Miscellaueouns News,

Southland Times, Issue 1168, 31 May 1869, Page 3

Miscellaueouns News,

The Court Journal states that Mr Ten ny son has again refused an offer of a peerage. It is stated that the wife of Capt Vivian, Junior Lord of the Treasury, has eloped with tbe Marquis of Waterford. The statement which has appeared in some of the papers that the Prince of Wales intends to keep a stud of racers seems to be unfounded; The Zoological Society will, it is said, remove their collection of animals from Kegent's Park to Alexandra Park as soon as the lease of their present ground expires. M. Jullien, a merchant of Paris, has petitioned the French Senate to impose a special tax upon bachelors of thirty years and upwards. Already a few Parisian belles have unrolled their chignons, and allow their hair to fall unfettered over their shoulders ; already flowing hair, attached to combs, is seen in hairdressers' windows, instead of former huge chignons. | In South London, it was announced re- ' cently that a converted malpractitioner, described as ' Ned Wright, the burglar, would preach at Wandaworth Assembly Room, aud break open the doors of hell with a gospel jemmy ! The Westminster Review says that the costs of the late convent trial amount to £5000 for the defendeuts, and £7000 for the plaintiff, and that the whole of these costs fall upon the nuns. The Daily News begs to state, " under all reserve," that a Ladies Club is on the eve of formation, to imitate in every respect those lordly establishments that upw alinoat compose Pall Mall, and are rapidly < invading the private monotony of western . Piccadilly. Mr Beales, late President of the Beform League, will shortly receive a countycourt judgeship. It is Baid that Mr Howell, the late secretary to that body, has been appointed private secretary to a member of Parliament. The Societe Imperial Zoologique d'Ac- : elimatisation of France have presented < Mr Jamea A . Youl with their gold medal (Grand Medaille dOr) as an acknowledg- i ment of his successful introduction of 1 salmon into Tasmania. ] Mr Sims Eeeves, the vocalist, and M. ] Blondin, tbe rope-dancer, each received a hundred pounds, or guineas, for a i performance at the Crystal Palace. Mr Charles Dickens, it is said, receives the a same sum for each of his readings in 1 London. • ' The amount voluntarily sent in to the i committee which had the management of : Mr Gladstone's re-election for Greenwich was so much in excess of what was required, that it has been decided to return to subscribers of ten shillings and upwards three- sevenths of their contributions. San Francisco is in a fever of excite. i ment at present over the gold discoveries at the White Pine mines. Fifty-six companies have been organised in that city since tbe Ist of March, to work leads in the White Pine region. I The directors of the Edinburgh Water Company have received a report from Mr Hawksley, the hydraulic engineer, and from other engineers, pronouncing in strong terms in favour of the Company's ' scheme for bringing in a supply of water from Moorfoot Hills. Mr Hawksley estimates tbe cost of the St. Mar r's Loch Scheme at £1,400,000. Mr Spurgeon, at the annual meeting of the friends of his college, mentioned a circumstance in connection with that institution which reflects great honour on his housemaid. Some unknown friend one evening dropped bank notes to the amount of £2000 into a letterbox of MrSpurgeon's residence at Clapham, which notes were found next morning "lying on his oilcloth." By special order of the French Minister of Instruction, Miss Garrett, licentiate of the Apothecaries' Societies of London, has been admitted to, and successfully passed the first of the series of five examinations for the degree of doctor of medicine, without being compelled, as usual, to reside and attend the courses. Three other ladies are being educated iv the medical schools of Paris. At Harrow, Dr Butler has decided to introduce in the course of this year a complete " modern " school for the instruction of lads not going to the universities. We may hope by such means to see the reproach removed from our great schools that they cannot prepare for the army, Indian Civil Service, or any of the general professions. Greek will he dropped, and other subjects fill its place in the new course. Two professors, looking much like each other, and got up to look more so, are said to be acting the part of tbe Siamese twins in the West of England, where the people, we presume, are a little slow at reading ( the papers, or can be gulled into the belief that London is being fooled, not they. The incliarubber flesh that binds them is filled with warm water, so that the curious, on touching, have the truth averred by the best demonstration that both .are living. The subject for the Prize. Essay of the Cobden Club for the year 1 1869 is the following : — " Free Trade in its Relation to the Colonies and Dependencies of Great Britain." The essays are to be sent in to the honorary secretary, Mr Thomas Bayly Potter, M.P",Reform Club, London, before the Ist Jonuary, 1870,! and are not io exceed in length fifty pages of the Quarterly or North American Reviews. The committee reserves to itself the privilege of publishing the successful essay.

The Marquise de Cam (Adelina Patti) has been siiigiDg at St. Petersburg for the poor. The proceeds of the concert amounted to nearly £2000. She sings three nights a week at the Opera, and during the day may be often seen in company with the Emperor and the Grand Duke Vladimir. At the instance of a prominent member of Trinity, an ass has been slaughtered, dressed, and prepared for cooking. It is an animal about nine years of age, and was for some time subjected to light work, but of late has been " living in clover " on a farm at Trumpington. It was duly fattened up, then butchered and dressed. The flesh after i that, presented the appearance of beef. The 'dead weight of the animal was about fifteen stone, and the carcase excited much curiosity. It was removed to the larder of Sydney College, where it was I cut up, and distributed in joints to various college kitchens. These joints ultimately found their way to the head ; tables of some of the chief colleges. The late Lord Brougham, strange as it may seem, died without assets. Long before his death he had, by dead or gift, made over everything — ex-Chancellor's pension, house and land, books, plate, furniture— to his brother William, the present peer, who, in return, provided for all household and personal expenses. The great statesman's aversion to trouble about money matters is said to have suggested this arrangement. The Inland Eevenue authorities, at first incredulous, satisfied themselves by private enquiry as to the bvna fides and validity of the deed of gift. But it is a curious fact that Lord Brougham, as ex-Lord Chancellor, who for upwards of thirty years received a pension of £5000 a year, died without paying a shilling of probate or legacy duty. A movement has been begun in the agricultural parts of Yorkshire for the purpose of bringing under the consideration of Parliament the inhuman treatment of fat sheep intended for market, by shearing them daya before slaughter, for the sake of the extra profit on "live" wool. Farmers themselves do not do this to any extent, but since the introduction of railways a class of middle-men or jobbers has sprung up, who purchase for the distant markets — Leeds, Bradford, Salford, &c.— and after depriving the sheep of their wool, drive them to a railway station, and in ordinary trucks convey them to their destination, when they are exposed in the markets, and probably not killed till the fourth day after shearing. In the present year clipped sheep were so treated in February. Memorials are iv course of signature, setting forth the cruelty inflicted on sheep by early shearing, aud asking for the introduction of a Bill into Parliament to render sheep-shearing illegal before May Ist, except in case of fat sheep for immediate slaughter. A Portsmouth citizen, in telling about a wonderful parrot hanging in a cage from the window of a house which he often passed, said, " Ifc cries, ' stop thief so naturally that every time I hear it I always stop !" At a Sunday School lately, a bright little boy was asked ' what is conscience ?' 'An inward monitor,' was the reply. ' And what is a monitor ?' ' One of the ironelals.' An urchin crawled into a sugar hogshead at a steam boat landing. His first exclamation was, 'Oh, for a thousand tongues.' ' Tile butes,' says Josh Billings, ' air a luxury, inasmuch as they kauze a feller to forget awl his other miseries. 1 One fob Dean Ramsay. — Two ministers on a pedestrian tour went into a country public-house and ordered a gill of whisky. The refreshment was produced and duly measured out in two glasses. One of the brethren, reverently putting his hand over his eyes, asked a blessiug on the grog, while the other tossed off both glasses. With a look of wonder, the other inquired, ' Where's my share ?' ' Ah !' responded his companion, ' you should have remembered the whole of the Scriptural injunction, that ye should both watch and pray, for, ye see, ye was praying,' but ye wasna watchinV ' Dundee Advertiser.' A savant, whose wife has a high temper, being applied to by a committee for information as to the best method of preventing being blown up by a steam boiler, said with a sigh, " Ah, gentlemen, this is of small consequence ; but I should consider it a great boon if someone would discover a method whereby a man could eßcape being blown up by his wife."