MISCELLANOUS EXTRACTS.

Wellington Independent, Volume VI, Issue 478, 11 May 1850, Page 4

MISCELLANOUS EXTRACTS.

Shipwreck.—The Guernsey Cornel of ' Monday contains the particulars of the -wreck df the barque I'Europe, by being ■ 'dashed on the rocks to the eastward of Vazon Bay. She was a French vessel 'homeward hound (to Havre) from Cuba. There were 14-souls on board, a Belgian ■ lady,MadameDujafdin and her two young children being of the number, and all perished save one. The ship struck before daybreak on Friday morning, the .- survivor being a sailor named Founder, who contrived to swim ashore. This man relates that a seaman named "Le Gran, seeing the fate that awaited them, and .fearing to he dashed, while still alive, •- amid the breakers, drowned himself to ■ -. avoid the ragony -anticipated. The cap- -„• tain and ohief mate—who were brothers —locked themselves in each other's ■■. embraces, and so met .their fate ! The ship soon went to pieces, The body of Madame Dujardin, when found on shore, was nakedy though Founder says that she vwas .dressed shortly before the vessel struck, as tho danger was known to be imminent, and all were on deck some , little time before the catastrophe. The ("interment o'f-several of the bodies took place ,on Sunday, the funeral solemnities being disturbed by rioting, blows being :". interchanged, on account, it appears, of differences as to ..the proper funeral service to he performed. The combatants, ; lhe>Comet says, were chiefly the lower order of French and Irish. " It was nearly six," says our contemporary, "when the service was concluded ; and the dark- : ness of the night, the confusion that pre- • vailed, with the descending rain, conspired to render the whole scene as gloomy as .it could well be." Mr. J. Russell Lowell maintains, in the JVc w York Anti-Slavery Standard, that public opinion in England is largely Nor.man: " No sooner has the British merchant acquired a fortune than he sets about contriving how ho shall save his children from.the -contamination of the ,■ paternal caste. He gets his sons into the church, the army, or the bar. Some kind of a living upon others they must have, something that approaches the Norman standard Of respectability, ho_nourable plunder." .State of Trade in Belfast.—The ■•Belfast correspondent of the Derry Standard thus reports:—-" Business, in nearly every department of commerce, is favourable, and, with some few exceptions, may be considered advancing. The activity observed for some months past ■iii'each class of our manufactures continues to increase, and the demand for labour keeps every operative willing to work in full employment. Finished goods are rapidly sent from merchants' warehouses, and, although production has been kept at its highest point, stocks are comparatively low, both in the hands of the leading linen and cotton manufacturers. At present the gross amount of cash paid in wages by factory proprietors, .linen and cotton merchants, and manufacturers, and, of course, circulated thereafter throughout the trading community, exceeds, by a figure, the largest sum ever before so distributed in Belfast." A Romance of Life.—A curious circumstance occurred recently before the Correctional Tribunal. A very old man, named Palgois, half paralyzed, having heen charged with mendicity, a decentlydressed, modest-looking young girl stepped forward, said he.-.was her father. " But has the old man any means of existence ?" said the President. "The proceeds ol my labour, sir," answered tbe girl. "But you must earn very little ?" " Pardon, sir, I am very active, aud by beginning to work early and leaving off late I can manage. Is it not so, mother ?" she added, turning to her old mother, who was also present. The President paid a high compliment to the girl, who only responded by a deep blush : and she joyfully took her father by the hand to lead him away. The public ]a\iseeulor then rose, and asked the old ma.i if he were not from Baune, in the department ofthe Cote dOr, aud related to some large farmers ' Having been answered in the affirmative, he stated that the Prefect of Police had forwarded a letter from the Mayor of Baune, announcing that a rich' jejativfl ofthe oldman had just died, and .

left him all his fortune. "You see. Mademoiselle," said the President to the young workwoman, "that Heaven has already recompensed the filial love of which you have so striking a proof."— Galigiiani. A father, mother, and daughter have perished in succession by a singular accident, at Wednesbury. John Pettifer occupied a small house erected on a mound of refuse from a mine. The daughter was sent a night on an errant; she did not return in reasonable time, and the father went to seek her; he too returned not, and the mother hastened in search of both daughter and husband : hours passed, aud no one returned to the house. At length a boy aroused a neighbour, and a search was made. A large hole was discovered near the house, the crown of the pit having fallen in; aud into this chasm the unfortunate people had successively fallen. Two or three days elapsed before the bodies could be got out. It is supposed that the sufferers perished from foul air before they reached the bottom of the mine. Commercial Mission.—We take the following paragraph from the Port Elizabeth Gazette, a Cape of Good Hope newspaper.: — Among the passengers brought by the Belgian vessel Oceanic, which lately sailed for Sydney, were two gentlemen sent out, one by the Belgian, and the other by the Dutch Government. The object of tlieir mission was to ascertain the capabilities of this and the other British colonies of Australia and New Zealand, with a view to establish an advantageous traffic between them and their own countries. Their opinion of the possibility of commencing a direct and permanent trade between their respective nations and this colony was decidedly favourable, and in all probability many months will not elapse without some arrival from either the ports of Belgium or Holland. Of the advantage of such a traffic there can be no doubt, and we are informed by .the Belgian, agent, .that the people whom he represents being extensive purchasers of wool exported from Great Britain, would be naturally anxious to establish commercial relations with this colony, were it merely for the purpose of avoiding the additional expense incurred in receiving a supply of that staple article through a third party. There are other productions of this colony which would be of great value to a country possessed of the manufacturing industry of Belgian, which would furnish another market for the disposal of our raw produce. In the removal of restrictions hitherto imposed (by the abolition ofthe Navigation Law) there are other advantages, which would naturally suggest themselves to our readers, which would be conferred on this colony by the establishment of this species of commercial league. Should however a new outlet for the disposal of our staple commodity, wool, be the only advantage derived, we shall still be gainers by the transaction, but we anticipate other results from the connection.