MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 134, 10 December 1853, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Heform in the Anglican Church.— -A society, consisting of a large number of influential clergymen and laymen, has lately been formed for the purpose of effecting a thoroughly conservative reform in the government of the Church of England. The principal objects sought to be accomplished are as follows:— That no clergyman shall hold more than one living, and that he shall be resident thereon. That every attempt to sell a presentation shall be punished by confiscation to the parish ; and i every attempt to purchase a nomination shall I be visited by a deprivation of holy orders. j That no clergyman shall fill the office of a civil magistrate. That all canonries, deaneries, and prebendary stalls shall be abolished, and their revenues applied to the general purposes of the church. That the property of the church shall i be administered by a board of commissioners, I composed exclusively of lay churchmen ap- | pointed by Government, and subject on all | points to the investigation of Parliament. That j patrons shall submit the names of six persons to the congregation, that one may be chosen thereupon as the incumbent. That all livings now in the gift of the Crown and Church dignitaries shall be withdrawn, and the future occupiers of the said livings be chosen by the congregation. That there shall be 100 dioceses, to be divided as equally as possible into four districts, each district to be presided over by an archdeacon, as an assistant bishop. That j an annual meeting shall take place of the I clergy and churchwardens, presided over by I the bishop, to take into consideration the spiritual state of the diocese ; a report to be submitted to a general council of the church, meeting in June every year. It is also proposed that curates shall be paid £150 a-year, country incumhents £250, town incumbents j £350, archdeacons £750, bishops £2000, the I archbishop of York £4000, and the archbishop I of Canterbury £3000. That church-rates, marj riage and baptibmal fees, and Easter offerings j to be abolished ; and that the bishops shall I cease their attendance in the House of Lords. i The new society is to bear the name of " The i Ecclesiastical Reform League." j Value of Land in and near London. — We may mention, as illustrating the subject, that we have just now negotiated the sale of a plot of land in Brompton, adjoining the church, under 3£ acres in extent, for which we received £16,000. To show the degree in which the value of land near London has increased, we j may mention what we are told is a fact, that less than 20 years ago the whole of the land in which Brompton-squure stands, close to the last-mentioned plot, and double in quantity, was offered for sale at £3000. The increase in the value of land in the city is even more j startling : for example, an offer of 16 guineas { per annum per foot frontage has been made j (not yet accepted) for land about 24 feet deep, 1 in Finch-lane and Threadneedle-street, belong- , ing to St. Thomas's Hospital. The Putney ' College estate, comprising IS acres of freehold land fronting the river, close to Putney Bridge, | has been purchased by the Conservative Free- | hold Land Society, for the purposes of allotment to membeis. The price the Society paid was £11,000, which, with the the amounts realised by the auctioneers from the sales of the materials of the two mansions pulled down, makes upwards of £15,000 for the entire property. — The Builder. Emigration.— The following table shows the number of emigrants that sailed from Liverpool last year, and their places of destination : "United States . . . . 187,962 South America . . . . 347 Canada . . . . . . 3,873 New Brunswick . . . . 328 Is ova Scotia . . . . 60 Newfoundland . . . . 52 Prince Edward's Island . . 51 West Indies . . . . 73 Africa . . . . . . 91 Sydney .. .. .. 4,013 Port Phillip .. .. 29,378 Van Diemen's Land . .. 608 South Australia . . . . 2,264 Total (in 925 ships) 229,099 More than 100,000 natives of Ireland passed through Liverpool in 1852 on their way to the United States. Value of Vessels in Melbourne. — The little schooner " Boomerang," which arrived some time ago at Melbourne frnm the Clyd'-, was at once sold for £2000, considerably more, says the "Glasgow Herald," than double her value here. She was the property of her passengers, who by the sale not only were carried out free, hut dad a small sum each to get back. Iron Houses for the Colonies.— lron house building is no longer a novelty. As each week draws to a close, the fact of the completion of some " iron-walled" building, destined for the golden shores of Australia, is sounded in our ears ; and notwithstanding the many instances of improvement in the construction of these fabrics which we have noticed, still each new building raised adds some new feature to the ingenuity displayed in the construction. The other night we were gratified with the inspection of three houses of the above description, built for enterprising merchants in this city, and which are to be immediately shipped to help to supply house and shop accommodation, at present so defective in that country. The buildings were constructed

by Messrs. Brown & f!a>. Graham Square, Glas-gow,-manufacturers of patent metallic casks, &c, a branch, of trade, by the way, which is destined to come soon into popular use. One of these houses is of one storey, containing four roomy apartments, the dimensions of the front rooms being 12 ft. by 10, and the back 12 ft. by 8. The house is intended as a dwelling, and the new feature which we observed was the fitting up of chaste grates— one in the kitchen and sitting room — in such a manner that the fo'ir rooms were amply heated. This is accomplished by the back of the grate projecting a few inches through the partition into the adjoining apartment. The two other two-storey "houses aye of the following dimensions -.—The first is 28 feet long by 18 feet wide, and 18 feet 0 inches high at the eaves. It consists of 4 apartments above, and commodious store below, fitted up with plate glass windows, 5 feet by 8 each pane. The second house is 37 feet long by 16 wide, and 16 feet high at the eaves. Contains 4 rooms on the upper flat and store below. The sides and roof are of galvanized corrugated iron ; the whole fabric is supported by malleable iron pillars. The beams supporting the joists of the upper floor are also of malleable iron, which, we think, is a decided improvement, and a great saving of space. The houses can be lined and papered, and may easily be removed. In conjunction with Australian comforts, we must not omit to mention the " portable kitchen," which one of these houses contains, manufactured by the Messrs. Brown. It is shaped like a stove, though not so high, and contains a complete cooking apparatus. When out of use, the funnel, pots, pans, &c, can be stowed away inside, and the article itself easily transferred to a distant quarter. — Glasgow Herald. The Late Duke o? Wellington's Will. — In consequence of the determination of the Earl of Derby, the Itight Hon. Benjamin Disraeli (the late Chancellor of the Exchequer), and the Right Hon. Charles Shaw Lefevre, the j Speaker of the House of Commons, to renounce | the executorship of the late Duke of Wellington's will, letters of administration were granted j by the Prerogative Court of the province of j Canterbury to his son, the present Duke ; and i his Grace has since accepted the trust. The will seems to have been written under very pc- ! culiar circumstances, upwards of 35 years, and with that promptitude and decision which marked almost every act of his Grace's life, ' but at the same time displays evident traces of j the agitation under which it was drawn up. j The will is dated February 17, 1818, and was written in Paris by the Duke himself, who accounts for the circumstance in the following \ remark, which forms the preamble :—": — " An at- j tempt having been made to assassinate me on j the night of the 10th instant (February 10. \ 1818), which may be repeated with success, and being desirous of settling my worldly affairs, and there being no professional person I in Paris to whom I can intrust the task of | drawing my will, I now draw it myself in my } own handwriting.' 1 His Grace then directs i that an annuity of £1000 shall be paid to his ' second son, Lord Chailes Wellesley, who, how- J ever, has the option of claiming a sum of £20,000 as an equivalent. Apsley-house and [ the furniture therein, money invested in the , funds, and Exchequer bills, are thus to be dis- '■ posed of: — The money is directed to be laid' out in the purchase of an estate, which, toge- i ther with Apsley-house and its contents, is given to the present Duke for life, with lemainder over to his issue, and. in default of ' issue, to Lord Charl( s Welle-ley and his issue, ' in like manner. In case of the death of both (the present Duke and Lord Charles Weliesley), without heirs male, the property passes over to j the descendants of the brothers of the Duke. Certain personal estate, which his Grace designates as " money given me by the nation," | or any estates which may be purchased with | such money, are directed to pass under trusts j very similar to those of the foregoing property, Apsley-house first going to the children of the Duke, and on their death, leaving no issue, to j the children of his brother. The wording of; the will is very involved ; and the residue, i which, owing to the lapse of time, must have greatly accumulated, is undisposed of. The I personal property is sworn under £500,000. — j United Service Gazette. i i Luther's Childhood. — The habits and J manners of that time were generally harsh and ' rude, and so was his education. Luther relates that his mother once scourged him till the blood came, on account of one miserable nut ; that his father had punished him so severely that it was with great difficulty he could get over the child's terror and alienation. At school he was flogged fifteen times in one fore- j noon. He had to earn his bread by singing hymns "before the doors of houses, and NewYear's carols in the villages. Strange, that people should continually exalt and envy the happiness of childhood, in which the only foretaste of coming years is the feeling of the stern necessities of life — in which existence is dependent on foreign help, and the will of another disposes every day and hour with iron sway ! In Luther's case- this period was full of terrors. — (" Ranke's Reformation in Germany.") A judge and a joking lawyer were conversing about the doctrine of transmigration of the souls of men into animals. " Now," said the judge, " suppose you and I were turned into a horse and ass, which would you prefer to be ?" " The ass, to be sure," replied the lawyer. '• Why ?" rejoined the judge. " Because," was the reply, " I have heard of an ass heing a judge, but of a horse — never." — Railway Reading. Say not always what thou knowest, but know always what thou sayest.