3tintllautun

The Queen will honour M. Musurus, the Turkish Ambassador, with her presence at a ball to be given at the Embassy in Bryanston Square on the 27th. As the house is small, the party invited will necessarily be very limited—the very creme.

Lord Wodehouse has been appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minis- ter Plenipotentiary at St. Petersburg.

Mr. William Grey M.P. succeeds Mr. Grenville Berkeley as Secre- tary of the Poor-law Board.

THE PURCHASE SYSTEM.—The following gentlemen will, we have reason to believe, form the Royal Commission which has been appointed to consider the working of the purchase system in the Army : the Duke of Somerset, the Right Hon. Edward Ellice, Mr. Sidney Herbert, Lord Stanley, Mr. George Carr Glyn, Sir De Lacy Evans, Lieutenant-General Wynyard, Sir Henry Bentinck, Sir Harry Jones, and Colonel Wetherell. —Globe.

THE Cnrsresar INQUIRY.—The case of Major-General Sir Richard Airey is now under investigation. General Airey's explanation occupied the Board the better part of two days. The line he took was to show that he mistook the scope of the inquiry intrusted to the Commissioners ; he repeated that he did 'not consider that they had come out to try officers, but to inquire into Commissariat matters; and he threw dis- credit on the report because the Commissioners did not take short-hand notes of the evidence, but took it down as best they could, retaining and striking out what they pleased. The foregone opinion of the questioner imported itself into the evidence. Some explanations with regard to matters animadverted upon were omitted altogether. Sir Richard gave a kind of history of the winter months, to show that he had not confined himself strictly to his technical duties as quartermaster-General, but had rendered assistance where it seemed needed ; and that he never per- mitted Lanus and routine to prevent the soldiers from getting what they required. The extraordinary sufferings of the army, he repeated, arose not from any undue observance of forms, but from want of transport and want of men. He closed his address with an eloquent eulogium of Lord Raglan ; to whom in the worst times men went =dolls and perturbed, but from whom they came firm and determined : he threw into those whO conversed with him the energy of his own undaunted nature, and his greatness and unshaken firmness saved the army. Colonel Wetherell and other officers were examined to support the case of General Airey. In the mean time, Colonel Tulloch's health gave way under the severe labour he endured, and he was on Tuesday obliged. to leave the hall. On Tuesday, Sir James Clark and Mr. Martin certi- fied that Colonel Tulloch was so exhausted in body and mind as to be incapable of attending to any business. On Thursday when the Board met, General Airey and Mr. Filder declined to go on with their cases

unless Colonel Tuna& were present, as they should be compelled to MI- pugn the report. The Board adjourned to Wednesday next.

the Queen is to lay the first stone of the Wellington College on the 2d of June.

The Queen is to review some 14,000 troops in Windsor Great Park on the morning of the 29th.

The projected visit of the 'Dowager Empress of Russia to Germany has been postponed in consequence of her illness.

The King of Prussia has sent to the Emperor of the French the insignia of the order of the Red Eagle.

Captain Rundle B. Watson, C.B., has been appointed a Naval Aide-de- camp to the Queen, in the place of the late Sir Charles Hotham.

The Spanish General Prim has married, at Paris, Mademoiselle Gonzales, a young lady of Mexican birth, who has a large fortune.

The Woronoff Palace at St. Petersburg has been hired for three years as the residence of the French Ambassador, M. de Moray. This residence is one of the handsomest in the capital.

It appears from a statement in the Leeds Mercury, that Mr. Bright's health has really improved : under medical advice be has set out on a pedes- trian tour in the Scotch Highlands to be followed by a short visit to Swit-

zerland; which it is expected that he will be able to resume his Par- liamentsry duties.

Mrs. Bell, widow of the Henry Bell who first propelled a vessel by steam in British waters, died last week, at Helensburgh on the Clyde, at the age of eighty-six. Mr. Bell, whose career was not prosperous, had a pension of 601. from the Clyde Trustees ; at his death the Trustees bestowed 1001. a year on his widow.

M. Adolphe Adam, the composer, died at Paris on Saturday, from conges- tion of the brain, in his fifty-third year. He was a most voluminous and popular composer for the French stage ,• he produced some church music, wrote musical criticisms, and exhibited prodigious industry. In 1847 he lost a large part of his fortune by becoming director of the Theatre Lyrique.

The Queen and Prince Albert have presented 100/. to the funds of the Model Baths and Washhouses in Whitechapel, which has lately exceeded its income in consequence of the high price of coals.

Cornelius has prepared a study in crayons for an altarpiece which is to be ninety feet high, to be executed in fresco in a recess behind the high altar of the Basilica now building in Berlin. " It represents the last moments of the world previous to the opening of the Last Judgment." The study has been sent to Charlottenburg for the King's inspection.

The soldiers of the Anglo-Italian Legion at Malta have volunteered almost to a man for service in the British Colonies.

Several elections of members of the Chamber of Deputies have recently taken place in Piedmont from the operation of a peculiar law : members who are officers in the army have to be reelected on receiving any military promotion ; several such promotions have lately occurred.

• According to the Nation, Mr. Gavan Duffy's admirers in Victoria are sub- scribing to purchase him a landed qualification for a seat in the Colonial Legislature : 20001. would be required for this purpose, but a sanguine cor- respondent of the Irish journal expects that 10,0001. will be subscribed. It is reported that the " fusion" between the Orleans family and the Count de Chambord has come to an end in a singular way. At the recent meeting in Italy there was a dispute about what shall be the flag of France when the Count becomes King : the Orleans Princes wished it to be the tri- color, the Count as positively held out in favour of the old white • and this difference of opinion caused the parties to separate " as little fusionist as can well be imagined." [Surely this it a satire.] Mr. Dunn, from Van Diemen's Land, and Mr. Forlonge, from Melbourne, have arrived in London, to further the' project of an immediate resumption of steam postal communication between England and Australia.

The free navigation of the Danube, guaranteed by the treaty of Paris has caused a panic at Vienna among the holders of shares in the Danubiail Steam Navigation Company, which possessed an exclusive privilege from the Austrian Government : but as the dividends have been very high, the company can afford to make some reduction of charges to combat competitors.

During the last two years the Municipality of Paris has spent 60,000,000 francs in keeping down the price of bread ; this expenditure is to be met by a loan.

Who knows how much money is expended in one week's drive from street to street of the Metropolis ? The London General Omnibus Company are at pains to inform us that they took 81741. last week ; a large sum to be gathered in fourpenny and sixpenny fares, but only a fraction of the sum spent in London locomotion.

A correspondent of the Times complains that the Assistant-Judge of the Middlesex Sessions continues his private practice ; that he interrupts the business of his court to attend Westminster Hall.

Result of the Registrar-General's return of mortality in the Metropolis for the week ending on Saturday last.

Symotie Diseases Dropsy, Cancer, and other Diseases of uncertain or 'variable seat Tubercular Diseases Diseases of the Brain; Spinal Harrow, Nerves, and Senses Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels Diseases of the Lungs, and of tile other Organs of Respiration

Discnrca of the Stomach, Liver, and other Omani of Digestion—

Diseases of the Kidneys, &e.

Childbirth, Diseases of the Uterus, &c 211.8 •• .

196.1 .• 121.5 • 40-0 .••.

175.2 .• 57.8 •

1131 •

• :•• • • .

• • • • • • • • •• 201 219 107 fa 274 70 Rheumatism, Diseases of the Bones, Joints, ite

8.8 .... 11

Diseases of the Skin, Cellular Tissue, 8ic 2.1 •

Malformations 3.4 • • • •

a

Premature Birth 24.2 • • • • 88 Atrophy 25.7

40

Age

44.2 • • • • 45 Sadden 7.9 • • • • 0 Violence, Privation, Cold, and Intemperance 81.0 • • • • 33

Total (including unspecified causes)

1020.1

1081

Mr. Francis Bowen Pritchard, surgeon of the Rattler, has been tried by Court-martial at Portsmouth for cruelty towards sick seamen. The most serious charges against him were not established, but the Court found him guilty of others; and he was sentenced to be placed at the bottom of the list of Surgeons in the Royal Navy, and to forfeit claims for increased rates of pay or half-pay to which he would have been entitled for his six years' ser- vices in the Rattler.

The punishment of Second Master Dennehy, who was sentenced to death for " cowardice " at Kinburn, has been commuted to one year's imprison- Ten Weeks Week of 1846-15 of 1838. ment. It is alleged that the court-martial which tried him "Was loosely composed and badly advised" ; and that they convicted Dennehy of a crime when there was an entire *ant of proof that he had really offended in that way, even if his conduct had been improper in other respects.

A respected correspondent calls our attention to the subjoined nar- rative, which is copied by La Presse from a Lyons paper, the Salta .Publique, of the 25th April. It continues the account of a curious boat- voyage which had already excited a good deal of interest. Our corre- spondent tells us that two of the young men engaged in the expedition are brothers, Oswald and Eric Carington Smith, sons of Mr. Oswald Smith, of the house of Sniith, Payne, and Co. ; a third is Mr. Cadogan Cadogan, of Northumberland ; the other two are also relatives. These young gen- tlemen proceeded last year with their wherry to Rotterdam, where they embarked in it, and advanced up the river Afeuse nearly to its source ; thence they carried their wherry overland, launched it upon the Moselle, and proceeded down that river to the Rh8ne. Mr. al, 'c Smith made. some beautiful drawings of many of the little-known villages and scenes upon this river. "Yesterday morning at nine o'clock, on the beach of the right bank of the Saline near the Pont de la Feuillee, five men were observed occupied in, equipping a vessel with all things necessary for a long navigation—carpet- bags, dressing-eases, baskets of wine, and comestibles. These five navi- gators appeared to belong to the upper classes of society. They were Eng- lishmen, who had arrived in the evening from Macon by the Saone, and. who had left London in their boat. They had planned a voyage by water throughout the whole of France. To this end, they had constructed in. London a yawl of twelve metres in length by sixty centimetres of average breadth. The boat has no floor-timbers running without interruption from the keel to the gunwale ; but it has instead two knees so placed on either side. of the keel that the bottom is almost fiat, while the stability is considerably augmented. Lined inside with iron sheets which support the joints, outside Iffy is, at least on the gunwale, covered with a boarding of mahogany. It is a little chef d'ouvre of marine construction.

" The navigators quitted London fifteen days ago ; then descended the Thames, and traversed the Meuse ; went up the Seine to its junction with, the Yonne ; and followed the Yonne, the canal of Burgundy to St. Jean de • Losne, and the Sa6ne, to Lyons. They travelled all day, and only stopped at night to sleep. They theinselves managed their vessel, which is pro- pelled by four pairs of sculls. Four of them are always at the sculls, and the fifth at the rudder. When seated they occupy the whole space of the boat ; to change places they are obliged to stop and hind. " Notwithstanding the innumerable risks of this eccentric voyage, pro- secuted under unexampled conditions, they have succeeded in accomplishing the perilous transit of the Channel without accident. Their project was not only to come to Lyons ; they count on regaining their own island by the Rhone and the canals of the South. They will take the canal of Beaueaire to Cette, the canal of the South to Toulouse, and the canal branching from the Garonne to Bordeaux. Finally, they expect to coast the shores of Frahm, and to complete their enterprise by a course of two or three hundred leagues along the borders of the ocean. The voyagers quitted Lyons yesterday at ten o'clock. Declining assist- ance of the boatmen who offered to guide them in the passes of the Rhone; they resolutely cleared the great arch of the bridge of Nemours and the bridge of the liulatiere. May they meet propitious winds !"

THE GREAT GLOBE.—Mr. Wyld has added another attraction to the curious collection of illustrations of contemporaneous history now in- cluded in his Leicester Square Museum. The novelty is a gallery of Oriental figures, costumes, and arms. The figures are admirably mo- delled, in characteristic attitudes, clothed and armed after the fashion of the originals ; and they represent many of the races of the East, the va- rious officials of the present and former Turkish Governments, from the Grand Vizier to the late Janisary and living soldier of the Line, and., from the Bulgarian peasant and Armenian porter to the high caste Turk.-