MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Bruce Herald, Volume XIV, Issue 1336, 19 August 1881, Page 5

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

I was conversing once with Mrs Carljle, says Mr.s Oliphant, about the loves of the philosophers when the temptation to utter a compliment seized me, and I remarked that Mr Carlyle alone of all his peers seemed to have trodden the straight pa;h. She turned upon me with a swifc rejoinder and just an amused quiver of the upper lip. " My dear," she said, " if Mr Carlyle's digestion had been better, there is no tefling what he might have done." When men spend large sums of money for an object we may be sure they are in earnest. Those who seek to put down the opium trade of India with China are decidedly in earnest. A guarantee fund to carry on the work of the society is being raised. Mr Pease, the member for South Durham, has put down £1000; Mr John L. Wilson has put down £100; Mr Arthur Pease, the member for TVhitby, has put down £500 ; Mr William Fowler, of Cambridge, Mr Hugh Mason, and several ethers, have promised £250. It is stated that five-sixths of the "Victorian civil service is composed of Catholic Irishmen, and that all the valuable appointments made by the late Ministry were Catholic Irishmen. We have been informed, in regard to the girls just arrived by the "Peterborough,"

that they are largely Irish. A clause in the Irish Land Bill mentions Australia as one of the countries to which Irishmen (few of them will be Protestant) will be assisted to emigrate. Is it not time that measures were taken to adjust these disturbing elements in population ? We are legislating to keep out the Chinese ; but a step in advance may have to be taken, to prevent a preponderance of Irish. — ' Presbyterian.' The Chinese, as a rule, are a most | accommodating race, especially with regard to the manner of their oathtaking in an English court of justice. A J sample of this was noticed in one of the 'temples' the other day. A Chinese witness, on being asked how he swore, replied — ' Me blow im lite, smell im Bible, cut hi* cock, s'elpim God, brake irn plate — all same swear im.' This is what an American officer of rank recently told a writer in ' Vanity "Fair ': " Yes, we have seen your soldiers ; most of them are boys now. Your army seems to have many things they do not want, and to want many things they should have. They seem to us to devote their entire attention to polishing straps and buttons, foi'getting the essentials of modern war. They wear clothes so tight as not only to be ridiculous, but to be unserviceable. Why, sir, your guards cannot walk up Primrose Hill without sjjlitt- J ing their pants in an essential part — they cannot. Your soldiers' coats are so t>'ght that they cannot get their rifles to their shoulders, and when they have got them there they do not know what to do with them. They wear hats and caps of all sorts unfit for war. They practice shooting in Glengarry caps, which do not shade their eyes, and in which no man could shoot. The soldiers display more sense than the officers, for on the rifle ranges they make sun-shades of their cartridgepaper. Their busbies and bonnets and helmets tumble off if they lie down. My friend, John Bull is drivelling and behind the times in army matters, You have had your little lesson in shooting at Majuba Hill. If you do not mend your ways, and that soon, John Bull's tenure of his empire is pretty short, quite certainly !" A curious slip has occurred in a catalogue issued by a well-known bookseller. A work on block-printing is catalogued which is said to contain " sixty-nine engravings either from wood or metal, twelve of which bear inscriptions representing scenes of Christian mythology, figures of patriarchs, saint?, devils, and other dignitaries of thg Church." The business transacted by the Bank of England has no parallel with that of any other establishment in the world, inasmuch as it combines with an ordinary banking business the management of the National Debt and the issue and payment of the greater proportion of the note-circulatiou of the country. Some idea of the magnitude of the work may be formed when it is stated that there are no fewer than 236,500 accounts open in the public funds ; that the number of bank-notes issued during last vear was above 15,250,000, representing a sum of £338,000,000, and that a similar amount was cancelled, an accurate register of each oper« ation being kept, so that any note paid into the bank during the last five years could be produced within a minute or two, with information as to the channel through which it had found its way back to the bank, although the register represented 77,000,000 of notes stowed away in 14,500 boxes. If stitched end to end, those notes would extend to 12,500 miles. The Postmaster-General in his annual report remarks : — " The Department were instrumental in intercepting and returning to the writers 55 letters, containing £70 7s 4d in not^s, money orders, and cheque?, posted to the promoter of a ' consultation' for a very huge amount on oue of the principal hor.se race,s but who in the me ultimo levante 1 with a considerable portion of the spoil. Several letters, which had been opened, were also returned to the Post Office from the business establishment of the proprietor. An examination of these disc'osed that the remittances in notes nnd gold had been appropriated, but that money orders and bank drafts had not been disturbed. Thi3 circumstance is mentioned merely for the purpose of showing the additional security offered those who send remittances through the po.st by meaus of money orders, bank drafts, or cheque?.." The Taranaki 'Herald ' says there is not a spot on the f.ice of the earth that can excel for its climate the district of | Taianaki. The following is given as proof; — "Mr Hulke's garden is a pretty sight; and he lias four camellia trees which he says he will defy anyone to beat tor size. One is Oft Gin hi:»h by 3±fb in circumference ; another 12 ft high by -10ft in circumference ; a third 14ft high by 45ft in circumference, and a fourth 18ft high by 50ft in circumference, besides over a dozen others from Gft to 10ft iu height, the circumference being in proportion. Mr Hulke lias just finished gathering his first crop of guaves ; and the second crop from the same tree will be ripe in about a month's time. His first crop of citrons is now ready for gatheiing, and it is quite a curiosity to see the large swollen green fruit and the bloom of a second crop on the same tree. A lemon tree is now covered with bloom, the ripe fruit having been just plucked." The 'Grey River Argus' says:— lt appears that Mr Vincent Pyke has undertaken the job of getting round a ' steep curve. He is said to have been

appointed editor of the Dunedin ' Morning Herald,' and is at present engaged in the very delicate and interesting task of making the 'Herald' support what it has been, opposing since the day it was started. Well, if the readers of the 'Herald' can swallow a dose of this kind, then their voracity is equal to that of the Pyke itself, and that is saying a good deal. The ' Grey Argus ' says : — " The Ross paper is a fearful and wonderful production. It is almost as original as a paper once published at the Lyell, is as independent of Caxton and Lindley Murray, as if the rules of printing and grammar deserved no consideration, and is generally characterised by a tone of mild lunacy. The following is an extract from its leading columns that is somewhat more original than intelligible : — ' We have — it is sad to relate :—^ party feeling heart-burnings and jea'JP ousies, which are ever and anon showing their distorted forms among our public men. Is it too much we are asking when we pray that these may be put aside and the common weal attended solely to for a little while 1 Let us remember the moment is much too serious — fraught as it is with probably the most serious of consequences to our districts as well as its residents. It is not now a time for adulation. It is a time when a question — a most im* portant one — of ablation, has to be considered and coped with. Let us beware lest self-abnegation occursJLL What does it all mean? The "1^ gem puzzle " is mere A B 0 in comparison."