ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 697, 7 April 1852, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Tlie Times, Nov. 25, confirms the announcement that the Queen of Spain had released 23 of the Cuban prisoners, who were British subjects. Lieut. Pirn, the naval officer who had undertaken the new expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, arrived, in company with a cabinet messenger, at Berlin, en route for Siberia, on the 23rd of November. He was introduced by Baren Humboldt to the King, who gave him letters to the Emperor of Russia. Lord Cathcart was to be appointed Comman-der-in-Chief in Ireland, in the place of Sir Edward Blakeney. Consols opened at 98f on the morning of November 29th, with a steadv feeling. Money continued abundant. A reduction of the rate of interest at the Bank of England seemed probable. There had been an increase of bullion therein of £424,850, English funds generally were firm. Parties, more or less, were investing in Australian Mining Companies. The railway share market was buoyant, and prices were advancing. Foreign securities were little dealt in. The state of Hungary was most unsatisfactory, and the government organs admit that it was much agitated. The system of expulsion was still carried on at Vienna on a grand scale. The correspondent of the London Daily News, had received notice to quit within twenty-four hours. The Gibraltar Chronicle, of the 17th of November, states that the rumour of a serious insurrection in Morocco was much exaggerated. It appears there were really some disturbances, but they were unattended with the important circumstances first reported. The Moorish soldier, who had been sent to the Riff country, for the purpose of rescuing the British subjects v»l o were in the hands of the pirates, had returned without accomplish’ng their object.

On the 24th of November, Mr. Walker, one of the present candidates for the Presidential Chair of the United States, was entertained at •a public dinner in Liverpool. Mr. Ramshay, the Liverpool County Court Judge, had been removed ; Mr Pollock was his successor. Her Majesty’s Estate of Balmoral. — We are happy to be able tu announce that the beautiful estate of Balmoral, in this country — the Highland home of our beloved Sovereign for four years past —is now “ royal property.” We believe that Dr. Robertson, commissioner for his Royal Highness Prince Albert, and Edward -White, Esq., solicitor, have come to a final agreement with the trustees of the Earl of File, by which the fee simple of the estate has become the property of her Majesty the Queen. — -Aberdeen. Journal. The property (says the Perth Courier') extends fully seven miles in length by four in breadth, ami includes the best deer range in the Grampian chain. The purchase money agreed onis £31,500. To this has also to be added other £2OOO as a solatium to the tenant of Balmoral, for her Majesty’s occupancy during these two or three past seasons has been in the capacity of a sub-tenant, the premises being under lease to a different party, and of which there were upwards of 20 years to run. Attempted Murder of a Roman Catholic Priest. — One el' the. most extraordinary attempts at murder that have been made of late years in England oecured on Tuesday evening in the very heart of the metropolis. For the last fortnight a mission lias been held at the Roman Catholic School-house, in Leopard’scourt, Baldwin’s-gardens, Gray's-iti-lane, for the Italians resident in the neighbourhood, and two Capuchin friars, who arrived from Rome about a fortnight ago, officiate every day in their full canonicals. On Tuesday night, about 11 o’clock, after the congregation bad dispersed, the Rev. Mr. Ferrati, an Italian clergyman, who had been assisting the Capuchin friars in officiating, while leaving the chapel was attacked by three ruffians, supposed from their garb to be Italians, who knocked him down ; one of them stabbed him with a long stiletto, and the others beat him about the head with their fists in a most brutal manner. His cries alarmed the inmates of one of the houses in Leopard's-court, who threw up a window to ascertain the causa. This, no doubt, saved the life of the Rev. gentleman, as the noise alarmed his assailants, and they made their escape. The Rev. gentleman was picked up in an insensible stale, and taken to a surgeon’s, where it was found that the wounds he had received were not so severe as had been anticipated. The instrument with which the attack was made seems to have grazed along the left jaw-bone, and instead of entering the side of the neck, as was doubtless intended, entered lite back part of the shoulder, and struck against the bladebone, inflicting a flesh wound.- His face was greatly disfigured. After his wound was dressed he was removed .. a cab to the residence of the Rev. Mr. Kyne, in Myddelton-square, Rosoman-street, Clerkeuwell. It is supposed that the attack was made in consequence of some passages in a sermon delivered by the Rev. gentleman at Rosoman-street Chapel

on Sunday last. Great prejudice against the school appears to have existed in the minds of some Italians for some time past, and one or two attacks of a brutal nature have lately been made on other persons connected with it. of which the two following are instances :—on the arrival of tire two Capuch'n friars in London, the Rev. Dr. Faa, an Italian clergyman, to whom they were known, engaged lodgings for them in Dove-court, Leather-lane, and on culling to see them a few days afterwards, he was knocked down by two or three ruffians, who violently assaulted him. On that occasion, as upon this, the delinquents escaped. Some few days previously one of two ladies (Sisters of Mercy) who teach at the Leo-pard’s-court School was also attacked in the vicinity with such violence that she burst a blood vessel, and now lies in a veiy precarious state.- - Times, November 21. TuLEonAPllY.—Telegraphy is making rapid strides as a commercial instrument. -It is but a few weeks since the proprietors of the Daily News and Times surprised the exchanges of the •■metropolis ar.d great English towns by giving tire previous rlay’s quotations from all the great coutiuental bourses, and signalised the commencement of this great achievement by saving the mercantile interest several thousands in the negotiation of one day’s bills on Vienna. It was but last week that the completion of the submarine ■ telegraph was announced. This week we have lb report the opening of the Continental Telegraph Office by Mr. Julius Reuter, the telegraph agent, who lias hitherto had the conduct at Ostend of the despatches for the great telegraph operations, and who has now opened offices in Calais and London, the latter at No. 1, Royal Exchange-buildings, close to the great mercantile establishments. Already Mr. Reuter ccmrnunicates with nearly 100 continental stations ; and for most of them he offers the choice of the Ostend and Calais routes, the former being the cheaper, the latter the quicker. It will be seen with surprise that this establishment communicates with Venice, Pestli, and Cracow, and with all the commercial capitals in that range. The prices in the infancy of the establishment mustbe considered moderate, as a despatch can be sent even to Cracow ’for t«o-and-twcnty shillings. •These rates -will of course with the augmentation ■of the traffic be further reduced. A Paris despatch could be sent for six and eleven pence. London Paper. Tub Manufacture of Peat.—The Great Peat Working Company of Ireland has commenced vigorous operations at Cachirciveen, near Valencia Harbour, and has been for several weeks affording employment to from 400 to .600 of the peasantry of that district. Thev •have now ready for conversion into fuel or charcoal, 36,000 tons of peat; their works, for which the machinery is now ready, arc in ■•course of erection, and will be in operation within three months. We have before noticed that the object- of this association is to convert, under the patents of Messrs. Gwynnc & Hayes, the peat of Ireland into charcoal for manufacturing, agricultural, and sanitary puiposes; as ■also to create a fuel of a density equal to coal; possessing all its calorific properties, with an ■entire freedom from sulphur, which rendeis it peculiarly applicable to smelting purposes, especially for the production of those qualities of •iron and steel which arc now nnlv nmibirod in

countries abounding with wood and charcoal. The freedom of this fuel from clinker, and the

sharp mineral spiculae thrown off from coke when in combustion, is said to render it valuable for locomotive purposes.— Daily News.

The French Cavalry Horses.—The French Minister of War some time ago appointed a commission, of which M. Magendie was president, to report upon various questions relative to the treatment of cavalry horses in the army. The commission has just sent in its report. One of the questions discussed was as to the effect of salt administered with the food. The commission, after long and careful experiments, reports that salt has no beneficial effect whatever, but, on the other hand, causes no injury. On the question of digestion, it decided that horses in full exercise digest their food much more rapidly than when they remain idle. As regards the mortality of cavalry horses, it is found that within the last few years it has considerably decreased, owing to the more judicious treatment. — Daily News. The Roman Bed-time.—An immense majority of men in Rome never lighted a candle, unless sometimes in the early dawn. At.d this custom of Rome was the custom of all nations that lived around the great pond of the Mediterranean. In Athens, Egypt, Palestine, Asia Minor, everywhere the aucients went to bed, like good boys, from soven to nine o'clock. The Turks and other people, who have succeeded to the habits and stations of the ancients, do so to this day. The Romans, therefore, who saw no joke in sitting round the table in the dark, went off to bed as soon as darkness began. Everybody did so, Old Numa Pompiltus himself was obliged to trundle off in the dark. Tarquiuius might be a very superb fellow, but we doubt whether be ever saw a farthing rushlight. And though it may be thought that plots or conspiracies would flourish in such a city of darkness, it is to be considered the conspirators had no more candles themselves than honest men—both parties were in the dark.— BelVs Messenger.

A serious boiler explosion took place at the New Dock Works at Garston, on October 28. It appears that a small stationary engine is fixed on the inside wall of the dock, on the river side, for the purpose of pumping the drainings from the dock. The boiler is constructed on principles differing from those of land engines in general use, being more like those used in locomotive engines. From some cause as yet unexplained, this boiler burst with a terrific explosion about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, blowing off the roof, and throwing down the walls of the engine-house, and carrying fragments of them into the air, until they were lost to view. The boiler was shattered to pieces resembling nothing so much as a quantity of brown paper scattered around. In the midst of all this terrible outburst, it is gratifying to relate that not more than four persons are expected to be serious sufferers, although there must have been nearly 100 men at work within a circle of _ -r .1 , __ UU jama nuiu t.*ic opUb. AWW vi iucbc iuut Atcu were in the enginehouse, and were blown into the dock much scalded ; the other two were at work on one of those moving scaffolds used in setting the masonry ; these poor fellows were blown from their frightful height into the bottom of the workings of the dock, and must be sadly injured.

Printing in Colours. —We have of late been gratified by an inspection of some of the graphic productions of the Vienna State printing office. That institution, which was originally founded for the purpose of insuring correctness, despatch, and secrecy in the printing business of the official boards attached to the Austrian Cabinet, has, of late years, been extended in various other directions, and it has been made subservient, not only to the administrative purposes, but also to the ends of the fine arts and of science. The specimen of its production in these latter respects which were shewn to us consisted in a variety of impressions demonstrating the effect and application of lithographic colour printing, and of several new and important appliances of photography. The printing in colours from stone has, in the Vienna States printing office, been introduced by Chevalier Hartinger, the director of that institution, who has applied it with signal success to the reproduction of original fruits and flower pieces, of portraits, illustrations and initials of anatomy, pathology, botany, and geology. The fruit and flower pieces, mostly representing exotics, display a correctness, delicacy, and glow of colouring which, to the best of our opinion, surpass all other attempts to reproduce and multiply paintings. The extension of Chevalier Hartinger’s process has that very important feature which makes the fine arts —the creations of the greatest masters in painting accessible to the million, and that pictures whose price formerly confined them to the galleries of the wealthy few, may, by this mode of reproduction, be made accessible to the bumbler classes. We were assured that an exquisite flower-piece, copied from an original of Chevalier Hartinger, can be produced and sold for an incredible small sum. We do not say this in depreciation of Mr. Baxter’s process of colour painting. Chevalier Hartinger’s method is essentially different from Mr. Baxter's in its application as well as in its general effect. But the Austrian experiments have been made on a larger and bolder scale, and in a manner worthy of an institution which is fostered by a mighty .empire, and enabled, without any regard to expense, to make experiments in and to perfect all new inventions within the sphere of the graphic arts. The photographic department of this institution has, under the management of M. Paul Pritsch, obtained an extraordinary perfection, and it has been directed into-new paths of which it is almost impossible to foretell the future importance. Among these Mr. Fritsch’s process of reproducing photographic fac-similes of medals, antiquities, and fossils on copper plates, ready for painting, has struck us as worthy of the attention of the antiquary, for no stranger, and indeed no human skill interferes between the object to be copied and the copy itself. It will be at once understood that nothing can be so much calculated to preserve the identity of the original, even in its minutest features, than this method of causing the object to copy itself and to transfer its own facsimile to the plate which is prepared for its reproduction and publication.— Times,

Suicide Extraordinary.—The Droit has the following rather incredible story :—“ A commercial traveller, whose business frequently called him from Orleansto Paris, M. Edmund D , was accustomed to go to an hote with the landlord of which he was acquainted. Liking, like almost all persons of his profession, to to talk and joke, he was the favourite of every-

body in the hotel. A few days ago he arrived and was received with pleasure by all; but it was observed that he was much less gay than usual. The stories that he told, instead of being interesting as formerly, were of a lugubrious character. On Thursday evening, after supper, he invited the people of the hotel to go to his chamber to take coflee, and he promised to tell them a tale full of dramatic incident. On entering the room his guests saw on the bed, near which he seated himself, a pair of pistols. ‘My story,’ said he, ‘has a sad denouement, and I icquire the pistols to make it clearly understood.’ As he had always been accustomed, in telling his tales to indulge in expressive pantomime, and to take up anything which lay handy calculated to add to the effect, no surprise was felt at his having prepared pistols. He began by narrating the loves of a young girl and a young man. They had both, he said, promised under the most solemn oaths inviolable fidelity. The young man, whose profession obliged him to travel, once made a long absence. While he was away he received a legacy, and on his return hastened to place it at her feet. But on presenting himself before her he learned that, in compliance with the wishes of her family, she had just married a wealthy merchant. ' The young man thereupon took a terrible'resolution. ‘He purchased a pair of pistols like these,’ he continued, taking one in each hand; -then he assembled his friends in his chamber, and after some conversation placed one uuder his chin, in this way as I do, saying in a joke that it would be a real pleasure to blow out his brains. And at the same moment he pulled the trigger.’ Here the man discharged the pistol, and his head was shattered to pieces. Pieces of the bone and portions of the brain fell on the horrified spectators. The unfortunate man had told his own story.”