OCCASIONAL NOTES.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 834, 24 February 1877, Page 3

OCCASIONAL NOTES.

| From the Pall Mall Gazette. J

An interesting account, according to the Times of India, is given by a Rangoon paper of an “emoassy” lately sent by tho Khe.div-' o? Egypt to the King of Bunnah. The embassy, it in stated, consisted originally of two Egyptian gentlemen and their cook One of tf a former died en route to Bombay , the other also died on arriving at Rangoon T.nere remained, therefore, only the cook ; and a few speculative persons in Rangoon hit upon the happy thought of passing off this functionary on his Majesty as the embassy. The cook accordingly proceeded to Mandalay, obtained an audience, and wat lodged in the residence that had been provided for 'he late French Embassy. He was treated with high honors, but, unfortunately was not equal to the occasion—the position was too great for him, and he fell sick. He was waited upon by a crowd of the Court physicians, under whose treatment he was restored to health, when he expressed his desir eto return to Egypt. Hia Majesty provided ample funds for his expenses on his journey, and presented him with some valuable ruby rings, which be made over to bis attendants. The embassy—that is to say, the cook—has lately returned to Rangoon, but he finds that his attendants have fallen from him. His cash is also nearly gone, and his rubies are not to be found. It is believed that he is sheltered in one of the Mabommedan mosques in the town, and an ex-native doctor who accompanied him to Mandalay and back is said to be “ wanted,” The praise given by Mr Carlyle to Russia in his letter on the Eastern question is of a kind which will scarcely be much valued by the Russians of the present day. “ Con spicuously,” says Mr Carlyle, “ they possess the talent of obedience, of silently following orders given,” which in the universal celebration of ballot-box, divine freedom, and so on, will be found an invaluable and peculiar gift. It was not, however (so at least we are constantly assured) in consequence of “orders given" that so many thousands of Russian officers and retired soldiers went to assist the Servians. The Emperor Alexander told Lord Augustus Loftus that it was in order to “ throw cold water” on the excitement at home that he allowed officers to leave the Russian army for the purpose of taking service under Tchernaieff; and General Ignatioff, expressing the same idea in more intelligible language, has been represented by the Constantinople correspondent of the Cologne Gawtte os laying to Sir Henry Biliot that the liberty granted to Russian officers of going to fight for the Servians was a “ safety valve” by which it was hoped all absolutely uncontrollable enthusiasm might escape. But apart from these significant facts, it is quite certain that the ideal political life of contemporary Russia—the expansive Russia of Alexander II. l s reign, as contrasted with the severely compressed Russia of the Emperor Nicholas’s reign—is not one in which any value whatever ia attached to “ the talent of obedience, of silently following orders given.” The Berwick “ramparts” are for sale The Government has offered to sell a considerable part of them to the Berwick Urb; n Sanitary Authority ; and at a special meeting of that bucly last week is was decided to negotiate for the purchase. From an account given of these ramparts by the Scotsman, it seems that when the town was taken in 1296 by Edward I they consisted only of wooden palisades, erected on the ridge of a narrow and shallow ditch, so narrow, in fact, that hia Majesty cleared both ditch and palisades at a leap, and was the first thus gaily to enter the town. He afterwards caused a deep ditch to be dug round the town, and this ditch, when built, was encircled by a stone wall. Robert Bruce, on obtaining possession of Berwick, raised the wall ten feet all round, and this wall was again strengthened by Edward 111 after the battle of Hallidon Hill. Parts of this wall still exist, as well as of the castle, which was a foimidable structure founded at a remote date. It is stated to have been rebuilt by Henry IT., and to have passed out of Royal hands in 1303, being subsequently sold by tho second Earl of Dunbar to the Corporation of Berwick for £320. The corporation dismantled it, and used the stone for building the parish church, selling wh t they did not require for £lO9 to an alderman of Berwick, who afterwards sold it to the ancestor of Mr Askew, of Pallineburn. It wis retained in that family until the construction of the North British Railway.