MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 828, 9 July 1853, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

Rose Tamisier. — She had been educated gratuitously in a convent of nuns at Salon, Bouches-du-Rhone, wheie eventually she became an inmate, and made herself remarkable by the frequent visits she asserted she was in the habit of receiving from certain saints and angels, above all from the Virgin Mary. At length, impressed with the belief that to her was confided the divine mission of restoring religion to its original purity in infidel France, she left the convent and sought a retreat in her native village, Saignon, where she made her first dibut on the stage as a miracleworker, says her biogrtpher, the Abbe Andr6, by causing the growth of a miraculous cabbage ! sufficiently large to feed the hungry villagers for several successive weeks, and that during a teason of such universal drought that every other species of vegetation languished or died. In the meantime she refused every species of nourishment but consecrated wafers, which angels were in the habit of purloining from the sacred Pyx of the Church, wherewith to feed the favourite of Heaven ; and to compensate the good old curl of the Commune, the Abbe Sabon, for their loss, she mended his clothes with thread and buttons rained from Heaven. But whether the villagers clamoured for more sabstantial food than cabbage, or the cure" demanded a new soutane for the loss of his consecrated wafers, certain it is that one fine summer's evening she was borne aloft by angels, tnd deposited in the romantic village of St. Satnrnin. Up to this time the believers in the holy mission of our village saint chiefly comprised the simple vinedresser, the mountain shepherd, and it may be their equally simple cure ; Lut the odour of her sanctity and the fame of her miraculous powers increased so rapidly, and spread so extensively, that she quickly acquired a European celebrity. She had already performed many surprising miracles, and by the intensity of her devotion caused the representation of a cross, a heart, a chalice, a spear, and sometimes the image of the Virgin and Child, to appear on various parts of her body, at first in faint lines, and afterwards so developed as to exude blood ! thereby exciting the amazement and pious admiration of every beholder. But she now worked in the little church of St. Saturnin the crowning miracle, by causing a picture of Christ descending from the cross to emit real blood, and that in presence of the parish priest and a numeious congregation, assembled to witness the extraordinary event. This took place for the first time on the 10th of November, 1850. [Elaborate investigations took place as to the miracle by the superior clergy and scientific men. The report was favourable to Rose, and it was stated throughput Christendom that, through her, miracles were worked in order to call the French to repentance. At length, to continue the quotation], M. Eugene Colignon, chemist of Apt, succeeded in discovering that human blood, disgorged by a leech, having lost its fibrine, was capable of serving the purpose of Rose Tamisier, and might be made to penetrate a painting, and then issue forth in small globules, or drops, according to the quantity employed, and which, not only does not coagulate for many hours, but continues to flow from the face of the painting, however frequently it may have been wiped off, while & drop, remains. In short, the miracle of the bleeding Christ was imitated so successfully by this gentleman in presence of the public authorities, and a large number of the most eminent scientific men of the country, that not a doubt could remain in the most devoted believer in the miraculous powers of our heroine, that she was an impostor. At Nismes, about the middle of November, 1351, after a long and patient investigation, aided by the laborious efforts of counsel on both sides, the saint was pronounced guilty of escroquerie et outrage cL la morale publique et religieuse and condemned to six months' imprisonment, with, a fine of five hundred fiancs aud costs. — Spencer's Italy.

The French Army in Algeria. — " When the division took possession of ihe conquered city .[Mascara] there was not a house whole, not a shelter. The most tenantable were put first in repair for storehouses and hospitals, as it was of urgent necessity carefully- to preserve the small stock of provisions we had brought with us. The place could not be revictualled before four months, and we had but one month's provisions. ' Never mind,' said General LamoricfSre ; ' the_ Arabs live and keep. the, field,; we will live as the? do, and beat them ;' and as be said, so he did*. The flock brought from Mostaganem w.as carried., off the first time , they, w.ere. driven out to pasture ; but night, forays and - rapid razzias soon furnished meat for the soldiers.. Our biscnits were very economically served out, but there was corn in the - Country.: buried, it is true, in subterranean granaries, which the Arabs call silos. We could discover them, however, and our portable mills enabled the column to make their own flour. and bread; and so. to protract oar sorties thropgh the winter. When the reports of the spies informed us of the, whereabouts of any silo, the manner iv which the soldiers went to work- to discover exactly^ where- it was, was

really a sight to see. They would prick the soil ' with their ramrods, first trying one place, then another, till the ground yielding to the fortunate ramrod, the precise spot where the. treasure was buried was found out. The fortunate soldier then received ten francs, and the regular distribution commenced ; for corn represented in the hands of the intendant many sorts of provisions, —rice, sugar, coffee, biscuit, and 1 know not what besides — corn- rice, so many pounds ; cornsugar, so many pounds ; then the mills were in movemeut, and the flour was metamorphosed into cakes between two porringers, which answered for an oven when there was no time to scoop one out of the earth, which a few hours sufficed to do. This, no doubt, was a hard life ; and I suspect that the dandies of the Cafe de Paris would hardly bare been content with the fare of the column at Mascara. But there is an intoxication in success, and nothing makes on* support fatigues better than the complete success of a coup de main. And as our spies were well paid, and our information very correct, our coups rarely failed." — Castellane's Algeria.

i Colonization in Algeria. — " It was the General's object to inform himself of the causes that had crippled the growth of a village [Sig] so advantageously situated. He invited, then, all the colonists who bad anything to say to meet him at five o'clock. Never was a spectacle more j melancholy than this audience, held in the smoky room of a wooden cabaret. Seated on a miserable joint-stool, the General interrogated with great kindness all these unfortunates ; whilst notes were taken at a rickety table, of their' names, their families, their resources, and their wants. They all had the same story to tell : there was no one to employ their hands and to remunerate their labours ; whilst disease and death decimated their families. Two families, however, from the Pyrenees, had got on pretty well ; their fields yielded them profitable crops, they had each a little flock, and all they wanted, of the General was a ram. The General took ' pleasure in listening to them, and said to the woman, ' Well, you are happy here ; you are better off here than in France V *Oh yes, general,' replied the good woman, ' we are doing , very well here ; but there is one thing hard to , bear — it is a sad thing never to hear the sound of the churcb-bell.' And, indeed, for the sue- , cess of a colony in Africa, it is necessary not only to think of the body, but of consolation also, which recalls the souvenirs of infancy — , the church and the church-bell. The first order, therefore, that the General gave was for the con- ' strnction of a chapel at St. Denis- du- Sig. One: man alone, named Nassois, besides the two families, had done well. He possessed a long handsome house built of stone, where all the waggoners, who passed attd repassed incessantly on the Oran road, were in the habit of stopping ; but he was an old hand, having been many yean in Africa. Skilful, energetic, and industrious, he turned everything to account ; and, who will be ieve it ? the bank-note, thanks to him, had become known to the Arabs, — not notet of the bank of France, but notes of the bank of Nassois. A note from him would pass current, from hand to hand, throughout all the markets of the environs, as ready money." — Ibid.

Address of an Indian Letter. — " To tbe most sacred feet of the chief worshipful and respected brother Greesh Chunder Chowdhry. — ' Being despatched from Boledaparab, may it go to the city of Calcutta, where on arriving at the butter shop of GourmohunGhose, in tbe Bazar of Boituckbanah, the said gentleman will be able to receive it. The Gbose as soon as he receives this letter ought to hand it over to him, so that no delay may on any account happen, as the letter is very urgent." — Athenccum, The Physician Nonplussed. — Th« following anecdote used io be related by, the^late William Hazlitt : — He was once visiting Mr. and Mrs. Basil Montague when Sir Anthony Carlisle, a physician of note, came in, apparently in a state of more than usual self-complacency, having just received a complimentary testimonial from the Apothecaries Hall. In answer to tbe inquiries of Mrs. Montague, he said very pompously, and somewhat profanely " Madame, ihe glorious company of the apothecaries praise me!" " But, 1 ' retorted Mrs. Montague, " what say the noble army of martyrs, your patients, Sir Anthony V The conceited physician was so nonplussed by this witty rejoinder, that after a blundering attempt to continue the •conversation, he_ suddenly took his leave. — Atlas.