AtiztEllantotts.

'The Queen Dowager visited the Dutchess of Kent, at Frogmore Lodge, on Monday, and partook of a kjeuner.

The Duke of Cambridge visited the Queen Dowager, at Bushy Park, on Thursday.

Princess Augusta of Cambridge, attended by Baroness Ahlefeldt and Baron Knesebeck, went to St. Paul's Cathedral and the Pantheon, on Wednesday.

The Duke of Cambridge left town yesterday afternoon, on a visit to the Duke and Dutchess of Bedford, at Woburn Abbey, in Bedfordshire.

The Archduke of Austria, the Emperor's nephew, arrived at Ply- mouth Sound on Saturday, in command of the Bellona Austrian frigate. The Areffidelte landed in Devonport at two o'clock, in the Admiral's

tender, under a royal salute ; and he remained some time at the Ad- miral's house, where he took dinner. In the evening, he visited Gene- ral Murray, at Government House. The Globe says of the young commander on the coast of Syria—" His appearance is extremely youth- ful and rather prepossessing, though there is a slight air of courtly retenu and reserve about him, inherent, probably, in a prince of the line of Austria. He is slight, but well formed, with a florid complexion and dark blue eyes. When he landed, he wore the uniform of a Captain in the Austrian Navy."

On Tuesday, his Highness visited the dockyard ; it being one of the objects of his visit to this country to see our naval works. After going to Portsmouth, he will come to London on Tuesday next ; Prince Esterhazy returning to town on purpose to receive him.

Sir James Graham and the Chancellor of the Exchequer left town on Saturday, for the Isle of Wight. They returned to town on Thursday. Earl De Grey and his suite arrived in London on Thursday, from Antwerp.

Sir Francis Palgrave was a passenger in the same boat.

There is a dispute, says the Gateshead Observer, between the Mar- quis of Londonderry and the township of Grindon. The Marquis's agents protest against his seat, Wynyard, being assessed to the poor- rate at more than 5001. yearly value : it comprises 600 acres of wood, 900 of grass laud, and a variety of residences for servants and depend- ents, with other offices.

Lord Hill has, we learn, lately rallied most surprisingly. Before his departure from town for Hardwicke Grange, his Lordship's friends and medical attendants entertained serious apprehensions for his recovery, and he was compelled to remain some days at Birmingham before he could be removed into Shropshire; but the influence of his native air produced a favourable effect on the spirits of the noble and gallant Lord, who exclaimed, that the sight of the Wrekin had put him all to rights. His Lordship has since gradually amended in health.—Globe. The Bishop of New Zealand reached that colony in April, after' a passage of 110 days.

Mr. Sartoris, who married Miss Adelaide Kemble, is not a foreigner, as has been slated : he was born in London, where his father, who came from Geneva, resided many years as a merchant. —Morning Post.

Letters received in London state that the King of Hanover is re- covering. The courier that brought despatches to the Hanoverian Em- bassy, on Monday, denied the truth of a report that the King had con- tracted a morganatic marriage with Madame de Bartwitz.

The military show at Dusseldorf closed on Monday. The King of Prussia varied his military exercises with an ecclesiastical ceremony : on the 4th, he laid the foundation-stone of the great cathedral of Cologne, which was begun in 1748, but has remained unfinished. The King made a spirited speech, alluding to the pile as a symbol of the union of different faiths which prevails in his dominions- " May this portal of honour never be disgraced by bad faith or.by the un- worthy disunion of German princes or of the German people. May this struc- ture never disturb the peace of creeds, nor impede the progress of social order; and may that spirit which once interrupted the building of this house of God, and injured the wellbeing of our common fatherland, find no entrance here. The feeling that has prompted the building of these portals is the same that twenty. nine years ago made us break our chains, rolled back insult from our native land, and division from its shores; it is the same spirit which, fortified. by the blessing of my departed father, (the last of those three great Kings,) two years ago displayed itself with a vigour undiminished in power and mom paired by time; it is the spirit of German union and of German power ; and oh, may the portals of Cologne cathedral be its most glorious triumph. • • Gentlemen of Cologne, your city has by this structure obtained a high pre- eminence over all the other towns of Germany ; she has this day proved herself worthy of that preeminence. Join, then, with me as I strike the trowel on the foundation-stone; shout with me the thousand times repeated rallying- cry, 'Aloof Cologne !'" Amid the burst of cheers which followed, the King struck the stone three times with the hammer.

Advices from Constantinople of the 24th, stale that the Syrian ques- tion is upon the eve of adjustment. It is affirmed that a project of arrangement has been drawn up by the Supreme Council of the Porte, and communicated to the Ministers of the Great Powers. According to this project, the Lebanon will be divided into two districts ; the Maronites to be governed by a Christian Prince of the Sheab and the Druses to select a Governor among their own Sheiks. Both tribes will be placed under the military and civil control of the Turkish Pasha of Acre or Damascus.

Papers have been received from the Cape of Good Hope to the 8th July.

Very unfavourable intelligence had been received of Captain Smith's detachment, which had been sent to take military possession of NataL The Graham's Town Journal quotes the following brief note: it was dated May 28th, and it appears to have been sent from Natal by a per- son whose name is known, though it is suppressed on prudential consi- derations, to the Wesleyan Mission station' at Bunting- " The Point at Port Natal has been taken by the Boers on the 26th May; on which seeasiee two men were killed, and two wounded. (These are sup-. posed to be soldiers.) Also, one Charles Adams, (a British resideut,) is killed. Ogle, Cato, Toohey, and several other, (all British residents,) are taken prison.. era. Nearly all the stores brought by the Pilot are taken, and A large gall. It is thought that Captain 8mith must surrender in a short time."

The Journal explains this brief communication- " When the former account left Natal, we stated that the messenger re- ported, that while on the journey, at a distance from the port of about sixteen or eighteen miles, he distinctly heard the sound of cannon) and from the infor- mation now received, it would seem that this was an attack by the Boers on the party which had been left to defend the stores, then recently landed from the Pilot, but which Captain Smith had not had time and opportunity to convey from the landing. placeto his intrenched camp—about a mile and a half dis- tant. These stores had been deposited in a strong moue building, and were protected by a small sergeant's party and a few British volunteers from among the civil residents. Among the materiel was one of the two 18-pounders sent round by the Pilot. There was also a large supply of shot and ammunition, as well as a considerable quantity of biscuit for the use of the troops. The whole has fallen into the hands of the Beers."

The Journal adds-

"Prom the Native who brought down this deplorable intelligence some little additional information was gained. He states that the Boers were very nu- merous, and had completely invested the intrenched camp in which Captain Smith and his men then were. Besides this, that the Boers had full possession of the country, may easily be gathered from the fact of the caution used in sending this information; the writer evidently feeling the risk he ran in doing so to be too great to permit of his attaching his name to the statement. Ali communication from the camp is cut off, and which is said to be very short of provisions." The Cape Frontier Times supposes that the British store-ships, Pilot and Mazeppa, were unable to get out of port in consequence of this movement of the Boers ; and mentions a rumour which had reached Zwart Eel, that Captain Smith was a prisoner, and wounded. The Graham's Town papers have the following note from their Coles- berg correspondent, dated June 26th-

" Presuming you may be anxious to hear tidings relating to our countrymen at Natal, I hasten to give you a report that has just reached this, to the effect,

that the remainder of the troops, sixty in number, have surrendered prisoners of

war. Pretorins disclaims all knowledge of the first attack. I cannot vouch for the truth of this. I give it you as I heard it from a most respectable indi-

vidual, Mr. P. de Villiers; and be has the information from a Mr. F. du Toit who yesterday arrived from the Riet River. The following you can, however, rely on as perfect truth : 400 armed men, principally under the Fieldcornetcy -of Mocke, lately from the district of Beaufort, have proceeded to Natal, to assist the Emigrants : their force I now estimate (of course I mean those arrayed in opposition to Government) to amount to 1,200 men. The whole of the Madder River, Caledon, and Mooye River, are in a state of tumult. How it will end, God only knows. It appears to me that the number of Boers between the Orange River and Natal have been under-estimated: should they take part with their brethren, the force they can bring into the field will astound Sir George."

Reinforcements had already been sent to the scene of action. Four companies of the Twenty-fifth Regiment, amounting to 320 men, under the command of Lieutenant. Colonel Cloete, had embarked in the Queen's ship Southampton, 50 guns, which sailed from Simon's Bay on the 14th June. A transport, the Maid of Mona, sailed on the 15th with another company ; making a total force, including Marines, of nearly 500 men, with stores of all kinds. The second in command was Major D•Urban.

' The Morning Post complains that needless annoyance is caused by the preliminary proceedings in levying the Income-tax ; for want, it considers, of some proper and able superintendence in the department charged with the execution of the law- " It was the practice during the Administration of the late Mr. Pitt, upon occasions when the increase of taxes rendered it necessary, to place at the head of a revenue department a man of tried ability and known integrity. The Tax-office, in the year 1798, just before the Income-tax was imposed, was much in its present state, the Chairman of the Board being a country gentle- man ; but neither the Secretary nor himself were equal to compete with the various legal points constantly arising. The consequence was, that Mr. Pitt found it absolutely necessary to select an eminent barrister to conduct that difficult and onerous duty, and a gentleman of talent and experience was se- lected to act as Secretary. "If such a step had now been taken, the discontent beginning to show it- self would not have arisen. Notices have been forwarded from the Office of Stamps and Taxes, which are drawn in such a confused manner (whether aris- ing from intention or ignorance we know not) that we believe they have puzzled the most eminent lawyers and merchants. The unintelligible notice under Schedule A and B has been followed by a more unintelligible one under Sche- dule D; which, we understand, has been served not only on every householder, even of the poorest class, without regard to his calling or the rent of his pre- mises, but upon lodgers, journeymen, and artisans at small weekly salaries, weli known not to possess an assessable income. These parties, like their su- periors, hare been wholly unable to discover or to comprehend the various rules and regulations laid down in the mystified notice-paper. The consequence has been, that many who are scarcely able to provide a dinner for their families, have been compelled to call in the aid of an attorney, and have had to pay from 68. 8d. to IL, according to the trouble given, for filling up what they never ought to have been required to fill up at all. We should much like to know what is the expense of sending out the notices under Schedule D so generally : we think we may undertake to say that the tax derived will not be equal to the expense. "We should like to know what is the use of the privilege allowed under the law to persons who are to be assessed, to send all the required particulars, under a sealed cover, to the Commissioners of Taxes, when the first thing they do in reply is to cause all the papers consequent thereupon to be served openly through the hands of the common collector ? Surely such annoyances as these might be spared to people who are willing to pay the tax which, by the law, they are liable to pay."

There are symptoms of a decided advance in opinion respecting the admission of the public to ecclesiastical structures and monuments. A Committee of the House of Commons have recommended that there should be a more free admission to ecclesiastical edifices, as tending to foster the growth and progress of religious opinions; and that the larger portions of St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey in particular should be thrown open to the public, a small reduced fee perhaps to be retained for admission to the more intricate parts of the buildings. Mr. Hume has given notice for next session, to move a resolution,

"That this House is of opinion that the receipt and exchange of money within any cathedral, church, or sacred edifice, in payment for the exhibition of the same are contrary to the Scriptures, as well as prejudicial to the religious feelings Of the community ; and that such payments ought to be entirely dis- continued."

Sir Robert Peel has expressed his desire that Deans and Chapters would abolish the present system of fees ; and the Leading Journal has recently taken up the matter in its effective style— "We believe that if the character of those noble buildings, the religio loci, has but fair play—if it is but shorn of its present appendages of a verger and bis sixpenny extortions—if there is but some visible sign of care and respect on the part of those ecclesiastical authorities who are in trust with the building— if Canons and Prebendaries are in somewhat more regular attendance at those eervices for the sake of which they enjoy their rich foundations—if these ser- vices were performed with something inure like uniform care—if singing-men were somewhat less free and easy, and singing-boys wore somewhat less dirty surplices than we find sometimes to be the ease at present—if, in short, ca- thedrals showed a decent evidence of being consecrated to serious daily de- votion, in this case we believe there would be no cause of fearing lest the flood of people should forget, even out of church-hours, where they were, and think themselves in a park or picture-gallery ; and we are sanguine enough to accept the improvement of practice, such as it is, within and of feelings without thme -venerable walls, as an augury that if the race of vergers and porters were swept

away, and the doors freely opened to all comers, they may really become what they ought to be, engines of good—not what, if open, they certainly would have been made fifteen years ago, mere occasions of evil—may be made not an idle lounge."

The Ecclesiologist, a periodical published by the Cambridge Camden Society, whose members are chiefly clergymen,-joins in condemning the fee system-

" Indeed, to our minds there is nothing so saddening as a visit to West- minster Abbey : there is an incubus over every thing; the fees, the incivility of vergers, the hurrying round in a mixed and incongruous party, the longing after a moment's glance at beauties which are either entirely concealed from one or from which one is heartlessly driven ; the scoffs and jests which one is compelled to hear from the party to which, like the victims of the Italian tyrant, one is bound ; the impossibility of seeing or conceiving the pile as a whole ; the ever-present feeling of iron gates and threepenny fees ; all these, together with the barbarisms of the modern monuments and the paltriness of the modern ornaments, make a whole of extreme wretchedness."

Thus the opinion against the present system now gains ground rapidly. One great obstacle to its abrogation has been removed by the death of Dr. Ireland, the Dean of Westminster; and it should be made a stipu- lation with his successor, that no more sixpenny-fees shall be taken for seeing Westminster Abbey.

Quarterly average of the weekly liabilities and assets of the Bank of England, from the 18th June 1842 to the 10th September 1842—

LIABILITIES. ASSETS.

Circulation £19,714,000 Securities £23,159,000 Deposits 9,833,000 I Bullion 9,177,000

£29,547,000

£32,336,000