NEWS AND NOTES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1611, 14 January 1903, Page 16

NEWS AND NOTES.

Foucault’s famous experiment demonstrating the rotation of the earth by the swinging of a pendulum has been reexhibited in Paris, under the auspices of M. Flammarion. The proof depends on the fact that a pendulum hung by a perfectly free suspension, if carefully set swinging, will continue to oscillate in the same plane,, and as the earth turns beneath it. the pendulum seems to alter the direction of its motion with respect to surrounding objects. If one could swing a pendulum at the North Pole, it is easy to see that as the world turns from west to east, the pendulum w'oult appear to change its line of movement in the same direction as the hands of a clock, and at the rate of a whole revolution in twenty-four hours. If the trial were made at the South Pole the change would be in the opposite direction; and if on the equator the bob of the pendulum would not deviate from its first, position. In intermediate latitudes the effect lies between these extremes. The Foucault instrument bangs from the dome of the Pantheon. It consists of a ball weighing 28 kilogrammes—about?g>32lb—and hangs by a piano wire about 72 yards long. Visitors see the steel point of the bob, at first passing over a line due north and south, gradually deviating at the rate of about 12deg. per hour. * • * * *

Ice cream will have to take a second place in the esteem of a refreshing public if the company formed in New York to freeze mineral water. and to dispose of the ice for domestic case, makes progress. These mineral waters will be sold by weight. The company asserts that the mineral will sustain all its original properties when frozen, and will be as sweet and pure when melted l>s when taken from the spring. ******

It is known that a great current of wind, called by weather experts the anti-trade, flows directly over the trades, hut in an opposite direction. The trade winds blow from the east, and are supposed to push along the great stream of water known as the equatorial current. But above these blows the anti-trade -wind from west to east. It varies its direction slightly during the months of the year, and has a great influence on general weather conditions, and it is thought that if its movements could be known as accurately as those of the- trades, weather prognostications would be more certain. With a view to obtaining this knowledge, Professor A. Botch, director of the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, proposes to explore the upper regions of the air above by means of kit es and balloons raised from the ocean steamers.

****** A good story is told of Dr Hails Richter. The famous conductor has , never found it easy to speak English; but years ago, in the days of his early visits to England he could scarcely master enough words to make himself understood Being engaged' upon rehearsals and performances in London, Herr Richter wished to take nis wife to Bournemouth and leave her there, while he returned to the metropolis himself to complete his work. Arriving at Waterloo, the worthy doctor interviewed the hooking clerk, and vainly endeavoured to make that official understand that he required a single ticket to Bournemouth for his wife and a return ticket for himself. It was no - good. The more words the-doctor tried, the more hopelessly muddled the railway man became, until, with one final effort, Dr Richter delivered himself of the following:—“I want ticket to , Bournemouth for myself to come back. I want ticket for my wife never to come hack.” * * * * * *

Professor Nansen announces that an (expedition under the leadership of Captain Amundsen will leave in 1903 for Greenland and King William’s Land to locate the magnetic pole. The expedition will afterwards continue its way west, and will return home via Behring Straits. Captain Amundsen w r ill make systematic magnetic observations in the regions traversed, and will attempt to solve the problem of the North-West Passage. Professor Schmidt, of Berlin, characterises Captain Amundsen’s aim as the most important task in the domain of terrestrial magnetism. The expedition will consist of eight persons. 49 ■R* ♦ *

Mr Chamberlain first attracted attention as a debater when he was replying to a speech made by a bitter opponent on the Birmingham corporation, and who was locally known a s “The Alligator.” He said:. “That allegation is untrue, and what is more” (with emphasis), “ ‘The Alligator* knows it.” * w J ' r * « * & o

Some good monkey stories are told in the “Captain” by Professor R. L. Garner. An African trader of his acquaintance owns a chimpanzee which learned how to unlock a cupboard having an inside latch, instead of a sliding bolt, with a piece of hardwood . which he had gnawed to fit the latch-hole. The same monkey was addicted to afternoon tea, which he shared with his master’s and always begged for

more sugary no matter how much he had. The trader once put a handful of Balt in the ape’s cup from an open hag near by. The animal made a wry face on tasting the beverage, and ran from the building. Next day, when the trader’s back was the ape put a lot of salt from the hag into his master’s cup, and hurried from the room, to reappear, stealthily, in a few minutes with a roguish leer on his face and a grunt of satisfaction. ******

As becomes a true Hohenzollern, tbe Kaiser always wears the talismanio ring of his ancestor;?;. It is a quaint old ring, set with a stone of no intrinsic value. Legend relates how a toad hopped info the room of the wife of Elector’ John of Brandenburg and deposited a stone on her bed. The toad then mysteriously disappeared, but the pebble was zealously treasured in the Hohenzollern archives. The father of Frederick the Great had it mounted in a ring, and this has ever since been worn by the head of the house. In contrast to this mediaeval masootte is the fact that the German Emperor, in addition, always carries a revolver. *****

The matinee hat hae come to a head in Verona- The prefect of the town issued an edict forbidding hats in theatres. The ladies refused to take them off, and were straightway compelled to take themselves off. They are now of opinion that latter-day Verona cannot produce two gentlemen, or even one. ******

A new game of billiards is becoming very popular in Paris. It is played with three balls, one blue, one white and one red. Each player plays the white, hut must make the cannon alternately off the red or off the blue. They say it is a more fascinating game than the ordinary billiards, but the “fluker” finds scoring very slow. fr tt fr * »

Mr John Murray is said to have wittily described the “tube” epidemic as “Tube-Yerke-?ulosis.” After this, ■ Morgan, Yerkes and Co. may be described as “tubers.” At least digging certainly enters into the question; but we have no doubt they are “clean potatoes.”

It is difficult not to deplore the passing of gentle womanhood. It was a smoking woman, whose name is on the title page of many novels, who slapped a journalist on the back at a club dinner, and said. “A fine dinner, sir F’ “A very fine dinner, madam!” said the mere man.

A Washington correspondent telegraphs that the following letter, -written by Mark Twain during the recent coal strike to Mr Shaw, Secretary of the Treasury, lias just found its way into; print:— “Honourable the Secretary cf the Treasury, Washington.

“Sir. —Prices for. the customary kinds of winter fuel having reached an altitude which puts them out of the reacn of literary persons in straitened cirI desire to- place with you the following order Forty-five tons best old dry Government bonds suitable for furnace, old seven per cent. 1864 preferred; 12 tons early greenbacks, range size, suitable for cooking; eight barrels seasoned 25 and 50 cent postal currency, vintage of 1866, eligible for kindlings. Please deliver with all convenient despatch at my house m Riverdale at lowest rates for spot cash, and send bill to your obliged servant,

“Mark Twain, “Who will be very grateful and will vote right.”

A new scheme for solving the drink question is being adopted by the Rev. J. L. Kyle, the vicar of Cariton-in-cieveland. Hundreds of visitors come to his beautiful village in Deeside regularly, and he was anxious to have the better supervision of the inn, which is close to the rectory. So he purchased the property, and placed a farmer, one of his parishioners, in it as manager. Everything sold is of the best quality, hut the manager only receives profit on the non-intoxicating drink sold. The house is not open on Sundays. So far this scheme seems to be working satisfactorily.

Owing partly to the growing use of automobiles, and partly to the electric road car, the horse is rapidly disappearing from various large cities of Europe. Thus, in Paris the total number of horses in 1901, according to a municipal census of these animals, was 96,698, while this year it is only 90,796, a falling off of about 6 per cent. In London in the same period the equine population has decreased 10 per cent.; while in Berlin, Vienna, and even in St. Petersburg the same failing off is to be noted. In the United States the supersession of the horse by the electric car has been absolutely astonishing in its extent. Probably to-day in New York there are not more than two-thirds as many horses employed as were used twenty years ago.

We all eat more than we require (says “London Hospital”). We eat because it is mealtime; too many of us eat, not by rule, but to repletion, while probably all of us eat again before we are really hungry. Day after day a

little more is taken than is used, and this excess either disturbs the liver or teases the stomach, or leads to torpor, or sometimes is put out—out of nai'in s way for the time, but much to the distress of the patieut later on —in the form of fat. Thus wo never have an opportunity of stinking a proper balance between intake and output, unless wo follow the wise maxim of the cliurcli, and fast once a week—not merely abstaining from the more toothsome delicacies, but fasting honestly, even, to emptiness and discomfort. *******

The latest American notion seems by no means, the sort of thing to “ease off” the alleged constant warfare between a man’s wife and Ins mother. It is said that Mrs Cornelius Vanderbilt. sen., of New York, is going to have her name copyrighted as “Mrs Vanderbilt.” Under the name on her visiting cards -will appear the words, “Copyright, 1902.” This will prevent the wife of her son Cornelius from * using the name in this form, as she now does. If this copyright of names is to become a custom, and if ail the American mothers-in-law of social pretensions are going to hurry to get their names copyrighted, it will open up a wide field of hostilities. One wonders what is going to happen if the daughter-in-law gets in first. Daughters-in-law, it is asserted, do not usually prove of a tractable and obedient nature when the wishes of their husband’s mother encroach on .the daughter's rights, and it is probable that many of them -would forestall their mothers-in-law at the copyright office. Undoubtedly something would happen if a woman who* had been presenting a visiting card as 'Mrs Soltaire” for forty years found herself forced to amend her cards to read “Mrs Owen Lee Soltajre,” thus becoming out of fashion, and consequently a subject of consolation. Even if nothing further comes of the suggestion, however, a will at least afford the comic papers the material fsr a new joke, or a new variation of the stock mother-in-law joke, and for that we may well be gratefn.il. *****

There are at least fourteen ways of saying “Roosevelt.” The editor _ of the “Christian > Advocate,” of New York, however, is able to settle the question on the authority of a note from the President himself. “My dear sir, —My name is pronounced in three syllables, the first syllable being pronounced like 'rose,’ the flower. —Very sincerely, .T. Boosevelt.” So. phonetically, the name is Roze-velt,” and even the New York editor admits that he had never heard it pronounced correctly. * * ■# * «» *

An extraordinary fish story is going the rounds in the Turkish capital. A high English official .was coming down the Bosphorus in his boat, and met from fifteen to twenty large fishes, five or six times as big as porpoise®, going up the Bosphorus at a tremendous speed. They had square heads, and were certainly not sharks. The boatmen say they are “jannevirs,” which is the Turkish for “wild beast,” and they describe them as very ferocious, for they attack boats and live entirely on porpoises. They have not been seen for fifteen years, and usually pass up the Bosphorus and spend a few days in the Black Sea, and then disappear, having eaten all the porpoises. The fishermen are delighted, as porpoises have been exceedingly numerous this year, and fish has been very scarce.

The relations between schoolmasters and their hoys are not generally as cordial in the Fatherland as they are in most English schools. A Teuton pedagogue hag a Philistine touch about him which repels the youths, and he is seldom interested in their welfare in or cut of school, regarding his functions as those of a State official, and his boys as machines to bo filled with the prescribed quantum of knowledge—no matter by what method. One day a very severe and well-known headmaster was taking a form for the usual instructor, who happened to be ill. The boys did not answer as he wished, and he lost his temper. He ; roared out: “There are 40 camels in this florin.”' The boys began to titter. “What are you laughing at?” said the master, looking up, wrathfiiHy. The head boy rose from his seat and remarked quietly: “We are only 39, sir.”

A number of stories of the Irish Law Courts last century have been brought together by Mr T. B. Stuart. Mjany of °them, of course, are well known; others less so. One is the reply of Daniel O’Connell on the occasion of the appointment of Sir Anthony Hart as Lord Chancellor, in 1822. Plunket couKi not be spared from the House of .Commons, but it was well-known* that he would have liked to have been free to accept the post. On the first sitting of the new Judge, the bar assembled in great force, and included Plunket. Shell asked O’Connell, “How does Plunket look thisUm oraing, Dan?” Dan gave a glance at the Bench, and said in a loud aside, “Oh, very sore at Hart.” tt ft « Q tt-

That is a "delightful story which is being told in Paris concerning a wellknown public man who recently was

presented by a Soudanese potentate witi the Labaski-Tapo Order erf Merit. Th© recipient, anxious to display the decoration at the earliest 'opportunity, applied at onoe to the Ministry for permission to wear it. While readily granting the permission, the Minister inquired, with the ghost of a smile, “Do yon know what the Order is like?” “Certainly,” replied the delighted applicant; “it is a beautiful gold ring, and hanging from it a small red enamel pipe of peace. I should like to wear it.-” “Of course you may wear it; hut, according to law, you have to wear it as it is worn by the natives in Africa.” . “And how might that be?” “Why, with the ring through the nose.” The new knight of the Lar-baski-Tapo Order has not been heard of since.

What is the greatest human institution? Mr Chamberlain has committed himself to the opinion that it is the House of Commons. Mr Gladstone, who knew and loved the House of Ooanmons for sixty years, once declared that “the greatest work ever struck off at one time by the brain of man” was the American Constitution; but, as the House of Commons is tho growth cf centuries, and was not “struck off at. one time,” Mr G’ahistone’s opinion of the American Constitution does not dash with Mr Chamberlain’s opinion of the mother of Parliaments. Burke, 'whose admiration of the dignity and power of Parliament ,was not difeguised, thought the ibiomal Assembly in France a much finer© powerful institution, compared with whidh the House of Commons was “as a drop of water in the ocean.”

Strauss’s band recently paid a short visit to Constantinople, and the Sultan had them up to his private theatre, and was very pleased. He was not satisfied, however, with their own music, and insisted on them playing same Turkish pieces, which they had never seen before. They did it very well, and at the end of the periormanoo the palace officials went on to the stage, carrying golden plates. On these were piled decorations for turn of the forty performers and a red silk bag containing £SDO for tlie evening’s amusement.

Field-Cornet Siebert, of Senekal, has just returned to Natal from India, where he has been a prisoner of war. In an interview ‘with a press correspondent, he said that he was within 60 yards of General Wauchope when the latter fell at Magersfontein, and that his last words were—“ Forward, soldiers of the Quedh!” Then, “This is not my fault!” He speaks highly of the treatment he received 'in India, and says that he shall not forget tho kindness of the British officers.

When the Lord Mayor of London visited Manchester last year a local. paper cartooned him comparing notes with the- Lord Mayor of Manchester on their respective offices. “What do you get?” asked London’s Chief Magistrate of him of Manchester. “The honour,” said the Cottonopolis -magnate. “I get £IO,OOO a year and the honour,” remarked the. Lord Mayor of London. Mr Roosevelt receives the same sum for the rulership of the United States with its 79,000,000 citizens. Yet the traditions of the Mansion House require that the Lord Mayor shall expend another £IO,OOO or £15,000 out of his own pocket.

To have a millionaire asked why he is riding first-class,, when he has d&Jy a third-class ticket-, is indeed _ one of “life’s little ironies.” -Yet this is the experience which seems to have befallen Mr Andrew Carnegie in Scotland the ether day. At a small station he called for a ticket, meaning, of course, a first-class ticket. But the average passenger at that station is a democrat. without being a millionaire, and travels third-class. So the clerk gave Mr Carnegie a third-class ticket, and he only discovered this later, when he was desired to pay “excess fare.”

Canada has lost one of her leading scientists by the death of Mr A. R. C. Selwyn, C.M.G., LL.D.*, F.R.S. The son of the Rev. Townsend Selwyn/ Canon of Gloucester, he was bor n in 1824, and from 1843 to 1852 was associated with the geological survey of Great Britain. In 1853 he went out to Australia as director of the geological survey of the colony of Victoria, and during the sixteen years that he occupied that post he Mid splendid scientifio work, especially on the gold fields. An unfortunate dispute with the Victorian , Governments which Australians have always regretted, led to the transference of his valuable services to Canada.

The “Americanisation” of Canada is assuming increasing proportions. A syndicate of Western and Eastern capitalists has bought 2,000,000 acres of Canadian land in the province of Ontario for the purpose of settling colonists from the United States there. Plans have been prepared for sending 12,500 American colonists to occupy one half the grant*

Reputations may be founded in many ways, and for the lady palmist there is one way that has no reference to her ability for telling people what they already know about themselves. At a bazaar the other day, the following conversation was overheard between two ladies: —“Have you visited the palmist? Sho’s wonderful! She told me X was self-willed; and you know it's quite true.” “Is that all? I don’t think that’s worth half a crown.” “Oh. but ahe isn’t an ordinary palmist, really. Why, she’s been had up at the Police Court twice.” Immediate increase in the clientele of the lady palmist.

ts * * r* & y A lady, described as a “connoisseur in works of art.” was sued by a dentist in the City of London Court for £lO 10s, the price of a set of teeth. She pleaded that the teeth did not fit, and that once when sfho was dining at a West End restaurant they fell into her plate, compelling her to retire from the table in oonfusion. On the other hand, the dentist said that at first x-he lady was highly pleased with the teeth, remarking, “I look quite a different, woman, anti shall be able to get anjoltber Ihiushand now. My daughters won’t be able to have it all their own way in future.” The hearing was adjourned.

_ A despatch to • the Pans edition of the “'New York Herald” states that a wealthy brewer of New York is suing his wife for divorce. The plaint is said to be sensational in the extreme, and likely to cause a stir in society in Paris, Berlin and London. The name of a well-known violinist is mentioned as co-respondent.

A curious dispute has arisen at Lyons and Eppleton collieries, County Durham, belonging to the Hatton L Coal Company, of which Sir Lindsay VY ood is chief partner. Many of the miners •keep pigeons for show purposes ana flying matches. The employers have given notice that the miners must cease keeping pigeons unless they are constantly fastened up. This has caused a grievance, which resulted in being idle one Monday, three or four thousand miners being affected. The agents of the Durham Miners’ Association have been appealed to to take up the grievance on behalf of the men.

In am article on the total power which the water falling on the earth’s surface would produce in its descent to the sea, “Engineering” says that assuming a depth of HXLn of rainfall to flow off each square mile of land surface, the mean height of which may be taken as 2250 feet above sea level, then the "water from the whole surface falling through the mean height would give 10,340 million horse-power in perpetuity. ; Our present yearly output of 225 million tons of ooql would only give that amount of horse-power for little over half a day. At present the supply of water power is greater than the demand. It generally lies away from the old manufacturing centres, from which industries are slow to move, but they will in the end follow cheap power. * » * * * *

The value of a cab varies from £7O to £fc)o. The horse is worth on am average £3O. A set of harness costs anything from £5 to £lO. The sum invested in the London cab trade falls little short of a million sterling (says a writer in “Britain at Work”). What the cabman himself ■earns, and the consequent turnover in the trade, it is more difficult to determine, owing to the conditions under which the industry is conducted. In London cabdrivers never receive a weekly wage. On the contrary, the proprietor farms out his stock to the driver, receiving in return an average rent of about 12s a day for a hansom and a few shillings less for a four-wheeler, the precise suru fluctuating according to the season. The driver puts the balance of his earnings in his own pocket—that is, when there is a balance. The best returns are as a rule obtained in the West End, especially in the height of the London season. The average'"cabman professes to be well content if at the close of the day of 14 or 16 hours he has a surplus of 5s or 6s for his private purse. In the provinces a totally different order of things prevails. There it is usual for the proprietors to pay the driver a weekly wage, varying from 14s to £1 a week. The driver then hands over to his employer all receipts, taking care, however, to deduct for himself anything paid him over and above the legal fare.

A Paris grocer advertises Madeira at 2fr. old Madeira at 3fr, and genuine Madeira at lOfr a bottle.

Borne- very sanguine gentlemen are credited with the idea of starting a number of “Scotch Porridge Houses” in London. The porridge is to be made by “a combination of cereals chosen on chemical principles with reference to the food requirements of the stomach”—'whatever that may mean. It will be served by Scotch girls arrayed in tartan. * * * w 'C

In one of his bo-oks, Mark Twain tells a story of how, whea he visited Honolulu, he hired a horse, and had to build a fire under him to get him to start. An American in real life has just done

the same thing, and has been s'ent to prison for so doing. There is nothing so shameless as the way in "which fact plagiarises fiction. i -- 4

A member of the French aristocracy, the Countess de Gareto, has gone into business as a dressmaker and milliner in Paris, in order to support herself and her three children, she having lostall her fortune.

Under promise of marriage, Arthur Cooper (47), Avaiter, Grafto-n street, Leeds, recently induced Miss Annie Hutchinson, a nurse, residing in Aberdeen terrace. Scarborough, to lend him £lB, and also to part with a diamond ring of the value of £3O, Avhich the prisoner took away, and stated he would have made smaller' for her, and which he had not returned. At Scarborough Quarter Sessions, Cooper was indicted for obtaining the £lB from Miss Hutchinson by false pretences, and Mr Wragge Aviio prosecuted, said the prisoner had been gutty cf the most barefaced and cruel trick in order to obtain the prosecutrix's money that could possibly be invented. r J'he prisoner advertised in a Yorkshire paper that he wanted an assistant in a business. The prosecutrix answered the letter, and subsequently the prisoner met her at Scarborough, and told her he had taken a hotel at Harrogate, where lie had four servants, and Avanted a manageress. The same night he proposed they should be married. The prosecutrix a feAV days later accepted him. The prisoner next Avroto from Leeds that he aa-cs £25 short of the amount required for the hotel valuation, and the prosecutrix lent him £l3. She quite believed fits story, and that be Avas going to marry her, and at his request put in the banns at All Saints’ Church, Scarborough. On the day they were to have been married, the prisoner Avrote from an address in London that ho had slipped on a piece of orange peel and broken his ankle, and therefore could not attend. He concluded his letter with fondest love and kisses from “Your loving Arthur/’ The prosecutrix afterwards be came suspicious, and informed the police, and the prisoner Avas arrested in Leeds. The prisoner admit cod a number of previous convictions, and the Recorder sentenced him to fifteen months’ imprisonment. -* * * * ■*

Mr Moeran writes to the “.field” to describe a remarkable incident ihafc occurred while shooting at a herd, of ten deer near Portumna. “I picked,” Jie said, “an eight-year-old buck that stood head and shoulders clear of the others, a little nearer to me and broadside on. The bullet struck him fair on the neck, about 3in below the butt of his ear, turned almost at right angles, and came out at the hack ©f h:s neck; it thou struck a large doe in the centre of the forehead, coining out at the hack of her head, and finally passed through the neck cf a yearling doe just behind the ear, lodging under the skin on the far side. All three deer Avere killed on the spot. The distance was 97 yards, and the rifle used Avas a Winchester carbine 440, with a flat-nosed bullet. * * * *

A very interesting story has been told about Gustave Bore by one of the friends of the great artist who witnessed the occurrence. I was taken (he says) to visit Dore once or twice in his Paris studio many years ago; indeed, before the German invasion. One of the party who accompanied m© on the first occasion was a clever young Englishwoman who had a taste for painting, and who was beginning—just beginning —to practise the art with an encouraging promise of success., M. Dore was working, I think, at “The Dream of Pilate’s "Wife.” The young lady did not like one of- his touches, and bluntly told him sp. Dore smiled blandly, and argued the point with her. She fancied that he did not quite understand what she meant, which, I think, is quite possible. To my horror, she suddenly exclaimed : “Look here, this is what I mean !”—of course, she spoke in French ; and then she seized the brush from the- painter’s hand and proceeded to touch up after her own fashion that bit of the figure on which she had her own views. Everybody was horrified except herself and Dore. The painter took her movement with the most exquisite politeness and the greatest gravity. He studied the picture carefully with the new and unexpected touch given to it; looked at it from this point and that, as if it wer© really a possible revelation to him. and finally declared that the young lady was perfectly right, and that he would adopt her practical suggestion. I wonder if he actually did adopt it? 1 should rather think not- But, whether he did or not, he got us all well out of a trouble.

In a Bine-hook containing the reports of officers appointed by the Commander-in-Ghief to inquire into the working of the Remount Department abroad, General Sir R. Stewart and .Lieut.-Colonel E. Holland, R.A., dealing with the United States, speak on the whole very favourably of the arrangements made and the class of animals purchased for South Africa, but they. regret that the misconduct of one or two officers, who are no longer in the commission, has brought upon it some degree of discredit in the public press, which officers now serving in the United States very

properly deeply resent. From inquiries The Magistrate of Vryburg lias visited on the border Commandant. Van Zyl’s commando, consisting of rebels, Avhom he asked to surrender at Vryburg. He told them that they Avould receive no more severe punishment than disfranchisement, but they would be arrested and kept as prisoners pending the return of a paper from the Attor-ney-General of Cape Colony. Ihe Boers strongly objected to being made prisoners, bat did no-t object to go- to the burgher camp. The meeting, Avhicli Avas of a friendly character, terminated without result, the commando', numbering eighty men, returning over the border. a * • ® ®

made, from evidence taken, and from a letter of Veterinary-Surgean-Captain Smith and his own subsequent desertion, the two officers reporting conclude that Captain Smith received a commission on every animal he purchased, and many of the mules he purchased Avere absolutely unfit and nseless, and that he had been guilty of malpractices of a nature Avhich had brought the greatest discredit on the department of which he Avas a.n officer. They also state that Captain E. Maudsley, late 16th Lancers, and Veterinary-Surgeon HaAves appear to haA r e behaved Avith great Avant of judgment, and in their opinion with extreme impropriety, in purchasing horses for themselves whicn Avere brought up for inspection as. remounts, and A\ r hich had actually been branded. Captain Maudsley also seemed to been insubordinate to Colonel Dent in Canada, to have failed to accommodate himself to Colonel De Burgh in the United States, and. to have been indolent in his work.