MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1640, 4 January 1862, Page 5

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

[From the Papers to 26th October.]

Submarine Indian Telegraph. —Another effort is about to be made to bring the Indian telegraph into working order. When the new company is formed, they will direct their attention to the renovation of the line between Aden and Kurrachee. and it is believed that this renovation may be accomplished at an expense of £59,000. If this link in the chain were completed, that between Aden and Kurrachee, intelligence might be brought from India in five days. The line from Aden to Suez will complete the communication after the line across the Indian Ocean has been repaired. Arrangements, it is said, have been made with the Government, by which the Imperial authorities will, in case of the failure of the present company, take the line into their own hands, and will repay the amount actually expended on it. The new French company under government subsidy have just completed a contract with Messrs. Scott, of Greenock, for three vessels of 3300 tons and 700 horses’ power, to be built and completed in Greenock, and five of the same size and power to be completed in Franco ; the ships to be built at Cherbourg, and the machinery at Havre or elsewhere. Mr. Scott, it is reported, has undertaken the building of the ships at Cherburg. A London watchmaker, who gave 1000 guineas for the back page of the Great Exhibition catalogue of 1862, has been offered a bonus of £IOOO for his bargain. The coaling department of Malta was remodelled during the command of Sir Houston Stewart. During the Crimean war as many as 3000 tons per day were received in the stores, and 2000 shipped. The quantity of coal put on board a steamer when despatched as required is at the rate of sixty tons per hour. This is performed by Maltese, twelve in a gang, who carry the coals in a basket, at a running trot, and the whole cost from the stores, including lighters, till they are on board the vessel, never exceeds Is. 3d. the ton. The men are paid on peacework. A few days ago her Majesty's steamer Himalaya had 560 tons of coal put on board, and the ship trimmed in less than nine hours. This was performed by four gangs, making forty-eight men.

Discovert op Australia.— The King of Portugal has conferred upon R. H. Major, Esq., of the British Museum, the honour of Knighthood of the Tower and Sword in recognition of his literary researches on the early discoveries of Australia, by which it has been shown that the credit of the first authenticated discovery of that vast island no longer attaches to Holland, as hitherto recorded in history, but to Portugal. Mr. Major had the good fortune to light on a MS. map, in which it was shown that the N.W. coast was discovered in 1601 by a Portuguese named Manoel Godinho de Heredia. This date is five years earlier than the earliest previously known discovery by the Dutch. The Yelvbrton- Case.— The Times, ot October 26th, says A suit at the instance of Major Yelverton, for a dissoultion of his marriage with Maria Theresa Longworth, is now pending in the Court of Secession at Edinburgh. Yesterday at Judges’ Chambers. before Mr. Baron Martin, an application was made on behalf Of the pursuer, or plaintiff, for an order under the 22nd Victoria, cap. 24, to compel the attendance of witness on Tuesday next, at the Palatine Hotel, Manchester, before Mr. Cay ; the Commissioner appointed by the Scotch Courts to take evidence. Mr. Baron Martin granted the order, stating that it was the first application of the kind which had been made to him under the statute. It is whispered in certain circles that the Times office, before sending Dr. William Howard Russell to the Southern American States, insured his life for £IO,OOO. If this be the case, a very heavy premium must have been paid. Dr. Russell’s present expedition is the most hazardous one on which he has yet ventured : and not a few English Americans express their fear that he might fall into bad hands. The broiling Indian sun and the flying Crimean bullets were even less dangerous than are bowieknives, repeaters, and revolvers. . , _ , It is said that it post mortem examination ot .Lord Campbell took place. Amongst other things the faculty speak of the enormous weight of the brain of the Lord Chancellor. It weighed 53 ounces and a quarter. Cuvier’s barin was the largest ever known, being 59 ounceatat not healthy like Lord Campbell’s. The average wetjpit of brain is 46 ounces. Ten Mile Race between a Seneca Indian and

the English Champions.—Two months since an Indian, of the Seneca tribe, named Deerfoot for his fleetness, arrived in this country, and at once challenged the pale-faces to try their speed. A match was made for him to run ten miles against John White, of Ga*eshead; J. Brighton,' of Norwich; and E. Mills, of Bethnal Green; for the champion ten mile cup, with £SO for the first man, and £lO for the second. The race came off on Monday, at the White Lion, Hackney Wick in the presence of between three and lour thousand spectators. The competitors had to gosixtv eight times round the ground to complete the distance. Deerfoot appeared in the picturesque costume of his tribe. When the bell rang for starting, Brighton was found to be a defaulter, and Mills and White appeared very diminutive in comparison to the “ red jacket. White went off first, Mills second, Deerfoot last, S’W so they continued for half-a-mile; then Mills tootl the lead, which he kept to the mile and a-half whett the Indian went to the front amidst loud cheers. 'iL“ e next recovered the lead, but tailed to retain itand at three miles he had to succumb, through his % giving wav The remainder of the race between Mills in d the 1 r m *. • .1. am T? ai* OtM m .rt

Indian was of an exciting character. Ever api anon Mills sfruo-gled hard to leave his opponent, hut the Indian occasionally shot ahead in a way that electrified the spectators. There was not a yard between'ilie two at the seventh mile, when the Indian forced tho pace, and on commencing the eighth went rightaway. .Mil's, who was evidently in pain, then gave in The inthan finished at his leisure in 54- min. 25 sec-— Daily News. Population of Scotland.— The results of the census in Scotland have just been published, ihe total population is 3,061,251, the finales preponderating slightly. The population of Scotland m l 801, was 1,608,420; in 1811, 1,805,864; in 1821, 2.091.52 1 ; 1831, 2,364,386 ; in 1841, 2,620,184; and ;n 1851, 2,888,742. ~ The star of the ex-champion shot, Mr. Edward Ross, appears to be again in the ascendant. At the Montrose Rifle Gathering on the 6th of August, Scotland s Cup, shot for at 700, 800 and 900 yards, five shots at each, was won by that gentleman. He made eight, seven, and six points. Mr. Archibald Smith, of the Edinburgh Volunteers, won the second pnze, with three, eight and seven points. Major Moir, of Stirling, won the third prize, after shooting off tics at 15 With two others. The Stranger’s Cup was competed for afterwards, there being 10 shots at 900 yards and ten at 1000 yards, Ross made 18 points ; I\trfcwoodi Ren* freV; 17 ; and Moir; 16

M. DE MOmii> [From the “ Timet,” Sept. M. de Montalembert has spent a _ > part of the summer of this year in visitin', and in obtaining by personal inspection knowledge of her present condition. For him was a labour of love.* M. de Montalembert not appear now for the first time as the advoc of that unfortunate country, or as the avenger, iu so far as the eloquent tongue and the eloquent pen can avenge, a great nation crushed by so cruel an oppression, and abandoned by those in whose cause it had so often given its best blood. His best speeches were delivered in the Chamber of Peers, while France could yet boast of a free Parliament, on behalf of Poland; and M. de Montalembert may indeed appeal to his long services in that glorious cause as his claim to be heard once more in'its behalf as a writer. He as acquired a considerable mass of information during his late sojourn in Poland, and he has communicated it to the public in the last number of the Correspondent —a monthtly periodical which, as you are aware, one celebrated prosecution and the menace of another have identified with his name. It would be difficult for such a man to treat any topic withoutadorning it, and even Poland acquires new interest from a pen like his. Of the actual condition of the Polish people ha draws the following picture ; “ Let the man who knows the Paris of 1861 figure to himself a whole nation which dreams neither of amusement nor of money-making. Poland thinks only of her past and her future. She is absorbed by her sorrows and her hopes. In presence of modem civilization, which looks but to lucre and pleasure, which denies the existence of pain, and which enervates the will, she suffers and she wills. Her suffering is incurable ; her will is invincible. With her all is grave, sad, and sombre. With her everything bear the impress of one inflexible determination—that of accepting neither peace, nor prosperity, nor security, and of never leaving either to her masters till justice is done her. That justice is a debt of God ! It will bo paid. Cost what it may it will bo paid ; and until it be paid we will protest, and none shall ever force us to a compromise with iniquity. This is the dominant thought of Poland. It is this which speaks in her looks, in her words, even in every gesture of her children. It is the ever recurring theme iu her conversation, in every prayer, iu every hymn ; it is found in the chorus of the famous canticle which is heard at this moment in every church and in every thoroughfare of Poland— ‘ Lord God ! restore to us our country j restore to us our liberty! ’ “ Meantime her mourning is complete and universal. A people gay by temperament, ardent for show and pleasure, now totally refrain from them. Theatres art abandoned, gardens deserted, public and private, festivities suppressed. The dance, of all pastimes the most popular among the Poles, as among the Hungarian! and the Spaniards, is strictly prohibited, even in thti interior of families. Every women dresses from head to foot in black. They who so much love ornament, and for which they are so well formed, have unanimously renounced every colour but that of mourning. For the last six months the practice has been adopted from one end of Poland to the other, in sign of reprobation and indignation, but also as a pledge of union and reconciliation. The parties which once divided Poland are now but one; all differences are suspended, forgotten, or lie hidden beneath the funeral habiliments of the common country. No prohibition, no violence, no cruelty even (and severals acts of cruelty have been committed against persons wearing mourning met by the Russian soldiers in the streets) can put a stop to this terrible and mute declaration of war.” “ The churches resound with the music of mournful chants, mingled with aspirations for a happy resurrection. The words of the verse of the old Litany, * From pestilence, fire, and war, deliver us, Lord,’ have been changed ; they are now, ‘From pestilence, fire, and Muscovite servitude, deliver us, Lord.’ ” “ I have heard and admired,” say M.de Montalembert,

“ All the materpieces of religious or profane music, ancient or modem,but neither the boasted marvelsof the Sixtine Chapel nor the enchanting harmonies of Gluck or Beethoven have effected me so much as that chant inspired by the ardent inspiration of faith, of sorrow, and of patriotism, and which penetrates the deep mysteries of all. Every time those truly celestial sounds struck my car, whether in the full choir or in a modest village church, when the organ alternated with thejvoice of the peasant, or when the tremulous voice of childhood or the sweet accents of the youthful maiden were heard in a lone garden or by the hearthstone, that melody seemed to me like something superhuman. Never were imploring accents expressed in sweeter, more searching, and more passionate modulations. I pitty the man who could hear them without his heart... thrilling with anguish and his eye being wet -with tears as the plaintive notes rise and fall in a cadence each time more and more pathetic, until the closing invocation is heard in an irresistible burst of anguish and of love. But what must be the feelings of those who have heard it rush forth, like a torrent of fire, from the lips of twenty thousand, of fifty thousand Christians at the same moment, standing up, unarmed, before their bewildered oppressors—of multitudes determined not to combat but to die, and breathing in the agony of death, and with their last sigh, a defiance and a protest —this irresistible appeal to the avenging Omnipotence of Heaven ! It is at once the cry of a soul and the cry of a nation, both bowed down beneath the bitterest of griefs, and both inflamed by the most fervent faith. It is the cry of anguish and of confidence, of reproach and of tenderness, which would force itself through the vault of Heaven for eternal justice and pity to descend.”

“This,” adds M. de Montalembert, after giving a literal translation of the hymn, “Bose eospolske which now triumphs overall opposition, and which is heard in every church and every public place in Poland, —

“ This, then, is the Marseillaise of these singular revolutionists ! It shows in what the cause of Poland differs, and in what it always has differed, from the cause of revolution throughout the rest of Europe.'’ M. de Montalembert affirms that Poland has never yet for one moment become reconciled to her servitude. What she demanded in 1830, in 1815, in 1791 she now demands; she is resolved to get it; and she is convinced that she will get it, doubtless by other means than at these periods, but with the same resolution and the same unanimity. “ What othernation in the modern world,” he asks:— “Is in the same condition ? What remains to the Prance of 1789 of her ideal of justice, of progress and liberty, of her generous aspirations, of her youthful and candid ardour in pursuit of good, of her simple confidence in right, in liberty, in reason, in the Parliaments, in the all-sufficient force of reasoning ? What remains to England of the grand and powerful policy which with all her errors and all her selfishness, had so justly won the confident admiration of the world—which, with the inspired eloquence of Burke, and the firm and resistless hand of Pitt, seemed to have implanted for ever in every English heart the eternal distinction between revolution and liberty ? What remains to Germany of the memorable union of her Princes and her people in 1813 —of the immense and glorious movement, which raised them up as one man against a foreign conqueror? What remains to North America of the institutions and ideas which had so long accustomed us to seek on her soil the ideal of the future ? Nothing, alas !or almost nothing 1” Casting a glance nearer home, M. de Moatalembert observes

« When one comes from a country where great minds exercise themselves, now in demonstrating that the right of force is identical with the Jorce of right, and now in quoting from Tacitus and Corneille the apology of Casarism; when we come from a country where such things find a public and official encouragement; where the litterateurs, decorated and undecorated, who direct the greater part of the press, where all those .proud champions of the liberty of thought are unanimous in proclaiming, as a patriotic exploit, the act of the general whom they congratulate on having applied, [morally, tw'o slaps on the face to an ecclesiastic; when we get out of that fetid atmosphere into a pure air, we experience an unspeakable relief on finding honest even in servitude to a despotism which they have neither created, nor accepted, nor merited. “ What revolts, discourages, and frightens the honest mind in the time we live in is not the triumph of roguery or violence ; the history of the world is full of such pernicious lessons - but was there ever a period known in which the trir p evil was more speedily and more easily accr v-v Was there ever less sympathy for the victi. ' more indifference for unsuccessful courage i - n it oppressed, or when the crushing of the we. . >he strong was more quickly janged among in voc able facts and avested with the prestige attached ;o .ble jut- ,n»ente ? Hence a doubt which teems legitimate. Assuredly, there ha<e been woi e miscreant, ; . i, above all, worse tyrants tian those of the present ~av •, 1 ’t for successful iniquty and plausible tyranny, have, . ey ever met, with henest men, sc much indifferei c, so much indulgeice, and, not |o mince the mat.or, so much Suih is not the ease with Poland. She has never . ghown the interested complacency nor the base end ebwTv/cfif iwrility af the of Poland .. ■

s made no compact to corrupt her, to .er, she has always nte ‘No ! ’ which .-/ longer to repeat to uquiry. .National independence is an > blessing, bht is there nor a blessing still , OUS and more sacred, and the loss of which jre irreparable ? Is it not national morality ? To .ose one’s nationality is, indeed, a dire calamity. But one may conceive, and mav even undergo sacrifices still more painful, and, above all, more disgraceful. There is still something worse than to be conquered and enslaved by the foreigner—it is to spontaneously abdicate liberty, truth, and honour, in order to serve falsehood and crime. Some pages written three centuries ago, and entitled ‘ Voluntary Servitude,' ha Ye made the name of Boetius immortal. What he stigmatized as the worst of humiliations has been again found, and will again be found, in the history of nations as in that of minds. But the history of Poland presents a glorious exception. Upon her can be found no such stigma.” M. de Montalembert pays a noble tribute to the memory of Prince Adam Czartoryski ; and expresses full confidence in the future ofa country which can produce men of such a stamp. He recalls with pride the protests of the French Parliaments in which he himself took so large a part, in favour of Poland. “We did not fail in our duty,” he says,

“ When we solemnly protested, aided by a publicity the most sincere and the most complete that ever existed, for right against force ; when we struggled against indifference and forgetfulness ; when we cherished the sacred flame of honest indignation ; when we prevented the establishment of prescription for the advantage of iniquity. In spite of the contemptuous disdain which the press of the antechamber now affects towards ns, we have nothing to regret. The famous words, ‘ Polish nationality will not perish,’ heard 30 years ago from a constitutional throne, are now more than ever a truth. Those words, which I then repeated with the ardent inexperience of youth, I now again repeat with he rooted conviction of ripe age., Les, Poland will have another birth. She has twice lived already. She has disclosed to the world her existence by a moral victory, of which her own history, of which contemporaneous history docs not present a second example. The events of Warsaware as a battle won. I understand the mourning which I have everywhere seen ; but it is not the victims, but the victors who arc wept for. Poland will again live by them, and like them ; let her continue to be herself. Let her imitate no one. Let her put her trust neither in orators nor in Csesars. Let her do nothing to forfeit the sympathy of honest men, of Christian people. That sympathy may be often, and even long, powerless ; but the cause which has it not is condemned to perish ignominiously. Hail, then, cherished and noble Poland! If God prolong your trial, it is to render you more worthy of a glorious emancipation. Hail, Niobe of nations ! Salvation and hope be yours, the undying type of right, of innocence, of misfortune, but also of power —of moral power—of the only power which merits to be served and admired here below !”