Pliortilittanno.

Two diplomatic movements have this week puzzled the quid Dunes vastly. Why has Lord Cowley, British Minister at Paris, visited his prin- cipals in London, and been sent on a mission to Vienna? Why has the Prince de la Tour d'Auvergue, French Minister at Turin, hastened from his post to Paris at the command of his Government? Another journey has called forth remark. The chief towns on Mr. Gladstone's route home from Corfu are Venice, Turin, and Paris. The Governor-General of Lombardo-Venetia is at Venice.

At the earnest request of Lord Derby, Lord Grey has postponed his motion for papers relating to Ionia, until the 14th March.

We are informed that Lord Derby has issued a circular to his conser- vative supporters, inviting them to meet him on the first of next month, that is to say, on the day after Mr. Disraeli has submitted his Reform Bill.—Daily News.

At the Levee, on Wednesday, the Queen conferred the honour of Knighthood upon Mr. William Armstrong, on his appointment as "En- gineer of the 'War Department for Rifle Ordnance. "Sir William Arm- strong visited Woolwich on Thursday, when one of his guns was used in the exercise on the common.

The movement against the purchase system in the Army, is not al-, together sleeping. It will remembered that Sir Charles Trerelyan laid a plan for its abolition before the Royal Commission. That plan has been subjected to some very rude attacks, and an official examination by a War Office Committee. The report of this Committee was very ed.

verse to the plan. Sir Charles has given their reply a minute and care- ful examination, and has published a temperate and closely-reasoned rejoinder thereto, in a letter to the Minister of War. We may take an- other opportunity of recurring to the subject.

Another "mess," we understand, has been got into regarding the pro- ceedings of Mr. Gladstone in Ionia. Mr. Gladstone's appointment as Lord High Commissioner having ceased with the gazetting of Sir Henry Storks as his sucefrvor, he has since been acting as vice-Commissioner under a commission from the said Sir Henry Storks. The question has arisen whether, as holding from the Crown, Sir Homy Storks could make any such appoirtment but what must be held as also derived from the Crown—in which ease, besides other doubts and, difficul- ties, Mr. Gladstone's seat for Oxford University is vacant again. Sir H. Cairns, the English Solicitor-General, has, we believe, given a de- cided opinion that such is the effect of the procedure. Mr. Gladstone will thus have been twice in and twice out of Parliament, and have held and resigned three, if not four different offices, all within the space of a few days.—Seetsmare.

The prepaid letter question has been settled for the present. By com- mand of the Postmaster-General, Mr. Rowland Hill notifies to the public that "the regulation recently promulgated, that after the 10th instant all inland letters should be prepaid, is repealed ; and the rules previously in force as regards inland letters, either wholly unpaid or in- sufficiently paid, will henceforth be reverted to."

' The idea of providing clean water to drink, and free access to it for the public, originated with the drinking fountains at the Exhibition building in Hyde Park. Hard by the Royal Exchange, at the bottom of Holborn. Hill, and in Oxford Street, this accommodation of public watersiountains is to be provided. At Manchester Mr. R. Barnes will present several fountains, the first of which, in polished Aberdeen granite and bronze, will be beneath the railway arch in Oxford Street. At Stockport, Mr. It. H. Greg has erected one of a series opposite the George Inn, Wellington Road, North ; and there will be another at the top of the local Cheapside. Mr. Bryant offers six for Plymouth, and three cattle troughs besides ; the Town-Council at Gloucester will provide several ; and Messrs. Alder, Dunn and Co. intend to erect four in the streets of Newcastle-on-Tyne. Weymouth, Brighton, Warwick, South- port, Bristol, (at the gift of Mr. R. Lang,) Workington, and Leeds, will be convenienced by similar structures for the public benefit.

Lord Lyons milled on Tuesday on board the frigate Curaqoa for New York.

Colonel Cypriani, an aide-de-camp of Colonel Couza, who lately arrived in Paris, has left for London, "in order," says Galignani, "to point out to the English Government the situation of the Danubian Principalities."

We understand that two new baronetcies are about to be conferred—one on Mr. Cunard, the great shipowner, to whose energy and enterprise we owe the establishment of the line of steam packets well known by his name ; and the other on Sir Charles Nicholson, whose well-deserved reputation in the Australian colonies fully justifies the new honour.—Glebe.

Dr. Hook of Leeds has accepted the Deanery of Chichester. The Leeds Mercury pays a high tribute to the zeal and usefulness of the late Vicar of Leeds, while frankly expressing its dissent from his High Church views.

Miss Atherton, of Keraal Cell, near Manchester, has made a donation of 50001. to the Ragged and Industrial Schools of Manchester.

Vice-Chancellor Sir Page Wood has forwarded the liberal donation of 501, to the National Lifeboat Institution.

At a recent pension of Gray's Inn, Mr. Joseph Thackwell, eldest son of Lieutenant-General Sir Joseph Thackwell, G.C.B. was called to the bar. Mr. Thackwell was, until within the last few months, in the army, and is favourably known as the author of "The Second Sikh War," in which he served as aide-de-camp to Sir Joseph Thackwell.

We are requested to state that Mr. Samuel Lucas has declined to accept the Distributorship of Stamps at Derby, to which his appointment was re- cently announced.—Titnes.

A report of the death of the Duke of Buckingham was current early in the week. It turned out to be untrue. The Duke has been ill, but he has ral- lied, and is now convalescent.

The Countess of Sandwich, second daughter of the late Marquis of Angle- sey, died on Sunday at her family residence in May Fair.

Sir Maurice Berkeley was thrown recently while following. the Berkeley hounds. He was much hurt, but has not sustained a lasting injury.

The Late Magazine and Review enters a protest against the plan for con- centrating the Law Courts. "If the dwellers between Lincoln's Inn Fields and the Strand are simply ejected, indifferent as their present homes may be, those they must put up with elsewhere will be worse and dearer. If con- centration of the courts involves the necessity of first thrusting out a multi- titude of hard-working people, that they may throng to some already over- populous neighbourhood, we trust the plan, however magnificent, based on such a principle, will be repudiated.

"We are, however, inclined to believe that the scheme must be modified, and connected with it a plan discovered of appropriating a sufficient portion of the ground in question for commodious habitations suitable to the classes of those who now inhabit the district in the neighbourhood of the Inns. Not only clerks and laundresses, and those in the Law-stationers' employment, but those who print and prepare for press the learned lucubrations of the Barrister-at-law, stitch and bind his heavy tomes, and help to distribute them far and wide, might there find better built, better arranged, more economical, healthy, and decent dwellings, than what they now call homes. If we can so provide better accommodation for those who minister to our daily necessities, it will be a work more noble, because in performance of a duty more incumbent on us, but hitherto much neglected by us, than the raising of a fabric grand in extent, pure in style, and perfect in execution."

Dr. Hills, the new•Bishop of British Columbia was consecrated in West- minster Abbey.

le Earl of Derby has introduced a Bill to enable her Majesty to ex- change

the advowson of the vicarage of Welton-cumzMelton, in the East

Riding of Yorkshire, for the advowson of the rectory of Ecton, in North- amptonshire, in the possession of one Mistress Sophia Broadley, a spinster, of Welton House, Yorkshire—"As the proposed exchange" (the Bill is thus artlessly worded), "by reason of the great value of the rectory of Ec- ton, would be for the benefit of the Crown, her Majesty has been graciously pleased to approve thereof."

At a meeting of the church committee held at the British Embassy, Paris, on the 18th instant, it was resolved unanimously that all subscriptions be returned in full to the persons who have paid the same. It was also an- nounced that the Government had decided that the church in the Rue d'Aguesseau should be sold by auction.

Eighteen months ago the fashionable world of Paris began talking, for the first time, of a mysterious personage, calling himself M. Vries, graduate of the Universities of Nepaul and of Seinde, and private physician of the King of Java. The soi-disant Doctor lived in grand style in the rue de Rivoli ; and towards the end of the summer of 1857 gave a magnificent fete in his hotel, to which the elite of Paris society was invited. All the rooms of the house were filled with costly exotic flowers, and the finest perfumes of the earth were floating through the air. But What chiefly attracted the, attention of the guests were two pictures in life-size ; the one representing St. John the Baptist, crowned with white roses, and the other Mademoiselle Helena Andrinoff, first danseuse of the Imperial theatre of St. Petersburg, in costume of Bachante, half-covered by a panther-skin, and holding a goblet in her hand. At the foot of the latter painting were written, in large letters of gold, the following words :—" Dr. 'Vries is begged to accept this portrait, which may recall to him the features of one who, given up by all the physi- cians of Europe, owes to him her health and her life, and will be ever grate- ful to her deliverer." What heightened the interest in this picture was, that towards the end of the fete Miss Helena Andrinoff herself, in the bloom of youth and beauty, sat down at the side of her bronze physician, a tall, stout, and handsome gentleman, of apparently great muscular force, who, in face as well as in figure, seemed the very counterpart of M. Alex- ander Dumas, the great novelist. Ever since then the fame of the mysterious Indian, commonly called the " Docteur noir," increased, and soon spread through all the ranks of French society. On Wednesday last week, however, was the day of the greatest triumph which the Black Doctor had as yet achieved. On that evening, there sat down, in the grand saloon of the Hotel du Louvre, all that Paris counts of distinguished men in art, science, and literature, to celebrate he marvellous cure which the Javanese physician had recently achieved in the person of M. Sax, the famous inventor and manufacturer of musical instruments. M. Sax had for years been suffering under a frightful cancer in the face, and the end of his existence seemed to be near, when Dr. Vries, to whom in last resort he had entrusted himself, undertook to cure him, and did so in a few months, without any operation whatever, by means only of some unknown oriental herbs, applied internally. This success at once so fully established the skill of the unknown Doctor, that a number of gentlemen of the highest distinction resolved to present him with a kind of public testimonial, not in the shape of any present, but of a public honour, by sitting down in his presence. It was thus that the Dukg de Narbonne, the Count Guy de la. Tour du Pin, Baron Taylor,. Thierry the historian, Berlioz the composer, Geoffrey the critic, Saint Victor, Ambroke Thomas, Couderc, of the Insti- tute, and a large number of other literary and scientific celebrities assembled on Wednesday to a sumptuous banquet, to which the Emperor had sent the music of the guards. The " Docteur Noir," of course, is now the lion of the day in Paris.

Mr. Mitchell, who has advanced the attractions of our own Zoological Gardens under his care, so officially, is preparing a collection of birds and beasts for the French Emperor, in the Bois de Boulogne.

It is affirmed that the Emperor of Russia has granted a concession for the establishment of a Telegraph Communication, overland with America, through his Arctic dominions, and will advisedly supplement the concession- aire with money and means.

Some natives in Bengal have petitioned her Majesty, praying for the in- troduotion of the Indian lotus among the national emblems of the rose, thistle, and the shamrock.

At Howrah, the terminus of the East Indian railway, a new hospital is being erected, at which the Indian Government will provide a sub-aasistant surgeon and the medicines free of charge.

Stratford-upon-Avon is being provided with a connecting loop of railway. A pilgrimage to the great poet's birthplace will be more than ever incum- bent on Englishmen.

The post office order, just cancelled, was turned to good account by "prac- tical dodger," who makes his dodge public in the columns of the Times. He signed the letter with the name of the person for whom it was intended, and addressing it to himself, put it in the post in an unstamped envelope. It was duly delivered, free of cost, to the person for whom it was intended.

Geographical knowledge is evidently in some request among the officials of "Her Majesty's Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes," for we find that a notice is served upon one Philip Quarks, of Melbourne, "South Australia!" We do not think that any subsequent proceedings, based upon the validity of this notice, will have much force.—Australian Gazette.

The Duke of Norfolk has his smoking room in his new mansion at Shef- field Park, over the upper stories of a quadrangular tower between seventy and eighty feet high. No domestic economy can be outraged when the lord and master adopts such precautions as these.

The early closing movement at Helston in Cornwall has received the fa- vour of a reduction of charge from the Gas Company of the town of twenty- five per cent to all customers supporting the movement.

The health of-London last week was better than it has been for some time. The number of deaths was 1156, or 140 under the calculated average.

The Veritas of Antwerp gives some very curious information about the number of shipwrecks which have taken place all over the world, since the year 1852. In this account, the number of merchant vessels afloat all over the globe is set down approximately at 30,000, and it is stated that of this number there were lost—in 1852, 1850 vessels, or about 6 per cent ; in 1853, 1610, 6 percent; in 18.54, 2120, 7 per cent; in 1855, 2000, 6 per cent ; in 1856, 2130, 7 percent; in 1857, 2230, 7 percent; in 1858, 3730, 10 per cent. It is not understood that all ships entered in this list were totally destroyed ; but only that the whole of them suffered such damages as made them unfit for further use. Of the 3730 vessels lost during the last year, 151 were "never heard of," which probably means that they went to bo the ttom of the sea, with not a man escaping ; and 72 were burnt. Steamers seem on the whole to be more liable to damage and destruction than sailing vessels, for in the'year 1854, there were 90 steam-ships wholly lost ; in 1855, 107; in 1856, 92; in 1857, 104; and finally, during the last year, 113. As might be expected, the Americans stand at the head of this vast list of maritime disasters. Of the 72 above mentioned conflagrations at sea, or on rivers and lakes, the United States were represented by 27, England by 9, and Franco by 8 vessels, and the rest divided among the other nations. There were in the year 1858, more than one thousand col- lisions among vessels, by which more or less damage was done ; and it is a remarkable fact that, like all the rest of maritime disasters, the number of these accidents has increased from year to year during the last decennial period, there having been only 588 in 1853. Even if deduction is made

from these increasing losses, on account of the increase of vessels, yet these statistics area till alarming enough. Mere than thirty- seven acres will be occupied by the Zoological Gardens of Acclimation in the Bois de Boulogne, purchased for forty years. The capital is a million francs, (40,0000 to be raised in 4000 shares of 250 francs each ; personal right of entry or twenty tickets will be allotted to each shareholder; and a property of five shares entitles the owner to an ad- mission on the "reserved" days.

The live stock in Ireland, in 18.58, according to the Agricultural Returns, was as follows : 610,717 horses, 3,661,594 cattle (including 1,633,378 mulch cows,) 3,487,785 sheep, and only 1,402,812 pigs. The pigs, however, have increased since 1857 from 1,255,186 to 1,402,812, and of these 1,073,100 are under one year of age. The value of the live stock is estimated to be as fol- lows—viz.: horses, 4,885,7361.; cattle, 23,800,3611.; sheep, 3,836,5631.; and pigs, 1,753,515/. making a grand total of 34,276,175/. against 33,700,916/. in 1857. 'Great complaint is still made of the prevalence of weeds. It appears that last year there were 2,748,401 acres of land lying under cereal crops (651,886 under wheat, and 1,976,929 under oats), against 2,786,828 acres in 1857; 1,617,958 acres lay under green crops, i(1,160,056 under potatoes, and 337,877 under turnips). The total increase n the ex- tent of land under crops last year was 23,375 acres. The Registrar-General thanks the landowners and farmers of Ireland for their generous assistance ' in the collection of these statistics, with a broad and by no means uncalled- for hint that their example is not undeserving of consideration in England.

We are anxiously awaiting the publication of Signor Carlo Rusconi's his- torical romance, " L'Incoronazione di Carlo V. a Bologna" (The Coronation of Charles V. at Bologna.) We are told that the Papal Court is truly de- scribed and all its past errors brought to light.—Gozetta del Iivolo.

The Corriere Mercantile speaks of an engraver, Filippo LISvy, who, with Chiossoni and other artists, is at Florence occupied in the work of reforming the art of engraving, with a view of zestoring it to its primitive simplicity and chasteness. Levy has already published an album, containing twelve prints, each representing an angel, by beato Angelico da Fiesole. These prints are considered gems. Chiossoni it should te stated has acquired great fame for his engraving of the "Paradise" of the beato Angelico da Fiesole.

An American agent is now in treaty with Mr. Dickens for a tour of read- ings through the States. It is said that an offer of a guarantee for 30,0001. has been offered. This arrangement, if carried out, will not interfere with the starting of the new periodical referred to in our last. —Critic.

Lord Macaulay's article in the last volume of the Encyclopedia Briton- int'ea has not been thrown away. Not only do all the back numbers seem to have been sold, but Messrs. Black hate found it necessary to advertise a re-