MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 516, 13 July 1850, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Panama Railroad. — This road has been put under contract from Chagres river to Panama, twenty-one miles. The contractors are Messrs. Totten and' Trantwine, whose proposals were the most favourable, and who possess the great recommendation of having been employed for the last four or five years in the territories of New Grenada, in constructing a canal ninety miles long, to connect two branches of the Magdalene River. They accomplished this work with na-

tive labour, with which they proposed to build the Panama road. The work will be carried on under the superintendence of Wm. H. Slide!], Esq., as principal engineer ; Mr. Slidell assisted in the location and survey of the road, under Col. Hughes. This railroad is attracting attention at Paris and London, and the position in relation to it is taken, that to fulfil its object it must be made a neutral passage for all nations, without distinction and on equal footing, even in case of war, and a diplomatic convention for this purpose is suggested, to which the contracting parties should not only be New Grenada and the United States, but England, France, and Russia,, whose territories are bounded on the west as well as on the east by the Pacific Ocean.

New York, January S.— The projectors of an electric telegraph communication between this city and the Isle of Wight will bring their plan before Congress at its present session. They propose to lay down a substantial insulated wire of 36 fibres, coated one half-inch with gutta percha, and to guarantee its working with perfect integrity for ten years. They offer to complete it in 20 months from the date of contract, for a sum not to exceed 3,000,000 dollars.

Ignorance of the Greek Clergy. — The Clergy of enslaved Greece are all ignorant ; and the services being written in ancient Greek they read it only with their lips, for they do not understand what they are repeating. This ignorance exists not only among the inferior clergy, but among bishops and archbishops, who attain to those offices by purchase. I have already spoken of the ignorance of the clergy, and shall therefore dwell no more upon this point, but relate an anecdote showing the actual condition of the Church of Constantinople. In that city there was a person of influence who had great power over the patriarch, being a friend of the Sultan. Accordingly, one day when at dinner, being pleased with his cook, he told him that he should be a bishop, and sent him to the patriarch with a letter, in which was an order to appoint him bishop. Upon this the patriarch examined the cook as to his theology, and found that, so far from possessing any knowledge of the matter, he was completely ignorant, and moreover, did not even know how to read or write his own name — cookery being the only subject upon which he was informed. The patriarch sent back the cook to his master with an answer that he could not make him a bishop, as he was unable to read. The man shortly returned to the patriarch with a peremptory order that he should be appointed bishop. The patriarch was thus compelled to make him a clergyman one day, and a bishop the next ; so that this excellent cook became, without any trouble, a cook bishop, and afterwards began to learn to read. Such is the way in which bishops and archbishops are appointed in that country, knowing no more of theology than they do of zoology, or any other ology. — Lord Albert Denison's Wanderings.

The Wine Vaults of Xeues. — la wonder I followed the proprietor as he conducted me from one storehouse to another, each edifice as large as a church : there was not one that did not seem to suffer from a plethora of huge casks, in any one of which might be absorbed the vintage of a dozen vineyards. The giants were piled one above another in long ranks divided by narrow passages, that resembled the deep lanes of the country. The uppermost tier, of which there were usually three, contained the prodnce of the latest vintages; in the intermediate was an older wine ; and in the foundation story the most ancient of all. Whatever quantity was dtawn off from this latter tier, was replaced by an equal portion from the casks above, so that no precise age could be assigned to any one cask, the contents of which were in fact a mixture of various ages and growths. Hence it is impossible for the wine proprietors here to comply to the letter with an order specifying an article of a certain age. If, for instance, a ten-year old butt be required, it will be prepared according to a certain formula, into which there enters something of an algebraical calculation ; there will be a small portion of wine a hundred years old, something more of an article perhaps twenty, and the remainder will consist of a vintage only four or five years in the storehouse ; thus will be manufactured a wine, no doubt excellent, but very far from squaring with the notions of those who might conceive it to be the genuine juice of'the grape expressed ten years ago. — Murray's Cities and Wilds of Andalucin.

Industry. — If industry be no more than habit it is at least an excellent one. If you ask me which is the real hereditary sin of human nature, do you imagine I shall answer pride, or luxury, or ambition, or egotism? No — I shall say indolence. Who conquers indolence, will conquer all the rest. Indeed, all good principles must stagnate without mental activity. — Hunt's Poetry of Science,

A Virginian Advertisement. — A Norfolk (Virginia) paper contains the following advertisement: — "Notice. — For Sale, a coloured girl of very superior qualifications, who is now in Mri Hall's jail at Norfolk. ! She is what speculators call a fancy girl — a bright mulatto, fine figure, straight black hair, and very black eyes — remarkably neat and cleanly in her dress and person. I venture to say there is not a better seamstress, cutter, and fitter of ladies' and children's dresses, in Norfolk or elsewhere, or a more fanciful netter of bead bags, money purses, &c. Any lady or gentleman iv Norfolk or Porismouth, who may wish to purchase a girl of this description (whom I consider the most valuable in Virginia), may take her and try her a month or more at any risk ; and if she does not suit, and answer the description here given, may return her to Mr. Hall. — Joseph Holladay."— Boston Emancipator,

ATale fob Mothers . — In a letter addressed by Mrs. Chisholm to the editor of the Morning Chronicle on the subject of female emigration, we find the following singular narrative :—: — Hardly too many instances, Mr. Editor, can be given of what I may call comfort lor mothers, as to the salutary and holy influence which the example or remembrance of a good mother has even upon the bad — how the recollection of one who nursed them in infancy, and instructed them in youth, touches upon cords which, I believe, are never totally eradicated in the human heart. Time, distance, and crime, may deaden the best feelings of one's nature ; but let some unexpected occasion recall vividly to mind the acts of a good mother, and those feelings which were thus supposed to be extinct will be powerfully and often salutarily awakened. A striking instance of this nature was related to me in the bush by a woman who had been confined, with several hundred others, in the Female Factory, near Sydney. This woman was a Roman Catholic, and was, when in England, under tbe care of Mrs. Fry — a woman whose name is endeared to every benevolent mind. In speaking of that lady she said : "We (the Roman Catholics) looked upon her with doubt, and this fear on our part made her do less good amongst us than she otherwise would ; for, bad as we were, we looked upon it as the last fall to give up our faith. Now she had a remarkable way with her — a sort of speak- | ing that you could hardly help listening to, whether you would or no ; for she was not only good, but downright clever. Well, just to avoid listening when she was speaking or reading, I learnt to count twelve backwards and forwards, so that my mind might be taken up and I actually went on until I could thus count 600 with great ease. It was a pity we had such a dread. Well she had a way of speaking to one of us alone, and I was anxious to shuffle this lecture ; the fact was, I expected she would put many questions, and as I respected her character too much altogether to tell her a lie, I kept from the sermon, as we in derision used to call it. But when she just called me on one side, saying she would like to speak a few words to me ; so, says I to myself, says I, ' caught at last.' Well she comes close to me in a very solemn sort of way, she laid her hands upon my shoulders, and she gave me a pressure that told that she felt for me, and her thumbs were set firm and hard on my shoulders, and yet her fingers seemed to have a feeling of kindness for me. But it was no lecture she gave me : all she said was ' Let not thy eyes covet.' No other words passed her lips, but then her voice was slow and awful ; kind as a mother's, yet just like a judge. Well, when I got to the colony, I went on right enough for a time, and «ac day I was looking into a work-box belonging to my mistress, and the gold thimble tempted me. It was on my finger and in my pocket in an instant ; and just as I was going to shut down the box-lid, as sure as I am telling you, I felt Mrs. Fry's thumbs on my shoulders — the gentle pleasing touch of her fingers ; I looked about me — threw down the thimble — and trembled with terror to find I was alone in the room. Careless, insolent, and bad enough I became often in the Factory. Well, do you see, at night we used to amuse each other by telling our tricks — egging one another on in daring vice and wickedness. Well, amongst us we had one uncommon clever girl — a first-rate mimic, and she used to cause us grand sport, and was a vast favourite ; she used to make us roar with laughter. Well, this fun had been going on for weeks ; she had gone through most of her characters, from tbe governor to the turnkey, when she starts on a new tack, and commenced taking off Parson Cowper and Father Therry. Some way, it did not take, so she went back te Newgate, and came Mrs. Fry to the very life ; but it would not do ; we did not seem to enjoy it — there was no fun in it for us. So then she began about the ship's leaving, and our mothers crying and begging of us to turn over a new leaf, and then, in a mimicking jesting sport, she sobbed and bade us good

bye. Well, how it happened I know not, but one after the other we began to cry, and ' Stay, stay, not my mother/ said one, ' Let Mrs. Fry alone. Father Therry must not bt brought here, nor Parson Cowper — stay, stay. 1 Well, she did stop ; but tears were shed the whole of that night. Everything had been tried with me. Good people had sought in vain to convince me of my evil ways ; but that girl's ridicule of my mother I could not stand. Her grief was brought horns to me, and not to me alone, but to many. I do believe that night was a blessing to many* I was so unhappy, that the next day I tried to get out of sight to pray, and when t got to a hiding-place I found three girls on their knees ; we comforted each other, and then how we spoke of our mothers ! Mine was dead — she left this world believing me past hope, but the picture of her grief made me earnest ia search of that peace which endureth for ever."