PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS.
The Select Committee appointed to.inquire into the condition of the Me- tropolitan Bridges, and the adequacy of the accommodation afforded by them, report, that with the exception of Blackfriars and Westminster, all the bridges are in good condition, but inadequate to meet the traffic. Before attempting to erect new bridges, the Committee recommend that an effort be made to buy up the toll-paying bridges,' and throw them open to the public. This would ease London Bridge, and tend materially to equalize the traffic over the other bridges; the desire to avoid paying tolls no longer operating as an inducement to select the present free bridges, to the undue obstruction of the thoroughfares which • lead towards them. With regard to the expense of purchase and maintenance, the siloestion it that it be defrayed by "a
rate levied rivet the whole of the diatictto be benefited by the proposed al- terations." • • . -
The Civil Lilt pensions granted during the year ending-oh the 20th June vary from 401: to-1001.- and aniount in -all to 12001., the Parliamentary tag. The widow of the late Dr. Glen, missionary to the East for nearly thirty years. receives, in consideration of her husband's services to Biblical literature, 50/. ; Sir Francis Bond Head, for literary merit, 100/. ; the widow of Dr. 3ioir, the "Delta" of Blackwood'. Magazine, 1001. ; the Reverend William Hickey, the "Martin Doyle" of Irish agricultural improvement, 80/. ; the widow of Mr. Oliver Lang, the ingenious master-shipwright at Woolwich, 100/. ; the widow and daughter of Mr. Joseph Train, in consi- deration of Mr. Train's literary merit and the antiquarian services rendered by him to Sir Walter Scott, 501. ; the widow of Sir Harris Nicolas, in con- sideration of Sir Harris's contributions to historical and antiquarian litera- ture, 100!. ; the four daughters of Dr. Mriegillivray, writer upon natural his- tory, 80/. ; Mrs. Hogg, widow of the "Ettrick Shepherd," 801. ; the sister and two daughters of the late Mr. James Simpson, the promoter of educa- tion, 1001. ; the two daughters of the late Mr. James Kenney, in considera- tion of Mr. Keuney's literary talent, 401. ; Mr. Alaric Alexander Watts, for services to literature and art, 100/. ; the five daughters of the late Mr. Joseph Tucker, eighteen years Surveyor of the Navy, 1001.; Dr. Edward Hineks, the antiquarian and scholar, 100/. ; the widow of Mr. Bowditch, the African traveller, in consideration of her own literary merit, 50/.
A recent estimate for the Civil Service includes 50,0001. to cover the ex- pense connected with the management of the British department of the Paris Exhibition. The French Government are to defray the expense of transporting the goodi from the port of arrival to Paris ; the English Govern- ment contemplate paying the expense of transit from London to France, and otherwise to promote the views and interests of exhibitors.
On the 31st March 1853, 146,2881. was due to 11,702 depositors in the Mili- tary Savings-Banks. The amount deposited during that year was 59,9901.
The Census returns of 1851 are now complete. The two concluding volumes, issued during the week, develop several features connected with the population, such as age, occupation, birth-place. Subsidiary details re- lating to the numbers and ages of the blind, the deaf and dumb, the inmates of prisons, and the like, are added ; together with a map exhibiting pic- torially the occupations which prevail in the towns and districts of Great Britain.
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