MISCELLANEOUS.

Wellington Independent, Volume II, Issue 115, 18 November 1846, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Budget of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the surprise and gratification of the public, exhibited a surplus of income over expenditure of £2,350,000?

Both Houses had adjourned for a week, for the Whitsuntide holidays. On their reassembling on the sth June, preparations would be made for going into committee upon the Bill in the Lords. There is no fear, with the large majority for the second reading staring them in the face, that the opposition will offer much to mangle the clauses as they are gone through.

There is a factory huilding at Portsmouth in the United States, 100 feet longer in front than the largest factory in Manchester or elsewhere in the world. What is to be manufactured there is not mentioned. It shows, however, the prosperity of manufactures in America.

Noble Daiung.—The ship Alhambra, from Dublin to Cadiz, being driven by one of the late gales within the northwest horn of Carnarvon Bay, her peril became most imminent to every soul on board. A lad, named Owen Jones, of Cerrig-yr-Ader, in Uhoscolin, immediately ran out to a projecting point for the purpose of making the best signals he could for her to come into a small creek where she could be in safety. But not succeeding in his first endeavours, he saw that a very few minu'es more would bring her, in her then course, to total destruction, and that of every living creature on board. He therefore determined to make one more bold attempt to save her. A small island, detached from the shore by a sound of about one hundred yards, offered to him an advantageous position forgetting nearer to her; but how to get there was the difficulty, as there was a tremendous sea tumbling in, such as no boat could live in had one been at hand; he therefore boldly plunged in, and by the most extraordinary exertions succeeded in gaining the island. Here his presence of mind was remarkable as his intrepidity. When his companions entreated him to take off his jacket before ho made the mad attempt, he replied, while plunging in " I cannot spare it; it's the only signal 1 have to hold He did providentially succeed, and gaining a high pinnacle, there he stood with his jacket fluttering in the gile ! The people on board having acknowledged that they saw him, he instantly dropped both arms in a manner that was intelligible to them, when the ship instantly rounded to and dropped her anchor, and beached her in a spot ' as quiet as a duck pond,' from whence she was, on the return of moderate weather, taken into Holyhead. As yet nothing beyond « empty praise,* has been awarded to the noble conduct of Owen Jones, but we believe the Anglesea Institution have taken up the matter, and we doubt not will bestow some more substantial acknowledgemen of his services.—North Wales Chronicle.

The first number of a newspaper or journal of science, trade, and literature was published at.Grand Cairo, on the Ist March last. On politics of course it preserves a dead silence. On science, a journal printed within sight of Pyramids and Egyptian Temples of old, may be made by European conductors, a source of infinite interest, not only, to the readers of Egypt, but to the whole world. The language is' Italian, and the journal is published every alternate week.

A Parson and his People.—The Rev. Mr. W. of Bristol county, Massachusetts, wished to address every portion of his flock in a manner to impress them most deeply, and accordingly gave notice that he would preach sermons to the old, to young men, to young women, and to sinners. At his firn sermon the house was full, but not one aged person was there. At the second (to young men), every lady in the parish was present, and but few for whom it was intended. At the third, a few young ladies attended, but tho aisles were crowded with yountr men At the fourth, addressed to sinners, not a, solitary individual was there except the sexton and the organist. " So/ said the good parson, " everybody came to church to hear his neighbour scoided' but no one cared to be spoken of himself."

Barcelona.—A young man of the name of Fontanalleras, the son of a rich merchant here, has disappeared within the last few days, and the father has since received a letter from his son stating that if the sum of 100,000 piastres (£21,000 sterling) be not deposited in a certain place on a given day, be is to be assassinated.

The Morning Post proposes to increase the number of bishops to fifty, so as to allow one bishop to 400 of the clergy. This additional body of bishops is to be supported by resuming the tithes granted to the lay impropriators at the Reformation !

A Learned Churchwarden —At a village in South Lincolnshire, n>i many days ago, on the occasion of the examination of the school children, the clergyman invited the churchwarden of the parish to put some questions to them in natural history ; whereupon the following learned query was made—"Which o* the Kings wor it as burnt the cakes?" Thus propounding, if not a question in natural history, one at least for a churchwarden very natural iv history.