Odds and Ends.

Otago Witness, Issue 1241, 11 September 1875, Page 3

Odds and Ends.

A Boston paper calls Roman Catholicism " a ripened Christianity." Mark Twain has been proposed as a candidate for mayor of Hartford, Connecticut.

Insects of various kinds can be seen in the cavities of a grain of wheat. Many a man's vices have at first been nothing worse than good qualities run wild. The average daily receipts of strawberries in the New York market at pre-

sent are 7,000 crates, or 280,000 quarts. "Bah," said John Henr/a hopeful to a small boy who wanted to whip him, " you couldn't lick a postage-stamp." An expedition of 100 or 150 picked Welsh siogers is being organised to proceed to the United States in July, 1876, on the occasion of the centenary of the Declaration of American Independence.

The income of the Wesleyan Missionary

SLpiety this year reached £184,000. xaere has been a steady advance for some years of £3000 a year from collections and subscriptions.

Darwinacknowledged himself sold when his little niece asked him seriously what a cat has that no other animal has, and he gave it up after mature deliberation, and then the sly little puss answered, " Kittens."

Messrs Cassells have arranged with M. Gustave Dore to illustrate a forthcoming edition of Shakespeare's works, which will be published in monthly parts. The artist is to receive £'10,000 for his illustrations.

Lord Shaf tesbury has consented to hand to Mr and Mrs C. S. Hall the handsome testimonial for which funds have been subscribed since their golden wedding. Phrenology has an important bearing on the> education of children, and in settling them' to certain trades and pro- j fessions. Instead of applying one uniform j rule in a class or school,'. a teacher should j have regard to the natural organization i of- his pupils.

Mr AUirighatn, the successor of Mr Frotide m' the editorship of Eraser, is said to be engaged in the work undertaken by that gentleman of putting Mr Cariyle's MSS. in order

Of the Centennial funds to be raised by the Baptists of Virginia, §20,000 will be set apart for the endowment of memorial scholarships for the benefit of the sons of Baptist ministers in the State. *' Rewivalists, indeed ! " eaid Mrs Partington, " I ain't got no patience with such folks. I made my poor dear P. promise faithfully that if I. proceeded him to my grave he wooldnever take another." At a public meeting; at which Mr Disraeli presided, it was decided to erect a statue to .Lord Byron, in London, the expense to be paid by national subscription. The subscriptions to the Church of ihe Sacred Heart, at Montmarfcre, near Paris, already amount to £84,000. The church is intended as a memorial of the FrancoGerman war.

Offenbach ig at present at Etretat, where he is writing the music of his opera, "La Creole," which will be the .chief piece of the winter season at the Bouffes. In it will debuter Mdlle. Luce, a young and pretty Frenchwoman. Henry Ward Beecher, being asked if Unitarians are Christians, replies :: — (r We have only to say it depends on tae Unitarians. A man's being a Unitarian or a Trinitarian, does not make him a Chris-, tian. It is of greater importance that a man act rightly than to believe rightly." The Prussian Bishops' have published a rejoinder to the ministerial rescript of --April 9. The May laws, they declare, * "contain a whole series of provisions which conflict with the existence and constitution of the Church founded by Christ rob it of the independence which God designed for it, and convert it into a mere State institution." A bronze halfpenny is exactly an inch in diameter, and therefore gives a convenient measure. Also, as the third of an ounce is now the postal unit, it is as well to remember that a bronze penny is precisely that weight ; in other words, three pennies weigh exactly one ounce. Mwjliih Paper. The Scientific Americanaayfl of Crooke's discovery :— lt will perhaps raise its inventor to the front rank among the explorers of physical science. In this simple machine, one of the most occult forces of Nature is for the first time reyealed to the eye of man. The family of Mr John Hogan, of Boone, lowa, haie been attacked by trichinae spiralia, which they had eaten in a ham. A portion of the ham, under microscopic examination, was found to contain 2500 tnchmw. It is thought that ail the family will recover.

Some trouble has been caused in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland, by the transfer of the Catholio Church at Meyrin to a parochial council of Old Catholics. The Municipal Council, Ultramontane, refused to agree to the transfer, but the Cantonal authorities authorised the Old Catholics to take possession of the church which they did. ' For the first time in her political hiatory (and she s as old as the most of us) China ia in the money market asking a loan. She wants $3,138,375, is willing to count 05 cents a dollar, and give 8 per cent, per annum as interest. But there are no takers.

Tallyrand once complained that the English had thirty-nine religions and only one sauce, which evoked the retort from a witty Englishman, "and the French have thirty-nine sauceg and no religion " During the stay of the Challenger at iJ» "Cfope/' po fewer than eeyenty boss*

of specimens, collected in the course of her voyage up to that point, were packed and sent off to England; and from the port of Sydney about the same number of cases of deep-sea fauna and vegetation. The corner-stone of a Memorial Hall to Dr Isaac Watts was laid at his native town, Southampton, England, on- May 6. The building is at the rear of the "Above Bar " Congregational Church, of which Dr Watts and his father-in-law were both members, and is built upon land which was his garden. The hall when completed will seat 1000 persons. The entire structure is designed to be used as a Sundayschool and lecture-hall for the church. It will cost over £5000.

The excision of the "damnatory clauses" of the Athanasian Creed by the Synod of the Irish (Disestablished) Church was followed by other revisory acts. Much that was attempted failed of full accomplishment. As many as twenty-two revision bills passed through a first or second reading ; not a few of these were, however, thrown out on the final vote, which required two-thirds of each order for the sanction of any change. A handsome testimonial has (says the Pall Mall Gazette) been privately presented to Cardinal Manning, on behalf of the lay Catholics, chiefly peers, in. token of their satisfaction at the honour recently bestowed upon him by the Pope. The testimonial took the form of a sum of money amounting to nearly £6,500, voluntarily contributed, towards which the Duke of Norfolk subscribed £1000. We (Herald) understand that Mr John Bennett, of the Victoria Theatre, Sydney, has under engagement, and expected to arrive shortly, Baker and Fairou, the great Dutch and Irish speciality artistes. They are said to be the best in their particular, line in America. They left San Francisco by the July mail. People disparage knowledge and urge doing. lam very content with knowing if only I could know. This is an august entertainment, and would suffice me a great while. To know a little would be worth the expense of thia world. — Emerson.

Huxley says that the German Universities are the most intensely cultivated and the most productive intellectual corporations the world has ever seen.