Colonial Times (Hobart, Tas. : 1828 - 1857), Tuesday 24 March 1846, page 4


ODDS AND ENDS.

(From the late European Papers.)

It is stated that "in future no subordi-nate is to be taken into the Grand Junction service whose stature does not reach five feet eight inches."— During the late season, 450,000 persons bathed in Hyde Park, with only one fatal accident.—Mr. H. Hill, of Worcester succeeded, the other day, in extracting from the hand of James Hull a musket ball, which he received at the battle of Waterloo.—The Wesleyan Methodists have just purchased a magnificent house in Stephen's Green, Dublin, to be appropriated to the use of a new college, for the edu-cation of persons intended to become preachers in their society.—The Queen of Spain has received a splendid tiara set with diamonds, and worth £5000, as a present from the Sultan.—The native population of the province of Algiers is estimated at 2,500,000.—A census of Madrid has just been completed, from which it appears that the population at present amounts to 188,227 souls.—The King of Hanover has purchased Mr. Hayden's repetition of Napoleon musing at St Helena, and has placed it at his palace of Herenhausen.— An advertiser in the newspapers offers to make anybody capable of earning £10 a week, by "railway surveying and levelling," in a fortnight or less.—The London Times, with its supplement of eight pages, has frequently, of late, given circulation to upwards of 1700 advertisements a day !— We learn from Cabool, that Akhbar Khan had determined on a pilgrimage to Mecca ! —The Ordnance Survey for the county of Cork is completed ; the number of sheets for the whole county is 150, covering a surface of 2000 square feet, the scale being in the proportion of six inches to the mile. At Berlin, on the 11th September, died the Baron de Liechstenstein a distinguished dramatic poet, and translator into German of many foreign pieces, as well as nearly all the French operas which have, during the last year, been performed in Berlin.— An old soaker "down east" accounts for his perpetual thirst, from the fact that he was weaned on salt fish !—There is in Philadelphia a lawyer so short-sighted that he cannot go to sleep without spectacles. —A carriage without horses was advertised in London in the year 1790, and stated to have only one wheel. The curious in me-chanics were invited to see it. Many of the members of the Society of Arts attended, and in the ardour of expectation were shown a wheelbarrow. — Louis Phillippe had around him, on the 6th October, the anni-versary of his birthday, his wife, his sister, four sons, four daughters-in-law, and nine grandchildren.—The Augsburgh Gazette states from Berlin, that the King of Prussia has received from Queen Victoria a letter of thanks for the kind reception that she met with in the Rhenish provinces.—The Augs-burgh Gazette states that the yield of silk in Italy has, this year, exceeded the expec-

tations of the cultivators.—The Constitu-

tional Committee of the Swedish Storthing have passed a resolution in favour of the abolition of the law excluding Jews from the kingdom.—An American paper says,— "The man who lost his eye-sight by reading a borrrowed newspaper, has recovered it since he became a subscriber."—The num-ber of negro slaves in the civilised and Christian world is estimated at 6,650,000 —viz., United States, 2,600,000, Brazil, 2,500,000 ; ( Spanish colonies, 800,000, French colonies, 250,000 ; Dutch, Danish, and Swedish colonies, 100,000, South American Republics, 400,000.—During the year 1844, 3303 persons were killed by machinery, railways, falls of stone, carriage, horses, &c. ; 3057 by fire, viz., 2,577 by burns, 332 by scalding, and 148 by ex-plosions; 1950 by drowning, 158 by acci-dental poisoning. There were also 65 cases of murder, and 83 of manslaughter.— Mr. Wilham, of Lartington Hall, Yorkshire, has ordered all the game on his estate to be destroyed.— The Legislature of Connecticut has protested against the annexation of the

slave state of Texas by Congress, as "an alarming encroachment upon the rights of

the freemen of the Union."— There is at

present growing in full vigour, within the policies of Methven, a stately oak tree, the trunk of which measures 700 cubic feet. The age cannot be ascertained ; but in the year 1722 the then Laird of Methven was offered 500 marks Scots for it.—During, the last six years 54 new Roman Catholic Churches have been erected in England. Many of them are on the largest scale of parochial building in this country. Seven religious houses have been erected ; nineteen, new communities of nuns, and nine houses of religious men.— A new body has been formed under the title of the English Homoeopathic Association, to promote in-quiry into the claim of homeopathy ;

its President is Lord Robert Grosvenor, and its Treasurer Mr. Marshall, the Chief Cashier of the Bank of England. The association already numbers between two and three hundred members.- A mem-ber of the Vermont Legislature rising to reply to a very frothy and ignorant orator on the other side, said—"Mr. Speaker, I can't reply to that ere speech : for it always wrenches me terrible to kick at nothing!"— The Times correspondent, and five other gentlemen of the Press, who attended her Majesty's movements on the continent were charged £1 4s each for breakfast on board the Prince of Prussia, steamer. Coffee was set down at 10s. 6d., a mutton chop at 8s., and eggs at 2s., each individual.— The personal property of the late Mr. John Stevenson Salt, of Stafford and London, Banker, has been sworn under £100,000.— An entire copy of Coverdale's first complete edition of the English Bible, bearing date 1535, was discovered the other day, in an old oak chest, at Holkham Hall, Norfolk.— The Duke of Leinster, the Earls of Ken-mare and Rosse, the Right Hon. D. R. Pigott and Sir T. F. Freemantle, have been appointed visitors of Maynooth College.— Dwaikanalth Tagore, the Hindoo, visited Mr. O'Connell, at Derrynane Abbey.—The collar of the uniform of the Royal Marines is to be blue, instead of blue and red as at present, from and after the 23rd April, 1846.—The Irish Railway Gazette says, that the five feet three inches gauge is to be adopted by all the new companies in Ireland, and that the Ulster and the Dublin and Kingston lines mean to adopt it also.— From 1810 to 1818, Westminster, bridge cost in repairs £83,097 6s. 9d. From 1818 to 1844 the amount was £82,661, and a further sum of £52,879 was, required for further works. The property belonging to the bridge only realises £7,464 11s. 8d. a year.—A statue of the late Lord Rolle, in the robes worn by him at the coronation, executed in white Carrara marble, at a cost of one thousand guineas, is being erected at Buton, the seat of Lady Rolle.—Messrs. Bury, Curtis, and Kennedy, of Liverpool, have been employed by the Emperor of Russia to build an iron bridge over the Neva, at St. Petersburg, 1078 feet in length and consisting of seven arches, the centre one of 159 feet span.— Ac-cording to an article in the Medical Times, dry air is prejudicial, and humidity be-neficial to consumptive patients. — The statistics of the French navy show that on the 1st of January last, the total number of persons employed in it was 112,363, of whom 11,156 were Captains, Masters, and Pilots; the total number on the 1st January, 1844, was 109,410, and on the lst January, 1838, only 89,524.—Flax growing is increasing in Ireland ; the crop this year, it is expected, will produce about 39,000 tons, valued at nearly £2,000,000. Captain Sir H. Hart, R.N., has been ap-pointed a commissioner of the Greenwich Hospital, vice Captain Maunsell, deceased. - There are not fewer than 678 of the name of Smith, in Manchester, of whom 106 are Johns. The Brown family numbers 262. - Mr. Murchison, president of the Geolo-gical Society of London, who made a scien-tific tour through Russia, has received from the Emperor the order of Stanislaus of the first class.-Guernsey cider is now selllng at Brixton for 18s. per hogshead, cask and all. - The crops of apples is unusually great in the Channel Islands.- In the New York Tribune, "a white gentleman advertises for a coloured lady, of education and reli-gions principles," as a wife; but intimates, by way of postscript, that any white lady, who detests slavery and is free from preju-dice against colour, will be attended to. The Jesuits of Saint Acheul, being dispersed by order of their superiors, have sold the Maison de Blament, which they possessed at the gates of Amiens. This important establishment, which formerly contained 200 students, has been purchased by the Dames du Bon Pasteur as a refuge for re-pentant young women.- Government have purchased Kinterbury estate, near Devon-

port, for £23,000, on which a new powder magazine is to be erected.- The rival gas companies of Aberdeen have advertised their gas at 4s. per thousand cubic feet. The following is a copy of a tailor's bill in 1616 ; " For making a suit of clothes, 4s.; for making a cloak, 1s 6d. ; for making a morning gown, 1s. 8d. ; for making a black gown, 1s. 6d."- Major-General Sackville Hamilton Berkeley, commanding the forces in Jamnica, has been appointed to the Colonelcy of the 75th Regiment, in suc-cession to the late General Sir William Hutchinson.— Messrs. Child and Co.'s, Temple-bar, is the oldest banking firm in London, and they still have their books of Charles the First's time, including the private account of Oliver Cromwell, who banked with them.