31iint1Intanno.

The Queen has given orders for several appointments to the Order of the Bath.

To be Knights Commander8—ColoneL3 Sydney John Cotton, William Rose Mansfield, and Thomas Seaton of the Bengal Army.

To be Companions—Colonels Philip Melmoth Nelson Guy, 5th Regi- ment; Robert Walpole, Rifle Brigade ; David Russell, 84th; Charles Assheton FitzHardinge Berkeley, 32d; Archibald Little, 9th Lancers ; the Hon. Adrian Hope, 93d; William Pastan Purnell, 90th. Lieutenant- Colonels Alexander Sebastian Leith Hay, 93d; William Thomas Crawford, Royal Artillery ; Edward Blagden Hale. 82d; John Alexander Ewart, 93d; Charles Henry Gordon, Depot Battalion, late 93d; Henry Hamilton, 78th; Colin Campbell APIntyre, 78th; George William Powlett Bingham, 64th; Edward W. D. Lowe, 32d. Majors Francis Cornwallis Maude, Royal Artillery; Frederick Arthur Willis 84th.

Of the Indian Army, Colonels Robert Napier, Bengal Engineers ; Charles Shepherd Stuart, 1st Bombay European Regiment ; Lieutenant-Colonels Robert Augustus Master, 7th Regiment of Bengal Light Cavalry ; Henry Marion Durand, Bengal Engineers ; James Brind, Bengal Artillery; Frank Turner, Bengal Artillery ; Major Jeremiah Brasyer, Unattached, Bengal Army ; Superintending-Surgeon John Campbell Brown, Bengal Army. [Lieutenant-Colonel William Case, 32d Regiment, and Major Roger Barnston, 90th Regiment, would have been recommended for the dignity of Companion of the Order of the Bath had they survived.] The new Ministers have been assailed by deputations There were no fewer than five on Tuesday. The West India Committee had an inter- view with Lord Stanley. An Irish deputation, and a large body of hop- planters, saw Mr. Disraeli, the latter asking for the total repeal of the hop-duty. The Maine Liquor-law men waited on Mr. Walpole. And gentlemen representing the shipping interest and desirous of abolishing passing-tolls called upon Mr. Henley.

The Chairman of the "Discussion Forum," Mr. William Carpenter, has addressed a letter to the Emperor of the irench, gravely refuting the allegations of M. de la Guerroniere. Mr. Carpenter informed the Em- peror that he was not paid as chairman ; that "Regicide" was discussed purely as "an abstract historical theme " ; and that the persons who at- tend the Forum are not revolutionists, but, for the most part., substantial tradesmen. The Emperor, through his secretary, has thanked Mr. Car- penter for the information, and expressed his regret that the writer of the pamphlet should have misconstrued a circumstance now so satisfac- torily explained.

The Board of Trade returns for February show a falling-off in exports of no less than 2,024,624/. as compared with the same month of 1857. The reduction is spread pretty equally over the various articles ; in some there is an increase—a notable one in cotton yarn. In grain and flour the imports are larger this year. In raw materials, there is a great reduction in silk, cotton, flax, and tallow ; an increase in wool and hemp.

The Countess of Derby held an assembly on Saturday. The Duke of Montrose, the Marquis of Salisbury, and Lord Foley had dinner-parties : the Duchess and Princess Mary of Cambridge were the guests of Lord and Lady Foley. The Speaker received a party of Members at dinner, and af- terwards held a levee : he had another dinner-party of Members on Wed- nesday.

The Earl of Caithness has given a lecture to the operatives at Wolverton Works on the history of the steam-engine.

Lady Inglis, her three children, and several of the Lueknow garrison, ar- rived at Southampton in the Colombo on Wednesday.

Baron de Manderstrom, Swedish Ambassador at Paris, has been recalled, to fill the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs in Sweden.

Count Prosper Benoist has been thrown from his horse and killed in the Bois de Boulogne: his daughter was riding with him, and strove in vain to check her father's horse when it was running away.

The Marlborough, 131, Captain Lord F. H. Kerr, flag of Vice-Admiral Fanshawe, C.B., for the Mediterranean command, has not more than about 550 men of her complement of 1100, and of those about ZOO are Marines. The Renown, 91, Captain Forbes, which has been in commission ever since the 19th of November last, is still 100 or more short of her complement of 840. The Racoon, 21, Captain Paynter, is the only vessel that is manned of those fitting-out at Portsmouth.

Instead of the dreaded "thousands" of refugees on the Gallo-Swiss fron- tiers, there have been found by the Swiss Government but twenty-four Italians and seventeen Frenchmen.

The Paris Pays announces that a circumstance has occurred on the coast of Africa which merits notice. Some French ships lately presented them- selves at the entrance of the Zaire, the principal river of Congo, in order to engage free Negroes for the French West India Islands. The Governor of the Portuguese possessions on the West coast of Africa opposed the execu- tion of their object, claiming the right of the Portuguese Government to the coast as far as 5 12' South latitude. The matter has been referred to the French and Portuguese Governments. ' Commercial affairs in France remain as bad as ever. A new kind of speculation has grown up in Prance: produce in the hand of a merchant is bought, but only a part of the purchase-money is paid; the nominal purchaser transfers his interest as soon as possible to some other person at a higher price ; and he to a third, and so on : a most unsound state of things—by no means unknown here, but a recent discovery, it is said, over there.

The railway from Lyons to Geneva was opened last week, with much fes- tivity.

The commercial depression in France has very severely affected the sugar importers and refiners ; they have petitioned the Government for a reduc- tion of the onerous duties on sugar. Nantes asks from the Emperor a dimi- nution of both the coffee and the sugar duties.

The public—unwittingly—have become patrons to a large extent of Cape wines. While the import of other wines, from the vine-disease, has fallen off of late, that of Cape wine has largely increased. The duty on Cape is only half that on foreign wines ; and it has been used to adulterate other wines or to make up for the bad vintages in Europe : but while drinking Cape, the public has too often paid as if for European wines. [In some cases the true vintage is avowed, and the price is lower. Even then the Cape wines are christened with Spanish and Mediterranean names ; but, though pleasant, they are easily distinguished.]

It is intended to try the experiment of making Milford Haven a port of departure for New Zealand : the first packet will sail in May or June.

The process of stowing aportion of the Atlantic Telegraph cable on board the Agamemnon is now going on at Plymouth, having commenced on the 19th. The Niagara has also arrived in that port.

The health of the Metropolis shows but little sign of improvement. The deaths last week were 1431, fifty-six fewer than in the preceding week, but still 113 above the calculated average.

The returns of births, marriages, and deaths in Scotland for 1867, the third year of the present statistics, have just been published. They show that there were registered in that year 103,628 births, 61,925 deaths, and 21,314 marriages, being one birth in every 29, one death in every 49, and one mar- riage in every 143 of its inhabitants. The birth rate, which was thus 338 for every 10,000 of the population in Scotland, was in the same year 343 for every 10,000 in England. During the three years, the deaths in Scotland have been 200 to every 10,000 living, while in England the proportion was 216 to 10,000. In Scotch towns, 244 died in 10,000; in rural districts; only 157 to 10,000.

The Dutch customhouse-officers at Rosendael, a few days ago, seized a quantity of lace to the value of 1200 florins, which a lady coming by_ the railway from Antwerp had concealed under her crinoline. The anxiety de- picted on her countenance is said to have betrayed her.

It has always been understood that Holbeach is a great "laudanum dis- trict," and as might be expected the drug is sold in immense quantities, net only by our druggists, but by almost every little country shopkeeper and general dealer in the neighbourhood ; and that there are so few deaths known to be caused by its use is something surprising. Judging from a single druggist's weekly return of retail sales shown to us the other day, iv think we are within the mark in estimating the amount of money spent by the working classes in this parish (though they are by no means the only consumers) in laudanum and opium at not less than 7001. or 800/. a year.— Stamford Mercury.