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The subject of military education continues to draw out those who have long taken a share in its advancement. The letter of Dr. Vaughan has suggested to the Reverend 0. It. Gleig, Chaplain-General of the Forces, the propriety of forwarding certain interesting statements to the Times, and of proposing a step which we trust will be taken. Mr. Gleig says " Dr. Vaughan speaks of certain papers as having been transmitted to him, and addresses his communication to an officer connected with the education of the Army. The officer to whom he writes is Lieutenant-Colonel Lefroy, my successor as Inspector-General of Military Schools ; and the papers to which he refers were drawn up, some at the Horse Guards, under the direction of his Royal Highness the (Jommander-in-chief, others in the War Office, on the invitation of the Secretary of State for War. They consist of three plans or schemes for the establishment of a system of education for candidates for commissions, and for officers after their entrance into the service,—one bearing the signature of the Duke of Cambridge, one signed by Lieutenant-Colonel Lefroy, and the third signed by myself. And there are added to them criticisms on all these plans, drawn up by the several authorities, each dealing with the plans which had been submitted by the others.

" Colonel Lefroy's plan is understood to express the views of the present 'Secretary of State on the important question under discussion. "The plan emanating from the Horse Guards speaks, it is to be assumed, the opinions of the highest authorities there. "My own is the result of many years of anxious consideration of the subject, and of much open and confidential communication with Mr. Sidney Herbert while he presided at the War Office. Though sent in long before the publication of Colonel Yolland, Colonel Smythe, and Mr. Lake's report, it is founded very much upon the same data from which they draw their inferences ; for in 1847 I had visited the military schools of ] rance, Belgium, Prussia, Saxony, and Holland, and given to Lord Panmure, then Mr. Fox Maule, a report which, doubtless for excellent reasons, he considered it inexpedient to publish or to lay upon the table of the House of Commons.

"Parliament will meet in a few days ; and the suggestion which I venture to offer is this, that these plans and criticisms be immediately called for in both Houses. When this is done, the fact will probably come to light, that but for the breaking-up of Lord Aberdeen's Govenunent in 1855, the want under which the Army still suffers would have been supplied long ago."

[It will be remarked that Mr. Gleig states that he made a report to Mr. Fox Malik in 1847. Now had that report been published, and had educational institutions for the Army been established say in 1848, it is impossible not to see that they must have exercised a considerable influence on the late war, which did not commence until 1864. The suppression of the report of 1847 is another instance of the vicious practice of keeping the Army and its affairs "out of sight."]

It is stated that the Government have resolved to establish a military "Board of Education" ; the Commander-in-chief at its head. The names of the other members selected are mentioned—Colonel Cameron, Colonel Portlock, and Colonel Addison.

The new Speaker has appointed the Honourable George Waldegrave as his Secretary, the Reverend Thomas Gamier as his Chaplain, Mr. G. K. Rickards as his Counsel and Examiner of Election Recognizances, Mr. Robert Rally as his Trainbearer.

Captain the Honourable J. R. Drummond, C.B., K.L.H., is appointed private secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty, in the place of Mr. T. Baring, resigned.

There is a rumour current that we are to have a change in the custody of the Great Seal. It is, we trust, quite consistent with a very sincere respect for Lord Cranworth's many personal good qualities, to express a hope that this report may prove to be well founded.—Daily News, May I.

We believe we may state with confidence that Lord Palmerston has promised to take charge of a bill to remove the disabilities under which our Jewish fellow subjects labour.—Ident.

We understand that Mr. Frederick Peel has resigned his office in the War Department. —.Men:.

The Board of Trade returns for March continue to tell of increasing activity in commerce. While in March last year the total value of exports was 9,448,5701., in March this year the value was 10,456,3481.—an increase of 1,007,778/. ; compared with March 1855 the augmentation was no less than 3,145,043/., or 43 per cent. The increase was in almost every article : a decrease in oil-seed and wool eon be accounted for by our retaining more for our own consumption. For the first quarter of this year our exports were nearly 15 per cent more than in 1856, and 52 per cent more than in 1855.

In the imports, there was a decrease in grain and flour, compared with 1856. In cocoa, coffee, sugar, tea, spirits, wines, tobacco, there was an increase : the imports of tea were augmented by some 50 per cent. In raw materials, hemp and tallow showed a falling-off; but the imports of flax, silk, cotton, and wool, all exhibited an increase—raw silk was more than doubled in amount. It is noticeable, that at the time we have been waring with the chief port in China, we have received in England a largely increased amount of China produce—tea and silk.

For the last three weeks the mortality of the Metropolis has scarcely varied; the number of deaths being 1059, 1084, 1065. The total, however, has remained considerably below the average of ten years ; last week the number was 88 fewer than the average. Four persons above the age of ninety, the eldest being ninety-six, died last week.

The late Duchess of Gloucester was the fourth daughter of George the Third. She was born on the 25th April 1776; consequently she completed her eighty-first year on Saturday last. In her earlier years she was known as the Princess Mary ; and although her life was so far removed from the public gaze, yet she had a history and an affecting one. Before the late Duchess was born, George the Third, indignant that his brother the Duke of Cumberland should have married a commoner, Mrs. Horton, and that his Irother the Duke of Gloucester should have married the Countess Dowager of Waldegrave, caused the Royal Marriage Act to be passed ; whereby it became necessary that every descendant of George the Second should obtain the consent of the King to his marriage if under twenty-five years of age, and of the Privy Council if over that age. In January 1776, a son was born to the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, who in due time became Duke of Gloucester. In his youth he was educated at Cambridge University, and served with distinction in the Army. And during these early years a secret affection existed between the young Prince -and his cousin the Princess Mary. "When the young people were one-andtwenty, the Princess Charlotte was born ; and as it soon became understood that there would be no heir-apparent if the Princess of Wales lived, the necessity was admitted of keeping the Duke of Gloucester single, to marry the presumptive heiress of the Throne in case of no eligible foreign prince appearing for that function. For twenty of their best years the Duke and the Princess were kept waiting, during which interval (in the year 1805) he succeeded to his title on his father's death. Everybody liked and loved the Princess Mary, who was a pattern of duty and sweetness through all the family trials she had to witness and share in ; and the Duke, though not a man of much political ability, was in that part of his life a Whig, and on the generous and liberal side of almost every question. We are obliged to say 'almost,' (writes the Daily Ictiva,) because he supported with his whole force the exclusion of Dissenters from the Universities, when he was Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, after the death of the Duke of Grafton. On the Anti-Slavery question he was as earnest in his own way as Wilberforce in his, and kind and helpful in all matters of charity that eame before him. Romilly tells us a curious thing of him—that he volunteered, in a tete-5.-tete with Sir S. Romilly, his declaration that Queen Caroline was innocent, and that her accusers were perjured. He

latterly became a Tory ; but for the greater part of his life, the samo genial spirit of liberality and personal unassumingness distinguished him and the Princess Mary. As for her, she pleased old and young alike." "In 1814, when the Prince of Orange was in England, and his father announced his approaching marriage with the Princess Charlotte, Princess Mary looked bright and happy. Lord Malmesbury recorded in his Diary what her manners were like, when the charm of youth was past and the character of womanhood was marked. He said she 'was all good-humour and pleasantness' ; adding, 'her manners are perfect; and I never saw or con

versed with any princess so exactly what she ought to be. And no one living, perhaps, knew more princesses, or more of what they really were, than the old diplomatist. The Prince of Orange went away., and Princess Mary

drooped. Everybody was saying that the Duke of Gloucester must be the Princess Charlotte's bridegroom after all. But a few months more put an end to the long suspense. When the Princess Charlotte descended the great staircase at Canton House after the ceremony of her marriage, she was met at the foot with open arms by the Princess Mary, whose face was bathed in

tears. The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester were married in a few weeks—

on the 23d of July 1816. The bride's demeanour was so interesting and affecting that it opened the sluices of Lord Eldon's ready tears, which he declared ran down his cheeks : but the Chief Justice, Lord Ellenborough, also present, must have been in another mood. Some persons were talking in a corner of the crowded room, and the Chief Justice called to them, in the midst of the ceremony, 'Do not make such a noise in that corner—if you do, you shall be mamed yourselves.'" The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester lived happily together for eighteen years. The Duke died in November 1834. "It surprised no one that his wife proved herself one of the most assiduous and admirable of nurses during her huahand's decline." She survived him twenty-three years ; lived to be the good aunt and cousin" of a new generation ; and died beloved by all around her. She was the last survivor of the thirteen children of George the Third.

The late Duchess was Ranger and Keeper of Richmond Park.

Signor Thignoli di Brunhoff, a very distinguished botanist, recently died at Modena, in his eighty-second year.

The Bath journals state that a monument bearing the word "Kars" has been erected in Lnicorabe Cemetery to the memory of General Richard De baufre Guyon, who played a conspicuous part in the Hungarian war of independence, and who did his utmost to arrest the progress of the Russians in Turkish Armenia in 1854. His sons will be educated at the expense of the. French Government in the Military Colleges of France. His widow, a Hungarian lady, has returned to seek a home in her subjugated country.

The first " Governor " of the Royal British Bank, Mr. John M'Gregor, died at Boulogne on the 23d April. He had been declining in health for some months. The disclosures of bank secrets affecting him, his pecuniary difficulties, and a sense of failure, shattered his health ; bilious fever and paralytic affection closed his sufferings. Mr. M'Gregor was born at Storno way, Ross-shire, in 1797. Educated at an ordinary school, he was placed at

an early age in a house of business in Canada' after some years howent into business himself at Liverpool, and failed ; his mercantile speculations.

being rarely at any period of his life successful. When he retired from business life, Mr. M'Gregor sought and found employment in the public service, and begun to publish. His first work, "British America," was. published in 1832. He went abroad on commercial missions under Lord Melbourne's Government ; still assiduously wrote books and reports without end ; and in 1840 he became one of the Joint-Secretaries of the Board of Trade. Here he began to agitate for Free-trade, in conjunction with Mr.. Deacon Hume and Mr. Porter; and gave evidence before Mr. Humes Committee on Import Duties that made him more widely known.

"The elation of Mr. M'Gregor thenceforwards," says a writer in the Times, "knew no bounds. He was exalted in his own imagination to the fifth heaven. Vanity was one of the passions which poor John M'Gregor, from an unfortunate nature and habit, could not control ; and the abuse of it was, in truth, his worldly ruin. It made him often the laughingstock even of his intimate friends, and in later years he perambulated the clubs unconscious of the general ridicule of his vaingloriousness. This inordinate self-valuation involved him in the firm persuasion that from his secondary office in the Board of Trade he should at once vault to a seat in.Lord John Russell's new Cabinet. He intimated this certain conviction to all his friends and acquaintances. In this dream he resigned his office of 1500/. per annum ; and having prearranged his plans, he became a candidate for the city of Glasgow in July 1847. Unfortunately for himself he headed the poll. We need not enlarge on the utter failure of his absurd aspirations, or on the bore and jest of his occasional exhibitions in the House of Commons:"

Mr. M'Gregor continued to publish—no less than eight large volumes in four years. Ile wrote beside many pamphlets, and-" an extent of private political and statistical correspondence at home and abroad almost incredible." His connexion with the British Bank is tolerably well known. Destitute of "a single qualification for the governorship of a bank," he yet would take no counsel, but to the end rested on his entire self-sufficiency.

Prince Alfred, who left Geneva, where he had passed the winter, on the 18th of April, arrived at Gotha on the 26th on a visit to his uncle and aunt, the reigning Duke and Duchess of Saxe Coburg, and to his grandmother, the Dowager Duchess. After a stay of a fortnight at Gotha and Coburg, Prime Alfred will continue his journey to England, where he is expected to aniv about the 20th instant.

The Empress Dowager of Russia sailed from Nice on the 21st of last month for Civita Vecchia.

The Bristol Mercury states that an attempt to reconcile Earl Fitzhardinge, who is dangerously ill, and his brother, Mr. Grantley Berkeley, has failed, from the Earl's peremptory refusal to see Mr. Berkeley.

Mr. R. Beckerson, for many years the Inspector of Police attending theHouse of Commons, has been promoted, for his efficient services, to be Superintendent of the L Division ; and Inspector Bray, of the A Division, is appointed in his place.

The American Government has sent twenty-one silver medals and 270/. in money to be distributed among the twenty-one boatmen who rescued the crew of the Northern Belle, wrecked at Kingsg,ate, near Broadstairs. Mr. Dallas has forwarded the medals and money to Lord Clarendon, with a letter expressing the highest admiration of the gallantry of the English sailors.

The printed proceedings of Parliament may now be sent to Holland and Belgium through the Post-office, under covers open at both ends, at the rates of ld, for packages under two ounces; 6d. if above two and under three.; 8d. if above three and under four ounces; and twopence for every additional ounce. Postage must be paid in advance.

A telegraphic despatch from St. Petersburg tells of a new contrivance to endeavour to float the railway scheme. "The Russian Government has just decreed that shares in the Great Russian Railway Company shall be received at par, like the funds of the State, for all caution-money or pubile deposits. This favour is looked upon as of greater value, as the funds which are deposited in this way are very considerable, and the contractors are in the habit of paying a high premium to procure securities for that purpose."

It has been remarked that the scheme does not include any line to Odessa, —an omission that marks the military character of the project, especially when we remember that there is to be a line to Theodosia, which lies so much nearer to Circassia and Transcaucasia. To supply the commercial defeet in the military scheme, the merchants and landed proprietors of Odessa have formed a company to connect that line with Kieff, thence to Brody and Mohileff, where it will touch the Austrian railway system. Of course the consent of the Government must be obtained. A local bank will supply the funds on good security—land and " souls."

The American Association for the Advancement of Science will hold its meeting this year at Montreal, in August.

" Everybody " remembers the Transit, Government transport-ship, that broke down at the naval review in 1855, but notwithstanding was selected to carry the Ninetieth Regiment to China, and had to return twice into port before she got clear of the Solent, with a hole in her bottom. This nos torious ship, with her freight of fighting men, so sadly wanted in China, has broken down again. A letter from Corunna, dated April 19, tells how" Here we are ! done up ! Two days' Bay weather sent us in here to be fresh-rigged. You never saw a worse sea-boat in your life,—crank, topheavy, and everything that's bed! We have everything we could wish in the way of provisions,—only two days' salt since we came on board. But such an old tub you never saw : the rigging never set up, or anything secured ; we had hard work to keep the masta from going over the side ; if she had pitched instead of rolling, I am sure the foremast must have gone over the bows. We had to get tackles across the decks from side to side to brace the rigging in to save the spars ; in fact, a greater tub to roll 'never knew. She is top-heavy. I am certain she will never weather the Cape, or she will deceive all on board both soldiers and blue-jackets. She is a disgrace to the British Government, and more so to the dockyard authorities. If she is lost, I only hope my diary will be found to condemn those who sent her to sea. You may think what she must be when I tell you for a truth, that there are not one dozen men (troops) on board with a dry hammock, every seam in her deck letting in water. They had to give, or at least did give extra grog."