Miscellaneons.

Colonist, Issue 20, 29 December 1857, Page 4

Miscellaneons.

There is an interestiiig l)ut very circumstance mentioned in a $iogj?a 4phy ; <tf a Handel. Not only * did he die on a.Qpod Friday, but he had some time or times before expressed a wish to do so—"That he might be with his sweet God and Saviour, on Easter-day."

Anecdote of the Electric Telegraph. —I. think the most curious fact, taken altogether, that I ever heard-of the electric telegraph, was told me by a cashier.. of the Bank of England. "Once upon a time^ then, on a certain Saturday night, the folks at the Bank could not make the balance come right by just £100. This was "a serious matter in that little establishment. I do not mean the cash, but the mistake in the arithmetic, for it occasions a world of scrutiny. An error in balancing has been known, I am told, to keep a delegation of clerks from each office at work sometimes through- the whole night. A hue and cry was of course made after this £100, as if the old lady in Threadrieedle-street would be- in the- Gazette for want of it. Luckily, on the Sunday morning, a clerk (in the middle of the sermon, I dare say, if the truth were known) felt a suspicion of the truth dart through his mind quicker than any flash of the telegraph itself. He told the chief cashier on Monday morning that perhaps the mistake might liave occurred in packing some boxes of specie for the West Indies, which had been sent to Southampton for shipment. The suggestion was immediately acted upon. Here was a race —lightning against steam! and steam with eight-and-forty hours'- start given. Instantly the wires asked,'Whether such a vessel had left, the harbour ? * Just weighing. anchor,? was the answer. J Stop her,' frantically shoutecl the electric u telegraph. It was dohe; r'Have you uj) bedeck certain boxes markediSO! them carefully.' Their-were sp^igfied; -and one -r-the delinquents-was {found heavier by just one*'packet of 100 sovereigns than, it ought.to be. 'Let her go,'said ihe mysterious telegraph. The West Indian folks were debited with just £100 more, and the error was corrected without ever looking into the boxes, or delaying the voyage; by an hour. Now that is what may be called •doing business.'"— Letters \ 0f, 72. JE. H. Grreyson. :' . : v

An Aged Warrior.—Lately, there died at Morne Park a horse that earned the late Sir Charles. Colville at the battle of Waterloo. Sir Charles was father to the present Lord Colville, and to Lady Newry. The horse must have been at least 47 years of age* and was,.; perhaps, the last of the equine race present at that memorable battle.

Names of Provisions.—The names of provisions throw some light upon the mode of living among the higher and lower classes of our population. Bread, with the common productions of the garden, such as peas, beans, eggs, and some other articles which might be produced in the cottage garden or yard, retain their Saxon names, and evidently formed the chief nourishment of the Saxon portion of the population. Of meat, though the word is Saxon, they. ate probably little; for it is one of the most curious circumstances connected with the English language, that while the living animals are called by Anglo-Saxon names* as oxen, calves, sheep, pig, deer, the flesh of those animals when prepare^ for the table is called by names which are all AngloNorman—beef, veal, mutton, pork* vension. The butcher who killed them is himself known by an Anglo-Norman name. , Even fowls when killed receive the Norman name of poultry; This ca^ p,nly : b©; exjtjairied by the circumßarid^;thal.ihe. Saxonpopulation .'■ in general was only acquainted with the living animals, while their flesh was carried off to the castle and table of the Norman possessors of the land, who gave it names taken from their own language; Fresh meat, salted, was hoarded up m immense quantities in the Norman castles, and was distributed lavishly to the. household and idle followers of the feudal possessors. Almost the only meat obtained by the peasantry, unless, if we believe old popular songs, by stealth, was bacon, and that also is still called by an Anglo-Norman name. ■;>.;■■-

The Progress of Life,—Men rejoice when the sun is risen;* they rejoice also when it goes down, while they are unconcious of the decay of their own lifes. Men rejoice oh seeing the face of a new season, at the arrival of one greatly desired. Nevertheless, the revolution of seasons is the decay of human life. Fragments of driftwood meeting in the wide ocean continue together a Tittle space; thus parents, wives, children, friends, and riches, remain with us a short time, then separate—and the separation is inevitable. No mortal can escape the common lot; he who mounrs for his departed friends has no power to cause them to return. One standing on the road would readily say to a number of of persons passing by, I. will follow you.

Why, then, should a persoja grieve, when journeying- the-same road vs&ich has assuredly been trodden by all.our forefathers? Life resembles a cataract;jushing downward with irresistible impetuosity. Knowing that the end of life is death, every right-minded man .ought to pursue that which is connected with happiness and ultimate bliss. Glasgow, in 1550, was only the fourteenth town in Scotland; a hundred years ago, its population scarcely exceeded twenty-five thousand souls; now in the number of its inhabitants, it is second only to the vast metropolis of the united empire. In the recent war it gave seven thousand recruits to the army.—Eight- years ago, the Clyde could admit only a few lighters from Greenock; now America, India, and China float their vessels into the harbour of GlasI gow. The University vies in its scope of teaching and its collection with the most ! renowned of the world. Public Feeling at Hong Kong.—The merchants at Hong. ..Kong were getting up an address to Lord Elgin,' recording their conviction that any;" compromise of the Canton difficulty " b^an^bther settlement which should stop snort 'cio^e'^complete humiliation of the CantoneSfc-r-wtiich shall fail to teach them a wholesome respect for the obligations of their own government in its relations with independent Powers, and a more hospitable reception of the foreigner who resorts to their shores for the peaceable purposes of trade, will only result in further suffering to themselves, and further disastrous interruption to us." " This (observes the correspondent of the Times, writing from Hong Kong) means, ' You must take Canton my Lord, and negotiate at Pekin with Canton in your possession.* Such is the opinion of every one here from the highest to the lowest. Even those Chinese who live by gratifying English tastes, painting portraits ■, of vessels for uxorious sea captains, or selling puzzles, bamboo chairs, and grasscloth handkerchiefs, are quite of the same opinion." * . Home Reaching.—Schools are the most propor for training the youthful mind; neither boys nor girls are ever so well educated at home by governesses and tutors as in public; or private seminaries, where emulation is aroused and intercourse with minds of various degrees, of calibre adds strength and keenness to- the intellectual powers, and prepares them for contest in the larger and more active arena of life. But with this,public training, home education should go hand in hand. Beneath the parental roof is the most kindly soil for the cultivation of those heart-virtues, amenities and sweet charities, the observance of which renders life pleasant and chappy—the neglect of them, the reverse.:;. .Unhappy. those who can not recall such education from the earliest davpri of their, -recollection. Commenced in the daily attentions and tender admonitions of a mother^ tin a sister's gentle smilej: and:; friendly {CO.mpanio.nsliip, in. a brother's ready Kelp and fond protection, in the ramble with a dfatner through pleasant green lanei or §hady ibrest paths, where are tyrds. and wild .flowers, witlj;the tiny grasshopper, "the; gold green beetle," the humming bee, and all the myriad insects seen on a summer's day: in the tale read and commented on* by the winter's fireside, in the visit to the sick and humble neighbour, and the united prayer offered up at morn and evei—Buch teaching, when joined with the unvarying, regularity and sterner discipline of school duties, will train the youthful mind for its best and noblest purposes. Nor is such education ever forgotten, for it is twined; .with the hearts' deepest, holiest memories, and the youth thus brought up may be fearlessly dismissed on the rough.journey of life, with every prospect of achieving all honourable and useful existence. But wo unto those who think that in providing competent instructors for their children they fulfil their duty —who ate so occupied by the demands of business,(fashion or pleasure, as to have no time left for home teaching or home enjoyments. Bitter are fruits yet in store for them. Immortal souls confided to their charge have grown up in ignorance of the great end; of their being, and unfitted for the practical duties of life. Needed counsel has been held-back; errors and failings passed by unreproyed, evil tempers and passions permitted to remain unchecked. Is it then astonishing that; despite almost fabulous sums lavished on education, the daughters of such parents should become vain, heartless and frivolous women, and their sons bad and cruel men ? Napoleon's Residence at St. Helena. —-The ', Mbnitenr'deJ', Armee, in announcing that Longwood, the,residence of Napoleon at;j3t. Helena, has .^een : giyen up by England to, the -French Gpyerninent, adds details -relative to the measures" which will be adopted for the repairs an| proper keeping of the place; The Emperor Napoleon 111. has, it is; said, decided** that this place, marked by souvenirs so 1 dear to France, shall be repaired and kept in good condition, under the direction of some old superior officer of the French arrijy who had served under the first Empire, who will have for His residence at St.'lielena the house which was in course of construction for the '' Emperor at the time of his death. This officer, selected on the proposition of the Minister of War, will haye"the official title of Conservator of" the House and tomb of, Napoleon:L, St. Helep^,.— The necessary repairs are to commenc|immediately. The ' tomb will be restored, sucll as it was at the ' period when it contained the precious re- , mains of the great man, and a funeral , chapel will be built on the site of the delapidated tiouse which was his last asylum, and ' in which he died. All the spots which I have been immortaliseil by his presence, the hillock on which, in" fine weather he used to sit down and contemplate the sea, the place where,,ne dictated his me- ' moirs, the part of thej-oad where he used , to stop in his rides, &cT,~will be marked by i some construction. i The man who was driven to distraction j has had to walk back.

Instability op thh. Earth/-—Notfar from Naples, near Puzzuoli, there are parts ofjhe ancient temple of the Egyptian Serapis still standing;,there oeautifui columns- especially speak of its formed splendour. At a considerable height they present the curious sight of being worm eaten; and late careful researches leave no doubt that the waters of the Mediterranean once covered them go high, as 'to bring these, their upper parts, within the reach of the sea worms. Since then the land has risen high; but, stranger still, they are, by a mysterious force, once more to be submerged. Already the floor of the temple is again covered with water, and a .century hence new generations of moluscns, may dwell in the same abandoned homes of their fathers, which are now beyond the reach of the highest waves. . A French seller of sausages infuses the lottery principle into his business, by putting a gold coin in one of every fifty sausages.