EXTRACTS FROM LAST MAIL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 203, 27 August 1868, Page 2

EXTRACTS FROM LAST MAIL.

We have it on the authority of no less competent a judge than Sir Francis Grant, the President of the Royal Academy, that the Princess Louise has attaiued a high proficiency in art as i\ sculptress. The Pall Mall Gazette states that at the anniversary dinner of the Artists' Benevolent Fund, the president of the Eoyal Academy mentioned th..t ' the Queen had conferred a signal honor, not only on the Royal Academy, but ou the whole profession, by permitting the Princess Louise to s<-nd a bust of her brother Prince Arthur.' Sir Francis had no hesitation in saying that 'the bust is a work of infinite taleut, an admirable likeness, arid a production full of refinement and taste.' A remarkably steady proportion is ■maintained in England and Wales between the number of males aud females born each year. The proportion, with hardly any variation in a loug period of years, is 104 males to 10U females. A telegram from Florence states that the Duke of Sutherland has arrived there, having crossed Mont Cenis by the Fell Railway in a train consisting of 12 carriages. The time taken between Saint Michel and Susa was four hours and six minutes, deducting stoppages for inspection. The maximum speed was nineteen kilometres per hour. Apropos of the late Royal vfsit to Ireland, it is said that whilst tat, Prince and Princess of Wales were ascending the mountain road between Dublin and Wicklow, in order to view the beautiful scenery of ' Powerscourt's Waterfall,' • The Dargle,' &c, the Royal party was met by a funeral. The mourners soon, recognised the Prince and Princess, and immediately broke into a vociferous hurrah for their Royal favorites, much to the astonishment of the Royal party, who, accustomed to the solemn and lugubrious decorum of English funerals, were not prepared for an outburst of Celiic enthusiasm upon su-.'h an occasion. A remark being made on the oddity of a hurrah at a funeral, it was replied that the corpse would have cheered lustily too, if he could. How characteristic this little event is of the sons of Erin ! A plaster cast of the statue designed by Baron Marochetti for the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park was lately put into its position, in order to judge of the effect it would produce. The result was so unsatisfactory that the statue has been condemned as being unworthy of the shrine prepared to receive it. The Duke of Wellington is said to have conseuted to allow a reading by the Rev. J. C. M. Bellew, to be given, in behalf of two working men's clubs, in the Waterloa Gallery, at Apsley House. It is said that Mr Glyn, the Liberal • whip,' on beiDg asked whether Sergeant Armstrong had been selected by the Opposition to move the vote of want of confidence on their behalf, replied, 'No ; don't you see he'3 only a non-commission-ed officer.' The Church News stales that the Bishops of Winchester, Oxford, and Gloucester and Bristol now wear cassocks of violet, instead of black, violet beiDg the proper episcopal color. Bishop Ryder, formerly of Lichfield, always wore a violet cassock. The Hon. Major Ansou, whilst lately fishiug in the Spey, hooked a large salmon at six o'clock in the evening, played it all night, and lost it at six the next morning, after a hard fight of 12 hours.