MISCELLANEOUS.

Southland Times, Issue 1187, 24 December 1869, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Mr Peabody is constructing a tomb for himself in Harmony-grove Cemetery, Salem, Massachusetts. He is building a huge sarcophagus of Quiocy granite, and proposes being buried there with his brothers and sisters. A woman named G-odzielska has just died at Posen, aged 99 years. She formerly served as vivandiere in the armies of Napoleon 1., and went through the campaigns of Spaia, Russia, and Germany. In a report just published of the engineer to the Commissioners of Sewers, it is estimated that the population of London will amount within the next 40 years to six millions. It appears, from a table contained in ths report, that in East London as many as 170,194 persons are already crowded in each square mile, la Camberwell there are on]y 10,537 to the square mile, in Westminster, 47,607. Among the passengers wbo left Southampton for the United States on Saturday, Sept. 25, in the steamer Baltimore, was Mr Jefferson Davis, the late President of the Southern Confederation. An Edinburgh correspondent avers that the absorbing topic of gossip in that city is the supposed elopement of a wellknown member of the legal profession with a celebrity of the local deini-moude. " Por several weeks," he writes, " rumours were afloat about his strange conduct, and I was astonished one day to see so prominent a citizen driving along Prince's street in an open carriage with a notorious woman of the town. It is said that this is the ' lady ' he has eloped with ; and I have heard that he has taken with him, to help him on his way to A , whither it is believed he is going, £3,000, the property of a client. He leaves behind him a wife and young family." The scandal is rendered all the more piquant by the circumstance that the gentleman who has " vamosed " was a religious " professor " of considerable eminence. The Scotch, herring fishery tbid year has again proved a success. The total catch on the north-eastern coast from Orkney downwards to Fife, has, it is stated, been 313,000 crans, or 350,000 barrels, against 283,000 crans last year ; while the yield for all Scotland, including the west C3ast and the Eyemouth district, is set down at 700,000 barrels, against 638,000 barrels last year. The value of the fresh fish is calculated to be about £750,000 j cured and packed in barrels for export, the money product would be over a million sterling.

The Mormons, it is reported, are discussing the propriety of abolishing polygamy, and David Smith, the son of the founder of the sect, has been denouncing the practice in bis sermons [ lately delivered at Salt Lake City. I Brigham Young is also reported to have told Mr Colfax, two years ago, that it was not improbable a new revelation might be received abolishing polygamy, and a change may be expected. The Pacific Bailroad baa been completed, and the difficulties experienced in 1857, in sending out troops and supplies to Utah, will not be incurred. Polygamy is forbidden by the laws of the United States ; and if the present or future Administrations endeavor to enforce the statute, the success of the United States army will be certain. David Smith, who is reported to be a man of education and influence, is under thirty years of age ; while Brigham Young is ignorant, and his powers are on the decline. The influence of the reform party, it is supposed, wili be very great, and effect a change in the customs. The Scotch gold-diggings have excited very little interest of lute. The workings still continue, the operations being carried on in a more systematic manuer than was the case at first. Tunnelling under the sides of the hills has taken the place of paddock sinking, and if the declared yields are true, there should be some good diggings round about. There are a good many Australian gold diggers ' at work, and one of the chief storekeepers at Kildonan, Mr John Macintosh, worked for many years on the Vineyard Eeef, near Castlemaine, Victoria.