ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 922, 3 June 1854, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Napoleon's House ax St. Helbna. — Bonaparte's house at Longwood, St. Helena, is now a barn ; the room he died in is a stable ; and where the imperial body lay in state, may be found a machine for grinding corn. The Pope has issued an edict, it is reported, ordering the Irish clergy to desist entirely in future from taking a part in politics. The Holy Father has, doubtless learned that his Hibernian emissaries were rather over-reaching themselves, and that altar denunciations, street brawls, and the cursing of independent voters, were not at all fitted to recommend the papacy to the British peoplej or to strengthen the footing in this free island of ours of a power which, as the late census has proved, is contemptibly weak, despite all the noise and bluster it makes. — Glasgow Chronicle. «■

The French in Rome. — On Easter Sunday I observed what must have been to the* Romans most galling. In their own city and their own cathedral preference was given to the French ladies, for whom the best seats in the church were reserved. The balconies over the colonnade were restricted to them alone. I also noticed that in addition to the troops drawn up in battle array on the Piazza, large numbers, in knots of eight or ten, so distributed themselves amongst the people, that no part of that vast concourse was free from them. They acted like casual spectators, but to us, who observed them from above, they appeared far too skilfully ar.d uniformly located to leave a doubt that they were there by command, so as to be ready, in case of disturbance, to co-operate with the troops outside the crowds, The French army is in the highest state of disci- j pline ; their patrols* 4>4 > p.t- cvenr point ; their drums and trumpets resounding at all hours. To a casual observer, there appears no disposition to revolt, for the multitude seem as if they thought that, however bad their present condition, it might be worse. French rule is better than Austrian, end the Romans are happier than the Tuscans. The city that once ruled the world is contended so long as others are under a heavier yoke than themselves. — The Forum and the Vatican, by Newman Hall. Austria is revenging itself for the Kozsta affair by persecuting their Yankee visitors. Last week we learned of ths ejection from the kingdom of an American clergyman, Mr. Richmond, and now we are informed of a gross outrage committed on another clergyman from the United States, the Rev. P. B. Drinkwater, sojourning in Hungary. With respect to another outrage upon strangers, that committed upon the English engineers taken at Sinops, it is said thai the Russian admiral has set them at liberty.

j Lectuueb in Amkhioa. — " In several localities, the institutions are not wealthy enough to erect a hall of their own, and in that ease churches are their general resort. * * The repi'gnance we felt, and the objections we made, were overruled on being informed that, apart from the perforraancs of divine service, the churches were used for all public occasions — 'town' 9 meetings, concerts, orations, political reunions, and the like, being invariably held in them ; and it did not, therefore, become us to object to follow in the path where that ablest of essayists and lecturers, Edwin Whipple, and many of hia eminent countrymen, had lad the way. Our first attempt in a semi-clerical character was in the good town of Chelsea, some three miles distant from Boston, to which we were conveyed in a carriage, under convoy of a sober-sided gentleman, whose demureness of manner savoured very strongly of puritanical inspirations. As we journeyed along, he took occasion to say that, having heard us lecture the preceding evening in Boston, it was as well to let us know at once, though he himself laughed * some ' yet they never laughed down at Chelsea. We naturally inquired how they got on without such a pleasant companion, is life's rough journey, as a hearty laugh. ,' Don't know— can't say nothin' about that, I guess but they don't laugh down at Chelsea,' said, he. " Odd folks," thought we ; but we made our way to the dais beneath the pulpit, and took (for the first time from such a spot) a full survey of a full congregation. • Directly under our very nose were seated a body of youths and their lasses. c They must laugh/ thought we, and resolving to make an experiment, we ventured upou the smallest and quietest of all possible jokes. The consequence was a suppressed laugh, which, upon our embarking in another bit of fun, emerged into a titter, and ended, on our making a further appeal to their risible faculties, in a downright roar. The good Samaritan accompanied us home, and before we parted, we ventured to observe : • Why, friend, we understood you to say that they never laughed down at Chelsea.' To whichhe replied, ' Well, can't understand it, no how ; but won't our pastor " give'em all fits," next Sunday !' " — Bwsa's America*

A Great Anchovy Casts. — " Burgess and Son," whose name will go down to posterity iv a cruet stand, have lately l^een throwing their fish sauce into Chancery, and an equity judge has been discussing the essence of anchovies with a gusto quite remarkable. The barristers engaged in the matter have doubtless verified the fact that little fish are sweet, for the anchovies have of conrse yielded some pretty little fees to pretty little juniors. Messrs. Campbell and Moore were on one side, while Mr." Bacon and Mr. Nelson represented the anchovies on the other, and counsel pushed about the anchovy bottle from the Court below to the Court above, with a determination to bring the sauce of Burgess to the very fountain of equity. The great anchovy case has been already before the Vice Chancellor and the Lords Justices, but whether the parties will carry their "sauce" up to the Lords is at present dependent proprobably on how they may be " advised by learned counsel" to go on expending money in litigation, or "if not, why not," or " how otherwise." " When we returned to Sevastopol not long afterwards, we heard that the Emperor had left the military portion of the community a reminiscence that was calculated to produce a deep impression. He had scarcely terminated his flying visit, and the smoke of the steamer by which he returned to Odessa still hung upon the horizon, when, in a smothered whisper, one soldier confided to another that their ranks had received an addition ; and when we returned to Sevastopol, it was said that the late governor, in a significant white costume, was employed with the rest of the gang upon, the streets he had a fortnight before rolled proudly through with all the pomp and circumstances befitting his high position, No dilatory trial had reduced him to the condition in which he now appeared before the inhabitants of his late government. The fiat had gone forth, and the general commanding became the convict sweeping. I was very anxious to discover what crime had- been deemed worthy of so severe a punishment, but upon no two occasions was the same reason assigned, so it was very clear that nobody knew ; and probably no one found it more difficult than the sufferer himself to single out the particular misdemeanour for which he was disgraced, The general opinion seems to be that the unfortunate man had been lulled into security in his remote province, and, fancying himself unnoticed in this corner of the empire, had neglected to practise that customary caution, in the appropriation of his bribes and other perquisites, which is the first qualification of a man in an elevated position in Russia." — Oliphant's Russian shores.

Contracts in Russia. — A certain quantity of well-seasoned oak being required, government issues tenders for the supply of the requisite amount. A number of contractors sub-» mit their tenders to a board appointed for the purpose cf receiving them, who are regulated in their choice of a contractor, not. by the amount of his tender, but of his biibe. The fortunate individual selected immediately subcontracts upon a somewhat similar principle. Arranging to be supplied with the timber for half the amount of his tender, the subcontractor carries on the game, and perhaps the' eighth link in this contracting chain is the man who,-for an absurdly low figure, undertakes to produce the seasoned- woevd. Ilis agents -in tho central provinces, accordingly, float a quantity of green pines and firs down the Dnieper and Bog to Nicholaeff, which are' duly handed up to the head contractor, each roan pocketing the difference between his contract and that of his neighbour. When the wood is produced before the board appointed to inspect it, another bribe seasons it, and the government, after paying the price of well seasoned oak, is suprised that the 120-gun ship, of which it has been built, is unfit for service in five years. — Ibid.

Arsenic Eating. — In some part of Lower Austria and Styria, and especially in th^ hilly region towards Hungary, the:e prevails among the peasantry an extraordinary custom of eating arsenic. It is eaten professedly for one or both of two purposes : First, that the eater may there a by acquire freshness of complexion and plumpness of figure. For this p'orpose as will readily be snpposed, it is chiefly eaten by the young. Second, that the wind may be improved, so that long and steep heights may be climbed without difficulty of breathing. By the middle-aged and the old it is esteemed for this influence, and both results are described as following almost invariably from tbs ase of arsenic. To improve their appearance, young peasants, cf both sexes, have recourse to it, some no doubt from vanity and some with the view of adding to their charms in the eyes of each other. And it is very remarkable to see how wonderfully well they attain their object ; for these poison-eaters are generally re1 remarkable for blooming complexions, and a full, ! rounded, healthy appearance. Dr. Yon Tsehudi, gives the following case as having occurred in his own practice :—": — " A healthy but pale and thin milkmaid, residing in the parish of H had a lover whom she wished to attach to herself by a j more agreeable exterior, She therefore had recourse to the well-known beautifier, an<3 took ! arsenic several times a week. The desired effect i was not long in showing itself, for in a few months she became stout, rosy-cheekod, and all that her lover could desire. In order, hovfever, lo increase the effect, she incautiously increased tka ! dose of arsenic, and fell a victim to her vanity. She died poisoned — a very painful death !" The number of such fatal cases, especially among young persons is described as by no means inconsiderable. For the second purpose— that of rendering the breathing easier when going up-hill — the peasant puts a small fragment of arsenic in his mouth, and lets it dissolve. The effect is astonishing. He ascends heights with facility, which he could not otherwise do without the greatest difficulty of breathing. The quantity of arsenic with which the eaters begin is about half a grain. They continue to take this quantity two or three times a week, in the morning fasting, till they become habituated to it. They then cautiously increase the dose as the quantity previously taken seems to diminish in its effect. " The peasant It ," says Dr. Yon Tschudi, '* a hale man of sixty, who enjoys capital health at present, takes for every dose a piece about two grains in. weight. For the last forry years he has continued the habit which he inherited from his father, and which he will transmit to his children." No symptoms of illness o"r of chronic poisoning are observable in aoy of these arsenic eaters, when

'the dose is carefully adapted to the constitution g£d habit of body of the person using it. But if from any cause the arsenic be left off for a time, symptoms of disease occur, which resemble those of slight arsenical poisoning : especially a great feeling of discomfort arises, great indifference to everything aronnd, anxiety about bis own person, deranged digestion, loss of appetite, a feeling of overloading in the stomach, increased flow of a»liva, burning from tbe stomach op to the throat, spasms in the throat, pains in the'bowels, constipation and especially oppression iv the breathing. From these symptoms there is only one speedy mode of relicf — an immediate return to arseniceating. — Blackwood's Magazine,