MISCELLANEOUS.

Wellington Independent, Volume V, Issue 429, 21 November 1849, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Floating of the Britannia Bridge over THB Menai Stuaits.— Menai Straits, Wednesday Night.—The tabular bridge is now in its place at the foot of the gigantic piers intended for.lts reception. The operatiouycas conducted in a' most successful manner—certahilyinore i so than was generally expected after the partial failures of last "night and this morning. As you are already informed, every arrangement was made to draw off the bridge from the Welsh side of the strait; but the moment a strain was put upon the first capstan brought into play, the shank or spindle gave way, and the attempt to move this extraordinary flotilla was abandoned, to the great disappointment of the vast assemblage of persons present. During the night this capstan was repaired, and the others strengthened, and at seven o'clock this morning another attempt was made which likewise proved futile fiorn, a similar cause. A second capstan giving way, many persons returned to their homes to-day filled with doubt as to the sufficiency of the means employed for the removal of the bridge. However, the engineers worked away, nothing daunted; again overhauled all the necessary appliances— capstans were strengthened, pontoons pumped out, tackle, blocks, &c., renewed, and at eight o'clock this evening the signal to begin the operation was made, and in a short time this grand structure, this long street of .wrought ironj was safely carried to its destination. Verily 'tis a triumph of genius, of which all concerned in it may well be proud.— Evening Packet, June 21.

■ Royal Visit to Norfolk-house.— Her Majesty and the Prince Consort, on Tuesday night, dined with the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk, at their residence in St," James'-sqtmre, the-birth-place of George 111. The banquet was succeeded by a grand- ball, for which invitations were issued to about 200 leading members of the aristocracy. The ball was opened with a quadrille, her Majesty leading off with Lord Edward Fitzalan Howard, and the Prince Consort dancing with the Lady Mary Fitzalan Howard. Her Majesty subsequently danced in the Stradella quadrille with the Marquis of Kildare, the Prince Consort taking the hand of the Hereditary Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg Strelitz, and Prince Richard Metternich that of Madle. Olga de Sechner. We regret exceedingly to be obliged to state that Lord John Russell was seized with a fainting fit in the ball-room about 11 o'clock, and carried out insensible. His lordship speedily revived when brought into the open air, and shortly afterwards left, in company with Lady John Russell, for his mansion in Chesham-place. His Lordship, at the moment lie was seized, was eugaged in an animated conversation with the Countess of Wilton.— Weekly Despatch, June 24. . .

Arrival of Ledrtj Rollin.—This warm leader of tbe Socialist or Red Republican party, who made his escape so abruptly from Paris during the last outbreak, has arrived safe in London. It appears he had the greatest difficulty in eluding the vigilance of the police authorities, , notices having been sent off in every direction by the electric telegraph for His apprehension, tpJCalais, Boulogne, Dieppe, Havre, and the frontiers to Belgium and Switzerland, where it was expected he would attempt to get off.— Ibid.

The Colonies.—An interesting return, moved for by Mr. Vernon Smith, supplies the following information respecting the colonies :—The North American possessions of Great Britain, which include Canada, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward's Island, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Bermuda, entailed a total expense, for the five years ended the 31st March, 1847, of £2,646,064 for the pay of troops and commissariat expenses ; our West India possessions entailed, during the same period, a cost of £1,779,337 for the same purposes; our Mediterranean and African possessions, including Gibraltar; Malta, the lonian Islands, the Cape colony, Sierra Leone, Gambia, the settlements on the Gold Coast, and St. Helena, entailed an expense of £3,170,988; and the Australian and miscellaneous' l possessions, an expense of £2,052,935. It follows that the colonial empire of' Great Britain entailed upon mother country, for the five yents emieditho 31st of March* .1847, a gross

I total cost of £9,742,354, solely for the ; pay of her Majesty's troops and for com': ■ missarint experts;, being on- an average ! newly £3,000,000 per annum.— Scotsman 1 Ma,/, 22. ! Tmk Tailor and his Fowling Pikcp: ! — Some time ago, a gallant knight of the thimble, residing in the Moorlands of Staffordshire, was called upon to exercise his craft at a country village in the vicinity of the undent borough of Stafford: At the time appointed he sallied forth with all his neccssarv accoutrements 1 consisting of goose, bodkin, thimble, ! needle, scissors, sleeveboard, &c, and quietly pursued his journey, till passim* through the rich domains of a noble earl (whose residence is also near the good old country town) he was surprised at the great quantity of game on the various plots of land he passed through, and for want of a better sporting piece he presented his sleeve board at the numerous little animals he saw sporting about; tbia' singular fowling piece attracted the attention of a party of gentlemen who were sporting over the estate, and watching the poor tailor; one of'iheux concealed himself behind-a hedge, and when /the- -. sporting tailor again" presented his'piece at a hare, the gentleman concealed fired and killed it, and immediately springing over the fence seized the poor tailor/ charged him with bsinga trespasser,, and demanded his authority. The "ailant knight of thimble little expecting so unceremonious an attack was very much frightened, and most tenderly enlreatod forgiveness, saying, "As it was the very first time he ever knew his sleeve board to go off, he hoped they would allow him to proceed," and promised never to offend 1 in like manner again. — Macclesfield Courier. ■ ' '

A short time back a missionary arrivedamong the Indians; a house was espo cially provided, and he commenced preaching. For a few Sundays he gavethe chiefs a glass of grog each, to entice them to hear him. ' At length one Sunday, a great immber of natives attended to hear the : "white stranger" talk. On this occasion the worthy and reverend gentleman was more than usually eloquent, when one of the chiefs arose, and quietly said, " All .talk; nogrog ; no good:" and gravely stalked - away, followed by the natives; leaving th.c astonished preacher to finish his discourse' to two or three Englishmen present. • In England, Wales, and Scotland, there' are now 897 Roman Catholic priests, of whom 189 are stationed in Lancashire district. _ -

A member of Parliament, referring to the "Working Men's Essays on the Sabbatb," the Jiouse of. Commons could have "turned out such a collection.

A few daya since a hen, belonging to an inhabitant of Milnthrope, Westmoreland, laid an egg measuring 1\ inches in circumference lengthways, and 6£. inches round the middle, and weighing 3£ ounces.

In the house at Hanigreen belonging: } to Philip Miles/ Esq.,-{formerly to the Brights,) in an appartment which has * long had the reputation of being haunted/ noises, &c, proceeding, as 7 alleged there' from. It has been, hitherto locked and J on Mr. Miles lately taking possession the r door was forced, and on exploring a secret' receSs in one corner, the ghost or ghosts' (for there were two) appeared in the' shape of two old boxes; which, on being touched, fell to pieces, and there emerged I to the light two massive pieces of plate> J viz., a solid silver candelabrum andTa salver of the same metal. Noboby know* - anything about them, not even Mr. Robert" Bright, to whoni they were sent, and -Wβ » suppose that the valuable glittering ap-, paritions will fall to the share of Mr-. Miles.

A Spanish giant, Se'noT. Joaqum-Elei-zequi, 23 years of age, 7ft. 10 inches highland 450 lbs. weight Spanish, has" been , exhibited at Cheltenham. It is only by", actual inspection that the mind can fully 1 realize the height of the extraordinary men whom at various times nature pro- > duces. Without placing any faith in the ■ Cretan.'Tecords (for "the Cretans are always liars '•') of the discovery of the carcase of a man thirty-three cubits in length, or near forty-two feet, we have authentic evidence in modern history of the existence of several men upwards of, seven feet in height, Walter Parsons, porter to King James 1., was 7 ft. 4 in. high. It is related of this Parsons that he was at first apprenticed to a smith-, but he grew so tall that a hole was made for him in the ground, so as to reduce hiln - to a level with his fellow-workmen. A_* Dutch giant, 7 ft. 7 inches high, was-ex-hibited in London in 1581. This Spanish, giant surpasses him in height by three" inches. Among a nation of such men.as these, most of us would look'as insignificant us Gulliver among the inhabitants of Brobdignag, - Some of the papers mention that the Government intends to re*es>tablish the ■ gambling-houses in Paris. P. S. It ver) , currently reported at the, Bourse to-day that news of a very satia- '. factory nature has-arrived to-day .from* Italy-; and that General Bedcau, should" he fiu'd on his arrival. at Rome" that th> State of affairs is equally favourable, will limit himself %o a diplomatic mis^on.

loading my fowling-piece,' wtfen I observed an object on the white > mudof the river, which gleanied in the " lun's'r'ays like a coilibf silver: it was a feWrpenb basking iii tlie sun. We /owed toward the spot, and Count Oriolla fired rat'jt' from a; distance of thirty to forty p'ace^Vile missed it with , ' the. first barrel, :but wounded it in the tail with the second, which was charged with large shot No.----.67;' This seemed to rouse the creature: -oilt boat gi-ounded almost at the same ; moment, a little higher up than where the serpent lay,, but some intervening bushes prevented our keeping it in sight. We all eagerly jumped in to the river, by■most of the crew: Counts Oriolla and Bismark were overboard in a minute, but as the real depth of the water -seemed to me very problematical, I leaped -quickly on to a withered branch of an enormous prostrate tree, which served as , a bridge to the shore. Although I had ? little hope of coming up with the serpent, ;1 advanced as fast as 1 could along the slippery trunk, —a<thing by no means easy,on account of my large-India-rubber ■: shoes, which the swollen state of my feet ihad obliged me to wear for some weeks past. Just then I heard the report of a ,gun on my left, and instantly jumping '.into the morass, warm from the sun's heat, sinking into it up to my knee at every step, and leaving one of my shoes in the mud, I hastened in the direction ■of the sound. Count Oriolla, who was the first to leap out of the boat, ran to • the spot where he had wounded the serpent, and caught a sight of the reptile •-. as it was trying to escape into the forest. Suddenly it glided into the mud under the trunk of a prostrate tree, and at that ; instant the count struck it with a cutlass, which, however, merely raised the skin: '■he then threw himself at full length upon the creature as it was sliding away, and thrust the steel into its back, a few feet 'ffom the tail. The Count vainly tried to stop, the monstrous reptile which dragged ' him along, though the cutlass had pierced i|s body and entered the ground beneath. T_t was fortunate that, the serpent did not >■ bend backwards, and entwine . its bold pursuerinits folds ; nor less so that Count Bismark, the only ene who was armed with a gun, came up at this critical momeiit; climbing over the trunk of the ■ tree, he saw the enemy, which, hissing, lifted its head erect in the air, and, with great coolness, gave it a shot a boutpourtant rthrough the head, which laid it appwently/lifeles? on the ground. My .companions described- the • creature's strength from one side to another in immense folds, and flinging its head from one. side to another in its efforts to escape tte well-aimed stroke of Count Oriolla; but a few.moments after the shot, which earned away its lower jaw and a part of ■ tlte head, the serpent seemed to arouse from its stupefaction, audvCountßismork ■hastened back to the boat to fetch Mr. .'. Theremin's gun. All this was the work of a few moments: I had hardly left the bpat more than, twq or . three minutes, when I stood beside Count Oriolla, on ; the trunk of the tree, with the serpent • coiled, -up in an unshapen mass at its •roots. Si: could scarcly wait to hear what .ha<i,passed,but seized a heavy pole from • one of the men who gathered round, to , haye a thrust at the creature's head. Raising itself up, it now seemed to sum- : iooift its Jast strength ; but it vainly strove to reach us on the tree. I stood ready, with a cutlass, to thrust into its wfrle the .Count stirred up the serpe»t>'provoldhg it.to the. fight; the creat--uta.'a.strength was, however, exhausted. ■ Coiuit Bismark now returned, and shat- • teredits skull with another shot, and it in strong convulsions. Though I - coup ript-share with my valiant compa■■nieins "the honour of ..the day, I was fortunaite .enough £6, arrive in time for the " hallali." Out prey pro ved-to be a large ; boar constrictor, measuring sixteen feet t\?p ioches in length, and one foot nine inche.sib circumference ; the sailors called ita" "sucuriju," In skinning and dissecting ;it,. tikdozen membranaceous bags or eggs wgre found in its body, containing young serpents, some still alive, and from' one • to. .two.foet;long. The Counts kindly 1 pres"eEtted'me with .the beautiful skin, I wHch;; was spotted white, yellow, and b%ck> and covered with small scales; this JtropKy. of their valour now forms the -cfyieif , ., .ornament of my residence at MonbiipW As soon as the task of sklnn'ng which the, thickness 'of animals scaly covering rendered very.djfficuljt, we agaixi set sail, soon after twglYe'..6 ijlqck.and continued the ascent of ri t2ie.;Amazon, carrying off the skin of :theboa in triumph, spread' out to dry upon the roof of our boat.— Prince Jldal.bert's Travehi , , .

Story,—The Buepos AyrfL£# Packeu, of the. vlOth February, Bays, "A strange incident took place in 1 tb da y s since., Aman, fiir ; • Jia<Jbeeh eraployed to oaW| ajßoic t^4 -pertain quarter in the cifeioiit;preyipus; to teaching bi« deatimfiott he te}l dead:in the?street : ; The amhpriti&s 'ordeied: l the' body to be re-' the Hearst depot]{tHe ; bpk being "fiwc^'l^' An jr adjolmjnig hotise. ,, Toeiiraißteß proceeded t6 the :btfr#Kßtf io' ffiißuf r astdhishtneiif 'it .found to eontem' r the ekeiyti)Ji ,: &f ;f S- : . ohiUV

and'the skulland'some other bones be-, longing to tho body of an adult. This discovery was ' communicated to the proper . authorities; and at length the following particulars transpired :—-Don Raniori Duran, a native of Catalonia' in Spain', married in this city, many years ago, a wealthy lady, called Donpa Isabel Romero, for whom'lie professed the most tender, attachment. The latter dying Duran by some means obtained the skull and some of the other bones of his deceased wife, which he ever after kept with the greatest care wrapped up in a ,piece of black silk. Some years after the death of his first wife, Duran married a second—a person many years younger than himself. By this wife he had a daughter, on whom he fondly doated; but the latter dying about 1828, when only in her seventh year, Durau was plunged into the deepest grief, and, determined not to part with his daughter's body, had it secretly embalmed, and subsequently put into a box along with the remains of his former wife; .but in order not to appear as opposing the laws and established customs, he went to" the expense of a mock interment. This loss exercised so strong an impression on his mind that he seemed indifferent: to all about him, and his affairs began rapidly, to decline. His keenly sensitive heart' was, however, destined to feel another, and, from the attendant circumstances, still more painful bereavement, in the elopement of his wife, which event almost unseated his judgment. Ruin made now such rapid strides in the fortunes of this hapless man that, in the course of a short time, the once wealthy proprietor was reduced to the condition of a common beggar. But he had still one treasure left; the humble suppliant wandering from door to door dependent on public charity for support, had yet in his possession an ignored and to him priceless gem, which shared with him his fortunes, whatever roof' his claims allowed' —the box containing the bones of his wife and child. He thus lived for a series of years and whenever it became necessary to shift his place of residence, the box containing the precibus (relics was j ever his first care, and for which he craved a shelter under the title of important papers. His last residence was the house of a widow who had known him in better times. Here he lived until sickness overtook him, when, the scanty means of his hospitable landlady not allowing her to minister to his wants, he was removed to the public hospital, where he died about a year and a half since. This lady, who appears in some measure to have imbibed his prejudices, out of respect to his memory would not allow the relics he so highly prized to be removed, but the earnest solicitations of her acquaintances who were already as well as herself apprised of the contents 'of .the box, induced her at last'to consent. Proper steps having been consequently taken to ensure their admission to the public cemetery, an old man was employed for the purpose of conveying them to the hearse depot, who, as we have seen, sunk under his burden to rise no more. According to the report of the medical gentlemen who was called in to examine the body, death was occasioned by a fit of appoplexy, induced by overexertion and the effects of intemperance on a day of unusual heat." The railway across the Isthmus of Panama was about to be commenced immediately. ' -;