THE GRIMGRIBBER RIFLE CORPS. (From All the Year Round.)

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVII, Issue 1350, 16 November 1860, Page 4

THE GRIMGRIBBER RIFLE CORPS. (From All the Year Round.)

THE yiIUT PAK.4DB. We filed out two by two from the fecture-hall, and marched awny to n field in the neighbourhood, there to perform our evolutions. Gnmgribber was present in its entirety— the richest arid the poorest ; the men of peace, and fighiing ruffians from the beer shops ; crinoline petticoats bulged ngninst drab shorts and white stockings ; short clay pipes leered over Cashmere shawls. A roar of delight burst forth as we turned out j we grasped ourrifles firmly, raised our heads, inflated our chests, and threw out our sixty left legs like one, It was a proud moment, but we were made to feel that, after all, we werebut mortal, and the check we received was given to us by a very small boy, who looked at our ranks with a calmly critical ej o. and hit upon a Intal blot. " Ah ! and ain't they all of a size neither !" he exclaimed. His lemarkt was greeted with laughter, for our tallest man is six feet one, and ouv shortest (whom we hide-away in the centre of the, company) is only live feat two. However, we bore up nobly; we felt that even the great Duke of Wellington had been insulted in the streets, and that we, .who had not yet arrived at his eminence in 'military matters, ought to treat our aggressors with placidity and good humour. So we marched on to the field, and 'there went through all our evolutions with a steadiness ' and precision, which entirely disarmed ""tlio* 1 boy, and changed him ffom a jeering ribald into an admiring spectator. So it has been ever since , wo have made quiet and steady, but efficient, progress ; our ranks have been swelled by daily additions ; we are laboring uw'ay at our* target practice, long before the drowsy drabmen have moved from theii pillows.

' " "STAND. AT BASIC." The first' nitnteuvre imparted to us wak to "stand at case"— a uieful-lesion, teaching us not only the knowledge :of a strategic evolution, but giving ua

■quite&'beW' insight, intothe monningj'of the English language. < In our former ''benighted ''ignoronoe we might possibly haxo imngined that to^stnnd ,»t case, mpant' to-put our hand in bur pockets^tcr laamag»m§t the wall, or to lounge in any easy and comfortable manner ; but wo now learned that, 'in order to stand really at ease? we should strike the p'dlra of our left ihand" very smartly with the palm of our right, then 'fbld the right over the back of the lefnin front of us, "protriide our left foot, throwing- thoj weight of the body on the right, 'and in fact pla.ee ourselves as nearly as possible in the. attitude of Pantaloon when he if> Brat changed by the fairy, minus itick. It it an elegant and tolling manoeuvre this, when properly executed, and, possibly, not very difficult of acquirement ; but we did not fall into it all at once. There was a diversity of opinion among vi as to which was the proper foot to be advanced, und when that was settled' we are at variance as to which was our rigHt'foot and which was our left,' so that it wna not Until the so go ant had many times' sarcastically assured us that " he couldn't hear them' hands come smartly together as he'd wished — not like a row of corks a-poppin' one after the other, but all at once;" nor v until thestiiF-coipoial had paraded'up and down behind us, muttering in a low tone, "Them left feet advanced— no !no ! them left, feet advanced," that we were considered sufficiently perfect in this respect, and allowed to pass on to grander evolutions. The same difficulty was attendant upon these. On being told to "right face,' 1 two gentlemen, of diametrically opposed views on, the subject, would find themselves face to face instead of being one behind the other, and neither would give way until they were set right by the sergeant.

AT DniLL When tho command has been received upon the tympanum, act upon it at once, without pausing to reflect. You will, see many intelligent men bring upon themselves the wrath of their sergeant, simply because, in analysing and pondering on his instructions, they have missed the right time for notion, and aie half-a-minuto or so behind the rest ot their company. For instance, the command is given — '"At tho woid 'Fours' the rear rank will step smartly off with the left foot, taking a pace to the rear — Fours !" Or, in the sergeant's language, 'Squad !t shun! at th'wiid 'Foz' the rerrank will stepsma" lyoff- wi'th'leffut, tekkinapesstoth' rare— Fo-o-ores!" the las' word being uttered in a prolonged and discordant bellow. A reflective gentleman in the rearrank, first translates ' this dialect into the ordinary language of civilised life, and then proceeds to ponder on its meaning ; and when he has discovered it, he probably finds himself 'deserted by his comrades, who have taken up a position a pace behind him, and an object of disgust to the sergeant, who, looking at him more in pity than in anger, says, in a hoarse whisper, "Now, Number Three — what, wrong •gin!"

Garibaidi and vii Caueeu. — ('Daily News. 1 ) — Of course there is no denying that "the projects of Garibaldi " are creating uneasiness in those great centrei of all the civil virtues, the bourses of Europe. Italy is springing up to freedom as a plant stiuggleo to the light. But the beneficent travail of nature is quiet and unperceived. The travail of a nation is not so noiseless ; its growth is not so calm ; and after a long winter's sleep its springtide is » season of throes and convulsions. The whole scheme of Italian emancipation is fraught with dangers and difficulties proportioned to the long agony which the wisdom of Europe once deliberately inflicted upon the mother of European civilisation. So much for Italy, for whose sake all Europe suffers, and deserves to suffer, so long as she iemains a monument of injustice. If we turn to the special questions of the day, as they arise one after the other in fatal succession, Naples, Rome, Venetia —it is easy enough to c.ay offhand that it would be far safer and simpler to leave the Bourbons to settle accounts with their own subjects ; the popedom to perish softly in the pious hug of the French empire; and as Jor. Venetia, to wait with patience until there are no Venetians left for Austria to scourge and tax, or until Austria, utteily bankrupt, is content to convert even her quaihilateral into assets, ihese are counsels of prudence no doubt easy to suggest from a secure distance. On the other hand, we have to deal with a torn and bleeding but uprisen people, called last year by the Toice of a trumpet to be soldiers, in order that they might become citizens of a free country. W&have half a century's accumulated cruelties and uncounted sufferings demanding vengeance. It will be the duty of true patriotism And tiue statesmanship in Italy to unite in moderat ing and restraining Wind and tempestuous impulse, and to insist on doing to day the work of to-day. We have seen nothing in the conduct of Gen. Garibaldi since his departure for Sicily which can justify any doubt of his prudence and circumspection being equal to his courage. Call him, if you will, a gurrilla chief, a brilliant partisan leader only ; it is not the less certain that his whole life has been spent in conflict with the direst extremities of every form of war. He is acknowledged by those who know him best to be not only a man of action, but a man of thought. He is not the only soldier who has spoken contemptuously of diplomacy ; the most distinguished commanders of regular armies have professed small respect for civilian counsels. But Garibaldi has- shown on every occasion in Sicily, as in Lombnrdy last year, that which in his exploits appears to the ignorant mere reckless daring, is in fact the result of deliberate calculation and collected iorethought. With incredible fertility of resource he has shown how to make the most of the smallest means ; and it is noteworthy that the foolhardy actions of which he has been repeatedly acsused beforehand have never^taken place, whilst his astonishing victories have been the victories of th«t sure and calm judgment of opportunities which, in the rapidity of its results, looks like audacity. It is from an attentive study of the career of this extraordinary man (whom the wisdom and virtue of an age hko ours may well misinterpret) that we feel perfect confidence that he is nn '• enthusiast " only in the sense in which that extremely limited portion of mankind who are not the "servants of unrighteousness " are enlhusiasts r But if an " enthusiast" means a veteran soldier of genius, and a patiiot that never despaired of his country — who flings away her fortunes and his own on a single stroke, against odds which no gambler or madman would accept— then ■we confidently affirm General Garibaldi is no "enthusiast," though the friends of Austria may wish he were a dupe.

Criwinali Lunatics. — Criminals removed from the bar by the finding of the jury that they aie of unlound mind have hitherto been ordered into confinement during her Majesty's pleasure j nnd very capricious, unequal, and often cruel, was the subsequent disposal of the prisoner, whom a legal fiction presumed to be detained by the pleasme of the Sovere*gn. Punishments so protracted were thus inflicted that advocate* have been advised to withdraw the well-grounded pleo of unsoundness of mind from the record of defence, because the penalty of this misfortune would be for more severe than that for the offence charged. Again, ruffianly scoundrels, labouring under a temporary aberration at the time of trial, but subsequently recovering when under treatment at Bethlehem, have remained there sano among the insane, violent criminals among the helplesily afflicted, requiring personal retraint and the seventy of prison rules in an institdtion which is devoted to the ti eatment and consolation of those mentally diseased. These anomalies have now ceised to exist. An Act has just been passed to amend the Act regulating the Queen's Prison. Priioners sent to Bethlehem Hospital under the form or Act may now be removed, and be dealt with as if they were persons of sound mind, when it is certified that their reason is restored. All lunatics removed from Bethlehem Hoipital to other places are to be under the provisions of the Lunacy Act. — Lancet, — In addition to the Act mentioned above, there was one passed on the 6th inst., under which her Majesty may appoint an asylum in England for the custody and care of criminal lunatics. The Secretary of State U empowered to appoint a Council of Supervision and officers for such asylums, with ruies for the treatment of the inmates. There ii a provision in the Act by which the Secretary of State may permit n lunatic confined "to be absent upon trial for such period as he mny think fit, or to permit any such person to be absent upon such conditions in all respects as to the Secretary of Stale shall seem fit." In the event of a person not ieturning, then he is to be retaken, as m case of an escape. The Commissioners in Lunacy are to visit the asylums provided or to bo appropriated under this Act (23rd and 24th Victoria, cap. 75), and to report to the Secretary of State, Any superintendent, offioer, servant, nurse, or other person employed in an asylum who strikes, wounds, ill-treats, or willfully neglects nny person confined therein, is to guilty of « misdemeanour, and, on conviction, liable te .fine and imprisonment, or to forfeit for every such offence, on a summary conviction, a mm not exceeding £20, nor less than £2. • Si,eep and Death. — What is sleep } We do no know. We can only say that it is a conditi n belong ing to almost every animal organism, which seems' naturally brought about by the activities of that organism; and which in some unexplained manner helps to reinstate the exhausted energy of brain and muscle. As to the sleep of plants, the true phono. trtena of 'sleep are restricted to' tlio brain and tho

higher lenses ; there can be no sleep where these are absent. ' Certain phenomena concerning sleep have been well observed ; but the organic: condition, or sum of conditions, on which these depend, remains so entire a mystery that we venture on n tolerable definition of sleep. Let us bo content with denning some of its leading chaiactemiics. Look at that child'; wearied with play he has thrown himself upon the ground, and, retting a flushed cheek on one ■rm, ho lies there breathing equably, with motion less limbs, eyes closed, brain shut out fiom lights and noises round him. If you touch his hand he withdraw* it; if you tickle his check he will impatiently turn his heap aside ; but, even should ho turn his whole body round, he will not, perhaps, open his eyes— will not know who it is, or what it it, that molests him ;he will not wuke. His mind engaged in dreams, is disengaged from eternal things; they m«ymake impressions on him, excite sensations in him, but th. so sensations are not wrought up into knowledge.. His senses are dormant, or but feebly active, and his brain is busy with dreams ; hit limbs are motionless, kis lingers relax their giasp, and the muscles of his neck no longer support his head. But the heart beats vigorously and pumps the blood in-cess-intly all over the body, the chest- expands nnd contracts, the stomach and intestines digest, and all the secretions are going on. Wo thus perceive how superficial is the analogy of sleep and death, supposed by the ancients to be brothers, and even by modems supposed to resemble each other so closely that death is called an eternal sleep But, stiictly speaking, there is not only no truo antagonism between sleep and waking. In dc&tli all the activities peculiar to the vital oiganism cease"; in sleep they all continuo ......... Sleep is a form of life, not a cessation of life.-— Ptiytioloffif of Human Life.

The United States Phison "The Toirns."— I had hoard much of the strict discipline of the American prisons, and was anxious to see the chief one of New Yoik, wheie, down amid the worst parts ot the city, the g) eat gaol, known as the Tombs, now stands— near the Five Points, the St. Giles's of New York. The building is in tho Egyptian stylo, massive and colossal vi its proportions as thoi'e rock-hewn temples which appeal with such silent grandeur to tho torn ist who "does" the Nile. The very ispect of tho huge structure is mouinful. Not a window lightens the monotony of its huge granite walls, which have a blind impressive appearance that well becomes the name, and makes it seem like what it is in truth— a great sarcophagus of crime. All its terrors, however, aie < xternal.and in this unlike our Penitentiary at Millbaiik, where cveiy thing is gloomy and silent as the grave, and where when the great gates clang behind the visit or he feels it jar upon his heart as it hope and happiness were shut out for ever, and knows at once, by the cautious vigilance of the well-aimed warders", that he is within the walls of a prison where the worst and most dangerous of London vilhans are crushed into a temporary submission. The entrance to the Tombs is nothing like this. The way in is open enough, and a turnkey merely sits at a door to take checks from yisiteis, or passes from those who have leave to visit their friends, and which, to judge from the numbers inside the prison, seem rather liberally given. Passing across a stone couityaid, in the midst of which a little fountain plays, and wheie an American eagle, chained by the leg (though less vicious than any other inmate nithin the walls), sits and droops his rusty wings all day, the visitor enters another yard spanned above by the Bridge ot Sighs— a light non path so named horn the fact of murderers after tiinl being led back over it to their condemned cells. Entering a narrow doorway he at once finds himself in a handsome lofty passage with rows of strongly grated doors at either side, with two light galleries above communicating with similar cells in the walls. Little slates over the entrance to each cell mark the prisoneis' names, foi theie aie sometimes two or three inmates. "But aie they prisoner*, and is this a prison >" is the first thought of the visitor as he looks through the bais into the carpeted cells, and sees thoii occupants, in every style of dress 01 undiess, lounging on their beds, smoking thpir pipes and reading the morning papers, or laughing mprrily through the grating with friends (just then at libei ty), who have brought them in whatever they may want. It seems incredible, bat u is a fact, that these misci cants are supplied \uth the daily journals, with norels, or with prayer-books, as their tastes may lead them ; are allowed to smoke ad libitum at all hours, are even supplied with drink, should their profligate lires have rendeied such stimulants necessaiy to their comfort. In a woid, they are less felons than pensioners boaided by the State. lam told that in the islands in the river, where the piisonerlj for life (always pardoned aftei a few years) undergo their sentences the rules and discipline are more rigid, I can only speak of what I saw at the Tombs. On the lowest floor of the passage which the visiter first enters the cells are all occupied by those under sentence of death, of whom there are geneially but too many. Over one of these was wiitten the name of Albert Hicks, alias William Jackson. Beyond theie weie two or three others under sentence of death, and many of whom deserved death as well as Ilicks, but ihey almost laughed at the idea of being hanged. And they were right, for the mistaken leniency of the law of the New York State requires that twelve monthi shall elapse between the sentence and theexecution. During this interval a spurious philanthropy is sure to be exerted in behalf ot the unfortunate wife and children of the maletactor, and a commutation of the sentence and subse, quent pardon after two or three years become almost certain. Ilicks will be hung under the Fedeial Law, and but for that and his being a vagabond, without fiiends or money, even his execution would be almost doubtful. Above these cells weie the prisoners awaiting tnnl for manslaughter, arson, forgery, burglary, or smashing, all comfortable alike in their cells, lolling, reading, and smoking, and better taken caie of apparently than evei they were in their lives before. On the women's side there weievery few criminals. Tho prison van— the "Black Maria," as it it termed —came in every now and then, disgorging its 15 or 20 persons of both sexps and all ages. All the wretched outcast men thus biought to gaol were voters, it must be remembeied, and, as far as voting is concerned, have as much political influence in New York as the President or Heenan himself. The women, as might be expected, wcie of every grade of misery and infamy, some so young as to be mere childien, some so old as to be all but helpless, drunk and sober, magnificently d-essed or with scarcely enough to cover them ; but all were brazen and unsubdued, and passed into a common yard, where they basked in the sun, or quietly denuding themselves of their upper garments, proceeded to pin up the tawdry finery which had been rent off their backs in some midnight biawl. — Sjjectal Co)respondent ot the Times. Alahming look-out roit the Authorities —With all the laws that have been made to drive the Women andChildren away from Taronaki, how, is it that the Childien will persist in coming, contrary to all military rules ? Only count the number that have come lately, and then ask, how it is that the law looks so tamely on while its injunctions are so openly broken. Mi. Punch is astonished that the authorities do not take up the subject, anil issue a pioclamation that no more childien aie henceforward to be born in New Plymouth. Something muit be done soon, or the number of immigrants will exceed the emigrant. — Ten ana&i Punch. A Joke upon Mrs. Hood. — At breakfast he offered to give my mother a few hints on buying fish, adducing his own superior experience of the sea as a reason for informing her ignorance as a young housekeeper. " Above all things, Jane," said he, "as they will endeavour to impose upon your inexperience, let nothing induce you to buy a plaice that has any appearance of red or orange spots, as they are the sure sign of" an advanced stage of decomposition." My mother promised iaithful compliance in the innocence of her he.v t, and iccordingly when the fishwoman came to the door, she lescended to show off her newly acquired information, is it happened the woman had little but plaico, and ,hese she turned over and over, praising their size and reslmess. But the obnoxious red spota on every one >£ them still greeted my mother's dis^tisfied eyes. On lor hinting a doubt of their freshness, she was met by he asseition that they were not long out of the water, laving been caught that morning. This shook my nother's doubts for a moment, but remembering my ather's pourfciayal of the Brighton fish woman's iniquious falsehoods, shegiavely shook her head, and mildly ibserved, in all the pride of conscious knowledge, "My ;ood woman, it may be as you say, but I could not hink of buying any plaice with those very unpleasant ed spots." The woman's answer was a perfect shout — " Lord bless your eyes, mum 1 who ever seen any idthout 'em V A suppressed 'giggle on the stairs re'ealed the perpetrator of the joke, and my father ushed ofl in a perfect ecstacy of laughter, leaving nry loor discomfited mother to appease the angry sea lymph as she could. — Hood's Men orials. Haymaking in Switzerl vnd.— l have- seen the iay harvest going on from the boginninj of April to he end of- October. Any tiaveller who is fortunate nough to see Switzeila-nd in April enjoys a feature of lie Alps which later tourists miss. To them there is [O motion among those mighty masses except tho waterfalls ; whereas he Bees expanses of rippling grass

disclosing the passage of the winds. In the hot rookbound valley the meadows are mown in April ; and the > scythe mounts higher and Tiigher, till the last cflarre upland hay is carried, just before our English mt^l^ begins. In our northern counties the grass is seldom all carried in August ; and sportsmen who spend the - autumn in Scotland see more or less hay still courting the Bun and wind m the last days of October, whiclj «a. there so brilliant. In one year I have known this toTsT the process of successive haymakings between Venice and Inverness. — Once a Week. Sepulohual Customs on the Amooh. — The natives here have also a bustom which I found prevailing in other parti of Asia among the Kalmucks, some tribes of the Kalkas, and the Toungouz, of providing their deceased brother with all the took and implements necessary to enable him to carry on his trade or occupation in the land of ghosts. Jf this duty be neglected, they believe that his spirit wanders for ever thiou^h dark and dismal forests, without finding a place of rest. The custom varies among different people, but all tend to the same end. For instance, the Kirghis chief has his favourite horses buried with him, that he may not be compelled to walk in this ghostly state —a thing he abhors when living. The Kalmuck and Kalkas have their weapons, clothes, and implements placed in their graves, that they may appear suitably apparelled before their friends, and able to engage in their ordinary pursuits. But the Toungouz races have similar articles placed on their grave, to be ready for service the mo • inent they awake from what they consider to be their temporary repose. — Atkinson's Tiavels in the Amoor. A Hungry Elephant. — At Augur, an elephant on the march showed signs of must, but the driver contrived to slip off his back. The brute first attacked a Highlander, and trampled him to death. He then charged a baker's cart ; the frightened bullocks rushed fiom the road, and tumbled cart and all into a ditch. The elephant did not hurt the bullocks, but ate up two hundred loaves in about five minutes. After this feat he made a. luxurious dessert in a sugar-cane field, and liquored up to the extent of twenty or thirty gallons at a muddy tank. In three weeks' time (during which he wandered at large) this disagreeable fit passed off, and the driver, who had followed him about, re took possession. — Pin suit of 'lanlia Topee, Hood and the Saints. — A lady who had called on Hood to save his soul was very coldly received, and the biographer goes on to relate the sequel thus :— " The same week, however, she wrote him a most unjustifiable attack on his writings and religious opinions. She inquhed, with a kind of grim satisfaction, what good hw ' Whims and Oddities' would do to his soul ? and how he would recall his levities in literature on his death-bed ? My father was pretty well used to attacks of this fcoit ; but this was really going % little too far, and accordingly she received a copy of tho following letter,, which he ever after entitled 'My Tract': — ' Madam, — I have received your pious billet doux, «^^ have little leisure and less inclination for a religion^ flirtation, and what (according to our law and police reports) is its usual issue —a decidedly serious intrigue How else, indeed, am I to interpret the mysteri^^. ' object' of your late visit, which you significantly '1m me was defeated by your being unintentionally acco/mpanied by a friend I—how1 — how answer for her designs on a man's person who can take such liberties with his soul ' The piesence of a companion could not of course stand in the way of your giving me a tract or letter, or anything proper for a modest woman to offer ; but where can be the womanly modesty, or delicacy, or decency of a female who intrudes on a man's private house and private coirespondence and his most private affairs, those of his heart and soul, with as much masculine assuiance as if she wore Paul Pry's inexpressibles under her petticoats ' Perhaps I have to' congratulate myself, as Joseph Andrews did, on the preservation of his virtue from that amorous widow, Lady Booby. But whatever impropriety you intended to commit has been providentially frustrated, it appears, by the intrusion of the young lady in question, to whom therefore I beg you will present my most grateful and special thanks. I am, as you know, a married man, and do not caie to forget that chaiacter, only that I may be able to say afterwaids, as you suggest — 'I have gone astray, but now I have learned the righteous law.'" This is the beginning The middle is equally severe, and thus it ends • — " And now, madam, farewell. Your mode of recalling yourself to my memory reminds me that your fanatical mother insulted mine in the last days of her life (which was marked by every Christian virtue), by the presentation of a tract addressed to infidels. I remember, also, that the same heartless woman intruded herself, with less reveience than a Mohawk squaw would have exhibited, on the chamber of death, and intenupted with her jargon almost my very List interview with my dying parent. Such reminiscences warrant some severity ; and, if more be wanting, Know that my poor sister has been excited by a circle of canteis like yourself into a religious frenzy, and is at this moment in a private mad-house. I am, madam, yours with disgust, Thomas Hood." — Memorials of Thomas Hood. The New Act Relating to "Brawling."— An act of parliament just passed strikes another blow at the ecclesiastical courts, as tribunals having jurisdiction over all classes, whether Episcopalians or not. We allude to the act intended to. facilitate proceedings against the chuich-rioteis at St. George's in-the-East, which act takes away the ecclesiastical jurisdiction in cases of defamation in lieland, and of "brawling," both in that country and England, except wher<» the suits arc against persons "in holy orders," by which phiase we presume is intended only ministers of the establishment. It is true that \eiy few suits are instituted for bi aw ling ; but the vagueness of the oftence, and the fact that it exposes to an unfavourable construction, at the hands of ecclesiastical judges, thejets of dissenters performed in anything but a braTfing spirit, makes it a matter for congratulation that tho sword is no longer suspended in mid air. Until now, a ratepayei who asseited his parochial rights in the vestry too vigorously for the nice taste of incuu'lfets and churchwardens, might be proceeded against for " brawling," and so also might a dissenting minister for officiating at a burial in a churchyard, in cases wheie tho incumbent lefused to do so. It is with respect to this last matter that we attach most importance to the passing of this new act. The light to shut out, in conseciated ground, all ministers but thoae of the establishment, is of a very doubtful character, and, now that the ecclesiastical couits cannot take cognisance of the class of offence in which an attempt to bieak down the prevailing monopoly should be included, we think that the way is clearer for some at tempt to stir the question by practical action. The penalty imposed by the new statute applies only to "riotous, violent, or indecent behaviour" in aWplace of worship ; and to persons who " shall molest, let, distuib, ve\-, or trouble, or by other means disauiet or misuse any preacher duly authorised to preach A^rein," or "any clergyman in holy orders miuistori^ in a chuichyard or burial-ground." This would not apply to the performance by a dissenting minister of a burial service in the chuichyard, over an unbaptized person, whom the incumbent refused to bury with the rites of the church establishment ; and, without venturing to assert that the experiment may be made with iinpuuity, we should like to see how a bold innovator would fare at the hands of the secular tribunals, sustained, as he would be, by the sympathy of three-fourths of the community. — Liberator.