.itortIlautung.

About 160 Members of the House of Commons had a conference with the Earl of Derby and Mr. Disraeli on Tuesday at the official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury in Downing Street. A Cabinet Coun- cil, attended by all the Ministers, was held immediately afterwards.

The Commander-in-chief has issued a general order instituting " prizes for good shooting." The best shot in a battalion will have a badge of honour and 2d. per day extra pay. The best shot in a com- pany will have the badge and ld. extra daily. The first-class shots in a battalion will be styled "marksmen," and receive ld. extra daily. They must not exceed a hundred per battalion. A badge, but without pecu- niary allowance, will be given to the sergeants of the best-shooting com- pany. Very careful arrangements seem to have been made to preserve the strictest impartiality in awarding the prizes.

Mr. Walter Savage Lander, apropos to an allusion in a letter by Allsop read in the proceedings against Bernard, has written to the Times denying that he has ever countenanced assassination. He regards assas- sination as "the basest of crimes," but tyrannicide as "the sublimest of virtues, it being self-immolation for a man's native country. Beyond that country it would be murder." " The Emperor Napoleon is the most legitimate sovran in the universe."

" So far am I from desiring the overthrow of Napoleon, I should regret the loss to Europe of the most energetic and sagacious potentate that ever governed any portion of it, excepting the great Protector and the great Stadtholder. To England the leas would be peculiarly deplorable, since we may rely on him, and on him only, for the continuance of peace. Per- sonally I never had intimacy or connexion with Democratic strangers ; I detest and abominate Democracy, the destroyer of Republics Let me never be confounded either with the enemies or the partisans of Napoleon. Frequently, and for many years, I enjoyed his conversation ; and I heartily wish him a long life and a long succession. He knows enough of me to be convinced that I care little for rank, for power, or for popularity, and that it is quite enough for me to be as retired and obscure as any man in Eng- land.'

Several political entertainments were held on Saturday. The Marquis and Marchioness of Salisbury had a dinner-party : the Duke of Cambridge, and the Duchess and Princess Mary of Cambridge, were among the guests. The Speaker received a number of Members at dinner, and afterwards held a levee. Lord Palmerston had a dinner-party, followed by Lady Palmerston's usual assembly. The Fox Club dined together at Brooks's.

On Wednesday, the Earl of Derby had a dinner-party, and the Countess held an assembly ; Lord Palmerston and the Earl of Malmesbury also had dinner-parties ; and the Duchess and Princess Mary of Cambridge dined with the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland.

Lord Braybrooke, the editor of "The Diary of Samuel Pepys," died on Saturday morning, at Audley End, Essex. He was for many years Presi- dent of the Camden Society; was hereditary Visitor of Magdalen College, Cambridge ; High Steward of Wokingham, Berko- and Recorder of Saffron Walden. He lost two sons in the Crimean war. He is succeeded by another son—Richard Cornwallis Neville.

The oldest municipal functionary in France has just died—M. Germain, Mayor of St. Romain-sous-Versigny, who had passed his hundredth year by five months.

A curious hoax appears to have been played off during the last fortnight on some members of the Metropolitan press. On the first day of March, a somewhat shabby-looking man, who called himself a reporter, entered the office of the Morning Star, informing the manager that a very important meeting of Italian delegates was to be held that evening in the classic realms of Newman Street, and that if permission were given, the Morning Star should have exclusive benefit of a true and faithful account of the meeting. The Morning Star accepted the proposition. Accordingly, on the morning of March 2, the readers of the Morning Star were duly informed, that on the previous evening a meeting of " Italian delegates' had been held " in Newman Street," and that, "on the motion of Signor Correnti, F. 0. V. Borromeo was called to the chair." No other names appeared on that day; The next report of meeting's is in the Morning Star of March 3, and also in the Times of the same day. Evidently, the unknown gentleman had found his way into the sanctum of Printing-house Square. Ihe two reports, however, differed a little. In the Star, the Italian delegates present at the meeting are simply Signor Borromeo and Il Cavaliers Castine ; whereas in the Times there figures an H. F. Borromeo as chairman' and no mention at all is made of a " Cavaliers " present. The Standard, on the same day, has also a report of the meeting, with names differing from both the others. The Conference grows more important. In the Morning Star of March 4, we have Signor Borromeo, Signor Correnti, Signor Fermi, and a -Signor Carioni ; and the Standard of the seine day, besides the report, has a thun- dering leading article on the subject, blaming the Italian residents in Eng- land for not joining the Conference. Other morning papers now begin to give daily reports of the Conferences in " Newman Street." On the 10th of March, the Times blows the fire of Italian enthusiasm with a gorgeous " leader " done in the best Times fashion, and asserting, among other things, that the Signor Farini, mentioned as one of the delegates, is the well-known historian and deputy, formerly the Minister of Pio Norio. This seems to have been the climax of the Newman Street affair. A good joke was overdone. The very importance of the pretended Conferences aroused investigation, and, soon after, suspicion as to the existence of all these fa- mous delegates. It is now reported that the whole affair was not an exag- geration—a mountain made out of a molehill—but a baseless fiction.

The Black Sea " teredo" worm turns out to have been no fable of pecu- lating Russian officials to make money out of the Imperial shipping : the American companies who proposed to raise the sunken vessels in the harbour of Sebastopol found that they were completely riddled by the teredo--chargea of gunpowder had hardly any effect upon the hulls, for they were so rotten that the explosion acted only on a small space. The wrecks still encumber the harbour ; and the companies are out of pocket by their experiments.

The coal ports and harbours on the North-East coast exhibited a most lively aspect on Saturday, a thousand colliers that had been wind-bound putting to sea that day on the change of wind.

Instructions have been received from England to embody a regiment for foreign service in Canada and the other British North American dependen- cies. The force to be contributed by Canada is 800 men, and the following commissions are placed at the disposal of the Governor-General—one major, six captains, eight lieutenants, and four ensigns. The officers must be n ative- born Canadians, and the men British subjects. 1 he regiment will be num- bered as the 100th of the Line ; we believe the last of that designation was disbanded in Canada. It is understood that commissions will be offered first to the officers of the active Militia force who have already volunteered for service, and then to other officers of the same force. The strength of the Canadian Rifles is also to be doubled.—Montreal Advertiser.

The South Australian journals just received describe festivities to com- memorate the " majority" of the colony, which was founded at the dose of 1836.

The Cape Government have expended in that colony during the last twelve years 300,0001. in the construction of roads.

On Thursday evening, at the University College, photographic reports were presented of the state of the works of the Soane railway bridge, two miles long, under construction in India by the East Indian Railway Com- pany. Such reports of works at a distance are of course not only deeply in- teresting, but mathematically correct. The officers thus reporting can neither flatter nor underrate. The exact state of the works is faithfully re- presented by his Majesty the Sun, who is above all misrepresentation. His laws are unerring, and accordinn.' to them the report is presented. Mr. Vignoles, C.E., and Mr. Hyde Clarke, have the credit of having first intro- duced the plan elsewhere, and it is understood that Mr. Stephenson is now carrying it out with respect to the works of the Victoria Bridge over the St. Lawrence at Montreal.—Herapath.

While the Smyrna and Aidin Railway will open the Southern half of Asia Minor, a second enterprise is in course of organization to supply the North- ern portion with railway accommodation by forming a line from Saamoun, on the Southern shores of the Black Sea to Sivas. A concession has been granted to an English company. The line will be 250 miles long, and it will cost about 4,500,0001. The Turkish Government promises to take one- third of the shares and place them in the country. An interest of 7 per cent is guaranteed on the capital laid out, and all the ground retinired for the line, stations, &c., whether Government or private property, is to be given to the Company gratis.

The stagnation in France, general in all things but espionage and mea- sures of repression, has seriously affected the receipts of the railways. In Paris, great numbers of artisans are out of employment. From other causes as well as polities speculation is paralyzed—on the surface ; as there is reason to believe that capital is actually leaving France.

The effect of the prolonged coldness of the weather is shown in the tables of the Registrar-General. The temperature has been as much as ten degrees below the average, and the number of deaths has risen from 1195 early in February to 1487 last week. The rate of mortality is no less than 182 above the calculated average. The improved temperature of fhe last week will probably lead to a reduced scale of mortality.

The human remains found on the pier at Waterloo Bridge have been in- terred at Woking Cemetery, the Police having no longer any hope of detect- ing the murderer.

The paternal government of Austria does not permit its subjects to peril their lives or limbs with impunity : at Vienna the ice of the Danube is getting rotten ; any one who attempts to cross over is liable to be punished under paragraph 338 of the Criminal Code. The British Government has sent ten poe ds to be distributed among the four Tyrolese who rescued a young Englishmanfrom a perilous situation in September last.