MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 273, 11 March 1848, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Morning Post states that some gentlemen of high character and considerable ipfluence with the middle classes of society have determined to make a serious effort to establish "a corporate or collegiate institution of females," with somewhat similar objects in view to those of the Sisters of Charity on the Continent. The proposal is, to establish an institution for the maintenance and education of nurses and visitors of the sick and poor. The Bishop of London, it is said, not only sanctions the plan, but has consenttd to become President of the proposed institution. In the following statement, a well-informed correspondent calls attention to a peculiarity in the Royal Family of England, not hitherto pointed out : — " Ever since the accession of the house of Guelph, Royalty has freed itself from one of the most universal and honourable, though somewhat expensive, duties of kindred ; and this too without observation, much less censure. The poorest of mankind mark the grave of parents, wife, and children, by some humble memorial : the richer place tablets or raise tombs to their relatives. So gratifying to the heart is this duty, that rarely if ever is it omitted from any other cause than poverty. A foreigner visits the Royal depository in St. George's Chapel, and asks where are the Royal monuments ? But no son, daughter, brother, nephew, or niece, of the present dynasty, has erected a funeral monument of any kind, to the kindred dead. Even if affection did not produce such a testimonial, it might have been expected from regard to ancient custom, and from a desire to conform to the habits of civilized life. The only monuments to our Kings and their descendants, with the exception of the statue of George the Third in Windsor Park, by George the Fourth, and of the beautiful mausoleum which the King of Hanover is building in memory of his consort, have been erected by the public ; and in the instance only of the Princess Charlotte's monument, which was raised by subscription, has one been placed in church or chapel. There is absolutely nothing — not even an engraved slab — to tell where the ashes of George the First, Second, Third, and Fourth, and William the Fou th, or of any one of their numerous progeny, repose. No doubt, the world knows ; and the omission is only- remarkable or important from its being at variance with the custom of the country, from the injury which it has caused to art, and from the idea which it creates of heartlessness in the survivors; not one of whom has expended a shilling on what would appear to be the most natural of social duties." — Spectator.

Heart of Napoleon. — The following curious circumstance was stated- to me on good authority : — When the body of Napoleon was opened at St. Helena, his heart was taken out, and, preparatory to its final destination, put in a basin of spirits and water, and left fpr the night on a table in the bed-room of the medical man who had charge of the matter. In the course of the night, the doctor was awakened from a light slumber by a heavy splash from the basin, and starting up alarmed he Tested on his elbow, and by the light of a taper looked eagerly round the apartment before he should spring from bed. Not the shadow of an intruder was to be seen. What had moyed the basin ? Had that mighty heart scorning to be quelled even by death, regained some of its terrible energies ? Was it still leaping with life 1 Ha ! catching the appearance of something moving in the corner of the r,(>o.m., ,be saw the heart of Napoleon going into a hole in the wall ; and jumping from bed was just in time to rescue it from the teeth of a rat. The blood 0$ Ahab was licked up by dogs. And it ii recorded by Bishop Burnet that, after the body of Charles 1L had been disemboweled, the servants of that licentious and heartless palace, utterly regardless of dead royalty, emptied tbeir basins, containing some of the inward parts and the fatty matter of the entrails, into an open sewer, and many of the clotted lamps were seen for day* sticking to a grate over the month of a drain into which the sewer ran. How nearly had a still : more marked visitation come on the remains of Napoleon— -to hare his heart *aten by rats ! — Skarpc's London Mag. Tht Grand River Rapids (Michigan) Haglt annonncea tht death of an Indian of that village, known as Blejckskin. The EagU «ays he lived to be upwards of s hundred years old, and hasdiacted, at Ike head of his tribe.

many exciting scenes during bis life. His hand first applied tbe torch to the city of Buffalo in the war of 1812. The old man, with the remnant of his tribe, has long been on friendly terms with the whites, and his death is a notable event in the history of his tribe.

The Suez Canal.— The engineers of the Lloyd Austriaco, who had been in Egypt to study the locality where the intended canal has to end in the latter country, have returned home. The Pacha gave them the assurance that if the views of England, France, and . Austria, were in accordance on this subject, he would go to work. As, however, the embankment of the Nile is to be completed first, nothing can be done with the canal for at least the next three years. — The Builder.

, The Cacao op Brazil. — We were now in the great cacao region, which, for an extent of several hundred square miles, borders the liver. The cacao trees are low, not rising above fifteen or twenty feet, and are distinguishable from a distance by the yellowish green of their leaves, so different from aught else around them. They are planted at intervals of about twelve feet, end, at first, ace protected from the sun's fierceness by banana palms, which, with their broad leaves, form a complete shelter. Three years after planting, the trees yield, and therefore require little attention, or, rather, receive not any. From an idea that the sun is injurious to the berry, the tree-tops are suffered to mat together until the whole becomes dense as thatch-work. The sun never penetrates this, and the ground below is constantly wet. The trunk of the tree grows irregularly, withaut beauty, although perhaps by careful training it might be made as graceful as an apple tree. The leaf is thin, much resembling our beech, excepting that it is smooth-edged. The flower it very small, and the berry grows direct from the trunk or branches. It is eight inches in length, five in diameter, and shaped much like a rounded double cone. When ripe, it turns from light green to a deep yellow, 12nd at that time ornaments the tree finely. Within the berry is a white acid pulp, and embedded in this are from thirty to forty seeds, an inch in length, narrow and flat. These seeds are the cacao of commerce. When the berries are ripe, they are collected into great piles near the house, are cut open with a tresado, and the seeds, squeezed carebsaly from ths pulp, are spread upon mats to dry in the sun Before being half dried they are loaded into canoes in bulk, .and transraited to Para, Some of these vessels will carry four thousand arobas, of thirty- two pounds weight each, and, as if such a bulk of damp produce would not sufficiently spoil itself by its own steaming during a twenty days' voyage, the captains are in the habit of throwing upon it great quantities of water, to prevent its loss of weight. A* might be expected, when they arrive at Para it is little more than a heap of mould, and it is then little wonder that Para cacao is considered the most inferior in foreign markets. Cacao is very little drunk throughout the province, and in the city we never saw it except at the cafes. It is a delicious drink when properly prepared, and one soon loses relish for that nasty compound known in the States as chocolate, whose main ingredients are damaged rice and soap fat. The cacao trees yield two crops annually, and, excepting in harvest time, the proprietors have nothing to do but lounge in their hammocks, fylost of these people are jn debt to traders in Snntarem, who trust them to an unlimited extent, taking a lien upon their crops. Sometimes the plantations are of vast .extent, and one can walk for miles along the river, from pne Jo another, as freely as through an orchard. No doubt a scientific cultivator might make the raising of cacao very profitable, and elevate its quality to that of Guyaquil. — Edwards's Voyage up the River Amazon,