ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 657, 19 November 1851, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

The teetotallers are taking advantage of the unusual number of foreigners at this moment drawn to onr metropolis for the purpose of visiting the Exhibition, and have announced a “ Grand Teetotal Demonstration of All Nations ” for the sth of August, when they are' to assemble in Hyde Park, decorated with white roses, and march in procession to the Exhibition. Messrs. Smith and Son have knocked down, at the Auction Mart, the extensive estate and domain of Hafod, the property and occasional residence of the late Duke of Newcastle, for £105,000. The Baron Dudevant, husband of the famous romance writer, George Sand, has just died in Paris, at a boar ling-house in ■ ne of the small streets of the 12th arrondissement. Copyright Defined.—Major Jacob Downing, an American editor, says his countrymen understand the copyright law to mean the right to copy. Burning Bibles in Germany.—Catholic priests in Upper Baden, says a letter from Frankfort, have been collecting and burning bibles, or rather have urged the people to do' so, on the ground that the people could not understand them. Fanny Elssler has taken her final leave of the stage at Vienna, where she made her debut upwards of twenty years ago. She has purchased a pretty villa at Ischl, to which she retires for the summer months. The British Association for the Advancement of Science has held its annual meeting this year at Ipswich, under the presidency of Professor Airy, the astronomer Royal. Its chief feature of interest, however, arises out of the presence of the Prince Consort. Prince Albert is president of the public museum there, and accepted the invitation of the citizens to attend, and lay the foundation stone of their restored Grammar School. Amongst the notices of papers we are told that " one by Dumas, the great French chemist, has raised much ’ philosophic excitement.”’ It is desciibed as “on certain relations between atomic weight and s; ace of chemical bodies, and the probability of not only transmuting metals, but of originally creating them.” Professor Faraday is said to have been delighted with the logic and revelations, and to have pledged himself to follow up the investigation. Other points of interest alluded to are Mr. Mercer’s “ new method of contracting the fibres of calico, and of obtaining on the calico thus prepared colours of much brilliancy,” and.aningenious instrument explained by Mr. Bond, of the United State, for noting instantaneously astronomical obsei various.

Modesty of Dr. Wiseman.—On Tuesday, Doctor Wiseman laid the foundation stone of a new’ mass-house in Poplar. The following we are informed, is a translation of the Latin inscription engraved upon the foundation plate:—“The first stone of this church of Poplar, dedicated to the Almighty GoJ, in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, was laid by the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord Nicholas

Wiseman ; Prince of the Holy Roman Ca tbolic Church ; Cardinal, Priest, Archbishop of Westminster, on the 27th day of May, 1851, being the fifth year of the Pontificate of our holy father the Pope Pius the IXth.” Why British Merchants Oppose the Papal Aggression.—The Univers, the organ of the French Jesuits, in an article on “ The London merchants and Papa! Aggression, ’ states that - if there is opposition to the Papal system, it is only because these merchants derive much of their gain by the adulteration of the articles they sell, and that they know that if they became Papists they could no longer continue their habitual dishonesty, on account of the Confessional. They know that to become Papists they must be honest, and as they won’t be honest, so they can’t be Papists.” Prince Albert’s Model House for Four Families at Hyde Park.—Jn its general arrangement, the building is adapted for the occupation of four families of the manufacturing and mechanical operatives, who usually reside in towns or their immediate vicinity ; and as the value of land, which leads to the economising of space t z the placing more than one family under the same roof, in some cases, renders the addition of a third and even of a fourth, story desirable, the plan has been suited to such an arrangement without any other alte r ation than the requisite increase in the strength of the wails. The most prominent peculiarity of the design is that of the receding and protected ccnTal open staircase, with the connecting gallery on the floor, formed of slate, and sheltered from the weather by tbe continuation of the'main roof, which also screens the entrances to the dwellings. Tbe Lur tenements are arranged on precisely the same plan— two on each floor. As the peculiarities building are the exclusive use of hollow bricks for the waits and partitions (excepting the foundations, nra rtP • • w. uiuiuaty UUCKWUIKy, aUd tIIe entire absence of timber in the floors and roof, which are formed with flat arches of hollow brickwork, rising from eight to nine inches, set in cement, and tied in by wrought iron rods, connected with cast-iron springers, which rest on the external walls, and bind tbe whole structure together ; the building is thus rendered fire-proof, and much less liable to decay than those of ordinary construction. The roof arching, which is levelled with concrete, and covered with patent metallic lava, effectually secures the upper rooms from the liability to changes of temperature to which appart.nents next the roof are generally subject, and the transmission of sound as well as the percolation of moisture, so common through ordinary fl >ors, is effectually impeded by the hollow brick arched floors —Builder.

great sensation has been created in several townsof the United States, in consequence of many ladies resolving upon a complete revolution in dress. East, west, north, and south we hear of young ladies wearin? trousers (not metaphorically, but really) with a very short shirt or tunic, as in Persia and the East. Several ladies thus attired have appeared in Chesnut-street, in New York : and a letter written to the Tribune from Lowell, says—“ Four young ladies have been perambulating onr streets all the morning, dressed in light blue de laine shirts, long enough to reach below the knee, with full Turkish trousers of the ssrne, and neat blue gaiters to match. They certainly made a very neat and pretty appearance, and behaved themselves in a very becoming and modest manner. The change in the ladies costume is much approved of by everybody here, and bids fair to become the rage particularly among the factory girls, of whom we have some twelve or fifteen thousand.” New Silver Coin in The United States.—By a law passed in March last the mint of the United States is authorised to coin a new piece of the legal value of three cents, or threc-hundredths of a dollar, to be composed of three- fourths silver and one-fourth copper, to weigh twelve grains and threeeighths of a grain ; which coin is tobe a legal tender in payment of debts for all sums of thirty cents and under. It is stated that the new com, one of the smallest of silver currency, is authorised wish a view to convenience in payment nt postages on let-ers, .three ce&ls being the postage for any distance in the United States not exceeding 2000 miles, on letters not exceeding half an ounce in weight. The total population of the United States, according to the census of 1850, was 23,267,498; but, deducting the total number of slaves, 3.179,589, the free population that remains is 20,087,909 ; nearly a million less than that of Great Britain and the Islands in the British Seas, without reckoning Ireland. Some of the most remarkable features of the returns of the American census are thus presented to ns by a correspondent of the Times.-—“ The white population of the six New England States has increased 1820, and from 2,212,165

in 1840, to 2,704,729 ; a total increase of 1,166,294, or 65 per cent in the last thirty years. The number of coloured persons in the six states has, during the same period increased from 20,881, to 22,231; a total increase of only 6j per cent. ; while, in the last ten years, an actual decrease of 402 has taken place. In the State of New York, and in Indiana also, the coloured population has decreased. In the other non-slavebolding states (viz., New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and lowa,) there has been an increase, injhe last ten years, of 18,226 ; being less than 8 per .cent, upon the whole ; while tbe white population of the non-slaveholdihg states, has increased 37j per cent., or from 9,557,065 in 1840, to 13,148,446 in 1850.