MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

Inangahua Times, Volume III, Issue 60, 5 January 1877, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

A Jamaica paper states that during the administration of the holy sacrament in the parish church of Kingston, upon a recent occasion, it was observed wben the wine was passed that the rector, Mr Downer, bad a short cough, nest Dr Anderton, then Mr Charles Goldie, and then quite a number of ladies— in fact, as ti.e cup passed routid so did the cough, nobody seemingly being able to discover

wbat was wrong, until it reached a gentle* man wbo at once recognised old rum, neat, and 90 pronounced it. Tbe rector had been so long a Good Templar that he thought it was " fortified port," and when it was declared to be " Appletoa row," the scene is better understood than described. It seemed that iv coming from the grocer's a bottle of rum bad got mixed with the sacramental wine, and the rector, in opening it, did oot take aay particular notice. A barge costing £2,300 has been specially constructed for tbe conveyance of the 8l»ton gun from Woolwich to Shoe* , buryness. Tbe crane by whic<) it is hoisted cost £8000. The gun itself has absorbed £10,000, and the gunpowder for proof experiments £2000. The firat firing at Shoeburyness was successful. Quoth " Atticus " in the Melbourne Leader :— " A pound sweep was got up on the Cup race by some commercial gentlemen two or three weeks ago, with 225 members— £lso to go to the first horse, £50 to the second, and £25 to the tbird. One of the sweepers, who fortunately for himself, was a regular church-goer, diew Timothy ; and several of the other members who knew more of horses, or at least the state of the betting market, tried to tempt him in sqrps from £1 to £5 to tell his chance. But on Sunday week be was startled by bearing tbe text of a sermon given out exhorting Timothy to bold fast, which sounded to him as if the words were • Hold fast to Timothy,' wbile be fancied that tbe eyes of the minister under whom he sat were fixed straight on bim, and tbat the words were addressed personally to himself. Looking at this in something of the light of. a miraculous tip, he declined every offer, and the ereot justified his faith. He held fast to Timothy, and bad the satisfaction of receiving on Tuesday evening a cheque for £25. But after such direct monition from the pulpit, he was ratber disappointed at bis borse not coming in first." Tbe death of Mr George Laurence, the author of "Guy Livingstone." bas produced some very unpleasant notices in tbe public journals. Tbe great principles of de m&rtuis, &c., ought to be better understood by gentlemen who are in the habit of belauding a classical education. On the other hand, the poor fellow has ■ suffered from bis friends, who hare delivered several vague utterances in bis honour, am; laid especial stress upon the fact that be was the grandson of an Earl of Winchelsea. It is certain that our press is growing more and more Americanised iv the prominence that is now given td that unpleasant species of article called " personals." Mr Laurence was a bright rod clever writer, though " in a manner is mad aversion," and it is wiih bis writings alone that the. public haVo to do. Such comments are enough to drive all sensitive persons from tbe path of literature, and, indeed, every sort of public life, as has been the case (to ber great misfortune) in America. Tbere hava always been very queer stories, not to say grave doubts, about the ' legitimacy of Napoleon 111., but these bave sunk into insignificance before the revelations lately made in Paris respecting the birth of the ex-Empress Eugenic. In 1828 a certain law case was decided ia , favour of Dona Maria Pilar de Penusande, widow of Don Joaquin Montijo, against' ber two brothers-in-law which gave her I her late husband's estate for life, notI withstanding tbat she had been divorced - fre" bim, and tbat tbeir two cbiidren were dead; and it was published in the' 1 Gazette des Tribunaux in 1813. Tb© \ copy was discovered accidentally in the , collection of a Paris lawyer, but all the opies of the same date in tbe publio libraries are found to have been destroyed. The case was only interesting in the light of subsebuin Montijo died ehildlesa in . 1823 ; and everybody knows that tbe i Emfress Eugenic was born in 1826, on ! the anniversary of the death of the great Napoleon. Tbis hiatus of tbree yean is scarcely to be bridged orer. Attention was first drawn to it in the Petite Republicaine Francaise, to wbiob tbe copy of the old paper was sent by the ' finder, and the scandal is now all orer France. The Bona partist papers at once published a statement that Madame de Montijo would take legal proceedings against her slanderers, and the ex-Empress went so far as to declare that the trial in the Gazette des Tribunaux was a forgery from beginning to end. Only no steps have been taken jqst yet, and it is whispered, ne?er will be.