Ziorttlaurnus.

We understand that the Reverend H. J. C. Harper, M.A., Vicar of Mortimer, Berks, has, on the nomination of the clergy and laity in public meeting assembled, accepted the bishopric of Christchurch, in the settle- ment of Canterbury, New Zealand, and will be consecrated in England towards the end of July. Mr. Harper was educated at Hyde Abbey, Winchester, and Queen's College, Oxford. The early portion of his sub- sequent career was spent at'Eton, where he officiated for many years as "conduct," or chaplain to the College, having previously held the office of private tutor to the sons of Sir Charles Coote. In 1840 Mr. Harper accepted from Eton College the vicarage of Stmtfield Mortimer, a bene- Ece of small value, where he has resided ever since. In every position of life Mr. Harper has won the esteem and admiration of all who have known him, by the single-mindedness of his character and the purity of his conduct ; and while his parishioners will sustain a severe loss by his promotion to the episcopal chair, the Colonial Church in New Zealand -will gain a wise and faithful pastor, well qualified to enlarge its borders and secure the attachment of its members.—Tinses,

Prince Alfred is about to have a separate establishment. The Royal lodge in Windsor Great Park, formerly occupied by George the Fourth, or that portion of the building which was spared when, in the reign of William the Fourth, the greater part of this beautiful cot- tage was pulled down, has just been put in a fitting state for the recep- tion of Prince Alfred, now in his twelfth year, in order that he may un- interruptedly pursue his studies, more particularly that portion com-

n— g engineering, under his tutor, Lieutenant Cowell, of the Royal Engineers. The establishment will be limited to merely the necessary number of servants required to attend on the Prince and his tutor.

DEATH OF Loan CAREW.—Lord Carew, formerly for twenty years Mem- ber for the county of Wexford, died on Monday, at Castleborough, his seat in Wexford. He was born in 1787. By his decease the Premier obtains the disposal of a Green Riband.

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL MACDONALD.—This officer, one of the veterans of the great French war, died at Aix la Chapelle on Saturday last. He be- longed to the Royal Artillery, and was present at the capture of the Cape of Good Rope; at the attack on Buenos Ayres ; throughout the Peninsular campaigns he was actively engaged ; and he received a severe wound at Waterloo. He was the brother of Sir John Macdonald who died in harness, as Adjutant-General to the Army.

The usual banquets in honour of the Queen's birthday, postponed from the 28th on account of the fireworks and illuminations, were held on Satur- day. Lord Palmerston's party included the Marquis of Westminster, the Marquis of Ambassadors and the Earl of Ellesmere. The Earl of Clarendon received the Foreign and Ministers, the Grand Vizier, the

Earl of Westmoreland, Sir Henry Bulwer, and Lord Wodehouse. Lord Panmure entertained Viscount Hardinge, Lord Cardigan, Sir John Bur- goyne, Sir James Simpson, and other officers, with the officials connected with the War Department. The Chancellor of the Exchequer's circle was formed of gentlemen connected with his office, financiers, and others, including the Duke of Argyll. The Lord Chancellor and Judges were received by Sir George Grey : the Lord Mayor, Sir James Duke, Mr. Masterman, and Baron Rothschild, were among the guests. Sir Charles Wood assembled at the Admiralty his colleagues, and a number of naval officers, including Sir Ed- mund Lyons. Mr. Labouchere's party was Colonial—notables connected either with the Colonies or with Colonial affairs at home,—as the Bishops of Jamaica and Columbo, Sir William Colebrooke, Mr. Ball, and Mr. Merivale. The East India Directors, and officers and civilians connected with India, assembled round the table of Mr. Vernon Smith, the President of the Board of Control. The Attorney-General gave a dinner at the Albion, in Aldersgate Street, to the Queen's counsel and the leading members of the bar, including his recent opponent in the great criminal case, Mr. Sergeant Slice. In ad- dition to a number of noblemen and gentlemen connected with his depart- ment, the Marquis of Breadalbane, Lord Chamberlain, received the Maha- rajah Dhuleep Singh, the Dukes of Leeds and Roxburgh, and Sir Roderick Murchison. The Duke of Wellington, as Master of the Horse, gave a mag- nificent banquet at Apaley House : Prince Lowenstein was one of the party. The Lord Steward, Earl Spencer, gave a birthday dinner on Thursday, and followed it by another on Saturday : the Duke and Duchess of Bedford and the Duke of Newcastle were among the guests. The Marquis of Lansdowne held a grand reception at Lansdowne House in the morning, for which up- wards of a thousand ear& of invitation were issued ; and the attendance was crowded.

The Marchioness of Breadalbane gave a very magnificent ball on Wednes- day night. The Duchess and Princess Mary and the Duke of Cambridge, the Prince and Princess Edward of Saxe-R eimar, Prince Lowenstein, the Corps Diplomatique, and nearly a thousand of the aristocracy, attended.

Bing Ferdinand of Portugal arrived at Tangiers on the 20th May ; and was received by the Pasha with due honours.

As a proof of the "go" still left in the Premier, it is stated that on the Derby day Lord Palmerston "rode on horseback from his official residence in town to Epsom D011118, saw the races, and rode back ,• a feat which not many men of seventy-two years of age would be very willing to undertake."

Lord Wodehouse, accompanied by Lady Wodehouse and family, is now en route for St. Petersburg.

The Weekly Register and Catholic Standard announces that two clergy.. men of the Church of England have been received into the Roman Catholic Church. The one is the Reverend F. Temple, M.A., Fellow of Balliol Col- lege, Oxford, and late Principal of the Government Training College, at Kneller Hall. The other is a son of the celebrated Reverend Dr. Arnold, of Rugby. The same paper also gives particulars of the return and public re- ception of the Reverend M. Crotty, a priest, who left the Church thirty years ago. [Mr. Temple utterly denies his conversion.]

The Postmaster-General has arranged to give all the employ48 of the Post-office a Saturda_y half-holiday, except those engaged in the receipt and delivery of mails. The general offices, and the Money-Order Office, at the Post-office, will be closed at one o'clock on Saturdays.

A box has been received at the office of the American European Express Company, New York, which contains a portion of the relics of the unfortu- nate expedition of Sir John Franklin,—one piece snow-shoe, marked Mr. Stanley (the name is cut into the wood with a penknife) ; some pieces of cane and wood ; oneyiece leather, the inside of a backgammon-board; one piece metal, the graduated part of a barometer ; one piece ivory, part of a mathematical parallel ruler ; one piece ivory, apparently part of a mathe- matical instrument.

The American Senate has granted permission to Dr. Kane and his party to accept the gifts sent by the Eritish Government in acknowledgment of their efforts to discover the fate of Franklin and his companions.

It is now said that "many" political refugees have demanded permission from Marshal Radetzsky to return to Austrian Italy and enter into the en- joyment of their sequestrated property.

There is a report that the Anetrian "ground-tax" is to be raised 8 per cent : the tax on house-rent in Vienna is above $O per cent, and it is pro- posed to augment this tax in provincial capitals.

When the Emperor Alexander went to the Crimea, he, to his extreme as- tonishment, found that the road through the government of Cherson had only been constructed for a few versts, although the supposed outlay for the whole road had long been paid by the state. The Russian roadmaker was not to be found for some time, but at last he was arrested, and the dismissal of one of the highest Russian employ4s is to be attributed to his communica- tions.

The advises from Paris mention a temarkable instance in which advan- tage has been taken of the prevailing inflation to effect a cash realization of speculative estimates of future profits. It appears that the concessionaires of the Austrian railroads—M. Pereire and three other persons—have valued the claim they reserved for themselves to 10 per cent of all profits after the payment of 6 per cent to the shareholders at a sum Njual to 44,000 shares- and that an arrangement has been made to commute it on those terms, and to issue to them that number of shares, which will henceforth be added to the capital of the company. At present prices the value of the shares thus to be divided among four persons is about 1,700,0001.—Vmes.

About twenty-five agricultural labourers with their families, and a large supply of seeds and implements, have left Glasgow for Constantinople, to proceed to the estate of Mr. Thomas Parry. He has been long resident in Turkey, and has lands about twelve miles from Constantinople, on which he means to introduce the Scottish system of agriculture, if not to astonish the grave natives, at least to endeavour to teach them. More labourers are to follow this first batch.

There has recently been a rise in the price of wheat throughout the Aus- trian empire, varying from 2d. to Is. i. the bushel.

Silk has risen in price at Milan, from an apprehended failure of the pro- duce from the wetness of the season.

The Havanna house of Ligaiden, Larolle, and Co., wish to introduce 40,000 "apprentices" into Cuba : they say that 100,000 of these Chinese victims are " required" A story is running the round of the Clubs, to the effect that the notorious Barnum has written to the Earl of Shaftesbury, inquiring whether it would be possible to induce the persecuted Italian Protestants, the Madam, to visit America and be exhibited; and offering Lord Shaftesbury a commission on the profits, on condition that he interested himself in the undertaking !

Some interesting mural paintings, extending from the the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, have been discovered in Hadleigh Church, Essex.. One represents A'Beckett, arrayed in pontificals, with the legend "Beattie Tomas."

A plate which some years ago figured as a portrait of "Richard Cobden" is now hawked about the streets as "William Palmer" ! A broker near Drury Lane has dubbed a wretched oil-painted bead of some years' standing a portrait of the criminal, and curious groups gape at it.

The Hamburg hotelkeepers and tradesmen are reaping a rich harvest from the great numbers of Russian travellers : these gentlemen carry large supplies of 'golden imperials," and the Hamburgers are unremitting in their efforts to promote the circulation of the money.

Dire distress prevails in the Cape Verde Islands, there having been no rain for three years. The miserable inhabitants are dying of starvation by hundreds. Even if aid come from more favoured lands, it must be- prompt to be serviceable.

On the Panama Railway, about nine miles from Aspinwall, a train left the rails and plunged into a ravine thirty feet deep : there were 500 pas- sengers ; thirty or forty were killed, and a much greater number bruised and wounded.

According to the Dublin Post, it has been intimated to the friends of Mr. Bates that by and by he will be liberated, probably when Paul and Strahan are sent out of the country. Baron Alderson' who tried him, and the Home Secretary, think that his case was different from that of Paul and Strahan, —he was a mere salaried clerk, though nominally a partner.

Hungary is overrun by bands of ferocious robbers ; they are 'variously reported to be ex-Efonveds and discharged Austrian soldiers : the official records show that most of those sentenced belong to the latter class.

A prudent widow. Wilhelmina Hartsburgh, a foreigner, applied to the Liverpool Guardians for permission -to exhume her late husband's corpse, as some one in Paris had offered her 700 francs for it, the late Hartsburgh having had an extraordinary malformation. The Guardians rejected the affectionate request.

The last encounter of Lola Mentes, at Ballarat, was with one of her own sex, wife of a theatrical manager; who broke a whip over Lela's head, and so mauled her that she would be unpresentable on the stage for a long tame.

A man at Zevenhuizen, in Holland, put poison in a plate of soup intended for his wile; by a simple circumstance the plate was changed during the husband's momentary absence; an his return' he swallowed the soup-end died from the poison, acknowledging that he had been justly punished for his intended crime.