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Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 216, 14 February 1866, Page 3

The following jeu d'esprit, attributed to a popular member of the Lower House formerly in office, has been going the rounds of the WestEnd clubs. It is a" skit" on the word parliament : — " This long word comes only from parler, to speak, As best etymologists trace; So you see all is parle, and nothing is meant Too often the truth cf the case." —Punch. A Chinese thief, having stolen a missionary's watch, brought it back to him the next day to be shown how to wind it up ! It is said that the G-un-cotton Committee have been trying further experiments with this highlyexplosive material, and there seems to be very hope of its being used instead of powder as a bursting charge for shells, and also as a mine in the torpedoes and other similar vessels, which are expected to be largely employed in any future naval war. A London paper says, at a dinner the other day in the Westminster Hotel, at which Lord Houghton, Dean Stanley, and others were present, a clergyman who has seceded from the Church since the Colenso decision worked himself into a state of no inconsiderab c warmth, and emphatically asked, "What is the Church of England now •" " A branch of the Civil Service.'" was the answer of Lord Houghton, given so promptly that the Nonconformist speaker did not find it necessary to say, "I pause for a reply." Ti>e answer of the noble lord " drew down the house," as the Americans would say. The late King of Prussia once sent to an aidedecamp, Colonel MalachowM, who was brave but poor, a small portfolio, bound like a book, in which were deposited five hundred crowns. Some time afterwards he met the officer, and said to him, " Ah, well, how did you like the new work I sent you ?" —" Excessively, sire," replied the colonel. " I read it with Buch interest, that I await the second volume with impatience," The King smiled, and when the officer's birthday arrived he presented him with, another portfolio, similar in every respect to the first, but with itliese words engraved on it —"This 1 work is complete in two volumes."