THE COURT.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 6, Issue 287, 10 April 1862, Page 4

THE COURT.

The London correspondent of the Manchester Guardian says:—“Her Majesty,lam rejoiced to leam, is perfectly calm and composed, and perfectly sensible that in her position it would be a dereliction to duty to give wild way to the sorrows of wife and woman. She has signed many papers, and‘attends’to public business, which will be harder for her as well as for her Ministers, now that her best counsellor, and their mostlefficaeiousjintermediary, is gone. Lord Palmerston, I hear declares that he considers the Prince Consort’s death will double his labours and responsibilities. This expressionOf opinion—on the authenticity of which your readers may rely—is the best measure, in a summary way, of the public loss we have sustained in the Prince-Consort in one department of business only. As so much curiosity is felt and expressed about the Prince, and as I have heard mistaken and mischievous inferences drawn from the great stress laid, in some recent leading articles of the Times, on the gravity of the new duties thrown on him by his father’s death I am not, Ithink,trangressing the bounds of proper reserve and respect in saying that the character of the Prince hitherto has shown itself to jfthiose brought into closest contact with him singularly pure and honourable, and perfectly free from that insincerity and dissimulation which so early developed themselves in George IV., and formed no small element in the character of even his comparatively excellent predecossor. But while the Prince is a perfect gentleman, truthful straightforward, and unstained by any propensity or vice tha t can cause anxiety to his teachers, friends, aud advisers he is not in the least a student by nature taste or acquired habits. He is, in fact, the very reverse of a lover of literature; but I don’t know that this is much of a defect in one to whom knowledge of men and things is so' much more important than knowledge of books. ,He has already read more in the book of men and manners than most young men of his age, and infinitely more than any Prince of liis family was ever allowed to read before him. There has been nothing as yet to show that he has not profited by this study. Indeed everybody who knows him credits him with a very rare tact and grace, which are among the virtues of sovereigns. But a successor i o his father as an active and personal pi’omoter and planner of in education, in arts and science, he is not fitted by nature to be, and his distinction as a sovereign will have to be sought in other directions. It is a great satisfaction, to. those who will one day, in the course of nature, be his subjects to know that hitherto he has given no indications of any viciousness or defect of character, from which anticipations can be deduced; even by the most carping prophet of ill.”

The American Complaint.—We road that the New York banks hpye suspended: pay-, ments. Coin is becoming so scarce that Barmini is about to advertise “A Dollar on View 15” ah his Museum. Poor America never was in such a fearfully low state, and, with her credit and constitution shaken as they are, we are soiy ely puzzled to know how ever she will get over this terrible attack of tick-cloWex-eas,;. — Punch.

One of the Compliments of the Season.--:. “ I’ve been turning my thoughts inwardly a great deal lately,” said an M.P., notorious for his stupidity, to Bernal Osborne, who. instantly, reproved him by saying, “My dear, fellow, it will never do to gaze on vacancy,in. that way.’' — Punch.

A very tedious fellow annoyed; Douglas Jer-. rold very much by hia everlasting long stories, and; on one occasion he related having heard a song hy which he was quite carried away. Douglas, looking round, asked if any one, preseai; cpuj.d sing that song !-' “ '•

The New York Herald , in its editi'oij*W December 17, in a characteristic article on A,gland, argued that there was probably £120,01)0, 000 worth of 2>roperty of various kinds—stocks, bonds, real estate, merchandize; &c.—belonging to British and French subjects ; and, incase of war with England and France, the Herald urged the Government to appropriate the w hole of the property of private individuals,, and also recommended the Government to prohibit immediately the further export of breadstuff's to Europe - Tlie Jamaica Cotton Company have forwarded a quantity of Egyptian seed to Jamaica, having learned from their agent that the peasantry there are extremely anxious to plant cotton with their provisions, but find it difficult to get sufficient seed. He states that in three weeks’ time he has cleared and planted 40 acres of cotton, and corn with it, and fenced ia for planting GOO acres, the last at an expence of only £1 He pays 6d and 0d a day for Women and Is per. day for men, and has had to turn away hundreds who applied for work. A gentleman who was at Fort Sumter, and has been for many years a cotton planter in the Southern States, gives the price of a day’s labour for when hired out, 75 cents, or about 3s 2d per day; whereas in Jamaica the average cost is Is.

A Plague of Mice. —The Courier of Odessa has the following:—“ This town and the surrounding district have had a general invasion made on them by mice. Not only are the fields, warehouses, and mills swarming with those animals, but private houses are overrun, and the cats have become so fat with the number they have eaten that they are no longer capable of performing their duty. During the last six weeks almost every mouse-trap takes from twenty to thirty a-day. As a set off to the damage caused by those vermin in the mills and warehouses, it may be stated that those in the fields will perform very essential services. They collect in heaps the cocoons of the locusts on which they will feed during the winter, and thus destroy the eggs of that destructive insect. Such of the eggs as are buried under the earth have also found a new enemy, in a small red worm, which devours them greedily. No: one can therefore deny that good may come out of evil. ”

The British Navy.— The annual official return of the condition and situation of, every vessel in the navy has just been published, under the authority of the Admiralty. From this return it is satisfactory to know that, so far as the navy is concerned, England was never in a prouder position. The number of vessels on the Ist January was 856 of all rates and classes. There were, besides, 150 line-of-battle and; other sailing ships stationed at the various ports in England and the colonies for harbourduty, thus swelling the total to upwards of 1000 vessels of all descriptions. Of the 860 ■vessels actually in commission' or building or preparing for service, only 154 are sailing ships, the whole of the remainder being propelled by steam-power. The list of vessels is made up of 81 line-of-battle ships; each mounting from 74 to 131 gnns ; 22 vessels, each with an armament of from 60 to 70 guns ; 44 51-gun frigates, the whole, with the exception of about 10 of that, number, being screw-steamers ; 57 ships, each mounting from, 22 to 50 guns, and the majority of which have a tonnage as large as ships of the lino; 29 screw-corvettes, or frigates, each mounting 22 guns ; 317 screw and paddle-wheel steamers, each carrying less than 22 guns ; and 185 screw-gunboats, each provided with two Armstrong guns. — rObserver.