ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 473, 13 February 1850, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

On Saturday, October 6, her Majesty held a privy council at Osborne -House, for the purpose of further proroguing parli tnent until the 20th Nov. Mr. Musters the fortunate rival of Lord Byron, who was married to Miss Chaworth, the noble poet's " Mary" in 1806, while his Lordship was but a minor, died on the Bth of September at his seat Annesley Park, aged 72. He is succeeded in his immense possessions by his grandson John, a boy of 13 years of age. On the Bth September, Californian gold and dollars to the amount of five million sterling, were deposited in the vaults of the Bank of England. The treasure, which was landed at Portsmouth, from,ber Majesty's ship Calypso, was conveyed to the bank in seventeen waggons, drawn by eighty-five horses. Manning and his wife were fully committed on the 14th of September to take their trial at the Central Criminal Court, for the murder of Patrick O'Connor, at the next session, which was to commence on the 22nd of October. Mr. Ballantine and Mr. Parry had been retained to defend Mrs. Manning ; and Mr. Serjeant Wilkins and Mr. Charnock, it was said, would be retained for Mr. Manning. A correspondent of Bell's Weekly Messenger of 6th October, communicates an account of an extraordinary statement made at Bolton by a clairvoyante. The following paragraph relates to Sir John Franklin, although she afterwards mentions Sir James Ross: — " Being cast into a mesmeric state then, this woman asserted positively that Sir John Franklin is still alive, and now comparatively well. He bat undergone great hardships, but has overcome them, and is in good hope of getting to

England in nine months and a half, provided no Unforeseen accident occurs. The difference between the apparent time wh^re he is and at Bolton is neatly six hours, indicating a difference of longitude of from 85 to 90deg. And afterwards, when asked, being still in the mesmeric state, to endeavour to point on the map where he was, she put her finger on the northwest side of Hudson's Bay, which is not very far from this longitude, though the map being on a very small scale, and very inconveniently bound up in a volume of the Penny CyrtCpxdia, and* required by her to be rested on her head — not held to her eyes — and thus reversed, no very precise indication could be so obtained. As the woman can neither iead nor write, it seems scarcely possible she can know anything of maps whatever, and the indication thus obtained, both by difference of time and her pointing on the map, took the bystanders quite by surprise." She also stated that Sir J. Ross was well, but much mortified at not being able to proceed. The position of the transport sent the previous spring to aid the gallant explorers was also pointed out by this woman : the ship was returning home. The great project of a railway to the pacific, put forward by Mr. Whitney, of New York, has found very general favour in America, as a grand and practicable scheme. Mr. Whitney proposes that the route should commence at Lake Michigan, to which point there is already steam communication from New York, and that it should then proceed to California. For the construction he asks no capital, but simply that congress should grant thirty miles of land, on each side of the line, at ten cents per acre. Mr. Whitney calculates that the whole line might be completed io fifteen years, and that it would place New York within twenty-five days of China, and London within thirty-seven days. The Island of Tristan de Cunha, which lies about 1000 miles W.S.W. from the Cape of Good Hope, is, it is said, to be a penal settlement for the convicts destined for the Cape. We understand it is an island capable of cultivation, and from its isolated position, is well adapted for such a purpose, the only difficulty being that the landing is always more or less dangerous. The King of the Netherlands opened the Dutch Chambers on the 17th September, and congratulated the States General on the peaceful and prosperous condition of the country. The drainage of the Haarlem lake is progressing rapidly. An Amsterdam letter, of the ' 3rd September, states that the difficult operation is being carried on with great activity. The works are not even suspended on Sundays or fete days ; nay, they are sometimes continued during the night. During the month of August the waters of this immeuse lake were lowered to the extent of 27| inches Dutch measure. It is hoped and expected they will be entirely drained off before the month of March, 1850.

Graham and Master Elliott. — It 15 said that owing to a fatal mistake in pronouncing sentence on the above persons, a Court of Law will liberate them on a writ of habeas corpus. The mistake consists in first dismissing them the service, and then sentencing them to imprisonment. By the sentence of dismissal they became civilians, and no longer amenable to martial law, consequently they are illegally imprisoned. Had the court first sentenced them to twelve months' imprisonment, and after that period to be dismissed the service, no person could cavil at the sentence. — Morning Post. It is said in quarters likely to be accurately informed upon the subject, that LieutenantColonel Gold, her Majesty's 4th (King's Own) regiment, now stationed at Portsmouth, will probably come into possession of the enormous wealth left by Mr. Charles Bullen, the late banker of Liverpool. The property is said to amount to between £5,000,000 and £6,000,000 sterling. We hope the rumour of the good fortune that has befallen the lieutenant-colonel may prove to be well founded. He is an officer who enjoys the respect of all who have the happiness to be under bis command. — United Service Gazette. During the Queen's stay in Dublin she ordered three large pots, iv which shamrocks were growing to be conveyed from the lordlieutenant's gardens to the royal yacht, in order that one might be sent to Balmoral, another to Osborne, and the third to Buckingham Palace, at which royal residences these Irish Shamrocks will be preserved, as memorials of Her Majesty's first visit to Dublin.

Dismissal of the Orange Magistrates. — Lord Clarendon's letter to the Lord Chancellor, stating the grounds upon which his Excellency recommends the latter high functionary to dismiss from the commission of the peace the magistrates implicated in the affray at Dolly's Brae, is made public this evening. After recapitulating the facts of the murder as elicited from Mr. J. Beswick's report, Lord Clarendon concludes as follows :: — *' His Excellency haa learned from

the official report made to him that Lord Ro* den attended on that occasion in his magisterial capacity, took part in the proceedings, made a speech on the subject, and voted with; the majority of the magistiates in refusing to take informations. This proceeding on the part of his lordship appears to bis Excellency to be deserving of grave observation. Lord Roden had, on the 12th of July, as above stated, identified himself to a certain extent with the proceedings of the armed assemblage of Orangemen who came on his demesne, and it involved him in the responsibility attached to them. He was aware that his conduct in this respect had been publicly arraigned, much of the evidence given before Mr. Beswick tended directly to implicate him as abetting and encouraging the proceedings of an unlawful assembly, and he was himself examined as a witness in the Course of the inquiry. It appears to his Excellency destructive of public confidence in the administration of justice, that a magistrate thus circumstanced should take part in the judicial consideration of proceedings, the object of which was to determine the complicity or. otherwise of certain parties in the act of an assembly charged to be illegal, which he himself had sanctioned and encouraged, and in wbose offence against the law, if any had been committed, he became a party directly concerned. On a full consideration of the entire case the Lord Lieutenant has come to the conclusion that a due regard for the future preservation of peace in the district in question, and for the administration oipistice therein, in a manner which will be entitled to public confidence and respect, imperatively requires that the magistrates whosej|j|>nduct he has thus noticed should no longj||urabarge the important functions and duties^flSpit office."— Times, Oct. 10. JW "Tis strange with how little notice, good, bad, or indifferent a man may live and die in London. He awakens no sympathy in the breast of any single person ; his existence is a matter of interest to no one save himself, and he cannot be said to be forgotten when he dies, for no one remembered him while he was alive. — Dickens.

Case of Premature Burial after Cholera. — The Troy Budget, an American paper, relates a recent case of premature burial after cholera. " A respectable resident at Montreal, Mr. M — , had occasion to go to Lachine, nine miles distant^«nd, leaving his family in their usual health, he left home in the morning, with the intention of returning in the course of the afternoon. He did so ; but when within some distance of his house he met a funeral ; and on enquiring who was about to be borne to their last home, he was informed that it was his wife. With feelings which it would be in vain to describe, he followed her to the grave ; and after the funeral services were over, at his request the coffin was opened, that he might take a last look at the departed. Long did he gaze with an agonized heart — but lo! what pen can describe the scene that now occurred ! When the coffin-lid was about to be replaced, he thought he discovered a slight trembling motion in one of the arms of the corpse. Again with stedfast gaze did he look, and the motion was repeated in a manner to leave no doubt that life still remained. Immediately she was lifted from the coffin, and borne home in the arms of her husband ; and at the last accounts '■ Mrs. M — was doiqgj well. She had taken ' so nuuch laudanum that the stupor it produced was mistaken for death;"

HOW TO MAKE AN UNHEALTHY BEDroom. — If you want to have a thoroughly unhealthy bedroom, these are the precautions you should take, — Fasten a chimney board against the fire place, so as to prevent foul air from escaping in the night ; and of course in the night season never have a door or window open. Use no perforated zinc in panelling; especially avoid it in small bedrooms. So you will get a room full of bad air. But in the same room there is bad, worse, and worst; your object is to have the worst air possible. Suffocating machines may be made by every upholsterer ; attach one to your bed ; it is an apparatus of poles, rings, and curtains. By drawing your curtains around you before you sleep, you ensure to yourself a condensed body of foul air over your person. This poison vapour bath you will find to be most efficient when it is made of any thick material. There being transpiration through the skin, it would not be a bad idea to see whether this cannot be in- some way hindered. The popular method will do very well ; smother the flesh as much as possible in feathers. The feathers retain all heat about your body, and stifle the skin so far effectually, that you awake in the morning pervaded by a sense of langour, which must be very agreeable to, * person who has it in his mindjso be uahealthy. In order to keepia'checK upon exhalation about your he«u (which otherwise, might have too/much the way of nature), put on a stout, clotely woven night cap. People who are at the height of cleverness in this respect sleep with their heads under the bed

-clothes. Take no rest on a hair mattrass ;it is elastic and pleasant certainly, but it does not enca.se the body ; and therefore you run a risk of not awaking languid. Never wash 'when you go to bed ; you are not going to see any body, and therefore there is no use in washing. In the morning wet no more skin than you absolutely must — that is to say, no morethpn your neighbours will see during the day — the face and hands. So much you may do with a tolerably good wOl, since it is the other part of the surface of the body more covered and more impelled in the full discharge of its functions which has rather the •more need of ablution. It is therefore fortunate that you can leave that other part unwashed. Five minutes' sponging and rubbing -over the whole body in the morning would tend to invigorate the system, and would send you "wfyh a cheerful glow to the day's business or pleasure. Avoid it by all means if you desire to be unhealthy. Lard in the bedroom is called bears' grease. In connection with its virtues in promoting the growth of the hair, there is a tale which is no fiction — not -the old and profane jest of the man who rubbed a deal box with it over night, and found a hair trunk in the morning. It is said that the first adventurer who advertised bears' grease for sale appended to the laudation of its efficacy a nota bene, that gentlemen, after applying it, should wash the palms of their hands, otherwise the hair would sprout thence also. Of course, as you do not cleanse your daily, so you will not show, favour to yourfcep. When a German Prince was told •confidently that he had dirty hands, be replied -with t'heJiyjßliness of conscious triumph, 'Ah, do youcallia'at dirty ? You should see my toes !' 4jSome people wash them once in every month|||pat will do very well ; or once a year, nlmatters little which, In what washing youJfind yourself unable to omit, use only the finest towels, those which inflict the least fnction on the skin. Having made these arrangements for yourself, take care that you are adhered to, so far as nfay be convenient, throughout your household. Here and there put numerous sleepers into a single room ; this is a good thing for children, when you require to blanch them and render them delicate ; but you must take care not to carry this too far, otherwise you will render them pasty, pot bellied and deformed. It was this •practice which was so successful at Tooting in thinning the population, By all means let tf.baby h-a've foul air, not #nly by the use of suffocating apparatus, but by causing it to sleep where there are four or five others in a well closed room. So much is due to the maintenance of our orthodox rate of infant mortality, — Journal of Public Health.