MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 499, 15 May 1850, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Within the last fevr days a project has been mooted in the City, under favorable auspices, for the construction of a ship passage across the Isthmus of Panama. It seems that there are no great engineering difficulties in the way of opening this connection between the Atlantic and the Pacific. The rivers Atrato and Neipi form a nearly ready-made way of navigation for by far the greater part of the distance, and the gigantic chain of the Cordilleras dips to a pass of but a few hundred feet in height. A deputation of the promoters has had an interview upon the subject with Lord Palmerston it the Foreign Office. His lordship received the project favourably, requested a further interview when the plans were more matured, and expressed his willingness to consider how far facilities might be afforded through the Board of Admiralty to any expedition sent out by the projectors to explore the district, and survey the line of the proposed opening^rom sea to sea. The plan is at present under the consideration of several persons of capital and influence, some of whom are largely engaged in the trade of those seas; and should their decision prove favourable it is intended to despatch forthwith an engineer, in company with some able assistants, to the spot. The Americans, will, no doubt, run a

rail across — let us accomplish the achievement more important to commerce, of making good a passage for sea-going ships from ocean to ocean* — Weekly Chronicle, Dec. 8. Fate op Count D'Orsay.. — I have just heard news of poor Count D'Orsay. He appears to be sharing the usual fate of men of fashion : like Brummel and Nash, who were the fashionable idols of the moment ; he has. survived bis fame as a dandy, and does not appear to have turned his fame as a painter or a diplomatist to very good account. It is well known that some months back he left London for Paris, with the view, as it was then currently reported, of filling a lucrative post under Government, which Prince Louis Napoleon had offered him. It is true so far, that he was attracted to the French capital by the promise of a government appointment : but, encouraged by his former intimacy with the President, and, perhaps, in no way underrating his own diplomatic talents, he aspired to be Ambassador to the Russian Court. He made an application for this important post. The answer he received was the official intimation that another gentleman had been despatched as representative of the French Republic at the Court of the Emperor. The reason for this cold refusal on the part of the President was, the circumstance of the Count having received at his house a member of the Bonaparte family who was the bitterest enemy of Prince Louis. And so D'Orsay's hopes of preferment were annihilated ; and upon the decease of the Countess of Blessington, be, together with the Misses Power, retired to the country house of his relative, Madame de Grammont, where he now resides, and is occupied restoring the paintings of the village church, and building a handsome mausoleum to the memory of her late ladyship. — Manchester Guardian. M. Dillon, the Consul of France for the Sandwich Islands, had conferences on the 20th Dec, and the day before with the President of the Republic and the Minister of Marine at the Elysee. M. De Riswic had arrived at Paris, as envoy extraordinary from the King of the Sandwich Islands on the sul'ject of the late outragei committed there by the French. The Hon. Mr. Judd, Prime Minister to the King of the Sandwich Islands, who went on a similar mission to the United States and Great Britain, had arrived in England. The Moniteur publishes a long list of nominations and promotions in the Legion of Honour. For the first time the services for which the decorations are given are set fotrh in the Moniteur. Among the new chevaliers the first name that appears is that of Mr. Robert Stepenson, the eminent English engineer, who is stated to have " constructed several railways in England, and given plans for the Northern Railway of France." A letter from Lyons, oi the sth instant, states that M. M. Desmoulins and Lac Desages (son-in-law of Pierre Leroux), who were arrested at Limoges after the affair of the 13th of June, in consequence of a poitscript in a commercial letter opened by the police authorities, and who were marched in chains to Lyons, have been acquitted by the permanant court-martial of that city, after a preventive imprisonment of six months. General de Lahitte, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and a son of the late General Foy, are spoken of as two of the candidates for Paris on the Conservative interest in the approaching elections. It is stated that attempts have been made by the Socialist agents to get up a manifestation in some of the provinces on the occasion of the re-imposition of the tax on spirituous liquors ; but that no fears were entertained by the authorities as to the result. It is also stated that a number of the hangers-on of the ultra-legitimist party proposed to get up an attroupement or two on Sunday night last ; and to afford some occasion for disorder, they were to begin by crying out " Vive V EmvereurJ" and that the plan was completely nullified by the police authorities, who had a most accurate knowledge of all that passed. We give these statements without attaching any importance to them, as Paris is rarely free from rumours of plots. M. Suchet, a representative of the people, who was sentenced to five years' imprisonment by the High Court of Versailles, for having joined in the insurrectionary movement in Paris, on the 13th June last, has been permitted to undergo his sentence in a maison de santi in Paris.

The Rush to California. — Yesterday being the day for the sale of tickets for passage in the two new steamers to be started from Panama to San Francisco by the Pacific Mail Steam-ship Company, the place of sale, at Howland and Aspiuwall's, was the scene of a strife for precedence unequalled even in the wondrous history of the Golden Crusade. As early as four o'clock in the morning some twenty persons were silting on the steps in most neighbourly proximity to the door, ready, like hounds in the leash, for the race up-stairs.

Before the doors opened hundreds had collected, and in a minute after the turn of the key every place where a man could hold on, even by the eyelids, was occupied. So great was the pressure that the balustrades and windows were broken, and each individual on issuing from the office, gave woful evidence of the density of crowd in the shape of caved-in hats and torn and disordered clothing. One of the very earliest of those on the steps in the morning, and almost the first man inside, did not get out until noon ! Some 500 tickets for the two December steamers were run off as fast as the money could be paid over ; but the crowd still clamoured for more, aud about 100 tickets for the steamer of the Ist January; were sold by way of dessert to the feast. The prices were 300 dollars for the cabin and 150 for the steerage. — New York Tribune.

How Cardinals encourage Railways. — The Papal Triumvirate have decided that the railway to Naples is a useless scheme, " tending to inundate Rome with worthless foreigners ;" they have, therefore, definitively suspended the works, and thereby thrown thousands out of employment. — Rail* way Times.

Distillation. — The Arabs introduced the art of distillation into Spain, from whence it spread to the rest of Europe — to whom, until then, it had been unknown, either in ancient or modern times. It it singular enough that we should owe to a people who hold the use of spirits as unlawful and abom* iuable, the art of manufacturing them. The Arabs of Spain could certainly not hare foreseen that in time a single Christian nation, and to them an obscure one, shonld one day 1 draw a yearly revenue of seven millions, from the discovery they had communicated to the Christians ; a sum far greater than the whole revenues of Spain, in any one of the eight hundred years during which they occupied it.

Thk Alligator's Tenacity op Life. — The extraordinary tenacity of life manifested by the alligator when seriously mutilated, led Dr. Le Conte to make a series of experiments/ with a view of throwing light on the philosophy of the nervous system in man, as compared to the lower animals. A young alligator was decapitated at the point where the neck or atlas articulates with the occiput. Not more than two ounces of blood flowed front the wound. The jaws of the detached head still snapped at anything which touched the tongue or lining membrane of the mouth* After the convulsions produced by decapitation had subsided, the trunk of the animal re* mained in a state of torpor resembling profound sleep. But when pricked or pinched on the sides, the creature would scratch the spot, sometimes with the fore, and sometimes with the bind foot, according to the situation of the injury inflicted. These movements of jhe limbs were promptly and determinately performed, and were always confined to tho members on the side of the irritating cause. If touched below the posterior extremity on the thick portion of the tail, he would slowly and deliberately draw up the hind foot, and scratch the part, and would use considerable force in pushing aside the offending object* These experiments were repeatedly performed, and always with the same results, appearing to prove that the creature could not have been totally devoid of sensation and consci1 ousness. Dr. Le Conte concludes, therefore, that although ia man, and the highly organized vertebra t a, volition is seated in the brain or encephalus, this function in reptiles must extend over the whole spinal cord, cerebrospinal axis. Some, however, may contend that the motions observed are merely spasmodic and involuntary, like sneezing, the necessary results of certain physical conditions of the nervous system, and not guided in any way by the mind. If so, it cannot be denied that they have all the appearance of being produced with a perfect knowledge of the end in view, and to be directed peculiarly to that end ; so that if we embrace the hypothesis that they supervene simply on the application of stimuli, without any sensations being carded to the brain, and without any co-opera-tion of the mind, must we not in that case suspect that a large proportion of the actions of quadrupeds, usually attributed to the control of the will, may in like .manner be performed without consciousness or volition. — ; Ly ell's Second Visit to the United States.

How Revolutions are managed in Central America. — The fact is, that every revolution effected in all the republics from Chili to Mexico is brought about by such a mere fraction of the population, that it seems a wonder to an Englishman that the great majority do not rise and speak out. "We wish to be quiet ; we do not want revolution and murders, nor do we wish to see our streets running with blood ; we do not wish to be subjected to forced contributions of money, cattle, and personal service ; and above all, we are nine out of ten in number against your one ; and the great tnajoiity will not consent to be plundered by the small minority, wh"o tre only dissolute ruffians." This

they might in truth say, but they do not say it, nor do they act upon it ; and the consequence is that they are plundered, robbed, and murdered in the most shameful manner by the small minority of rascals ; but they half deserve it, for if the nine or the ninety and nine would make the protest, they would have a very small per centage who would back their protest by an appeal to arms, even in defence of their homes and families. In Central America every state has a small number of soldiers, ill paid, worse fed and clothed, and of the lowest order of scoundrels, the officers being hardly a shade better, but with a little more method in their general conduct. Leon, being the capital of the province of Nicaragua, and head-quarters of the troops, may contain 50,000 inhabitants, and about 300 dissolute soldiers, and it is by this mere handful of ruffians, or rather by « portion of them, that revolutions are effected. A subaltern officer gains over a portion of the men, with promises of plunder, increased pay, and promotion for the non-commissioned officers to the commissions soon to be vacant. They await the time when the barrack-guard and sentries will be all composed of the men so gained over. The barracks are then taken possession of in the night, the commandant's house stormed and plundered, and the next morning a few volleys of musketry make the people acquainted with the fact that their late commandant and his adherents have been placed on the fatal Banqueta, and have made vacancies for the successful rebels who may most likely be destined to suffer the lex talionis within a very few months. Armed parties are then sent round to every house for the purpose of gathering forced contributions, in the name of the new government, from all parties, but very especially from those who were known to be favourable to their predecessors. Those that will not or cannot pay, are dreadfully ill treated ; they are often taken out and shot before their families j and their houses, stores, or shops ransacked of everything not too hot or heavy to carry off. These revolutions are likewise excellent opportunities for the most depraved (generally allied to the soldiery) for a general plunder, and too often enables them to satisfy their revenge for former quarrels or affronts. A lull of a fe"w days, seldom more, follows the storm. The victorious party is aware that neighbouring towns and villages are at their mercy, and accordingly armed parties are again sent out to every house with orders to seize all the horses and mules that they can lay their hands upon ; these are to mount parties of the soldiers, that they may make their predatory excursions with ease and comparative luxury. On their arrival at these towns and villages the above scene is re-enacted ; they sell all the horses and mules they pressed, and plunder the inhabitants of others, which they re-sell at any othtr town, eventually- bringing back a good quantity of plunder and a number of animals to the place from whence they started. Having, by these and divers other most oppressive measures, made themselves pretty comfortable for a short time, quiet may possibly resume itß sway, until their necessities, discontent, or the persuasion of some other aspiring officer may induce them to break out into another revolution and sacrifice their former leaders. The commandant, for the time being, always manages to collect a 'Congreso' or 'Junta' of his own party ; and as by the law each member is paid, and that, too, id preference to any other claim on the whole country, they are perfectly willing to give authority to the military for all their excesses. Thus are the generality of revolutions effected in Central America, and, indeed, in many other small republics of that continent. I have frequently had opportunities of witnessing the disastrous effects of » paid body of adventurers legislating for a country, and I believe it has only to be witnessed to be abhorred * * * Should there be no revolution in Leon, Guatemala has 'pronounced' for something or for some one ; should Guatemala or St. Miguel happen to be quiet, and to enjoy a short breathing time, there is a revolt in the Honduras, or an emuete in Granada or Segovia, and the beaten party comes to Leon, or any other place, to request assistance in regaining their places, promising, at the same time, the plunder of some or other of their native towns, as the kind reward of their aid. The last offer I heard myself made in the ' Place deLeon' by an emissary, from the Honduras of a party who had just been thrashed. The offer was made to about three hundred ragamuffin soldiers, who accepted it, and started the next morning on their fraternal errandv Report proclaimed aloud the atrocity of their proceedings on the line of march. At the first village they arrived at after passing the frontier, they brought out the old priest, placed him in his chair, and shot him before all his parishioners. They then proceeded to sack the village, and commit all sorts of abominations. They returned from their lour in a few weeks, leaving a desolate trail behind them, and pretty well laden

with spoil, won by every species of cruelty and oppression. — Byam's Central America.