MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 510, 22 June 1850, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

We have seen with much pleasure, says the Art Journal, the progress of the cradle for her Majesty. It in an important'specimen of the art of wood carving, and augurs most favourably of the effect the whole will produce in a state of completion. The sides, which are finished, are carved of the choicest box, the difficulty of procuring which wood has been one of the causes for the delay attending the work. In the upper portion are friezes in relief, having an alternate introduction of roses and poppies, designed and executed with the purest feeing of Italian taste. Beneath them is a bold torus moulding with pinks, inserted in fluted hollows. The two ends remain to be produced, and to them the utmost delicacy of finish will be imparted. The interiors of the rockers are ornamented' with foliated dolphins, and even the flat edges of the head and foot are elaborately carved into scroll-work. It is a great satisfaction to all who feel interested in this (until recently) neglected art, that her Majesty has given the commission for so splendid an example of it ; and we feel assured, that when completed, it will reflect high credit on the artist, Mr. Rogers, and add greatly to the fame he has already established.

Chukch and State. — The London correspondent of the Oxford Herald gives a description of a second sermon by the Rev. W. J. Bennett, at St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, on the royal supremacy, which he is stated to have declared no longer existed in the sovereign, but de facto in the House of Commons, a body containing not only heretics, but infidels, and consequently, intolerable to have control over the church. If redress was unattainable, "the post of honour is a private station." The writer continues — " It was an extraordinary scene. You might have heard a pin drop, so completely hushed into silence was the crowded congregation — the most crowded, no doubt, of any of the London churches of that day, gteat numbers being obliged to stand all the time, and many being unable to obtain standing room. Tt was composed too of all classts

— professional men, shopkeepers, and others, , formed a large proportion of those who occu-; pied the pews — and there was besides a very large attendance of nobility and gentry of Belgravia. Two or more of the cabinet ministers were present, including the premier himself. Lord John Russell occupied hia usual seat, accompanied by his brother, the Duke of Bedford ; Lord Campbell sat immediately under the pulpit. The Bishop of ■Gloucester was also present. And all these .great personages were observed to pay the most marked attention to the extraordinary discourse to which they listened. Lord John appeared to labour under some emotion ; and the Bishop of Gloucester seemed much affected. Evidently a deep impression was produced. It was intimated that a protest against the present connection of church and 'State, and an -address to the primate, would be ready for signatures in the church porch on Wednesday morning." ;

Extraordinary Project, t- Railway To India. — The distance between England and India is of a vary fabulous and artificial character. It used to be called 10,000,12,000 or even 15,000 miles. The time consumed in traversing it has varied from nine months to three. Sir Arthur Wellesley modestly stipulated for four, as the limit of the period within which there should be always a steady and constant communication between Portsmouth and Calcutta. At the present time the journey from Bombay to Southampton is usually perfomed in some thirty-five or forty days, and there seems abundance of room for still further shortening the transit. For, after al|, India is only some ,few hundred miles further from us,than the United States. From Sjjithead to New York it is 2820 miles ; from Ostend to Hyderabad, on the Indus, it is only 38Q5... Most certainly nobody has ever yet looked upon one of these journeys as being pply. 900, miles longer than the other; but if the " -Direct Calais and Mooltan" ever comes into qperation, the longer will (become actually the shorter of the • two. In the first place, instead of starting from Calais or Ostend, we may start from -Vienna, for up to that point railway communication may be considered as already complete. From Vienna the line is, or was, actually opened to Pestb. It it piojected to take a due southward course from Pesth, through the valley between the Thejss and the, Danube, crossing the latter river a little below the junction of the Drave, and entering the European territories of Turkey just by Belgrade. From this point to Constantinople intervenes a distance of about 500 miles, over which the line will run along the valley of the Danube, pretty nearly to Nicopolis, when it will make a southward bend to cut the Balkan, apparently by a pass of its own, a little north-west of Eskisara. After this the course through Adrianople to Bosphorus is clear enough, and so we stand at length on the borders of Europe and Asia, with about one-third of the whole journey accomplished, and 2400 miles still remaining before us — a longish stage, certainly, but not longer than will be in actual operation in the United States before five years are out. Turkey in Asia is now to be traversed from angle t,o angle — from Scutaria to Basra — saying nothing, for the present, about the Straits. The line will pass over the memorable field of Angora, the scene of Bajazet's defeat, and will then shoot with the straitness of an arrow between the Euphrates and the Tigris — the anjeient regions of Mesopotamia. The ruins and relics of Nineveh will be brought close t» band. Babylon and Bagdad cannot fail of being attractive stations, even for those who stop siort of Susa and Ecbatana ; and before we have well recovered from the sensations occasioned by the scenery, we shall find ourselves on the coast of the Persian Gulf, aoout 2800 miles from our starting pprt in the Channel. We have now two routes open to us. We may either take the great Desert of Kirman, and the wilds of Western Affghanistan,, or we may skirt the south western coast of Persia, run exactly through the centre of Beloochistan, and debouch directly upon the old capital of the Ameers of Scinde. The project before us prudently decides in favour of the latter mentioned route ; and the line accordingly passing right through the ruins of Persepolis, cuts the Belooche frontier at its middle point, a>>d then turning a little southward, skirts the whole length of the sea coast under the hills, and at length crosses the Indus a little below Meanee. The distance traversed in these two stages is about 550 miles in Persia, and as nearly, as possible the same in beloochistan. If, after this, we cannot snap our fingers at the Yankees, it will, as they express it, "be a pity." Yet the total estimated cost of this miraculous design is only £34,050,000. The total annual interest on the capital is under £2,000,000, and the portion which according to the terms of the pioject would have to be defrayed by the "government" of Beloochistan, is only, £275,000. However, we have at last fairly beaten the Americans in comprehensive surveys and audacious speculation ; and we have

abundantreasons for believing that tbe scheme which we have here detailed has actually been considered for years, has be«n .digested with the aid of all accessible information, and has been devised with no other end than that of promoting a great national good. The Valparaiso Neighbour furnishes the account of a boat's crew abandoned on the coast of Patagonia. The date is rather old, but as the details of the occurrence may ope- | rate as a caution to adventurous passengers, j we give the particulars as we findvthern. The i barque Hebe, Captain Stetson, arrived at Valparaiso on Sunday morning, the 17th June. This vessel attempted to paw the Straits of Magellan, and came as far as Possession Bay, on the north side of the Straits, where she anchored at the turn of the tide, on the 30th of April. The passengers and some of the crew went towards the shore, in a boat, in order to shoot some birds. The captain saw the native Patagonians gathered on the shore in great numbers, even to hundreds, and many more besides were seen coming from the hills on horseback. Soon after the boat was near the shore, the wind freshened, and a flag was hoisted on board to warn the boat to return, as the barque was found to be dragging her anchors. They did not, however, come back immediately. The wind continued to increase, and notwithstanding both anchors were down, the vessel drifted for several miles. The passengers and boat's crew were by this time trying to reach the vessel, and Captain Stetson, fearing they would not reach her, contrived a buoy, to which he attached a line some 200 feet in length, hoping that as they were within bailing distance they would come up with and get hold of it at least. Hud this been effected, the boat would have been hauled alongside. But tbe wind had increased to a gale, the barque drifting still more, and though they came within 20 feet of the buoy, they could not reach it in time. One of the cables having parted, the vessel swung round by the other towards the shore, and there being no remedy, it became necessary to cut the other cable, and sail for the Atlantic again, leaving these poor men where they were. They were last seen palling for the shote. Although they were far out, and the sea frightfully high, it may be hoped that they succeeded in reaching the land. — Her Britannic Majesty's steamer Driver, Captain Johnson, was boarded by the American schooner Gazelle in the Straits, and from her inibtmation was received that the persons pasted from the Hebe had reached another vessel, and gone on to California.

British Museum. — Mr. Henry James Brooke, of Glapham Rise, has made a.donation to the Print department of the British Museum, by which he has made that institution rich in the works of one of the most important masters in his line, Lucas van Leyden. To obtain fine impressions from the plates by his hand has been at all times a difficulty ; and our national collection was extremely deficient in these before Mr.oßrooke's donation. Mr. Brooke has not only supplied such lacuna as existed in the national collection of this artist's works : he has replaced all the examples which were poor in impression or defective in any respect by others of a fine quality. The whole of his gift amounts to upwards of a ! hundred specimens. — Among the rarest of these may be named — ' The Great Hagar,' marked No. 17, in Bartsch's Catalogue, who, on the authority of Sandrart, informs us that 500 florins were paid for it in the 16th century. Its extreme rarity may be imagined, when we state that it has not appeared for sale in any public catalogue for upwards of half-a-century. 'The Uylenspiegel' is a print equally rare. We may mention also • The Dance of the Magdalen.' Lucas van i Leyden was ihe rival of Albert Diirer : though between the two there subsisted the most perfect cordiality — they have even worked .together on the same surface. In his works the sublimest thoughts and finest feelings are less detracted from by national objective truth than is usual among the engravings of his time and country. His execution is most elegant, and his sense of keeping perfect. The prints of this master have ever been held in the highest estimation. Sandrart states that Ulric Mayer told him he had seen his master, Rembrandt, pay 1,400 florins, at a public sale, for fourteen fine specimens of Lucas van Leyden's engravings.

The Blessings of Civilization. — Of the blessings which civilization- and philosophy bring with them, a large proportion is common to all ranks, and would, if withdrawn, be missed as painfully by the labourer as by the peer. The market-place which the rustic can nowrejch with bis cart in an hour, was, a hundred and sixty years ago, a day's journey from him. . ifbe street which affords to the artizan, during (he whole night, a secure, a convenient, and brilliantly-lighted walk, was, a hundred and sixty years ago, so dark after sunset that he would not have been able to see his hand, so ill-paved that he would have run constant risk I of breaking his neck, and so ill watched that

he would have been in imminent danger of being knocked down and plundered of his small earnings. Every bricklayer who falls from a scaffold, every sweeper of a crossing who is run over by a carriage, now may have his wounds dressed and his limbs set with a skill such as, a hundred years ago, all the wealth of a great lord like Orraond, or a merchant prince like Clayton, could nothave purchased. Some frightful diseases have been extirpated by science ; and some have been banished by police. The term of human life has been lengthened over the whole kingdom, and especially in the towns. The year 1685 was not accounted sickly ; yet in the year 1685 more than one in twenty-three of the inhabitants of the capital died. At present only one inhabitant in forty dies annually. The difference in salubrity between the London of the nineteenth century and the London of the seventeenth century, is very far greater ttian the difference between London in an ordinary season and London in the cholera. — Macaulay. Value or Education. — In the parochial union schools geography is now much more taught than formerly — the guardians having at length discovered the stimulus which a little knowledge of geography gives to emigration. At first they could discover no use whatever in maps. " Maps !" said they, when it was first proposed to introduce them ; " you'll be bringing in the dancing master next." In illustration of the value of geography as regards emigration, the following was related to me. A gentleman, in want of a boy to accompany him to New Zealand, applied at a union school in which geography had not been taught. " Who'll go to New Zealand ?" was asked of the whole school, but not one volunteered. The application was next made at a school where geography was taught. " Who'll go to New Zealand ?" was again asked, and almost every boy in the school sprung forward, exclaiming, " I'll go !" On examining them, it was found that many not only knew its position, and other circumstances connected with it, but could also state accurately the different routes by which it could be reached. No sooner was the anecdote known abroad than the guardian* of the surrounding unions immediately ordered maps for their respective schools. — Morning C hronicle.

* The Ecclesiastical Courts. — I asked Mr. Spenlow what lie considered the best sort of professional business. He replied, that a good case of a disputed will, where there was a neat little estate of £30,000 or £40,000, was, perhaps, the best of all. In such a case, he said, not only were there very pretty pickings in the way of arguments at every stage of the proceedings, and mountains upon mountains of evidence on interrogatory and counter-interrogator}', (to say nothing of an appeal lying first to the Delegates, and then to the Lords,) but the costs beiag pretty sure <o come out of the estate at last, both sides went at it in a lively and spirited manner, and expense was no consideration. Then he launched into a general eulogium on the Commons. What was to be particularly admired, he said, in the Commons was its compactness. It was the most conveniently organised place in the world. It was the complete idea of snugness. It lay in a nut shell. For example : You brought a divorce case or a restitution case, into the Consistory. Very good. You tried it in the Consistory. You made a quiet little round game of it, among a family group, and you played it out at leisure. Suppose you were not satisfied with the Consistory, what did you do then ? Why you went into the Arches. What was the Arches ? The same Court, in the same room, with the same bar and the same practitioners, but another judge, ,for |here the Consistory Judge could plead any court-day as an advocate. Well, you played your round game out again. Still you were not satisfied. Very good. What did you do then,? Why, you werit to the Delegates. Who are the Pelegates? Why, the Ecclesiastical Delegates were the advocates without any business, who had looked on at the round game when it was playing in both courts, and had seen the cards scuffled and cut, and played, and had talked to all the .players about it, and now came fresh as judges to settle the matter to the satisfaction of everybody ! Discontented people might talk of corruption in the Commons, closeness in the Commons, and the necessity of reforming the Commons, said Mr. Spen- 1 low solemnly, in conclusion ; but when the price of wheat per bushel had been highest, the Commons had been busiest ; and a man might lay his hand upon his heart and say this to the whole world—" Touch the Commons, and down comes the country." — From the last number of David Cappevfield.

The Story of a Life. — I am not a little diverted by thy taking on somewhat about the irksome monotony and confinement of ft fortnight's spell at the desk and figure work, and seeming to thyself like a piece of machinery in consequence. I have already been so unfeeling as to have a hearty laugh at the whole affair. Why, man, I took my seat on the identical stool I now occupy at the desk,

to the wood of which I have now well nigh grown, in the third month of the year 181©;; and there I have eat on for three-and-thirty blessed years, betides the odd eight months, without one month's respite in all that time. I 'believe I once had a fortnight ; and once in about two years, or better, I get a week ; bat all my absence put together would not make up the odd eight months. I often wonder that my health has stood this sedentary probation as it has, and that my mental faculties have survived three-and-thirty year*, ot potting down figures in three rows, casting them up, and carrying them forward ad infinitxm. Nor is this all— for during that time, I think, I have put forward some half dozen volumes of verse ; to say nothing of scores and scores of odd bits of verse contributed to annuals, periodicals, albums, -and what not ; and a correspondence implying a hundred times the writing of these all put together ; where is the wonder that, on the verge of sixty, I am somewhat of a premature old man, with odds and ends of infirmities and ailments about me, which at times are a trial to the spirits, and-a weariness to the flesh ? But all the grumbling in the world will not mend the matter, or help me, so I rub and drive on as well as I can. — Bernard Barton,

A Striking Thought. — The death of an old man's wife, is like cutting down an ancient oak that has long shaded the family mansion. Henceforth the glare of the world, with its cares and vicissitude?, falls upon the old widower's heart, and there is nothing to break their force, or shield him from the full weight of misfortune. It is as if his right hand was withered, as if one wing of the eagle was broken, and every movement that he made brought him to the ground. His eyes are dim aud glassy, and when the film of death falls over him, he misses those accustomed tones which might have soothed his passage to the grave. — Lamartine,

Spanish Ideas of England. — For myself, the principal source of the amusement I derived was from the querie* put to me regarding the Inglaterra ; these were generally of such a nature as to betray a woful degree of ignorance on the part of the speakers. Geographical knowledge, I need not to say, is at the lowest ebb here, and hence I was frequently called upon to rectify tht most ludicrous blunders. More than once it was manifest that my questioner was puzzled to tell whether London was in England, or Pingland in London Tar^d, in truth,' the words are often used synonymously. On one occasion a priest, who had been in Gibraltar, and seen there a regiment of Highlanders in th« " garb of old Gaul," volunteered the information that the " regiment in petticoats" was invested with the feminine attire as a punishment for having misbehaved on the field of battle ! • * * * * It is by no means unusual to find throughout Spain families whose ancestors have been natives of Great Britain and Ireland. The latter isle can, however, boast not only of having transplanted more of her children to the soil of Spain than either of the sister kingdoms have done, but of having acquired by the deeds of her off-shoots a degree of renown to which the others cannot aspire. — Murray's Andalusia.

Scotch Catechism. — Pedagague — Wha was Goliah ? Boy — The muckle giant wham David slew with a sling and a stane. Ped. — Wha was David ? Boy — The son of Jesse. That's a braw man, andnoo — wha was Jesse? Boy — The flower of Dumblane. " Buffalo Gal 3." — The Neicry Examiner gives a letter from a young woman in Buffalo to her mother. The damsel say* — " I would advise all the handsomest girls in Cauthere to come here, as it makes no matter with girls here whether they have money or not. The boys here do not look for a fortune, but every boy for a handsome wife* The boys are very fond of Irish girls, as the Yankee girls are like the aid horses at home, high in bone but low in fleih, and the colour of a duck's foot."

Thieves upon their Honour. — There had been a great many rohheries in Fifeshir* : every house in the neighbourhood had betn tisited except Balcarres. Tht robbers were at last captured and brought before the county court. " Why did you never come to me?" asked Lord Balcarres. "My lord," they replied, "we often did ; everywhere else we found closed doors, but at Balcarrei they stood always open, andwhere.such is the cate it is a rule among us not to enter." — Lord Lindsays Lives of the Lindsays.