ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 810, 7 May 1853, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

: A short time since, a disciple of M. Rubin was in Rome ; and, among his conjuring tricks be bandaged his wife's eyes, placed her in another part of the theatre, and asked her what he bad in his hand, where it was made, and other questions. This trick, so common in England, was thought so wonderful in Rome, that when the Pope's vicar heard of it, he sub* pended the performances, although the announcement had been stuck all over the city. The conjuror was called before his Eminence, charged with being in league with the black gentleman below, and threatened with all sorts of things. The poor man, to get himself out of the scrape, was obliged to divulge the secret of the trick; after which the performance was allowed to be continued. The anecdote is related as an illustration of the intellectual state of the Eternal City.

A Vetbran TstMFiTBB.—Wm. Keightley the present trumpet major of the Royal Horse Guards, has been attached to that regiment upwards of 46 years, having been attested to the same in 1806. He is the oldest serving soldier in the army. He was at the Battle of Vittoria in the year 1813, and was appointed trumpet major to the corps in 1816. He, moreover, was acting state trumpeter at the funeral of King George 111., at Windsor, in January, 1820, as also at the proclamations, coronations, and funerals of the two successive monarchs, George IV., and William IV., respectively, and performed a similar office at the proclamation of her present most gracious Majesty Queen Victoria. He also signalised the moment at which the late Archbishop of Canterbury imposed the cown of England upon the brow of our Queen in Westminster Abbey, on the 28th of June, 1838.—The trumpet major is in his 65th year.—BclFs Messenger.

Swindling by a Ship's Captain. —The police of Paris arrested on Saturday the captain of an English merchant ship, the Shakspeare, under the following circumstances: —la March last the Shakspeare left the port of Canton, having on board an American, This American was very badly off, and had no goods, and he and the captain concocted a scheme for committing a fraud on a grand scale. On arriving at the Cape of Good Hope, the Captain presented the American to a commercial firm with whom he was acquainted, and represented to them that he bad on board his ship about £6000 worth of goods which he was conveying to England, H e also produced vouchers, which seemed to confirm the statement. The firm, to oblige the American, who was in want of money, agreed to purchase about one-third of the cargo, and paid at once £900 on account, giving a draft on their agent in London for the remainder. The American then insured the rest of the cargo for about £5000. Shortly after this the Shakspeare set sail; but the Araer can remained at the Cape, on the pretence of having to conclude come business. On arriving at St. Helena the captain laid h<» would give up the command of the vessel to the mate, as the health of his wife, who wgs v iili him, rendered it necessary that sbt should proceed to England by steamer, being unable to bear the fatigue of the voyage in the Shakespeare. But he had previously come to an understanding with the mate tn'at on leaving the port of Si. Helena he should sink or set fire to the ship, in order to destroy alt proo!s of the fraud whiih

had been committed, and also to cheat the insurance company. A liberal recompense was promised to the mate for hii complicity. The mate promised to fulfil his share of the contract, and sailed from St. Helena. A few days after, the East India steamer touched at the island, and the captain and bis wife went on board. There they met the American, as had previously been arranged. As soon as the steamer arrived in London, the American and the captain went to the agent of the merchants of the Cape, and received from him £1,535, the balance doe on the cargo. They then waited for the news of the loss of the Shakspeare, in order to apply to the insurance office for the amount of the insurance. A short time back, to their profound astonishment, they learned that the Shakspeare had entered the mouth of the Thames ; the mate, being an honest man, as it turned out, having brought her safe home, instead of making any attempt to destroy her. The two men thereupon deemed it prudent to fly. The American emWked on board a vessel which was about to proceed to the East Indies, whilst the captain and his wife came to Paris, and took up their residence at the Champs Elysees. The agent of the St. Helena merchants, having learned the fraud that bad been committed, and having ascertained that the captain had come to Paris, immediately came over here, and obtained by the interference of the English embassy the assistance of the police. In a very short time the residence of the captain was discovered, and he was secured. — Bell's Messenger.

Life Assurance op recent Date. — The remarkable prosperity of life-assurance businesi in these realms — where it is a flourishing, business — has naturally had the effect of causing "offices" to multiply very fast. In the last eight years, 241 were projected, being at the rate of one for every twelve dayi nearly. Twc or tbret bustling persons thereby obtain situations ; there is a show of business for a time ; but such concerns are often exceedingly weak, and the interests of the public are much' imperilled by them. In consequence of an order ol parliament, returns of the accounts of a large proportion of the recent offices have been made and published ; so that the public may now form some opinion of the stability of the instifntions, The general fact resulting is, that the greatei number appear to have started with small means, - and are not now in hopeful circumstances. The business they have obtained is generally small in proportion to the expenses incurred ; so thai many of them are much behind the point al which they started. Mr. Robert Christie, ol Edinburgh, has done the public the good service of publishing a small pamphlet, in which the leading features of the accounts are presented in an intelligible form. Here it appears that a life assurance company will launch into business witb an imposing name, a Nourishing prospectus, and £3000 ! After four years it will have received £4000 of premiums. In that time £1300 wil have been apent in salaries, £600 in establishing agencies, £700 in rent ; in all, in expenses oi of management, upwards of £5000, leaving little more than half the premium receipts tc stand against the obligations towards tb< • assured. There is one which has been in business upwards of four fears, and which only possesses £2869 of funds, out of which to pa) policies represented by £3094 of premiums, £2279 of moneys received for investment, and £1895 of deposits on shares. Another, which makes no small bustle in the world, received in two years and a half £13,216 of premiums, spent in the same time £6993, whereof £1213 was foi advertising, and £539 for directors and auditors, and at the end of the period possessed, to make good its obligations, only £7045, nearly one-hall of which was composed of the original guarantee fund. It is very likely that few or none of these establishments were commenced witb a fraudulent design ; but they were not required by the public, and their expenses bare eaten them up. By most, if not all of them, loss and disappointment will be incurred. It is therefore highly desirable that the public should be warned against new offices generally. While there are so many old ones of perfectly established character both in England and Scotland — and we have some pride in remarking that there is not one dangerous office known to us in the latter country — it is quite unnecessary to resort to any other. — Cham.hers 1 Journal,

Barnum and Tom Thumb. — The New York gives some statistics relative to these noted characters. Barnum's cbiefest sources of ■income out of Connecticut are his Museum, said to be .very profitable, and his famous menagerie now in Michigan. 60,000 dollars were the profits of the menagerie the last year, and among its incidental expenses are 200 dollars a- week, or 10,400 dollars a-year, for Tom Thumb's fortune, and Tom contiibuted not a little to Barnum's. Tom is abont 16 years of age now, though passing for more, and it is his money which built for his father the largest house in Bridgeport. Tom lias made all his family rich, and when at home is of course the elephant of the town, Barnum being then but a simple lion. Tom has his bijou of a room in his great house, with a rosewood bedstead, chairs, tables, and a tea set, &c, all made to match his own diminutive proportions. His quarters contain all the presents he received in Europe, and pistols, bowie knives, jack knives, &c, have been among his favourite playthings, but he is amiable, intelligent, and very much esteemed. Barnum took him as an experiment about 10 years ago. His pay at the start was 3 dollars a week, soon it was raised to 25 dollars, then to 37 dollars. At this price Barnum took him to England, where his great success prompted Mr. B. to sbar« the receipts with him. Now for showing himself merely he earns an income equal to the official salaries of Daniel Webster and John J. Crittenden combined.

The Canadian Goid Fields. — The following extract is from a late New York paper : The gold discoveries in Lower Canada, present every prospect of becoming important. The editor of the Quebec Chronicle say«: "We have ourselves seen a specimen of the quartz, weighing 38l£ lb§., in which the pure metal is clearly noticeable in every crack, and iudeed studded in the heart of it, like the crystals in the rock on which our citadel alands, known as the Cape Diamond. The Chaudiere, and the smaller brooks in that neighbourhood are all more or less auriferous, pieces of different sizes having been repeatedly found, one piece lately, woith £200 ; but these discoveries, while they told of the presence of the metal, and induced the formation of a mining company, held out little ex-

ptxtation of mining being undertaken remuneratively. Hitherto, indeed the expense of collecting the gold has -not -been much lest than the valae of the gold fonnd by the ignorant and indolent employer!. Now the prospect it much brighter ; a tern of quarts in black slate, of six feet in width, bat been hit upon in promising abundance. But rocks containing gold bearing quartz are not confined to this one locality in Lower Canada. Some yeara ago a piece of quartz was sent by a gentleman to the Museum of the Literary and Historical Society on tht supposition that it was marble. Presenting no appearance of containing gold, indeed such a probability not having then entered any one's bead, it was allowed for years to lie unbroken upon a table in the society's room. It was found, however, if ourmeinory serf es us, in a vein traversing t black slaty rock. 1 ' The rocks where the gold is found are described as being of primary formation, and presenting striking evidences of volcanic action, the river being of extraordinary depth with stupendous mountains of banks abrupt and precipitous. It begins to be asserted, without »ny sort of reserve, that the whole country round Quebec is auriferous ; and it appears from the Relation of the Jesuitt,who were the pioneers of civilization in Canada, that soon after the early settlement of the country a series of, terrific earthquakes occurred, throwing up rocks, and forming new mountains, and changing the beds of rivers. It is conjectured that in these convulsions the gold now just begun to be discovered was thrown to the surface. It is a singular fact that an official geologist seems to have had no conception of the existence of gold before it was actually discovered in minute particles at the Chaudiete, nor to have formed even then any enlarged idea of its possible extent and importance. It is probably premature to speculate upon the possible political and commercial results of the existence in Canada of tbt precious metal ; but no one can fail to see that these may be highly important, more so, perhaps, than the mere value of the gold itself, should it even equal California. Cue* of Asiatic Cholira by Cold Wa-te*.—-During ' the late ravages of Asiatic cholera, in the small Poliih town, Koval, where, out of a population of less than 1500 inhabitant*, thirty or forty were daily falling victims to that fatal scourge, the Canon Stobieski, prebendary of that town, universally respected for bis piety and beoevolence, raised that feeling of respect to an enthusiastic veneration by his unremitting attendance upon the sick during this awful visitation. He thns, heedless of danger, toiled day and night, administering religious consolation, and lavishing upon the poor — irrespective of creed or persuasion — food, comfort, and medicines ; until at last, sinking from over exertion and the last trial of his fortitude — the sudden death of his sister and cousin — he in his turn manifested the fatal symptoms of the dreadful epidemic. The inhabitants of the place, terrorstricken by the excruciating sufferings of their idolized benefactor, thronged the churcb, crowded the court-yard of the parsonage ; even the Jews assembled in their synagogue, and prayed for his recovery. The physician, bis Ultimate friend, and inseparable companion in his visits of charity, applied all the remedies which science and experience suggested, but, alas! without any effect ; and be was compelled to see the cramped limbs of his venerated friend assuming the coldness of death, and the livid hues of that awful malady. ■ All at once the sufferer, to all appearance in bis last agony, asked for cold water. The physician, in despair yielded. The patient drank an incredible quantity of coldest spring water; the crisis took a favourable turn; and, through the mercy of God, his life was spared for the benefit of the district, to continue bis pious work of charity.