We believe we may confidently announce that every effort will

be made by the Government to bring the business of the session of Parliament to a speedy termination, with a view to a general election. We hear that it is -

considered not unlikely that the prorogation will take place some time in June, and the dissolution will immediately follow. The Legislature must,

of course, assemble soon after the election has terminated; but it is very doubtful whether any other than the necessary business, such as the elec- tion of a Speaker, &c., will be entered upon.—Afanchester Guardian.

A rumour, propagated by the Morning Post on Tuesday, that Mr. La- bouoliere -had tendered his resignation as Chief Secretary for Ireland, WAS formally contradicted in the Times of Wednesday.

Mr. John Lefevre Assistant Secretary to the Board of Trade, has stated, in reply to a letter from Sir Robert Kane, that as soon as the Government

have come to a decision on the establishment of Schools of Design at Dab- lip and Belfast, they will institute the necessary inquiries with a vietv to the formation of a similitr school at Cork.

The ptiblication of a return obtained by Mr. William Brown, the Mein- ler for South Lancashire, exhibiting the public ineome and expenditure or Ireland for a long series of years, has furnished the Means of examinin. into the pet allegation of the Repel-deka, that, by the Union, England nia-

naged to throw on Ireland a large share of the burden of the National Debt. In round numbers, the Repealer. put the amount thus unjustly ex- tracted from Ireland at 60,000,0001. One of the consequences of the act of Union was, that England adopted as a national liability the Funded Debt of Ireland, amounting to about 130,500,0001. The interest on this sum, in 1817, was 6,032,1111.; but it has gradually decreased, until in 1846 it was no more than 4,176,458/. The income of Ireland derived from the usual sources of revenue has generally exceeded the expenditure by about 1,750,000/. per annum. This surplus is all that Ireland has furnished towards the payment of the interest of her debt; the difference being de- frayed from Imperial funds. It would therefore appear, that instead of England's owing Ireland 60,000,0001., Ireland is indebted to England to the extent of upwards of 100,000,0001.

The agricultural reports from all parts of the United Kingdom seem to be highly favourable : the weather is considered very propitious for the operations of the cultivator. In the grazing districts of England, however, complaint is made of a very destructive epidemic among live stock, espe- cially among the sheep.

In Germany, and particularly in Silesia, the Tops bear an appearance so promising, that the markets of the country already begin to feel the effects by a sensible reduction of prices.

Under the signature of "Cavendish," a correspondent of the Morning Chronicle gives a hint of what took place on the night of the unreported debate on Mr. Spooner's bill. The two Deans and Chapters of Westmin- ster and Gloucester were mentioned as deriving their incomes mainly from houses of notoriously bad reputation. The leases granted thirty years ago have still many years to run; but no effort, it is alleged, has been made to cancel them, or buy out the tenants.

Sir Gaspard Le Merchant, the newly-appointed Governor of Newfound- land, sailed with his suite in the last Halifax mail-steamer.

A Manchester paper states that Mr. Milner Gibson, Vice-President of the Board of Trade, is suffering under severe illness; for which he has been ordered change of air.

Among the recent deaths is that of the Right Honourable Joseph Plants; whose biography is thus sketched by the Morning Herald—

"Mr. Plants was the son of the late Joseph Plants, F.R.S., a native of Switzer- land; who, long domiciliated in Eug,land, became at length Librarian to the Bri- tish Museum and Secretary to the Royal Society. His son, Mr. Joseph Plants, early entered life as a precis-writer in the Foreign Office, and at length became Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs; which place he filled for nearly ten years. He accompanied the late Marquis of Londonderry, as private secretary, to the Congresses of Paris, Vienna, and Aix-la-Chepelle; and was much trusted by that nobleman, to whom his attainments as linguist and publicist stood in good stead. From May 1827 to November 1830, Mr. Plants was one of the Joint-Secretaries of the Treasury; and, though he never took a prominent part in the business of i the House, as Member for Hastings, for which borough he sat n the Parliaments of 1826 and 1837, yet he was known to official men and to Members generally as a most able, instructed, and capable man. For the last seven years, his health had been most wretched; and his death, though sudden, was not unexpected, for his physicians had long pronounced that it might happen at any moment. A kinder and a better-hearted man it would be difficult to find, and he has not left an abler in his peculiar sphere."

- The Roman Catholic Bishop of Cork, Dr. Murphy, died recently, at a very advanced age. His library, comprising more than 200,000 volumes, is bequeathed to the citizens of Cork.

Count Roy, Peer of France, and Minister of Finance under the Restora- tion, died on Saturday last. M. Roy was the largest landed proprietor in France: it is said that he leaves a fortune of 2,000,000 francs (80,0001.) per annum.

The German papers report the sudden death of the Bishop of Munster In Westphalia. On the 29th March, in the evening, as the Bishop was -Walking in the corridors of his cathedral, he was struck with apoplexy, and died in a very few minutes. His last words were, "My hour is come: 0 GodI have mercy on my soul!" He had been raised to the see only on the 10th of December last.

A curious sign of the times is noticed at the last drawingroom, in the fact that the Turkish Ambassador was accompanied by his lady. The Princess Callimaki was attired in Parisian costume; the Prince in the dress of his country.

Halil Pacha, Lieutenant-General in the Ottoman Artillery, and Osman Bey, Post-Captain in the Ottoman Navy, accompanied by M. Zohrab, Otto- man Consul-General, paid a visit of inspection to Portsmouth Dockyard on Wednesday.

We have no means of testing the genuineness of the subjoined letter which has also appeared in some of the French papers; but it comes to US under the guarantee of the Munich post-mark.

"TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.

Munich, March 31, 1847. "Sir—In consequence of the numerous reports circulated in various papers re- garding myself and family utterly void of foundation or truth, I be of you through the medium of your widely-circulated journal to insert the following. "I was born at Seville, in the year 1823. My father was a Spanish officer in the service of Don Carlos; my mother a lady of Irish extraction, born at the Havannah, and married for the second time to an Irish gentleman; which, I sup- pose, is the cause of my being called Irish and sometimes English, Betsy Watson,' Mrs. James,' &c.

"I beg leave to say that my name is Maria Dolores Perris Monte; and I never have changed that name. "As for my theatrical qualifications, I never had the presumption to think I had any. Circumstances obliged me to adopt the stage as a profession: which pro- fession I have now renounced for ever, having become a naturalized Bavarian, and intending in future making Munich my residence. "Trusting that you will give this insertion, I have the honour to remain,

Sir, your obedient servant, Lord. lilowrze."

The Sidon steam-frigate has been despatched from Portsmouth to Lisbon with very sudden expedition. She took a large party of Marines; and waited at Spithead for despatches from the Foreign Office and the Admi- ralty. It is said that the Marines are intended to garrison the fort of St. Julian, in case the insurgents make a descent upon Lisbon.

The Faris correspondent of the Times professes to have a piece of ex elusive intelligence about Greek affairs— "A French naval force is about to proceed to Greece coincidentally with the • British squadron ordered thither. In former (indeed recent) times, this would be regarded as hazardous; but the commanders of the naval forces of France and England are impressed with the desire of their respective Governments to remain at peace. No irregularity or misconduct of inferior parties (should such occur) can consequently bring about a collision; a consolatory assurance that it would not have been safe to give some three years since."

From a statement in Galignanis Messenger it appears, that Mr. Thomp- son, the British Vice-Consul at St. Maio, has found it requisite to resign his appointment.

King Louis Philippe, who likes such undertakings, has conceived a scheme for the formation of a railway from Corbeil to Fontainebleau, and he intends to make it at his own cost. This little line will present no en- gineering difficulty, having no tunnels nor viaducts, and being constructed in a straight line. It could be completed by the spring of 1848. It would give the Parisians the advantage of resorting in a few hours to one of the most splendid residences of our Wings, and double the value of the little line of Corbeil. Besides, it would be the means of joining the Paris and Lyons line to the Paris and Orleans Railway. With this new line the pas- sengers would travel from Paris to Fontainebleau within two short hours. —Paris Correspondent of the Morning Chronicle.

The Dutch papers mention that the Easter fair at Frankfort had begun,. but that the amount of goods far exceeded the number of buyers.

Emigration to a very great extent is taking place'from Germany. Up- wards of 6,000 emigrants have within the last fortnight passed through Cologne, on their way to Bremen, Havre, and Antwerp; whence they will take their departure for America. The greater part of them seemed to be rather well off. The town of Menden was lately so full of emigrants that it resembled the camp of a wandering tribe; the streets were literally crammed with baggage and people waiting for the steamers. It is calcu- lated that 120,000 Germans will emigrate this year.

The Emperor of Russia has issued a ukase interdicting the circulation of the Polish coin, even in any part of Poland, and forbidding all the public offices, from the 1st of May, to receive any such cOin in payment of public dues.

The Augsburg Gazette announces that one of the Russian fortresses on the Black Sea has been taken by assault by five of the Caucasian tribes of the Abchases.

We do not think we can better express the sympathy which is now se universally felt in the United States for the sufferings of the people of thi country, than by stating, that immediately after the news brought by the Cambria had been promulgated, 1,500 passages were paid for by residents in New York into the house of G. Sherlock and Company, for the trans- mission of their friends in Ireland to the land of plenty. Through the same house, by the last packet, there have arrived remittances to the amount of 1,300/. in sums varying from 2/. to 101.—Dublin Evening Post.

A mechanic of Carlsrahe has just invented a new locomotive, by which steep gradients of twenty-two feet in one mile may be surmounted; and the adoption of such an engine would facilitate the construction of the proposed line from Cathie rube to Switzerland.

The Admiralty have afforded G. F. Mtmtz, Esq., i M.P.,an opportunity of test- ing his patent metal in sheathing a man-of-war with t. The Champion, at Portsmouth, is selected for the trial—Aris's Birmingham Gazette.

A system of printing through the electric telegraph has been recently invented by a gentleman named Brett. The mode of operation is very simple: the lappa- rates consists merely of a row of keys similar to those of a pianoforte, marked with the letters of the alphabet, at one extremity of the line, and at the other a printing-machine which a slight electric power is sufficient to regulate, and which,. without limit of distance, prints the letter at the same instant that the corre- sponding key is pressed down. The process is already so far advanced that eighty-seven letters per minute can be printed in good legible type. In America,. the discovery is gradually brought into use; and it is expected that 4,000 miles of railway will be supplied with the apparatus by the end of this year.

A new method of fastening tires on the wheels of locomotives has been tried on the Great Western Railway, with complete success: a tire fitted on this principle has been put to a severe test.

The German newspapers state that Professor Schonbein, the inventor of the cotton-powder, has discovered a new composition which produces the same effects as the inhalation of ether, without causing any danger. The nature of the new invention is not described.

The Augsburg Gazette states that a chemist of Vienna has produced bread from oil-cake—the refuse of the cobra seed, after extracting the oil—which is both. agreeable and nutritive, and costs only a halfpenny per pound.

A baker of Berne, in Switzerland, has succeeded in making very 'relatable bread from Iceland moss. It results from a scientific examination of this bread, that out of 102 parts it contains 44 of fecula or nutritive matter. Bread made chiefly of potatoes is said to contain only 15 in the 100 parts of nutritive matter. —Galignanis Messenger.

The new comet discovered on the 6th of February has been visible to the naked eye in the constellation Andromeda, shining as a star of the fourth magnitude, with a tail extending, on the 20th of March, about four degrees from the nucleus. On the 30th of March, at noon, it was calculated that the comet was distant from the Sun four times his apparent diameter, and nearly South-west of his centre. The perihelion passage took place about six o'clock in the evening. The diameter of the cometic nebulosity is about 65,000 miles, and that of the more condensed central part 8,000; the tail extends more than 5,000,000 miles from the head.— Globe.

The Philosophical Magazine contains an account of a singular snow plizeno- menon that recently occurred in Orkney. The paper was contributed by Mr. Clouston, of Stromness. "One night a heavy fall of snow took place, which covered the plan to a depth of several inches. 'Upon this pure carpet,' says the writer, 'there rested next morning thousands of large masses of snow, which con- trasted strangely with its smooth surface.' These occurred generally in patches from one acre to a hundred in extent, while the dusters were often half a mile asunder. The fields so covered looked as if they had been scattered over with cart-loads of manure, and the latter covered with snow • but on examination, the masses were all found to be cylindrical, like hollow fluted rollers, or ladies' swan- down muffs, bearing a strong resemblance to the latter. The largest measured 3i feet long and 7 feet in circumference. The centres were nearly but not quite' hollow, and by placing the head within when the sun was bright the concentric structure of the cylinder was apparent. They did not occur in any of the ad- joining parishes, and were limited to a space of about five miles. The first idea as to the origin of these bodies was' that they had fallen from the clouds, and portended some direful calamity. But had they fallen from the atmosphere,- their symmetry and loose texture must have been destroyed. The writer having examined them, was soon convinced that they had been formed by the wind rolling up the snow as boys form snow-balls. Their round form, concentric structure.

fluted surface, and position with respect to the weather side of eminences, proved this; and also from the fact of their lying lengthways, with their sides to the i wind; and sometimes their tracks were visible n the snow for twenty or thirty i yards n the windward direction, whence they had evidently gathered up thew concentric layers. This seems to be the most singular example ever recorded of Boreas making snow-balls."

About midnight on the 19th March, a singular phaanomenon was witnessed on board the Stornoway royal mail-packet, in the Minch, by Captain Macaulay and his crew and passengers. The weather was serene in the extreme, and the water smooth and shining, when in a moment the ship was surrounded by lights burn- ing as brilliantly as torches. The flame possessed a bluish tinge, and illuminated the sky to such a degree that one could have seen to pick up a pin off the ship's deck. One of the lights passed close by the packet, and appeared exactly like the flame arising from ignited whisky or spirits of wine.—Inverness Courier.

The Westmoreland Gazette relates an instance of "canine attachment" "A short time ago, Mr. J. Bell, of Beathwaite Green, sent his man to bring home a pony which he had purchased of Mr. James Helmet of the Strickland Arms, Sizergh Fellside. When the man was bringing the animal away from his former owner, he found that a large dog of the blood-hound breed had accompanied him from the Sizergh Anus. The man stopped on the way for a short time at the Duke of York public-house; but upon his attempting to resume his journey, the dog entered a very significant growling protest, which, upon the man's persisting in the attempt., deepened into rather alarming demonstrations of hostility. Appa- rently, the animal, though he had no objection to his equine companion taking a .short journey under his safeguard, bad conceived in his doggish mind a suspicion that things were now going rather too far, and that he was really about to lose him. He became at last so furious, that nothing would pacify him until the man was compelled to turn the pony's head the other way, and take him to his former owner."

A fossil cherry-tree was discovered lately in a bed of sandstone, in the Isle of 'Wight, 200 feet below the level of the earth.—Poole Herakl.

The Queen has granted a pension of ten shillings a week to the widow of the late James Blake, the workman who was killed by falling from a scaffold in Osborne House. The two children are also to be placed at school in London.

The proceeds of the concert for the benefit of the family of the late Mr. learns, together with some donations received by Mr. Chappell, the Honorary Treasurer, amounted to 2371.

A gentleman called last week at Messrs. Herries and Co.'s, in St. James's Street, and left, under the initials "Z. Z. Z.," 5001. in aid of the funds of the 'Royal Free Hospital in Gray's Inn Road.

Lord Brownlow Cecil, the second son of the Marquis of Exeter, met with a severe accident on Tuesday. He was riding in the Windsor steeple-chase; in at- -tempting to clear a fence his horse fell, and rolled over him; his shoulder was dis- located, and he was much bruised and sprained.

A labourer on the Nottingham and Lincoln Railway has had a wonderful es- cape. As he was walking on the rails at night, a train came up at a rapid rate; the engine struck the man, and dashed him forward some ten yards; fortunately, he did not fall on the rails, but into a ditch; and he was taken up not much hurt.

An unusual circumstance occurred last week at Ballyadeen, near Castletown- roche, [in Cork,] on Mr. O'Brien's land. As-one of his horses was ploughing, a large portion of the earth in the centre of the field gave way, and sank about twenty feet, completely swallowing up the horse, which was smothered.South- ern Reporter.

The Legislature of Barbadoes has granted 2,0471. in aid of the distress in Ireland and Scotland; and a subscription has been got up in the island of Newfoundland towards the same object.

We also observe smaller collections at Alexandria in Egypt, set on foot by means of a meeting at the Consulate.

The collection at the church of the British Embassy in Paris amounted to 2601., exclusively of Lord Normanby's donation of 801.

A strange act of incendiarism is reported in the Journal d'Elbeuf, at an inn at °rival. A rat, spying that a lantern-door against a stable-wall was open, snatched the candle, lighted as it was, between its teeth, and carried it off into the hay-loft; which was soon in a blaze. The fire was, however, speedily got under. What became of the culprit is not recorded.

A man has been killed in a strange manner at Cherry Willingham, in Lincoln- -shire. He was walking behind a cart which a boy was driving; in the vehicle -the man had placed a loaded gun the muzzle pointing backwards; the jolting of the cart discharged the gun, and the contents lodged in the man's body.

A few days ago, at Nedonchel, in the Pays de Calais, a father strangled his two children, the one six, and the other four years old—that he might become pos- sessed of a little property which they had inherited.

Richard, a slave of Robert Rowan, who whipped another slave, Maria' to death, in Charleston, U. S., has been tried and acquitted, because he did it by the direc- ,tion of his mistress.—Boston Liberator.