English Items.—Continued from Page 3.

West Coast Times, Issue 574, 27 July 1867, Page 4

English Items. — Continued from Page 3.

The Great Eastern and her Crew. — A good deal of stir and excitement was caused in Liverpool on May 13, by the report that the Great Eastern had actually , been seized until the claims of the crew were adjusted, and by the proceedings before the magistrates on the part of some of the crew for the recovery of the wages due to them. The Great Eastern herself was arrested on May 13 by the local receiver of wrecks, acting for the marshal of the Court of Admiralty. The suit is prompted on behalf of about 330 of the crew, the amount of wages claimed by the suitors being L 5300. The " Limerick Chronicle " states that out of seventeen prisoners in the county gaol charged with being engaged in the recent rising, no lens than thirteen have volunteered to inform against their comrades. The Crown has selected six of the volunteers, who will have the privilege of acting as witnesses at the commission for Limerick. The district of Upper Strathearn and adjacent places have been visited by a succession of pretty smart shocks of earthquake during two or three days. At a little past 10 o'clock on the night of May 8, a pretty severe shock was felt at Comrie, and was followed by another about ten minutes afterwards at Greenloaning Railway station — a distance of about eleven miles from Comrie. Both shocks were distinctly felt. Between 7 and 8 o'clock on the 9th, and at an early hour on the morning of the 10th, shocks passed over the district, and though there was little shaking of the earth, apparently the noise accompanying the shock, [which resembled distant thunder or the discharge of cannon, was heard over a large district. At Comrie, which appears to be the seat of the strange phenomena, earthquakes, it is said, have not been so frequent as this season since 1839. The following extraordinary, but well authenticated, statement appears in the current number of the "Medical Times" : — The celebrated'Dr Fordyce dined every day for more than twenty years at Dolly's chop house. His researches in comparative anatomy had led him to conclude that man, through custom, eats oftner than nature requires, one meal a day being sufficient for that noble animal the lion. At 4 o'clock, his accustomed hour of dining, the doctor regularly took his seat at a table always reserved for him, on which were placed a silver tankard full of strong ale, a bottle of port, and a measure containing a quarter of a pint of brandy. The moment the waiter announced him, the cook put a pound and a half of rump steak on the gridiron, and «. on the table some delicate trifle as a lon louche to serve until the steak was ready. This was sometimes half a broiled chicken, sometimes a plate of fish. When he had eaten this he took one glass of brandy, and then proceeded to devour his steak. When he had finished his meal he took the remainder of his brandy, having during his dinner drunk the tankard of ale, and afterwards the bottle of port. He thus daily spent an hour and a half of his time, and then returned to his house in Essex street to deliver his 6 o'clock lecture on chemistry. He made no other meal until his return next day at 4 o'clock to Dolly's.