31liort11autaus.

We have reason to believe that the address in reply to the Speech from the Throne will be moved by the Marquis of Kildare, and seconded by Mr. Pete, M.P. for Nornich.—Tirnes.

Lord Wharn.eliffe has withdrawn from a contest with Lord Redesdale for the Chairmanship of Committees in the House of Lords. Lord Redes- dale's election ia now certain.—Globe.

We have much pleasure in-announcing that the order of the Garter has been conferred upon the Marquis of Normanby, in consideration of his important services as Ambassador in Paris, and in several other high offices of State.—Tieres.

General Radowitz left London for Berlin on Friday last ; having been rather unexpectedly recalled by the King of Prussia, who is anxious to confer with him personally. As the General intimated an intention of speedily joining his family at Erfurt, his return is not thought to indicate any immediate change of policy.—Iforning Chronicle.

An. advertisement in the Morning Chroniee, from the London Union on Church matters, stated that information had reached the Com- mittee, from trustworthy quarters, that measures are in contemplation by those who took part in the meeting of the 5th December at Freemasons' Hall, under the chairmanship of Lord Ashley, to procure a Royal Com- mission for a latitudinarian revision of the Prayer-Book ; and therefore called true Churchmen to take instant measures to resist this new at- tempt on the faith of the Church. Lord Ashley has published this con- tradiction— " It is not in contemplation by myself, nor, I firmly believe, by any of those who took part in the meeting of the 5t1; December, when I had the honour to be chairman, to procure a Royal Commission, or any other au- thority, for a revision of the Prayer-Book, either latitudinarian or other- In a subsequent leader, however, the Chronicle reiterates the substan- tial point of the. contradicted statement- " It is understood that one of the chief ingredients to be thrown into the cauldron of religions confusion will be contributed by Lord Ashley, in the form of an address to the Crown for an interference, by virtue of any prero- gative which it may possess, to reform and purify the Church."

The same article intimates another probability, still more alarming to

,Ifigb, Churchmen— AshThe intentions attributed to a. statesman more highly placed than Lord ley are, if true, even more rash than the violence of the philanthropist, and in then consequences they may be far more dangerous. It is said that the Premier, in a desperate attempt to conciliate the Roman Catholics whom hehas insulted, and to unite discordant colleagues in a course of policy against which they have not been openly pledged, is meditating an attack on the harmony of the Church, by proposing to undertake a modification of the Prayer-Book, with the aid of an excited Parliamentary majority."

With reference to a statement in one of the morning papers, that Car- dinal Wiseman has had notice of an intended prosecution for a misdemea- nour, we are at liberty to state that no such notice has been given on the part of the Government. We believe that a document has been sent to his Eminence at the instance of a gentleman legally connected with the City, containing some admissions which the Cardinal is requested to make, in order to raise the question of the legality, or otherwise of his archiepiscopal assumptions. The step has been taken in the exercise of the right which belongs to every subject to institute a prosecution in any ease in which he may consider the criminal law of the country vio- lated, and without the cognizance of her Majesty's Law-officers.—Globe.

It is stated that the authorities at Rome have condemned and placed upon the Index the book by Professor De Vericour of the Queen's College at Cork.

The shipping intelligence of the TiMet, on Wednesday, recorded the latest achievements of the African squadron, in a letter of the 4th Decem- ber from her Majesty's ship Hound, brought by the mail from Sierra Leone— "We have just returned from an expedition under Captain Patten up the river anilines; where we burnt down to the ground two large towns, be- longing to the two great chiefs there, for not delivering up the murderer of Mr. Parker, the English authority at Gallivas. The boats of the Hound and Prometheus proceeded six miles up a river, and burnt Prince Manna's tows to the ground, giving the women and children time to be off. The following day they proceeded nine miles up another river, and burnt Prince Roger's town ;—five barricaded towns? Captain Patten advanced in his gig, demand. lag that the murderer should be instantly given up ; and, as they would nei- ther parley nor fight, he burnt their towns. The only accident which oc- curred happened to a midshipman on shore : a bull ran his horn into his thigh ; fever of course followed. Indeed, all in the expedition have been seriously ill, but, at the date of our letters were feat recovering and going for change. Captain Patten has also completed other important duties wit.E. the President of Liberia."

The young Marquis of Hastings died at Dublin on the 17th, of fever, and not, as was at first reported, from the effects of a recent accident at Liverpool. The name of " Paulyn Reginald Serb Rawdon Hastings" in the Peerage has the following additions—" third Marquis of Hastings, created 1816 Earl of Rawdon and Viscount Loudoun, 1816 ; Boren of Botreaux, 1368—of Hungerford, 1426—of Molines, 1445—of Hastings, 1451—of Rawdon, 1750 ; Baron Bowdon in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, 1783 ; Eurl of Moira (Irish), 1761 ; Earl of Loudoun, Baron Loudoun (Scottish), 1601 ; and Baronet (English), 1665." These titles deacended through his father, the second Marquis ; but his mother, who aurvives him, is also noble in her own right, and will add to the honours of her next son the ancient Barony of Grey de Ruthyn, an Englinh crea- tion of 1324. The deceased had not reached his twentieth year. He succeeded his father in 1844; and is succeeded in all his Wes by his brother, Lord Henry Weysford Charles Plantagenet, born in 1842. A distinguished soldier has been removed in the person of Field-Mar- shal Thomas Grosvenor ; who died on Monday last, at his residence in Richmond on the Thames, at the venerable age of eighty-seven. Field- Marshal Grosvenor was the son of the brother of the first Earl Gros- venor and consequently first cousin of the late Marquis of Westminster. He entered the Army in 1778; saw first service in Holland in- 1793,-and was in the expedition to the Helder in 1799. He received the thanks of Parliament for his services at Copenhagen, along with Lord Cathcart, General Finch, and Sir Arthur Wellesley. He was made Colonel of the Sixty-fifth Regiment in 1814; and received his Field-Marshal's baton from her Majesty on the 9th November 1846, at the same time with the Marquis of Anglesey and the late Sir George Nugent.

A letter from Aleppo, dated the 10th December, gives interesting par- ticulars of the end of the Polish General Bern-

" A higher power has interposed to determine the duration of poor Bern's detention in this place. I have.. just returned from his funeral. You know I stand very little upon ceremonies ; yet there is a melancholy pleasure in-ob- serving the rites paid to a fellow exile by foreigners in a strange land. Beta's sickness was neither very long nor painful; a month before his death he was riding out. Some slight attacks of fever gave him no anxiety; and he could not be persuaded to take any medicine until three or four days before his death. His dwelling lay very low, between gardens near the banks of a river. According to the unanimous opinions of physicians the s t was ex- ceedingly unhealthy. Their admonitions, however, were egarded. Every physician told him that his frame weakened with wounds and hard- ships, had not vital force sufficient to withstand an attack of fever, which would be dangerous to a strong man and which might in all probability be avoided by leaving his unhealthy dwelling. In the evening he complained of pains in the abdomen ; about eleven he said he felt better, and slept with few intermissions until two, when he died.

"At ten- next morning, as we went to visit him, his body lay extended on a bier, and several persons were engaged in washing and dressing the corpse, whale mollahs were praying- around. The washings ended, the body was wound in a sheet and placed m a coffin at the foot of which hung- his fez. A coloured shawl was spread over the coffin. A military interment Is a thing unknown in Turkey ; however, on this occasion, Kerim Pasha, the commandant, the French and English Consuls, many officers, and an im- mense crowd of soldiers, assembled. The procession moved on without much order. From twenty to thirty mollahs marched first, and began a monoto- nous and frightful We carried him to the door, and would have gone further to his place of rest, but Turkish etiquette forbade. A great rush took place, and every one was anxious to catch a last glimpse of the coffin. Stroiag divisions of military were posted on the line of procession, many of the soldiers of which pressed forward to carry the coffin ; even old Kerim Pasha would insist upon bearing a hand. Near Friedhofe the coffin was deposited in the grave of a saint, where prayer-Er were said. Arrived at the grave, the body was taken out of the coffin and deposited in a grave five or six feet deep, the head lying towards Mecca. The threads by which the winding-sheet was secured were then cut, and the grave was tilled up with large fiat stones.

"The promise, which Bern had often repeated of late, to relate to us the entire history of his life, has not been fulfilled. It is stated that he WU only fifty-six years of age, although he appeared much older. His body was uncommonly weakened, but his restless spirit retained its force and vivacity to the last. From the moment ef his transition to Islamism, all his efforts were directed to make his knowledge and experience useful to his new fatherland, and the Sultan, whom he greatly esteemed. I can say very little of his political belief: it is certain that he was anything but a Democrat and hated Socialism. He was heart and soul a soldier. The aims which he set before himself he followed up with great perseverance. His conversation was lively and intellectual; he was especially lively when speaking in the French language, of which he was completely master. He bore his deten- tion with great resignation, and was quite resolved to close his tumultuous life here. - He had laid the foundation of a saltpetre-manufactory here, and had sent specimens of his manufacture to Constantinople, whence he was empowered to proceed with his works on a great scale at the cost of the Go- vernment. Ile was also requested by the Government to give his superin- tendence to a large manufactory of arms."

The question of how to regulate the admission into the great Temple of Industry in Hyde Park threatens to be more difficult of solution than the problem of raising the temple itself. The interests and convenience of the rich and the poor, of the metropolitan and the provincial, of the na- tive and the foreigner, are so various, that every simple plan yet proposed seemed always to give too little consideration to some large classes. Mr- Paxton comes to the rescue with a proposal at once large in its cosmo- politan spirit and practical in its recognition of the claims of those who are able and willing to pay for superior conveniences of inspection. This plan is propounded in a letter to Lord John Russell, which appearedul the Times and the Daily News on Thursday.

"To the Right Honourable Lord John Russell.

"My Lord -'Within a few days the structure designed to receive the eon-

tributions of the World's Industry will be completed. The question now arises as to the mode of admission of the world's people. And it is upon this important subject that I now claim the liberty of addressing you. "Shall admission be taxed by payment, or shall it be free ? Each mode has its difficulties; but, after an anxious consideration of the matter, it is my conviction that free entry will be at once more simply practicable and snore in harmony with the enlarged and enlightened purpose of the Exhi- bition.

"There are no less than 7000 exhibiters. Surely no tax should be levied upon them or their families for the right of visiting an exhibition to the staple of which they have themselves contributed. And I am further con- firmed in my belief of the practicability and wisdom of free entrance—to be modified as I shall hereafter propose—by the unanimous and hearty opinion of very many of the most influential members of the city of London. The Royal Commissioners have incurred a large debt—a debt that must be liqui- dated. And it is to be feared that a too anxious sense of this obligation may induce the levying of a rate of entry that shall, to the million, amount to Prohibition. "I have therefore to propose, that for the first fortnight of the Exhibi- tion admission shall be in every case by payment; and further, that one day in the week (and for many reasons I should select Wednesday) shall, for the whole term of the Exhibition, be reserved for the higher classes of all na- tions who may prefer to pay for the exclusive privilege of admission, rather than encounter the inconvenience of a crowd ; with these exceptions, that the entrance shall be entirely free. The sum taken during the first fort- night and on the one day of each week would, no doubt, be very consider- able ; nevertheless a large deficit would remain onerous upon the Royal Commissioners. nevertheless, deficit I am emboldened to solicit your Lordship to meet by a Parliamentary grant. And this solicitation I make the more readily from the belief that from the very fact of the Exhibition a large addition will accrue to the revenue of the country—an addition, it is calculated u trustworthy authority, of upwards of 2,000,000/. Now of these 2,000,1111. how small the item required to throw open the doors of World's Exhibi- tion to the world's citizens !

"When the subject of the Exhibition was brought before Parliament last year, it was very properly dealt with ; for, as everything was then in a state of uncertainty as to the future, had Government interfered the whole matter must have passed into their own hands. The ease at present is entirely al- tered: the building is nearly finished, and will shortly be ready for the re- ception of the world's wares ; and the great difficulty at this moment is to find mace for the vast quantity of articles likely to be sent.

"We have invited all the nations of the earth to a friendly competition of skill ; to this invitation many have heartily responded. We have also in- vited the whole family of man to come and participate in the first banquet the world has ever dedicated to peaceful industry and to intellectual tri- umphs. An event 80 pregnant with high and humanizing good to all man- kind should be informed with the most liberal, with a purely cosmopolitan spirit. If it be otherwise—if at the very threshold of the building dedicated to this industrial banquet a tax be laid upon those who would partake of its beneficial influence—a banquet, moreover, to which thousands of the payers have contributed—the whole purpose of the Exhibition will forego a grace which otherwise would endow it with a crowning lustre. Several Foreign Governments have voted considerable SUMS to aid their people in the object of the Exhibition ; and I know that already in France and Germany-the idea of payment (for foreigners are especially accustomed to gratuitous en- try into all national buildings) has been canvassed in a spirit which, as an Englishman, I feel to be a reproach to my country. It is this reproaoh,'my Lord, that I beg of you, by the consent of Parliament, to put away from us.

"But not alone for the stranger do I ask for free admission. I ask it for the large body of our own working classes—for thew men whose skill, whose industry, will, I doubt not, be triumphantly represented at the forthcoming -congress of labour. Thousands of these men—the sinews of the land—are at this hour depriving themselves of many little household comforts to enable them to visit London • and the inevitable cost of such a visit should not be iereasedby a further-mt. Therefore I ask for the working-men of England

a free entry into the structure dedicated i

ed to the world's industry—free as the light that pervades it.

"Again, such will be the magnitude of the Exhibition, that no one, two, or three visits, will suffice to the knowledge of its manifold objects. This will be made sufficiently obvious, when it is known that to make merely the cir- -euit of the tables will be to make a journey of no less than twenty miles. Hence, with paid admission, the visiter will be tempted to spen.d a day, when -otherwise he would at various visits occupy but a few hours. There would, in the gratuitous admission be a flowing stream of people, if I may use the figure ; whereas, with exacted payment, visiters will become fixtures from morning till night.

"I might, my Lord, dilate upon this subject ; but I hope that I have said sufficient to obtain of your Lordship a patriotic consideration of the question --Shall the Exhibition of the World's Industry be free to those whom Eng- land invites to meet in generous rivalry ? or shall we send forth invitations and then tax our guests ? "I have the honour to remain, your Lordship's obedient humble servant,

JOSEPH PAXTON."

"Exhibition Building, Hyde Park, Ian. 22."

The Times lauds the plan of "the renowned designer of the Crystal Palace," as even "more novel and magnificent than the marvellous structure" itself, but refuses-to be carried away by Mr. Paxton's enthu- siasm. The journalist pdints out some real difficulties, and then, some- what in the fashion with which Lord Brougham "piled up the agony" about the groaning timber-waggons and other frightful engines of build- ing-preparation, suggests alarming doubts about the unmanageableness of a mob of a quarter of a million of London youth out on the lark on the idle Monday, and bent on the mischief of ragamuffin Mohawks. We should hope that the mob may be left to the Police, the owners of the wares exhibited, the staid mechanics who will have hoarded their earn- ings for a week's holyday of inspection, and to the respectable exhibition- trained foreigners, for being kept in complete and decorous order. But a substantial objection is suggested against the arrangement, which would equally confine the paying class to a single day per week, and so prolong to a week of weeks their stay in London, and at the same time shorten by a seventh the week of days which the mechanic has subscribed his earn- ings to secure. The paying visiter ma t come to town as many times as he would like to make separate visits ; and the free visiter would be kept in town two days, (Wednesday and Sunday,) on which he could see nought of that which he chiefly came to inspect. It would avoid many difficulties to adopt the plan of dividing each day into a paying half and a free half. There are some reasons why the after- noon half would be preferred by the aristocrats : but there are other and better reasons why they, and especially the less exalted ones, would be better suited by the morning half,—the building would then be swept and garnished, and the exhibiters freshest and most alert and engaging, and the day's inspection might take the place of the morning's drive and round of calls. Let the building be open from nine or ten till three or four, at a fee or fees ; and then at the end of that time throw the doors open to all: many of the paying class would stay, and be a guard already in possession, that would have its moral influence against the Arnett enemies. The free class would pour in with dusty coats and unwiped shoes walk about and fill their eyes and minds as long as Mr. Paxton'a slanting', roofs with their angles of convenient actinism would catch sta enough to display the wares. Again, the convenience of the high aristocrats would be well consulted by prolonging Mr. Paxton's preliminary fortnight to a month; or, as the first week or fortnight will scarce put all things ship-shape, set the machinery in motion, &c., they might have another fortnight later in the season in addition to the anticipatory one which coincides with the private-View day of the other exhibitions.

Through some misapprehension, British and foreign newspapers have eon- veyed the impression that the date for opening the Exhibition of Industry has been postponed : the Executive Committee of the Royal Commission, in correction of this misapprehension, have formally notified that the Rxhibitioe. will be opened on the 1st of May.

Apropos to the disposal of Sir Charles Wood's much-embarrassing "surplus," the Times, cautiously and half-reluctantly, sets forth some interesting statistics bearing on the abolition or great reduction of the Soap-tax-- "The primary objection to a tax upon the universal detergent is, that it acts as a discouragement to cleanliness : the primary defence is, thatoas an article of general and necessary use, soap affords a convenient and a considerable revenue. The extent, however, to which the defence become!' valid and the objection unsustainable will vary with the statistics of the "trade as they fluctuate from year to year, and the consequent fluctuation -ells Excise. By a review of the ten years from 1839 to 1849, it would appear that more is elicited in condemnation that in approval a the tax ; that the revenue did not increase so much as it should have done; that the ;general consumption did not reach the point which it would do in the absence of restriction ; that the trade was in some respects altered for the worse at the end of the ten years. The total quantity of soap manufactured in England in the year 1839 was 839,671,8161b. ; 111 the year 1849, 197,432,1031b. ; but while at the former date the reduction of duty on exports and drawbacks allowed in certain ma- nufactures was made on nearly 50 million pounds, at the latter date there were only 40 million pounds thus liable to a 'partial exemption. The ex- ports to Ireland, which in 1839 stood at 9i millions, and which in the in- terval had risen to nearly 14 millions, declined again by 1849 almost to their former level. The foreign exports, which in 1839 amJunted to 21 million pounds, sank at the end of the year to one-half; the quantity consumed at home e but not reckoned in home consumption, because applied in certain epecified branches of manufacture and subjected to a reduction of dirty in consequence, was in 1849 only 800,000lb. more than in 1839; in the soap-makers consider that the increase in this item alone ought in the ten years to have been at least one-third, i. e. eight times as much as it inn been, and point to the circumstance as a proof that the protection which the Excise system affords to their interests is by no means equal to the demand it makes upon their resources. On the other hand, by way of a set-off, the7 home consumption' which in 1839 fell a little short or 120 millions of pounds; amounted in 1849 to more than 157 millions—an increase more than pro- portionate to the growth of population, and showing an augmentation in the average individual demand. These facts, however, seem sufficiently to prove that the soap-makers were right in attributing to the interference of the Exchequer not only an increased price of their commodity, but an unfa- vourable result in the general trade. While the foreign export] from Great Britain have not exceeded 220 tons weekly during the last -ten years, the exports from Marseilles to the Mediterranean and to South Arne- nee are calculated at more than 300 tons per week. The English manufac- turer could undersell the foreigner, for he has alkali, coal, and salt it a lower price, and the raw material fully as low, were it not for the impost now levied on his production. Again, as regards the home trade, although the average of individual consumption has slowly progressed, it is by no means so great as free trade in soap would render it. Reckoning the population of Great Britain in 1850 at 21,000,000, each person would consume 7.481b.-of hard and soft soap,—that is just the ordinary workhouse figure. The Govern- ment allowance to convicts-is 111b. a-head, and -the average consumption in Jersey, where there isno tax on soap is 131b. per annum. It may be fairly as- sumed, therefore, that our home consumption would be increased at least a third if the duty were remitted, and that, with that increased consumption, the sanatory condition of the poorer classes would be proportionally raised.

"Under these circumstances, the Liverpool Association wish to assume that the defence for a soap-tax becomes weaker than the objection to it, and intend to urge upon Government its total repeal."

The Canterbury Association entitles itself to the public thanks and con- fidence by the publication of a report "on the Management of Shipping for Emigration, by William Bowler." Mr. Bowler was in the employ- ment of the New Zealand Company, and much conversant in the shipping arrangements for the emigrants sent out by the Company : he is now ot the eve of emigrating himself to the settlement whose prosperity he lieu' so much promoted ; but in the mean time the Canterbury Association have been fortunate enough to secure the advantage of his experience and zeal in the superintendence of their emigration. His reportis prefaced by tables showing in detail all the particulars of expense and receipt attendant on the despatch of the eight ships sent out by the Association to the settlement of Canterbury. These returns bring out three leading points ot greatintereet In the first place, it appears that the cost of passage has been very much reduced, while the accommodation to the emigrant has been immensely increased. The common charge for a steerage-passage to Australia, bid recently, was from 251. to 301., and for a cabin-passage from 701. to 100L; and in the year 1842, when the Indus took out a single cabin-passenget and his wife to New Zealand, the rate charged to the two for that longer voyage was 1801. The rates charged by the Association on the longer voyage have been 421. for the first-class cabin-passe, 251. the second- class cabin-passage and 161. for the steerage fare. When a chief cabin passage is offered 1;jr emigration firms at 361.168.' "the meaning is," say* Mr. Bowler, "half a cabin, of about five feet by seven for a single adult " ; but in the ships of the Association, "a single adult obtained a whole cabin, of the same size at least, for 421.; while for a whole cabin of this size in the trading emigrant-ships has usually been 501., and free. quently more ": in addition, the ordinary size of the cabins in the shiprf the Association has been nearer nine feet than seven feet by five,— difference of the greatest moment, considering the length of the -nue^ and that ships having cabins of this size are generally more Infttt better Ventilated and fitted, both in the poop and between decks." • The next point is, that the adventure has been a commercially repay- ing one to the Association. The total expenses of the eight ships were 28,68L; the total receipts were 29,5061.; leaving a favourable balance of 8211: "to meet contingencies." A favourable balance was yielded by every ship but one ; and the ship which alone yielded a small adverse balance was one of the four first started, whose cost was much enhanced by a long anticipatory hiring effected in order to insure a simultaneous start. Some portion of this reduction of cost Mr. Bowler admits to be due to specific peculiarities in the plan and scheme of the settlement ; but the larger portion is due to a general cause. No fewer than 71 persons for every 100 tons of shipping, or twenty-four per cent of the number of emi- grants, were of the superior class who paid cabia-fares. Mr. Bowler is certain, from his personal intercourse with the emigrants, that this great proportion of cabin-passengers is chiefly produced "by the course pursued by the Association in taking the whole management of cabin-passage into its own hands, and becoming publicly responsible for the same." There- by "persona whose ignorance is very apt to be imposed upon, obtained the assurance that as much care would be taken of their class as if they had been steerage-passengers emigrating under the full protection of the Passenger's Act."

The last point is, that of the whole sum expended by the Association, more than two-fifths were contributed from other sources than the public funds of the settlement; -whereby it appears, speaking generally, that the immigration into the settlement has been much greater than that which was provided for by the sale of its land. Of total receipts on this account, the sum contributed by the land-fund for emigration in the steerage was 97501:; for emigration in the first and second class cabins, 41971:; the cash received for passage and freight was no less than 11,8181.; and the sums contributed by the humble steerage-passengers themselves was 24881. The "main attraction" to the higher class of emigrants has been "the counteraction of doubts and fears as to the passage, especially for families of ladies, by the systematic and really paternal care-taking of the Association with respect to both classes of cabin-passengers." Then the "direct and immediate cause of the large contributions by labouring emigrants has been, the large proportion of cabin-passengers of a superior order in each ship, who in two ways encouraged a labouring class to emigrate, that was both able and willing to make these contributions." The cabin-passengers took great trouble in selecting labourers of a superior class, instead of leaving the matter to paid agents, who would have simply herded the necessary number ; and the labourers were additionally tempted to emigrate by the chance of going out with employers of the highest and richest class, who would thoroughly learn to appreciate them specially on the voyage, and so would unhesitatingly engage them in the colony.

Remits 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.

Tyrnotic Diseases . . 2,290 .... 196 Dropsy, Cancer, and other diseases of uncertain or variable seat.. 637 .... 36 Tubercular Diseases 1,831 .... 173 Diseases of the Brain, Spinal Marrow, Nerves, and Senses 1,284 .... 137 Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels 365 .... 43 Diseases of the Lungs, and of the other Organs of Respiration 2,549 .... 292 Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other Organs of Digestion 629 .... 66

Kidneys,Disease, of the

Childbirth, diseases of the Uterus, itc 115

Rheumatism, diseases of the Bones. Joints, etc 63

Diseases of the Skin, Cellular Tissue, itc 13

Malformations 23

Premature Birth 233

Atrophy 131

Age

838

Sudden 109

Violence, Privation, Cold, andintemperance 247 .... 23 Total (including unspecified causes) 11,485 1,037

Compared both with the recent high mortality and with the calculated average, the deaths showed a I great decrease. The deaths by smallpox were numerous ; in Whitechapel one medical man haktwenty-nme eases.

The births were 15994 the average of the same six weeks in 1845-50 being 1395.

The mean reading of the barometer at Greenwich was 29.550; that of the thermometer 45°—which is 8° above theaverage of ten years.

Lord John Russell has addressed a letter to the President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, announcing the intention of Government to place 10001. at the disposal of the Society this year for scientific purposes.

Lord John Russell has appointed the second son of Mr. Douglas Jerrold to a clerkship in the Treasury.

Mr. John George Phillimore has been appointed by the Benchers of the Middle Temple to the chair of General Junsprudence and Civil Law.

The Queen has conferred a pension of 100/. a year from the civil list upon Mrs. Liston, widow of the eminent surgeon ; whose affairs at his decease were not found in the prosperous condition that might have been expected from his extensive practice and professional reputation.

The philanthropic Dr. S. Wilson Warneford has added to his many noble gifts in medical and education charity the presentation of a sum of 14001: to the Queen's College at Birmingham, for the further endowment of a chair of Pastoral Theology some time since founded by him. At various times Dr. Warneford has presented 10,4001. to Queen's College • and we should suppose that his gifts to the Asylum near Oxford, and to similar institutions elsewhere, amount to a far larger sum.

Mr. Charles Mathews appears on the public stage in a perfectly "new and original character" : in a letter to the Horning Post he assumes, and sustains with a marvellously scenic glare of erudition, the role of a philological critic. "Lyceum, January 21, 1851.

"Sir—At a moment when so much valuable space has been accorded to the com- paratively unimportant discussion as to the authenticity of St. Peter's Chair, I will not for a moment suppose that you will refuse me a place for the present communi- cation, on a subject teeming with the deepest interest to all your readers.

•• I need hardly state that managers of theatres are inundated with an almost equal amount of epistolatory matter as are editors of newspapers. Scarcely a day passes but even I receive letters filled either with solemn suggestions, artistic advice, his- trionic hints, dramatic directions, or critiques on costume. These are read, of course, in every instance, with intense interest and due deliberation; and when appertaining to things of the stage, are received by me in silence and profound humility. But when my erudition is made a question, as in the instance to which I am about to refer, I feel that it then becomes a duty imperative not to conceal the torch of learning behind the cloud of modesty.' • In my small farce of the 'Ringdoves,' the name of • blethusalem ' occurs, and bas been by me so printed. A gentleman from Kgs. CoL Cam., who signs himself 'Screw-tator,' has attacked me on the correctness of the name, which, I am told by hill, is • Methuselah,' and I am referred to 'Genesis, cap. 5. v. 27,' in support of his correction, and requested to acknowledge through the public press. Now, with all

Ten Weeks Week.

of 1841-50. of 1851.

himbleness of spirit, I beg to differ from this erudite moonshee, and to affirm that • Methusalem ' is strictly correct. Firstly, let me premise, that the common Hebrew makes it ' Methusalech, with the final chetn. Indeed, the name of this very old gen- tleman, who attained to nearly a thousand years of age, is spelt in various and die. similar ways. On one of the sculptured rocks of Metayath, (which, by the by, is a comparatively recent authority, being but of three thousand years' date,) the name is written • Methusyluman • ; and even amongst the Gezides, or Devil-worshippers, who have no 'written book,' it is • Methuz-setan.' The single authority extant for

• Methuselah' occurs in the Chaldaic -version ; but the Chaldaiebeing in a Shemitic dialect, a sort of congener of the Hebrew and the Syriac, the authority is singularly hypothetical. The commentators—Rashi, Comore, the Talmud, the Misbna, and the Council of the Beth Din—all agree in spelling the name • Methusaletn ; and if more modern authorities are required to prove my position, I would refer to the learned Polander, Rabbi Schmule Lock Baumer, and to the very reverend and erudite Chief Rabbi of the Jews of Great Britain, Dr. Adler. It is strange that the name spelt ' Methusalem' occurs in the Shezdar of Emma, and in the Ti hong of the Chi- nese Confutzee; a copy of which is in my possession, and to which • Screw-tator ' of Kgs. Col. Cam, is most welcome to refer. 'I feel convinced that you, Sir, will see the necessity of my defence; for, though I should very properly submit to any correction in matters of taste, I do not think that, connected so closely as I have been for some years past with the Jews, I should suffer my Hebraic erudition to be lightly called in question. I am your obedient servant, C. J. IlLimaws."

A curious illustration of the religious tyranny of the official system of Prussia was given in a narrative of facts published by the Times, a few days since. At Seehausen, in the Altmark, a man took his child to be baptized in the church, and requested the officiating minister to confer upon him the names " Jacobi Waldeck," These are the names of an eminent physician, and of a great jurist-judge of the Superior Tribunal at Berlin ; and the choice of neither could have indicated a political bias so marked as to 'make it a perverse or noxious act. The clergyman, however, declined to baptize the infant by names which had, in his opinion, a party sound ; the parent refused (any other names ; and when the clergyman invoked the,

nistory, and proceeded to obtain the compulsory aid of the civil power, the mother fled with her infant into a place of concealment At length, however, she was arrested, and conveyed under an escort of gendarmes to Seehausen, the child being packed in a hand-basket and car- ried by two men. On their arrival, the mother was placed in custody, and the child carried to church; where, in the presence of the Burgomaster and his gendarmes, the rite was performed with locked doors, and a name with- out political significance bestowed on the infant. To finish all, the mother was charged with resistance to an officer of the authorities in the discharge of their orders, and condemned to imprisonment for two months ; she appealed, was cast in her appeal, and is now immured for the full period of the sen- tence!

The first trial by jury took place at Vienna on the 15th instant. The Minister of Justice, M. von Schmerling, and a crowded audience, attended this ceremony. The culprit—a girl accused of incendiarism and other of- fences—was found guilty, and sentenced to three years' hard labour.

The Prince of Wallachia has published an order stating the conditions under which gypsies may in future be sold-1. Families of gypsiefi shall never beparted; 2. all sales of more than three families at a time are de- clared illegal. A letter from Constantinople, dated January 4, communicates the death of the Emir Beschir, who has played an important part in the government of Syi4a for fifty years pad. HI2 died at Kadi-keni, a village:on the Bosphorus. The letter adds, that the Emir's +elder son Halib, and a younger son, who had both embraced Islamism, died a few days before their father.

A York paper mentions the assassination of a young emigrant citizen in the gold diggings of California—Mr. James Joseph Fryer, the eldest son of the late Mr. Fryer, proctor of York. "He was cruelly murdered on the 30th October last, at a place named Humboldt; having fallen pierced with fourteen wounds by the Indians. His companion (Mr. Sproxton, son of the incumbent of Trindon, Durham) with his own hands dug a grave and buried him. He then headed a party in pursuit of the assassins • and poor Fryees murder was avenged by the death of eighteen of his murderers."

The Cyclops steam-frigate brings home news that "the Flamer steam- vessel, Commander James A. St. Leger, has been totally, wrecked on the African coast; fifteen miles below Monrovia, to the South of Sierra Leone." The wreck was complete, but no life was lost.

The centre arch of the railway viaduct over the river Boyne will be of the enormous span of 250 feet, and on each side will be arches of 160 feet span. The height of the crown of the centre arch will be 90 feet above high-water. Portland breakwater has already been completed for about 1040 feet-12 feet above high-water mark. It has stood the recent gale well, and two points of the compass are already sheltered in Portland Roads with smooth water.

A part of the Indian mail taken out from Southampton on Monday was a money parcel of 300,0001. in gold and silver. It was contained in 1260 boxes, weighing 45 tons, and arrived at Southampton on Saturday in eleven railway waggons ; one hundred men were employed in embarking it, guarded by all the officers of the Peninsular Beet in the Southampton Docks. A very strong guard was placed over it on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning, during the time the Indus was alongside the dock quay. The specie con- sisted of gold and silver, but principally silver, a great portion of which was in Indian rupees.