English Extracts.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 691, 17 March 1852, Page 3

English Extracts.

Lord and Lady Wharncliffe and daughter intend to pass tbe winter in the West Indies, i This course has been recommended as a likely ; means of arresting the severe attacks of gout to which bis lordship has been especially subjected for several years. Prince Metternich arrived at Vienna on the 23rd of September, by the steamer from Linz. 1 Many members of his family met him at the landing-place, and next day tbe Ambassadors of most ol the European Powers paid him a visit at his domicile on the Rennweg. Der Lloyd says the veteran statesman “ does not return on a triumphal car,” but simply “ as an Austrian, to claim tbe privilege of closing bis eyes in that iand of which lie was so long a political ruler.” “The great political part lie once took is placed out. Tiie space he fills in modern history is closed up. No one versed in the actual state of Austrian affairs will credit the report that the Ex-Minister, by deed or counsel, has exercised ’ | any itffluente in the new organizalioa of the 1 | affairs of the Austrian empire.”

Nearly three-quarters of a million sterling appears, according to the advertisements in The I Times, about to be raised lor California and Australian Quartz Rock-Crushing Companies. Death of the Rev. Dr. Philip.—We have received tidings of the decease of the venerable Dr. Philip. This very eminent and devoted servant of God, and uncompromising advocate of the rights of the coloured races in South Africa, departed this life on the 27th of August last. On account of his advancing years and their attendant physical infirmities, he relinquished about two years ago, the important office of Superintendent of the London Missionary Society’s Missions in that part of the globe—an office which he had sustained with incomparable efficiency for the

long period of thirty years. Retiring from Cape Town, he took up his residence at tbe Hankey Institution, in the interior ; where surrounded by his affectionate family, his laborious, useful, and honourable life was brought to a peaceful close, in, we believe, the 76ih year of his age. Dr. Philip was a native of Scotland. He received bis ministerial education at the Hoxton Academy. j Ou completing his theological course, he accepted a call to the pastoral charge over the First Indei pendent Church in the city of Aberdeen, which ' he occupied with honour and usefulness for a i number of years. While in this position he was i invited by the Directors of the London Missionary I Society to go out as Superintendent of their Missions in South Africa—an invitation which, with the concurrence of his flock, to whom he referred the matter, he finally accepted. His principal literary performance is his “ Researches in South Africa;” but his fame lests upon the unsurpassed wisdom and invariable fidelity to the case of humanity and justice which he displays 1 in the execution of bis important trust. — Patriot. Il is said that Thackeray is writing a novel in three volumes to be published in the winter. The scene is in England early in the 18th century, and the stage will be crossed by many of the illustrious actors of that time —such as Bolingbroke, Swift, and Pope, anJ Dick Steele will play a prominent part. Guy Fawkes Day in Exeter. —This city I has acquired notoriety for the celebration of they gunpowder treason, and the saturnine revels of

the stb of November have increased in spirit of I late years. The year 1850, of course, suggest- ) ed the procession of Romish Bishops, with Car- ■ dinal Wiseman and the Pope. The year 1851 i has been marked by a procession even more exI tensive. Soon after eight o’clock, it entered tbe ! Cathedral-yard, and matched round its limits, to l the music of a regular band, which, in a huge ' car, led the van. Then followed two gigantic figures in armour., at least twelve feet high, carI ried on large platforms, each by some twenty i men. They were said to represent Sir J. Kennaway and Mr. L. Falk, the champions, who opposed tbe Bishop of Exeter’s late Synod. Next was observed a waggon, with two large sacks, labelled “ Indulgences,” and the Papal chair and crosier, and then came three immense wicker cages, and two smaller ones. The procession closed with a huge fiery cross, between two gilded crosiers. But the show was very much augmented in effect by the grotesque costumes of the actors. Bloomers predominated ; but there was an ample supply of cavaliers, Turks, Greeks, clowns, and other fancy characters. Arrived at ■ the bonfire, piled opposite the western front of ; the Cathedral, the cages, each identified with tbe [ name of some clergyman of the city known to be i imbued with “development” tendencies, were i raised to the summit, and as the flames mounted . higher and higher, the shouts of the populace r rent the air. The two mammoth champions were . then marched oft' to a place of rest, there to be preserved for a future occasion. The display of r fireworks continued until a late hour.

Emigration of the Gipsies from Hungary.—A people of mysterious origin, inaccessible to all civilization, and insensible to all religion, after a repose of four hundred years, has once more grasped thq pilgrim's staff to fly beyond the reach of modern'legislation, and seek cut for itself a new country. Alarmed at the re-o. ganization of the kingdom of Hungary by the usurpa- : tions of the Austrian Government iu that country, where they have so long enjoyed the immuf nities of an uninterrupted freedom, they have . been lor some time wandering in swarms, and in , all directions, throughout the Austrian monarchy, I seeking an outlet into another more friendly land, s Accustomed for centuries in Hungary to live a apart from the rest of its population as uiimoB lested dwellers in holes and caves, earning the e scanty necessaries of life without much exertion,

they have found themselves narrowly watched. Averse to, and incensed at, this state of surveillance, it has wrought them into an unheard-of state cf excitement, and to the desperate resolve to leave for ever their wonted hearths, to seek out once more the ancient country from which, so many centuries ago, they were driven by some unknown power. To see this people in their present impulsive act of emigration is said to be truly wonderful. Like the wild denizens of the forest, enclosed on all sides, they seek an issue of the frontier pale of Europe; numbers have penetrated on their pilgrimage as far the Tjrol, and even Switzerland; Bohemia and Austria Proper swarm with their hordes, and numbers have penetrated southwards across the Turkish frontiers. They speak of nothing but of their new country, where are no frontiers, no passports, and no gendarmes. They say they came from Egypt, and must now return thither. Yankee Doodle.—During the attacks upon the French outposts in 1755, in America, Governor Shirley and General Jackson led the force directed against the enemy lying at Niagara and Frontenac. In the early part of June whilst these troops were stationed on the banks of the Hudson, near Albany, the descendants of the “pilgrim fathers’’ flocked in from the eastern provinces ; never was seen such a motley regiment as took up its position on the left wing of the British army. Tho band played music some two centuries of age, efficers and privates had adopted regimentals each man after bis own fashion ; one "wore a flowing wig, while his neighbour rejoiced in hair cropped closely to his head ; this one had a coat with wonderful long skirts, his fellow marched without his upper garment ; various as the colours of the rainbow were the clothes worn by the gallant band. It so happened that there was a certain Dr. Shuckburgb, wit, musician, and surgeon, and one evening after mess he produced a tune, which he earnestly commended as a well-known piece of military music, to the officers of the militia. The joke succeeded, and Yanl.ee Doodle was hailed by acclamation “ their own march.’’ During the unhappy war between the American colonies and the mother country that quaint merry tunc animated the soldiers of Washington ; it is now the national air of the United States.—Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. — From "Notes and Queries.’’

Terrible Story.—Wolf-hunting with traps lias its dangers and its inconveniences, and the rraquenard must be used with great caution. Every morning it should be visited and shut ; otherwise a man, a horse, a dog, or some other animal, may fall into it and be taken. In order, therefore, as much as possible to prevent accidents, our peasants, farmers, and poachers, when using this kind of trap, always tic stones, or little pieces of dead wood, to the bushes and branches of the trees near the spot in which it is set; they likewise place the same kind of signal at the extremity of the pathway which leads to the trap, as a warning to those who may walk that way ; and the peasants, who know what these signals dancing in the air with every puff of wind mean, turn aside, and take care how they proceed on their road. In spite of all these lmwaveL_vnr.y_sp.doccurrences will sometimes happen in our' forests. Some years ago a trap was placed in a deserted footway, and the usual precautions were taken of hanging s’ones and bits of wood in the approach to the path at either end. The same day, a young man of the neighbourhood, full of love and imprudence—upon the eve, in fact, of being entangled in the conjugall will,” —anxious to present to his fiancee some turtle-doves and pigeons with rosy beaks, with whose whereabouts he was acquainted, left his home a little before sunset to surprise the birds on their nest ■ but he was late, the night closed in rapidly, and with the intention of shortening the road, instead of following the beaten one, he took his way across the forest. Without in the least heeding the brambles and bushes which caught his legs, or the ditches and streams he was obliged to cross, lie pressed on ; and, after a continued and sanguinary battle with the thorns, the stumps, the roots, and the long wild roses, came exactly on the path where the trap was set. The night was now nearly dark, and, in his agitation and hurry, thinking only of his doves and the loved one, he failed to observe that several pieces of string were swinging to and fro in the breeze from the branches of the thicket near him. Dreadful, indeed, was it for him that he did not; for suddenly he felt a terrible shock, accompanied by most intense pain, the bones of his leg being apparently crushed to pieces—he was caught in the wolf-trap I *1 he first few moments of pain and suffering over, comprehending at once the danger of Ids position, he with g“eat presence of mind collected all the strength he had, and by a determined effort endeavoured to open the serrated iron jaws which held him fast; but, though despair [is said to double the strength of a man, the trap refused to give up its prey ; and as at the least movement the iron teeth buried themselves deeper and deeper with agonising pain into his leg, and grated nearly on the bone, bis sufferings became so intense that in a very few minutes he ceased from making any further attempts to release himself. Feeling this to be the case, he began to shout for help, but no one replied ; and as the night drew in he was silent, fearing that his cries would attract the notice of some of the wolves that might be prowling in the neighbourhood, and resolved to wait patiently with fortitude what fate willed—what he could not avert. He had under his coat a little hatchet, a weapon which the Movinians constantly carry about with them, and thus in the event of hi’s beinnattacked by' the dreaded animals, he trusted to it to defend himself; but he was still not without hope that the wolves would not make their appearance. The night lengthened ; the moon rose, and shed her pale light over the forest. Immovable, with eyes and cars on the gid vlve, his body in the most dreadful agonv, he listened and waited; when, all at once, far—very far off, a confused murmur of indistinct sounds was heard. Approaching with rapidity, these murmurs became cries and yells; they were those of wolves—and not only wolves, but wolves on the track, which must ere a few minutes could elapse be upon him. A pang of horror, and a cold perspiration poured from his face ; but fear was not part of his nature, and by almost super-human efforts, and in such an awful moment, forgetting all pain, he dragged himself and the trap towards an oak tree, against which he placed his back. Here, lean-

| ing with his left hand upon a stout staff he had with with him when he fell, and having in his right hand his hatehet ready to strike, the young man, full of courage, after having offered up a short prayer to his God, and embraced, as it were, in his mind his poor old mother and his bride, awaited the horrible result, determined to show himself a true child of the forest, and meet his fate like a man. A few minutes more, and he was as if surrounded by a cordon of yellow flames, which, like so many Will-o’-the-wisps, danced about in all directions. These were the eyes of the monsters; the animals themselves, which he could not see, set forth their horrible yells full in his face, and the smell of their horrible carcases was borne to him on the wind. Alas ! the denouement of the tragedy approached. The wolves had hit upon the scented line of cat th, and following it, hungry and enraged, were bounding here and there, and exciting each other. They hud arrived at the baited spot. * * What passed after this no one can tell—no eye saw but His above ; but on the following morning when the Pure Seguine, for he was the unfortunate person who set the Traipteiiard, came to examine it, be found the trap at the foot of the oak deluded with blood, the bone of a human leg upright between the iron teeth, and all around, scattered about the turf and the path, a quantity of human remains ; bits ot hair, bones, —red and moist as if the flesh had been recently torn from tfimfi, shreds of a coat, and other articles of clothing were also discovered near the spot; with the assistance of some dogs that were put on the scent, three wolves, their heads and bodies cut I open with a hatchet, were found dying in the ad- j jacent thickets. The bones of their victim were carried to the nearest church ; and on the fol- i lowing day, these mournful fragments, which had only a few hours before been full of life, and youth, and health, were committed to the earth. — Le Morvan; its Wild Sports and Forests.