Bioullauran

Lord Palmerston has addressed the customary intimation to his supporters, that Parliament will open on Tuesday the 3d of February ; and has expressed his earnest hope that they will find it convenient to attend, as "business of great importance will then come under consideration."

A Cabinet Council was held at Downing Street on Wednesday afternoon. All the Ministers except Lord Ilarrowby were present.

A second Cabinet Council, attended by the same Ministers, was held yesterday at Lord Palmerston's official residence.

Some changes in the higher offices of the War Department will probably take place next week, with the view of bringing the organization of the office to a state calculated to render the course of business more simple and expeditious. The office of Deputy-Secretary will, like that of Secretary at War, be abolished ;and Sir Benjamin Hawes, who has most efficiently discharged the duties of the office for nearly six years, will now become permanent Under-Secretary of State; Mr. Peel retaining the Parliamentary Under-Secretaryship, and Colonel Mundy obtaining a military command. The office of Secretary to the Ordnance will also be abolished, as the Ordnance branch is now amalgamated with the Army generally. We understand that Mr. Godley, now Director-General of Stores, will be Assistant Under-Secretary to the desiartment under the new organization.—Globe, Jan. 23.

The Church-rate question, as a Parliamentary battle-field, attracts attention betimes. A Committee of laymen, consisting of Sir J. Pakington, the Marquis of Blandford, Lord John Manners, Sir Stafford Northcote, Mr. J. Napier, Mr. Adderley, Lord Robert Cecil, Sir Brook Bridges, Mr. Smith Child, Mr. J. E. Colquhoun, Mr. G. A. Hamilton, Mr. Henry Hoare, Mr. N. Kendall, Mr. R. D. Seeley, Mr. Spooner, and others, has been formed, in consequence of an announcement recently made by the Attorney-General that the Church-rate question would form one of the first measures for discussion and settlement in the ensuing session. "This," say the Committee in their address "will render it necessary for every exertion to be made to prevent Parliament legislating on the subject without full knowledge of the opinions and wishes of the people. The Committee trust that Churchmen will enable them to act with vigour and efficacy in resisting any proposal to despoil the Church of one of her most ancient sources of income." [The Horning Post conspicuously states that the announcement attributed to the Attorney-General appears to rest on "an entire misconception." In his address to his constituents, Sir Richard Bethel "mentioned the support which he had given to the introduction of the ballot, the abolition of Church-rates, and the removal of Jewish disabilities ; but beyond this he has made no announcement on the subject alluded to in the paragraph."] Mr. Charles Pearson, the City Solicitor, has communicated his promised paper on punishments and prisons to the Lord Mayor. Those who are familiar with the discussion will find nothing new in the plan ; but there are many who know it dot. Mr. Pearson divides his subject under three heads-1. The system of past days, or the cheap and cruel system; 2. The present, or the expensive and effeminate system ; 3. The future, or the self-supporting system. Disposing of the first and second with sufficient emphasis, Mr. Pearson comes to the third " To ares society with powers of self-defence against crimes of violence and plunder, by compelling hardened criminals to maintain themselves by labour in industrial prisons, from which they cannot escape and will not be released, is the object of what I venture to hope will become the future system of prison discipline." This he calls the " labour and appetite system " ; and for it he finds Scripture authority-. He then describes his plan " The proposed plan for accomplishing these objects, as described to the Committee, contemplated the establishment of large industrial prisons, secure and strong, plain and cheap, with separate sleeping-cells for each inmate. The prison to be surrounded by strong and lofty walls, enclosing moo or 2000 acres of land. I propose that each of these prisons ehall accommodate 1000 or 2000 inmates, classified, subclassified, and distributed in different prisons, according to their economical condition, whether artisans, mechanics, or labourers; according to their physical state, their age, and strength ; according to their moral and legal status; whether felons or misdemeanants under longer or shorter sentences, and whether hardened offenders or novices in crime. By having one superintending power to deal with the large fund of labour of our prison population, means would readily be obtained for a moat perfect system of classification—legal, moral, social, and economical—for the purpose of meeting all the various objects I have described, so that the mutual contamination of prisoners might be prevented, discipline might be enforced, and the separation of the prisoner—one of the first objects of the system—might be promoted, at the same time thatjustice would be done to the ratepayer by turning the confiscated labour of the criminal to the beet and most profitable account. When the proposed plans for the classification of prisoners is complete, I propose that they shall, as nearly as economical considerations and prison arrangements will admit, be employed in the pursuits at which they are most apt, and to which they will be returned at the termination of their sentences.

Mr. Pearson looks hopefully forward' opining that as society cannot stand still and will not go back, it must adopt somo method like the scheme he proposes.

Mr. C. W. Eddy, Radcliffe Travelling Fellow, Oxford, addressed the Times the other day in praise of the Falkland Islands as a penal settles merit Admitting that the climate is "rude and boisterous," he thinks this the very beau ideal of a climate for convicts; for will it not compel them to exercise and labour ? Where old soldiers can gain a livelihood a convict will thrive. Corn will not grow there, but "potatoes thrive to perfection " ; and " probably " oats might be made to grow and ripen. The climate is favourable to esculents ; the grass of the country nourishes the finest breed of cattle and pigs ; there is peat for fuel in abundance ; valuable fisheries in Magellan's Straits, and inexhaustible timber forests in the Tierra del Fuego. The Falkland Islands only want docks, and convicts might build them, A single sloop of war and a party of marines would be sufficient to maintain order.

Mr. George Rennie, late Governor of Falkland Islands, has answered Mr. Eddy. He says, that "up to the present time no settler in the Falkland Islands has ever maintained himself by agriculture alone." Where the soil is not pure peat, it is mixed with heavy stones. After much labour, a tolerable sample of barley was obtained, "grown under the shelter of a wall." Walls, indeed, seem necessary for every crop except turnips. Wild cattle are the staple produce of the islands ; rabbits, poultry, pigs, wild geese, are plentiful. All that is required for the accommodation of shipping is a patent slip. Cattle-farmers can never employ any great number of prisoners ; they could not be employed in the fisheries ; and Government would have to maintain them. Neither is it likely that the manumitted would remain voluntarily on the island ; few persons remain permanently, the small population being kept up by fresh arrivals.

"I, moreover, doubt exceedingly the great safety of the Falkland Islands as a prison. If you make regulations of a very stringenescharacter, you will diminish the attractions of the islands as a touching-port for refits and refreshment. No vessels excepting under circumstances of real distress would ever come there, as the freedom and healthy recreations of the crew and passengers would be seriously interfered with tor the necessary security of the convicts ; and of course if the discipline is less perfect, escape would by no means be difficult. The convicts during their sentences would despair of ever settling permanently in a colony, which, although healthy, offers so few pleasurable or profitable prospects ; and as soon as freed the able-bodied among them would quit the islands, leaving the helpless or idlydisposed a permanent burden on the Government."

"A merchant" fills nearly a column of the Times with a plea in behalf of the Bowring policy at Canton. Pointing out that the Arrow had

a colonial register, he remarks, that if it should prove she left Hongkong

for Canton before her licences expired, "the British protection under which she sailed would remain by her until her return, even in a legal

point of view : morally, there can be no question that it would." Pass ing 14 this, however, he contends that 'Yeh believed the Arrow had a British register; since he remarks, in his first letter, that her builder ob

tained a British register for her on the day she was completed. In another letter, Yeh says the officers "were not aware she was a foreign lorcha."

" Yoh denies, indeed, that the British flag was flying at the time ; but our Consul satisfied himself from the master (Mr. Kennedy) that it was; and Yeh moreover acknowledges that it was on board the vessel,—another proof that he looked on the vessel as having some British rights or privileges. That the master was an Englishman nobody will deny. We have, then, a vessel with a British name, with a British master, with the British flag flying, and (as far as Yeh was concerned and by his own confession) a British register. .• . . . Can anything be clearer, then, than that, even if owing to the technical difficulty caused by the licence having expired, the strict letter of the treaty was not violated by Yeh, he intended to violate it, and that the course he pursued was a gross and premeditated insult to the British flag ?"

Lord Lyttelton, in a letter to the chairman of a Birmingham meeting, Mines himself from attending, but, going on the ground of the published despatches, succinctly deals with the dispute in a sense adverse to the British at Canton. One passage puts the matter thus

" If we grant that whatever may have been the strict merits of the case of the Arrow, it at least furnished an illustration of the undoubted inconvenience of the present relations with Canton, still I cannot conceive it possible that it shouhrwarrant immediate hostilities ; at most, it should have been made the subject of a reference to the Home Government. Nor can I think that in any case, at present, and after so long a toleration of the nonenforcement of the treaty in that respect, it should be a ground of actual war, though it might be a ground for suspension of friendly intercourse."

John Henry Duke of Rutland died on Tuesday afternoon, of an attack of bronchitis, supervening on gradual decay. He had been Duke for nearly seventy years; having succeeded his father in 1787, when he was ten years old. lie was the grandson of that Marquis of Granby so well known as England's Continental military hero in the Seven Years war; and he traced his descent back to the ancient Barons do Res, who in the twelfth century mingled their blood with that of the Royal house of Plantagenet. The late Duke was educated at Cambridge. In 1799 he took his seat in the House of Lords, supported Mr. Pitt, and ever afterwards stood fast by the old Tory party ; opposing the repeal of the Corporation and Test Act, voting at first for but at the last moment against the Catholic Relief Bill ; standing out against the Reform Bill, but waiving his vote when the final division was taken. In like manner, he opposed the repeal of the Corn-laws,—an example consjinuously followed by his three sons in the House of Commons, the Marquis of Granby, Lord John, and Lord George Manners. In private life the late Duke enjoyed the esteem of his tenantry and neighbours and admirably performed his duties as an English country gentleman and large landholder. In 1799 he married Elizabeth Howard, fifth daughter of the

Earl of Carlisle; she died thirty years ago. Besides the sons already mentioned, they had four daughters : two of these have died—Lady Katherine ermyn, and Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley • two survive—Lady Elizabeth Drummond, and Lady Adeliza Norman. he present Duke has been well known politically as the Marquis of Granby. He was born in 1816, and is unmarried.

Rear-Admiral Milward, an active naval officer in the early part of the century, who did good service on the seas and coasts of Europe, America, and Asia, died on the 14th, at Tullogher, in Kilkenny county. He bad been in the Navy sixty-three years. When Lieutenant in the Favourite sloop, he handed the pistol to her Captain, Lord Camelford, with which the latter shot Lieutenant Peterson, for mutinous conduct in English Harbour, Antigua.

Dr. Tatham, Master of St. John's College, Cambridge, died on Sunday, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. He had been ill for three weeks. Dr. Tatham was chosen Public Orator in 1809, and held the post until 1838. Three years after, he was elected successor to the late Dr. Wood, as Master of St. John's.

Baron Alderson is suffering from an attack of paralysis, of a nature that will, it is feared, prevent him from resuming his judicial duties.

Mr. Benjamin Moran has been appointed, by President Pierce, AssistantSecretary of the American Legation at London. The office of AssistantSecretary is newly created, and is, we believe, intended to be permanent, partly in order to serve as a connecting link for the proceedings of the Legation on the change of the Minister and the Secretary. Considerable care therefore was exercised in selecting the first occupant for the office. Mr. Moran was private Secretary to Mr. Buchanan when that gentleman was American Minister to this Court ; for the four last months of Mr. Buchanan's stay Mr. Moran was Secretary of Legation pro temper° ; and for the last eight months he has been Vice-Consul of the United States at London.—Globe.

Mr. Disraeli, after a lengthened stay in Paris, returned to London this week. Lord John Russell is now on his way home from Florence.

The Grand Duke Constantine and the Grand Duchess will be next month the guests of the Emperor of the French.

The King of Denmark has conferred the honour of Knight Commander of the Order of the Dannebrog on Mr. William Marshall, of the firm of Maxwell, Marshall, and Co., Leith, in acknowledgment of his services as ConsulGeneral for Scotland.

Miss Nightingale has visited the Naval and Military Hospitals at Hasler and Portsmouth this week. It is said she recognized several of the patients.

Lord Adolphus Vane Tempest lectured on the Crimean war at the Durham Athenieurn last week. His view of the campaign is identical with that of the Times correspondent ; adverse to that of the "Staff-Officer," and condemnatory of Lord Raglan, and the Staff in general.

The ladies of the District Visiting Society of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields have presented their late Rector, now the Bishop of Ripon, with a handsome piece of silver plate, "in testimony of their esteem and affection, and in grateful acknowledgment of his devoted pastoral ministration whilst over them in the Lord."

The "Queen of Oude " entertained the Chairman, Deputy-Chairman, and Directors of the East India Company, at a banquet in Harley House, on Tuesday. Thus the "two Powers" have exchanged amenities; now they may go to war.

A paragraph published in the Calcutta Morning Chronicle, and copied by some of the newspapers in this country, reported that the states of Rajpootana would be annexed "the moment the Government could conveniently do BO." This report has met with instant contradiction "by authority' in the English journals that gave it place.

The Mom'teur announces, that "the friends and pupils of M. Paul-Delaroche have resolved to make a public exhibition of his works, as at once the truest homage to his memory and a real service to art. The idea has been received -with an unanimous feeling of approbation and interest. The Government of the Emperor has been good enough to countenance it, by permitting the exhibition to take place in that part of the Palace of Industry which has been allotted to the fine arts. Certain persons, best qualified by their position, or by their former intimacy with M. Paul Delaroehe, to carry out the project, amongst whom are Horace 'Vernet, Euerie Delacroix, Ary Scheffer, K. Pereire, and Goupil, have requested the aid of the owners of M. Paul Dclaroche's pictures and sketches." The exhibition is to open at the end of February, for one month.

As the Emperor and Empress of Austria were leaving the Church of St. Anthony, at Padua, they were separated from their suite by the crowd, and so completely shut in that they could neither advance nor retreat. " My very good friends," said the Emperor in Italian, "pray let me and my wife pass." Room was made as soon as the words were spoken .—Times Correspondent.

The Romans have been amused by the freak of a madman. He hid himself in the Vatican Palace, and one night aroused the sleeping inmates by cryin_g aloud that the Pope was dead ; that he himself was about to succeed his Holiness on the Pontifical throne; and that, as first fruit of his authority, he should order the Cardinal Secretary of State to be shot. At first there was a panic, but the character of the man was soon ascertained.

The inhabitants of Milan have subscribed a considerable sum towards paying for a monument to the Sardinian army ; and 7000 francs towards the purchase of cannon for Alessandria. The guns purchased with this money are to bear the words "Lombardia con vol."

The Americans have adopted a novel plan for defending New York : an iron-built floating steam battery, shot and shell proof, 420 feet long, and of 9000 horse-power. The battery will mount six heavy guns. It is, however, only an experiment.

"Vulcan," in the Times, pointing out the activity of Russia and America in the preparation of naval armaments, steam-batteries, large guns, &c., bitterly complains that the British Government should have treated the inventor of the huge Liverpool ironwrought gun with neglect and the "cold shoulder."

According to a letter from Galatz, it seems likely that one of the discoveries of the Danube Commission will be that the Sulina is inferior to the St. George's Channel' the former being neither so broad nor so deep as the latter. [Should this be authenticated, it will furnish another instance of Russian skill ; for the Sulina channel was and the other was not under the fire of Russian guns.]

"All commanding-officers, when quartered in barracks, are to be allowed four rooms" in future.

• Mary Haydn, widow of the late Joseph Haydn, author of the Dictionary of Dates, who died a year ago leaving three children unprovided for, has appealed to the public through the journals. The pension of 251. per annum allowed by the Government is continued to Mrs. Haydn: what she seeks is aid in getting her youngest son admitted to the Asylum of the Bt. Ann's Society.

Among the passengers of the Tyne was M. Eduoard Pecher, Belgian Consul-General at Rio. His life was saved by a boat steered by Henry Bath, Coast Guardsman of St. Alban's Head station. M. Pecher, in gratitude, offered him 600/. The gallant Coast Guardsman refused it, saying it was too much. M. Pecher, however, not to be outdone,'directed his bankers to pay the sum into the Coast Guard office on his account. "My Lords of the .Admiralty" intimated that they could not have any objection to Bath's accepting the reward, and that they had promoted him to be a chief officer in the service, as a mark of approval.

During the recent pssange of the La Plats to the West Indies, two men fell overboard in a heavy gale. Mr. Edward -William May, supernumerary officer, crying "Man overboard !" took a circular life-buoy, and leaped from deck into the sea; another life-buoy was flung to him, and he succeeded in placing it round one Juan: the cutter was lowered at great risk, and May and one of the sailors were rescued.

A pension of 50/. a year has been conferred upon Mr. Charles Swain, author of "The Mind" and other poems, The merchants and shipowners of Nantes have petitioned the Emperor Napoleon, praying him to obtain redress from the United States Government for the French victims of the bombardment of Greytown in July 1854. A. similar petition has been presented by the merchants of Orleans ; and others are in progress at Paris, Lyons, Marseilles, and Bordeaux.

Mr. Layard, who is now on his way home from Constantinople, has obtained authority from the Porte to construct a system of railways connecting the Danube and Constantinople with a port on the Southern coast oe Turkey, towards the Archipelago. The subscription towards the scheme in Constantinople was no less than 1,000,000/.

The steamer Princess Alice has been placed by the Admiralty at the disposal of the Dover and Calais Royal Mail Packet Company, in the room of the Violet, lost on the Goodwin Sands.

The iron screw-steamer Planet, Captain Schade, succeeded on the 16th in forcing a passage through the ice on the Elbe and reaching Hamburg; a. feat performed last year by the same ship. She has no imitators. It is not, however, the masters but the owners of vessels who are deficient in daring.

Mr. Paul Bedford suggests "blue lights or alarm-rockets" as signals on railways to be used in cases of break-down, or in approaching curves.

Under-Sheriff Crosley has explained in the Times that no order has yet been made by the Judges respecting the Turkish Bonds purchased by Agar's plunder.