ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 469, 30 January 1850, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

The Royal Family left Bilmoral for England September 27th. The journey from Balmoral to Cupar Angus-*—forty-nine miles —was performed by post, the remainder of the journey was by railway. The Queen honored Earl Giey by staying a night at his seat at Howick. ; The mortality from cholera has rapidly declined. The deaths from all causes registered in London in the three weeks ending September 22 were 3,160, 2,842, and 1,981. The decrease has been exclusively in the cholera deaths ; which were 2,026, 1,682, and 839 in the three weeks. The deaths from cholera, which in the first week of September were 300 and 400 a day, fell on the 19th to 110, and have since not exceeded 123. The Austrian and Russian Governments have formally demanded the surrender of Kossuth and his companions : the Sultan has refused resolutely and the representatives of Austria and Russia have broken off diplomatic relations with the Porte. Austria has negotiated with Messrs. Hope of Amsterdam a loan of 71,000,000 florins at A\ per cent. At the last Doncaster Races the St. Leger Stakes were won by Flying Dutchman, Nunnykirk being second and Vatican third* Dr. Samue! Hinds has been appointed to the vacan^see of Norwich. The new Bishop has always taken an interest in colonization, and Was a member of the Association for colonizing New Zealand in 1839. At a quarterly meeting of the Geological and Polytechnic -Society of the West Riding of Yorkshire, held in the Guildhall in Doncaster, on Wednesday last, Mr. Dalton, of Sheffield, read a paper on " Ivory as an article of manufacture." The value of the annual consumption in Sheffield is about £30,000 an.] about five hundred persons are employed in working it up for trade. The number of tusks to make up the weight consumed in Sheffield, about 180 tons, is 45,000. According to this, the number of elephants killed every year is 22,500; but supposing that some tusks were cast and some animals died it might fairly be estimated that 18,000 are killed for the purpose. — Yorkshire Gazette. A correspondent of the Morning Post say 3 —" It is a singular circumstance in connection with the prevailing epidemic, that not a single fatal case has occurred amongst the Jews in Houndsditch, or the close and badly ventilated vicinity of Petticoat Lane, a neighbourhood not over remarkable for its cleanliness." [An intelligent Jew has confirmed bis statement to us ; and explained it by refereuce to the direct and intended sanatory character of many of the Jewish religious observances.]

Death of a Rich Banker. —On Tuesday morning, Christopher Bullen, Esq., of the I anking ■firm of Leyland, Bullen, & Co., died at his residence, near Liverpool. Mr. Bullen Mas probably one of the wealthiest men in Europe, for he has, it is confidently stated, left behind him cash to the amount of to £7,000,000. Although so very rich; he was parsimonious to an extreme degree. ( He resided in the house of his uncle, Mr. Leyland, the founder of the bank; but although a comparatively small mansion, he occupied only two or three apartments, and allowed the remainder to fall into decay — so much so that the parlours and drawingrooms were tenanted by sparrows, swallows, and bats, the unglazed windows affording them free ingress and egress. He saw no company, courted no society, and indulged only in one taste —the purchase of' pictures. His paintings are numerous, but he never hung them up, never exposed them, and they now remain as they did during his lifetime, piled up with their faces turned to the wall. For several years his health had been bad, and some time ago he paid a visit to Malta, Smyrna, &c, and returned greatly improved in constitution, but the expense distressed him and it was only by a threat of legal proceedings that he was induced to pay the physician who accompanied him £700. —Btll's Mes * senger, September 10.

The recent Poisonings in England. — Deplorable as it is, we cannot gainsay tbe fact that among Englishwomen of tbe humbler classes the settlement of conjugal or pecuniary difficulties by the summary help of arsenic is already a habit, and one that is increasing. There have been several bad cases lately/ Mary Anne Geering is convicted at Lewes of destroying a husband and two sons, and - making the attempt with a third, for the lucre of hurial fees. Abolish burial societies, cries eveiybody. That, as we have before remarked, might be done; but then, if the State prevent facilities for decent burial among the poor,, it ought to

grant such burial as a right to all ; and we cannot say that a pauper's funeral is always " decent burial." Besides, the abolition of burial societies would not abolish the poisonings. At Coventry, Mary BaU, nne femme de trent a«s, of the working order, puts her husband out of the way because he bad been jealous ; now you can't abolish jealousy — at least there is no immediate prospect of snch a blessed change. Again, Charlotte Harris is convicted at Bridgewater of poisoning her husband, because he stood in the way of a second. There does not appear to have been any "love" in this instance, even of the lowest order ; for Merchant, the first husband, was a young man, and Harris, the second, was old ; though, indeed, age does not always determine liking. The incidents revolt against every kind of feeling ; but you would not stop this crime by abolishing burial clubs. Abolish arsenic then, is the cry. That might be possible ; for although arsenic is used in manufactures, its retail sale might be restricted, and for many purposes substitutes could be found. But you do not get >much nearer; for if you could find substi> tutes (say) for the poisoning of rats, so might you also for the poisoning of husbands, and other domestic nuisances, and substitutes which evade detection still more than a poison of comparatively obvious and well-known -symptoms, We need not name examples ; any druggist could enumerate a dozen in a breath. The perilous source of evil dges not lie in the arsenic, nor is the crime the most 'deplorable fact ; the danger and the > oppro•brium both lie in the existence of the homicidal mind. It is not in the fatal blow, but in the liking for murder — in the treachery — in the shocking oblivion of humanity and its inalienable claims to love and help — that we see the true calamity. How will medical police reach it ? Education, you exclaim. Alas, education, even the well informed worldly wisdom which shall suffice to check such things, will not reach these multitudinous classes whom we lump together as the " poorer " or " lower," perhaps not for generations. Education does reach far enough to check the wickedness of stupidity and ignorance. But there are influences more rapid than education, more instinctive, speaking more directly to the heart and pulses of humanity, — human affection well fostered, human teaching of simple loving morals, and that highest influence which is indicated by the broadest meaning of the much abused word " religion." Something is wrong here. Are there teachers walking among the people recalling these things ? or are the doctors all in the temple cavilling over dogmas — the " missionaries" abroad all intent upon catching converts for sects? — Spectator.