CONTINENTAL NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 596, 20 April 1870, Page 3

CONTINENTAL NOTES.

Garibaldi's work "The Rule of the Monk," is to be published early in February. It is to appear in Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, and Dutch, as well as in English. According to the Gauloic, the Emperor of the French is one of the largest landed proprietors in Spain. He has been buying land in that country for the last ten years. It is asserted by a foreign paper that the Czar shuts himself in his cabinet for entire days, refuses to receive even the membars of his family, and takes as his only food during tbis seclusion a few biscuits steeped in Bordeaux wine. A speoial commission of experts is about to be despatched from Russia to England in order to inspect the construction and qualities of the " narrow gauge " railways, with a view to the adoption of the same system in Russia. A portion of the gallery at the Cirque Royal, Dunkirk, fell on a recent Sunday evening after the performance had closed, in consequence of the audience becoming impatient at the delay in getting out, and beginning to stamp on the floor. Thirty-two persons were more or less injured, but no one was killed.

Some scandal has been caused in the little Spanish colony at Paris by the sale of two immense diamonds, said to be worth half a million francs, for 180,000 f. These diamonds are supposed to have formed part of the crown of Spain, and to have been abstracter by some means at the time of the revolution. A Roman correspondent notes the exploit of two English •' mi ses," who, mounted on the benches above the kneeling multitude, surveyed with their opera glasses the Pope as he pronounced the benediction in fie C mncil. The Pope, with a mild smile, pointed them out to some of the cardinals, but no alarming consequences have overtaken them. Madatm Adelina Patti maintains her ascendancy over the excitable Muscovites. Whenever she sings, they say, a still fetches as much as eight pounds sterling, and a box from sixty to eighty. It must be borne in mind that the St Petersburg Italian Opera House is comparatively sinall^ and that almost every seat is let for the entire season. Nevertheless, when the little Diva does not sing the theatre is deserted. A Belgian abbe, M. Thirion, has designed a new aerial machine. It consists of a pair of parallel boards, furnished with sails, and connected by jointed rods. Movement is obtained by the opening and shutting of the sails and the approximation and separation of the boards. The action is kept up by a small steam-engine, which is placed in the back part of the construction. No experiments have yet been made with this machine. A French paper mentions the following sensible custom which prevails at Stuttgard, the capital of Wurtemburg. On the afternoon of New Year's Day a sort of fair, or exchange for visiting cards, is held in a public place. All the servants o£ go d houses, and all the commissionaires, meet there, and one among them, mounted on a bench or table, calls out the addresses. At each name announce I a cloud of cards falls into a basket placed for the purpose, an 1 the representative of the person for whom these car Js are intended can pocket his contingent. Each follows in his turn, and in a few minutes hunlreds of cards have reached their destination without fatigue to any one. The following curious specimen of Russian Jenkinsim is published by the Tamboff Gazette, under the head of " Court News:" Y/esterday his Imperial Majesty deigned to wake at 7 a.m., and after a frugal breakfast, was graciously pleased to go for a bear hunt. On entering the wood with his suite, a bear, moved apparently by a happy instinct to recreatethe mind of the father of our holy Russia, immediately came to the spot where his Majesty had posted himself. Paralysed at the sight of millions of beings who idolize him, the bear stood still, and it was observed that, instead of the fierce aspect by which this savage animal is usually characterised, his countenance bore an expression of blissful anticipation, as if he were looking forward, like a loyal subject, to the happiness of being put to death by his gracious sovereign. On returning from the chase, his Majesty caught cold; but the usual remedies having been applied to him, he deigned to feel better. He then went to bed, and next morning he was graciously pleased to be quite well." The Pope, it appears, is never excused attendance anywhere. He is really the most thoroughly used and hardest worked Sovereign in the world. He had a reception the other day, attended by 500 gentlemen and ladies, who had sent in their cards some days before. All describe it as a bear-garden. As soon as the Pope made bis appearance they all rushed at him, and the Swiss Guard had the greatest difficulty in keeping a space clear. The Pope was pleasant, frank, and short. I must give the purport. " I'm very tired; I have a great deal to do; I've no time. I should like to make the round of you all and exchange a few words ; but you are really too many for me But you've come to see the Pope ; and " Voila," he exclaimed, clapping his hands on his side. Thereupon they all cheered him loudly : this in the Pope's own library. The ladies, particularly the pretty ones, ran in between the Swiss Guard, seized the Pope's hands, and kisaei them, ta the indignation of the Swiss, one of whom called out, "* I hope you're satisfied now, Miss." It was with difllculty that the Pope escaped, leaving half the ladies in tears — so they say. The turret looking on the Quai d'Horologe, where Prince Pierre Bonaparte is now confined, was known in the Middle Ages as the Tower of Cassar. At a late period it took its name from tbat Montgomery who slew Henry 11. of France in a tournament, and who was imprisoned within its walls. There were no windows then looking on the river, and tbe basement of the building was washed by the waters of the Seine. The populace regarded it with terror, and many legends i were current of victims immured for life in its gloomy oubliettes. Some time since it was converted into a residence for the Governor of the Conciergerie. Windows were let into the walls and some attempts were made to give it an air of comfort. Occasionally, by special favour, prisoners were allowed to reside in it. The ground floor consists of two small room and a salon. The latter has been furnished with a tent bedstead, and assigned to the prisoner for his apartment. It was originally a vaulted chamber, so lofty in proportion to its area that it might ba said to resemble a well. At present the floor has been raised so that the capitals of tbe pillars, from which the arch of the roof springs, are almost level with the ground. Two windows barred with iron look out upon the quay, but their height from the floor and the thickness of the walls prevent the inmate from seeing what passes without. Tbe apartment is furnished in the simplest manner, and tbe prisoner has to conform in all respects to the regulations of the Conciergerie. The reports of hia being served with costly dinners from the first Parisian restaurants, and waited on by servants in livery, are pure pieces ot fiction.

The State Entomologist of Illinois is known in that section as the " Bug-master General." " What," inquired a schoolmaster, "is the plural of a penny ? " « Twopence !" shouted tbe sharpest lad in the class. A man down East lately invented a machine by which he can cook his own.dinner by the smoke of his neighbour's chimney.