LOCAL AND GENERAL MEMS.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVIII, Issue 1993, 8 December 1863, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL MEMS.

Very CoMPLiMENirA^.rr^,,^ 1 ?? 0^ Major General Bi^jetf, alluded to in .the follow- ( ing paragraph from the Alflru/ W*4, $8^ j^*" z-ette, is by no means' a, very, /bright military, genius, and thajtj.w fl W.tbanTcour l^ck^ state that the command jrTNew, Zealand ha^,npt deYolved upon bim/i'^p e,M^ to" , be s^meVliatj thankful for wlha,t .we 4?, npt^recfeigeja^ wpll ,'as for what we M— l , l ,MfajfiT.Gen l eral s. i Boucher. has resigned , the commanfl of the .Ist Brigade at Malta; and ;w) i l ( %eVc6eeae^ by' Jajor, j Fusilier^'fJuardaj ', ' 'Bfrajer-Gpneral Kjatey whs', the officer who som^little, jt'irqe back'wajj jJesjj^' Bated 'Ze^ja'nd cornmajiclj with" 'so or thoffapt ; (b> putac, service., , ( Tbe ajipbtntment m Sffi'^in| .sfty.JWi J«M>^, Etoppejm W to ftw taprMg;,^ man o/JariK expfeneppe; and proved ca^acit^in first place, pn Ha vifi^escapedsych i^ponsibihty and sisj a f^fe, anfyin meijext on nis Jeiwg now etompen.s^te(jf | Fqr so fortunate a aisapp^intj objeoyj a s«sJ, W titf,. i ,, tiiU „„,',.!,„„„., !,„,. LuDffiad&p MtfTArcE.-rrHfiJWTfifu! ,YIP,OR«W> to be, I lffifibelieying I Hb,e,,,| < ( '|fiiq^"..as w ,e|}, ,as ** rumors" that are so abundan,tfy;,preyale,nt just DOW oi-,.lfte i; .nafjw d.esii<e.fo;r.; I peap,e,, ! i??fi 1 y iil be, g&thetj&Mm cthfi, ifoljpwjpir MWW i ,JWWP*. " Thei&JJowna: ftUiftvajn , wasurecejy,e,d, jesjer^ day fcojn -.Pwry^mftAi P«M*F>f. J ;!tf ti 7. es !.l I > number,^ boitf,sQq, a,Bpeared l ,.pn;. ,t,he ranges bearing flag r , of^uce^a BBtfy. of the 50th Begt.,iw?4bjSfimpcava.l l i;yjwfe,i)jtout to see what wasmflanfrf , ( La.jefi|as,t i ,ejjening we were informed that obi Jfre^qonnaissance of this supposed,bjQ<Jy, p ( 1 £ natives by the party mentioned in tbeV&ope telegram it was discovered tbata number of stumps had been taken for Maoris, no natives whatever being upon the spot indicated. Teuth Stbanger than Fiction.— A late London paper thus alludes to a curious suit shortly to come under the notice of the Law Courts: — " Some few days since, the death of an individual whose services to the Government had been rewarded by the first step in our beredijary nobility, and whose legal acquirements and great talent bad placed him in the first rank of his profession with the title of Q.C., happened to die somewhat suddenly, leaving a considerable estate, a widow and several sons, the eldest of whom, in the natural and legal course of events, would succeed to the title and landed ptoperty of his father. The corpse was conveyed with all due honor to the grave ; but scarcely had the gavel settled down upon his coffin, when it was announced that not only the title, but the estates also of the deceased baronet would be claimed by a brother, upon the illegitimacy of the whole of his sons. In support of this extraordinary and unexpected claim, it Is alleged that when the deceased married the mother of his children she was the wife of a living husband — a fact which the subsequent j conduct of the deceased affords reasonable ground to believe he must have been cognizant of, seeing that upon each occasion of a child being about to be born the marriage ceremony was repeated, obviously for the purpose of le gitimising the issue in the event of the first husband of the wife having died in the interval between the marriage of the deceased and the birth of the child. If, as reported, this unexpected family exposi is to become a subject of j discussion in our law courts, we shall pity the judge before whom tbe proceeding* will be carried on, and the counsel on eithpr side engaged in it. The first will feel acutely the damaging impression that will go abroad as to the morality of the profession over which he presides; the latter must feel deep mortification at the published fact that the luminaries of the Bar are found capable of shining with borrowed lights, and that, despite their moral mouthings and severe denunciations of wrong-doing in other classes of society, their own is occasionally as deeply spotted with hypocrisy and simulation as is that of the vilest of <he poor, whose rice and crime they can so earnestly denounce or so eloquently palliate, according to tbe instructions on their brief and the magnitude of the fee handed with it." — Another paper explains it thus: — "Legal proceedings involving circumstances of a most romantic character, are likely to arise out of a claim made by the brother of the late Sir Frederick Slade to the title and estate of the deceased baronet. It is alleged that, when Sir Frederick married Lady Slade, the latter was then the wife of an Austrian gentleman, who died in 1857, and not only so, but that when the Austrian alliance was formed, there was a previous marraige. We beliere it is a fact that Sir Frederick, for obvious reasons, repeated the marriage cere mony as often as children were born to him. The defence will turn out we are told, upon the illegality of the second marriage, which is held to be no marriage if the firit husband was then living— it being contended that the third one, if contracted after the third husband died, is thereby a strictly legal and binding engagement. The oase will probably come on for trial at an early date, and Lady Slade, of course, will be tbe most prominent and important witness. Eminent counsel are already engaged for the occasion." A Lesson in Astbonomy. — In examining into the reasons which should lead us to suppose that tbe planets are inhabited, a late writer observes — " But the most important question of all is: Have the other planets an atmosphere resembling ours? If they have not, it is clear that, however closely they may resemble the Earth in other respects, they cannot be inhabited by beings like us. If we were deprived of our atmosphere we know that there could be no clouds, no gradual passage from light to darkness ; objects would be strongly lighted or in deep shadow, the sun would be a brilliant object, but the firmament would appear block, and dotted with stars; there would be neither life nor sound, and the Earth wouid circle round the Sun, a frozen ball, devoid of everything which would render life on it agreeable, even if it were possible. Observations that have been made, establish conclusively the fact that other planets are enveloped in atmospheres. The three planets most favorably situated with respect to us for telescopic examinations, are Venus, Jupiter, and Mars. Surrounding Venus, we perceive what many astronomers consider to be , a thick atmosphere, — so dense indeed that the 1 twilight has been perfectly distinguished there ; and this together with its position, and tbe masses of cloud which float in it, denoting the ' presence of water, render tbe discovery of any* I thing relative to the configuration of its surface 1 1 highly improbable, beyond the fact that it has < its chains of mountains, resembling those on \ the Earth. In the case of Mars, we are able to go beyond this. With a telescope possessing the requisite power, we can trace the boundaries c of oceans and continents, and even the snow c which lies at its polar circles, and the extent to ( which it is dissolved by the summer sun. By ] means of the lights and shadows on its surface, ] the fact that it rotates on its axis in as nearly as possible the same time as the Earth, has been proved ; the same may also be said of the f other planets, the differences in the time occu- l pied iv their respective revolutions being so 1 trifling that it is not necessary to specify them. I

Tbusj^he^ existence r of atmospheres round, the? < ot^er! planets of our system being so highly pro- ' bable, We have'godd gVounas"for 'believing 1 that '"! they pre suited for the habitation of beingS"Hkb> i 'ourselves; Objections, on ;ther,grou,ndipf,j.nsuf>, . 'ficient warnith<are:ovem>led.«tonce,: the, degree, . Hf.be itsdll be vegulatediby. the, density !.of|, the , We know that : we!-hav.e only, toiaacdnd,a mountain till,.we,attaia. ( an ■ altitude of , l^;OaO,feetiabQH'ie the le,velioj£ thejisea^tp V 6i\d, i' snow ait ; tbe same time. thatitbe,.couio,tfy. ,-at,, jAs i foot. is parched with he»t,i ijvhiph.., is, .accounted , for-by tftoeifaQj^.that „thei atmosphere,, is,, ,mupb , irforeldepsesati the., surface of the; earth; jthap; at; . an! elfevatjpn tof sthi!ee..roiJ!eis ; ah,Qv,e.. ,. I(, then, our, , own" $xpe,iie.noeienah.les,us (,o-pro*:ethat,sq, slight a cbainge opposition, in our, atmosphere makes, allthje, .difference, between , li/ej and, id'eatbi' surely, : no'sajnie person.wM'cpntfQue^to'urgej it! ft, warit> , ofiw{OTmijj,,iniAb«Bi more distant p^n^s, as afiea., , tsoii ifi^ -th,ejr b^PgnUßJnh,a.bjt(able,,!,w,h,e,n, t>y, ia slight increase of density in their atmospheres ; Itbefritempera^ure, wquJdiibe^raisjesditp aniequajity, i with jour,s, ; ..mor'soyer,, w,e ,doi npfr j ejt i kpo.w , , thaj taAihjejafcwe, e^joy, enjanate^.^entjrejy! frAm.lt^e srivi, j or from the,]! „pQinibined,n ,..a ction | 6tf-.i thei i^qji's > wy^.iftqdi- t,Qrrejstiftl i , .agfln,, loies. 'MmvgdWgeii /thf? !tl prqp,eeii|ng, ! ,'^c^ by, way.ipf propf t^a,t,theres is r^ .e^ep^aj djflfar,- --• enCB between the physical couclition of th<? ,Eaith)^;d ,^|jftf of ,tj?e |,9,t;her I,,pUnet,si./o§.,^e1 „pUnet,si./o§.,^e Sypteb, it can be ) h?,rd!y i in.ecfi?fiaTy tqwrsue,,^, ; argument of ihe extreme probability of their heipjjf inhabited by^-beings organised- as we are." -''Too TB.UEf— r ( A, jmprtenii writer f veparts.: — '" Ih the prevailing' rage for hyperbole and rtfetaphorical expression^ I am afraid there is 'sotnt! risk, if carried 1 much farther, that the 'writings of t,he present and former ages may bo ''nr/fntelligibJe to future ones, and that it may become necessary for authors and editors to have a running margin to the works they put forth, denoting the passages to be understood literally, and those where the words are used hyperbolicalJy — to mark those which assert the naked truth, and those which magnify or diminish it until it almost ceases to he so. But T proceed to instance examples of the present hyperbolical mode of speaking and writing. On meeting an old acquaintance, I have been frequently saluted with "My dear friend, I have been dying with impatience to see you j" when, in fact, there were no evident symptoms of this fatal termination of kindness in his appearance or expression. A young lady whom I met the other day at dinner, and who I thought took a fancy to me, on- my taking leave of her, laid her fair hand oh my shoulder, and prayed me very bewitcbingly " not to allow her to be long without the pleasure of seeing me ;" but, on calling at her bouse the very next day in my very best attire, though I saw her at the window, she had desired the servant to say that " she was not at home." On waiting on an old pupil with whom I had made the tour of Europe, he professed, in the warmest manner, " that he was never so much honored and delighted in his life" as by my visit ; and I was scarcely oue of the room, when I heard him characterise me to his companions as " a troublesome old pedant."