ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 685, 25 February 1852, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

The Eirl of Liverpool died Oct. 3rd at Lis seat, Baxted Park, Sussex. Colonel Jenkinson (who was Lieutenant in the Guards when stationed in London), succeeds to the Earldom of Liverpool. He has no son, but three daughters, one of whom is married to Mr. Guinness, of Dublin; another to the Duke of Montebello, Minister of Marine at the Ftench Revolution; and the third to Mr. Nugent, of Portaferry, county Down. We learn from Hanover that in the course of a revision of the archives of Celli, a box has heen found containing a collection ofimpurtant documents relating to the Thirty Years’War; viz. part of the private correspondence of Duke George of Brunswick-Lunenburg, with drafts of his own epistles, and original letters from Pappenheim, Gustavus Adolphus, and Piccolomini.

Free Church in New Zealand. —We have great pleasure in announcing the appointment of the Rev. Mr. Findlay, of West Kilbride, to the congregation at Auckland, vacant by the resignation of the Rev. Mr. Panton. We fondly trust that the settlement of this able, respected, and experienced minister tn so important a station as the capital of this rising colony, will be fraught with abundant blessings to our numerous countrymen, and to the whole population in that distant land. The Church proves her appreciation of the importance of such stations, when she is willing to allow, as in this instance, ministers of standing and influence to leave positions of extensive usefulness and of undoubted comfort, and to part with them for the sake of her expatriated people. We are also happy to announce the appointment of the Rev. Mr. Dron, probationer, to the interesting station at the Hutt River. — Free Church Missionary Record.

Christianity in China. —Execution of a Priest. —The Univers contains an account of the execution of a M. Schceffler, a missionary priest, at San Tay, in China, by order of the Grand Mandarin. A formiduble military cortege was put in requisition on the occasion, and the following inscription carried on a board before the sufferer announced the cause of his execution :— “ Notwithstanding the severe prohibition against the religion of Jesus, a European priest, named Augustin, has dared to come here clandestinely to preach and seduce the people. When arrested he confessed everything. — his crime is evident. Let Augustin nave his head cut off, and thrown into the river. Fourth year of Tu Du ; First of the third Moon.” On arriving at the place of execution, the priest fell on his knees, kissed the crucifix three times, and st the request of the executioner he took off his coat and turned down the collar of bis shirt. The hand ofjhe executioner being unsteady, be struck three blows on the neck of his victim, and was at length obliged to cut the flesh with a knife, in order to detach the bead from the body. Many persons rushed forward to collect some drops of the blood, or to get some portions of the garments of the martyr. The Cbristaus afterwards obtained the body nf Schaeffler; but his head was thrown imv the river*

Kossuih. —The Hungarian patriot Kossuth had at length beeu liberated by tbe Turkish Government, and was on his way to England when our last advices left. Preparations for his reception in London were going on rapidly, and, judging from the amount of subscriptions received, and tbe degree of enthusiasm displayed, there was every probability of the demonstration being of a most effective character. At a meeting of gentlemen interested in the object, on Monday evening, Mr. Thornton Hunt in the chair, tbe committee of arrangement presented a report embodying the following recommendations, —“That the order of proceedings in marking the arrival of Kossuth be as follows,- -That an address be presented to Louis Kossuth ; that a procession be formed to welcome him on his atrival in London; that Kossuth be invited to a banquet, to be given

to him in the most spacious place obtainable; that a permanent committee be formed to collect a public contribution of funds for the cause of Hungary, to be placed in the hands of Louis Kossuth cn his return from America to England.” These recommendations were unanimously adopted. Meetings of a similar character have also been held in Westminster, Mary'ebone, and other localities of the metropolis. Several addresses to Kossuth have been sent to the Mayor of Southampton for presentation. A number of ladies and gentlemen have been seen about the streets of Southampton with rosettes in their bosoms and coats, formed of the Hungarian patriotic colored ribbons, scarlet, white, and green. The Cou mess Pulszky has arrived at Southampton. The Southampton corporation committee appointed to conduct the management of the banquet to Kossuth had met, and settled the programme of the toasts to be given at the banquet. The usual loyal toasts will be given, due homage will be paid to the virtues and genius of the most distinguished guest at the banquet, the illustrious Magyar Kossuth ; the duties of national hospitality to the politically oppressed of all nations will be enunciated ; and the constitutional Governments of Great Britain and of the United States will be recognised as alike opposed and inimical to republican tyranny and imperial despotism. Mr. Wilcox, one of the borough members, will be present. Lord Dudley Stuart will be also present, and we understand that Mr. Cobden M.P., Mr. J. B. Smith, M.P., Mr. Wyld, M.P., Mr. Raikes Currie, M.P., Mr. Bass M.P., &c., have also signified their desire to do honour to Kossuth on the occasion.

The Mayor of Southampton has received a letter (brought by hand) from Kossuth, of which the following is a copy : — Marseilles, Sept. 29th, 1851. Sir, —The Government of the Ottoman Empire gave me asylum and hospitality, and though afterwards it had to yield to the presumptuous arrogance of its mighty enemies, and to convert the asylum into a prison, still it yielded but with regret; it felt deeply the disgrace, and at the first favourable moment shook off, in the most dignified manner, the most disgraceful bonds. It was Turkey who has acted so. The people of England raised their powerful voice to claim the rights of humanity, offended in myself and in my associates. And the Government of Great Britain proved to lie a dignified organ of the people of England’s generous sentiments. In the United States of America the people, the Congress, and the Government shared with equal generosity in the high minded resolution to restore me to freedom, and by freedom to activity. They sent over a steam frigate for the purpose, and most generously offered the protection of the glorious flag. Thus acted England and the United States. We stopped at Marseilles. I wished to visit England, the lively sentiment of gratitude pointing out to me as a duty to go there to thank for the high-minded sympathy I and the cause I represent were honoured with. So I requested permission to pass through France to England directly, without asking leave to stop in any place, (because I know the character of the present Republican French Government), and dec.aring to be ready to follow every loyal and honourable advice the Government would feel convenient to give me for my rapid passage through France. Monsieur Louis Napoleon Bonaparte refused the requested permission to pass through the French Republic, which did him the honour to elect him to the high station, where his sacred, sworn duty is to be the chief guardian of the democratic constitution of his own country, which proclaimed to the world to have for principles " freedom and M. Bonaparte was himself once an exile —and may yet become an exile once more—-France was not then a Republic, still ir was an asylum to oppressed humanity ; I claimed no asylum, I desired only to pass, and the once exite, now the President of a glorious nation’s great Republic, refused ! It is not I—l hope—to whom, before the tribunal of public opinion throughout the world, this refusal * will prove to be a disgrace. I wish that no one should remember it at the time when, perhaps, Mr. Bonaparte will once more be an exile himself. In no case will the refusal of the French G vernment impede me to fulfil the highfelt duty to thank the people of England for its generous sympathy—lam still resolved to land at Southampton, sir |—l will entreat Captain Long, of the Mississippi, to hasten me down to Gibraltar, I wish and hope io find there some means of conveyance to your free and glorious shores, were it but for an hour’s stay. I felt bound to address to you, honoured sir, this communication as a proof of my respect and esteem, having the honour to sign, with the most particular consideration, myself to be Sir, your most obsequious servant, Kossuth. —. Andrews, Esq. Mayor of the City of Southampton.

The Ist of November will be an epoch in the administration of justice in this country. Os that day will come into operation the act, which was passed in the last session of Parliament, for admitting the evidence, in civil trials, of the parties to them —a change, the magnitude and importance of which can only be estimated by those whose duty as lawyers, or whose misfortunes as suitors, have made them familiar with the course of trial which has hitherto been observed in all our higher courts, and which, until oflate years (when it has been, by the authority of the Legislature, abandoned in the County Courts), was the general rule of our law. Thus, those who are in general best acquainted with the facts which it is the object of the trial to establish, have been hitherto prevented from speaking in their own behalf, and from being questioned on behalf of their opponents. The rule of practice has been preserved from the assumption that the testimony of plaintiff or defendant was so sure to be false, that it would be a waste of time and a misleading of the judge and jury to bear it. Cross-ex-amination, on which so much stress is laid, when it is desired to glorify our method of trial —was here rejected, as furnishing, it was thought, no safeguard. Moral and religious obligations to speak the truth were treated as of no power over the mind of the interested witness ; and the law of England aspersed all men as being utterly untrustworthy ; while at the same time it would have punished each for a libel if he had applied to individuals the stigma thus fixed upon the body at large. Eight years only have elapsed since the slightest amount (even to one farthing) of interest in a cause disqualified any witness from being heard upon it, the law carrying the presumption of which we have spoken to its full extent. So far it operated logically and consistently, though not with wisdom ; because, when a course is erroneous, inconsistency becomes an excellency ; for it is better to be nearly right, than wholly wrong. — Dickens’s Household Words. A Parisian Chamber of Horrors— A tradesman in the Rue St. Honore, lost, some time- ago, bis wife, to whom he was passionately attached. In the hope of removing his sonow he married her sister, but was not happy in his new marriage. He accustomed himself to go to the cemetery in in which bis wife was buried, and passed whole hours at her tomb. Recently, he caused a sort of box to be constructed, and carried it with him to the* cemetery. On bringing it back be fastened it in a room, and peremptorily forbade any of his family to touch it. At midnight, on Sunday, lie fastened himself in the room with it, and refused to open the door to his wife. Li the middle of the night she heard the report of a pistol, and immediately bad the door broken in upon. To her horror she found that be had blown out his brains ; but what was more horrible was, that the box, which was open on the table before him, contained the head of his deceased wife ! A paper on the table set forth that he had dug it up and requested that it might be buried with him.— Gazette des Tribunauxt