_Miscellaneous.

Divers reports of Royal movements are current. The Times says, in prominent ce.—" A correspondent in St. Petersburg writes us, under date 30th ultimo, that his Royal Highness Prince Albert is expected in that capital in the course of the present summer, to return the visit of the Emperor to her Majesty Queen Victoria last year. He would be accompanied by his Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge; ostensibly to be present with him at the series of reviews to take place according to annual custom, but also, it was said at Court, with a regard to the possibility of a matrimonial alliance with the Imperial Grand Dutchess Olga. We know nothing of the truth of this rumour, but give it as it has reached us.*,

The Mannheim Journal makes this extract from a letter written at Coburg on the llth instant—" An English courier, who arrived here some days since, has brought intelligence, that unless some unforeseen obstacle occur, Queen Victoria will arrive here on a visit in the course of the ensuing month, with her consort Prince Albert. Preparations are already being made at the Court for their re- ception." The Queen and Prince Albert inspected, on Thursday, a porcelain dessert ser- vice, manufactured by her Majesty s command for presentation to the Emperor of Russia.

Lady Augusta Cadogan, daughter of Earl Cadogan, has been appointed Lady in Waiting to the Dutchess of Cambridge. The Edinburgh Advertiser contradicts a report that Sir Robert Peel had pur- chased the estate of CIoseburn, in Dumfries-shire, belonging to Sir Charles Stuart Monteath, for the sum of 230,0001.

One of the sons of Schiller, the German poet, filling the office of Keeper-General of Woods and Forests in Wirteinberg, has just been created a Baron, by the title of Baron Schiller de Lorch.

Mohun Lal, who rendered signal services to the British during the disastrous campaign in Afghanistan, and was mainly instrumental in rescuing the captives of Akhbar Khan, has been rewarded by the East India Company with a pension of 1,0001. a year; a politic liberality.

fir is understood that Mr. Thomas Hood has left his widow and two children with very narrow means—nothing but the Royal pension, small in amount and

• terminable on the death of the lady; and even that scanty resource has to a great extent been forestalled to meet the exigencies of the sick-room and the expenses of interment. Several gentlemen—the Marquis of Northampton, Baron de Roths- child, Mr. Monekton Ililues, Mr. Sergeant Talfourd, and others—have formed Themselves into a committee to raise a subscription on behalf of Mrs. Hood and her children. [ Since the above was in type, we have seen an advertisement from the Committee,, which want of space will not allow to appear in our columns till next week. We are glad to observe, however, that the subscription prospers: the list of subscribers, about ninety in number, includes several distinguished patrons and cultivators of literature; the aggregate sum at present amounts to about 4001.]

The Morning Chronicle shows in detail how impossible it is, with the immense mass of railway bills, "that Parliament can crush through the private business of the year " • and says, "We undertand that Ministers do not intend to prolong the session, but that probably an act will be passed for resuming the undone bills next year in the stages in which they will be set fast."

The Morning Post makes this announcement—" The friendship between Eng- land and France has just been further consolidated by a treaty in reference to the slave-trade, of which that honest statesman the Duo De Broglie and her Britan- nic Majesty's Government have we hear, definitively settled the conditions. It requires at present only to be reduced to trilisial form, to be initialed, then signed,

and submitted for the ratification of the respective Sovereigns." The Times says that this statement is premature. The Post adds, that "there is not the slightest foundation for the rumours re- cently circulated of the retirement of the Comte De St. Aulaire from the Embassy of France at this Court."

The Morning Chronicle has some diplomatic gossip. According toThat

journal, in the sweeping official move that takes place on a change of P "clency in the United States, Kr. Everett, the Minister at the British Court, is to be superseded. The appointment was successively offered to Mr. Calhoun,—who would not leave the discussion of the Oregon question in Congress, in which he takes an interest; and to Colonel Elmore,—whose private affiurs induced him to decline. Mr. Calhoun recommended General James Hamilton, "the notorious Carolinian Nullifier"; but Mr. Polk declined to make that offer; and there the matter rested when the last advices left Washington. Should Mr. Everett retire from political life, he will probably be offered the Presidency of Harvard Uni- versity.

Respecting Texas, the Chronicle states that Mr. Ashbell Smith "still continua to hold the commission of Texan Secretary of State, though the duties of that office are performed ad interim by the Attorney-General. The leading public men in Texas, from President Jones downwards, continue to be resolutely opposed, on principle, to annexation; and though the noisier portion of the people and press are favourable to that measure, the great bulk of well-doing, settled, and respect- able population of the Republic, concur in the wiser opinion of the Executive Go- vernment; and even to many who support annexation The terms offered by the United States Act of Congress are very objectionable. President Jones, too, at the latest dates from Washington on the Brazos, which is the present location of the Texan Government, had expressed his determination not to anticipate the next meeting of Congress in December, by calling a special Congress; and there seems to be no doubt that the chiefs of the party which placed Inm in power will appeal to the 'stump,' and use every other possible exertion to prevent the junction, should the unscrupulous efforts of Major Donnelson, the United States Minister in Texas, make a deeper impression on the Texans than they have hitherto, done."

Mexico is the next subject of information. "The present Government are fully convinced of the necessity of acknowledging the independence of Texas. The diffi- culty with them is, however, the temper of the Mexican people; with whom the recognition would still, owing to their excessive political ignorance, be unpopular, and to the use which Santa Anna's partisans, and Gomez Ferries, their great op- ponent, might consequently be enabled to turn the act of recognition. Santa Anna has still a considerable party both in the Church and in theArmy; and though previously to his downfall he had actually commenced negotiations for the recogni- tion of Texas, (which negotiation had advanced so far as substantially to have be- come a boundary question,) still he and his friends are sufficiently unscrupulous to. seize on the recognition by the present Government as an instrument to overthrow it and to regain power themselves. There appears, indeed, but this alternative be- fore Santa Anna—death or reascent to power. Enormously rich, (his fortune is estimated at upwards of one million sterling, and is partly invested in house- property in New Orleans,) the slowness of the trial he is undergoing is caused by the efforts of his judges to make him disgorge his wealth. They are, in faät squeezing him. Should he yield to their pressure, the probability, is, that as dent men tell no tales, he will be executed. Should he successfully resist it, his wealth may enable him again to become the Dictator of Mexico."

Tuesday's Gazette contained a despatch from Major-General Sir Charles Na- pier to the Governor of India, dated Head-quarters, Camp, Shalipoor, 17th Ja- nuary 1845, and giving an account of his successful resistance to the unprovoked attacks made upon &nide by the Doomkee, Jakranie, and Boogtie tribes. The general intelligence is not new. In the postscript he sayer--" Since writing the above, some men have been captured who were in the fight at Ooch: from these we have learned that about forty-five were wounded and forty killed; among the former is Dena Elan, the Chief of the Jakranies; he received a grape-shot in his breast, and was dying. There were seven hundred men: they thought they had to deal with Wallee Mahomed Chandia, and were not aware we were there. till the artillery opened. They had drawn up in battle-array to fight, when Captain Salter charged."

The Arctic expedition of discovery and survey, eoneisting of the Erebus, Cap- tain Sir John Franklin, and the Terror, Captain Crozier, discovery-vessels, left Greenhithe yesterday for its destination. Each ship has been supplied with tvto hundred tin cylinders, for the purpose of holding papers, which are to be thrown overboard, with the statement of the longitude and other particulars worthy of record written in six different languages; and the ;parties finding them are re- quested to forward the information to the Admiralty.

The Finance Accounts just published show a large increase in the revenue of the Post-office. The gross revenue for the year 1844 was 1,705,0671., giving an

increase of more than 84,0001. as compared with 1843; the net revenue WRS

719,9571., giving an increase of nearly 80,000/. as compared with 1843. The apparent increase in 1844, taking the Post-office returns for 1843 as the standard of comparison, is in each ease more than double the amount here given; but, as we stated at the time, those returns gave the revenue, both gross and net, too low by about 85,0001. The actual increase of net revenue in 1844 is greater than for

any year since the war, except 1825, when it was 92,0001.; and 1836, when it was 81,0001. From 1840 (the first year of penny postage) to 1844, the increase .c net revenue is nearly fifty per cent.—Morning Chronicle.

There were numerous cheap railway-trips for the holydays in the manufac- turing and Northern districts last week. Many thousand children belonging to the Sunday schools of Manchester and the various other towns in the manufacturing districts were conveyed to Wakefield, and the intermediate stations on the Man- chester and Leeds Railway, and back—a distance of 100 miles—at 6d. each! Six thousand persons visited Liverpool from Manchester on Thursday; the fare there and back being only half-a-crown. There were also cheap trains from Hull; and 1,500 people enjoyed a trip from Newcastle to Leeds. Notwithstanding the reduction altogether of 2.5 per cent in the passengers' fares on the London and Birmingham Railway, and as much in their goods charges,

the last week's traffic is 2,800/. over the corresponding week of last year. This is pretty forcible evidence of the results of low fares and quick trains. We have given it in one week, but if carried over the year it will exceed 140,0001. per an- num.—Herapath's Railway Magazine. Two hundred and eighty-two books have been given to the Guardians of trte Greenwich Union for the pauper-library recently established. It is gratifying to

perceive the excellent moral effect the trial of this scheme has had upon the in- mates. Good order and good humour proceed from the practice; and after the day's work is concluded groups may be seen listening to some one reading while others are employed in reading themselves. Since the establishment of the hbrary the general conduct of the inmates has much improved_ On Tuesday, a hand-bill appeared containing the portrait of a gentleman said to be missing from Dublin. It is well executed, and, if like the person, must greatly aid the Police in their endeavours to trace him. This plan no doubt will be generally adopted where practicable. In this case the likeness was litho- graphed from an oil-painting in the possession of the Family.—Globe. The Lincolnshire Herald publishes a letter from Mr. Fraser, the tenor-singer, who is enjoying a successful career in the United States, and sends home his notes on men and things to the provincial editor, his brother. Ile tells a characteristic anecdote. "Music is much cultivated—as much, indeed, as the citizens have time for—although I can scarcely call the Americans a musical nation: witness their almost total neglect of H. P. [Henry Phillips?] and their fervid admiration of R.

[Russell 2] who, being naturalized, is of themselves. 1 was the other day re- marking this fact to an American with whom I am on terms of intimacy, and who acknowledged the injustice of the popular verdict ; but, he said, 'I 'Oalculate that R. slings out his songs better: P. slums his notes too much, and his notions a'n't fast enough for us !' "

An extraordinary running-match against time came off at Slough on Friday week. One Maxfield, called "the North Star," a celebrated runner, was backed to run twenty miles within two hours. The ground was one mile on the high- road between Slough and Maidenhead; and consequently Maxfield had the disad- vantage of having to make nineteen turns. He, however, accomplished his task a minute and a half within the two hours; and he is said to have been "quite fresh" when he finished it.