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Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 6, Issue 278, 23 January 1862, Page 4

The New 7/ulf.r of Madagascar.— Incidents Preceding the Death of the Queen' —-Despatches have been received in /‘.iris from Reunion to the 7th Sept, bringing later intelligence from Madagascar. Since the death of the Queen, ami the short struggle in which her nephew was killed, the utmost tranquility has prevailed in the island. The fore gm-rs established in the country intended to .wear mourning for a month, and the ships in the harbour of /’annuave hoisted their flags at half-mast for three days. The body of the late Queen was embalmed, and the King, her son, remained by it in prayer fur six days, according to custom, '/’he King, since he began to attend to public business, has received numerous deputations of Europeans, whom he addressed in the most liberal-and reassuring manner. Since ti.e death of the Queen the intercourse between Reunion and Madagascar has revived, and at-the date of the despatches was very active. The Bien Public of the Isle of Reunion relates the incidents following as having preceded the death of the Queen :—The two parties in the State awa ted the death with the greatest anxiety. Some imprudent manifestations had alnady taken place, cause ■ by the impatience,of the frie Ms of Ramboasaiam. Plots had been fotined against Rakofo, am! it was hoped to effect his slaughter by ’ambuscade. /’lie Prince, however, escaped the danger, ami obtained a special guard from his mother to watch night and day for the 'safety of his person. Moreover, on the occasion of the grand solemnity of'the Feast of Baths, Queen Kunuvolo Manjuka presented Fakoto to the people as her successor, and proclaimed him to lie the son of King Radainta. Itakato also seated himself on the/ Sacred Stone, a oereiinoiiy of vast, import, equalling .the consecration of a European Sovereign. As a sequel to these public manifestations and solemn proceedings the Queen made the two rival Princes dine together in her presence. On taking Ills seat to the Queen’s right, R a koto found before him a piate lil.ed with earth ; while Rnubo isalam. placed on her left, had before him a plate filled with gold, l he Queen then addressed them as follows:—“ Understand the intimation 1 desire t;> give you by this. Rakoto — R kiit. you have beside you signifies t lint you possess the land, and that you wifi he King of Madagascar. For you, Kambnasaiaiii, the gold indicates that you will be I'icli ami powerful; hut your duly is to obey lhe King, your cousin.” It. is said that 11 am boasaiam accepted these words under all reseive. God grant, (continues the Bien Public) that Jits ambition be not the cause of -the greatest misfortunes to Madagascar.- by lightning up civil war at Un- Queen’s lieyiii. One chance of civil war was removed on the Queen’s death by the assinatioi! of Ramboasalafn and the Prime Minister at the instigation of /idkalo. The Condition of Russian Poland. A letter from the 4 7’imes,’ dated “ Waisaw, N.eptemU-r 30,”.sajs:—-“ Things are going badly here, and will go badly. The new Council of A’tate meets in ordinary session for the first time to morrow ; lmt it is a slmm. The elections fur the arrondissemetiiai ami municipal councils are going on, ami even where the choice is unanimous. The more active members of the late A gri cultural Society, leading Jews, Patriotic priests, with a few plants, are those eho-.-en as members. But the great want on the.part of the Pules, ns it appears to me, is a 4 settled programme,” printed and published. For want of ibis there is no unity of action here —no sympathy abroad. Count Lambert, the new -Viceroy, makes no pi ogress; the Government have no more hold on the country than they had four or five months ag>. This aggravates them, ami it is said that martial law, or something very like it, is to he proclaimed in a few days, at the furthest. 'The fact of the matter is, the Russians have not the faintest idea of popular representation. Anything lilie ah expression of |opulur wish is a thing to he resented ami punished by Government. It is regarded as an insult to the Emperor. A thing occurred the other day at 0.-trolenka which speaks volumes. /’be - day was appointed for the election. The burgomaster was ready with all the paraphernalia of election. The electors came in crowds. Suddenly, the'coin--inaiidant of ; the troops made his appearance at the. head of his forces, seized the polling hooks ami voting urns, sent them tinder seal to Warsaw, thinking lie had discovered a conspiracy, uud finally dispersed the electors to their homes, whence they came by the Emperor’s command to vote! The Bulbil agitation has readied its chronic state. At first it was acute, spasmodic; now it has settled down into a low kind of feverishness, far worse for tlie social body than its former terrible state in Russia, and even the Russians themselves admit it.

A superior officer not long since said, * I really do not' know whether I shall get anything at all from my estates this year.’ • i-low deep the evil may extend I am not qualified to say.” Modern Children. —Let. us suppose that the object of education is simply to give the child the greatest' amount of pleasure. Obviously the parent ought not only to consult the pleasure of the child while it is a child, and to be reckless of the future, for it would be easy to reduce this to an absurdity, and to insist that the truest kindness to a child is to permit it to kill itself off at the earliest moment that it has learned thoroughly to appreciate raspberry pie and custard. If the whole pleasure of the child is taken into account, it is not difficult to see that the sum of pleasure is really diminished by the precocious enjoyment of the pleasures and pains of inaturer years. In the first place, the child anticipates and exhausts the novelty of what ought to delight it when it gets older. What is a ball to a beginner—what is the first flush of housekeeping to a bride—if ever since she was three she has been flirting in white silk, and ever since she was six discussing the depravity of domestics 1 In the next place, many great pleasures are thus absolutely lost in life. The pleasures of children are very real, although to grown-up people they may seem simple. Among the most noticeable of these pleasures, are such petty amusements as sliding down a grass slope, spoiling dresses by gathering blackberries, taking out the inside of a doll, and burying a dead bird with a full funeral service. These are the pursuits, half naughty, half good, which strike home to the fibres of a childish heart, and which are ruthlessly forbidden by the substitution of unmeaning finery, old talk, and domestic discussions. It is pleasant, as Horace remarked, to be silly on a proper occasion ; and these follies of childhood are as sweet as anything can be to the natural infant. If we come to higher reasons, we need not hesitate to say that the precocity of children, and their, entrance into the amusements, and pursuits, and troubles of their elders is sure to vulgarise them. Heaven lies about our infancy in real life as well as in poetry. Children are for the most part stupid and prosaic, but they are nearer poetry than they ever will be hereafter, and unless their imagination is stifled it will ordinarily be a little excited by many of the incidents of childhood, and by many of the beautiful sights which they see for the first time, a sunset, or a beautiful morning, or the colours of a butterfly, or a pa-etty bird, go to the heart of a fanciful child, and seem to open to it boundless visions of a heaven on earth. It is very bad economy to make these visions fade away before their time. But how can a child have visions of a heaven on earth, or a dim sense of the mystery and beauty of creation, if it is taught to care for nothing but. the- sit of its frock, the wealth of its parents, and the characters of its attendants 1 True wisdom bids parents keep their children at proper seasons in the background, in constant subjection, in obedience tp an unceasing discipline. They should be limited in the number of direct pleasures and treats accorded to them, kept mostly at home, forced into regularity and insignificance. No sight is prettier or more pleasant than to watch the children of a sensible mother. It is charming to see a troop of girls in simple dresses, headed by their governess, range themselves in orderly fashion at the luncheon-table, under the eyes of a vigilant mamma. Those girls are worth talking to when they are young, and are worth marrying when they gro .v up. Children love discipline. They like to be guided, controlled, and silenced. They enjoy being forced, to think of none but childish things. It is only foolish or indolent people who plead that this cannot be done without harshness, and without erecting a barrier between the child and the parent. Children find out instinctively when tenderness is real, and cling to a parent who they know loves them, however strict may be the control exercised over them. It is a policy as shortsighted as it is mischievous to pander to the morbid desire for a premature independence in order to win the gratitude of the child who is misdirected. Strict discipline, childish pleasures, exclusion of children from conversation on domestic difficulties, and moderate but solid intellectual teaching, are the great elements of a good home education.— Saturday lit view. Gardens for Soldiers. —The condition of the private soldier in. the French army seems to be well cared for by the Emperor, as appears by the following letter from the Camp of Chalons, pubfished in the ConsliluVonnel :—“ At the close of the winter the Emperor gave orders that a vegetable garden should be arranged behind the quarters of each regiment of infantry and cavalry, by means of which the soMiers might he supplied with additional comforts. For this purpose fourteen gardeners for each regiment, under the direction of a sergeant and a corporal, were sent to the camp in the month of April last. Engineers traced out these gardens behind each tent or wooden hut. Each regiment was placed in. possession of its ground, and the men immediately began to cultivate it. Wherever the spade was not strong enough impenetrate the ground, engineers came to, their assistance." On the orders having been first given to the corps of Engineers, they sowed a great quantityof cabbage-seed, and the produce was distributed to each regiment in the shape of several thousand feet of cabbage plants. Radish, onion, lettuce, carrot, and turnip seeds were sent from Paris, to be distributed to each regiment. All these vegetables now’ present a magnificent appearance, and will serve this year to add to. the soldiers’ dinners. From 12,000

to 13,000 feet of cabbage, and from 8000 to 9000 feet of leeks and onions, are to be seen at this moment in the garden of each regiment. There are, likewise, a large quantity of kidney-beans, which the soldiers may eat "green/ Next year and the years following the quantityand quality of the vegetables will be still better, inasmuch as the ground will have been better tilled and better manured. The soldiers of each regiment exhibit great amour propre in the cultivation of their gardens and in the superiority of their produce. They, moreover, derive great pleasure from walking through these gardens, which remind them of their paternal homes.” The Imperial Crown of England.— Mr. William Pole has reprinted, for private circulation, a few notes on diamonds. Mr. Tennant has added to these a postscript on the Imperial state crown of Queen Victoria. Professor Tennant thu3 describes the crown : —“ The Imperial state crown of her Majesty Queen Victoria was made by Messrs. Bundeil and Bridge in the year lc-38, with jewels taken from old crowns and others furnished by command of her Majesty. 'lt consists of diamonds, pearls, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds, set in silver and gold ; it has a crimson velvet cap, with ermine border, and is lined with white silk. Its gross weight is 39 oz. 5 dwts. troy. The lower part of the band, above the ermine border, consists of a row oi 129 pearls, and the upper part of the band a row of 112 pearls, between which,, in front of the crown, is a large sapphire (partly drilled), purchased for the crown by his Majesty King George IV.. At the back is a sapphire of smaller size, and six other sapphire# (three on each side), between which are eight emeralds. Above and below the seven sapphires are 14 diamonds, and around the eight emeralds 128 diamonds.. Between, the emeralds and sapphires are 16 trefoil ornaments, containing 160 diamonds. Abovethe band are eight sapphires surmounted by eight diamonds, batween which are eight festoons consisting of 148 diamonds. In the front of the crown, and: in the centre of a diamond Maltese cross, is the famous ruby said to have been given toEdAvard Prince of Wales, son of EdAvard 111., called, the Black Prince, by Hon Pedro, King of Castille, after the- battle of Najera, near Vittoria, a.d, 1367. This, ruby was worn in the helmet of Henry V, at the battle of Agincourt, A.D. 1415. It is pierced quite through after the Eastern custom, the upper part of the piercing being filled up by a small ruby. Around this ruby, to form a cross, are 75 brilliant diamonds. Three other Maltese crossesj forming the two sides and back of the crown, have emerald centres, and contain respectively J 32, 124, and 130 brilliant diamonds. Between the four. Maltese crosses are four ornaments in the form oJT the French fleur-de-lis, with four rubies; in centres, and surround' d by rose diamonds, containing respectively 85, 83, 86, and 87 rose diamonds. From the Maltese crosses issue four imperial arches composed of oak leaves and acorns, the leaves containing 728 rose, table, and brilliant diamonds, 32 peai Is forming the acorns, set in cups, containing 54 rosediamonds and one table diamond. The total number of diamonds in the arches and acorns is 108- brilliants ! 16. table and ■ 559 rose From, the upper part of the arches are suspended four large pendant pear-shaped pearls, Avith rose, diamond caps, containing 12 rose diamonds, and stems containing 24 very small rose diamonds. Above the arch, stands the mound, containing in the lowerhemisphere 304 brilliants and in the upper 244 brilliants ; the zone and are ; being composed of 33 rose diamonds. The cross on the summit has a rose-cut sapphire in the centre, surrounded by four largo, brilliants, and 108 smaller brilliants* Summary of jewels comprised in the croAvnl large ruby irregularly polished, 1 large broad-spread sapphire, 16 sapphires, 11 emeralds, 4 rubies, 1363 brilliant diamonds/1273 rose diamonds, 147 table diamonds, 4 drop-shaped pearls, 273 pearls.”