MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3927, 15 October 1873, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

A distinguished soldier was buried on the 4th June, who was in his early life the origin of a saying which has since heen " familiar in our mouths as household words." General Buckley, before he entered the army, wae a page of honor to George 111., and one evening the monarch was walking, in tbe Home Park, wben he suddenly received a swinging blow between the shoulders, aud at the same time a boyish voice oxclaimed, " One for you, Buckley." Before the astonished Sovereign could turn, his assailant had disappeared, - but having a pretty clear notion of tbe cause of the mistake, on returning to the Castle the King summoned all the pages, and addressed them with the now historical words, " S-s-show me the man — yes, the man — that struck Buckley — struck Buckley !" It is needless to say not one of tbe boys answered, but when the King added " Because I was Buckley," the confusion of the culprit betrayed him. All the notice, however, the kindly farmer-king took of the event was to send soon after lo both boys the commissions they were longing for, and while one of them served his country nobly in India and the Crimea, where he died of dysentry, the other faithfully served his old master's granddaughter until his death last month.

The Dundee " Advertiser" says : — The enterprising Aberdonian who went to Egypt for the purpose of leasing the Pyramids and letting them as a show at so much per ascent, has returned to this country disappointed. He found that a lease of the Pyramids could be had easily enough, but he also found that to obtain the fees for mounting them was another matter altogether, to be secured with tbe utmost difficulty, if at all. The Viceroy's officials would hold themselves responsible for nothing but an instant descent on the Aberdeen man's goods and chattels if he failed to produce his rent at the proper moment ; and as there was every probability, if he took possession of the Pyramids, that some of the half-naked and playful sons of Pharoah, who now levy " bucksheesh"on sight-seers, would practice on bis person with a cross between a cutlass and a carving knife, he very wisely concluded that a stragetic movement homewards was the one to which prudence and his pocket, to say nothing of his skin, unmißtakeably pointed. . The Scotch Conservatives are about to start a daily paper in Glasgow, and £70,000 is said to have been subscribed for the purpose. Every penny of it will be wanted. New offices are, being built ; two Walter machines (each costing over £3000) are being constructed ; and tbe new venture is to be launched with great spirit. Dukes and very wealthy commoners are interested in it. Tbe business manager will be Mr Frederick Wicks, now on the stafifof the " Times," and author of a useful little treatise on the British Constitution. Tbe editor will be Mr Patterson, who formerly conducted the " Press."

The " Jewish Chronicle" says : — The " Belfast Morning News" has noticed on more than one occasion Mr Barnett's letter to the " Jewish Chronicle" in aid of his theory, that large numbers of Jews settled in Ireland, that Jeremiah is identical with the Oilam Fola, and the Irish Coronation Stone in Westminster Abbey is really Jacob's Stone. The ** Belfast Morning News" adds that an English lady, of rare learning and attainments, Mrs Wilkes, has in the press a learned and curious work, urging the affinity of the Hebrew and Celtic races. The journal adds that there is no doubt as to an affinity between the old Irish language and alphabet and some of the Chaldean languages and alphabets, Hebrew or Phoenician.

The 18th Hoyal Irish has the honor of possessing the oldest soldier in the British army, or perhaps in the world, in the person of the Colonel of the Regiment, General Sir John Forster Fitzgerald, G.C.8., tbe senior General in the army, and a veteran of eighty years' service, his first commission as ensign bearing date the 29th of October, 1793. At the early age of eighteen this distinguished officer was a major, having obtained his first commission when he was eight years old ; in six months and ten days after he was a captain, and joined his regiment — the 4.0th — as a captain of seven and a half years' standing at the age of sixteen. Sir John has been a full General for the last nineteen years, and Colonel of the 18th Royal Irish for thirteen years. He commanded the light infantry regiment at the battle of Salamanca, and a brigade at the Pyrenees in 1813 as LieutenantColonel.