22 DECEMBER 1860, Page 8

Parliament is to be further prorogued from the 3d of

January to the 5th of February, when, as the Queen's Proclamation notifies, the Lords and Commons will meet for the despatch of business.

KA Cabinet Council was held on Saturday.

A proclamation was issued in the Gazette of Tuesday to give legal currency to the new bronze coinage. Not more than twelve pence for one shilling, or an equivalent number of halfpence and farthings for sixpence, are to be compulsorily taken in one payment.

Lord Bloomfield, British Ambassador to Vienna, and Lord Napier, Ambassador to St. Petersburg, arc raised to the rank of Privy Coun- cillors. The Honourable E. M. Erskine is appointed Secretary of Embassy at Sonstantinople, in succession to Mr. Saville Lumley, who is appointed Cecretary of Embassy at St. Petersburg.

James Andrew Brown-Ramsay, tenth Earl and first Marquis of Dal- housie, died at Dalhousie Castle, on Wednesday, at half-past six o'clock. He was educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford ; contested Edinburgh unsuccessfully with Sir John Campbell and Mr. Abereromby in 1835 ; and came into Parliament in 1837 for Haddingtonshire. The death of his father soon called him to the Lords. In 1843, when Mr. Gladstone was made President of the Board of Trade, the !Marquis was appointed Vice-President. In 1845, when Mr. Gladstone was trans- ferred to the Colonial Office, the Marquis was appointed President. In that capacity, he had to deal with the railway mania of 1845-6, and it afforded him the opportunity of showing his great administrative capa- city ; his exertions are remembered to this day. In 1847, he was appointed Governor-General of India, and took possession of his office at Calcutta on the 12th January, 1848. His career in India is matter of history; he conquered Pegu and the Punjaub, annexed Nagpore and Oude, and acquired Sattara, Jhansi, and Berar. He planned and commenced rail- ways, covered India with 4000 miles of electric telegraph, established cheap postage, opened 2000 miles of road, to say nothing of canals and works of irrigation. He left India, apparently admired by the people he

governed, and without a cloud to dim the glory of his eight years administration, and returned home to become, it was believed in India, Premier of England. But it was not to be : disease had laid its band upon the Marquis, and he gradually sank under its progress. He was only in his forty-ninth year when he died, so that with him the sun went down whilst it was yet day.

Mr. Charles Gilpin, writing to the Daily News on Monday, says- " Referring to your report of my speech at Northampton, will you allow me to explain that in my remarks on the probability of the introduction of a Reform Bill next session, I carefully guarded myself against being supposed to speak with any authority or knowledge of the views of the Cabinet, of which I was, of course, necessarily ignorant."

Count Cavour has addressed a letter to Mr. Edwin James, Q,C., upon the subject of introducing a process into the law of Italy analogous to our right of habeas corpus, in which the Count says- " I quite acknowledge that the strict judicial action given by the law of habeas corpus to persons illegally arrested assures more completely the liberty of the individual. I will at once bring the subject under the notice of my colleague, the Keeper of the Seals, within whose special province are all questions of penal legislation ; and I have no doubt that he will propose to the Parliament to approximate, as nearly as possible, to the law of England in this matter. My colleague, Minghetti, is preparing a law which will confer most complete self-government on all the provinces and communes. In this matter, also, it is our endeavour to accomplish, by other means, the same results which England, the classical mother of all liberty, has already achieved."

The Naniteur announces that M. Billault, Minister without portfolio, has been appointed Minister of the Interior during the absence of M. de Persigny.

Baron de Belcaatel, first secretary of the French Legation at Berlin, has been the victim of a robbery to the extent of 6000 francs, and all the crosses and decorations which he possessed.

The English Minister, Sir A. Buchanan, has given grand fates at Madrid in honour of Sir Robert and Lady Peel ; at one of the them, the Duke and Duchess de Tetuan, and nearly all the diplomatic body, were present.

Baron Verger, Bavarian Minister Plenipotentiary at Turin, having been recalled, the Sardinian Minister has, in consequence, received orders to quit his post at the Bavarian Court.

We understand that the Thames Iron Works Company have received an order from the Russian Government for an iron-cased frigate of the Warrior class, but larger—say, 6320 tons, builders' measurement. Other vessels of the same class are to be built for Russia from year to year. The vessel is to be built with engines of 1250 horse-power.—Times.

The Dowager Queen of Sweden, widow of Bernadotte, died on the evening of the 18th. It is mentioned as a singular incident, that her Majesty was about to visit the theatre to witness the performance of Calderon's play, Life is a Dream.

Sir George Carroll, Alderman of Candlewick, Sheriff of London in 1837, and Lord Mayor in 1847, died on Tuesday, in his 77th year.

Mr. Deulin, for some years past Harlequin in the Christmas Pantomimes- of Drury Lane Theatre, died suddenly on Monday, whilst in the act of par- taking refreshment immediately after a rehearsal of the forthcoming panto- mime.

Frewen Hall, Oxford, has been taken by the Queen, for the use of such members of the Royal Family as may receive their education at Oxford. Madingly Hall, near Cambridge, is being fitted up for the Prince of Wales, who will shortly commence a course of study at Cambridge University. It is not yet decided which is to be his college; Trinity and Magdalen are both named.

Lord Palmerston has consented to lay the foundation stone of the Hartley Institute, at Southampton, on the 8th of January. Lord Brougham is to be invited. The Hartley Institute will be for the purpose of promoting science and literature. The building will cost 10,0001., and will be endowed with 30,0001.

The new organ at St. Paul's Cathedral is to be opened with a grand per- formance of The Messiah on Thursday, January 24th, 1861. The orchestra will accommodate a full band, and more than 500 voices.

Mr. Mudie opened a new hall at his library in Oxford Street, on Monday.. Mr. and Mre. Medic had an assembly in the evening, attended by about five hundred ladies and gentlemen, amongst whom were—Mr. Charles Knight, Mr. and Mrs. Dallas, Mr. Hepworth Dixon, Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Mar- tin, Mr. and Mrs. Hewitt. Miss Jewsbury, Miss Mulock, Mr. George Cruik- shank, Mr. M. Milnes, M.P., Mr. Shirley Brooks, Mr. C. Knight, R.A., Mr. Blanchard Jerrold, Mr. Anthony Trollope, Mr. John Foster, Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Linton, Mr. Thomas Walker, Dr. Carpenter, Mr. Robert Cham- bers, Sir L. M'Clintock, the Reverend J. B. Brown, the Reverend Dr. Cum- ming, Mr. Justice Haliburton, the Reverend T. Binney, the Reverend 11. W. Channing, the Reverend Dr. Hamilton, Mr. G. H. Lewes, Mr. Long- man, Mr. Bohn, Mr. Routledge, and others. The building, which is in the Ionic style of architecture, is spacious and lofty, and somewhat re- sembles in its arrangements the different galleries of the library of the Bri- tish Museum. Its size is 65 feet by 46 feet, with a height of 46 feet from the ground. A central staircase leads to a commodious basement, and a light gallery, giving access to the book-shelves above, runs round the inte- rior. The principal cornice is supported by white Ionic columns, from

which springs an elegant lantern, divided by pilasters and circular-headed windows, the roof being formed of transverse mouldings and spaces, filled in with ground glass.

At the Leeds Grammar School a Volunteer corps has been established, under the title of the Leeds Grammar School Cadet Rifle Corps. The mem- bers, the whole of whom are pupils at the school, are drilled twice a week. Their uniforms and equipments are of a becoming and serviceable character, and the youths have entered with great spirit and goodwill into the pa- triotic movement.

King's College Hospital, standing in the midst of a dense but poor popu- lation, has received since its opening in 1839, no less than 429,532 patients, of whom 25,231 were in-patients and 395,791 out-patients ; 8610 poor married women were attended at their own homes. In the year 1859, 35,959 patients were entered. The hospital is entirely dependent on volun- tary contributions ; its outlay is only 60001. per annum, and the prseent building has cost 100,0001., every penny of which has been raised by sub- scription.

The tercentenary of Merchant Taylors' School occurs in 1861. " Doctors- day " was celebrated on Tuesday, and the school broke up till January 15th, after the delivery of speeches according to the usual programme.

A large painting, " Garibaldi commanding at the Siege of Rome in 1849," by Mr. George Thomas, who took sketches on the spot during the siege, has been added to the picture gallery of the Crystal Palace. New rooms have been fitted up in the North wing of the Palace for educa- tional classes. Ladies may thus obtain instruction in Music and Drawing. Convenient studios, lecture and class-rooms, are set apart for the use of the classes. The parents and friends of the pupils are admitted to the lectures, but not the public generally. Already, classes for water-colour painting:, singing, and music are formed, and lectures arranged, under the able direc- tion of Mr. Goodall, Mr. Leslie, Signor Garcia, and M. Benedict. Botanical and chemical classes are contemplated.

The Artillery Company celebrated its 250th anniversary by a banquet at Willis's Rooms. The corps assembled in great force in uniform ; Lord Col- ville presided, and speeches were made by Lord Rokeby, Sir James Duke, Colonel M‘Murdo, who acknowledged the toast of " the Army, the Navy, and the Volunteers; " the Lord Mayor, who spoke for the City ; the Reve- rend Thomas Hugo proposed a toast, at such meetings too often forgotten- 4 The Press," in terms of apt and happy appreciation.

A new Protestant church is in course of erection in Paris ; when it is completed Paris will have twenty Protestant churches and 104 working clergymen. The number of children attending Protestant Sunday Schools is 2600.

A prospectus has been issued of the London and Provincial Turkish Bath Company, with a capital of 100,0001., in shares of 51. each.

The President of the Royal Society has appointed the following gentle- men Vice-Presidents- for the ensuing year—General Sabine, Sir John Boileau, Bart., Thomas Graham, Esq., and Sir Henry Holland, Bart.

A resolution has been carried in the Marylebone Vestry in favour of the formation of a carriage-way across Primrose Hill.

Mr. James Nasnayth, writing on the subject of colliery explosions, enforce the utility of ventilation, and refers to the operation of his fans—" If those who have a special interest in this subject would visit Earl Fitzwilliam'a pits at Elsecar, near Rotherham, they would there see in constant action exhausting fans, which nine years' continuous experience has proved to be, in every respect, most effective agents for procuring a thorough ventilation of all such mines. The fans in question are so simple in their construction, and so easily kept in order, that not the slightest interruption to their action has occurred since their erection, while the air of the pits ventilated by them is as pure as that on the surface. The last erected of these fans is capable of yielding a current of upwards of 200,000 cubic feet per minute, and can :even exceed this when required by a signal from below. I do not wish to occupy the valuable space of your columns by a detailed description of those simple and efficient machines, but may add that they are placed on the surface of the ground, where their due action is open to inspection at all times."

The supply of gold by escort continues to fall off as compared with former years. The total supply this year is 1,620,168 ounces, against 1,811,893 ounces last year. The shipments are 1,645,554, against 1,906,366 last year, being a deficiency of upwards of 1,000,0001. in value as compared with last year. I believe, however, that this is more than counterbalanced by other productions, chiefly articles of consumption which create no external trade. Another hint to the shipping merchants to check their consignments. Taking the two years 1859 and 1860—they have already sent us about 3,440,0001. worth of goods more than we have the means of paying for by exports— though our debentures will, no doubt, pay for a portion of this excess. A large quantity of gold has been shipped since the last mail by the following ships—Suffolk, 73,385; Jeddo, 24,177; Roxburgh Castle, 41,708; Great Britain, 118,560.

Mr. J. Bally Denton, writing upon the necessity for outfalls for drains, states that " there has been expended in under-draining, under the control of the Inclosure Commissioners, between 4,000,0001. and 5,000,0001., and it is probable about another million has been expended independently. About 1,500,000 acres of land have been drained for this outlay, and there remains about 21,000,000 acres of wet land in Great Britain still to drain ; " and he adds his views as to the extent of the difficulties, and the legislative powers necessary for a remedy. "At this moment, after the experience we have had, and when land drainage is acknowledged to be the basis of agricultural improvement, we are without any means practically of conveying the waters of drainage to the natural outfall if an objecting landowner intervenes, nor have we the power of deepening an existing public watercourse, though the first principle recognized by the Government, upon which they allow the cost of under-draining to become a charge on the inheritance, is increased depth of under-drains, which necesserily involves a greater depth of outfall than has hitherto existed. What is now wanted is a measure of great mag- nitude :—first, to provide, by the simplest process, means of outfall for in- dividual landowners ; next, to enable a fixed majority of a district to com- bine and carry out drainage improvements by removing obstacles such as mills, dams, &c. ; and, lastly, to consolidate existing districts under commissions, and to establish a system of management consistent with he present state of things."

" An M.P." writes to the Times that twelve accidents have occurred to railway passenger trains since the 1st of November. Of these, eleven have been collisions, all of which might have been prevented by the adoption of a simple rule—viz., that no train should leave a station until it has been telegraphed from the next station that the line is clear."

The cold weather during the week has had the effect of freezing the ornamental waters of the parks ; numbers of persons ventured on on Thurs- day, and some went in.

Three vessels went down at sea upon the dangerous sands whioh line the Yarmouth coast, on Monday and Tuesday.