3iiiortlIfttanno.

The Gazette announces that the Queen has appointed H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge, E.G., his Grace the Duke of Newcastle, the Right Hon- ourable Earl Grey, the Right Honourable Lord Paninure, K.T., G.C.B., Major-General the Lord Rokeby, K.C.B., the Right Honourable Sidney Herbert, the Right Honourable Edward Ellice, Major-General Sir Wil- liam Fenwick Williams, Bart, K.C.B., Major-General the Honourable

Sir James Yorke Scarlett, K.C.B., Major Sir S John Mark Fre- deric Smith, K.H., Colonel Sir Henry Knight Storks, K.C.B., and Colo- nel Henry Eyre, to be her Majesty's Commissioners to inquire into the working of the system recommended in the report of the former Royal Commission of Inquiry into the several modes of Promotion and Retire- ment in the Army, and also into the question of Promotion and Retire- ment in the higher ranks of the Army, commencing with the rank of Major.

Mr. C. B. Adderley has been appointed fourth Charity Commissioner for England and Wales in the room of Mr. Baines. Mr. W. Deedes has been appointed Church Estates Commissioner in the room of Mr. Spencer Walpole, resigned.

Votes have been taken on three subjects in the House of Commons, which, to some extent, serve as a test of the political views of the leading men of all parties, and also, to some extent, as a test of the late and pre- sent Ministers. The subjects are Church-rates, Diplomatic salaries, and Military education.

On the motion of Mr. Lygon last week, intended to obstruct the pro- gress of Sir John Trelawny's bill, an inspection of the votes shows that he was supported solely by the pure Tories, and opposed by, among others, Mr. Cardwell, Sir Arthur Elton, Mr. Gladstone, Lord Goderich, Mr. Sidney Herbert, Mr. Horsman and Lord John Russell : of the Go- vernment, Mr. Henley voted with kr. Lygon, while Mr. Disraeli, Lord Stanley, Sir John Pakington, and Mr. Walpole voted against him. The late Government was represented in the majority by Lord Palmerston and Mr. Labouchere. Among those who voted against Mr. Puller's mo- tion were Mr. Cardwell, Sir Arthur Elton, and Lord Goderich. Mr. Gladstone' Mr. Herbert, and Sir James Graham did not vote.

On Mr. Wise's motion we find Lord Palmerston, Lord John Russell, Lord Ekho, and Mr. Henley voting against ; and Sir Arthur Elton, Mr. Mlines, and Mr. Horsman for the motion • while Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Sidney Herbert, and Sir James Graham abstain. On Mr. Monsell's motion there were in the list of his opponents Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Sidney Herbert., Sir James Graham, Mr. Monekton Mlines : among his supporters Mr. Cardwell, Lord Goderich, and Lord John Russell. The members of the late Cabinet abstained.

Agricultural Statistics furnished a fourth test. Mr. eskers bill was opposed by Mr. Cardwell and Sir James Graham. Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Sidney Herbert, Lord John Russell, and Lord Palmerston did notsrote.

The Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the best mode of distributing the sewage of towns has presented a preliminary report. It embodies a plan for dealing with the sewage of the Metropolis of which the following is a summary.

"it is observed that the abolition of cesspools and the general adoption of water-closets having rendered necessary a more extended system of sewers of greater capacity, the discharge of so large a body of sewage into town rivers must be productive of nuisance and disease among the in- habitants upon the banks. The Thames, before it reaches the point from which the water supply of London is at present derived, receives the refuse of districts containing upwards of 700,000 persons. Not only is the water, when polluted with sewage matter, eminently unfit for human consumption, but it destroys the fish, as was the case at Leicester, until the liquid sewage was rendered innocuous by chemical processes, since which time the fish have again appeared. In the prosecution of their inquiries the Commissioners have visited Tottenham, Croydon, Leicester, and Cheltenham, in which towns works are carried on for the purification of the sewage ; also, Rugby, Watford, Rusholme, Mansfield, and Edin- burgh, where sewage is applied in a liquid state to the adjacent lands, besides several farms over which manure is used in a similar manner ; and a deputation visited Milan to observe the sewage manuring processes adopted in the neighbourhood of that city. The results have been found so satisfactory that in some cases very valuable meadows have been created from that which was formerly mere barren sea-sand, while the absorption is so rapid that no offensiveness is appreciable, even in hot weather, within five minutes after the application of the liquid. For large towns the Commissioners are of opinion that the precipitation process is the best, allowing the water after purification to pass off, and leaving the thick sludge ' alone to be used for manuring purposes. This, therefore, is the plan which they propose for London. Convinced by the represent- ations of Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney that the mere diversion of the sewage will not purify the Thames from its present foul condition, the effect of past accumulations, the Commissioners recommend the immediate execution of the embankment scheme, propounded by the Metropolis Improvement Commission of 1844. Advanced terraces being constructed, continuous on the surface, but affording convenient entrances to inner basins for the wharfs above London Bridge, reservoirs are to be formed in the embank- ments adjacent to the mouths of the existing sewers, into which all the sewage is to be received and deodorized, and from which—the purified water being first allowed to flow into the river—the precipitated matter will be pumped into the country or to the sea. The reservoirs and appa- ratus are to be beneath the surface, and consequently invisible ; so that no nuisance whatever can be apprehended. The subsidiary parts of the scheme are the adornment of the river, the relief of the streets by the terrace carriage ways between London and Westminster, and the con- nexion by railroad of the existing termini on the southern shore. The cost of the entire works is estimated at 3,250,0001., exclusive of any approaches which may be formed in connexion with the new thorough-

The report is signed "Essex, Henry Ker Seymer, Robert Rawlinson, J. Thomas Way, J. B. Lewes, T. Southwood Smith, John Simon, Henry Austin."

There were a number of political entertainments on Saturday. The Earl and Countess of Malmesbury received the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Malakoff at dinner. The Marquis of Salisbury, Lord Palmerston, and the Speaker, had dinner-parties : -Lady Palmerston held her usual assembly. The Fox Club dined together. .

The Speaker held his tenth Parliamentary banquet on Wednesday.

The Bishop of London intends to cultivate the acquaintance of the clergy of his diocese ; and he held a soiree at London House on Wednesday even- ing, when great numbers of the Metropolitan clergy were present. The Bishop does not forget the " inferior " clergy—numbers of curates partook of his hospitality. About eleven o'clock, after supper, the company diaper- Sir John Dodson, who filled successively the offices of Advocate of the Admiralty. Sidvocate-General, and Judge of the Prerogative Court of Can- terbury, from which last office he only lately retired on the extinction of the Court, has not lived long to enjoy his leisure. He died on Tuesday at his house, Scamore Place, Mayfair. He was in his seventy-ninth year.

The Militia regiments awaiting disembodiment at Portsmouth are giving a good many recruits to the regular Army.

A detachment of wounded soldiers from Cawnpore were received into Fort Pitt hospital at Chatham on Sunday.

A walking match between the Honourable Mr. Fermor and Captain Lumley, of the Second Life Guards, for 100 guineas, came off near Windsor on Mon- day. Captain Lumley undertook to walk ten miles before his opponent com- pleted nine ; but Mr. Fermor performed his task in four minutes and a half less than Captain Lumley, doing the nine miles in an hour and a half.

Various bons mots are flying about Paris on the topics of the day. Some discontent has been occasioned by appropriation of a part of the garden of the Tuileries, until now public, to private uses. Let us remember that it was one Le Notre who was intrusted by Louis XIV. with the care of laying out the garden of the Tuileries. A person looking the other day at the spot which will soon cease to be a thoroughfare observed to a stander-by, " Apres avoir confisque le hien de la famille d'Orleans, on va eonfisquer le mitre." A person inquiring whether the article in the Constitutionnel the other day on the Bernard acquittal produced a fall on the Bourse was answered, "Mass oui ! U a fait baisser la Bourse un pen, et hausser lea epaules beaucoup."

A correspondent of the Times has calculated the results of 151 suspensions during the crisis, including those of five banks. The total liabilities were 41,427,5691., the available assets 33,672,669/. The liabilities included 4,149,930/. of paid-up capital of the banks. Sixteen London firms, out of fifty-two, will pay in full ; and nine out of sixty-nine country firms.

During the crisis in Denmark there were 207 failures ; most of the housea were of recent origin, and had overtraded.

The Board of Trade returns for March show a falling-off of 1,456,6741. in the exports as compared with March 1857. The decrease extends to nearly every article. The imports of raw material show an increase in hemp and tallow, but a reduction in flax, silk, cotton, and wool.

A census just completed shows the population of Victoria to be 410,766- 264,334 males, and 146,432 females. The population a the diggings is no fewer than 166,550. There are 24,273 Chinese in the country—all males.

The Corporation and inhabitants of Reading, with the agriculturists and country gentlemen of the vicinity, are making strenuous efforts to induce the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society of England to hold the exhi- bition of 1859 in that town. They have already subscribed 15001. towards the expenses of the meeting. The French Empire pays no less than 1,140,0001. per annum out of the revenue in the shape of export bounties."

The return of the Registrar-General shows an improvement in the health of London. Last week the number of deaths, 1144, was 63 fewer than in the preceding week ; but only 14 under the calculated average. Six persons aged 90 and upwards, one being 98, died last week.

A sad disaster has occurred on board the French ship of the line Suffren, off the islands of Gyares. Naval artillerymen are trained on board this ship. While practice was proceeding, a gun burst, killing ten men and wounding fifteen. Turin has endured a most severe winter, and it is now threatened with a summer of intense heat: on the 21st of last month the centigrade ther- mometer marked 18.5, while in Algiers it was only 16.4. The weather, however, has been very beautiful.

There is anythine' but uniformity in the measures for corn used in this country. Returns have been published from the Inspectors of Corn Re- turns of the various weights and measures by which corn is sold in the "Various towns whence the returns are made, &c. Wheat appears to be sold by load of 5 imperial bushels, by load of 5 quarters of 8 imperial bushels, by bae. of 2 imperial bushels, by load of 1 Cornish, of 3 imperial bushels, (the 'Cornish bushels being converted in all sorts of ways,) by bushel of 10 imperial gallons, converted at 8, by 80 per bushel, converted at 63 per bushel, by 'bushel of 751b. converted at 601b., by bushel of 38 quarts, in bags of 3 bushels of 1901e., (converted at 621b. per bushel,) by " combe " of 4 imperial bushels, by the old Winchester measure, (but very rarely,) by loadof 41; imperial bushels, by loads or windles of 4701b. per load, converted at 601b. per bushel, by load of 2801b., by Appleby bushel of 4 to imperial quarter, by bolls of 2 and 6 imperial bushels, by" hobbett" of 84 imperial quarts, by Welsh " lestrad," or bushel of 1681b., and by local measure of 6 bushels 4 gallons to the quarter.