THE ENGLISH NATIONAL DEBT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 231, 18 January 1877, Page 2

THE ENGLISH NATIONAL DEBT.

It may be interesting to many to know, not only the amount of the National Debt, but the different epochs at which it has risen to its present enormous amount. In 1688, the debt was £664,000 ; by the wars of William and Mary, it was increased by twelve millions ; by those of Queen Anne, twenty-three millions and a half; George 1., sixteen millions and a quarter ; George 11., eighty millions two hundred thousand pounds ; during the American war, one hundred and eighteen -millions and a half ; and during the Crimean war, one hundred and thirty-seven millions. The Abyssinian war increased the amount by about five millions, making a gross total of between eight and nine hundred millions. The French war cost no less than five hundred and ninety-one millions and a half. NOVEL USE FOR PAPER, The Connecticut River Railroad Company have introduced for trial a set of paper car wheels under the forward truck, and one of its engines. These wheels are manufactured by bringing a pressure of 3jo tons on sheets of common straw paper, which is turned perfectly round, and the bulo forced into a hole in the centre, this requiring a pressure of twentylivj tons weight. Tne tire is of steel, and ;ai a o:ic-quartu'-iiicii 1 upon the i.r -_d.i.iUs; u: lowing the paper uliittg to be i'oroe'.l in, 2-.'io tons he required in the proc-ei.*. Two iron plates, one upon eie-i Aide of tae paper, are boiied t.yjt-ier, which prevents the possibility of tae iiliin-3 coaling out. The tire rests upon the paper only, aa.i partakes of its elasticity' in consequences. ❖ THE CLAW OF A LION'S TAIL. There is at the extremity of a lion's tail a small claw concealed in a tuft of hair. It is a thorny-substance, and resembles a small cone, a little inclining upon itself. This claw adheres by the base to the skin alone, and not to the last Vertebra, from which it is entirely separate. The commentators of Homer endeavor to explain, by the presence of this claw, the circumstances mentioned by tiiat great poet, of the lashing his sides violently when agitated, as if to excite himself to augmented fury. Blumenbach ascertained the existence of that claw several years since, but the work in which he noticed it has unhappily been lost, and naturalists would probably have remained ignorant of the .fact had it not been pointed out by the indefatigable M. Descheys. THE STRANGEST OF DUELS. Perhaps the most remarkable of duels ever fought took place in 1803. It was peculiarly French in its tone, and could hardly have occurred under any other than a French state of society. M. Legrand Pre and M. Lcpique had a quarrel arising out of jealousy concerning a lady. They agreed to light a duel to settle their respective claims, and in order that the heat of angered passion should not interfere with the polished elegance of the proceedings, they postponed the duel for a month, the lady agreeing to bestow her hand on the sur-

vivor of the two, if the other were killed. At all events, this was inferred by the two men, if not actually expressed. The duelists were to fight in the air. Two balloons were constructed exactly alike. On the day denoted, Legrand Pre and his second entered the car of one balloon ; Lepique and his second, that of the other. It was in the Garden of the Tuileries, amid an immense concourse of spectators. The gentlemen were to fire, not at each other, but at each other's balloon, in order to bring them down by an escape of gas, and as pistols might hardly have served for this purpose, each aeronaut took a blunderbus in his car. At the given signal, the ropes that retained the cars were cut, and the balloons ascended. The wind was moderate, and kept the balloons at the original distance of eighty yards apart. When half a mile above the surface of the earth, a preconcerted signal for firing was given. M. Lepique fired, but missed. M. Legrand Pre fired, and sent a ball through Lepique's balloon, The balloon collapsed, the car descending with frightful rapidity, and Lepique and and his second were dashed to pieces. Legrand Pre continued his ascent triumphantly, and terminated his aerial voyage successfully.

OLIVER, CROMWELL'S HEAD. * A correspondent draws our attention to a strong corroboration of the main incidents of the story lately told in these columns respecting the head of the Lord Protector Cromwell, to be found in. ' c Fifty Years Recollections, Literary and Personal," of the late Mr. Cyrus Redding, and resting upon the authority of Mr. Horace Smith, one of the authors of " Rejected Addresses," &c. Redding writes, under date of 1822 : —" Horace Smith was acquainted with a medical gentleman who had in his possession the head of Oliver Cromwell, and in order to gratify my curiosity he gave me a note of introduction to him. There accompanied _ the head a memorandum relating to its • history. It had been torn from a tomb with the heads of Ireton and Bradshaw, after the accession of Charles 11., under a feeling of impotent vengeance. All three were fixed over the entrance of Westminster Hall, the other bones of these three distinguished men being interred in Tyburn, under the . gibbet—an act well befitting the Stuart character. During a stormy night the head in the centre —that of Cromwell—fell to the ground. The sentry on guard beneath having a natural respect for an heroic soldier, no matter of what party, took up the head and placed it under his cloak, until he went oil duty. He then carried it to Russell's, who were the nearest relations of Cromwell's family, and disposed of it to them. It belonged to a lady, a'descendant of Cromwell's, who did not like to keep it in her house. There was a written minute extant along with it. T;o dLvippoaranca of the head Off W: phsHitlsb'-r Hall is mentioned in some of the publications of the time. Ifc ha-d I>v, n c: re full/ embalmed, as Oromw ll'.-s body i.-j Lu ica to ii.iv.j bsen, two years behoiv ir.:j disinterment. The nostrils were lilLcl with a substance like cotton. The brain had bcuii cxiraeivd by dividing uho skuii. The membranes within were perfect, but dried up, and looked like parchment. The d: cavitation had evidently been performed after death, as the llesh over the vertebras of the nook. plainly showed. It was hacked, and,' the ~ ance had evidently been done not used to the work, for there were several other cuts beside that which actually separated the bone. The beard, of a chesnut color, seemed to have grown since death. An ashen pole, pointed with iron, had received the skull, clumsily impaled upon its point, which came out an inch or so above the crown, rusty and time-worn. The wood of the staff, and the skin itself, had been perforated by the common wood-worm. —London Thnvs.