15 APRIL 1854, Page 9

ZiortlIrtunuts.

The three new Directors of the East India Company, nominated by the Crown, in accordance with the provisions of the India Act of last session, are Lieutenant-General Sir George Pollock, Mr. John Pollard Willoughby, and Sir Frederick Currie.

The Commissioners for the Affairs of India have appointed the Right Honourable T. B. Macaulay M.P., the Right Honourable Lord Ash- burton, John Shaw Lefevre, Esq., C.B., the Reverend Henry Melvill, B.D., Principal of Haileybury College, and the Reverend Benjamin Jowett, Fellow and Tutor of Balliol College, Oxford, to be a committee for the purpose of considering the best means of carrying out the clauses of the Government of India Act of last session under which admission to the College of Haileybury will hereafter be open to competition.

Mr. Edward Romilly, one of the Commissioners of the Audit Board since 1836, has been appointed Chairman of that Board vice Sir William L. Berries, resigned.

• The office of Counsel to the Admiralty, rendered vacant by Mr. Crow- der's elevation to the Bench, will in all probability be filled by Mr. Phinn.—Daily News.

By the death of General Mercer Henderson the Colonelcy of the Sixty- eighth Regiment is at the disposal of Lord Hardinge ; and by the death of Sir Richard Armstrong, that of the Thirty-second. The first, it is stated, will be given to Major-General Darling ; the second to Sir Wil- loughby Cotton, now Colonel of the Ninety-eighth. The last-named regiment will be bestowed upon Sir William Berries.

In the Spectator of the 31st of December we called attention to the remarkably small quantities of wheat returned by the Registrar-General as sold in the towns under his jurisdiction. The decline has since con- tinued without intermission ; and last week's return states that only 36,000 quarters were disposed of, against 86,000 quarters in the corre- sponding period last year. The following are the comparative returns of the last two months.

Quarters sold

In 1854. in 1853.

Decrease.

February 10 77,098 • • 99,266 22,168 " 17 64,131 • • 78,428 14,297

24 59,170 • • 80,632 21,462 March 3 55,662 • • 86,001 30,339

61,890 • • 84,548 22,658

17 65,763 .. 103,145 37,392

41 if

24 31 53,244 46,739 • • •• 90,268 80,924 37,024 34,185 Lord Palmerston had a dinner-party on Saturday ; and Viscountess Palmerston afterwards had an evening party, very fully attended. Among the company were the newly-arrived Indian lions—the son and grandson of Tippoo Seib.

The Marquis of Lansdowne also had a dinner-party on Saturday.

The Fox Club held their third dinner of the season on Saturday, at Brooks's.

Mr. Charles Cavendish Clifford, the eon of Sir Augustus Clifford, succeeds Mr. R. W. Grey as private secretary to Lord Palmerston.

The remains of Professor Wilson were interred on the 7th, in the Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh. The Lord Provost, Magistrates, and Council of the city, the Senatus Academicue of the University, the Directors of the Philo- sophical Institution, and the members of the Royal Scottish Academy, formed part of the very large funeral procession.

Lord Harris, the new Governor of Madras, arrived at Alexandria on the 2d.

Sir Charles Grey, ex-Governor of Jamaica, has arrived at Charleston.

The late Marquis of Londonderry's will was proved on Saturday. He has left all his property, real and personal, except that settled on his eldest son, at the entire disposal of the Marchioness, who is sole executrix. The aggre- gate of the personal property in the provinces of Canterbury and York and in Ireland is 335,000/. The Marchioness succeeds to the vast estates and collieries in England ; but the present Marquis inherits the Irish estates.

The piece of plate, value three hundred guineas, the gift of the Emperor of Russia and known as the Emperor's Vase, contended for on the Ascot race-course for the last nine years, has this year been declined by the stewards. Instead, a cup worth three hundred sovereigns, to be called the old Ascot Cup, will be the prize of the race.

The number of volunteers enrolled for the Militia in England and Wales amounted to 66,280 on the let of January last, exclusive of the permanent staff. The number who attended training and exercise in 1853, including the permanent staff, was 51,561.

On the 7th and 8th there were no fewer than 18,072 entries of tea at the London Customhouse; and during last week the total paid under the re- duced duties was no less than 320,000/.

The price of grain has taken another turn—on Monday corn fell at Mark Lane from 2s. to 3s. a quarter.

From the returns collected by the Constabulary of Ireland it appears, that in 1853, as compared with 1852, there was a decrease in the amount of land occupied by oats and wheat, an increase in the culture of turnips, flax, and potatoes.

Judging (coin the number of recent announcements of "unpaid taxes" forwarded to the Chancellor of the Exchequer by persons too modest to give more than their initials for publication, conscience must have been very busy of late. Most of the payments are for Income-tax, and some of these of considerable amount.

During last year the Booksellers' Provident Institution granted relief to members and widows of members to the amount of 6241. 4s. 64. The re- ceipts consisted of 452/. subscriptions and donations, 106/. balance from the preceding year, and 405/. interest on invested capital.

From a return made to the United States Senate it appears, that out of 235,900,000/. of United States stock, stocks of individual States, town bonds, railway and canal shares and bonds, and similar securities, there is 36,865,000/. held by foreigners—that is, mainly by the people of this country. But the Times says the total should be something like 45,000,0001., for a number of the States made no returns respecting their " repudiated " debts and accumulated interest—they have souls above recognizing such things.

_ Professor Glukcaan's electric apparatus for communicating between guards and drivers is now regularly applied to two daily trains on the Great Northern Railway.

Under the 356th section of the Customs' Consolidation Act of the last session of Parliament, the Board of Customs have caused the general orders and minutes issued by them in the year 1853 for the regulation of trade, &c., to be printed in a collected form. Copies of these orders can be had by merchants, and others interested and concerned, on application to the store- keeper at the Customhouse in Thames Street, or of the collectors and con- trollers of the Customs at the several outports throughout the United Kingdom.

Formerly there were two inscriptions in the ruins of the Abbey Church of Hahne Cultram, referring to the last abbot, Robert Chamber. The first, "Orate pro anima Roberti Chamber," disappeared some time ago ; but the second, cut in the stone over a niche formerly containing a statue of the Virgin, "Lady, deyr, save Robert Chamber," has been quite recently effaced by the chisel of some fanatical person who respects intolerance more than antiquity.

Counterfeit shillings of a new sort are abroad. The metal is composed of copper, nickel, and zinc, and is very hard ; the pieces are struck, not poured into a mould ; then they are electroplated with silver. They are excellent imitations of good coin, but fortunately the ring is very bad. It is believed that they are manufactured at Birmingham.

There are bad accounts from Oporto respecting the vines. Throughout the Douro district the disease has appeared in a very serious form.

Fifty miles of the Egyptian Railway has been opened for traffic : the last passengers from India travelled on it.

In the first three months of this year, 35 persons were killed and 141 wounded by railway "accidents" in the United States ; and 375 people pe- rished and 67 were hurt by steam-boat disasters.

Bank-notes at St. Petersburg have fallen to a discount of 12 per cent. Great mercantile failures have occurred in the Russian capital, and at Mos- cow and Riga.

Russia is the greatest unbroken empire for extent that ever existed ; oc- cupying vast regions of Europe and Asia, and nearly one-sixth of the habit- able globe. It is forty-one times the size of France, and a hundred and thirty-eight times that of England.

The war—with other causes—has seriously affected commercial operations in Spain. The working of the mines, which was becoming very active, has been paralyzed; railways and business generally have suffered.

The number of poor receiving public aid has decreased in Paris within the last twenty year:. In 1830-'2 it was in the proportion of 1 to every 11.1 of the population ; in 1851-'3 it was only 1 to 16.1.

Lodginghouses for workmen have been or are in course of construction at Paris, Marseilles, and Mulhouse; and arrangements are in progress for the same purpose at Rouen, Lille, and other plac‘s. At the beginning of 1852, LOUIS Napoleon appropriated a credit of 10,000,000 francs to assist this ob- ject. The constructors receive a subvention from Government of one-third of the cost of the buildings, and agree to let the apartments at a fixed price. The accommodation already provided consists of 5300 lodgings for unmarried and 800 for married workmen at Paris, 160 for unmarried men at Marseilles, and 300 for married couples at Mulhouse.

Tin is supposed by some persons as likely to become only second in im- portance to gold in Australian mining. In a recent number of the Sydney Herald there is a communication from the Reverend W. B. Clarke, writing of the subject in a sanguine manner, and mentioning places where tin has been already found. Mr. Clarke was first led to anticipate the presence of tin by observing rocks of tourmaline granite, the stone which yields tin in Cornwall.

Upwards of two hundred families have been rendered houseless by a fire at Birmingham in the United States. By the wreck of the steamer Jacob D. Early, on her voyage from New Orleans to the Wabash river, forty lives have been lost.

John Mitchel, in his slavery-advocating Citizen, calls upon the Irish in America to "free" Canada from the British yoke while the Mother-country is busy with Russia. The New York Herald declares there is an Abolition- ist " conspiracy " in New York to effect this object.