ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 808, 30 April 1853, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Qaeen Victoria having expressed a desire to the King of Hanover that the medals, crosses, and other decorations of the late Dukft of Weilington should be assembled together in a National Collection, Hia Majesty at once acceded to the Queen's desire, as far as he was concerned. He also ~dhecied the baton of Marshal of Hanover, which had been accorded to the late duke, and the Grand Cross of the Guelphic Order, should be given to the eldest I son of the deceased. The King of Prussia established, a few years ngo, an order of knighthood for the distinction of eminence in literature and science. The numbers of members was restricted. By the j death of the poet Thomas Moore, a cross became disposable. It has been bestowed by his Majesty, at the recommendation of the Berlin Royal Academy, on Rawlineon, the orientalist. His competitors vrere Wilson and Dumas.

It anneal tW the old coshers vre t^ he rcoi ganged in VvM rn'lef tb? F ; r?. J,-' 0 = w.ll no loiter be receded at t"ic i'i< xrihl en »»". but wi:h cressPS boaiin-y the Lajii^nal t.ai.i. Thisier.v.-.lne appcn«!« i geof a q,c cs w thedd.-h; cf all Fai is. On en rit £> la, me*. The Royal Academy, at the request of the Queen, have determined to admit a certain number of engravers to their highest honours. " Uncle Tom's Cabin" has already been translated in French, Italian, Sr^rnsh, and is advertised in Dam-h, Polish, anu tiusskin. The Society for the propagation of the Go. pel in Foreign Farts has, during the ycr, pL'd no Icps than £78.500 in aid of the operation's of the Church at homo and abroad. A brisk fade had been going on around Wisbcach this season in "haws," for exportation to Australia, to form the future quickset hedges of the country. The beautiful British ships CkaKcngir Stowaway and Chrysolyie, known as the Enlish tea clippers, had beaten all the Americans for the season. The ClvUengcr left a port in China with two Americans, the John Bertran and the Nighlizgale, and reached England in 106 days, the shortest passage ever known for the time of year; whilst the John Eerlran had put up into Singapore leaky, and the Nightingale into Batavia, and neither had arrived on the 24th December.

The Bchring's Straits Expedition. — By private lettsra received from Behring's Straits, we learn that Captain Maguire has proceeded •with the Plover to Point Borrow, where Capt. Moore (who has now , returned to England, after passing four winters in the ice) had discovered a harbour, in which the Plover could be safely secured. On the arrival of the Am~ phitriie, Captain Frederick, at Port Clarence, with stores and provisions, Captnin Maguire and the officers who went out with him from England via Panama, joined the Plover, and proceeded with her in the direction of Point Barrow, as far as Icy Cape. A boat expedition was immediately despa'ched from the Plover, and Captain Maguire succeeded in reaching Point Barrow, after running considerable risk in a heavy gale in open boats ; and, having satisfied himself that the harbour was available for the winter-quarters of the Plover in 1852—3, returned in the boats, rejoined his ship, and proceeded with her to that spat. As Point Barrow is 500 or 600 miles in advance of the old winter quarters of the Plover, and the first spot that a retreating party would make for from any part of the Polar Sea to the northward, we cannot but rejoice at this move in the right direction. — London Morning Herald, 18th December.

Ths Earthquake at St. Jago. — The Kingston (Jamaica) Journal, of the 10:h December, thus speaks of the earthquake of the, 26th November, which was very severe at St. Jago de Cuba: — " The earthq;\ake which was felt in this city on the morning of the 261h of last month, was, as most of ouf readers will not be surprised to hear, not confined in its action to this island and the channel between it and Cuba. Th" unfortunate city of Sr. Jago has once more been shaken to ito foundation, ar>d threatened with utter dec-traction by the afflictive visitation. Bythe Yeloz, which arrived at this port from St. Jago de Cuba, on the afternoon of the 7th, but which was placed in quarantine becaoae the cholera had not yet disappeared from that city, letteis and papers were yesterday received in Kingston, announcing the saddening intell pence. A printed account of the event with which we have been politely favored, states that at 10 minutes past 3, on the morning of the date above given, in the whole city, and probably throughout the whole district ot the island subject to such visitations, one general cry of • Mercy !' was heard, sent up by the terrified inhabitants, all expecting that they wers about to peiish in the ruins of their houses, fearfully rocking, and appaiently being rent asunder by another earthquake. Judging from what were the sensations- of the terrible monrent, says the account, it assuredly was not of shorter duration, or less severity, than that which in August had thrown a large portion of the city into ruins, if, indeed, it was not of longer and greater intensity. The square and streets, it is scarcely necessary to say, were filled immediately after the shock wiih people, who, at the time of publication of the account from which we derive our intelligence, still remained there, and were likely to remain there, notwithstanding the fear they might justly have af being subjected, from the exposure, to the danger of contracting that terrible scourge — the cholera — which yet afflicted the city. Altars were erected in various parts of the city, the squares, courts, churchyards, &c, and the mass was said before them, but the people did not dare to enter the churches for the purpose, Nothing can equal the situation of the city, says our account, scourged as it is, at one and the same lime, by two of the most desolating calamities by which the human race can be afflicted. While there is not a single family which is without one or more of its members suffering from sickness, there is not a single house which has not beea more or less seriously damaged, many, very many of them being rendered entirely useless. The cathedral, which was so much damaged already in August, has received much greater injury on this occasion. The convent of San Francisco, the temporay military hospital, the prison, warehouses, stores, (among them that of Messrs. Brooks, and Co., connected we believe with the firm of that style in this city)shops, magnificent residences, all have suffered alike. The sufferings of many families were fearfully increased by their seeing the walls of their houses falling on their sick relatives as they lay in bed. In many cases, 100, the furniture was ; thrown about in such a manner by the shock that the terror, danger, and injury, were much augmented. The writer of our account says 1 he had seen a very heavy table which had been removed and thrown down a distance of two varas, or yards, from the place in which it had been standing." , The following account of recent inventions , of Agricultural Machines in Great Britain and - their appropriate <v, is extracted fr jro the July , number of tic Eel ibvvgh Eevrw : — "A De?on<-hir<«(ajrv)er invents a modification of »h n rotary r}i«ip>. H vrl,nb, f>; "", .!;w; 5- r~volv; j'n -t. cj;nr cki.ij of w^r-n n"T?~, *"(nnTH bj

t'i° r.W c? t^e t'-.Tr^ora^'e 1 ", ha ran at all seasons »" (V, e %Jf , pr ootrr , lnn^ ,t 1( , p< ,» d.^, f ;*i»e f>f warmth for <^pr>r,t'- -r j. P H-Jt* er, a •<) t !i us f;-i;*h the pmrn;s "n ;i . > j ut "i.t 1 href ard h'l orm, 7r Ff<M;h A l i, "er rs ais at tip Son?*v cf A'ts 3"'J inc'o-c^ a <':"« p;>i'on of i« ?o Par's. A rnodei is nn 'c somewhat itiereJ and exhibited ai i'io « E-'^nsiiion. 1 A isjotch Director of llip Tli^Wartd fWicy hns a copy ma'Je of it, caniss tt over to Edinburgh, where the scientific principles of i' s t. obstruction are highly landed, and for the next 6;x months all the Ayrshire amateurs are trea'in-; 'b<?ir friends to butter made in ten tainntps an.J amusing them with the wonders of (l*e French churn. A York": . Tg sm.th, living in (he midst of hrary h r <d, IK?-, ho-row t»eih into a Ion;* cylindrical axle at ur-form .iisiances, and fitting two of these ar.les (c-^'^cr, so tbat the teeth of the one shall play rs:r.c;ii those of the other when it is dragged alon* tho la.jd, forms a machine admirably adapted for tn? tearing cf heavy brittle clods asunder. it is kno-rn to few aad attracts lifle notice at home ; b.rt it gets to Norway, Seen there by an E'l^l-'simaa, it is pmnoanced, as it is, a thir^ of first-rate excelleace, and under the name of the Koricegian harrow, it obtains a dislinpjuisbed place at our future agricultural shows. A Scotch Presbyterian minister (what has he to do inventing machines to lake away the people's bread ?) puts together, in 182G f an adjustment of wheels and scissor blades so working that when pushed along a corn-field, at harvest time, it cuts down the grain as if done by hand, and far more cheaply aad expeditionsly. Hi 3 brother, a farmer, improves upon and adopts this machine, and for a dozen successive years employs it m reaping his crops. Bat it, also, is seen by few. The National Society gives the inventor a prise of £50, bat makes little noise about it. Nobody cares to make a fortune by pushing it, and although, in 1834, several were in operation in Forfrirshsre, few of the supposed wide-awake Scotch farmers thought of adopting it as a saving of labour even -when the hardest times had come. But four of the machines were sent to New York from Dundee, their chief place of manufacture. Thoughtful, pushing emigrants, settlers in the North American prairies, where wide flat fields easily covered with waving corn; offered speedy fortunes to those who could command bands to reap it, saw, or heard, or read of these machines. The reaper was re-constructed, modified in different ways, as so complicated a machine could not fail to be, and probably for the better, by ingenious mechanists, was brought into sucoj|fnl operation, made by thousands for the farmersnieyond the American lakes, and obtained a deservedly high reputation, as a means both of doing work well and of saving labour much. In 1849 we saw it at the great S<.a'e Sbow in Wrstern Now York ; and brought tbence to London in 1851, the American reaping machine proved the main attraction of the United States department in the Great Exhibition. Implement makers vied with each other in seeking to secure the privilege of manufacturing the patented machine for the English market, tbonsands of practical men became persuaded of its economical applicability^ our English soils and crops, hundreds of machines were bespoken by English cultivators, and aU the while no one knew that the original model machine was at the very time quietly cutting its yearly harvest on the farm ot Inch Michael in the carse of Gowrie."

Curious Experiment in Wool- growing. — In a lecture recently delivered by Mr. Owen at the Society of Arts, the learned professor detailed tha particulars of a highly iuteresting experiment, which resulted in the establishment of one of the very few instances in which the origination of a distinct variety of a domestic quadruped could be satisfactorily traced, with all the circumstances attending its development well authenticated. We mast premise it by stating that, amongst the series of wools shewn in the French department of the Great Exhibition, were specimens characterised by the jury as a wool of siogular and peculiar properties, — the hair, glossy and silky, similar to mohair, retaining at the same time certain properties of the merino breed. Tais .wool was exhibited by J. L. Graux, of the farm of Mauchamp, Commune de Javinconrt, and was the produce of a peculiar variety of ihe merino breed of sheep ; and it tbas arose :— ln the year 1823, one of the ewes of the flock of merinos in the farm of Msuchamp produced a male lamb, which *s it grew up, became remarkable for the long, smooth, straight, and silky character ef the fibre of (he wool, and for the shortness of in horns. It was of small size, and presented certain defects in its conformation which have disappeared in its descendants. la 1829, M. Graux employed this ram with a view to obtain other rams, having the same quality of wool. The produce of 1830 only included one ram and one ewe, having the same quality of wool ; that of 1831 produced four rams and one ewe with the fleece of that quality. In 1833, the rams with i the silky variety of wool were sufficiently numer- ; ous to serve the whole flock. In each subse- | quent year the lambs have been of two kinds — one preserving the character of tbe ancient race, vrith the curled elastic wool, only a little longer and finer than in the ordinary merinoes; the other resembling the rams of the new breed, some of which retained the large head, long neck, narrow chest, and long flanks of the abnormal progenitor, whilst others combined the ordinary and better formed body with tbe fine silky wool. M. Graux, profiting by by the partial resumption of the normal tyi«s in some of the descendants of tbe malformed original variety at length succeeded, by a judicious system of crossing aa.l interbreeding, in obtaining a flock combining the lonfj silky fleece with a smaller head, shorter neck, broader flanks, and more capacious chest. Of this breed the flocks have become sufficiently numerous, to enable the proprietor to sell samj les for exportation. The crossing of the Maucbamp variety with the ordinary merino has also produced a valuable quality o wool, knowa in France as tbe " Maucbamp Merino." The fine silky wool of the pure Mauchsrop breed is remarkable for its qualities, as combing wool, owing to the strength as well as the length and fineness of the fibre. It is found of great value by the manufacturers of Cscbmere shawls, being second oaly to the true Cachmere fleece in the fine flexible delicacy of the fabric, and of particular utility when combined with the Cacbracre wool iv imparting to lbe manufacture qualities cf strength and consistence in which tbe pure Cadiraere is foficirn'. Although the quani v J t" -^ -rtl i' Il"d W tbe Mauchorap variety 'ti V?s c ~1 1 ;rs ordinary totibos, the higher

price which it obtains in the French market — 2 p-r cnt. f»bt>v» the best merino wools — and ih ,- e cppt vaiue of t li e breed, bave fully conapensat •"1 M. Gra.ix for the paim and cue n.anifesteo h'^i in tie est3t)lis l »To?«t of the variety, tad a council medal wis anrarJeJ to him. — Critic.