EDINBURGH.

Otago Witness, Issue 569, 24 October 1862, Page 4

EDINBURGH.

(FROV Till? D.IIIjY TIMES CORKESPONDEJTT.) Edinburgh, August 25th, 1862.

It has occurred to me that it would be better for me in these monthly letters to become a gleaner, instead of, as I first intended, a reaper of news. A Home correspondent is not needed to put a colonial paper in possession of the l-ading items of news during the month on this side of the lineprinted summaries which may be purchased for a few pence do that. There are many facts, however, not devoid of interest, Avhich are not to be found in such summaries. These it will be my business to gather and arrange. This month I shall beiin -with Scotland, and every now and then I shall do the same, for although the readers of the (Hugo Daily Times are not so exclusively Scotch as they were a short time ago, there is, I presume, a sufficient predominance of the Scotch element in Otago society to justify an occasional commencement of this. kind. Whilst walking along the Grange Loan the other day, I heard the following conversation in front of an ivied cottage. Lassie: "And how's the gude man?" Good-wife: '" Cay, he's just wcaryin' for home." Lissie : " Where is he then ?" Good-wife : "In Lunnon." Another Lassie : " Ay, at the Expedeetion." Almost ail Edinburgh seems to have made an "expedition" to the Kensington Show this summer. En levwehe, hosts of tourists from all parts, appear to have nocked to Edinburgh. Amongst the most distinguished of our foreign visitors, has been the Comte de Montalembert. II is visit to Scotland has a literary purpose, lie has come to see " fair Melrose " and other Scottish ecclesiastical remains, for the benefit of his magnum opus on tho Monks of the West. Some of our visitors stare at the sight of little tables planted at the corners of sundry of our thoroughfares, on which are placed petitions for the opening of the Botanic Gardens on Sunday — petitions which the working classes and their true friends, Avho do not read " Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it drunken" are pretty numerously siguing. This siuht, in the metropolis of starchedly Sabbatarian Scotland, the continental tourists consider a great marvel. They illogically wonder even more at a far more "characteristic" sight — the Biblebarrow, which, Avith its ticketed wares, is wheeled about our streets. Touching this barrow, by-the-bye, I heard a languid irre-

Verent cockney remark, " It reminrls me somehow of pious piuo-apple-pcnny-a-s.licc." A sporting celebrit}' has visited vs — the socalled "Seneca Indian,' 1 IX erfoot. Like Ali Ben Sou Ali, whose performances many of my readers no doubt have witnessed, and who was really a Dublin man of the name of Ben Sullivan — Deerfoot has, I suspect, a considera- , ble infusion of lii-h blood in his vein.-,. Another thing I siibpcct, and that is that thu-.o who run a^.uns-t him are bribed to let him bent them, in order to keep up hib \alue as a " show"' property. Lady Emily Pigot, a noted cattle-breeder, whom the pioviucial papers make a kind of she-satyr, saying that she is "celebrated for her *hort-liorns" (the compliment, thus fetenographically expressed, would be still more awkward if applied to a gentleman), and who boasts, in the Murk Lime Exprps*. that few men can beat her on the luather, bra^s also in the same jourml of her d.-bnt as a salmon fisher on the Ne«s. As for trout, she states that she has been for years in the habit of making heavy baskets of them. Her ladyshij/s fir*t foray on the nobler fish was certainly remarkable. She hooked, after twenty minutes casting, and landed, a salmon of fifteen pounds; next, one of eight; and then two of seven and a half and six pounds respectively, besides a few sea trout. An English angler of the other sex, fishing Tn the same river, was not so successful as bis countrywoman. Wishina to catch— a brother of Sir William Denison's got caught. All night long, a monster of fifty pouiids kept him a prisoner en the bank, and when the morning broke, hi.s line broke also; the mighty fish was free, after a ten hours trial of sulky strength, vrrsus patient skill. The Duke of Cambiidge is going to visit Lord Dalhousie, in the Highlands, and Lord Pahnerston is expected to visit Mr Bass, the brewer, whee red pyramid enjoys almost as world wide a lame as those of Egypt,— many a creaming draught of his pale aie has, doubtless, been dmuk in tiie shade of New Zealand fern. His Lordship is as active as ever, running about the country in the recess, speechifying, etc., etc , with the vigour of a man who has only numbered a third of Lis years. He still patronises the turf. A horse of his, which was a winner a short time ago, ia said to have had a good draught of whisky given to him before lie started. The teetotallers arc in agonies of holy horror, 'j hey think, I believe, of purchasing the steed, if possibie; reducing him by low diet to skin and bone, and then carting him about.the country as a -'frightful example. 1 ' In the «ay of hor»e- flesh, an interesting specimen might have been seen the other day at Montrose. At a Volunteer gathering there, one of the officers present rode the charger on which that beau ideal of a dragoon, the gallant Captain Nolan was shot at Balaclava. The marksmen of Scotland are not inclined to put up patiently with their defeat by their Southern rivals. That veteran deer-stalker Captain Horatio Ross, not liking his countrymen to be made butts of, instead of blazing away at them triumphantly, has taken measures which he hopes will prevent at any rate so disgraceful a rifle-defeat of Scotland by England as the last. A veteran in another line. Professor Trail, of Edinburgh is dead. n unsuccessful candidate for the consequently vacant chair of medical jurisprudence was the Edinburgh Surgeon of Police, who, it appears, received the beggarly stipend of something considerably under <£250 per annum for bis heavily time-and-trouble — taking duties. Buni&'s " wee curlie John," Mr John Hamilton, son of Bab's Gavin, died a week or two ago, in the S4th year of his age. The comfortable little property the old gentleman had accumulated, he lost recently through listening to the commercial • counsels of the Major Adair, • whose name has become familiar to all newspaper readers, as that'of a dupe who has ruined himself, and unwittingly led others to follow his example. A military speculator ofa very different stamp — Colonel Sleigh — is just now " wanted." The Colonel seems to swindle with sublime impudence. When he was the proprietor of a now-flourishing London daily paper, be would pay no salaries or wages without being county-courted for the amounts His last scheme was to get up the British Columbia Overland Transit Company ; the journey from Britain to be accomplished in five weeks ! The Scotsman first pointed out the absurdity of such a promise; correspondents of the Times followed suit; and the writer of the Times' city article hinted bis suspicions. The matter was even mooted in Parliament; but, carried away by Colonel Sleigh's imposing forged list of directors — he prudently did not suffer his own name to appear in the business — sundry cersons were found to pay the Colonel L 42 a piece as pas-sage-monoy. With this money he bas walked off, and bis dupes awoke and found themrelves dupes at St. Paul's, where they were left without food, or any means either of going forward or returning, en mns.se. A few of the party, however, managed to get back to England, and one of these was deputed to demand redress in the name of all. At present only the clerk of the "company" bas been caught, but it is to be hoped that the company himself •will soon be brought to justice, Although the steamer which shipped the " old soldier's" victims to Canada sailed from Glasgow, there v/ere (owing to the fearless manner in which the Scots/nan, heedless of the probabilities of j a libel prosecution — had punctured the widdy-puta-d windbag of a scheme) very few, if any, Scotch amongst her prssengers. The Empress of the French has presented to the Lochiomond Steamboat Company, in acknowledgement of the courtesy which led them to place one of their vessels at her disposal when visiting the Loch, two beautiful va^es of gilt, flower-and-foiiage-eniundled mauve St\res china. And thus am I led by the law of coutiadictory association— if any such law be catalogued by psychologists— to speak of other jars not so pietty, with which the lovely, kind-hearted. I ut wrong-headed little creature is concerned. She was recently confined to her chamber, by "inflammation," said the bulletin. "Of temper," added a malicious gloss. To use a vulgar phrase, she wishes to " back-out" of her promise to stand godmother to the Princess Clothilde's little one. She true (laughter, pet daughter, as she is proud to consider herself; of tne Pope — to meet at the font his open despoiler and tho private plotter against bis peace, Vic•tor Emmanuel and Prince Napoleon — te become sponsor for a child which, with such a pedigree, she believes must necessarily, in spite even of bucketsful of regenerating baptismal water, turn out an imp of sin — the seven cardinal 5.113 incarnate. The Empress shudders at the thought, and being held to her word, takes refuge in that for a woman, safest asylum against unpleasant argument, weeping rage. With I\l. Fould she had a downright row in a Cabinet Council. Her Majesty wished to get up a magnificent spectacle— a | grand military mass— in honor of the Pope. The Minister of Finance objected, on the score of expense. Of course, M. Fould was well aware that his master would object for political reasons also. A scene occurred. The Council broke up in confusion, and off as fast as horses and steam would carry him, M. Fould at once staited for Vichy. He had to use very few words, on dil— there, in selfjustification. Whatever disunion there may be amongst the Bonapartcs, there appears r*o be it well founded prospect of the fusion of the Bourbons. The " Flower of the Bourbons," the young Pi incess of Parma, it is g id, is to be married to that " County Paiis," who has recently Avon such spurs as could be got in fighting under M'Cltllan — a mode of fighting which frequently makes spurs a part of military accoutrements exceedingly necessary for safety. Another rumor of a royal marriage had created considerable ex-

citement. The Prince i -s'Maryof Leuchtenberg, niece of the Czar, has been selected, by not "common fune,"l;ut that which '-tics the s'agnant air of the antiquated aristocratic Faubourg St. Germain, as the bride of Prince Humbert of Savoy, who, according to the same exclusive gosbip, is to receive the throne of Greece as dowry- — a throne on which, -when t'ia Princess Mary i° seated as Queen, she is to do all m her po»vu" to enable her nne'e to t-cize Constantinople. It i-. a great mistake to suppose that the Crimein war hxs cnislied Russia. She ia merely quietly recovering her strength after that severe contest, and meanwhile plotting and accomplishing an extension of her influence in the East. "When the Japanese ambassadors reached St. Petersburg, they received, not downright assurances to that effect, but veiy significant hints that they had reached at length the capital of the Great Power of Europe. The politics of the Northern Courts have an additional interest for Great Britain now that it is almost certain that the Prince of \\ r ule> w ill wed the Princess Alexandra of Denmark.

As a conclusion to my present batch of gossip, 1 translate the following from Dagb/adrt, of the 19th instant, just received,— the Danish paper possessing the widest foreign circulation. By-thc-bye, translations from Dickens and Buls\er Lvtton frequently appear iv its fcailletou portion. Tin; hitter's ''Strange Story" looked doubly strange in Danish characters. For those who, like my>elf', cannot read Danish, the paper i.s good enough to give a weekly snmmajy of news in French. Here is what it says of the Prince of Wale"b probable partner and her family : " In this country as in England, it is regarded as an almost certain fact that an allinnce between the Prince of Wales and the Princess :>f Alexandra of Denmark is imminent. However, s"ince the English paper, the Court Journal, from which the news has been copied by a large portion of the European press makes some mistakes in its mention of the family relations of Prince Christian, we shall hasten to give an account of them. The house of Gtucksborg, from which the P/ince is sprung, is one of the cadet and collateral lines of the ducal families which luvp shared the sovereiirnt3'oiSlesvigwitb theKfngof Denmark: its full title is Slesvi<{ ILiL-tein-Soenderborg Glucksborg. and its chief is the Dtf.e Charles, who is married to a daughter oi the late King Frederick VI.. and mi.lcs at the chate.-iu vt 1 Loniseriland. Prince Christian, who was born in 1818, espoused in 1842 the Princess Louisa of Hesse, daughter of the Landgrave William of Il'sse, whose sister h the Dmvager-Duehess of Cambridge, and of the Princess Charlotte of Denmark. Since there seemed every probability that the male line of the Oldenburg dynasty, which for more than 400 years has occupied the Danish throne, would' become, extinct on the death of the present king, ilis Majesty King Frederick Vl[, search"" was made for a suitable heir, and Prince Christian was fixed upon. According to the order of succession regulated two centuries ago by the Lex Uegit/, the august mother of his spouse, the I/indgra\inc Charlotte nnd her descendants were the nearest heirs of the kingdom proper of Slesvijr, and of a part of lloKtein. The Landgravine and two of her children — Piince Frederick, who is heir-presmnptive to the Electorate of Hesse Cassel, and Princess Mary, reigning Duchess of Anbalt Dessau— both, however, resigned in favour of the Princess Louisa, and the imperial dynasty of llussid, which, as is well-known, descends from Holstein Gottorp, renounced its right of succession to certain parts of Holstein in favour of Prince Christian. These renunciations having been settled, tnat of Russia by the special protocol of Warsaw, dated June 5, 1851, the Treaty of London was concluded May 8, 1 8J2 ; according to which the five great powers, and Sweden with Norway, whilst complettly preserving the integrity of the Danish monarch}', recognised Prince Christian and his male heirs by marriage with the Princess Louisa, as the heirs presumptive of the throne of that monarchy. Following this treaty, the law of the succession to the throne which bears date July 31, 18.53, was adopted, and Piince Christian received the title of Pricneof Denmark. Six children are the issue of the marriage of Prince Christian and Princess Louisa, of whom three nre sons. The Princess Alexandra, whose name has been frequently mentioned of late, was born on the Ist of December 1844, so that she has not yet completed her 18th year. She is beautiful and graceful, and has received a most careful education in the bosom of her f imily, which is generally esteemed as a model of all the domestic virtues."