Miscellaneous.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume XII, Issue 1282, 14 November 1857, Page 4

Miscellaneous.

Great Fire in Edinburgh.—On Wednesday afternoon, tbe Bth insi., a fire, the most extensive that has occurred in Edinburgh for many years, broke out in James’s Court, Lawnmarket, the result of which was the destruction of nearly two lands of houses. Tbe buildings were interesting relics of the old town of Edinburgh, chiefly occupied as dwelling houses of the poorer sort, but partially used for business purposes. Overlooking the Mound on the north side, they formed part of that remarkable range of old buildings whose lofty gables attract the notice ol strangers, giving to the Old Town viewed from Princes-street, an appearance peculiarly picturesque.' In reference to the cause of the fire, it is really not known how it originated ; and, of course, it is not to be expected that any estimate could bo formed so scon of the amount of property destroyed. The tenement of which so la r ge a portion has been just destroyed, is not only one of the most conspicuous and structurally remarkable in Edinburgh, but was also of considerable interest from its associations. The house in which David Hume resided for many years was one of the flats (third Flat, counting from

James’s Court) now burned. Dr. Blair was Hume’s tenant in the same house while Hume was on the continent for a year or two; and James Boswell succeeded Hume as tenant, a’ter* wards removing to the flat immediately below, which has been for many years occupied by Messrs. Pillans as a printing office, and is now also totally consumed; and it was here Dr. Johnson was received as a guest by his biographer.

1 Extraordinary Charge of Libel. —On ! Tuesday, at the Marlborough street police court, ■ in London, Mr, Henry Spicer, surgeon, No. 3, Oval Cottages, Kennington, was brought before Mr. Beadon on a warrant charging him with having published a fahe and defamatory libel on Mr. William Day, solicitor, No. 1, Queen street, Mayfair. Tbe defends it, Spicer, was formerly an apothecary and surgeon at Nolting-hill. He became acquainted in the course of his business with a lady named Lawford, the widow of the Rev. J. G. Lawford, and possessed of upwards! of £20,000 of her late busband’s property. This lady happened to call at the defendant’s shop. The defendant found out that she was a widow of fortune ; be ingratiated himself in her favour, and the result was that he caused the unfortunate lady to believe that ho had formed a sincere attachment to her, Mrs. Lawford placed herself in communication with her friends. Mr. Day was professionally consulted, and bis advice was that the marriage should not take place until a proper settlement of the properly was made on Mrs. Lawford. Mr. Spicer professed acquiescence in this proposal, but, instead of wailing till the deeds were drawn out, he forced the widow lady into a clandestine marriage, without any settlement having been made. Having married Mrs. Lawford without any previous settlement, it turned out with respect to the bulk of Mrs. Lawford’s property, that it had been so settled by the late Mr. Lawford that, with the exception of about £4OOO, the busband could not touch the remainder, and the result was that from 1854 to 1855, Mr. Spicer practised the greatest barbarity towards his wife. He took her through England and Scotland at her own expense. She contrived to make her escape in Scotland, but the defendant, telegraphed to the various stations that she was mad, and she was stopped at Preston. She told her story to the mayor at Preston, and she was released. She made her way to London, and had hitherto succeeded in evading the persecution of the defendant, who hoped by getting possession of her person to obtain the benefit of tbe £6OO or £7OO a-year settled on her. When Mr. Day first became aware of tbe defendant’s conduct towards his wife, he advised her to bear it if possible ; but as human nature'had its limits of endurance, she could not put up v/ith the treatment she received, and she sought the protection of her friends. The defendant then proceeded to issue placards, one of which offered £5O reward against the parties alleged to have incarcerated and ill-treated the missing lady, and mentioned that she had been seen in Mr. Day’s house. This formed the libel. The defendant was committed for trial, but bail was taken —himself iu £2OO, and two sureties in £lOO each.

Romance of High Life.'—Among the presentations to her Majesty at one of tbe drawing rooms this season was a young lady upon her marriage, and about whose nuptials a story is current of more than usual interest in these unromantic times. She is the daughter of a bar juet, holding a distinguished position. Among tbe suitors of this young lady, who is as pretty as accomplished, was one of very advanced years ; but it was in vain that all the allurements consequent upon the possession of riches were set forth. The fair maiden showed herself completely indifferent to the golden prize that lay at her feet, and, in spite of tbe strong recommendation of “papa,” it was unhesitatingly rejected. So far, therefore, everything was perfectly natural and very unromantic. But it seems that the gentleman, after his proposals bad been declined (of ccurse with the usual protestations of respect and esteem), again sought an interview, and assured the lady that bis attachment was not selfish—that be was ready, at any sacrifice, to do anything that could contribute to her happiness ; and that if her affections were fixed on any one whose wealth might not be adequate to bis good fortune, he was ready, by a settlement even to the extent of £lOO,OOO, to place her happiness in her own power. Such a :proof of disinterested attachment was perfectly undeniable, and it is said tbe young lady pondered so much over it that, like the recital of Othello’s dangers, it wrought a complete revulsion of feeling. We do not pretend to know on what kind of “ bint” the venerable gentleman spoke again, but speak again he did, and with so much effect that the happy day was soon named, and the nuptials in due,course solemnised, and tbe fine bride presented on her marriage to the Queen. The world gives, with its usual generosity, an almost fabulous amount to Mr. ’s fortune, but it is very well known that one item in it is £150,000 railway stock, and more than half of which is paying six per cent. — Court Journal,

A Grocer’sßomance.—Atone of the Duke’s great battles a message required to be sent to the second in command. All the aides-de-camp were killed or wounded, or away on separate missions. The interval between the divisions was swept with shot and shell, and yet tbe order must be conveyed, or the fate of the combat might change. There was a man dressed in tbe garb of a commercial traveller, mounted on a good stout roadster, who had come out to collect certain moneys due to his employers from tbe officers in the Peninsular army, and had apparently thought the sight of a bloody battle would be an agreeable diversion in the midst of his labors. The Duke rode up to him, and asked him to go with the message. The man agreed ; but being devoted to business habits, he said “You must give me an authority in writing, or the General won’t believe what I say I” Wellington wrote the order; and—at a good steady trot, as if he had been anxious to get into the city before the clock struck ten—the extempore aide-de-camp, rising in his stirrups and holding out both b's elbows in tbe manner of Fulham and Muswell Hill, looking neither to the left nor right, crossed the fatal space, over which flew an iron shower which sent the mud flying in al! directions, arrived at his destination, and in a minute or two saw the result of his communication in a sudden rush forward of the whole line, dreadful shouts, and waving of fiery swords. Presently he heard, by the shouts and hurrahs, that a great victory had been achieved by the British arms! This prosaic, steady, fomteen-stone man, who took everything as a matter-of-course, was witness to the meeting of two hostile armies, and greatly contributed to the glorious consummation.— Dickens's Household Words,

It is related that at an interview with the Se-cretary-at-War, which took place recently, Mrs. Seacole, of Crimean celebrity, expressed her desire to set out immediately for India. “Give me,” said the excellent old lady, “my needle and thread, my medicine-chest, my bandages, my probe and scissors, and I’m off.” It can hardly be doubted that every facility will be afforded her. The concerts given for her benefit at the Surrey Gardens have produced large receipts. A few days since a girl of 17, residing in Bridgegate, Glasgow, had her neck fractured in a struggle arising from a young man having attempted to kiss her. No extra violence, it was said, had been used. The medical attendant reported that the injury sustained appeared to be partial dislocation of one of the vertebrae of tbe neck, causing great difficulty in respiration and swallowing, he presumed from pressure on the respiratory nerve. She lies in a dangerous slate.

Ihe Committee of Privileges have admitted the claim of Lord Lovat, which has been before the House for 30 yea's, to rank among the peers of Scotland by virtue of a creation in 1540. His lordship will now rank between Lord Oliphant and Lord Ogilvie.

A U ord about Bankers.—England is, and has always been, in the bands of her bankers—the cleverest men in the kingdom—Francis Child, the banking goldsmith, and there was u jingling Georgie, old Herriot, who founded the hospital at Edinuurgh, and a string of illustrious names. Ihomas Coutts died in 1822. (one year after Napoleon), at eighty-seven. At one time he was the banker of George 111. His fortune of £4,500,000 from his wife passed to his granddaughter, Miss Burdett Coutts, the owner of the bank of Coutts & Co., managed through trustees, Then there was Strahan, Paul, and Co., established in the seventeenth century, one of the first and most respectable of the old bankers. 1 heir successors, as you are aware, have been transported lor fraud and perjury. Jones, Lloyd, and Co. were once great names, and are still. Mr. Lloyd, the dissenting minister, became the banker, whose offspring became a peer, the present Lord Overstone, This was tbe firn that introduced the phrase (not (he praciice) known among'btll-drawers of “ pork or bacon !” Barings have done their share in holding high the bankers reputation. “VI ho rules the banking world?” asked Lord Byron in Don Juan. “ Jew Rothschild and his fellow-Christian Baring ?” When the learned student, Meyer Anselm, died at Frankfort, in 1812, his parting advice to bis five sous was to bang together. He knew the power of association, Iu 1808, Nathan Meyer Rothschild settled in Manchester. From buttons be went to banking. He managed investments so well as togain the entire patronage of the German princes, and since then the house of Rothschild has become the friend of despotic kings. He was really a great man. He not only introduced the payment of dividends on foreign loans into England, but be arranged them to be paid iu sterling. He loaned European powers, established tates of exchange on any part of the world, moved bu lion and merchandise to suit his wishes, founded houses in the chief continental cities, sent agents to every commercial port, always received the latest intelligence, and such was his retentive memory be never carried a note-book 1 On 1 uesdays ami Fridays you would always find hint at “Rothschild Pillar” on the Stock Exchange. A broker by the name of Rose was the only man who was bold enough to occupy the stand of the Money Klug, and he disputed the right but an hour. He wrote a miserable band. A Montrose banker once made him wait a week in Scotland, that he might see if his cheque was cashed in London. On the 28tb July, 1836, a earlier pigeon brought to London from Frankfort this simple dispatch—“ He is dead.’* The Brothers Rothschild have shown, itt their success, the power of association. Their sons will take their place, and, with proper management, they may hold their honours another generation.— Hunt's (New York) Merchants' Magazine. Shipwreck of the “ Duroc.”—The great lions of the haute societe are Madame Laverssiere de Lavergne and her little daughter Rosita, whose tremendous shipwreck on the island of New Caledonia, in the Duroc, hae filled us with such intense interest. Tbe child is four years old, and was borne in tbe arms of her intrepid mother during twenty-eight hours of hunger, peril, and torture, tn a poor rougb-hewed bark, constructed from the spars drifted on shore, remnants of the wrecked Duroc. There is tto such thing as fiction. The “Wreck of the Golden Mary” was enacting at tbe very time that Dickens was writing his imaginary account of his child Lucy and her fellow sufferers. The same charm, the same interest to the worn-out crew, was the little Rosita in the wretched bark ; the same superstitious faith attended on every prattling word she uttered ; and when, in tne midst of their despair, these four-attd-tliirty rough, strong, world-worn men begged the little silver cross which the child wore round her neck to hang at the stern, and thus insure the protection of Heaven for the crazy planks to which they had been forced to trust their safety, and the child consented on condition that they would give it back as soon as ever they got to land;” a loud cry of triumph arose in the midst of the silent ocean, and hope and trust leiurned in hearts where despair and agony had already found a home. The words were regarded as the inspiration of Divine mercy—the whispering of the angels to the miserable crew struggling for life beneath that stormy sky. And they were prophetic “ Those words, uttered in the lisping accents of Rosita, saved our thirty human lives,” said Captain Lavergne, before the commission just appointed to sit in judgment on his conduct; “ the crew was sinking fast—some wished indeed to die—when that simple and unconscious summons to live and hope fell upon their misery like healing balm." Rosita did get back her silver cross, and wears it with pride and joy ; but cannot imagine why everybody in Paris wishes co see and touch it, and why so many people have shed great big round tears upon her hands when she has held it up at their request for them to kiss.— Paris Correspondent of the Court Journal.

I have fonnd that the men who are really the most fond of the ladies—who cherish for them the highest respect, are seldom the most popular with the sex. Men of great assurance—whose longues are lightly hung—who make words supply the place of ideas, and place compliment in (he room of, sentiment—are their favourites. A lu» respect for women lends to respectful action wards them ; ami respect is mistaken by them or neglect or want,of love.— Addison,