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Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 12, 19 December 1862, Page 3

A FcmTTJNATtrs' Cat. — Somewhere about the vcar 1789, so runs the tale, a travelling millwright —in those days the kings of mechanics — footsore, and with the broadest northern Doric accent, stopped at Sobo, a locality once indicative of field sports, but then the engine factory of Boulton and "Watt, and asked for work. His aspect was littlebetter than that of " beggary and poor looks," and Mr Boulton bade him God speed to some other workshop, when, as he was turning away sorrowfully, Mr Boulton suddenly called him back. " What kind of hat's yon ye have on your head, my man ? " It's just timmer, sir." " Timber, my man, let's look at" it. Where did you get it?" " I just made it, sir, my ainsel'!" "How did you make it?". "I just turned it in the lathie." " But it's ova), man, and a lathe turns things round." -'Aweel! I jusr gar'd the lathie gang anither gate to please me. I'd a long journey afore me, an' I thocht I'd have a hat to keep out •water, and I hadna muckle siller to spare, and I just made ane." By this inborn mechanism the man had invented the oval lathe, and made his hat, and the hat made his fortune. Mr. Boulton was not the man to lose so vnluable a helper, at least, in those days, when good meu were scarce, and so the after famous William Murdock took suit and service under Boultcn and Watt, and in 1784 made the first wheel vehicle impelled by steam in this England of ours— made it with the very hands and brain-cunning that had before produced the " timmer hat." Out of that seed, after 73 years of sowing and reaping its produce, a goodly crop has sprung up, that, like the grain of mustard-seed, replenishes the civilised earth, and will yet civilise the xincivilised. — Boads and Bails. General Libeety in Modeen Italy. — You have only to walk into the railway station at Turin or Genoa to be agreeably struck by the freedom which prevails there — none of those close and barricaded salles d'altente in which one is penned up; none of those ridiculous regulations which prohibit the delivery of tickets after a fixed hour ; none of those employes who are always finding fault, pushing, hurrying, and scolding, and whose principal business seems to be to humiliate and irritate that last employe of all, known by the name of traveller. I hope I may be forgiven for having cited, to the honour of the administration of Piedmont, a circumstance so trivial in. itself, and the significance and importance of which may seem to be over-rated ; but I know nothing which offers a more faithful picture, or is a moro un-mis-takable sign of the general liberty of a people, than the liberty they enjoy in the common concerns of life, and which is brought home to them by practical daily experience. — Reminiscences of the Life of Count Cavour. Hy W. De La Bioa. Death of the Convict Pullinger. — The South African Advertiser and Mail, of July 21, announces that the ship Lascelles, which took out a party of convicts to Swan River from England, had put into Simon's Bay, Cape of Good Hope, on her return voyage. The captain of the Lascelles reported that'Pullinger, of bank fraud notoriety, died on the passage out; he had previously been insane, and upon one occasion attempted to jump overboard*