A LEGEND OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 147, 18 March 1859, Page 3

A LEGEND OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS.

I One Gaul tier de la Sallo, who stands on the list of bailiffs of the island in 1284, resided on bis estate, then called " La Petite Ville," about half-a-milo hence, had a poor neighbor, named Masse}', who was proprietor of a cottage, with a little land, near the bailiff's, and had a right of drawing water from a well on the premises of ' the latter. The exercise of this right being an annoyance to the bniliff, he soxight to become the purchaser of Massoy's land, or otherwise to dispossess his poor neighbor; and failing in all his attempts, he resorted to a diabolical scheme for gratifying his revenge. In order to accomplish this, he coucealed two silver cups in one of .Ins own corn-ricks, and suborning witnesses to convict poor Massey of the theft, he caused him to be arrested and brought to trial, when he was found guilty. On the morning of the trial, the bailiff had directed his men to remove into his barn a particular rick, which he. distinctly pointed out to them, and then left his home to assume his office of judge with his brother jurats, a second Judas among the twelve. It happened that the men fortunately mistook their master's orders, and set to work at the other rick, in which they'shortly discovered the missing plate. At the moment when sentence of death was being passed on poor Massey, one of the men, who : had hurried with all his ppeed, rushed breathlessly into court, holding up the cups, and calling out," They are found ! they are found!".. The bailiff, thrown . off his guard, passionately rising, exclaimed, " Thou fool! thai was not the rick I lold you to remove: I knew- ..", Here he, sank'into his'seat,

with a countenance betraying a. guiltjj^conscience, and a dead pause ensued ..throughout the court. The<:'jurats consulted for awhile, when Massey was set at,liberty; and, ■ after a short trial, JDe la Salle was oonvicted of " feloniously conipassiDg the death of an innocent man," and was seutenced to the ignominious, end lie had planned for his victim. ; '. PEACE PRINCIPLES- IN OPERATION. • .- How Yankees who practiced the principles of' George Fox fared will be seen from-the story of Captain Manning and his daughters:—- " " Captain Manning had raised a fine crop of. corn, which he hadstowed .away in the garret, of his log-house. " As lie practised upon the principles of non-resistance, he could neither be a good Pennamite nora good Yankee, and the. 'consequence was that he was often persecuted by both, a 8 one or ttc other happened to be in. ,power. • When Ogden took possession of the fort, some of 'the boys' laid a plan to rob -Captain Manning of his corn. The old Quakerhad two buxom. girls, one of whom,- it was suspected, had a lover among the .'.Pennsylvania:, boys,' and it was supposed that this, fact1 would-? account for certain secret communications which >■ were made to the Mannings with .regard to the - movements of the Pennamite3. By some means, • ■ no matter what, the family got wind of the - plundering expedition, and,were thrown into great perplexities. The old gentleman could not fight, and as to magistrates awd courts there were none to resort to.. Jg^hile he sat in the corner brooding over 'his helpless condition, his two daughters, who were large, muscular, and courageous, hit upon a plan of defence; and, upon opening it to the good old Friend, it seemed to look so little like war and bloodshed 1 that he gave it the sanction of his silence. The girls hung over the fire a large iron kettle, and. filled it with water, which, when the assailants made their appearance before the door, was boiling hot. They then took an instrument, vulgirly called a squirt-gun, constructed of the barrel of an old musket, and through the chinks between the logs sent a jet of the boiling water into the face and eyes of the assailants. A fewshots were enough to conquer the courage of the gallant band, who took to their heels,, and put themselves beyond the reach of the formidable engine so efficiently served. The assailants ran off frantic with puiil, while the girls shook their side 3 with laughter-; and the good old Quaker was scarcely suspected of a dereliction of principle, although no one doubted but that he enjoyed the battle-scene to a high degree." The Electric Telegraph Foretold.— . About the year 1816, a party of country gentlemen were dining at Alfoxton Park, in the western part of Somersetshire. A casual expression from one of the company aroused the hitherto most silent person of the party, a shy but intel-lectual-looking man, who appeared even younger than he was; and rising iiito enthusiasm he proceeded to describe the power of electricity find the range of its influence. At length their startled attention was fixed by his solemnly pronouncing the following remarkable words—'• I prophecy that by means of the electric agency we shall be enabled to communicate our thoughts instantaneously with the uttermost parts of the" earth !" Tins announcement was received as a wild chimera. Yet, absurd as the idea wa3 - then deemed, the most of the party have lived to witness the fulfilment of those prophetic words, uttered 42 years ago. The person who thu3 foretold the electric telegraph was Andrew Crosse, then unknown to the scientific world.— James Elmes, C. E. } in Notes and Queries. Dropsy.—The Abeille Medicate gives air account of; a curious case of ascites abdominalis, in which the patient, aged' twenty-two, having been tapped three times, was treated with an, injection of iodine in the peritonaeum. The composition was as follows:—Water, 200 grammes; iodine of potassium, 3 grammes. The iujection produced neither headache nor any other distressing symptom; a quarter of an hour after the operation, the pulse,' which was at eighty before, fell to sixty-eight; a few hours later the patient complained o£.an acrid and. bitter taste in her mouth, but this phenomena was of short -duration. On the third day the throat was inflamed, and the patient experienced a difficulty of deglutition, which, however, was easily removed by an astringent gargle. In short, after the fourth day the cure proceeded regularly, and at the end of a fortnight was complete. The patient has now been : fourteen months without experiencing a relapse. Interesting Employment.—lt is said that the Empress of the French and some of her. ladies have lately been engaged in making all manner of experiments on dress, as regards furm, and development, and oolour; and that i the result is that they have determined before long to inaugurate a violent reaction to the present style—that is to siy, to have dresses short enough to display the foot and ankle, instead of trailing on the ground; to diminish, immensely their prodigious development; and in place of coloms more or less staid to hay the brightest and gayest hues imagirable.— , Court Journal. ■- Medical Evidence. — Medical evidence should be in simple language when given before a jury. Really eminent men.do not indulge in absurd technicalities, which are perfectly unintelligible to the community. The accompanying is a specimen from another clas3 of. witnesses. During a ease of assault heard before Judge Falconer, the following occurred: — Surgeon examined —" I fouud plaintiff had a severe contusion .under the left eye, great extravasation of blood under the eye, and some abrasion of the skin." Judge—" You mean he had a bad black eye ?" Surgeon—'' Yes," Gavazzi on Crinoline. —Is there anything more hypocritical than the dress of a lady at the .present day? Is there anything more abominably false than the petticoat? of a lady now-a-days ? When you meet the.n in the streets—■ one of those walking mountains—taking up half your High-street, and, generally speaking, the smaller they are in person the larger they are in dress—when you see one of these prominently walking ladies, you will say, "Oh, the stately lady ; proud lady. , It looks as a Juno." If they, would permit you," by engineering, to measure the basis of their-rotundity, you try to do the utmost you can by stretching out your arras. This is an impossibility; but when you go to embrace them, you find there is nothing, and that you have been grasping at a handful of wind! This is what I call gaining admiration under false pretences. — Lecture of Gavazzi at Belfast. ■ Everything, moralises an American contemporary, must have altered very much in a short time. Only a few -years since,- GeneralJaokson," being seated between two ladies, said he felt like a'thorn between two roses. President Buchanan says, a few days ago, while riding1 iri an omnibus, and being seated between two ladies, he felt like a stave in-a hogshead of molasses, surrounded by IIOOpS. . ' .. ' ;• ,