English extracts.

Bruce Herald, Volume VI, Issue 304, 23 February 1870, Page 7

English extracts.

tie of Wales is already (at 28) becoming very bald. A son of King Theodore is being exhibited in a show at Dundee. Mr Spurgeon has had an attack of small-pox, but is recovering. The Turkish bath is said to be an effective ourauve agent in cases of scarlet fever. The affairs of the Duke of Newcastle have been declared to be wilUihyhe action of tbtf Bankruptcy Act. ; Emilius Hoi lis Hollis was fined Is by the magistrate at Marylebone, on Nov. 27, for sweeping a crossing on the previous Sunday. He gave notice of appeal. The Emperor of the French has sent a diamond snuff-box to Dr Ricord, together w ith an authojrraph letter thanking him for his attention to his 1 Majesty during his recent illness. Messrs Cox Brothers, of Camperdown jinen Works, Dundee, have headed the subscription list for shares in the Tay Bridjre undertaking with the princely sum ofLIOjOOOj and a total of L 14,000 was obtained on the first day of the subscription. * A man about thirty years of age, respectably dressed, recently jumped from ie top of one of the towers of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, in Paris, and was smashed to pieces on the streets below. His remains were gathered up in a sack and taken to the Morgue. Intimation has been made in the Latin class-rooms of the Glasgow University, that hereafter the Scotch mode only of of pronouncing Latin — which coincides with that of the Italian and other foreign schools, as against the effeminate English pronunciation — will be allowed there. On the afternoon of December 4, a screw steamer was blown up on the Clyde between Dunoon and Innellan. The vessel was steaming along, when suddenly it seemed as if she were lifted out of the water and then sank. Various articles were seen to be thrown high into the air. ftot a soul on board was saved. It is supposed she had five men on board. The tessel is believed to have been a lighter belonging to the Lock Melford Powder Mill Company. Tom King. — It gives us the greatest joy to inform the American world that Tom King, late of the London P.R.. i> now the Rev. Thomas King, of Wales ; j that instead ol pounding he now preaches, and he only wrestles in prayer. Notice is made in one of the Welsh newspapers of Thumas's exhortations, and, as we should presuppose, bis style is stated to be il very brcible, bold, and earnest." He will, j hereafter, engage only in knocking down ! sin, getting" the head of the devil into chancery, letting his right fly at iniquity, and his left at hardness of heart ; thu.keeping the ring against all evil doers, and sending sinners generally to grass. It is pleasant to. read ot this beautiful ending of an ill-spent life ; and for aretirpH nitgilist it is decidedly more credittH. v .nan the usual resource of opening 1 liquor shop, keeping a gambling saloon, Dr becoming a democratic Congressman. —'New York Tribune.' The Emperor of China's Marriage. -Considerable interest is now excited imong' the Chinese relative totheapproachng marriage and speedy occupation ot the hrone by the present Emperor Tung Chi. Several of his wives have been selected, rad next year (1870) is definitely fixed ipon for taking unto himself the first or ■ reat wife. The age of consent to marry rad the legal age are the same in China ; md any one arriving at 16 years is regarded as having attained his majority, md to be held personally responsible before he law. The present Emperor will attain n's majority next year, and consequently lecome responsible for the future governnent of the Empire.— * Shanghai News ietter\ Mr Peabody a Houseless Wanierer. — It is one of the peculiarities of Itlr Peabody that be never would have a louse of his own. He cared little for himelf in all things. It was his habit, for nstance, to dine off a mutton chop at the fr&nd dinners he used to give, where every usury was spread upon the table. He lad a room in the house of his old friend, Jir Curtis M. Lampson, in Eaton Square, tnd it was there that he died. He used to ive there in the most quiet and retired nanner, and his name did not appear in my directory or Court guide. — ' New fork Times'. The Rev. George Gilfillan on ■he Stowe-Byron Scandal.— -The Rev. Beorge Gilfillan redelivered his oration in the Ryron-Stowe mystery at Sunderand, on Wednesday week, and made the bllowing additional remarks :— Mrs Stowe see by to-day's ' Scotsman,' intends not roly to return to the inglorious charge, mt to write a book, and next to give a listory of the whole disgusting matter, explaining therein, and showing the hisorical connection of Lady Byron's letters o Mrs Leigh. We may well ask, Where re her friends? Will no one — her senible husband, her gifted brother — not inerfere to tell her that, even though she foould succeed in'writing a plausible book, t will first of all come out under the pen•mbra of the prejudice which her " True Jtory" — so grossly false and outrageously •'erdone — created against her, damaging, f not her trustworthiness, her prudence, eticence, and sense ; and, secondly, that he book is not likely to. demonstrate her Imposition; and, thirdly, that even though t should, it will only perpetuate, along nth the blasted memory of its subject, Per ultroneous, officious, unwomanly, unnviable share in the miserable task, and Bad her name down to posterity as a sort f volunteer moral Mrs Xalcraft r or, female secutioner to a being whom, with all his Milts, I pronounce ineffably greater and obler than her small; sanctimonious, but Serous Yankee self.

A little boy eight years old, and weighing: only fifty-two and a half pound?, was recently discovered working in a brickyard near London, carrying 43lbs of clay on his head for seventy-tiiree hours per week. The little iellow hud to walk 15 miles daily. A \ f oung clergyman in Philadelphia recently made himself a brilliant momentary reputation by preaching two of Dr Channiny's sermons as his own. The Birminirham catile show was opened on the 27rh of November. The entries number 2879, and about -L9OO have been awarded as prizes. The stock of the Queen's and the Prince of Wales's farms was "nowhere." A man mimed Charles Wakely, living in High-street, Woolwich, was found lying on the pavement in front of his house early on Saturday -morning, Nov. 13, with his skull fractured and his ribs tearfully broken. He wns taken to Guy's Hospital, and died about 5 minutes after his admission. He was a somnambulist, and hud jumped from one ot the windows of his house. A serious collision, resulting- in the loss of a steamer, occurred a few miles below Bristol on JNov, 5. The Avon, trading between that town and Newport, was run into by the steamer Athlete, and ?ank in 5 minutes. Twenty passengers who were on board were rescued in the ship's boats. The crew swam ashore. Hundreds of pigs, sheep, and other animals were drowned. Birth of a Princess.— Amongst festive events must also be chronicled the advent ot another Princess. On the 26th ult. the Princess of Wales gave birth to a daughter, the third daughter and fifth child of their Royal Highnesses. Both mother and child sire stated to be going on as well as possible. The family of the Prince of Wales now consists of the following;— Prince Albert Chrisiiiin Victor Edwards, born at Frog-more, January 8, 1864; Prince George Frederick Ernest Albert, born at Marlliorough-house, Jan. 3, 1865 ; Princess Lousie Victoria Alexandra Dagmar, horn at Marlborough-house Feb. 20, 1867; Princess Victoria Alexandra C%a Mary, born at Marlborough-house, July 6, 1868 ; and the infant Princess, born at Marl borough-house, Nov. 1869, as we have s>;iiii. The Present State of Ireland.— Some Roman Catholic priests in Ireland seemed resolved to bring disgrace upon their cloth and creed, nncl to inflict the deepest infamy on their country's cause. The other day one ot them quoted with faint disapproval John Mitchel's advice to Irish tenuuts, "If your landlord evict you, shoot him as you would a mad dog ;" and now the Rev. Mr Ryan narrates the methods of agrarian assassination in a way that simply aids an.i abets murder Speaking on the Tipperary hustings, in the presence of an excitable peasantry, be said that "the landlords were frigh'ened out of their jackets because the people had given up the old system of revenge and were acting on a new patent, and most successful principle which he was notbinding himself to, because as a priest he was a man of peace. Now the tenant would not trust his father, brother, or mother with the secret of what he intended to do ; but went out, took bis revolver, and ' tumbled 'his landlord." This assertion was received with cries of " Bravo !" and prolonged cheers. Is there no discipline in the Roman Catholic Church that can touch this atrocious apologist far assassination? The sham qualification that the speaker is a man of peace is on a par with the old bit of advice, "Don't nail his ears to the pump." The audience well understood the tenor of his speech ; and it certainly adds immensely to the difficulty of ruling Ireland that such ruffianism should thus stalk the land in the livery of " holy orders." — ' Daily Telegraph.' An article headed "Mr. Beecher's Private Habits," which appeared in a recent number of ihe Philadelphia ' Sunday Despatch,' makes some amusing if not authentic contributions to the " great preacher's" biography. After telling us at what hour Mr. Beecher goes to bed, and that he never dines with his hat on, the writer enlarges upon his peculiarities as a farmer. Mr. Beecber cultivates 36 acres on scientific principle?. He dues nothing without consulting books. et Upon one occasion, when it seemed morally certain that the hay ought to be cut, the hay-book could not be found, and before it was found the hay was all spoiled." But, apart from accidents, Mr. Beecber is successful with hay, and " raises some of the finest crops of wheat in the country." His s'rawberries would rival either crop "if the robins would eat turnips, but they won't, and hence failure." Mr. Beecher makes mistakes sometimes. Two years ago he sowed 2? acres of water melons, which came up pumpkins. A grand idea of " concentration ' that occurßd to him was even a greater failure. Having discovered one e^ in every hen's nest, he gathered them all under an experienced old fowl, " which roosted over that contract night and day for eleven weeks," anxiously supervised by Mr Beecher himself, but" nothing came of it. The 'eggs were "' infamous porcelain things." Finally we learn that, though Mr. Beecher's farm does not p.iy now, it is expected to elo so when the outlay for books ceases. Under the head of moral habits the writer assures us that Mr. Beecher never swears ; but, if he did, " he would throw into it an amount of pathos, and splendid imagery, and moving earnestness, and resistless energy, topped off and climaxed with a gorgeous pyrotechnic conflagration of filagree and fancy swearing that would astonish and delight the hearer, and for ever after quiver through his bewildered memory an exquisite confusion of rainbows and music, and thunder and lightning. A ~ man of high order of intellect could sit aad listen to Mr.Beecher swear for a week, without getting tired."

The washerwomen of Paris are still out on strike. Lieutenant- Colonel R. E. F. Crawford, R A., has been committee' for trial on a charge ol being concerned with one William Penney in uttering worthless cheques. Captain Thomas C. Forbes, formerly ol the 89th Regiment, fell down dead whilst looking a* the Peahody status near the Royal Exchange, on the 16th November. On Nov. 15, a ,man named Lawrence and a boy named Cowley, employed by Messrs Norman, printers, of Cheltenham, got into » boiler to clean it. Lawrence went in first, and was followed by Cowley, who got his knee between two large tubes, and was unable to extricate it. It was feared both would be suffocated, the temperature being 130 degrees. Ten smiths had to be employed to cut away th« head of the boiler and to remove the tubes. Both were released alive after midnight, very much exhausted. Robbery of Nearly LI OO0 by Boys Samuel Thompson (16) and Thos. Simpson (17), are " wanted " for having been concerned in the robbery of nearly LI OOO from the premises of Messrs Dingnan, Lewis and Lewis, solicitors, of Walsall. Thompson whs a clerk in the employ of Messrs Dingnan. On the discovery of the robbery, measures were adopted for their capture, and they were eventually traced to London whpre they had engaged berths to Australia in the Orwell, and paid LSO. The news of Simpson being implicated in the robbery came to the ears of his father, who made injudicious inquiries at the shipping j office, which alarmed the precocious graduates in crimp, and they decamped, and nothing huts since been haard of them. L2O is offered for their capture. "Squaring" a Charge with a Leo of Mutton. — Mr Neate, a butcher, was summoned at Wescminster for furious driving. Anstiss, the constable, with some brother officer-;, was returning from the opening of Ulackfriars Bridge, and when in Chelsea the defendant came along at rate of ten miles an hour, and struck Ansiiss, and nearly knocked him down. In replj r , the defendant said he was not going at ten miles an hour, for one of the. other constables when asked said two miles an hour. Mr Selfe — He was ironical ; I never saw a butcher's cart go two miles an hour. A person in the Isody of the Court said the horse could only go six miles an hour. The interrupter was ejected by the officers. Defendant said he was sorry it happened ; he would give the constable a leg of mutton for his Sunday's dinner. Mr Selfe— Thai's a fair offer; what do you say, Anstiss ? Anstiss made no objection, and the summons was withdrawn — defendant to give th« constable a 10 lb., leg of mutton for Sunday's dinner. Considerable excitement has been caused in the colliery villages of Erherly and Toft- hill, Bishop Auckland, during the past few days, by a disclosure that has been made by the death of a woman who has for the past 50 years resided in that neighborhood as a man, and married two wives. It is said that she came from Scotland 50 years ago in the guise of a young man, and obtained employment at one of the collieries, at which she worked as one of the men for some time, and paid her addresses to, and ultimately married a servant girl living at the village inn. After her marriage she relinquished working at the pir, and commenced to make besoms, yellow clay balls, aud pipeclay rubbers, which she and her partner vended in the surrounding villages. They had lived together '123 years, when the wife died, and the reputed husband professed to lament her loss very much, but at length the grief wore off, and she married a second wife, with whom she lived for a number of years, but not on the most affectionate terms, and eventually, by mutual consent, they separated. For some time the woman had lain on a bed of shikness, and then dependent upon some kind neigbors, whom, whoever, she always prevented coming too near her, and latterly she persisted in wearing trousers in bed. The other day she died, and when the neighbors came and were doing the usual offices of laying her out, the discovery of her sex was made. The deceased woman gave her name as Josiah Charles Stephenson, and she has ofren been heard to speak of being heir to some property about Berwick-on-Tweed, but had no money to go and claim it. Many strange stories are told in connection with this singular individual's history.