MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 386, 14 April 1849, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

The French Insurgents of June. — The committee on the hill relating to the transpoi tation of the insurgents of June to Algeria has brought in its report. By a decree, dated the 9th of July, eight military commissions were instituted for investigating the cases, and deciding which of the parties, accused should be discharged, which should be transported, and which should be brought before a court-martial. Of the persons accused, 6174 were set at liberty, 4348 were ordered for transportation, and 255 were sent to be tried by court-martial. Of the men ordered for transportation, all have been sent to the different ports of the Republic, except about 200, who are still in the prisons of Paris. Between the 25th of September and the sth of October the Commissioner of Clemency had examined the documents relating to 4348 convicts, and had marked 951 as being worthy the clemency of the Government. As to the question of the term of transportation for participation in insurrection, thp Committee of the Chamber has expressed an opinion that there will be no danger in reducing it from ten to five years. After five years, the convicts will be at liberty to return to France, but it is probable that the greater number of them will not avail themselves of this liberty. "Become proprietor of land in Algeria, " says the report, " having established there his family and his domestic hearth, and made it the centre of his affections and his interests, the convict will consider Algeria as his country." The committee proposes also to authorize the fathers and mothers of convicts to follow them, to encourage marriages, and legitimatize children, so that they hope to inherit the name and property of their fathers. 109 individuals transported to the roadstead of Cherbourg, after the events of June, in virtue of the decisions of military commissions, have appealed to the Court of Cessation against the transportation, on the ground that the military commissions had not the power to sentence, and that transportation, without previous judgment, is not in the number of penalties legally applicable. The Court of Cessation, however, has decided that the decisions of the military commissions were in execution of the measures conferred on the Executive Government by decree of the 27th of June last; and that, consequently, they had no judicial character, and cannot he disturbed. — Gallignani's Messenger.

New Electric Light. — On Saturday night, an experiment was made on the Great Western Railway, to test the power of a new species of light produced by electricity, particularly with a view to its being used by railway traius. The light is produced by au apparatus invented by M. Le Molt, a French gentleman, who has been for several years employed in electrical experiments in Russia, and whose discoveries in that department are well known to the scientific world. At halfpast six o'clock, a truck, containing a wooden square box, about the size though not the shape, of a sentry box, and having a galvanic battery of some sixty or seventy small jars disposed around it, was attached to the last carriage of the train, then about to proceed from Paddington. The light was produced inside the box, and the rays, condensed and heightened by a powerful reflector, were emitted by an aperture contrived for the purpose. The light was produced before the train left Paddington, when a dazzling blaze filled the whole of the spacious station, casting the numerous gas lamps there completely into the shade. As the train proceeded on its way, the reflection left a long train of clear bright light for the distance of a mile and more behind it, in such a manner as to render it utterly impossible that any train coming up behind should run into it, except as the effect of deliberate intention. The reflection, as seen from the carriage, was very beautiful, the prismatic colours being distinctly and vividly delineated along the outer edge of tbe circle of radiation ; and as these fell upon the dense column of smoke ascending from the engine, the effect was singular and striking. The night was dark, bm clear, and so far favourable to the experiment ; and objects, such as a bridge, were rendered distinctly visible at the distance of about two miles. Tbe experiment was made as far as Slough, on arriving at which station the truck was detached from the train, and continued there about half-an-hour, till the up-train arrived, with which it returned to town. While at Slough the light was turned in the direction of Windsor Castle, as it was the expectation of M. Le Mott, who accompanied the experiment, that it would be seen from thence. While there, a gentleman stationed himself the distance of 200 yards or so from the apparatus, aud read a newspaper by tbe light produced, which he found he could do with perfect ease. The apparatus then returned to town in the same manner, the light being continuously intense during the whole of tbe journey and return ; tnd we were informed by the ingenious inventor that there

could be no difficulty in keeping it up for the whole night. The experiment afforded great satisfaction to all who witnessed it, the only drawback being that the apparatus, baring been in the first instance adapted for stationary experiments, suffered considerably from jolting inseparable from railway motion, a defect which the inventor considered might be with ease overcome in any future experiment. This is, we understand, the first time that light produced by electricity has been applied to railway purposes ; and if its use should be found practicable, there can be no doubt it will add greatly to the safety of night travelling by railway.

Sea- Weed Bread. — Sea- weed bread, or layer cake, if not one of the delicacies, is one of the edible curiosities of the Gower coast. A great sensation was made some years ago, by a statement that thousands of the peasantry in the, "wild west" of Ireland were obliged, for some months in the year, to live mainly on sea-weed. In Gower and at I Swansea sea-weed is ratber a popular article of food. Women attend Swansea market witb baskets of layer cakes, which are sold at Id. and 2<l. each. This weed (ulva porphyra laciniata) makes an excellent ingredient in sauce for mutton. It is got close to low- water mark ; washed well in sea water to free it from sand, then boiled twelve hours, and seasoned with salt. In winter it is only necessary to boil it two hours. The weed grows rapidly except in winter, and is renewed every other spring tide. It is also used in several parts of the Scottish coasts and islands, where it is called sloke or slokum. — Book of South Wales, Second Edition.

Newspapers. — The pleasurable life the Editor of a colonial or provincial paper leads, may be understood by what we weekly, if not daily, experience: — Subscriber No. 1: I like the article on the Judge's case very much, but you should give us much more of the despatches. The public look for such things just now with much anxiety. — No. 2 : Why, our paper is filled with despatches ; you have said scarcely anything about the earthquake in New Zealand, and you have omitted the police report altogether. Every body looks for that. — No. 3 : Don't you think all that trash about the police office is filling up the paper to no good purpose ? Some good English extracts would be far better. — No. 4 : Why, half tbe paper is filled with what doesn't concern the colony ! What do we care for speeches in Parliament ? You should give us something colonial — something about Sydney and Port Phillip.— No. 5 : It would pay you better to fill it with more advertisements ; it's advertisements the public look for here ; they don't care one straw about politics. — No. 6 : I'll tell you what I think. If you would, in your back page, every week, give us a good long extract from one of tbe new works, it would be far better than filling it up with so many on all sorts of subjects ; depend upon it your subscribers would like the paper much better. — No. 7 : All we care for is the markets ; what we want to know about is the markets. I never look at anything else. And so on, every body consults his own wish, forgetting that an Editor would be no common idiot, should he attempt to please all his subscribers ; that to look for praise and thankfulness from all, in return for bis labour and anxiety, would be the very worst description of folly. No public man, unless he is rich (which is a passport for public honour), can expect from the multitude roorethan that reward which lies half-way between approval and reproval : the only remuneration he re* ceives being the consciousness of having performed his duty. — H. T. Britannia.

Thet " Can't Get Out." —It has been observed by Leigh Hunt that there are two, aud but two, classes of the community— " newspaper editors, and cab drivers" — who never may indulge themselves with a holiday. „

A Good Reply. — A calm, blue-eyed, selfcomposed young lady in a village " downcast," received a long call the other day from a prying old spinster, who, after prolonging her stay beyond her own conception of the young lady's endurance, came to the main question which brought her hither : "I've been asked a good many times if you were engaged to Dr. C . Now if folks inquire of me whether you he or not, what shall I tell 'em I think ?" •• Tell them," answered the young lady, fixing her calm blue eyes in unblushing steadiness upon the ioquisitive features of her interrogator, "tell them that you think you don't know, and that you are sure it is none of your business." — American paper.