MISCELLANEOUS.

Wellington Independent, Volume II, Issue 111, 4 November 1846, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Progress of Iron Ships and Screw Propellers. -We understind that the firm of James Hodgson & Co , iron shipbuilders, of this town, are building amongst other vessels, an iron ship of 1,200 tons burden, the first of a new line of steamers to ply between New York and Liverpool, with engines of 180 horse power; also one of 600 tons burden and 100 horse power, to ply between Liverpool and Rio Janeiro* the first of a new line of seven ; also one for Buenos "Ayres, all fitted with screw propellers, and Grantham's patent direct action engines.—Liverpool Times. A Weardale doctor was lat ly summon, ed to a cottag;, at Harwood in-Teesdale and found a boy patient in need of his services, " Put out your tongue," said the doctor. The lad stared like a " gawvisons."—" My good boy," repeated the medical man, "let me see your tongue;" "Talk English doctor," said the moTher ; and then turning to her son, she c-i?d, " Hoppeh thy gobblet and push out thy lolliker!" The lad put out his tongue in a moment.

Sale of " The Times."—We occasionally publish accounts of the rapidity with which this journal is conveyed. We"are now induced, from the almost incredible greatness of the fact, to state,that on Wednesday last , we printed no fewer than fifty-four thousand copies; and that all parts of the kingdom where supplied in little more time than it would have required to supply London only some thirty or torty years ago.—Times. Cure for a Drunken Husband. —About twelve o'clock at night, a Mr. ———knocked at his door, which wag . opened by his wife, who," scandalized at, her husband's potations and la c hours, set down the candle, snatched up the contents of the cradle, ran out of the house and threatened to drown her poor dear baby in a stream that ran full four feet deep before the house. The husband also rushed forth, but only tp see by the light, of tbe moon the little innocent floating and. struggling in the water. He plunged into the atreani, and bore the precious burden to land, which turned out ti be a most respectable •' Tabby Cat," exceedingly wet, and mewing piteously. His. spouse had regained the house, and locked the door, and Which was not opened till, the good man of the house was cold as icicles on Diana's temple. The husband was cured ; he could not face bis boon companions; even the potboy cried " mew " when he a,ppe£red. How tp make a Railway.—-Take a sheet of fool-cap paper and a Court Guide, for 1790. Pick your lords and right, honorables, and half a dozen ex-members, of Parliame.it, and season with a few merchants and F.R.S.'S. Then throw in an engineer, a banker, and a lawyer ; garnish with imaginary advantages, and serve tip. in an udvertisement. —Punch,

The Provision Scarcity—The state of Nenngh, in the North Riding of Tipperary, is thus described by a local paper (the Vindicator): —■ " The prices of provisions are realty frightful, Indian meal has reached the enormous figure of £15 per ton. Some holders have asKed more for that article of food ! Potatoes are now lis. per barrel 'At present there is a temporary, employment fur the more able-bodied agricultural labourers, but what way will they be in when that employment ceases, as it must, with the present month, or perhaps before its termination ? Lei the Government, we say look to the subject, and do so in time. Tliay already know the feelings and the wishes of the landlords. What remains for them to do is obvious, and unless they do what they are bound, the consequences are truly awful for contemplation." In the same paper there appears alettei from the acting Secretary of the Clonrush (county of Galway) Relief Coramitee, which says-

" This parish is a complete solitude, a poor unproductive soil, no gentry, and myriads of an impoverished people, who have settled here as squatters; the refuse and the evicted of other districts. You will easily conceive our deplorable situation when I inform you that there are here, on the report of trustworthy persons appointed for the purpose, 236 families, amounting to 1307 individual, who have neither money nor provisions, and thereby are daily becoming victims of pestilence and famine. This famishing multitude are unemployed, though work were presented for and approved of at sessions in Wood'ord, under Ist of Victoria, so early as in February last. Parishes where there are resident peers and baronets have re ceived large sums from the Government, and, by a strange perversion of justice and chanty, only a miserable pittance is doled out to feed the famishing poor of this district, though totally bereft of a titled or wealthy aristocracy. We are here on a volcano, and I am thoroughly persuaded that long ere this the whole country would ba in a blaze were it not for the Rev. Mr. Hubert and' the Rev, Mr. O'Brien, the Protestantand Roman' Catholic clergymen, who are unremitting in their exertions to sustain the people in this most awful emergency." '

Poland.—Letters from the scene of the late revolt continue to be published in the Paris and other papers, giving the most mournful accounts of the country and its condition. The state of Galicia is represented as most deplorable. All the retainers of Prince Ladislaus Sanguorko—the Prince and his family being fortunately abroad—were pitilessly, slaughtered, and his castle, near the town of Taruow, was only spared owing to its being found convenient for the Austrian troops. The castle of Bardnow, belonging to Count Krasicki—" a place abounding with associations dear to all patriotic Poles " —was despoiled, along with several others. A letter from Lemberg tells a hediotts tale of popular violence : "In some places the peasants proceeded with certain forms, which seemed to indicate that they obeyed pitiless orders given by others. When they presented themselves at the chateau of Count Kotarski, this nobleman, who had always been a veritable father to them, endeavoured to make them comprehend the infamy of their conduct. They listened to him calmly, and replied cooly that he must prepare to die. He then asked for time to fulfil his hst duties as a Christian. This they consented to, and even sent themselves to fetch the curd. As soon as this noble citizen had confessed, they killed him with pikes and poniards. On another point the paasants as ailed the chateau of the Countess Morska, and murdered her husband, brother,"and mo-ther-in-law. She escaped herself with her two children by a back way, and took refuge in a peasant's hut. She darkened her children's faces with soot, and dressed them in mean clothes, and then hid herself in a loft. The peasants having discovered her, forced her to accompany them to a wine shop, and made her drink brandy with them. They then committed on the unfortunate woman, who was yoHng and fair, the most infamous acts. They at last threw her in a state of insensibility into a ditch, where she was found by an Austrian officer and taken half dead to Tarnow. Some Austrian officers acted admirably on this occasion, and amongst others M. de Polignac, son of the ex Minister, who is in the Austrian service. This brave young man, in order to save the children of the landowners from being murdererd, purchased them at so much a head; the peasants sold them at the rate of 40 kreutzsrs, If- 50 c, each, Even now, while I write, armed bands of peasants, who were organized at first by the Austrian Colonel Benedek, are scouring the country, and spreading fire and sword everywhere. The Government, without doubt, will take measures to put an end to these horrors, but hitherto no peasant has either been arrested or punished : they even imagine that they will be recompensed', and that feeling augments their audacity.

Many executions have taken place at Warsaw, most of them, it is said, attended with circumstances of uncalled-for severity and cruelty.' His Escellency Chevalier Bunsen, last week, paid a visit to'the. New Zealand House, for the purpose of inspecting the various articles of furniture made by M. Levein, of New Zealand woods, imported from the Company's settlements.—His Excellency expressed himself highly pleased with the various specimens exhibited to him, and said it was.his intention to give M. Levein instructions to piepare some furniture for his Majesty tbe King of Prussia.

The E*rl of Cork has gi ven£lo '0 towards the relief 0[ the poor connected with his Irish property.

A subscription has been commenced ia ScotUnd' for the erection of a monument to Wallace, on tbe Abbey Craig, near Stirling.