MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 632, 23 August 1851, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Exhibition.—A probable calculation by “ Inquirer” in the Daily News give the following financial receipts for admission 4o the Exhibition. Season tickets at a mean price of £2 12s. 6d., 8000—£21,000; tickets on each of the second and third days, at £1 each, 7500—£15,000 ; admission on each of the following eighteen days at ss. 60000—£27,000; shilling tickets, £2OOO ; half crown tickets for Saturdays, £15.000 a day respectively, for twenty weeks, £90,000. Total, £155,000 Ministerial Probability.—We understand that it has. been arranged among the leading men of the Conservative party, acting on the suggestion of Lord Stanley, not to bring forward any questions, in the mean time, which would be likely to embarrass the Russell ministry, and by that means precipitate another Ministerial crisis. The great object of the noble lord, who is the acknowledged “ guide, philosopher, and friend,” of the Conservative party, is to allow the present Cabinet to stagger on until the middle of April, by which time the Papal Aggression Bill will be got rid of in some way or other. Lord Stanley will then be prepared to take office under the impression that, as the Great Exhibition will be so near at band—for the success of which it is well known Prince Albert feels the deepest solicitude—the necessary influence will be employed in the proper quarter, to prevent the Whigs from offering any factious opposition to the new Conservative Cabinet, as that would necessitate an immediate dissolution, and thereby cause the greatest disappointment in the highest quarters. Should the Conservatives by thus ingeniously muzzling the mouths and tying the hands of the ex Ministerial Whigs, succeed in keeping over the session until the end of June, it is expected that Lord Stanley will appeal to the country, and that his commercial policy will be based on free trade or protectionist principles,—just as the complexion of the new House of Commons may be. The noble lord is not so bad a tactitian after all; nor is he by any means encumbered by too rigid an adherence to principle.— London Paper.

A Monster Table Cloth.—There is now on view at the establishment of Messrs. Jeffrey, Morrish & Co., Church-street, one of the largest table cloths ever manufactured. The fabric is double damask, elegantly figured, the whole surrounded with a rich border. It measures 307 feet 6 inches in length, by 7 feet 3 inches in width. This extraordinary specimen of British manufacturing skill is intended for M. Soyer’s Symposium, at Gore House, Kensington. Mr. John O’ConnellandtheElectors of Limerick.—Every man’s hand now appears to be raised against Mr. John O’Connell, who, not more than six years ago bad been hailed by the repealers, as “ the young and rising hope of Ireland.” A special meeting of the corporation of Limerick was held on Thursday, to take into consideration the conduct of Mr. O’Connell, in having absented himself from his seat in Parliament upon the introduction of the Papal Aggression Bill. After a vehement and protracted discussion, a resolution condemnatory of the conduct of Mr. O’Connell was passed by a majority of 18 to 11 ; and a second resolution was then adopted calling on the honorable gentleman to resign his seat for the city of Limerick. Amongst the majority were several who had been the warmest adherents of Mr. O’Connell, and subscribed to the fund recently collected to defray his expenses whilst attending in Parliament. A letter appears this morning, addressed to Mr. John O’Connell by Mr. J. Kenny, the mayor of Clonmel, declaring that it would be hypocrisy to hide the fact iliut his “ recent indecision on Disraeli’s motion has, and will ever stamp him as an unfit man to lead in any popular measure. Your excuse (the mayor adds) for non attendance upon the division, which would and for ever shut out

from power that traitor to public honour, Lord John Russell, proves you, your brother, and cousin, unworthy of the confidence of the Irish people.” Mr, John O’Brien, the colleague of Mr. O’Connell in the representation of Limerick, who had also been absent from the division on Mr. Disraeli’s motion, owing to the dangerous illness of a member of his family, has so far escaped a vote of censure. Mr. O Brien, in a letter to his constituents, declares it to be “ the paramount obligation of a Catholic member to extend the duty of resistance to a general opposition to any ministry, no matter how constituted, identified with the principle of religious intolerance.” Extensive Forgeries.—At the Liverpool winter assizes, William Threlfall pleaded guilty to forging a bill of exchange for £lOOO. Mr. Bliss siated for the prosecution, that the prisoner had uttered forged bills by wholesale. His forgery of thirty, for £32,811, and his guilty knowledge with respect to a hundred and fifteen others, for 133,000, could be proved. There were four indictments against him. Mr. Serjeant Wilkins, for the prisoner, said that in nearly every instance the bills had been taken up before they became due—£ll3,Bol in all. Others would have been met but for the breaking up of his business by the discovery of the forgeries; still his estate would pay from 12s. to 15s. in the pound. Morally speaking he had no intention to defraud. Mr. Bliss replied, that £70,000 to £BO,OOO of the bills had been met, but there were others for £30,000 which never could oe met. Mr. Justice Talfourd said that, morally speaking, as well as legally, he considered a person who should commit forgery with the intention of taking up the bill before it was due was guilty. When the offence was punishable by death, many persons had been executed who, no doubt, intended to do what it was said had been the prisoner’s intention. He had no doubt that Dr. Dodd never intended to defraud Lord Chesterfield when he forged his name. It was quite impossible that he could adopt a notion that, in such cases, there was not a moral as well as legal guilt. Serjeant Wilkins explained that he never doubted the immorality of such transactions ; he merely wished to state, in mitigation of his offence, that the prisoner, up to the time of the discovery of his guilt, had never dishonored a single bill. Judgment was deferred till the next day, when the prisoner was transported for life.— Atlas.

The Mistral.—A correspondent of the Morning Chronicle thus describes the wind known in the French provinces bordering the Mediterranean by the above name: —“ While at Beziers I had an opportunity of making acquaintance with the scourge and the plague, agricultural and sanitary, of the Mediterra-nean-bordering provinces of France—the mistral. This is a wild, gusty, and most abominably drying and cutting wind. It blows from the northward and westward, sweeping over the land with terrible violence in the spring and summer months, moderating towards the fall of the leaf, and only occurring in a mitigated form and at long intervals during the winter. The gale which blew for a couple of days over Beziers was, I was told, only a very modified version of the true mistral, but it was quite enough to give a notion of the wind in the full height of its evil powers. The whole country was literally one moving cloud of dust. The roads, sojo speak, smoked. From an eminence you could trace their line for miles by the column of white powdered earth driven into the air. As for the paths you actually traversed, the ground down gravel was blown from the ruts, leaving the way scarred as it were with ridgy seams, and often worn down to the level of the subsidiary stratum of rock. The ordinary russet brown of the fields was speedily converted into one uniform grey- Never had I seen anything more intensely or dismally parched up. As for any tree or vegetable but vines and olives—whose very sustenance is dust and gravel—thriving under the liability to such visitations, the thing was impossible. Nor was the dust by anv means the only evil. The wind seemed poisonous. It made the eyes—mine at all events —smart and water, cracked the lips as a sudden alternation from heat to cold will do, caused a little accidentally-inflicted scratch to ache and shoot, and finally hardened, and roughened the skin, until one felt in an absolute fever. The cold in the shade, let it be noted, was intense—a pinching nipping cold, in no ways frosty or kindly ; while in sheltered corners the heat was as unpleasant, the blaze of an unclouded sun darting right down upon the parched and gleaming earth. All this, however, I was told, formed but a modified attack of mistral. The true wind mingles with the dust a greyish or yellowish haze through which the sun shines hot, yet cheerless. I had, however, a specimen of the wind which quite satisfied me, and which certainly enables me to affirm that the coldest, harshest, and most rheumatic easterly gale which ever whistleu the fogs from Essex marshes over the dripping and shivering streets of London,

is a genial, balmy, and ambrosial zephyr compared with the mistral of the ridiculously bepuffed climate of the south of France.”

The Naval Bakery, Malta.—This magnificent establishment has now been at work for some time. It is, peihaps, the most complete bakery in the world. The building consists of three floors, and is 230 feet in length, and 130 feet in breadth, and cost £30,000. The machinery cost £lO,OOO in addition. In one of is the granary, in which the wheat is deposited. There are also four washing-machines, but these have not yet been used, as the wheat hitherto procured has been clean and good. The gram passes from this floor through twelve heated cylinders, to dry; thence through twelve other cylinders to cool, all the cylinders being formed of wire, to allow the refuse to escape, and all being worked by means of endless worms. In the floor below, at the north end, we find the three principal hoppers, supplied from above, and two cleaning-machines. The wheat here emerges from the cooling cylinders, and is conveyed by means of a pipe and endless screw, which is constantly working the grain forward, horizontally, into the adjoining compartment, where by the same apparatus it is deposited into small buckets affixed to an endless strap, and by them carried again into the room above, whence it descends into the cleansing machines, having been sifted, dried, and cooled in its circuit. The southern portion of this flat forms the biscuit store, the floor being of marble. On the next floor are twelve pairs of stones, made by Kay and Hilton, of Liverpool, and four dressing machines for the flour. The bran is also deposited on this floor. On the ground floor the flour is received into troughs, and thence by means of endless screws, worked upwards again into the dressing machines. Behind this portion of the floor are the engines— two of 25-horse power each, made by Fairbairn. The boilers are tubular. At the south end is the kneading and baking apparatus. The mixing trough is supplied by pipes from the floor above, and is mixed by knives, &c. turned by the engine and made to fit the trough. The dough is then conveyed to the break rollers, by which it is kneaded, and thence it passes in a direct line under the sheet rollers, by which it is rolled into sheets 6 feet by 3 feet, and about three-eighths of an inch thick. These sheets are then passed on the tables over rollers to the docking, or stamping machines, which mark the size of the biscuits, and stamp them with the broad arrow, &c. These machines also cut the sheets of dough in three leaving them 3 feet by 2 feet. The sheets so cut and marked are then slid on to tables, and placed upon portable stands, holding 18 sheets each ; which, when filled, are immediately glided, or rather moved on their own wheels, to the ovens, each standful, that is, 18 sheets, or 100 lbs. being one baking. There are 12 ovens, six on each side, which are heated by stoves. This insures the external cleanliness of the biscuits, as no fire is put in the oven, and also secures an equal temperature throughout each oven. When the sheets are baked, they are broken into biscuits, as marked by the docking machines, and then hoisted into the drying stoves, above the ovens. I'inally, they are removed to the store, where they are sifted, weighed, and sacked, each sack weighing 1121bs. The siftings are sold every quarter. Were the value of them for puddings, &c.» fully known, especially for government hospitals and invalids, they would not be sold to feed chickens. The machinery was made by Gordon & Davies, Stockport. It is capable of “turning out,” with but little of the aid of man, 15 tons of biscuits per day, being no less than 144,900 biscuits. At present, however, only half that quantity is required. Were it not that we know that, as though by akiudof fatality, the British Government always loses by every purchase and sale it makes, we should recommend that the whole of the machinery should be set to work, and merchant ships supplied, in which case the bread—have to be omitted.— Malta Times.

The Rats in the Tuileries.—We find the following paragraph in the Ordre:— “ The Tuileries having been so long uninhabited, a vast multitude of black and grey rats have established an immense phalanstere in the cellars of the once Royal chateau. Some old shoes, old hats, and some sacks of potatoes, which had been left there, have up to this time amply served them for provisions, and as there was a direct communication between the cellars and the Seine they had everything they required to a very joyous life. Recently they have been making • incursions into the houses of the rue de Rivoli, and the inhabitants having made a complaint to the Prefect of the Seine, orders were given to the persons charged with the destruction of the vermin to organise a razzia against those intruders. It is said that on entering the cellars he '

complete mass of these black and grey rats, which formerly were mortal enemies, who now appeared to be living on fraternal terms, and in consequence of the crossing of the breeds many of them were dark on the backs and with white bellies and tails. The skins of this race are considered valuable. The night before last the rat-catcher of the capital commenced setting bis traps, and on the following morning he had caught 847. According to custom the tails were cut off and sent to the Hotel de Ville, in order to support the claim of the usual gratuity.”

Concoction and Transmission of the Queen’s Speech.—Every body knows that the “ Queen’s Speech’’ does not deserve its name. It is not the Queen’s; nor is it a speech ; —it is a document. The First Minister sketches it, subsequent Cabinet Councils reduce it to shape, and it is then submitted to her Majesty. When returned with her approval, the speech is divulged (at a ministerial dinner) to the non-cabinet members of the administration. Thus the mere topics of the manifesto ooze out at the clubs the night before the speech is spoken. But it is the actual text which the public is eager for; and, that no time may be lost, emissaries from the London evening papers appear at the Treasury about the time her Majesty is preparing her toilette at Buckingham Palace for the ceremony. The moment the first gun announces that the procession is in motion, the evening paper envoys are obliged with copies of the document; and before the Queen has done speaking in the House her words are in type. Formerly the gentlemen of the press were locked in a room in the Treasury till the cortege was on its way back. Some years ago an escape was made from this official durance, which caused some amusement. The editor of the Government paper in Dublin was most anxious to start for Liverpool by one o’clock, to catch the packet for Dublin. The speech was handed some time before that hour, and the key was turned as usual. Presently, however, the clerks and messengers were alarmed by frantic cries of “Fire!” They opened the door—the room was filled with smoke. The editor, in the confusion, made his escape, leaving the frightened clerks to extinguish the harmless sheet of brown paper he had intentionally ignited. We, of the present day. improve on the Irish editor’s plan. His was a fire escape ; ours are lightning conductors. It is at such a time as this that the wonders of the electric telegraph become strikingly apparent. The city of Edinburgh is about 400 miles from Buckingham Palace. While the state procession is wending its slow way back from Westminster, the wires are charged, and —marvellous fact ! — at the same moment that her Majesty is alighting at the steps of the Marble Hall, several of her lieges in the Scottish capital are beginning to read her Speech, which has taken no more than fifteen minutes to transmit. She dines at Windsor, and before the banquet is over, the text, verbatim et literatim, of what she had uttered at a quarter past two has reached Dublin. Before the Royal Family has retired to rest the speech is in every principal town in the kingdom. In these cases there had been no anticipation, for the Speech was read off at the London Telegraph Station from the evening papers.— Dickens’ Household Words,