Alaistellantous.

Tuesday being the day to which the Parliament was prorogued, the Lord Chancellor proceeded to the House of Lords shortly after three o'clock ; and the Commons having been summoned to the bar, the Parliament was, by Royal commission, further prorogued, in the usual form, until the 3d February next, then and there to meet for the de- spatch of business. Except the Lords Commissioners, only the usual officers of both Houses were_present.

A treaty on the subject of the slave-trade, to which Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia, are parties, was signed on Monday, in Dawning Street, by Baron Schleinitz, Count St. Aulaire, the Earl of Aberdeen, Baron Kohler, and Baron Brunow. Its provisions are thus described by the Post of this morning-

" The right of search in respect to all vessels liable to the suspicion of being engaged in the slave-trade, is mutually granted by each of the Five Powers parties to this beneficent treaty, to all vessels of war bearing the flag of any of the five. Thus, the constant existence and unremitted activity of the most effective naval police that any or all of the Five Powers can establish for the suppression of the slave-trade, is made part of the public law of Europe. " It is agreed, morever, between the Five Powers, that the legal character and denomination of the crime of trading in slaves upon the sea, and that of cooperating in the traffic by the supply of capital or talent in its aid, shall, by the law of each of them, be made to assimilate as speedily as possible to tholV which the Legislature of Great Britain has imparted to these crimes. " The British law in respect to the slave-trade, embodied in the 3d and 4th of William the Fourth, c. 73, is to the effect that any subject of her Majesty, or any individual residing in any part of her Majesty's dominions, who shall engage in the slave-trade, or iu the conveyance of slaves upon the sea, shall be held to be guilty of the crime of piracy; and that any one who shall knowingly embark capital, or lend other aid of any kind to the traffic, although not per- sonally engaged in it, shall be held to be guilty of felony, and punished accord- ingly; the former crime involving the punishment of death on the adjudication of a competent tribunal of any civilized state ; the latter that of transportation on the adjudication of any competent British tribunal. " Such as we have described will henceforth, in virtue of this treaty, be the public law of Europe. That this law will be rigorously carried into execution by a naval police, which Great Britain and France have the power and the dis- position to establish, there can be no reasonable doubt.

" It is not too much to say, that the treaty of December 20th is a deathblow to the slave-trade throughout the world."

It is understood in the City that the subordinate officers of the Board of Trade are making inquiries into every department of business, with the view, it is supposed, of submitting facts for the consideration of the Peel Cabinet. In Mark Lane they have been very busy. They have now turned their attention to the produce markets and to the Customs departments.—Globe, Dec. 21.

The Morning Chronicle makes an important announcement-

" In the course of last week, a deputation from the London Mercantile Com- mittee on Postage, consisting of Sir G. Larpent, Messrs. Travers, Lestock, Wilson, and Moffatt, had an interview with the Postmaster-General, for the purpose of urging upon his Lordship the desirability, as well for the interests of the revenue as for those of the public, of perfecting Mr. Rowland Hill's plan of penny-postage. The chief points brought before his Lordship were, those of increased facilities for posting and delivering. letters in the Metropolis and the suburbs, similar measures in the chief provincial towns, and an extension of Post-office conveniences to country districts at present destitute of them. " The statements of the deputation received every attention from the Post- master-General, who expressed his desire to give them his best consideration, and assured them that there was equal willingness with himself as with his pre- decessor to carry out Mr. Bill's plan."

The Dublin correspondent of the Morning Post announces several intended changes in the management of the Irish Administration- " The Exchequer Bill business of the Treasury department in Ireland will be handed over to the Bank of Ireland.

"The Irish Estimates are to he paid by order direct from the London Trea- sury on the Bank of Ireland, so as to reduce the Irish Treasury branch and its complicated mode of payment, as well as its sinecure officials, and lead the way to its removal altogether to Downing Street.

"The Irish Crown Solicitor's department, you are already aware, will undergo material changes, so as to save the country from 25,0001. to 30,0001. a year. "The Stamp-office will be reduced to one Distributor.

"The Chief-Secretary's office will be lessened two or three clerks; for at present the business is so much lessened that the present office-holders are looking at one another one-half the day.

" The Shannon Commission—a brilliant Monteagle job—is to be broken up, and the business handed over to the Board of Worts; who should from the commencement have been intrusted with its working:"

Her Majesty has been pleased to appoint the Right Honourable Lord Ashburton, the Right Honourable John Nicholl, Judge Advocate- General, George Carr Glyn, and John Shaw Lefevre, Esquires, to be Commissioners to conduct a strict investigation, with a view to ascer- tain in what manner Exchequer Bills have been made out and issued since the remodelling of the Exchequer by act of Parliament passed in the fourth and fifth years of the reign of his late Majesty King William the Fourth, and to point out whether any or what defects are to be found in the existing system, and what additional checks or regulations can be established with a view to guard in future against the forgery of Exchequer Bills, or against the fraudulent or unauthorized issue of them.—London Gazette, Dec. 21.

A great sensation has been created by a very intelligible inuendo in the Morning Herald. In his address to the Jury, to whom he pleaded guilty, Mr. Beaumont Smith intimated that there were others of great plausibility, power, and talent, by whom he had been tempted. The Herald asks who and where they are ? wishing that it could assure itself of their nonentity-

" But it is with deep and unaffected reluctance that we advert to rumours which are rife in those quarters of the City intelligence where 'beacon-fires are seldom false.' The 'two noble lords,' whose names have reached us as not intact by the disgraceful on dit which obtains of this affair, are representatives of the great contending parties in the political divisions of the country. They are neither of them deficient in the three so emphatically predicated pro- perties of plausibility, talent, and power.' They are, we fear, proverbially defi- cient in other more tangible properties- ' Arcades ambo ;

Et cautare pares, et respoodere parati.'

The social liberalities of the one, the political liberalities of the other—much as we have to object to them both on the score of morality and of constitu- tional propriety—cannot extinguish the feeling of pain and mortification with which we are compelled to dwell for a moment on the report of their having been participators in the desperate preliminaries to and desperate practices of the most nefarious fraud, perhaps, ever practised on the fiscal departments of the country. We rejoice to hear that one noble Viscount, who seems to have almost as many personal as he may have found political or diplomatic enemies, has cleared up every imputation which an unlucky combination of circum- stances at first was calculated to throw upon him in connexion with the memorable ' bills.' We shall indeed deplore the substitution (in the event of facts justifying the' intelligence of our informant) of another Peer in his place, of rank not less eminent, of attainments not inferior, and of certainly supe- rior personal influence. As to the colleague of 'such noble offender being an eminent Marquis, we dare not trust ourselves to fathom possibilities at present, further, lest we should draw up an apparition of extinguished greatness, of which, though but of yesterday, it might be remarked,

What seem'd its head.

The likeness of a kingly crown had on.' ' A few days, and then— ! ' " The person acquitted in the foregoing extract is Viscount Strangford. The Morning Chronicle points out the other Viscount more distinctly, by saying that "he once before was compelled to do himself justice by commencing a prosecution against a journal which falsely charged him with corruption.' The yesterday's quasi regal dignity of the impugned Marquis is tantamount to giving his name. The implication has re- delved little credit anywhere; and the Standard comments with se- verity on the indiscretion which gave it publicity ; remarking- " When Lord Strangford was accused by a weekly journalist as one of the guilty parties, the noble lord, with the high spirit of a gentleman and a man of genius, indignantly met and defied the imputation ; and it is now certain that Lord Strangford is as innocent of any participation in the fraud as any person who read the calumny of which he was the object. But the course taken by Lord Strangford is not open to others, though as little stained with guilt as his Lordship. We will not say why, because that would aid in designating the individuals pointed at ; but every one can imagine cases in which men may be forbidden to appropriate floating accusations, how well soever convinced they may be that those accusations are intended for them."

Extraordinary as it may appear, we have reason to believe that up- wards of 80,0001. of Exchequer Bills, which have been stamped by the Government as genuine, are spurious, notwithstanding that warranty.— Sun, Dec. 24.

At the close of the Anti-Corn-law Conference in Manchester, Mr. Joseph Sturge raised a conversation on the necessity of radical reform in the Parliamentary representation ; and he and Mr. Sharman Craw- ford were deputed to prepare and sign a declaration on the subject, to be signed by the advocates of Free Trade throughout the kingdom. Mr. Crawford's illness has withheld him from the task ; but Mr. Sturge has drawn up a declaration, signed it, and circulated it. It has the con- currence of influential persons in several of the large towns, and has already received many signatures. It is this-

" Deeply impressed with the conviction,of the evils arising from class legis- lation, and of the sufferings thereby inflicted upon our industrious fellow-sub- jects, the undersigned affirm that a large majority of the people of this country are unjustly excluded from that fair, full, and free exercise of the elective fran- chise to which they are entitled by the great principle of Christain equity, and also by the British constitution ; for 'no subject of England can be constrained to pay any aids or taxes, even for the defence of the realm or the support of the Government, but such as are imposed by his own consent, or that of his representative in Parliament.' (See Blackstone's Commentaries, Vol. I., Book 7, chapter 1.)"

The Duke of Buckingham, the Duke of Beaufort, and Earl De Grey, according to the Times, are candidates for the Garter riband vacant by the death of the late Earl of Westmoreland. " It has not been defini- tively arranged upon whom the selection will fall, but it is understood that the claims of the Duke of Beaufort will probably be preferred." The Post, however, says it is likely that the stall in St. George's Chapel will remain vacant for some time.

The Post announces that the Marquis of Exeter has accepted the Lord-Lieutenantcy of Northampton : the Morning Chronicle gives the gossip to account for his being transferred from the Lieutenantcy of Rutland. Lord Cardigan claimed the former post, as having large estates in the county ; but Sir Robert refused, " in terms unctuous but decided." A " serious fracas " took place between the Premier and the military lord ; and the Marquis of Exeter is interposed as a stopper to Lord Cardigan's claims and reproaches. So the vacancy is trans- ferred to Rutland, where inconvenient Lord Cardigan has no estates.

Sir Robert Peel went down to Drayton on Thursday. Lord Stanley left town early on Tuesday morning, to join Lady Stu- ley at Knowsley. He returned to town yesterday.

The Lord Chancellor, Lady Lyndhurst, and Miss Copley, left town on Saturday, on a visit to the Marquis of Salisbury, at Hatfield House. They returned to town on Monday. Lord Lyndhurst took his depar- ture again on Thursday, for his seat, Turville Park, near Henley-upon- Thames.

A batch of Ministers set off yesterday. The Chancellor of the Ex- chequer, accompanied by the Honourable C. Law, M.P., went to pass the holydays at Cambridge. Lord Wharncliffe repaired to Wortley Hall, his seat in Yorkshire ; Sir Thomas Fremantle to his seat in Buckinghamshire. Lord Melbourne visited the Archbishop of York last week. He staid three days with the Prelate ; and left Bishopsthorpe on Saturday, for Castle Howard ; where the Earl and Countess of Carlisle entertain the Duke and Dutchess of Sutherland and a large party during the Christ- mas holydays.

The Coventry family have refused to surrender the ground in the Green Park, opposite Coventry House ; they having it, as they allege, on lease for sixty years, which was granted by George the Fourth, at a ground-rent of 361.—Globe.

The French Minister of Commerce, 31. Cunin Gridaine, opened the session of the Council-General of Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce, on Thursday. In his address, he reviewed the various occurrences connected with those three important subjects that took place in 1840, but dwelt more at length on those referring to the general trade of the country. " At no former period," said he, "has our foreign trade assumed so great an extension. The amount in 1840 was 2,063,000,000 francs, the largest it has ever before reached ; which ex- ceeded by 518,000,000, or 33i per cent, the average of the ten years from 1830 to 1839. In the 2,063,000,000 francs, comprising the com- merce of entrepOt, the foreign products sold for consumption, and those of the soil and industry which have been exported, figure for 1,142,000,000 of francs ; namely—imports, 697,000,000 francs of natural productions and materials necessary for industry, and 50,000,000 francs only of manufactured articles : exports, 184,000,000 francs of natural productions, and 511,000,000 francs of manufactured objects." The Minister then stated that the value of the articles carried by sea amounted to 1,481,000,000 francs, or 71 per cent above the average, and the tonnage to 2,896,000 toes. The trade between France and her colonies has, however, decreased at the rate of 111 per cent com- paratively with 1831, 13 per cent as compared with 1836, and 20 per cent as compared with 1838. There was also a falling-off in the trade of France with North America, Egypt, Portugal, and the countries washed by the Chinese seas.

From his speech the journals of Friday collect that the projected treaty of commerce between France and Belgium is likely to be carried into effect.

The proceedings in the trial of Quenisset and his fellow-prisoners draw to a close. M. Dupoty was found guilty of conspiracy to over- turn the Government, by 133 to 22 votes. Among the dissentients were the Prince de la Moskwa and M. Cousin. Five other persons were found guilty of the same offence—Martin, Fougeray, Bouzer, Considere, (Lafitte's collecting-clerk,) and Napoleon Bazin. Ten were found guilty of the attempt on the Princes—Quenisset, Boucheron, Colombier, Brazier, Petit, Jarrasse, Launois, Boggio, Mallet, and Dufour.

It may be remembered that Dufour displayed immense magnanimity, braving death and refusing to inculpate any of his accomplices. After the close of the public proceedings, however, he and Colombier sent to Baron Pasquier to make confessions to him. It is said that a confesscr had worked strongly on their fears. The result was, that on Friday two carriages full of new prisoners were brought from the Faubourg St. Antoine. The Siecle says those newly arrested are of the working classes.

The Courrier Francais asserts that Ministers openly declared, that if M. Dupoty were not condemned by the Court of Peers, they would resign their offices.

The editors of the Opposition journals, alarmed at these proceedings —the charge against 31. Dupoty of having joined in a treasonable con- spiracy to assassinate the Princes, followed by his condemnation on ac- count of the general tendency of his writings—were about to hold a meeting to petition the Legislature on the subject. • The Court of Assizes at. Realmont have just acquitted one Fouvielle from the charge of attempting to excite hatred and contempt against Govern- ment : during the agitation about the resurvey of taxes in the summer, lie hung up a ridiculous figure of a man, which various inscriptions pointed out as an impersonation of the local officer and the Government whose fiscal measures he disapproved, and whom he thus executed in

effiA g letter from Montpellier, of the lath instant, in the Gazette des Tri- bunaux, states that Madame Laffarge continues to be so ill that her stomach rejects nearly all kinds of food. When the gaol-costume was presented to her to put on, she exclaimed, " Never will I wear this dress of infamy," and threw herself on her bed ; which she has not quitted since. She is not permitted to see any persons, except some re- lations whom she has at Montpellier, for a few moments on Sunday ; and some articles of furniture which were brought to the gaol for her use were sent back. The cell in which she is placed is the same as those of the other prisoners, and her illness alone prevents the enforce- ment of the prison-regulations as to labour.

"A late incident," says the Morning Chronicle," is strongly character- istic of the state of feeling in Hanover. M. Lutken is the ame damnie of King Ernest. It was he who managed his election for him with so much cunning and violence. Lutken was the other day crossing the square before the Royal residence, when a man took up a paving- stone, and flinging it at him, felled him to the ground. A crowd collected. The fellow who made the assault was seized by at least a dozen persons. In his sole defence he exclaimed, The person whom I have struck is M. Lutken.' In an instant he was released, and escaped. The crowd separated, and Lutken was left to his fate." The man, a tin- plate-worker, has since been arrested. ' A letter from Geneva of the 16th instant announces that the candi- dates of the Democratic party for the Constituent Assembly had been generally returned. The Grand Council of the Canton of Ticino had been convoked for the 3d January next, in order to revise the constitu- tion of the Canton. The Grand Council of Argau, on the other hand, continued to dispose of the proceeds of the property of the suppressed convents, without heeding the decision of the Diet condemnatory of their suppression.

The Helvetic says that a rumour of Austria's joining the German Union produces a great sensation in Switzerland. The ports east of Switzerland would then be completely blockaded; and, as an escape, the accession of Switzerland itself to the German Union is seriously pro- posed. A journal, the Deutsche Bole, has been established at Zurich to preach this. Argan and Thurgau are coming to the same sentiments ; Prussia is labouriug in the same cause ; and the engineer-officer Beyse has published his plan for uniting Germany with North Italy, by rail- roads running across Switzerland, especially through the Grisons to Coire.

The Augsburg Gazette of the 16th instant states that one of the most considerable commercial houses in Strasburg had received a communi- cation from a person high in office, announcing that the French Govern- ment had the intention of negotiating with the German States in order to modify the custom-tariffs at present existing between the two coun- tries. It is proposed to reduce the duties on wine ; in return, the French Government had agreed to reduce the duty on cattle.

The investigation of Sir Robert Peel's Commissioners, says the Brussels correspondent of the Morning Post, will show that distress and stagnation of trade are not confined to England-

" Here too the cause of industry is suffering enough. The disastrous state (says an enlightened Government journal) which many of our native manufac- tories are in at this moment makes us fearful fur the future prospects of Belgium.' It appears that in the provinces of Hainault and Liege the iron- founderies are in a state of great depression, drawing with them a stagnation of labour in the coal-mines of those districts. The Iron Foundry Society near Charleroy, in the former province, is reduced to the necessity of selling off its forges and the other requisites of that large establishment ; while a society of the same sort at Huy, in the latter, has been forced to call its creditors toge- ther, to request time to turn its possessions into money, in order to avoid the expense of a legal transfer of the property into their hands. Many other me- tallurgical establishments are in a condition of imminent peril, looking anxiously for rescue to a fortunate turn of affairs, or the intervention of Government be- tween them and their ruin. The Government is, indeed, in treaty with France for the export of iron and coal into the latter country, but the result of the ne- gotiations is considered very doubtful. * • * In the mean time, the working of the projected railway of the Sambre and Mense, branching off from the line at Braine-le-Comte, and passing thence through Charleroy to Namur, is pressed on the Government as a means of reviving the iron-trade and setting the forges of Huy and Charlerny in activity. The appeal is very likely to be successful."

The Commercial Gazette of Sr. Petersburg contains an article, written by Consul Harrer, of Warsaw, who seeks to show that those states of Europe which are desirous of establishing their manufacturing pros- perity have every reason to wish that no alteration may take place in the English Corn-laws.

Some of the Paris papers mention that a Cabinet revolution had taken place in St. Petersburg. Count Pahlen, it appears, was to form part of the new Administration ; and the former was to be replaced in Paris, ant as an Ambassador, but as Minister Plenipotentiary, by M. de Boutenieff, late Ambassador of Russia in Constantinople. The Constitutionnel regards this as a serious slight to France. It is reported that the Czar has some disposition to strike a blow at his territorial aristocracy, by declaring the Russian villeins free.

The Madrid Gazette of the 11th publishes a decree granting an amnesty to all soldiers who took part in the revolt of the 7th October.

Accounts from Carthagena of the 24th of November mention the oc- currence of a new attempt on the part of the English to rescue a British smuggler in that harbour, which a Spanish coast-guard brought in on the 22d, and which English vessel had, according to the report of the commanding-officer, been lying-to within a distance of the coast pro- hibited by the customs-regulations. The captain of the captured vessel protested that such was not the case. The commander of a British brig of war, the same who carried off a smuggler in May last under the ar- tillery of the ramparts, being then at Carthagena, espoused the part of the smuggler, and demanded his liberation from the Governor. But, not- withstanding the influence which he flattered himself to possess, he failed to obtain his object, and the vessel was placed in the arsenal, out of the reach of the brig. It was proved by the investigation subse- quently made, that the assertions of the English smuggler were untrue, and that he was surprised in the act of landing prohibited goods on the coast.— Courrier Francais.

On Monday morning, at seven o'clock, the three ships Belleisle, Apollo, and Sapphire, appointed to carry out troops to China, sailed from Plymouth with a fair wind. The Belleisle conveys Major-General Lord Saltoun and his staff.

The Augsburg Gazette says—"M. Sieveking, of Hamburg; purchased from the New Zealand Colonization Company, on the 12th September, the grant of Chatham Islands, for 10,0001. Should the German Colo- nization Society be formed, the ratification of this bargain must be exchanged in London before the 12th March 1842, and then in two months the first instalment must be paid. The German colonization will be made after the Wakefield plan. According to the account of M. Hanson Chatham Island, or Warrachain, has a surface of 600,000 acres, besides 100,000 occupied by a lake or reserved for the natives." The Morning Chronicle remarks that the New Zealand Company, though owners of the soil of Chatham Islands, cannot cede the sove- reignty to a foreign power : negotiations on the subject have been opened between the British Government, the Diplomatic Representative of the Hanse Towns, and the New Zealand Company. It is said to be the intention of the German purchasers to sell the land at 21. an acre ; one-half of the proceeds to constitute an emigration-fund, the other to go to defray the original purchase-money.

The transit-ship Hibernia brings "one day later" papers from

New York, to the 1st instant. Recent advices from Jamaica state that desplitches bad been sent to Colonel Macdonald, the Superintendent of Honduras, ordering an advance of troops in the territory of Guatemala, to demand the liberation of British subjects arrested there; and in case of refusal to use force. The senior officer at Port Royal had sailed in a sloop of war for Carthagena, in order to look after British interests.

The two candidates for the Oxford Professorship of Poetry have each a committee in London ; and each committee has been issuing circulars, "regretting" the proceedings of the antagonist body. There is some talk, however, of both being withdrawn, to make way for a third, not committed to the present squabble. Mr. Lockhart, the Quarterly Re- viewer, is mentioned. The Political Economy Professorship is ex- pected to give rise to another theological contest ; Mr. Senior the Mas- ter in Chancery, a Puseyite barrister whose name is not given, and Mr. Twiss of University College, are said to be the candidates.

John Heinrich Dannecker, the father of German sculptors, died at Stutgard, on the 9th instant, in his eighty-fourth year. He was a friend of Schiller, whose statue he sculptured.

The Neapolitan papers are loud in praise of a new English singer, Miss Emma Bingley, who made her first appearance in the Sonnambula, at the Teatro del Fondo, on the 3d of last month. She is in her nine- teenth year. Her voice is said to make up in great sweetness and flexibility for its want of power.