MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 385, 11 April 1849, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

Clifton Suspension Bridge. — Upwards of £40,000 have already been expended upon this undertaking, and no more money forthcoming the works are now at a stand still. One single bar of iron sweeps across the gulf ; and on this fragile looking thread a wicker car travels from side to side with visitors who are courageous enough to trust themselves in it, and the journey is quite as fearful as it looks. A little wooden house is built on the edge of the cliff to keep the car in, and from this spot the adventurer starts. To sit in the basket (says the Wilts Standard) whilst the men in attendance are preparing to let go, and to look along the line, dropping in the centre as it does some fifty feet, is enough alone to make one slightly nervous ; but when the cry "hold fast" comes, and with the speed of light you rush down as you fancy for the moment into eternity, the stoutest gripe the sides of the wicker car with a convulsive strength, and lift themselves as though the world were falling from beneath them. As you get over towards the middle of the passage the speed decreases, and after rising up for some little time on the other side the car comes to a stand still. And now, being half way over, and the strange feeling which the rush down the wind has given you havi ig a little subsided, leisure is afforded to gaze about ; and if you have courage to look down, some idea of the height at which you are suspended may be gained by the flights of rooks that, frightened from their holes in the rocks by the passage of the car, whirl far beneath you. A rope attached to the basket pulls it

up the ascending bar to the landing-place on the other side. — Daily News. Contrast. — It is impossible not to be struck — if the comparison comes to the mind at a n — w ith the prodigious difference which appears to exist at the present moment between the state, condition, and employments, of England on the one hand, and the various nations of the Continent on the other. Never, we apprehend, since the dissolution of the Western empire, has Europe generally exhibited such a state of confusion, disorder, weakness, and disorganization as at the present moment. The south and the north, indeed, Spain and Scandanavia, are, as yet, but slightly affected by the earthquake ; but all the central kingdoms " reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end." Why, even the Papacy totters. Its hold on the public mind in Italy is gone. Not long since it was said in Florence, that on hearing the news from Milan, " Pope Pius wept bitterly." On which fact a Florentine journal, // Popolano, thus commented, in an article which was soon reprinted, and circulated by thousands in Tuscany and Lombardy :—: — " • II Papa Piange !' " The Pope weeps ! Weep, ill- counselled Pontiff, weep for your vanished glory — acquired at so light a price, and lost at so costly a sacrifice of the blood of men, who idolized a vain man, an image of clay — the shadow of a man. " Weep, Pontiff — weep for the nations you have betrayed, for the destinies of Italy which your fearful, timid, paltry mind could not grasp : sheltering yourself under the sublime mantle of a religion which' you might have led back to its pure fountain heads, but to which, on the contrary, following the old custom of your predecessors, you have added your contribution of shame and defilement ! "Weep, O Pontiff! — Thou sceptered and living Anti-Christ (scettrato c vivente anti-Chrisio), weep for your dearly beloved Germans, and hurl at the heads of their slaughterers before proud Milan and unconquered Bologna — hurl all your thunderbolts — they have no weight nor edge. " The Pope weeps ! Weep, Count Mastai, weep that the providence thou trustest in has not yet granted the results aimed at in the destinies of Italy ; for it is plain that the providence to which thou hast committed the people means nothing more than thine ancient ally, the empire — that ever faithless prop of Simoniacal Fapacy. " In order that Rome might lie tranquil under the double yoke of thine own demoralizing policy, and of northern despotism, thou hast, in va:n, commended thyself to all thy saints — and so it should be. Hast thou not, in thy delirium of fear, reached to very blasphemy ? Hast thou not dethroned the Eternal, and placed in his stead the Virgin, with the chief of the apostles for responsible ministers ? Hast thou not, to these, rather than to Him, committed the guardianship of Rome, hoping, perhaps, that this Provisional Government in heaven, like Provisional Governments on earth, would be weaker and less watchful than that of the God of Vengeance, the terrible God, who stands for the defence of peoples, as thou dost for kings. " Weep, weep, Father — no longer 'holy' — weep that your orders to desist from fighting were treated like a light breath ; and, as the idle wind, your orders of blind obedience to the compacts with the enemies of Italy concluded in the silent and sinister depths of the Vatican. " Weep, thou favoured of Loyola, for even if the followers of freedom fall by the German sword, the followers of Ignatius will not go scathless. "Weep, Pope — weep burning tears over the tomb thou hast dug for thyself; weep, for Italy will yet be a great and glorious fact, while the Popedom becomes a polluted name ; weep, for while Italy rises more beauteous from the stake to which thou condemnest her, the Popedom will sink into -putrefaction and decay, amidst the joyous shout o( emancipated nations."

Effects of the French Revolution. — "In the National Assembly yesterday, two bills were introduced, which are strong indications of the ruin produced in Paris by the revolution. By the first a supplementary grant of nine millions of francs (£360,000) is granted from the public revenues, to assist the municipality of Paris to support the vast mass of poor whom it has now to feed ; and, by the second, one million of francs (£40,000) is granted as an additional aid to the hospi- J tals. Notwithstanding the large amount of the former of these sums, they will not go | far towards supporting the vast number of I people among whom it is to be distributed. By (he report of the committee on the subject, it appear* that until the month of March next there will be three hundred thousand individuals in Paris living on public charity. It is proposed that there should be distributed to each individual only the miserable sum of fifteen centimes (three halfpence) per day,

and still the expenditure for each month will be 1,350,000 francs. Even at the present day, the number of persons assisted amounts to 265,000, and every day adds to the number. For the next month, and three following, the number is expected to exceed 300,000 ; but it is to be hoped that in the month of April that number may be reduced to 280,000. At the end of yesterday's sittings, M. Marrast, in the name of the committee on the Constitution, announced the measures which it was proposed to introduce under the rather vague title of " organic laws." It will be remembered that the National Assembly has determined that it will not give place to the ordinary Legislative Assembly of the Republic, as settled by the Constitution, until after the passing of these laws. They are as follows : — I. On the responsibility of the depositions of the authorities ; 2. On the Council of State ; 3. The electoral law ; 4. On departmental and communal organization ; 5. On the judicial organization ; 6. On public instruction ; 7. On the organization of the public armed force and the National Guard ; 8. On the press ; 9. On the state of siege." — Morning Chronicle, November 10. The King's Country Chronicle reports that on the 2nd November, Major Phibbs, Staflfofficer of Pensioners, accompanied by Serjeant Grant, his clerk, was proceeding on his car from Parson's Town to Roscrea, for the purpose of issuing out the monthly pay to the out-pensioners, when they were attacked at Clonkelly by a party of six or eight men, all of whom were armed with blunderbusses and pistols. They stopped the car, presented arms, and demanded money. The sergeant hesitating, one of the ruffians shot him through the heart. His death was instantaneous. They then took about £180 in notes and silver from the Major and decamped. The Major placed the body of Grant upon the car, and drove to the military barracks about a mile distant. Dilligent search v/as made for the assassins, and four of them i were taken. One of the four had been already tried for shooting at Connors, steward to Mr. White of Charleville, and also for conspiracy to murder Mr. White himself, but had escaped on account of the jury having disagreed three times. Talmddical Allegory. — The Spirit of Solomon. — A venerable old man toiled through the burden and heat of the day, in cultivating his field with his own hand, and in | strewing, with his own hand, the promising seeds into the fruitful lap of the yielding earth. | Suddenly there stood before him, under the I shade of a huge linden tree, a divine vision. The old man was struck with amazement. "lam Solomon," spoke the phantom, in a friendly voice ; " what are you doing here, old man ?" — " If you are Solomon," replied the j old man, "how can you ask this? In my youth you sent me to the ant ; I saw its occupation, and learned from that insect to be industrious, and to gather. What I then learned, I am following out to this hour." — " You have only learned half your lesson," resumed the spirit. "Go again to the ant, and learn from that animal to rest in the winter of your life, and to enjoy what you have gathered up." — Jeivish Chronicle.