15 NOVEMBER 1856, Page 6

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The first Cabinet Council of the winter season was held on Tuesday, at the official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury in Downing Street. The Ministers present were Viscount Palmerston, the Lord Chancellor, Earl Granville, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Earl of liar- rowby, Sir George Grey, Earl of Clarendon, Mr. Labouchere, Lord Pan- mare, Sir George Lewis, Sir Charles Wood, Mr. Vernon Smith, Lord Stanley bf Alderley, Mr. Baines, and the Duke of Argyll.

The Cabinet Council, attended by the same Ministers, met again on Wednesday, at Lord Palmerston'a official residence.

The Cabinet met a third time on Thursday : all the members were present. It is remarked that the daily journals have not, as usual, re- ported the length of the sittings. Parliament was further prorogued on Thursday, by Commission, until Tuesday the 16th December; not then to meet for despatch of business.

Prince Carini and the Marquis Antonini, the Ministers of the King of Naples at the Courts of St. James's and the Tuileries, respectively, have been informed by the Governments of England and France that their passports are at their disposaL This has been done, it is said, because the King of Naples did not think fit to withdraw them after the rupture between the two Governments and himself.

The total deaths in London, which in the previous week were 969, rose to 1006 in the week that ended last Saturday. The average num- ber in the ten weeks corresponding to last week, of the years 1846—'55, was 1032 ; and if this number is to be compared with the deaths now returned, it must be raised in proportion to increase of population, when it will become 1135. The comparison shows a difference of 129 in fa- vour of the return of last week.. . . A garden labourer at Fulham died at the age of ninety-one years ; the widow of a Government clerk at ninety-five ; and the widow of an agricultural labourer died in Obli- gation Row, Upper Tooting, of bronchitis, at the age of one hundred. Mr. Withell, the Registrar, mentions that " this centenarian was born at Sevenoaks in Kent, in November 1755; she enjoyed good health and the use of her faculties till within the last five weeks."—Registrar- General's' _Report.

The journals contain a rumour that the list of Bishops about to resign will be increased by the name of the Bishop of Rochester ; who, it is said on local authority, finds the duties of his diocese too laborious for a man of " advanced age and consequent infirmities."

Further details have been received with regard to the Russian railway concession. It is stated that the contract has been signed by M. Isaac Pereire on behalf of the Credit Mobilier, Messrs. Hope of Amsterdam, Solomon Thurneyssen, Thomas Baring, and Stieglitz and Co. The roads are to be finished in ten years, and the duration of the concession is to be for eighty-five years from the time each line is completed. The lines to be constructed are-1. The Warsaw line ; 2. Kovno, to the Prussian frontier ; 3. Moscow to Nigny Novgorod ; 4. Moscow to "fheodosia ; 5. Maio Arch- angelsk to Libau. The Government guarantee 5 per cent, including sinking- fund per cent, which is not to commence for thirty years. Twenty years after the opening of each line the Government is to have the right of pur- chase by allowing for sixty-five years a sum per annum equal to the average profits of the last previous five years ; but it is supposed this is not to be the case if the profits have been below the guarantee. During the next two years about 200 English miles are to be opened, in the five following years about 470 miles, and in the last three years the remainder. The President of the Board of Direction must be a Russian, but the chief Committee for the settlement of- all differences is to be in Paris. Rails, machinery, and all requisites, are to be imported free of duty ; and the first issue of shares is to be for a sum equal to 12500,0001. sterling, of which half is to be subscribed in Russia. [Our journals express general distrust of the scheme, the new explanations notwithstanding.]

The great bell of Weetminster, intended for the clock tower of the new Houses of Parliament, and known as " Big Ben," was solemnly tested on Thursday. Mr. Denison, its designer, and a great company of the curious, were present. The bell was not in its place, but within a hoarding at the base of the tower. The clapper, of twelve hundredweight, was on this cc- easion swayed to and fro by eight labourers. The note struck proved to be E natural, the note it was designed to give forth. The bell is described as a "perfect piece of casting" ; and its power of tone surpasses that of all other bells, native or foreign.

In consequence of the two recent disastrous occurrences on the London and North-Western Railway, the Board of Trade have ordered two official inquiries —the inquiry into the Wolverton case to be conducted by Lien- tenant-Colonel Yolland R.E. ; the King's Langley, by Lieutenant-Colonel Wynne R.E.

Lord Panmure has issued an order permitting the employment of soldiers as military clerks. Six thousand pounds are to be expended in providing separate quarters for married noncommissioned officers and private soldiers at Chatham.

The Nightingale Fund now exceeds 37,000L: a first instalment of 10001. has just been received from Calcutta.

The fortifications of Toulon are to be considerably increased: the work is to be extended over three or six years, and will cost three or four millions of francs.

The naval force in commission on the 1st instant consisted of 264 ships, with 6037 guns, and 49,644 men. On the let of January the ships num- bered 325, with guns, and 63,335 men.

The Irish journals record the death of Major William Nugent Macnamara, ninny years one of the Members for Clare, and a prominent politician, but better known as O'Connell's second in his fatal duel with D'Esterre in 1815.

Prince Callimaki, the Turkish Ambassador, has had an audience of the Empress of Austria, to present a fine necklace sent by the Sultan.

The Archduke Charles 'Louis of Austria was married to the Princess Mar- garet of Saxony, in the Court Church at Dresden, on the 4th.

On the arrival of the Dowager Empress of Russia at Nice, the flower- women presented a fine bouquet ; and in return the Empress made them a present of 1000 francs,--a costly nosegay.

The Goldsmiths Company, on learning that the income of Middlesex Hospital was inadequate to its expenditure, have presented 2001. to its funds.

The vintage of Prance has given satisfaction both as to quantity and qua- lity ; but it would require four or five similar harvests to restore the old abundance and cheapness.

Accounts from Madeira state that there are signs of improvement in the vines. The failure in recent vintages has led to the introduction or exten- sion of other crops—sugar, corn, cochineal, vegetables. A recent census of the Roman States makes the population 3,100,000; an increase of 300,000 in ten years. In 1854, 232,031 passengers passed between England and the Continental Channel ports ; in 1855, the total was 313,580: the increase is ascribed to the Paris Exhibition.

Works are proceeding for deepening and extending the anchorage of Leghorn ; but want of money makes the progress slow.

The Em r and Empress of the French have placed 100,000 francs at the ' of the Prefect of Police to open economical kitchens for the poor of Paris during the winter months, similar to those found so useful last year.

The price of corn continues to fall throughout France ; and in Paris it has receded so much that the Caisse de Service de is Boulangerie is now re- ceiving instead of spending, as it has done for some years past, to keep down the price of bread : the price would now be, according to the price of corn, 46 centimes, but the assize fixes it at 60 centimes.

Tobacco is rising in price in this country ; intelligence having arrived from America that the crop is a very deficient one, and even that it has been much damaged in many places by a very early frost.

Twelve subjects of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, chiefly lawyers, doctors, and learned professors, who have been four years in prison on charges of sedition and conspiracy, have just been sentenced to periods of imprisonment varying from two years to six months.

Captain Nies, the Superintendent of the Royal William Victualling Yard at Plymouth, has been superseded, in consequence of an inquiry by the Ad- miralty into certain charges made by Mr. Iriscott, the Storekeeper : Mr. Triscott's own conduct is also pronounced not free from censure.

On Monday morning snow fell at Shields, and the distant Cheviots were observed to have put on their winter covering.

Vesuvius has shown some activity of late, sufficient to excite attention in the evenings. The guides believe that there will be a considerable eruption before long.