33liorttlautano.

A numerous meeting of Members of the House of Commons, sup- porters of the present Administration, assembled at two o'clock on Tues- day afternoon, at the official residence of Lord Derby, in Downing Street. About 214 Members were present They were met by Lord Derby, who was accompanied by Mr. Secretary Walpole, Sir John Pakington, and other members of the Government The conference lasted about an hour.

Lord Hardmge has issued the following general order from the Horse

Girds, dated November 19—

The General Commanding-in-chief desires to express to Major-General his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge his entire approval of the very judicious and successful manner in which the military arrangements for the funeral were yesterday carried into execution. "The conduot of the officers and men on This melancholy occasion, in co- ;operation with the Police, was most praiseworthy.

"The detachments from every regiment in the service, brought up to London by the express command of her Majesty, to represent the Army, will take back to their comrades the deep feeling of admiration and sorrow which universally prevailed amongst all classes of the people on this solemn occasion of carrying the immortal hero to his grave.

"The presence of the troops was most welcome throughout the procession, and at the various points at which they were posted, not only as assisting the civil authorities in preserving order and preventing accidents, but as being that class of their fellow-countrymen who, trained under their illus- trious commander, will on all occasions endeavour to follow his perfect ex- ample of preferring the strict performance of his duty to every other con-

sideration. By command, G. BROWN, Adjutant-General." All the troops on duty on the 18th have been presented with a gratuity of one shilling each.

Funeral service was performed in all the garrison churches of Prussia on the 18th, and at Potsdam in the presence of the Royal Family, the military, and their commanders, in honour of the Duke of Wellington.

We are informed that on Saturday, at Lord Malmesbury's house, a con- vention of importance received the united signatures of England, France, Russia, Bavaria, and Greece. Its object has been to bring into unison the letter and spirit of the Greek constitution with the treaty of 1832, which appointed the three Great Powers guarantees for the independent monarchy of Greece under a Roman Catholic prince of the House of Ba- varia. The new treaty declares that none but a prince professing the Greek religion shall reign over the Greek people.—Morning Herald.

Mr. F. Winn Knight., M.P. for West Worcestershire, has been ap- pointed to the office of Parliamentary Secretary to the Poor-law Board, in the room of Sir James Emerson Tennent.

On the 25th October, a meeting was held at Manchester, attended by a large number of representatives from towns in the North, at which it was agreed that a deputation should wait on Sir John Trollope, to request the total and immediate revocation of the prohibitory order of the Poor-law Board. The deputation waited on Sir John on Wednesday last. Mr. Heywood was accompanied by twenty Members of Parliament, and•depu- ties from Rochdale, Oldham, Nottingham, Hull, Barnsley, Bradford, Ash- ton-under-Lyne, Huddersfield, Norwich, Gateshead, and the Strand Union. Sir John Trollop° replied to the statements of these gentlemen. Out Of an hundred Unions, the order is beneficially working in five hundred. He is willing to relax article 1, in cases of hardship ; all complaints even from the lowest pauper would be attended to ; and Boards of Guardians who may hesitate to execute the order will beheld harmless to the present tune. In a few days Sir John would forward a written reply to the depu- tation.

Mr. Laing M.P. had an interview with Prince Albert on Thursday, at Windsor Castle, to submit the plans and objects, and to describe the pro- gress, of the New Crystal Palace.

Mr. Hume has been unable to attend in his place in the House of Com- mons this week, in consequence of the death of his sister.

Lord Brougham arrived at the Hotel Maurice on Saturday, from Lon- don, and will leave at the end of the week for Cannes.—ailignard's Mes- senger.

Lord Cowley left London yesterday, for the Embassy at Paris. Mr. Thomas Baring M.P. arrived in town, from New York, on Thurs- day.

Captain Edward Somerset M.P., of the Rifle Brigade, has arrived in London, from the seat of war at the Cape. Mr. Owen Jones and Mr. Digby Wyatt were at Munich on the 17th, engaged in taking models of ancient and modern specimens of art for the Crystal Palace.

The Royal Academy of Berlin has recommended Major Rawlinson, the Orientalist, and a decipherer of inscriptions lathe arrow-headed character, as a candidate for the medal of the Prussian Order of Merit vacant by the death of the late Thomas Moore. The nomination is made by the King. The King of Sweden was greatly improved in health on the 16th.

M. Thicrs had left Paris on Thursday, for London ; to stay here some weeks.

On the night of Saturday last, the literary fashionable world lost an old friend and favourite : the well-known Miss Berry—Horace Walpole's Miss Berry—expired at her house in Curzon Street, without disease or pain. She was in her ninetieth year, and retained her mental faculties and much of her physical beauty to the last. Her literary reunions were very famous in the early part of the century, and included everybody worth seeing or knowing in those days. Miss Berry was universally be- loved and respected in her circle.

We have received a copy of the petition adopted at the meeting of the Society of the Friends of Italy on the 10th instant ; praying the House of Commons to invoke the good offices of the Executive for putting an end to the present occupation of the Roman States by Austrian and French troops. The petition is a useful document, as presenting in a compact form the whole of the Roman case ; and we would willingly insert it, if the demands on our space did not render it absolutely impossible to do so.

A formal report has been published, signed by Lord Roden, Lord Cavan, and the other members of the deputation who went to Florence to procure the release of Rosa and Francesco Madiai, sentenced by the Tus- can Government to imprisonment with hard labour, for alleged attempts at making converts to the Protestant faith. The report confirms former intimations, that the Grand Duke refused an audience sought by the de- putation, but held out a vague hope of mercy to the prisoners. They were confined, one at Volterra, the other at Lue.ea; denied the use of books in accordance with their own views; and obliged to take exercise in a nar- row space. The health of both was injured.

A letter appeared in the Times of Tuesday last, from Mr. Petermann of the Admiralty, who wrote at the request of the Chevalier Bunsen, concern- ing the despatches and private letters recently received at the Foreign Office and the Prussian Embassy from the African Expedition conducted by Barth and Overweg. After briefly notifying the chief events which befell this important Expedition during the first and second years of its progress, (1850 and 1851)—including the death of Richardson and the crossing of Lake Tehad by Overweg, information of which had been sent to Europe up to September 1854—Mr. Petermann proceeds to the news just received.

The travellers have hitherto escaped all dangers, are in good health, and have succeeded in their explorings. At the latter end of 1851 the Sheikh of Bornu and his allies sent an army to invade the countries East of Lake Tchad ; and the travellers availed themselves of its escort to explore the re- gion as far as Borgu and Wadai. However, they fell in with the enemy sooner than was expected, and Barth and Overweg were obliged to make a hasty retreat to save their lives and instruments. On their return to Kuka, the capital of Bornu, they found that another army, led by the 'Pm:ex of Bornu himself, was about to be directed against the Sultan of Mandara ; a country to the South of Bornu, already known through Major Denham. They accompanied the troops, and were more fortunate this tame; for the enemy retreated before them, and no regular battle was fought. They went a considerable distance beyond Denham's farthest point; and were then only stopped by the Serbeuel, a river running into the Shary. The regions visited are described as rich and fertile. This excursion occupied December 1851 and January 1852.

From the end of March to the end of May last, Dr. Overweg made a successful journey from Kuka to a point within 150 English miles of Yacoba, the great town of the Fellatahs ; while Dr. Barth went South-east to the powerful kingdom of Baghirmi. Ile had not returned to Kuka at the date of Overweg's latest letter, August 15. It was their intention to cross the continent in a Southerly direction so as to reach the Indian Ocean, which is the ultimate object of this great journey.

Concerning the Tchadda, a vast river which joins the Kawara or Niger near its mouth, and which extends right into the heart of Central Africa, Dr. Barth says—" I am inclined to think that the Tchadda will eventually form the natural and most important line from the West for spreading com- merce and civilization into the very heart of Inner Africa, and extinguish- ing the slave-trade by extending European influence to the sources of the slave-supply. The Sheikh of Bornu is a good friend to the English, as he has always shown by his treatment of their representatives. He has repeat- edly expressed to the present travellers his desire of establishing a stricter connexion with the English, for the sake of commerce and the abolition of the slave-trade. The kingdom of Adamana, on the Upper Tchadda, is spoken of as likely to become the key to the interior of Africa. At present the town of Kano, between the Kawara (Niger) and Lake Tchad is the great mart of foreign trade. The English merchants reach it by the perilous and tedious journey across the Great Desert ; the Americans come by steam up the Ka- wars, from the South, where their power is spreading fast." Mr. Petermann concludes by saying that "the Great Desert will ever form a natural barrier, and prevent the establishing of European commerce of any considerable mag- nitude. It is to the Kawara and the Tchadda, and more particularly the latter, that we must look as the means of a ready access into the virgin coun- tries and the inexhaustible natural wealth of Inner Africa."

Result of the Registrar-General's return of mortality in the Metropolis for the week ending on Saturday last.

of 1812-31.

of 1852.

gymotic Diseases 2,315 .... 184 Dropsy, Cancer, and other diseases of uncertain or variable seat 506 .... 32 Tubercular Diseases 1,600 .... 181 Diseases of the Brain, Spinal Marrow, Nerves, and Senses 1,163 .... 104

Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels

365 .... 42 Diseases of the Lungs, and of the other Organs of B.espiration 2,001 .... 167 Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other Organs of Digestion 670 .... 65 Diseases of the Kidneys, dm 100 .... 11 Childbirth, diseases of the Uterus, Sc 107 .... 10 Rheumatism, diseases of the Bones. Joints, Sc Si .... 9 Diseases of the Skin, Cellular Tissue, Sc 13 ,... 2 Malformations

$4 ....

5

Premature Birth..., 208

Atrophy 171 .... 34 Age 650 ...• 43 Sudden 90 .••• 3 Tiolence,Privation, Cold, and Intemperance 269 ....

20

• --.

— Total (including unspecified cause) 10.141a

513 Ten Weeks Week

Three vessels arrived from Australia in the river Thames on Tuesday, with the extraordinary quantity of upwards of seven tons of gold on board. One of the ships, the Eagle, was freighted with the largest amount of the pre- cious metal over known to arrive in one vessel-150,000 ounces, (upwards of six tons,) and of the value of more than 600,000/. The Eagle also made the most rapid passage on record, having done the voyage from Melbourne to the Downs in seventy-six days. The other ships are the Sapphire, from Sydney, with 14,668 ounces on board, and the Pelham, from Sydney, with 27,762 ounces. The Maitland also arrived a day or two since from Sydney, with 14,326 ounces. Great, however, as has been the wealth brought over by the Eagle, the ship Dido is expected in a few days, which will far sur- pass it, having on board 280,000 ounces, or about ten tons and a half of the precious metal. The Neptune, with 17,000 ounces, the Andromache, 42,051 ounces, and other ships with as valuable freights, are nearly due.—Tintes.

The Vienna Gazette of the 21st contains a decree intended to hinder the possession and use of arms and weapons by the population.

Hats are again playing an important part in public life. The Police in Munich are confiscating that variety of the article known as the " Calabreser," or Hecker hat, generally worn by banditti in melodramas. Those of a brown colour are especially proscribed ; the Munich authorities have already seized 200 of this sort. The white and gray varieties are for the moment tolerated; but travellers will do well to avoid any singularity in this article, as even " wide-awakes " may be misconstrued. In Frankenstein (in Silesia) another society has been formed to protest practically against the German cus- tom of taking off the hat (in all weathers) to friends and acquaintance as a salutation. The principle of the society is to keep the head covered and simply bow ; men of all ranks and stations have signed this temperance pledge in the matter of politeness, "from considerations of health." There IS a Turkish imprecation, "May your soul have as little rest as the hat of a German," which will perhaps by degrees lose its significance.—Berlin Corre- spondent of the Times, Nov. 17.

The Journal de Saone et Loire says—" We see by advertisements that M. de Lamartine is offering for sale the fine lands and Chateau of Monceau, near Macon. We do not doubt that such a splendid property will find pur- chasers ; but we deplore the sad necessities which compel our illustrious neighbour, no doubt with sorrow, to deprive himself of this family estate and residence."

The Inverness Courier relates an instance of VOSS superstition in Ross- shire. In the centre of St. Mary's Isle, in Loch Mares, is a deep well, re- puted to have been consecrated by the saint to the cure of the insane. The other day, a mother took her imbecile daughter to the island to cure her. Assisted by other persons, the compelled the girl to drink of the water of the well, and then ducked her in it; after this the girl was towed round the island behind a boat, and at midnight ag,ain plunged in the loch. The result was, not that the girl was cured, but that the quiet imbecile was converted into a raving maniac.

A German residing in Paris, a hatter, lately lost his reason from grief at the death of his wife, and fancied himself made of glass. He was accustomed to tell people not to approach him too near, lest they should break him ; and for the same fear he scarcely moved, and could with difficulty be persuaded to eat. Last week he hanged himself. A letter, left on the table, stated that he had voluntarily put an end to his existence, to avoid being broken to pieces.

A young girl in humble circumstances last week found a pocket-book -which contained upwards of 20001. worth of notes ; and on the owner being discovered, and having his property restored to him, he acknowledged the favour by offering her twopence; which was quietly declined.—Edin- burgh Evening Post.