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has been applauded also year after year, generation after generation, century after century, in the seclusion of colleges, and raised the first tumult in the boyish heart. To maintain the inordinate pride of a few worthless families, hecatombs of brave men have fallen, and industry has been turned into brutality. Even in our own country many millions have been idly squandered in ships unfit for sailing and unnecessary for fighting. This we know from one whose very name bears the warrant of truth and intelligence. There were times when the lords of the admiralty would have been fined to the full amount of the damages they have sanctioned. We may soon want the ships that are no more; for, ere six months are over, we shall have to support the Turkish empire. If we trust to France for help, we shall receive from her just as much as before. But there are masses now inert which our machinery may raise, combine, and make combustible. Turkey, Hungary, Poland, Circassia, Persia, will occupy the hundred hands of the Muscovite giant, vulnerable in many parts of his body, and liable to sudden death from that curial apoplexy which has carried off nearly all his predecessors.

December 14.

WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.

and entered the ground beneath. It was fortunate that the serpent did not bend backwards, and entwine its bold pursuer in its folds-nor less so that Count Bismark, the only one who was armed with over the trunk of the tree, he faced the enemy, a gun, came up at this critical moment; climbing which, hissing, lifted his head erect in the air, and, with great coolness, gave it a shot à bout pourtant through the head, which laid it apparently lifeless on the ground. My companions described the creature's strength as wonderful, writhing in immense in its efforts to escape the well-aimed strokes of folds, and flinging its head from one side to another Count Oriolla; but a few moments after the shot which carried away its lower jaw and a part of the head, the serpent seemed to arouse from its stupefaction, and Count Bismark hastened back to the All this was boat to fetch Mr. Theremin's gun. the work of a few moments. I had hardly left the beside Count Oriolla, on the trunk of the tree, boat more than two or three minutes, when I stood with the serpent coiled up in an unshapen mass at its roots. I could scarcely wait to hear what had passed, but seized a heavy pole, from one of the men who gathered round, to have a thrust at the creature's head. Raising itself up, it now seemed reach us on the tree. to summon its last strength, but it vainly strove to I stood ready, armed with a cutlass to thrust into its jaws, while the count stirred up the serpent, provoking it to fight; the creature's strength, however, was exhausted. Count Bismark now returned, and shattered its ENCOUNTER WITH A BOA-CONSTRICTOR.-I was skull with another shot, and it died in strong conjust loading my fowling-piece, when I observed an vulsions. Though I could not share with my valobject on the white mud of the river, which gleamed iant companions the honor of the day, I was fortuin the sun's rays like a coil of silver; it was a ser-nate enough to arrive in time for the "Hallali." pent, basking in the sun. We rowed toward the Our prey proved to be a large boa-constrictor, measspot, and Count Oriolla fired at it from a distance uring sixteen feet two inches in length, and one of thirty to forty paces; he missed it with the first foot nine inches in circumference; the sailors called barrel, but wounded it in the tail with the second, it a "Sucurijú." In skinning and dissecting it, a which was charged with large shot No. 2. This dozen membranaceous bags or eggs were found in seemed to rouse the creature; our boat grounded its body, containing young serpents, some still almost at the same moment a little higher up than alive, and from one to two feet long. The counts where the serpent lay, but some intervening bushes kindly presented me with the beautiful skin, which prevented our keeping it in sight. We all eagerly was spotted white, yellow, and black, and covered, jumped into the river, followed by most of the with small scales. This trophy of their valor crew; Counts Oriolla and Bismark were overboard now forms the chief ornament of my residence at in a minute, but as the real depth of the water Monbijou.-Prince Adalbert's Travels. seemed to me very problematical, I leaped quickly on to a withered branch of an enormous prostrate THE Liverpool Albion announces the death of Mr. tree, which served as a bridge to the shore. Al- John Duncan, the African traveller, on board her. though I had little hope of coming up with the ser- majesty's ship Kingfisher, in the Bight of Benin, pent, I advanced as fast as I could along the slip-on the 3d November. The Albion gives an interpery trunk-a thing by no means easy, on account|esting biographical note. "Mr. Duncan was the of my large India rubber shoes, which the swollen son of a small farmer in Wigtonshire, North Britstate of my feet had obliged me to wear for some ain. At an early age he enlisted in the first regiweeks past. Just then I heard the report of a gun ment of Life Guards, in which he served with on my left, and, instantly jumping into the morass, credit for eighteen years, and discharged himself, warm from the sun's heat, sinking into it up to my with a high character for good conduct, about the knee at every step, and leaving one of my shoes in year 1840. In the voyage to the Niger, in 1842, the mud, I hastened in the direction of the sound. Mr. Duncan was appointed armorer; and, during Count Oriolla, who was the first to leap out of the the progress of that ill-fated expedition, he held a boat, ran to the spot where he had wounded the ser-conspicuous place in all the treaties made by the pent, and caught a sight of the reptile as it was commissioners with the native chiefs. He returned trying to escape into the forest. Suddenly it glided to England, one of the remnant of the expedition, 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 from the tail. The count vainly tried to stop the monstrous reptile, which dragged him along, though the cutlass had pierced his body

with a frightful wound in his leg and a shattered body, from which he long suffered. With a return of health, however, came a renewed desire to explore Africa; and, under the auspices of the council of the Geographical Society, he started in the summer of 1844, not without substantial proofs from many of the members of the interest they took in his perilous adventure. The particulars of his

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journey along the coast until his arrival in Dahomey, were detailed in letters to his friends, and pub-lish translation. lished in the Geographical Society's Journal of that period. From Dahomey he again returned to the Underneath is buried all that could be buried of coast, having traversed a portion of country hith- a woman once most beautiful. She cultivated her erto untrodden by European, but broken down in genius with the greatest zeal, and fostered it in health, and in extreme suffering from the old wound others with equal assiduity. The benefits she conin his leg. Fearful that mortification had com- ferred she could conceal-her talents not. Elegant menced, he at one time made preparations for cut-in her hospitality to strangers, charitable to all. ting off his own limb a fact which displays the She retired to Paris in April, and there she breathed wonderfully great resolution of the man. All her last on the fourth of June, 1849.

these journeys were undertaken on a very slenderlyfurnished purse, which, on his arrival at Whydah, was not only totally exhausted, but he was compelled to place himself in pawn, as he expressed it, for advances which would take years of labor on the coast to liquidate. From that disagreeable position his friends of the Geographical Society soon relieved him by an ample subscription, with which he proposed to make a journey from Cape Coast to Timbuctu; but the state of his health compelled him to return to England. He was lately appointed vice-consul to Dahomey, for which place he was on his way when he died. Mr. Duncan leaves a wife, who is, we believe, but poorly provided for."

From the Examiner.

LADY BLESSINGTON.

WHAT IS A CENTURY? HOW MUCH IS HALF ?

CAN you count a hundred? Probably you have advanced thus far in the science of arithmetic, and in that case you can say whether a second hundred begins before the first is completed. It sounds a simple question, but very wise persons seem to have been fairly overwhelmed by it. The Times of Monday last spoke of that 31st of December as

"the close of the first half of the nineteenth century." If the leading journal is royally superior to niceties and exactnesses, the Examiner, a journal not addicted to verbal laxity, had already spoken in the same sense. A controversy arose—is 1850 the closing year of the former half of the century, or the opening of the latter half?

At last, the grave and highly critical Standard

AT the close of Miss Power's memoir of this lamented lady, prefixed to the republication of her last novel, Country Quarters, we find the sub-enters the controversy, but professes itself unable joined:

On her tomb, the following inscriptions-the English from the pen of Barry Cornwall, the latter from that of Walter Savage Landor-render worthy homage to her gifts and virtues. "In memory of Marguerite, Countess of Blessington, who died on the 4th of June, 1849. In her lifetime she was loved and admired for her many graceful writings, her gentle manners, her kind and generous heart. Men famous for art and science, in distant lands, sought her friendship; and the historians and scholars, the poets and wits and painters of our own country, found an unfailing welcome in her ever hospitable home. She gave, cheerfully, to all who were in need, help and sympathy and useful counsel; and she died lamented by many friends. They who loved her best in life, and now lament her most, have reared this tributary marble over the place of her rest." "Hic est depositum quod superest mulieris quondam pulcherrimæ. Benefacta celara potuit, ingenium suum non potuit. Peregrinos quos libet grata hospitalitate convocabat Lutetiæ Parisiorum ad meliorem vitam abiit Die iv, mensis

Junii mdcccxlix."

to decide. It calls to mind how "fifty years ago a controversy was raised as to the proper commencement of the century;" and then the distinction is profoundly analyzed-" On one side, it was contended that the period commenced on the 1st of January, 1800; on the other, it was argued that the first day must be determined by the commencement of notation, viz., January, 1801. Though upon the decision of this question depends the other question, whether to-morrow [Tuesday] will open the half-century or not, we must leave it, as it has lain for fifty years, still doubtful." The crown of wisdom is modesty.

Possibly the fact that the Irish Union took effect on the first day of January, 1800, may have led some minds to regard that epoch as a commencement; but surely, not a few persons must have made so much progress in arithmetic as to know that a question of numeration can only be decided by the laws of notation. Juvenile memory may be content to start from the year 1800 or 1801; but It would seem, however, that the Latin epitaph such of us as are older are fain to go further back has not been adopted as written by Mr. Landor. to that year of obsolete fashions "the year one;" As given by Miss Power it would have been little now, if you begin with the year 1 and count a worthy of his acknowledged reputation as hundred, you will find that the sum is only comscholar. We subjoin an exact copy of the orig-plete with the year 100; the second century, inal, that the classical reader may form his own judgment.

Infra sepultum est

id omne quod sepeliri potest, mulieris quondam pulcherrimæ. Ingenium suum summo studio coluit,

aliorum pari adjuvit.

Benefacta sua celare novit, ingenium non ita.
Erga omnes erat largâ bonitate,
peregriris eleganter hospitalis.
Venit Lutetiam Parisiorum Aprili mense,
quarto Junii die supremum suum obiit.

a

therefore, did not commence, if we remember rightly, till the year 101; and, by all the laws of sense, each corresponding century began with its own first year, and not with the year of the previous century.

Establish the other rule, and you incur some consequences very curious to the scientific philosopher. For example, in a full regiment of a thousand men, the hundredth man would obey, not the captain of the first company, but him of the second; and so on through the ten hundreds. But,

at.

then, to which hundred would the thousandth man | well-shaped heads and intelligent countenances are belong to the first company? or would he be very rare amongst them. Occasionally the eye an eleventh company by himself? Again, if a rests upon a cranium of a superior order-grand in outline and finely moulded; the man belonging to thousand pounds were to be divided among ten it, no doubt, has a history, if it could only be got men, you would count out ninety-nine to the first, But the vast mass of heads and faces seem then you would begin the second hundred, and so made and stamped by nature for criminal acts. But what would you do with the thousandth Such low, misshapen brows-such animal and senpound?-give it to the tenth man, who would then sual jaws-such cunning, reckless, or stupid looks have 1017.; or give it to the first, to make up his-hardly seem to belong to anything than can by courtesy be called human.

on.

1007. Extending the principle, you may say that the baby born at the beginning of the century is born at the end of the last, so that he really is one year old on the day of his birth.

From the Examiner.

THE DISTRESSED NEEDLEWOMEN.

The colloquial name of the century is evidently THE letters published in the Morning Chronicle, the misleading point. We talk of the year" eigh- descriptive of the moral and physical condition of teen hundred and one," and so forth; and then the laboring population in our agricultural disthe last year of the series, "nineteen hundred," tricts, have rendered generally apparent that which sounds as if it belonged to the new series; whereas was already known to the comparatively few who it only consummates the nineteenth century. The had made the subject matter for inquiry-that word "eighteen" here belongs to the past, and our bold peasantry, their country's pride," are the current century is expressed only by the units not exactly such as poets have sung and visionaand tens in " 49" or " 50"-those are the years of ries have dreamt of them, but that they are livthe uncompleted nineteenth. To think that the ing in a state of brutality disgraceful to the age, nineteenth century began with the year 1800, is as and to a country which boasts of its civilization. much as to confound" Solomon the son of David" Without stopping to inquire at whose door the with David himself.-Spectator. blame should chiefly be laid for this evil, it may still be said that the poor people themselves are not justly chargeable with it, but that the reproach must be divided among the educated classes, including our governors spiritual and temporal, who have been contented to leave their less favored fellow-creatures in so horrid a condition of ignorance and its attendant vices.

From Dixon's London Prisons.

to be diseased without destroying the healthfulness of the whole, and any attentive reader of the letters above alluded to, cannot have failed to observe that the vices of the country add fearfully to the wretchedness of our town population.

THERE is a certain monotony and family likeness in the criminal countenance, which is at once repulsive and interesting; repulsive from its rugged outlines, its brutal expression, its physical deformity; interesting from the mere fact of that commonness of outward character; the expression and the strucIn the body politic, as in the human frame inditure and style of features being so unnaturally vidually, it is not possible for one of the members alike, as to suggest that there must be a common cause at work, to produce upon these faces so remarkable a result. What is this cause? Is it mere habit of life? Intellectual pursuits, it is well known, affect the character, even the material form of the face; why not criminal pursuits? No person can be long in the habit of seeing masses of To this cause is clearly attributable a very criminals together, without being struck with the large part of the distress which marks the consameness of their appearance. Ugliness has some dition of the class for whose supposed benefit so intimate connection with crime. No doubt, the liberal a subscription is at this time being made. excitement, the danger, the alternate penalties and It has been shown that in the metropolis there are excesses attached to the career of the criminal, to be found 120,000 more female than male inhabmake him ugly. A handsome face is a thing rarely itants, such excess being called to it from the rural seen in a prison, and never in a person who has been a law-breaker from childhood. Well-formed districts by the greater opportunities for employWith them heads-round and massive, denoting intellectual ment which are here to be found. power-may be seen occasionally in the jail; but they bring the laxity of morals which is the result a pleasing, well-formed face, never. What does of their country training; and failing, as many this ugliness of the prison-population indicate? among them must fail, to find immediate opportuThis that the habit of crime becomes in a few nities for honest employment, they find no shame years a fixed organism, which finds expression in forming temporary connections which must, in

even in the external form. And is not such a fact

full of morals? Does not every one feel how im- most cases, cut them off from future success in portant it is in the interests of society, in the life. Sooner or later, and probably at no distant interests of the criminal himself-that he should date from their first formation, these connections be dealt with in the earliest stage of his career, are broken off, frequently too in consequence of before the evil that is in him has had time to fix the contraction of another brutalizing habit-the itself in the organization, to grow fast in the ever- addiction to gin. Thus thrown upon the world, hardening granite? A man who has not seen masses of men in a great the poor woman has no resource (being without prison cannot conceive how hideous the human character or friends who can help her) but in countenance can become. Looking in the front of becoming the underling of the slopsellers' “unthese benches, one sees only demons. Moderately dertakers," or in following a still more abandoned

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course than that which she has quitted; and it is together more odious than the slanderer himself.

too much to be feared that of such unfortunates the larger part of the "distressed needlewomen" of this metropolis is composed.

To remove such from the streets and garrets of London would be productive to them of but doubtful good, while it would only prepare the way for probably it might rather be said certainly—a fresh supply from the country, to run the same course of wretchedness.

By his vile officiousness, he makes that poison effective which else would be inert; for three fourths of the slanderers in the world would never injure their object, except by the malice of go-betweens, who, under the mask of double friendship, act the part of double traitors.-W. Episcopalian.

MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.

A CHAPEL exists in Red Lion Square, London, in which thrice on every Sunday the service of the Church of England is performed and a sermon preached, by signs, for the deaf and dumb.-Calendar.

ELECTRIC LIGHT.-A curious and melancholy fact connected with the electric light has just been communicated to us. A gentleman, near Waltham Abbey, experimenting with the electric light a few days ago, having an incised wound on his left hand, touched the conductor, a copper wire, and shortly afterwards experienced an irritation, which immediately spread in inflammation to the tumors appeared all over the body and limbs. Some of arm. The arm became immensely swollen, and large the tumors were opened, and every means resorted to for the purpose of checking the poison, but without avail. least hope of recovery.—London Mining Journal. We learn that the unfortunate patient lies without the

The only certain remedy for this evil would be to cut off the supply, and this can only be done by reforming the character of the rural population, one means for which would be found in rendering their country homes less squalid and miserable. The evil has been the growth of time, and so too must be the remedy. All that the government can do to hasten the cure is by imparting greater intelligence to the people; and by the removal of all legislative obstructions-towards which much has already been done to render possible the exercise of that intelligence. To those among us THE latest literary announcements in London, comprise who are favored by Providence with the ability to the following novelties: Dr. Johnson, his Religious Life care for others, and especially to those who, de- and Death, by the author of Dr. Hookwell; Anecdotes of London and its Celebrities, by Jesse; Wanderings of a riving princely incomes from the labor of the agri- Pilgrim, during 24 years in the East, with 50 plates; Aucultural class, are more directly called upon to watch tonina, or the Fall of Rome, by Wilkie Collins; Essays over their well-being, it should seem to be an im-eral Ecclesiastical Dictionary, by Rev. E. H. Landon; by Henry Rogers, from the Edinburgh Review; A Genperative duty to do all that lies within their power Women of France during the 17th century, by Julia Kavto remove this stigma from our land. They may by Dr. Lardner; An Autumn in Sicily, with Plates; The anagh; Railway Economy, or the Modern Art of Transfer, be assured that not only will they reap the reward Comedy of Dante, newly translated by Bannermann; of inward satisfaction for any efforts they make to Spring Tide, or the Angler and his Friends, by Akerman; this end, but that their mere worldly interests must Conversations of Goethe with Eckerman, translated by Oxenford, &c.-New York Post. be benefited, through the moral and intellectual improvement of their humbler fellow-creatures.

SANTA ANNA AND HIS WIFE. In a letter from Dr. Foote to the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, written from Jamaica, and dated in December last, the following pas

sage occurs :

SUB-ROSA.-The rites of hospitality are very The handsomest house, externally, I have seen in ancient, and held to be sacred amongst all nations. Kingston, or its environs, and the most like a gentleman's To break bread with one, is considered as receiving mansion within, according to northern notions, is the one a pledge of inviolable friendship. Judas' having occupied by General Santa Anna, about two miles out of taken bread at Jesus' hand greatly aggravated his town, on a road affording a charming drive. I saw it and its occupant by accident last Sunday evening. I was treachery. If all who have heard of the term at riding with the attorney-general of the island, to whom the head of this article, had comprehended its ori- I am greatly indebted for his kind and courteous attengin and meaning, much mischief and heart-burning tions, when, as we drew near a house of good size and amongst brethren would have been prevented. In- style, surrounded by grounds nicely kept, he asked me if gratitude is the basest of sins, and the worst species inquired if I would like to see him; and almost without I knew Santa Anna. On my replying in the negative, he of ingratitude is to misrepresent, betray, and injure waiting for an answer, turned in the open gateway, and those whose hospitalities we have shared. Language up the broad road to the door. On alighting we were cannot be found adequate to express the enormity ushered into a large drawing-room, neatly furnished, and of an offence that consists in receiving kindness in a few moments Santa Anna, accompanied by his wife and daughter, joined us. from the generous outflowings of a warm-hearted I was disappointed in his appearance. He is taller and stouter than I had supfamily, and then to use such favors as an opportu- posed, and there is much grace and even dignity in his nity to injure and calumniate it. Let all, but espec- carriage. His manner was bland and courteous, but ially Christians, remember the meaning of sub-rosa. grave. Our intercourse was confined to the merest comIt is a term that now passes current as significant on-places, for he had but little English and I less Spanof secrecy. Its origin is in this wise: Among the had often heard, is worthy all the encomiums she has ish at command. Madame Santa Anna, of whose beauty Greeks the rose was consecrated to Hippocrates, received. Her figure is exquisitely moulded, plump to the genius of silence; and either the rose or its the extremest point consistent with perfect health, grace figure was placed upon the ceiling of their dining-cool opaque white, peculiar, I believe, to the thoroughof motion, and symmetry. Her complexion is of the rooms, implying that whatever was done therein should be kept from the public. It was done sub-rosa. -N. O. Presb.

I

bred Spanish woman. If her eyes, which are black and sparkling, were a trifle larger, and relieved by a slightly increased depth of shade, so as to correspond more strictly to the classical outline of her head and face, she GO-BETWEENS.-There is perhaps not a more would be one of the most beautiful women I have seen. odious character in the world than that of a go-be-She speaks English very well, and her manner is exceedtween-by which I mean that creature who carries ingly lady-like, frank, and gracious." to the ears of one neighbor every injurious observation that happens to drop from the mouth of another. Such a person is the slanderer's herald, and is al

A GENTLEMAN of London, writing by a late steamer to a friend in this country, incidentally says:"I am old enough to have witnessed the burning of the Bastile. I have also witnessed occurrences in my own

country, in the year 1779, and (what I may not have told you when last I saw you, for fear you might have thought me one of a nation of barbarians) I recollect the time when people used to be burnt in London by judicial sentence! True as I am now writing to you, on the 18th of March, 1789, my fifteenth birth-day, I saw a person walked up to the stake alive, fagots put round him, and burnt; and for what? For coining, or, as it was called in the law phrase of the day, 'petty treason.' No wonder you Yankees disclaim us for your progenitors. But let me add, as a salvo for my country, that in the following session of Parliament, 1790, this punishment was abolished, so that I probably saw the last victim of our then humane code. Hardly anybody of the present day will believe me when I tell them this. Our own Lord Chief Justice Denman, when told of it some three or four months ago, would not believe it till he had satisfied himself of the fact from the official record. And lest you, too, should be pricking up your ears, let me assure you it is a plain, unvarnished, veritable tale."

AFTER hearing long arguments, and "taking time to deliberate," the Judge of the Blackburn County Court has decided that domestic cats are valuable property, and are not to be killed with impunity. A cat belonging to Mr. Marsden, a farmer, was shot by a gamekeeper, though he had been expressly warned not to destroy it. Counsel for the keeper quoted ancient cases from the Year-books to the effect that cats are feræ naturæ, and worse than valueless. The judge gave 2s. 6d. damages.

THE following is a comparative list of the productions of the French press in 1848 and 1849

In 1849. In 1848.
Works in all languages, dead and living, 7,378
Engravings and lithographic prints, 672
Musical compositions,

226

7,234
1,055
257

8,276 8,546

being a balance in favor of 1848 of 270. In the above account are not included the daily and other journals. -Morning Chronicle.

IN clearing out the ballast of the Enterprise and Investigator, on their return from the Arctic regions, several pieces of limestone were found, composed mostly of innumerable shells and minute fishes and skeletons of sea animals in a petrified state. Other portions of the limestone contain perfect specimens of petrified moss and a few petrifactions of the ground willow, the largest plant of the Arctic regions, similar in appearance to the branches of the stunted heath of the North of Scotland, only a beautiful willow-green color, with a willow-shaped leaf. Several of the officers of the garrison have selected the best specimens of these fragments of rocks from the Arctic regions, with the intention of preserving them. -Times Correspondence.

AT Marylebone Police Office, on Monday, Mr. W. Johnson, the Secretary to the Royal College of Chemistry, called the magistrate's attention to the very baneful practice of throwing salt upon snow in the streets: the freezing mixture" thus formed is 32° below zero; the freezing brine penetrates the boots and shoes of passengers, and keeps them unhealthily damp for days. Mr. Broughton thanked Mr. Johnson for his public caution, but said he had no legal power to prevent the practice.

THE new word invented by M. Thiers, for the intentions alleged to be those of Louis Napoleon for his personal aggrandizement, is Soulouquerie (a significant allusion to his Imperial Majesty of Haiti.)

A PAMPHLET from the pen of Dr. Palacky, the leader of the ultra-Czech party, advocating the federative system instead of that of centralization, which forms the basis of the constitution of March, had caused a great sensation in the political world of Austria.

M. DE LAMARTINE is expected at his residence in Paris. His health being improved, he will soon, it is said, resume his place in the Legislative Assembly.

AT Vienna, on the 27th, a sentinel fired at and killed a medical student, who had refused in insulting terms to cease smoking his cigar, in obedience to the sentinel's order.

MOORE the poet is in the enjoyment of good health, physical and intellectual, at his cottage at Sloperton; he is not living in more than the ordinary retirement in which he has passed the last seven or eight years of his life.-Art Journal.

THE Lords of the Admiralty have fixed upon a site for a monument to the late Sir John Barrow, on the Hill of Hoad, near his native cottage.

It appears that there are 28,000,000 spindles at work in the world. Out of these, England, including the United Kingdom, commands a force of 17,500,000; America, with all her competition, 2,000,000; Russia about the same number; France, 3,000,000; and Belgium considerably less than any of the three.

THE "Chelmsford Chronicle" says, that most of the burial clubs in Essex have been broken up since the recent proceedings showed the crimes they might instigate.

CAPTAIN BAINBRIDGE, of the Royal Engineers, in a letter to the "Times," earnestly advocates the use of heavy of extricating the vessels now going on the Arctic expedi charges of gunpowder in blowing up the ice, as a means tion, when they shall be inclosed by it.

MADAME SONTAG IN A SNOW-DRIFT.-On the morn

ing of Dec. 27th, Madame Sontag and party left Glasgow for Aberdeen to attend a morning concert on the following day. All went well till the train reached Glammis, when a greater depth of snow was experienced, and thence to Laurence-kirk the speed was materially retarded. At Middleton-bridge, about a mile or a mile and a half further on, the engine ran into a cutting filled with snow to the depth of six feet, and then became completely immovable. At this time, five in the afternoon, the blast was most fierce and cutting, carrying the drift from the fields into the hollow of the railway, and rapidly burying the carriages. The situation, as may be imagined, was anything but agreeable for the passengers. A consultation having been held with the guard and driver, Mr. Wood determined to leave the train and endeavor to reach Laurence-kirk on foot. This, with the assistance of two guides, he happily accomplished, although the strength of the wind and the depth of the snow brought them several times to a standstill. Aid having been procured, and a basket of provisions got ready, the party again started for the imbedded train. The wind being now in their faces, the task became more difficult, as well as dangerous, but by avoiding the road and taking through the fields, from which the snow had been partially dislodged, the train was once more reached at half-past seven. The question was now whether it was possible to remove the ladies from the carriages, and gain the summit of the cutting. Madame Sontag with THE "Lloyd" of Vienna states, for a year past a journal undaunted energy at once determined to attempt it, and has been published, in manuscript, under the designation descended from the carriage. Men were sent on before of the "Aurora," in the madhouse of Graetz, (Styria,) by to make a track, when Madame Sontag, after great exersome of the patients, aided by the chief medical man. tion and several falls, reached the level ground. There Ar Valladolid, as soon as the father of the King Con- the blast became quite blinding; but Madame Sontag, sort of Spain received the news of the queen's being in having covered her head with a cloak, was soon supported the family-way, he directed a magnificent religious sothrough the fields and over the fences, to the house of Mr. lemnity to be celebrated in honor of "Our Lady of Ex-Wilson, a most hospitable farmer, where, along with pectation," at which all the authorities and an immense Signor Piatti, she remained all night. Mr. Wood, with Count Rossi, Signor F. Lablache, Signor Calzolari, and concourse of people assisted. some others of the party, again faced the blast, and reached Laurence-kirk in safety, although much worn. Between Drumlithie and Middleton-bridge there were five engines and four trains all fast. Next morning the snow had so completely filled the cutting as to bury the carriages.-Caledonian Mercury.

THE "Venice Gazette" contains a notification informing the inhabitants that Field-Marshal Radetzky, being apprized of the excellent behavior of the people of Venice, has directed that they shall be henceforward permitted to go out at any time of the night.

AT Raab the Jews have been prohibited from the pur. chase of houses. In the district of Sandec, in Galicia, the municipal authorities have menaced with a fine of 50 florins any Christian householder who lets lodgings to a Jew.

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