Aftisttllaneens.
The Morning Herald of Thursday announced that " The Queen leaves town on the 2d of July "; though it may be promised that her Majesty will return for a few days to prorogue Parliament." The Globe of the same day gave a " special" denial of this announcement, in these terms— "Nothing is yet known as to her Majesty's intention of leaving town for her usual autumnal =carrion: any announcement, therefore, on the subject is at least premature." The Ministerial organ added—" It is impossible to state with any degree of accuracy at what time the prorogation of Parlia- ment is likely to take place. At present it does not appear that it can be sooner than August."
Lord John Russell has been indisposed. At the ball given by the Duke of Norfolk to the Queen, on Tuesday night, while Lord John was engaged in an animated conversation with Lady Wilton, he was seized with a faint- ing fit, and was carried from the room insensible; but soon reviving in the open air he was taken home with Lady John Russell. On Wednesday he left town for Pembroke Lodge, in Richmond Park; and on that day to the numerous inquirers he was reported to be "quite well."
The Duke of Wellington celebrated the thirty-fourth anniversary of the battle of Waterloo on Monday, at Apsley House. Prince Albert and up- wards of seventy other guests were present. A very large assemblage of aristocratic equipages, full of lady spectators, was as usual grouped near the entrance to Apsley House, at the hour of the arrival of the surviving Waterloo heroes.
An interview which was lately reported to have been obtained by mill- owners of Manchester, Carlisle, and Glasgow, with Sir George Grey and Lord John Russell, to claim a modification of the Ten-hours Factory Act, raised alarm among the friends of that law, and induced them to send a counter-deputation to wait on Sir George Grey; which it did on Saturday last. Mr. Walker and Mr. Wood, of Bradford, and Mr. S. Fielden, eldest son of the late Mr. John Fielden, were the spokesmen. The deputation stated that the decisions of the Yorkshire Magistrates_ had kept the working classes from agitation on the subject, and the depressed state of trade pre- vented any marked opposition to the introduction of the relay system by the Lancashire masters. But the act is felt to have answered its purpose even beyond anticipation; the workmen of Yorkshire will not abandon a portion of its advantages; and as soon as better will in Lancashire give any hope, strikes will occur and combinations will be formed to sweep away the relay system which has been established. Sir George Grey re- gretted to find there was less prospect of a compromise between the parties than he had believed probable. He had himself a strong objection to the system of " shifts," and believed that it materially if not entirely deprived the workers of the advantages intended to be conferred by the act. The proposal made by the opponents of the measure, to accept an Eleven-hours Bill, and in return limit the range of the time of working from fifteen to twelve-and-a-half hours per day, was, he thought, a fair one; but, as mat- ters now stood, and seeing no hope of an amicable adjustment of the ques- tion by concessions on both sides, he would not pledge himself to any course. He was ready to receive all suggestions and information from either side; but he thought that if he were again to have deputations, it would be better if the supporters and opponents of the measure would meet bins at the same time, and in his presence discuss the merits of the question; from the results of which he could come to his own conclusion. He regretted to hear of a prospect of renewed agitation, as he believed the people were well employed, and in most respects comfortable; but if agitation were commenced he could not help it.
A deputation of shipowners waited on Mr. Labonebere, on Wednesday, to bring under his consideration the more prominent burdens from which the shipowners suffer, especially those relating to light and pilotage dues. Mr. Labouchere admitted the grievances: he had hoped to bring in bills on the questions of Light-dues and the Merchant Seamen's Fund; but the opposition to the Navigation Bill, and its delay, had rendered it very im- probable that such could now pass this session. Mr. Hume, M.P., Mr. Anderson, M.P., and several other members of the deputation, urged the pressing forward of a bill on the light-dues alone: much information was already in the hands of Government, and the suggestions which have been made are simple. The interview ended with Mr. Labouchere's admission that a very strong case existed; and the deputation retired under the im- pression that a bill on the light-dues will be pressed forward and passed, if possible, this session.
The division in the House of Lords on Tuesday night would have pre- sented a very different result had it not been for the untoward absence of two Conservative Peers, the Earl of Lucan and the Lord Polwarth, each of whom held two proxies.-3forning Post.
The occurrences in the House of Commons in the course of the debate of last Monday have led to a correspondence between Mr. W. Blackall and Captain Berkeley, as the respective friends of Mr. R. Maxwell Fox and Mr. Roebuck. Mr. Blackall demanded a retractation of the expression "falsehood" by Mr. Roebuck. Captain Berkeley answered with the pre- vious question—" after the public denials made by Mr. Roebuck on a for- mer occasion, Mr. Fox should withdraw the imputation which he cast on Mr. Roebuck of being the ' hired advocate of rebels.'" Mr. Blackall re- plied, that Mr. Fox was not aware of the public denials, or he would not have repeated the charge. Mr. Berkeley then summed up the correspondence, and declared on behalf of Mr. Roebuck, that, with this explanation, he "had no hesitation in withdrawing the word falsehood."
It appears from a document dated Lambeth Palace, June 1849, and signed by the Archbishops of Canterbury, York, Armagh, and Dublin, the Bishop of London and other Prelates, that the report of the Treasurers of the Colonial Bishops' Fund has been received. The managers have been able to provide competent endowment for the Colonial sees of Gibraltar, Fredericton, Cape Town, Adelaide, and Victoria. Four more bishoprics have been in part endowed from the same fund,—New Zealand, Tasmania, Melbourne, and Newcastle; and within the same period of eight years four additional bishoprics have been endowed from other sources,—namely, Antigua, Guiana, Colombo, and Rupert's Land. There is still a demand for Bishops in Sierra Leone, Western Australia, and the Mauritius; and no provision has yet been made for the sees of Nova Scotia and Montreal after the incumbency of the present Bishops.—Times.
The Post-office has issued notice that a bag of letters for Ireland is daily transmitted by the train which leaves Easton Square for Liverpool at 5 p.m. I Letters for this bag must be posted at the following times,—at the re- ceiving-houses in London, before 2 p.m.; at the branch offices in Lombard Street, Borough, Charing Cross, and Old Cavendish Street, before 3 p.m.; and at the General Post-office, St. Martin's-le-Grand, before 3.30 p.m. The letters will arrive in Dublin early the following morning. Newspapers will not be forwarded by this afternoon mail.
It is understood that the Government have decided on withdrawing the Captain and party of Royal Marines stationed for many years at Port Es- sington, (Western Australia,) and of abandoning the establishment alto- gether.—United Service Gazette.
Accounts from Vera Cruz to the 16th May state that the roads to Ma- zatlan are lined with travellers to California; a perpetual stream of emi- grants and adventurers, travelling by every conceivable mode of convey- ance—in waggons, carts, on horses, mules, and even on foot; some without shoes or hats, and short of the necessaries of life; all alike pressing on ward, intent upon reaching the gold regions of the West.
A large placard posted up in Paris states that, on the 18th of July next, the forest of Pacy, containing about 815 hectares, will be put up to auc- tion, at the upset price of a million francs, by legal order of M. Louis Phi- lippe, Count de Neuilly, formerly residing at the Tuileries, and of all the members of his family, residing in England, Spain, and Germany.
The Carlist prisoners, Generals Cabrera and Ametler, confined in the fort Lamalgue, at Toulon, have been set at liberty, by order of the French Ministry. These Spanish officers proposed to visit England.
The cholera has reappeared in several fatal instances in the Metropolis, and with great virulence in several provincial towns or hamlets,—as Leeds, Bradford, Cardiff, and Yealm. At the last place, a conjunction of three fishing-villages with a total population of 2,000 persons, eight miles East- ward of Plymouth, upwards of twenty persons have died. The place is proverbially filthy, though not as proverbially unhealthy: there is a tra- dition at Noss, one of the villages, that all the inhabitants except seven were swept off by a pestilence which occurred one hundred and sixty years ago.
Several persons of note are added to the list of the cholera victims in Paris,—Madame Cavaignac, the mother of the General; General Donadieu, a prominent politician under Louis the Eighteenth and Charles the Tenth; Frederick Kalkbrenner, the well-known composer, just as he had completed a musical work that has engaged him for some time; and Banderali, the professor of singing for twenty years past at the Conservatoire. A writer in Paris imputes some of the fatality of the disease to the medical treat- ment of the Paris faculty-
" Within the last three days, the average duration of the illness in half the cases has not exceeded thirty hours. The rapidity of the disease is much more frightful here than it would be in London; for two-thirds of the doctors persist in leaving things to nature. Where a London physician would administer a strong dose of opium and calomel, the Paris doctor contents himself with ordering a linseed poultice to the abdomen, and internally a cup of weak tea with a few drops of ether. This is the heroic way in which many of our practitioners grapple with the disease."
From all parts, East, West, North, and South, the reports concerning the crops of Great Britain and Ireland are most favourable. The rumours of potato blight in Ireland have ceased to prevail, and each day the accounts abate nothing of their joyful but cautious tone. Similar good news comes generally from the Western countries of Eu- rope—from France, Belgium, and Western Germany: bat from Southern Russia there are accounts of great famine, and of an apparent failure, even thus early, of the cereal crops.
e have been asked to publish a copy of the subjoined petition to the House of Commons; and although we do not agree on all points with the writer, we are the more ready to put forth his remonstrance since the observations on the unlucky coincidence between the letter-opening affair and the present position of the Eng- lish Government is true: it does look ugly.
To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain and Ireland, In Parliament assembled. The petition of the undersigned showeth,
"That your petitioner, an Englishman, though unrepresented, (being disqualified by change of residence,) is not regardless of the honour of his country. " That your petitioner has heard with indignation and dismay the assertion of the French Government, that in their conduct towards the Roman Republic they have been in accord with England,—meauing by England (your petitioner supposes) her Majesty's Office for Foreign Affairs.
" That such assertion accuses the Foreign Administration of this country of being an accomplice in a course of policy (that pursued by France towards Rome) whose villany is scarcely paralleled in history. " That your petitioner cannot help calling to mind the foul practices of 1844, when, the Foreign Office being in accord with Ausbla, English Ministers were employed as informers and tools of the Austrian police, to track the steps of the brothers Bandies ; and therefore your petitioner fears that such assertion of English complicity with France may be but too generally credited in Europe, more especially as the policy of our Foreign Office bears on it no character of consistency, no impress of any guiding principle sufficient of itself to contradict the likelihood of such complicity. " That the effect of a belief through Europe that the English Government have connived at French villany towards Rome, must be to brand England with dishonour ; to damage her reputation and destroy her Influence ; to damp the hopes of the Liberal party throughout Europe ; and to encourage and so assist the despotic Powers in their endeavours to trample upon right, to prevent the growth and progress of humanity.
" That a belief in English complicity would have the further tendency—by accus- toming the minds of Englishmen to suffer dishonour abroad—to lower the standard of honour at home; so demoralizing the people, and paving an easy descent to the utter degradation and ruin of the British empire. That though the assertion of English complicity with the guilt, of France may be false, yet it has gone forth, and needs to be absolutely contradicted, not merely by the formal denial of the particular fact, but by open manifestation of such principles of policy as shall assure Europe that England cannot, now or evermore, either aid, abet, or permit so gross an outrage upon justice, upon the rights and liberties of nations. " Your petitioner therefore prays your Honourable House, that, in order as far as possible to prevent any future doubt or mistake as to the rectitude of England, your Honourable House will forthwith assume the control of the Foreign Office ; and that, Irrespective of precedents, you will assert, and cause everywhere to be asserted, such a course of foreign policy as shall be consistent with the high mission of England, with her duty to humanity, and in accordance with those principles of freedom and progress which, until the late act of Lord John Russell to suppress felonious speaking,' were ever upon the llps of English patriots and the most time-nerving of diplomathits and Statesmen. •
" And your petitioner, so far as in duty bound, will ever pray.
"June 16th, 1849. W. J. Litany."
Captain Urquhart, of the corps of Royal Marines, who, our readers will recol- lect, was in March last removed from the service for an alleged "breach of faith' in communicating matters connected with the service to the public press, has been restored to his rank, and placed for the present on half-pay, by order of her Ma-
jesty.—Tanes. ee Among the recent deaths is that of Mr. William CM, F.R.S., the Conservator of the Hanterian Museum of the College of Surgeons: he expired on the 20th, at the age of seventy-seven. Mr. Clift had held his office for more than half a cen- tury; be was the personal friend of Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Humphry Davy, and Dr. Wollaston. His only child is the wife of Professor Owen.
Died lately, at Castor, aged ninety-seven, Mr. Thomas Tomlinson, ladies' shoe- maker. The deceased was very eccentric. He was thrice married, and his eccen- tricity was manifested particularly in the disparity of his wives' ages. His first wife was sixty years older than himself, the second twenty years younger, and the third (who survives him) sixty-three years younger than himself; she having been born about the battle of Waterloo, and the deceased about the battle of Cul- loden.—Glasgow Mail.
The India House and Board of Control have, it is understood, consented to al- low the Indian Railway companies to be incorporated by act of Parliament.- $erapaths Journal.
We notice that the Shepping House and Church Farm Estates, situate at Ma- thon, on the borders of Worcestershire and Herefordshire, are to be publicly of- fered for sale in the course of this present month. These two valuable proper- ties were amongst the purchases made by Feargus O'Connor for the purposes of his land scheme: for reasons known to himself, the honourable Member has not completed the purchase of either, but has preferred forfeiting the deposit-money. —Worcester Herald.
The papers announce the arrival of the brig "Jessie " or " Tepie" at Liverpool on Thursday, direct from San Francisco, with about "60,0001." or "60,000 dol- lars " worth of gold from " the diggings."
During the present month, three of her Majesty's ships—the Arrogant, 46, Captain Fitzroy, the Plumper, 11, Commander Nollotb, and the Reynard, 11, Commander Cracroft—have sailed from Portsmouth, furnished with the Govern- ment distilling and cooking galley, constructed by Mr. Grant. By the im- provements made since the introduction of these galleys into the naval service, the quantity of fresh water obtained by the distillation of salt water during the period it is required to keep the fires alight in the galley for the purposes of cook- nag, will, on the average, supply each individual on board the vessels with one gallon of distilled water every day. This water is preferred to that usually sup- plied to ships, for drinking and culinary processes. Passing immediately from the condenser to the water-tanks, it enters the latter at the temperature of the sea. In a few hours the simple motion of the ship, and without any chemical means, perfectly aerates the water and removes the vapid flavour which charac- terizes distilled water. A series of experiments is in progress, on board the Illus- trious, 72, Captain Yates, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Prescott, C.B., in this harbour, by Mr. Crosse, with the view of imparting at the moment of distillation the oxygen of which the water is deprived in the process, and giving to it that brisk- ness which is found in spring water. This is effected by passing a proportionate current of electricity through the particles of water by means of an extremely simple and self-acting apparatus. The results of the experiments made have been highly satisfactory.—Portsmouth Correspondent of the Times.
From an investigation before the Lambeth Magistrate, it appears that the hu- mane public are in danger of being cheated out of their money by concocters of pretended societies for preventing cruelty to animals. These societies, with their reports," are got up by designing men for the purpose of extracting money for their own use.
Marlowe, an old farm-labourer, has been killed on the Windsor Railway, near Staines. He was about to pass the rails at a level "occupation " crossing with a horse and cart; an express-train dashed round a curve, and man and horse were killed in an instant. Marlowe was deaf. A Coroner's Jury has returned a ver- dict of " Accidental death "; with additions, however, that sufficient care had not been used in making the railway near the Staines station, that no train ought to pass the station without stopping, and that a porter ought to be placed at the gates of the crossing previously to the arrival of each train.
While a cart was standing to be loaded with stone at a siding of the Great Northern Railway at Hexthorpe Lane, a ballast-engine approached ; alarmed by the noise, the three horses got on to the line; two were killed, and several ribs of the third were broken; but the driver was not hurt.
It appears from a letter in the Reading Mercury, that the hail-storm of the 5th instant did a great deal of damage at Drayton. The writer says that the crops on nearly four hundred acres were wholly or partially destroyed, and he estimates the loss at 2,0001. The hailstones were so large that partridges, larks, and mice, were killed in the fields; and roof-slates were broken on the houses.
Two fine sturgeons have been caught near Gloucester. One of the royal fish was six feet six inches long, and weighed nearly two hundred pounds.
The following is a verbatim copy of an address upon a letter which recently passed through the Newport Post-office: " To Colebrook Veale Iron Works, Mon- mouthshire, South Wales, England. To be forwarded to Edward Shannon, same place, S.W., England, and he will give it to Jerry Bryan, there or elsewhere, South Wales, England."—Hcmmouth Merlin.
Results of the Registrar-General's return of mortality in the Metropolis for the week ending on Saturday last—
Number of Sluing Deaths. Average.
Zymotle Diseases Dropsy, Cancer, and other diseases of uncertain or variable seat Tubercular Diseases Diseases of the Brain, Spinal Marrow, Nerves, and Senses Diseases; of the Heart and Blood-vessels ..... ...
Diseases of the Lungs, and of the other Organs of ]respiration... . Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other Organs of Digestion .... Diseaaes of the Kidneys, &c
Childbirth, diseases of the Uterus, &c. Rheumatism, diseases of the Bones, Joints, &c
Diseases of the Skin, Cellular Tissue, &e Malt Malrmations
Premature Birth Atrophy Age Sudden
Violence, Privation, Cold, and Intemperance
251 .... 32 .... 165 .... 117 .... 24 .... 88 63 13 11
4
3 23 21 31 19 44 — 196 48 200 123 31 131 62 11 8
8
1 3 21 17 50 11 33 — Total (including unspecified causes) 912 963
The temperature of the thermometer in the water of the Thames at Greenwich ranged from 65.3° to 59.6°. [The thermometer which shows the highest point in the sun was under repair.] The mean direction of the wind for the week was East-north-east.
The accounts of the Bank of England for the week ending the 16th June exhibit, when compared with those of the preceding week, the following results-
BANIEINd DEPARTMENT.
Increase. Decrease.
Best £6.351 — While Deposits 550,411
-
Other Deposits 30,788
-
Seven-day and other Bala 6,288 — Government Securities, including Dead-weight 139,961
-
Other securities 8.150
-
Note. unissued 446,500 — Actual Circulation
£150,705
1BAUE DEPARTMENT.
Notes issued 295,495
-
Bullion
295,022 —
This week. Last week.
Total Bullion in both Departments 14,947,784 14,652,762
Actual Circulation
17,971,455 18,122,160