MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 588, 22 March 1851, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Trench Government is at present 1 making experiments for tbe purpose of es- i tablisbing electric telegraphs on the railways < between Metz and Nancy, Sarreburg and i Strasburg, Paris and Chartres, Nantes and Angres, Creil and St. Quentin, Avignon and Marseilles, Tours and Poictiers, Montereau ana Troyes. The Assyrian Sculptures.—The bull and lion are chiselled out of two monster blocks of alabaster, and are all in one piece, Mr. Layard not having had recourse to Mr. Botta’s expedient of slicing them, to be afterwards readjusted. The only flaw is in the visage of the lion ; the bull has suffered the more serious damage of the loss of its fore hoofs. Though this is to be regretted, the remaining portions are in perfect preservation, and the workmanship seems wrought but yesterday. The style of these sculptures is majestic, yet easy ; it seems almost as if in having recourse to a comparatively soft material, they had relaxed the rigidity of Egyptain sculptors and Pharaohic granite. In size, as well as in style, they seem to hold the mid-line between them. Thus, although the monster tiara, the deeply-chiselled eye-brows and lids smack of Egyptain art, it is almost impossible not to see the germ of the Olympian Jupiter in the lower .parts of these colossal countenan-

ces. The elaborately curled moustaches, the nicety of the square beard, and the immense flow of bair are quite Pbidian. The triple row of horns issuing from both sides of tbe unadorned diadem, and the massive earrings are, however, purely Assyrian. Each of these two beads protrudes about a foot above the level of their respective slabs, which are from twelve to fourteen feet square. And if, wheu placed opposite—to each other, the symmetry in which the Assyrian sculptor seems to have laid peculiar stress, be, to a great extent, lost, there is ample reward to be found in their noble contrast. If the heads are chiefly characteristic of that mild serenity which is usual even in Greek divinities, the limbs of the lion and the bull betoken, on the contrary, active power, whether they are looked at in front or in profile. And in thus turning round is first noticed both the peculiarity and tbe reason of these gigantic figures having five legs ; thus, while in front only two limbs are visible in juxtaposition, in the side view there are four perfectly apart, thus expressing tbe double effect of action and repose. This is allowable, because avowed deception of the visual organs may hereafter be found to solve much that remains as yet mystical in these sculptures. The breadth of the chest in both the bull and tbe lion is much the same, the difference being one merely of detail ; tbe hair of the bull is delicately chiselled into small ringlets, which terminate in a dewlap, whereas the other has merely faint i striations. But the enumeration of each detail gives but a feeble notion of the grandeur, from which, however minute, the ornamenta- [ tion never detracts. The muscles are designed with rare power, and if the tendons at first i sight seem a little exaggeratedp-a-little reflec- , tion will show that they were not too strongly marked for their low relief. — Daily News,

Railroads in Canada. —Railroads are, perhaps, attracting more attention in Canada than any other subject just now. There are,

at present, no less than five railroad schemes i on foot within the province—all destined, ul- i timately, to be carried out, and nearly all having very fair prospects of speedy success. To begin nearer home, there is the Quebec and Melbourne railway. This road is to run from Quebec, south-west, to a town named Melbourne, where it will join the road running from Montreal to tbe city of Portland, Maine, called the St. Lawrence and Atlantic railroad. The latter road is in rapid course of construction, one hundred miles being already opened. The distance which tbe Quebec people have to make is about ninety miles,

to cost between 1,600,000 dollars and 2,000.000 dollars. Tbe corporation of the city have agreed to take 400,000 dollars in the road, and the private subscriptions are already about 100,000 dollars more. You are aware that our government guarantees six per cent, on one half tbe stock of any railroad company that can raise the other half and expend it on the road : government then guarantees say 900,000 dollars, which, with what has been already raised, leaves only 400,000 dollars to be subscribed, which will readily be taken up by the contractors, it is supposed. The advantages to Quebec are very great ; a communication to the States and to the Upper Province, open at all seasons of the year, is an object well worth striving for, not to speak of the increased trade of the city, from the fertile district through which rhe road v. ill pass. The second read I have already spoken of in mentioning the j first —the St. Lawrence and Atlantic. The directors are just about making the necessary arrangements for raising the 1,800,000 dels, necessary to complete the work. The third is a road to run from Prescott, opposite Ogdensburgh, in your State, back to tbe capital

of the great lumbering region of the Ottawa. The route is. I believe, 60 miles in length ; and towards the construction, the corporation of By town has subscribed 60,000 dollars. The next railroad contemplated proceeds westward to that from Toronto, the capital of tbe province, co some point on Lake Huron, almost directly noith of that city. It is about 110 miles in length, and towards it, the corporation of Toronto have subscribed 200,000 dollars, and will guarantee as much, if subscribed by citizens. The municipal council of Simcoe, through which county the road will run, have also agreed to subscribe 200,000. The company had an offer from Wood and Co. of Portland, to build tbe road for a certain sum, taking a large amount of stock in payment ; but there having been some delay in accepting the offer, tbe firm withdrew it. Tbe directors however will, it is said, find no difficulty in getting other parties to carry out the contract on equally favourable terms. The fifth and last road is the Great Western, running from the Niagara suspension bridge to Hamilton, at the head of Lake Ontario, and thence westerly to Windsor, opposite Detroit, through the western peninsula of Canada, as fine a country as there is in the world. This road is to be 225

miles in length, and will cost at least 4,000,000 dollars. It has been for a long time on tbe tapis, having been first designed fourteen years ago. The corporation along the line have subscribed most liberally to it. Americans are deeply interested in its stock, as well as some wealthy English capitalists. The surveys are progressing rapidly, and doubtless, in a year from this date, the whole line will be under contract. These enterprises, carried on with so much spirit, are very satisfactory nroofs of the immense im- | provements which have taken place in the Canadian people of late years. They now make efforts of which they were altogether incapable but a short time ago. — New York Herald. Dreadful Murder of a Clergyman at Frimley Grove. —The usually quiet and sequestered village of Frimley Grove, about ; half a mile from tbe Farnborough station of the South Western Railway, was the scene, i on Friday night last, of a daring burglary, which has unfortunately terminated in the ‘ violent death of a venerable and much rei spected clergymen, tbe Rev. George Edward • Holiest, who has held the perpetual curacy ■ of this hamlet during the last seventeen • years. The Rev. Mr. Holiest was a married • man, his household consisting of himself, bis i wife, a man servant, and two maid servants ; i and on Friday night last his two sons, youths f of fourteen and fifteen years of age, were at ■ home, having arrived from school the same i afternoon to pass the Michaelmas vacation t with their parents. Ou Friday night the - family retired to rest at tbe usual hour, short- , ly before eleven o’clock. Mr. and Mrs. Hol- - lest slept on the first floor; the two boys oc--1 cupied an apartment on the same floor. Aft ter retiring to rest, Mr. Holiest and his - wife fell into a sound sleep, from which they y were together awakened about three o’clock on Saturday morning by a sudden increase of

light in their apartments, and a noise of footsteps. On looking up they saw two masked figures standing at the foot of their bed ; but so little suspicion of danger had tbe rev. gentleman, that his first impression was that his sons were practising a trick upon him, and in playful terms he chided them, and told them to begone to bed and not to play jokes with him at that hour of tbe night. Mrs. Holiest, with a quicker perception of danger, at once saw the dreadful truth, and screamed aloud. The miscreants instantly seized Mr. and Mrs. Holiest, and, with pistols pointed at their heads, declared that if they made the slightest noise they would blow their brains out. Mrs. Holiest struggled bard, and at length, slipping out of bed, seized a bell rope, upon which her assailant rushed to the side of the

bed, and threw himself upon her with such force as to snap the bell rope asunder. The fellow stood over her with his pistol pointed to her face, and she fully expected to be shot dead every moment. Mr. Holiest, who, although 54 years of age, was a very strong and active man, struggled with tbe villain who stood over' him, and at length got out of bed, and was in the act of stooping down to reach the poker from the fireplace, when his assailant fired at him and wounded him in the abdomen. The unfortunate gentleman was not aware at first that he had been struck, and continued to grapple with the fellow, endeavouring by every means in his power to prevent his escape. The report of the pistol at this moment appears to have alarmed the miscreant who was standing over Mrs. Holiest, and be left her for a moment and joined his companion. This courageous woman rushed to the fireplace, and seizing a large hand bell, swung it to and fro several times. This had the effect of alarming the burglars, who almost immediately left the apartment, and descending the staircase, hastened out of tbe house by the front door. Mr. Holiest, as

soon as he was released from his assailant, ran into an adjoining apartment, and snatched up a gun which he always kept loaded. Descending the staircase with the gun* in his hand be distinctly saw three men running across the lawn, and without taking any direct aim, he fired amongst them, as it appears without effect. Returning to his bedroom, he now first discovered that he was wounded in the abdomen, and having endeavoured to allay the fears of his wife, he got into bed, and ordered his man servant, who had only just awoke and descended from his room, to seek for a constable as a protection to his family, and then to fetch a doctor for himself. The man called up the village constable, and then proceeded to summon Dr. Davies, tbe medical attendant of the family, who resided about a mile and a half distant. On the arrival of the constable it was ascertained that an entry had been effected at the rear of the premises, through the scullery window. Having once gained an entry, they appear to have set open all the doors in the I house, so as to afford speedy egress in case of i alarm or discovery. On the arrival of Mr. Davies, the family surgeon, he found Mr. Holiest in very good spirits and sufficiently collected to detail the circumstances of the

attack. On an examination of the wound, however, Mr, Davies at once formed an unfavourable opinion, and during Saturday the unfortunate gentleman continued to grow worse, and on Sunday he died. The most active exertions were made by the police, and the result of inquiries set on foot was the apprehension on Sunday evening, at the ‘Rose and Grown’ beershop, in Guilford, of three young men of bad character, two of whom had been at Frimley during the past week. They are well known to the local police as very daring thieves. Mrs. Holiest is almost positive as to the identity of two of the parties. At the close of a magisterial investigation, the prisoners were remanded until Friday next. The Home Secretary has offered a reward of £IOO, to which the family of tbe deceased have added £SO, for the discovery of the guilty parties. The Reichs Zeitung (Oct. 9) gives a terrible picture of the catastrophe at the place of pilgrimage called Hergott, on the Weis, near Purgstal. At one of the public houses the pilgrims (of whom 3000 were assembled at Hergott) spent the night in eating and drinking. While baking the fish the oven took fire. Behind the inn were a number of stables and barns, in which hundreds of the pilgrims were reposing, and almost all perished in the flames, which rose so rapidly through the thatched roofs, fanned by a strong wind, that there was no possibility of raising ladders to attempt to rescue a single person. Many threw themselves from the lofts, and with broken limbs, half consumed with fire, reached hither and thither with the most piteous cries. Not a single engine was in the place, and we are assured by an eye-witness, that the fearful calamity at LeopolJstadt, in October, 1848, fades into nothing by the side of this awful calamity. Scarcely half of the pilgrims were saved, end those who have survived have for the most part bsen mach inju.-

rec L The bodies of the dead were found b u rnt to cinders.

Good Fortune.—Another instance of the caprice of the “ blind goddess,” who in the revolutions of her wheel often pours her bounties into unexpected hands, has just occurred in this city. A gentleman, we understand, while canvassing at the late election for the Hon. Edward Stanley was called in by an eccentric individual, who wished him to purchase the interest ho had in some freehold property by allowing him an annuity for his life. The gentleman entered into his views, and agreed to allow him the sum of one guinea per week as long as he lived. Before the expiration of the second week the’gentleman was again sent for to make the will of the annuitant, wherein he made him his sole devisee and executor. The next day the old man died. But now comes the most marvellous part of the story, A foreign letter had been received by the annuitant a day or two previous to his death. This subsequently proved to be the will of the old man’s brother, who had died abroad, written in Spanish, leaving all his property to his hrothef, the annuitant. The executor, therefore, by this dispensation, finds himself unexpectedly put in possession of property amounting to thousands of pounds, in addition to an extensive collection of books and paintings of great value.—Chester Courant.

A “ Happy” Explanation.—A large party assembled at dinner one day in a hospitable mansion in the south of Scotland under the genial-presidentship of a bachelor host. The wine went freely round, and a very long sederunt was terminated, by the party, with one exception, retiring from the dining room to enjoy coffee and cigars. This exception was an elderly gentleman renowned for his social qualities, who had been selected to fill the seat at the other end of the'table, and who had freely exerted himself in the performance of his duties. Not relishing the smoking part of the entertainment, he kept his seat for a little in deep meditation, and then ringing the bell informed the old butler of his intention of retiring for the night. Thinking he saw something like a smile on the servant’s face, he turned gravely round, saying “Ay, John, I think I’ll go to-bed; but I’m no’ fou, John, mind that.; I’m no’ the least fou ; but' I’m just fatigued wf drinking.”— Dumfries ■Courier.