21 MARCH 1846, Page 10

AilisceIlarteous.

The Courrier Franimis says—" An extraordinary courier has passed through France for England, from Egypt. It is said that he was sent by the English Chargd d'Affaires at Alexandria, with the intelligence that he had just obtained from the Pacha the authorization to carry through Egypt the reinforcements that are to be sent to India."—Globe of Friday.

A. statistical department has just been established by the East India Company, on the same plan as the statistical department of the Board of Trade.

Official sanction has been given to certain alterations in the uniform of officers of the Royal Navy.

Among the passengers by the Cambria steam-ship, on Saturday, from Boston and Halifax, SW Joseph Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. Joseph, who was at one time I.Ung of Spain, and whose proper title is now the Prince de Mnsignano, is nearly eighty years of age, and very much resembles his renowned brother in height, expression of countenance, and general appearance. His manners are very unassuming. He was accompanied only by his secretary, M. /Halliard. On Sunday morning he started by mail-train for London.—Liverpool Arbion.

Mr. Washington Irving, the accomplished author and United States Minister at the Spanish Court, has been recalled at his own request.

There is not a word of truth in the statement put forth by a contemporary that the Marquis of Waterford has sold his extensive and beautiful estate of Ford to a Liverpool merchant.—Neweaslle Journal.

From a Property-tax return it appears, that the amount collected for the year Miffing 5th January 1845 was 5,303,590/.; being 109,1941. less than was realized fur 1844.

Some lines of railway in England have adopted a uniform rate [a shilling) of carriage, whatever the distance, as far as relates to parcels of small bulk and light weight

A snow-storm commenced in the North of England on Tuesday night, and con- tinued during Wednesday; so that the snow was two feet deep in the neighbour- hood of Newcastle. This WWI the most severe fall of snow in that district for Pliny years.

During Thursday night, snow fell in the Metropolis to the depth of three ladies. In the suburbs, the trees and plants, many of which are in full leaf, pre-

sented a beautiful appearance early in the morning; but they were rapidly de- nuded of their white covering as the day advanced.

Two fine broods of partridges amounting together to about twenty-five birds, have been seen in a field near Linlithgow.

Sir James Graham's annual let of grazing-parks took place last week; and although the quantity of land offered for competition was considerably less than last year, the total rental obtained exceeded that of last year by upwards of 1001. —Carlisle Journal.

The accounts received in town from Ireland as to the state of the potato crop are worse today than they have ever been before. The demand for Indian corn for that country is rapidly Increasing, and has caused a considerable rise in price. —Manchester Guardian.

With the view of husbanding potatoes for seed, it has been suggested that families possessing other means of subsistence should now discontinue the use of the root till next crop. So scarce is copper money in Lincoln, that some of the tradesmen have been compelled to give change in postage-stamps. A wooden house, two stories in height, which stood six years in George Street Manchester, was removed the other day on a wagon to a new locality.

St. Mary Redcliffe Church, Bristol, has been thrown open to the inspection of the public free of charge. Among the attractions is the room where Chatterton affirmed that he discovered the Rowleian manuscripts.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer Queen, which arrived from Gibraltar at Southampton early yesterday morning, has brought from Corunna the remainder of the crew and passengers of the Great Liverpool, with two ex- ceptions: Lieutenant M'Leod, the captain of the wrecked vessel, committed suicide at Corcubion' after the last of his people had set out for Corunna; and Lieutenant Williamson, the Admiralty Agent of the Great Liverpool, was lying so dangerously ill at Corunna that he was totally incapacitated from coming to England in the Queen. Lieutenant IPLeod had been in a very desponding state of mind from the time his ship was lost.

Two ships bound to North America have been wrecked, with the loss of eighty lives. The accounts are not very explicit. The Ida, bound for St. John, New Brunswick, broached-to at sea, and became water-logged: forty-five persons, a portion of the crew and passengers, got into the long-boat; it shipped a sea, filled, and all perished. The mate, nine men, and one young woman, remained on the wreck, in the tops, from Monday morning until Friday evening; then they were taken off by the schooner Three Sisters, of Eden; and were landed, much frozen, and in destitute circumstances, the mate being the only one able to travel The other vessel, the John Minturu, an American ship, was on her voyage to New York, and had nearly arrived there, when she encountered a gale that eventually drove her on the Squaw shore. The ship became a complete wreck; and of these on board, amounting to fifty souls, very few got to land alive.

Some English underwriters, in effbcting insurances on vessels bound for ports in America, insert a stipulation that they do not insure against capture or destruc- tion by an enemy.

There are building at this time on the banks of the river Wear, at Sunderland, eighty-three ships, and fourteen more lying in the river fitting out, and for sale; making a total of ninety-seven, and many of them of large burden.—Newcastle Chronicle.

The Gazette of Tuesday notifies the _payment of prize-money to the officers and men of her Majesty's brigantine Dolphin, engaged in the capture of the empty slaver Maria da Gloria, on the 30th December 1848.

A curious order of the Police was issued at Berlin on the 2d instant. With a view of preventing the diminution of nightingales in their natural state of liberty, it is decreed that every person in Prussia who keeps a nightingale in a cage shall pay an annual tax of 10 thalers (40 francs); and that any person putting a night- ingale in future into a cage, without giving information to the police, shall be fined 30 thalers.

The Observateur Francais announces the establishment of a Free-trade League at Bordeaux. "It will thus be seen," adds the Observateur Francais, after some details, "that the impulse is given. 'No doubt, immediately all the great ports of France, Marseilles, Havre, Nantes, will respond to the appeal made to them by Bordeaux: likewise all the manufacturing towns will follow the example; they will hoist the flag of that revolution of which England, with unabated energy, has given the signal."

The fortifications of Paris are entirely finished. They have cost more than 5,000,1000/. sterling. Owing to the entire failure of the Douro vintage this year, there have beenlittle more than 5,000 'pipes marked of the firstquality; an occurrence unprecedented for a century. The average exportation to England (24,000 pipes) must be made up from the stocks from former years.

The Province of Demerara, to mark its sense of the importance of agricultural chemistry, has conferred a salary of 1,000/. a year upon Dr. Shier, the .official professor of the science.

The following is the comparative postage in the different countries: England, ld.; Prussia, 2id.; Spain, 21td.; the United States of America, 21d.; Sardinia, 3icl.; Austria, aid.; litlfallt, 4(1.; and France, 40.

The Roman amphitheatre at Dorchester has been saved from destruction, by the British Archmological Association. It was intended that the Weymouth Railway should pass through it; but the Association has induced the engineer, Mr. I. E- Brunel, to divert the line so as to spare the venerable monument. The area of the amphitheatre is about 218 feet by 163 feet; it is of an oval form and is sur- rounded by a mound of considerable thickness, formed of blocks of chalk cut from the centre, which is consequently much lower that the external surface. This wall is about twenty feet high. The amphitheatre at Silchester is of nearly the same form and dimensions as that at Dorchester, but it is not in such a perfect state of preservation. The area of the Coliseum at Rome is somewhat larger, being 263 feet by 165 feet.

Some few years ago, the Fourteenth Light Dragoons went to India, six hundred strong. In less than six years they returned to this country, a skeleton of thirty- three men and three officers.