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Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2642, 27 June 1877, Page 2

Ax the E.M. Court this morning Thos. Heron was fined 10s or the usual alternative for having been, found in a state of insobriety and incapability in Pollen street, on the 26th inst. J. Kilgour and H. Goldsmith, Esqs., J's.P., were on the Bench. : ■ .

At about six o'clock last evening the inhabitants of Shortland and Grahamstown were alarmed by the loud clang of the^firebells. The alarm was caused by the chimney of the Glasgow Arais Hotel, Pollen street catching fire and making a sudden flare. The brigades turned out with praiseworthy alaarity, but their services were fortunately not required, as the danger was over by the time they arrived on the spot. A characteristic advertisement of Mr S. Stephenson re " The Old Commodore " will be found in another column.

It appears that some ultra-loyal colonists want an Empress, which movement the Home ISews thus satirises :—We had thought that the Empress of India nonsense of last year would have been sufficient, and that for a century or two we should have had a truce to title-mon-gering, to gi'andiloquence such as the Premier's, to dreary eulogies of " Queenship " like the Spectatpr's, and to feeble pamphlets of the " Blot upon the Queen's Head" pattern. But it seems not, and some sib'lant geese are crying out to have Her Majesty dub herself Empress of Canada. The best that could be said of the Empress-of-India business was that it would most probably do no harm on earth, and that it perhaps expressed something, and might do a scintilla of political good among such of the more ignorant natives as fancied rhetorical tinsel. But as to the Crown arrogating a fresh designation to please a few, a very few Canadians, the idea is sheer moonshine. An opportunity was lost in 1876 of inventing an Imperial title, to symbolise* Queen Victoria's authority over all the Colonies, Hbut this being so, to coin an Empess of Canada would in due time necessitate an Empress of South Africa, and a similar potentate for Australia. The explanation of the request of the Canadian clique is either that there is an automatic tendency in poor human nature, when one set of people have done a rather ridiculous thing, for another set to do likewise immediately; or else it is a bit of adulation after the manner of the courtly sophists of antiquity. -

The Australian bin c gnna, which hasl>?en found to contain such wonderful properties as to be warmly cultivated in Europe, is referred to in the last Home News as follows :—That the Eucalyptus globulus flourishes tolerably well in 4 Europe, provided that it be planted in a sheltered spot is an unquestioned fact, as is also the circumstance that it is generally considered to be a precious febrifuge, some people attributing this discovery to an Italian monk. But the eucalyptus has a way of not blossonfing in these northern, latitudes. At. the leading spring show, therefore', held in the charming Botanical Gardens, .a specimen of the tree in flower attracted much curiosity. A great patron of the virtues of the eucalyptus, Sir Walter Stirling, had a few days before delivered a lecture extolling this muchbelauded shrub. - By the way, why were the delightful "fetes at the Botanical Gardens and'at the Horticultural Society's grounds in South Kensington allowed to clash ? The two bodies are parallel institutions, each with its own-distinctive qualities. The Regent's Park Gardens are a delicious fus in urbe while the Horticultural Gardens are an admirable specimen of picturesque.laying out in the formal manner. " ,' •

A scotch-minister was, once catechising his young' parishioners before the congregation, when h1? put'the usual first question to a stoilt girl, whose father kept a public-house—-" What is'your-name;?',' No reply. The question having been repeated, the girl replied—"Nane 'o* yer fun, Mr Minister ; ye kon^my name well enough. D'ye no say. when ye come to oor hoose on a night, " Bet, bring me some ale ?' " The congregation, forgetting" the sacredness of the place,- were in a broad grin, «nd the parson looked daggers. ' "