MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 267, 19 February 1848, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Affairs of Spain. — Spain has at last witnessed its long threatened Ministerial crisis, and has been the scene of one of the most curious hoaxes ever practised on 3 public man. Narvaez had been sent for in a hurry, professedly in the Queen's name, to form a Ministry. His advent was the occasion of many conjectural rumours ; some thought him the emissary of France, sent to complete an intrigue which was to oust Queen Isab -Ua and place the Duchess of Montpensier on the throne ; others presumed, from the supposed sanction of the Queen, that there was a secret understanding between Narvaez and Serrano, and that Narvaez, a convert to Liberalism, was to make some unexpected coap d'etat on the new side ; but at all events some signal result was to follow. He came, he drew up the plan of a Ministry, he submitted it to the Queen ; she rejected it, saying — so goes the story — that it couiained too many of her " enemies." Narvaez asked why her Majesty had sent for him ? She replied that' she had not sent for him, and that he might go back to Paris when he liked. The indignant soldier of fortune found that he had been drawn into an ambush by the confident ardour of his own frien.is — they had actually hoaxed him : he resigned not only his attempt to form a Ministry, but also, it is said, his embassy. Meanwhile, Senor Salamanca, a kind of jobber in State finance, who finds office as necessary to his own affairs as be is to her Majesty's exchequer, continues in the Government, and has partially formed a Cabinet, It comprises men o' no note; and those more influential persons who have been invited to join it hang back. Tiie probability therefore is, that the Ministerial crisis is but provisionally settled. Spain, has, however, for the time escaped from the threatened Ministry of reaction in favour of arbitrary government and French intrigue. And the new Cabinet has begun with a liberality so marked and vigorous, in the issue of its amnesty and the recall of Espartero, as to raise hopes higher than those which its composition alone might have inspired. — Specta or, Sept. 11.

Grain Supplies of the United States — The Daily News gives the following extract of a letter from a merchant in New York " The stock of corn in North America ori hand is of such magnitude that all the channels of transit from the interior to the seaboard whether they be canals or lailroads, are absolutely choked up by barrels of flour and sacks of wheat, corn, and cornmeal. A few days ago the papers stated thai, on the Erie icanai, they were locking down boats day and night with'ali speed, only being limited by the capacity of locks', to do the business with more rapidity, and yet^ there was nevertheless a crowd of boats accumulating and accumulated four miles in length. The same is the case from Detroit to Montreal, sources whence

much matter is conveyed here. And here just now the stock is rapidly increasing for want of good ships to convey it here. The arrival of flour alone averages 30,000 barrels per day besides wheat, corn, and 1 oatmeal, all taken together, to an equal amount. This is not all North America, but New York city, I have heard gentlemen say the arrivals will continue thus large until the frost locks up the rivers and roads."

The future for New California. — New California is of no more use to Mexico than Louisana was to France. Not only is the population of Mexico almost stationary, whilst that of the United States increases at a rate greater than that of our own islands, but the country at the head of the California Gulf is such an irreclaimable waste, that all ordinary intercourse by this route between Mexico and the upper provinces would be impossible, while the coast is of such a character as to render any regular comnsunication by sea but little more practicable. California could never be settled by the Mexicans ; whereas the tide setting westward from the United States shows what must almost necessarily result in that quarter. In the present day, the sovereignty of this barren and half-explored province may i seem of small moment, but its capabilities and promises have not escaped the eyes of the prudent. The bay of San Francisco is the finest in the world, and described by Captain Wilkes as amply capacious enough to receive the united navies of America and Europe. From so favourable a harbour, the course lies straight and obvious to Polynesia, the Phillippines, New Holland, and China, and it is not extravagant to suppose that the merchants of this future emporium may open the commerce of Japan. So grandly, indeed, are the destinies of this province prefigured by intelligent American writers, that it has been represented as unlikely long to be subordinate to the powers cf the Atlantic seaboard ; but as promising to rise into an independent power, which should rule over the waters of the Pacific. Such is the region which an ambitious and aggressive State is now endeavouring to extort from an imbecile but obstinate neighbour — an attempt in which it is, indeed, probable that she will ultimately succeed, but of which the realization appears thrown to a great distance by every successive mail. — Times.

The Duke of Buckingham and his Creditors. — The state of this nobleman's j affairs has for some time formed a topic of conversation, and his embarrassments have become so public that no secresy is now considered necessary upon the subject. The creditors of the Duke have been trying to bring his personal property to the hammer, and to divide amongst them what little could be obtained by the sale of the valuable effects of the ducal residences, Stowe and Wotton in Bucks, A.vington in Hampshire, and Buckingham-house and Chandos-house in London. They estimated that the value of the pictures, furniture, plate, wines, &c, in these mansions, would be between £50,000 and £100,000. Operations were consequently commenced, and in the latter end of August an execution was put into Bucking-ham-house for a sum of £20,000, for which a verdict had been obtained at the last assizes at Devizes. This was immediately followed by other executions in Stowe, Wotton, and Avington, (the house in Chandos-street being occupied by the Austrian embassy). The total amount of the Duke's debts is stated at between £1,750,000 and £1,800,000. When the officers in charge of Buckingham-house were about to seize the furniture, &c, it was intimated to them that the Duke had assigned over the whole of his effects, down to his wearing apparel, wines, &c, to his eldest son, in satisfaction of a claim which be had against his father, and which would be preierred to the claims of his creditors. The sheriff was then requested to leave the house, but this he refused to do, and an application was made to the judge at chambers, when it was argued that the deed of assignment was void as against the creditors, and that the distress was legal. The judge decided that th« sheriff should remain in possession until security was given for the amount of the levies, and directed issues to be tried between the parties to test the validity of the various claims, so as to bring the whole question before the Court. — Observer.

A Decayed Town in Nova Scotia. — As far as Shelburne, all was progressive or rapid improvement, but that unfortunate town Was in ruins. It arose in the wilderness like a work of magic, but had hardly been erected before it was in a state of decay. Twelve or fourteen thousand emigrant loyalists from New York sought shelter in this remote place, at the close of the war of rebellion, in the year 1784, and built a large, commodious, and beautiful wooden town, at the head of the magnificent harbour of Roseway. In their haste or their necessity, they overlooked the fact lhat a town requires a country to support it, unless a trade that has grown with its growth supplies its want upon equal terms. Remote from the other settlements of the province,

surrounded by a trackless forest that covers a poor and stony soil, situated too far from the entrance of the harbour to reap the advantages of the fishing-grounds, and filled with a population unaccustomed to the mode and unequal to the fatigues of settling in a wilderness, it was impossible that a town so constituted could long exist. Some returned penniless and destitute to their native land, others removed to various parts of Nova Scotia, and the grave-yard, from year to year, received great numbers of those who were left behind, to mourn, with broken hearts over their ruined fortunes, their hopeless and helpless condition, and their dreary exile. When I had last seen it, the houses were still standing though untenanted. It had all the stillness and quiet of a moonlight scene. It was difficult to imagine it was deserted. The idea of repose more readily suggested itself than decay. All was new and recent. Seclusion, and not death or removal, appeared to be the cause of the absence of inhabitants. But now the houses, which had been originally built of wood, had severally disappeared. Some had been taken to pieces, and removed to Halifax or St. John's, others had been converted into fuel, and the rest had fallen a prey to neglect or decomposition. The chimneys stood up erect, and marked the spot round which the social circle had assembled, ami the blackened fireplaces, ranged one above another, bespoke the t>ize of the tenement and the means of its owner. In some places, they had sunk with the edifice, leaving a heap of ruins; while not a few were inclining to their fall, and awaiting the first storm to repose again in the dust that now covered those who had constructed them. Hundreds of cellars, with their stone walls and granite paititions, were everywhere to be seen, like uncovered monuments of the dead. Time and decay had done their work. All that was perishable had perished, and those numerous vaults spoke of a generation that had passed away for ever, and, without the aid of an inscription, told a tale of sorrow and sadness that overpowered the I heart. A few houses had recently been erected, and a very few of the old had been snatched from decay and repaired; but of the thousands of inhabitants this town once contained, four or five survivors alone remained, and the entire population did not exceed two thousand souls. They were all attached to the place, and spoke confidently of its revival, fondly of its noble harbour, and proudly of its former prosperity. —Frazer's Magazine.

Operatives and their Hours. —lt is sometimes amusing, though too often saddening, to watch the inconsistencies of party advocacy. There is no factory operative whose labour is equal to the drudgery of an editor of a daily newspaper ; the constant strain upon mental energies, day and night, is far more severe in its effects than any corresponding amount of merely physical and mechanical exertion. At three o'clock in the morning, au editor is often in the gallery of the House of Commons, listening to the close of a debate upon which a leading article must be prepared for the paper of the same day ; at four be is at his desk, with the printers' devil waiting for copy, —at five he has completed his task ; perhaps a philippic upon the inhumanity of millowners; and at the hour when the mill population are beginning to arouse themselves from sleep, he is stealing home to his bed, pale and haggard, to seek a short interval of repose, by closing his curtains upon the bright daylight. There is no factory operative who, apart from the question of remuneration, measuring only toil for toil, would change places with a London daily editor. The compensation for the greater endurance is only the difference between £500 per annum and £1 per week. " Unhappy factory operatives," writes the editor, "it is infamous that your services should be required after six in the evening;" and the very type in which this commiseration is expressed, is composed by men who work through the if hole night; while many thousand printers would be only too glad to get upon an establishment like the Times or Herald, where such night-work is to be obtained. The ten boors' agitation would have been well met by a bill, not to restrict the hours of labour, but to define the meaning of the word day, as applied to the customary engagements of workmen with their employers. It has been remarked to us by a manufacturer of great observation and practical experience, that it would be a real benefit to the working classes if, in the absence of written contracts, a day's labour, which now varies with different trades and in different districts, were defined by statute to consist of a certain number of hours; so tha% without any formed stipulation, the person employed might know when he had and when he had got a claim to payment for extra time. In this sense there would be no objection to a ten hours' bill, but, on the contrary, it would put an end to much petty oppression, affecting, perhaps, linen drapers' and dress-makers' assistants more than any other class. To legislate that any bne operation of human industry shall not be carried on for a continuous

period of more than ten or eleven hours, is a palpable mistake, and would, if it could be carried into effect, be a grievous injustice. Upon the principle of such a bill not a harvest could be gathered in. A reaper paid by the grip, or piece work, will labour from four in the morning till nine in the evening. His wife will follow his steps, gleaning, during the same period ; and as upon a farm, so in every branch of trade, there are busy seasons which can only be met by extra exertions. It is idle for the legislature to say that the labourer shall not work over-time ; but it is within its province to describe in what over-time consists, and to recognize a legal claim for overtime payment. —Westminster Review.

Alligators and their Roar. — The large alligators and caymans are foremost among the inhabitants of the water which prey upon the fishes. There they lie like dry logs of wood at the foot of some cataract, their mouth half open, ready to match and swallow what the rapidity of the current should carry down the fall. How frequently have I seen them in that situation while ascending the upper river Beibice, which, beyond all others, seemed to swarm with these horrid monsters! I have already observed how often they tore the fish from the spring-hooks, and carried fish, hook, and line away ; and we naturally did not owe them good-will for their stealing propensities, which served as an additional proof to what extent their depredations must be carried. And although abundance of fish durino certain seasons prevails in the rivers of the I interior, the cayman is, nevertheless, the most covetous of all animals, and envies every other successful fisher. This he gives to understand particularly by angry growls if the line with the captive fish is drawn in, and his attempts to intercept the captured fish before it be drawn on land should have proved unsuccessful. While we were encamped at the mouth of the river Rewa, or Roiwa, during our last expedition, the afternoon of the 21st of October had passed under thunder and rain ; but at the approach of night Nature lulled herself to rest, and only the droppings from the leaves told of the former storm. I was lying sleepless in my hammock, and I watched the Indians who had their lines out to entrap some hungry fish. A kilbagre, lured away by the tempting bait, had snapped at it ; and the fisherman, acquainted by the stress on his line of his success, drew the unwilling fish towards his canoe, when the roar of a cayman awoke the echo of the woods ; and, rushing towards the course with all his might, he recaptured the fish as as the astonished Indians were on the point of drawing it in ; and with it went the hook and a great portion of the line. At our second night's camp, after we had eutered the river Rupunnai, the Indians were likewise fishing; and, whenever a fish was caught and drawn towards the canoe, the caymans commenced such a roar that it baffled description. We distinctly heard that there were three : first one commenced when the fish that was drawn in began to struggle ; and another answered him, until the noise was so great that the Indians, as if in self-defence, and to intimidate the approaching monsters, set up a shout themselves. Indeed, the roaring of the cayman is sa strong, that in the still hour of night it may be heard a mile off; and there is something awful and indescribable in it. It is not the tiger's growl, the bull's bellowing, the lion's roar ; it is different from all, and really terrific when that sound bursts suddenly upon the ear. I might compare it to the snorting of a frightened horse, if the strength of that snort could be increased ten — no, twenty-fold in effect. — SchomburgVs Fishers of Guiana.

Marriage of the Metals. — Seene — Room in Royal Institution. — Professor Smith (reading Morning Post) Very extraordinary ! (to Professor Jones). — Have you read this? No ! Well, then, the Post says that the Duke of Wellington — the Iron Duke ! is going to marry Miss Burdett Coutts ! Professor Jones. — Nonsense! it can't be true. Professor Smith. — But if it should Le true, what would you think of such a match 1 Professor Jones. — Think of it ! Why, with the Duke and the Heiress, I should think it a most extraordinary union of Iron and Tin. — Punch.