ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 243, 27 November 1847, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

FeveW in London. — Throughout the country, but especially in the metropolis and the larger towns, there has been a great increaseof .-deaths from epidemic or sporadic disorders. At the present moment, the Irish epidemic is rapidly increasing in the metropolis. The London Fever Hospital, after admitting, for some time, thrice the usual number, is obliged to close its doors to applications, and the list of those who are waiting their turn is daily augmented. A third of the cases are Irish, or traceable to Irish infection. The degree of danger from this source may be guessed, from a morning's walk anywhere in the streets. Never were there so many Irish, solitary and in groups. Many arrive with the fever upon them. Where, and how, they all lodge, in what numbers, in what condition, by what means, th,ey live, and into wha,t hands they fall w.hen, they sicken, no one can tell. It is their nature to herd together, and to avoid any opportunity of airy and cleanly lodging that may be afforded them. They prefer to lay in heaps of their own. There are, therefore, in every part of | this metropolis, and very often in the immediate vicinity of the mpst spacious and splendid Streets, festering accumulations of misery, dirt, and disease, breeding a pestilence which taints the air, and will not abate till it has seized a few noble victims. Last week a curate of St. Gjle&-in-the-Fields, shared the fate of the sjx Liverpool priests who have already died, from contact with the Irish fever. This is on y a beginning. The whole summer and autumn are before us. They who aie obliged, as ninety gut of a hundred of the London population are, to stay it out all the year, know well the state of the atmosphere in August and September, when the beat of the summer has penetrated to the depths of, the drains, and the temperature of the earth gives fresh a,ctivjty to the decomposition of their contents. This is a gloomy prospect, and as the present bill does not apply to the metropolis, it may seem superfluous to dwell upon it — but our other great towns are in much the same state, and are not excluded irom the benefits intended by this bill. They should bestir themselves, to secure and accelerate its progress through Parliament. — Times, June 21. The " Swedish Nightingale," we understand, has named as remuneration for her services at Liverpool, for six nights, the small sum of £500 a night ! She has been offered, it is said, by a private individual, £600 for two performances, here. Report says that her engagement at her Majesty's theatre, brings her in £500 weekly, for three nights' performances, besides being provided, with a house to live in, a carriage for her own ; use, and covers being laid daily at her own mansion for twenty persons-.

Serenade to Jenny LiNrj. — At ten o'clock last evening, a party of sixteen gentlemen, members of the German Vpcal Club (Liederkranu), repaired to Miss Lind's fcesi- , 4ence at Brompton, and having obtained admittance to the garden at the back of the house, they executed several beautiful serenade airs, in a very superior and musician like manner. Madamoiselje'Lind walked into the garden and thanked the gentlemen for their unexpected attention. The party then left, delighted with their visit. — Globe.

Cure fob the Prevalent Influenza. -jr-Simultaaeously with the breaking up of the late frost a severe influenza attacked the inhabitaiits of the metropolis and its environs ; and although it iff not so violent in its nature at present as the like epidemic of 1834 was, so general is it, that scarce a house can be found without some of the inmates being affected ; and as there are many persons who are unable to procure medical assistance, we recommend, from good authority (that of an eminent surgeon in extensive practice), the following, as a safe and efficacious remedy for the cure of so distressing a malady : — One table-spoonful of sweet spirit of nitre and two tea-spoonsful of paregoric elixir, mixed together, and taken in a wine-glassful of hot su 7 gar and water on going to bed, for two pr

three successive nights ;, also, a quarter of an ounce of Epsom salts dissolved in a capful of warm wat<?r, and taken on each following morning, the patient heing at the same time particular in keeping the feet warm and dry, and living'on a lrgbt diet. A proportionate dose of the same medicine is equally beneficial tor children. — lb. . The amount of property locked up in Chancery is upwards of forty millions sterling. An explosion took place lately at Dupont s Powder. Mills, neat Wilmington, Delaware, U. S. Six thousand pounds weight of powder was destroyed, and eighteen men were literally blown to atoms. The concussion was felt at a distance of thirty milet"?. At a recent meeting itt Exeter-Hall, Sir 1 C. E. Smith said that the h*** of demoralizing publications from London alone, in one I year, exceeded by five millions the whole of the issues of the Bible and ot.Vr societies— the relative numbers being twfnty-Uo and twenty- seven millions, T, he Nottingham Mercury sjatesi that Mr. Hawkeswo.rth, a surgeon of Burton-t»n-Trent, has succeeded in curing lock-jaw by pausing > the patient, a boy twelve years old, to inhale the vapour of sulphuric ether. A safe and commodious carriage-way has been formed round Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags, at Edinburgh. i The Admiralty has given notice that masters and mates of all cransport and convict ships will be required to have passed an examination. The Irish Poor Relief Commissioners state, in their first report, that, between the 27th of February and the 10th April, in the shape of circulars, instructions, reports, correspondence, &c., they have consumed fourteen tons of paper ! By an order of the Austrian government, Hungarian is henceforth to be the official language of Hungary, instead of German or Latin. The propiietor of a bone mill advertises in the Liverpool Journal, that " parties sending their own bones to be ground, will* find their orders attended to with punctuality and despatch. The " native" born son of a naturalised Irish citizen of New York having been soundly flogged by his father, weut whimpering to his native companions, " It's not for the licking I care, but to be struck by one of them cussed foreigners — that's what I'm mad at !" " These Emigrants !" in a tone of contumely and contempt, is an expression we constantly hear from American lips, forgettiug that the nation was founded by emigrants, strengthened and increased by emigrants — its houses built, its canals dug, its raihoads, made, and its battles fought, by emigrants. Th i Board of Ordnance has given orders to have a spacious liquid manure tank erected at each of the barracks throughout the kingdom. In the London Gazette, a dividend of three thirty-seconds of a penny in the pound is announced on the estate of Rice Harris, of Birmingham, glass-manufacturer. The Chester C ourant says, that within three days the House of Commons was twice counted out, that the members might rush from debates on th,e currency, to exchange their gold for the notes of Jenny Lind. j Total abstinence from intoxicating liquors has become so common in the neighbourhood of Horncastle and Spilsby, in Lincolnshire, that it is difficult to obtain yeast for making bread, and it has been necessary tq bring a supply from London. A list in the Edinburgh Witness shows that in that city are 69 printing-offices, employing 543 journeymen and £79 apprentices. la the Dublin Court of Queen's Bench, in May, William Grace, late High Sheriff of the county of Kilkenny, was sentenced to seven years' transportation for forging a power of attorney authorising the transfer of stock be-: longing to the trustees of a charity. A London church-builder provides wood and iron churches for transmission to the colonies. He offers a church, with stained glass windows, bell, &c, capable of seating 8,00 persons, for 500 guineas. But if you pannot afford to buy a church, he will lend you one "on hire." A wholesale house his been opened in London, under the title of " The Literarium," at which all productions of literature, from a theological treatise down to a quack advertisement, can be supplied on reasonable terms, and in the strictest confidence. The Pope has altered the manner of reckoning time at Rome, where the people used the Italian mode of counting twenty-four hours from half an hour before sunset, and. has ordered the public clocks to be adapted to the common European reckoning. Absentees. — A cargo of Irish, p.igs \?as announced last week at Liverpool. We are positive they emigrated ; they could not stand Mr. Meagher's harangues. We dq not wonder at it ; it is enough tq make every Irish pig blush for his country when it hears, such rabid nonsense applauded; as eloquence. Or per-

haps the, pigs emigrated from a feeling o^> envy, as, fojund it hopeless to compete, with Tfoung Ireland in the prodigious amount of garampn. — Punch-

Effeqts, op Newspapers, on ordinary CoNyBRSATioN. — It is not to be doubted* that the conversational power, as well as the graceful craft, of letter writing, for which the, last century was famous, has ( waned. We believe that thi^s result is partly attributable to the daily, nay, almost hourly press, which, in a great measure, supersedes the tongue of the, talker anil the pen of the ready writer. All learnable fac^s, not absolutely trivial, or personal, and all fit reasonings upon them, are seized aqd gathered together, we know not how, or by whom, in the dead of the night ; and, before the slo.w morning of winter can fairly dawn, they are scattered abroad like the light, and given to maukind. For conversational purposes it is in vaio that the mos,t happy events— in vain that the greatest disaster—befall us. Our congratulations and condolences are no longer spoken from the, lips, but thrown, into type, Mr. Lumley; (notwithstanding h,is usually' brilliant management of the opera) may have forgotten^ to, engage Tamburini ox the Emperor of R-us-^ sia ; if this neglect had occurred* or if Grist had lost a note or gained a stone — if, as it happened last year, a great convulsion takes ,place in the pasteboard heavens, destroying t^e new moon, and preventing the " shadow da^nce " — we give no tongue to our sorrow — ' to O ixc deep sense of injury— to our lasting indignation) because we rest secure that these 1 distressing emotions will be gravely expressed by newspaper writers in all fitting tones o£ anguish or solemn remonstrance. Thus the; range of conversation generally has been sadly contracte i—Quarierlu Review.

Spanish Honours.— From 1»43 to the end 0f*1846, not Il'ss than two hundred and sixty-three general o fficers have been made ; —two hundred and fort*V-one in the army and twenty-two in the navy.* O( Grand Crosses* of the Qrder of Charles 111. » eighty-four hayej b,een granted ; pf Jsjabella Ca V>l»ca, one hundred and tweQty-eight ; of SJft Fernando,, eighteen ; of the scarfs of Man* Lmsa, to ladies, seventy-aye. Fprty-six nominations have been made in the $oyal Cou «cil, and sixteen persons have received titles of Castile. This is truly an age of progress. — Madrta Correspondent of the Tpnef. s

The Java Tigers.— Tigers of vanes' species abound in Java. The commonest aNs? the royal tiger and the Jeopard, of .which lat^ ter animal the black tiger is a bastard variety. \ Cubs of both kinds are frequently found in the same lair ; and when the black tiger is very youug, leopard-like spots are discernible on its skin. As it grows older they .disappear, and the hayr becomes of a uniform black. In the interior of Java much mischief is done by these beasts. In the neighbourhood \i f the large European settlements accidents a\e less frequent, the tiger shunning populous districts, a.nd retreating into the forest on the approach of ma.n. When one makes its appearance, the authorities generally order a battue. Very, iew, however, are killed, though a price is. set upon their heads, and they continue to destroy about three hundred Javans, per annum, on a moderate average. T\iis is, in a gr.eat measure, the fault of the natives themselves, who, instead, pf doing their inmost to exterminate the, breed, entertain a sort of superstitious respect for their devourers, and earryit so far as to place food in the places to which, they are known to resorl, thinking thereby to propitiate the fpe and keep his cjaws off their wives and children. They themselves, when, compelled to oppose the tiger, pr led. against him by their European ftlUes, show vast coolness and cqurage, the more remarka.ble. a.s, in ordinary circumstance^ of danger, they are by no meanis a brave people! Raffles quo,tes, several anecdotes of th,eir fearlessness befpre wild beasts, and Dr.-Selberg furnishes, one of a similar kind. " A Javan criminal was condemned by the Sultan to fight a large roya.l tigur, whos§ ferocity was raised to the highest point by vyant of food, and artificial irritation. The only weapon allowed to the human combatant was a krese ■■ with the pqint broken off. A-:ter wrapping 3 cloth found his left fist and arm. ? the man entered the arena witli an air of undaunted calmness, and fixed a steady menacing gaze upon the brute. The tiger sprang ferociously upon his intended victim, who* with, extraor- [ dinary boldness and rapidity, thrust his left I fist into the gaping juws^ and at the samer moment, with the keen though pointless dagger, yipped up (he beafit to the very heart. In* less than a njinijte the tiger lay. dea,d at the conqueror's feet. Thf criminal was not only : forgiven, but ennobled by his sov^reigpjj'-^-Jana, in Blackwood's Magagi#e.

The Machinery for Wood- Carvin^ — Jordan's patent carving machinery, a most important invention, which has tended, greatly to fapilitate the execution of the carved decorations of the new palace of Westminster* is extremely siqople, consisting of feyr patts.^.anes

being entirely free from jointed movements. The lower or horizontal part is a doable railway j one carriage or frame travels on a rail to and from the workman, and a second carriage or table travels on this frame at right angles to the first movement, so that by combining these two movements, the workman can readily work the table in any direction he pleases. On this table is fixed the pattern and as many pieces of work as can be carved at one time, the number being limited only by the relative size of the work and the table. By the second or vertical part o{ the machine the slightest pressure from the -workman's foot on a treadle lifts a system of cutters and their tracers off the work, and by a pair of hand wheels he can move this about in any direction, so as to bring- 1 every part of the pattern under the tracer in succession, and by the time he has done this, the c utters which have necessarily been passing over similar forms, and 'which have been sp inning round all the time, at an enormous ra.te by the power of steam, have each cut aw ay all the superfluities of its own block, and each produced its own copy of the original pattern. In this way, from four to six copies are produced simultaneously, and they are all so closely " bosted" a& scarcelyto require after-finishing, if fixed at ten or twelve ferjt from the eye. Several of these machines h.ave been in use at the Government, works, Thames Bank, for the last eighteen months, and their efficiency cannot be better provf »d than by the splendid work which /they havf j so greatly assisted in executing ,*—The Bt dlder.

Keep Bees. — A French bisl JO p being 'about to make his annual visitation,o n , sent word .to a curate, whose ecclesiastical Benefica was extremely trifling, that be me, a nt to dine with him, at the same time requesting that he would not put himself to any ext/ aor dinary gxpense. • The curate promised to 'attend to the bishop's suggestion ; but he dic^ not keep his word, for he provided a most sumptuous entertainment. His lordship was mucn surprised, and could not help censur' in q t h e conduct of the curate ; observing thp. t j t was highly ridiculous in a man whose circumstances were so narrow, to launch 01 &' m suca expense, nay, almost to dissipatr. hi s annual income in a single day. 4 Do n'jt be uneasy on that score, my lord,' replie & the curate, ' for I can assure you that wha,; you now see is not the produce of my CUT .acy, which I bestow exclusively upoa the Poor. 5 'Then you have a patrimony, sir ?' 'My lord, I have a convent of young damsels ' here, who do not let me want anything. 'How ! you have a convent ? I did not know there was one in this neighbourhood. This is all very strange, very unaccountable,, Mr. Curate.' You are jocular, my lord.' ' But come, sir, I intreat that you would f.olve the enigma ; I would fain see the convent.' 'So you shall, my lord, after dinner ; and I promise that your lordship will be satisfied with my conduct.' Accordingly, when dinner was over, the curate conducted the, prelate to a large enclosure, entirely occupied by the beehives, and pointing to the la tter, observed, ' This my lord, is the convent which gave us a dinner; irbringsme in abont eighteen hundred litres a-year, upon which I live very comfortably, and with which I co/ntrive to entertain my guests genteelly' The s/urprise and satisfaction of 1 the bishop may be readily conceived. The sequel of the story in forms us that ever afterwards, whenever a culrate made application to his lordship for an improved living, be would only energetically /reply — ' keep bees ! keep bees !" — From the /French.