An order, dated the 20th February, has been issued from

the Horse Guards, directing the augmentation of certain corps of cavalry and infantry; and the officers in command are requested to use their utmost exertions to make up their complements. Four men per troop are to be added to seven- teen regiments of cavalry; four hundred rank and file to eight regiments of infantry; and two hundred rank and file to twenty-seven others. Regula- tions for facilitating the recruiting are laid down.

The regiments selected for Indian service are the Tenth Hussars, and the Eighth, Twenty-fourth, and Thirty-second Foot. The Eighteenth and Ninety-eighth Regiments are also under orders to move from China to BengaL—Globe.

We understand that all leaves of absence to officers belonging to regi- ments serving to India have been cancelled, and they have been ordered to join their respective head-quarters by the overland route.—Globe.

We have alluded to the extraordinary state of the Sikh Government. A few extracts from the despatches of Major Broadfoot, the Political Agent at Lahore, may be necessary to bring out the picture; for the general terms employed in Parliament, however helped by the fancy of the reader, would probably fall short of the facts. We begin at a time when the Sirdar Jo- wahir Singh and the Rajah Lal Singh were contesting for power. Jowahir was the brother of the Ranee or Queen-mother; Lal Singh was or is a paramour, for whom her penchant had recently revived.

"Jose 13.—A formal reconciliation has beeneffected, by the Ranee, between Jowahir Singh and Rajah Lal Singh. She marked her satisfaction by sending

each of them a handsome slave-girl, just received from the Mundee chief, our neighbour here. Such is Sikh morality in this matter, and taste also, for Lal Singh is one of the Ranee's own lovers." "June 14.—The above news reached Lahore on thedlth; but Jowahir Singh and his favourites had been carousing with the new slave-girl and other women all the previous night, so that he was too drunk to hold the Durbar, and the chiefs and Mootusudjees dispersed." "June 18.—Jowahir Singh and Lal Singh were seeking on the 14th to assas- sinate each other. The former was the aggressor; the cause, the Ranee's in- creased passion for Lal Singh since he had cholera." "June 20.—At the capital, Gholab Singh, Jowahir Singh, and Lal Singh, are well engaged in plans to assassinate each other; any two joining for a day against the third. A paramour of the Ranee has run away with about a lac of rupees worth of her jewels, to the public amusement or scandal as the public is grave or

InelrY July 8.—At Lahore they are quiet; drinking, and intriguing, politically and .amorously." "August 6.—The state of parties is seriously changed; but the cause is, the Same's mind having become seriously affected by her excesses. She has become stupid, instead of clever and lively; is sometimes for days in a state bordering on fatuity; and though at times she revives, chiefly when stimulated by drinking, she takes but little concern in the public business compared with what she aced to do, and then is guided chiefly by her low paramours and servants. Now, the remnant of wise men left hitherto prevented convulsion by their influence with the Ranee, especially the Fakeers and Bhaee Rani Singh; but this influence is all but gone in the Ranee's present state: so much so, that Bhaee Ram Singh lately sent me a caution against closing a business with the existing Government, as it was certain that the troops, on their return after the Dusserah, would put to death Jowahir Singh and the Ranee, with her son; he added, that they would set up Pechora Singh and Rajah Gholab Singh as King and Vizier." " On the 1st there was no afternoon Dints; there being a consultation of the principal personages on the English affairs. It lasted, all des; but every man of note was excluded, even Deewar Deena Nath. This council consisted of Jowahir Singh, the Ranee, and three personal attendant; domestics of Jowahir Singh, men of low origin, raised by him—one an old horse-jockey, another lately a Fakeer, and a third still a palace Peon—also Jowahir Singh 's private Moonshee. After much debate, it was agreed to consult next day the chiefs who were used to such matters; but it was decided that the Governor-General's letter should be an- swered."

"August 6.—The evening dank of the 2d is in. Jowahir Singh, the Ranee, and Maharajah, all drunk, with Rajah Lal Singh. Held no Durbar on the 2d; the consultation all forgotten. They went out to the Shaliman garden. My letter arriving, my vakeel carried it to the Shaliman, and sent word it was emergent: they refused to see him or it, and told him to conic when they were at leisure." "August 7.—Though the effects of the forenoon debauch were not gone off, the contents of the letter produced a dead silence, and after a time, an answer that the letter would be deliberated on and answered without delay. This effect was produced by the warnings given not to be misled by foolish rumours. On the

there was no very marked carousing, and much debating; so I suppose a day or two will bring some answer or other. " August 8.—SirdarJowahir Singh and his party, after abstaining nearly a day from drinking to deliberate on my letter, made an excuse of heavy rain on the 3d, to set out with his favourites and some generals on elephants, each supplied with a bottle of brandy: they returned drunk, held no Durbar, and listened to no business; but, sending for dancing-girls, Jowahir Singh dressed himself aaa dancing-girl, and danced with the rest."

[The troops grew more and more impatient of the Sirdar's rule. They re- vived the form of government which prevailed before Runjeet Singh became.a monarch—a government by means of a council called the Khalsa Punth. The reported death of Pechora Singh also angered them; and they sent, letters to the Ranee, requiring her, under pain of death, to surrender herself, 'the young Maharajah her son, and Jowahir. The Sirdar tried to bribe his own people to suffer his escape; but he was refused. In utter helplessness, the Ranee yielded: i she left the fort in which she was; went in state to the camp, with the boy King and the Sirdar; and Jowahir was butchered, with all the members of his Govern- ment.] " On the morning of the 22d, the Ranee, who has still great influence with the troops, reproached them for the death of her brother, and threatened to destroy herself and her son. The Punchayet released Deewan Deena Nath and Ultur Singh Kaleewala, with orders to Booth the Ranee. After some time, she and her son, and their attendants, came out to where the body of Jeweler Singh was lying almost cut to pieces. The Ranee and her women broke out into violent lamentations; which moved the soldiers so much that they Ited her and her son to return to the fort, carrying with her the Sirdar's y. They also allowed Deewan Deenanath and Sirdar TJltur Singh Kaleewala to accompany her. " The body was carried first to the fort, and then to the burning-place; where, amidst a great concourse of people, four of the Sirdar's wives were burnt with it. The crowd was so great on the way from the fort, that they broke the order of the procession; and two companies of Sepoys on duty with it, during the con- fusion, plundered the Sirdar's wives of all the jewels and ornaments with which they were decked for the occasion, and which were intended for distribution to Brahmins and others at the pile. Suttees are sacred, and receive worship: their last words are considered prophetic; their blessing eagerly sought for, and their curses dreaded. Deewan Deenanath, the Ranee, the Maharajah, and others, prostrated themselves before them, and obtained their blessing. This was re- peated at the pile by Deewan Deenanath, and by the Ranee, and her sowree proxy. The Suttees blessed them, but cursed the Sikh Punth. At the pile tfity were asked the fate of the Punjaub; and declared that, during the present year, its independence would cease, that the Sikh sect would be conquered, the wives of the Sikh soldiery be widows, and the country desolate; but that the Ranee and her son would live long and happily,. and the Maharajah continue to reign. These prophecies made a great impression on the superstitious multitude; and I mention them on that account, and because they doubtless express the opinions of persons about the Durbar." In a despatch dated on the 6th November, the Governor-General mentions re- ports that the Ranee had quite recovered her command over the soldiery. " She is said to have shown much spirit and energy on more than one occasion lately, and to have laid aside to a great extent all debaucheries with her veil. She now appears openly to her troops, and in public generally; and has been leading a more regular life, desiring that it may be thought she devotes herself to state affairs.

Throughout his communications, Major Broadfoot represents it as most unlikely that the Sikh army would cross the Sutlej. Their condition ap- peared to him to be utterly disorganized: the soldiers were continually deserting and returning to their homes; they could not even be brought, at one time, to face an armed peasantry that resisted their authority; and, however they might threaten, he always describes them as really unfitted to proceed against the British. The general state of the Court and of all the principal persons must have contributed strongly to confirm that view, however imperfect.

The Brussels Gazette of Saturday last mentions a rumour that the Dutchess of Kent will pass the greater part of the ensuing summer with the King of the Belgians, at the Palace of Lacken.

We understand that the report of Sir George Clerk's being about to be appointed to a seat in the Council of Calcutta is a mistake; and has origi- nated in the appointment by the East India Directors of Mr. Clerk, an old civil servant of the Company, and a cousin of Sir George Clerk's, to a seat in the Council.—Sun.

It is reported in Paris that the English and French Governments have agreed to a new arbitration on the affair of Mr. Pritchard, at which that gentleman is to have an agent charged to advocate his interests The Courrier Francais says that several of the Italian States have applied to the French Government to exercise a rigid surveillance over the association La Giovine Italia, which has its committee in Paris.

Letters from Persia announce that cholera is making frightful ravages in the interior of Asia. This scourge, which has travelled through Cabool, has already penetrated nearly as far as Tehran.—Medical Times.

We understand that the arbitrators who were appointed to fix the value of the reversionary interest of the Corporation of Liverpool in the Birkenhead Doek Estate have decided that the value of the reversion is one hundred and thirteen thousand pounds! We have also heard that the arbitrators have decided that the Woods and .Forests are entitled to from fifty to sixty thousand pounds for the property which they surrender to the Commissioners of Birkenhead— Liverpool Times.