ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, Volume 22, Issue 187, 22 October 1842, Page 2

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

The following notice in the French papers, gives reason to hope that another grand advance will shortly be made in international communication : — English agents are arriving in Paris, to arrange with the Government the means of establishing a good telegraphic line from London to Calcutta, across France, and which should extend through Italy, Greece, Syria, and the Red Sea to India. It appears an Engineer has demonstrated the possibility of executing the work, and placing London and Paris in immediate connection with the Indian continent. Fashions for March. — During this month chimney pots are frequently worn on the head, and gossamer hats occasionally give way to pantiles. Ladies' dresses are worn higher up than at any other period of the year. The hair appears very generally powdered with dust, and hats and bonnets are frequently detached from the head, and carried several yards in advance of the owners. Wigs should be tied under the chin, and ladies' fronts carefully secured with diachylon. It is expected that the flowers worn in the bonnets will be full bloom, and the shawls will be sometimes carried over the hack of the head, so as to come down in a point between the eyes, and occasionally into one of them, and not a few will also be taken a-back. — Umbrellas will be much carried about in dull mornings, and the sun will probably shine when they are brought from homo, so as to render these articles merely ornamental appendages to the pedestrian. It will be advisable to have them lined, as it is probable that, when put up, they will be turned with the inner portion outwards. If veils are worn they will most likely be carried in the style of a feather, standing almost perpendicularly above the bonnet. Gentlemen's coat-tails will be kept out stifF, something a la Charles the Twelfth, or Peter the Great. To those who prefer the more compact style of toilet, we may recommend the slouch hat, or the gossamer may be trimmed with a piece of twine depending from the ribbon, and terminating in the button-hole of the waistcoat. It sometimes has a pretty effect to hold the chapeau tightly on with the hand, particularly when turning a corner. — There is nothing new in boots. We have seen a few anklejacks, but the great run is still upon highlows. — Punch. Chinese Military Tactics. — It is said that the mandarins, to keep the Chinese soldiers from running, when the attack was made on Amoy, chained them to their guns. Then, when the English landed, the long-queued mandarins took to their heels, and left the poor soldiers at the mercy of the enemy. One mandarin, just before the attack, sent a flag of truce to an English captain stationed opposite his fort, and desired to make an agreement, that neither should use balls, but to blaze away at each other with powder. He said it would please the Emperor just as much as if balls were fired. Ancient Highland Dungeon. — The road over the stone bridge here is at present nndergoing repair, and on Saturday last, the workmen threw opon the vault built in one of the arches, which was formerly used as a jail, and afterwards as a cell for maniacs. It was truly " a double dungeon," made by " wall and wave." About a foot below the surface of the road, they came upon a small iron door, from which a flight of stone steps led down to the damp and miserable chamber. An iron grating, or air hole, lighted the place, which was found to be about twelve feet long, nine feet wide, and six feet high. There were no indications of a fire-place ; a hole on the door was used for letting down a pitcher for water ; and it is scarcely possible to conceive a more wretched or horrid receptacle for human beings. The situation of the captives, with the river rolling below them, and the sound of horses and vechicles passing over the roof of the cell, is strongly calculated to impress the imagination. In winter, when the river is in flood, or during a storm, a sort' of wild and fearful sublimity must have been

added to the scene. The inmate of the cell was half devoured by rats ! — Inverness Courier. The Pope a Teetotaler. — The Belfast Vindicator contains the following : — The Pope has become a teetotaler, and the example of his Holiness cannot fail to produce the most important and the most beneficial results to this country, especially in regard to the permanence of the system of temperance ; — " The head of the Catholic church on earth, Gregory XVI., is a teetotaler, and wears the medal of the Cork Total Abstinence Society. A letter from his Holiness, announcing this important .fact, was received by Father Mathew (who had sent the Holy Father a gold medal,) just as he was setting out for Moira, and will appear in the newspapers immediately after the apostles return to Cork. The influence of this illustrious example will be productive of the happiest results." Laughable Incident in the House of Commons. — During the discussion which followed Sir Robert Peel's financial exposee, Colonel Sibthrope recommended to the consideration of the Government the propriety of imposing an absentee tax. He thought such a measure would operate beneficially especially in Ireland ; although, if they adopted it, they might be charged with infringing the liberty -of the subject (laughter.) Mr. O'Connell said he was sorry to hear the hon. and gallant member declaim against an Irishman, for lie (Mr. O'Connell) could prove him to be one in point of law (hear, hear, from Colonel Sibthrope.) There was a law passed in the 16th year (we understood) of the reign of Henry VII., which provided that no man should wear hair on his upper lip, without incurring the penalty of being considered an Irishman (loud laughter.) Great laughter was afterwards occasioned in the House by Mr. O'Connel walking across the floor with the "statute book open in his hand, and presenting it to Colonel Sibthrope, pointing to the clause of the statute of Henry VII. to which he had alluded, and which the hon. and gallant Member, raising his hat, commenced perusing. " Free Trade and no Monopoly." — It is statcdTiiTcircles likely to possess correct information, that Mr. Alderman Brooks, of Manchester, the man who first introduced the " cheap and nasty " salt beef into England from America, as food good enough for any English labourer, has £300,000 of cotton goods lying in Germany and other countries without a market for a single piece. We mention this with a view of showing the imprudence of merchants and manufacturers sending more goods to distant markets than the foreigners can either buy or use. South America is so glutted with British manufactures that there is no room in the market for any new importation, and then they bawl out for a repeal of the corn laws as a cure for their imprudent speculations. It is supposed that the Brazilians owe us £-10,000,000 of money. The British colonies are in the same state, and unless we can persuade the inhabitants of New South Wales, New Zealand, &c, to purchase clothes and stock amounting to £200 for every individual, it is useless sending any more goods to Australia. Thus ruinously have our Manchester merchants been speculating' abroad, and telling the world that the failure of their speculations has been caused by the existence of the corn laws ! — Stockport Advertiser. Emigration from Ireland is proceeding with rapidity. Eighteen emigrant vessels left Cork between the 10th of March and the 4th of May, with 3,690 passengers : of whom went to St. John's, 1542; to Quebec, 1 1,211; New York, 733 ; St. Andrews, 234. It is confidently stated that the Queen has appointed the Dowager Lady Lyttleton to the distinguished post of Governess to the Princess Royal. Her ladyship is, a daughter of the late Earl Spencer, and mother of the present Baron Lyttleton ; .and- as one of the ladies of the bed-chamber, has long enjoyed the confidence of her Majesty. — Morning Chronicle. The Guelphs and Coburgs. — The Queen has no surname. in the ordinary accep- " tation, though her family is called that of Guelph' : according to heraldic practice, she would be named Victoria of England. If the Prince of Wales should come to the throne, a new dynasty will be established, of which he will be the first, and which will be called the dynasty of Saxe .Coburg Gotha. With such dynasty, the dynasty of the Guelphs, or house of Brunswick, would be at an end," unless revived by the Saxe Coburg Gotha line. The Prince of Wales has not been, as erroneously stated in the newspapers, created duke of Saxony, but is like his father and all the princes of the house of Saxony, born duke of Saxony, Margrave of Missnia, Landgrave of Thuringia, Prince of Coburg, Saalfield and Gotha. Manufacture of Ancient Gems. — The number of persons engaged in fabricating ancient gems in Rome, at the present day, is, we believe, considerable ; and there is conse-

quently great difficulty in ascertaining' the genuine from the imitations, when the MaYter are finely executed. But" the appearance o v f antiquity — that must be copied too ; and ingenuity has devised a very curious and extraordinary process for producing the • effect. The fresh-cut cameo is crammed down the throat of a turkey, and left in its intestines for a sufficient length of time, when the fowl is killed, and it is found that the stone (subject to the trituration of the gizzard) presents every semblance of the Grecian treasure which has been buried 2,000 years. — Literary Gazette. " So, Captain Silk has just arrived at Versailles, I find," said a lady. " Heavens ! what a name for a soldier." " The best name in the world," said Horace Smith, who was standing by her at the time, " for silk, you know, can never be worsted." — The London Journal. Origin of the Albert-shaped Bonnet. — A facetious linen-draper in Aberdeen, in advertising, as the last new novelty, a peculiarly formed bonnet, which he calls the " Albert shape," gives the following account of its origin : — When. Prince Albert was on a visit preliminary to the British Court, the young Queen and he used frequently to wander amongst the shady-wooded walks of Windsor. On one occasion, on returning, her bonnet was slightly bent back round its front. The Prince, it appears, had been thinking more of the woman than the Queen, as a gallant knight should, and had, in some pressing attentions to the Queen, committed a slight trespass upon her millinery. The young ladies of the Court perceived at once the slight derangement but were delighted with the improvement ; and immediately, as soon as etiquette permitted, hurried to their milliners, gave order for the new fashion of bonnet with turn-back fronts, and secured their Royal mistress, in her future little wanderings, from betraying apperances— for, where alike, there could be no suspicion of particularity ! and so attractive and becoming is the fashion in the bright eyes of young ladies, that, like its origin, it is now almost universal.