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Otago Daily Times, Issue 188, 23 June 1862, Page 6

Lord Lyons recently gave an amateur dramatic performance at Washington, when " The Serious Family," " Bombastes ITurioso," and " Box and Cox,'? were performed. Mr. -Russell, the Times' correspondent, took the part of "Bombastes."

There; was a great demand for seats in the House of Commons, to hear the Chancellor of the /Exchequer's Budget speech. One gentleman/ who had a ticket for the Strangers-gallery, ■took ;up .his position at halfrpast seven o'clock^ h;!the morning in the waiting-room at the foot* of the gallery stairs. He was followed by others, • and by eight o'clock there were a dozen persons present. At twelve o'clock there were about 300 persons present, while .' the gallery is not capable of accommodation for more than 80 or 100.

Garibaldi is to visit London during the Exhibition, and also will pay his respects at various towns in the provinces during, his visit.

A Bye-gour Scene.—Look there I—in that corpse you see the cold, dead body of one of the best mothers jt was ever your privilege to know. She had a son. He was the stay of her widowhood, —so kind, so affectionate, so loving. Some are taken away from the evil to come; laid in the lap of mother earth, safe beneath the grave's green so.l, they hear not and heed not the storm that rages above. "Such was not her happy fortune. She lived to see that son a disgrace, and all the promises of his youth blighted and gone. He was drawn into habits'of intemperance. On her knees she pleaded with him. On her knees she prayed for him. How mysterious nre the ways of Providence. She did not live to see liim changed ; and with such thorns in her pillow, such daggers, planted liy such a hand, in her heart bhe c.oulu not live. She sank under these griefs, and died of a broken heart. We told him so. With bitter, burning tears he owned it; charging himself with his mother's death, —confessing " himself a mother's murderer. Crushed with sorrow, and all alone, he went to see the 'od . Alone, beside that cold, dead, unreproach ing mother, he knelt down and wept out his terrible remorse. After a while he rose. A bottle was there. You have seen the iron approach the ma gnet. Call it spell, call it fascination, call it anything bad, demoniacal, but as thu iron is drawn to the magnet, or as n fluttering bird, fascinated by the burning1 eye and glittering skin of the serpent, walks into its expanded, envenomed jaws, so was he drawn to the bottle. Unfortunately —how unfortunate that a spirit bottle should have been left there—his eye fell on the old tempter. Wondering at lik delay, they enturrd the room ; ;nd now tlie bed holds two bodies—a dead mother, and her dead-drunk son. What a sight ! What a humbling, horrible spectacle I And what a change from those happy times, when night drew her pjajeful curtains around the same sou and mother, — he, a sweet babe, sleeping, angel-like, within her loving arms ! "How is the gold become dim, the most fine gold chaugc.l I"—/);-. O'ulhrie.

Tlie Washington Republican thus sketches the capital in 1.862 : — ''Washington is essentially a Yankee city at the present time. In every department, business is thriving to a degree unparalleled in its history. Real p-state has advanced to unexpected figures, and it is n matter of impossibility to find suitable accommodation for the vast influx of business pouring in upon us. Enterprise is now the watch-word, where ■ a short year ago inactivity and decay prevailed. Vigorous competition has reduced the prices of many of the necessaries of life. Old monopolies have been scattered to the winds, and the consumer generally is benefitted by the change. The Washington, of to-day is totally different from the Washing-ton of 1800. Many are unacquainted with the cause of the transformation, and look with wondering eyes at what is only a legitimate consequence. Tlie fact is, the antiquated coaches of the past regime have rolled away, and the lig'.tning locomotives of Northern energy replace them. Thus will it be in other latitudes than this. The fossil remains of an obsolete idea will but serve as mementoes of a darker age, and happiness and prosperity will be the results of its annihilation."

Ridicule a.nd Rutarteu. —The fatal fondness for indulging in a spirit of ridicule, and the injurious and irreparable consequences which sometimes attend the too piompt reply, can never lie too seriously or too severely condeinnel. Nut to offend is the first step towards pleasing. To give pain is as much an offence against humanity as against good breeding; and surely it is as well to abstain from an action because it is sinful, as because it is impolite. A man of sense and breeding will sometimes join in the laugh which hiis been raised at bis expense by an ill-natured repartee ; but if it was very dating, and one of those shocking sort of truths, which-, as they can scarcely be pardoned in private, ought never to be uttered in public, he. does not laugh because he is ploasid, but because he wishes to conceal how much he is hurt. As the sarcasm was uttered by a lady, so far from seeming to resent it, he will be the first to commend it: but, notwithstanding that, he will remember it as a trait of malice, when the whole company shall have forgotten it as a stroke of wit. Women are so far from being privileged by their sex to say unhandsome or cruel thing's, that jt is this very circumstance which renders them more intolerable. When the arrow is lodged in the heart it is no relief for him that i,s wounded-to reflect that tlie hand which shot at him was a fair one.— Hannah Moore.

An American journal states that the 000,000 troops in the Federal army require per month 11,620,00011). of pork, or 21,375,0001b. of fresh beef; 130,901 barrels of flour ; 43,750 bushels of beans, or 1,050,0001b. office; 1,950,0001b. of cocoa, 2,8!)2,0001b. of coffee, 195J000 gallons of vinegar, 12,449 bushels of salt 8,580,0001b. of potatoes, 1,170,0001b. of candles, and 3,120,0001b. of soap.