MISCELLANEOUS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 901, 16 December 1871, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Sir Michael Costa is Writing a new oratorio. Italy has 23 public libraries, and Switzerland 25. Monogamy is now in the ascendant in Turkey. A large new masonic hall ia to be 'erected in Liverpool. The Irish potato crop "scare" is reported to have collapsed. Scores of families in Cornwall are emigrating to Lancashire. Mr John Stuart Mill is suffering seriously from consumption. The Empress Eugenie is in Spain, on a visit to her mother. The Emperor Napoleon has been 'estate-hunting in Devonshire. Ihirty-two violent deaths occurred in London recently in a single week. An international medical congress is to be held at Home in May next. "Enormous" finds are reported from the South African diamond fields. Italy is at present the great field for the operations of the Internationale. Dr Hill Burton is preparing a revised edition of his "History of Scotland." A destructive fire has taken place at the Pyramid Cutlery Works, Sheffield. Mr Lowe and Mr Goschen have "been taken the air on the top of Snowdon. A homooopathist has been elected medical officer to the Southampton workhouse. The "Pall Mall Gazette" says it is easier to find ammunition in England than lodging or food. A company for manufacturing sugar from beet.root, has been formed at Sleaford, Suffolk. An elephant at the Jardin de Plautes m Paris, was instantaneously killed by lightning. Stepney Green, London, is to be converted into a public recreation ground at a cost of £4OOO. A reaping machine, while cutting a ten-acre field of wheat, near Shrewsbury, killed 72 rabbits. The membership of the churches of the Baptist Missionary Society numbers about 25,000. Upwards of 1000 tons of fruit and vegetables are daily brought to Covent Garden market. Efforts are being made in Glasgow to raise the sum of £50,000 to found a Technical College. The King of Spain is increasing iu popularity, owing to his affable and unaffected manners. Sir Leopold M'Clintock, ofEranklin expedition renown, has been appointed a Rear-Admiral. Miss Gee, an actress, aged 19, committed suicide in Jersey by swallowing cyanide of potassium. ~ There are about 4000 building societies in Britain with an estimated mem- < bership of 1,000,000. Borings are being made with a view to the construction of a tunnel under the Clyde at Glasgow. The railway servants in Scotland are agitating for the reduction of the hours of labor lo ten daily. A splendid monument to the memory of the French soldiers who fell at Metz ia to be erected there. A barge laden with petroleu-n took fire on the Th. mes lately, but burned out without doing damage. The Bank of Ireland, Dublin, was robbed of £4OOO through a clerk leaving his desk for a few minutes. M. Thiers has decide that the statue of Napoleon I. shall be replaced on the Vendome Column. The Mayor of Bolton suggesls the revival of the stocks in that town as a fitting punishment for drunkards. It is said that the Duke of Edinburgh is about to undergo a course of instruction in steam at Portsmouth. An edict has gone forth in Constantinople, forbidding the use of donkeys as beasts of burden in the streets. At Oxford three ladies were hurt by the fall of an elm branch, weighing two tons, in New College Gardens. 1 Three hundred policemen were ap- -i pointed to " protect" the thirty thousand troops engaged in the Hampshire campaign. A conference, to consider the reform of the House of Lords, is to be held at < Birmingham on Nov. 28. I A grand fair has been held in the 1 ruined village of St. Cloud, for the 3 benefit of the unfortunate inhabitants. Only a third of the potato crop in Scotland is expected to be realised this year, and in many districts much less. In a crowded Highland inn lately, a noble lord was obliged to sleep upon a dining table, and two M.P.'s under- J neatb it. A golden bird of paradise, half life- 1 size, and covered with jewels, was exhibited at the Milan Industrial Exhibition. ] At the Kelso Annual Bower Union Show, one of Lord Polwarth's Leicester rams was sold, to go to Australia, for ( £155. ( During the year ended on the 30th ( June last, the Glasgow (Corporation) Gasworks yielded a profit of £63,203 i 4s 4d. Eourteen-thousand bank employes have subscribed £7OO for a testimonial to Sir John Lubbock, in recognition of his efforts in connection with the Bank Holidays Act. 1 It ia stated to be the intention ot ] the authorities, in consequence of Sir 5 Hope Grant's report on the Easter Monday review to abolish all volunteer field artillery. At Ling, in Upper Austria, an Education Congress was lately held, at - which 2000 male and fernaln teachers met to discuss the subject of religious ■and secular education. ]

Aali Paska, the lately deceased Grand Vizier of Tufkey, iB said to have been the most learned man in that empire. According to Mr Sptirgeon, a bazaar is one of the most legitimate, a'nd certainly one of the happiest, modes of obtaining money for a good cause.