MISCELLANEOUS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 879, 26 October 1871, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

The total amount given in charity by the Baroness Bourdett Coutt during her philanthropic career is said to exceed £5.000,000. A university or school of law is to be incorporated in London. At present there is no recognised scheme of education for lawyers and no compulsory process for ascertaining their competency. The Benchers of the Inner Temple are setting a good example in this respect. They have resolved to call no student to the bar who has failed to pass his examination, and hrive set apart £2OOO for providing suitable lecturers and examiners. The oft-repeated query of the Solicitor-General in the Tichborne trial. "Would you be surprised to find," is the bye-word of the day. It turns'up iii all the comic papers, and we should hot be surprised to find it the chorus dfthe next new comic song. Lord Penzance, while hearing a will case the other day, convulsed the court with laughter by telling Mr Huddlestone (who used the phrase in cross-examining a witness) that he was infringing on a pateut, the counsel continuing the joke by gravely promising not to repeat the offence. With regard to the Tichborne case, the "Daily Telegraph" aays:—"lt will interest the public to learn that arrangements have been made between the representative advocates engaged in the Tichborne cause, to provide as far as possible against certain contingencies which might otherwise prevent the resumption of the trial. Sergeant Ballantine and Sir John Coleridge on Wednesday signed a forensic by which both parlies in the suit agree to the subjoined terms: —If, through any unforseen circumstance, Sir William Bovill should be unable to reoccupy his seat on the bench, it is settled that another Judge may, without objection from either side, carry on the case and employ his predecessor's notes. Again, if one, or even two, of the jurymen, by the same chapter of accidents, should be removed from the box, the cause shall go forward, by mutual consent, with the diminished number. We may add that "reliable information has been reeeived by the solicitors of the plaintiff regarding the crew of the Bella ; and in consequence, Mr Jeune, the junior counsel lor the claimant, has proceeded to Australia to advise upon what evidence it may be necessary to bring forward.

_ At the recent laying of the foundation stone of a Wesleyan chapel at Nottingham a document was specially prepared for the benefit of " Macaulay's New Zealander." In the cyst underneath the stone a post-card was placed, bearing on the address side the following: "To Macaulay's New Zealander, or any other person it may interest, in or a'bout a.b. 2960," and on the other the following inscription : —" Greeting. In this a.d. 1871, we, the lace manufacturers of Nottingham, whose productions are placed under this memorial stone to interest the future antiquary, are paying to our workmen an average of £4 per week each man ; a new Lever's twist machine costs us about £600; the price of cotton yarn ranges from Is 6d (No. 50) to 20s (No. 150) per lb ; the price of silk, prepared, from 16s to 50s per lb. There are about 4000 machines engaged full time—that is, 12 to 20 hours per day in the production of laces and edging of various kinds, atid plain and fancy nets." Facts relating to the present condition of the inhabitants of Jerusalem must be of interest to the denizens even of this part of the globe. Mr. Frankel a missionary laboring there reports that he Jews are gradually gathering in the Holy City. "It is a remarkable fact," he says " that while the whole of its population does, not exceed 20,000, of that number 10,000 are Jews, and so great is the influence of the Jewa upon the Arab population that on Saturday the peasants do not think it worth their trouble to bring their produce to market on account of it being the Jewish Sabbath.' The observations made in visitors' books at hotels and other places frequented by tourists are seldom read by anybody, but they are sometimes curious if not sublime, and if collected together would probably be not much tnore trashy than some of the light literature which is " devoured with avidity" in the present day. The " Perthshire Advertiser" extracts the following from a visitors' book "in a well-known locality in the Highlands" :±— Glen Urquhart is a glorious Where deer and grouse have not supplanted men. John -Bri&ht. And, immediately below : Glen Urquhait is a glorious glen. Where mules and shoddy have not stdnted! men. Shirley Brooks.