31iortIlautnno.

Parliament, which stood prorogued to Thursday, was again formally prorogued by commission on that day, until the 14th December. The Lords Contmissioners were the Lord Chancellor, Lord Stanley of Alderley, and Lord Monteagle.

We understand that at the Council held on Monday for the nomination of Sheriffs a curious point was set right, after an abeyance of many years. It has hitherto been the custom to summon a Privy Council to nominate the Sheriffs, and to summon the Judges to attend that Council in a posi- tion of inferiority. It seem, however, that by the statute of Richard II, under which this Council meets, it is not a Privy Council at all, but a special council of "Experts," (far more ancient than the Privy Council itself,) which exists for the purpose of nominating Sheriffs, and is com- posed of certain high officers and of the Judges, all having equal votes, and being presided over by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and in his absence (as happened not many years since) by the Chief Baron. Such Councils of Experts for various departments of administration were usual in the middle ages, anterior to the existence of the Privy Council. That for nominating Sheriffs, being under statute, has alone survived to our day.—dlorning Chronicle.

The attention drawn by the press to the subject of reinforcements for the British Army in the East has elicited some information as to the steps which have been taken by Government to fill the gaps caused by battle and disease. Within the last month, we are told by the Globe with an air of authority, nearly seven thousand infantry have been ordered out. Of these 4000 were sent from regimental depots; the Ninety-seventh, 1000 strong, was ordered from Athens, and the Sixty-second from Malta ; and further detachments embarking this week comprise nearly 800 men. These supplies had been ordered, and partly sent out, before the news of the affairs of the 25th October and 5th November were received. Having in view the inevitable casualties of such a siege as that of Sebas- topol, the Ninetieth has been ordered from Dublin, and the Seventy-first, Highland light infantry, and Thirty-fourth, from Corfu. To these must be added the first battalion of the Grenadier Guards, who will join Gene- ral Bentinck's Brigade. The other regiments—the Seventy-first, Nine- tieth, Thirty-fourth, Ninety-seventh, and Sixty-second—will, with the Sixty-eighth, now in the Crimea, form a Fifth Division of the British army ; and Colonel Lockyer of the Ninety-seventh and Colonel Denney of the Seventy-first are named as the probable Brigadiers. It has been very fairly calculated that the total reinforcements, including those ac- tually sent and those about to embark, will number 11,900 men. Nor have our allies the French been backward. It is known that large bodies of troops have recently left the French porta for the Crimea ; and it is now stated by the Globe that "the French Government is pre- paring to send out 50,000 men in English ships, the expense to be shared by the two Governments." Fur this purpose the British Government has engaged several large steamers belonging to the great companies, of which the Candia, Ripon, Nubia, Alps, Indiana, Thames, Europa, have already been named, to proceed as soon as possible to Toulon, there to embark the French army. The French are also drawing cavalry from Rome and Zouaves from Algeria.

The enormous losses sustained by our cavalry are to be repaired.

" As regards cavalry," the Globe of Wednesday reports, "an arrangement has been come to different from what was originally intended. Instead of sending out the cavalry regiments on home service as regiments, the effective men of those corps will be incorporated with the regiments now in the Cri- mea, so as to bring them up to such a strength as a cavalry regiment in time of war should possess. With the exception of the King's Dragoon Guards, our cavalry regiments of the line consist of six troops of 45 men each ; the regimental staff and officers making up the entire number to something over 300. Each cavalry regiment in the Crimea will be made up to eight troops of 75 men each, or 600 in the whole, besides the regimental staff. The officers of the cavalry regiments at home will not be transferred to those abroad, but will remain with their own corps, and will be usefully employed in keeping up an effective supply of trained men and horses to the regiments abroad. Owing to recent losses, the ten cavalry regiments now in the Crimea cannot be said to muster 1000 men : when the new arrangements are carried into effect, they will be increased by 5000 men ; and from the regiments at home there will be no difficulty in at once supplying 2000 of this number."

Artillery detachments are leaving England for Balaklava. Captain Broughton's company, 150, proceeded by the North-western Railway to Liverpool, for embarkation, on Thursday. Another company is to set out on Monday ; and three others are expected to embark before the end of the month.

The Foot Guards will be conveyed to the Crimea in the Royal Albert, 131,—the huge screw line-of-battle ship launched at Woolwich in the summer. Recruiting is going on with great briskness ; the rate, it is said by the Times, being about 1000 men per week. When a siege is undertaken, the first operation is what is called the " investment " of the towm—that is to say, the town is surrounded on all sides by posts of the besieging army, so that no ingress or egress is any longer practicable. This is not only the first step, but it is that on which all succeeding steps more or less depend ; for the superiority of the attack to the defence arises from the fact that, Whereas the means are un- limited in the former case, they are limited in the latter. When a town has been invested, and thus cut off from all communication with the adjacent country, its resources in men, munitions, and provisions become at once confined to the stocks then actually within its walls, while the besiegers, on the other hand, being presumptively masters of the country, can make exactly such dispositions as they think proper. If they cease to be mas- ters of the country—that is to say, if a superior force of the enemy ap- proaches from without,—the siege must, in ordinary cases, be raised, and the town is relieved accordingly. Supposing, however, the necessary su- periority to reside, at all events for the time, with the besiegers, they then select that point in the defences of the place which appears most favourable for their operations ; and here the advantage of the attack over the defence becomes instantly apparent. Whatever may be the strength of the place in respect of artillery, it is obvious that only a certain number of guns can be brought to the defence of a certain portion of the ramparts, whereas the attacking force can concentrate upon this one point all the guns at their disposal. The defences of a town may mount 500 guns ; but if any particular front mounts only 50, and the besiegers can attack this front with twice the number, they have the superiority of fire at the only point where such superiority is required. It is on this condition of operations, joined to the necessary limitation of resources in a place en- tirely excluded from all external communications, that the ascendancy of the besiegers depends. Availing themselves of the protection derivable from trenches and covered ways, they gradually push their batteries so close to the place that a breach is made in its walls ; and, as they are always presumed to exceed the garrison greatly in numerical strength, they rush in and carry the town by storm as soon as its defences have been beaten down. It is considered that a town containing a garrison of 15,000 men requires an army of 75,000 men to besiege it ; and when, therefore, the smaller force has lost the artificial protection of its ram- parts, the contest seldom remains doubtful—Times.

Charles gamble, the eminent actor, died on Sunday, at his residence in London ; having just completed his seventy-ninth year.

Some persons set about raising a subscription to be applied exclusively to the behoof of the widows and children of the Twenty-third Welsh Re- giment. They were met by a statement that the regiment was chiefly composed of Scotch and Irish. Lord Hardinge appears to have been ap- plied to on the subject, and he has written as follows to a private friend-

" I send the last return of the Welsh Fusiliers, signed by its gallant and distinguished leader, who fell so nobly at its head in the action of the Alma. I wish the return bad specified Welshmen, and I shall give directions that in the Welsh Fusiliers the four countries shall be separately, and distinctly recorded. The number was 969, of which only 8 were Scotch and 182 were Irish. But the Welsh Fusiliers have always been a remarkable regiment, and their conduct on every occasion has shown that they have in no instance degenerated from their former fame. The Welsh Fusiliers were engaged at Albuera ; and, by a curious coincidence, they lost 14 officers, killed and wounded, the same as at Alma ; but the loss of men was greater at Albuera, namely, 324 men, and at the Alma 197 men."

The health of the Metropolis has now nearly reached the average point. Last week the number of deaths was 1160-48 above the calculated ave- rage, 1112: in the corresponding week of last year the deaths were ex- actly 1112. The deaths from cholera were 23—a decrease of 8 upon the preceding week. The deaths from diarrhoea were 35—an increase of 2 upon the preceding week.

The Duke of Genoa was reported to be convalescent on the 7th ; he had been suffering from an attack of bronchitis.

The Count de Sainte Aulaire, formerly ambassador from France to England, died on Monday, at Paris, in his seventy-seventh year. He was a man of some literary attainments, and a member of the Institute.

It is reported at the Treasury that Mr. Hayter M.P. will be unable to resume his official functions as Patronage Secretary, in consequence of a se- vere attack of cataract under which he is suffering : he is at present in Paris. —Civil Service Gazette.

Mr. Edward A. Freeman, writing to the Morning Chronicle, from Oak- lands, corrects two errors in Mr. Ruskin's recent lecture on Illumination, a summary of which will be found under the head of Fine Arts in our Supple- ment. Mr. Ruskin says that Charlemagne "carried tablets about with him, and put down on them aught that he wished to remember." Mr. Freeman, citing Eginhart and other writers, says that Charlemagne did indeed carry tablets, not "to put down what he wished to remember," but "to practise Ilia hand at leisure moments in forming letters, though very unsuccessfully." Mr. Ruskin says that Alfred the Great was incited to learn to read by his stepntother ; Asser, from whom the story comes, talks of Alfred's 'mother, Osburh. Mr. Freeman says that Mr. Ruskin's motive is to exalt French writers ; and adds, that " he evidently knows as little of medieval kings as of English architecture."

The Times reports that since She recent censure of the Greeks in London for rejoicing at our losses in the Crimea, they have " behaved with decency and discretion." It adds that the public has not forgotten that " there are some few of the most respectable among them who have always kept a course free from reproach." " A Greek" writes from Manchester to the Leading Journal denying that the Greeks generally have offended. He hints that two persons have striven to raise a prejudice against the Greeks in this country. He hopes the con- tributions to the Patriotic Fund will show that the Greek merchants really sympathize with England.

The arrivals of the precious-metals amounted last week to only 130,0001. ; the exports equalled them.

Up to the end of October this year, the importation of coals into London by sea exceeded those of the same period last year by 76,879 tons ; while the increase on coals brought by rail and canal was 271,289 tons. The affairs of Messrs. Allen and Anderson, the London firm that stopped payment five weeks ago, are to be wound up under inspection. A dividend of about five shillings in the pound is expected. Messrs. Allen and Ander- son were engaged largely in the American trade, and were closely connected with Mr. /tPlienry. At a dinner given last week to Mr. James Baldwin, papermaker, late Mayor of Birmingham, that gentleman, in acknowledging the usual com- plimentary toast on such occasions, said—"'Very few tad more reason to be thankful to Birmingham than he had ; for, having come to that town a poor boy, an ordinary amount of industry, and a conscientious desire to discharge the duties of a citizen and a tradesman, were the only qualities that had sufficed to raise him to the position of their chief magistrate, and to find amongst the company, whose guest he was, two gentlemen for whose father he had driven a plough."

The Committee of Privy Council on Education have refused to counte- nance the employment of the pupil teachers under their control in school. rooms not having boarded floors.

The statue of Nelson recently erected in Norwich market-plaokli to be removed to a more appropriate site.

The Forerunner, Afrioan contract mail-steamer, was wrecked on the 25th October, with the total loss of the ship, cargo, and mails, and a sacrifice of fourteen lives. The vessel left Sierra Leone on the 13th October, crowded with passengers and freight. Captain A. E. Kennedy, the Governor of Sierra Leone, one of the passengers who escaped, has described the calamity. After a narrow escape from striking on the Arguin Banks, " the Forerunner ar- rived at Madeira without further accident on the night of the 24th October, and sailed from Funchal, for Plymouth, on the 25th, at four o'clookp.m,, with fine clear weather. At about a quarter past six o'clock p. tn. the same evening, or two hours after our departure, on passing St. Lorenzo, the Eastern- most point of the island, and ample light to avoid such a catastrophe, we ran at full speed upon a sunken rock plainly laid down on the chart, and only 200 yards from the bold precipitous cliffs of the shore. Thereupon immediately en. sued the stereotyped occurrences common upon such occasions. Apanicaencken crowd of engineers, stokers, and greasy-jackets, rushed at the boats, which were secured like fixtures: these cut away, one boat was partially swamped; and the remaining two, lowered without order or discipline, were instantly

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overcrowded. At this juncture, two of the boats having pushed off to reach a Portuguese fishing-boat, which providentially -passed near to us, a heavy roller struck the ship ; she slid forward about half her length, and went down head-foremost in 120 feet water ; her propeller standing perpendicular to the water as she descended with the rapidity of a stone dropped from a height. Eighteen or nineteen souls were carried down in this frightful vortex ; the quenched fires and steam roaring like some huge monster strug- gling for life. Four or five only of these unfortunates were subsequenily saved. The time which elapsed between the vessel's striking and totally disappearing occupied little more than ten minutes.

" There occurred in this rapid and trying scene the usual contrast of self- possession and firmness of the few and the selfish pusillanimity of the many. Several of the passengers did good service, and were the means of saving life ; but all must mourn the loss of Lieutenant Child, of the Gold Coast Corps, whose courage and humanity were befitting his profession. This gallant young officer refused to leave the ship while any remained; ruched to the cabin and brought up Mrs. English and her child. Having put the latter in safety, he was last seen vainly endeavouring to force the unfortu- nate lady over the side-rail of the ship into the same boat; when both were carried down together in the vortex with the sinking ship. " The survivors were landed by a Portuguese fishing-beat at 'the village of Santa Cruz ; where they were received by a Portuguese family with the most cordial and unhesitating hospitality. Not a vestige of 'property was saved, beyond the clothes which the survivors stood in. "I will do the crew of the Forerunner the justice to state, that a more self- ish, pusillanimous, and incapable herd, I have never had the misfortune to meet with. I saw three of them in the cabin-passage vainly struggling to save the captain's box of money, while they left the only woman and child on board to perish unheeded. Money or men, however, never reached the deck. To another the captain gave a bag of gold ; he was true to his trust, and went down with it."

After condemning the inexcusable nature of the disaster, Captain Ken- nedy proceeded—" As for my personal share in this appalling disaster, I did all I was capable of doing, by word and act, to restore order and confidence, and to save all, by recalling officers and crew to a sense of their duty. I de- clined to leave the ship while any remained. I was carried down to a con- siderable depth with the sinking ship, came to the surface, and, being a good swimmer, escaped the despairing clutches of those who sank around me, and was taken into one of the boats (at one time out of sight and hail) after being half-an-hour in the water, when the night had become pitch dark.- Had there been sufficient boats, andproperly found, all might have been saved; but with the wretched and insufficient means at band, all those saved have to thank a merciful God alone for an almost miraculous escape from death. A. very little more wind or sea, and all must have perished." Those who were drowned were—Lieutenant Child, Gold Coast Corps; Mr. Yertue, of Sierra Leone ; Mrs. English, widow of Captain EnglishMr. Moore, chief officer; Mr. Grimetead, second officer; six of the crew, andthree distressed mariners who had been granted a passage.

An unparalleled railway " accident" has occurred on the Great Western of Canada, attended with the killing of fifty-seven p.ersons and the wounding of forty-one, nearly all severely. A passenger-train was delayed for some hours by accidents to the machinery; very early in the morning, in a dense fog, it was cautiously advancing towards Chatham ; and at Baptist Creek Flats, on an embankment running through a great swamp, it came into col- lision with a train of ballast-waggons, running from the Chatham direction. [American railways generally have but one line of rails.] The crash was terrific. " One locomotive was completely thrown over to the right, the express-car thrown over, crushing the first and second class cars into mere splinters, demolishing the next, and making a wreck of the third car, and driving in the end of the fourth. The passengers in the last care escaped with slight bruises. Almost the entire load of the second-class care were killed or wounded—some cut completely into pieces, others with mangled heads and bodies, and without limbs. The screams and groans of the man- gled were awful. Every efibrt was made by the conductor and passengers to relieve the sufferers ; but, notwithstanding their almost superhuman efforts, all were not extricated for more than four hours after the collision. Heaps of the dead and wounded were found in the ruins, piled together in all man- gled shapes. All the ballast-cars were demolished and piled upon each other, with the tender of the engine stove in. The conductor of the ballast- train was in the rear oar with his signal-light, and a Negro boy at his side : the conductor saved himself by jumping, the Negro was killed." The cause of this bloody catastrophe is said to have been this—a watchman directed the driver of the ballast-train to proceed, though the driver hesitated, as he thought the passenger-train had not passed. The watchman, who had been sleeping at his post, declared that it had, and the ballast-train proceeded. Mr. T. F. Meagher was in the passenger-train; he had a wonderful escape, and has narrated some of the horrible incidents.

Cholera reappeared at St. Petersburg at the end of last month. The cholera has broken out with some virulence in Athens. It had ceased some time in the Theme, and reappeared in the city. Many of the inhae bitants fled from Athens in affright, and crowded into the neighbouring villages.

At Barbados there are now but few cases of cholera ; the disease was rapidly declining in St. Vincent's, and was not so fatal in Trinidad; while in the other West India islands it had entirely disappeared at the last advices.

The following, according to the Almanack of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, was the population of Russia at the last census, in 1849. The population of Russia in Europe was 60,628,700, and that of the whole of the empire was 66,428,200. It was in 1722, 14,000,000 ; in 1762, 20,000,000 ; in 1795, 36,000,000 ; in 1818, 45,500,000 ; in 1824, 60,000,000 ; in 1838, 59,000,000 ; and in 1842, 62,500,000. These augmentations arise from the conquests of the Crimea, of the Caucasus, Poland, Finland, &c., which additions of territory have more than doubled the extent of the em- pire in 1722. The augmentation of 4,500,000 between 1818 and 1824 shows an increase of population of one-tenth in six years, and of double in sixty years. At this rate, M. Stchekakrff calculates that in 1892 Russia will have 230,000,000 inhabitants.

The presence of the French troops at Rome is said- to have considerably changed the aspect of many places of public resort : but there has been a reaction on the soldiers—their usual gayety has been much toned down.

A Lillejournal reports that an old man, who was one of the hapless French soldiers in the Moscow campaign, has just returned to that city after an absence of forty years in Russia. He was taken prisoner, sent to Siberia, and subsequently attached to a military corps. He was at the battle of the Alma, and fled to his countrymen.