MISCELLANEOUS.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 285, 13 July 1860, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

Long Range.—An Armstrong gun, with a guaranteed range of nine miles, has been sent from the ordnance works, near Newcastle, to Shoeburyness, where it will be subjected to the necessary test. Chinese Slaves.—Our last new 3 from China includes revelations of a shameful system of kidnapping coolies for the sugar plantations of Cuba. It would appear that these poor creatures are caught by native agents, thrust into Chinese boat«, tortured in all kinds of cruel ways, till they dip - their thumbs in ink and so sign an 'agreement' to become free emigrants; arid that they are then conveyed on board ships, bearing the stars and stripes, to be forwarded to their destination. Flogged, thrown in baskets, into the. river, or hoisted into the air by toe and. thumb bound together, in fear of death, these wretched men sign their own liberty away. These are days when England speaks gently as any sucking doves when nations' liberties are bartered, and when territories are exchanged, as deliberately as Islington barters its old clothes for spring flowers. Will she then venture even to murmur a remonstrance against horrors perpetrated upon a few Chinamen under the Amecan flag—horrors which equal those that, in the brave days gone by, moved the eloquence of a Wilberforce and a Brougham ? , 'Port.'—Mr. Basquet, quoted by Mr. B. Oaborne in the House of Commons, gives the following as the composition of the stuff drunk in large quantities as Port wine:—Cider 45 gallons, brandy 6 gallons, port 8 gallons, decoction of ripe sloes 2 gallons, with a tincture of red sanders to give it colour, tincture'of catechu to produce a * fine crusty appearance,' and the ends of the corks soaked in a decoction of Brazil and alum wood to give out a fine appeaiance of ' age.' This is one of many frauds begotten of customs and excise. British Taxation.—lt. is one of the iniquities of the present income tax that farmers paying lest rent than £200 a year are exempted, whilst from the struggling clerk or shopman earning his £100 a year, who is in far worse circumstances than the farmer paying that rent, the tax is rigidly exacted. The secret lies in the fact that there are more landlords than merchants, traders, and manufacturers in the House of Commons. Speaking of the difficulties parliamentary reformers had to encounter, when representatives were refused to Manchester and Birmingham, Lord John Russell said,' When the country took up the question then the task became easy and plain.' So it will be with the question of financial reform. When once the peo» pie come thoroughly to understand how they are robbed and injured by customs and excise duties— the alleged difficulties of providing for the State necessities by a system of direct taxation, pressing equally on all classes, will be easily overcome. It is the will that is wanting, not the (power; and when the people say * the thing must be done,' their rulers will readily find the way to do it. . National Folly.—The Chancellor of the Exchequer tells a Welsh clergyman, who wrote, to him complaining.of the income tax, that if the , nation chooses to spend the sum of £36,000,000 1 annually on the supply services, instead of £21,000,000, it muit put up with the income tax: and adds that he has not observed, on the part of the clergy, any disposition to ch,eck expenditure. Excise.—Since the removal of the excise duty on starch upwards of forty patents have been taken out for improvements in the process of manufacture. This fact affords some criterion of what will be the result of the abolition or the excise duty ou paper. The Way the Money Goes.—The Rev. Thomas Thurlow, a clergyman of the Church of England, is receiving annually the sum of £7352 14s. 6d. as 'patentee of bankrupts,' and £371 more ag 'clerk to the hanaper'—videlicite, hamper, and * chaff wax sealer!' The money is extracted from the funds which belong to creditors, to pay a fat sinecurist, simply because Lord Chancellor Thurlow thought fit thus to provide for his family. This is a very glaring sample of the cases in which what are called private ' vested rights' are enormous public ' wrongs.' Wrecks.—The number of wrecks during March was 166. In January there were 229, and in February 154. Making a total during the present year of 549. ' Militia.—lt is reported that it has been determined not only to stop the disembodiment of those militia regiments now under orders for disbandment, but also to call out the whole militia fcrce of the empire. Judge and Jury.—At the Salisbury quarter sessions the jury consulted together for some time in a case of larceny, when the recorder, Mr. John David Chambers, said—Gentlemen, if you wish to retire we must have another jury, as the business of the court must proceed. The jury afterwards returned of not guilty. The recorder Gentlemen of the jury, I must say you have found a most singular verdict; let me ask you what are your reasons?— Mr. Dawkins: It was my conviction, and that of others, that the evidence was insufficient. The recorder, testily: What! It is my duty to tell you that you have returned a verdict directly contrary to the evidence; I will not procaed to try another case with such a jury; let them be discharged. Mr. Dawkins: As one of the jury, I mugt say that I think you are exceeding your duty, and don't know your business. A juryman: You may as well turn round and bully us at once,, The recorder r you are discharged; I won't havei the next case tried t by such ajjury.—Mr. Dawkins: As long as you, sir, preside at these sessions, I will alwayß be fined rather than serve on a jury again. The jury then left the box, and a fresh jury was sworn. British Shipping.—Considerable surprise has been excited at some statistical returns,, snowing a falling off in the numbers of ships and men employed in the merchant service. The total number ot British ships employed in the trade of the United Kingdom in 1859 was 18,675 sailing ships and 895 steam vessels—of which number 10,035 sailing ships and 374 steamers were employed solely as home trade ships, 848 sailing ships and 59 steam vessels, partly as home trade ships and partly as foreign-going ships, and 7792 sailing ships and 462 steam ships solely as foreign-going ships. The aggregate tonnage of these 19,570 vessels wa3 4269,109 tons, and the number of men who worked them, exclusive of masters, 172,506. The return shows a decrease of 501 vessels, of 65,133 torisj and 5326 men, as compared with the returns of 1858. The return, however, as compared with the average of the last five years, exhibits an increase of 357 vessels and 78,693 tons, but a .decrease of 1330 men. The decrease of ships and tonnage is, to some extent, accounted for by the gradual substitution of steamers for sailing vessels, since a steam ship will make three voyages where a sailer,will make.two. French in China.—During the late debate in the House of Commons on the affairs of China and the probable renewal of the war with- that empire, the member for Biruiigham stated that although he was in the habit of always speaking, respectfully of the Emperor of the tfrench» ml

indeed of all persons high in authority, yet he could not disguise from himself that it would have been as well if we had not been connnected with France in that expedition, for France might have objects to gain which we had not. We find this idea carried out in a metropolitan hebdomadal of the 13th, which raises these uneasy ideas:— "For years the Imperial Government has exhibited great anxiety to create French establishments and extend French influence in the east. Scarcely was the Russian war finished, ere it despatched officers to drill the troops of the Shah of Persia, and sent workmen to erect and carry on cannon foundries. According to the last report received iv Paris, there are 60,000 Persian troops drilled and armed after the French mode, and largely officered by Frenchmen. The cavalry is stated to be very efficient, and the artillery equal to that of any European power. In Abyssinia the same is being done, so that French statesmen boast they can command, independently of Egypt, 150,000 or 200,000 soldiers, drilled and officered by Frenchmen, and located on the road to India; between the shores of the Mediterranean and those of the Indian Ocean." The same writer inclines to the belief that the French will occupy thf island of Formosa if the Chinese will not apologise, nor accede to the demands of France and England, and will continue to occupy, it when the war is over, on the plea, that we have annexed Hong Kong. We cannot see any great arm in this, although the belief is purely conjectural. A Sensation Preacher in Philadelphia.— The Philadelphia correspondent of the New York Tribune writes :—" A perfect furore is prevailing among the churches^ under the preaching and lecturing of a young Irish clergyman—the Rev. Grattan Guinness. He comes among us to enlighten us a3 to the extent and power of the great religious awakening now in progress in Ireland, and to gather such contributions in aid of schools and churches for the poor Irish as may be offered him. He speaks with wonderful fluency, clearness, and power. His descriptions of the Irish revival are so full, minute, and satisfactory, as to astonish our people at the marvelousness of the work.,* He has been here five weeks, during which he has preached some sixty times, yet the masses crowd in to hear him even more anxiously .than when he began. Every Sunday he preaches three times, and every evening during the week. Scarcely an advertisement of his appearance is published, yet his audiences are tremendous. When the Sunday service begins at Z\ o'clock, the church is packed full of people by 1, and when the service is over, hundreds keep their seats to be sure of them for the evening sermon, which concludes at 10 o'clock, so that they are in church some nine hours. No such enthusiasm has been witnessed since the days of Summerfield. Mr. Guinness has been the means of again reviving the revival of two years ago, and numbers have been reached to conviction under his ministry. A New Profession,-—There are things done in the metropolis of Eugland which would shame the Parisians, frivolous as they are. What we are about to relate, though bordering on the absurd, is, nevertheless, true. Mr. B. carries on a highly lucrative trade as a confectioner at the West End ; but in the way of businsss he is something more than a mere pastrycook. He not only sends out jellies, ices, and sweet cakes, but also gentlemen! who dance quadrilles. It is a fact that these useful individuals axe hired for where they are wanted, at bo much per night, half of which goes to Mr. B—, and the other half to his delegate, for gloves and cab-hire in rainy weather. Mr, B—has a regular list kept of these gentry, and having among them many super-excellent quadrille dancers, there is generally a dispute to procure the best. It is not unusual for Mr. B—'s patronesses to be informed, when bespeaking the services of a particular gentleman, that Mr. O—has been booked for a month to come. These gentlemen show their gratitude to their employer by eating as many cakes, ices, and jellies as they can, and when supper is announced, invariably assist in its demolition. We were at first inclined to doubt the truth of what we had heard, but ocular demonstration has convinced us that there are" stranger things betweea heaven and earth than ever was dreamt of in our "philosophy." One thing isspoken of as very advantageous -to the ball-giving host. Although these gentry are men of tolerable good character, they are not entailed as acquaintances on the honor of an assembly. They are principally composed of half pay officers, who converse upon what they have seen abroad, comprehend various languages, and fill up a rest in the danse with admirable sang froid. — Court Circular. " Communique."—Two of the Paris papers, the Pattie and the Pays, attributed to England the fomenting of the troubles in Sicily, and also those in Spain, and commented on the assumption in a spirit which it was supposed would be acceptable at the Tuileries. But, be this as it may, it appears that our Ambassador at Paris, Lord Cowley,—whether iastructed from home or pot does not appear,—thought the charge of such importance that he communicated with the French Foreign Minister, M. Thouvenel, on the subject, who in his turn communicated with the Minister of ths Interior, and ultimately with the Emperor, and it was resolved that a " communique " should be inserted in the papers contradicting the calumny. It has been stated that the Emperor himself drew up this " communique." We must confess that we regard this as a very silly sort of proceeding. What necessity was there for noticing the affair in any way at all ? When it was deemed worthy of contradiction, a few lines in any of the London papers to the effect, " We are authorised to deny in the most emphatic terms," &c, Would have answered the purpose much better. Only imagine the outcry which would be raised in this country if the French Ambassador waited on Lord John Russell, and asked him to pursue towards the Times, or any other of the papers t which have assailed Louis Napoleon, the course which has been adopted towards the two French journals. Crime.—lt has been calculated that the supervision of the criminal classes In England costs more than two millions and a half annually, and that their depredations on which they live when at large, costs the public at the very least thirteen millions and a half more. Lightning.—AXousiana paper, in recording the death by lightning of two likely regro men, says —" The electric fluid of the clouds is no respecter of person?. It would as soon kill a negro worth fifteen hundred or two thousand dollars as a poor white man, not worth the powder and lead it would take to blow his brains out."