MISCELLANEA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 141, 17 September 1853, Page 9

MISCELLANEA.

The Peace Deputation to Fbance.—In

the House of Lords, Lord Campbell drew the attention of the Government to the fact that a peace deputation had waited upon the French Emperor. The noble and learned lord cited passages from Vatel and Puffendorf to prove the gentlemen composing the deputation, not having the sanction of their own Goverment for their proceedings, had been guilty of a violation of the law of the land. The Earl of Clarendon could not agree with Lord Campbell in thinking that the presentation of such an address constituted at offence against the law of nations. He could assure, the noble lord however, that it was

not sanctioned by the Government, for, though he thought it unobjectionable, he refused to in*4 struct Lord Cowley to be present when it was presented. The Earl of Ellenborough agreed in the opinion expressed by his noble and learned friend. The whole transaction had filled him with unqualified disgust. The Earl of Malmesbury testified to the good impression which the presentation of the address had created in Paris. The Lord Chancellor trusted that it would not go forth to the country that these proceedings had been necessarily illega],Jfor, if so, they would subject every person concerned in them to a criminal prosecution. The subject then dropped. Napoleon's Will.—An occurrence (says

the Times), recorded in a recent impression, (though.shaped in the unattractive form of a. legal application and decree, is of too interesting,

and indeed of too important a character, to lie

passed over without some further introduction of its purport to the notice of the publjc. The Queen's Advocate, appearing before Sir J. Doclson, requested, on behalf of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, that the original will and codicils of Napoleon Buonaparte should be delivered out of the Registry for surrender to the French Government. The application was heard, argued as a point of law, and decided like an ordinary case in favour of the applicant. Napoleon's will, therefore, will he transferred from the keeping of a British Court to the custody of his own countrymen, and this proceeding, following on the translation of his remains, may be said to extinguish the last record of his detention. The case itself, though simple, was not without difficulty. Napoleon expired in the British possession of St. Helena on the sth of May, 1821, leaving property to the amount of some £600 with the proper jurisdiction of the Court in question. In the month of August, 1824, his will, with seven codicils, was duly proved by - the Count de Montholon, one of his executors, and deposited in the registry. The question now was whether, conformably to law and usage, it could be taken from this registry and surrendered to the keeping of others. Lord John Russell, in whose name the application was preferred, had communicated his intentions of delivering the will to the French Government, and he put in an affidavit to the effect that the whole proceeding was based upon grounds of public policy. The judge, however, characteristically observed, that " public could not be allowed to determine of itself the decision of an English Court, but that the authority of the Court to act in the first place, and in the next the warrant for such action, should be shown and established. This proved no easy matter. A search into precedents disclosed only three cases in which assent had been given to similar applications, and these cases were certainly wanting in precise analogy. However, a doubt existed, and it was turned, as it should have been, to the advantage of the application and the satisfaction of a neighbouring State. Substituting merely "the legal French authorities" in place of " the French Government," as the parties to whom the will should be transferred, Sir John Dodson made the requisite order for its delivery from the registry of the court, and the last testament of the first French Emperor has been brought from London to Paris by M. Charles Baudin, Secretary of the French Legation in London. The Emperor has decreed that it should be deposited in the national archives. The Emperor has on this occasion addessed a letter of thanks to Lord Clarendon.

" Going the whole Hog."—A. querist asks information as to the origin of the American figure of speech " to go the whole hog."— I apprehend its pai'entage belongs less to America than to Ireland, where a "hog" is still the synonym of a shilling, and a " tester" or " tas-

ter" for a sixpence. Previously to the assimilation of the'currency of the two countries in 1825, a " white hog" meant the English shilling' or twelve-pence, and a. " black hog," the Irish shilling of thirteen pence. "Go the whole hog:," is a convivial determination to spend the whole shilling, and the prevalence of the expression, with an extension of its applications to America, can be readily traced to its importation by the multitudes of emigrants from Ireland.—From Notes and Queries. Novelty in Ornamental Iron Work.— A New York paper states that the manufacture of marbled iron, has been brought to great perfection in tnat City. "We had no conception (says the Editor), until we saw for ourselves, to what perfection of finish and beauty the process of enamelling iron was carried: and nothing, we are sure can eclipse the mantels, table taps, columns, pilasters, clock cases, and fancy articles each representing the choicest varieties of marble. Window lintels, sills, balconies, and other castings for buildings of every description, are also wrought in imitation or marble. These give you an exact idea of the finest variety such as Egyptian, Sienna, Brocatelle, Verd Antique, Agate, Prince Albert, Pyrenese, Light Spar,&c. This discovery has the double advantage of economy and beauty, for while marbleized iron does not cost more than one third the price of marble, it has a polish and finish that we have never seen excelled by the finest specimens of marble of our own, or any other country. Add to all this the fact, that the iron thus prepared is capable of withstandinga high heat, of resisting acids, and oils, which stain and deface marbles, and the discovery becomes one in which everybody ought to take an interest. Some of our wealthiest and most cultivated citizens have ordered these mantels for their costly dwellings and in no mansion in the city is there any thing to excel them for durability or excellence." Lighting Gas with this Tip of the Finger.—This is a feat anybody may perform. Let a person in his shoes or slippers, walk briskly over a woollen carpet, scuffling his feet thereon, or stand upon a chair with its legs in four tumblers, to insulate it, and be there rubbed up and down on the body a. few'times with a muff, by another person, and he will light.the gas by simply applying his finger to the tube.— It is only necessary to take the precaution not to touch anything, or to be touched by anybody during the trial of the experiment. The shock of electricity acquired by the process we have described is discharged by contact with another object. A second person must turn on the gas while the other fires it. The writer has lighted it in this way, and seen it done by children not half-a-dozen years old. We are all peripatetic luciier^matches, if we did but know it.

The Duke of Wellington's Estimate^of Wordlly Happiness.—The following anecdote, which has not yet appeared in print, but which (we have reason to know) maybe fully relied on, will show that the great warrior was not indifferent to academical distinctions. It is the practice at Oxford for the young men who obtain University prizes to send a copy in manuscript of their successful compositions to the Chancellor. In the year 1837 the prize for Latin verse was obtained by Mr, Charles Wordsworth, then an under-graduate at Christ Church. The copy of his verses was lying on the Duke's library table, when a friend who was in the room took it up and began to read it. The Duke turned suddenly upon him and asked—"Do you know who is the happiest man now in England ? I will tell you. It is the father of that young man— Dr Wordsworth. He has three sons, and all of them have obtained University prizes this same year—^a circumstance quite unprecedented." It was strictly the fact. The eldest of the three brothers (who died some years ago) became a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and was celebrated as the first classical scholar of his age in England.; the second is the Rev. Charles Wordsworth now Warden of Trinity College, Gleualmond, who was elected last week, Bishop of St. Andrews; the third is Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, now canon of Westminster, the well-known divine and accomplished preacher.— Edinburgh Courant. . New Motive Power.—The attention of mercantile men is excited by the discovery of a new motive power, applicable to all engines now in use in steam ships or on the land, the practical result of over ten years labour, study, and experiment on this subject. Anew engine, has also been devised and perfected for stationary and locomotive purposes, upon land or

water, which can be constructed and applied in connection with the new motive power, at half the expense and one half the weight required to construct an engine of equal power on any other known plan, thereby gaining a great advantage by light machinery, a point of great importance in vessels on the water. A new propeller, or new mode of applying the power of the engines to the water in vessels on the ocean or rivers, has also been perfected in the past six months, which will act through the bottom of the vessel, where the water is denser, and the whole power of the engines will be expended in driving the vessel rapidly forward. The gain by these important and valuable improvements, in lightness of machinery, directness and efficiency of the power, and small expense for fuel necessary, together with the advantage of greatly diminished resistance in moving rapidly through the water, obtainable by the new model, when combined in one vessel, especially in so large a vessel as the projected iron ocean steamer, " Leviathan," 700 feet l»ng, will render ocean navigation so economical, regular, safe, profitable, and rapid, as to distance all competition.— Times.

Extraordiart Maeinb Convulsion. —Information has been received at Lloyd's, of an extraordinary marine convulsion experienced by the Maries on her passage to Calbera. On the morning of the 13th of October, the ship being twelve miles from the equator, in long. 10 W., a rumbling noise appeared to issue from the ocean, which gradually increased in sound till the uproar became deafening ; the sea rose in mountainous waves ; the wind blowing from all quarters, the control over the ship was lost and she pitched and rose frightfully, all on board expecting each moment to be their, last. This continued 15 minutes; the water then gradually subsided, when several vessels in sight at the commencement of the convulsion were found to have disappeared. Shortly afterwards a quantity of wreck, a part of a screw steamer, were passed so that some, vessels and lives were lost.

American Independence.—There was a celebration of the. anniversary of American Independence, ou the 4th of July, in Melbourne. The Argus says—"The principal citizens of the United States, who are resident in Melbourne, and a great many of the merchants of the city, were present on the occasion, which was marked by the exhibition of the most friendly feeling between the children of the Great Western Eepublic and the Empire of Britain. The American Cousul, Mr. Henriques, presided. At the head, over the Chairman was the American star-spangled banner, supported on the right by the British flag, and on the left by the French tricolour. Immediately behind the Chairman was placed the Declaration of American Independence set in a neat frame, with a bust of Washington bearing a laurel chaplet upon a pedestal in front; close to the. English flag on the right were the engraving's of her Majesty Queen Victoria and the late Duke of Wellington."

The Value of Sheep in the Provinces on the River Plate.—ln a work entitled " Two Thousand Miles Ride through the Argentine provinces," the author, Mr. MacCunn, in speaking of Mr. Handy, an Irishman, at whose house he stopped a night, says : —" He had lately been in the south buying sheep, where, by good management, and a little patience, he obtained eight thousand, at eighteen pence per dozen !—four copper reals each. His homeward journey of about two hundred miles, with his purchase, was accomplished in thirty days ; during which he consumed and lost on his way less than a hundred of that enormous flock. As soon as the sheep became fattened on his own lands he killed about a thousand, sold the fleeces at five shillings and threepence per dozen, and with the mutton he fed a herd of swine. Mentioning this fact to a lage party of Europeans at the dinner table of Lord Howden, when in Buenos Ayres, my statement was received with a murmur of scepticism ; but I offered to accompany the incredulous to pastures where the remainder of the sheep were then feeding."

Educated Wheat.—*A singular discovery has been made in France .by a M. Fabre a humble gardener of Ayde, but of some local note as a botanist. The herb agilops, heretofore considered as worse than useless, grows abundantly on the shores of the Mediterranean. It produces a species of grain resembling wheat in form, but much smaller. In the year 1539 Al. Fabre sowed

a quantity of this grain, and he was struck by observing that the produce of it seemed to bear close affinity to wheat. That produce he sowed the nest year, and the yield was still more like ■wheat. He went on sowing the yield year after ■year, and each year found a marked improvement in the produce, until at last he has the satisfaction of getting a fine crop and oi as good quality, as could be seen. At first he produced his crops in a garden, but his later sowings were made broadcast in an open field. Thus a wild and mischievous herb, which is particularly destructive to barley crop's, can be educated into' excellent wheat!— Literary Gazette. The Royal Family.—As the birth of another prince very naturally causes an unusual interest to be felt in the royal family at the present time, and as many persons do not precisely recollect what the family consist of, we may state, that Her Majesty has now eight children, four princes, and four princesses, namely—l. The Princess Royal, born 21st November,lß4O. 2. The Prince of Wales, born 9th November, 1841.—3. The Princess Alice, born 25th April, 1843.—4. Prince Alfred, born 6th August,lß44. 5. Princess Helena, born 25th May, 1846. —6. Princess Louisa, born IBth' March, 1548.— 7. Prince Arthur, born Ist May, 1850.—8. The prince just born.

On Wednesday afternoon, the cutter " Catherine Ann," while loading at the jetty with goods for the plains, was driven ashore from the wind suddenly springing up from the S.W. We regret to learn she has suffered considerable damage. Her cargo, however, was taken out before any serious injury was inflicted. The weather for the last two days has been very tempestuous, quite putting a stop to all communication with the shipping, and preventing any demonstration of rejoicing such as would naturally result from so important an event as the introduction of steam.