ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 908, 15 April 1854, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

The marriage present made by the Emperor of Austria to the Duchess de Brabant was a diadem of large diamonds, the centre one being an exceedingly fine rose diamond. The Archduchess gare the young bride a broad belt made of diamonds and pearls, and the Archduke a toilette service of silver. Many boys are engaged in picking up quantities of copper caps on Chobham Common, which have been used by the regiments recently encamped there. The boys sell them to the ironmongers for old copper, and are said to realise 2s. or 2s. 6d. a day by their industry.

Quicksilver Miners. — The diseased forms of the men working as excavators belong only too prominently to a picture of Alinaden. You meet men in the street with wasted faces, fetid

2 breaths, and Irembllng hands ; blind paralytic. r The heat in the lower workings oi the mine is , very considerable, the ventilation is imperfect, , vapour of quicksilver floats upon the air, and - condenses on the walls, down on it trickles ' in little runlets of pure liquid metal. Even • visitors are sensibly affected by it, and retain 1 for some time the metallic flavour in their mouths. , The miners, who number more than 400, are s divided into three gangs, or watches, working ■ six hours each, and leaving the fourth six hours i of the twenty-four — from ten at night until four i in the morning — as an interval of perfect rest. ■ On account of "the heat, and the deleterious naf ture of the vapour, summer is made the idle time, winter the great period of activity among ■ the population. As the winter closes, the api pearance of the miners begin very emphatically i to tell its own tale, and great numbers hasten to ■ their native plains and 'mountains to recruit. Their home: are chiefly scattered about Estre- ■ madura, Andalusia, and Portugal. Crowds of Portuguese, after harvest, flock to obtain em- ! ployment at Almaden, selling not their labour only but their health. The most robust cannot i work in the mine longer I ban for about 14 days i in succession, generally eight or nine days make as long a period of such labour as can be endured without rest. Those who exceed i thf»t time are obliged eventually to" give uj>~ work and breathe unadulterated air for perhaps two months together. If they work without ' due precaution, and almost inevitably if they indulge in, wine, miners at t Almaden, aged be- ; tween 25 and 30, waste away, lose their hair and teeth, acquire- insu^Ferable^'breath;' - or become sometimes afflicted with tremblings' that render them unable to supply therr'own wants ; they have to be fed like infants. If the disease be not checked vigorously, cramps and nervous attacks of the most agonising kind follow upon these symptoms and lead on to death. They who work within due bounds, and live moderately, using a good deal of milk, after each six hours of work — the full day's labour — live not seldom to old age. These diseases afflict the miners only. The men engaged upon the ore and quicksiver outside the mines, in smelting and in other operations, do not suffer. — Household Words. A Mr. Goldhammar has astonished the people of Berlin by his experiments of his socalled electro sun. One Saturday night he placed his apparatus on the balcony of the Hotel de Russie, and, directing the rays upon the museum, distant 350 yards, lit up the whole vicinity, so that it was easy to read small print.

Republican Loyalty. — In the New York Exhibition the picture of her Majesty, Prince Albert, the laic Duke of Wellington, and Prince Arthur, by Winterhalter, has the post of honour opposite the main entrance. Around this picture there is always a crowd of petticoated republicans, and to royalty in its personal capacity the most kindly feelings are displayed. The picture, to gain its proper effect, should be viewed from a distance of four or five yards ; but here they reverse the maxim of Campbell, and think that " nearness lends enchantment to the view."

The Press in Russia. — " It is impossible to conceive anything more ridiculous than the aspect of the censorship of the press under Prince Menschikoff s administration. It is true that the. -General -Board in .Russia. has^Jievejr been distinguished by any -great- amount of perspicacity and-lutainous^'nlightenment, but it was reserved for Menschikoff to render it super-eminently absurd. The words Liberty and Freedom, with all the adjectives and adverbs derived from them, are proscribed and expunged from the Russian vocabulary ; and the following ludicrous anecdote will show the manner in which the censors act upon this proscription. Some time since a professor of mathematics sent in the manuscript of a work on mechanics for inspection of the Board, soliciting permission to publish it. Now, it happened that in describing the action of some mechanical apparatus, the author stated that the wheels, springs, &c. worked freely ; and further on he .wrote that a straight Jine could be elongated into infinite space without the slightest limit ; whereupon the censors struck out both words — the first without any' comment, the second on the ground that the Russian Emperor's authority was the only thinej without limit in this world." — Le Due's Russia. The Fox the Farmer's best Friend. — In Yorkshire there are ten packs of foxhounds, one pack of staghounds, and five or six of harriers, equal in all to thirteen or fourteen packs of foxhounds. Thirteen packs of foxhounds of fity couple each— i. <?., 1,300 hounds consume annually 200 tons of oatmeal, at a cost of £2,600, besides the carcases of about 2,000 dead horses, worth nothing, if no hounds were kept. There are at least 1,000 hunting men in Yorkshire, keeping on an average four horses each ; 4,000 horses will cost them £200,000 at £50 each ; and their keep at £50 per annum each makes £200,000 more ; 4,000 horses employ 2,000 men as grooms (generally the offspring of the agricultural population) ; and consume annually 40,000 qrs. of oats, 2,000 qrs. of beans, and 8,000 tons of hay and grass. Every tradesmen also is benefited by hunting — tailors," shoemakers, blacksmiths, saddlers, druggists, 'surgeons, veterinary surgeons, &c. If fox-bunting was given up, where would the farmer find a market for the above produce, or for a well-bred horse of four or five years old ? Foxes are the farmers' best friends, and they ought to use every exertion to preserve them, and prevent them being stolen,i|§&b'e "sent where masters of hounds are unsportsmanlike enough to purchase them, no matter from whence they come. — Dcncaster Chronicle. A trial has jiist terminated in Paris which has excited a great sensation. A strong feeling of disaffection, or anti-Napoleouism, pervades the 72nd regiment of the line. The offirers discovered that the police received daily reports of their conversation ovrr their wine at the messt.ible, aod placing no faith either in «urning or converging tables, they issued an inquiry aod detected one of tbe'orficers as a police spy ; this man, a Corsican Francesclii, was broke and forced out of the regiment for conduct unbecoming the character of an officer and a gentleman. He met one of his lormer brother officers lately, in the Palais Royal, and assaulted him ; tbe assaulted Captain explained to the crowd that his assailant was a spy, and that he could not meet {lira on equal tenn c , a»,d ihe delinqutnt was .r*

eated, and tried before tb*: Court of Correctional Police. A Napoleonist barrister, M.Nogent St. Laurent, defended tbe culprit, denounced the 72nd regiment and its officers as a set of conspirators (frondeurs), envious of the high protection enjoyed by Franceschi, &c, but all in vain, the comernptilile scoondrel and rpouchtid was very properly condemned to 15 months*' imprisonment. On December 7th tbe statue of Marshal Ney will be inaugurated on the spot in the Luxembourg Garden, where, on that day in the year 1815, the illustrious soldier was shot to death. It is thought the Emperor will b« present on this occasion.

Sonora. — Letters have been received and published in the Herald, giving glouring descriptions of the varied mineral wealth of this Mexican State. The silver mines are represented as being particularly rich f and they have been heretofore but little worked. This has been caused in a great measure by the dread entertained of the Apaches. Some of ihe accounts represent the mines to be even richer than those of California. The State of Sonora is represented to be fast Terging upon dismembermeDt. The inhabitants are reduced to^uch astute of wretchedness, that it is believed they would hail with pleasure any immigration calculated to produce a "change in their present condition. Such an immigration from California it is said would be bailed with satisfaction. The Mexican authorities are looking out with great jealousy for the arrival of a fillibustering expedition. When the Y. S. transport schooner General Patterson entered the harbor of Guaymas, on her way from the -mouth of the Colorado to San Diego, the greatest commotion was excited, the authorities feeling sure that she was the advance guard of the Sonora expedition. During her siay she was watched with the greatest vigilance. Tonnage duty was demanded, but of course not paid ; and an American gentleman, invited on board by the captain, was denied permission to embark, and did not get off until the American consul bad interposed in such a manner as to, make himself distinctly understood. It is said the people of the town took sides with the Americans, and are anxious for the arrival of the long-looked-for expedition from California.

The Russian Squadron for Japan. — Tbe naval force of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia, now in the Chinese waters with the intention of proceeding to Japan to watch the movements »f the American squadron under orders for that destination, consists of the Pallas, 52 guDs; the Dvrina, 10 guns ; and the Vostock, 4 guns. After remaining at Hongkong for about a weelr, the Pallas and Vostock are to proceed in search of tbe American fleet, supposed to be about tbe Loochoo Islands, waiting for the Powhattan, hourly expected. Tbe editor of the Friend of China was favoured with an invitation to go on board tbe Pallas, and gives some interesting particulars relative to that fine vessel and the Russian naval service :—": — " She was built at St. Petersburgh in 1838, and, as a specimen of her sailing qualities, made the passage from tbe Cape of Good Hope to Java Head in 32 days. Her armament is composed of 4 68-pounders and 48 24-pouuders, with a beautiful stand of the newly-invented rifles, carrying, at blank-point range, a distance of 400 paces. -Her crew numbers altogether -400, including a ' brass band of 20. There are no marines, indeed every seamacris enlisted ia Russia^and has to uG ' military as well as naval duty if of him. The period of Jseryicp some -instances, 18 yearsjfin others "22 years, at the expiration of which they retire on a pension, but at any time during the first five years afterwards, they are liable to be called on to do duty should any emergency arise. -For tbis service they receivo, besides food and clothing, an annual payment, the - average rate of which will astonish the seamen of other navies — one guinea per annum ; for foreign service two guineas. v Of course everything is found them ; and, according to their appearance, they do not want for food or clothing. Besides this, the families of those who are married are maintained in barracks, for every son an extra ration being allowed (for daughters none), on the > express condition, however, that when of sufficient -age — tay 16 years — tbe male youth does duty as a seaman er soldier. (Tbe soldier's period of service is, for cavalry 10 years, infantry, 15 years.) Children born during the fiv<? years after period are totally exempt. A guinea per annum we have mentioned as the average rate of pay. There are, however, several classes of seamen — Ist, helmsmen ; 2nd, topmen; 3rd, able seamen ; and then ordinaries, as in the English navy, wilh various grades ot petty officers, as boatswains and -Ithffir" mates. There is no paymaster or purser. Tbe duty devolving on that officer in an English ship, in ths Russian navy is--attended to by one of the lieutenants, tbe actual working of the business being done by, officers of the second grade. The squadron sent to tbe seas of China and Japan by tbe Emperor of Russia is not with any view of interrupting the squadron sent by America to Japan, but with instructions to co-operate with America if necessary, and secure to Russia a share of the advantages expected to be derived by opening a commercial intercourse with that country. The Russians say their Emperor thought of sending ] an embassy to Japan long before the Americans did. Between Russian America and the most ' northern ports of Japan Ibere it still, and for a long time, has been, some trade, and it is it no way unreasonable to find his Imperial Majesty desirous of improving and regulating it on such terms as may be obtained by other Governments."

The Puospects of England. — TJne|nipspects which are now opening to Englap<l|almost exceed the boundaries of thought, and can be measured by no standard found in history. It is not by conquest that her empire is to be extended, neither is the power to which she is advancing to he steeped in blood. The destiny which the present era fortels her is to be fulfilled by promoting happiness, and she will grow prosperous as mankind becomes civilized. It is by introducing comforts into uncultivated regions : by making savage man familiar with the blessings which the utmost reach of mind has disoovered ; by helping youthful nations into maturity, and by extending the pale ef social intercourse, that the wisest, the most moral, and consequently the freest of nations, is to fill up the career which is now before her. Instead of making distant shores resound with her great artillery, she will bless them with her still gre ter engines of peace; and, her triumphs shall be illuminated, not by

flaming cities, but by the mighty blaze which issues from her mighty fabrics of prosperity and happiness. These are the labours which suit t>>e people that brought back peace to Europe ; and it is a just recompense that the strongest in war should be the foremost in industry.— Quarterly Review.

The Pickwick Papers.— Mr. Davy, who accompanied Colonel Chesney up tbe Euphrates, has recsntly been in the service of Mehernet Ali Pacha. Pickwick happening to reach Da?y while he was at Damascus, he read a part of it to the Pacha, who was so delighted with it, that Davy was, on one occasion, summoned to him in the middle of the night to finish the reading of some part in which thty had been interrupted. Mr. Davy read, in Egypt, upon another occasion, soro» passages from those unrivalled. papers to a blind Englishman, who was in such ecbtacy with what he heard, that he exclaimed he was almost thankful he could not see he was in a foreign country, for that while he listened, he felt completely as if he were again in England.

Meaning of " Clipper."— l have more than once been asked the meaning and derivation of the term " clipper," which has been so much in vogue for some years past. It is -now quite c nautical term, at least amsng the freshwater sailors, and we find it most frequently applied to yachts, steamers, fast-sailing merchant vessels, &c. And, in addition to the colloquial use of the word, so common in praising the appearance or qualities of a vessel, it has become quite recognized in the official description given of their ships by merchants, &c. Thus we often see an advertisement headed" the well-known clipper ship," " the noted clipper bark," and so forth. This use of the word, however, and its application to vessels, is somewhat wide of the original. The word in former times maant merely a hackney, or bcrse adapted for the road. The owners of such animals naturally valued them in proportion to their capabilities for such service, among which great spetd in trotting was considered one of the chief. Fast-trotting horses were eagerly sought after, and trials of speed became the fashion. A horse, then, which was pre-eminent in this particular was termed a "clipper," that is a hackney. var excellence. — Notes and Queries.

" Extenuating Circumstances." — The Court of Assizes of the Lot-et-Garonne tried, recently, a youog girl, named Marie Bousquet, for an attempt at poisoning. She six years ago, when only about twelve years of age, left her parents, and went to Agen. There she got a place as a domestic servant ; but after a while, disgusted with her position, she obtained employment from a dressmaker. Still she was not contented, as her wages did not enable her to indulge her passion for dress and pleasure. She accordingly resolved to turn her beauty to account. She wrote to a M. C , a retired officer, asking for an advance of money, and offering in return to grant anything he might ask from her. He sent for her, gave her a small sum, and from that day intimate relations became established between them. But, in the course of a week or two, he got rather tired of her, and did not keep all the rendezvous she gave him ; while she, on her part, seemed greatly disappointed at not finding him extremely generous. In July last, he made up his mind to go to a watering-place, and she fear«d that this was aa indication that he intended to abandon her altogether. Before leaving he manifested a desire to see her, and she readily csuaeutfid. O.i the day fi-sd for ;«v is- ; terview, the*lBth of July, she sent a little girLto i purchase'tbolit half announce of liquid ammonia at a druggist's. At the time appointed she went to the rendezvous given by M. C — , and on meetiDg him kissed him with great apparent affection. He took her to his house, and on arriving she made particular inquiries as to whether the servant could hear them. She then requested that the letters she had writttn should be given up to her. M. C — gave all he had, and she burned them. She then began caressing him, and several times passed her hand over his face. He removed it more than once, but she persisted in her aSHon. At length she attempted to pour something down his throat. Finding that it gave him great pain, he pushed her away, and spat out what he had taken. He then took water as a relief to his pain, but still suffered greatly. His lips, tongue, and palate were severely injured, and the tongue swelltd considerably. Medical assistance was obtained, but as he had swallowed none of the ammonia, he was not in danger. The girl was arrested, and on being questioned alleged that she had acted on the instigation of another ! party ; but after a while she confessed that she bad only been influenced by vengeance, and by the desire to possess herself of a sum of money. She, however, pretended that she did not know that the ammonia would cause serious injury, but 'thought that it had only a stupefying effect. The jury acquitted her of the charge of poisoning, but convicted her of inflicting wounds, though with extenuating circumstances. The Court condemned her to two years' imprisonment. The sentence drew forth some murmurs of disapprobation, but the President repressed them. Evidences of a future state of existence DERIVED FROM NATURE AND REVELATION. Revelation declares that we are to live hereafter in a state differing considerably from that in which >c live here. Sow the constitution of .ntttfre in a manner says so too. For do we not set birds let loose from the prison of the shell, and launched into a new and nobler state of existence 1 insects extricated at length from their cumbrous and unsightly tenement, and then permitted to unfold their beauties to the sun ? seeds rotting in the earth, with no apparent promise of future vegetation, yet'qisckened after death, and clothed with luxuriant apparel ? Is not our own solid flesh perpetually.thawing and restoring itself, so that the numerical particles of which it once consisted have by degrees dropped away, leaving, meanwhile, the faculties of the soul unimpaired, aud its consciousness uninterrupted for a moment? Is not the eye a telescope, and the hand a vice, and the arm a lever, and the wrist a hinge, and the leg a crutch, and the stomach a laboratory, and the whole frame but a case of beautiful instruments, which may accordingly be destroyed without the destruction of the agent that wields them ? Nay, cannot the agent, when once master of its craft, work without the tools, and are not its perceptions in a dream as vivid as when every organ of sense is actively employed in ministering to its wants ? What though the silver chord be loosed, aud the golden bowl broken, and the pitcher broken at the well, and the wheel broken at the cistern, still may not the immortal artist itself have quitted the

ruptured machinery, and retired to the country from which it came ? What though the approach of death seem, by degrees, to enfeeble, and at last to suspend the powen of the mind, will not the constitution of nature bid us be of good cheer, seeing that the approach of sleep does the same ? Of sleep which, instead of paralyzing the functions of man, is actually their ■ " Second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast" And if, in some instances, death does lie heavy on the trembling spirit, in how many others does it seem to be only cutting the cords that bound it to the earth, exonerating it of a weight that sunk it, so that agreeable to a notion too universal to be altogether groundless, at the eve of its departure it should appear " To attain To something of prophetic strain ?" Here, then, the constitution of nature and the voice of revelation conspire to teach the same great truth, non omnis moriar. — Quarterly Review for October.

Electric Telegraph.— A newspaper paragraph relates, that a London citizen, touring in Holland,, suddenly found himself in want of £l(?0 ; instead of writing from Amsterdam to Liverpool and waiting the return of post, an operation of five or six days, he walks into the telegraph office and sends a few words hy lightning tq state his need. This was at twelve o'clock. A turn or two on the quays, round the square of the Palace, would bring him to the hour of dinner. Six .o'clock found him at his wine. A tap at the door, a stranger is introduced : — "Have I the honour to address M. ?" — "Yes." — " Our London correspondent desires us to place in your hands a cheque for £100" — Our own anecdote has a different interest. The scene is the Prague railway station in Vienna, — the time, six ih the morning, on the arrival of the great train from Dresden, Prague, and Bruno. An Englishman who has lost his passport, is on his way to a guard-house, conducted by a Croat soldier, on suspicion of being a refugee and a conspirator. He has about him letters to various persons in Hungary and in Italy, chiefly patriots, and, knowing the Austrians, he is altogether conscious that his case is bad. Arrived at the guard-house, he is asked to tell the story of his life, those of the lives of his father, mother, friends, and acquaintances. He is cross-ques-tioned, doubted, threatened. Of course, he lets them know that be is a free-born Briton, and he plainly hints that they had better mind what they are about. His words are disbel eyed, and put ddw« as evidence against him. He is without a passport, and every man without a passport is a vagabond. A thought strikes him : — when he entered Austria at Bodenbach, he remembers that he was detained a couple of hours while the police looked into his passport and copied it into their books. That entry must still be there. He appeals to it, and suggests an inquiry by telegraph if his story be not true. The Croats, with their long guns and baker-boy faces, Btarein bewilderment : they were probably thinking of the glacis and a short range. But the official could not refuse the appeal, especially as the prisoner offered to pay the expenses of the inquiry. Awsy flashed the lightning along the plains of Moravia, by the Moldau and the Elbe, through the mountains of Bohemia to the heart of the Saxon Switzerland ; the book was opened, the story found, and the reply sent, back. By ten o'clock the answer was'at tbrgi&si or V ienna, the Croats gave tfpTtbehvsppil, and in less than "half an hour afterwards the tourist was enjoying a Viennese breakfast at the Herz-Erzhog Karl. In such anecdotes we see how science has tesnied to lengthen Bfe by^ suppressing the necessity for intervals of wasjte, and assisted to disarm the despotism of the' world by atoning for accidents and offeiinga f*eady rowans for innocence to vindidate itself, — as it doe's, in other cases, for the circumventing and, overtaking of guilt. -Atheneeum.

Did You Ever? — Did you ever know a strike which did" not hit the workman harder than the master ? Did* r you ever know an hotelkeeper whose "wax" Rights would bear the test [of a tallow-chandler ? } Did you ever know a Continental tourist wfo, if he unfortunately happened to speak, English, didn't everywhere discover he was^charged at least double for it ? Did you ever find a/frprofessional" win a game of billiards of you assigning your defeat entirely to his " 'Aiike^?" Did you ever know a cockney take to boatitjg without dressing himself up &laT. P. Coofce ? Did you ever meet a diner-out of sufficient<iStrength of mind to ask for cabbage ? Did yob' ever hear a 100-player confess to having won n^re than "just a shilling or two V Did you e&er know a pic-nic go off without the awful apparijion of a " wops?" Did you ever find a penny-a^iner who, in > speaking of a fire, could abstain^from calling it " the devouring element V Dill you ever know a Continental shopkeeper whose "prixfize" mightnotbe be proved a lucus-a- nonentity ? Did you ever start upon a railway journey without hearing the immortal observation "Now, we're off?" Didyou ever know an "alarming sacrifice" which, in practice, did not prove to be completely one of priuciple? Did you ever in your life hail a city-bound omnibus that wasn't going " a'most directly" back to Bayswater ? And as a final clincher — Did you eTer know a cabman who, since the pew act came in force,- could by any eloquence bfl induced *o £' ye you change for a shilling ? — Punch.