ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 791, 2 March 1853, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

j The Last Passage op the Rhine. — A few week* ago the Prince President of tht French Republic superintended * military passage of the Rhine that created aoms sensation io Germany ; but a passage of the same river was recently attempted by an Englishman, which, though of a less brilliant, was, perhaps, of a far more daring character. The occurrence very naturally canted considerable excitement in the neighbourhood of Bonn, the scene of the incident ; and for several days it formed the principal topic of conversation in most of the hotels and caffa of the town. It would seem that the •Englishman in question, who is a member of the Middle Temple, stopped on his way up the Rhine to explore the wonders of the Seven Mountains, and having pitched his tent in Boon, he took advantage of a fine afternoon, and a Cologne steamer, to visit Konigswjnier, and ascend the castled crag of Drachenfels. Charmed by the beauties of the aurronnding couotry, ht loitered upon the spot until evening set io, when, as ill-luck would have it, a terrific thunderstorm overtook him, and be lost bis way in the mouu-

tains. After rambling among the vines for some hoars be was attracted by a light to the deerkeeper's hut on the summit of Aulberg, where be obtained from the inmttes sufficient direction to enable him to descend the mountain, and reach the village opposite Bonn in safety. Here be made An effort to wake op the ferrymen, but failing in that, he determined to be his own pilot across the river, as be had been in the mountains. It will be remembered by Rhenish travellers that the riJer here, as well as at many other points, is furnished with a "fly ing-bridge," composed of ■even or eight boats, the- first of which is anchored in the centre of the stream, while the others are connected with it at intervals by a chain cable that terminates in a sort of landing-stage, similar to those used on the Thames. This stage is floated from side to side by the current of the river; and the Englishman, erroneously supposiog that all he had to do to get across was to loosen the meorings of the stage, jumped on board and undid the fastenings. Too late, however' he discovared that he could not work the rudders, and instead of the stage floating over as he had anticipated, directly it got into the stream it went round and round l.ks a shuttlecork, ml 1 at length the cbain cable snapped, an \ he was carried rapidly down the river in the direction of Cologne. The ferrymen being now alarmed by the noise, took to their boats and gave chase ; but before they could overtake it the stage had floated mauy miles away, and in the ra?e of the moment they administered a sound drubbing to the cause of all their trouble, and then locked bim up. The next morning he was taken before the police authorities of Bonn, who told him that he bad not only endangered his life by his proceeding, b,ut had rendered himself liable to a severe punishment. He had, however, acted in ignorance oi the law, and the offence would, therefore, be overlooked on his making good the damage to the bridge. Of course the Englishman, having no other alternative, at once consented to this compromise of the offence he had committed against the Prussian law ; and, having handed over between £30 and £40 to the proprietor of the bridge, be was allowed to resume bis tour up the Rhine. — Gloibe.

Changing Fortune. — During me cany pan -of the week it wts reported in this city that a young man named Hugh Belfrtge, a private in ! the 4th Light Dragoons, stationed at Norwich, had become entitled to a princely fortune by the death of a relative. On inquiry of the individual he stated that he is a native of Perth, ia Scotland, and it appears that between 30 and 40 years ago i an uncle of his father, who was a 1a 1 silk mercer or silk dyer, left Scotland and settled in the West Indies. There he realized a large fortune, and about 20 years ago he died intestate, and without issue. The father of Belfrage was the heir at law, but, as he understood that the property had been principally acquired in the slave trade, he declined upon conscientious grounds to apply for it£ considering that good could not come of money so obtained. The property was, under these circumstances, taken possession of by the authorities, in whose hands it has continued ever since, and it it now supposed to, amount to about half-a-million. Hugh Belfrage, the Dragoon, is the heir at law, his fathejr being dead ; and a professional gentleman has intimated to .bim his willingness to lend his assistance in recovering the property. — Norwich Mercury.

Statistics of Suicide. — The Mouiteur publishes a long report to the Prefect of Police, in reply to his inquiries at to the number of suicides that have taken place in the prison of Mazas during the last two years. The object of these inquiries was to ascertain whether they conld be ascribed to any local or particular cause, as to the regime of the prison or otherwise, The number of suicides in the prison in the two years was 12, which, upon a floating population of 12,542 prisoners, would be one in 1,050. This proportion, says tbe report,, would appear to be enormous as compared with the general returns of suicides for the whole of France, but on investigation it will be found that it does not much exceed the average for tbe population of the department of the Seine. The report says : — " In 1827 M. Balbi, upon very imperfect returns, computed the suicides for Fiance as one in 20,740 of entire population. At a later period M. Quetelet estimated the number at oue in 18,000. M. Guerry, in a work now in tbe press, but of which be has communicated some details, shows that the number is one in 13,700, but in a former work he had observed that it was impossible to arrive at a correct compulation, as many suicides are concealed. Setting aside these authorities, and endeavouring to arrive at positive conclusions, it will be sufficient to speak of the returns for the years 1846, 1847, and 1848. The annual average for these years is 3,350, which, taking the population according to tbe census of 1836, would be one in 10,147. But from this population of 35,000,000 we must deduct at least 6,000,000 for children under ten years of age, among whom no suicides take place. With this reduction the returns for 1846, 1847, *nd 1848 would give one suicide for every 8,656 of the population. In order, bowcTcr, to make a fair comparison as regards the prison of Mazas, we, must bear in mind that the prisoners consist of adult males, and that the suicides among males in France are in the proportion of four for one female. This would make tbe number of suicides among males one in 5,861. Compared with this, the number of suicides in the prison of Mazas being one in 1,050, may still be regarded as considerable, but this view of the case will cetse if we establish a more legitimate ground of comparison. The prison of Mazas is in Paris, tbe chef-lieu of the department of the Seine, of which it constitutes nearly tbe totality, and the prison is peopled by persons born ia the department, or who had been in it for some lime, and bad acquired the habits of tbe Parisian population. Let us then compare tbe number of suicides in the prison of Mazas with that of the suicides in the department of the Seine The average annual number of the latter, for the years 2846, 1847, and 1848, was 568, and of these three-fourths, or 426, were males. The population of the department of the Seine, as computed by M. Guerty, according to tbe census returns of 1836, 1841, and 1846, is 1,222,142. Let us deduct from this the children under 10 years of age, and we have a population of 1,050,000. Tdke the half of this, or rather more, as the male population, and we shall have 550,000, which will give us, r/ith an annual average of 426 suicdes, one suicide for every 1,291 inhabitants; comp&ted

with this the suicides of the prison of Mazas, which are 1 in 1,050, will not appear disproportionate, for in any prison whatever there are chagrin, remorse, perversity, and violence, to account for a greater number of suicides than in society in a free state."