Artiscellaneous.

We believe that it is now pretty well understood in official circles that hfr. John Abel Smith, M.P. for Chichester, will succeed Mr. Ward as secretary to the Admiralty. The latter gentleman will proceed to the seat of his government at Corfu, as Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian igandB, in the course of ten days or a fortnight.—Morning Iferakl.

Mr. Charles Zachary Macaulay has received the appointment of Colonial Seeretary at the Mauritius.

We understand that a son of Mr. Reynolds, the Member for Dublin, has been appointed to a situation at the Mint of the value of 4001. per annum. —Daily News.

The ex-King Charles Albert arrived at Oporto on the 20th, and was received with honours by the civic deputies: it is not certain whither he is journeying.

The following official "notice to mariners" has been received at Lloyd's from the Admiralty, dated the 23d March- ' Twenty thousand pounds sterling reward, to be given by her Majesty's Go- vernment to such private ship, or distributed among such private ships, or to any i exploring party or parties, of any country, as may, n the judgment of the Board of Admiralty, have rendered efficient assistance to Sir John Franklin, his ships, or their crews, and may have contributed directly to extricate them from the ice. "The attention of whalers, or of any other ships or parties disposed to aid in this service, is particularly directed to Smith's Sound and Jones's Sound in Baffin's Bay, to Regents Inlet and the Gulf of Boothia, as well as to any of the inlets or channels leading out of Barrow's Strait, particularly Wellington Strait, or the sea beyond, either Northward or Southward. "Vessels entering through Behring's Straits would necessarily direct their search North and South of Melville Island."

The report read at the annual prize distribution of the Art Union of London, on Tuesday, stated, that, in July last, "the Council received a com- munication from the Board of Trade, intimating that their Lordships pro- posed to withdraw for another year their requisition that the prizes should be selected by a Committee of their Lordships; but they should require that as long as the right of selection remained absolutely with the prize- holders they should be allowed to exercise it freely, by such an alteration in the laws as would enable them to give commissions to artists, or to pur- chase any works, excepting portraits, being the productions of a living artist, and in his possession at the time the selection was made, instead of being confined, as then, to the public exhibitions of the year. This pro- posal having excited much dissatisfaction among the Council, their Lord- ships subsequently intfonated that they would not insist upon their pro- posal; but it was to W distinctly understood that they did not relinquish the right of subsequently requiring any amendments in the existing sys- tem, as circumstances might appear to them to render expedient."

The Committee of investigation appointed by the shareholders of the Eastern Comities Railway to inquire into the management of the company's affairs, have published their report. They accuse Mr. George Hudson and Mr. George Waddington, the Chairman and Vice-Chairman, who virtually conducted the direction of the company, of a wholesale system of decep- tive dealing with accounts. We can only enumerate the heads of these charges, which are as follows. A dividend of 9s. per share was declared on the 22d of December 1846, when no accounts had yet been prepared to show what was earned; and the accounts were afterwards prepared and altered so as to suit this foregone conclusion. The expenses were squared to suit the dividend, instead of squaring the dividend accord- ing to the balance. This plan was repeated on every declaration of dividend, till the 4th July 1848; at which date they had divided 546,7641., when only a nett sum of 225,1411. had been available to divide. The sum of 320,5721. was charged as current expenses against the capital of the company. Fictitious credits were opened for the purpose of ficti- tiously swelling the " revenue "; and sums were debited to the personal expenses of the two gentlemen, which they refuse to explain, as they could not give particulars "without implicating others." The result of this sys- tem, "for which," says the report, "it is impossible to conceive any ex- cuse, and which every right-minded person must indignantly condemn," is that, if the current and capital accounts be properly balanced, the balance of last year would be diminished to 6,3231.; a sum which is" too small for any dividend"; and which "must be carried forwards" to the account of next half-year.

We have it from very good authority that no less than 14,000 British seamen have deserted the merchant service during the past year; 8,000 of whom have left their vessels on the American coasts.—United Service Gazette.

Colonel Sibthorp was charitable at Lincoln last week, with his usual nice dis- crimination of the class on whom his bounty is most effectively bestowed. The Lincoln Chronicle says—" The gallant Colonel visited Lincoln, and took part in the festivities in honour of Prince Albert's visit. The gallant Colonel gave half a pound of tea to the wives of all the Parliamentary electors, without distine- tioa of colour or party."

Mrs. Wolfe Tone, the widow of the United Irishman, has died at Georgetown, Pennsylvania, in the eightieth year of her age. A thief has been cleverly detected at Glasgow. A chemical manufacturer had been robbed of bottles of valuable compounds from the shop ; a bottle was fastened to a bell by a thread; a young gentleman who had frequently made purchases pocketed the bottle, and the ben rang. At the culprit's residence many things Which had been stolen from the shop were discovered.

farm-lad at Wistow Fen in Cambridgeshire has lost his life in experiment- ing on the sensation of hanging. A son of Mr. Robert Brown, of Beedham, died recently, and the corpse was in- terred in the village churchyard. For some unexplained reason, the grave was Watched by night, by the servants, armed. One night, a groom saw three men attempting to excavate the coffin- he called oat; one of the men discharged a gun at him; the groom returned the fire with a surer aim, and there is no doubt that one person was wounded. He was carried off by his companions. The damage done to the electric telegraph on the South-eastern Railway by the snow-storm of Thursday week, has been described by Mr. Charles V. Walker, the superintendent of the telegraph, in an interesting letter. "All was well, as far as the telegraph was concerned, until six p. m , and probably later. Frost now at- nded the snow, and it began to congeal with the rain about the telegraphic wires. ?ins process continued until the wires along their whole length were each enclosed

2. coating of snow about the thickness of a man's arm ; and this accumulated

weight required little aid from the wind (which indeed blew a gale) to bear down the poles. Before midnight, some sixty or more poles either singly or in sets of two, three, and in some cases of four or five were broken short off at the ground, and as many more were overthrown. I visited the various scenes of the accidents the following morning; and from the examination that I was enabled to make of the snow cylinders, I believe that each yard of wire was surrounded by not less than ten or twelve pounds of congealed snow. Each pole had to sustain a weight of from 2,090 to 3,000 pounds, and in some cases doable this. In places where the poles withstood the pressure, the wires were so extended by the weight as nearly to touch the ground; and on the snow leaving them they nearly recovered

their original position,—an interesting proof this of the them, of iron wire, and an illustration of its properties. In the cases where lengths of copper wire were ex they have not recovered their original position. The district between

ford and Hythe felt the storm most, and presented all the features of mid- winter. Fortunately, the broken poles are not Mons continued series, or we should have sustained a serious interruption in our signals. Thunder and lightning oc- curred near the coast daring the night."

A singularly-grown violet was plucked a few days since near Truro. Its stems, instead of being of the usual form, were flattened and winged; its flowers were suspended on a kind of tendril, while one of the flowers appeared, as it were, in a state of transition between a leaf and corolla, and WM illustrative of the botanic theory that flowers are but farther developed leaves.—Cornwall Gasette.

Results of the Registrar-General's return of mortality in the Metropolis for the

week ending on Saturday last—

Number of Spr Mg Average. .... 196 . , .. 49 .... 200 .... 123 .... 34 .... 131 .... 61 .... 11 .... 8 .... 21 .... 17 .... 50 .... IL .... 93 — 963 The temperature of the thermometer ranged from 71.0° in the sun to 19.0° in the shade; the mean temperature by day being colder than the average mean temperature by 9.4°. The mean direction of the wind for the week was North by West. Zymotle Diseases Dropsy, Cancer, and other diseases of uncertain or variable seat .. Tubercular Diseases Diseases of the Brain, Spinal Marrow, Nerves, and Senses Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels Diseases of the Lungs, and of the other Greene of Respiration Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other Organs of Digestion Diseases of the Kidneys, Bre Childbirth, diseases of the Uterus, &e. Rheumatism, diseases of the Bones, Joints, &c Diseases of the Skin, Cellular Tissue, tec Malformation, Premature Birth Atrophy Age Sudden Violence, Privation, Cold, and Intemperance Total (including unspecified causes) 248 Deaths.

52 217 121 36 181 60 11 11 22 23 35 13 96 — 1089