English Extracts. From the Hobart Town Courier.

New Zealander, Volume 1, Issue 9, 2 August 1845, Page 4

English Extracts. From the Hobart Town Courier.

The Brig Liberal from Rio de Janeiro, was was wrecked in the Tagiis on the lGtli Dec The captain, four passengers, and four of the crew were drowned. Sir H. Potlinger was entertained at a public dinner in the Town Hall, Manchester, on Friday, 20th December. On Saturday an address from the working classes of Manchester was presented to Sir Hem y. —lt received 10,438 signatures in fourteen hours. The beautiful tower of Strasburgh Cathedral, the highest in the world, has given way upwards of six feet from the perpendicular, and its immediate fall is anticipated. A rector in the diocese of Exeter has settled the surplus question in rather a comical way. A few dajs ago lie preached without either surplus or gown, in his great coat. There are three market towns between Bridgewater and Porlock without.a lawyer. Happy places! At a meeting of delegates from trades unions at Rochdale, it wa& announced that the operatiyes intend to have their Attorney General as well as the colliers, iti the shape of a well paid barrister,

Campbell the Poet. — Mr. Campbell was, in stature, small, but well made. His eyes were very (me, and just such eyesas Lawrence took delight in paint* in?, wb.en lie drew that fine picture of the poet which will preserve his looks to the latest postenty. His . lips wt re thin, and in a constant twitter: thin lips are bad in marble, and Chantry refused to do his bust, because his lips would never look well. He was bald, I have heard him say, when only twentyFour, ami since that age had almost always \\prn a wig. There was a sprucery about almost every thing thai he did. He would rule pencil lines to write on, and complete a M.S. more in the manner of Davis or i Hereford than Tom Campbell, His wigs, in his palmy days, were true to the last curl of studious perfection. He told a story with a great deal of humour, and had much wit and art in setting off an anecdote that in other telling had gone for nothing. The story of the mercantile traveller Jrom Glasgow was one of his pioposing Nupoleou's health at a meeting of authors, because he had murdered a booksilier (Palm), was rich iv the extreme. — Prater's Mag aztne The following lamentable accident happened a short time ago near Grindelsvaltl, in Switzerland. A poor woman named Baumano, was crossing a wood budge mer the Lutschine, with four children, two going before her, a third led by her hand, aud the lourih, a baby, carried in her arm. While watching the progress ot the two eldest she made a false step and fell into the torrent with" the two younger, who with their mother, were drowned tor\want ol assistonce, the two elder remaining two>J\ours crying on the hank which they had safely reached. At length the three lifeless bodies were found, aud carried to the hospital at Griwlelwald, where an old man, sick in bed, was so strndc by the piteous sight, that he ■ died suddenly.

New Mexico. — War had broken out between the New Mexicans and the tribes of Eutaw Indians who live aiound Taos. Early in September, six of the Kutaw chiefs, accompanied byone hundred warriors, visited Santa Fe to obtain from Governor Martinez restitution for depredations committed last spring on their people, by a trapping party of Spaniards under Portelance, in the neighbourhood of the Salt Mountain. The si* chiefs being in audience with the Governor in his palace, expressed themselves dissatisfied with the presents offered to them, and the leader attempted to pull the Governor from his seat by the hair— whereupon Martinez, seizing his sabre, killed two of them, and the other four weredespatehed by the guard who rushed in. The hundred warriors in retreating to their village massacred twelve Mexicans, and a brisk war between the two nations was anticipated. American Paper.

Extinction of the Aborigines. — We learn that of late the aboriginal women of the Yarra tribe, generally known as the Port Phillip tribe, are pursuing a system with regard to their newly born children, that will materially assist the gradual decay of the natives ; amongst whom a remarkable mortality has prevailed during the last few years. The lubras now destioy all their female progeny, but preserve their male children. We have been unable to ascertain the motive for sueji a step —Port Phillip Standard,. The Times reports that the general opinion is, that the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland has been offered to Earl Powis. j The Queen of Spain's marriage was considered all but settled with the young Count Trepani, and her sister with the Due de Moutpensier, son of the King of the French New difficulties have arisen respecting the arrangement. The Queen is unhealthy. It is the opinion of her physicians, that she is physically unable to continue the succession. In that case the throne would be in effect the same as the Due marrying the Queen herself. The other Monarchs of Europe do not wish to throw to much power J the family of the French King. Besides, the Carlist party are very strong, and the desire of the natives seems to be that the Queen should marry the eldest son of Don Carlos. Meantime, an outburst in favour of Don Cailos was expected, and it was generally repoited that the French were about to establish a Cordon on the frontier.

Railway.— The extent of railways already constructed and in operation in the United Kingdom is tv* o thousand miles $ the sum which has already been actually expended in their formation is no less than £79,000,000 stei ling; the projects now befoie Parliament will, if santioned, add nearly another 1,000 miles to the existing length of our railways, and were the cost of their construction to be equal to the rate of executing the existing lines, almost other £10,000,000 sterling would be added to railway investments ; but as the cost will not reach that rate, to add another £30,000,000 sterling to railway stock will be probably a more li uthful calculation. Thus, in a lew years the enormous sum of £109,000,000 of money will have been invested by capitalists in the construction ofiailwajs at home, besides a very considerable s>um which has been sent out of he country to absibt in the formation of foreign , tilway^. '■

New Shoe For Horses. — M. Jouy, residing in Poland, has invented a new method of Shoeing Horses, for which the Emperor of Russia has awarded him 50,000 roubles, besides an exclusive patent. Jouy covers the entire hoof with iron, and the base of his shoe, oras it is called, sandal, is perfectly smooth. It requires no nail, is extremely cheap and light, and is being adopted throughout Russia.

Improved Hour Glass. — At the Royal Dublin Society's recent exhibition of Iris>h manufactures, a model of an improvement on the Hourglass, invented by Christopher M'Dermott, of lrishtown, was shown The sand, instead of passing silently away, strikes a bell upon its exit, which intimates that the period for which the glass was timed has expited, and gives notice to turn it. The sand, at. it runs, divides its time on a dial affixed to the instrument; so that if the glass be timed for an hour, the minutes will be marked on the dial as the sand passes.

Ex pedittous Sa lting. — IVfr. C. Payne, of South Lambeth, luis patented the following expeditious method uf Salting Meut. The meat is placed in a strong it on vessel, which is closed air-tight, and the air then exhausted from it by an air pump; a communication peing opened with a brine vessel, whence the brine flows into the receiver until it is about half filled ; wheu the air-pump is again woiked to draw oft' every particle from the meat, &c. The brine is then permitted to fill the receiver, and a further quantity is injected by means of a common forcing-pump, the pressure being regulated by a safety-valve loaded with about 160 or 15 >lb. upon the square inch. After remaining under this pressure for about fifteen minutes, the meat is eftei'tuall) cured, and may be taken out of the receiver.

New artificial Leg. — M. Lepage, a stone mason of Paris, having had the right leg crushed o by an enoimuus stone, submitted to amputation ; and being poor, was' obliged to follow another trade, and became a shoemaker. The ordinar) wooden leg without joint did not suit his new condition: he broke several; and he therefore contnved a leg with two joints, the one conesponding to the knee, the other to the hip. By means of a button applied to a spiing, which descends laterally from the superior to the inferior articulation, these two joints are easily accessors to different movements, especiall) those of sitting down and rising up. The contrivance is very j ingenious, Tliecost is about two guineas. — Bull, de I'AcaU. Roy. de Med., and Brit, and For. Med' Rev.

Steering Balloons — A French gentleman and his son have been experimenting in Parib, and at St Denis, in Halkmniiig, and have succeeded in rising to a height of about 230 metres, with a balloon consti noted by themselvps ; and by ingenious mechanism, they pioceeded to the west, notwithstanding a pretty stiong wind blowing from that point. They then returned, aud sailed about in vanous directions, the balloon rising or loweiing at the will of the aeronuut, wilhont the apparent use of any kind of balast; the experiments lasting three hours.

Calculating Boy. — Among the many boys employed for calculation, on the Ordnance Survey of Ireland, is one named Alexander Gwin, eight years old, and a native ofDerry, who has got by rote the fractional logarithms from l to 1,000, which he will repeat in regular rotation, or otherwise. His rapidity tmd correctness in calculating trigonometrical distances, triangles, &c. are extraoidinary: he can, in less than one minute, make a return, in acres, roods, perches, &c of any quantity of land, by giving him the surveyor's chained distances; while the gieatest arithmetician, with all his knowledge, Avill certainly take nearly an hour to do the same, and not be sure of truth in the end.

Shower of Fish and Frogs. —Last year, at Derby, during a heavy thunder-storm, the rain poured down in torrents, mixed with haJfrt melted ice ; and, incredible as it may appear, hundreds of small fishes and frogs descended with 1 the rain. The fish were from half an inch to\ two inches long, and a few considerably larger, ' one weighing three ounces, some had slnup prickles on their backs, and were commonly called suttle-backs. Many were picked up alive. The frogs were from the size of ahorse bean to that of a garden- bean, and were mostly killed bv the fall on the hard pavement. — Sheffield Patriot.

Probable Speed of Mehtai, Action. If mental action is electric, the proverbial quickness ot thought, that is, the quickness of transmission of sensation and will, may be presumed to have been brought to an exact measurement. The speed of light has long been known to be about 192,000 miles per second, and the experiments of Wheatstone have shown that the electric agent travels (if I may so speak) at the same rale, showing a likelihood that one law rules the movements of all the "imponderable bodies." Mental action may, accordingly, be presumed to have lapidity equal to one hundred and ninet)two thousand miles in the second, a rate evidently far beyond what is necess iry to make the de^igii and execution of any of our ordinary muscular movements apparently identical in point of time, which they are. *

Propagation or the Mulberi.y.— -The following particulars relative to the mode of propagation of the Mulberry tree, may be of use to some of our friends. "Although the Mulberry is a fruit so much esteemed, I have observed it is much neglected on this side of the island. I cannot trace any other reason, unless it is supposed difficult of propagation, therefore thought it might uot be amiss to mention an easy mode of propagation which I have proved successful. In the autumn I take my cuttings from the tree with about an iuch or so of old wood to them, prepare them fit for planting by a smooth cut close under a bud, but not shorten the top, put their ends in the ground in a dry shady part of the garden until spring, when the greater part of them will have formed callosities, then plant them singly into smallpots, placing a pit of potsherd for the end of the cutting to come in contact with, and plunge the pot into a moderate hot-bed, keeping the lights close and slightly shaded until jhe cuttings begin to grow, they will then requiie to have as much air as possible, but continue to shade them through the middle of the day ; with yood management they witl be fit to shift into a larger pot in about six weeks or ,two months, but if it is desired to piant them out the same season, 1 would recommend to saw off the bottom of a good sized pot, and fix a temporary one of wood to shift them into from the small pot, and as soon as )ou suppose it has nearly filled the pot with roots prepare) our ground where youintend to plant them, make the {hole, then remove the terapoiary bottom aud plant the tree with the remainder of the pot; and as soon as you suppose the roots aie struck into the ground, carefully break, and remove the remainder of the pot ; they will then require no more care excepting a little watering occasionally."

Use of Ice in Russia.— The Russians, have accustomed themselves to use a prodigious quantity of ice for domestic purposes. They ate fond of cooling all their beverages with ieej indulge themselves freely in the frozen juicesf. which are sold all the summer in tho streets otheir towns $ and drink not only ice-water, iceo wine, ice-beer, but even ice-tea, tin owing int. a cup of tea a lump of ice instead of sugar Their short, but amazingly hot summer, would render it difficult to keep all those kinds of provisions which are liable to spoil, if' their winter did not afford them the means of pi eventing the decomposition acceleiated by heat. An icecellar,is therefore an indispensable requisite in every family, and is to be met with not meiely in towns, but very generally among the peasants in the country. In Petersburg, the number of icecellars is nearly 10,000. It may be conceived that the supply of these cellars is no unimportant branch of business. It is certainly, not too high a calculation, if we assume that each of those 10.U00 cellars requires 50 sledge loads for its share. Many of the fishmongers, butchers, kwasdealers, &c, have such large cellars as to hold several hundred loads. The breweries, distilliries, &c.' consume enormous- quantities of- ice. Accordingly 500,000 loads must be annually obtained fiom the Neva, and this amount can only be considered as the minimum, for every inhabitant of the city may fairly be reckoned to consume one sledge load in the cotuse of the year. Ice is the commodity with which most traffic is carried on in the winter. Long trains of i sledges laden with ice are then seen coining from the Neva, and thousands of men are engaged on all the branches of the river, in collecting the cooling production. Tho Russians are so habituated to these ice-cellars, that they cannot conceive how it is possible to keop house without them ; and their wives are in the greatest distress when they perceive that they have not laid in a suilicient stock of this necessary dining the winter, and that it is likely to run short. It may be assumed than the consumption of ice in Petersburg, the packing in the cellars included, costs the inhabitants from tvio to three million roubles a year.