ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 831, 20 July 1853, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

The council of the Royal Agricultural Society have offered a prize of £1000 and a gold medal of the society for the discovery of a manure equal in fertilising properties to Peruvian guano. The competing manure will he judged by the standard

guano, ascertained by Professor Way; and no claim for the prize will be entertained, unless it se shown that an unlimited supply of the manure can be obtained at a price not more than £5, and within the reach of the agriculturists of the United Kingdom. - It is a singular fact, but little known, that in the course of his victorious campaigns the Duke of Marlborough once drew up his army in array, and prepared to fight a pitched battle against the French, on the plains of Waterloo* A mere chance prevented the engagement. Smollett re* counts the circumstance in his History of England. A short time since, Mr. Mitchell, of Ongar, in rising from his bed, put his hau'd« up over his head, giving a hearty yawn, when one of the leaders at the back of his neck snapped, and his head was forced half round. Surgical assistance was shortly at hand, but bis head could not be restored to the same position. The pain on the movement of any muscle is moit intense; and he is considered to be in a perilous position. A pension of £200 a-year, through the influence of the Earl of Rosie, has been conferred on Mr Hind, an indefatigable astronomer, and discoverer of balf-a-dozen planets. An Austkalian Venture. —A cutter yacbt, named the Corsair, of only eighty tons burthen, sailed from the Southampton docks on Monday, direct for Australia. This frail bark is, perhaps, one of the smallest vessels that has ever under1 taken so distant a voyage. She is commanded by Captain Creft, the principal owner, who has embarked in the adventure, and purchased this little yacht, with a view either of selling her in Australia, provided an adequately profitable sum can be realited, or of running ber on the passenger or other trade on the Australian coast, The Corsair forme.ly belonged to the Royal Yacht Club, and was the victor over the Talisman, a few years back, in the celebated sailing match for 1,000 guineas fram Cowes to the Eddystone. The Corsair's sailing qualities are, therefore, of a high order ; and the captain, who has altered the rig from a cotter to that of a yawl (for the sake of steadiness in a sea way), seems to entertain no doubt of making a quick run to the Antipodes. The Corsaif'a crew consists of only eleven persons—viz., the matter, a mate and steward, and eight seamen. She is fully found in provisions and stores, and is a beautiful tight and well appointed little craft. A small but valuable cargo belonging to the owner has be n shipped, principally of such manufactured goods as appear to be in great demand in Australia ; among other things there are some cases of guns, pistols, revolvers, cutlery, paints, hardware, and a quantity of oats. No doubt, if the Corsair succeeds in safely reaching the port for which she takes her departure, the speculation will be a remunerative one j and the voyage of this Hale merchant bark cannot fail, under any circumstances, to be regarded with much interest and curiosity. She goes to sea with a favourable wind for crossing the Bay of Biscay, and Gapt. Creft thinks that this formidable part o( the voyage safely accomplished, the remainder of the wide expanse of ocean which he will have to traverse will be but an easy portion of his arduous task. —Sun, February 24.

A Possible Event.—Chambers' Journal seriously treats the contingency of a comet coming in contact with the earth :—" But comets, in the cool eye of modern science, are not without their terrors. Crossing, as they often do, the paths of the planets in their progress to and from their perihelia, it cannot but be that they should now and then come in contact with one of these spheres. One, called LexelPs, did come athwart the satellites of Jupiter, in 1769, and one again iti 1779, so as to be deranged in its own course. It made indeed, no observable change in the movements of the Jovian train, being of too light a consistence for that: but can we doubt that it might nevertheless seriously affect tbe condition of their surfaces, and especially any animal life thereon ? This very comet, on the ; 28th of June, 1770, passed the earth at a distance only six times that of the moon. There is another called Biela's, which revisits the sun every six years, or a little more, and this busy traveller actually crossed our orbit in 1832, only a month before we passed through the same i point in space. Another which made a grand appearance in the western sky in March 1813 would have involved us in its tail, if we had only been a fortnight sooner at a particular place." Dreadful effects of the English CiiMATE.—The English climate, and especially the London fogs, have a powerful influence on tbe m»ral faculties of the natives* and even strangers j cannot escape that influence. Nothing can better explain the two leading features of the English character—their silent sadness and energy. Under their skies you feel that by degrees you lose the two faculties that are dearest to man—the faculty of thinkfng and the faculty of enjoying. All the springs of intelligence are relaxed; you are serious without reflection ; you are gradually drawn into and tossed about in an ocean of horror tnd slow despair; the mind becomes unmindful of' itself, and you feel it vanish and dissolve into thin air ; you are thoughtful without thinking ; you dream yourself into a void ; from the depths of your mind ascend vapours which have no meaning, like tbe silent voices of night,—the voices of stillnest, caused by the absence of movement and light; in fine, you welter into nothingness. At this juncture you are saved by a manly and energetic reaction; the mind becomes alive to the dangers of its situation, and protesti •gainst them; it goes, to say, out of itself and sallies forth iq search of the outer world, which it handles and analyzes to make quite sure of its existence. After which it takes greedy hold of that outer world, from most hopeless apathy the mind leaps at once into the crudest reality. An almost frenzied activity is alone capable of reacting against the sullen torpor which is created by this climate. Hence the practical, matter-of-fact tarn of tbe Engliih. Under their iky a man mast either work, or die, or emigrate if poor, or travel if rich.—Moniteur.

Death of Dr. Overweg.—Through intelligence received at the Foreign-office from Tripoli, and communicated to as by the Chevalier Bunsen, it is our melancholy duty to announce ■ tbe sudden death of Dr. Overweg, one of the travellers employed in determining the boundaries j of Lake Tsad. Three weeks since we gave a brief tccount of the researches of Drs. Barth and Overweg in Central Africa, and made known to ! our readers that the application of tbese two gentlemen for scientific assistance had been generously responded to by the Government. Dr,

Vogel, a gentleman well known for his astronomical labours io connexion with Mr. Bishop's observatory in Regents-park, volunteere-i to join them, and on Sunday last he left Southampton with two sappers and miners, and a supply of the best instruments for magnetic observations, uninformed of the event which we have this day to record. Dr. Overweg was seized with fever on the 20th of September last, at Kuka, owing probably to his having been too long exposed to tbe influence of the rainy season of that place, shortly after he was rejoined by Dr. Barth, on bis return from Baghirmi. Hoping to benefit by a change of air, Dr. Overvreg proposed to leave Kuka for a healthier spot, ten miles nearer to Lake Tsad. It was not, however, till the 24th that he was enabled, with tbe assistance of three persons, to reach that pkce. The most dangerous symptoms manifested themselves on his arrival, his speech becoming gradually unintelligible; and on the 27th he died. Thus, at the early age of 30, sharing tbe fate of Dr. Richardson, fell another hearty traveller of vigorous enterprise, a victim in this particular service of African exploration. Dr. Overweg was by profession a geologist, and bad already made some advancement in bis pursuits, when the same feeling of self-devotion to the cause of geographical discovery that bad animated his countrymen, Home* maun, Burkhardt, Leichhardt, and oihers, prompted him to accompany Dr. Richardson, as naturalist, to Central Africa. He was a roan of kind and unassuming manners, and bis official despatches to the British Government, penned only a few weeks before his death, testify remarkably to tbe clearness and precision of his mind. The grave of Dr. Overweg is near the great central lake which he was the first European to navigate. Dr. Barth,*who feels himself left alone to carry out the pbjects of this mission, expresses, with true heroism, his determination to continue his researches, hoping that he may yet receive reinforcements. He has sent au urgent appeal for another companion, and we rejoice that Dr. Vogel's party has left with so little delay. In the meantime Dr. Barth hopes to benefit by the peace that at present reigns between the Bornuese and Fellatahs to explore the extensive dominions of the latter. His first journey will be made in a westerly direction, for the purpose of reaching Timboktu, and after that he i purposes to visit Yakoba, the great Fellatah town between Lake Tsad and the Q.uorra (Niger) and tbe countries bordering on the middle and lower part of the Tchadda. Dr. Barth has five trustworthy servants, four camels, and four 1 horses, plenty of arms and powder, and to use ' his own words, " fresh and redoubled courage." His last communications include, among other valuable documents, a large mtp of the regions extending from tbe Quorra to Darfur, and from the fourth degree of north latitude to Lake Tsad and beyond, showing, among other things, a mU nute delineation of the little known countries* Baghermi, Wad ay, and Adamana. He has also transmitted a vocabulary of 24 Central African languages. The mission of the Sheik of Bornu to Her Majesty is on its way, and was expected, when this despatch left Tripoli, in about a month* That the livet of Drs. Barth and Vogel may be spared to return home with this difficult survey completed, must be the sympathetic prayer of every geographer and scientific man. —Literary Gazette.

Changed ax Nurse.—A singular case has just been decided by the Court of Appeal at Aix. Some years ago a gentleman of fortune adopted a' female child, who had been placed in a foundling hospital when very young, but had subsequently been claimed by the supposed mother. This child was educated by the gentleman, and in every way treated as his owo daughter, and by the deed of a.loption became his heiress* When this deed was executed tbe child was described, according to the entry at the foundling hospital as the daughter of the woman with whom she had resided at the time of the adoption. A few months ago the reputed mother was informed that there had been an error in tbe identity of her child. The girl whom'she had taken from the hospital was not, it appeared, her own offspring, and the entry in the books applied to another. The real daughter, who had left the hospital and entered into service, not only claimed to be acknowledged by her mother, but also de* manded to be placed in the position which the gentleman had given to the other child ; and, as neither the mother nor the adoptive father would own her, an action was commenced in her behalf and decided in her favour. Against this decision the gentleman appealed, and the court has declared that the child adopted by him shall retain her rights, as the error of identity had not, as far as he was concerned, affected the interests of the plaintiff, who could not be allowed to assume the place" of another, merely because there had been an irregularity in her description at the time of her

adoption.—Galignani. Thr Dbath of Grbat Men.—A superstition prevails among the lower classes of many parts of Worcestershire that, when storms, heavy rains, or other elementary, strifes take place at tbe death of a great man, the spirit of , the storm will not be appeased till the moment of hurial. This superstition gained much strength on tbe occasion of the Duke of Wellington's foneril, when after some weeks of heavy rain, and one of the highest floods ever known in this country, the skies began to clear, and both rain and floods abated. The storms which have been noticed to take place at the time of the death of many great men known to our history may have had something to do with the formation of this curious notion in the minds of the vulgar. It was a common observation hereabout, in tbe week before the interment of his Grace, " Oh, the rain wont give over till the Duke is buried."—Notes and Queries.

Bursting of a Reservoir.—Owing to the heavy rains which fell last week in South Lancashire, and especially on Saturday night, a large reservoir iv connection with the bleach works of Mr. Whi'ehead, at Elton near Bury, burst, tbo water from which rushing into the works committed a great amount of damage, amounting to from £10,000 to £12,000, by washing down sheds, damaging goods, and carrying them away. The reservoir was situated upon a stream which runs at the bottom i»f a gorge extending to Bury, and the waters of the reservoir following the course of the stream pasted on to the town, inundating tbe various works in its v course, and doing extensive damage. Mr. MucklbwYchemical works have been damaged very considerably. No lives were lost or endangered.—Brighton Gazette.