ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 287, 29 April 1848, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

In the House of Commons the New Zealand Government Bill was read a second time, and was ordered to be committed on the 4th of February. Lieutenant Waghorn. — We regret to , learn that Lieutenant Waghorn has been obliged to give notice that his establishments in England, India, &c, " will cease on the 24th of December next." The competition of a , . powerful company has entailed this necessity upon Mr. Waghorn. It is impossible to read, such an announcement without regret. To the persevering and indomitable energy with" which Mr* Waghoru has, in the face 1 of the" most formidable difficulties, pursued the pro- . ject of his early life^ — to facilitate the communication between England and India — we are chiefly indebted for the admirable footing upon which that communication, is at present, placed. It-is-certainly disheartening to see the pioneer of this great work, after the devor tion of his life (for he has been twenty years, labouring at it) now compelled' to abandon the field which he bad so successfully cleared, ' We trust, however, that in pursuing and completing his project — the establishing " a dv- ' plicate route" — Lieutenant Waghorn will at length find the adequate reward of so many> years of public service. — Morning Chronicle. Preservation of a French Barque. — Her Majesty's Ship Tyne, 28,

Captain Glascock, arrived at this port on Saturday last, having put in by stress of weather, on .her way to Portsmouth. The Admiralty, anticipating the probability of her arrival here, had ordered her to remain to be paid off. On Chnstmas-day, during a most dreadful gale, the Tyne fell in with a French barque in great distress, evidenced by her having the national flag half down on her three roast heads. The Tyne at once closed with a view to hail her, and endeavoured to ascertain the extent of her distress, but such was the violence of the gale that all attempts at verbal communication were impracticable. The gale raging furiously, with a heavy sea, it was considered next to impossible that a boat could live on the water if any attempt ahoulJ be made to board the barque ; at this juncture, Mr. James Perm, master of the Tyne, (grand nephew of the late wellknown intrepid King's pilot of Cawsand,) seconded by Lieutenant Selwyn, of the same ship, at the imminent risk of their lives, nobly volunteered to board the vessel, supposing her crew wished to abandon her and take refuge on board the f lyne. On reaching the barque it was ascertained she had lost her rudder, and the whole of her bulwarks on the starboard side, she was also in a very leaky state, short of provisions and water, and her crew so exhausted from pumping, &c, that they were totally unable to continue their exertions, or in any way assist the vessel. Lieutenant Selwyn promised, on the part of Captain Glascock, that the Tyne should stick by them, and render them every possible assistance, as soon as the weather moderated to allow communication, and in the meantime a jury spar had been fitted on board the Tyne, by which the barque could be steered, until a proper rudder, made on Pakenham's principle, could be completed, and properly shipped. On the twenty-sixih of December, at noon, the weather becoming more moderate, the spar was sent on board, and with great difficulty secured and found sufficiently effective to wear the barque round with her head to the northward, and before dark, with the consent of her captain, the Tyne took the barque in tow. Between the 26th and 28th the Tynes crew were constantly engaged by day and night, occasionally casting off the tow, and employed in the boats towing the two vessels apart, as the wind fell light and the swell increased, in consequence of the two vessels having a great tendency to close. On fhe 29ih, at noon, Eakenham's rudder was fully completed and shipped, the baique amply supplied with provisions and water, and found to be so serviceable altogether that the French captain expressed a strong desire to prosecute his voyage alone. Three hearty cheers were jntercbanged between the two vessels, and each parted for their respective destinations, the captain of the barque expressing excessive gratitude, and stating bis determination to report the great kindness he bad experienced to the French Government on his arrival. The barque was richly laden, having a general cargo estimated at £20,000, from Marseilles to Havre. She was quite a new vessel, copper bottomed and fastened. There can be little, if any doubt, that if the rudder had not been supplied, she must have been lost either off Ushant or ScUly. Nothing could exceed the disinterested and generous conduct of Captain Glascock, his officers, and crew, — for, had they brought the vessel into a British port, a large amount of salvage must have been their reward. But, like true British sailors, they sacrificed all pecuniary considerations, and devoted themselves entirely to preserve a valuable ship and cargo belonging to the merchants of their ouce powerful enemy. Captain Glascock was not in bed for five nights, and was on board the barque superintending the shipping the rudder, and rendering his best assistance. We sincerely hope that King Louis Phillipe will dujy appreciate this noble conduct, and prevail on Lord Auckland to promote Lieutenant Selwyn and Mr. Perm, for their intrepid conduct in first boarding the barque, and reward the captain, the other officers, and crew of the lyne, by some mark of his special favour. We feel assured that it is quite impossible that such disinterested and noble conduct can pass unrewarded. — Devonshire Jndenendrnt.

.Common Time throughout England. •r^An occurrence of considerable importance} in a point of view took place on the Ist December, when the mail and other trains between Liverpool, Manchester, and the north, were, in consequence ot the completion of the thorough communication, placed upon the Trent Valley line instead of going round by Birn^ngham. On this occasion, by order of the Directors of the London and NorthWestern, with the concurrence, it is understood,.of the Railway Commissioners and the Post-office authorities, the clocks at every station on the London and North-Western, tjje , Midland, Birmingham, and Gloucester, and other lines were set to Greenwich time. It,\was first proposed, in order to obtain the communication of true time — a practice , now daily adopted at Greenwich for indicating it—

that a ball should be dropped from the upper part of the Observatory so as to touch a spring communicating with all the telegraph wires in the kingdom, and thus by the strikof a bell, give instantaneous true time to Liverpool and Manchester and all the northern towns. The telegraph could thus from day to day, supply any want of uniformity ; but owing to the y. ires not being completed, and not communicating with jvery station, the design was found impracticable. In default of this another plan was resorted to, — that of sending special messengers, each having a chronometer indicating true Greenwich time, to the several divisions of the London and North-Western, and Midland systems ; so that Greenwich and London time, in the course of the day, was communicated and established at every station on these lines — the stations amounting to between 200 and 300, and affecting all the principal towns and cities between London and Carlisle and London and York — Daily Ne^s.

Painless Operations. — The success which has attended the introduction of chloroform, as an agent for rendering patients insensible to pain during surgical operations, has been most complete ; and marvellous as were the effects of ether in some instances, when the subject was first mooted a few months since, it is now clear the latter will be entirely superseded by the more agreeable, ' and at the same time convenient and effective agent, chloroform. The inhalation of ether, in addition to being exceedingly disagreeable to all parties breathing the atmosphere to whioh it was exposed, in almost every case occasioned a most distressing sense of suffocation to the patient prior to the loss of sensibility, and its influence after the operation was sometimes very painful and difficult of removal. None of these objections attach to chloroform. The process of inhalation is not interrupted by spasmodic breathing, coughing, or any other disagreeable effect. The patient inhales without pain — in some instances the sensation is described as most pleasurable — and within a very short period a total insensibility of the nervous system ensues. An opeiation of a most successful nature, marking the complete success of the agent, was performed by Mr. Avery, one of the Surgeons of Charing-cross Hospital, a day or two since. The case was that of a poor woman named Jane Quilton, aged 52, who had suffered severely for some years from a diseased thigh bone. Amputation as near the hip joint as possible being considered necessary, the case was deemed one in which the inhalation of chloroform might be usefully applied. The consent of the poor creature having been obtained, she was placed under its influence, inhaling the vapour through a little instrument scarcely larger than a smelling bottle, which has just been invented for the purpose by Messrs. Weiss and Son, of ihe Strand. In less than four minutes the patient was entirely unconscious. The operator at once commenced, but, so fearful was the nature of his duty, that three-quarters of an hour had elapsed before the operation was completed. During the whole of this time the patient remained in a state of complete insensibility, and when the chloroform was removed, there was not the slightest indication of the poor creature having suffered from its influence. Another case, equally successful in its results, occurred at the same institution, Mr. Avery again being the operator. This was tbeierooval of a cheloid tumour from the neck of a^child, aged about five years. The same periodi.as in the other case, sufficed to induce insen|H>j]ity, and the most complete freedom froflppmi continued so long as the chloroform was applied.

GOYERNMEKT OF ASCENSION. "Ascension does not come under the head of colonial possessions, and has no Governor or officials belonging to the civil power. It is held by the Admiralty as a depot for stores for the African station, as being more easily reached than St. Helena, on account of the S.E. trade. It is however treated as nothing more than a ship, and in fact is looked upon as if it were the Ascension, store ship, moored in the South Atlantic. An old vessel, cilled the Tortoise, is constantly lying there, and every person on the island is entered on her books, and supposed to belong to the crew. The commander of the ship is the Governor of the island, unless it should happen that another vessel, commanded by an officer who is senior to him, shonld arrive, in which case the newcomer supersedes him, as long as; he remains there, but on his departure the captain of the Tortoise again assumes the reins of this important Government."

The Comet op 1556. — We may expect a visit of the celebrated comet of 1556 next' year. This comet caused universal terror in Europe at that period, and as the time of its passage through its orbit occupies 292 years — if astronomical calculations are to be de- ( pended upon — its appearance in 1848 is cer-. tain. The announcement was made at the meeting of the British Association for the Promotion of Science, on the 26th Jane.

This comet will probably appear in March next — that is, if no very great derangement in its usual orbit has been caused by the influences of the planets or other powers that sway these eccentric and mysterious bodies. — Pictorial Times, 1847.

A Lost Note.— ln 1740, a Bank Director lost a £30,000 bank note, which he was persuaded had fallen from the chimney piece of his room into the fire. The Bank Directors gave the loser a second bill, upon his agreement to restore the first bill, should it ever be found, or pay the money if presented by any stranger. "About thirty years afterwards," says Mr. Francis, " the director having been long dead, and his heirs in possession of his fortune, an unknown person presented the lost bill at the bank, and demanded payment. It was in vain that they mentioned to this person the transaction by which that bill was annulled ; he would not listen to it ; he maintained that it had come to him from abroad, and insisted upon immediate payment. The note was payable to the bearer, and the £30,000 were paid him. The heirs of the director would not listen to any demands of restitution ; and the bank was obliged to sustain the loss. It was discovered afterwards that an architect, having purchased the director's hoiise, had taken it down, in order to build another upon the same spot, had found the note in the crevice of the chimney, and made his discovery an engine for robbing the bank. — History of the Bank of England. "There is in the last Quarterly a very pleasant, but somewhat unmerciful review of Mr. Fox Talbot's book on English Etymologies. We have no disposition to attempt rivalship of pungent criticism with the reviewer, who to say truth has made fun enough with poor Mr. Talbot, but one passage of the Etymologics — a grave dissertation upon the word 'puss,' as applied to a cat and a hare indiscriminately — irresistibly impels us to let out ajoke upon our readers. The word * puss,' as applied to a cat, as all readers know, is never applied but colloquially with the animal. Nevertheless, Mr. Talbot derives the word from the Latin j word tepus, through the Norman French, which, according to the etymologist, was incorrectly treated by our ancestors, as two words, an article and a noun, le pus, though v/hy the j name of a hare should be applied to a cat either by Norman, Frenchman, or Saxon, he J does not explain. The fact however, is, that j the French whether of ancient or modern times — whether of Normandy or Paris — never addressed a cat by the name of puss, and this brings us to our story. There lives, or at least did live some few months ago, at Meurice's, a remarkable fine Persian cat of great size and of the most courteous manners. An Irish member of the House of Commons and of tb« Repeal j Association, who happened to lodge at the hotel at the time of which we speak,was much pleased j with the animal's appearance and manners, and sought to establish an acquaintance with it by addressing it ' Puss, puss,' in the broadest and most coaxing accents. The object of his solicitation was, however, as obdurate as an ' Irish Charity Commissioner' of 1847, seeming as if she heard not the voice of the wooer, when an English waiter informed the senator that in France cats knew nothing about puss, and ' answered only to the name of Minn4. Minn6 was accordingly pronounced, with all the mellowness of western intonation, and instantly acknowledged the invitation by jumping into , the lap of him who pronounced it. ' Well;' exclaimed the astonished Hibernian, 'see that; the cats here talk French as well as the people. lam sure I would not have believed it if any one had told it to me.' " — Morning Herald.

A Problem for the People. — Lent an umbrella — to get it back again. — Punch.

Impartiality. — " This is a very impartial country for justice," said Sam, " there a'int a magistrate going as don't commit himself twice as often as he does other people."