MISCELLANEOUS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 78, 7 August 1869, Page 5

MISCELLANEOUS.

Law and Justice — The coit of defraying the expenses of Law and Justice including Judges' and Eesident Magistrates' salaries, Coroners' fees, Criminal Prosecutions, Land and Deeds Eegistry, amounts to a large item in the Colonial expenditure : the total being £55,685 for the year ending 30th June, 1869, as gathered from the Estimates of the General G-overn-ment just published. Beards in the Navy. — When the ''• late Capt. Moorsom, of live-shell fame, appeared on one occasion at the Admiralty with a profusion of whisker, beard, and moustache, he was ironically told that he had made a mistake, and. that his visit was intended for the Horse Guards, he was, accordingly, bowed out of the room, took the hint much to his personal inconvenience, and returned with a clean shaved chin. We believe that, even at the present advanced board there are individuals who think that a man with a hairy face is only fit to be a bear leader, and would as soon think of going to sea without provisions as without a set of wellground razors. The First Lord of the Admiralty is a very Esau; and we understand that, Avishing to do by others as he would be done by himself, he has sanctioned the preparation of an order to the effect that all officers, seamen, and others serving in Her Majesty's fleet, may_ be allowed to dispense with the aid of the barber. We hail with pleasure this, another proof of Mr. Childers' common sense. — " Army and Navy G-azette." The Queen's Bridesmaids. — Our lady readers possibly may feel interested in learning what has become of the twelve young ladies whom Her Majesty some nine-and-twenty years ago chose as her bridesmaids, and who carried the Eoyal train in the Chapel Boyal on the day of her marriage to the late Prince Consort, February 10, 1840. Two of them were married during that year ; Lady Mary A. F. Grvimston to Viscount Folkestone, the eldest son of the Earl of Eadnor, and Lady Elizabeth A. Gr. Howard to the Hon. and Eev. F. E. Gray. Two others were married in 1841, Lady Frances E. Cowper to Viscount Joscelyn, eldest son of the Earl of Eoden, and Lady Ida H. Hay to Viscount Camden. now Earl of G-ainsborough ; in 1842, Lady Sarah F. C. Yilliers married Prince Nicholas Esterhazy; in 1843, Lady Catherine L. W. Stanhope married Lord Dalmeny, eldest son of the Earl of Eoseberry ; in 1844, Lady Elizabeth West married Mr. F. C. Hastings Eussell, heir presumptive to the dukedom of Bedford ; in 1847, Lady Jane Harriet Bouverie married Mr. William Ellis, and Lady Elenora O. Paget married Sir Sandford Graham, Bart. ; in 1849, Lady Mary Charlotte Howard married Lord Foley, and Lady Caroline A. Lennox married the Earl of Bessborough ; and lastly, in 1851, Lady Adelaide Paget married the Hon. F. W. Cadogau. Of these fair ladies three are dead — Lady Gainsborough, the Princess Esterhazy, and Lady F. Graham ; one of them, Lady Joscelyn, is a widow ; and one of them, Lady Dalmeny, having remained some years a widow, is now Duchess of Cleveland.

Hoaxing the Pope with a YalenTrsrE. — A case has just come to our knowledge, which is probably without parallel in the anmls of St. Valentine. Six young ladies in an English boarding school — two of them hailing from the North — purchased a very pretty valentine, which they sent directed to "His Holiness the Pope, Rome." Accompanying the valentine was a letter, signed by all the young ladies, stating that they had seen his Holiness's condemnations of chignons and long dressea, and had been so impressed by it that they had given up both. The young ladies waited patiently, and in duo time received a letter from Cardinal Antonelli, acknowledging receipt of valentine and epistle, which had afforded his Holiness much gratification. The letter was in French. The young ladies were delighted to get an epistle from such an exalted prelate. However, another post brought back their valentine, with the Pope's blessing, beautifully written upon it, in Italian. His Holiness had not been accustomed to such souvenirs, and thought it would be doubly valuable returned with his benediction. The young ladies were immensely pleased, and are now having the documents lithographed for preservation — the originals to be given to the girl who suggested the affair. It may be added that neither of the young ladies had either taken down her chignon or shortened her dress one-eighth of an inch ; the whole matter having been entered into as a joke, although it may seem to some that for a few girls to hoax His Holiness Poj)e Pius IX , and his great Lord Cardinal of a secretary, was hoaxing in high quarters.

Apropos of the Alabama question, the "New York World" aska the following pertinent question : — " If, as stated in Congress, some beggarly half-dozen Confederate cruisers destroyed 300 vessels of an aggregate value of 13,000,000 dols., how many ships, and at what cost, would the whole British navy destroy, in case a war be forced on England because, in addition to paying all adjudicated claims of these 13,000,000 dols, she will not do or says nobody knows what ? "