MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 418, 4 August 1849, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Ilousr of Commons. — The Benct.es both of the Ministerial and Opposition side of the house have been so crowdedly attended, especially in the early portion of the evenings during the week, as to cause some observation, and give rise to poliucal rumours, not altogether, it is said, devoid of foundation. Tliefiiends of Ministers feel anxious as to the result of the vote foi the relief of Irish distress, and some e>.planat : on on that subject has been anxiously looked for. The position of parlies in the house has not materially changed in appearance Since last session. Tbe Maiquis of Granby, Mr. Disraeli, Mr. Herries, Mr. Stafford, and other hon. gentlemen who act with them, occupy the front of the Protectionist benches. Immediately on their right sit Lord Lincoln, Sir ft. Peel, and Mr. Goulburn, the right hon. baronet being invariably placed between his ex-official colleagues. Sir James Graham continues in his retreat on the third bench under the side gallery, directly behind his friends. They are so situated as to keep in countenance Lord John Russell, Lord Palmerston, Sir George Grey, and Sir Johu Hobhouse, who attend very"punctually on the Ministerial bench. Sir Robert Harry Inglis maintains a sort of armed neutrality in the distance, in the corner seat on the lower Ministeual bench, near the bar. He is flanked by Sir William Molesworth and a few hon. gentlemen who wish to have it believed that they entertain indep endeijt \iews, and are not perfectly satisfied with things as they are. The eye accustomed to the scene misses Mr. Roebuck, Mr. Macaulay, Loid Morpeth, Mr. Charles Buller, and we mention last the best remembered of all, Lord George Bentinck. Britannia

Romance in Reai, Life. — It is not perhaps generally known that the Queen intends restoring to the rank held by their ancestors several of the representatives of the once titled Scotch families, attainted for their political principles during the earlier part of the last century. Amongst the lilies thus forfeited, and about to be restored, is the earldom of Angus, belonging to the celebrated family of Douglas ; and it is said that its present representative, the lineal descendant of a long line of warriors, famed alike in history and song, has been discovered in the person of an old man named Dalgleish (a corruption, doubtless, of the properly family name), now residing near Port Elizabeth. Old Dalgleish, for he is upwards of seventy, was formerly a serjeant in oue of our Highland regtmenis, and supports himself at the present moment by the cultivation of a small vegetable garden, about half a mile from Port Elizabeth. It is also said that with the earldom he becomes entitled to about £30,000 a year. Dr. Henry William Fuller, of St. George's Hospital, has sent to the Lancet a communication of curious interest. For some months past in certain parts of Hampshire, partridges have been found dead in the fields, presenting a very remarkable appearance. lustead of lying prostrate on their sides, as is usually the case with dead birds, they have been found sitting with their head erect, and their eyes open, presenting all the resemblance of life. On examination it appears they have died from eating poisoned graio, which bad been steeped in arsenic before sown to prevent the ravages of the wire worm. On giving a piece of a breast to a cat it produced much vomiting, and nothing could induce the animal to try a second slice. The doctor therefore thinks it necessary to warn persons to take care where they obtain their game from at this season of the year. Singular Discovery. — The Constantinople Journal gives some curious details re.

garding a city said to have been discovered in Asia Minor by Dr. Brunner, one of the agents employed by the Government of the Sublime Pone, in penetrating into the most remote and inaccessible regions of thp empire for the purpose of taking a census. While occupied in exploring the sandjuk (excavations) of Bousouk, on the confines of Pontus, Cappadocia, and Galatia, Dr. Brunner, whose attention was attracted by the bold and curious passages opened into the living rock, was accosted by a villager, who offered to show him things far more interesting on the other side of the mountain if he would trust to his guidance. After some hesitation, the doctor armed himself, and followed his guide, taking his servant with him. Half an hour brought them round the mountain, and the doctor found himself, says the narrative, in presence of the ruins of a considerable town. These ruins are situate in the south-east of the village 0/ Yankeui, and to the north of the village of Tscheque, half a league from each other ; and the doctor's profound study" of all the accounts, ancient and modern, of Asia Minor furnishes no trace by which he can identify them. The site of the town is half a league in length. It contains seven temples with cupolas and 218 houses, some iv good preservation, others half choked up with their own ruins and with vast fragments of rock detached from the overhanging mountain. The houses have compartments of three, four, and six cham* bers. The largest of these edifices is 20 feet long by 2S wide. So far as the ruins would permit the doctor to estimate it, he conjectu* red the height of some of the temples to be from 20 to 30 feet. There are traces of plas* ter on the interior walls, but not an emblem or indication, says Dr. Brunner, to suggest the origin or data of the ruined city. Dr» Brunner proposes his deserted city as a puzzle for the archaeologists.

Young Germany. — The Germans used to shave, at least they kept their chins reasonably clean, and if they cultivated any extra capillary growth, reserved their care for their moustache. Now every one of them has a beard like a Rabhi, and to use razors is- con* sidered a sure and infallible sign of a loyalist and an aiistocrat. At Juliers I had the plea* sure of encountering the first specimen of Young Germany that crossed my path, and a precious object he was. I had been sitting for some time vis-a-vis with a little punchy fellow from Vienna, with a beard as red as that which the old masters have assigned to, Barabbas ; and as he spoke little, but smoked a great deal, I was inclined to think him rather a companionable sort of individual than otherwise. But, at the station, in stepped a youth apparelled precisely after the fashion of ao assassin in a melodrama. His broad beaver hat, with a conical crown, was looped up on one side, garnished with an immense cockade of red, black, and gok J , and surmounted by a couple of dingy ostrich feathers. I lament, for the sake of our home manufacturers, to state that he exhibited no symptoms of shirt collar, nor, so far as I could observe, had he invested any portion of his capital in the purchase of interior linen. Over his bare neck there descended a Maximilian beard. A green blouse, curiously puckered and slash* ed in the sleeves, was secured round his person by a glazed black belt and buckle, and his legs were cased in a pair of rusty hessians. In short, he needed but a dagger and a pair of pistols to render him theatrically com* plete, and had Fitzball been in the carriage, the heart of that amiable dramatist would have yearned nithiii him, at the sight of this living personification of his own most romantic conceptions. Iha I forgotten to state that the patriot had slung by his side a wallet, of the sort which is familiar to the student of Retzsch, in which he carried his tobacco. To my amazement, not even the gens-d'armes on the platform, appeared to be the least surprised at this formidable apparition, who commenced filling his pipe with the calmness of an ordinary Christian. For my own part, I could not take my eyes off him, but sat speechlessly stariug at this splendid specimen of the empire. — Blackwood.

The Baggage of the Indian Army. — Sir Charles Napier, writing on the above subject, says, suppose our baggage to require 20,000 camels ; they being led, as is the usual way in the East, by a string fastened through the nostril of one animal and tied to the tail of bis leader, these 20,000 camels occupy about fifty miles, allowing five yards from the nose of one auima! to the nose of bis follower ; and, consequently, half the camels would not have quitted the old camp from where the army marched, wien the leading camels bad arrived on the new encamping ground. Fifty miles length of camels form a stupendous mass ; and their moving at the rate of a mile an hour is equally stupendous in its way. In Lord Keane's campaign, Sir Charles tells us, 50,000 camels were lost, which, at 60 rupees the camel, cos: the State £300,000. These few facts explain two things, — the expense and tardiness of Indian wars. A Bengal army requires five camp

followers to each fighting man ; a Bombay army three followers ; so that a division of 10,000 men requires 30,000 servants in one case, and 50,000 in another. An officer sent in bis list for sixty servants, as the least number he required. Sir Charles Napier's pamphlet attempts the reform of this mass of expenditure and confusion by the formation of a baggage corps, which he himself attempted in Scinde. Draining the Mine 3 of Sierra-Mo-bena. — An English company have leased the celebrated sil- er mines of Guadalcanal, in Seville, in Spain, which have been under water for a period of 150 years. Before that time they produced to the Spanish Government £ioO,OOO per annum, in duties alone, and fiom the proceeds of these the Palace of the Escurial was built. They were the property of Fuchars, rich contractors, who, not satisfied with the enormous wealth they derived from them, s.'crectly took away the ores from a new lode they discovered without giving notice to the Government, and, to prevent imprisonment and confiscation, they let the water into the mine, and for 100 years they have remained in the state in which they were thus leff by them. About six months ago, however, the mines were purchased by an English company on the most advantageous terms, and a capital of £10,000 was raised among a few English adventurers, in order to work them, Mr. Nicholas Harvey, of Hayle, who drained the Lake of Haarlem, in Holland, being one of them ; and an engine of great power having been obtained, and transported under the direction of Captain Michell, and the engineer Mr. Duncansnaw, to the mine, bids fair soon to drain the 120 fathoms, and 'd'scover its hidden wealth once more. From advices received since the publication of the following account, the engine has drained the mine in one month to the thirty-one fathoms level, and some very valuable specimens of silver ore have been taken from the lodes, and are now on their way to England. The ( lamor Publico of Madrid gives the following description of the commencement of the operations : — We announced, some time since, the departure of a vessel from England laden with powerful apparatus, manned by fifteen stout Cornish miners, and commanded by two distinguished engineers, Mr. Duncan Shaw and Cuptain Michell. The vessel made a quick passage, landed its crew and machinery at Seville, and both the men and the apparatus passed over, without inconvenience, the fifty-four miles which separate •that city from the place of destination. Ten weeks then sufficed for the engineers to bring their task to a satisfactory conclusion, and all was ready on the 23rd of December. The gigantic pump might consequently have enteied on its subterranean labours from that day. But, like a thorough Englishman, the engineer determined to give the inauguration ol the enterprise a solemn date — that of Christmas Day. He went further ; he assembled some of the nobilities of the country, and, like a true son of Albion, collected on the spot a quantity of solids and I. quids sufficient to have satisfied the craving of a thousand famished Irishmen. The result of this step was advantageous, for instead of some fifty persons, the entire population of the neighbouring country flocked to the scene of the enterprise. Alcalde, lawyers, priests, shopkeepers, men, women, and children, deserted the little town of Gaudalcanal, and braved, some on foot, others on mules, the most abominable of all things — a Spanish road. The undertaking excited in a high degree the curiosity of these people, and interested them in other respects. At length the signal is given, the stream growls in its iron-bound cage, and the huge machine begins to move its formidable valves. After ■two centuries of darkness the water beholds the light, and flows, stream like, making large furrows in the earth, after the manner of the torrents of Atlas. The entire j.opulaiion run from the pump to the well^ regarding with feverish anxiety the play of the former, and its effects on the latter. After four hours"* labour, which no obstacle could overcome or even diminish, the order to desist is given by the engineer. The water-mark had been lowered five feet, and this result, which surpassed the most sanguine expectations of the "workmen themselves, was received with uproarious acclamations by the assembled multitude.