MISCELLANEOUS ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 166, 28 May 1862, Page 5

MISCELLANEOUS ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Port Wine.—lt is maintained without hesitation that much "Port" wine is prepared in England, and that in the compound there is not one drop _of real port wine. We disbelieve a great part of tins statement. The imputation has arisen from some of those miserable publications which profess to be guides or handbooks for the trade, and give receipts for all sorts of adulterations. For instance, to induce the publican to make more of his gin, he is told to add oil of vitriol, oil of turpentine, and some other acrid and deleterious compounds. We do not, however, hesitate to. affirm, in spite of Dr. Andrew Wynter, Dr. Hassal, the Quarterly, and other Reviews, that such a practice is not adopted—that a publican woxdd not be such a fool as to try the experiment a second time—that oil of turpentine is never used —that it would immediately betray itself, as would; tlie other ingredients ; and it is not because a man has the wickedness to publish a book of hints for adulteration, that his fellow-man is to be accused of adopting them. The " enemy"—perhaps some ardent teetotaller—may have written the book, to carry out his designs upon the unfortunate object of his persecution—the publican. We have tried to meet with these perniciously adulterated articles, but we have been unsuccessful. We should like to taste this port wine, of which we are told there are regular manufactories in London, _and that the composition consists of the waslungs..pf. brandy casks mixed with cider, red Cape, tartar, gum, dragon, red sanders, and alum.. The compound is said to be put into bottles which have an old crust adhering to them, or still oftcner in which an artificial crust of old wine lees and bullocks'! blood has been baked.- If the crust sticks very tightly,; and the. wine pours bright tothe last drop, "you may be perfectly sure that that crust was never deposited by the wine you have just poured off from' it.'' One easily-duped writer says: —"The thing is very simrjle. Some old wine lees .and bullocks' blood are made just thick enough to pour; a small quantity is put into a bottle, -which is then turned gently half round so as to spread the composition evenly on one side, and afterwards the bottles are laid carefully on a rack. When, a sufficient number are done, the top sides are whitewashed to markthem, artificial heat is applied, and in a short time > each bottle has a hard, firm crust upon it. The wine is then put in; corics dyed with logwood areused, and the bottles laid clown upon their sides in a room, into which a lot of dust is blown; this, falling down, adheres to their upper side, and forth comes the wine— " splendid old port, fifteen years in bottle." With -such mendacious trash as this the public are sometimes alarmed, at least those who will not give themselves the. trouble to. think upon the improbabilities of such proceedings. We believe the worst concoction that has ever been foisted upon! wine-drinkers was the South African sojphistication, which we have exposed in a former chapter. When port is made up, at the retail shops at a cheap:rate, it is blended with a wine of lower price, such as Pontac, (red" Cape,) Spanish red, or a late introduction called Tyrehenian, to which we may allude in another place., But as to pernicious ingredients,and the filthy preparation said to constitute the "crusting process," we set them down 'as weak inventions.— Wine ■ and Wine Countries, by Charles Tovey.

Sebastopol as it it. is.—We came to the scene of the Balaclava charge, and then through the village of Kamora, down upon-Balaclava. • Was that the harbor in which all the ships'were % That pond! We launched* under a rock overlooking the harbor j one or two fishing boats were crossing its still water. '.We walked down into that' quiet village, and on the now deserted quay and. pier. All the scenes of the war, winter came before one—the noise, the confusion, the accumulation in that small space, where now there was not a sigh of intercourse with the outer world. The hospital building still remains, :and on the steep slope above are the two graves of the. Sisters of Mercy who died in that hospital while nursing the soldiers. In grateful memory for their services, the regiment: have put up two btone tombs, : and closed them vnthin rails Many are the solitary tombstoneSjSeen in and aboutßalaclava. ,It was a. steep scramble, up^thej; Sisters' Graves, ond;it wa»i a still steepier one up to,

the Genoese Fort. But, unless a traveller ascends three-quarters of the way to the castle, he will not see the beautiful" white marble cross erected by Florence Nightingale, we wero told, to commemorate the occupation of the British army in the Crimea We could only see it at a distance ; as, though we had ascended a considerable height, to have reached it would have involved another hour's climbing. We returned in the evening, following the line of tho Camp K.-iilroad (those rails aj-e now in use between Tchernavoila aud Kustendjie,) and "then galloping across the plain at a frightful pace. There w;is much to be seen in nnd about the town—more thau we had leisure for ; we could only spare time for rambles -among the ruined streets at odd moments.". What our guns spared, the ltussians themselves destroyed, cither by fire or gunpowder, and yet the ruins now have no appearance ot fire; it is more as if an earthquake hail shaken down the town. Most of the restored houses of those that escaped, are in the -south-cast quarter ofthe town. There were two shops we went t> which seemed to supply everything for everyday life. All luxuries come from Odessa. The chief buildings were in the most exposed part, and are all destroyed. Prince Menschikoff's fine palace, with its terraces and staircases; the Public Library, wliich must have been a very handsome building, crowning the crest of the hill on which the town is built; the church, of whidh only the colonnade remains ; the governor's house; the theatre—these are only a few of the many handsome stone houses entirely in ruins.* One :; church in the .main street has been . rebuilt. "Bown by the.water's edge, nt the head of the south harbor, he piles of rusty cannonballs, and bullets of all sizes, broken shells, and old iron in every shape. There was another large, pile ofthe bones of horses andcattle. Ofthe famous'dockyards not a vestige remains J nor of Fort Nicholas or" Fort Paul. We did not cross to Fort Constantine, but it seemed untouched. It was a matter of daily surprise to us that wo were so civilly: treated as we walked about Sebastapol. The few inhabitants there were appeared not to notice us. We were never with while sketching, as is jjften the casein foreign countries; and tlie only living beings who X seemed to resent our presence were the- innumerable dogs who prowled about the deserted town. One object still remained to be accomplished,: and that was the Malakoff, and on this, our last day, we drove up to it. Its labyrinth of earthworks is very striking when contrasted with the single cai-th-ridge ofthe Redan; and the commanding position ofthe elevation told its own story why such labor had beeri bestowed upon its defences. Two ofthe tiers of loopholes remain in the ruined tower; * In the cellar, or magazine below, a lame horse was sheltering itself from the glare of the midday, sun. For the last time we looked down upon the .ruined town, and round upon all the scenes connected with it.— Macmillan's Magazine:

A Bit ace of Incokiutptiblks.—Mr: Morgan has the happiness to be brother-in-law to Mr. Navy Secretary Welles. The Secretary gave liim a commission to buy vessels for the Go'viernmcnt ; he did so, and received from it 95,000 dollars, his commission for a few weeks' services in the purchase of ships'to the anionnt of 1,73(3,900 dolls. As he received at least as much more from the sellers, it is not a bad thing to be brother-in-law to a navy secretary, in a pure democracy iv the throes of dissolution. Mr. War Secretary Cameron is believed to have made half-a-million of dollars already by perquisites in his department, and bids fair, if the war continues, to be n richer man than John Jacob Astor The Federal Government wants 5,000 sailors to man ships anil gun-boats waiting for them, and it has Jbecn for weeks imploring the fishermen, who, however, have heard of the United States navy before, and beg to be excused. — Montreal Advertiser. The llev. Dr. dimming, -of London, and Sir Koderick Murchison, the geologist, have exchanged notes in the Loudon papers on the subject ot the infernal regions. The Knight, it appears, had, iv private conversation,' ndmitted the existence of an igneous sphere in the geological depths. The orator of Crown Court was reported as having said, in a lecture at Manchester, that Sir Roderick admitted the existence of-a " boiling cauldron." The rev. gentleman explains that his language was " a crust of fossil with a core of fire." Tlie correspondence presents the one as a believer in the geological hell, and the other in both geological and theological. ' '~

The Dutch West Ikdies.—The slave question iv the Butch West India colonies has been settled. All slaves in those colonies will be set free on the Ist of July, 1863, under the following conditions : —l. Compensation of 300 guilders for each slaves-man, woman, or child—to be paid to the owner. 2. Slaves to remain under apprenticeship on the estates ■for a term of three years, during which time they are. to be paid wages for their work, half of such wages to accrue to Government. The Dutch Government:will grant three millions of guilders per annum.for immigration. — Surinam Wgelibland.- .: y/..-\>

Epitaph _in thb Chtoch-yaiid of Foiiees.— Epitaph upon Mr. Joseph Brodie, some time minister of the Gospel at Forres, ■'_ who departed this life in 1656.- Gomposed-by Alexander Brodie of Brodie, his nephew :— ■■'~... -', " Why choosed thou, man, when fallen asleep, This placeof rest 1 * Even still my flock tolceep, As living dying preached I, so my grave, ', Tomb, Dust, these Bones,. Dead T Walks, aud ''..'.- Porch shallhave. !' A voice to witness, teach, cry, call to mind "'■■.'■, The good word preached, which true ere long they'll find."* ; *; , "■" ■" ;■'"'-''.. —Forres Gazette. ! ;! ' " , r'

Smith O'Brien axp Sir Robert Peel.— Smith O'Brien is accused of having challenged Sir Robert Peel after he, Smith O'Brien, knew that Sir Robert Peel had placed the affair with the O'ljonpghue in the hand of his "friend,": Lord Palmerston. AThere is not the least truth in the ' accusation. M> mau knows better than Sir Robert Peel that Smith O'Brien wrote to him long before the' interview iwhich Major Gavin had with Sir Robert's noble '^friend." Tho moment Smith O'Brien was made aware of the gross, wanton, and unprovoked attack Upon liim, that moment he wrote to Sir Robert in language which, to use a popular form of expression,, would, have "provoked a saint." Nothing could have been more contemptuous, or more calculated to lead to a hostile encounter, if not a combat a I'outrance.^-Cork Examiner. A Stopper.—A renowned clergyman of Lincolnshire lately preached rather a long sermon from the text, " Tiiou art weighed in the balance and found wanting." After the congregation had- listened about nn hour, some began to get weary and went out; others soon followed, greatly to the annoyance of the minister. Another person started, whereupon the parson stopped his sermon and said, " That is right, gentlemen; as fast as you were ■ weighed pass out." He continncd his sermon at some length after that, but no one disturbed him by leaving.

The Puff Indirect.—When Prince Napoleon was at Leghorn, during the late Italian war, he was accompanied by two literary men of but rising reputation—M. About and M. Emile Augier. Between the labor of war, taking cities, and overthrowing Austrian armies, which especially, as we all.know, fell to the share of the Prince, he found a moment to causer. "Well, About, wbat has become of your 'Roman Question?'" "Monseigncur," said About, with a sigh that came fi-om tho heart, '.' only five or six copies have been sold." He was about to bathe himself in tears, when a literary sortie was made by Augier, who came to his brother's rescue—a great decaf for one literary man to perform for another—and exclaimed—" We may saye > hira, Monseigncur! The sale would be enormous, if —■ " Here a pause, •with a wise "air. "If what ?" said tile great military man and Prince. "If it were seized, Monseigneur." The Prince laughed, and good naturcdly said, "Oui, oui." Better still, he acted, and sent off a letter to M. Delangle, then Minister ofl Justice,-stating tbat he could not divine how a Minister ofthe Emperor could permit the Pope to be publicly insulted. The next day the Moniteur announced the " Question Romaine," was seized, and 15,000 copies wero sold at once. We give this for the benefit of those who are studying the art of the puff indirect.— Court Journal. CiANSniP in the HigiHiAnds.—ln- a somewhat curious case, in which Mr. Neil John-MacGilhvray claimed to be served heir to a landed estate m Invernesshire, on the ground that he was the nearest of kin ito the deceased, who was a member of the Clan 1 Chattan, to which, by the titles of the estate, the destination was restricted, the Court- of Session has, by a unaniirous decision of the First Division, set aside the alleged rights of clanship^ The Lord President and Lord Ivory were of opinion that there waa nothing tangible in the claim of the pursuer to exclude the heir-at-law. Lord Currichill held that while clanship was, even in the reign of James VI. (of Scotland), an institution- recognized by law, the statutes passed in the reigns of George. I. -and George IL, which set forth that the obligations and services of clanship were inconsistent with the allegiance f>f tho subject, and the cessation of the usages of the chins hip which followed, had put an end'to it, and therefore the destination ofthe property to meinbeis ofthe Clan Chattan was no longer operative. Lord Deas had no , doubt that tho condition of the clanship remained in the investiture, and was-quite distinct; still, it was not a condition which the" lawcould recognize and give effect io. They could find no definition, sufficient for -judicial purposes, of what a -clan wass and, so far as its tdleged.privileges nnd duties were concerned, these had, now ceased ,to operate" or" ekisL-^lt is said that 'the.cape.Trill- probably be. appealed: tp, the House of . Loidß. ...; - , v .-,: ,■■■. • , -.-: •■ J fifitl