The Brecon Reporter and South Wales General Advertiser

A TRIUMPHANT DOG! The following, which has been furnished by The Times' Ifelbourne correspondent, suggests the aphorism, that it is Mways wise to err on the side of humanity Melbourne has this month been treated to a new kind of trial before (to us) a new sort of tribunal. The has attracted much public attention; rather perhaps, than its intrinsic importance would Beem to warrant. A Rev. lVlr. uootn, a clergyman of the Church of England, has been a defendant before an eeclesia.stical court here-constituted, of course, under our Church Assembly Act—charged with the offences of brawling and cruelty in church. The leading facts, which occurred some months back at Wangaratta, are aa follow:— During morning service one Sunday, a dog, which had into the church, was making himself obnoxious, and a movement was made towards putting him out. The dog objected, retreated into the pew in which the clergyman s Wife was seated, and, it is said, snapped at and bit her. The clergyman, joiningthe other casual ejectors, made a first capture of the animal, which, after biting his captor, was then in some way handed to or recaptured by one of the congregation. The latter was bearing the cur from the 'church when the clergyman seized the dog and suddenly broke one of his legs. This, some of the witnesses stated, Was a wilful act on the part of the clergyman, although done under the influence of passion. Cries of "Shame!" came from some of the on-lookers, several of whom left the church. Immense excitement was got up in Wangaratta, some few persons striving to excuse the clergyman, but the great majority siding with the dog. Our Bishop, Dr. Perry, was memorialized to remove Mr Booth from his incumbency, but as he had a wife and two children, and had for many years preserved an irreproachable character, the Bishop expressed his reluctance to take so ex- treme a course for one transitory fit of passion. The mal- content portion of the congregation were disgusted, and remonstrances appeared in the columns of the newspapers, as the subject is one on which every correspondent can be edifying on cruelty, and on what is becoming or unbecoming to Christian miui&tera. The exeitement was kept up, the subject was even discussed at a meeting of the Church as" sembly, and in the Legislative Assembly itself, and at last the Bishop authorized the trial of 111". Booth before a Court, con- sisting of Mr. James Wilberforce Stephen (a leading equity counsel, and Chancellor of the Diocess) and four assessors. The trial came off in Melbourne; the prosecutors and the clergyman Were respectfully represented by counsel, and had the dog been represented by counsel, too, his interests and position could not have been more conscientiously consulted. The facts as above narrated were fully proved, and the defendant was honest enough to admit that the act was_ wilful—a dishonest man might, with some plausibility, have contended that the leg was broken by accident, which would, of course, have altered the whole aspect of the case-and he sought to extenuate his conduct by pleading the transport of passion into which for the moment he was betrayed. He hoped for a lenient view of his position, and expressly quoted and relied on the leading case of David, a great sinner, in various very unpleasant ways, but who was yet forgiven. Notwithstanding this line of defence, the assessors brought in a finding of guilty both of brawling and cruelty, and the sentence was six months' suspension from duty. But here arose a renewal of the agitation out of doors. More letters appeared in the newspapers, more newspaper articles complaining of the inadequacy of the punishment. The Bishop replied by only one letter, which seems to have operated on the assailants like a chilled shot. Without attempting to justify the offender, his lordship, among other embarrassing arguments, submits that those who are so severe on the man whp in the heat of passion breaks a dog's leg take no account of the persons who in mere sport, and without the excuse of passion, think nothing of breaking a bird's wing. The Bishop here brings us inter apices juris, and that we should condemn so warmly the breaking of the dog's leg, and think so lightly, or rather, think not at all, of the many thousands of broken wings, is, I suppose, to be set down to mere habit and education. Be this as it may, the Bishop's letter seems to have closed the con- troversy, and not prematurely; for, of all the dogs I have ever met with, this particular Wangaratta dog has certainly had his day.

HOW INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE IMPOSED UPON. Charles Wm. Bond, cabmaster, and Thos. Nye, grocer, have been indicted at the Central Criminal Court, in London, for maliciously and feloniously setting fire to a dwelling-house, with intent to defraud the London Assurance Company. The facts of the case, briefly stated, are as follows:— Bond in the month of July last went to the proprietor of a house in St. John's-terrace, Deptford, and after some nego- tiation took it for a term of three years. He represented himself to have been a farmer in Norfolk, having just left a farm on which he had lost property by a fire to the extent of 1,6001. As soon as he had signed an agreement for the house and obtained possession of it he effected an insurance with the London Assurance Office for 1501. upon property which he represented to be in the house. On the 28th of August a fire took place that there is no doubt had been wilfully caused. In due course the prisoner Bond made his claim for property which he certified had been destroyed. His account to the insurance company was that having been obliged to go into the country on business he had left the house in charge of a man named Noble, and that therefore he was not able to give any information with regard to the origin of the fire. The suspicions of the com- pany having been aroused by the circumstances of the fire, a series of questions were put to him, and in his answers he admitted that several other fires had occurred within a recent period on premises with which he had been connected. Not having their doubts at all removed by these admissions of the prisoner, the company declined to consider his claim against them until the man Noble was forthcoming to afford some explanation of the origin of the fire. Bond then intro- duced Nye to the company as the man Noble, and Nye was closely questioned by the company on the subject. He told a contradictory sort of story, which did not throw any light on the origin of the fire. The company, though satisfied that the claim was fraudulent, not having sufficient evidence to indict the prisoners, settled the matter by the payment of 501. Subsequently to the payment, the company came into the possession of information which enabled them to reopen the case by arresting the prisoners, and indicting them on the facts which will still be in the reader's recol- lection. The trial, which excited unusual interest, lasted nine hours, resulting in the conviction of Bond to seven years' and Nye to five years' penal servitude.

AN UNSUITABLE MARRIAGE. In the Vice-Chancellor's Court the cause of "Holmes v. Dudley" has been tried, which related to the validity of a marriage at the registrar's office at Oxford under these cir- cumstances :— The parties married were a lad born on the 27th of June, 1851, and the young lady, aged 25, who was governess in his mother's house. In November last, the young man's guardian met them at the Woodstock Station and asked them where they were going, and was answered to Oxford to shop the fact being that they went to the registrar's office and were married, on the representation that the young man was 19, the lady 21, only part of the names given, and false ad- dresses. Under these circumstances this proceeding was taken to try the validity of the marriage by a petition in the suit. The Vice-Chancellor said that he had read the affi- davit and seen the parties, and it was only out of motives of compassion that he did not commit the lady. This was an important question, a most serious thing for this boy to be bound to this woman for life under such circumstances. It would be much better that Sir James Wilde should decide whether the marriage was valid he hoped the expense would not be great. This lad was his ward, and he would protect him. It was lamentable to reflect that in such cases the registrar had no power to institute some inquiry. The guardian, by the direction of the Court, must take proceedings in the Divorce Court.

ALMOST INCREDIBLE! A letter from Fort Pitt, a small settlement in the Saskatchewan Valley, British America, narrates the following horrible incident that is said to have taken place in that settlement some weeks ago A French Canadian had killed several pigs, and his little children had looked on in approving wonder on the process. Soon after the parents went to church, and on their return were met at the door by their oldest child, Gustave, an eight-year-old boy, who exclaimed in childish glee, I have killed little piggy; come and see." He was covered with blood. What "they saw may be inferred from the confession of the boy as to what had taken place. When the parents had gone to church, Gustave proposed to his little brother, that they should play killing pig. In this request, it is supposed that the unfortunate little fellow acquiesced. The youngest was to be the pig, the eldest the butcher. Gustave eagerly assisted his brother to undress for the tragedy, and, taking a small rope, tied him down securely to a rough lounge that stood in the room; he then procured the butcher-knife that his father had used in slaughtering the pigs the day before, and plunged it into the throat of his passive and helpless brother. The wound was a mortal one, and it is supposed that death must have immediately resulted. After the child had bled his little life away, the unnatural brother, with the most in- credible heartlessness, took the cord which confined the body to the lounge, and, tying one end around the feet of the corpse, threw the other over the beam, and, lending his weight and strength, hoisted the body to the position in which it was found then, not satisfied with the programme thus far carried out, the little butcher must needs disem- bowel his dead brother almost in the exact manner in which his father had the pigs the day before.

THE FENIAN RIOT AT WATERFORD. Of the four prisoners (arrested at Dungarvan a fort- night ago), whose removal to Waterford caused so serious and fatal a riot, two only (says the correspon- dent of the Pall Mall Gazette), were persons of any note. These two, undoubtedly of the party who landed mys- teriously near Dungarvan, are General William Nagle, of the United States army, formerly of the 88th New York Regiment, and Captain Warren, of the 63rd New York Volunteers. It is stated that both were well-known citizens of New York, and persons of con- sideration there. Nagle is a lawyer, who studied his profession under Mr. Seward and Warren had at one time a connection with the press. These prisoners were arrested in Cork, and the motive of lodging them temporarily in the gaol at Waterford, on their way to Dublin, does not appear. The Waterford populace 7d were disturbed from the day of the arrival of Corydon, and, it being known-that the prisoners were coming by the train, a large crowd met the police and their charge at the railway station at nine o'clock at night. On their way to the gaol the police were pelted with large stones, especially at the hill of Ballybricken, which is a usual centre for the assembling of mobs. The constables, however, without sustaining much in- jury, were enabled to place their prisoners in gaol, and it was as they returned that the serious affray arose. The police, reinforced by the local body, numbered forty-two, and the mounted portion, galloping round the foet constables, managed for atimeto,bepoff the mob. Stones and brickbats, however, of the largest size were thrown some from behind the wall of St. Patrick's churchyard, and many of the police were struck the swords of some were broken, and others received wounds in the head. It was when things had reached this pitch that one of the constables was seized by the crowd, detached from his companions, and roughly handled. The police immediately charged for his rescue, using their bayo- nets freely, and recovering him wounded and bleed- ing. The crowd had got into a street having no open- ing at the end, and here Walsh, a salter by trade, who immediately died, was stabbed. Keenan, a tinsmith, also received a bayonet thrust, which proved fatal in some hours. It is stated that in the early part of the riot the Fenian prisoners begged the people to desist, in vain. During the uproar cheers were given for the Irish Republic. A later despatch says Walsh must have died instantaneously. The sword-bayonet entered the right side and pierced the heart. Another man, named Kinahan, is in hospital not likely to recover. He is wounded in the back. Altogether thirty-two of the Eolice were injured by stones, and have cuts in the ead or about the body more or less serious. Previous to the appearance of the escort with the prisoners, women had collected heaps of stones at various points, and they ran about frantically, supplying them from their aprons to those who threw them." A telegram from Dublin says that the funeral of the man Walsh was attended by 5,000 people, who walked in procession, contrary to the advice of the Roman Catholic bishop. The hearse was decorated with green branches and flowers, and hundreds bore branches in their hands. The coffin was carried after the hearse by six men. All passed off quietly.

AN ASTOUNDING CONJUROR! Galignani, a Paris paper, says that a most astound- ing Chinese conjuror, Ling Loop, is to be seen at the Hippodrome, or at the Chinese Theatre at the Exhi- bition. He swallows a sword—long as "Ie sabre, le sabre, le sabre de mon pere," or as the famed weapon which Alfred bids the knight cast into the shining levels of the Meer. What becomes of this epiglottis ? Is his jugular vein made of ces triplex, or the coat of his stomach of caoutchouc? His must indeed be dura ilia, since they take thus quietly their conversion with a sword sheath. Next he swallows eggs-after the sword an egg is a mere trifle. The shells, you will say —well, they might incommode us, but after the sword has been rammed down into his intestines by a 301b. shot, he does not stick at trifles. He smokes a cigarette, performs a variety of antics, and then, sure as eggs are eggs, he proves Buffon to be wrong, that man is oviparous, by bringing them forth unbroken from some out-of-the-way corner in his inside. The savans and doctors admit that they are mystified. They have held their inquest on Ling Loop, and can find no scientific solution of the problem, and they broke up their conclave by subscribing to the very general opinion that he is the most astounding of all possible conjurors.

SCIENTIFIC COURTSHIP. (PROFESSOR sings.) Come, dear girl, and roam with me The garden of Zoology, t Those teeth of thine, and these of mine, Include four sometimes named canine. These fangs of ours us creatures prove Allied to the carnivora, Love. But, while we leg-of-mutton eat, So likewise do we trimmings, Sweet And all varieties of food- In short, eat everything that's good. Thus I'm omnivorous, so are you- So are the piggywiggies too.-Punch.

ROMAN CATHOLIC PASTOKALS. Two "pastorals" were read on Sunday at all the Roman Catholic churches under Dr. Manning, ad- dressed by that prelate to his flock. The first had reference to the Roman catholic adults and children- more especially the latter—who are inmates of work- houses, and concerns their religious instruction. The archbishop reminds them that according to law the adults are entitled to call for the ministration of priests of their communion; and, with respect to children, that their parents, nearest relations, or God-parents are by law entitled to demand that the children shall be instructed in Roman catholic schools. The second pastoral and more lengthy document was occupied with the religious aspect of Christendom, but more especially of the Christianity of Great Britain. Dr. Manning considers that society is now no longer separated into sects, and no one any longer proposes a new heresy, but the world is divided into the party of belief and the party of unbelief. Men no longer hold a little more or a little less but all, or none at all. He notices that controversy no longer interests, and he expresses solicitude that other de- nominations therefore should co-operate with the Roman catholics for the promotion of the social and moral welfare of the whole body of the people. He sees in this aspect of the religious dispositions of the country the ultimate advantage of his own principles, and he especially distinguishes the progress made in that direc- tion during the last fifteen years. Generally he holds that the Roman catholic church occupies a triumphant position, especially adverting to what he deems the evidence thereof manifested in the assemblage of so many prelates of that church now being held in Rome at the instance of the Pope, and to which, it may be observed, Dr. Manning proceeded himself several days back.

CRUELTY TO CALVES. A correspondent writes the following to the London Times:— Let me contribute my mite to the efforts you so judiciously allow to find a public voice in your most influential sheets in behalf of these much suffering animals. Independently of the cruelty of bleeding to depletion before slaughtering, pray let it be known that the meat is deteriorated in savour and in nutritious quality by this abominable practice. In no part of Continental Europe that I am ac- quainted with is it usual to kill veal otherwise than as other animals are slaughtered—that is to say, without any preliminary preparation. The flesh is consequently darker in colour than English eyes are accustomed to, but I appeal to all who have ever eaten it-and they must be legioii whether it is not a far more appetizing and excellent viand than that to which our English palates are accustomed. By the memory of many a savoury cutlet; by almost tender visions of often-repeated, but never cloying suppers on kaltes kalbs braten, I adjure you to impress on our countrymen that further sufferance of calf-bleeding is not only a crime but a fault.

THE TRIALS OF ROYALTY! The following remarks on the recent death by burning of the Archduchess Matilda, of Austria, the affianced bride of the Crown Prince of Italy, are from the Lancet The union of the houses of Savoy and of Hapsburg- Lorraine has been frustrated by a lucifer match. On Thursday, the 6th inst., the Archduchess Matilda, the afficianced bride of the Crown Prince of Italy, died of the injuries she had received from the acci- dental ignition of her summer clothing. She was looking out of one of the windows of the imperial palace at Schonbrunn, and on changing her posture trod on a lucifer-match. that had been negligently dropped on the floor. In an instant her clothes were in a blaze. Assistance came, as usual, too late and after a short interval of extreme suffering she expired. Surely this awful and most disastrous event will be the last warning which an improvident and reckless public will require to protect itself against the risks attending inflammable clothing. Years ago a sure pre- ventive against such risks was provided for the wear- ers of the light dresses; and they had as certain a safe- guard in the tungstate of soda as the miner has in his Davy lamp. Yet cases of death from burning are as common as ever among wearers of crinoline and the newspaper paragraph as frequently records the fatal effects of accidental ignition as if chemistry never existed and tungstate of soda were not known. The Government, according to Mr. Walpole, is bound to protect those who cannot protect themselves and, in the spirit of this excellent axiom, it should be rendered illegal and punishable to sell articles of wearing apparel which have not been previously made fire- proof by the simple and inaKpensive processes always available. Now is the time to legislate. The public mind is in a ripe condition for the enactment of the most stringent precautions against fatal accidents from burning and the warning which was repeatedly sent forth, but in vain, through the sad fate of the poor ballet girls who had ventured too near the foot- lights, will surely take effect now, when an auspicious alliance has been set aside by the most miserable of accidents, and when a lucifer-match has proved even more adverse to the pacific relations of two-rival Powers than the cannonade of Custozza or the heavy- shotted broadsides of Lissa.

SHOCKING MURDER OF A WOMAN IN KENT. On Saturday an inquest was held at Trosley, situate a short distance from the mainroadbetween Maidstone and Sevenoaks, and about midway between those places, on the body of an unknown woman which had been found in a small coppice at the side of the road, and from the appearance of the body and its surroundings it was evident that a brutal murder had been committed and e t that it had been preceded by outrage. It appeared that two labourers, who had to pass the place daily to their work, had their attention drawn about a week ago to a very offensive smell, but they took no notice of it, thinking that it proceeded from some dead animal. On Thursday, in last week, however, it had become so offensive that they decided upon visiting the coppice together in the evening to find out the origin of the smell, and at a short distance within the coppice they found the body of a woman, apparently about forty years of age, lying upon her back. The head and face were completely enveloped in a shawl which was tied tightly round her throat, and fastened by two knots in the front, the ends being turned in. The police were at once communicated with, and on the following day a more minute inspection of the place was made, but in consequence of the large number of persons who had visited it, the body not having then being removed, all traces of a struggle which one of the men who found the body said had appeared to have taken place at that particular spot, were trodden out. In some grass about a dozen yards from the body there were evident signs of a struggle, and there a con- stable picked up a quantity of hair which was supposed to have been pulled out of a man's whiskers by the roots. The surgeon who was examined said that it would have been useless for him to have made a post-mortem examina- tion of the body, as decomposition was so far advanced that bruises or marks of violence, if there had been any, could not have been detected. He supposed that the body had been lying there for a fortnight at the least, and his opinion was that death was caused by suffocation. It was in the bounds of possibility for the woman herself to have tied the shawl, but it was exceedingly improbable. A woman, whose appearance carrespended with the deceased, was seen in the neighbourhood about three weeks before hawking small wares, and about that time a boy found a small box contain- ing a few such articles in a ditch close by where the bcdy was found, so that the date of the occurrence can be arrived at with some degree of certainty. The jury returned an open verdict of Found dead." The police have since apprehended a labourer on suspicion of having been the perpetrator of the horri- ble deed, and he was taken before one of the county magistrates on Tuesday, the evidence against him being of the gravest character. On the 27th May, about which time it is supposed the murder was com- mitted, the prisoner was seen at a very short distance from a woman whose appearance was said by one of the witnesses to correspond with the body found, who was sitting on a bank at the side of the road leading to the shaw in which the crime was completed. The prisoner, who did not at all seem to feel the position in which he was placed, was remanded for a week.

SERIOUS DISTURBANCES IN BIRMINGHAM. According to announcement, Air. Murphy, agent of the London Protestant Electoral Union, arrived in Birmingham, to deliver a series of lectures upon the "Errors of Roman Catholicism;" and on Sunday, afternoon and evening, he commenced by delivering two sermons at the" Tabernacle," a wooden building erecte,l for him in Carr's-lane. Ap- plication was made to the Mayor, on behalf of Alr. Murphy, for the use of the Town Hall; but his Worship, having regard to the disturbances which had taken place at Wolverhampton and other parts, and to the proba- bility that they would be repeated in Birmingham, de- clined, after consideration, to accede to the request, and hence the course taken for providing for a special place for the delivery of the lectures. The "Tabernacle" is built to accommodate between 3,000 and 4,000 people. There is a large platform, for the accommodation of the more imme- diate supporters of the lecturer, and the body of the build- ing is divided into two parts, the front only being fitted with seats. The Tabernacle is well lighted with gas. The divided feeling which prevails in the town relative to Mr. Murphy and his lectures induced an application to the authorities-to take extra precautions for preventing a breach of the peace. During the afternoon service, shortly after five o'clock, a disorderly crowd began to assemble opposite the house of Mr. Aston, bruslimaker, Dale-end, and father of the secre- tary of the Birmingham Protestant Association, and in a lew minutes a shower ef stones had riddled every window in the house. The furniture inside was much damaged, but no personal injury was sustained by any of the inmates. Another house, in Park-street, shared a like fate soon after- wards, but that was an empty one, and the shutters as well as the panes were smashed. About eight o'clock matters still looked anything but satisfactory, and the Mayor, Alderman Manton, and Messrs. Buckley and James, arrived at the Public Office. It was reported that the Riot Act would be read, which, the crowd not dispersing, would have been followed by the interference of the military, but it was not found necessary to do this. The wooden Taber- nacle being emptied of Mr. Murphy's hearers, and Mr. Murphy himself having got quietly off, the chief exciting cause had been withdrawn. The Mayor and Magistrates, accompanied by Chief Super- intendent Glossop, walked among the crowd, and remained in the vicinity till about nine o'clock. The Rev. Canon O'Sullivan, Vicar General, the Rev. Mr. Power, and the Rev. Mr. Tranor, accompanied by Mr. Glossop, Chief Superin- tendent of Police, and Inspector Kelly, also went amongst the crowd,exhorting the Catholics to be peaceable, and endeavour- ing, to the best of their ability, to lessen their excitement. There was, however, afterwards a serious conflict with the police, who drew their sabres, and, it would appear from the list of wounded used them pretty freely. One labourer was brought to the hospital with a sabre cut in his elbow- joint. It was necessary to amputate the joint in this case. A candlestick-maker had also a sabre cut in his elbow- joint. A nail forger was cut with a sabre. One man had a cut shoulder, another a cut arm, a third a cut elbow; a woman a cat arm, and another woman severe injuries on the head. It does not appear that the police inflicted these last injuries. The casualties among the police themselves were -one wounded with a stone while taking a prisoner to the station; one cut on the head and one stabbed slightly in the arm, and several others were struck with stones. Monday Night. The disturbances continue, and numbers of arrests have taken place. In addition to 400 local policemen a squadron'of Hussars and 400 pensioners have been called out. A squad- ron of Hussars arrived from Coventry about ten o'clock, and a detachment of infantry from Weedon soon afterwards. The Volunteers are on duty protecting their armoury. A policeman has been wounded with his own sabre, and is not expected to live. The Riot Act has been read twice. Tuesday Afternoon. Great crowds are assembled, but perfect tranquillity pre- vails. An armed force of a thousand men, besides special constables, are keeping order. Park street, which is occupied by Irish, is in ruins. The police and Protestant party on the one side, and the Irish on the other, have been fighting there all day, the police with sabres, the mob on bob sides with bricks, stones, iron bars, and other weapons. Ninety Irish- men were brought before the magistrates this morning charged with riot. Wednesday Morning. Up to half-past twelve last night no serious disturbance occurred. It was rumoured that it was intended to make an attack on the Catholic Cathedral and the armouries in the gun- making district of the town; but, warning having been giveuito the authorities, any outbreaks, if they were intended at all, were prevented by the presence of the police and the military. Mr. Murphy delivered his lecture at the "Tabernacle" as usual, and the proceedings were orderly. Over 100 soldiers of the 81st Regiment arrived from Manchester last night, and are now quartered at the Town- halL The streets are quiet.

QUERY. One question I would fain propound, While Redesdaie's bill advances slowly What need to consecrate the ground? The sexton always makes it holey.-Punch.

The PRESENT ASPECT of the YEAR'S CROPS. Mr. James Sanderson, of Pall Mall East, London, writes as follows to The Times:- Having during the last ten days closely observed in the Midland and Southern counties a large agricul- tural area, it may not be uninteresting to your readers -especially at a time when the results of the harvest are contemplated with unusual interest-to have a brief account of the state of thegrowing crops. Since the preparatory operations for the present crop commenced, the weather throughout has been characterized by an excessive rainfall. The tempera- ture has been exceedingly variable--a few days of mild weather or extreme heat, suddenly alternating with a like time of severe frost or intense cold. The farmers' prospects, influenced almost wholly by the weather, have undergone corresponding changes, and their foreboding fears have been rapidly displaced bj brilliant hopes. The greater portion of land for autumn seeding wai ploughed rather wet, and wheat was sown in—what it really favourable—a moist and compact bed. The autumn braird generally was regular and vigorous, although not forward. On lowlying and wet soils the plants during winter were decimated by slug ravages, and it was feared that on such soils the crop would be greatly deficient. The wheat plant was not injured b1 the severe winter frosts, and while many of the finer trees and shrubs succumbed, this hardy cereal re1* mained unscathed. With the exception of that on the chalk and red sandstone formations, wheat in the opening of spring was rather thinly planted, while not a few nndrained fields presented a patchy appearance. The brilliant and forcing weather from the 1st of May till the 11th inst. produced an extraordinary change on the crops, and fields which formally looked indifferent suddenly exhibited great luxuriance. Thatrapid vegeta- tion, however, was rapidly checked by the cold easterly winds and severe frosts that prevailed from the 11th till the 24th of May. Crops—autumn as well as spring sown—gradually lost their rich hues, while the upright and grass-like blades of the plants showed unmistak- able symptoms of arrested growth. Happily, that severe check was followed by even a more rapid vege- tation than that which preceded it, and the glorious weather-a combination of heat and moisture—of the last three weeks has produced such a rapid progress of agricultural crops as is rarely witnessed. For the last three days the temperature has been lower and the sky overcast; but this, so far from being injurious, is favourable to the crops, inasmuch as it will give strength to the succulent stem and fit it to nourish and carry a richly laden ear. Excepting on badly farmed land, which is no cri- terion, wheat is remarkably promising, and although the plants in many instances are too widely apart, yet, judging from their vigorous stems and blades and luxu- riant hues, the length of ear and closely-set grain will more than balance that deficiency. Barley, the least hardy of the cereals, suffered most from May frosts. It has, however, r&pidly recovered during the late forcing weather, and what was early sown promises an abundant yield. The sowing of barley on clay soils was, however, much retarded, and a considerable area, especially in Essex and Wilts, was unsown on the 1st of June. That area cannot be early cut, but the braird is strong and regular, and promises an abundant straw produce, without which there could be only a deficient yield of grain. The oat crop, suited to a variable climate and a moist soil, looks singularly promising, being regular, vigorous, and closely planted. Like its sister cereals, it is about eight days later than in ordinary seasons. Beans are by no means promising, as they are de. ficient in plants, stem, and podH. From this Hereford- shire and the west of Worcestershire may claim exception, as there the bean en p promises to be a fail average. The pea crop, which luxuriates in a thoroughly com- minuted soil and in a dry climate, has found in 1867 an unfavourable season. Slugs, May frosts, and a new enemy—an aphis, have greatly injured the pea crop, and its produce must fall at least one-half short of that of last year. The preparation of the turnip fallows has been, from the wet weather, very protracted, and there is still a considerable breadth of turnip land to seed. The braird of early-sown turnips is healthy, and is free from insect attacks. Early planted potatoes were severely bitten by the frost of last month, but they are vigorously issuing fresh sprouts, and the plants are equal and healthy. Mangolds have in many districts been severely injured by frost. Hay, natural and artificial, is a full average crop. Mowing has commenced in the Southern counties. Pastures suffered considerably from the cold spring winds. They have recovered, and are now yielding abundant feed. On the whole, the harvest prospects are cheering. Doubtless the cereals have still several critical stages to go through, yet, judging from the appearance of the crops while they are passing the important ear-forming stage, and with favourable circumstances to come, there will be a full average yield of agricultural produce.

A REMARKABLE DWARF. The following is an extract from the Lynchburg (Va Republican:— One of the most remarkable and interesting freaks of nature to which our experience has yet introduced us, we met with in the person of Colonel" Josephus- Chaffin, of Bedford county. This personage is some forty-two years of age, has all the usual features and outlines of manhood, converses with vivacity and in- telligence, is twenty-seven inches high, and weighs between twenty-five and thirty pounds. We learn from Mr. Adams, an uncle of this strange little pro- digy, that many years ago he was exhibited in all the cities of the North and South, and excited then much interest and wonder. Since that period he has been living in obscurity at his home in Bedford county, and only came to town one day on business, quite uncon- nected with the circus. The subject of this notice has a face which at one time might have been not un- handsome it is now worn, sunken, and seamed with wrinkles, and its lower parts are covered with tangled red whiskers. His voice is general^ of a "childish treble," and is particularly affecting and mournful. We are told, however, that the "colonel" is quite cheerful and hopeful constitutionally, and is not at all sensitive about his singular deformity. He partici- pated, as we learn from his own conversation, in the present distress and anxiety of the Southern people, although he was a Douglas Democrat," and believed that secession was the cause of the war. Mr. Adams says the father and mother of this curious mannikin were both stout and hearty persons, as also are his two brothers.

A ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP AND HIS CONGREGATION. The beauty, fashion, and wealth of Roman catholic Liverpool have received a tremendous public snubbing from Dr. Goss, their bishop (says the Pall Mall Gazette. ) It appears that St. George's Industrial Schools in that city have been mismanaged-elliefly through want of funds—and have got into difficulties, and that the Bishop of Liverpool has taken them in hand, raised money at his own risk to set them right again, and opened collecting boxes in the Liverpool chapels for their relief. In the largest and best attended of these chapels four thousand of the faithful have been hearing mass every Sunday during the six weeks of Lent, and have passed by these boxes every time they entered and every time they left their place of worship. But when the bishop opened the boxes on Easter Sunday, confident that their contents would be sufficient to free the St. George's Schools from all debts, he found, to his astonishment and grief, that they contained but 19s. 7d., whereupon he preached a sermon to his wealthy flock that seems to have made their ears tingle. It concluded in the following words I had hoped to have complimented you to-day on your good deeds, to have praised your charity to the poor, and to have parted from you with my blessing. But how can my lips speak a benison on those who have treated Christ's poor as you have done-who have closed your hands against the needy, and have shut your ears to the wail of the hungry ? From you I appeal to the Great God of Heaven, whose image ye behold crucified upon that cross, and who will come in power and majesty to judge you—before whom every short- coming will be revealed, and who will tell you to depart Because I was hungry and you gave me not to eat; I was, thirsty and you gave me not to drink sick and in prison and you visited me not;" and in vain will be your remonstrance "Lord, when did we see Thee hungry and gave Thee not to eat; thirsty, and gave Thee not to drink; sick and in prison and visited Thee not ? "As long as you did it not to one of these my loved ones, you did it not to me. Depart I The bishop delivered the first part of his sermon in a colloquial tone of remonstrance. But when he began to speak of the neglect of the poor Dr. Goss's voice gradually swelled into a full level tone. The attention of his hearers meantime visibly quickened under the influence of the speaker to a point of breathless ex- pectancy, and when the bishop had arrived at the expression Depart! his voice was resonant with such rhetoric force that the congregation seemed to wither under the word. His'lordship left the pulpit without pronouncing the usual blessing on the con- gregation. Q