lirtistellantous.

It will give all admirers of true poetry gratification to hear that he Majesty has conferred a pension of 300/. a year upon William Words- worth. Long may he live to enjoy it !—Globe.

Lord Melbourne has been severely ill, at Brockett Hall, his Hertford- shire seat. On Sunday morning, his symptoms alarmed Lord and Lady Beauvale, who are staying with him ; and they sent for Lord Mel- bourne's sister, Lady Palmerston. Lord Palmerston immediately ac- companied her to Brockett Hall. Lord Melbourne is getting better.

We are happy to state that the Right Honourable the Vice-President of the Board of Trade, Mr. Gladstone, has quite recovered from the effects of his recent severe accident at Hawarden Castle ; but he is still obliged to carry his left arm in a sling, having, as already stated, had the misfortune to suffer amputation of the forefinger of that hand.— Liverpool Mercury.

Prince Esterhazy, the Austrian Ambassador, has finally taken his departure from this country, having resigned his appointment as Am- bassador at the British Court. The Prince embarked at Dover, on Friday, for Calais.

Grace Darling expired at Bamburgh on Thursday the 20th instant, in her twenty-fifth year. She had been in a delicate state of health for a considerable time past, and her medical attendant recommended her removal from the sea. She in consequence went to reside with a friend at Wooler ; and afterwards removed to Alnwick, accompanied by her sister; where lodgings were engaged for them by their Graces the Duke and Datchess of Northumberland, by whom the greatest attention was paid to the amiable girl. Her complaint having assumed the form of decided consumption, and all hope of her recovery being abandoned, her father anxiously desired that she should return among her family ; and she was accordingly removed from Alnwick to Bambargh only about ten days ago.—Newcastle Journal. The Allgemeine Zeitung mentions that the writings of Mr. Charles Dickens have been translated into the Turkish language.

The Morning Chronicle publishes the following strange epistle- " Sir—I have the King of Hanover's commands to express to you his Ma- jesty's thanks for the book transmitted by you, and containing your speech at the Conservative Festival at Maidstone. The King was greatly pleased with the eloquent and brilliant manner in which you had handled your subject, and has charged me to communicate to you his approbation ; which his Majesty was only prevented by great press of business from doing HIMSELF. "I have the honour to remain, Sir, your most obedient servant, (Signed) "ADOLPH KIELMANSEGGE. 44 Grosvenor Place, March 8, 1842.

"To Sir John Croft, Bart."

There has been a rumour that Parliament was to meet early in Ja- nuary—mentioned first, we believe, by the Standard; but the Globe says that the rumour cannot be traced to any satisfactory source. On dit, that Sir Robert Peel, in a conversation with the head of a scientific institution connected with the Government, was asked how, in a case stated, the return under his own Income-tax ought to be made? The Premier confessed his ignorance ; and declared he did not know how to make out his own return, so as to comply with the re- quirements of the Act 1—Globe.

Government, during the past week, have ordered a new arrangement for ascertaining the price of bread charged by the bakers in every town in which a Corn-Inspector has been appointed, so as to show the rela- tive price which bread bears to the price of wheat in every part of the kingdom. The following is a copy of a circular which has been ad- dressed to the several Corn-Inspectors of the county of Berke-

" Corn Office. October 15.

"Sir—Please to send with your next Corn returns the price of the quartern loaf, or the four-pound loaf, as the case may be, of fine flour, during the week to which the return refers.

"I am, Sir, your obedient servant, "B. J. Lace." "To the Inspector of Corn-Returns at —." The reports from the several cattle-markets this week do not vary from the general purport of the summary which we gave in our last number. In some places mention is made of a disposition to compensate low prices by lowering wages— The farmers and graziers of Ansty and its neighbourhood have given notice to their labourers of their intention to reduce their wages from twelve shillings to ten shillings per week.—Leicester Chronicle. We observe with regret a disposition to lower the wages of labour.— Western runes. (Exeter.)

A. number of labourers have been discharged, and others have had to bear up against a reduction of %nes to 4s. per week ; as the farmers are determined to employ as few as possible, and will not undertake any thing in the way of improvement but what is essentially necessary.—Carnareen Herald. One of our townsmen, who has been in the habit of sending a ton or more of meat to London, says the business is quite unprofitable; and another, who has forwarded large quantities, talks of giving up the trade, the London market being overwhelmed with supplies.— Leicestershire Mercury.

Scotch sweet-milk cheese' of the best quality, which last October sold for six- pence a pound, is this October selling for fourpence.—Liverpool Times.

Mr. Ebenezer Elliott has addressed the following plain-spoken letter to the Chartists of Dunfermline-

"Sirs—Your letter of the 24th of August last reached me this day, in my fortnightly parcel from Sheffield. You RA me if cessation from labour would be useful as a means of procuring the Charter ? ' Can any man, in his senses, seriously put such a question to any man out of Bedlam ? Universal cessation from labour is revolution ; but it is necessarily involuntary—hence its unreels- tible force. You could not command it if you were mad enough to try ; and voluntary cessation from labour being necessarily partial, would leave you further from your object than you are, if it is an honest one ; for the less you labour, the less you will have; and the less you have the less able you will be to contend with your cunning and merciless foes. The idea of obtaining the Charter by refusing to labour, is about as wise as the plan of T. C. Salt, of Birmingham, to procure it by abstaining from the use of tea and coffee for which there are no substitutes in bread-taxed England ; or as that of O'Connorites, to destroy class-legislation by supporting the Food-tax, its main bulwark. If your oppressors care one straw for any number of such strate- gists, they are as senseless as yourselves; for your strike has taught them, if they knew not before, that it is easier to cut down square miles of you than to mow an equal breadth of oats. The Bread-taxers, I suspect, originated your strike; and from the way in which you use the name of Sturge, 1 suspect you too of treachery to the people. Surely, in bread-taxed he manufac- tories are likely to stop quite soon enough of themselves! When they so stop, the conservators of wrong will have to deal, not with a mob refusing inade- quate wages, but with a mob necessarily rioting everywhere at the same mo- ment because wages cannot be obtained at all. Then will come the beginning, of which not one in three of you or them will see the end : and if such a re- sult would please you, you are as base and blind as they ; for though a people universally unemployed is necessarily a nation revolutionized, it by no means follows that the Charter would be obtained through revolution. The first French revolution terminated in total non-representation ; and the second in a constituency of two hundred thousand, out of a population of thirty-two millions.

"I am, Sirs, your oppressed fellow-countryman, EBENEZER ELLIOTT. " Hargit Hill, 11th September 1842."

A second Anti-Slavery Convention will be held in London in 1848, commencing on the 13th of June.—Glebe.

The Standard of last night publishes a letter addressed to the Jews "scattered throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland," and signed "Joseph Wolff, Curate of High Hoyland, near Wakefield Yorkshire, late Missionary in Palestine. Bokhara, Affghanistan, Abyssynia, Ye- men, and America." Dr. Wolff rebukes the Jews on the schism among them, and then makes this exhortation- " My dear friends, rally round the aged Rabbi Hirsehel, and under his direc- tion invoke the guidance and illumination of the Spirit from on high; and under his direction read the Old and New Testament, and request Rabbi Elir- schel and his assistant Rabbis to investigate the merits of the Christian faith, in unison with the Bishops of the Church of England; and I have no doubt that the Lord will bless that national attempt of the Jews to arrive at the knowledge of the truth : and then let Rabbi Elirsehel, with the whole Jewish nation residing in England, receive the sacrament of baptism, the ordinance of; confirmation ; and then let Rabbi Hirschel be consecrated by the Bishops ot England, as the Patriarch Bishop of the Hebrew Christians in England."

We are informed on respectable authority, that the King of the French has discussed with persons in his confidence the propriety of

abdicating the throne in favour of the Duke of Nemours. Without expressing an opinion on the authority of the rumour, we give it for the purpose of preparing the public for an event which is not impro- bable to happen in the course of the ensuing session of the French Chambers.—Morning Herald. The Times asserts, on the authority of its Paris letters, that the French Government had despatched, or intended to despatch, a notifica- tion to our Government that the new Slave-trade treaty will not be ratified.

The Paris correspondent of the Times contradicts a report that new negotiations for a commercial treaty were on the point of being opened

between this country and France. It is also stated, that "the attempts made to effect a customs union between Belgium and France have failed," and that "King Leopold will leave St. Cloud for Brussels on the 7th of November."

M. Guizot, we are glad to learn, has at length consented, on behalf of Louis Philippe's Government, to refer the claims of British merchants on France, arising out of the illegal blockade of Portendic, to the de- cision of the King of Prussia; and Lord Aberdeen has likewise agreed to such a reference. The terms of the reference are not yet settled, but there are few difficulties, we hear, in the way of the settlement.— Morning Herald.

The Moniteur of Saturday contained three Royal ordinances ; the first appointing Marshal Oudinot, Duke of Reggio, Governor of the

Invalids ; the second transferring Marshal Gerard from the command of the National Guard of Paris to the post of Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honour ; and the third investing General Jacqueminot with the command left vacant by Marshal Gerard. General Carbonnel was appointed, by a royal ordinance of the 22d instant, Chief of the Staff of the National Guard of Paris, in the place of General Jacqueminot. A Royal ordinance authorizes the Orleans Railroad Company to raise a loan of 10,000,000 francs, for the completion of the works.

The subjoined account of some carbine practice, published by the Journal des Dibats, indicates active training in the French army : that military people seem determined to have whole regiments to rival the illustrious Kentucky riflemen- " An experiment was made at Vincennes on Wednesday the 19th instant, in the presence of the Duke de Montpensier and of General Rostolau, as to the relative merits of the common musket used by the infantry of the Line and the improved carbine of the amateurs. The musket was fired by some eats best marksmen of the Sixty-eighth Regiment of the Line; but their address

was impotent against the great superiority of the carbine. In a series of expe- riments, which lasted six hours, the men of the Sixty-eighth placed seven balls out of 200 shots in the target at 400 yards distance, ehilst the Chasseurs placed ten times the number of balls in the same number of shots. The amisseurs afterwards placed 33 balls out of 200 in the target at 500 yards distance, and 25 at 600 yards. When it is considered that 500 yards is the usual distance at which field-pieces are placed from the object to be reached, and 600 yards that of a 24-pounder, it cannot be denied but that a complete revolution is about to be made in infantry-muskets in consequence of the adoption of M. Delvigne's invention. "A month or five weeks since, I went to Vincennes to see the new works in progress for completing the fortress. I am not qualified to decide upon their claim to perfection—for they will, it is said, be perfect—but I was astonished by their extent. "I returned to town on foot through the wood, and found a battalion of the new Rifle corps at exercise in the alleys and thickets. They were occupied in a way quite new to me, who am. I confess, unlearned in these matters. Hit be new, a word or two respecting it may not be uninteresting to some classes of your readers. A soldier bearing a target ran ahead from his section (for the body was divided into many) to a distance of, it would seem, as many hundred yards as he pleased. Having planted it, his comrades of the section were then in rotation called up to the point from which he with the target had started, and asked the distance to it. Having replied, his guess was entered opposite to his name, and so on with the rest. Although this was evidently exercise, and with a view peculiarly applicable to the Rifle service, and done too in the pre- sence of an officer, it combined with it amusement, which the soldiers appeared to relish exceedingly. There was first a laugh at those who guessed widely, and then the fun of a race to take a new start ; but I could perceive by the gravity with which the presiding sergeant inspected the entries that he entered warmly into the system of training for that branch of the army."

An interesting assembly took place at Berlin, on the 18th, in the meeting of the committees or deputations from the various Provincial Assemblies. The session was opened in a hall of the Royal Palace, by the Minister of the Interior, Count Von Arnim ; who quoted the ordi- nance issued by the Ring of Prussia on the 19th of August, convening this "Assembly of the United Committees from all the Provinces of the empire"—

" In all the propositions laid by me last year before the several Provincial Diets," said the ordinance, "1 announced my intention of calling together a meeting of the Select Committees of the Staeude, chosen in virtue of my or- dinance of the 21st of June of the present year, in such cases in which it might seem desirable that I should be assisted by their advice on matters bear- ing on the general interests of all the provinces. This union of the said Com- mittee', by giving au element of unity to the States of the several provinces, will be a development of the representative institutions given by my deceased father, after a due consideration of the wants of his people and of his domi- nions. The independent attention to the local interests of the separate por- tions of the kingdom has been sufficiently secured by the constitutions of the Provincial and Communal States; but there has hitherto been wanting a point of union for the adjustment of conflicting interests, where such adjustment is necessary to the common wellbeing of the state, and for the cooperation of the national representatives in measures of a general interest, the prompt solution of which may appear necessary to the Sovereign. This point of union is pro- vided by the Committees of the States. The Provincial Diets assembled last year, by expressing a wish that the union of the Deputations might not im- pair the independence of the Provincial States, have in a most satisfactory manner recognized, not only the course I am myself pursuing with a view to the development of the representative system re-established by my deceased father, but likewise the spirit in which my father rastablished it. I have ac- cordingly, by my ordinances of the 21st of June of this year, called upon the assembled Committees to adjust the conflicting views of the Diet of the sepa- rate Provinces ; to utter their sentiments once more on laws under considera- tion in the higher departments of legislation ; to give expression to their opi- nions on the necessity for the enactment of new laws, and on the direction to be given to them ; and also to assist my Government with their advice, founded on their practical experience of the interests of their Provinces, on matters which have not hitherto been submitted to the consideration of the Provincial

States."

The following subjects were lad down by the ordinance for the con- sultation of the Committees-

" I. On the details of the reductions promised by me in the public taxes, redactions which it is intended to carry into force from the 1st of January next ensuing. " 2. On the establishment of a comprehensive system of railroads, to be realized by the aid of the national resources, with a view to a connexion between the several provinces of the kingdom. " 3. On the enactment of a law for the regulation of private rivers, particu- larly with a view to the adjustment of the conflicting opinions expressed on this subject by some of the Provincial Diets." The Count congratulated the Committees on their assembling, and exhorted them to union in their deliberations-

" In this assembly, no doubt, various opinions will manifest themselves ; and, as is becoming among men, each opinion will be maintained with the energy

of conviction. This is even necessary towards the eliciting of truth. But where ?pinions, based, perhaps, on the peculiar interests of separate provinces, come into collision, let the struggle be carried on in a brotherly spirit, and let the common cause of ALL Prussia be constantly borne in mind; preserve always a lively consciousness that you are assembled here as the members of ONE body of the state, as the faithful subjects of ONE Ring." At the call of the Count, the meeting gave three cheers for the King, and then adjourned till the following day.

The Walhalla' or temple to commemorate illustrious Germans, was inaugurated by the King of Bavaria on the 19th; the Queen being pre- sent, with several members of the Royal Family, Prince William of Prussia, the Grand Dutchess of Hesse, and the Dutchess of Wurteruberg.

Malta papers to the 15th report.a Court-martial held on the 11th, on board the Impregnable, to try Lieutenant Alston, of the Cambridge, for marked indifference in executing the orders of his captain, and for having beaten Francis Fitzgerald, a volunteer of the first class. He was found guilty, and sentenced to be dismissed the service.

Advices have been received from Constantinople to the 7th instant. Negotiations on the subject of Syria proceeded ; but nothing new was known of the intention respecting either that province or Servii. The Universal Gazette of Leipzic asserts that the Porte had expressed an in- tention of acknowledging the new Prince of Servia.

The news from Persia continued pacitic.

According to letters of the 30th September, the removal of the French sradron from the coast of Syria had produced an unfavourable impres- sion inland. The Turks had become more haughty and exasperated

Intelligence has been received fl o n the Cape of Good Hope to the 12th of August.

The Queen's frigate Isis arrived in Simon's Bay on the 31st of July, with part of the troops that had been sent to Natal under Lieutenant. Colonel Cloete; and on the 1st of August they marched to Cape Town. On the same day, the following Government notice was issued- " His Excellency the Governor is pleased to direct the folios lag information to be made publicly known. "Lieutenant-Colonel Cloete left Port Natal on the 21st ultimo, on board

her Majesty's ship Isis, and arrived in Simon's Bay yesterday afternoon, accom- panied by a portion of the troops sent to reinforce the detachment under Cap- tain Smith, and has reported to his Excellency the Goveinor the final cessation of hostilities between her Majesty's troops and the insurgent Boers; no further hostile demonstration having been shown by them after the troops under Lieutenant-Colonel Cloete's orders were landed.

"The Emigrant Farmers having made a solemn declaration of their submission to the Queen—having released the prisoners, whether soldiers or civilians— having given up the cannon captured, as well as those belonging to themselves, and having restored all public as well as private property seized by them—the Lieutenant-Colonel, acting under the powers vested in him by the Governor, granted a general amnesty or free pardon to all persons who might have been engaged in resistance to her Majesty's troops and authority, with the exceptiom of Joachim Prinslo, A. W. Pretonus, J. J. Burger, Michicl Van Breda, and Servaas Van Breda.

" He further declared, that all private property would be respected ; that the Emigrant Farmers should be allowed to return to their farms with their guns- and horses; that they should he defended from any attack by the Zoolahs ; that the tenure of their lands should not be interfered with pending the determina- tion and settlement of her Majesty's Government ; that beyond the limits fixed for the military occupation, their existing administration and civil institutions should not be interfered with till the pleasure of her Majesty should be made known ; that the Caffers should not be molested in the occupation of the lands on which they were settled at the date of the arrival of her Majesty's troops, subject to such future arrangements as may be made for general security by her Majesty. And by a subsequent article appended to the conditions of this sur- render, the Lieutenant-Colonel, in consideration of Mr. A. W. Pretorius having cooperated in the final adjustment of the articles of surrender, and of his personal humane conduct to the prisoners and his general moderation, in- cluded him in the amnesty, which he had extended to all, with the exceptions above named.

" Major D'Ilrban and a second detachment of the Twenty-fifth were to leave Port Natal on or about the 25th ultimo, leaving Captain Smith in command of the post, with a force of 350 men. "Colonial Office, Cape of Good Hope, 1st August 1842.

"By command of his Excellency the Governor, (Signed) "J. MOORE CRAIG, Acting Secretary-to Government." Beyond this there is little news of the Natal expedition. The papers are full of letters retelling what is already known respecting the events preceding Colonel Cloete's arrival at Natal and immediately afterwards ; and they are also full of complaints of Colonel Cloete's conduct, charging him with unduly favouring the insurgent Boers and harshly treating the loyally disposed. For example, a letter to the Graham's Town Journal says— "The English prisoners are at liberty, and Colonel Cloete is treating with the Boers. This may be quite reasonable, and especially so if it tended in any way to secure the personal safety of the prisoners ; but he has returned the Boers all their arms, which in their flight they threw down or fell with the wounded men. There is also a man named Morewood, who it is said, gave notice to the Boers of Captain Smith's night-march, and which was the cause of its failure and the destruction of his men. Cloete has had this man in his power, and has set him at liberty. Again, an Englishman named Cato bad a few cattle in the bush, under the charge of a few faithful Zoolahs : these men, when the tables were turned, joyfully brought them in ; on which Colonel Cloete immediately laid his hand upon them. Cato represented the state of the case ; but was very coolly told he might think himself well off he had gained his freedom. Thus, this man, who, when Captain Smith arrived, helped him all he could, and for doing of which the Boers robbed him of all he possessed, (except the few cattle upon which Colonel Cloete has, in his turn, now seized,) kept him in the stocks for six weeks, whose wife they ill-treated and robbed, leaving her without a change of linen—and yet this poor fellow is told to think himself well off that he bad gained his liberty ! There is a misunderstanding between Colonel Cloete and Captain Smith, and it is said that the latter posi- tively refused to move a foot, in the manner proposed, towards Pietermauritz- berg."

The Times publishes the following extract of a letter dated Chusan, 20th January 1842: the writer's views have already received partial confirmation- " The troops continue very healthy; the diseases being chiefly those induced by intemperance. The winter has been very grateful, and more mild than th previous one. During December, we had a heavy fall of snow for some days, and for about three weeks' keen, biting, frosty weather ; the thermometer being often as low as 20 and 24 degrees. The people of this island, and those in the other parts of China which have come under my observation, are a fine class of men, well formed, intelligent, and in many points highly civilized; the lower orders muscular, healthy, and to all appearance happy under their Govern- ment, which is not certainly so oppressive as is generally supposed in Europe. In agriculture and in native manufactures they are far advanced, and in most ot the mechanical sciences they possess great genius ; but of the art of war, as practised among Europeans they know nothing, and they are at once appalled with the effective power of the mighty engines of death which we bring against them. There has, indeed, been nothing like fighting upon this expedition, and those who have mingled in the various actions would scarce recognize them in the flaming despatches in which they are described. The mildest epithet that can be applied to the system of war now being carried on is that of bucaneering—Britons never minded in a more unequal stnfe, or in one more dishonourable to their country's &me. There is now less appearance of peace than the first day we started

against the Christians. A report prevailed, which was, however, con- sidered to require confirmation, that a Catholic clergyman had been publicly hanged at Sidon. The Emir Abdallah, of Gaza, and severat Sheiks, were wandering through the mountains, and had refused to sub- mit to the Turkish authority. An order had been issued by Mnstapha Pasha, cautioning the Christians against affording them any assistance, under the severest penalties; and Gaza had been in the mean time occu- pied by Albanian troops.

The Journal de Smyrne states that the wife of the British Consul had been insulted and struck in the streets of Beyrout by a young Turk. The Janissary, by whom the lady was accompanied, having horse- whipped the offender, a complaint had been made by both parties to the authorities. from Hongkong. The Chinese Government seem to have adopted a new policy, in keeping aloof from all negotiation, and deserting their posts of defence as we advance. Reinforcements of European troops are expected here daily, and it is then contemplated to attack Hong-chou-foo and Nankin ; then to move to the northward about the middle of April, land at the mouth of the Peiho, and march upon Pekin. I am afraid this will be a sad failure; and, from the knowledge we possess of that part of the country, its great flatness and un- healthiness, there cannot be a doubt but the loss of life from disease will be most serious. Even if Pekin is reached, the Emperor has still Tartary open to retreat upon, and to follow him is an impossibility: thus the object of our taking a city which we cannot keep will be frustrated, and oar force weakened and dispirited.

" The people here come freely with bullocks and pigs for sale, and our market is plentifully supplied with fowls, ducks, great varieties of fish, and all sorts of vegetables and fruits, at moderate prices. Pheasants, woodcocks, snipe, and teal, have been plentiful. China, indeed, is rich in every production, both in the animal and vegetable kingdom.

"After the taking of Chosen, I collected all the wounded, placed them in a house near to my quarters, amputated their limbs, and dressed their sores. Many of them have recovered, and have been sent to their homes ; only two now remain ; they have each had a leg amputated, and are now quite well. One is a fine Tartar soldier, about six feet two inches in height, who had his leg shattered while fighting bravely at the beach-battery. At first he con- sidered my object was to torture him, but he is now the most grateful and pleased being in the city. I am now getting up a subscription for them among the officers in the garrison, to pay their passage and enable them to reach their homes; where they must carry with them some remembrance of our humanity."