ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 629, 13 August 1851, Page 4

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Married Soldiers. —By a circular from the War-office, dated February 15th, the Queen has been pleased to command that the allowance of married soldiers who are permitted to find their own lodgings shall be increased from one penny to two-pence each. Mr. Macready has retired from the stage. On the Ist March a grand dinner was given to him in the Hall of Commerce, London. There were about 600 persons present, including some of the most celebrated names of the day. At the royal theatre at Madrid, when the Queen of Spain was present, a girl, who was one of the chorus singers, threw hersel^ ot Majesty’s feet, as she was entering her private box, and implored her clemency for a carabineer, who had been condemned to death for breaches of discipline. The Queen granted the pardon required. An account is published, among the parliamentary papers, of the East India Company s charges for steamers and troops employed at.Labuan and on the coast of Borneo from 1839 to 1849 inclusive. The expenses of the Bombay troops and steamers amounted io 11 .030 2.nd of tlioso the Madras government to 43,626 rupees, , making a total of 194,656 rupees. T he trial of forty-two persons at Naples accused ol belonging to the Italian sect is concluded. 1 hey were convicted, and three of iheni sentenced to death, and the others to ▼arious terms of imprisonment. The sentences of death have been commuted. Sir Stratford Caning has given to the inhabitants of Pera one of the most splendid balls that have ever been given in the Levant: upwards of 1600 invitations were issued, and most of the grandees of Constantinople had a unique opportunity of assisting at this scene. The late Duke of Newcastle almost disinherited his son and successor, Earl Lincoln, by leaving the whole of his property, which was unentailed, to Lord Charles Pelham Clinton next brother to the present Duke, who offended his fatberMiy supporting Sir Robert Peel on the corn laws. The income of this great dukedom is now\ reduced to £2OOO ayear. • \ Among our exports this month, says a Ceylon correspondent, I notice fifteen

elephants. Some Americans brought a vessel here for the especial purpose of getting a supply for the zoological societies in the States. The natives, in whose hands the elephants are, aware that they could not remain long at this port, ran up the prices at once from about £5 to £75. Mr. Bailey, R.A., has been selected to execute the bronze statute to be erected in honour of the late Sir Robert Peel at Bury, his native town. It will stand in an open space of ground in front of the market place. The sum subscribed for this purpose amounts to £2, 500.

A steam-engine, weighing only three-quar-ters of an ounce, is being exhibited in Yorkshire, in full motion. It is intended for the Great Exhibition, and has been made by an ingenious workman in Saddleworth. A Lighthouse.—He found himself in a small chamber full of light, in shape very much like a handframe for cucumbers, only taller. Upon the plat'orm of bright copper, about 4 feet high, stood the back part of an apparatus, on which were arranged a series of lamps, each having a glass chimney over it, and a reflector behind it, circular, concave, larger than the top of the largest warming-pan, made of copper at the back, with a pure silver face, and polished, in the face, to the highest degree of brilliancy, so that it could not be looked at directly in front. The lan ps and reflectors were ranged in a double row, and behind each were pipes, and other apparatus, for a constant, graduated supply of oil; for air-currents, smoke-tubes, &c. The copper platform was of semicircular shape, and broad enough to admit of one person at a time walking in front of the lamps, Letween them and the glass window. The visitor was now informed that be might do this. After a little hesitation, with a reverential foot be accordingly ascended a few steps at one side, and made a slow and cautious passage in front of the lamps with their great, glaring silver, planet-eyes of reflectors, that made him contract his body to its most attenuated dimensions, and gaze upon its dense bit of darkness with a strange recollection of the story of the fly that got into the philosopher’s microscope. He felt like that fly, and was heartily glad to arrive at the other end of the platform, and humbly descend the steps. He had scarcely done so, when buff came something against one of the windows, and fell outside ! The window being of thick plate-glass, no injury was done, but the new-comer, whatever it was, had evidently got the worst of it. A little balcony runs outside the window, into which the visitor went, and there he found——laying flat on its back— wings expanded beak open—and dead—a huge mufffaced owl! “ Ah,” said the light-keeper, “ our gun can reach further out to sea, and over land, than any you can handle. We often have this balcony strewed with seagulls and other birds that have struck themselves dead. In the game season, lots of partridges, and pheasants too, fly at the light—they can’t resistit—and most of them are killed, or taken. Sometimes we find nearly a bushel of larks lying all about.”— Dickens' Household Words.