MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 541, 9 October 1850, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Humboldt's Opinion^relative to Sik John Franklin. — A correspondent of an American paper, writing from Berlin, relates an interview with Humboldt the savant, when the following opinion as to the fate of Sir John Franklin was incidentally elicited from him :—": — " He thought it quite probable that Franklin had not perished, but was still shut in by the ice, and gave several facts of voyagers whom he had seen, and who had been for long seasons so detained in the northern seas. The Esquimaux of the coast, he said, were not at all dangerous ; Franklin was well supplied with provisions, and would probably yet return to give an account of his voyage. Indeed, the report that the Esquimaux Indians had said that some vessels had long been fast in the ice, away off to the north, seemed to be fully confirmed."

A Nbw Almanack for 1850. — Mr. Gustavus Struve (now in London) has published au "Almanack for the People" for the Isr year of the universal republic, which commences (by Mr. Struve's statement) on the Ist of March, 1850. In this almanack we find Christianity, with, its Sundays and feast days, abolished : in return, we have the four feasts of the seasons, and 12 anniversaries of the heroes of history, viz., of Moses, Solon, Socrates, Leonidas, Brutus, the Gracchi, Christ, Arminius, Tell, Huss, Luther, and Washington. An entirely new and improved nomenclature is introduced for the months and the week days; such as — Workday, Death-day, Union-day, Brotherhood-day, Friday, and Fay-day ; and instead of the names of saints we have the names of the j promoters and victims of sundry revolutions : for instance — Marat, Robespierre, Dortu (shot in Baden for being a deserter from the Prussian army,) T-rutzshler (executed for heading the insurrection in Baden,) and others. The literary part of the work is inspired by the genius of bloodshed ; death and destruction are invoked on the heads of all heretics' from Mr. Struve's fraternal creed. To make the book not only entertaining but useful, we are informed that the Germans are of Thracian origin, and that Orpheus, the poet, was their great great grandfather. Mr. Struve's almanack concludes with a poetical effusion in the true Orpheus- style, under the title of "The Battle of the Present," in which we find denunciations against the five scourges of mankind (princes, clergy, nobility, officials, and capitalists) introdaced with a duly stunning effect. — Kolnische Zeitung. The following jeu d 'esprit on the Gorham case is taken from Punch — The Pope his compassion for sinners to prove, Sends Built, without mercy, to bore 'em ; Oar Philpotts, to show his more fatherly love, Refuses oermission to Gore 'em.

The New York Miracles. — For some months past we have never taken up a batch of American papers without expecting to receive a shock of moral electricity. A week or two ago, while chronicling the rise and progress of the Mormon sect, we asked our-

selves if it were possible for anything to occur to cast those phenomena into the shade ? Taught by experience of American marvel and eccentricity, - we had a donbt — and now our reservations are justified : Mormon Prophet and Poughkeepsie Seer — Mexico and California are extinguished by the neu marvel. Messrs. Smith and Davis were but children at their work — they saw spirits for themselves alone. They did not profess to bring legions of angels into direct communication with legions of mortals. Now, every shopboy sees his ghost, and learns the secrets of the present world from his invisible familiar. The bare fact now announced is this : — New York has suddenly received a vast number of spiritual visitations. The manner in which the spirit pays its visit is as follows : - — a low rapping is heard, the rapper being invisible. At first people were a little startled ; but as nothing more alarming came of it they took courage, and began to question the spiritual messenger. They found it apt to answer. The first question put was naturally " Are yon a spirit ?" — to which the invisible replied — Rap-rap-rap ! — which is supposed to mean y-e-s ! Its name was demanded. But the reply was not understood. One present suggested to the spirit that the letters of the alphabet should be called over, and the letters spelling the name signalized by him. This process yielded as result — " Charles Rasme." So far, the story is only a Cock-lane ghost affair ; but now comes the pith of the matter. Hundreds of houses in New York became subject to the call of these Rappites ; dialogues were conducted in each after the manner of the model — that is, by question and raps. The spirit no longer confines his personality — if that term may be used of a spirit — to the name of Charles Rasme. The visitants are numerous; nearly every family having its own. It is said to be observed that in all cases of experiment the presence of certain persons susceptible to mesmerism in some or its stages is necessary to success : these present, the usual mesmeric marvels are produced by appeal to the invisible spirit : the names of persons thought to be unknown are " correctly spelt," or those of distant friends. These are as yet the only achievements of the higher powers. If, as some of our American brethren opine, this proves to be the discovery of a new race of spirits, it is well for mankind that they do not appear in a more formidable guise. So far as we are able to judge, man seems to be more than a match tor them. One or two further items of information may be gleaned from the particulars' which have come to hand. These spirits know the Roman alphabet, and speak, or at least understand, the English language. In America, persons who might be presumed unlikely to be either dupes or duped in such things exercise their ingenuity in efforts to explain the phenomena on rational grounds. We should imagine the first and great difficulty would be — to prove the facts. With all his " smartness," Brother Jonathan is given to strange hallucinations. One would scarcely expect to meet with the exorcised " spirits " of the elder world, spirits that have ceased to haunt the old castles of J the Rhine and the villages of the Black Forest, regenerated among the warehouses of a new brick-and-plaster city. But our cousins have a wonderful capacity for belief: and no doubt "Charles Rasme" will have his followers for a month — as Andrew Jackson Davis of Pougbkeepsie had bis. Then, the new spirit will give place to a newer. — Athenaum. London and the Fulness thereof. — It is the season in London; the Parliament is in the midst of business, the Opera has attained its prime, and the metropolis is full. It is a wonderful congregation that now eddies about London streets — a mingling of races and ranks. Perhaps London never was so thronged as it is now, even at the height of the Railway mania : it is fuller perhaps than it will be until the Exposition of 1851 draw larger supplies of mankind from the world. The West-end swarms with Peers, Members, younger sons, butlers, candidates lor election past and future, country gentlemen, dowagers, — ladies-maids, Court beauties, '* et hoc genus omne" ; Westminster teems with lawyers, Parliamentary agents, private bill promoters ; all West of Temple Bar with artists, ministers of religion gathering for April and May meetings, country couMns, horse dealers ; omnibuses, splendid moving boxes of humanity, discbarge their ever changing cargoes at every corner, cabs have disovered the perpetual motion ; the boats the Thames have begun their season of tempting fate with impossible loads ; Regent street is a wonder of charioteering skill ; Temple Bar is a perpetual Thermopylae of resistance to invasion. Cheapside is like a water-pipe on the principle of constant supply ever full ; the Opera is a delicious purgatory ; Covent Garden compares its fruits and flowers with an equivalent show of cheeks and lips ; the Exhibitions are the trials of the constitution — tests of the power to resist fainting ; shopmen cannot sell their wares for the press of

customers ; bankers' clerks stride across the floor like Coulon, and begin to fear for the stability of their own brains : every by-street is like a main thoroughfare ; the wild Irish have come to town, with the beggars both of the ragged and silken gown orders ; London is the region of a floating Poland, it is Hungary, it is Italy, it is France, Legitimate and Ultra-Democrative ; it is familiar as Malta with every costume, from that of Exeter Hall to that of the Indian Archipelago. And the poor you have always with you — in Bethnal Green countless, and in other suburban provinces. Also the thieves and predatory classes. Also — but Non ragionam de lor, ma gu&rda c passa. talk not to ears polite of that class of our countrywomen seen most as the light fades — that class of the untrained, the unsuspecting ; fruit of recognized enormities in our social system J the sphinx of civilization whose involuntary existence is a curse chiefly to itself; the Lamia whom the Apolionius of received philosophy dooms to utter perdition as an expiation for the sins which it endures rather than originates. How often the angel face of innocent woman passes into that altered race, " the inextinguishable goodness of human nature" faintly showing its fairest light through the darkness of corruption and coming death ! The well read eye sees but rests not on the unnamed and slides easily past the living furniture of our streets. Nor is that the only alienage. In this gigantic jumble of men and things called London the one striking fact beneath the everagitated surface is the thorough separation of classes. Society is divided into innumerable circles, each with its own customs and objects. Sections have their own journals, at times unknown even to other circles. The countless " interests" are separate, intent only on them selves. Projects without number pursue their own prizes sometimes ignorant of exact doubles already existing or running a parallel path towards attaining existence to encounter each other in mutual ruia at the goal. The fellowship of kind is neutralized by the multitudinousness of tie concourse ; in crowded London beyond the pale of his own circle man knows his fellow man only as an universal competitor or an obstruction. — Spectator, April 18.

We have extracted from the New Zealander the following Acts passed by the Legislature of California. The Act levying a monthly tax of twenty dollars (Four Pounds) on all persons not citizens of the United States, who engage in mining appears arbitrary and oppressive, and will render still more precarious the previous uncertain chances of success of those who embark in this golden lottery : — AN ACT TO PREVENT THE IMPORTATION OF CONVICTS INTO THIS STATE. The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows :— Sec. I . No captain or master of any vessel, or any other person or persons shall knowingly or willingly import, being or send, or cause or procure to be imported, brought or sent, or be aiding or assisting therein, into this State, by land or water, any felon, convict or person under sentence of death or transportation, or any other legal disability incuired by a criminal prosecution, except for treason, or who shall be delivered or sent to him irom any place without this State. Sec. 2. Every person who shall offend against any of the provisions of the precediog section, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail, for a term not less than three months, and shall forfeit and pay moreover the sum of one thousand dollars for each of such convicts so imported, brought or sent into this State ; one half of which penalty shall go to him or her who shall sue or prosecute for the same, and the other half to the county in which such prosecution shall be had. Sec. 3. This act to take effect and be in force from and after thirty days publication of the same in the Pacific News. John Bigler, Speaker of the House of Assembly. John M'Dougal, President of the Senate. Approved, April 11th, 1850. Peter H. Burnett.