MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

Colonist, Issue 24, 12 January 1858, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

Probably the oldest clergyman in England is the Rev. -Hi'vTotty, D.D., Rector of Elchinghani.; Sussex, who is 102 years old.: ' Mr. John Townsend, M.P.,-for Greenwich, is in the Court of Bankruptcy. He was an auctioneer, aud his liabilities are only .26000. It is announced that Mr. John Bright has perfectly recovered his health, and is vigorously preparing for the ensuing parliamentary campaign. '-'.'' A local paper states the name of Mr. John Frost, the chartist, and Ex-Mayor of Newport, appears on the Town Hall door, as claiming to be restored to the list of freemen for the borough. The Gazette announces that the Queen has appointed Rear-Admiral the Hon. H.-Keppel, to be Knight Commander of the Bath;, and Commodore the Hon. C. G.J. B. Elliot to be Companion ofthe Bath. Admiral Lord Lyons and tlie officers of his squadron have been received with great attention at Algiers. A grand banquet was given to them at the palace, and on the following day the .governor and the authorities dined on board the Royal Albert. We (Manchester Guardian) are glad to learn the cultivation of cotton on the western coast of Africa, which has been commenced uuder the auspices of Mr. Thomas Clegg, of Manchester, continues to flourish; and Mr. Ciegg received this week a bill of lading of 84 bales, shipped from Lagos, in the St. George, for Liverpool. ' An enormous (beer vat, made by Mr. Oxley, of Frorne, Somersetshire, is now in course of erection at Messrs. Norton's Brewery, Caermarthen, which msasures 41 feet in circumference and above 20 feet high. It is of an oval shape, and our readers may form some idea of its magnitude from the fact that, when the vat is completed, we (Caermarthen Journal) hear that the spirited proprietors purpose giving a dinner to thirty of their principal workmen in the interior of it. Two Roman Catholic clergymen have volunteered their services as chaplains to the army in India—namely, the Rev. John Kyne, of St. Peter's Chapel, Clerkenwell, and the Rev. E. Lescher, one of the priests attached to the Chapel of the Holy Family on Saffron-hill. They have been already armed by Cardinal Wiseman with the "faculties," or spiritual authority, and will leave Loudon for the East with as little delay as possible. The "European Statistics of Suicide," recently published in France by M. Lisle, show that England is no longer at the head of the dreary poll. The French author proves that France is highest in the scale, and Russia lowest In London we have one suicide in 8250. Paris gives one in 2221. For the whole English population the suicides reckon one in 15,900 ; France, one in 12,489. The north of France is the most prolific in suicides, that district yielding nearly half of the whole number in the entire empire. The Floating Island on Debwent Water Lake.—-This insular phenomenon has re-ap-peared on the surface of the lake, a natural curiosity which the tourists visited in great numbers. The island is still a picturesque accessory of the lake, has increased' in growth since its last visit to the realms of light, about three years back, being about 80 feet long by 30 broad. It is a very vast body of peat morass herb, covered with vegetable matter of the lacustri Uttorella, lobelia darhmannia, and other rare aquatic plants. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wale-., accompanied by Prince Leiningen, Sir William Codrington, Colonel Ponsonby. Mr. Gibbs, and Dr. Armstrong, arrived at Cbamounix in the evening of Saturday week, from Martiguy by the Tete Noire. It was the Prince's intention to pass a few days in the valley, which is crowded with visitors. On Monday the royal party,"accompanied too by Mr. Albert Smyth, who is now at Chamounix, and had the honour of acting as guide on the occasion, visited the Cascade du.Dard, and afterwards traversed the glacier dii Bpssons, returning by the other side. The Great Eastern American Tourist Arrangement.—Every railway ia Canada and the Ui.it.ed States, with one exception, has agreed to take half fares on the Eastern, tourist .trips from Great Britain through the American continent next year.— Canadian News.