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TEE day of the forthcoming Wimbledon prize meeting is altered from the 1st, to Thursday, the 4th of July.

"It appears from authentic documents," says the Pastrie, "that France now. possesses 475 vessels, of which 349 are steam and 126 sailing. Among the steamers are 37 screw liners; .6 screw iron-eased frigates; 17 frigates, paddle-wheel and screw; 47 'corvettes, ditto; 126 steam advice boats, and 44 screw transports. Among the sailing vessels are 8 line-of-battle ships, 25.frigates, corvettes, 21 brigs, 26 light vessels, and 33 transports. _It is ,nery long since our navy presented such an -imposing ensemble."

As the Prince of Wales and Captain Grey were 'boating on the Cam, " one of -them" lost an oar, and upset the boat endeavouring to recover it. Fortunately the water was shallow, and both escaped with a drenching.

Mr. Cassias Clay, United States Minister to Russia, Mr. Adams, United States Minister to England, and Mr. Ilaldennann, United States Minister to +Sweden, arrived at Liverpool by the Niagara, from Boston, on Monday. The Liverpool Chamber of Commerce presented an address to Mr. Adams, as soon as he had landed, and received from him a suitable reply.

The Times is happy to learn that the rumour which prevailed recently of Mr. Wildegrave's resignation of the office of Private Secretary to the Speaker is incorrect. 'Mr. Waldegrave will continue in the office, the duties of which'he discharges in a manner so satisfactory to the House and to the public.

'France; seventh Doke of Bedford, died at Woburn Abbey on Tuesday. He bad eompleted his seventy-third year on Monday, having been torn on the 13th of May, 1788. Educated in youth at Westminster School, he went thence to Cambridge, and on his return from a tour on the Continent, usual in those days, he, being Marquis of Tavistock, entered the House of Commons as member for Bedfordshire. He sat until 1832, when he was summoned to the Upper House as Baron Howland. The late duke was a steady Whig, and held various offices of honour. On the death of Lord Macaulay he •became High Steward of Cam- bridge. He is succeeded by William, Marquis of Tavistock, burn 1809, and a member of Parliament at the time of his father's death. A Garter and the Lord- Lieutenancy of Bedfordshire thus become vacant.

Mr. Robert M'Cail, a Wesleyan patriarch, died at Lisburn, near Belfast, en Sunday, aged eighty-four. He was one of the last of the early cotton manufac- turers in the north of Ireland. He heard the founder of Methodism preach in the streets of his native town. One of his sons, the Rev. W. M`Call, is a dis- tinguished clergyman in the diocese of London.

Mr. Herbert Spencer has in the press a volume on " Education: Intellectual, Moral, and Physical." It will be published by Mr. Manwaring next week.

Mr. Montgomery Stuart, who, three years ago, gave a course of lectures in London on the influence of Italian an Englishliterature, and who subsequently delivered at the Marylebone Institution several discourses on the philosophy of ,Shakspeire, proposes to examine, in a series of six lectures, the character and writings of Machiavelli in their relation to Italian politics, history, and literature. The first lecture of the course, on Tuesday, the 21st of May, will, we understand, give a general review of Machiavelli's life and times ; and the other five discourses on the five following Tuesdays, will successively treat of Machiavelli as a diplomatist, of the connexion between his three great political works—" The ,Discourses," " The Prince," and the "Florentine Ilistory"—of his system of stational armaments and defence, of hiss.elations to and criticisms on Savonarele, mut an his views generally.

'The report of Queen's College, Belfast, for the year ending March 1, 1861,11as been pub Lewd. Last year the President, the Rev. P. Shonldham Henry, accorded an increase of 32 students. This year there is a further increase of 57, the total number of students in the college being 312—more than double the number on the rolls in 1852-3. The increase is more markedin the matriculated students, which were then only 101, and are now 239, while the non-matriculated' increased only from-52 to 73. The medical students in attendance have increased since last year from 95 to 116. M. Dietrici, Director of the Office of Statistics at Berlin, has published in the annals of the Academy of that city the result of his researches relative to the% present population of the globe. In addition to his calculation of the total num-. her of inhabitants, which ho puts down at upwards of1,288,000,000, M. Dietrich estimates the number of the different human races as follows: The Caucashin,; 389,000,060 ; the Mongol, 552,000,000.; Ethiopian (negroes), 196,000,000; the: American (Indians), 1,000,000 ; the Malays, 200,000000. The leading religions. lie divides as follows:—Christianity reckons 335,000,000 adherents; Judaism,' '4000,000; the Asiatic religious, 600,0.00,000; alahometanism, .160,000,000; and Polytheism, 200,000,000. Of the Christian populations, 170,000,000 belong. to the Roman Catholic Church; 80,000,080 to Protestantism, and 76,000,000toi the Greek Church.

The manuscript missal of the fifteenth century belonging to the Abbey of St. Lo, at Rouen, was sold on Saturday, as announced, at the public sale-rooms in the Rue Drouot. It was put up at 1506fr., and the biddings went on very slowly', to 10,000fr., but at that moment the competition became more animated, and the hammer ultimately fell at the sum of 24.850fr.—Golignanirs Messenger. A curious piece of ecclesiastical furniture recently found in a monastery near' Florence, is about to be sold at the.auction mart in Paris ; it is what is called a' confessional a surprise, and it is said to have been constructed in the early part' of the sixteenth ceuturv. On one of the panels is a remarkably well-executed image of the Saviour, and to thiais attached a spring, which by means of pressure an a brass stud, caused the panel to be replaced by another, which bears a frightful figure of the Evil One, with horns on his head, terrible glaring eyes, and moving

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jaws garnished with formidable teeth. At the same instant a horrible noise is produced by a pair of bellows and some organ pipes, which, says the account, completes the terror the apparition would cause to a credulous sinner.

It is reported that twelve gunboats are ordered to be rigged out for immediate commission, it is said for service on the North American station, and that the ,gun vessels in the first-class steam reserve will also be brought forward to receive the pendant if required. We believe, however, that at present no orders have been received by the authorities at this port.

The Chamber of Citizens of Bremen, in a recent sitting, passed a restriction calling on the Senate to take measures, in accord with the other German Govern- ments, to abolish passports, or at least to make a sweeping_reform in the regula- tions relative to them.

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In the week that ended on Saturday the deaths in London were•1240, show- ing but a small decrease on the number in the previous week. The average number, as obtained from the returns of corresponding weeks in ten years 1851-60, and corrected for increase of population, is 1202; and, therefore, the mortality nowretnrned exceeds, as if did also in the previous week, the estimated amount by nearly forty deaths.—Registrar-General's Report. At Monaco last week, the bank of the public gaming-table was three times broken,thetotal loss being about 200,000f. The managers have consequently been obliged to return to the system of having the doublezero instead of one, as last winter.

A large establishment in Albany-street, London, the vinegar works of Messrs Grimble, was destroyed by fire on Tuesday night. The fire brigades steered by the vivid reflexion of the great blaze, but did not arrive in time to do more than keep:the flames tinder control and prevent therefrom extending. The fire lasted for eight hours. The authorities of Lyons have issued a decree against boys being permitted to meddle with birds'-nests in that department, and parents, as well as school- masters, are -rendered responsible for any such delinquency of these juveniles. The document asserts that the destruction of birds is the ruin of fruit-trees, in- asmuch as their proper prey, caterpillars, chenilles, &c., are infinitely more noxious at this period of the year than the feathered tribe in summer or autumn. This exemplifies the minute interference of French administrators in petty mat- ters left ummticed in England.

A return presented to Parliament shows that 137 acres of Richmond Park, seven-twelfths of the whole, have been drained, and the average cost has been 61. 7a. 4d. per.acre.

The Spanish squadron of evolution, which is to cruise on the -coasts of Africa, has received orders to exercise itself particularly with the firing. of mortars. The Correspcnulancia states that orders have been sent to San Domingo to esta- blish without delay electric telegraphs and to construct roads.