ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 500, 18 May 1850, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Tbe following directions given by her late Majesty Queen Adelaide for her funeral were published in the London Gazette: — [copy.] . "I die in all humility/ knowing well that we are all alike before the throne of God,

and I request, therefore, that my mortal remains be conveyed to the grave without any pomp or state. They are to be moved to St. George's Chapel, Windsor, where I request to have as private and quiet a funeral as possible. " I particularly desire not to be laid out in state, and the funeral to take place at daylight, no procession, the coffin to be carried by sailors to the Chapel. "All those of my friends and relations, to a limited number, who wish to attend, may do so. My nephew,. Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar, Lords Howe and Denbigh, the Hon. William Ashley, Mr. Wood, Sir Andrew Barnard, and Sii D. Davies, with my dressers, and those of my ladies who may wish to attend. "I die in peace, and wish to be carried to the tomb in peace, and free from the vanities and pomp of this world. "I request not to be dissected, nor embalmed ; and desire to give as little trouble as possible. "Adelaide R. "November, 1849."

The Ministry. — A rumour, some weeks in circulation, to the effect that the question of a partial restoration of protection to agriculture is under consideration with the cabinet, has within the last few days assumed a more definite shape, and has been repeated with more confidence than at first. The last version of the report asserts that the Premier, the Marquis of Lansdovvne, and Lord Palmerston have made up their minds as to the indispensable necessity of a fixed duty, of at least Bs. the quarter upon wheat, and an import tax in due proportion on other kinds of grain, in order to save the agricultural body, and with that body the whole nation, from irremediable ruin ; on the other side the Grey section of the ministry are said to adhere with "desperate fidelity" to the principle of free trade, and on the whole the quarrel is represented as so angry, and so irreconcileable, as to render certain a speedy dissolution of the Cabinet as at present constituted. The continued residence in town of the ex-Premier — a residence unusual with him at this season, and his frequent communications with the free trade division of the ministers, is supposed to render the anticipation of a dissolution of the present Cabinet more probable, as it is assumed that he is desirous of being included in the unadulterated free trade ministry, to be formed upon the expulsion of Lord John Russell, Lord Lansdowne, and Lord Pnlmerston — perhaps as the head of that ministry. Such is the rumour very confidently circulate '. We give it to our readers, as we have had it from generally well informed persons, merely add- \ ing our own opinion that it is not without foundation. — Standard. j The Limerick Chronicle says, " A young lady who vowed eternal constancy to one of the transported confederate patriots, and whose affectionate parting in the jail melted the turnkeys to tears, is about to transfer her vows to the scion of an ancient family, and to change her faith with her affections." Irish witnesses are polite. At the Roscommon Assizes, Owen Keane was convicted of robbing the house of Mrs. Cosgrave. When the prosecutrix was required to identify the prisoner, she asked nnd obtained leave to put on an antique pair of spectacles, and then, looking at Keaue, said, "That is the very gentleman."

Melancholy Catastrophe. — The.Free- I man's Journal contains the following account of a very melancholy catastrophe, briefly announced by a correspondent :—": — " Kilrush, December 13, 1849. — A most heart-rending-scene occurred within two miles of this town, about four o'clock yesterday. The ferryboat Commogue, on Moyasta Bay, in crossing, was upset with forty-one persons on board, five of whom were taken up alive by another boat, and are likely to recover ; thirty-one bodies were found on the strand this morning, and five are still missing. These persons were all returning from Kilrush market with provisions for their families."

Cape Success. — The government has succumbed to the Cape colonists, and the Neptune with its live cargo of convicts is to proceed to Van Diemen's Laud. (Alas ! poor Yorick !) The circumstance acquires some peculiarity from the fact that John Mitchell is on board the Neptune, though kept separate from the other convicts. The example of successful resistance is calculated to have a decided influence, for good or evil, on the future career of our colonial empire. It seems tolerably evident that the people of this country will not again tolerate any attempt to coerce any colony which assumes an independent attitude ; and colonists will hereafter have to make it matter of cool calculation whether or not it is for their own interests to defy the mother country, and 'mprovi c a constitution. So far as trade and commerce are concerned we should suffer no injury, but probably the reverse ; and most certainly our annual expenditure would be materially curtailed, were

each colony to undertake the maintenance of its own executive establishment. — London Paper.

Transportation. — The commision charged with the examination of the project of law on transportation, has made the selection of a penal settlement. For transportation in what is called the first degree — that is, with detention in a fortress — the Island of Weithdon has been selected ; and for the second degree, or without detention, the Island of Noukaiva. These two islands form a portion of the group of Marquesas. Noukaiva is the largest ; has a population of about 18,000,-witlfa~"fertile though uncultivated soil. The Continental event of the week has been the remarkable trial of Waldeck, and its failure. M. Waldeck was a leading Libe-. ral in the German Parliament : he was accused at Berlin, by Ohm, a Polish Jew, of various treasonable conspiracies ; and was under trial for four days. It was soon apparent from Ohm's manner, that he was a sneaking liar ; but as the case proceeded, every particle of his evidence broke down — he contradicted himself at every point, and was confuted by the best and most ample testimony. This Prussian Titns Oates had an accomplice, one Goedsche. The chief of the Police also cut a bad figure ; he was so arrogant in his demeanour as to draw upon him the rebuke of the Court ; and he had been very lax in promising impunity to the wretched bloodman Ohm and bis accomplice. Waldeck had always been, though advauced in opinion, moderate in action ; his accusation was a grief to numbers, his acquittal was a public triumph. The influence of this trial upon Prussian politics is expected to be very beneficial. The publicity of the proceedings has proved an effective defence of the accused, who might formerly have fallen a victim to Ohm's treachery. The course of public justice, therefore, has served as a guarantee of safety for those who discuss politics with freedom, but with obedience to express law.

Algeria. — Tho Moniteur publishes a telegraphic despatch from the Governor-General of Algeria, announcing that General Haraillon had, on the morning of the 16th ult., attacked several wandering Arab tribes encamped at Ourtal, and that he had killed 200 men and captured 3,000 camels and 15,000 sheep. It is announced that General Bourjolly is appointed Governor-General of Algeria in the place of General Charron. A number of convoys arrived in Paris on Monday by the Rouen and Havre Railway, with the insurgents of June, who have just been amnestied. The number amounts to 740 The most perfect order prevailed in the whole course of the journey.

Magnificence of the Trinity Convent in Russia. — This convent is important on account of its wealth, and famous from the historical recollections connected with it. It was in the beginning of the seventeenth century the centre of the Russian opposition against the usurpation of the Poles, who vainly endeavoured to reduce it by force of arms and bribery. It suffered another siege 1615 ; and the peace of 1619, which for a time ended the feuds of the rival nations, was signed within the walls of Troitza Lawra. Here, too, the Czars Ivan and Peter sought and found safety in 1685, when their lives were threatened by an insurrection of the Russian Praetorians, the Strelitzi. Peter was four years later compelled to fly to this sanctuary, and it was from thence he defeated the intrigues and broke the power of his sister Sophia. The convent escaped the French invasion of 1812. The army of Napoleon surrounded it, but not a single French soldier entered the sacred walls. The Russians are fond of alluding to this circumstance, which, according to their belief, was brought about by special interposition of Providence. It is to be presumed that the French generals bad no idea of the immense wealth which lies hidden within the old walls. The convent is a vast building, almost a little town in itself, with about seventy cupolas and steeples, most of them richly gilt. It comprises a palace for the Emperor, another for the archbishop ; nine churches, a bazaar, and other buildings — the whole surrounded by a thick wall fifty feet high ; and contains thirty five bells, one among them of fourteen hundred weight. The cathedral of the Transfiguration of Mary (Irpenski Kathedrale) is said to be one of the finest churches in Russia ; but the Trinity Church (Troitza), after which the convent is named, is thought more respectable. In it there is the tomb of St. Sergius, famed for the profusion of gold and silver jewels with which it is ornamented. The frame work of <he c-mopy over it is pure silver, and weighs I2cwt. But this is nothing compared to the wealth collected in what is called ' the treasury of the convent,' consisting of clerical dresses, ornaments, sacred vessels of astonishing value, and remarkable for their workmanship. The value of precious metals and jewels in this treasury is computed at £50,000,000 sterling. The episcopal dresses, altar cloths, and palls, are ii-

terally covered witn pearls. It is almost impossible to count the number of pearls in the picture frames and dresses in Troitza. Many pictures have been framed of pearls and precious stones. In Troitza alone there is said to be a greater quantity of pearls than in all the rest of Europe ; and as the riches of this convent have in cases of need been offered to the Russian czars, it is to Troitza the present Emperor would turn if Mr. Cobden's naive proposition of • stopping the supplies' to Russia were, for a marvel, adopted by the money" broker. — Frasers Magazine.

Newspaper Competition in the United States. — During the Mexican war the auxiety to obtain intelligence from the south was most intense. South of Washington there was then no telegraphic communication, although this miraculous method of correspondence is now far more generally in use throughout the States than with ourselves. The object, therefore, was to ascertain with the utmost possible speed the particular intelligence brought to Washington by steamer, in order to forward it by telegraph to Baltimore. For this purpose the competing journals adopted the following plan. Each paper had an agent on board the packet, and two others, in the shape of a boy on horseback and a man on foot, waiting her arrival on the quay. The duty of the former was to collect the gist of the intelligence brought by the steamer as she ascended the river, to put it in a concise form for transmission by telegraph, and as the boat neared the wharf to throw it ashore attached to a short heavy stick. This stick was instantly caught by the man on foot and handed to the boy on horseback, and, as the operation was performed almost at the same moment by half-a-dozen competitors, the struggle was finally decided by a race through the streets, since the boy who first got to the telegraph office, situated about a mile and a half from the wharf, secured the first use of the wires. As they frequently got a very good start, the race was often highly exciting, till a particularly smart agent one day hit upon the following expedient : — Unperceived by his fellows, he smuggled on board a bow and arrow, and therewith shot off his intelligence several minutes before his rivals could throw their sticks on shore in the usual way. In the next mail, however, he -was beaten at his own weapons, for one of his adversaries, having observed that the boat stopped at a point lower down the river, secured relays of horses afc this spot, and shooting his slip of paper on shore at once left the boy to outstrip the steamer on her route to Washington, which he effectually did. — Observer.

Lamartine on Fox and Pitt. — At this epoch I read, for the first time, the speeches of Fox and Pitt. I found Fox declamatory, although prosaic ; one of those cavilling genuises born to contradict, and not to say ; advocates without robes, who have no conscience but in their voices, who plead above all for their own popularity. I felt in Pitt the statesman, whose words are deeds, and who, in the crash of Europe, sustained, almost alone, his country, on the basis of bis good sense, and on the consistency of bis character. Pitt was Mirabeau, with more integrity, and less impetuosity. Mirabeau and Pitt became, and have remained, suns to special modern statesmen. Montesquieu appeared to me, by their side, a dissertator, ingenious and systematic ; Fenelon, was divine, but chimerical ; Rosseau more impassioned than inspired — great instinct more than great truth ; Eossuet, golden- tongued, but flattering, collecting in himself, in his conduct and language, before Louis XIV., the despotism of a doctor with the complaisance of a courtier. — Raphael. Musical Sympathies. — Voltaire is commonly stated to have been a hater and despiser of the art of sweet sounds ; but perhaps there is as much evidence against the asser- | tion as for it, in his works. Gretry says of him, that he would sit with a discontented face whilst music was going on — which, considering what French music was in his time, might argue not a worse ear than his neighbours, but a better. But granting Voltaire had no musical sympathies in him, and it goes against our consciences to think he had, his friend and fellow-thinker, Frederick of Prussia, had them in great degree ; and a man as unlike both as this world could offer, the late Dr. Chalmers, had none at all — except, of course, that he liked a Scotch air, as all Scotchmen, by some merciful provision of nature, appear to do. Then it may seem natural to our pre-conceived ideas that such a mind as Horace Walpole's, should have no capacity for musical pleasure ; but by what possible analogy was it that Charles Lamb's should have had just as little ? How came it to pass that Rousseau, the worthless ancestor of all radicals, was an enthusiastic and profound musician, while Dr. Johnson, the type of old Toryism, did not know one tune from another ; or that Luther pronounced music to be one of the best gifts of Heaven, and encouraged the study of it by precept and ex-

ample, while Calvin and Knox persecuted it as a snare of the evil one, and conscientiously condemned it to perpetual degradation in their churches ? All we can say is, that the majority pay her homage — that it is one of her heavenly attributes to link those natures together whom nothing else can unite. Men of the most opposite characters and lives that history can produce fraternise in music. If Alfred loved her, so did Nero; if Ooeur de Lion was a sweet musician, so was Charles IX. ; if George 111. delighted in all music, especially in that of a sacred character, so did Henry VIII. ; if the hero of our own times, the motto of whose life has been duty, is musical both by nature and inheritance, his antagonist, Napoleon, at least, hummed opera tunes. Oliver Cromwell bade a musician ask of him what favour he pleased. John Wesley remonstrated against leaving all the good tunes to the devil. Every private family could quote some domestic torment and some domestic treasure, alike in nothing else but in the love for music. There is no forming any system of judgment. — Quarterly Review.

The Earth Eaters. — The earth which the Otomacs eat is a soft unctuous clay, a true potter's clay, of a yellowish-grey colour, due to a little oxide of iron. They seek for it in particular spots on the banks of the Orinoco and the Meta, and select it with care. They distinguish the taste of one kind of earth from that of another, and do not consider all clays as equally agreeable to eat. They knead the earth into balls of about five or six inches in diameter, which they burn or roast by a weak fire until the outside assumes a reddish tint. The balls are remoistened when about to be eaten. These Indians are generally wild uncultivated beings, and altogether averse to any kind of tillage. It is a proverb even among the most distant of the nations living on the Orinoco, when speaking of anything very unclean, to say that it is " so dirty that the Otomacs eat it," As long as the waters of the Orinoco and the Meta are low, these Indians live on fish and river tortoises. They kill the fish with arrows when at the surface of the -water, — a pursuit in which we have often admired their dexterity. During the periodical swelling of the rivers the taking of fish ceases, for it is as difficult to fish in deep river water as in the deep sea. It is in this interval, which is of two or three months' duration, that the Otomacs swallow great quantities of earth. We have found considerable stores of it in their huts, the clay balls being piled together in pyramidal heaps. — Iravels in America.

" Ho, ye that Thirst." — An eclipse of the sun was that day looked for, between one and two o'clock ; and as the hour approached I drew near to a group of negroes, who were grinning and chatting near the bow of the boat, etch with a piece of smoked glass in his hand, through which to observe the expected phenomenon. On getting within reach of their voices, I found them engaged in a biblical discussion, the controversy hinging upon the proper meaning of the phrase, ' Ho, ye that thirst,' occurring in the prophecies. The most loquac:ous amongst them, who seemed to be the oracle of the group, held, that it was chiefly to be applied to those who were engaged in the cultivation of cotton and Indian corn ; the hoe being the principal instrument used by those so occupied. Contrary as it may seem to all experience, the exhortation addressed to those thus employed was, to hoe away when they felt thirsty, that they might forget their thirst. He was indebted for this lucid interpretation to the overseer of a plantation iv Alabama, on which he Jiad been for some years a slave. This explanation was followed by a look of incredulity which passed round the group, and drew from the speaker himself a confession that although he had often practically tested it, his experience had invariably belied the interpretation. — Mackays Western World.