of the lamb, Bengeloon and other marksmen of fame | from distant parts had assembled to shoot at the target. Bengeloon and I were the only two who had fired at the egg. Then Kaid Absalam, he who had been governor of Alcassar, whose heart was black with envy, swore by the beard of our Prophet that he could do what others had done before him ; so he called one of his slaves, and told him to take his place with the egg, about thirty paces from where he was sitting : — it was the same distance at which we had fired. " The gun was levelled, and Bengeloon — may God profit us through him! — looking over the kaid's shoulder, exclaimed, ' Allah ! unless you keep your gun steadier, O kaid, you will hit his left leg.' Bang went the gun, and the slave fell with a groan, for the ball had passed through his left ankle. " ' There go a hundred dollars,' said Kaid Absalam; 'but the next shot shall hit the egg. Abd-el-Habeeb,' said he, calling on another of his slaves, ' take another egg, and stand where Embarek stood. Coward! what do you tremble for ? Stand steady, or I will put a ball through your heart. ' " Again the gun was levelled. " * All wrong,' said Bengeloon, who remained at his shoulder. Bang it went, and the ball passed through the fleshy part of ihi leg, but the slave kept his position. ." ' That is a fine fellow,' said Bengeloon to the kaid, who was again loading his gun : 'Be merciful, as you expect mercy in the world to come.' " ' True,' said the kaid, ( but I must have another shot, for all that.' He fired for the third time, and broke the egg !" — Hay's Barbary.