MISCELANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1368, 29 February 1884, Page 2

MISCELANEOUS.

: «. . Thetotal ascertained expenditure of | France upon the war on which she entered with a light heart in August 1870 is now declared to be £314,440, 000. As the war began in August and ended in January, this makes the cost to France of her inarch to Berlin almost exactly £2,000,000 a day. Lord Bacon's signs of short life are quick growth ; fair, soft skin ; soft, fine hair ; early corpulence large head, short neck ; small mouth, fat ear, brittle separated teeth. Some of his sigus of long life are slow growth, hard coarse hair, rough, freckled skin ; deep furrows in the forehead, firm flesh, with veins lying high ; wide nostrils ; large mouth ; hard, gristly ear ; strong, contiguous teeth. He adds that early grey hair is not significant, some of the longest livers have turned grey in early life. AtHoharton January 31 Mr Booth, leader of the Blue Ribbon Army pinned the sign to the lireasts of Bishop Sandford, Dean Bromby, the daughters of the Bishop, and the Rev. John Gray. Two thousand people were present at the meeting. At the end of this month Mr Searle retires from the editorship of the ' New Zealand Times,' and will be succeeded, it is said, by Dr Newman. At the Christchurch Caledonian sports on Saturday Hudson won the Border wrestling match, with G. Eobertson second, and Dinnie third. In Scotch wrestling Dinnie easily threw Matheson and Robertson, and Dinnie he had not much trouble with Hudson. The first try between Robertson and resulted in favor of the former, after an exciting struggle. Robertson, however, was much exhaused and slightly strained himself, so that | under medical advice, h* agreed to give Dinnie best without another trial. Dinnie won the Highland fling, and competed in the 161 b hammer-throw-ing handicap, and threw 115 ft 3|in ; but J. Wright, who had 28ft allowance threw 85ft lO^in, and took the prize. Dinnie got no allowance. The latter succeeded in tossing the caber, a feat no one else could accomplish. It was whispered in fashionable circles in London at the end of November that there had been a rupture between Lord Garoioyle, Eavl Cairns's heir, and Miss Fortescue, his fiancee ; and now the cable tells us that the scandal is to find its way into the law Courts, the young lady claiming £50,000. One alleged explanation of the breaking off of the match has found its way into pi-int ; and it is this : " Lord Garmuyle is ambitious of adding military renown to his other great distinctions, and therefore proposed to enter himself as a student at Sandhurst; but the authorities, deeming it necessary to make a stand some where, objected to have as a cadet a young lord who had married an actress. Young lords may do as they like with pretty actresses short of marrying them, and yet be ' officers and gentlemen.' It would never do to set the fashion of allowing young lords, anxious to be officers and gentlemen, to put wedding rings — in church, that is — on pretty actresses' fingers." . The Bishop of Liverpool, stated that there was no likelihood of the different schools in the church giving way to each other, and that unless the God of Mercy interposed, the church could not long subsist, but must go to pieces and perish. He could not see the approach- ■

ing death of such a grand old church as the Kefornied Church of England without deep sorrow. Madame Sarah Beuliardt has again been behaving in a manner peculiar to hersplf. It seems that an actress, Colombier, wrote, a book entitled " Sarah Barnum," which contained a very scandalous account of the life of the great Sarah. Madame Bernhardt collected her friends, marched to Colombier's house, then forced an entrance, horsewhipped her traducer, and left her adherents engaged in a free-fight with the partisans of the authoress. This is a French lady's way of redressing a grievance which in England would lead to an action for libel. A prize of two guineas was recently offered by the ' Journal of Education' (England) for the best list of the '• ten greatest living Englishmen of letters." Five hundred and twenty-two list* were accepted which showed that Tennyson is the most popular English author, being mentioned in 501 lists ; Buskin came next, being mentioned in 462 ; and Matthew Arnold third, with 453 mentions. Then came the following, in the order of then 1 names : — Browning, Froude, Swinburne, E. A. Freeman, Herbert Spencer, Cardinal Newman, John Morley, William Morris, Gladstone, Lecky, Farar, Professor Stephen, Lewis Morris, William Black, Shorthouse, Blackmore, Max Miller, Justin M'Carthy,. George M'Doudal.' Mallock, strange to say, was mentioned by only eleven.