MISCELLANEOUS.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 120, 14 December 1858, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

Mr. Edward Pease, sometimes styled " The Father of Railways," from the part which he took in the projection and carrying out of the Stockton and Darlington line, the earliest in the kingdom, died on Saturday evening, August 10, at his house in Darlington, at the age of ninety-two. Mr. Pease leaves three sons, one of whom, Mr. Joseph Pease, M.P., was the first Quaker admitted to Parliament. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign parts have determined at once to organise a mission to British Columbia. A horrible accident was lately transacted on the Inverness railway. The driver of an engine left behind a break, too idle to. pick it up. After he had disposed of the train, he ran back to fetch the break with several railway servants on the engine. But as the " points'' were snug for the night and not ready to receive so unlooked for a visitor, he ran on to a siding, and rushed furiously against a bank. The tender, which was first, was lifted up and tumbled on the engine. The driver and firemen escaped with scarcely a bruise, as also did three of the party, who were standing on the tender, who were thrown off by the shock. Lamentable to say, however, other three of the party, who were on the engine, met a most shocking fate. They were crushed so against the fire-plate and box by the overtopping tender, that one of them may be said to have been roasted ! to death. All the three poor fellows only lived for a very short time. The enginedriver and fireman, it is reported, were not seen for the night, but next day both were apprehended and lodged in the gaol at Elgin. Lord Shaftesbury on the Temperance Movement. —At the monthly temperance meeting held in Surrey Chapel (formerly Rowland Hill's), the Earl of Shaftesbury occupied the chair, and, after the delivery of several speeches by working men and others, expressed the pleasure it gave him to attend such a meeting of honest, respectable, high-minded, well-intentioned persons, convened for the purpose of making known the benefits they had themselves received and of persuading others to enjoy them. Theirs was a noble work, and the self-denial they practised was a course which every reasonable man must applaud, and which a greater number of us, added the noble earl, vainly endeavour to imitate. Having stated the delight it always afforded him to come into contact with the working classes, and the esteem for them which that contact had inspired, his lordship referred to the loyalty which the diffusion of total abstinence principles was adopted to foster; since, by leaving individuals in the full possession of their intellectual faculties and moral qualities, it tended to make them good citizens, faithful subjects, and consistent Christians. He was quite ready to admit that if people could be persuaded to adopt the abstinence rule, it was a far more simple and effective plan than the rule of moderation which other persons proposed to carry out. The great authority of Dr. Johnstone was in favor of this opinion; and even the great difficulty of bringing the whole nation, by law or persuasion, to one uniform obedience to this rule was no reason against the continuance of efforts which could not fail to be extremely useful. The standard ought to be maintained high, though all might not attain to it. The habit of drinking in this country was the root of 19-20ths of all the evils which beset the great majority of the working classes; and in reference to lunacy, he could say, after many years' experience, as the chairman of the Commision on lunacy, that if habits of temperance had universally prevailed 17-20ths of the existing insanity would not have had a being. He had been perfectly astonished to find the extent to which insanity proceeded, from no other cause than the intemperate use of fermented and other alcoholic drinks. The noble earl dwelt strongly on the necessity for sanitary and social reform to assist in the promotion of sobriety; he knew many families who had altogether changed in consequence of an improved state of their dwellings and the absence of immediate temptations to drinking. His lordship called for the united efforts of all the people's friends in the work of social and moral reform, and resumed his seat amid the loud applause of a large and deeply interested assembly.— Times. Ladies in Parliament.— Gurdon, in his "Antiquities of Parliament," says :—The ladies of birth and quality sat in council with the Saxon Witas. The Abbess Hilda, says Bede, presided in an ecclesiastical

synod. Iti Wighfred's great council at Becconceld, 694 a.d., the abbesses sat and deliberated ; and five of them signed decrees of that council along with the king, bishops, and nobles. King Edgar's charter to the abbey of Crowland, 961 A.D., was with the consent of the nobles and abbesses who signed the charter. In Henry lll.'s and Edward I.'s time, four abbesses were summoned to parliament—viz., of Shaftesbury, Berking, St. Mary of Winchester, aud of Wilton. In the 35th of Edward 111. were summoned by writ to parliament—to appear there by their proxies, viz.,—Mary, Countess of Norfolk; Alienor, Countess of Ormond; Anna Despenser; Philippa, Countess of March; Johanna Fitzwater; Agneta, Countess of Pembroke; Mary de St; Paul-; Mary de Roos ; Matilda, Countess of Oxford; Catherine, Countess of Athol. These ladies were called ad colloquium, ad tractatum, by their proxies, a privilege peculiar to the peerage, to appear and act by proxy.— Timb's Things not Generally Known. A Literal Reading. —A country squire, walking through one of his woods, meets a labouring man just getting over the gate at the entrance of the wood. On a tree which overshadowed the gate is a board on which is written "No path.''—"Can you read?" says the squire to the man.—" Ya'as; where do you s'pose I wos born and bred if I can't read ?"—" Well, as you can read, will you be so good as to tell me what you see written there?"—" What I see written up there? Why I see an infernal great lie! It says 'no path;' and hang me if there isn't as good a path as ever I seed— wide eno' for you and me to walk on at the same time." " WJiy now Burn our Bones ?"—At the Errol Chemical Works, where bones are extensively used for the manufacture of manure, an alarm was recently raised that three of the men had, for several successive nights, seen the ghosts of several Crimean heroes, stalking along the joists of the building, crying out, " For our country we bled, for our country we died. Why now burn our bones ?" Some gentlemen of the neighbourhood agreed to watch with the now timid men. They repaired to the place about " the witching time of night,'' and sure enough they had not been long there before the}' were startled by hearing various "eldritch" sounds. Resolved to ascertain whence they came, they made a search of the premises, when they came upon a number of frolicsome lads, comically decked out, who at once took to their heels. Morn ing at Pompeii. —The dead city wakes not at dawn like the living, and, though it has now half divested itself of the ashy robe that has clothed it for ages, the retreating night leaves it yet slumbering on its funeral couch. Tired to death, . the tourists who saw it yesterday yet linger in their beds, and the morn that illumes the mummy-city shines there upon no human face. Strange it is to see by her rosy and azure light this carcase of a city death-stricken in midst of its pleasures, its labors, and its civilization, and which has not undergone the tardy dissolution of an ordinary ruin. You stand expecting that the masters of these perfect houses will come forth in their Greek or Roman dress; you listen for the roll of the chariot whose track is still upon the pavement; you look for the reveller to re-enter the tavern where his cup has marked a ring upon the counter. We walk in the past as though we were dreaming of it—we glance at the corner of the streets, and there an inscription in red letters announces the spectacle of the day. Only, the day has gone by more than seventeen hundred years since!— Gfuatier. Patent Type Founding Company. —The two inventions; the one a new alloy, and the other a simple moulding-t}Tpe, under the patents of Mr. Johnson, are now in active and profitable operation on the north side of Red Lion-square. It is somewhat curious that the French were the first to recognise the merits of these discoveries, and that it was not until prizes had been awarded under special commissions of foreign governments, and the results extensively adopted on the continent, that the singular advantages and great economy of these patents began to be appreciated in Great Britain, Now, however, that some of the leading journals are either wholly or in part using this type —more particularly for its hardness and exactitude—the demand for it is steadily on the increase. The modus operandi of its production has recently attracted the attention of several of our most eminent scientific men, who are, if not invited, at least freely admitted, to witness that which bids fair to become an important feature in the manufactures of London. Connecting France and England by a Bridge. —Under the title of "An Iron Bridge between France and England," the French Moniteur contains a project the realization of which would be one of the most gigantic works of the century. It says:—"The relations between the Continent and the United Kingdom becoming more and more important, has called forth the idea of connecting both with a road by which the operation of a more uninterrupted intercourse between France and England could be established. The project has been submitted by Mr. Boyd, an English engineer, who proposes a bridge from Cape Gris Nez, on the French shore, to Dover, on the English side, the length of this route being eighteen English miles. The bridge will rest on 191 arches of 590 English feet in circumference each. The bridge is proposed to be in the form of a viaduct of 30 feet wide and 50 feet high, in which two or three tracks of rails shall be placed. On each of the arches there is to be a large tower, with construction for ventilation of the passage through which the viaduct is to pass, at an elevation of 300 feet above the level of the sea, which leaves ample room for the passage of vessels, the largest of which never reach higher than 217 feet. In order to prevent vessels from being' damaged by being thrown against

the arches of the bridge during a gale, they are proposed to be surrounded with India rubber. The author of this gigantic project has estimated the total cost at the amount of thirty millions of pounds sterling (nearly 150 millions of dollars)." A Story of Promotion.—Among other historical obscurities with which Paris is filled at this moment may be quoted Herr Baron G , who, enriched.and ennobled by the King of Prussia, rose from the humblest origin to a position of high consideration in the world. While the present Prince of Prussia, then an infant of some three years of age, was staying at the Palace of Babelsberg, by some negligence of his nurse he was left alone for a kw minutes in an apartment on the third fljior. With the marvellous instinct of mischief peculiar to children of that age, the little prince took immediate advantage of the absence of the nurse to accomplish a feat of which he had doubtless been for a long time ambitious, and which consisted in an agreeable walk outside the window, upon the narrow ledge of the coping stone, whence he could conveniently climb up the back of the lion rampant which supports the entablateur of the frontispiece which adorns the building. A poor blacksmith's workman, who had been sent for to execute some lepairs in the palace, was .just coming up the garden, and beheld with'horror the situation of the child. With true presence of mind, he hastened gently to the spot beneath the window, following every movement of the urchin with the keenest anxiety, and extending wide his leather apron as he gazed upwards to watch the first symptoms of giddiness which should occur to the bold little adventurer. As the child drew nearer to the lion, the ledge no longer afforded such firm footing, and presently, with a loud cry, he pitched over, from that terrific height, right into the leathern apron of the blacksmith, which sustained the shock without failing, and in another moment the little prince was restored safe and well to his royal parents, who, in token of their gratitude, took immediate charge of the fortune of the brave young workman, and bestowed upon him a handsome pension with the title of baron, to both of which he has done honour during a well-spent, useful life.— Court Journal. British Museum. —Thesplenid new read-ing-room erected at the expense of about £150,000 has been open to the inspection of the general public, and has been visited by admiring crowds. It is of vast proportions, magnificent in appearance, and, most important of all, it seems admirably adapted for its purpose. The reading-room is circular; the dome is 106 feet in height, and 140 in diameter—two feet less than that of the Pantheon at Rome, but one more than the dome of St. Peter's. The building is mainly of iron ; 2000 tons have been employed in its construction. There is sufficient accommodation for 800 readers, with ample means for warming and ventilation. Some 80,000 volumes are now ranged on the shelves of th > reading-room ; there are three miles of book-cases eight feet high—equal to 25 miles of shelves if they were all spaced for the average octavo book size. The Hartford Courant amuses its readers with the following :—A first rate joke took place quite lately in our court-room. A woman was testifying on behalf of her son and swore " that he had worked on a farm ever since he was born." The lawyer who who cross-examined her, said " You assert that your son has worked on a farm ever since he was born ?" " I do." " What did he do the first year ?" "He milked." The lawyer evaporated. Destruction oj the Aphis. —The method suggested of destroying the aphis with hot sand has been successfully tried by an experienced gardener residing near Bathurst, New South Wales, and answers the purpose admirably. It occurred to him, however, that, as heat was the destructive principle in the hot sand, water would answer the same purpose, and by penetrating into all the crevices of the plant, do it more effectually. Acting upon this idea he heated water to such a degree, that the finger could not be held in for a moment, and poured a little over the leaves of the infected plant. The result of the experiment was most gratifying, as we ourselves can bear witness; the plants, many hundreds in number, looking perfectly clean and healthy, having apparently suffered nothing by contact with hot water. We give these particulars for the benefit of those of our readers who are at all horticulturally inclined, or have a taste for white-heart cabbage, cauliflower, or brocoli. The remedy necessarily involves a certain amount of labor, but no expense, and has simplicity for one of its principal recommendations.— Bathurst Free Press. How the Paper Duty Works.— Touching the excise duty on paper, let us relate a remarkable fact germane to the matter. Some years ago, there was a duty on paper-hangings of 25 per cent., that is to say, on paper-hangings at 6d. a-yard the duty was ljd.; on paper-hangings at Is. per yard the duty was 3d. Well, when the duty existed, and up to the time when it was abolished, the lowest priced paper that was manufactured was at 4d. per yard; and it might have been supposed that the removal of this duty would reduce the common paper-hanging about Id., or say , l^d. But what is the fact? Why, you can now buy a far better paper ; at Id. per yard. The cause of this extraordinary fall in price is, first, the removal of the duty from the paper; but, secondly, and chiefly, the removal of the exciseman from the premises of the manufacturer. A Thoughtful Scholar.' —A clergyman gave an address one afternoon, at a Sun-day-school, on the omnipresence of the Deity. He began by asking "Can any child here tell me where God is not to be found?" The questioner having paused for a reply, one little girl answered timidly, "Yes, I can." The clergyman said, "Where, my dear? for I do not know where the place is to be found." The

'little girl replied, "The Bible says 'He i is not in all the wicked man's thoughts.'" A Sensible Old Lady;— An elderly lady ; says it always reminds her of carrying coal to Newcastle, when she sees girls kissing each other. In Ireland a sharp fellow is said to be as "cute as Power's fox," the fox of Ballybotherem, which used to read the newspapers every day to find out where the hounds were to meet. Useful Information. —The washerwomen of Holland and Belgium, so proverbially clean, and who get up their linen so beautifully white, use refined borax as a washing powder instead of soda, in the proportion of a large handful of .borax powder to about ten gallons of boiling water ; they save in soap nearly half. All the large washing establishments adopt the same mode. For laces, cambrics, &c, an extra quantity of the powder is used, and for crinolines (required to be made very stiff), a strong solution is necessary. Borax being a neutral salt does not in the slightest degree injure the texture of linen; its effect is to soften the hardest water, and therefore it should be kept on every toilet table. To the taste it is rather sweet, is used for cleaning the hair, is an excellent dentifrice, and in hot countries is used in combination with.tartaric acid and bi-carbonate of soda as a cooling beverage. Good tea cannot be made with hard water: all water may be made soft by adding a tea-spoonful of borax powder to an ordinary-sized kettle of water in which it should boil. The saving in the quantity of tea used will be at least one-fifth. To give the black tea the flavour of green tea, add a single leaf from the black currant tree. The First Wedding. —We like short courtships; in this Adam acted like a sensible man; he fell asleep a bachelor, and awoke to find himself a married man. He appeared to have popped the question immediately after meeting Mdlle. Eve, and she, without any flirtation or shyness, gave him a kiss and herself. Of that first kiss in the world we have had, however, our own thoughts; and sometimes, in a poetical mood, have wished that we were the man " what did it.' 1 But the deed is done : the chance was Adam's and. he improved it. We like the notion of getting married in a garden. It is good taste. We like a private wedding. Adam's was private. No envious beaux were there, no croaking old maids. The birds of| heaven were minstrels, and the glad sky flung its light upon the scene. One thing about the first wedding brings queer thoughts to us, in spite of scriptural truth. Adam and his wife were rather young to marry—some two or three days old, according to the sagest speculations of theologians—mere babies—larger but not older—without experience, without a house —without a pot or kettle—nothing but love and Eden—if. M. Noah. Mr Samuel Warren has in his time played many parts. There are those who can remember the time when he was learning his "rudiments" at-Y/oohouse Grove School, near this town, as, the son of a Methodist preacher. He has written novels, law books, and a poem. As Recorder of Hull, he has addressed affecting and appropriate charges to the grand jury, and recently he has become M.P. for Midhurst. Early training and associations still tell strangely on him. He preaches in his novels, he preaches in his law books, he preaches to the grand jury, and he preaches to the House. But, having been bred a Dissenter, he is now the staunchest of Churchmen, and his hair stands on end when he contemplates any measure which in his opinion might injure the estahlishment and benefit the Dissenters, of whom he has drawn such flattering portraits in his famous " Ten Thousand a Year." "As a member of a Christian Legislature, he protested against the passing of the Jew Bill," which, " if it became the law of the land, would undoubtedly lead to the separation of the Church and State." It, must give the public great satisfaction, to be assured by Mr. Warren's own lips that he " belongs to a party called Conservative," but we fear that the satisfaction which such an assurance is calculated to afford must be counterbalanced when they are assured, on the same authority, that the Conservative Government has betrayed the Conservative party, and that since the passing of the Jew Bill there his hardly anything left, worth fighting for.— Leeds Mercury. Slanders. —A friend showed a gentleman filling a high place of trust some slanders that had been written against him. "These, rascals," said the official, "make me talk and act as they would if they were in my place. Money Without a Man.- —A father consulted a friend as to whether he had better give his daughter in marriage to a man of worth with limited means, or to a rich man who had no other recommendation. "I. would, give my daughter," was the repljv "to a man without money, rather than to money without a man." ~..., ; They have been exhibiting in St. Louis and elsewhere what they call "a twoheaded girl." If we may judge from the cuts we have seen, she has not only two heads, but two necks, two bosoms, two bodies, four arms, and four legs. In short she is two girls with their bodies slightly j united. Call the whole one girl if you will, j but we guess if a fellow were to marry the concern he would be indictable for bigamy. Perhaps some one of our enterprising young j men who Were recently in such haste to volunteer for Utah will venture upon the j experiment.— Louisville Journal. When Minds Differ and Agree. —"l love to look upon a young man. There is a hidden potency concealed within his breast, which charms and pains me." The "daughter of a clergyman happening to find the above sentence at the close of a piece of her father's manuscript, as he had left it in his study, sat down and added —"Them's my sentiments exactly, papa, ; —all but the pains." ;

The H.'s. —There is nothing funnier in, Cockney vernacular than Jeames's letter, when he is in doubt which to pre-. fer of his two lady loves, Mary Harm and Hangelina. He writes—".There they stood together, them two young women.' • I don't know which is the ansomest.' I cood'n help comparing them; and I cood'n help comparing myself to a certain Hannimle I've read of, that found it difficklt to make a choice betwigst 2 Bundles of" A." • \ Useful. —A farmer who married a long nose and peaked chin, says he produced vinegar by simply getting his wife to look into the cider barrel. Descriptive. —An editor out west, in describing the homeliest woman he had ever seen for a year, says she " was fearr fully and wonderfully made." Just Like Him. —A certain dissatisfied wife says that her husband is such a blunderer that he can't even try a- new boot or shoe on without " putting his foot into it." . , ' - Financial Position of Fi'cfo^'a.— The Argus says :—At this moment the colony is free of debt. She will have a balance in the present year over and above the expenditure of £307,879, available for the service »f the year 1859. The revenue of the present year is upwards of 3,000,000, and including the balance from the present year, the estimated revenue of ; 1859 :. is £3,691,879. With this magnificent amount the country, next year, besides maintaining all the government establishments, will ? be enabled to expend no'less than £1,545*923 —more than half the ordinary revenue— on public works. This sum, it should, be borne in mind, is altogether independent of the railways, for Which the, loan of 8,000,000 will be contracted. Ministers propose to submit for sale immediately 90,000 acres, and besides these, it appears 4.00,000 acres of the richest agricultural land ill the country have passed the hammer, and are ready for selection by any; one, at any moment, at the upset price. : It has been said that the wild Indian's and civilised ladies only differ in this—the former whoop only in i battle, whilst the latter hoop always. V. A Problem for Milkmen —If 27 inches of snow give 3 inches of water, how much will a cow give vvhea fed upon turnips? Multiply the flakes by the hairs on the cows tail, then divide the product by a turnip, add a pound of chalk, multiply the whole by the pump, and the total will be the answer. :. '. ::■':.;•■.,.■'.■ v ■, \ ;,•"; j.A Backward Relation.— "Mr. Quintin Dick once entertained a large party to dinner, when a sailor knocked violently at the door and insisted on immediate admission to Mr, Quintin Dick. The servant, supposing he had some message from Mr. D.'s relations in India, introduced him into the dining-room. Mr. pick rose, and the sailor, reaching out his hand, said: 'Is your name Quintin Dick?' *It is; at your service.' 'By Jupiter, I'm glad of it; give us your hand, old boy— my name's Dick Quintin; and, by the powers, we'll have a drop of grog together.' The effect on the company may be easily imagined. Mr. Dick took it in good humour, gave the man half-a-crown, and told the servant to take him in the kitchen and give him plenty to eat and drink. - A High Rent —A hole in the crown of your hat, What a Question. —Why is love like a canal boat? Because it is an internal transport. Convenient. —An advertisement in a country paper begins. *To.be let immediately, or sooner, if required,' &c. Awful Delusion. —There is a man out West who labors under the delusion that ' Hon.' placed before a man's name stands for honest. American Elevation. — At St. Louis, when a high-pressure steamer, crowded with passengers, bursts, it is called • elevating the masses.' An Irish Definition. — An Irishman being asked what were the posthumous works of some person, replied, • The works he writes after he is dead.' /Science of Kissing. —The ancients counted three kinds of kisses:— Basia, that between, friends and relatives; Oscida, the kiss of veneration; Suavia, the kiss proper—that between two lovers. The monks of the middle ages—great theorists—divided the kiss into fifteen distinct and separate orders:—l. The decorous, or modest kiss; 2. The diplomatic, or kiss of policy; 3. The spying kiss, to ascertain if a woman had drunken wine ;4. The slave kiss; 5. The kiss infamous—a church penance; 6. The slipper kiss, practised towards tyrants; 7. The judicial kiss; 8. The feudal kiss; 9. The religious kiss (kissing the cross); 10. The academical kiss (on joining a solemn, brotherhood); 11. The hand kiss; 12. The Judas kiss; 13. The medical kiss—for the purpose of healing some sickness; 14. The kiss of etiquette; 15. The kiss of love—the only real kiss. But this was also to be variously considered —viz., given by ardent enthusiasm, as by lovers; by matrimonial affection; or, lastly, between two men—an awful kiss, tasting like sandwiches without butter or meat. . ' A Youthful Genius. — A youth with a turn for figures had five eggs to boil, and being told to give them three minutes each, boiled them a quarter of an hour altogether.