ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 288, 3 May 1848, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

The Roman Catholic Hierarchy in England. — All the documents relating to this long debated question among the Roman Catholic clergy of England arrived on Wednesday. The scene of Dr. Wiseman's labours is not to be London, as was originally supposed. He is to be Bishop of Birmingham. The Right Rev. Dr. Walsh, heretofore Vicar Apostolic of the midland district, which inciudes Birmingham, and to whom Dr. Wiseman acted as coadjutor, is now Archbishop of Westminster. The title of Vicar Apostolic is to cease, and the bishops are to be for the future called after their respective sees. The further division of England into sees, preparatory to an increase in the number of bishops is still under the consideration of his Holiness: when that is definitely arranged, the number of bishops will be increased by four. There will also be one or two more archbishoprics created. A letter from Rome, of the sth, announces the death of M. Silvoni, of Bologna, member of the Consulate, and one of the first lawyers in Italy. He was member of the Provisional Government at Bologna, and Minister of Justice in 1831. During his exile of 15 years, he had principally devoted himself to studying the legislation of other countries, and his loss will be severely ielt in the Consulta.

New Houses of Parliament. — The following report of Mr. Barry, the architecton the New Houses of Parliament at Christmas last, appears in the report of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, printed on Saturday : — " The whole of the carcase works of the north, the east, and the south fronts of the buildings are completed. A suite of 19 rooms on the second floor of the river front has been temporarily, and in part permanently fitted up for use as committeerooms. The Victoria tower is above 80 feet in height, and the ground roof over the state entrance within it, is completed, with the exception of the carvings. The clock tower is 84 feet in height. The central hall, together with the whole of the buildings adjacent to it, are carried up their full height. The groining of the ground hall, of the central hall, and adjoining corridors, is in a forward state of preparation. The walls of St. Stephen's porch, with the adjoining entrances from Westminster-hall and St. Margarets-street, are 20 feet above the ground. St. Stephen's hall is upon an average two-thirds its full height. The internal fronts of all the inner

courts of the building, as far as it is now ia hand, and the whole of the carcase works of the new buildings around them, are completed. The front towards New Palace-yard ia completed, with the exception of a few of the stone pinnacles and the terminals on the parapet, and the iron roof above it over the Commons' residences is fixed. The second floor of this portion of the building has been temporarily fitted up as offices for the use of the House of Commons. The iron roofing of the House of Commons is completed, and the public library adjoining is ready to receive its ceiling beams. The works of this portion of the building are at present suspended, and will so remain until the warming and ventilating arrangements to be applied to it are finally decided upon. The House of Lords, together with the Victoria hall and public lobby, are nearly completed in all their details, and will be ready for occupation during the ensuing (the present) session. The ventilating and warming arrangements for this portion of the building are nearly completed. Separate temporary approaches to the new House of Lords have been provided both for the use of peers and of the public. Temporary communications have also been formed from the Victoria hall to the peers' temporary committee-rooms in the river front. The joiners' works and the finishings for the completion of the committee-rooms, libraries, and refreshment-rooms belonging to each of the Houses are in a state of great forwardness ; a considerable portion of them are already fixed, and the fittings of the remainder are ia hand. There are at present 1470 men employed upon the works of the new Palace, of which number 859 are employed at the building, 100 at the quarries, 260 at the Government workshops at Thames-bank, upon the joiners' finishings and wood carvings, and 251 upon miscellaneous works both at the building and elsewhere."

The lately Discovered Volcano ''in Victoria Land" towards the South Pole. — With a favourable breeze and very clear weather, we stood in to the southward, close to some land which had been in sight since the preceeding noon, and which we called the " high Island :" it proved to be a mountain twelve thousand four hundred feet of elevation above the level of the sea, emitting flame and smoke in great profusion ; at first the smoke appeared like snow drift, but as we drew nearer its true character became manifest. The discovery of an active volcano in so high a southern latitude cannot but be esteemed a circum-" stance of high geological importance and interest, and contribute to throw' some light on the physical construction of our globe. I named it " Mount Erebus," and an extinct volcano to the eastward, little inferior in height being by measurement ten thousand nine hundred feet high, was called " Mount Terror." At 4 p.m. of 28th January, Mount Erebns was observed to emit flame in unusual quantities, producing a most grand spectacle. A volume of dense smoke was projected at each successive jet, with great force, in a vertical column, to the height of between fifteen hundred and two thousand feet above the mouth of the crater, when condensing first at its upper part, it descended in mist or snow, and gradually dispersed, to be succeeded by another splendid exhibition of the same kind in about half an hour afterwards, although the intervals between the eruptions were by no means regular. The diameter of the columns of smoke was between two and three hundred feet, as near as we could measure it ; whenever the smoke cleared away, the bright red flame that filled the mouth of the crater wa» clearly perceptible ; and some of the officers believed they could see streams lava poor* ing down its sides until lost beneath the snovr which descended from a few hundred feet below the crater, and projected its perpendicular icy cliff several miles into the ocean. — Host* Voyage of Discovery.

Female Occupations. — Female authorship is beginning to flourish in England. To this employment no rational objection can be raised. The want of occupation for femalelife, in the higher classes, has long been asubject of complaint, and any honest change which removes it will be a change for the better. The quantity of time and thread which, has been wasted on chainstitch and roundstitch and all the other mysteries of the needle, in, the last three centuries, is beyond all calculation. If the fair artists had been worker* at the loom, they might have clothed half the living population in "fine linen." if not in purple. If they had been equally diligent itt brickmaking, they might have built ten Babels; or if they had devoted similar energies, on lago's hint, " to suckle fools, and chronicle small beer," they might have tripled the po-* pulation, or anticipated the colossal vats of. Messrs. Truman & Co. What myriads of. young faces have grown old over worsted parrots and linseywolsey maps of the terrestrial globe ! What exquisite fingers have been thinned to the bone in creating carnations tqt be sat upon, and cowslip beds for the repose; of. favourite poodles ! What bright eyes 'bav«

been reduced to spectacles, in the remorseless fabrication of patchwork quilts and flowery footstools for the feet of gouty gentlemen t Nay what thousands and tens of thousands have been flung into the arms of their only bridegroom, Consumption, leaving nothing to record their existence but an accumulation of trifles, which cost them only their health, their tempers, their time, their charms and their usefulness ! But the age of knitting and tambour has passed away. The spinning jenny was its mortal enemy. The most inveterate fringeraaker, the most painstaking devotee of of patchwork, when she found that Arkwright could make in a minute more than with all her diligence she could make in a month, and that old Robert Peel could pour out figured muslins by a twist of a screw, sufficient to give gowns to the whole petticoat population ■of England, had only to give in ; the spinsterhood were forced to feel that their " occupation wgts o'er." Even then, however, the female fingers were not suffered to " forget their cunning," and the age of purse making began. The land was inundated with purses of every shape, size, and substance. Then followed another change. The Berlin manufacturers had contrived to bring back the age of worsted wonders, though, by a happy art, they saved the fair artists all the trouble of drawing and design. We are still under a Gothic invasion of trimmings and tapestry, of needlework nondescripts, moonlight minstrels in canvass, playing under cross-bar balconies; and all the signs of the zodiac brought down to the level of the ivory fingers of woman-kind. To this, we must acknowledge, that the incipient taste of the ladies for historical publications, for diving into the trunks of family memorials, and giving us those private correspondences which are to be found only by the desperate determination to find something and everything, is a fortunate turn' of the wheel. — Blackwood.

Parliamentary Pastimes. — Two new games have been introduced id to the House of Commons since the commencement of the extraordinary session, and played with much spirit by honorable members. The first is called "Hunt the Pressure," and is thus played : — Members having taken their seats, all the events of the last two years are called in, and set down before the house. They conceal "the Pressure" among them, and the game consists iv finding out under which of them it is hidden. The house presents the most animated appearance while the hunt is going on, and the greatest amusement is j ■caused by the wild attempts of members to guess where "the Pressure" really is hidden. "I've got it!" cries Lord George seizing furiously on Free Trade. "Here it is!" and he brings to light something which turns out to be "Plenty" instead of "Pressure" "Nonsense!" cries Sir William Molesworth, "here it is under Railways," and he pulls out "Employment." "It's under Famine!" shouts another honorable member. "It'sunder Bank Restriction !" interpose half-a-do-zen members at once tumbling over each other in their eagerness to lug the act of 1844 out of its place, to seize on " the Pressure " under it. There is nothing. The struggle waxes warmer. Lord John grasps Railway -and Famine at once, in his conviction that they have hidden the missing object between them. His example is followed by twenty others. The whole circle of events is hurled topsy turvy. Everybody declares be ■knows exactly where "the Piessure" is, but somehow nobody catches it. The fun of the game consists in its never coming to a conclusion. The other, and equally favourite game, is called "Blind Member's Buff." A member is blindfolded. The Pressure is allowed to run about the house, with Famine, J Free Trade, Railway Works, the Bank Act, •and the others who have just formed the circle for " Hunt the Pressure. 1 ' The object is to catch the Pressure. Of course, the Blind Member is continually catching the wrong, thing, and the fun of the house is excessive at his assertions that he has got hold of the pressure, when he really is grasping one or more of the bewildered crowd about him. — Punch.

The following interesting account of a night spent on the wreck of the Martha Ridgicay is extracted from Jukes's Narrative of the Surveying Voyage of H.M.S. Fly, during .the years 1842, 1846.' "We had a heavy pull of a couple of hours, dead to windward, from the ship's anchorage, before we reached the inside edge of the reefs, jwhere we found the flood tide coming over the ieef like the rapids of a river. We passed in -a very short distance from dark blue water to ■some coral blocks, on which we grounded. The men then got overboard and we proceeded by dragging the boat over the coral in the deepest channels we could find, the men at one time standing only ankle deep, at the next unable to touch bottom, and holding on by the gunwale till they could lay hold of the next lump of coral. This coral was nearly all alive over the whole surface of the reef, which had '&6 sand bank or dry space upon it even at low

water. Before we reached the wreck, we met a heavy ripple proceeding from the surf of the outer edge, often a couple of feet deep, and requiring some care to prevent the boat being staved as it fell in the hollow of the wave at the back of the ripple line. On getting alongside the wreck, we found a rather heavy surf breaking against her bow, and reached the deck with some difficulty by means of an old backstay that had been part of her main rigging. She lay with her bow to the sea on her starboard bilge. She was still pretty perfect above, her deck, forecastle, and poop, and even the bulk heads of the cabins remaining. The foremast also was standing, but the tide flowed in and out of her below. Her lower deck, however, was dry, and at low water there was not above a foot or two of water in her hold. * * The reef was about a quarter of a mile wide, and ran nearly due N. and S. for several miles. It appeared indeed to stretch to the horizon in both directions, the breaks in its continuity being so narrow as to be barely perceptible. A fresh breeze was blowing from the S.E. and rather 3. heavy sea running outside. The water was perfectly clear and of great and almost unfathomable depth right up to the outer slope or submarine wall of the reef. The long ocean swell being suddenly impeded by this barrier, lifted itself in one great continuous ridge of deep blue water, which, curling over, fell on the edge of the reef in an unbroken cataract, of dazzling white foam. Each line of breaker was often one or two miles in length, with not a perceptible gap in its continuity. After recovering from this leap and spreading for some distance in a broad sheet of foam, the wav-e-gf adually swelled again into another furious breaker of almost equal height and extent with^ the first, and then into a third, which, although much less considerable, yet thundered against the bows of the wreck with a strength that often made her every timber quiver. Even then the force of the swell was not wholly expended, two or three heavy lines of ripple continually traversing the reef, and breaking here and there against the knobs and blocks of coral, that rose higher than usual. There was a simple grandeur and display of power and beauty in this scene, as viewed from the forecastle of the wreck (about thirty feet above the water), that rose even to sublimity. The unbroken roar of the surf, with its regular pulsation of thunder, as each succeeding swell first fell on the outer edge of the reef, was almost deafening, yet so deep-toned as not to interfere with the slightest nearer and sharper sound, or oblige us to raise our voices in the least. Both the sound and the sight were such as to impress the mind of the spectator with the consciousness of standing in the presence of an overwhelming majesty and power, while his senses were delighted by the contrast of beautiful colours afforded by the deep blue of the ocean, the dazzling white of the surf, and the bright green ot the shoal water on the reef. The reef, when closely examined, appeared to consist of a sandy floor, on which were thickly-clustered lumps of coral, scattered closely but irregularly about it. The corals appeared principally rounded masses of astr« and maeandrina, covered with their green-co-loured animals in a state of expansion ; there were, however, many finger-shaped madrepores of beautiful purple colours, and leaflike expansions of explanaria and other branching corals. These were now generally covered with from one to four feet of water, but some masses were level with its surface. The whole was chequered with spaces of white sand, had a bright'grass-green hue when viewed from a distance and when looking down on it from the poop of the wreck, might have been likened to a great submarine cabbage garden, Before it had got dark we had righted the old coppers of the ship, which were lying on the deck, in order to cook the men's suppers, and after a little trouble we rigged a kind of table in the cuddy with some of the bulk heads, and established ourselves for the night. * • As I was walking the poop of the wreck before looking out for a ' soft plank' to sleep on, I could not help being struck with the wildness and singular nature of the scene. A bright fire was blazing cheerfully in the galley forward, lighting up the spectral looking foremast with its bleached and broken rigging, and the fragments of spars lying about it. A few of our men were crouched in their flannel jackets under the weather bulwarks, as a protection from the spray which every now and then flew over us. The wind was blowing strongly, drifting a few dark clouds occasionally over the star-lit sky, and howling round the wreck with a shrill tone that made itself heard under the dull continuous roar of the surf. Just ahead of us was the broad white band of foam which stretched away on either hand into the dark horizon. Now and then some higher wave than usual would burst against the bows of the wreck, shaking all her timbers, sending a spout of spray over the forecastle, and travelling along her sides, would lash the rudder backwards and forwards with a slow creaking groan, as if the old ship complained of the protracted agony she endured. She

had been wrecked since we had ourselves left home, and entered the southern hemisphere, and there mingled perhaps some speculations as to our chance of leaving the old Fly in some similar situation with the highly wrought feeling which the mere character and aspect of the scene sufficed to impress upon the mind. The place was so far removed from the regions of civilised life, and so far even from any dry land at all ; the reef, also, on which we stood, was one of nature's mysteries, its origin equally wonderful and obscure, its extent so vast, and its accompaniments so simple, so grand, and appropriate ; — altogether I shall not easily forget my night-walk on the wea-ther-beaten poop of the wreck of the Martha Ridgway."