MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 806, 23 April 1853, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

The following curiou3 anecdote, referring to the division in the House of Commons on Friday morning, which broke up the Governraent, we give, on the authority of the Spectator: " That party can hardly expect an immediate return to power whose Pelopidas and Epami-

nondas signalised their last hour in Pdiliaraent each by an outrage. The outrage perpetrated by Mr. Disraeli in his " flurry," the last dying speech, was made in the face of thecountiy. Lord Derby's was not publicly so Visible, though, if the current rumour be correct, not more modest. At the close of the.debate on Friday morning, he who had been so indifferent to continuance in office placed himself, not in the body of the House of Commons, but in the part most sacred against intrusion—in the division lobby. There, on the very eve of the division, several members of the Liberal Opposition were brought in, specially introduced to him, and most affectionately received. It was observed that three of them were afterwards counted in the division amongst Lord Derby's band ; and it was one of them who, after the division, replying to the impatient tap of the Premier now outside, put out his head with the announcement — •• We are beaten nineteen !" ! J !

by Literary. —The Literary world has been rather busy; Lord John Russell has issued vols. 1 and 2 of Moore's Memoirs; Mr. Layard has ready a second series on the Nineveh Monuments ; Jane Eyre promises a new book ; and the St. Johns, father and son, have given us two remarkable though very different books on Egypt —" Isis" aqd " Village Life in Egypt" — the former a series of reflections on former travel, the latter a very animated account after a residence of six or seven years just terminated. The United States have supplied us with a delightful work, giving us a peep into the "Homes of American authors," who, really, seem finsome danger suddenly, of meeting the fate of the Sybarites.—London correspondent of Singapore Free Press.

Morals of the Diggings.—Every ounce of gold discovered at Melbourne reflects its light upon an English fireside. When nuggets turn up at the antipodes, families in JLancathire may rejoice at the good fortune. Here is a touching proof of the fact: showing how the adventurers at one side of the world have their hearts beating towards their kindred at the other: — " In one year the Bank of Australasia remitted from depositors £4364 —no trifling contribution, when we consider the severe labour undergone in acquiring it. The receivers are 106 parents, 11 wives, 221 brothers and sisters, 64 children, besides other relations. We may well suppose that this succour is but the beginning. Each mail will probably bring an increase of means to those left in England." This return, we are further told, is authenticated by Capt. Chisholm, who, at Melbourne, speeds the good work begun and hourly pursued by his noble wife in London : work undertaken for the noblest ends, and by the purest and most disinterested means. Mrs. Chisholm working alone to aid wives and children in their desire to join .husbands and fathers ; working that the pinched and despairing laborer and artizan may become the robust, the rejoicing Australian settler. Centuries hence, Australia will venerate the name of the Chisholras; though, at the present moment, it is probable that our Secretary for the colonies, except through the papers, has never heard of them.—Punch.

Wreck of the Steambr " Geelong." — The Peninsula and Oriental Company's steamship Iberia arrived at Southampton on Monday. The Iberia has brought as passengeis the captain and crew of the steamer Geelong, bound to Australia, the loss of which vessel, in the Bay of Biscay, is thus reported in a letter from Gibraltar:—" The steamer Geelong, Captain Maclean, under sail, which left Greenock on the 7th of November, for Geelong, Australia, experienced most tempestuous weather in the Bay of Biscay. At noon, on the 23rd ultimo, when in latitude about 47 deg. 20 rain, north, longitude 9 deg. 40. nain. west, with a very heavy gale from the west-south-west, and tempestuous sea, carried away her rodder, and rig-1 ged temporary steering apparatus. At about 6 p.m., wind shifted to the north-west, ship labouring heavily; at B*3o p.m., a heavy sea struck the vessel, which carried away bulwarks and stanchions, and washed away the men from the pumps. This sea so injured the vessel that the remaining portion of the crew throughout the night were at the pumps; the water, however, kept gradually gaining upon them. At six a.m, of the 24th, saw a large ship, and making signals of distress, the ship communicated with the Geelong, and remained by her until nine a.m., when the ship, which proved to be the Spanish corvette Najaden, bound for the Mediterranean, having lost all her boats on the previous night, communicated this fact to the Geelong, which vessel was making much water, and was now completely unmanageable. Captain Maclean got his boats out, and safely got all his crew on board the Ncjaden, and scarcely had done so, when the boat filled with water, and, everything the unfortunate men had attempted to save was lost. The Geelong went down in half an hour after the crew had left her. The crew of .the late Geelong were landed in Gibraltar from the Arajaden, on the 4th instant, and are sent home in the Iberia to Southampton."—Weekly Despatch, December 19.

Loss of thb " Berenice." — Shocking Murders on Board. —The following details of the above tragedy, translated from the Java Boie, appear in the Straits Times of the Bth ultimo. " During the last hvr days reports have been received from various quarters concerning that which we announced in our paper of the 15th December last, relating to the finding at sea (in the latitude of Pekalongan,) of ships' gear and articles of merchandise —which circumstances led to the supposition that a ship had perished by fire in this latitude. It was also known that along the strand of the residencies, Pekalongan and Tagal merchandise and empty boats had been driven ashore which it was thought might have belonged to that vessel. Moreover, some fishermen coming from the last-named place, declared that they had seen a ship at sea on fire and sinking ; they had also been on board the vessel and had neither seen any of the crew nor discovered any dead bodies, from which circumstance it was hoped that the crew had been saved. It was afterwards rumoured that on the morning of the 6th December, a boat had arrived at Maribava (residency Tagal,) in which were fifteen persons, who immediately proceeded inland; and on that day a similar number of persons, being one Bugis, twelve Javanese, and two Malays, presented themselves befoie the Chi-of of the Malays at Tagal, declaring theni'sclvcs t) 'be the crew of a prahu laden y^h g vnnl>ic-i

from Rhio; aud that on the night of the Ist December, having been upset in a heavy squall, < whereby a boy of 12 years old was drowned, i they with the greatest difficulty had succeeded i in saving themselves. Their manner and varying accounts of their misfortune paused sus- j 1 picion, in consequence of which a strict inves--j < tigation took place. After having persisted !'! ' for a considerable time in their false assertions, they at last confessed the perpetration of certainly one of the most horrible crimes committed in these waters for the last few years ; and they confessed to be the crew of an English ship, to which they gave the name cf Branis, commanded by Captain Gadoe (Cundy), the captain's wife, the mate Roberts, one Amboinese, named Anthony, a Bugis, named Aly, us boatman, and fifteen native sailors, besides a Frenchman, a passenger. The vessel, they stated, had left Singapore Ist June, with Chinese passengers, returning home, and was bound to Tin Hai (Shanghai) in China ; and according to the statement of these men, they sailed from thence with a cargo of tea for Java, where their contract was to have ended, and the men to be discharged. It would appear, however, that when arrived in the waters of Java, the captain acquainted them with his intention of proceeding to Sydney, and promised to give them salt beef rations and au increase of pay of one dollar per month. The crew, however, were unwilling to agree to these proposals, and finding their agreement was not to be fulfilled, they began to murmur, and secretly determined to ■ take the ship. On the 2nd December, at about midnight, two of them ran Amok, and, assisted by the others, murdered the captain, the mate, and the Amboinese. They then dragged the captain's wife on deck, and with a knife stabbed her to death. They then wrapped all the bodies in a sail, into which they put weights, and sunk them in the sea. The passenger and the captain's servant, a Bengalese, on seeing these murders committed, jumped overboard, and sought death in the waves. Th murderers remained two days on board: they than set fire to the ship, and took to the boats, in which they reached the shore, where they will certainly not escape the punishment they have earned. The Javashe Courant of to-day, further announces, concerning this melancholy event, that the steam-ship Bonda, on her last voyage there, in the latitude of Japara, found a number of tea-chests drifting at sea, marked ' P. Berenice Litt P.,' by which they suppose that the true name of the burnt ship was the Berenice." ' j j ' i i i ' j , : i

The Late Colonel Sir Digby Mackworth, Bart. —The death of this true Christian and in many respects very remarkable man, took place on the 22nd September, at his seat Glen Noke, in New South Wales. There are few, probably, of our readers to whom his name is not familiar as one taking an active and very important part in maintaining our Protestant institutions and resisting Papal encroachment. But before we touch upon that portion of hia life, we must not omit to chronicle those earlier events in his career, when as a companion in arms of our Recently lost hero, Wellington, he was no undistinguished unit in that gallant host which so nobly fought the battles of their country. Sir Digby, then Mr. Mackworth, entered the 7th Fusiliers as lieutenant, from Marlow. He was first engaged at Talavera, when he carried, in front of the regiment, the colours which had been thrown down by a junior officer. He was in that charge at Albuera in which, out of the 1,500 men, composing the 7th and 23rd, only 150 escaped; the brigade going into action (Sir L. Cole, General) under three colonels, and coming out under only one captain, and with three battalions each commanded ■*by a lieutenaut, There was no parallel slaughter of British officers and soldiers during the war. After this engagement he accepted the offer of Lord Hill to make him his aide-de-camp, and remained on his staff till the conclusion of the war. He was present at Victoria and other important battles in the Peninsular campaign, as well as in that on the French territory, and when, not long ago, the medal was granted for those campaigns*, Sir Digby's had attached to it- the names of eeven general engagements. He was employed before the battle of Waterloo to carry to Lord Hill the Duke of Wellington's orders, and had his horse killed mider him in Lord Hill's last charge on that memorable day. He afterwards joined the 13th Light Dragoons, then serving at Madras, and on returning retired on halfpay ; but on Lord Hill's becoming Commander of the Forces, Sir Digby was again placed on the staff, and remained on it till his Lordship's death. In 1830, he was employed by the Government in putting down agrarian disturbances in the Forest of Dean, and it was then, at the head of his band of soldiers, to whom his firm, yet mild, character had endeared him, that there grew up between them that knowledge and confidence which enabled him to render that remarkable service to his country, whereby he saved from utter destruction the shipping and greater part of the City of Bristol. It would be useless now minutely to record the fatal havock which, in 1831, took place in that city, when, owing to the culpable negligence of the military authorities, the town was, for more than 48 hours, in possession of the lowest of the mob, who, bent on pillage and destruction, had already set fire to and burnt several public edifices and private dwellings, breaking open the cellais of the latter, dressing themselves in the ladies' bonnets and gowns which they found in the houses, and, in scores of instances, dancing, shouting, reeling drunk, thus dressed in womens' clothes, they sunk alive into the flames which their equally drunken companions had kindled in the apartments beneath them. Such for three days was the state of the second city of England, notwithstanding that there was a military force within its walls capable of arresting in an hour (as events proved) the whole disturbance. It was on the third day that Sir Digby Mackworth happening to come to Bristol placed himself by the side of the commanding officer, and urged him to action. He was, unhappily, a Radical Reformer, aud nothing could induce him to do more than to request the mob civilly to desist. With an unw..rrint <^io ymerssen* :*• he &hruiA I'Oin i-h • djbcruvge of hh duty, whlKl the ui)f{'\.U of I'ie i.-^-ps only ?er> ed l<» encourage :'". fi it-T* to vxts of fmtW

violence. The public edifices and private dwellings were still burning — the mob were matters of the tcuvn, acid were preparing to iiie the houteb on boih sides of the canals where all the shipping of B.istoltay ; the destruotiou of hie and property which must have ensued from suoh a eaia&trophe is incalculable ; the ruin of the city seemed inevitable ; it was in vain that Sir Digby urged the commander of the troops to interfere to avert so awful a calamity — he declined the responsibility. Sir Digby was in plain clothes, but fortunately the troops were those who had served under him, fn the Forest if Dean, they knew his person, and did not hesitate to obey his commands. Indignant at the scenes which he was witnessing, regardless of consequences to himself, he at once determined to save the city. After a last effort to induce the officer to do his duty, he sprang forward and commanded the troops to follow him. They gladly and readily obeyed the well known voice, and in one quarter of an hour the mob were everywhere arrested in their fell purpose, in another they were dispersed in every direction, and within two hours the city was restored iv safety and comparative tranquillity. A more important service was never rendered by a private individual to any single community. Sir Digby's life furnished a striking proof that a good soldier may be a good Christian, and that there is nothing in the profession of arms which is inconapauble with Christian doctrines. A man more deeply imbued with faith in his Saviour never lived — nor one more zealous to obey his precepts. In hi 3 own neighbourhood lr.s loss wi)l be most deeply felt. Wherever on opportunity offered of doiug good there was Sir Digby to be found — time, labour, money, all were devoted with a willing -heart to promote the interests and happiness of those around him. Such was Sir l)igby Mackworth. To thos? who knew him this tribute lo his memory must appear (as, indeed, it does to the writer) to do very inadequate justice to the great excellencies which adorned his character. — Hobart Town Courier.