MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 49, 29 February 1864, Page 5 (Supplement)

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

A Prophecy is Jest.—The.following extract from a burlesque article in the Neio Monthly Magazine for 1821 (Yol. II.), entitled "Specimen of a Prospective Newspaper,, a.i>. 4796" is j curious : — "The army of the Northern States (of American) will take the field against that of the Southern Provinces early next spring. The princi- ' pal. Northern force will consist of 1,490,000 picked troops. General Congreve's new mechanical cannon was tried last week at the siege of Gr.eorgia. It discharged in one hour 1120 balls, each weighing five hundredweight. The distance of the objects fired at was eleven miles, and so perfect was the engine that the whole of these balls were lodged in the space of twenty feet square." A subsequent article in this specimen states that "by means of a new invention Dr. Clark crossed the Atlantic in seven days." How little did the writer anticipate that in forty years these to him wild fancies would be almost realised ! It is worth notice that a war between North and South was anticipated. — Notes and Queries. The Eirst Parliamentary Reporter. — William Woodfallbecame the printer of the Morning Chronicle, which was started in 1769. Of his reporting the traditions are full ; and after making every allowance for the exaggerated expressions of those to whom the whole process of reporting was .new, his work was a wonderful feat, and such as justly to entitle him to the designation of " Memory Woodfall," by which he was generally known. It was his practice to go down early to the House of Commons, and secure for himself a favorite corner in the front row of the strangers' gallery. There he sat the long night through, never budging from his place, solacing himself, as he grew . faint, with the indigestible but portable dainty of a hard boiled egg, and with his eyes and his attention fixed upon the varioiis speakers, but without taking a single note '• the appearance of a note-book or pencil would have led to immediate expulsion by the sergeant-at-arms or his messengers. He would absorb, as it were, the whole scene passing before him, and would reproduce it on paper, to the extent of several columns, in time for the publication of the following evening. In this way he gave a character to the Chronicle, which raised it far above all its contemporaries. — London Society. At the Middlesex Sessions, Jane Henderson, a lady's-maid, who was in the service.' of Lady Domville, and charged with stealing jewellery worth £2000 at .various times from the specimens brought by Mr. Hancock's shopman for her mistress's insjDection, was convicted and: sentenced to four years' penal servitude^ Lady Domville being an invalid zftways in bed, it was of necessity that the prisoner was intrusted with the jewellery brought by the shopman for her . mistress to select presents from, and in such quantities that he was not able to keep strict account of it. Tb^DAjSTSII DIFFICULTY EXPLAES"E3). — Young persons who dine out, and wish to be considered well informed young diners-out, must desire to be able to jjfanswer in a few simple words, the question so frequently put as to the real, value of the difficulty about the King of Denmark's succession to the Sehleswig-Holstein duchies. Mr. Punch will explain the matter in a moment. The case is this:— King Christian, being an agnate, is the collateral heir male of .the German Diet, and consequently the Duchy of Holstein, being mediatised, could only have ascended to the Landgravine of Hesse in default of consanguinity in the younger branch of the Sonderburg G-lueksburgs, and -therefore Sehleswig, by the surrender of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg G-otha,

was acquired as a fief in remainder by the morganatic marriage of JFrederick VII. This is clear enough, of course, The difficulty, hpwever, arises from the fact that, while the Danish protocol of 1852, which was drawn up by Lord Palnierston,- but signed by Lord : Malmesbury, • repudiated' ex post facto the claims of Princess Mary of Anthal, as remainder- woman to the Electoress - of Augustenburg, it only operated as < ' a uti possidetis in reference ;to the interests of Prince Christian oi Schles- , wig-Holstein-Sonderburg", G-lueksburg, while 'Baron Bunsen's protest against Catholicism, under the terms of th© Eaiet of Nantes, of course barred the whole of the , lineal ancestry of the"' ■ Grand Duke for claiming by virtue of the Salic clause of the Pragmatic Sanction. The- question is therefore exhaustively reduced t to a very narrow,, compass, and the dispute simply ,is, whether an agnate who is not eon.- , Sanguineous, can, as a I/utliei-an, liold a fief which is clothed by mediatisation , with the character of a neutral belli,- . gerent. • This is really all that is', at „ 'issue, and'thosp who seek to complicate the case by introducing the extraneous statement, true, no doubt, in its.elf, • that the Princess of Wales, who, is the . daughter" of the present King- of Denmark, made no public renunciation of either of the duchies, on the ivory hairbrushes, Avhen she dined with Lord . Mayor Hose, are simply endeavoring ■ to throw dust in the eyes of Europe. . — Punch. Neighbors jn tub Ear West. — " Where is your hotise ?" asked a traveller, in' the depths • of " one of the old, solemn, wildernesses " of the great west. " House ? I ain't got no x h6use." " Well, where do you^ live ?" •" I live • • in* the woods, sleep on the great- Government purchase, eat raw -bear and" wild turkey, and drink out of the Mississippi." And, he added, " Its getting' • too thick with the folks mit here. You're 'the second man I've seen within the last month ; and I hear there's a whole family comin' ' down the river. I'm going to put out into the woods again. — Field. | ATTcmifETS. — In the Court of ComI mon Pleas a rule absolute was made that W. S. Poole, lately practising as .a solicitor at Kenilwortn, bo struck off the rolls of the ' Court. The cause of this arose out oT the solicitor's dealings with Mr. Howes, a farmer, who h'&d placed £1000 in his hands for invest- ' nient. The court considered that Mr. ; ■ Poole had grossly misused the confidence placed in him: In the Court' of' Exchequer the rule which had- been • granted against Mr. - Alfred Leighy upon affidavits, enclosing, as the Lord Chief Baron said, 'very serious and grave charges, was made, absolute, unless the affidavits were answered before fourteen days; An Affaie op Hoxoh. — Towai'ds the end of a dispute which took place between two residents of a town not many hundred miles from West Maitland, one disputant, whom we shall call A, told the other, whom we shall call B, that he was a " coward." The distinction thus gratuitously conferred was followed by a challenge to the individual conferring it to come outside and get his head knocked off. The invitation was not- accepted, and the gentlemen subsequently parted company. During tbe course of the day, A by letter couched in approved terms informed B that he might see him on the race-course that evening, with swords, fists, or pistols, and further informed- B that he would bring the weapons with him. Sis: o'clock was the hour appointed, ana punctual to the time both men appeared on the ground, each accompanied by a few friends who got wind of the event, and who out of feeling of the purest and noblest friendship, insisted on seeing their respected companions make targets of themselves. A brought his horse with him on which he should ily for medical aid, if he should unhappily happen to wing B, and true to his word, brought also the detonators — a. superior brace of pistols, and offered B. his choice of - them. Before choice was made, the first point to settle was, the distance at which they should fire. A. suggested fifteen paces. B proposed twelve paces. A, on consideration, thought ten might do, and B, with "a most accommodating spirit, proposed that they should each take hold of an end of a handkerchief, and fire across it. This point was not clearly defined when another was raised, namely, who should load the pistols. A said they were already loaded, and B said he would load for himself. Ato shew that the weapons were in proper trim, fired one in the air to the imminent danger of an innocent little torn-tit, which, in exuberant joy — possibly occasioned by' the serene beauty of • the ■ scene— was twittering "and wagging its tail on a branch of a dead tree a short distance away. The two points raised by the combatants continued to be discussed until B invitsd A to settle the matter with fists. A acknowledged the , cpurtesy with which the offer was ) made, but declined to accede to the proposal, in consequence' of a belief with which he was impressed — and in which the spectators generally shared, " that B was more than a match for him in the pugilistic field. Swords were next alludedto,but even on that matter the disputants could, not agree. Some' bystander at last interposed, and suggested that the combatants, seconds, and spectators should adjourn to the nearest public house and arrange the dispute. A invited Bto join him in a nobbier ; our informant, however, did not see whether the' men agreed upon.that point either, but says the matter has since been amicably settled, A entertaining a high opinion of Bs courage, and B returning the eompliment-~ ' N. S. W. Paper.