ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 710, 22 May 1852, Page 2

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

The Pays gives the following details relative to the prisoners at Ham : — " What was at first stated as to their being, completely apart is perfectly true. Not only were they prevented from having any communication with persons without, but they had no intercourse with, each other, and their keepers observed the most complete discretion towards them. Each of them was ignorant as to who was his companion in captivity, and particularly of what events had taken place in Paris and the departments from the moment of his arrest. The utmost attention was paid to them, and in this respect all of them have rendered full justice to ihe manner in which they have been treated. It was only at the end of a week that they were allowed to communicate with each other, and from that time their families and friends were permitted to visit them, and alleviate the ennui of their confinement. There now remain at Ham M.M. Changarnier, Be= deau, Lamoriciere, Charras, Baze, - and Lefid. They all dine together, aud are served by subofficers, who pay them the greatest attention.Mesdames Lamoriciere, Lefl6, and Baze fchare the captivity of their husbands ; the first in particular, by the affability of her manners, beguiling the tedious hours of imprisonment. Madame Leflo is unfortunately labouring under great depression of spirits, having since she has been at Ham lost oue of h^r children. General Changarnier, whose cold stoicism presents such a contrast with the vivacity of Colonel Charras and the energetic ardour of General Lamoriciere, has again resumed that immobility which has distinguished him daring his political life. He seldom keeps up a regular conversation, and it is difficult to know the secret thoughts which agitate his grave and serious mind. He occupies the same apartment as General Lamoriciere. As to the latter, with the rapidity of intelligence for which he is distinguished, he soon understood the bearing and character of the act of December 2, and he easily resigned himself to a fact which adverse opinions may well criticise, but the power and authority of which it is no longer permitted to misunderstand. He loudly protests against any idea on his part of conspiring ; and . although he may conceive the necessity of his arrest at the first moment, he does not imagine that any more rigorous measures cau ever be adopted against him. Colonel Charras, while sharing in the same convictions, admits the serious fault which the Republican party has committed by linking itself with Socialism, the defeat of which may by a movement of irresistible reaction lead to the fall of the Republic itself. None of the prisoners appear so crestfallen as M. Baze. He fear 3 that the documents seized at his house may compromise him more seriously than his companions in captivity, and the idea of exile inspires him with great sorrow. He has no fortune, and the impossibility of exercising his profession of advocate in a foreign ' country* makes him foresee serious embarrassment and great privations. It is, however, positively stated that General Bedeau takes on himself all the responsibility of the documents found at the residence of the ex-questor. It is he who, as vice-president of the Assembly, is said to have had them drawn up and printed. These papers, however, do not show any conspiracy against the President of the Republic ; and the general expresses his astonishment that his military honour could be suspected of plotting against the chief of the executive power. The conduct of General Bedeau is distinguished by a piety which is not usual. He is a fervent Christian, who takes refuge in meditation and prayer against the instability of human affairs. It is not now for the first time that these religious sentiments have been manifested by the general. Our soldiers remember having frequently seen him in Africa, at the moment of combat, alight from his horse, and invoke in silent prayer the protection and support of the God of battles. It is in conversations, where each prisoner expresses his personal impressions, that the days which successively bring their captivity pearer to its termination are passed." — Morning Chronicle, December 31.

Loud Carlisle on Cuba. — How enchanting to the senses at least were the three weeks I spent in Cuba ! How ray memory turns to its picturesque scenes and balmy skies. During' , my whole stay.the thermometer scarcely varied

from 76° to 78? in the shade. \ I am disposed to- wonder these regions are not more resorted to by our countrymen for enjoyment of life, and escape from death. Noth.ng was ever so unlike! either Europe or America as the Havana ; at least I have never been in Spain, the mother country, which I suppose it most resembles. The courts of the gleaming white houses have a Moorish look, the interiors are much covered with arabesques, and on the outside towards the street they have immense open spaces for windows, in which they generally find it superfluous to put any glass ; the carriages are called volantes, and look as if they had been intended to carry Don Quixote. Then how delicious it used to be, late in the eveniug, under a moonlight we can scarcely imagine, to sit in the square called the Place of Arms, where in a space flanked by some gleaming palm trees and four small fountains, a gay crowd listened to excellent music from a Spanish military band. It is certainly the handsomest town I saw in the New world, and gives a great idea of the luxury and splendour of Spain in her palmy days. The billiardrooms and ice- saloons streamed with light ; the great theatre is as large and brilliant as almost any in Europe. Again, how full of interest were some visits I paid in the interior both to Spanish and,.American households. I cannot condense my impression's of the scenery better than by repeating some short stanzas which, with such influences around me, I could not help perpetrating. I hope that, while they bear witness to the intoxicating effects of the landscape and the climate, they do not wholly leave out of view the attending moral : — Ye tropic forests of unfading green, "Where the palm tapers and the orange grows, Where the light bamboo weaves her feathery screen, And her tall shade the matchless scyba throws : Ye cloudless ethers of unchanging blue, Save as its rich varieties give way To the clear sapphire of your midnight hue, The burnished azure of your perfect day. Yet tell me not my native skies are bleak, That, flushed with liquid wealth, no cane-fields wave ; For Virtue piDes, and Manhood dares not speak, And nature's glories brighten round the Slave. Among the country houses I visited was the sugar estate of one of the chief creole nobles of the island — (I do not know whether my hearers will be aware that the proper meaning of a Creole is a person of European descent born in America). I was treated there with the most refined and courteous hospitality ; and what a view it was from the terrace of golden corn fields, and fringing woods, and azure sea ! The treatment of the domestic slaves appeared kind and affectionate, and all the negro children on the estate repeated their catechism to the priest, and were then brought in to dance and romp in the drawing-room. Generally there does not appear to be the same amount of repulsion between the white and coloured races as in the United States, and there is the pleasant spectacle of their being mixed together in the churches. Still the crying conclusive fact remains, that the average uegro population died off in ten years, and had to be recruited by continuous importations, which are sp many breaches of the solemn' treaties between Spain and us. On one. coffee estate which^l, visited . — and generally the, coffee cultivation is far lighter than that of the sugar cane — a still darker shade was thrown upon the system, as I was told, from a most authentic source that there was great difficulty in preventing mothers from killing their offspring. General Valdez who was captain-general of the island during my visit is thought to have exerted himself honestly in putting down the slave trade. I believe it has been as much encouraged as ever under some of his successors. — From a Lecture delivered at Leeds.

Sir Robert Peel found Napping. —It was "about this time [the summer of 1846] that a strange incident- occurred at the adjournment of the house. The minister, plunged in profound and perhaps painful reverie, was unconscious of the termination of the proceedings of the night, and remained in his seat unmoved. At that period, although with his accustomed and admirable self-control, he rarely evinced any irritability in the conduct of parliamentary business, it is understood that, under less public circumstances, he was anxious and much disquieted. His colleagues, lingering for a-while. followed the other members and left the house, and those on whom, from the intimacy of their official relations with Sir Robert, the office of rousing him would have devolved, hesitated, from some sympathy with his unusual susceptibility, to perform that duty, though they remained watching their chief beyond- the speaker's chair. The benches had become empty, the lights were about to be extinguished : it is a duty of a clerk of the house to examine the chamber before the doois are closed, and for that night it was also the strange lot of this gentleman to disturb the reverie of a statesman. — Disraeli's life of Bentinck. A Lucrative Contract. — At the last meeting of the Castlebar Board of guardians, a discussion, took place concerning the contract for advertising, which was keenly contested by the two local papere. Mr. Cavendish, the proprietor of the Telegraph, offered to publish the advertisements of the board for the next twelve months for nothing, if they would be given to him alone ; whereon Mr. Bole, of the Constitution r not only offered to print them for nothing, but make the board a present of a pound for the exclusive patronage of their advertisements. The board did not accept either offer, but offered the applicant contractors £10 each for the year, which was refused. — Limerick and Clare Ebaminer. Lola Months.— Lola Montes left Cowes on ThureJay evening in the steam-ship Humboldt, for New York./ She arrived at the Vine Inn, Cowes, oa Thursday, quite alone, her baggage and servants being on board the Humboldt, having first purchased a Bloomer dress at Redfern's. — Liverpool Albion, Novi 24. An American Dog Story. — The advantages of advertising are admirably illustrated- in the following incident, we find recorded in the" last Sanduslcy Democrat : — Mr. Luke Horton, of South Eight-street, keeps a dog called La Vega, an ill-favored, fierce-eyed brute, whose untidy habits . and cross-grained temper cause him. to. be held „in detestation by the family in general and by Mrs. Horton, his mistress, in particular. La Vega, however, is a great favorite with his master. About a week

ago Mrs. Horton became exasperated on account of some unendurable offence committed by La Vega, and privately bargained with an old collector of soap fat, named Abel Walker, who, for a dollar fee, agreed to take the dog off, and " render him up " into tallow, or otherwise relieve Mrs. Horton from the annoyance of his presence. Mr. Horton, on coming home to dinner, inquired for La Vega, and was chagrined with the information that his troublesome pet had absconded. For some days the absence of La Vega gave occasion for much rejoicing in the household, and even the grief of Mr. Horton for his loss was made the sub-, ject of many a sly joke in his domestic establishment. Mrs. *H. congratulated herself excessively on that lucky thought of hers, which cleared the house of the odious brute; and though a lady who thinks a good deal of a dollar, did not grudge the money, since it gained her object so effectually. In the meantime La Vega was detained a close prisoner in the cellar of the soap factory, amusing himself by snapping at the rats which coursed about the premises, and sustaining himself, like Napoleon at Elba, with the belief that the objects of his destiny were not yet accomplished. On Tuesday morning, Mr. Horton appeared at the breakfast table with a beaming countenance. " Well, my dear, good news ! " siaid he to Mrs. H. J'JWhat is it ? " asked the lady, with some secret misgiving. " I've La Vega back again ! Advertised for him ; offered a reward for his recovery and this morning he was brought home by Abe Walker." " Heavens ! " ejaculated Mrs. Horton, "what did you have to pay for him ? " " Only eleven dollars," replied Horton ; " one for the advertisement, and ten to old Abe for bringing him back." " Merciful goodness," replied the unsympathising wife ; " eleven dollars (enough to buy a silk dress) for the recovery of such a nasty cur ; and to think that I gave the black rascal a dollar for taking him off." This inadvertent confession, of course, produced a matrimonial duel, the report of which we omit, as it might appear stale and commonplace to some of our married readers. By this little canine speculation all parties were gainers. Abe Walker, the cunning darky, gained eleven dollars ; the advertising sheet gained one dollar, and Mr. and Mrs. Horton gained some valuable experience, which will teach them the importance of mutual confidence between wedded parties.

A Story for Law Reformers. — The Morning Chronicle narrates the details of a remarkable suit, with the view of illustrating the evils which arise from keeping up a distinction between our courts of law, our courts of equity, and our ecclesiastical courts. In 1826, Mrs. Ireland, the wife of the late Dean of Westminster, and the aunt of the present Bishop of St. Asaph, being empowered by her marriage settlement to bequeath certain property, provided her will was " signed and published " in the presence of two witnesses, undertook to execute this power, and made a will, which purported, in the attestation clause, to be " signed and sealed" by her in the presence of her medical man and her > housekeeper. She shortly afterwards died, and in 1812, her husband died also. A question then arose , between the executors of the Dean, and the persorul representatives of his wife, whether the will had been duly executed in pursuance of the power ; and in order to determine this extremely simple point, a suit was instituted in the prerogative court by the executors and the legatees of the husband, for the purpose "of proving in solemn form " the lady's will. In Michaelmas term 1844, the question was argued with amazing learning by six profound doctors, who so puzzled Sir H. J. Fust that the point had to be re-argued in Jan. 1845. In the following March the will was declared invalid. An appeal was brought before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, with the aid of three proctors and four barristers, and on the 14th of February, 1846, the judgment of Sir H. J. Fust was reversed, not on the ground that the will was a valid execution of the power, but that the Prerogative Court had nothing whatever to do with that which was one that a court of equity was alone competent to decide. Here £2,000 had been spent, and the question was still an open one J A bill was then tiled in the Court of Chancery, and three additional counsel having been retained, the cause came on to be heard before Sir James Wigram, in June 1847. The judge, after patiently listening to the arguments, declared that the case ought to be decided by a Court of Common Law, and directed a case to be submitted to the judges of common pleas. The latter certified that the will was in due execution of the power, but not having explained their reasons. Sir James Wigram declined to confirm the certificate. The case was accordingly sent for the opinions of the Barons of the Exchequer, and was argued in May 1 &50 ; and in the following July, that court certified, as the Court of common pleas had done, that the power was well executed ; but the Barons, unlike the Judges, stated their reasons at length. This last certificate was confirmed after argument by Vice-Chancellor Knight Bruce,' on the 27th of March, in the present year, and it does not appear that any appeal from his decision is now pending. Here is a cause in which eight solemn arguments before six separate tribunals, and fifteen judges, have been delivered — which has been graced in its different stages, by three proctors, six doctors, three attorneys and seven counsel — which has already lasted for eight years, and is still open to appeal ; and the cost of which must be literally calculated by thousands of pounds ; and all for what ? — merely to establish that the * sealing ' of a will in the presence of witnesses is tantamount to its ' publication/ " May we not hope," says our contemporary, " that in publishing this case, we shall at least aid in s'.aling the fate of the Court of Chancery." Rome, Nov. 20.. — A few days since, Count Manfred Sambuy, tlie new Sardinian Minister, arrived here. On ibe 17th. he had an interview with bit Holiness at ibe Vatican, and presented his credentials. His Holiness, I am. told, expressed his displeasure at the permission accorded by the Sardinian Government/or the erection of a Protestant place of worship at Turin. Count Sambuy rejoined, by alluding to .the existence of a British chapel at Rome, and, explained to his, Holiness that Piedmont had many Protestant (Valdese) subjects, and that, consequently, a church of their persuasion was necessary ai ihe I capita!. These reasons seem, however, not to

have quite satisfied his Holiness, as he added, that the English place of worship here was no chapel, and situated without the walls of the town, which is really the case, and that consequently it was of insignificant importance when compared to the regular church at present heing constructed at Turin. To which the Count replied, that the outward appearance of a place of worship, and a step nearer or further from the City, did not much alter the case. — Morning Chronicle. Fox-Hdnting in Yorkshire. — In Yorkshire there are ten packs of fox-bounds, one of stag- hounds, and five or six packs of harriers, equal in all to 13 or 14 packs of fox-hounds. Thirteen packs of fox-hounds of 50 couple each, or 1300 hounds, consume annually 200 tons of oatmeal, at a cost of £2600, besides the carcasses of 2000 dead horses, worth nothing if hounds were not kept. There are no less than 1000 hunting men in Yorkshire, keeping, on an average, four horses each ; 4000 will cost them £200,000 at £50 each, and their keep at 4550 per annum each, making £200,000 more ; 4000 horses employ 2000 grooms (generally the offspring of the agricultural population), and consume annually 40,000 quarters of oats, 2000 of beans, and 6000 tons of hay and -grass. Every tradesman is also benefited by hunting ; tailors, shoemakers, saddlers, blacksmiths, druggists, and veterinary surgeons. If fox-hunting were given up, would the farmer find a market, for the above produce, or for a well-bred horse of four or five years old 1 Foxes are the farmers' best friends, and they ought to use every exertion to preserve them, and prevent them being stolen to be sent where masters of hounds are unsportsmanlike enough to buy them, no rr alter from whence they come. — Yorkshire Gazette. Exorbitant Price of Beer. — A controversy is raging in one of the London morning papers ou the subject of the price of be?r. The monopoly of the twelve great brewing establishments is loudly complained of. One writer contends that there is a profit of 15s. 9d. per barrel, or about 100 per cent. • at the present prices of malt and hops ; and it is a fact that a company has just been established which guarantees a profit of 70 per cent. The brewers, on the other hand, have taken up their pens to prove that they are sustaining an actual loss of Is. per barrel ! Magnanimous men ! How dreadful must have been their sacrifices when grain was nearly double its present price. The cockneys won't stand a beer monopoly now that they have got rid of the bread monoply : and the effect of the present discussions will probably be to introduce a great deal of new capital and competition into the trade. While on the subject of malt liquors, we may complain of the gross injustice of the differencial duties maintained on Scotch spirits imported into England. The English, when crying out agaiust the exorbitant charges of their brewers, should remember the folly with which they shut out the wholesome competition of the Scotch trade. — North British Daily Mail.

The Power of the Pen"cc : A True Manchester Stort. — The Rev. J. B. Owen, "M.A., of Bilstoo, in the course of ajecture delivered in the Liverpool Concert-Hall, ia connection with the Church of England Institution, upoo " Popular Insurance," related -an anecdote strikingly illustrative of. the power which lies in the bands of the working men to promote their own social comfort and independence, if they would only exert it, A Manchester calico-printer was, on bis wedding day, persuaded by bis wife to allow her two half-pints of ale a day as her share. He rather winced under the bargain; for, though a drinker himself, bewouM have preferred a perfectly sober wife. They both worked hard ; and he, poor man, was seldom out of the public-house as soon as the factory closed. The wife and husband saw little of each other except at breakfast ; but as she kept things tidy about her, and made her stinted, and even selfish, allowance for housekeeping meet the demands upon her, he never complained. She had her daily pint, and he perhaps, had his two or three quarts ; and neither interfered with the other, except at odd times she succeeded by dint of one little gentle artifice or another, to win him home an hour or two earlier at night, and now and then to spend an entire evening in his own house. But these were rare occasions. They had been married a year ; and, on the morning of their wedding anniversary, the husband looked askance at her neat and comely person with some shade of remorse as he observed, " Mary, wen had no holiday sin' we were wed ; and only that I haven't a penny i' the world, we'd take a jaunt to the village to see thee mother !" " Would'st like to go, John 1" asked she, softly, between a smile and a tear, to hear him speak kiudly as in old times. "If thee'd like to go, John, I'll stand treat." " Thou stand treat?" said he, with half a sneer ; " hast got a fortun, wench?" "Nay," said she, "but In gotten the pinto' ale." "Gotten what?" said he. " The pint o' ale !" was the reply. John still didn't understand her, till the faithful creature reached down an old stocking from under a loose brick up the chimney, and counting out her daily pint of ale in the shape of 3(55 threepences (i.e. £4: 11s. 3d.) put it into his hand, exclaiming, " Thee shall have the holiday, John." John was ashamed, astonished, conscience smitten; charmed. He would'nt touch it. "Has'nt thee had tby share ? Then I'll ha' no more," he said. They kept their wedding-day with the old dame ; and wife's little capital was the nucleus of a series of investments that ultimately swelled into a shop, factory, warehouse, country seat, a carriage, and, for aught Mr. Owen knew, John was mayor of his native borough at last.

The Baxlot — One way of viewing it. — The Morning Herald instances St. Albans as a specimen of the effect the ballot may be expected to have in stopping corruption. At present, says the Herald, "St. Albans is bought and sold, but the transaction is a hazardous one. A' Mr. Bell may be entrapped now and then ; but for one gull there are half-a-dozen shy birds. Sir R. Carden would not bite. Mr. Repton paid nothing. Mr. Cabbell paid only £500. Like smuggling, the trade is sometimes profitable, but it is full of danger. Adopt the ballot at St. Albans, and all becomes easy. Tt.e Coppocks and Edwardses will then have the game in their own hands. An election at St. Albau's is carried by 300 votes. And there are more than 300 voters who look for a bribe. Carry down, therefore, to St. Albans, like Mr. Bell's agent, ' four bags, eacb containing 500 sovereigns, 1 and the. election, if properly managed, is your own. And aa the electors under the ballot are to vote secretly, all

may now be transacted without fsar of subsequent detection. There is to be no poll-book, and no scrutiny. The candidate once returned, and all is over. The system naturally adopted would be that of a betting-room. '1, Edwards, am ready to wager any elector 40 to 4, or £5 against half-a-crown, ihat Mr. Bell does not corae in.' This is made public. Three hundred of the electors make this bet. These three hundred have, therefore, a direct interest in returning Mr. Bell. They vote for him, and he is duly elected. They attend the betting-room in the evening of the same day, and receive punctually the money they have won. All that the ballot has done is to make a system of bribery more easy, complete, and effectual than it was before. Subsequent scrutiny or investigation is, by the very idea of a ballot, altogether excluded." — Atlas, Nov. 29. Thk London Coai. Duties. — Under an order made by the Common Council on the 23rd October last, Mr. Dakin has procured a return of all monies which have been raised by the corporation for public works in the Metropolis out of the coal duties levied in the port of London, since they were first imposed by Parliament in 1766. The accounts show the sums raised under the three specific heads of works "situate in the city of London," works " situate without the city," and works •' of a mixed character, being for the benefit of the city as well as the adjoining districts." — In the first class of works, " situate in the city," the large items are £250,000 for making Farringdon Street, removing Fleet Market, and erecting Farringdon Market ; £223,578 for enlarging the site of the Royal Exchange after the destruction of the building by fire in 1838, including the widening of tie adjacent streets, the removing of St. Benet Fink Church, &c. ; £94,167 for building the new Coal Market ; and .£500,000 for forming new lines of streets from King William Street, London Bridge, to St. Paul's Cathedral, from Cannon Street to Queen Street, and from Queen Street to St. Paul's Churchyard, and also for improving Holborn Bridge and Field Lane, &c. ' All these sums were intrusted to the corporation of London. The total of the sums raised under this head is £1,117,345 13s. 6d. ; and of this sum only £9,000 (intrusted to the Commissioners of Sewers,) was not placed under the management of the corporation. — Under the second head, of improvements " situate without ihe city," the large items are £11,000 intrusted to the justices of the peace of Middlesex towards building a new sessions-house for the county of Middlesex ; £665,000 iutrusted to the commissioners of woods and forests for the various improvements of Cranbourne Street, Upper Wellington Street, Endell Street, New Oxford Street, Commercial Street in Whitechapel, and Victoria Street in Westminister ; £25,000 intrusted to the Clerkenwell improvement commissioners, for carrying on Farringdon Street Northwards to Clerkenwell Green ; and £88,000 intrusted to the corporation of London for further extending the last street to Coppice Row, Clerkenwell. The total of the sums under this head is £807,500. — Under the third head, improvements " of a mixed character, being for the benefit of the city as well as the •adjoining districts," are £210,000 for building Blackfriars Bridge ; £50,000 for rebuilding Newgate; £30,000 for redeeming the toll on London Bridge ; £40,000 for completing Newgate, and adding a Sessions-bouse for London and Middlesex ; £246,300 for street improvements near Temple Bar (Pickett Street, Strand,) and near Holborn Bridge (Skinner Street) ; £95,000 for White Cross Street Prison ; £80,000 for the site of the General Post-office, and improving the adjacent streets ; and lastly, £1,016,421 18s. Id. for new approaches to London Bridge in Southwark, and new approaches to the same bridge in the city, with, some other minor matters. All these sums were intrusted to the corporation. The total under this bead is £1,813,221 18s. Id. The whole sum raised since 1766 for improvements " in the city, 1 ' " without the city," and "of a mixed character," is £3,738,067 Us. 7d. The corporation were iutrusted with the management of more than £3,000,000. — Spectator.

Jealousy and Revenge. — A barber of a town in the Seine-et Marne, says the Gazette dcs Tribunaux, has just been arrested for an attempt at murder. Suspecting that one of his customers entertained improper relations with his wife, he endeavoured to surprise the parties in flagrante delicto. Failing in that attempt, he determined to cut the young man's throat when shaving him, and then to pretend the matter occurred accidentally, in consequence of his customer having been seized with a fit at the moment when the razor was passing over his throat. The young man on taking.his seat to be shaved, remarked that the barber was exceedingly pale, and asked him what was the matter. " The matter is," replied the other " that I am about to cut the throat of my wife's paramour ! " At the same moment he drew his razor, as he thought, across the young man's throat, but in reality, from agitation, only across his cheek and chin. The young man then jumped up and made himself master of his assailant, and the neighbours running in on hearing the outcry, the barber was secured. He immediately confessed what be intended to do.

The Attorney and the Tax Collector. — A hnab of the law in this town was lately waited upon, at rather an early hour in the rnorni°g» by a collector of church rates. The lawyer made his appearance at the door minus seveial of his upper garments, but he very politely invited the collector to walk in and take a seat. Pie protested that a man who does not pay his taxes must be looked upon with great suspicion, apologised for being out so often when the collector called, and expressed a hope that no one had seen the Uxman enter the house. The collector replied that he believed no one had seen him. This assurance appeared for a time to relieve the mind of the lawyer, who retired to an adjoining room. He soon reappeared with a fine razor and strop in his hand, and continued for some seconds to sharpen the instrument. He seemed a little nervous, and after a few questions and answers had passed between him and the collector, the lawyer said, "Are you quite sure no one saw you come in ? " The collector, who began not to like the looks of the man with legal attainments, replied, " Oh, I'm quite sure no one saw me come in." " Then," said the lawyer, drawing the razor across the strop more savagely, " I'll take good care no one sees you go out." The collector became alarmed, and looked about for a way V retreat. "Stop till I get a bucket," said the '

attorney ; " I'll not have any dirt here, but I'll soon put you from going out." As he spoke the lawyer retired, and began to shout 10 his servant to bring a bucket. The collector was in despair, and as soon as his supposed assailant turned bis back, be rushed out of the door, and never again troubled the lawyer for church rates. — Liverpool Mercury.