MISCELLANEOUS ENGLISH EXTRACTS. .

Otago Daily Times, Issue 368, 24 February 1863, Page 6

MISCELLANEOUS ENGLISH EXTRACTS. .

' It is affirmed that Mr. W. F. Windham has sold the Felbri"" Hall estate for L 135.000. The incumbrances upon the property amount to LIIO.OOO. Mr Windham has still the Hanworth estate, which is strictly entailed, and therefore cannot be disposed of. Among the posthumous remains of the lamented TJhland are a considerable number of poems that hitherto have not been published. They, like the otliT literary remains of the great poet, are now in the hands of his intimate friend, Karl Mayer, the lyric poet, who will shortly give them to the world. The Belfast " News Letter." in reference to the earldom of Cranford and Lindsay, writes :—" This Ion" and extrardinary, case, is once more_befbre the public, a new claimant having appeared in the person of Robert Lindsay, a retired sergeant ofthe 19th Foot parish of Kilmore, in the county of Monaghan, the only surviving son of the late Mr. Jas. Lindsay, said to be the lineal descendant of the Earls of Craufovd and Lindsay." A Paris correspondent of the Nord states that the Emperor Napoleon is still at work upon his "Life of Csesar," and that the public are very anxious to see the first volume, which has been long announced. Letters from Augsburg speak in gloomy terms of the health of the Queen of Naples. She is said to he iv a state of complete physical and moral prostration, ancl fears are even entertained for her life. _ She is more than ever opposed to the idea of reconciliation with the king. . The new Archbishop of York, Dr Thomson, haß shown his decided objection to Puseyite ornamentation in churches. He objected the other day to consecrate a church at Selsby-hill, near Stroud, until a floral cross had been removed from the " altar." A ridiculous story, apropos of garotters is _ now being told in London. A very timid man, resident in the suburbs, always carries a loaded stick, and is constantly on the look out. The other night, as he was walking home, near his own house a man pushed rudely against him. The timid gentleman with great presence of mind, immediately struck him a severe blow with the loaded stick, and the man ran off leaving his hat behind him. The timid man, greatly elated, picked up the hat, and read on the fining the name of one of his. intimate friends. Dreadfully shocked, he at one* hastened to his friend's house fo explain matters. He was received at the door by his friend's wife, iwho, in a voice inarticulate with sobs, said, " Oh, I'm so glad to see you ! Poor Edward !—in bed upstairs 1 covered with blood I he's been garotted!" The Court circle of France surpasses at present anything that Europe or the East can show for the extravagance of its display. The rule at Compiegne is it seems, that every lady shall dress as expensively as she can. According to M. Pelletan, the practice 13 that a great many ladies dress very much more expensively than a sane consideration of their incomes could warrant. It is now the fashionable order to throw aside flowers in every possible case for precious Btones. Diamonds are more common in the Court circle of Compiegne than they were in that of Catherine of Russia herself. ,•, ~ The Emperor Napeoleon has recently despatched to the eminent historical painter—Horace Vernet—the decorations of a grand officer of the Legion of Honor, accompanied by an autograph letter. This mark of special favour was designed as something to alienate the pains'of the severe illness under which the distinguished artist labours. y The Farmers'Gasette recently drew attention to the immencfeincrease, in numerical numbers, of the' progeny of rats. One pair, it was asserted, would have, in three years, descendants amounting to 651 000, and which colony would consume as much food as would be required for 65,000 human beings. The Zenzero of Florence announces that Garibaldi now leaves his bed, aud can walk about on crutches in bis room. He arrived at Leghorn from Pisa on the SOth December, and left immediately for Caprera. The general has forwarded a subscription, accompanied by a letter, to the fund being raised in Italy on behalf of the distressed operatives in Lancashire. , ■ ' The photographs of the Piincess Alexandra convey the idea that the princess is rather tall and dark, whereas her royal highness is rather short in stature and of a fair complexion, but very handsome. " Her Majesty," says the Court Journal, " appeared in public lately in an open carriage, and not, as heretofore, in a closh carriage, with the blinds down. The Royal Family will continue to wear mourning after Christmas, but it will be of a slight character. Her Majesty will wear deep mourning for another year.'' The Times has commenced a much-needed agitation. It wants the quart bottle to hold a quart. At present it holds a. pint, and just such _a fraction of a second as the wine-merchant in his liberality thinks fit to allow. A poor wretch of a tallow-chandler who puts a bit of lead under his scale is fined heavily; but any wine dealer may cheat by filling up bis bottles with glass with ' perfect impunity. The Times believes tbat it is this practice which more than any other deters men of small incomes from attempting to purchase cheap •wines. They cannot buy them in wood, and they will not be swindled with their eyes open by buying them in the bottle. Formerly the great trick used to he to carry the thick glass bottom deep into the hottle : but now the bottle itself is growing slender, and, in some instances, is said not to contain a fair At the last meeting ofthe Council ofthe Art Union of London—Professor Westmacott in the chair-it «as resolved tbat a premium of MOO should ha ,

offered, under conditions that will be advertised, for a statue dr group in marbie. The competition by plaster models will be optn to artists of all nations.

[The garotte panic has now probably reached its height, is a little ou the decline, and is furnishing food for farce writers and arrangers of pautomimes. The Daily JVews observes with truth that no exaggeration that the most faithful pantomime autuor can possibly indulge in will caricature tbe present armed condition of our citizens. " Revolvers and bowie-knives are simple weapons compared with the arms which some self-defenders carry. E|aborate knucklc-dustera have been made to order, spiked all over the knuckles, and containing one short sharp stilletto protruding from the side. Bludgeons that shoot out bayonet's, and sticks that contain daggers and swords, are now sold more openly in the city streets than oranges orcbestnuts. One belt at least bas been seen, the buckle of which is loaded like a pistol, and which, when a string is pulled under the coat of the wearer, will shoot anybody in front in the stomach. Life - preservers and thick sticks are now more common than toothpicks, and spiked collars are worn very generally with patriotic pleasure." We have remarked elsewhere that Baron Bramwell's sentences have not prevented the commission of further crimes.

A New Bemedt for _ the ' Smallpox.—The Sarceniapurppurea, or Indian cup, a native plant of Nova Scotia, which we mentioned some time ago as being the specific used by the Indians against the smallpox, bids fair to realise the expectations enter-; tamed by medical men of its efficacy. In a letter addressed to the American Medical Times, Dr V. W. Morris, -Physician of the Halifax Visiting- Dispensary, statesthat this Sarcenia will cure smal pox in all its forms within twelve hours after the patient has taken the decoction. " However alarming and numerous the eruptions," he says, "or confluent ancl frightful they may be, the peculiar action of the medicine is such that very seldom is a scar left to tell the story of the disease. If ether vaccine or variocous matter is wa:hed with the infusion of the plant, they are deprived of their contagious properties. So mild is the medicine to the taste that it may be largely mixed with tea and coffee, and given to connoisseurs in these boverages to drink without being aware of the admixture. The medicine has been successfully tried in the hospitals of Nova Scotia, and its use will be continued.— Galignani.

-"A Fair Exchange."—On Saturday, Ist November, ex-Royal Otho and consort traversed the streets of Munich, as we learn, amid sympathising crowds : indeed his welcome back to Beerland might verge on congratulation. For tbe rack and ruin of Acropolis he exchanges a bran new Pinakothec and Glyptothec. For the arid bed of a dried up Ilyssus he gets an Iser rolling rapidly; discardinp the red fez cap aud Albanian kilt, he can resume less picturesque but more comfortable toggery; taDkard and stove and meerschaum await him, and he actually regains some dozen days which the Greek calendar kept him back behind European calculation. The German papers generally seem to feel relief at an end being put to the absurd figure all Fatherland cut in the person and Court of the Kcenig you Athens.— Globe's Paris Letter.

Thueatend Quarrel between the Italian Government and the Republic of Ur.uoiJAir.—A Turin letter of the Sth says :—" The Governmeuthas just received the account of an unpleasant incident at Monte "Video, and which may lead to complications with the Kepublic of Uruguay. The facts are these : —Some sailors belonging to the Italian corvette Aquiln. being on shore at a late hour, had a dispute with some gendarmes, and from words they came to blows. An officer of the Aquila interfered, and made the sailors return to their vessel. After the dispersion of the combatants, the otficer continued his walk, thinking no more of the matter. The gendarmes, however, determined to revenge themselves on him for preventing them from giving the sailors a thrashing, and fell suddenly upon him as he was about to return to his boat, treated him in tbe ynost violent manner, and put him into prison. The Uruguay Government, instead of immediately investigating the matter, allowed the officer lo remain three days in confinement, and refused any satisfaction to the commandant of the corvette, or to the Italian consul, who demanded immediate reparation. In presence of tbis refusal, the Consul struck his flag, ancl the commandant ofthe corvette, who had at one time threatened to lay hold of the parson ofthe captain ofthe port it the officer were not immediately released, has sent a report to Admiral Pearson, the Minister of Marine. The matter has just been discussed at a Council of Ministers, and the expectation is that some vessels of war will be sent to Monte Video to enforce ample reparation for the insult."— Home News.

The Manchester _ Bank Manager.—The following additional details of this defaulter are sunplied by the Manche-ter Guardian: —"In the months of January aud February, 1860, the affairs of the City Savings Bank, as Mr Jonah Andrew then styled his establishment, were discussed at some length in the columns of the Guardian. No fewer than sixteen letters from vorious correspondents were published, nearly all ol whicli expressed suspicion that the bank was not what it professed to be, and some contained details of usurious practices perfectly astounding. The discussion was commenced by a correspondent who objected tothe title ' savings' bank,'as calculated to mislead the public, by conveying the idea that deposits in it were placed for security in the hands of Government. Mr Jonah Andrew, the manager, in a flippant letter, contended that the title was general, and might be justly assumed by any bank intended to receive savings. A second correspondent quoted from the prospectus of the bank the statement that it offered interest at the rate of five per cent.; and remarked upon the fact that no names of directors and treasurers of the bank had been Sublished. Andrew subsequently wrote, "thafc the eposits of the City Savings Bank are invested under the direction of upwards of seventy gentlemen of Manchester and district, whose names I am not at liberty to publish in a newspaper." The names never were published; and in the bank returns, which are advertised annually, according to Act of Parliament, of this bank the following statement is made: —'' Name of firm, Jonah Andrew: person of whom the company or partnership consists, Jonah Andrew, Mfdlock Vale, Asiiton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, banker ; name of place where tbe business is carried on. Manchester, Lancashire. The names of the, modest seventy who knew how to invest money so as to promise investors five per eeut. interest were not an absolute secret, for ' Septimus' wrote to the Guardian, from Staleybridge, '• that the leading men in connection with these classes (the loan classes connected with the bank) are almost all of them leaders of a popular religious denomination.'" The Guardian states that at the time it exposed several instances of the bank's usurious dealing by the intervention of these classes, :;nd it now adds another, saying that these deeds are only types of hundreds of similar cases :— " A young man wished to borrow L 25. He received from Andrew LlO 3s fid, and made himself responsible for L 25, the remainder above what he received being swallowed up by the alleged cost of a policy of insurance, and other expenses. In the repayment of this loan of LlO 3s fid, andinterest, Andrew received,in little more than two years, L2l ,• and he had demanded Lll, but consented to forego the additional Ll3, rather than the case should come before one of the law courts, as the borrower's surety had put the matter in the hands of a solicitor. In another case, upon a loan of L2O, Ll7 was repaid, when the borrower's surety was served with a writ for L 36 for unpaid balance and interest. The third case was narr rated by the employer of a young man who wished to borrow' LIOO. He received from Andrew, at various times, L 4 5; his sureties repaid LB2 14s, and then learnt tbat there was still upwards of L4O owing. The case which has most recently come to our knowledge is one in wbich a nominal loan of LlO was effected, for which L 715 was received. The borrower paid L 8 by instalments, and was then informed that the debt still owing was Lls. We have no doubt, we repeat, that when all the affairs of this so-called bank are disclosed, many similar instances of usurious dealing will be revealed."

Thought Esskntiai. to Health.—lf we would have our bodies healthy, our brains must be used, and used in orderly and vigorous ways, that the lif'ogiviug streams of force may flow down from them into the expectant organs, which can minister but as they are ministered unto. We admire the vigorous animal life of the Greeks, and with justise we recognise, and partly seek to imitate, the various gymnastic and other means which they employed to secure it. But probably we should make a fatal error if we omitted from our calculation the hearty ancl generous earnestness with which the highest subjects of art, speculation, and politics were pursued by them. Surely iv their case tbe beautiful and energetic mental life was expressed in the athletic and graceful fiame. And weie it a mere extravagafice to ask whether some part ot the lassitude and weariness of life, of which we hear so much in our day, might be due to lack of men tal occupation on worthy subjects, exciting and repaying a generous enthusiasm as well 'as to an over-exercise on lower ones?—whether an engrossment on matters which have not substance enough to justify or satisfy the mental grasp, be not at the root of some part of the maladies which affect our mental convalescence? Any.one who tries it soon finds out how wearying, how disproportionately exhausting, is an over-dose of "light literature," compared with an equal amount of time spent on real work. Of this we may be sure, that the due exercise of brain—of thought-is one of the essential elements of human life. The perfect health of a man is not the same as that of an ox or a horse. The preponderating capacity of his nervous part demands a corresponding fife.— CornhiH Magazine.