MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 885, 25 January 1854, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

A correspondent in the Lancet states that in 1840 only 550 pounds of the poisonous and intensely bitter drug mix vomica were imported into England, whereas in 1852 nearly as many tons reached our market. He wishes to know the cause of this increased consumption. While the ship Countess of Winton was on her voyage from Liverpool to Shanghai, the mate disobeyed the master ; a quarrel ensued ; the mate seized a cutlass, and killed the master. Before the crew could seize the murderer, he leaped overboard and was drowned. Ann Brooks, the woman who killed her two little children by giving them laudanum and then swallowed some herself, was tried for the murder. But it appeared probable that the prisoner had given the narcotic merely to quiet the children, not to injure them : she had recently nursed them through a severe illness. She was acquitted. The first ascent of Mount Blanc, this season, was made on the 21st July, by Mr. Sa'mond and Mr. Arthur Walsham of the Royal Artillery. Mr. Salmond made an unsuccesful attempt two years ago. It is reporced that the slaver Lady Suffolk, alias Mary of Boston, has been captured. Canedo has prohibited the circulation of British iournals in Cuba.

The Duke of Wellington's Estimate of Wordly Happiness. — The following anecdote, which has not yet appeared in print, but which (we have reason to know) may be fully relied on, will show that the great warrior was not indifferent to academical distinctions. It is the practice at Oxford for the young men who obtain University prizes to send a copy in manuscript of their successful compositions to the Chancellor. In the year 1837 the prize for Latin verse was obtained by Mr. Charles Wordsworth, then an under- graduate at Christ Church. The cop'w of "his verses was lying on the Duke's library table, when a friend who was in the room took it up and began to read it. The Duke turned sudd^uly upon him and asked — " Do you know who is the happiest man in England ? I will tell you. It is the father of thai young man. Dr. Wordsworth. He has three sons, and all of them have obtained University prizes ,his same year — a circumstance quite unpreced n*ed." It was strictly ihe fact. The eldest of the three brothers (who died some years ago) became a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and was celebrated as the first classical scholar of his age in Englan-i ; the second is the Rev. Charles 'Wordsworth, now Warden of Trinity College, G'enahnond, who was elected last week, Bishop of St. Andrews ; the third is Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, now canon of Westminster, the well-known divine and accomplished preacher. — Edinburgh Courant.

Living in the East. — The Literary Gazette, in a notice of Mr. Neales work on Syria says :—": — " People who lore to live well and cheap 8t the same time, should go to Antioch. Mr. Neale tried to be extravagant there but found it almost impossible, ' house-rent, servants, horses, board, washing, and wine included,' to spend more than £40 a year. Oh, that Antioch were London ! Fancy 7| lbs. of good mutton for Is. ! fat fowls for 2d. a piece; 70 lbs. of fish for Is. ; and all possible fruits and vegetables sufficient for one's household for 2d. a week."