Morning Chronicle (Sydney, NSW : 1843 - 1846), Saturday 4 April 1846, page 4


MAHOMETAN SCHISM.-A new sect has lately set itself up in Persia, at the head of which is a mer-chant who had returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca, and proclaimed himself a successor of the Prophet. The way they treat such matters at Shiraz appears in the following account (June 23):- Four persons being heard repeating their profession of faith according to the form prescribed by the im-postor, were apprehended, tried, and found guilty of unpardonable blasphemy. They were sentenced to lose their beards by fire being set to them. The sentence was put into execution with all the zeal and fanaticism becoming a true believer in Maho-met. Not deeming the loss of beards a sufficient punishment, they were further sentenced the next day to have their faces blacked and exposed through the city. Each of them was led by a mirgazah (executioner), who had made a hole in his nose, and passed through it a string, which he sometimes pulled with such violence that the unfortunate fel-lows cried out alternately for mercy from the exe-cutioner, and for vengeance from Heaven. It is the custom in Persia on such occasions for the executioners to collect money from the spectators, and particularly from the shopkeepers in the bazaar. In the evening, when the pockets of the executioners were well filled with money, they led the unfortunate fellows to the city gate, and then turned them adrift. After which the mollahs at Shiraz sent men to Bushire with power to seize the impostor, and take him to Shiraz, where, on being tried, he very wisely denied the charge of apostacy laid against him, and thus escaped from punishment.-Times, Nov. 17. IRISH EVIDENCE. —"Pray my good man," said a judge to an Irishman, who was a witness on a trial, " what did pass between you and the prisoner P" Och, then, plase your lordship," says Pat, " sure I sees Phelim a top of the wall. '-Paddy, says he. ' What,' says I. ' Here,' says he. ' Where,' says I. ' Whist,' says he. ' Hush, says I; and that's all plase your lordship." The accumulated deficiencies in the French finances, for the last six years, amount to 25 millions sterling. How very often do we see men dying under the whip of their own cupidity, in full harness, pulling up the hill of their own ambition, when death kindly interposes, takes the burden offtheir galled shoulders and strips them for the shroud ! The King of Prussia had ordered the Court of Appeal of Breslau to institute a criminal prosecution against the Abbe Ronge, for offensive attacks upon the Catholic Church, in a work published by this German Reformer. The Emperor Nicholas has granted an amnesty to eleven Polish emigrants, who had incurred the penalty of death and confiscation of their property.