Mintligurun

A Court of Directors was held at the East India House, on Wednes- day; when Lieutenant-General Sir William Maynard Gomm, K.C.B., was appointed Commander-in-chief of the Company's Forces in India.— Times.

The rich living of Kibworth Beauchamp, in Leicestershire, vacant by the resignation of Mr. Bathurst on his secession to the Romish Church, has been presented by Merton College, Oxford, to the Reverend John Richard Turner Eaton, M.A., Principal of the Postmasters, and Tutor of that College.

Lord John Russell was one day last week observed, in front of Mr. Maule's house at Birnam, enjoying himself with his children in sending up paper balloons into the air, and chasing them over the lawn.—North British Mad.

There is no truth whatever in the paragraph to the effect that Lord Francis Russell, Commander of the Tweed, 18, on the coast of South America, had been reproved by the Admiralty. The report, therefore, that his Lordship was about to resign his command on that account, is equally ineorrect.—Hanapshire Independest.

Admiral Mackau visited Woolwich Dockyard on Wednesday, and viewed the whole of the works and vessels now constructing, including the Agamemnon steamer of 80 guns. The Glebe says- " Special orders from the Admiralty have been received at Woolwich, Chatham, Sheerness, and other ports, directing the authorities to allow the gallant ex-Miniater of the French Marina, Admiral Mackin' to view the ockyards, and to pay every attention to this distinguished officer. Admiral Maekau, we believe, is the only French officer living who in a fair fight and on equal terms captured an English brig of war."

Notwithstanding the positive assertions on the subject by several Gor- man papers, some of them affecting a sort of semi-official character, we have reason to believe that no demand has been made by the Austrian Government upon that of Great Britain for any satisfaction in reference to the recent assault on General Haynau. We think we may state, that the only step hitherto taken has been a communication addressed to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs by Baron Koller, the Austrian Charge d'Affaires at our Court, stating that Baron Ilaynau had left Eng- land, and did not wish any prosecution to be instituted against the par- ties who had assaulted him. Baron Koller, if we are not mistaken, re- quested that an inquiry into the transaction should be instituted by the Secretary of State for the Home Department. Under such circumstance's, it seems difficult to imagine what steps Sir George Grey can take in the affair.—Moreing Post.

Correcting a paragraph quoted by some of the papers from llendsburg correspondence, Mr. Joseph &urge gives to the .Daily News a statement of facts relative to the visit paid to the Stadtholdemte of the Danish Duchies by himself and two other members of the Peace Congress at Frankfort. Arrived in Kiel, they called on some of the principal inhabitants—the President of the Assembly and several of its influential Members, the Burp- master, and gentlemen representing other classes of the community. "We found these individuals, without a single exception, willing to leave the ciuestion at issue between them and the Danes to fair and impartial arbitra- tion. On the following day., the 4th instant, we waited upon the Stadthol- derate and other members of the Government at Rendsburg, and laid before them "a signed statement. At the Peace Congress in Frankfort, "a gentleman of high respectability from Berlin applied to the Bureau for permission to read to the Congress a memorial signed by several distinguished individuals of that city. This memorial requested the Congress to investigate the merits of the controversy now pending between the Pluchies of Schleswig-Holstein and the Kingdom of Denmark." It was resolved strictly to respect the rule "which proscribed any allusion to the political events of the day " ; never- theless there was an earnest desire felt by many that so favourable an op- portunity of interposing pacific counsels should not be lost. With this feel- ing, Mr. Starr, Mr. Elihu Burritt, and Mr. Frederick Wheeler, ventured, on their individual responsibility, to come and "entreat the contending par- ties to refer the whole question at issue to the decision of enlightened and impartial arbitrators." The following answer was returned—" That it waa quite impossible for the Government of the Duchies to make any proposition, and that we must distinctly understand that we had no mission from them to the Danish Government; but that they should be willing to refer the claims of the Duchies to the decision of enlightened and impartial arbitrators, pro- vided Denmark would also submit its claims to the same tribunal ; reserving for eventual arrangement the appointment, composition, and jurisdiction of the court." We considered, says Mr. Sturp, that this answer "opened rather than closed the way towards a reconciliation."

Lord Brougham has improved his vacation leisure by inditing a re- sume of the successes and failures which the band of law-reformers whom he still faithfully leads have met in the past legislative session : he dedicates his epistle to his old friend Lord Denman, and by Mr. Ridgway's assistance gives it to the public as a pamphlet.

"I must once more," he commences, "interrupt my experimental pursuit., desert for a while the calculus itself, and break in upon your classical leisure, because the errors that have been committed are not ended with the Parlia- mentary year, but threaten worse miscarriages than those I have to complain of, and fill me with apprehension of a retrograde movement, instead of the stationary condition in which the amendment of the law, as regard* most of its branches, is now left." Though the disappointment has been grievous in the departments where amendment would be easiest and most important, yet he concedes that a good deal in other branches has been effected. "Of the great defects in our common law, exposed by me in February 1828, nearly the whole have been removed, in consequence of the Commissions issued by our friend Lyndhurst, as the beat answer he oould make to my motion, and of the bills which I passed with his cooperation when I succeeded him as holding the Great Seal. A good deal has since been effected by the unwearied labours of the Law Amendment Society ; and even the last session, full of disappointment as it is, leaves the law somewhat, perhaps materially, im- proved. This, then, is my excuse for fatiguing you, the profession, the Par- liament, and the country at large, with a repetition of my complaints and a renewal of my exhortations. If we have any chance of ultimate success, it can may be by diligently showing what the failure has been, whore the fault lies, and whence the brighter prospect is to dawn upon us."

The history of the County Courts is graphically sketched, as illustrating once more how capricious and uncertain is our legislation, without tho guide of a guardian Minister of Justice. "Early last session, a highly respectable gentleman, but wholly un- acquainted with legal proceedings, brought into the Commons a bill in part taken from that of 1833, [brought in by Lord Brougham as Chancellor in that year, but thrown out by the House of Peers,] to extend the jurisdiction of the County Courts. The Government strongly opposed it ; but were, as is so often their lot in both Houses, defeated by a considerable majontv ; and, despairing of afterwards throwing out the measure, announced that they should no longer oppose it. But, instead of talung possession of it, as was their duty, they left the individual Member to . carry it its joining their forces with whatever apposition was made in any of its stages to the details. The bill came up to our Rouse in such a state as made it worse than no change in the existing law. I lost no time in restoring the parts of my measure which had been left out ; and after a good deal of resistance, and a reference to a Select Committee, I succeeded in carrying the bill through ; the Commons, with much candour, not insisting on their oppo- sition to our amendments. I cannot sufficiently commend the spirit, the perseverance, and the moderation shown by Mr. Fitzroy, who brought it into the Commons, throughout the whole of its progress. But I am sorry that this praise must be withheld from the Ministers. Their strong opposition to the measure is wholly unintelligible. Never was Minister more cordially supported by his colleagues than I was by mine in 1833; never was defeat of a measure more lamented by a Cabinet than was by us the defeat of the bill in that year. Sir James Graham then observed that it had shaken the Government to its foundations ': and so cer-

tainly did we all agree in this view, that, as usual, I was despatched to confer with the King upon the subject. How it came to pass that the same men who then were so anxious to pass the whole measure

should now have thought it right to oppose a portion of it, (for such it was when first introduced,) I am unable to comprehend. True, when we had in the Lords restored it to its original dimensions, the Government no longer opposed. But! cannot believe that the only fault they found with Mr. Fitzroy was his taking the half instead of the whole bill of 1833. Nor can I reconcile their straining at the half and then swallowing the whole when commended to their lips by the Upper House. I suspect the solu- tion of the difficulty is ignorance—sheer ignorance. They had probably al- together forgotten that it was their own ; just as in 1840 Lord John Russell lavishly praised Mr. Pemberton Leigh's exposure of the abuses in the Sworn Clerk's department of Chancery, unaware that his own colleague when Chan- cellor had, in 1833, on making the same exposure, propounded a remedial measure in a bill, with his (Lord John Russell's) entire assent. As for the conflict this year between the two Houses, it was complete. The concurrent jurisdiction was by a large majority, rejected in the Commons • so was the whole appellate jurisdiction. Now, these were by far the most important provisions in the bill ; and they were, without any division at all, added by the Lords. To this addition the Commons agreed ; and the Ministers in the Upper House having differed as widely as possible from their colleagues in the Lower, the latter, like kind friends—let me say, like dutiful followers —gave way forthwith, and the bill passed. It passed, however, with some defects which would have been avoided, as would have been the unseemly spectacle of the blunders and ignorance, the jars and conflicts, which I have described, had a department existed in this, as in other countries where it is far less wanted—a department charged with the superintendence of our ju- risprudence." The failure of Mr. Turner's Chancery Bill is pregnant with similar teaching. But a bill introduced by Lord Brougham himself would have struck at an incomparably greater abuse ; and that was also adopted by Ministers, to be deserted.

No man, after the late decision, could safely administer an estate as an executor without the protection of the Court; yet nine-tenths of the admi- nistrations do not come into court. He brought in a bill consisting of an ap- plication suggested by his brother's experience of the Winding-up Acts to the administration of the estates of deceased parties. The Government, by their Law-officers, took charge of it after it had passed the Lords without a dissentient voice ; but it was dropped in the Commons. Yet, would you believe it, the very bill rejected for England was passed for Ireland. But the 881110 thing had been done last session ; so that the absurdities of 1850 not unsurpassed cannot be termed unexampled.

Touching briefly on the matter of reform in the Mastks Offices—"not a very moderate or very easy undertaking," as implying "the new- modelling of the whole of Chancery proceedings "—he comes to the sus- pension of his endeavours to get enacted a digest of the Criminal Code. He recounts the Government Inches in the matter, and winds up with a reference to his rejected offer of the expenses necessary for renewing the Commission needed to give the final and perfecting touch to the labours already bestowed on this subject. "The answer of the Chancellor of the Exchequer somewhat surprised me. He professes entire ignorance of the subject; and he proves it by affirming that a renewal of the Commission is unnecessary, although those who are entirely acquainted with the subject have declared that renewal to be the only course which can be safely taken. He says, that under this impression the Com- mission had been suffered to expire. I am quite confident that it expired

through mere oversight I am inclined to think a vote might have been obtained. But I know that none was necessary, because the money re- quired was freely offered, and refused—courteously indeed, and with thanks, but he who made it would have been on his part grateful had it been ac- cepted, and his recompense would have been the gratification of seeing one of the most important labours of his public life accomplished."

The want of a Minister of Justice was also strikingly seen in the cir- cumstances connected with the late vacancy in the offices of Lord Chan- When the Great Seal was put in Commission, there was a valuable oppor- tunity for considering maturely whether its duties might be so arranged as to leave the presiding over the Court of Chancery to one irremoveable judge, and give to a removeable functionary the other duties of the office, more especially constituting him Minister of Justice. The question is of the highest complication and difficulty ; Lord Brougham and Lord Lyndhurst most sedulously pondered it : "It was with no little astonishment that we saw Lord John Russell, in answer to a question put somewhat at random, announce that he had a plan to propound, and that in ten days he

should be ready to explain its details With every confidence in my noble friend's resources, we might be allowed to doubt if a few days' (cer- tainly not above three weeks') attention to questions of which he must, without a miracle, be profoundly ignorant, could have enabled him to solve SO hard a problem, or to produce a project of any value at all. . . . . It was thought advisable that I should explain somewhat of the difficulties which beset the subject, not only in a professional and judicial but also in a political and a constitutional view. This I did in a statement made to the House of Lords, immediately after Lord John Russell's startling notice, which he has (I believe from duly and considerately weighing those difficul- ties) never as yet followed up with the statement of any plan whatever." The Commission was complained of by some Chancery practitioners • and the Ministers, alarmed by them, took a remedy by no means anticipated them. But they had forced the Ministers to apply some remedy, by a loud, a some- what importunate complaint; and those who were to afford the relief chose their own remedy. An end was put to the Commission, and Lord Truro was made Chancellor at once, Baron Rolfe was passed over—perhaps because he was the fittest man for the office, and an old political ally of Ministers. "Among his various merits the Baron had not that of possessing any chiefship, or other place desirable to an Attorney-General : no promotion of any great ac- count could be expected from his being made Chancellor."

Lord Brougham devotes a section to the subject of the appellate juris- diction of the House of Peers. He deals summarily with a congeries of futile personal grounds of objection, but admits the anomalies of the exist- ing system.

The Scotch appeals present the most inconquerable difficulties. You can-

not call the Judges up from Scotland ; and to Lord Eldon's plan, of having one of them for an assessor, it is a weighty objection, that he will secure so much deference as to be himself the sole fountain of Scotch law. Lord Brougham despairs of an exact solution to this problem, and only hopes for some sort of approximate solution.

He adds a few observations on the abuse of patronage in judicial pro.- motion— "A very unfortunate belief has been suffered to grow up in Westminster Hall, that the being raised to the place of Crown lawyer gives the party a claim to the first vacancy which may happen on the bench." Lord Brough- am grappled with this digestions usage. The act of 1833 altered the ten- ure of the office of Master, founded it on patent like the places of other judges; but no one had the least idea that the Masterships were thereby to be con- verted into prizes for the grasp of intrigue and party-spirit. It was to be ex- pected that the Chancellor would name them as he names the Judges—taking- the Royal pleasure before he consulted his political colleagues. But this is not the case. "Ministers have named, and Chancellors have weakly sub- mitted. Hence Masters have been made under the pressure, now of an Irish demagogue now of an electioneering conclave and a great abuse of judicial

patronage h '

as without doubt been committed. I venture to hope that this-

very serious evil—such I certainly regard it—will be tolerated no longer. It seems enough that we denounce such things, to make them for ever cease." These observations on patronage lead him into a digression of criticisms on the proceedings of the Committee or Commission which lately proposed a sale of the Church patronage of the Great Seal, and the proceedings of, the Committee of the House of Commons on Salaries.

It was rumoured that the Church patronage was to be taken from the Great Seal, and the advowsons sold to create a fund for augmenting smalt livings. "Anything more preposterous than such a plan cannot well be hna- gined. Fancy the setting up Church patronage for sale, wherever there may exist subscribers fanatical in their notions or factious in their ecclesiastical views and enabling each to gratify their simoniacal propensities ! Neither the Church would be safe under such a dispensation, nor would the country be habitable." Treating so preposterous a rumour as incredible, he allows- with regret that he is not equally incredulous of a kindred report, which as- cribed to the Treasury the plan of transferring the patronage from the Great Seal to the Crown. And referring to the instance in the Master's Office, he adds other proofs of the Treasury greed for patronage. "A late Chancellor complained of having, under one pretence or another, had the appointment to offices in the Bankruptcy Court taken from him. I therefore do believe that the Great Seal is in some risk of a change by which the Church livings will become vested in the Crown—or, in other words, will be used by the Treasury, and chiefly, the Secretaries thereof, in carrying on their usual traf- fie for votes in counties and bormighs, as well as in Parliament. The consti- tution will be no gainer by the change—neither the constitution in Church,, neither the constitution in State."

The whole proceedings of the Committee on Salaries have incurred so: much of Lord Brougham's displeasure, that he devotes considerable space r to criticizing the evidence taken before them and the conclusions of their report. The Diplomatic economies are sharply examined, and objected to; but the Judicial retrenchments he declares to be founded on sheer ignoranete of the whole subject,—a thing not surprising to him,. when " nothing the shape of a lawyer, at least no English lawyer," was named to sit or the Committee : but "let us hope," says he that our alarms of any

in-

road into our judicial establishment being ;nude in consequence of this document are groundless.

"If, then " he concludes, "no well-grounded fears of a retrograde move- ment are to 'be entertained, may we hope at length to see an onward progress in amending our laws and extirpating the abuses that still remain to cripple their administration ? I fondly hope we may." And this hope sustains his pen in an eloquent peroration.

The second report of the Registrar-General of Marriages in Ireland bears testimony—not to the increased prosperity of that country, stern Malthusians will opine—but to the more buoyant spirit which prevails. In 1847, the year of dearth, the number of marriages was 6943, being 30 per cent fewer than in 1846. In 1848, the number had risen to 9048; in 1849, the number was 9493. This is irrespective of the marriages of Roman Catholics, of which no official record is available.

Results of the Registrar-General's return of mortality in the Metropolis for the week ending on Saturday last : the first column of figures gives the. aggregate number of deaths in the corresponding weeks of the ten previous years.

Ten of Weeks 1839-49.

Weals. of 1856—

Zymotie Diseases 4302 .... 238 Dropsy, Cancer, and other diseases of uncertain or variable seat 472 47 Tubercular Diseases 1348 171 Diseases of the Brain, Spinal Marrow, Nerves, and Senses 1121 .... 95- Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels 241 ....

Diseases of the Lungs, and of the other Organs of Respiration 793 91 Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other Organs of Digestion 768 60 Diseases of the Kidneys, Sc 81 .... 13 Childbirth, diseases of the Uterus, &c 71 .... 9 Rheumatism, diseases of the Bones, Joints, Sc 69 ....

9- Diseases of the Skin, Cellular Tissue, Sc..

10

Malformations 23

Premature Birth 212

Atrophy 212

Age 463

Sudden 91

Violence, Privation, Cold, andIntemperance 297

Total (including unspecified causes) 10,935 929

The mortality differed little from the calculated average. The deaths by cholera were but four, those by diarrhcea seventy-eight—a further diminu- tion of each.

The births were 1409—more than the deaths by 480. The barometric pressure was above 30 inches every day ; the mean was 30-171 inches : the mean temperature in the air was 55-3'—lower than the average by 4-4°. Wind generally North-east.

Tuesday's Gazette contained the formalnotification of Mr. Edwin Land- seer's knighthood by the Queen, on the 3d of July last.

It is reported that intelligence has reached England of the reception of the Reverend H. W. Wilberforce, Vicar of East Farleigh, Kent, and brother of the Bishop of Oxford, into the Roman Catholic Church at Brussels.

We are requested to correct an erroneous statement going the round of the press, to the effect that the gallant General Guyon late of the Hungarian army, has forgotten his faith, and has become a Moslem to gain a pacha- lick." This is not true. The General, in accepting an appointment in the Ottoman service at Damascus, was not compelled to change his faith; and he is living at that place, with his wife and family, after the manner of an English Christian. Moreover, we may state, that he is a native of Bath, and has never been in Ireland at any period of his life.—Statidarii.

The Queen of England will soon receive an extraordinary present frors Posen, as a token of gratitude for the protection she has granted to the lug'-

tive Poles. It is the skin of a wether which has been bred by Count lima Lipsky, who is famous for his breed of sheep. The precious skin of this wether, Consul I., is contained in a box, inscribed with the following genea- logy: "Genealogy of the wether, Consul I.,—(a) Prince, born in 1825, begat (b) Beams, 1827; (e) Leschek the White, 1830; (d) Dictator I., 1835 ; (e) Dictator II.; ; (f) Cincinnati I., 1844, and from him Consul L, 1846, of which the skin is enclosed in the said box."—Kialner Zeitung. An assembly of 830 landowners declared the skin of this sheep to be the finest produced, and the King of Prussia gave Ignaz Lipsky the order of the Red Eagle. "What a pity,' observes the Times, Count Lipsky was not an Austrian subject, for then the Emperor could have bestowed on him the order of the Golden Fleece."

Mr. Andrews, the Mayor of Southampton, who recently entertained the Lord Mayor of London with so much éclat, was, twenty-five years ago, a village blacksmith.—iforning Post.

A prominent official having rendered skittles a popular game in South- ampton, we record, for the information of those interested in the amusement, that Mr. Ireland, a tradesman of Southampton, played skittles for twelve hours incessantly on Thursday sennight, at Mr. Woolferston's brewery, in St. Mary's Street. The conditions were, that the play was to commence at ten in the morning and last till ten at night; during which time as fast as the pins could be set up Mr. Ireland was to throw at them till he got them down; • for every time he knocked them down at twice he was to receive sixpence from Mr. Woolferston, and if he exceeded the twice he was to pay sixpence. Five minutes only was allowed for refreshment. The pins were set up by two men in a twinkling of time ; and for twelve mortal hours Mr. Ireland kept up his play, throwing a ball above ten pounds weight incessantly during the time, generally getting the pins down in what in the language of the alley is termed "a twicer." At the close of the play Mr. Ireland was a winner of 14/. and upwards.—Hampshire Advertiser.

A letter in the North Carolina Star, dated Mount Airy, Surrey County, in that State, alluding to a late story about the Siamese twins, says—" They were at my office on the 20th of July, well and hearty, and as full of life as ever I saw them, speaking of the prospect of their crop, also of their wives and children. Of the latter they have nine, as hearty children as the State can produce in one family."

A gentleman has rented the kelp shores at North Dist for 3001. per annum. It is supposed that 800 tons of kelp may be made, which will afford employ- ment for a portion of the population.

A train was recently despatched from the Lothian Road station of the Ca- ledonian Railway, at Edinburgh, with a lading of no less than 84 tons of herrings.

During the last three weeks the boatmen of Lympstone and Starcross have been reaping a rich harvest by supplying mussels for the London market. From twenty to thirty tons are sent off every evening, and for these the men are remunerated at the rate of 18. per bushel ; which makes them a hand- some return for their labour. The mussels are retailed in London at ld. per quart.—Bridol Journal.

Two tunny, a species of fish not commonly met on our coasts, have re- cently been eau...lit in Scotland. The last captured was taken at Clachna- harry, and was tIte feet long by as many broad.

At Vienna a contagious complaint is making sad havoc among the horned cattle. "This murrain " says the Times correspondent, "which has come from the East, is here called the LOsercliirre,' (m pure German the Darr- sucht,') and is a kind of galloping consumption, which carries off the animals in an incredibly short time. A. regular cordon has been established to pre- vent its spreading ; and even the skin, fat, and horns of the infected animal, are destroyed by fire."

The Great Western Railway Company continue their cheap Sunday ex- cursions, and great numbers of persons take advantage of them. Last Sun- day, 3000 persons went in the train from Paddington to Bath and Bristol ; on the preceding Sunday there was an excursion-train from Bristol and other places to Windsor—about 1000 persons were conveyed. This novel Sunday- excursion system for the Great Western Railway has roused a great opposi- tion from the clergy of Rath and Bristol ; who headed by the Bishop in the Bristol case, have sent remonstrances to the company against the " profana- tier' of the Lord's Day." A deputation from the clergy of Bath, who waited on the Mayor upon the subject, spoke of the demoralizing effect produced by these excursions, and of scenes of riot and disorderly conduct in the streets by an influx of persons having no regard for the sacredness of the Sabbath, with the temptation held out to townsmen to join in these misdoing&

The apparatus and surplus materials of the Britannia Bridge are about to be sold by suction. This collection, like everything else connected with the structure, is gigantic. There are upwards of 100,000 cubic feet of timber ; 100 tens of ropes and hawsers; suspension-chains and chain-cables enough to build a bridge of 100 to 150 feet span; and a great variety of other pon- derous articles.

Between nine and ten o'clock on the mornings of Tuesday and Wednesday last week, the river Mersey presented a sight which cannot be equalled in the world. On each of those two days nearly five hundred ships of all sizes crowded the river, bound for various ports in every part of the globe.—Liver- pool Mail.

The negotiations for the purchase of the Great Britain, to carry on a trade between Panama and San Francisco, have fallen through ; and this noble vessel is destined, for a short time at least, to remain idle in her present quarters.—Liverpool The electric telegraph having completely superseded the old machinery used for effecting a speedy transmission of intelhgence, the building on the South-west corner of the Admiralty in London, together with the semaphore, has been taken down. The various stations in the country have been aban- doned, and the officers in charge of them paid off.

We continue to receive from Vienna accounts of the progress of the tele- graph system in Austria. Within the last four months, through the activity of the Austrian Minister of Trade no less than 1000 nules of telegraph have been opened in that empire • making the total mileage about 2000 miles, of which about one-quarter has the wires laid underground on the improved system. Another 1000 miles will be ready by next year. The telegraph now works from Cracow to Trieste, 700 miles. On the let October, the new telegraph union between Austria, Prussia, Saxony, and Bavaria comes into operation, under a uniform tariff, which is one half of the former charges. Mrs progress will be looked upon with interest by the commercial public here, who are very much in want of facilities corresponding to those enjoyed in the United States, and at the same reasonable charges.—Daily News. We have seen passing our office for a week past immense masses of native copper, of such weights as to require two teams to a waggon ; and we take from Mr. M‘Knight's shipping-books the weight of a few masses from the Cliff and Minesota Mines. The following from the Cliff— 1470, 4600, 4096, 4006, 4286, 4200, 4300—whole weight, 20,852. Every piece weighs two tons or more. Such immense masses of pure copper were never known in the history of mining. The copper has to be cut up with a long chisel, three-fourths of an inch in width, by chipping off piece after pine with a heavy hammer. An inventor of some machine for sawing or cutting this copper by steam-power would strike a vein of good fortune. The Minesota mine is turning out masses of the same description and weights.—Lake 'Su- perior Journal.

Mr. Hind communicates from Mr. Bishop's observatory, in Regent's Park, his discovery, on the evening of the 13th instant, of a new planet in the constellation Pegasus. It appears like a star of the ninth magnitude, and has a pale bluish light. At 11 h. 29 m. 36 sec. Greenwich time, on the 13th, its right ascension was 23h. 44 m. 45.08 sec., and its North declination 14° 6' 42.9"; at 8h. 28m. 24 sec. on the 14th, its right ascension was 23h. 44m,. 2•56 see., and its North declination 13 69' 29.3". Mr. Hind says—" This new member of the solar system forms the twelfth of the group of ultra- zodiacal planets, the third which I have been fortunate enough to discover in the course of a rigorous examination of the heavens." He proposes to name it " Victoria," and to symbolize it by " a star surmounted by a laurel branch."

An experimental trial of a light locomotive, less costly than those now em- ployed, consuming less fuel, and wearing out the road less, is now being made on the Liverpool and Southport branch railway.

Messrs. Ike and Robinson, of Wapping, have patented a process of making and baking bread and biscuits by steam. The .1forning Post describes the method as seen in operation. The flour is placed in a hopper, in its descent through which it comes in contact with carbonated water, which im- mediately converts it into dough, in which form it issues from a cone below, and is cut off into portions of a given size ; when, being received by an at- tendant boy, it is passed through other machines as it may be required for bread or biscuits, into which form it is almost instantaneously converted. The batch of bread or biscuits is then placed in an oven heated by the same steam- machine by which the whole of the machinery is worked, and within a few minutes is ready for table—we have ourselves seen excellent biscuits made and baked within ten or twelve minutes." It is said that this improvement if generally adopted would greatly reduce the cost of bread-making, and get rid of baneful night-work, as "setting sponge" would no longer ha neces- sary. If, however, the carbonated water is objected to, berm can still be employed.

A New London whaler named Brown;says the Scientific American, has in- vented a mode of taking whales which promises a greater safety in their capture. He fires the harpoon, with a line attached, out of a gun, as accu- rately, it is said, as a musket-ball. The invention is not a theoretical de- duction, but has been tried with great success. He has also made a valu- able improvement on the lance, whereby it can be fired out of the same gun i which s used for the harpoon.

Some Belgian savants were engaged the day before yesterday in making meteorological observations on the heights of Belleville. Having raised to a certain height some kites furnished with pointed needles, they drew from the clouds, although the weather was perfectly serene at the time, flashes of electricity similar to those of lightning in a storm. Suddenly one of the gentlemen was struck by a flash, and thrown to the ground, in a state of in-

sensibility. bad, it appeared, neglected to hold by the glass handle, which served as a nonconductor, and the fluid, descending by the cord, struck him. He was soon after restored to animation, but his right arm remained paralyzed, and there is a doubt whether he will ever recover the perfect use of it.—Daily News.

The Cincinnati Gazette gives an account of the thigh-bone of a human being having been found containing six times the number of cubic inches that the thigh-bone of a man in these degenerate days can furnish ! Also a hu- man collar-bone and other relics to match. Physicians say that the person to whom they belonged must have been thirteen feet high.

The grave-digger in St. Peter's churchyard at Carmarthen recently dug up the spinal column of a human body, all the bones of which had been strung together by a fibre of the root of a horse-chestnut running through the cavity formed by the decay of the spinal marrow.

On Monday, about the middle of the day, swarms of winged ants, as well as many without wings, appeared in Liskeard and its neighbourhood. They were seen for miles around the town on the turnpike-roads and the foot- paths through the fields ; but they all disappeared before the next day.— Cornwall Gazette.

It is reported that a caterpiller is destroying all the black ash timber in Jefferson County, New York. "The insects spin as much web as to envelop the whole tree like a net, and they have already consumed every leaf of ens kind of timber."

Near the town of Williamsburg, in Johnson County, Indiana, is what might be called a subterranean lake. A gentleman there, in digging a well at about the depth of thirty feet, after passing through five or six feet of bluish earth, thought the earth sounded hollow as the mattock was driven into it A small stick was forced downward six or eight inches, and on its withdrawal a stream of water gushed forth five or six feet in height. The man was im- mediately drawn out, and scarcely had he reached the surface when the bottom of the well burst upward, and a volume of water rushed out with great force. The water has a disagreeable odour, and is unfit for any pur- pose. Several pieces of rotten wood were thrown out.—Franklin Sentinel.

The postmaster of Walton Breck has resigned his office in consequence of the renewal of Sunday labour.—Liverpool Mail. [How long has he held the office ? Is the labour, here said to be "renewed," more, or is it not less, than when he first accepted the office ?]

Subsequent accounts confirm the first report respecting Lieutenant Gale, that he was killed ; but theystill vary in minor details. Mr. Clifford, di- rector of the Hippodrome at Bordeaux, has made some efforts to collect a fund for Mr. Gale's widow and children.

We learn that Mr. Tucker, an officer or sheriff in Nicholasville, Kentucky, was shot in six places, by a person whom he was attempting to arrest. The affair took place last Friday. Mr. Tucker advanced to arrest him, when he struck him. Hereupon Mr. Tucker drew a pistol, and shot at, but missed him. The other man then drew a revolver, and fired six times, every shot taking effect. He then made his escape. It is thought Tucker's wounds are mortal.—Springfield (Illinois) Journal.

Mr. William Featherstone, road-surveyor of Wiveliscombe, has made an awkward mistake. Travelling in an omnibus, he felt his purse safe in his left- hand pocket ; Mr. John Merritt Walter, a pawnbroker in Aldersgate Street, entered the 'bus, and sat by Mr. Featherstone's left side; after a time, the surveyor missed his purse, and straightway accused Mr. Walter of stealing it. That gentleman was taken to a police-station, and searched ; the purse was not found upon him; but he was locked up for the night. When Mr. Featherstone was undressing at night at his hotel, he found his purse in his right-hand pocket ! Of course the charge against the exasperated pawn- broker was withdrawn, when he was brought before the Marlborough Street Magistrate ; and it is said that the road-surveyor will be sued for false impri- sonment of Mr. Walter.

A gentleman recently went from Manchester to Southport ; where his wife and daughter were staying ; he knew not their address, but thought he should have little trouble in finding them, as he supposed Southport was a very small place. Arrived there, he found numbers of streets, where he sought in vain for his family ; and he actually sent the bellman round to proclaim that—" If Mrs. —, of Manchester, and her daughter, will apply to me, they will bear of something to their advantage." The ladies applied, and found a husband and father.

The Indiaman Elizabeth has been destroyed by fire, in Cumeingmoon Bay, China. She had just arrived from Calcutta ; and among her cargo were a hundred bags of saltpetre. During the night the crew were aroused by a smell of smoke, and found that the cargo was on fire. They got the ship nearer to shore to prevent damage to other vessels, and with a view to scut- tle her ; but they were obliged to take to the boats to save their lives; and in ten minutes more the saltpetre exploded, rending the vessel to pieces. Ship and cargo are valued at 40,0001. It is supposed that the fire was wilful.