ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 810, 28 May 1853, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Ireland. — A new branch of employment has recently been established in the country, which contributes largely to the comforts of the peasantry. In various counties considerable numbers of females are constantly engaged in making shirts> collars, and other articles of apparel, for wholesale warehouses in London. In the vicinity of Letterkenny, county of Donegal, between three and four hundred persons are fully employed in this way; and, although the wages are very moderate, many families are raised from indigence to comparative independence by this source of industry. The occupation of muslin embroidery still affords a

vast amount of employment through the country, especially in Ulster ; but, in many instances, shirt-making seems to be preferred as a better mode of training for the female peasantry, and as more remunerative. Both branches, however, keep all hands at work, and tbe truly gratifying 1 result is that a spirit of active industry is promoted in all quarters, whilst the condition of the labouring classes is steadily improving

Eebects oi 1 Cold in High Latitudes. — It was necessary to be very carefnl with our drinking cups. Tin never suited, for it always adhered to the lips, and took a portion of the skin with it. A dog attempted to lick a little fat from an iron shovel, stuck fast to it, and dragged it by means of his tongue, until by a sudden effort he got clear, leaving several inches of the skin and subjacent tissue on the cold metal. One of the seamen endeavoured to change the eye of the splice in his tack rope, put the marling spike, after the true sailor fashion, into his mouth ; the result was lhat he lost a great portion of the skin of his lips and tongue.— Dr. Sutherland's Journal of a Vouaqc in Baffin's Bay. The following extraordinary accounts have been received relative to an alleged murder und mutiny on board the Dublin, East Indiaman, Captain Robinson, on a voyage from Calcutta to London, with a valuable cargo of indigo, silks, &c. The most intense excitement was created at Calcutta by the arrival of the Fairfield, Captain Howell, who reported that he had spoken the Dublin off the Sand Heads, and had sent a boat to board her, but the officer, conceiving from appearances that the crew was drunk and mutinous, was afraid to trust himself on board. On arriving at -Calcutta, aud the case being reported to the agents, Captain Horwell made an affidavit to the above effect, and an application was made for a government steamer Jto be sent out to arrest the mutineers, but Sir Lawrence Peel, the head of the Admiralty Court there, and the magistrates having, as it proved in the sequel, a much clearer perception than either the officer in charge of the boat or Captain Horwell, refused the application. Some short time afterwards Captain Robinson and the officers and crew of the ill-fated vessel, the Dublin, arrived, and threw a very different complexion on the state of affahs, for after dreadful sufferings and miraculous escapes, they succeeded in landing on the coast, and ultimately arrived at Calcutta, when a protest was entered under the insurance, stating " That in consequence of being disabled and waterlogged in a hurricane on the 14th and 15th of May, it was agreed to abandon the ship • the crew was in the act of constructing a raft, and the ship in a sinking slate, when hailed by the Fairfield. The crew of the Dublin were then fairly worn out, having been incessantly working at the pumps for 36 hours. The boat's crew of the Fairfield were implored to render assistance, and positively refused to approach the vessel, although the crew wished to be taken from the sinking vessel, and the general exclamation was, "They are leaving us to perish !" The Dublin being completely unmanageable, it was de termined to construct a raft, and abandon her, and soon afterwards she sank in 10 fathoms water, and for three days and .nights the crew were exposed to the most fearful peril, and ultimately reached Calcutta."— Southern Cross, April 8.

Horrible case of Self-mutilation. — The Belfast Whig contains the following :— -"An occurrence took place a few days ago in Lame, more suited to the clime of Hindoostau and the festival of Juggernaut than to the high latitude of the county of Antrim and the Christian character of its inhabitants. The details are strikingly similar to some story in Eastern records of mortification and mutilation on the part of a fanatical Fakeer or enthusiast Dervish. It appears that a respectable man, having the fear of God, and, as the sequel proves, of his minister before his eyes, happened to get drunk, and was publicly seen in the streets of Lame in a state of intoxication. He. was afterwards met by his minister, who, on remonstrating with him- on his error, said he should have cut off his right hand before he had been guilty of such a sin. The reproof sank deeply ; and'the offender, after reflecting for a few moments after the Minister had passed on, walked quietly into a butcher's stall close by, and taking the cleaver, first in his left and afterwards in his right hand, deliberately chopped off about half the fingers of his left hand ; then -regarding them for an instant or so, and apparently not thinking he had sufficiently expiated his offence, he again placed his hand on the block, and with another blow of the cleaver severed the fingers completely from the hand, remarking as he did so that as he could not repair the error he had committed he could, at least, inflict such punishment as he deserved. The victim, as he without any exaggeration may be styled, appeared, even at this period to consider himself not sufficiently maimed, stating that he regretted he could not ' chop' with the cleaver in his left hand, or he would cut t>ff his right."

The British ARMt.-r-Since the death of the Duke of Wellington there are now only three Field Marshals in the British army, viz., | the King of the Belgians, His Royal Highness Prince Albert, and the Marquis of Anglesey. \ The latter lost a leg at Waterloo during the last fire of the French cannon, and when his limb was amputated, he heroically .exclaimed, " Who would not lose a leg for such'a victory !"

The French Authorities and the Irish Exhibition. — The Art Journal, for December, adverting to the rast continental support promised to the Dublin Exhibition of next year, says,^ " Our Paris correspondent writes us, that the 9 approaching Irish Exhibition will be nobly supported by nearly all the first-rate manufacturers of Paris, particularly those connected with the fine arts, the whole cf the bronze, the best of the bijoutiers, paperstainers, curved furniture manufacturers, gunsmiths, porcelain manufacturers, bookbinders, silversmiths, carpet manufacturers, &c, and by the producers of those articles called emphatically ' Articles de Paris.' Mr. Roney, accompanied by his agent, has been received with the utmost urbanity by the greater number of fabricants. The President, Louis Napoleon, has promised the support of the Government for the transport of merchandise to Havre, the election of a French commissary, the contribu-

tion of Gobelins, Sevres, and Beauvais manu" factories ; these, added to much good will manifested by our artistes, will make no doubt a most interesting exhibition, and novel in point of art, by the contra t of the different productions of the mo-t celebrated schools of painting of Europe." The whole of the collection forming by the East India- house, which, was to have constituted in itself a magnificent spectacle in London, next year, will now figure exclusively in Dublin, owing to an arrangement come to between the Royal Society of Arts, through its president, Prince Albert, and the authorities in Leadenhall-street and the East.