MISCELLANEOUS

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 953, 26 March 1872, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS

As a proof of the excellent manner in which the Suez canal is working, her Majesty's troop-ship - Malabar passed through it with the utmost speed. Mr Miall M.P., sent the following reply to a challenge sent to him on behalf of the Yorkshire Union of Church Institutes to discuss the question of Church and State with the Kev Dr Massinghatn :—" Sir, I bsg to decline your invitation to a public diseussion in Leeds of the union of Church and State with the Rev Dr Massingham. T never knew platform discussions of controverted questions before au excitable audience contribute anything worth speaking of towards the elucidation of truth, nor kept free from what you describe as the clap-trap of the platform. So long as the House of Commons remains open to me I shall not want a much more excitable sphere for honest debate; nor do I imagine that my views will be subject to a less formidable scrutiny in the House than .they might have to encounter, under the critical skill of even the Rev Dr Majsingham." At the Marlborough Street Police Court an elderly gentleman applied for a summons against his son for misconduct. Mr Newton asked what offence the son had been guilty of. The applicant said he was in the habit "flying in bed after eleven o'clock in the morning. The magistrate replied, "Do you suppose I can grant a summons against your son for such a thing?" Upon which the applicant answered, "I. thought you might assist IJie" Mr Newton : " Can anything be more ridiculous than for a man to

I ! wie before a magistrate with sach a truest? Go away." The applicant Mt the court " evidently dissatisfied." A singular and costly mistake was gently made in the office of a wellknown member of the Liverpool Stock Mange. The principal went into N office, and, perceiving on the de« k mi he considered to be a quantity of We paper, hastily gathered it up N threw it into the fire, where it was Wdily consumed. His consternaP may bo conceived "when he found N with the paper he had thrown

into the flames were Bank of England notes of £I4OO ;"t.he numbers of the notes were unknown, and the gentleman will be the loser of the entire amount. Two garoiters were flogged ,on December 20 in Newgale, and instead I of Calcraft the who is considered too feeble for the task, two stalwart warders—who, it is said have had some experience in the army—were the operators. The first ruffian, who had been sentenced -to 40 lashes, had 20 from each of the floggers, and exhibited throughout signs of intense suffering. The second man had 30 lashes with a similar effect. The journals announce the death, at the age of 90, in his residence in the Rue de Varenne, of Baron do SaintPons de Letaye, formerly a cornet of cavalry under Louis XVI. He had passed a great part of his life in England, Where he had withdrawn at the moment of the emigration. He leaves no heirs, and his title becomes extinct. Mr Froude has given up his idea of lecturing in the United States, and consequently remains, as hitherto, editor of ' : Eraser's Magazine." We believe that hois among the first batch of clergymen of the Established Church that have taken advantage of the Act. passed last year to enable them, if they please, to give Up their orders and to relapse into simple laymen. A young man who keeps a collection of locks of hair of his lady friends, calls them his hairbreadth escapes. New Orleans girls complain that the young men don't tease them enough. An editor out West heads his list of marriages with Aoose Items" another calls them " Peats of the Ring."