311-ioullattms.

The Gazette announces that the Queen will hold levees, at St. James's -Palace, on Wednesday the 26th instant, Thursday the 6th March, and Wednesday the 26th March; and a drawingroom on Thursday the 3d April ; at two o'clock of each day.

The Queen has nominated the Duke of Cambridge to be Grand Master of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, in room of the late Duke his father.

Last night's Gazette announces the appointment of Mr. David Robert Ross to be Lieutenant-Governor of the island of Tobago.

Mr. Shell presented his credentials to the Grand Duke of Tuscany on the 3d instant.

We have ascertained that there is no foundation for the report that the Bishop of Newfoundland was about to be translated to the vacant see of Nova Scotia. No appointment has as yet been made to the latter bishopric. —Morning Chronicle.

Lieutenant-Colonel F. Abbott, C.B., lately of the Bengal Engineers, has been appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the East India Company's Seminary at Addiscombe. Lieutenant-Colonel Abbott had served many years in lie, and was particularly mentioned for his services in the Sutlej campaign of 1845-6.

The Board of Admiralty have given orders for her Majesty's steam- vessels Sampson and Bloodhound to convey a quantity of rice and biscuit to the sufferers at St. Nicholas, Cape Verde.

The Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department has officially communicated to the Mayor of Southampton, from a despatch received by Lord Palmerston from Sir Stratford Canning, our Ambassador at the Court of Constantinople, information respecting the Hungarian refugees. "From the despatch of Sir Stratford Canning it appears that sixty-six Hungarian refugees will be embarked at Constantinople for England in the steam-vessel which will leave that port for Southampton about the 19th in- stant; and that the Porte is stated to have supplied these Hungarians with money to defray the expenses of their passage, and to provide for their per- sonal wants on their first arrival in England."

Death has removed a venerable Peer, long retired from public life, who without distinguished abilities reached and maintained for many years a position of importance in public affairs. Nicholas Vansittart, Baron Bexley, died on Saturday, at his seat in Kent, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. The deceased was son of Henry Vansittart, Governor of Bengal; he graduated at Christchurch College, Oxford, and adopted the bar as his profession. In 1801 he went as Minister Plenipotentiary to Denmark. Entering the Irish and Home departments of public ser- vice, he ultimately became, and continued for several years, Chancel- lor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom. In 1823 he gained his Peerage, and was transferred from the administration of the national fi- nances to the superintendence of lesser concerns as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, an office which he held till 1828. He married, but has died childless, and the title is extinct. By his death a pension of 3000/, has lapsed. The prices of admission to the Exhibition in Hyde Park are officially announced by the Royal Commission as follows-

" The Exhibition will be open daily (Sundays excepted).

"The hours of admission and other details will be announced at a subse- quent period.

"The charges for admission will be as follows-

" Season ticket for a gentleman 3/. 3.v. Od. " Season ticket for a lady 2/. 2s. 04. " These tickets are not transferable, but they will entitle the owner to admission on all occasions on which the Exhibition is open to the public. The Commissioners reserve to themselves the power of raising the price of the season tickets when the first issue is exhausted, should circumstances render it advisable. On the first day of exhibition season tickets only will be available, and no money will be received at the entrance-doors on that day.

" On the second and third days the price of admission will

be (each day) 1/. Os. Oil. "On the fourth day of exhibition 0/. ov. Od.

"And the same rate of charge for the succeeding seventeen days. " On the twenty-second day, the charge for admission will

be reduced to Is. Oil. "From the twenty-second day, the prices of admission will be as follow:— " On Mondays, Tuesday, Wednesdays, and Thursdays in

each week ls

"On Fridays 2s. Gd.

"On Saturdays or. Oil. "No change will be given at the doors. This regulation is necessary to prevent the inconvenience and confusion which would arise from interrup- tion or delay at the entrances.

" Should experience in time progress of the Exhibition render any altera- tion in these arrangements necessary, the Commissioners reserve to them- selves the power of making such modifications as niay appear desirable; of which, however, due and timely notice will be given to the public."

The following letter from Dr. Ullathorne to Lord John Russell has ap- peared in some of the newspapers.

"TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD JOHN RUSSELL.

',My Lord—In nailing the debates of Wednesday and Friday last, some observa- tions that occurred to my mind appear to me of sufficient importance to justify my troubling your Lordship with them. " The reason hinted at by Mr. Anstey why Lord Minto could not have been shown the letter-apostolic mill not iwid good. True, the identical letter that was finaUy published could not have been shown, for the hierarchy was twiee remodelled in a portion of its details. But at Rome they print documents of this nature at each stage of proceedings. As I have heard the history from a very good source. Moro any discussion arose on the point, his Holiness took up the printed document —of course time one first prepared—and put it into his Lordslmip's hands, saying, "This concerns England,' and Lord Minto laid it down on the table without saying a word. I can perfectly understand that his Lordship, not aware of the importance of the communication, and occupied with other thoughts, did not advert sufficiently to the circumstance to remember; but the conclusion drawn by his Holiness was of a dif- ferent character—he read in it the continuance of the policy of noninterference in our spiritual affairs.

" I have now on my table the minutes of sixteen separate conversations held in 1848 with authorities of the Propaganda, on the subject of the hierarchy. They contain in substance whatever passed between myself and those authorities in either private or official interviews. In none of these is there a single hint or allusion to say.

thing beyond the internal and spiritual affairs oldie English Catholic body. I have also lying before me copies of seven memorials, which, with the aid of an English priest, were drawn up and presented to the liolySee by the present a miter. Upon the basis of these documents the English Catholic hierarchy in its present form a as constituted, with the exception of an additional bishopric added in the arrangement of 1850. In no one of these doe lllll cots is there any allusion to other objects as in contemplation be- yond those of the English Catholic body and their hierarchy ; and nothing beyond this occupied the mind of any one engaged in making the arrangement. I assert this the more confidently as the apostolic letter embodies the principles of the memorials, with one remarkable exception. I had drawn up a memorial on time suliieet of time title,. In this I had strongly urged the expediency of appointing an Archbishop of London and a Bishop of York, and showed that this was perfectly conformable to our laws. But on this point, and on this alone. I met with a steady and constant resistance ; and that resistance was on the ground that it might give offence to the British Government. I was called in by the Commission of Cardinals whilst in con- sultation—a very mmu.sual course—that I might be able to explain myself more fully and clearly. I heard and shared in time discussion, and urged toy point to the ut- most. I even quoted your Lordship's opinions, and those of other members of the Cabinet, as expressed in Parlianieut, besides showing the state of time law, anti the utility to ourselves of an arrangement which would leave the Bishops undisturbed in the positions where they had resided as Vicars Apostolic, and realize better the dioceses they have to govern: but to no purpose. I was opposed on the ground of delicacy towards the Government. On this ground the whole of that memorial was set aside; and this was time only instance in which suspicion of offence arose. The Cardinals resolved to consult the English Bishops individually on this point ; and in the interval the insurrection broke out in Rome. But for this the apostolic letter would have come to England in 1548, as the public supposed it had come ; and we should most probably have had neither excitement nor persecution, for it would have been quietly promulgated amongst ourselves, and without mr•clat.

"Will your Lordship allow me to point out that the phrase ' Court of Rome' is an

Allow me to suggest another. Is it wise and in the spirit of a profound legislation to put the religious teachers of a large body of her Majesty's subjects in conscien- tious opposition to the law—to force them to put the principle of Divine law in op- pos tion to a human enactment—to make their very Bishops the incorporation of such a fact ? Will it aid the sanctions of the State, and that opinion, which, as your Lorec'lip views it, is the best support of law and government, to force us into a posiun it where, standing, as we are bound to do, upon the law of God and our con- science, we are compelled to count for nothing enactments which we can only con- sider as assaults upon the cause of Heaven and of our souls—enactments which, in fact, collie from no Divine fountain of justice, but are the offspring of party contests and sE c'arian dislikes ? We can make distinctions between the just and the unjust, and keep our reverence for the former; but to the mind of the multitude the sense of one unju t law which they are obliged in conscience to condemn is a taint upon the whole course ofjustice. " I have the honour to be, your Lordship's very obedient servant, "+ W. B. 1:1-LATHORNE.

" Bishop's House, Birmingham, February 10."

A proposition was some time ago made to the Treasury, and is still under consideration, to make the Commissariat chests of our various military sta- tions abroad available for the extension of the " money-order " system to the Colonies.—Naval and Military Gazette.

Earl Grosvenor, who for some years has regularly visited the Highlands on grouse-shooting and deer-stalking expeditions, has now adventured on higher game, having arrived at Ceylon on an elephant-hunting excursion. The Colombo Observer states that his Lordship is accompanied by the Honourable Frederick Leveson Gower and Captain Egerton. The Observer welcomes the noble party, and assures them that every elephant killed is a benefit to the country. We shall gladly welcome the noble party back to the bracing air and healthy sports of the Highlands, when tired of Tropical climes and adventures,—Inverness Courier.

John James Audubon, the deservedly renowned naturalist, died on the 27th January, at his residence on the banks of the Hudson river, in 155th street. He had arrived at the age of seventy-six, and has gone down to the grave leaving a name distinguished among the scientific men of every nation. —.New York Herald.

The quantity of rain which fell at Penzance from January 1st to February 1st was 9 inches 82 hundredths. The average quantity which falls is from 31 to 4 inches.—Cornwall Gazette.

From the openness of the season, the wheat plant has made astonishing progress. In some localities it is at least one foot in height, and looks re- markably strong and healthy.—Morning Post.

A letter from Rome, dated the 31st of January, contains the following marvellous but warranted true romance. "I have today to relate a most singular and almost incredible fact, the authenticity of which, however, is established by the most incontestable evidence, including that of official reports. On the 25th of this month, the theatrical corps of Forlini-Popoli was playing the Death of Ctesar.' Forlini-Popoli is a small town of about 4000 inhabitants, enclosed by a high wall, entered by two gates, and scarcely three miles from the town of Foci, of which it is a kind of suburb. By eight in the evening, the hour when the theatres open in Italy, all movement has dis.sap- peered from the streets, windows are closed, and the inhabitants have retired to their homes, the coffeehouses, or theatres. This absence of activity in the streets, which every one remarks at Rome, is still more complete in small towns. It may then be understood how, at Forlini-Popoli, and particularly on an evening when the theatre was open, the streets should be so deserted as to make possible the occurrence now to be related. The first act of the piece had terminated, and the curtain had just fallen, when suddenly it rose and disclosed—instead of the actors, who had disappeared—ten brigands of the band Del Passatore, who, armed with muskets and carbines, levelled them so as to command the entire range of the pit and boxes. At the same mo- ment, another party, consisting of thirty brigands, made their appearance on the floor of the house, the issues of which were guarded, and, armed with sabres and pistols, menaced the spectators. A moment of stupor, during which no one dared move, elapsed, when the chief of the brigands advanced to the foot-lights, and, exhibiting the keys of the two gates of the town, said —` Gentlemen, you see by these that you are entirely in our power : any resistance on your part would lead to disasters which I should be the first to deplore, but which it depends on you to avert. Listen, then, to what I have to say. I am about to call out the names of several among you : as I pro- nounce a name, let him who bears it step forth from his box and repair to his house, in company with one or two of my friends, who will assist him to bring hither all his hoards, and that without defrauding us of a porpetto.' This said, the orator displayed a paper, and commenced reading the fatal roll. Submission was inevitable. A dozen carbineers formed the sole police of Forlini-Popoli. Six of these were in the theatre, and had been gagged by the brigands. The six others, surprised in their guard-house, had ventured a vain resistance. The Burgomaster was the first victim. Some time was of course required for this operation, which did not ter- minate before a quarter to twelve. It was probably to shorten the agony of the pit and boxes that two brigands went from spectator to spectator, collect- ing hatfuls of watches, purses, chains, rings, and even umbrellas. When the harvest was gathered and the booty had been heaped up on the stage, the brigands allowed the curtain to fall, and quietly withdrew, carrying all with them. The money thus obtained amounted to 7000 Roman piastres, or about 40,000 francs, and the bijoux, objects of art, &c. at double that sum. The next day an Austrian detachment set out in pursuit of the band, which probably had dispersed by that time in the mountains or passed the Tuscan frontier. Their number is supposed to have been about three or four hun- dred. It is probable that they were in league with some of the inhabitants. However this may be, private houses and public treasuries all have been plundered, with the exception of the Monte de Piete, the fastening of which resisted all the attempts made to break it."