Iftisttliantotts.

It is an interesting fact in regard to the settlement of affairs in Northern India, that the Company's steamer Conqueror has been up the main or Western branch of the Indus as high as a point within twenty-five miles of Attock; and that the river is reported to be navigable above that important place. It appears, therefore, that the frontier between the Punjanb and Afghanistan is capable of more effective defence than it has been supposed to be.

It is understood to be the intention of Government to extend the powers of the County Courts to 301. or 501., giving at the same time an equitable jurisdiction. There is a difference of opinion among the Commissioners of the Insolvent Debtors Court with respect to the operation of the act transferring the insolvency business to the County Courts. Two of the Commissioners are of opinion that all matters, including the appointment of Assignees, are vested in the Judges of the Courts, and two entertain a contrary opinion.—Times.

The weather of the past week has been extraordinary. Heavy falls of snow occurred on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday; and the ther- mometer has fallen to some degrees below the freezing-point—to 28. The wind has generally come -from Northerly and Easterly quarters. The Times correspondent H. P. wrote, on the 19th instant, that the air was in a state of unusual negative electricity—the upper wind-currents in oppo- sition; and that this state of things, bringing rain, snow, and squalls, "may continue for Mane days to come."

At the general quarterly meeting of the Royal Naval Benevolent Society, held on Monday, Miss Helen .Nicolas, daughter of the late Sir Harris Nicolas, was unanimously elected on the foundation of the Royal Naval Female School.

Count de Werdinsky has communicated to the Mining Journal a discovery which he believes be has made, by which a convenient, inexpensive, and highly effective motive power can be obtained from xyloidine, or gun-cotton. He crowns this discovery by another, which he declares he made in the course of experi- ments for rendering the first efficacious—nothing less than a miraculous principle by which rapid locomotion is obtained without any sort of propulsion. This is his account- "I have been engaged in constructing an engine and locomotive, to be worked on the common roads by xyloidine, on the following plan. Small quantities of xyloidine are exploded successively into a copper recipient of a spheroidal form of 13 inches diameter, and inch strong in metal. Each sepa- rate explosion is adequate to produce' by means of double cylinders, a complete revolution of the crank. The object of the copper recipient is merely to allow the intense gases thrown into it room enough to expand, and thus to change their percussive intensity into a more gentle dynamic power, without in any way losing any of the quantity of that power. I can, therefore, let out from that copper recipient as much of the gases, through a stop-cock, as would produce a pressure of from 30 to 60; or 120 pounds upon the square inch of the piston: more- over, by the very heat accumulated in the metal of the recipient, the gases are kept up to their original strength ; so that, the longer the engine continues to work the greater the comparative economy of xyloidine, on account of the heat of the recipient and of the machinery, which serve to keep up great expansion, and con- sequently great power in the gases. My experiments with a steam-engine of about 4-horse power, on the above principle, answered admirably; but while these experiments were going on I made a further discovery, and this last one is verging almost on a miracle. The most prominent features of my last discovery are—that the propulsion of carriages on railroads, and on common roads, will be sow effected without engines, steam, fire, water, magnetism, air, or animal power, and propelling of ships without either of the above means, sails, or paddles, or any propellers whatever."

Two miserably poor young men, residing in an obscure village in the depart- ment of the Isere, in France, have succeeded, it is said, after ten years' labour, in completing a machine declared to be superior to any yet invented. The Academy of Science have issued a most "eulogistic report" on it.

A Paris correspondent of the Horning Chronicle, in a long account of the performance of Meyerbeer's opera Le Prophite, describes some new stage inci- dents. "Is the third act a ballet is introduced, in which M. Petipa and Made- moiselle Plunket distinguished themselves, but which is chiefly remarkable for the novelty introduced into it of a quadrille upon skates. These skates are made by Means of small wheels placed under them; and the effect is so complete that it is difficult to conceive that the performers are not really upon ice. Some of the evo- lutions performed would have done no discredit to the Serpentine." "Universal plaudits were given to the scene in the third act where the city of Munster is seen at a distance, in morning dawn, and the day gradually opens, till at length the onn—not a sun formed of dim oil, or even of gas but a visible sun, formed by some combination of electric light recently discovered—actually dazzles the spec- tator with brilliancy." In January last, five hundred-pound notes were stolen from a pocket-book on the counter of the Union Bank at Glasgow, and the theft Ras so cleverly managed that it left no trace. The notes were issued by the Clydesdale Bank; that esta- blishment managed to call in all their hundred-pound notes but six. Last week %hundred-pound note was lodged in a savings-bank by a Greenock victualler, one Walker; this led to inquiries; another note was found in the ceiling of Wal- ker's shop; while the other three stolen notes were discovered at the house of a zap named Holmes, at Glasgow.

Mr. Peter Mann, who has been for many years chief secretary of the Leeds Waterworks Company, is in custody charged with embezzling 5,0001. or upwards,

the property of the company. It seems that the accounts have been lady dited, and Mann retained money paid to him by the collectork_with Obeli .he.: speculated in railways and corn, and unfortunately: the enginear_cff the was the first to suspect a defalcation, and he got a colamittee klitiesViem

appointed. .

A clerk to Mr. Bardner, a writer in Dunfermline, has succeeded in cubing at his master's bank a forged or altered cheque for 4901., and has got clear off with the proceeds. He had several days' start, as the cause of his absence from busi- ness was not discovered for some time.

A young man has lost his life at Preston from an accident which he very fool- ishly caused. He was attempting to unload a gun which was too heavily charged, and had drawn part of the contents, when, to destroy the paper wadding, he put a piece of heated iron down the barrel: some powder that remained in it exploded, and the piece of iron with part of the charge was driven into his face: in falling back he suffered a concussion of the brain, and died some days after.

A little boy, under five years of age, has perished at Wainford Mills, in Nor- folk, by falling into the hopper, where he was suffocated in the flour. The dis- aster was discovered by the boy's father, who found his son's corpse while empty- ing the hopper.

An inquest was held yesterday on the body of Thomas King, aged fifty, who was discovered in his bedroom, on Tuesday last, hanging by the neck to a mil of the bedstead, and quite dead. On a table in the same room was a piece of paper, with the following words—" Make haste and cut me down, for my neck aches." Verdict—" Temporary insanity."

A schooner of Goole having been compelled daring a storm to take up a dan- gerous position off the harbour of Stonehaven, a life-boat was got from Aberdeen, and a crew volunteered to man her; they got to the schooner, but the master did not think he was in imminent danger, and declined leaving his ship: it was now discovered that the life-boat, which had been damaged during a journey by land, was in such a state that she could not be navigated safely ; so her crew were obliged to remain in the schooner. After some hours had elapsed, an attempt was made to enter the harbour with the schooner; but a heavy sea dashed her among the breakers. The people on shore now made great efforts to save the seventeen persons in the ship; and fifteen were got to land by means of ropes; but two men—apparently volunteers of the life-boat--perished. The schooner was dashed to pieces within half an hoar after striking.

The bark Tynwald sailed from Liverpool for the Cape of Good Hope on the 16th March; on the 24th, a fire broke out, and soon got such a firm hold on the vessel that the crew were obliged to take to the boats. The ship O'Farrell, bound to Malta, having observed the disaster, steered towards the Tynwald, and the mariners were taken on board. The burning vessel was left to her fate, for it was impossible to get anything out of her.

One of the Duke of Atholl's marked salmon, " No. 168," was caught at Benchill, on Monday last, and was found to weigh fully 121b. The same animal was a kelt of 51b. weight when first caught and restored to its native element, which took place at Pool-in-am, near Logierait, on the 25th February last year. —Perth Courier.

Results of the Registrar-General's return of mortality in the Metropolis for the week ending on Saturday last—

Number of Splint;

Deaths. Average.

Zymotic Diseases 241 .... 196 Dropsy, Cancer, and other diseases of uncertain or variable seat 37 .... 48 Tubercular Diseases 197 .... 200 Diseases of the Brain, Spinal Marrow, Nerves, and Senses . 144 .... 123 Diseases of the Heart and Blisal-vessels 38 .... 31 Diseases of the Lungs, and of the other Organs of Respiration... . ISO 131 Diseases of the Stomach. Liver, and other Organs of Digestion 68 Si Disemes of the Kidneys, erc 11 .... 11 Childbirth, diseases of the Uterus, am.

Rheumatism, diseases of the Bones, Joints, &c

Diseases of the Skin, Cellular Tissue, Sc

Malformations

Premature Birth le .... 21 Atrophy 20 .... 17 Age 49 .... 30 Sudden 7 .... 11 Violence, Privation, Cold, and Intemperance 21 .... 33

— — Total (Including unspecified causes) 1066 963

The temperature of the thermometer ranged from 71.0° in the sun to 25.5° in the shade; the mean temperature by day being colder than the average mean temperature by 2.7°. The direction of the wind for the week was variable.