The Brecon Reporter and South Wales General Advertiser

POLITICAL GOSSIP. IT is not expected that the attack on Government relative to the Governor Eyre question will take place till after Easter, by which time all the evidence will be in hand. THE inhabitants of Paisley held a demonstration is favour of reform on Friday evening. Mr. Crum Ewing, the member for the burgh, spoke at some length on the necessity for a further extension of the electoral franchise. IT is expeoted that Prince Alfred will take his seat ia the House of Lords as a Peer of the Realm before the Session is over. IT was remarked, at the delivery of the Emperor of the French's Throne Speech, that, for the first time, the heir-apparent was placed at the right hand of the Sovereign—a position hitherto held by Prince Jerome, who was shifted this time to the left. As a remarkable fact, a Boston paper says, It is now at least ten days since George Francis Train has made a speech." AT the Reform meeting recently held at Leeds, Lord Houghton said he had "seen Lord Russell moved even to tears when he was obliged to abandon his own Reform Bill." THE Fenians in America appear to be as far as ever from earning to an agreement. In President (?) O'Mahony's address to the Fenian Congress, he declares that if the Senate faction had not tied his hands, he would ere now have had an Irish army on Irish soil fighting for independence, and an Irish fleet to sweep from the ocean England's commerce! FEELING will run high in the House of Lords this Session, if the report be true that the Bishop of London intends to persevere in his bill for more strictly pointing out disputed items of the Rubric -in fact, to assail the High Church party's proclivities and views on ritualism. A MEETING of the inhabitants of Keighley has been convened on the subject of parliamentary reform, and it is intended to put in a claim for the enfranchise- ment of the town in the new reform bill. Keighley, Haworth, and Bingley, containing a population of 40,000, and at present constituting a poor-law union and a registration district, has been suggested as a proper district for parliamentary representation. A MURRAIN has set in among the private and local bills before Parliament, for which such an unusual number had been given notice in the coming Session. With money at eight per cent., and no certainty that it may not go higher, the indispensable deposits have become impossible. All manner of negotiations are actively carrying on for compromises and postpone- ments, without prejudice," until a more convenient season. THERE is no truth whatever in the rumour that Sir Frederick Pollock, the Lord Chief Baron of the Ex- chequer, is about to retire from the bench. The learned judge completed his 84th year on January 12, and has sat on the bench longer than any judge of whom we have any record In the history of English jurisprudence. The learned judge has been twice married. By his first wife he had eleven children, and by his second thirteen, making a grand total of twenty- four, of whom twenty are living. His second son, Mr. Charles Pollock, was married a few days since to his third wife. THE present law lords are eight in number, and the majority of them are of a very advanced age. Lord Brougham is eighty-seven; Lord St. Leonards, eighty- four; Lord Wensleydale, eighty-three; the Lord Chancellor, seventy-five; Lord Kingsdown, seventy- two; Lord Chelmsford, seventy-one; Lord Westbury, sixty-five; Lord Romilly, sixty-three. The united ages of these eight peers amount to 600 years, giving an average of seventy-five to each. THE Sunday Gazette says, that among the election petitions confidenly spoken of for the coming session was one against Mr. Labouchere and Sir Henry Hoare, the Liberal members for Windsor, whose return was Baid by their Conservative opponents to have been materially aided by means against which the Corrupt Practices Act resolutely sets its face. We now learn that the petition is not likely to be proceeded with, an arrangement having been made that one of the sitting members will apply for the Chiltern Hundreds, Mr. Vansittart, the senior of the defeated Conservatives, allowed to come in without party opposition. THE Chancellor of the Exchequer, in acknowledging of the memorial adopted at the working m meeting, recently held at Bradford, has « a letter, in which the right hon. gentle- S/r «afcv'a n "-kegs to assure the memoralists that her M.ajes y government are examining the question lamest?80 its importance, and they will con- sider the bound to support, with deter- mination, ^proposals which it may be their duty to make in » °* such, vital importance to the com- munity at large. AT a very meeting of the advanced Liberals, held k?atre Royal, Sunderland, on Friday evemnf' ni._j t0l|Jrion signed by over 1,200 electors was press Alderman Candlish, the defeated Radical at the general election, asking him tc come 0pP°se the re-election of |Mr. Henry Fenwick, the' Bewly.appointed ^Civil Lord of the Admiralty, and, after some hesitation, he complied with the request, a d to all appearance there will be a warm contest. J- e Sronnda of opposi- tion are purely personal, hischarging Mr. Fenwick with neutrality at the and some of his leading supporters with op0n to their candidate. The Conservatives have as yet ramde no demonstration; and it will entirely depend upon the course they may take how the election will be deoidei. If they brought forward a candidate of "heir own, Fenwiek's prospects of re-election wouia Do only dubious; but if they do not do so, his return is pretty certain. THE last anecdote of the late King of the Belgiansis by no less a person than William Cornell Jewett, wno says that when he went to Europe on his indepen- dent peace mission," he requested King Leopold to act as umpire between the American ^Government 'and the rebels, and that the astute monarch replied that "he would not put his fingers between the bark and the tree."

+ Proposed Blind Asylum for Leeds.-A meet. ing was held at Leeds on Monday to take into con- sideration the establishment of a society for the relief of the indigent blind. The following resolution was adopted: That having heard the accounts of the working of industrial institutions for the blind in various parts of the United Kingdom, and finding that no similar provision existed in Leeds, this meeting cordially approves of the formation in Leeds of an industrial institution for the blind." A president and committee were then eleoted to oarry out the resolu- tion.

THE ARTS, LITERATURE, &a. --+- A LARGE imperial work, both in Chinese and Manshur language, is announced by the Prime Minis- ter To-tsin as completed. It is entitled Slcingheusi, Holy or Sacred Instructions by the Monarohs of the Reigning Dynasty." MRS. BEECHER STOWE has given us a capital set of small-sermons F no, reminders of trifling faults, under the name of "Little Foxes; or Insignificant Little Habits which Mar Domostic Happiness." CAPTAIN GRONOW'S Last Recollections has just appeared, this being the fourth and final series of his reminiscences and anecdotes. THE first part of the English edition of the Holy Bible, with Gustave Dora's illustrations, for which the public have been anxiously looking, is now announced for Feb. 24th. It was previously announced for January; but in consequence of the large number which will be required to meet the demand, the pub- lishers give notice that it will not be ready for delivery till Feb. 24. A specimen part, however, can be seen now at any bookseller's. THE first. monthly part of the new publication called the Working Man is just issued, and affords a better opportunity of estimating the magnitude of its aim than could be obtained from the weekly num- bers. The articles with which it is filled are all de- serving the attention of the working classes. The Workshops of the World," with the engravings accompanying them, will form a valuable series illus- trative of mechanical industry. For the artist work- man the articles entitled Art and Handicraft," with illustrations, afford many suggestions which the artisan may turn to profitable account. Soeial topics are dis- cussed with intelligence and fairness, and, among other features of the publication, contributions from working men themselves are doubtless among the most interesting and valuable. The Letters by a Lancashire Lad" will be read with interest. Alto- gether, working men may be congratulated upon having a journal deserving their notice and worthy their support, and well calculated to assist them in the great work of social and intellectual progress. THE only other literary venture of the present year, in the shape of periodicals worth mentioning, is a magazine called The Masonic Press," which, of course, is edited by A Man and a Brother," and will be chiefly read by brethren. "HESSE'S Organ Book," edited by Dr. Sfceggall, is announced. The organ compositions of Adolphe Hesse have obtained extensive recognition in England as well as in Germany; and this volume contains twenty-nine different pieces, most of them old-estab- lished favourites with all who admire true organ music. Dr. Steggall, himself one of our finest players, has edited the work in an admirable manner, his suggestions for pedaling the more difficult passages being of peculiar value. MR. BRIGHT is a votary of the poetic muse. He once submitted a bundle of MS. to a connection of a certain Quaker, M.P. and publisher, for revision and opinion. The revision was a work of time, but the opinion was not favourable; whereupon Mr. Bright suppressed his poetry, and it saved it from baptism in the printer's ink, and from the ordeal of fire at the hands of literary critics. This was a pity. As there is a lively revival of poetry just now, Mr. Bright may be induced to think the matter over again, and publish. A PICTURE-BROKER in the district of the Madeleine has discovered under a thick coating of varnish a "Virgin and Child of" Correggio. It is a re-prodiie. tion of a part of his celebrated 11 Repose in Egypt," formerly in the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Parma. THE excavations now making at Pompeii have brought to light several vestiges of the ancient Chris- tians. In the Palace of the Edile Pansa, in the Via Fortuna, an unfinished sculptured cross has been found on one of the walla, as well as abusive inscrip- tions and caricatures ridiculing a crucified god. A BEAUTIFUL model of that most noble and inte- resting of all our cathedrals, Canterbury, will shortly be on view in London. The whole is carved in wood on a regular scale, and exhibits all the beauties and peculiarities of the building in a very striking and pleasing manner. AMONG the prize-questions proposed by the Batavian Society of Experimental Philosophy, at Rotterdam, we find the following :—" Considering that the tem- perature of the water of the ocean, at great depths, is a subject of great importanee for an acquaintance with the physical condition of our globe-and seeing that on many ships, in favourable circumstances, this temperature could be determined-the society invite exaot researches thereupon, to be made with suitable apparatus, in latitudes and longitudes where as yet no investigations of the kind have been attempted." This is a question in which British officers have taken a lively interest; and it is open to them, as to mariners everywhere, to compete for the prize-a gold medal— and send in a paper embodying the results of their observations. THE apartments destined to receive the portraits for the National Portrait Gallery scheme are situated in the best part of the building in South Kensington, and are nearly ready for the reception of the portraits, which will form the finest and most extensive collec- tion of the sort probably in the world. The Earl of Darby is in possession of numerous specimens of the rarest description; so also the Earl of Clarendon. The Dnke of Devonshire likewise has an excellent col- lection of portraits of his ancestors, with many literary and dramatic personages of eminence; the latter espe- cially were gathered together by John Payne Collier, the late Dake's literary friend and secretary, who had a "roving commission" to buy everything of the sort he could lay his hands upon-if bearing upon good Master Shakespeare" and his ch%racterevo much the better. In this regard the Devonshire collection is exceedingly rich.

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. The Anticipated Royal Marriage. Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, who is going to marry the Princess Helena, seems to have very good antecedents. He served gallantly in the Schles- wig-Holstein campaigns of 1848, 1849, and 1850, though only seventeen when the war began, and went to the University of Bonn in 1852, where he formed his friendship with the Prince of Prussia. Afterwards he travelled, studied art at Rome, and finally entered the Prussian army,—resigning his commission, how- ever, when the Prussian Government began to treat his brother, the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, with bad faith, and finally retiring when General Manteuffel, approved by Count Bismark, rendered it necessary to choose absolutely between Prussia and hia own family. He is certainly very poor—probably has scarcely X300 a year of his own-and the Princess Helena is therefore deliberately preferring a private marriage of affection to the state of a Princess. As she is the fifth child, and there are two elder sisters to do the Princess when necessary, she is quite free to do as she likes, and seems to us to have chosen a very much happier lot indeed than a Royal one. It shows, too, an independ- ence of spirit that every one must admire.—Spectator France and Mexico. We cannot allow to pass uncontradicted the rumours which have been for some time in circulation on the subject of the resolutions of the French Government with respect to Mexico. The situation of the Cabinet of the Tuileries is the clearest possible, and may be summed up as fellows:—France in no way desires to render her occupation eternal, but she will not leave in obedience to intimidation, and still less before having obtained the satisfaction which she Went there to obtain. The Government may possibly before long announce its intentions, which, being ^tcumacribed within the above-mentioned limits, haa+v; n-°*i constitute a new fact. But that France of prematurely abandoning the Mexioan *s aether true nor probable; that truth of demonstration. ;Besides, nothing in • situation between Paris and Washington !• a OT:i.v0^retlch Government to adopt hasty resolu- «;i nnt;tS??0^ Mexico. The language of Mr. Sewar the moment of his departure for a journey tew weeks, during which the foreign policy ox nit0d States will not be changed, was still feed with feelings of the greatest sympathy Ior Subsequent accounts from Washington also state that General Grant is decidedly in favour ot a policy ot pacification and conciliation. Lastly, the recent declarations of the Secretary of Finance show that he is solely occupied in restoring aa equilibrium m the American Budget, and, as a con- I sequence, in assuring peace both abroad and at home. I —he Memorial Diplomatique, a French paper. I -Le Memorial Diplomatique, a French paper. The Patent Office. The mention of the name of Mr. Edmunds will suggest memories of a looseness of administration, to state the least, from the effects of which the officials of the Patent Department may be expected to have suffered. Accordingly, the commissioners have been inundated with claims for redress, increased pay, and petitions for consideration of neglected memorials. Mr. Edmunds," observed the commissioners, pro- bably had not acquainted himself sufficiently with the details of the labour of the olerks to enable him to form any proper judgment thereon." To mend the administration of the Patent Department, the com- missioners advise that a chief officer should be appointed a gentleman of proper attainments, brought into daily oontact with his subordinates, to watch their labours, and form his own observations- knowing the amount of toil cast upon them, and the mode in which their duties are performed. To effect this change would cost money, and moaey is available. The commissioners recommend that a portion of it should be thus applied. Their second chief recom- mendation is one that we have frequently urged, viz., enlargement of the library, and placing the library and museum under one roof. Nobody who has not had personal experience of the Patent Library can form the remotest conception of the disad- vantages under which it labours. Miserable alleys and passages crammed with book. shelves the latter threatening to break down under the pressure applied. Chest upon chest of books hid away in cellars, in holes and corners, to the reader inaccessible. No sitting-room —barely standing room. Everything a public library should be, this library is not. Then the Patent Museum is a standing reproach to a country which prides itself, and justly, on its industrial status. Models, machines, engines, mostly valuable, and all gratuitously supplied, are made unavailable for want of space and arrange- ment. The visitor who goes thither on instruction bent soon finds his ardour checked by the troubles he has to encounter. He leaves under the influence of a mingled feeling of anger and regret: anger that his laudable desire of study has been thwarted; regret that the industrial display of this great nation has been so cramped and stunted, through an impolitic and j short-sighted misapplication of funds in hand.-liforn- ing Post. The Murderess Charlotte Winsor. Such a case as that of Charlotte Winsor places in the strongest light the exacting spirit of mercy which per- vades English criminal law. We do not regret that the unhappy- woman should have been permitted to exercise her privilege of having the point of law sug- gested by her counsel fully and ingeniously discussed. But we may congratulate ourselves that in this instance at least there is no painful contrast between law and common sense. It is not the law of England that a professional murderer should be allowed to escape scat free the penalty of her crimes because the first twelve men empannelled to try her could not be got to agree in the guilt of her accomplice.-Daily News. The doctrine of Coke is so strong in the one direction as to warrant the opinion that Winsor should not have been tried a second time; the teaching of Hale tends to precisely the opposite conclusion. It is clear, how- ever, that there is no absolute rule to forbid a second trial if the jury empannelled for the first have been dis. charged. Blackstone, it is true, laid down the prin- ciple that juries could not be dismissed, except at the diotate of "evident necessity;" but what does the phrase include ? The counsel for the defence con- tended that it referred solely to cases in which the jury, from physical causes, were unable to arrive at an unanimous verdict. If, for instance, one of them were to fall ill in the course of the proceedings, then they might be dismissed and a fresh trial ordered. But, as Sir Alexander Cookburn urged, the interpretation thus put upon Blackstone's dictum was too narrow; and the grounds on which Mr. Justice Crompton discharged the jury amounted to evident necessity. They were agreed only in admitting that there was no chance of their agreeing. True, they had been locked up only for five hours, and the want of food could not in that time have so exhausted their energies as to unfit them for deliberating longer, with the view of arriving in the end at unanimity; but as the trial took place on Saturday, they would, supposing them to have been shut up all night and to have agreed at last, have been obliged to return a verdiot on the Sunday. Could the court have legally met on that day? The point, to say the least of it, is very doubtful. Granting the existence of the discretionary power to discharge juries, the particular way in which it is used becomes a question, not of law, but of fact. With matters of fact, however, a Court of Error is not conoerned; its jurisdiction is confined to points of law. Hence the sentence passed on Charlotte Winsor has been affirmed; and it is satisfactory that, in such a case, technical considerations have not been allowed to outweigh overwhelming evidence of guilt to which we find few parallels.- Te legraph. Are Mormon Marriages Legal? The numbers going out from England, since the disclosures of recent years—which will gain no favour- able gloss from the revelations of Saturday in the Divorce Court-are steadily diminishing, and well may they, when the tempted artisan learns what he really has to look for in the parched valleys of Deseret. Suppose him to do as the unfortunate Mr. Hyde did- marry. He is married by Brigham Young, using a rubric made up of ungrammatical and unmeaning slang; by Brigham Young the contraot is sealed, and by him it can be annulled; Utah, indeed, were it not so distant, might become a monstrous Gretna Green for all the world that could afford to fee its supreme impostor, who distorts the sacred writings to serve his own ends, and has no more right, from the Christian point of view, to join a couple in holy wed- lock than a Dakotah Indian or a Zanzibar negro-a Craig of the last century or a Mullerite of this. It would be a positive calamity were any sort of locus standi among Christian communities conferred upon this melancholy sect, which, although tenacious in its delusion, ardent at its task-the meritorious one of establishing a mighty human habitation in the desert —and not entirely a failure, since it carries into practice some excellent social doctrines-is a separa- tion from the civilisation and faith of England, espe- cially the enthronement of an impious sham and the defiance of all that we regard as morals and decency. When a person, having ventured within its precincts and conformed to its ordinances, finds himself sick- ened of them and takes flight, we may listen curiously to the recital of his adventures and look askance upon his matrimonial experiments; but he has no more right to ease his conscience in our courts of law than would Sinbad the Sailor after his fatal betrothal in the land of the Diamond King. Brigham Young is no priest, and has no licence; and where there has been no marriage such as we recognise there can be no divorce such as the recent policy of our law allows. -Standard.

OUR MISCELLANY. -+- Verses.— A dream steals softly o'er the wearied brain; The heart's quick-throbbing pulses grow more calm; Life is a lovely phantom once again. 01 thy sweet voice hath brought this welcome balm- Thou soothing sea. The lonely musing man is man no more; His vagrant thoughts to other climes are winging; And every silver gush that bathes the shore To his wrapt soul is wild and sweetly singing Some olden strains. The distant hills of his own land rise, blue And glorious in their ancientness around; The kindred voices that his young life knew Are lulling him with luxury of sound, Spell'wrought. Bright happy faces meet his gazing eye: Even the grave shows kindliness to-day. A burst of merry laughter rising high Is telling of the hearts which feel no sway Of mortal gloom. Oh! let him dream. Thou lovely sun-lit sea, Let music still be woven with thy tide; Break not the wizard charm-for he is free, While thus reclining by thine azure side, From his heart's chain. Oh! let him dream. Behold there is a brand Engraven on his pale and languid brow. His glazed eye and ever-burning hand, And white convulsive lip, proclaim him now A care-worn man. Dr. Livingstone on the Slave Trade.-Next forenoon we halted at the village of our old friend Mbame to obtain new carriers, because Chibisa's men, never before having been hired, and not having yet I learned to trust us, did not choose to go further. After resting a little, Mbame told us that a slave party on its way to Zette would presently pass through his village. "Shall we interfere? we inquired of each other. We remembered that all our valuable private baggage was in Zette, which, if we freed the slaves, might, together with some Government property, be destroyed in retaliation; but this system of slave- hunters dogging us where previously they durst not venture, and on pretence of being "our children" setting one tribe against another, to furnish them- selves with slaves, would so inevitably thwart all the efforts for which we had the sanction of the Portu- guese Government, that we resolved to run all risks, and put a stop, if possible, to the slave trade, which bad now followed on the footsteps of our discoveries. A few minutes after Mbame had spoken to us, the slave party, a long line of manacled men, women, and children, came wending their way round the hill and into the valley, on the side of which the village stood. The black drivers, armed with muskets and bedecked with various articles of finery, marched jauntily in the front, middle, and rear of the line, some of them blowing exultant notes out of long tin horns. They seemed to feel that they were doing a very noble thing, and might proudly march with an air of triumph; but the instant the fellows caught a glimpse of the English, they darted off like mad into the forest-so fast, indeed, that we caught but a glimpse of their red caps and the soles of their feet. The chief of the party alone remained, and he, from being in front, had his hand tightly grasped by a Makololo. He proved to be a well-known slave of the late Comman- dant at Zette, and for some time our own attendant while there. On asking him how he obtained these captives, he replied he had bought them; but on our inquiring of the people themselves, all, save four, said they had been captured in war. While this inquiry was going on, he bolted too. The captives knelt down, and in their way of expressing thanks, clapped their hands with great energy. They were thus left entirely on our hands, and knives were soon busily at work cutting the women and children loose. It was more difficult to out the men adrift, as each had his neck in the fork of a stout stick, six or seven feet long, and kept in by an iron rod which was riveted at both ends across the throat. With a saw, luckily in the Bishop's baggage, one by one'the men were sawn out into freedom. The women, on being told to take the meal they were carrying and oook breakfasts for themselves and the children, seemed to consider the news too good to be true, but after a little coaxing went at it with alacrity, and made a capital fire, by which to boil their pots, with the slave sticks and bonds, their old acquaintances through many a sad night and weary day. Many were mere children, about five years of age and under. One little boy, with the simplicity of childhood, said to our men, The others tied and starved us, you cut the ropes and tell us to eat; what sort of people are you ? Where did you come from ?" Two of the women had been shot the day before for attempting to untie the thongs. This, the rest were told, was to prevent them from attempting to escape. One woman had her infant's brains knocked out, because she could not carry her load and it; and a man was dispatched with an axe, because he had broken down with fatigue. Self-interest would have set a watch over the whole rather than commit murder; but in this traffic we invariably find self-interest overcame by contempt of human life and by bloodthirstiness. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi. ■ The Explorer of the North-West Passage by Land.—Viscount Milton was born July 27th, 1839, and is the son of William Thomas Spencer Wentworth Fitzwilliam, fourth Earl Fitzwilliam, who married Harriet Frances, daughter of the Earl of Morton. He commenced his education at Eton, but, OR aooount of ill-health, was compelled to leave in 1853, when he was only fourteen years old, and to travel on the Continent during the greater part of two years. OR his return to England he devoted himself for some time to the study of practical mechanics, and in October, 1858, went to Trinity College, Cam. bridge. During the summer of 1859, he took a yacht J voyage to Iceland, where he was hospitably received. In 1860 he visited the United States, Canada, and Red River settlement. On the 19th June, 1862, in company with W. B. Cheadle, M.A., M.D. Cantab., F.R.G.S., Viscount Milton commenced that celebrated expedition from the Atlantic to the Pacific, which has been described as The North-West Passage by land." The idea of such a route was not, indeed, a new one; the project was entertained by the early French settlers in Canada, and led to the discovery of the Rocky Mountains; but it had never been successfully attempted by a direct route through British territory, until the task was undertaken by Viscount Milton and Dr. Cheadle. The narrative of their adventurous and perilous journey forms one of the most romantic and interesting chapters of modern travel, and has been extensively perused, with a zest and eagerness which proves that Englishmen have learnt fully to appre- ciate the steady determination and characteristic per- severance exhibited by the two travellers. Nothing but the possession of a large stock of nerve and courage could have enabled the viscount and his friend to overcome saccessfully the numerous trials and dangers to which they were repeatedly exposed, which they bore with a patience and fortitude beyond all praise, and which has placed them in the foremost ranks of modern travellers and explorers. Returning with Dr. Cheadle to England, in 1864, Viscount Milton found the story of his adventures had rendered him a favourite with all classes in Yorkshire; and on the occurrence of the recent general election, he found himself placed at the top of the poll as member for the south-western division of the county.- Cassell's Illustrated Family Paper. Thackeray's Early Writings. He wrote many things then that were neglected, and were soon altogether forgotten. One of them was The Second Funeral of Napoleon," of which probably not one in ten thousand of the readers of his magazine ever heard. And yet it was published in due form and in decent duodecimo, by Mr. Hugh Cunningham, a book- seller, whose shop was at the corner of St. Martin's- place; he who also first published the "Paris Sketch Book." It was illustrated with some wood-cuts of no great merit, and thereto was added the famous "Chronicle of the Drum," which the "leading maga- zines had all refused to print. And as the able editors of the time rejected the ballad, so the intelli- gent public of the time refused to read the account of the Second Funeral of Napoleon," though it had all the allurement of being written at the time and in the presence of the event it commemorates. The gentle- man who sends us the original MS., from which we reprint the long-forgotten narrative, says: "The Letters on the Second Funeral' were a failure. I had the pleasure of editing the tiny volume for Mr. Thackeray, and saw it through the press. And after a while, on the dismal tidings from the publisher that the little effort made no impression on the public, Mr. Thackeray wrote to me from Paris a pretty little note, commencing, So yoar poor Titmarsh has made another fiasco. How are we to take this great stupid public by the ears? Never mind; I think I have something which will surprise them yet. This was evidently an allusion to Vanity Fair," which he had begun at that time.-Cornhill Magazine. Charging a Position.—I had only got one glimpse of the hill we were to mount; and soon could see nothing but the men just before me, and these not well for the smoke. I have a vague sense of being hot and dusty and losing my breath; I found myself rushing up a hill amid a thick crowd of men ana a blinding smoke and a deafening noise. I know I fired my gun, and made wild thrusts with my bay onet (pray Heaven I did not thrust at the wrong men .) i heard shouts, and curses, and groans, all around found myself scuffling with knots of people who presently disappeared; saw wild, strange, savage faces scowl up to mine for a moment, and then fade out; heard the crash of bugles and explosions and hurrahs. I pushed and hustled; I was pushed and hustled. I have a clear perception that 06 One time I found myself humming Old Bob PidleY," and stopped, thinking it an undignified proceeding for a hero in a battle. Yet somehow I could not think myself in a battle—could not realise the situation at all, even though I stumbled often over dead bodies. How long the struggle lasted I do not know, it seemed to me hardly one minute. But presently the crowded picture appeared to fade the air got cooler; as it does when you have fairly forced your way out of the Adelphi passages on a crowded night into the Adelphi pit; I began to find breathing space and elbow room; and at last found myself, I know not how, coolly seated with a cluster of our fellows on the hill, amid dead bodies and broken rifles. That same evening, at the railway station, we saw the Chief. His eye fell on us. Aha," he said, you have done well, you Ingleez You are among ze heroes of ze Volturno." Was I a hero ? That you can judge for yourself. I have told you exactly what I saw, and how I felt. If I wf a a. hero, then heroism is not that very splendid thing I thought it was; for more commonplace sensations could have filled cc human breast than mine were all through the famous battle.—"First Time under Fire," in the Evening: Star. !NNj

EXTR ACTS FROM PUNC 3 » & "SUM /if —♦— Coming' Down. By a Casual. tNNj Fortune! we've no business done Since the notable Year One. AH my clothes have dropt to rags, And my sole is on the flags: Even foes won't sew me tears. Come! you owe me some repairs- Do it handsomely: why, zounds, Let us say a thousand pounds. I should like a country house- Phemeant-coveri,s- moors for grouse.. I should like some seven or eight Henchmen, at my call to wait, I should lik3 a private Hansom: Well! suppose 1 bate your ransom— Grant my wishes their fulfillings, And I'll say a thousand shillings. I should like to be a swell— Cosy chambers in Pall-mall, Handy to a jolly club, Where a chap can have a rub. I should like sush things as these. But if not; give what you please— (The reduction though's immense) Shall we say a thousand pence ? Come, I'll drop my tone yet more- Lodgings on a second floor. Chops or sfeaka my modest oheer, Sometimes grog, and always beer. Decent credit at a tailor's, Freedom from all fear of jailors. Still you're stern Oh, come there are thiDgs-— But, no odds! a thousand farthings! I should like some bread and meat— Water—I could drink it neat!— Clothes to warm my shivering back 'Gainst rheumatic cramps attack— Something like a decent bed— And a roof above my head. Fortune! if I these must lack,—oh! Grant a penny for tobaoco! Tempora Mutatur. Oh! why will you talk of your bachelor joys,. And the days we spent together ? 'Twas jolly enough when we both were boys.. Iu life's sunshiny weather. We pulled off knockers from many a door. And hunted many a tabby; We've rung up many a parlour floor," And treated many a cabby. Yoa remember our wandering out that night., Got up d la race-course nigger, And the rival musicians, who wanted to fight, Tho' tougher than us, and bigger. You remomber the great policeman-row, And the coin we had to borrow;— But, Jack, don't allude to the past just now, For I'm to be spliced to-morrow.

It is the Hour. A One o'clock Club has just been started which 1£> not A 1 in its composition ONE O'CLOCK CLUB.—A number of gentlemen, feeling- the inconvenience of obtaining refreshments afrw the theatres, have formed a CLUB, where they can MEET their friends at ALL HOURS, and obtain every luxury. The inconvenience we have felt waa the in con- venience of not obtaining refreshments after the, theatres. But possibly the advertisement was written at all hours," which, of oourse, means rather late-' when grammar and tha English language are asleep. A Pretty Dust! There is a law to prevent the publication of ia> proper publications of one description. There should' be some statute ta regulate the law of ad vertisements in all cases. Not long since we saw a diploma and a case of surgical instruments" for sa le. Now we- meet with the following:— TO Sell, Two Dusting- Machines for Colouring- Tea, very cheap; One hundred-weight Coffee-roasting Cylinder- and Shaft;; One Portable Iron Copper. To be seen at the, premises of Tea Colourer and Improver, This means, in so many words, that Mr. is pre- pared to assiat dishonest grocers to sell an inferior article at a higher price by making it still worse For, whereas it was only rubbish before the ire- provement," it is, affer beiag dusted, rubbish jntts a, number of deleterious and unwholesome co mpounds,

FLUNKEYISM IN THE NURSERY.-The telegrams informed us the other day that the Queen of Spair. gave birth to a, prince." We suppose a prinoe" means "a son." But this style of announcement might be copied in high life; thus:—"The Countess ef Highbury gave birth to a viscount," or in the case, of a younger son, "The Countess of Shybnry gave birth to an honourable." and so forth. The idea is-. good, and would keep the middle class weir posted up in the peerage. Wo hope that Queen and prince ar& doing well. AN UNDER CUT FOR THE BUTCHERS.—A compamy, -we need hardly say on the Joint-Stock principle- has been started under the title of the Meat-Con- sumers' Company. It dates from the Pou ltry, which seems odd, unless it intends that it runs foul of tie butchers. Otherwise a more appropriate spot would be the shoulder of Lamb's Condait-street. Its object is a laudable GLe-to supply the consume r with meat direct from the grazier, avoiding the salesman and. small butcher, and saving therefore the profits they make. We hail the company, as is meet! IMPORTANT INFORMATION.—We are authorised tc state that the new Mace with which the Speaker will open the next session of the Australian Parliament is not Mr. James Mace, who is however prepared for ar. opening,—but it must be in the P.R. FENIAN SELF-GOVERNMENT.—The Feniane wanted H a good cry. Those of them that have been sentenced to penal servitude would want that no longer if their warders only let them howl. As to the rest that. remain at large, the most suitable ory for them would be, The Autonomy of the Lunatio Asylum 1 11 A NEW CRY.-In England the question is, Where are the police?" la Ireland it is Whare's Ste- phens ?" w » H CARDS IN THE CASUAL WARD.—Amongst the vaga- bonds who fill the casual wards some pass the night H card-playing. Of oourse, knaves are trumps. SIR EDWIN LANDSEER's MOTTO.—Give a dog a. H good name, and hang him.

A BARONET IN TROUBLE. I Sir Robert Nicholson, who claims the title of baronei; H and to be the heir to considerable estates in Soot" land, described as of Church-place, Clapham, and- H various other addresses, has been several times before H the Bankruptcy Court, and on Tuesday came up for H examination upon accounts, showing debts amounting- H to t2,598, and there is property in the hands of se- H cured creditors said to be worth XAOOO or £ 5,000. H In a statement filed with the proceedings, the bankrupt. H states that he claims so much of the landed estates oi H the late Sir Arthur Nicholson, Bart., as may pass with H the baronetcy, and be found to belong to the bankrupt H as his heir-at-law. He also states that his late wife H was entitled to property valued at X4,000, subject tc H a charge of X500 in favour of the Hon. J. T. Cochrane ■ The case has baen frequently before the Court, wic. ■ the facts connected therewith have been rally de H tailed. H Mr. Sargood opposed for creditors; Mr, Aidridgt ■ appeared for the official assignee. A M The bankrupt was shortly examined as to the dig- H posal by him of a sum of X240, being the proceeds arising from the sale of furniture which had been (lbu, ta.ined from Mr. Whateley upon credit, and sold with- out any valuation. Mr. Sargood asked for an adjournment, in order that. the bankrupt might account for the X240 so received. by him. His Honour decided that the application was reason able, and granted an adjournment.

■ Shipping Fatality in the Mersey. brigantine Margaret and Rachel (of New Quay), with a cargo of fleur from France to Liverpool, went ashore on Monday on the Crosby Bank. A eteamtug came to her assistance, and she waa towed into the Mersey, At Otterspool she partially oapsizad, and one of te.r crew, William Williams, was drowned.