23 JULY 1853, Page 10

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Mr. Barkly, the new Governor of Jamaica, is to be knighted, with the decoration of a Civil Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.

Mr. John Robert Godley has been appointed Special Income-tax Com- missioner for Ireland.

Colonel Bentinck, who was severely hurt at Chobham last week, is now out of danger.

The Grand Duchess of Coburg, has since her return from England, suffered a severe attack of the measles.

The Lord Chamberlain has given directions that the funeral ear of the late Duke of Wellington, now placed in a temporary building in the court-yard of Marlborough House, shall be exhibited to the public, under the following regulations-

" On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, the public to be admitted free. On Tuesdays and Saturdays, admission to be granted by tickets obtainable on application at the office of Messrs. Banting in St. James's Street. On Fri- days, the doors to be closed. The first day of admission will be Monday next the 25th instant ; and until the 1st of October next the hours of ad- mission will be from eleven to six o'clock."

Mr. George Talbot de Malahide, private Chamberlain of the Pope, was arrested by French soldiers at Rome in ignorance of his real character. He desired to inspect a building partly occupied by French troops, but had not the consigne.

The Bishop of Treves lately ordered that no mixed marriages should be legal in the Catholic sense unless the bridegroom swore to bring up his children in the Roman Catholic faith. The King of Prussia has is- sued an energetic general order declaring that he will dismiss from his service any officer who takes the oath—" alike degrading to the man and to the Evangelical Confession."

An elegant new church on the Isle of Dogs, nearly opposite Greenwich Hospital, is to be consecrated in the course of a few weeks by the Bishop of London. It has been erected at the sole cost of Mr. Alderman Cubitt M.P., whose extensive workshops it adjoins.

There is something really grand and imposing in the steady march of Russian dominion since Peter the Great first consolidated his empire into a substantive state. On his accession in 1689, its Western boundary was in longitude 30' and its Southern in latitude 42': these have now been pushed to longitude 18° and latitude 390 respectively. Russia had then no access to any European sea ; her only ports were Archangel in the Frozen Ocean and Astrakhan on the Caspian : she has now access both to the Baltic and the Entine. Her population, mainly arising from increase of territory, has augmented thus. At the accession of Peter the Great, in 1689, it was 15,000,000; at the accession of Catherine the Second, in 1762, it was 2.5,000,000; at the accession of Paul, in 1796, it was 36,000,000; at the accession of Nicholas, in 1825, it was 58,000,000. By the treaty of Neustadt, in 1721, and by a subsequent treaty in 1809, she acquired more than half the kingdom of Sweden and the command of the Gulf of Finland, from which before she was excluded. By the three partitions of Poland, in 1772, 1793, and 1795, and by the arrangements of 1815, she acquired territory nearly equal in extent to the whole Aus- trian empire. By various wars and treaties with Turkey, in 1774, 1783, and 1812, she robbed her of territories equal in extent to all that remains of her European dominions, and acquired the command of the Black Sea. Between 1800 and 1814, she acquired from Persia districts at least as large as the whole of England, and from Tartary a territory which ranges over 30 degrees of longitude. During this period of 150 years, she has advanced her frontier 500 miles towards Constantinople, 630 milee towards Stockholm, 700 miles towards Berlin and Vienna, and 1000 miles towards Teheran, Cabool, and Calcutta. One only acquisition she has not yet made, though steadily pushing towards it, earnestly desiring it, and feeling it to be es- sential to the completion of her vast designs and the satistliction of her natural and consistent ambition,—the possession, namely, of Constanti- nople and Roumelia; which would give her the most admirable harbours and the command of the Levant, and would enable her to overlap, sur- round, menace, and embarrass all the rest of Europe.—Economist.

Grounds have been prepared at Woolwich Marshes and on the beach at Hythe for rifle-practice by soldiers. The Woolwich ground is 1000 yards in length.

The first Norwegian railway—a section of thirteen miles from Chris- tiania—was opened on the 4th July, the King's birthday. When the line is finished it will extend to the Miosen Lake, a distance of forty- eight miles.

The Orinoco in her passage home from St. Thomas, whence she arrived at Southampton on Sunday, had 48 cases of yellow fever on board, 14 of which proved fatal. The sick, as in other instances, found great benefit from the deck-accommodation provided for them at the suggestion of Dr. Finlay.

The Government of Naples has prohibited the exportation of wheat, oats, and barley, from the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. This is in con- sequence of the lowness of the stocks in hand and the uncertainty of the coming harvest.

Some time ago, Lord Aberdeen stated that if any members of the ship- ping interest would take the mail-bags to the Colonies for less than four- pence per letter, no doubt the Post-office would gladly accept the offer. Through Mr. Elihu Burritt, we learn that the Glasgow and New York Steam Ship Company have accepted Lord Aberdeen's challenge, and offer to "carry any quantity of mail-bags at one penny per letter" between England and the United States.

The Cressy, 80-gun screw-steamer, was launched at Chatham on Thursday. She is 250 feet long, 55 broad, 21 feet 81 inches deep, and 2537 tons burden.

The Commissioners of Customs have issued orders to the Collectors and Controllers at the several ports throughout the United Kingdom, directing them to prepare and transmit, with all practicable despatch, a return, in de- tail, of all vessels which have been detained in quarantine during the five years ending the 1st of July instant, at the respective ports, specifying the name of each vessel, the date of her arrival, the port from which she last sailed, the duration of the voyage in days, the number of the crew and passengers on board, the disease for which quarantine was imposed, the number of cases of sickness and of death during the voyage, and the number of sick on board when she arrived, the duration of quarantine imposed, and whether any and how many fresh cases of sickness occurred during the detention in quarantine.

A return moved for by Lord Dudley Stuart, showing the number of war- rants issued by any Secretary of State, from 1845 to the present time, for detaining or opening letters at the Post-office, with the reasons, has been issued. The warrants were six in number. Four were signed by Sir George Grey,—one in 1848, referring to a case of embezzlement; another in 1849, to a case of murder ; a third in 1850, directing a letter to be returned to the writer • the fourth, also in 1850, referring to a case of fraudulent bankrupt- cy. Two were signed by Lord Palmerston, in 1853,—one to return a letter to the writer, the other in the case of embezzlement by a country postmaster.

The estimate for the expenses of the Militia for this year amounts to 478,7401.; the number of officers and men is to be 91,812—some 30,000 more than last year.

The Preston Chronicle gives an illustration of the "conventual system." It asserts that two young ladies of Preston, belonging to a Roman Catholic family, renounced that faith to a clergyman of the town, and became Pro- testants. The father had intended that they should be placed in a convent at St. Leonards, apparently for the finishing of their education. As Pro- testants, they were averse to this. They were removed from Preston by a trick : they were invited to a sea-side trip, to Lytham ; but their father and an uncle got tickets by rail for London whither they were brought. On the way, at Newton Junction,. the girls made an outcry ; but the father said he was merely taking his children to school, and therefore a Magistrate who was present could not interfere. There are conflicting reports as to the pre- sent religious sentiments of the girls.

A collector " seized " a railway-train at Newformilwell in Ireland, for county-cess due from the Dublin and Belfast Junction Railway, which he had frequently applied for in vain. The collector detained train and pas- sengers until the money was produced.

Bodenham church was struck by lightning, the other day, during the per- formance of a marriage ceremony. A number of persons had assembled to view the ceremony, and several of them were hurt, one seriously. Of course the consternation was excessive. The building was little damaged.

Three workmen in the woollen trade had a drinking bout at Alva ; after the public-houses were shut against them, they obtained some whisky in bottles, and adjourned to a plantation, where the orgy ended in homicide. Excited by drink, two of the men—Macum and Rue—in consequence of an old feud, attacked their companion, Christie, shamefully beat and kicked him, and then left him helpless. He died soon after he was discovered. One of the culprits has been arrested, but the other escaped for a time.