_Miscellaneous.

Tuesday's Gazette notifies the appointment, by the Crown, of Edward Berkeley Baron Portman, John Lucius Dampier, Esq., barrister-at-law, and Dominick Daly, Esq., to be Commissioners to inquire into and report upon rights or claims over the New Forest, in the county of Southampton, and Waltham Forest, in the county of Essex." The Treasury has ap- pointed Mr. Joseph Burnley Hume, barrister-at-law, [son of Mr. Joseph Home, M.P.,] to be Secretary of the Commission.

William Fergusson, Esq., F.R.S., Professor of Surgery in King's College, London, has been appointed Surgeon in Ordinary to Prince Albert, in room of the late Mr. Aston Keg.

The Dean and Chapter of Norwich proceeded on Saturday to the formal election of a new Bishop. In conformity with the nomination of her Majesty's conga d'elire, the Very Reverend Samuel Hinds, D.D., Dean of Carlisle, was elected to the vacant see.

It is thought, in consequence of the religious scruples of certain clerical dignitaries in some parts of England, that the worn-out colours of regiments will in future always be deposited in the chapel of Chelsea Hospital, which is already the receptacle of so many national relics.—Morning Post.

The retirement of Lord Denman from the bench on account of ill health is again rumoured in the profession.

Lord Charles Fitzroy has written from Paris to the London journals a letter in which, recalling his long and earnest efforts in favour of a more enlightened government for the Ionian Islands, he expresses his indignation at the barbarous and tyrannical treatment they have met with at the hands of their recently-appointed Lord High Commissioner.

"Can such conduct," he exclaims, • be approved of by the Whigs, and sup- ported by Lord John Russell and Earl Grey? I fear it can and will "What sufficient plea, what right had Mr. Ward, under the circumstances of the case, at once to lay aside all law and justice, and treat the whole people of the Ionian Islands like brute beasts, because, forsooth, a party of Whiteboys had committed very serious (admitted) outrages? That plea was this disturbance in Cephalonia for trampling upon the liberty of the press, but just given to a coun- try after thirty-five years of British protection? Treat men as inferiors and in coarse of time you will make them so morally and mentally, if not physically. Had Mr. Ward so soon forgotten that the liberty of the press is not asked for as a boon, to support despotism, but to state existing grievances and to check the assumption of arbitrary power? I had hoped that such conduct could not have met with approval from the present Govern- ment—that such a total incapacity to act up to the Whig principle of government themselves, or enforce it upon their Governors of Colonies, could not have been embodied in a Liberal Cabinet, whose title to their position rested solely on the credit given them for liberal principles by the country."

It was said in Paris last year, after the affair of Jane, that M. Lamartine proposed to abandon France and seek a retreat in the East. The report is now revived in a detailed form. The Paris papers give the following ex- tract from a letter dated Constantinople, 5th October.

"M. Charles Rolland, Mayor of Macon, and formerly a member of the Consti- tuent Assembly, has been for the last three weeks in Constantinople. It is said that he is charged with a mission from M. de Lamartine, who is stated to be anxious to retire to the East. Since he has been here, M. Rolland has had fre- anent interviews with the Grand Vizier, and with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Me leaves today for Smyrna, with one of the principal employes of the Post- office , Ahmet Effendi; and, notwithstanding the mystery thrown around the ne- gotiation, it is stated positively that the Sultan has granted to M. de Lamartine, gratuitously, an immense tract of country, situated in a fertile plain within a few hours' journey of Smyrna, and forming part of the domains of the Crown; and that M. Rolland leaves with Ahmet Effendi, to take possession of it in the name of M. de Lamartine, who will himself arrive in the course of next spring."

We understand that within the last few days returns have been received at the General Post-office, showing the great extent to which Sunday labour will be diminished in the country post-offices by the measures about to be brought into operation. It appears that in more than two hundred offices at least one delivery on the Sunday will be abolished, and that in many cases the abolition will extend to two or even three deliveries. This change alone will liberate several hundred officers. We learn also, that of the regular post-offices alone there are nearly five hundred where the time of duty on Sunday will be reduced, the average reduction being nearly four hours. The returns do not yet include the sub-offices, where there will be a decrease of duty; but of these there mast be some thousands.— Morning Papers of Thursday.

The following reply to the memorial of the Lord's Day Observance So- ciety was received on Thursday morning.

"General Post-office, 24th October 1841). "Sir-1 am commanded by the Postmaster-General to acknowledge the re- ceipt of your letter of the 2.3d instant, and to acquaint you in reply, that her Majesty's Government intend to carry into execution the measure to which you refer, as one which is calculated to lessen Sunday labour in the Post-office service

throughout the country in general, and to afford impudent accommodation to the public.

"I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant,

"Joseph Wilson, J. TILL, Assist. Sea "Lord Day Observance Society, 14, Chatham Place."

We understand that since this letter was transmitted, the authorities have abandoned their intention to compel the attendance of the men, having secured the services of a sufficient number of volunteers from different de- partments of the establishment.—Standard of Thursday

The Directors of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce have unani- mously agreed upon a "memorial in support of the changes proposed to be introduced into the Post-office regulations, by which the amount of Sun- day labour will be so greatly diminished." The following are material passages in the memorial-

" That, without imputing motives to the objectors of the Metropolis, whose mit- terial interests in the existing maladministration are sufficiently obvious, your memorialists beg to observe to your Lordships, that since the establishment at the electric telegraph, it is more than ever incumbent upon the Pod-office to make the proposed despatch on Sundays, inasmuch as, holding a strict monopoly of the carnage of letters, the Post-office is in justice bound so to exercise its monopoly as not by its own act to give a preference to one portion of her Majesty's subjects over others quite as important and as useful to the State, especially when the means of equal distribution are at hand. "That, as far as this important district is concerned, it is most grievous toknow that, by the detention of packet letters and other letters which have to pass through London, the interests of an industrious community are made secondary to the greed of those who are so unjustly favoured by a preferential early delivery of advices which, until interfered with by the Post-office, had travelled together pan i passe. Not only may large mercantile operations be thus preferenti y as- sisted, but opportunities for effecting insurances on advised cargoes may be lost, and monetary arrangements of the deepest moment be most injuriously affected. Bath in a mercantile and social point of view the peace of families may be ruined."

The differences of opinion which exist among the official Inspectors of Factories on the proper interpretation of the Factory Act of 1844, for limiting the hours of labour, has led to the publication of official letters, and to a correspondence displaying some personal feeling. According to the 26th and 52d clauses of the act, as strictly and literally interpreted, it is illegal to employ two or more sets of women and young persons at dif- ferent periods of a working day of twelve or thirteen hours. The strict law is, that the labour of every woman and young person employed in a factory on any day is to be reckoned as having commenced at the hour when any woman or young person first began work in the morning of such day; and consequently, if Jane or Sally could be proved to have been at work at six a. vi., Ann or Susan, who began her day of ten hours at eight or nine o'clock, must be hold, by fiction of law, to have been employed twelve or thirteeen hours. Mr. Leonard Horner, one of the Factory Inspectors, is the unbending enforcer of the strictest letter of the law. He accordingly proceeded against certain manufacturers in Manchester for breach of its provisions, and obtained a judgment of the Bench enforced by penalties. The decision of the Manchester Magistrates was, however, not held to be good or rational law by the Magistrates of Tyldesley : on Mr. Homer's discovery of breaches of the law as he inter- preted it, at Tyldesley, he threatened legal proceedings; but he was set at defiance, and informed that the Tyldesloy Bench would not convict. Finding this latter warning true, Mr. Homer wrote to Sir George Grey for advice and instruction. Mr. G. C. Lewis, the Under-Secretary of State, replied for his principal, that " as a general rule, he thinks it inexpedient to lay informations against rnillowners for a breach of the letter of the act as to the employment of young persons by relays, in cases in which there is no reason to believe that such young persons have been actually em- ployed for a longer time than that sanctioned by law." Mr. Homer rejoined with a statement in detail of the reasons for his " firm conviction, that, under any modification which I have ever seen or can imagine, the employ- ment of young persons by relays must virtually render nugatory the main purpose of the law, which imposes restrictions upon their hours of work, and that acting contrary to the above-named sections is not a mere disobedience of ' the letter of the act,' but a violation of its spirit and scope, and of enactments which form necessary and indispens- able adjuncts of the main restrictive enactment." He admitted that the manufacturers against whom he obtained a conviction at Manchester "were not employing young persons more than ten hours a day "; but argued, that he could not possibly detect them if they did: he therefore ob- jected to use any discretionary power in the sense suggested by Mr. Lewis, and required specific instructions, either to enforce the law according to the interpretation given by the Law-officers of the Crown, or to cease inter- ference with the manufacturers acting contrary to the interpretation. The Under-Secretary of State replied, that Sir George Grey did not consider it his duty to interfere with the discretion of the Inspectors or to instruct them to abstain from enforcing the law. Mr. Horner therefore persisted, and still persists, iu his rigid construction of the act; and his conduct having subjected him to severe animadversions in the Factory districts, be thought fit to publish portions of his correspondence with Sir George Grey on the subject.

The course of conduct adopted by Mr. Homer in preparing his "pamph- let," and his selection of documents in the " pamphlet" itself, have been such that Mr. James Stuart, one of his coadjutor Inspectors, charges him with an "obvious object" at Mr. Stuart's expense. Mr. Stuart sets forth how Mr. Horner has been " preparing at the office of Mr. Hartnell, one of the Government printers, and of course, I presume, at the public expense, the pamphlet to which I have alluded, headed, Correspondence of Mr. Homer with the Secretary of State on the subject of the Working of Young Persons and Women in Factories by Relays' ": furthermore, how the clerk and messenger of the Factory Office have been employed in trans- mitting proofs to Manchester and elsewhere; and how, more recently, the same Government-officers have been engaged in forwarding, "under offi- cial Home Office covers, and under one of the official seals of the Inspec- tors of Factories, copies of the pamphlet to very many eminent statesmen, Members of Parliament, dignitaries of the Church, and to individuals be- longing to the public or Government offices," and even to friends of Mr. Stuart. Yet not the slightest intimation of these proceedings had ever been given to Mr. Stuart himself; "although they have been in progress at this office certainly for a month past, and although they have actually been passing under my nose since the period of my return from Scotland, above a fortnight ago during every day of which I have attended at this office, placed in :the garret of the Home Office, sauleselfor. It couple of days, when unable; frona...indiaposigesul seventy-four years old, to ascend ninety-four steps of a -stair." .However, finding a copy of the pamphlet at the office, he appropriated it to himself without flaking questions. In a few brief phrases, -Mr. Stuart- now 'de- fends himself from the implied charges in Mr: Horner's pamphlet "; and -shows how the law, in the spirit -of the interpretation favoured by Sir George Grey's; instructions, may be so administered, under vigilantlya watched relays, as to be more profitable Dad more pleasant both to the employer and the employed, and yet in regard to the latter free both from fraud and oppression. He concludes by promising a publication of the -whole of the official documents on the question, so as to right all parties -before the public.

The fifth and concluding report of the Committee of Investigation into the affairs of the York, Newcastle, and Berwick Railway, is as unfavour- able to Mr. Hudson's character as any former one. From the commence- anent of the company, in 1844, down to Mr. Hudson's retirement, the ac- counts were falsified regularly each half-year, until- the total deception amounted to 121,9241.; the system being to transfer working charges to capital, to leave accounts unpaid, to fabricate debts due to the company which had no existence, and, when all these were insufficient, to overstate the traffic accounts. In this way, while the company, at the date of the last report which bore Mr. Hudson's signature, professed to have a reserve of 59,7771, it had divided 61,143/. more than it heel. earned. The cense- -quence of this mode of management was, that Mr. Hudson was enabled to tealize increased profits on the sale of those shares which he took from the company for his own benefit. Letters of Mr. Hudson's are published in the -report, by which, in order "to make things pleasant" at approaching meetings, be orders the cooking of the accounts, by the transfer of pros- pective earnings to the then present accounts, and postpones the then present debts to future accounts. In connexion with what is „called the Great North of England purchase account, it appears that be appropriated for his own purposes 26,8551., which he refunded in March last. As regards the claim for the sums illegally taken for the purchase of shares in the Sunderland Docks, the Committee "trust the amount will shortly be restored to the company." 'Upon the general affairs of the company the Committee report, that the nett earnings of the year from June 1848 to June 1849 would appear to have amounted to about 4 per cent, while for the half-year ending June 1849 'they were about 3-1 per cent. The working expenses have amounted to 42i per cent. With respect to dividend, they recommend that none should be paid for the last half-year, but that the earnings should be appro- priated to restore what has been improperly distributed. This course -would leave a reserve-fund of 7,968/. The calls in arrear are 120,8341, and upon their payment being enforced they will suffice for all present 'wants.

Results of the Registrar-General's return of mortality in the Metropolis for the week ending on Saturday last—

Number of Deaths. Autumn Average.

Zymotie Diseasel 277 357 Dropsy, Cancer, and other diseases of uncertain or variable seat 34 49 Tubercular Diseases 105 178 Diseases of the Brain, Spinal Marrow, Herres, and Senses 12, 125 . Diseases 5( 100 Heart and Blood-vessels 27 40 Diseases of the Lungs, and of* the other Organs of Respiration 145

210

Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other Organs of Digestion

07

65 Diseases of the Kidneys, Sc 13 1/ Childbirth, diseases of the Uterus, Sc 6 10 ' Rheumatisnt, diseases of the Bones, Joints, atc

8 Diseases of the Skin, Cellular Tissue, Sc

1 Malformations

4 4

Premature Birth 21 23 Atrophy 35 18 Age 42 37 Sudden 10 12

. Violence, Privation, Cold, and Intemperance

40 36 Total (including unspecified causes) 1028 1152

"In the week ending last Saturday, the number of deaths registered in London is 1,028, and shows a further decrease on the returns of previous weeks. The weekly average of five previous autumns, corrected for increase of population, is 1,162; the decrease on the average, as shown by the present return, amounts therefore to 134 deaths. This reduction of the mortality is greatest in the dis- tricts on the South side of the river; for the deaths of the week in this division were 276, whereas the average is 324. The mortality from cholera now rapidly approaches the average; the deaths having fallen from 110 in the previous week to 41 in the last. In the West districts, they have declined from 15 to 4; in the North, from 7 to 1; in the Central, from 10 to 6; in the East, from 32 to 17; and in the South, from 46 to 13. There were 5 deaths in each of the districts of Shore- ditch and Bethnal Green; in all others the number of fatal cases of the epidemic -was still less. In the whole Metropolis' the daily number did not in any instance exceed 9; on Wednesday and Saturday it was only 5. The deaths from diarrhcea and dysentery were more numerous, and amounted in the week to 63; in the pre- vious week they were 105. Of the 14,538 persons who have died of cholera in London in 55 weeks, 6,657, or nearly one half, died after less than one day's ill- ness (exclusive of the duration of premonitory diarrheas); and of the remainder, 2,466 sank under the disease before it had reached the second day.

"At present, smallpox and measles are much less fatal than usual; scarlatina Was fatal in 41 cases, the average being 64; typhus in 63 cases, the average bein& 56.

"The reading of the barometer reached 30.04 inches on Thursday at nine o'clock a. tn.-' the mean of the week was 29.89. The mean daily temperature increased from 43° on Sunday to 59° 7' on Thursday, and continued at nearly this value diming the rest of the week. The highest temperature was 69° 7' on Friday. On the first three days of the week the mean temperature was below the average of corresponding days in seven years; in the last three days it was about 12 degrees above the average. The mean of the week was 52° 4.S" The mean direction of the wind for the first three days was North-east; it was South-east on the 17th and 19th, and South-west on the 18th and 20th.

A letter from St. Marie Riser, dated September 24, announces the arrival, on his way to England, of Sir John Richardson, from an unsuccessful search after Sir John Franklin's expedition. The letter mentions, that after reaching the Arc- tic Ocean he travelled 300 miles along the coast; and also that Sir John speaks confidently of the existence of a Northern passage; the practicability of it, how- ever, is exceedingly doubtful, the summers lasting only from thirty to sixty days.

We understand that the Board of Health have appointed Dr. Britten an Inspec- tor of Health for two months, at a salary of 81 per diem and travelling expenses. The Board has required the Doctor to continue the prosecution of his microscopic inquiries touching the fungoid origin of cholera; and we learn that it is not im- probable that be will be gazetted to some permanent appointment in connexion with the public heahh.—Bristol Mirror.

Wednesday last [the 17th] was appointed for the wedding, at Frankfort-on- the-Maine, of Baron William de Rothschild, son of Baron de Rothschild of Naples, to,kgnieddaughter of .11. Nampa, hild of Yienna. Ny

membersof the hosies "of Retbschi ensta Naples, London, aa

came to Frankfort to attend the solefm' es Say. Sir Moses and Lady Iffensa_- fibre Were-age present:- %Very young and handsome. ft to invs remarkable, however, that liatiftends wiry-1110e to business, but is mostly engaged in religious study, and in the affairs-of Jerusalem. He is a punctual attendant at, the synagogue twice every day of the week, .andwherever he goes is accompanied by his Hebrew tutor. --Indeed, -his ineessantalevotion to the religion of his anew. tors has scoured for the young-Basta a uaiveraalreputation.—Jewish Chronicle. M. Chopin, the composer and pianists Zed at Paris on the 17th, at the-early age of thirty-nine. M. Chopin was a Pole; born at a village near Wareasr. He obtained his first instructions in music of an old Bohemian; subsequently Making himself master of the pianoforte, he became the pupil in composition of Eisnar director of the Warsaw Conservatoire, At Marlborough Street Police-office, on Wednesday, Mr. Bingham reide as order that Messrs. Davies, solicitors, the bail of Lola Mentes, Should pay to the Crown the amount of their sureties-1,000/. Notice of appeal was given.

The late D. Fereday, Esq., of Eitinghall Park, Staffordshire, has bequeathed to Magdalen College, Oxford, 20,0001, for the purpose of founding four fellowships, to be called by his name; a preferencato be given primarily to his kin, and after- wards to natives of Staffordshire. Mr, Fereday was formerly a Gentleman Com- moner of this College, and was in 1814 'created an honorary M.A.

We are requested to contradict in the most positive manner a statement which has been circulated, that, owing to the present political uncertainties of Turkey, the Bank of Constantinople has failed to remit the proper amounts to cover its drafts upon its English correspondents. 'The remittances of the bank have been perfectly regular, and it is impossible that anything could have been more unfounded than the injurious report in question. The bank was established at the commencement of the present year,. and the Turkish Government are bound to provide for the due payment of its bills on Europe. Its agents are also of the highest respectability.—Times, City Article.

From a statement issued by the Philanthropic Society it appears that the ar- rangements have at length been completed -for the final removal of the school from London to the new institution at Redhill. Sunday morning next, with the sanction of the Bishop of Winchester, has be,eaappointed for the delivery of the anniversary and fareweli sermon in aid of the Society's funds; after which, the chapel will be converted into a district church. . The proceeds of the service of Sunday are to be specially applied to the fitting and furnishing of the new chapel erected at the Farm School, RedhilL The engine-drivers of the Great Western Railway have been receiving for the i

last five or six weeks, n addition to their wages about 8s. a week each as pre- miums on the amount of coke saved by them below that fixed by regulation.-- Bristol Journal.

Extract of a letter from Captain Doneard, of the barque Bennevie, of Dundee, dated Cronstadt,5th October 1849. "On Saturday night at nine p.m., the look-out observed something right ahead and close to the ship. The helm was immediately put to starboard, and we just cleared it when it was within thirty yards of our quarter. I heard the cries of men for assistance. It was a ship bottom up, and a few perishing creatures clinging to her. I immediately rounded our ship to, shortened sail, and made every attempt to rescue them; but all in vain. From the darkness of the night, heavy rain, and a gale blowing from Westward, I lost sight of the vessel, and could hear them no more. I squared away at eleven o'clock; sorry indeed I could not save them."—Dundee Advertiser.

A few days ago, a respectabkiwine and spirit dealer at Brussels, named Mat- tens, committed suicide, by hanging himself to an iron cross placed on his wife's grave. On the other branch of the cross he hung the keys of his warehouse and his hat.