Miscellaneous.

Colonist, Issue 23, 8 January 1858, Page 4

Miscellaneous.

THE DYING DIGGER. A SHORT TALE OF SORROW. [The following beautiful but touching-nar-rative, appeared a short time since in the Ararat Times (Victoria). We have no doubt it will be perused with interest by our readers.] It was a calm and beautiful evening, not many weeks ago, that a digger and his wife mighthavebeen seen seated outside their tent door, enjoying the freshness of the departing day, and watching the slow progress of the golden castellated clouds as they ascended the blue canopy of Heaven, and were seeming to envelope the peak of Mount Mistake in a mantle of glory! The woman was o-aily and richly attired, and the eyes of her admiring husband glistened with delight as he ever and anon gazed with fond enthusiasm upon the delicately-chiselled features of his beautiful wife. Her eyes were dark and brilliant, but to the keen observer they betrayed a vacancy of expression, arising from coldness of heart, or disappointment in early life, or perhaps from both the causes combined. The husband had a good claim, which yielded a golden harvest, and the happy pair were discussing the I merits of a contemplated investment, when two men were seen to approach, one of whom held a sheet of paper rolled up in his hand. *We are come,* said one of the men, accosting the couple at the tent door,' to so-

licit your subscription in aid of a poor digger, who is lying in a dying state in yonder tent, and has not a shilling in this world to buy himself the necessaries, much less the comforts, of life; he dies for want of care and nourishment!' 'Send him to the hospital,' replied the woman, with a look which said but little for the kindness of her heart. 'Alas!' continued tbe supplicant, 'With grief and sorrow I must inform you there's no such institution oh Ararat.' ' More shame for the people of Ararat,' observed the husband. 'True, indeed—more shame it is/ observed the man, ' but this digger dies in the meantime.' ' Go inside Mary, and fetch out a pound,' said the husband. 'Nonsense, man! we;can afford to give nothing,'replied;the wife. 'For pity's sake, madam!' said one of the men, ' give us something; the sick man is no more to us than to you—but sickness and want might yet overtake.ourselves, and this we do for charity. Think, ma'am, you may have a brother or a friend in some part of the world, who may at this hour require a like assistance.' ' Can't afford 'it? can't afford it,' said the obdurate woman, 'if people won't build a hospital when in health, they deserve to want when in sickness;' and up she rose, and went inside, when the two men had to proceed without the required subscription. Days rolled on, and the poor forsaken digger pined apace, until he eventually sunk under the twofold pressure of sickness and want, and his spirit winged its flight to the boson of its Heavenly Father. When' the news of the poor deceased got abroad, much sympathy appeared to have been felt by every one in the neighbourhood, as it was known that the departed had been a very hard working, industrious man, who had been reduced to penury and want by sheer disappointment and bad fortune in gold-digging; and everybody said, ' what a*pity—-who'd have thought that. poor Henry would have gone to his last home so soon, in the full pride of manhood, too; scarcely thirty.' But all this sympathy came too late. Had people shown a tithe of those tender feelings a week before, poor Henry had haply lived today, and be a happy, hard-working digger. Several came to his funeral, and to convey him to. his last resting-place, and among the number came, Mary—the cal-lous-hearted, but beautiful Mary—with her husband, in a spring cart, drawn by a highspirited and well-fed horse. Arrived at the tent, where lay the corpse, Mary alighted for the purpose of gossiping with some of of her female acquaintances, when one of the latter asked her to step in and look at the corpse, observing that 'it had really been a fine and handsome man.' Mary accordingly went inside; approached the bed-side, and looked steadfastly upon the face of the dead.—But'"what ails Mary? Why does she turn pale as the moon in the noontide of its splendour? Look; her eyes —her beautiful black eyes, how they dilate and widen; -her lips quiver; she trembles in every limb; a sharp'shriek pierces the silent air—Mary falls upon the face of the , dead, and is herself a corpse! The beautiful—the frantic Mary, loved in mature maidenhood, and Henry, her adored—her idol—h.T more than self—her heart—her soul—her very existence—Henry, the corpse on which she died, had been the object of her passion—upon whom she doated! Oh, if she but knew who 'the dying digger' really was, how fondly would she nave tended him, and oh, how affectionately would she have watched his •tineasy slumbers!

They are both buried in the one grave, and her wretched husband still survives his unfortunate spouse. But, oh! how much more preferable would be death to a bed of sickness; he breathes with difficulty; he dies, as did the wretched Henry, for want of attendance and care—he might live, perhaps, if in an hospital; but alas and alas, there is no hope, for on Ararat there is nothing of the kind, and the coldhearted money-grubbers here are by far too selfish to bestow a thought upon the necessity of such an establishment.

The Indian Empire.—A Parliamentary return, just published, on the motion of Colonel Sykes, M. P., gives the following statistical details of our empire in East India. It would appear that the gross total area of all the governments of India is 1,466,576 square miles: the British states occupying 837,142; the native states 627,910; and the French and Portugese possessions 1254; and that the gross 4otal population is 180,884,247 souls—viz., 131,990,901 in the British states, 48,376,247 in the native and 517,149 in the foreign possessions of France and Portugal. The British states under the Governor-General of India in Council cover an area of 246,050 square miles, and are peopled by 23,255,972 souls; the states under the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal occupy 221,969 square miles, and are peopled by 40,952,397 souls: the states under the Lieutenant-Governor ofthe Northwest Provinces occupy 105,759 miles, and are peopled by 33,655,193 souls; the states under the Madras Government occupy 132,090 miles, and are peopled by 22,437,297 souls; and the states under the Bombay Government occupy 131,544 square miles, andarepeopledby 11,790,042 souls. The native states in the Bengal Presidency occupy 515,533 square miles, and are peopled by 38,702,206 souls, those in the Madras Presidency occupying 51,802 miles, and are peopled by 5,213,671 souls; and those in the Bombay Presidence occupy a space of 60,573 square miles, and are peopled by 6,440,370 souls. The French territory in India covers an area of 188 squaremiles and is peopled by 203,887 souls; while the Portuguese territory occupies an area of 1066 square miles, and is peopled by 313,262 souls/

A Romance of the JapE War.—A Sentry's Rush.—The -Tribunal sitting in Paris has just had l^decide on a singular case of desertion. A soldier of tho 50th Regiment of the Line, who had beermade prisoner by the Russians, married at Odessa., He allowed, himself to be, reported as dead, and returning to France after the war, with his wife, established himself at Montmartre. He was, however denounced, and brought to trial for desertion. M. Oudot, who defended him before the court, brought forward this singular case in support of his client;; —" Adetatchment of the corps d'armee of' Davoust occupied the Isle of Rugen. An order arrived for its instant evacuation, and the troops embarked with such great precipitation that a sentinel was forgotton. After continuing for three hours at his post he went to the guard-house, to ascertain the cause of his not having been relieved, found the place empty, and being horror struck at what had taken place; he exclaimed, ' I am a lost man. I shall be put down as a deserter.' His cries touched the heart of an honest artisan, who took him home, .and at the end of a few months gave him. his daughter in marriage. Five yearr "after a sail approaches the island, and the uniform of the grand army was seen on her deck. The poor soldier was more concerned than ever; but an idea occured to him which restored his courage. He ran to his house put on his old uniform, and taking his musket, placed himself as sentinel just as the French landed. ' Qui vive,' cried he, with a thundering voice. 'Qui vive, vous-meme/ was the reply,' who are you ?' ' A sentinel/ 'How long have you been on guard ?•' 'Five years.' Davoust laughed heartily at hearing of the incident, and immediately gave the involuntary deserter his discharge." The court was amused at the anecdote, but it showed itself less generous than Davous, and sent the voltigeur to his regiment to complete his time of service. The Traffic on the Clyde Stopped.— Glasgow, Sunday. — An'obstruction has just occurred here, which has created a degree of excitement, alarm, arid inconvenience, such as has rarely been paralleled in our local annals. On Friday afternoon the great screw steamer Australasian left the Broomielaw for Southampton, thence to take her maiden trip in the service of the European and Australian Company for which she has just been built. She proceeded to Govan, about two miles down and grounded. She floated by the night tide, and moved down two or three miles farther, but again grounded about a mile above Renfrew ferry. In the efforts made by the tugs to get her off, the Australasian swung right across the river, and, as the tide was receding, she was left firmly fixed in this position. As -this happens to be the narrowest point in the course of the navigation between Glasgow and Greenock, the ship occupied the whole channel of the river, and put a stop to the entire traffic. In the morning the wharfs were as usual crowded with intending passengers, including several thousands of both sexes, who had, as is frequently the case at this season, hired steamers for pleasure trips, but not a single keel could get either up or down, for the same inconvenience was felt below as above. At the afternoon's tide a most earnest effort was made to get the ship off, but she remained fast, and as the height of the tide was now decreasing, serious fears began to be entertained that the traffic ofthe river might be shut up till next springs a fortnight hence, and that the, ship herself might be destroyed on the event of a serious fresh setting in, as she lay broadside on to the full sweep of the river. The only hope of removing her lay with the night tide of this morning, and meanwhile everything was done that conld be done to lighten her by removing stores and ballast, and striking the masts. At halfpast three this morning the ship moved, to the great joy of all. She was gradually swung round, and got down about four miles to Dalmuir, when she again grounded; but here the channel of the Clyde is quite wide, and no inconvenience can result except to the Australasian herself. The inhabitants of Glasgow were rescued from gloom .to thankfulness when they learned this forenoon that the Clyde was again open. One cause of the accident was, that .the tides have been much reduced in volume by the prevalence of easterly winds. It so happens that the Clyde trustees obtained an act in the' session about to close for deepeningand widening the river at the very point where this fine ship grounded. Victoria's Pin Money.—lt is a pretty trait in the character of William. IV., that when his niece Victoria came of age, he saw the propriety of increasing her income; but, knowing the incressed state of the revenue at that time, he did not like to bring' the matter before parliament, but allowed her £10,000 a year out of his privy purse,, to be employed in the charities befitting her rank and station in the country.— Chevalier Bunsen was about to publish-a new translation of the Bible, with explanatory notes, the first volume to appear at the end of the year 1857.