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Inangahua Times, Volume III, Issue 75, 9 February 1877, Page 2

The Greymouth mail did not arrive last evening, nor the coach from Weatport. The County Council will fit on Monday next at the office, Broadway. Notice's of the current year's assessment by the County Council were distributed amongst the ratepayers on Wednesday last. All objections thereto mU3t be left at the Courthouse, Reefton, on or before the 15th instant (Thursday next), addressed to the Assessment Court, and ft copy of every such objection must be left at the office of the Council, Beefton, not les3 than seven days before the next sitting of the Court. A memorial prepared at the instance of the Local Eoad Board, was yesterday circulated for signature, praying that the Eoad Board be merged iv the County Council. The petition is very numerously signed, and will be presented at the nest sitting of the County Council. A special meeting of the Cc'ey Comity Council was called for Monday evening last, for the purpose of electing a Chairman in the room of Mr Guinness unseated. Only two members Messrs Woolcock and Taylor, were present. The Grey River Argus states that : "There are some features about this matter, which call for very severe criticism, and which are calculated to bring the whole Council into doserved public contempt. It is no matter for surprise that there was no quorum 01 Monday, except on the ground that persons elected to perform responsible puhlie duties, should directly evade them ; for it was no secret that it was the intention of a majority of the Council to allow the meeting to lapse, and to make no fresh election of Chairman until the new election for Marsden wu3 settled — the idea no doubt being to keep the seat warm for Mr Guinness. We (Maryborough Advertiser) find it stated that in a private letter of a late dale from the Cape of Good Hope the following startling intelligence i 3 conveyed :—" The town (Cape Town) is in a state of the most intense excitement, in consequence of the unfortunate affair of the Cora troupe. Business with them had been very good, acd everything looked pleasant for a successful season. All of a sudden the whole town was thrown inio a state of the greatest excitement by the news that Madame Cora, in a fit of jealousy, had strangled to death the young vocalist, Misa Alice Wren (sister of Mrs F. F. M. Bate 3, the actres«). Madame Cora has since been sentenced to death, but that penalty was afterwards commuted to three years' imprisonment, \vith solitary confinement, Mr Bushe (Cora's husband) has gone to England; and Val Vose, the ventriloquist, has formed a company and gone into the intorior. It may be of interest to hero-worshippers to learn the favorite beverages by which divers great men are said to have stimulated their faculties. Frederick the Great, like a good many other persons, had a particular affection for Tokay. Napoleon preferred Chambertin, but liked black coffee even better. Peter the Great thought Madeira the best of wines, but regarded brandy as superior to all other drinks. Marshal Richelieu held Medoe in the highest honor, "and Rubens had the strange taste to esteem Marsala the finest of wines. John Bart, whom the French persist in imagining to have been a great admiral, drank confusion to the English in bumpers of Beaune. Rabelais thought that " the divine bottle " never lookeumoreadmirdble than when filled with Chablis. Marshall Saxe had a decided predilection for champagne ; while the severity of Cromwell's countenance is said to have occasionally relaxed at the sight of a pipe of Malmsey. The Emperor Charles V. would plan his campaigns and devise more stringent laws for the repression of heresy over a flagon of good Alicante wine. His rival Francis I. consoled himself for the loss of everything bi;t honour with a cup of Xeres, or, as we should say, a glass of sherry. Henry IV., whether as a Catholic or a Protestant, was faithful to the yintage of Sureanes. Iv more recent times the genius of a Goethe was often fired with a bottle of Johannisberg. ' Humboldt studied and wrote unpleasant things about, his friends under the influence of Sauterne. Talleyrand often owed an hour of good nature to Chateau Margaux. A strange misfortune lias befallen Mr Blanchard Jcrrolcl, the author of the life of Napoleon 111. He had just completed the third volume of that work — its most important portion, and during the writing of which he had been entrusted with many documents of great value, private correspondence among them, and a number of papcr3, which it is reasonable to suppose several very important persons would have very good reasons for anxiously desiring to suppress. Mr Jerrold concluded his MS., made up his parcel, including several of those documents, which were to be lithographed iv England; took it to the Post-office himself, and registered it for despatch to his publisher's in London. From that moment not a trace of it has been discovered, and it has only been ascertained that it did not reach St. Martin's le Grand. Nobody entertains a doubt that the parcel • has been aecapare by the police of the Republic. Mr Blanchard Jerrold hiis been made quite ill by the loss, and the distress which this occurrence has caused to tlio Empress Eugenic and Prince Louis Napoleon is ex» treme.