MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 414, 21 July 1849, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

It is said to be probable that her Majesty will pay a visit to Manchester during the present year. The peiiod will be in the autumn, after the present session of Parliament,'during the prog\\ss of her Majesty to and from Balmoral Cash»', in Scotland. Lord John Russell has conferred a literary pension of £100 a year on Mr. Edward William Lane, the well known writer on Egypt. Mr. Lane is now at Cairo, engaged on a comprehensive Lexicon of the Arabic language. Lord John Russell had been initiated an elder of the Trinity House, in the room of Lord Melbourne. The Earl of Buckinghamshire died on the : Ist February. The new Earl of Oxford was in prison for debt, when he succeeded to the title, and was discharged on claiming " the privilege of the Peerage." A Committee of the House of Lords had been appointed to consider whether the inconvenieni, dilatory, and expensive system of ingrossing bilJs might not be done away wkb. The Galway Vindicator stales that' WeXB-' member of the late Parliament, belonging to the south of Ireland, is in a state of beggary in the metropolis. Four thousand parsons have already been apprenticed by Government, under the minutes of the Committee, of Council on Education. Besides the cost of building gaols, the annual expenses of maintaining the ' criminal classes in the prisons of England and Waies amounts to upwards of £400,000, while their productive labour does not realise above £30,000. Hundreds of victims of the Mormon imposture are breaking up their homes in this country, to repair to the "city of the saints'^ in California. Lincolnshire has furnished many of these silly people. It is rumoured that, in the next session of Parliament, a bill is to be introduced, having for its object the repeal of the law prohibiting^ the marriage of a man with "the sister of bis deceased wife. The groundwork-of the proposed measure is the report of the'-commis-sioners appointed by the crown, who sat in London in the course of last winter, to re-; ceive evidence on the state and operation of the law of marriage. After investigating the subject, they came to the conclusion, that- the tendency to these marriages is such, 'that whether morally right or wrong, and -whether prohibited or permitted, there will always be found persons to contract thfcm,''':ivhei&ireoTicurrence of circumstances gives rise to mutual attachment/ ■ < "-' The Mechanics' Magazine states that gutta percha is now used instead of wax for the Impressions of the Irish great seal attached 1 to Irish patents, and adds that the gutta seal shows a boldness and sharpness ofioutJine which is seldom equalled by the choicest medals. Mr. Barber, the reputed will forger, had applied in the Court of Queen's Bench for re-admission as a solicitor. Sir T. Thesiger, on behalf of the Incorporated Law Society, I appeared, not to oppose the application but, to urge the propriety of further investigation. The Court referred th» matter to one of the Masters for inquiry, the application to stand over till Easter term. The Sultan of Turkey has opened the highest offices in the state to Christians.

Sir Edward Brewster. — At the sitting of the Academy of Sciences on the 2nd inst., Sir. David Brewster was elected one of the , eight foreign associate members of the National Institute of France,, vacant -by the death . ol the celebrated chemist; Mvßwzelius. This

honour, coveted by the most illustrious philosophers of Europe, and of the whole world, is" conferred ' by the Academy only after a rigorqus>xamination,of the scientific claims of the candidates who are proposed to the Institute by a commission ' of five members, of whicli M. Arago was on this, as on former occasions, the reporter. - The friends of the other candidates withdrew their pretensions, in order to allow justice to be done to the merits, of the illustrious Scotch philosopher. — Lv Presse. "

-.French Court Festivities. — The grand 3oir6c .given yesterday week at the Elysee National, by the President, is said to have been not only the most brilliant/<#e that has occurred .since the revolution of February, but to have exhibited little difference either in brilliance or etiquette from the most stately ceremonials of the Royal rigime. Nearly IOQO persons assisted at this/e7*; but that which. -chiefly struck all who had the honour of an invitation,, was the Imperial character of the scene ; and if an old general of the empire could for a^moment forget the history of the last forty years, he might imagine that he was assisting at one of those gorgeous receptions in the time of Napoleon. As you entered the Salon d'Aitente you encountered six tall grooms of the antichamber, dressed in the ricb livery of the Emperor, motionless, silent, and stately as statues. Then your card was delivered, and, your name wiitten in a book, where a list had been previously made out, which served to check the cards presented. Your name was then pronounced in a loud tone of voice, and you were forthwith ushered into a second saloon, where the President was standing iv the centre, in the attitude that has become so classic in Franc* 3 , notwithstanding its ungracefulness, namely, with his hands behind his back. The ladies, whose names were announced, were invariably accompanied by aides-de-camp, who, with the grace and gallantry which distinguish the accomplished soldier, introduced them to the Chief of the State,' who received them with a bow, and always had a few words to address to them. In aa inner saloon there was music. The apartments were furnished in the style of the Empire : and the garde meuble had been diligently searched for the objects of vertu and art, which reminded the old of days and scenes now gone ty. The .whole of the diplomatic corps .was present, and to no one was the PresidfgtfMfflore marked in his attentions than to-LofidrJNormanby, with whom he conversed frequently- in 'English^ — Atlas.

Wheat Hut ling Machine. — A new hulling mafehine, called Bentz's Patent, has for some time been on exhibition in the city of New York, The Farmer and Mechanic, Tribune, and other papers, speak in the highest terms of its merits. The Tribune says its operations are almost mraculous. The berry of- the wheat comesout entire,- and robbed of its brown outer covering^ — purely white, polished, and resembling wax. The loss in the process is only about 2lbs. to the bushel of grain — offal, which remains in the machine. The saving in this process as compared with the ordinary one of separating the bran from i the flour by bolting, is said to be so great, that millers will be obligsd to use Bentz's Patent, or abandon their business. One of the machines — which will cost about five hundred dollars — will prepare 4000 bushels of wheat per day for the stones. Every consumer of wheat — that is, everybody — must feel a grateful interest in an invention like this. The market price of any article is always graduated by the cost of production. ' Thus it has been es'imated that Whitney's cotton gin alone, by its very great saving of labour, reduced the cost of fabrics fifty per cent. We do nof see why manufacturers of wheat should not obey the same law. Trusting it will prove so, we congratulate the lovers of hot biscuit, muffins, crumpets, pound cakes, jumbles, boa bons, on the appearknce of an invention which may benefit 'their pockets to 1 the amount of five to fifteen per cent, in their expenditure for each article.

Vicissitudes of Mining. — Huraboldt relates, of, a Frenchraan, J. Laborde, that be went to Mexico very poor, in 1743, and acqulred a.large fortune in. a very short time by the mine- 'of La Canada. After building a church at Tasco, whicli cost him, £84,000, he was reduced to the lowest poverty by the rapid decline of those very mines, from which he had annually drawn from 130,0001b5. to 190,0001b5. weight of silver. With a sum of £20,000, raised' by selling a sun of solid gold, which, in his, prosperity, he had presented to the church, and which he was allowed by the archbishop to withdraw, he undertook to clear out an old mine, in doing which he lost the greater part of the produce of this golden sun, and then abandoned the work. With the small sum remaining, he ventured on another undertaking, which was for a short time highly productive ; and he left behind him, at his death, £120,000. There is a story current, that when the present Pope was a youth, and in the Guardia Nobite at Rome, he fell deeply in love

with '• beautiful English girl. She refused his suit, although he was handsome, young, and noble, on account of the difference of religion, and he took the matter so much to heart, that he retired to a convent, became an ecclesiastic, and eventually Pope. The produce of grapes was so abundant near Paris last year, that the peasants feared to bring any inferior quality inside the walls, lest they should not sell for six centimes the two-pound weight, the amount of entrauce duty to which they are subject. The consequence was that a regular fair of grapes was established outside the walls of Paris, to which the troops in particular resorted, and were to be seen loaded each with three pounds weight, which they purchased for l|d., and which were duty free. By the Bth of William 111. (1695), a duke was required to pay a tax of £50 on his marriage, and ordinary persons were mulcted at 2s. 6d. each. Marriages were again taxed in 1784. A woman named Grace Cowling, was last December admitted into the Bristol workhouse with eight children, named Noah, Mera, Zillah, Zilpha, Naomi, Tirza, Orpah, and Tamar ; there is another -daughter named Leah, out at service. The father of this scriptural family is named Jeremiah. Douglas Jerrold's newspaper, commenting on a statement that in schools for young ladies strict silence is enforced, even at meals, says — "This is terrible; consider the reaction." A Paris caricature, jnst published, represents Louis Philippe receiving a kick from Larnartine, who is receiving one from Cavaignac, who is in turn kicked by Louis Napoleon ; then, comes a scroll — "To be continued."

American Enthusiasm. — An American editor prints the following appendage to a marriage advertisement :—": — " We caugh 1 arefreshing glimpse of this interesting and lovely pair, as they whirled through Rochester on their matrimonial tour to our Great American Niagara Falls, in the fullness of love called into being by his devotion to the cause of our despised people. We wish our friend Cadwell long life and unending fields of happ'ness."

Editorial Troubles. — The Victoria (Texas) Advocate, of July 27, apologises for a lack of matter in its columns by saying that the senior editor was shot and badly wounded, the junior editor had the chills and fever, and there had been uo mails there for two weeks.

Splendid Day with the " Queen s. — First Sporting Snob : " Well, Bill, what sort of a day have yer ad ?" — Second ditto : " Oh, magnificent, my boy ! I see the 'ounds several times ; and none of yer nasty edges an' ditches, either ; but a prime turnpike road all the way.'' — Punch.