EUROPEAN ITEMS.

West Coast Times, Issue 1290, 10 November 1869, Page 3

EUROPEAN ITEMS.

The Birmingham Gazette says that one day last week a Birmingham artisan \\ as in London. "Being anxious to see what the House of Commons was like, and being anxious also to hear a discussion* on tradeunion matteis, he repaired to Westminster, fully resolved to procure admission to the first assembly. Mr B , as we shall call the visitor, sauntered up to a policeman ; and here we shall leave him to tell his own story .—". — " Is Dixon in the > iouse?" — " Don't know," said the officer. " I saw him a few minutes ago. He was in, but I think he's gone out." " Muntz ?" — " Don't know; haven't seen Muntz." *' Bright — is he in ?'* — " Oh, yes," said the policeman, after an interview with another official, " Brig-lit' s there on the Treasury Bench." " Would you till him I want to see him ?" was the next remark of our Birmingham visitor, whose appearance unmistakably indicated that he was one of the genuine working-class sort. — " Can't do that," oaid the officer. *• Send your card." The Birmingham artist produced a card on which was his name. He then, on the back, wrote the name of "Mr John Bright." The card was " passed" to Mr Bright, who straightway left his place, and " come out." Our informant goes on : " Seeing Bright coming forraid out of the doore, I walks up to him, and he says, says he, 'Is this from you ?' — ' Yes,' says I. ' May 1 ask what you want ?' says Bright, quite gentlemanlike. — ' To go inside,' says I. 'Uli,' say< he, 'I think I can manage that.' After awhile he calls me, and he says, 'Go up thar.' This was up a flight of stairs. I goes up, and I was hi the House. There was three Cabinet Ministers there— Foster, Bruce, and Bright. Lord John Manners was a Ulkin'. As for the ' House,' I don't think much on it. It is not by no iiieans the place I should ha' thought it was." Asking the visitor if he was not impressed with the cour esy and attention of Mr Bright, he replied, " Ah ! but I should have sent for Lord John Manners,, or Gladstone, for that matter. I only wish I'd been up there this week, I'd been abe to Bit it out better this hot weather than some of those old rich nobs."

On one occasion Mr Charles Dickens was upholding the theory that whatever trials or difficulties might stand in a man's path, there is always something to be thankful for. "Let me, in proof thereof," said DickeiiH, " relate a ntory : — Two men were to be banged at Newgate for murder.

The morning arrived ; the hour approached; the bell of St. Sepulchre's began to toll ; the convicts were pinioned ; the procession was formed ; it advanced to the fatal beam ; the ropes were adjusted round the poor men's necks; there were thousands of motley sight-seers of both sexes, of all ages, men, women, and children, in front of the scaffold, when, just at that second of time, a bull which was being driven to Smithfield broke- its rope and charged the mob right and left, scattering people everywhere with its horns ; whereupon one of the condemned men, turning to his equally unfortunate companion, verj- quietly observed, ' I say, Jack, it's a good thing we ain't in that crowd.' "'

A private letter to a lady in Natchez gives the following particulars concerning the Crange- Yerger tragedy in Mississippi : — The Rev. Dr. Crane found Colonel Crane lying with hi.' feet on the pavement, and his head and body in the store, weltering in his blood, and dead. On the floor, clingiug to tbe dead body of her husband, and covered with blood, was his wife, calling by every endearing name, imploring him to sper.k once more. She was Burrounded by men and negroes — no female near her. "While the Rev. Dr. Crane knelt s by her, trying to do what he could, the negro preacher, Lynch, stooped over and said to her, " You shall be revenged." Finally, Mrs Crane was induced to enter a carriage, and all went to Dr. Crane's residence. Here the awful trial commencerl. The scene was heartrending. Mrs Crane was seated in a chair covered with her husband's blood. .She looked up at me, and smiled ; but oh ! buch a smile. She threw her arms around me, and asked if I knew Joseph had been murdered, calling him by every tender name. 1 almost shrieked with agony. I got water and washed the blood fiom her hands. I never witnessed such agony. The ladies wept. The tears streamed down the cheeks of the officers. Mrs Crane begged to go home at once to her parents — to her two sons— to the home where she had gone when first jßarried, where her husb.&naha,d made hey

she ra^ ed ; but suddenly she turned and said — " Judge Jefferds and I)r Crane, I call upon you to hear my words Judge Jefferds, by all the love you bore my husband, and I know he was your dearest friend — your partner in law for seven long years — by all the love you bore him, I beseech you to use all the influence you have to save the man who murdered him. Joseph is in the hands of his God: let that God be his avenger. Vengeance is mine saith the Lord. Let not Mr Verger fall into the hands of man ; let no more blood be spilt; let my husband's blood be offered for peace ; let it cry to Heaven for peace for his country ; let it be the martyr's blood crying for peace. I would go and see Mrs Verger if I could, and tell her I have no feeling of revenge," She then threw herself into the arms of Dr Crane, and screamed, looking perfectly demented. — Nantchez Democrat The .Daily News ( July 20) says :— " We are agitating in this country for ahalfpenny postage stamp, to be applied to printed matter, or at least to newspapers. But we observe with some interest that they are agitating in Germany for a similar tariff to be applied to written communications, provided they are open, and issued in a certain simple form. They are advocating for a card post, by which is meant that a card the size of an ordinary envelope should be dropped into the post-office and conveyed to its de-tination for a halfpenny. One side of the card would bear the address and the proper stamp; the other side would carry the message. . o one thinks a penny too much for the conveyance of a closed letter, but there are numerous communications which we are all content to leave open, and which, if presented to the post-office in a convenient form, they might easily afford to carry for ahalfpenny, if for that sura they can carry a new-paper. At any rate this German suggestion is worthy of consideration." Sportsmen should be on the look-out for a new gunpowder of which wonderful things are spoken It is the discovery of a Bavarian chemist, M. Hahn, who haß carried specimens to France to be tried at Vinceivies, and to excite the enthusia-m of the Paris j urnali-ts According to one of these, a learned abbe, well known in the scientific world, the compound is twice es powerful as the best sporting powder, and costs only two francs the kilogramme — less than tenpence a pound. The materials for making it can be found in all countries, and a workman can produce 250 kilogramme* in a day. It makes little smoke, leaves little ash, and does not foul the gun. Damp does not hurt it, nor a blow explode it; its transport is perfectly safe ; its use highly agreeable. These are but a few of the virtues accorded to it by one who dedans that he exaggerates nothing. This is discouraging, for no one will believe in a powder, or anything else, that has no fault whatever. In the course of his praises the good man overshoots his mark. He says that the recoil of this powder is insignificant, which can only mean that its expansive energy is low. But if only a tenth part of its asserted good qualities be real, the explosive must be a good thing both for sporting and fighting men. — French Paper. " Galignani," speaking of the latest sensation exhibited in Paris — the Princess Felicie — says : — This hideous little prodigy is now being exhibited at the Cirque, and fills the mind with reflections on our close alliance to the simian species. Imagine a huge head which might be on any old hag's shoulders, rolling on a doll's body — for the entire being is smaller than many of the dolls which you see in the shop-windows. The little creature stands about eighteen English inches high, and leers and goggles I her eyes, and kisses her band to the curious ciowd. Should yon have a tnste for these phenomena, hie to the Museum of the Ecole de Medecinc, where they have glass jars full of them. A' bit of what may be termed remarkably sharp practice in connection with the ColIt, en BawnvCompany's claim was brought under the notice of the mining reporter of the Shoatland Times, and which is said to have created no little excitement. "It appears that no less a personage than one of the directors of the company cast a longing eye upon a triangular bit of surplus ground that lies between the Halcyon, Dumont, and Colleen Bawn claims. The upper shoots of the Colleen Bawn Company, and part of the tramway, are upon it. Unable to resist the promptings of his covetous desires, and wilfully shutting his eyes to the fact that the ground had been applied for,- according to the proscribed formula, by the legal manager for the use of the company, he yesterday morning put his pegs in, and so came out in the nev/* character of a 'jumping director.' As,thV ground happens to be off the line of reef, his motives for adopting so questionable a course, are somewhat obscure, but it is said that he values the ' bit of surplus' at 1,500 of the Company's scrip." A scene of extraordinary excitement occurred in the Lyceum Theatre, Sutherland — the actors, for some reason or other, having refused to appear in thpir allotted parts. On the discovery being made that there would be no performance, a rush by the audience for the doors was the result, but only some of them succeeded in getting their money returned to them. The more irate of those who had lost their money into the bargain commenced as soon as they got into the street to damage the building. As the audience kept teeming out of the theatre, and starting to smash the windows, the street was soon filled by hundreds of people. They then continued at their stone-throwing against the windows of the building till scarcely a solitary square— big or little— was left whole. Tlie police were soon on the spot, but could not discover the miscreants. They set to work to clear the streets, which they soon accomplished. The ship Light Brigade, belonging to Messrs T. M. Mackay, Son, & Co., sailed on the 30th ult. from Gravesend for Queensland. This is the ninety- third vessel that has sailed on tlu land order system of emigration, under the immediate directien of the Queensland Government Emigration Office. She contains 362 souls, divided into paying, assisted, and free passengers, and consisting of 148 members of families, 131 single men, 83 single females. At the meeting of the Liverpool workhouse committee, held recedtly, the vestry clerk reported that there was not at that moment in the establishment a single man whom the doctors could certify as ablebodied end fit to work. This is an unprecedented state of things, the workhouse having been notorious as an asylum for lazy, idle, and dissolute persons. ; A local paper states that the following . inscription on a piece of paper wasattachee . to a dead fox found in a lane at Bunbury • recently : — Gentlemen and sportsmen, our . doom is sealed if the farmers' claims be not F paid for the fowls and lambs we have ; eaten. lam not the first who has paid the - forfeit with my life. Mind, brother Reyi nard, what you eat, that yqu pon't get paj* ? eonod, \f tbe femora' pl&ima are nqt paid.,

Colonel Tighe, of Woodstock, Kilkenny, intends to place £10,000 in the hands of the new Church body, " shonld the present formularies, doctrines, and discipline of the Church of England be preserved." The Post Office authorities at Ashford have resolved to try the experiment of m mnting the rural postmen on bicycles, in order to facilitate them in delivering their letters. One of the machines has been ordered, and the Hamstreet and Wrrehorn postman is to commence using rj. The money remitted to the Chancellor of toe Exchequer by sundry persons for conscience sake in the financial year ending March, 1869, amounted to £41.94. In the preceding year the amount was £4688. Mr T. B. Curling, F.R.S., has resigned the post of senior surgeon of the London Hospital, after a service of nearly thirtysix years. His successor has not yet been appointed. Professor Paber's speaking-machine is to be exhibited at Hamburg during the conti- j nuance of the Intercolonial Horticultural Exhibition. It is said to exhibit various words, and even to answer questions and simple sentences with wonderful distinctness. This is by no means the first invention of the kind that has been exhibited. Wolfgang von Kempelen, the inventor of ahess automaton, was born at Pre«burg in 1734, and died at Vienna, 1804, both constructed a machine of the kind and wrote on the subject. The machine about to be at exhibited at Hamburg is, however, more perfect than any previous invention of the kind. Auction Advertisements.