MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IV, Issue 179, 10 June 1854, Page 5

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

The late Lady Lovelace (Aba. Byron).— A cenotaph lias lately been erected in memory of Lord Byron's daughter, by |,her mother (who now survives both), in the yard of the church at Kirby Mallory, situate 10 or 15 miles from Leicester. The monument is in the late Gothic style, 14 or 15 feet high, at the sides are pillars and buttresses, and surmounting it is a canopy, completed above by a pointed gable, and terminating in a finial. In front is a recess, which is railed in, and on the back wall of this is inscribed— Ada Angnsta Lovelace; born, Dec. 10, 1816; died, Nov. 27, 1852 ; to reeal her memory. " And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up ; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."—James v. 15. j Of the character of this monument, the Leicester Chronicle thus writes:—The style of the cenotaph is appropriate to its purpose, and harmonises with that of the church, A more suitable spot could scarcely have been selected ; and we can imagine that the poet, had he been living, and had the melancholy task of finding a site for his daughter's memorial devolved upon him, would not have chosen one more congenial to his feelings than this—where the turmoil of the world does not reach, where kindred lie buried, and where the trees of the park and the wood land slopes alone break, by their rustle and by the murmur of the wind sighing through the branches, the solitude so grateful to the poet's soul, and so fitting to the scene where the dead repose. Progress of Science.—A scientific hairdresser at the West-End is about to favour the ladies with the discovery of a wonderful new pommade, which, he guarantees, " will prevent the bonnet falling off the -head."— English Paper. Work and Play.—" I again ask what is happiness ? It ain't bein' idle, that's a fact— no idle man or woman was ever happy since the ■world began. Employment gives both appetite and digestion. Duty makes pleasure doubly sweet by contrast. When the harness is off, if the work ain't too hard, a critter likes to kick up his heels. When pleasure is the business of life it ceases to be pleasure ; and when it's all labour and no fplay, work, like an unstuffed saddle, cuts into the very bone. Neither labour nor idleness has a road that leads to happiness : one has no room for the heart and the other corrupts it. Hard work is the best of the two, for that has at all events sound sleep—the other has restless pillows and unrefreshin' slumbers : one is a misfortune, the other a curse; and money ain't happiness—that's as clear as mud.s'— Sam Slick. Sisterly Affection.—At a " protracted meeting," recently held at Ballston Spa, United States, an ancient sister in the church arose and relieved herself in the following manner:— " I see young ladies here that think more of gewgaws, furbelows, ribbons, and laces, than they do of their Creator. I loved them once and adorned my hat with French artificial flowers, bright-coloured ribbons, and sky-blue trimmings ; but I found they were dragging me down to destruction, so / took them off and gave them to my sister." The American Congress has tendered its thanks, by a vote of 174 ayes against 9 noes, to Captain Duncan M. Ingraham, commander of the United States sloop of war St. Louis, for his judicious and gallant conduct on the 2nd of July, in extending the protection of the American government to Martin Koszto, by arresting him from forcible and illegal seizure and imprisonment on board the Austrian brig of war, Huzzar, Hunting Slaves in Canada. —We clip the following from a late number of the Cincinnati Columbian ; —" We learn that a slave owner, who arrived in this city a few days since from Kentucky, in pursuit of some of his cattle, went over to Canada, having heard of them there. On finding them, he began to urge the subject of their voluntary return, holding out to them the certainty of being well treated and well provided for in their old age, and contrasting their prospects if they returned, with the cold climate of the Canadas, and the life of toil and privation they would be obliged to lead in the enjoyment of their liberty. While talking they were walking towards the old, untenanred barracks, and on reaching the barrack yard, the runaways seized the hunter, and tying his wrists together, they suspended him from the

limb of a tree, when they proceeded to give him 100 lashes, well laid on with a stout raw hide."— American Paper. Manifest Destint—Clear the track. — A lightning line is now running from Chicago to New York, and passengers are put through in a flash, and not unfrequently, as the public is aware, in a crash, going with Mr. Doolittle and his " First Locomotive slam bang to eternal smash." Truly, we are " a bustling people." We must be blowing something up. The steamboat folk blow up their passengers, and the editors blow up the steamboats. We all come down, and if alive, progress or propel again. The banks " bust," and bilers " bust," and we " bust" with indignation, and straightway go to raising steam again. We consider ourselves entitled to the track, and if old foggy folks fail to clear it, we put it right through them." Keep off the crossings." Manifest destiny is just ahead of us, but we are bound to head it. Even the lightning must soon be greased oi abandoned as an old highway for slow going thunderbolts. So we go, and so we keep going. A man who cannot keep up with his age had better get out of it, If he can't get out, we tell him " Life and limb at the passenger's risk, and no accountability for freight or baggage." Buy your ticket and make your will—take your seat and go to praying.— Lafayette Journal. Napoleon Bonaparte.—There is no one now living, and we doubt whether a man ever lived, about whom so much has been written as of Napoleon Bonaparte. In our own country there are more histories of his life—more accounts of his campaigns than there are histories and records of Marlborough, of Wellington, or of Nelson. In Germany, comprising the larger and the smaller states, Napoleon's history is more familiar to the general public than the history of the Great Frederick, of Prince Eugene, of the Archduke Charles —nay, even than the story of the life of old Blucher himself. In far-off Russia, the military man who reads at all, reads more of Napoleon thau of Peter the the Great, of Potemkin, or of Suwarrof. In Spain, among the most vain-glorious race under the sun, the name of the overrated victor at Baylen, Castanos, is now less known than that of the French emperor; and in Italy, producing in the middle ages great captains, Bonaparte is regarded as a soldier springing from their own so j1— a soil always fertile in great creations. Even among the Americans, a people as proud and exclusive as the Spaniards, and with a million of better reasons for being so, the name of Napoleon is as well-known, if not so much revered, as that of Washington; and his history and life more talked of than are public and private details concerning George Washington or Andrew Jackson. There is some reason for this world-wide renown. Napoleon was more than a great general and consummate captain. He was also a great administrator, a great ruler, and a great law-giver, a man, who, by his genius, his energy, and his art of fascinating and dominating his countrymen, not merely rose to the command of her armies, but who also won by his victories the way to supreme civil power. The position to which he raised himself, whether in civil or military life, was self-carved, and self-created; and as there is no instance in history of such -unique success and such wonderful reverses, our love of the wonderful, and our desire for startling excitement and strange contrasts, induces us to resort to the biogvapliy of this marvellous man as a species of intellectual drama. We can find in ancient, medieval, and modern story the lives of men wiser, and more truly great and glorious ; but in what pages other than in Napoleou's own biography shall we find the life of a man, so renowned as soldier, statesman, lawgiver, chief consul, Emperor? Our own illustrious Duke was more distinguished by sagacity, by fortitude, by an imperious sense of duty—was more remarkable for his conscientious discharge of every obligation imposed upon him, than the French General and Emperor ; but it is for this very reason that the history of his life wants the variety which as drama, melodrama, farce and tragedy, is presented in the life of Napoleon. Men, whether gentle or simple, whether educated or uneducated, love the strange and the marvellous rather than the simple and homely; and this is the reason why the lives of Wellington and Washington are less read than that of the lieutenant ofartillery transmuted into conqueror and captive, into first consul, consul for life, and Imperial Caesar. — Frazers Magazine for August.

Russian Intrigue at Cabol. —We have most important news from Cabul, bearing date the 23rd of December last. Dost Mahomed was about to proceed on a tour, the ostensible object of which was to inspect his late conquests in Toorkistan ; and to settle some boundary disputes in Khoolum and Mazar. His real object may be guessed from the following statement, furnished by a Cabul correspondent, whose communications have hitherto proved trustworthy:— The Russian army had halted within two marches of Khiva, and was employed in the construction of cantonments. Four Russian agents had reached Dost Mahomed, bearing a message from the Russian General. The message was to this effect. Dost .Mohammed was solicited to proceed with his camp to the banks of the Oxus ; there to meet two Russian envoys with letters from the Czar; one addressed to the ameer himself, and the other to the King of Bokhara, proposing the formation of a quadruple alliance between the Czar, the Khan of Diva, Dost Mohammed, and the King of Bokhara ; the alliance to be agreed upon on the right bank of the Oxus. Should Dost Mahomed agree to the proposal, the Russian General to come in person to the right or northern bank of the Oxus (in the neighbourhood of Chargore, we presume) and await an interview with the Dost. Dost Mahomed's reply was, that he consented to the proposed negociations, but that he would not cross the Oxus to meet his old enemy the king of Bokhara, unless the Russian General would in the first place cross to the Affghan side of the river, bringing with him as temporary hostages the son and the Prime Minister of the King of Bokhara. On these terms he would not only treat with the King of Bokhara, but would forgive all his past offences, holding that the importance of the quadruple alliance should throw all private quarrels into the shade. On these terms, then, a treaty of alliance between Russia, Khiva, Bokhara, and Cabul was on the point of settlement. It is also given out that the Persian Prince Alee Morad, who is said to understand the " European language," whatever that may be, had quarrelled with his Sovereign, and fled into the dominions of the king of Bokhara, where he had taken service. So far our Cabul correspondent. Now let us ask—" what does all this mean ?" The term '' Russo-phobia" requires a new interpretation. It now means, the fear of being laughed at for suspecting Russian designs. This is the fruit of reaction. We feared Russia when she was harmless. We are now too much inclined to despise her, when she is rendering herself formidable. The Russians have advanced on Khiva, but stopping short of the capture of the city, have preferred to treat with and subsidize the Khan, and establish their cantonments under the walls. This is their first step. Their next step is to forgive the King of Bokhara all his past offences, and to induce the ruler of Cabul to hold out the same indemnity to the same offender on the condition of his becoming a party to this portentous alliance. What the third step may be, no man can now say. It will depend, of course, on the progress of events in Europe.— Delhi Gazette. Pjersta.—The news which has reached us westward, is to the effect that a large army of Peisians, computed we suppose according to the usually exaggerated native fashion, at one hundred thousand nun—quitted Tehran en route towards the Russian Provinces via Tabreez ; they had proceeded nine marches when peremptory orders reached*them, it is said from the Russian authorities, to return—some other i object, which has not yet transpired, was to he curried out. Ou their return to Tehran, the British agent was directed to quit the place, and his flag was lowered, A similar fortune awaited the Turkish ambassador, and at the date of the report both these officials were three marches on their journey downwards. A subsequent report has. reached us, which we do not know how far might be trusted, that our agent had been recalled, and amends made for the bad treatment he had received. The Tehran army was ready to move at a moment's notice, and it was fully understood that, it was to proceed immediately somewhere. By some it-was thought it would proceed to Herat, where a junction would be formed with a large Russian Orgunjie, and that the whole would move on to Candabar and Cabool and gain a positiou there. By others it was thought that the army would move southwards,and after

being joined by the tvoops raised at Shiraz, would proceed in direction of this province, via Bunpoor, whereby the occupation of the seaboard on the Mekran coast would be effected. But the course considered most probable for the army at Tehran, and which would lead to more immediate results than either of the former, was a descent on Bagdad and Bussora, both of which towns acknowledge Turkish jurisdiction. This contingency was so strongly apprehended that a force in Turkish pay, o£ 11,000 strong, had been thrown into the latter place to defend it. The Persians possess ground in the immediate neighbourhood of Bussora, well adapted, it is said, for a rendezvous, and no doubt it will be used as such if the occasion arises. The Port of Bushire was in a ferment; our accounts state that Captain Kemball had been either obliged to leave the town, or had found it advisable to quit it, and was living on board one of the ships in the harbour. The Island of Karrack was occupied by Persian troops, who were fortifying it. Guns, stores and ammunition had been conveyed there for this purpose : some excitement prevailed at Bunder Abdas, and the inhabitants looked with dread at the state of affairs in their neighbourhood. A sirdar, with 20 horsemen, was paying it a visit for the purpose of looking about him, or seeing what pickings he could get, and the people regarded his visit as a forerunner of evil. We expect more news shortly from that quarter, which we will hasten to place before our readers."— Scindian, January 11.