NEVER MIND THE REST.

Otago Witness, Issue 652, 28 May 1864, Page 4

NEVER MIND THE REST.

Trustfully and truthfully oh tread the path of life, It may not be all flowers, nor free from care and strife; But it is by blows that iron grows of greater strength possess'd ; Then bear life's buffets manfully, and never minb the rest. Each thing has its work to do, its mission to fulfil, The wind that blows, the flower that grows, the water never still j Then need we ask, " Have we a task 1" 'tis graven in each breastGo to life's duties manfully, and never mind the rest.

Gentle words and kindly deeds are never thrown

away, But bring unlooked-for harvest in some cloudy wintry day j We are but stewards of cur wealth— of all by us possess'd, Then bear life's burdens manfully, and never mind the rest. Oh, look up to the heavens by night, then doubt itify#ucaa; The countless eyes of Providence look lovingly on man; 'Tis little good we here can do, but if we do our best, With thankful hearts, and willingly then, "Never mind the rest."

Extraordinary Case or Bigamy.— 4t the Nottingham assizes, on Thursday, William Goddard, aged fifty-one, was indicted for biguny, in marrying Susannah Tong, at tfaclford, on the 19th February, 1838, hi 9 former wife, Elizabeth Tong, being then alive. Mr Bristowe prosecuted, and Mr Cave defended the prisoner, who is apparently a respectable man, and is described as a lace maker. Mr Bristowe opened the case.-— It appeared that in 1829, the prisoner then being seventeen years of age, married his first wife at Tewkesbury. Soon after the marriage a child was born. The marriage proved an unhappy one, * and the prisoner left her. In 1836-37 he became acquainted with Elizabeth Tone, then a widow, and in 1838 married her. For fourteen or fifteen years they lired together as man and wife, and then Goddard, for some cause not specified, deserted her, and aa she alleged, took up with a woman who either lived in or was mistress of a brothel. Mrs Tong, finding out this state of facts, brought Goddard before the Bench to obtain a maintenance. How the case terminated did not appear on this trial ; but it was stated that a long course of magisterial and parochial interference ensued, and ultimately the prisoner denied his liability, affirming that Mrs Tong was not his wife, for he had another living at Croydon. Matters were compromised for the time, bat as another outbreak took place, Mrs Tong set' in motion once more the parochial offioers. Goddard again denied bis liability, and said that as the woman had persecuted aim so long he should "now go the whole hog." He was arrested on the evidence of his seaond wife on this charge of bigamy. Turning back again, we find from the ton of the prisoner, that in a few yean after his father had left them bis mother married another man, and with that man ike continued to live up to the time of her death which took place in 1855. The question for the jury, aa put by the judge, was, did the prisoner, in the year 1898, know that his first wifewai then alive ? In 1829, he was a mere boy when he married his first wife. He left her, and after some years she married again, so that she was the first to commit the act of bigamy ; bat when, where, or with whom, there was no evidence. It was entirely for the jury to say whether this man was guilty of the charge. As had been remarked by the learned oounsel for the prisoner, the law said that if a married person did not for seven yean hear of his wife, or of her husband, he or she was entitled to presume that the partner was dead. The jury, after an hour's consultation, acquitted the prisoner, and he was ordered to bt discharged. Some of our newspapers seem to be mightily puzzled (saja the " Athenamm"} by the connection of M. Maasini with M, Flower, a cones* pondent terrible to the imagination of the French police. A little knowledge of street Italiansuch as you hear daily on toe Lung Arno, or in the Ghiaia—would set their doubts at rest. '• Flower' is a sort of idiomatic English for " Mazzin! ;' " Mana de flori,"-in the street idom cut down to " Mana," meanfag'a bunch of flowerß-a nosegay; and •• Msuini," a little nosegay, or single floorer. M. Mazzhii is unquestionably the person addressed as M. Flower.