ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 769, 15 December 1852, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

The American Fishery dispute was likelyafter all to be very amicably adjusted. Mr. Thomas Baring was to be sent to the United States to arrange it. Another frightful steam-boat disaster had occurred on the Hudson River, between New York and Albany, and upwards of 100 lives had "been lost by the catastrophe. The Henry Clay was the name of the vessel, and the disaster arose from a disgraceful race between her and the steamer, Armenia. An enquiry was pending at the time the steamer, which brought the news from New York to England, left. Sad End of a Romance. — A correspondent of the Cleveland, U.S., Plain Dealer, writing froai Sault Ste, Marie, gives a narrative of an ill-assorted marriage, with its melancholy termination. Some 11 years ago, Catlin, the painter, exhibited a number of Indians in London, among whom was Cadotte, au interpreter. Sarah Haynes, then a beautiful English girl of 16, became enamoured of Cadotte, and they were married. On reaching America the romance of love was over. For two or three years they resided on the bank of the river St. Clair on the little property the bride was possessed of, and since then at the Sault, where she taught French and music to the time of her decease. She retained her beauty to the last, although exposed to many hardships by living in a birch-bark lodge with an Indian husband. She died in her 28th year, fortunately leaving no children to mourn the sad effects of an infatuated match. Launch op the Cunard Steam Liner " Arabia." — Greenock, Monday, June 21. — There was launched this afternoon from the building yard of Messrs. R. Sieele & Co., Greenock, the Arabia, the largest of the mag-

nificent line of steamers belonging to the British and North "America Steam Navigation Company. Her dimensions are as follows :—: — Length, including cutwater, 312 feet 4 inches ; length, excluding cutwater, 297 feet 10 inches; keel and forerake, 285 feet ; -breadth between the paddle-boxes, 40 feet 9 inches ; depth of hold, 27 feet 7 inches ; length of keel, 277 feet ; breadth including paddle-boxes, 66 feet 6 inches ; tonnage, n.m,. 2,402 tons. The engines are of the side- lever class, to be supplied by Mr. Robert Napier, of Glasgow. They will be of 850 horse power, but are expected to work up to 1000. Up till now the largest steamers which the Cunard Company have afloat are the Asia and Africa, each of 2,236 tons, with 750 horse power. The increased dimensions and power of the Arabia, along with her excellent lines, will, it is expected, render her the swiftest ocean steamer afloat. It is understood that the building and fitting up of this great ship will not cost less than £110,000. So soon as the Arabia has been completed, which will be by the end of September or beginning of October, the Cunard Company will carry into practical operation the grand scheme noticed in the Times of Friday, of a regular line of steam communication between Liverpool, New York, and thence by the Panama railway, to New Zealand, Australia, &c. The Arabia now raises their steam fleet* in the Atlantic to ten ships. The Messrs. Burns have had built by Messrs. Denny, Brothers, Dumbarton, four fine iron screw steamers, of 1,500 tons burden each. Two of these have been sold to the Australian Steam Navigation Company, and have already set out for their destination. The other two will be employed on the Pacific, in connection with the liners from Liverpool and New York to Panama ; but two additional screw steamers^ of equal size are immediately to be laid down, to provide for the requirements and extension of this great line of communication between England the South Seas. It is worth while mentioning that the name originally intended for this ship was the Persia. A ship of exactly the same proportions was built at Greenock for the Cunard Company in December last, and named the Arabia ; but in consequence of the disasters to the Amazon and Demerara, she was sold immediately on" being launched to the .West India Mail* Steam Navigation Company, who changed her name to the Plata. She has just had her engines completed at Glasgow, j after very long delays, in consequence cf the briskness of the engineering trade, and will leave Napier's dock in a few days for the Thames or Southampton. The Messrs. Burns accordingly resumed the name of the Arabia, and the next liner they lay down will be that of the Persia. In the Messrs. Caird's dock, adjoining that of the Messrs. Steele, we observed to-day in the course of construction an immense iron paddle steamer, for the West India Steam Navigation Company. She is to be 2,600 tons burden, 315 feet in length, and will be called the Atrata, after a river of that name in S. America. The draught of water of the Arabia is as follows : — At launching, 10 feet 7 inches; with machinery on board and water in boilers, 15 feet 6 inches ; fully laden, 21 feet.

The Portland Breakwater. — A very interesting and novel engineering operation 13 in progress at the breakwater now in course of construction at this place, which is nothing lessthan the buildiug of a bridge across, or rather into, the sea. In order to render the necessity for this intelligible, it will be better to describe the general design of the breakwater. This is intended to consist of two separate portions — the one extending from the shore into the sea about 1.900 feet, in an east-north-east direction ; and the other about 6,000 feet in length, and isolated, the nearest point of which will ultimately be 400 feet from' the inner portion. During the progress of the works, and until the pier heads forming the ends of these arms are built, the necessary space for constructing them, and other contingent causes, will prevent the rough unfinished portion of the two arms approaching nearer to each other than from 800 to 1,000 feet. The stone by which the breakwater is formed is quarried by convicts ; but the general execution of the same, requiring too much mechanical knowledge for such a class of men, is under contract. The stone (an admixture of rough large blocks, from six tons and under, mixed with a sufficient quantity of small ribble to fill the interstices) is tipped into the sea from railway waggons (without any attempt, at regularity , with the exception of a due regard to a proper proportion of sizes), trains of which are hauled along the breakwater by locomotive engines. This mode of depositing the material renders its execution very cheap ; and it is principally with a view of adopting this manner of construction on the outer breakwater that the bridge above alluded to becomes necessary. This is of course a timber structure, and, although only for what may be called a temporary purpose, is necessarily, both from its position and from the length of time it will have to remain, erected in a manner which would ordinarily be called permanent. The general depth of water at low water is about 57 feet, and the roadway being 26 feet-above this level, it follows that the piles supporting it must be about 80 feet in length or height, and, as single timbers would be manifestly not obtainable, they are made like the masts of vessels, each weighing (when prepared with the necessary iron work connected with it) about seven tons. The mode of fixing these in the ground is ingenious. They are shod with cast-iron shoes of Mitchell's patent, having a thread or worm upon them of a large pitch, which are screwed into the clay or shale by means of a capstain head, and bars fixed on the head of the piles. Each pile is supported in an upright position by very strong guys or stay rods, and upon these piles, which are in rows, 30 feet apart, the necessary superstructure for carrying three lines of railway and a horse track is fixed, making a bridge of about 80 feet wide. A visit to these works would well repay any one who is interested" in these matters, both from the magnitude of the work and the speed with which it is executed, the total length of 1,000 feet only taking about 4 months to do. The harbour of refuge at Portland is the largest now being constructed, undev the recommendation of the Harbour Commissioners, appointed some few years back, and the works have been carried forward with g>*eat spirit. The staging is now approaching half-a-mile in length from the shore, and the part filled up with stone already affords, very considerable shelter

i in the anchorage, the advantages of which are beginning to be felt by the masters of vessels, foreign as well as British. The works are being cons' r Acted for the Admiralty, under the superin tendance of Mr.. Tames M. Rendel. F.R.S., engineer in chief, and Mr. John Coode, resident engineer. Mr. J. T. Leather is the contractor for the same,

France. — It may be doubted whether despotism can cloak itself under any external show of popular institutions. Even the sham representative assembly of the French President has run restive. It has presumed to criticise and amend his budget ; and, in spite of a Presidenj tial rescript, informing them that they had exceeded the bounds prescribed to them, they have adhered to their amendments. The autocratical President adopted the extreme course of attending the discussion in person ; calculating, n© doubt, on the influence of " vultus instantis tyranni ;" but this only provoked excursive dissertations on the privileges of the body, as vehement, as loudly cheered, as much tolerated by their chairman, as they could have been in an English House of Commons, or in the Assembly so unlawfully dispersed on the 2nd of December. But what does all this avail ? In so far as France is concerned, this voice of opposition cannot penetrate beyond the walls of the apartment in which the Legislative body is immured. The prisoners 'of the Bastile might as well have attempted to appeal to popular sympathy and support. Next day all Paris looked in vain for the official report of the sitings ; the hours passed, and none was forthcoming. In the affair of the Orleans robbery, the Council of State has proposed a compromise between the Executive and the Courts of law. It has confirmed the decree of the Prefect of the Seine as it regards the'pa?ts of the domains of Neuilly and Monceaux settled by Louis Phillippe on his childeen in August, 1830; it confirms the jurisdiction of the Tribunal of the Seine over the portions of Neuilly acquired by Louis Philippe alter he came to the throne, and the undivided portion of Monceaux .which belonged to the late Princess Adelaide of Orleans. This partial concession to the rapacity of the President was only insured by the most barefaced packing of the C ouncil . — Spectator.

Crime in France. — A man named Lullier, a stone-sawyer by trade, of Pontoise, was on Tuesday tried by the Court of Assizes of the Seine-ct-Oise for forgery and murder. In November last a tradesman named Duchemin presented for discount at a bank at Pontoise a bill of exchange for 120f., purporting to be feigned by a builder named Fontenay-Godet, to the order of Lullier, who had passed it to Duchemin. The manager of the bank, having reason to suspect that it was a forgery, showed it to M. Fontenay-Godet, who declared that he knew nothing about it. Lullier- was accordingly arrested. It then turned out that he had put into circulation not fewer than a dozen forged bills of different amounts. In bis lodgings three other bills, also forged, were found, as were also some bill stamps, and several pieces of paper, on which he had imitated the signatures of different persons. When questioned by the examining magistrate, he appeared labouring under great anxiety, and incoherent words escaped from him. At length be said he had a horrible revelation to make ; and he proceeded to state that nearly a year before he had strangled his wife, and thrust the dead body into a cask, and had deposited it in a cellar, which he indicated. The magistrate was for a moment thunderstruck at this statement, but the prisoner seemed greatly relieved at having made it, and he gave full details of his crime with the greatest sangfroid. It appeared that after about three years' marriage he had a child, and that shortly after its birth his wife, with his consent, accepted the situation of wet-nurse in the family of a tradesman in Paris named Blazioski, who had just lost his wife in childbirth. The prisoner went to see his wife from time to time, but having reason to suspect that an improper intimacy existed between her and Blazioski, he insisted that she should return home. After her return they quarrelled frequently, and she often declared that she would return to Paris. On the sth of November, 1850, he found" her, he said, packing up her clothes, and she told him that, having made up her mind not to live wilh him any longer, she meant to go to Paris. He declared that she should not go, but she said in a decided tone," You may kill me, if you please, but I will not remain with you." On this he seized her by the throat and strangled her. He kept the body in his room for two days, and then, having stripped it, he forced it into a cask, and conveyed the cask in a wheelbarrow to a cellar, in which he was accustomed to place his tools. 'The cellar was at some distance from his lodgings, but he wheeled the cask along the streets with the greatest confidence in open day. No sooner, however, was the murder perpetrated than he became seized with remorse ; he neglected his work, and at times stood gloomily before it with his arms folded ; he broke off from his friends, abandoned his aged mother, to whom he had been very good, and treated his little child with great brutality, though he had always before shown him great attention. He also took to drinking, and spent a good deal of his time in public-houses with girls of bad character. It was observed that he was almost constantly hanging about the cellar, though no one could tell why, and he was dreadfully agitated when any one approached it. He stated that he more than once got up in the night with the intention of burying: the cask, but was afraid that the noise would lead to detection. He committed the forgeries to obtain money for drink and debauchery. Before the" Court he detailed with extraordinary coolness all the particulars of the murder. He said that it was with his hands alone that he had effected ihe strangulation, though he admitted tb.at he had after-wards tied a rope tightly round the throat (o make quite sure that she -was. dead. He declared that he-had contemplated the murder for "Some months ; that he was not really sorry that he had done it ; and that if the thing had not been done, he would do it. He said that his wife had given him cause for jealousy, and he considered that a sufficient justification. The jury brought in a verdict of guilty, and the Court condemned him to death. He heard the sentence without the slightest emotion, and obstinately refused to present any appeal.

The Battle of the Bees. — A curious circumstance occurred a few days back at Guilleville, Eure-et- Loire. A small farmer had in a field about 250 beehives, containing a vast number of bees. He sent a man with a cart?, drawn by five horses, to remove some earth from the wall near which the hives were placed. The carter having occasion to go to the farmhouse, tied the horses to a tree. Almost immediately after a multitude of bees, either irritated at the shaking of their hives by the removal of the earth from the wall, or excited by the electricity with which the atmosphere happened to be charged, issued from their hives as if in obedience to a given signal, and with great fury attacked the horses. Tn an instant the poor animals were entirely covered with bees from head to foot ; even their nostrils were filled with them. When the carter returned he found one of the horses lying dead on the ground, and the others rolling about furiously. His cries attracted several persons ; one of them attempted to drive away the bees, but they attacked him, and he had to plunge into a pond, and even to place his head under water for a few seconds, in order to escape from them. The cure of Guilleville also attempted to approach the horses, but he too was put to flight by the enraged insects. At length two fire engines were sent for, and by pumping on the bees a great number were killed on the horses, or put to flight. The horses, however, were so much injured that they died in an hour. The value of the bees destroyed was 1,500f., and of the horses 2,500f. A few days before bees from the same hives killed 17 goslings.