311ifirt1lautung.

The ceremony of the Queen's presenting the Crimean medal to a large body of officers and men in this country entitled to that honourable de- coration, forms one of the most characteristic scenes in the military his- tory of the country. As soon as it was announced that there would be such a ceremony, every class of the people was anxious to take part; and accordingly arrangements were made for their accommodation. The scene was the parade-ground of the Horse Guards. In front of the archway, a low dais was erected for the Queen ; above, level with the first-floor windows in the centre, was a gallery for the Royal Family ;

on either side were tiers of seats, to the left for the families and friends of the decorated officers, and to the right for the members of the Government, their families and friends. Facing the Queen, on the-

Park aide of the square, were galleries for the two Houses of Par- liament. The other sides of the square were also filled up; and vast masses of people on all accessible points, extending far from the centre of attraction, formed the setting to the picture. As early as ten o'clock,. hundreds of officers, wearing the most diverse uniforms, and hundreds of young soldiers who had never seen service, had assembled; and the space shone with scarlet and gold. A large body of troops, the House- hold Cavalry, and the Guards, were drawn up in front of the dais, and. behind them the recipients of the medal. The Queen came at eleven ; accompanied by Prince Albert, the Duke of Saxe Coburg Gotha in the uniform of the Austrian army, the Prince

of Wales, and Prince Alfred. The distribution immediatiebigan. The troops were drawn up in order of precedence, Cavalry, Artillery, Sappers and Miners, Guards, and Infantry of the Line, and then the kors and.

Marines. As each man passed, General Wetherell read out to the Queen. his name and services ; Lord Panmure handed to her Majesty the appro- priate medal; and, with affectionate smiles and kind words, the Queen gave the medal away. The first to receive it was the Duke of Cambridge ; then came Colonel James Macdonald, the Earl of Lucan the Earl of Cardi- gan, General Scarlett, Sir John Burgoyne, the Foot Gitards, Sir De Lacy Evans and the Infantry of the Line; and next, Admiral Dundas with the- Marines and Sailors. Three officers attracted special attention. Sir Thomas. Troubridge, of the Seventh, who lost both legs at Inkerman, received his medal from a wheeled chair; and the Queen made him one of her Aides- de-camp upon the spot. The other two were Captain Sayer of the Twenty-third, also in a wheeled chair; and Captain Currie of the Nine-

teenth, who limped painfully upon crutches. As the soldiers passed they, simply lifted their hats ; but the Jack-tars, long before they reached the dais, were uncovered to a man. Appropriate airs were played as each_ division passed. The weather was fine' and the whole scene was admir- ably managed. It was brought to a close by a parade of the troops. After the parade, the noncommissioned officers and soldiers, the sailors and marines, dined in the Queen's Riding-school ; the Queen and her, family paying them a visit.

The officers who were most cheered were the Duke of Cambridge, Lord Cardigan, and Sir Be Lacy Evans. To enumerate all who were present would be only to name those who are the most distinguished in civil and military affairs. The list of the gallant fellows who received the medal,- alone, occupies two long columns of small print in the morning papers.

Preparations have been made at Heligoland for 6000 Germans, a part of the projected Foreign Legion. Fourteen English officers landed on the island on the 3d instant. The force is to be commanded by Baron von, Stutterheim' a Brunswicker. Major von Bassewitz, a Holsteiner by birth, who took a conspicuous part in the Schleswig-Holstein war of 1848, 1849, and 1850, will assume the command of the First Rifle Corps,. with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Major von Aller is appointed to command and form a regiment of infantry.

Mr. Kennedy, late Commissioner of Woods and Forests, has forwarded. to the Daily News a document of great interest to himself, and at all events a curiosity for the public. It is a copy of a sort of deed, whereby a munificent friend of Mr. Kennedy, seeing that he "has been deprived of the office he held) as Commissioner of Woods and Forests, mainly from his inflexible zeal in the discharge of the duties of that office, in promoting the welfare of the country at the sacrifice of influential patronage, and he may not for long or even during his life have that injustice repaired," binds himself to pay unto Mr. Kennedy 12001. a year, providing "that in the event of his being appointed to any office, or receiving any pension or allowance in respect of his past services to the country, the said an- nuity shall be diminished to the extent of the salary of such office or of such pension or allowance."

A printed circular from some eighty or ninety tradesmen in the poorer parts of Lambeth has been sent to us. The tradesmen are chiefly dealers in meat and other kinds of household requirements ; some are dealers irr shoes and clothing ; with a newsvender, a hairdresser, and a few others. These persons address themselves "To our kind customers," whom they ask to relieve them from "unnecessary Sunday trading." By keeping open their shops, they expose themselves to the charge of being irreli- gious, at the very time that they suffer in conscience, as well as health ;. and their assistants suffer in a still greater degree. They petition for rest. "Moat classes of society enjoy this happiness : it is granted even to many beasts of burden." They acknowledge that their custonters sometimes receive their wages late on the Saturday night ; but some receive them early ; and most, it is calculated, could abstain from coming to the shop after half-past ten o'clock on Sunday morning, if the hour of closing can- not be gradually reduced to nine o'clock. The tradesmen cannot close their shops simply at their own pleasure ; for they should then offend their week-day as well as Sunday customers, and so lose their very means of livelihood ; but they give the names of a greater number of tradesmen who do close their shops on Sunday. The directness, candour, and ear- nestness of this appeal are affecting; and it can scarcely fail to effect, by mutual consent, a wholesome result, which compulsory acts only attain in an unpleasant manner, if at all. Sir Richard Pakenham, British Minister at Lisbon, arrived at Southampton on Saturday : Mr. Ward, Secretary of Legation, acts for him in his absence. The British residents in Portugal fear that Sir Richard has taken a final leave of them, preparatory to retiring from public life.

Colonel Sibthorp has been ill, at his residence in London : a Lincoln paper spoke of his condition as " precarious" ; but another says that he is convalescent.

Count Walewski returned to London on; Sunday, to take leave of his friends. On Tuesday the Diplomatic Body entertained him at dinner in Willis's Rooms. Among the guests, were Lord and Lady Palmerston, and the Earl and Countess of Clarendon. Count Walewski left town on Wed- nesday, for Paris.

The King of Prussia has been ailing ; and his physicians advise his re- moval from Berlin to Erdmannadorff, for the benefit of the mountain air.

It may be recollected that Dr. Foran, the Roman Catholic Bishop at Waterford and Lismore, met with public approval for the spirited share he took, frankly coiiperating with the Protestant Bishop, in a banquet given to the Eighty-ninth Regiment when that regiment left Waterford for the Crimea. That was Dr. Foran's last appearance in public ; and he died last -week, in the seventy-second year of his age.

The North British Mail announces the death of Dr. John Couper, Pro fessor of Materia Medica in the University of Glasgow. Dr. Couper was the second occupant of that chair; having succeeded the late Dr. Richard Millar, in 1834.

Captain Peter Christie had died of a broken heart even at the moment when Sir James Graham said, on Monday, that he might not live to be tried. It is generally believed that unfounded calumnies have hastened his death, which occurred on the 1st of this month. Some time ego, he wrote to ask Mr. Layard to contradict a statement made by that Member in the House of Commons, to the effect that Captain Christie was "above seventy years of age, and suffering from disease," and that, in consequence, the harbour of Balaklava was in confusion. At the seine time Captain Christie stated, that instead of being above seventy, he was under sixty years of age ; that since he left England he had never been off duty, and that no man could enjoy better health. Mr. Layard, although thus mildly requested, has never retracted the false statement he made in the House of Commons.

Major-General Baumgardt, a distinguished Indian officer, who saw service under Lord Lake, and still more recently in the Affghanistan war, died recently in Paris.

M. Fould, the banker, the head of the firm of Fould, Oppenheim, and Co., and the father of M. Achille Fould, member of the Council of State, died at Paris on Sendai, in his eighty-fourth year.

Admiral Baron de Mackau, ex-Minister of Marine in France, died on Sunday last, after a protracted illness.

An additional force of navvies for service in the Crimea is being raised. In a few hours a hundred were obtained at Sunderland. The pay is 30s. a week, with rations, an outfit, and a bounty of 121. on the termination of the service.

Lord Adolphus Vane Tempest, M.P. for North Durham who is with his regiment of Guards in the Crimea, having received a hue from his mother, the Dowager Marchioness of Londonderry, immediately on its erection fitted up a large and roomy tent adjoining it, which he furnished with a library of standard works, several periodicals, and three daily papers; and, having a good stock of stationery, he opened it for the use of the men of his com- pany for reading, and writing letters home. This act of generosity is highly valued by the men.

A satirical paper, with wood-cute, called the "Mirror for Englishmen," has been started at St. Petersburg, with a view to hold up to ridicule the English nation, their rulers, and their (supposed) manners and customs.

There will in future be two mails a month to Australia, departing from Liverpool. In addition to the mail on the 5th, by the Black Ball line of sailing-ships, the Postmaster-General has arranged for one on the 20th, by the White Star line. The James Baines, one of the Black Ball packets, ar- rived at Melbourne on the 12th February, after a passage from England of only sixty-three days and a half—the most extraordinary passage on record.

An Anglo-French company has been projected, called the Societe Gene- rale des Clippers Francais, with a capital of 200,0001., for the purchase of large clipper-ships to trade from French ports.

Trade in Paris and the manufacturing districts of France appears to be very brisk at present. The recent ungenial weather has caused a rise in the price of gram in the French markets.

The estimated revenue for Canada this year ie 1,066,5201.; the expendi- ture 1,063,1421. Customs yield 900,000/. of the revenue.

Vesuvius in again in a state of eruption. "Viewed from a distance, the fiery mountain presents somewhat the same appearance as on the occasion of former eruptions ; that is, volumes of smoke ever varying in form and tint, issue from the mountain, and darken the bright sky above. Occasionally huge red-hot stones are thrown up; and at night a red glare tints the huge volume of smoke, producing a grand effect. But on the present occasion the lava streams from the exhausted and hitherto long tranquil Somme, which is the detached portion, almost coequal in height with the circular old cone, from whence all the modern eruptions have issued. The King and the Royal Family have visited the eruption, and hundreds of persons ascend the mountain night and day. There appear to be two or three streams of lava slowly creeping on from apertures Which vomit fire and smoke continually— ever changing in aspect, according to the violence of the subterraneous ac- tion. But it is the capricious forms which the smoke assumes that most amuse the spectator whilst lighted up by the reflected red of the fire."

One would have thought that Spanish finance had fallen to the lowest level some time back ; but it seems there is a lower deep—recently, the "Votes and Proceedings" of the Cortea did not appear because there was no money to pay the wages of the printers, and the tortes could not sit at night in consequence of the gas having been cut off" !

The authorities of Leignitz, in Prussian Silesia, are about to try a new cure for mendicancy—by punishing the giver instead of the receiver every one who gives anything to a mendicant, in or out of doors, will be finep from 1 to 3 thalers.

The Vienna Prase notifies to its subscribers that it will no longer be able to supply them with a Monday morning paper as heretofore, the Govern- ment having ordered that no types shall be set or printing executed on Sun- days before midnight.

The last Australian advices mention no fewer than fifteen deaths in New South Wales from sun-stroke; eight at Sydney, one at Maitland, and six at Parramatta.

At an auction-sale at Melbourne in the beginning of February, bacon was sold at 4td. a pound, American cheese at ltd., English at 2d., and butter at 81d. ; an unwelcome return for the rash exporters of such articles ! Labour is superabundant at Melbourne. Irish Ann in the market, while English or Scotch are eagerly sou A number of camels are to be introduced into the public expense, to test their efficiency as beasts of burd purposes, in the Southern part of the Union.

A member of the North Carolina Legislature made a decidedly good " hit " a short time ago. A bill was pending which imposed a fine for selling li- quor to free Negroes, to which he objected, on the ground that "such a law would make them more decent than the Whites."

When General Whitfield visited the Cheyennee and a few other wild tribes of Indians to pay their annuities last autumn, they informed him that the next year he must bring them a thousand White squaws, and the balance they would take in money. They prefer a White squaw to a blanket.

The patriots of New Orleans having presented an address to Mr. Soule, the ex-Minister mildly alluded to the ire his name had provoked in "the torpid breast of the crowned cut-throat who rules over France."

A Mr. Dove of Washington has recovered 10,000 dollars from Mr. Blair for an atrocious (American) libel—an accusation against Mr. Dove of being tainted with African blood.

CRYSTAL PALACE.—Return of admissions for six days ending Friday May 18th, including season-ticket-holders, 16,681.