Oisttllantous.

The paragraph in our last Postscript respecting the condition of Sir Charles Metcalfe, has naturally caused much pain, and has drawn forth the two letters to the Times which we subjoin as we find them. We shall be glad if our information prove to have been incorrect ; and we can only regret that the contradiction in the letters below is not more positive. We did not make the announcement without reason for implicit belief in its accuracy. That Sir Charles Metcalfe should have written in "a cheerful tone," does not surprise us; since we expect to see him stick to his duty and maintain his great spirit to the last. "TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

9th January, 6, Upper Ranelagh Street, Pimlico. "Sir—My attention being drawn to a paragraph in your paper, copied from the Spectator' headed, The Governor-General of Canada' ' and commencing with Sir Charles Metcalfe is dying,' I beg leave to say, that I have the pleasure of corresponding with his medical attendant, whom the present Govenunent sent out on the recommendation of the first medical authority; and it is a source of the greatest pleasure to me to be able to state that so valuable a life as Sir Charles Metcalfe's is not in the imminent danger represented. Although the fact of the loss of vision in one eye is correctly stated, yet I am happy to say, that from the latest authentic inform:dim, we need not be shinned at the sentence 'Sir Charles Metcalfe is thing.' I make these observations through the medium of your widely-eirculateci journal, purely in justice to my esteemed friend, (Sir Charles Metcalfe's medical attendant,) as well as for the satisfaction of the public, who must feel an intense interest in our Canadian Administration at the pre- sent time.

"I am, Sir, your obedient servant, "D. S. SCANNELL, M.R.C.S." "TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

" Sir—The nearest relative that Sir Charles Metcalfe has in this country received on the 31st December last a letter from him, dated Montreal, 11th December. It was written with his own hand, in a more cheerful tone than those that have been lately received. The distressing account, therefore, in the Spectator must surely be exaggerated.

-" I am, Sir, your obedient servant, A FRIEND."

Her Majesty, with her accustomed generosity, has given, we are in- formed, out of her privy purse, the sum of 1,0001. a year to Sir Augustus -P'Este • which is equal to the sum Sir Augustus lost by the death of the Duke of Sussex.—Norning Chronicle.

The subjoined letter has been sent by Sir Robert Peel to Miss Frances Brown, the blind poetess of Vigor--

Whitehall, 24th December.

"Madam—There is a fund applicable, as vacancies may occur, to the grant of annual pensions of very limited amount, which usage Inui placed at the disposal of the lady of the First Minister. On this fund there is a surplus of 20/. per an- num. Lady Peel has heard of your honourable and successful exertions to miti- gate, by literary acquirements, the effects of the misfortune by which you have been visited; and should the grant of this pension for your life be acceptable to yon, Lady Peel will have great satisfaction in such an appropriation of it. I am, &e, ROBERT PEEL."

We are flestired, on what we deem competent authority, that notwith- standing the strong expectations of a brevet, those who indulged hopes of being included within its range are doomed to disappointment. There will after all be no brevet—Globe.

It is rumoured, says the Globe, that a very large addition will be made to the Navy Estimates in the coming session; and our contemporary Sees indirect cor- roboration of the fact in allusions made by Ministerial papers to the policy of increasing the naval or coast defences. The Globe also hears that movements in the dockyard and arsenal of Cherbourg have caused suspicion, and dictated winter preparations here.

It is riunoured in the City that Lord Stanley has given permission to the Man- ritians to resort for labourers on the Eastern coast of Africa. We scarcely know how to give credit to this rumour; which comes, however, from a source but too likely to be well informed.—.4nti-Slavery Reporter.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer acknowledged in the Times of Monday the receipt of three sums of money, sent for" conscience-sake," and now paced to the public credit—viz. 101., 108., and 1/. This "conscience-money" is seldom of large amount: perhaps " conscience" struggles ineffectually against the tempta- tions of a good round sum at the banker's; and obviously, it is not likely to sway your large defaulters. The history of these restorations, however, would he in- teresting: would it be impossible to contrive a law for extending indemnity to a real penitent, so that he might confess as well as restore ?

The King of the French has just presented Mr. It. Culdtt with a splendid diamond ring, in testimony of his satisfaction at the conduct of that engineer, and his services in forwarding the train on the Dover Railway on the night of the fire at New Cross station, when the King passed through to Dover.

The French Princes, on Monday, gave the spectacle of a stag-hunt to the Arab chiefs, in the forest of St. Germain. The Kalifa of Constantina followed the dogs close, and his horse at last ran off with him; the rider endeavoured to pull hint in, but the bit breaking, the animal went oft; and did not stop for three-quarters of an hour. The Princes, fearing some accident, sent to seek the chief, and the Duke D'Aurnale went to meet him. The Kalifa was found coming back in safety. Being asked how he liked the hunt, he replied that "it was exceedingly fine, and worthy of a king."

Anne Louis Cretien Due de Montmorency, Grandee of Spain of the first class, Knight of the French Legion of Honour, died at Munich, on the 21st ultimo, at the age of seventy-five years. He was a faithful adherent of the exiled Royal Family of France, and had resided for more than ten years at Munich; where he had made many friends, though he lived in a very retired manner. He was father of Prince Montmorency Robecq, who was condemned a few weeks ago by the Correctional Tribunal of Paris for having sold busts of the Duke of Bordeaux.— Morning Post.

Solomon Heine, the Israelite hanker who died lately at Hamburg, has left by his will the large Finni of 3,472,000 francs to different charitable establishments, and a society formed by himself some time ago, for loans without interest to in- dustrious workmen, without distinction of religious creed. He has also left hand- some legacies to his clerks and servants, and 3,500,000 francs to his three sons- in-law. The remainder of the property, which comes to the son, is valued at 15,000,000 francs.

.An old man in Silesia has addressed a petition to the King of Prussia, in which he says that he is much afflicted at bearing the same name as the assassin Telesch, with whom he cannot discover that he is m any way related: he is indeed old, but be has sons; and he begs his Majesty to give him another name. The King im- mediately ;rote on the petition, " The petitioner's request is granted: he shall be called Echt."

. Mr. Charles Cochrane has carried his quarrel with Mr. Henry Bulwer, the British Ambassador at Madrid, to the London papers • and some of them have ad- mitted the voluminous correepondenee which originated-in his claim to a Spanish " decoration " and Mr. Bulwer's slights. The substance of it has already been stated; bet, in a separate letter to the Times, Mr. Cochrane tarred' scene wort into which the original reports had fallen. Mr. Cochrane did not ask for ther order, but it was first proposed by the Spanish Government; who requested him, as a matter of form, to apprize Dfr. Bulwer of the project. Mr. Cochrane did not send the laudatory extracts from the parrs to Mr. Bulwer by way of testimonials. in support of his claim, but merely as records" with the perusal of which he supposed Mr. Bulwer would be pleased. Further, it is an ingenious perversion of truth to say that the laudatory paragraphs were sent to the papers by Mr. Coch- rane or his friends, or that the papers acknowledged such to be the fact. "The word used is not ' paragraphs ' but news, (noticuzs;) and any one who reads the Spanish papers knows that they explained that the paragraphs containing opinions were spontaneous, though news of my movements' or documents connected with. facts, 6.d been obtained from my friends." Finally, Mr. Cochrane candidly ex- presses regret that " writhing under feelings of great excitement," "in the irri- tation of the moment," he suffered himself to be led by Mr. Bulwer's allusions "into remarks upon his style of entertainment."

On the 8th August, the following four books were condemned by the Tribunal of the Inquisition; and on the 25th they were entered in the Index as forbidden. I. Isabella Orsini di Bracciano; Racconto di F. D. Guerazzi. 2. Du Genie des Religions, par E. Quinet. 3. Della Pittura Religiosa, dialogo di Ferdinand° • ; da servire di confutazione al mistieisimo e idealism° odierno. 4. Scienza

dell' Umano Intelletto, GeTen) lezioni d'ideologi, di grammatica, di logica; opens posturna del Professore Tommaso Fracassi Fogg' Cesenate. Finally, it is notified towards the conclusion of the ordinance, that the author of " E meciol dono, ma te l'offre il cuore Strenna pel cape d'anno," has repented himself of the views and sentiments expressed in the adrnanack under that title, and has recalled the same.—Times.

Le Canadien of the 2d instant contains a mandement of Monseigneur Joseph Signay, the newly-created Archbishop of Quebec, dated the 24th November 1844, by which it appears that the four Bishoprics of Canada, namely,. Quebec, Mon trash, Kingston, and Toronto, are constituted an archiepiscopal province of Quebec,. by a bull dated at Rome the 12th July last.

Under the date of "Berlin, 31st December," the Cologne Gazette says—" The diminution of the postage on letters has already produced the most satisfactory results. It has been necessary to increase considerably the munber of postmen." A letter from Tahiti, in the Emancipation of Toulouse, states that of 600, men composing the French garrison, 117 have been killed or wounded in the dif- ferent conflicts with the Natives.

We are informed that, by the application of a ;chemical process, an ingenious, party has succeeded in the conversion of peat into coal within a short period of time. If the works of the great laboratory of Nature, perfected during cen- turies, can thus be performed by art in a few weeks, it will indeed cause a great social and national revolution.—Literary Garet 1

The Duke of Buckingham has allowed two of his most thickly-stocked pre-

serves at Wootton Underwood to remain unshot over this i season, with the view' of affording Prince Albert a day's shooting over them. There s an immense quantity of game in those preserves. When others of the Duke's preserves have been shot over this season, heavily-laden cart-loads of game have been the result of the day's " sport."—Globe. [If a number of live birds were collected, stuffed together in large crates and so placed in front of a steam-gun, would not the "sport" be still more prOductive 2]

During the sessions at Wakefield, on Wednesday last, a witness was asked if he was not a husbandman; when lie hesitated for a moment, then coolly replied, amid the laughter of the court, " Nae, Sir, Ise not married."—J/anchesteis Guardian.

The Bishop of Exeter recently avowed that he had withdrawn from the Camden Society because its seal contained a representation of the Virgin Mary, crowned,, with the infant Saviour in her arms, attended by two Saints not known to the: calendar of the English Church. The Society has a defender, whose letter, re- jected by the Times, appears in the Morning Post. He signs himself "I.," and his letter bears the Tractanan date, "Trinity College, Feast of the Epiphany." He has inquired into the facts, and finds them to be as follows. "The Blessed Virgin is represented as crowned, with the Holy Child in her arms; but the Samour holds the orb and cross, the emblem of sovereignly,—an important fact which appears to have been overlooked by the Lord Bishop. The Saints are St.. John the .Evangelist and St. Luke; and, of smaller size, St. George and St. Ethel. dreda. Now, Sir, on reference to the calendar, I find the 27th of December as- signed to St. John; the 18th of October to St. Luke; the 23d of April to St. George, the patron Saint of England; and the 17th of October to St. Etheldreda, the patron Saint of this diocese. How, then, any two of these Saints can be truly said not to be recognized by our calendar, I am unable to discern; and which two the Bishop alluded to is not very clear, since all are mentioned in the calen- dar, the former two being greater or red-letter Saints, the latter (represented on the Camden seal in a less conspicuous manner) being minor or black-letter Saints..

• Etheldreda also is crowned."