ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, Volume IV, Issue 330, 6 March 1844, Page 4

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Arrest or Mr. O'Connell, &c. — Dublin, Saturday, Oct. 14. — These arrests took place at ten o'clock .this morning, when the undermentioned gentlemen received notice of arrest at the residence of the ."Liberator," in Merrionsquare, on a warrant charging them with " con. spiracy and other misdemeanors." The town is perfectly tranquil, and the affair has induced much less excitement than was generally expected. A second edition of the Weekly Fr*e_ man, under the head of " Commencement of the Arrests," says : — " The intimation was con_ veyed in the very handsomest and most conai-

derate manner. Mr. Kemmis, jun., called at Mr. O'Connell's residence in Merrion-square> to announce that a warrant was out against him. Similar intelligence was also conveyed to Mr. John O'Connell, wlio was at the time in the house. This was considered sufficient, and Mr. O' Connell pledged his word of honour for himself and the hon. member for Kilkenny that they would immediately attend, with their bails* at the residence of Mr. Justice Burton. The amount of security in the Liberator's case is, himself in £1,000, and two securities in £500 each ; that in Mr. John O'Connell's is the same. Thus has this matter, about which the Tories in the press raised such a mighty stir, been quietly arranged. How little need of apprehension can engage Mr. O'Connell is appaparent from the fact that such little precaution was deemed necessary in communicating the fact of the charge to the hon. and learned gentlemen. How little apprehension the people need feel on his behalf, is evident from the trifling nature of the charge — a mere misdemeanor." Four o'clock. — Mr. O'Connell and his son John have just given bail. The securities for the former were, Cornelius M'Loughlin, Esq., T.C., and Jeremiah Dunne, Esq\ Informations have been sworn against, and notices served on, Thomas Steele, Dr. Gray, (Freeman's Journal,) T. M. Ray (Secretary of the Loyal National Repeal Association,) Charles Gavin Duff fNationj Rev. M. Tierney, P.P; Rev. Richard James Tyrrell, P.P.; and Richard Barrett, of of the Pilot. Mr. O'Connell has retained the following counsel for himself and son : — Messrs. D. R. Pigot, Q.C. ; Richard Moore, Q.C. ; Halstell, Q.C. ; O'Hagan, Close, Helm, Q.C. ; Fitzgibhon, Q.C.; Whiteside, Q.C; and M'Donough, Q.C; solicitors, Pierce Mahony, Esq., and William Ford, Esq. At the close of the proceedings, Mr. O'Cannell expressed his acknowledgments for the courtesy with which the business had been transacted, and, having made his acknowledgments to and shaken hands with Judge Burton, he left for his house in Merrionsquare. The crowd outside cheered vehemently, and some excitement prevailed in that portion of the city. The " Great Britain," Ikon Steamer. — This magnificent vessel, which may be justly called the Leviathan of the ocean, is now completed ; she is the largest that has hitherto been constructed. The weight of iron used In the ship and the engines is upwards of 1,500 tons. By the action of low pressure steam used expansively in four cylenders of 88 inches in diameter, with six feet stroke, 1,000 horse power will be applied to a propeller of six feet in diameter, revolving under the stern. The following are her dimensions. Every seperate part of her is rendered water-tight by iron partitions : — Length from figure-head to taffrail, 322 feet, ditto on upper and forecastle deck, 308 feet; main breadth, 50 feet 6 inches; depth, 32 feet 6 inches; promenade cabin forward, 67 feet long and 21 feet 9 inches broad ; ditto aft, 110 feet long and 22 feet broad; dining saloon forward, 61 feet long and 21 feet 9 inches broad ; ditto aft, 98 feet 6 inches long and 30 feet broad. There are 26 state-rooms with one bed in each, and 113 ditto with two beds, the whole is fittted up in the most elegant and costly style. Birth and Death. — We leave others to meditate on the apparent connexion which subsists between certain times of day and the epochs of our appearance and disappearance upon the world's great stage. That they stand in an unobserved degree of close kindred is obvious from the subsequent facts. It has been shown by Burgh, a physician of Hamburg, on a diligent comparison of scores of bills of mortality, that the majority of births as well as deaths, occur between midnight and six o'clock in the morning. He has found indeed, that out of one thousand deaths, 421 happen during those six hours; 230 in the morning; 178 in the afternoon ; and 171 betwixt the latter and midnight — and, again, that, out of a similar number of births, 312 occur between midnight and six in the morning ; 249 between six in the morning and noon ; 186 during the afternoon, and 256 in the interval between the latter and midnight. Is it possible to conceive that these facts should be the result of mere accident? or, is it not more rational to conclude that nature, in these her operations, is subject to certain laws, which have not hitherto been detected?