MISCELLANEOUS.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 167, 27 May 1859, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

(From the Home Ncids, March 18.)

The Rothschild bridal dinner is described by the Paris correspondent of the ' Literary Gazette ':—A great event in the beau monde of this place has been the Rothschild marriage. The magnificence was beyond all description, and it would appear that splendors, vicing with those recounted in the Arabian Nights, were lavished upon an entertainment to which nobody was admitted. I mean the dinner given after the nuptial ceremony, and at which some 60 or 70 Rothschilds alone were present. As no one but the family was present at thsfaiwion — as the Spaniards entitle their bull-fights and other amusemenfs — of course the feminine public curiosity has been immeasurably excited by it, and every young male Rothschild has been cross-examined by the fair ladies of Paris ever since, in' order that they may arrive at an approximate knowledge of the "festive scene." It seems all the plate of all the houses of Rothschilds nearly was forthcoming for this banquet; at least, the London chief sent his dinner service over to his cousin of Paris, and the entire, changes of the more than threescore guests were made in silver and silver gilt; plates,, dishes, everything was of the precious metals, as at royal tables'; only at dessert was perceived the priceless service of old Sevres, belonging to the Paris paterfamilias, and whereof each plate represents some-1 where about a king's ransom. As to the viands on the table, they came from every" country and every clime; there were swallows'nests from China, sterlets (a fish of excessive high price in Russia, of the size of a salmon, and of fat orange-colored flesh) from Russia, reed birds and canvas back ducks from America, bustards from Spain, pheasants from Bohemia, entr6s of peacocks' brains, fillets of buffalo hump, and—, one of my lady-informants declares—salmis • of Brazilian parrots! Every salt or fresh-' water had yielded up its fish; every moor, marsh, and forest its fowl; every hotbed, heated by fire or the sun, its fruit; and every grape that ever hung anywhere, its wine. As to the flowers with which the table and the dining-room were ornamented, it is affirmed that there was 1500 pounds i worth (I mean £1500 English). All the windows were covered with trellis work, over which were framed the : choicest creep-, ing plants of the tropics, shedding their luscious perfumes around. If the repast, was worthy of an emperor of a century ago, ! the tribe of Rothschild seems to have been j worthy o£ it, and to have done it due honor;, i

In the first place it is affirmed that the ladies present wore • upon their persons between 20,000,000 F. and 30,000,000f. worth of jewels, and in the way of doing honor to the banquet, those who partook of it sat at table from half-past 6 to midnight. The county of Wexford has just been ' the scene of a moat brutal murder, committed at a place called Torley-hill, near the town of Gorey. The victim is described as an inoffensive old man, bordering on fourscore years, named Edward Dourneen. The deceased was the possessor of a farm of about 100 acres of land, which he had inherited from a late brother, a son of whom is believed to be one of the guilty ' parties concerned in the outrage. It would | appear that the deceased brother left his ; property on ■[ condition that a sum of money should be paid to James Dourneen, his son, and that the murdered man, having complied with that, clause in his brother's will, was anxious to obtain the property for , his own use, which, however, was refused him by the parties; living thereon as tenants. Law proceedings were threatened for the purpose of obtaining possession, to frustrate which, it is said,"the diabolical outrage has been committed. The body, which showed a bullet-wound entering at the back, a little under the left shoulder-blade, the ball passing right through and lodging in the clothes, was found lying on the road about 8 o'clock in the evening, and presented the appearance of having been dead some time. The police have arrested three brothers, named Edward, William, and Martin Doyle, as well as James Dourneen, on suspicion of being the actors in' this murderous tragedy. 1 A'young woman, residing in Chesterfield, impelled by curiosity to visit a newly erected mill, was dragged into the machinery. "Her body .was literally coiled around the shaft with the rapidity of lightning. The engine was immediately stopped. To view the scene, after the accident was perfectly horrible. The machinery was motionless, and the lifeless form of the unfortunate young woman was clung tightly round it. Her head had fallen back, the left leg was locked between the cogs of the wheel, and the foot and ankle were suspended by a few sinews, which seemed scarcely strong enough to bear their weight. The right leg was thrown over the wheel to a kneeling posture, and the ankle was broken. Both her boots, although laced, had been forced off her feet, and the heel of one torn from the upper leather. Her clothes were bound tightly round, the shaft, and the violence which she had sustained by the rapid revolutions of the wheel had dislocated her back. Assistance was soon on the spot, and a j surgeon was called in; but his services were of no avail except in superintending ithe/extrication and removal of the body." A painful circumstance recently transpired at Brompton Barracks, Chatham, Lieutenant A. Baillie, of the East India Engineers, having been detected in robbing one of his brother officers of a sum of money. For some time past considerable sums of money and other property have been stolen fom the officers' quarters at the barracks, but so mysteriously were the robberies effected that no clue could be obtained as to the guilty person, several of the officers' servants who were suspected having been dismissed. In consequence of a statement made to the authorities by .Lieutenant Baillie's servant the police were communicated with, and a watch, set, when Lieut. Baillie was discovered to have stolen a sum of money from the rooms occupied by Lieutenant Manderson. The accused was immediately placed under arrest preparatory to being brought to trial, two sentries having charge of him during the night, On the evening of the 19th February, however, Lieutenant Baillie succeeded in effecting his escape from the barracks, and has not since been heard of. The accused is a very young officer. A young man, arrested in the act of committing suicide, was lately brought before the Lord Mayor. In court he made a most painful statement. "I killed my father by giving him poison some days before he died, and I did so by my mother's command. She told me to give it him. I did not know what it was. I did it innocently. Just before she died she confessed to me that it was poison, and she begged of me, in God's name, not to mention it to any living being till after she was no more. I kept it a secret up to this time, but it has made me so miserable that I got tired of life." The young fellow had made two previous attempts at suicide. He was remanded that the chaplain might talk to him ; as the Lord Mayor, confirmed in his impression by the statement of the prisoner's brother, thought him lab6ring under a delusion. The shopkeepers of. Paris, particularly those;who supply the English quarter* complain that trade has nqt been so fcad as at present since the year 1848. The pastrycooks • say that their ovens are cold, for want of orders; even the chemists state that their best customers have left or are leaving, and I have heard booksellers say that their friends are so much occupied in reading the newspapers, and in calculating the chances of peace or war, that they have neither time nor inclination to call for the new publications. Lord Rosslyn has . accepted the office of .Under-Secretary for War, vacant by the .resignation of Lord,Hardinge. Lord Rosslyn is a majoivgeneral in the army, and has been twice master, o^the buckhounds. ' . The 'Builder' gives the following description'of'the "Guards' Memorial," to be erected immediately in Waterloo-place :— It will; be some 37* or: 38 feet .high. The front of the pedestal, at II feet from the ground, will be- occupied by three soldiers— a Grenadier, a-Fusiliery and a: Coldstream of her Majesty's brigade of Guards, in their . full marching costume; as they fought at ■inkermann^ These:figures will be about eight feet six inches in height. Their re■spective flags./will be behind them; thus altogetherJForming-a pyramidal group. The

flags rest against a second granite pedestal, on which, and above the flags, will stand a figure of Honor, with her arms extended wide, and in her hands and on her'arms will be wreaths of honor. - The figure will be 10 feet high. The inscription beneath her will be "Honor to the Brave;" and beneath the Guards, " Tria juncta in uno," the motto of the brigade. The four figures will be cast out of brass cannon taken at Sebastopol, and given by Government. Behind, on the near face, will be a pile of actual broken Russian guns, burst and mutilated, as they were found in Sebastopol, which is a now feature in a monument. These are the general characteristics of the memorial; but on tho sides will be introduced a slight degree of decoration in the sorts of sunk relievo used by the Egyptians, who were so accustomed to deal with large surfaces of granite, and which, with due attention, might be introduced with good, effect occasionally into our own granite treatment. The foundation is in, up to the ground line, and is a mass of concrete some 17 feet by 15, by 10 feet deep. ; A young lady of the name of Gerard is now singing in Gloucester. " She is said to be the descendant; of an old Norman family of the purest blood. Gerard de ——', the founder of her family, came to this country from Normandy in the reign of Richard L, and a grant of a large tract of land in the north of England, with seignorial rights, was made to him by that monarch. It is the name of this ancestor which Miss Gerard has assumed in making her appearance before the public. Miss Gerard has for several years been under the tuition of Signor Garcia, the most celebrated singing master in Europe, and is, though very young, a mistress of her art." " Our attention," says the Doncaster Gazette, " has been called to the distressing circumstances arising out of what is termed a "revival" in a religious community. | For several weeks past the Rev. J. C. Mil- '■' bourne has been holding services and preaching in the Wesleyan Reformers' .Chapel, and the Town-hall, Doncaster, to j crowded congregations; and we hear that, in some instances, his zeal and earnestness have been attended with much good. Unfortunately, however, a truly lamentable result has been produced in two eases. Sarah Twiby, aged 30 years, who resided with her father, attended Mr. Milbourne's revival services; and the remarks which fell from the preacher created upon her mind so deep and powerful an impression that her reason was overthrown. She became unable to control her actions; and her removal to Wakefield Asylum has been rendered imperative. Annie Stapleton, the wife of Mr. T. Stapleton, had been to hear Mr. Milbourne on Sunday, the 27th of February, and what he enforced in the course of his observations so preyed upon her mind, after she returned home, that the eifect was alarming to witness. She became gradually worse; smashed the windows in the house, and conducted herself otherwise with so much violence that it was necessary to place her under restraint. A certificate for her removal to Wakefield was given; and under the direction of the board of guardians, she was conveyed to the asylum. Her affliction is, however, considered to be a temporary derangement." A letter from Cardiff describes a terrible steamboat explosion in the Eastern Bute Docks. The steamer was a new one, and was just going to make her trial trip. She was blowing off at a very high pressure, and in order to hear the instructions of the captain the man at the engine placed his hand on the safety-valve to keep it down. Immediately afterwards the steamer blew up, and immense pieces of timber, and six poor fellows (four of whom are since dead), all fell among the general crash that ensued. Hundreds of persons were standing about the part of the docks where the accident occurred, and it is truly marvellous how so many escaped; as it was, seven were wounded more' or less. A Dutch seaman had his thigh broken, and some their arms, &c. One poor fellow was thrown a distance of 65 yards from the steamer, his body being horribly mangled. Mr. Scholefield's bill on the subject of the adulteration of food imposes a penalty on every person selling any article of food or drink with which, to the knowledge of such person, any noxious ingredient has been mixed. In addition to this the offender will be subject to the publication of his name, residence, and offence (at his own expense) in the newspapers or ■otherwise, at the discretion of the magistrates. Vestries and district boards and town councils are authorised to appoint analysts, by whom purchasers of provisions may have their purchase analysed by those officials on payment of a fee, and the certificate of the analyst will be made evidence against the fraudulent vender. The Privy Council is empowered to cause analysis to be made, and to regulate the use of materials or inj gredients distinct from the natural composition of any article of food or drink withwhich it may be mixed. The act is not to extend to either of the sister kingdoms. . As Thomas Monkhouse was digging a grave in the Kendal Cemetery, a short time ago, his attention was called to the body of a man lying on the ground near a headstone. Upon examination it was ascertained that the person was quite dead,: a bottle was found in his pocket containing essential oil of almonds, with which he had poisoned himself. About half an hour before the fatal act he had come to the gravedigger, and asked if he had not seven graves open. Receiving a reply in the affirmative, the wretched man went away, and, shortly afterwards made further work for the sexton by swallowing the poison already mentioned. The wretched man had formed an attachment to a widow, which was not returned, and when his dead body was found it was lying at the headstoneof the grave of the widow's late husband. The deceased was 39 years of age.

The West African-Herald, the first newspaper ever published on the Gold Coast, contains an interesting account of the trial for murder of one Cojoe Dobrah. The description of the scene during the passing of the sentence of death might have been written by an English reporter:—"The court inquired of the prisoner in the usual form what he had to say why sentence of death ' should not be passed upon him. The prisoner made a statement to the same purport as the depositions previously taken which comprised a full confession of the act and the motives leading to it. For some moments there was a deep silence in the court; the judge appeared to be in a reverie, men's thoughts seemed, to be wandering elsewhere, and an air of lauguor had apparently crept over the proceedings, when suddenly the whole audience were startled by the deep tones of that judge's voice pronouncing the words ' Cojoe Dobrah.' We looked up, and it was impossible to repress a start when we perceived that on the chief justice's head . was the fatal black cap. It was not the first time that we had been present at such a scene, but never before had- we been so impressed. It was almost appalling to witness the stern manner in which tho agent of justice fixed his eye on thecriminal whom he was .about to send before his God. Separated by a distance of scarcely two yards, the judge and the prisoner looked each other in the face. Anxious and expectant rather than downcast or absolutely cringing, the prisoner listened with eagerness to what fell from the judge's lips, though he understood it not.". ' . We are at length enabled to state, upon evidence of the highest authority, that the author of the celebrated' " Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation,'' first published in 1844, and which has since gone through several additions, was the late Dr..George Combe, who died about a year ago; The authorship of the " Vestiges," after haying been attributed to various persons, as: the Lady King (Lord Byron's "Ada, sole daughter of house and heart"), Dr. Carjienter, Lord Brougham, &c, was at length almost universally laid at the door of Mr. Robert Chambers, who, however, had nothing to do with it further than that he may have looked over some of the proof sheets; in which case, Mr. Page's assertion, that he was requested by Mr. Robert Chambers to correct the proof sheets, becomes intelligible. [We extract this paragraph ' from the Critic, for the purpose of saying that our contemporary's " highest authority" is very ill-informed. Without re-affirming what has been so often asserted and contradicted, that Mr. Robert Chambers was the author of the "Vestiges," or without venturing to say who was, we have no hesitation whatever in stating that Mr. George Combe was not. He was the last man, lor many reasons, who could be suspected of having written the book by any person who knew him ; and that our contemporary did not know him is sufficiently shown by his conferring a title on him which he never enjoyed.—Ed. H.N.] A strange accident, though one destructive to property alone, occurred lately at the Bamber-bridge station on the East Lancashire Railway. An engine ran off the line and broke a gate and posts, then caught the corner of a house abutting on the railway, knocking the gable down entirely, and carrying away a portion of the front wall. The whole interior of the house was thus displayed to view. A woman who was washing in the back kitchen was providentially unhurt; and the engine driver, who shut off the steam as soon as possible, also escaped injury. Mr. Ed. Merewether, the agent of N.S.W. had an interview, on the sth March, with Sir Stafford Northcote on the subject of steam postal communication with Australia, via Panama. Fatal Accident. —-An inquest was held on Monday, before E. Hulme, Esq., the coroner, and a jury, on the body of William Smith, late fireman on board the steamer " Pirate." It appeared from the evidence of the second engineer and one of the crew that deceased had drank rather frtely: on Saturday evening, and was with some little difficulty induced to go to his bunk, which was situated over the covering of the wheel, near the hatchway. . About six o'clock-on the following morning on one of the firemen proceeding to call the deceased, for the purpose of getting up steam, his bunk was discovered to be empty, and on further search, deceased was found at the bottom of the ladder, quite dead. Dr. Burns, who had made a post mortem examination of the body, stated that there were only two slight external wounds, one on the temple and the other on the back of the head. The brain was highly congested, and in all probability death had resulted from the concussion, combined with the semi-apopletic condition - produced by drinking. The jury returned a verdict of " Accidental death, caused by a fall on board the steamer " Pirate." " It is supposed that the unfortunate man must have got out of his bed on to the platform covering the wheel during the night, in a half unconscious state, and missing his footing have been precipitated to the bottom of the engine room where his body was found.— -Otago Colonist, May 13.