MISCELLANEOUS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIX, Issue 1962, 30 October 1863, Page 5

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Tower of London. — Few porsont are aware of the strictness with which tho Tower of London is guarded from foes without and treachery within. The ceremony of shutting it up every night continues to be as solemn and as rigidly precautionary a» if tho Frenoh inva»lon were actually afoot. Immediately after tattoo all stranger! are expelled ; and, the gatei onoe closed, nothing short of such imperative necessity as fire or ludden illness can procure their being reopened till the appointed hour the next morning. The ceremony of locking up is very ancient, curious, and stately. A few minutes before the clock stikes the hour of cleven — on Tueadays and Fridays, at twelve — the head warden (yetonan porter), clothed in a long red cloak, bearing in his hand a huge bunch of keys, and attended by a brother warden, carrying a gigantic lantern, appears in front of the main guardhouse, and calls out in a loud voice, " Escort keyi I " At the words tho sergeant of the guard, with five or •ix men, turni out and follows him to the Spur or outer gate ; each sentry challenging as they pans his post :— " Who goes there ? " " Keya." The gates .being oarefully Jocked and barred — the warden wearing ax solemn an a*peot and making as muph noise us poitible — the^prooeiiiion returns, and the sentries exact the same explanation and receive the r tame answer as before. Arrived ono» more in front of the main guard-house, the sentry there give* aloud itamp with hit foot, and the following conversation takes place between him and the approaching party — ",Who goes there?" "Keys." "Whose keys V "Queen Victoria 1 ! keys." "Advance Queen Victoria 1 ! keys, and all is well." Tho yeoman porter then exclaims ] — " God bless Queen Victoria." The main guard de- ' Toutedly respond "Amen." The officer on d«ty gives tho word "present arms," the firelocks rattle, the officer then ifisiie* the liflt of his sword, the escort fall in among, their companions, and the yeoman porter marches majestically across the parade ground alone to deposit the keys in the lieutenant's lodgings. The ceremony over, not only is .allegres* and. ingress totally precluded, but }hose within being furnished with, the countersign, anyone who, unhappily forgetful, ventures front his quarters upprpvided with this* talisman is sure to be made tb,e prey of the fiwt sentinel whose past be crosses, [i§

proclamation 6t bis Exoellenoy . Sir. G. JV! Bowon is 1 ropublished in the New South Wales Government Gazette, prohibiting the importation of sheep into the colony of Queensland, either by sea or land, from any of the other colonies of Australia, Tasmania, or New Zealand, under penalty of seizure and immediate destruction.— Outgo Daily Telegraph '• " ■• ■ Hbu Majkstyand the Maoms.— The Lylttlton Timtt states 'that a congratulatory address -to 'her Majesty the Queen from the Maoris of Canterbury, on the marriage of H. R. H. the Prince of Wales, has been placed in the handi of the Provincial Governmenttobesent to England by the next mail. The address is engrossed on parohmorit in Maori, with » translation, and has been handsomely backed with maroon colored velvet, fringed with gold lace. It has been left for transmission by Pita te llori from Kaipoi. Tins RioHAitnsoN Scnot-AttSMP.— At a meeting of the Education Board, held last Tuesday (a report of which will be found in another column) a communication was read from Major Richardson, offering the sum of £260 for tho purposo of endowing a Scholarship iv connection with tho High School, with the view to euablo certain scholars to attend some University. Tho Board cordially accepted tho offer, and accedod to the torms proposed by tho donor. It was resolved that tho scholarship should bo named—" The .Richardson Scholarship " in honour of its liberal douor. The , best thanks of the community are due to the honorablo and gallant Major for his handsome donation to the Sohool, and wo only trust that his example will bo an incentive to many others to follow in his footsteps. — Otago Daily Telegraph, Oct. 16. How Inoculation came About. — At a time when small pox was as destructive as the plague itsolf, Lady Mary Wortloy Montague, happening to be at Adrianople, vm »truck with the fact that the Turki were in the habit of making terms with the disease by receiving it into their system by way of the skin, instead of by tho lungs, oi in the natural mode of infection. Possibly, the lively nature of tho lndy's letter* had more to do with the sensation of this new ptactice created in England than the magnitude of the trutli she made known, and to this day we believe thafc the public have some idea that it was a discovery made by her ladyship, and which she had the boldness to put in practice upon her own son. Yet no foot is more certaiu than that throughout Asia the practice of inoculation had obtained for ages : and that tho Chinese — the iueritable nation to which we have to go back for the biith of any great discovery — systematically employed inoculation as early as the sixth century. Yet strango to say, in Asia this precious knowledge cam* to a dead standstill, and had it not boen for the lively English lady, inoculation might not have been introduced into England for another half-contmy, and possibly vaccination would even now be in the womb of time. That inoculation was a grand step towardi the practice of Vaccination there can bo little doubt, although science did not at the time appreciate the fact. It taught us that the disease received into the circulation by tho skin was infinitely lets dangerous tliau the disease " caught" by inhalation through the lungs, a circumstance which mediciue cannot explain to this day. — Once a Week. Enqmsh Opinions of the Nbw Zeaiand War. — The followiug is from the Nonconformist of July 22 :— " We deplore the failuro of Sir G. Grey's persistent and conscientious efforts to reconcile the conflicting claims of the settlors and the natives in Now Zealand. A war of races has commenced— tho most serious of all wars— and curiously enough tidings of the outbreak of hostilities arrive at the very timo when words of amity and good-will have been exchanged between Queen Victoria and tho New Zealand chiefs in this country. It is doubtful, too, whether we can absolutely enforce tho claim that tho colonists should pay the expenses of tho new campaign. They assert that the last war was begun not by them, but by Governor Biowno, the Imperial representative. It is indeed true and officially established that the late Governor's proceedings against Wiremn Kingi, were %u % un justifiable. His claim to the laud from which ho was dispossessed, and which led to his becoming an implacable enemy of British rule, is now proved to have been indefeasible, and to have been occupied iby natives at the time. Iv hhort, the allegations contained in Archdeacon Hadfield's pamphlet, to which we called attention at tho time, aro now officially proved, and it is established that Governor Browne and his officials had lccourse to hostilities without any adequato cause. To complicate mattcis still more, it is now stated that at the very moment when the Maoris were killing the military escort, an official notification was being made that the colonial Government surrendered all claim to tho block of land purchased from Te Teira, and one of the Ministers was on tho spot making an augements for the Biinender of tho land, and was obliged to fieo for his life in consequence of tho menacing attitude of tho Waikatos. It thus appeals that a w.ir commenced in injustice is likely to be leuewcd this time by the natives ; and it is doubtful whether tho cost of impending hostilities will not, after all, liaro to be defrayed by the mother country alone." 1 The Progress of Criokkt. — In 1774 cricket mado a great stai t. Sir Horace Mann, who had promoted , cricket in Kent, and tho Duke of Dorset and Loul Taukerville, who seem to havo been the leaders of the Surry and Hants Eleven, conjointly with other noblemen and gentlemen, formed a committee under the presidency" of Sir William Draper. They mot at the Star and Garter, in Pall Mall, and laid down the first rules of cricket, w Inch very rules form the basis of the Liws of cricket this day. The old skglcton huidle was abolished, and wicket* (two in number) twenty-two inches and six inches wide were substituted ; the weight of the ball was determined to be (as now) 5 \ ounces to 5§ ounces. In th# following year, 1773, a middle stump was added ; although the height nnd width of the wickets were twice increased subsequently, until they attained their present size, still in all essential points, even allowing foi the difference of cricket grounds the com paiatively rough materials for the game, and changes in style, aeiieket match in 1775 mutt have much resembled a cricket match in 1863. The next great step in cricket was the establishment of the White Conduit Club, in the year 1799; and among its members, ia addition to the before-named patrons of the game, wo find the names of Lord Wiuchelsea, Lord Strathaven, and Sir P. Burrell. Their place of meeting was still the Star and Garter, and their ground was the White Conduit-field. One of the attendants on this club, of the name of Lord, was persuaded to take aground, which ho did ; and under the patronage of the old White Conduit Club, a new club, onlled the Marylebone Club, was formed at Lord's ground, which was then situated on the site of the pieseut Dorsotsquari-. It would bo superfluous to say anything about the Marylobone Club, as the fact is notoiious that the Maiylebone Club are the only rules recognised as authentic throughout tho whole world wherever cricket is played, and that fclio very mention of the name of the club in connexion with anything said or done in the cricketing world is sufficient to stamp it as the right thing to say or do. — Once a Week,