Biontluntato.

The House of Commons Committee on the state of the Thames has been busy receiving the evidence of scientific gentlemen as to the cause of the present dangerous exhalations from our great sewer, and the re- medies. Of course the witnesses differ. On Monday, Mr. Walker, the Engineer to the Thames Navigation Committee, disapproves of Mr. Gur- ney's plan : Mr. Walker thinks the "scour " of the stream should be increased, by narrowing it ; it would be desirable to discharge all the sewage at high water. Dr. Lewis Thomson considers that the present stench arises from the mud, exposed to a high temperature, which makes it ferment, and then dissolved by the advancing tide ; fermentation does not begin in the water itself till it attains a temperature of 70°—a rare occurrence. He has found the mud on the banks at a temperature of 120' ; if the sewers were no longer flushed, poisonous vapours would ascend the gully-holes and enter houses. On Wednesday, Mr. Golds- worthy Gurney, Mr. George Bidder, and Mr. James Lewes, were ex- amined. Mr. Gurney's testimony was in continuance of evidence pre- viously given by him, in support of his plan of dealing with the sewage. Mr. Bidder stated that he thought Mr. Gurney's plan, of having two channels formed in the Thames to carry the sewage was not feasible. The channels would get filled up—they would require frequent dredging, at great expense ; to make the channels "would be money thrown away." If all the sewers were to discharge their contents at low-water mark it would prevent exhalations and would be so far beneficial, but it Would not relieve the river ; it would get rid of the mud banks. Mr. Laves thought Mr. Gurney's plan not effectual—it would remove some evils. Throwing lime into sewers or into the Thames will cause great deposits of solid matter, and if continued long enough, the navigation of the river would be stopped up. The smell would be got rid of if lime enaugh were thrown in. A gallant Indian officer, whose signature of " C. D. L." is well known now, writes a letter to the Daily News respecting the distribution of honours, and touchingly describing his own case. A long time ago, he says, he was promoted to a Regimental Captaincy and sent on active ser- vice. At the close of the war, the General-in-chief whom he had the honour to serve recommended hint for honorary distinction. But months rolled by and no honorary distinction appeared. Coming home, he was warmly greeted by his friends. "But when all save my father had retired for the night, he took my hand in his, saying, My boy, how is it you are not promoted ? We have been looking for it daily these many years. Surely the General did not find rea- son to cancel his recommendation !' And now came back all my heart-sick- ness, all my disappointment, all my sense of cruel injustice. The recom- mendation of my glorious chief had not only failed of securing me deserved honour, but had brought on me, even in my father's house, the suspicion of demerit. I went to my chamber ; I wrote to my General ; I told him all. I acknowledged how painfully conscious I was of being one of those whom a Commander-in-chief of the Queen's Army had called damned Indian offi- cers.' I said I was ready to forego all distinction, and to retire on the pit- tance which the State would now allow me as pension; I begged only that his recommendation might be withdrawn, or that some explanation might be published as to the cause of its being ignored at bead-quarters. My chief replied that my case was as hopeless as his own ; and he then appealed to my higher feelings in the following terms :

" ' You say, and say most truly and justly, that the workmen get no reward, while the triflers receive all the honours, &c. ; it is so, always has been so, and must be so ; but from whom does the real reward of the workman pro- ceed? Surely from the Master (the Master of all), not from those petty spirits who happen to be in note among men of the day or hour. What is it that these men could offer us ? Sympathy with higher natures they have none. We cannot receive reward from our inferiors ; they can neither judge nor understand our work. These rewarders of the world are them- selves triflers, and honour spirits of their own stamp. The feelings which you express at the conclusion of your last letter have often been most forcibly excited in me also ; even now I frequently long intensely to be away from this stage of being ; but this is weakness, (as I know, though I cannot always repress it,) and it is certain that we are really free at every stage, high or low, only in proportion as we identify ourselves with the unchangeable, and conform to eternal law. I feel now the utter worthlessness of these things current in society as rewards and honours : even among merely worldly men of high mental power they are looked on without the least respect ; they are known to be false, to be counterfeit ; they do not even represent the value they are supposed to bear, wherefore even the man of the world de- spises them in his heart. But we must feel something far beyond this, for we know that, even if genuine, such things are of little worth. For myself, I can most sincerely affirm that I hold the honest regard and mutually affec- tionate attachment of one such true and noble spirit as yourself to be of in- finitely greater value, and of far higher honour than any distinction or re- wards which all the vulgar potentates on earth could bestow on me. I feel very rich in such wealth, and all other seems despicable. Why we can make these worldly reward-givers follow us, and why should we follow them ? They are always working in some mean contemptible fashion against real truth and power, and I thank God that I have always been in opposi- tion to all of them, even from the time I perceived clearly the principles at work in these things. I have taken, and will take good care that every- thing regarding your task shall be recorded at all events. Our labours may save an empire, and the very inability of our rulers to perceive the value of what we are about, makes our labour the more important and valuable. I do not despair of yet seeing much reform in the English army, and it may be that truth and foresight will prove too strong even for authority.' It is now, adds C. D. L., "a long time since I retired, yet whenever I meet a young man without money or connexion about to enter the Eng- lish army, I forewarn him to forget every wish and to repress every hope for aught save daily duty."

The Early Closing Association sent a memorial, signed by 1100 busi- ness firms, asking the Directors of the Bank of England to close business on Saturdays at two o'clock. The Directors have declined, as they are not in the habit of " initiating " changes : it is supposed they would accede to the arrangement if other banks first carried it out.

The political and fashionable world was busy on Saturday in giving and enjoying entertainments. The Earl of Derby, the Earl of Malmesbury, and Lord Palmerston, had dinner-parties ; and Lady Palmerston held an assembly. Lord Ravensworth had an afternoon party at his villa, Percy's Cross, Fulham, and was honoured with the presence of the Duchess and Princess Mary of Cambridge and the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg Strelitz ; who afterwards dined with him. The Duke of Malakoff gave a banquet to the Duke of Cambridge : Lord Rokeby, Sir Fenwick Williams, Sir James Simpson, Sir William Codrington, and other military notables, were among the guests. Lord and Lady Brougham had a dinner-party.

The Duchess of Hamilton gave a grand ball on Monday night. The Duchess and Princess Mary of Cambridge, the Hereditary Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg Strelitz, and the Duke of Cambridge, were among the guests.

The Duchess of Cambridge and her daughters dined with the Austrian Minister on Tuesday.

Sir Henry Bulwer left Vienna for Constantinople on the 25th June.

Mr. Clarkson Stanfield has been a good deal hurt by a fall at the Needles Rocks, where he was sketching.

The " Theological " Department of Kings College, London, has just sustained a severe loss by the secession of Dr. Trench, the Dean of West- minster, who tendered his resignation of the chair of Divinity occupied by him at the close of the late Easter Term. Dean Trench was Professor of the New (Greek) Testament, and his lectures—remarkable for profound thought, elaborate research, and elegant scholarship—were thoroughly ap- preciated by his pupils. AIM successor is not yet spoken of.

A case is now waiting the decision of the House of Lords, which shows in a very remarkable manner the extraordinary influence which the vicissitudes of war may exercise upon the welfare and fortunes of fami- lies. It will be recollected that a most gallant and distinguished officer, Colonel George Carpenter, C.B., of the 41st Regiment, fell on the me- morable field of Inkerman when leading the outlying piquets of the Second Brigade of the Second Division. Colonel Carpenter was the only son of a distinguished Indian general, and he himself had an only son, the pre- sent Captain Carpenter of the 7th Royal Fusiliers (who was seriously wounded at the battle of the Alma.) Colonel Carpenter left also a widow, the present Mrs. George Carpenter, who accompanied her husband and son to the Crimea. General Carpenter survived his son but a very short tune, and he died, leaving by his will (made many years age) property amount- ing to nearly half-a-million sterling to his son, Colonel Carpenter, but

which will he was unable to alter after the death of his son, being at the time nearly ninety years of age. The General left, also, an annuity of 20001. a year to his widow, and after his death he gave the principal sum set apart to Colonel Carpenter for life, and after his death to any childrren that he might leave, but in case of his son dying before his mother, then to other persons. Under these circumstances the legal question has arisen on this part of the will, that as Colonel Carpenter died in the lifetime of his mother, the annuitant, the parties claim the property in virtue of the gift over, and commenced proceedings in Chancery, and contend that Captain Carpenter, the testator's grandson, can take nothing, as the bequest had lapsed in consequence of his father's death. The Master of the Rolls, how- ever, taking an enlarged and enlightened view of the question, held that there was an absolute gift to the child of Colonel Carpenter, it clearly having been the intention of the testator to benefit his son's children. We trust there is no chance of the decision of Sir John Romilly being reversed, because, if so, the practical effect of this romance of the late war will be the disherison of a son and mother, in consequence of the death on the field of battle of a gallant husband and father. Should this contingency happen, it is hardly possible to conceive a case of greater hardship, arising equally from the calamities of war and the uncertainty of English jurisprudence, or one more entitled to the sympathies of that country which this race of sol- diers has served so devotedly and so well.—United Service Gazette.

Sir Bulwer Lytton has adopted, in conjunction with the Lords of the Treasury, a reform at the Colonial Office similar to that introduced by Lord lialmesbury into the Foreign Office. The papers of the Colonial Depart- ment—including those known as Trade and Plantation papers—are now to be divided into two classes,—the historical and the political. The line is drawn at 1688. Writers will in future be free to copy or to abstract any papers prior to that date, without reference to the Secretary of State.

Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson have sold an interesting collection of early Bibles and works on theology, part of the library of an eminent Irish dignitary of the Church. Very high prices were obtained. The great at- traction of the sale was a copy of the first Latin Bible, supposed to have been printed at Mentz between the years 1450 and 1455, and executed to resemble a manuscript, for which the typographer, no doubt, intended to sell each copy.. This marvellous specimen of early printing was purchased by Mr. Quantch, of Castle Street, for the enormous sum of 5951., being 4001. more than this identical copy sold for at the sale of the late Duke of Sussex. The first edition of the Scriptures in English, by Bishop Myles Coverdide, imperfect, no perfect copy, it is believed, being known, brought 1361. 108.

A wealthy Venetian, a native of Udine, just dead, has left the large sum of 600,000f. (24,0001.) in trust to Count Cavour, to be by him applied to public instruction in Piedmont. This is a remarkable bequest, showing the strong feelii's of affection, hope, and confidence, chenshed by some Italians towards Piedmont, which they look to as destined to be thii main .instrument in the future liberation of Italy.

The will of the late Duke of Devonshire, has been proved in London by the present Duke, the sole executor—the personalty sworn under 500,0001. There are two codicils. The will was made in June 1851, whereby he bequeaths his mansion at Chiswick to his sister, the Countess of Carlisle, for life, then to his sister the Countess Dowager Granville, together with the furniture and 40001. a year, to be a charge upon his Yorkshire estates. By the first codi- cil, made in 1852, he has left annuities amounting to about 20001. a year ; and among other legatees, Lord Carlisle and Lord Granville 10,0001. each ; Sir Augustus Clifford, 20,0001. ; Sir Joseph Paxton, 16001. 'There are other pecuniary legacies and specific bequests. The Duke of Devonshire is re- siduary legatee.

A letter describing the progress made in excavating the ruins of Cnidus, tells of the discovery of a colossal marble lion. " This noble animal is ten feet long from stern to stern. He is of Parian marble and in very fine con- dition. He is in a couchant attitude, his head turned round to the right. From the base to the top of his head he measures six feet. His weight I should imagine to be eight tons. He is lying on his side. The upper side is of course somewhat weatherbeaten, though the great essentials of form are there, but the lower side, as far as I can tell by looking under it, is nearly as fresh as when it left the hand of the artist. The injuries which he has sustained are few. The fore-paws and part of the lower jaw are wanting, but it is very probable that we may find them. The left hind leg has been a good deal crushed by his fall, in other respects he is perfect. He has no eyes, but very deep sockets, which may have been filled with vitreous paste, unless the shadows produced by these hollows were con- sidered in colossal sculpture as the equivalent of eyes. As his nose is at present half buried in the ground it is difficult to judge of the effect of these hollow sockets ; they seem, however, to give an idea of the general scale of the animal. I can just squeeze my clenched fist into the sockets—ex oculo konem !"

• HEALTH oa LoxnoN.—The deaths in London in the week ending Satur- day, June the 26th, were 1092. In the ten years 1848-57 the average number of deaths was 984 ; but, as the deaths of last week occurred in an increased population, the average should be raised in proportion to the increase, when the comparison will show that the mortality of last week approximated very closely to the calculated amount. Diarrhcea was fatal last week in 54 cases, which is double the average for corresponding weeks ; its recent increase is evident, the numbers of the two previous weeks having been 18 and 31. There were also eight deaths from cholera or "choleraic dbirrhcea."

In the above statement the mortality of the population of London in the last week is compared with its own average mortality in previous weeks ; and it shows whether the mortality is higher or lower than it is usually in London.

The method does not show whether the average mortality of London is relatively higher or lower than it should be ; and if it were employed in the most unhealthy city in Europe, the mortality would appear to be often below as well as above the average.

An absolute standard is required, applicable, like other measures, under all circumstances. Man was made to live a definite time, and to experience an average rate of mortality. But the natural lifetime has not been revealed to us, and the circumstances of no city are such as to give us an opportunity of determining the average mortality of a people living under the most favourable circumstances. We cannot, like the ancient writers, refer to a model republic we cannot point to a single town in England on the slope of some of her bills, looking southward over fertile fields or distant seas ; bathed in a pure atmosphere ; supplied with " a river of water of life, clear as crystal"; with no impurities resting in its houses or streets for a single day ; occupied by a people fed on fruits, grain, meat from healthy places, and leading an active, good, intellectual life. No such city has ever even been projected,. and is certamly not shadowed out by the watering-places of our own and stall less of other countries.

Hence the only standard to which we can resort is derived from the least unhealthy districts of England. The mean lifetime of the people in those districts is 49 years ; and the mean annual rate of mortality would be 20 in 1000, were it not that the increasing population gives them an undue proportion of young and middle-aged people, by which the proportional number of deaths is reduced to 17 in 1000.

To apply the standard to London. The population consists now of about 2,721,000 persons ; they are of all ages ; but, upon comparing them with the comparatively healthy districts the proportion of young children under five years of age is the same ; before the age of 1.5 is attained the London children are greatly reduced in number by untimely deaths ; at 15 to 25 im- migrants restore the lost numbers, and from the same source the men and women of the ages from 25 to 45 grow into a great excess ; at the ages 45 to 55 the proportions are the same ; after the age of 55 the excessive mortality in London speedily reduces the numbers : the old people, who naturally ex- perience everywhere a high rate of mortality, are not in due proportion in the population of London. By applying the ascertained rates of mortality in the sixty-three comparatively healthy districts, it is found that the an- nual deaths—if the chances of life were the same in London—would be 41668 on the above population, or at the rate of 1512 in 1000 annually. The weekly deaths in London on the above population in such a state of health as is actually experienced in those districts would be 799 on an average.

The actual rate of mortality in London during the last ten years exceeded 24 (it was exactly 24.46) in 1000, which implies .1275 weekly deaths, or 476 above the healthy average.

In the last week 1092 persons died in London, or 293 persons in excess of the healthy average. That 293 persons died unnatural deaths during the week is the finding of this great inquest. What were the causes of these unnatural deaths ? The people of London live as well as the people of the sixty-three districts ; and they now suffer nothing from cold. Many drink spirits to excess. Too many sleep in the same rooms; and as in our barracks this destroys large numbers. Crowding in i ball-rooms, n theatres, in churches and chapels to hear popular preachers, where no adequate ventilation is carried on, propagates zymotic diseases. Impure water is the cause of several deaths ; but the companies have of late years supplied water infinitely superior in quality to the water which they drew previously from the parts of the Thames, now admitted by everybody, even their retained chemists, to be offensive. The impurity of the air was unquestionably the cause of a large number of the 293 deaths. This impurity is most noxious in the houses where the people sleep. The cesspools are still numerous ; half a million waterclosets and sinks discharge large quantities of impure air into the 353,326 inhabited houses. This incommodity is les- sened in London by the system of drains, which, however, are badly con- structed, and emit their volatile impurities under the faces of the people. The drains again pour their contents into the Thames ; from which in its course through London in ordinary times more than four million gallons of water are evaporated daily, carrying with the vapour, and diffusing all over the town, impurities which are breathed by the whole population.

The mortality of London has been already, reduced by the purification of the water ; cholera will be less fatal than it has been ; and if the air the people breathe be cleansed the happy results will soon appear, and the re- gisters will less frequently record the untimely deaths of husbands, wives, children, and " youths entombed before their fathers' eyes."—.Registrar- Generars Return.

On Wednesday afternoon, at about two o'clock, the persons who happened to be in the long corridor leading to the different committee-rooms of the House of Commons, as well as the officers of the House who were in atten- dance, were suddenly surprised by the members of a Committee rushing out of one of the rooms in great baste and confusion. It appeared that the Committee which has been sitting to inquire into the operation of the Bank Acts had met in room No. 12 for the purpose of considering their report. Matters proceeded in the usual manner until the hour above stated, when a sudden rush from the room took place, headed by the Chancellor of the Ex- chequer, who with a mass of papers in one hand, and with his pocket- handkerchief applied to his nose, hastened from the room, followed closely by Sir James Graham, Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Cayley, and the other members of the Committee—the stench from the Thames had driven them out. They subsequently resumed their sitting in another apartment.

While all London is sinking under the pressure of a Bengal sun, in Dublin, for a week at least, people have been rather cranky at the unusual coldness of the month of June. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday the wind blew freshly from the north-west, the mornings and evenings being so cool as to suggest the propriety of a premature return to the comforts of a sea- coal fire. On Monday the wind veered slightly towards the south, and there were a few showers of rain, but the air was still sharp and refreshing, and as yet there has been no ground of complaint on the score of heat. If a peripatetic Parliament is ever to be thought of as a means of escape from the nuisances which at present beset the great Metropolis, Dublin ought undoubtedly to have just now a strong claim to the consideration of the honourable Member for Leitrim.—Times.

A letter from St. Petersburg says that the cholera has reappeared in that capital, and already more than seventy, cases have occurred. The tempe- rature of the weather is, however, cooler than is usual there at this period of the year. A small landowner at St. Servant in France has been saved from a fatal termination of an attack of lock-jaw by repeated inhalations of chloroform, in doses not sufficient to produce complete stupor.

Vesuviiis, after a temporary lull, was again in a state of eruption on the 22d June ; but the outflow of lava was not so large as formerly. The inauguration of the works for distributing water in Madrid has taken place with great success ; among the works is a jet eighty-one feet high. The expense of the works is estimated at 126,000,000 reds.

" N. H. R.," in the columns of the Times, publishes a warning note from a relative at Toronto against emigration to Canada. It would seem that clerks and similar persons are over-supplied at present in Canada. " Farm- ing is not so good as people at home imagine."

After the late thunderstorm a deposit resembling sulphur was observed in several places in this neighbourhood. At Freeburn it lay on the road and grass in some places to a depth of nearly half an inch. At Craigton Cottage, near Kessock, the deposit was observed on the top of water caught in a cask from the roof of the house, like a thick cream. The sulphurous substance was skimmed off and dried on a piece of flannel. When dry it was a fine powder, and when thrown into the fire ignited exactly like gunpowdert making a slight fizzing noise. Unfortunately none was preserved beyona what was experimented on in this way. A boat at Craigton was powdered all over with the same substance ; and a countryman living on the height near Kilmuir says that near his house, in the space of what an online/ washing-tub would cover, he could lift the powder with a spoon. The heavy rains have since washed it all away.—Inverness Courier. An immense number ofpersons flocked into Biarritz on Sunday week to witness a grand match of football by five French players against five Span- ish Basques. The victory, which was very, warmly disputed, remained with the French. The sum contended for was 2000 francs a side. The manner in which the game is played differs altogether from that seen in England, the players stationing themselves in a wide open piece of ground marked with lines, over which the ball must be struck by each party alternately until one fails, which has the effect of putting out, as the technical expres- sion is, the player who was delivering the ball. When all at one side are out the other players come in and whatever aide first reaches the number of points agreed on wins. The game is generally played in rubbers, two out of three, or three out of five.

Bell's Messenger reports the sudden -death of Mr. Jonas Webb's bull, young Holland, which took the special prize at the recent Chelmsford show, as the best bull of any age of a pure breed open to all England. Young Holland died in consequence of the heat to which he was exposed at the show, having, no doubt, received a sunstroke in the yard ; for, although he walked home in the night from the Chesterford station, a distance of five miles, he was found dead and quite cold when the man went to feed him at six o'clock the following morning.

Dr. Livingstone's expedition sailed from Table Bay on April 27, for the Zambesi. An elegant silver box containing 800 guineas had been presented to Dr. Livingston; as a testimonial, by the colonists. A proposal was made by the Governor to establish five intermediate posts between the colony and the Zambesi, to insure a line of monthly communication.

A terrible catastrophe has occurred on the Mississippi. The steamboat Pennsylvania, of Pittsburg, exploded her boilers on Sunday morning, 12th June, at six o'clock, at Ship Island, some seventy-five miles below this city, and was burnt to the water's edge. There were 350 passengers on board, and it is believed that 100 of them were killed or are missing. The Diana, Imperial, and Kate Frisbee took all they could find in the water or onshore. The Pennsylvania, at the time of the explosion, was on her way from New Orleans to St. Louis.

The Onerrier de Rheims complains that the consumption of champagne wine has of late years been on the decline, and in proof it states that whereas in 1856-7 11,420,198 bottles were exported, and 2,468,818 sold in France, in 1857-8 only 7,368,310 were exported, and 2,421,454 were sold in France. In the former year the total was 13,959,016 bottles, and in the latter only 9,789,764.

In the year ending the 5th of April 1857, the annual value of property in the counties of the United Kingdom, including railways and canals, ra.ed under schedule A of the Income-tax Act, was 78,326,5411., and the amount payable under the said schedule, 5,221,7051. In the cities and boroughs of the United Kingdom the amount of property was 49,624,153/.' and the amount of tax payable, 3,308,2241. Thus, together, the property in the United Kingdom rated under schedule A would be 127,950,6941., the popu- lation 27,641,033, the number of Parliamentary electors 1,221,316, the number of Members of Parliament 654, and the amount of income-tax pay- able under schedule A 8,529,9291.