311iErrliniiran.

The Scotsman some time since: stated that Mr. Gladstone had tendered sr was about to tender his resignation. This was denied on semi-official authority. On the 12th of July, the Scotsman repeats the story thus :-

" Mr. Gladstone's resignation, we learn by a private telegram, was yes- terday again considered imminent. He is understood to be in a state of hesitancy ; but the probabilities, it is feared, are that he will withdraw. In the event of quitting office, it is Mr. Gladstone's intention to retire for a time from Parliament and public life."

A deputation waited on Sir Charles Wood on Tuesday to urge the In- dian government to promote English settlement in the plains of India, for the cultivation of cotton, sugar, flax, and other products, by en- couraging the construction of canals for irrigation and navigation. Mr. Ewart, 11.P., chairman of the late Committee on Colonization and Settlement in India. introduced the deputation. Proposals for ca- nalizing S'einde and the Punjaub, Gujerat, and lihandeish, have been submitted.

In April the House of Lords appointed a select committee to inquire "what would be the probable increase of the number of electors in the counties and boroughs of England and Wales from a reduction of the franchise, and whether any or what change is likely to be made in the character of the constituencies by such increase ; also, what difference there is between large and small constituencies in respect of the propor- tion of the registered electors who usually vote in contested elections, and into the causes of any such difference which may be found to exist ; likewise into the means by which elections in very large constituencies are practically determined, and into the expense incurred in conducting them." The report of the committee was issued on Wednesday. It will be seen that the committee abstain from the expression of opinions, limiting themselves to a statement of the points upon which they have collected evidence, and to a recommendation of that evidence to the attention of the House. The report is as follows

1. The probable increase which will be made in the number of electors in cities and.boroughs by extending the franchise to occupiers of 61. instead of 101. annual value ; and the extent to which the estimate on this point, given in the returns which have been laid before Parliament by the Poor Law Board, may be considered as accurate or otherwise.

" 2. The proportion in which the increase of the town electors may be distributed over different boroughs, in respect of which great inequality appears to exist i and the probable effect of this in any estimate which may be formed of the importance of the proposed change. " 3. The probable effect upon the registration which will arise from the admission to the franchise of persons occupying tenements the rates on which are compounded for by the landlords. " 6. The extent to which the gross estimated rental' of tenements, as given in the rate-books, corresponds with, or differs from, their actual value ; the effect of this upon any estimate of the probable increase of the number of electors under a new franchise which may be founded upon the gross estimated rental, and not upon the actual value or upon rating ; and the probable proportion in which the additional numbers of electors will be distributed over the different boroughs. "5. The probable character of the voters who would be created by any proposed reduction of the franchise. The extent to which the working classes enjoy the electoral franchise under the present system, and the pro- portion in which the working classes would be admitted to the right of voting in towns of varying extent, under the supposition of the reduction of the franchise to 81. or to 61.

"6. The probable effect of the reduction of the county franchise, espe- cially in those counties in which there are large unrepresented towns and villages.

" 7. The imperfect state of the present system of registration.

" 8. The uncertainty of the law as to what constitutes the difference be- tween a tenant and a lodger.

" 9. These points will require very careful consideration whenever Par- liament may be called upon to enter upon any measure of Parliamentary Reform, and the Committee begs to call the attention of the House to the evidence taken by them." Upwards of forty witnesses were examined, including Mr. Sidney Smith, Mr. Philip Rose, Mr. R. D. Baxter, Mr. D. Chadwick, Lord Wensleydale, Mr. Thomas Hare, Mr. E. Baines, M.P., Mr. John Bow- ring.

The above report is Lord Overstone's. On the 18th of June Earl Grey laid before the Committee a draft of a series of resolutions, fourteen in number, and occupying three pages of the Blue-book. In these resolu- tions it is declared that the reasons given in the returns laid before Par- liament are insufficient to determine what proportion the new voters created by a 61. franchise would bear to the existing electors in the cities and boroughs of England and Wales ; but that there is evidence to show that this proportion would be a large one, and that in many cases the ntrw electors would so greatly outnumber those who now enjoy the pri- vilege as to leave to the latter comparatively little influence in the choice of representatives. On the 22d of June Lord Overstone laid his draft report before the Committee, and proposed that it should be considered instead of the draft resolutions of Earl Grey. This was objected to, but on a division the contents were 11, and the non-contents 8. Lord Over- stone's report was ultimately adopted, with slight amendments.

Next Wednesday the sun will be totally eclipsed. Mr. J. R. Hind has furnished to the Times some general remarks on the subject, which he rightly opines will be read with interest:— "The line of central and total eclipse commences on the earth on the Western coast of North America, in longitude 125 deg. 47 min., and lati-

tude 45.deg. 42 min. N., not far from the mouth of the Columbia River. in the Oregon territory. Its course is thence over the Rocky Mountains, mear Cumberland House, and South of York Factory, in 'the Hudson Bay district, where I understand preparations have been made for observing the phe-

nomenon, as also at Cape Chudleigh in Labrador, which is near the central line. The American Government have provided for the proper observation

of the eclipse at this point. From Cape Chudleigh, the course of the central eclipse is across the Atlantic in a South-Easterly direction, and it will first strike the shores of Europe about 45 miles West of Santander, in Spain,

crossing that country in the direction of Oropesa, near which place it launches into the Mediterranean, and passing over Ivies, enters Algeria in a longitude of 4 deg. 20 min. East of Greenwich. It leaves the earth near Massowa, on the Red Sea, in longitude 39 deg. 25 min. E., and latitude 15 deg. 56 min. N.

" On the whole of this line the eclipse will be total, and the duration of totality, when greatest, will be about four minutes. ". In this country the celipscwill be large, but will not approximate to totality. In the metropolis abOut 82-100ths of the sun's diameter will be obscured—a magnitude which is hardly great enough to bring out any of the characteristics of large eclipses beyond the yellowish tinge thrown over the landscape as sunlight wanes. An excellent opportunity, however, will be afforded to the unprofessional observer of judging of the degree of ace curacy with which such phenomena can now be predicted. The calculated times of beginning and ending published in your impression of today, founded as they are upon the best existing tables of the sun and moon, will probably be only a very few seconds in error. "In London the moon will come into contact with the sun, or the eclipse will begin, at lb. 39m. p.m., a little below the sun's centre, on the right hand. The greatest eclipse will take place at 2h. 49m. p.m., when 82-100ths of the diameter will be covered. Nothing like darkness, or even

obscurity, can, however, be expected at this time, 18-100ths being too large a portion of the sun still visible to allow of a very sensible diminution of

daylight. At 2b. 49m. p.m. the sun will appear as a crescent, with the convexity towards the zenith. A dark glass will serve as well as the tele- scope to exhibit this, the most interesting feature of the eclipse in England. The moon will finally separate from the sun, or the eclipse will end, at 3h. 54m. p.m., a little North of his centre, on the left hand.

Mr. C. 1T. W. A'Court has been appointed Assistant Comptroller of the National Debt, and will be succeeded in the office of. Special Commissioner of the Income-tax by Colonel F. Remaly.

The Queen has appointed the Reverend F. D. Maurice, chaplain of Lin- coln's Inn, to the district church of Vere Street, Marylebone, on the recom- mendation of Mr. William Cowper.

Dr. Colenso, who was appointed in 1853 the first Bishop of Natal, has in- timated his intention of resigning his episcopal see for the purpose of pro- ceeding as a missionary to the country of the Zulus, in order to plant the Gospel there.

The Emperor of Russia has nominated Mr. Charles Bell, of St. Peters- burg and London, a Knight Commander of his Imperial and Royal Order of St. Stanislas, and has commanded the Chapter of the Imperial and Royal Russian Orders td invest him with the insignia, and to issue the patent thereof.

A grand dinner took place on the 7th of July at the new palace of Prince Frederic William, at which the King and Queen of Bavaria, many of the Prussian Princes, and various other visitors of distinction were present. The King had honoured Professor Ranke with a long visit in the morning.

An Ostend letter states that the Prince Bogen- t of Prissia- will arrive

there in the beginning of August, and remain till the arrival of Queen.

Victoria, who is expected towards September, on her way to Berlin, to be present at the baptism of her new grandchild, whose birth wilt probably take place during the present mouth. The Prince Regent has engaged for the season the whole of a sumptuous hotel on the Grand Place.—Galignani's Messenger.

The Dowager Empress of Russia, on leaving Wildbad, will reside for some days at the Castle of Stolzenfels, on the Rhine. On the 21st or 22d instant er Majesty will arrive at Potsdam, on a visit to the Prussian Court.

The Prince of Schleswig-Holstein arrived in Paris ou the 10th, and alighted at the Hotel Wagram, in the Rue de Rivoli.

The French Emperor received the Moorish Ambassadors at St. Cloud on the 10th.

Lord Elgin and Baron 'Pros had left Galle for China on the 10th of June.

Baron Haber, the founder of the great, banking and trading company, arrived at St.. Petersburg on the 8th July, after having formed connexions with many great houses on the Continent. His arrival is said to have pro- duced a favourable impression in financial circles.

It is stated that the Emperor of Austria and the King of Bavaria will be present at the inauguration of the opening of the railway between Salzburg and Munich, which will take place on the 15th August. The sovereigns will meet at Salzburg, whence they will proceed to Munich, where several other German sovereigns are expected.

Dr. Hayes, the companion of the lamented Kane in the expedition which shed a lustre on the American name in connexion with Arctic explorations, met a large number of friends in the New York Chamber of Commerce on the 29th of June, who assembled to take farewell of him prior to his de- parture for the Arctic regions.

The Hungarian Colonel Turr, the companion of Garibaldi in the expedi- tion to Sicily, and who contributed to the victories of Calatafimi and Pa- lermo, arrived at Turin on the 6th from Genoa. Ho is suffering from ex- haustion and an old wound.

The Japanese Ambassadors sailed from the United States in the Niagara, on the 29th of June.

Augustus John Alexander Law, second Marquis of Lauriston, has just died in Paris. This nobleman was the son of the celebrated Marshal Law, one of Napoleon's great generals, and bearer of the treaty of peace of Amiens to London, and was the great-great nephew of the famous John Law of the Mississippi scheme.

The great Berkeley peerage question, arising out of a claim put in by Sir Maurice Frederick Fitzhardinge Berkeley, K.C7B., of Berkeley Castle, Vice- Admiral of the Wlaiteeto the title, honour, and dignity of Baron of Berke- ley, as being seized as tenant-for-life in possession of the Castle of Berkeley and of the manors and hereditaments which constituted the barony of Berkeley, is now under the consideration of a Committee of Privileges. The curious in such matters will find ample instruction in the report of the Times of Thursday and Friday.

The Cork Herald announces that a case calculated to create a good deal of general and local interest is set down for trial in the present after sit- tings of the courts at Westminster. It is an action at the suit of Mr. John George MacCarthy against Mr. John Pope Hennessy, M.P. It will be re- collected that Mr. MacCarthy acted as conducting agent for Lord Campdeu at the recent contest for the country, on the retainer of Mr. Hennessy. His lordship has, it appears, repudiated the agency of the honourable Member, and Mr. MacCarthy is now compelled to proceed against Mr. Hennessy for the recovery of the large sums he must necessarily have spent in his onerous capacity as conducting agent.

The Independence Beige was withdrawn from circulation in Paris on Wednesday, for mentioning that certain law proceedings were in process on behalf of Miss Paterson, the late Jerome's first and valid wife, involving not only property, but social rank and other inconvenient results. Ru- mours of this have been rife in Paris, but of course no one printed them, and, to add to the explosion, certain signatures of Jerome to documents in possession of Madam Letitia Bonaparte Wyse were talked of as about to be enforced ; in the latter ease summary treatment was inevitable—not so with the Baltimore claims. It is generally understood in England that this Miss Paterson was sister to the late Marchioness Wellesley, but that is not exact ; she was sister to Robert Paterson, who was the first husband of the subsequent marchioness ; but that lady was a granddaughter of Carrot, of Carrolton, an Irish settler, whose name figures among the signa- tures of the great Charter or Declaration of American Independence.—Globe Correspondent.

A meeting has been held in Darlington—the head-quarters of Quakerdom —for the purpose of organizing a rifle corps in that town. A committee was appointed to carry out the arrangements.

The Swiss who contended at Wimbledon have written a handsome letter of acknowledgment for the kindness and courtesy they received on all sides.

An experiment in transporting cavalry and artillery by rail was made on Wednesday. It was found that some 500 sabres and one complete battery of guns required six trains of thirty carriages to convey them from Islington station to a point on the Willesden Junction line. Six hours were occupied in the whole performance. Nearly an hour was occupied in clearing each train.

The Ifortmento of Genoa states that on the 1st instant, the Austrian au- thorities at Venice obliged two Neapolitan vessels, which had hoisted the tricolour flag, to haul it down again ; whence, the journal adds, it would appear that Austria does not recognize the present Neapolitan Go- vernment.

The Pungolo announces that Garibaldi was, on the tth instant, elected deputy by the Fourth College of Milan by 239 votes out of 246.

A party of guides of Chamounix planted the French flag on the summit of Mont Blanc on the 5th instant, with cries of "Vive l'Empereur !"

The next quinquennial census of France will take place in 1861, and will include the new annexations.

-A horse and cattle show for Savoy is to take place at Chambery on the 17th, 18th, and 19th August, the Emperor desiring to have an early oppor- tunity of appreciating the resources of his new possessions.

The American clipper and the Utile steamer, just released by the Nea- politan Government, arrived 4 Porto Ferrajo on the 3d, with all their pas- sengers on board.

The Official Gazette announces that an Exhibition of the Fine Arts wil be held at Madrid at the end of October.

Madame Ristori will spend the winter in Russia, and on her returning to Paris next spring, it is said she will adventure a part in French, in a tragedy, by M. Legouve, which is about to be produced at the Odeon theatre. A negotiation has, it is said, been going on for three or few weeks to enable the Reverend Bryan King to exchange his living with a clergymaa near Colchester, in Essex.

Sir Mores Montefiore has sent a check for 2001. to the Times—the begin- Meg of a subscription in aid of the Syrian Christians.

At a full court of the Painter's Company on Wednesday, the seteceesfa competitors iu the exhibition of specimens of decorative art, Mr. Kershaw; Mr. Sitnkin, Mr. Edrnett, and Mr. hi'Douall, were presented with the freedom of the company and certificates of merit for specimens of decorations in Arabesqe, marbling, graining, and writing. Eight hundred and seventy- six persons of all classes have visited this exhibition during the month it has`been open.

It appears that during the terrific gales of the few months that have passed of the present year, the life-boats in connexion with the Royal National Life-boat Institution have been instrumental in rescuing one hundred and fifteen of our fellow-creaturea from a watery grave. The boats have also, on several occasions, assisted vessels with valuable cargoes safely into harbour ; and their crews have assembled in rough weather many times, so as to be ready for any emergency that might arise. Nearly all the services of the life-boats took place, as usual, during stormy weather and heavy seas—and frequently is the dark hours of the night ; yet not a single accident happened either to the crews or the boats. For these valuable life-boat services the Institution has paid their gallant crews 4821. The Life-Boat Journal.

The screw steamship Himalaya, Captain Seccombe, left Plymouth Sound on Saturday morning with the Astronomer Royal and party to witness the total eclipse of the sun. Professor Airy's staff consists of about sixty per- sons ; on arriving at Bilboa, he will take the chief portion a distance of 160 miles, to secure a clear atmosphere and a cloudless sky. The rest will pro- ceed to Santander. The eclipse will take place on Weduesday, the 18th. The professor's party has landed at Billion.

The Astronomer Royal and party landed from the Himalaya at Bilboa at noon on Monday, July 9.

The present returns show a very satisfactory decrease in the deaths for the week that ended last Saturday. The total number was 919; that of the previous week 1001. For the corresponding weeks in the ten years 1858-59 the average Lumber, after correction for increase of population, is 1116. The deaths in last week were therefore less by 196 than they would have been according to the average rate of mortality in the first week of July. Summer weather has not been without good effect iii the improvement of the public health.—Regieteue Generel's Return.

The Galway Steampacket Company is in extremis. It is not yet quite dead, but it is exercising its disposing powers. It has sold off the principal acquisition it obtained at the expense of the English Treasury, and has handed over to the Canada Company the large subsidy which it managed to get for carrying the mails. This piece of plunder was the great nugget of its gains. It was all it had to depend upon to make up the annual deficit of 120,0001., threatening to increase to 180,0001. There is, indeed, another little subsidy for taking letters to Newfoundland, for which a purchaser has not yet been found ; but, as the larger one has been sold, we suppose the smaller is in the market, and we may expect that in due time the New- foundland contract will find its purchaser, and the whole of the beneficial bargains made with the British Government having been disposed of, the clever gentlemen who have managed this transitory adventure will retire frees the scene, and the shareholders will divide what may happen to be , The French journals state that one of the largest manufacturers in the neighbourhood of Paris, whose name they do not give, blew his brains out on Saturday, in the presence of sonic officers who came to arrest him on a charge arising out of transactions at the Bourse, by which it appears he had recently lost large sums of money.

The crystal throne of the King of Delhi had reached Benares on the 7th of June, and was to be shipped thence for Calcutta.

Crinoline. The fall of a taper set on fire the dress of a Miss Wyatt, at Doncaster. Assistance arrived ; but " she had on a steel crinoline, which hindered, in a great measure, the putting out of the flames." She is dead.

The horrible murder of a child at Road, near Frome, continues to excite great interest. Nothing has been discovered to show how it was that a child was taken out of its bed, killed, and stowed away, without any clue being left, or any burglary being committed.