2 JULY 1842, Page 7

IftistelIantous.

The Count of Mensdorf and his four sons arrived at Ostend on the 24th, from England, on their way to Germany.

The Derby Reporter announces the death of the Earl of Leicester' at Longford Hall, in the county of Derby, on Thursday morning. He was in his ninety-first year. He entered Parliament in 1774; and, as Coke of Holkham, he was well known as one of Charles James Fox's last surviving friends, and as the enlightened patron of improvements in agriculture. For the last six months his Lordship has been gradu- ally sinking, from extreme age. He removed from Holkham to Lone- ford Hall some time ago, for the benefit of the change of air, and his death was preceded by no pain. He is succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, Thomas William, who was born in 1822.

Sir Joseph Littledale died on Sunday last, at his house in Bedford Square. He was born in 1767; called to the bar in 1787; elevated to the Bench and knighted in 1824. He resigned his seat in February 1841, and was then appointed a member of the Privy Council.

The Marquis of Bute has contributed 100/. to the general fund for the unemployed classes.

Mr. Charles Dickens and his wife arrived at Liverpool on Wednes- day, from New York, in the packet-ship George Washington, which. sailed on the 8th June.

Lord Jocelyn has written a letter to the papers to correct a miscon- ception of his speech on the Afghan war : he did not blame the policy of Lord Auckland and the late Government, but the conduct of the Political Agents.

The Medical Times gives by anticipation an outline of the recom- mendations in the forthcoming Report of the Select Committee on the improvement of Health in large towns-

" After a brief review of the difficulties attending the prevention of inter- ments in or near towns, it proceeds, we are told, to an unanimous declaration of the members, that the present practice is injurious to public health and offen- sive to public decency ; and that an act of Parliament for its discontinuance is absolutely essential. It then recommends that legislation upon the subject be in the first instance confined to the Metropolis, and certain large towns and cities the population of which exceeds 50,000; that Westminster Abbey and St. Peal's, as sepultures for the celebrated dead, and family-vaults anywhere else, as private property, should be exempted from the operation of the act ; that the authorities of a parish, or of several combined, should be required to impose a rate to form cemeteries, and should be entitled to the present rate of fees ; that a minimum and maximum of distance should be fixed, to consult at once public health and popular convenience ; that a due space in every ceme- tery should be kept unconsecrated, where the parties might use their own clergyman, and pay no fees to the Established Church ; and that a Central Board of Superintendence should be appointed to supervise and enforce the application of the law according to circumstances."

The Globe puts forth a correction of a statement which it made on Saturday, that Friday's Gazette contained a notice to all persons in- trusted with the payment of annuities, dividends, &c. to make a return to the Stamp-office within a month the notice referred only to Colo- nial annuities and dividends.

The ratifications of the long-pending treaties between Great Britain and Texas were exchanged on Tuesday the 28th June, by the Earl of Aberdeen, Plenipotentiary of Great Britain, and the Honourable Ash- bet Smith, Plenipotentiary of the Republic at Texas. These treaties are three in number,—a treaty of amity, navigation, and commerce; a treaty undertaking mediation by Great Britain between the Republic of Mexico and Texas ; and a treaty granting reciprocal right of search for the suppression of the African slave-trade.

The Italian Operahouse was the scene of great disorder on Saturday night. The opera had been suddenly changed from the Puritani to Bea- trice di Tenda, on account of the illness of Persiani. The crowded audi- ence, or part of it, seem to have come prepared for disturbance. The performance did not begin punctually at the usual time ; and that gave occasion to marks of disapprobation, which gradually increased, until, on the rising of the curtain, the performers were hooted from the stage, with loud cries for the manager. M. Laurent, the stage-manager, fruit- lessly endeavoured to pacify them in French; the favourite Rubini was next received with cheers, but could not obtain a hearing ; and at length Mr. Lumley came on, and declared that Persiani was really ill,— adding that he had no control either over life and death or health and illness. The turmoil continued until Mr. Lumley came on a second time ; and told the audience that he had given orders to proceed with the ballet, and that those who desired to be admitted on another evening might retire and procure checks for the purpose. Some persons availed themselves of that arrangement, and the ballet proceeded in quietness. The ill-feeling of the audience is attributed to the badness of the opera substituted for the Puritani; but it does not appear that the arrange- ments of the theatre would have admitted of any other opera being sad- denly produced except Luerezia Borgia or Elena di Felire ; and the last has been damned. Of the truth of Persiani's indisposition, her reputa- tion for correctness and punctuality forbids all doubt : she had sung with pain at the Hamburg Concert the day before ; and though she attended at the Palace on the Friday evening, the Queen permitted her to omit the songs which had been set down for her. In a letter to the papers, her husband intimates that her health suffered from crossing she Channel during very tempestuous weather, in order punctually to keep her engagement at the London Opera. The Queen was to have been present on Saturday evening, but, having been very promptly and properly informed of the unseemly state of matters, she staid away. The King and Queen of the Belgians, the Dutchess of Kent, the Duke and Dutchess of Cambridge, Princess Augusta, and Prince George of Cambridge, were there.

The funeral of Mr. Yates was on Sunday morning, and was strictly private, in accordance with his own desire : his remains were followed to the family-vault in St. Martin's Church by his son, his brother Dr. Yates, and other relatives and friends, including his partner Mr. Glad. stane ; Messrs. Wilkinson and Lyon, and a few other members of the Adelphi company, being in attendance at the church. It appears that Mr. Yates died, not, as was stated last week, at the hotel at Euston Square, but at lodgings in Alornington Crescent, to which he had been conveyed a few days after his arrival. He suffered no pain, but sank from exhaustion : no hope of his recovery was en- tertained from the time of his arrival in town, though it is conjectured that, had he been removed to London earlier, under the care of his brother and Dr. Billing, who knew his constitution, he would not have been reduced so low, and there might have been more hope of his reco- very.

We regret to hear that Mrs. Yates and her son are left in circum- stances far from affluent. A theatrical benefit would be a tribute to the memory of her husband, and to her own worth and talents, that a large portion of the public would be eager to pay.

The Paris Moniteur of Monday contained the Royal ordinance aug- menting the import-duties on foreign linen and linen-yarn. The duties are raised from 10 or 11 per cent to 25 or even 30 per cent : on flaxen and hempen thread, they are now fixed at 38 francs to 205 francs per hundred kilogrammes, on different qualities, raw, bleached, and dyed ;

on plain cloths, raw, bleached, and dyed, at 60 francs to 537 francs ; the intermediate grades of duty being very numerous. The table setting forth the new duties is preceded by a report from M. Cunha Gridaine, in which he explains the grounds of the change. The expla- nation is remarkable— "France found formerly in her own production the means of providing with case for the immense consumption which she has always had of cloths, of flax, of hemp, at the same time that she exported to a considerable amount to other countries. At present our exports are sensibly diminished. The imports from abroad, which for twenty years were stationary, now supply us with a constantly increasing quantity of cloths, and throw upon our markets masses of threads, which in the space of ten years have amounted from 800,000 kilogrammes to nearly 10,000,000, representing a value of 41,000,000 francs. We have even reason to fear that at the present moment the arrivals exceed in a large pro- portion all anticipations, as well as all actual wants. Such perturbation, Sire, which is happily of rare occurrence in the history of international commerce, has two leading causes. Whilst the importation of cloths is affected in a neighbouring country with an entrance-duty of 40 per cent, the mechanical means of linen-spinning have been in the same country practised with a ra- pidity and upon a scale which leave behind all the efforts made by other nations to participate in the advantages of this great discovery. The results of this revolution in manufactures were naturally calculated to become injurious to as, as in France a deep-rooted and extensive practice of spinning by hand necessarily rendered the adoption of the new process less prompt. Our new spinning-establishments have not, therefore, been able to support the shock of foreign competition, and several of them have been compelled to stop by the continually increasing invasion of rival products. This is not all : those threads in the preparation of which the mechanical means employed permit the use of textile material of inferior quality imported from India and Oceans, are substituted in our linen-manufactures for the productions of superior quality of our own soil. The agriculturists of France, therefore, behold the circle of their markets constantly narrowed both at home and abroad by the invasion of flax and hemp from other countries introduced into France in the state of thread or cloth. The ruinous consequences of this state of things extend to sixty-five of our departments, in which the different branches of the linen- trade had hitherto supplied employment to a population having no other re- source. It has become urgent to apply a remedy. The law of the 6th May 1841 had already attempted to confine within just limits the competition of foreign threads in the French markets. Desirous of proceeding in such a com- plicated question with reserve and moderation, we then hoped that a protection of from 10 to 11 per cent would be a sufficient guarantee for our manufactures. This hope has not been realized. An extraordinary reduction of price, the re- sult of the progress of mechanical spinning among our neighbours, and the use of less expensive materials than ours, have overthrown the calculations and expectations of the legislator. To check the evil, an important augmentation of the present rate of duty—an augmentation which for certain classes will more than double it—is an indispensable measure."

The report expresses a wish not to include Belgium in the measure ; but as the negotiations for concessions in favour of French wine, salt, and silks, were not concluded, the exception in favour of Belgium is suspended.

The Prase makes the following observations on the new duties-

" According to the new tariff, unbleached thread of 6,000 metres the kilo- gramme pays a duty of 38 francs the 100 kilogrammes. The importation chiefly consists of this thread. The old duty was 16 francs. But when that duty was put on, thread of this class was worth from 155 to 160 francs the 100 kilogrammes. The duty was thus 10 per cent. The same thread has now fallen to from 116 to 120 francs. So that the new duty of 38 francs is triple the old, or fully 30 per cent. On the second class the old duty was 24, it is now 48 francs. But as the price has fallen, the duty is greater than it appears, and is at least 26 per cent."

The accounts from Spain are unsatisfactory. The new Ministry are harassed by an organized opposition in the Chamber of Deputies. Dis- turbances in Barcelona, which were said to be exaggerated, now create some alarm : on the 22d, the Political Chief forbade public singing of Republican songs ; and Van Haien has been obliged to take measures to check the advances of a Carlist chief, Felip, whose lieutenant, Jose Bonet, sent to France to recruit, had been arrested at Perpignan. The corporate authorities of Barcelona had determined to resign; and Van Haien was about to do so. The rumour is renewed that the severe Zurbano is to be sent to pacify Catalonia.

• Mr. J. Coltfultonn, the Agent in London for the Haase Towns, has sent a letter to the papers to contradict the statement that the sum contributed for Hamburg is more than sufficient to rebuild the town, and that the Hamburgers " execrate " the English as the authors of the fire. The loss incurred by the fire in houses alone is computed at 2,590,000!.; and a loan is about to be raised to reestablish those build- ings: the sum contributed by Europe is 200,0001. [An enormous mul- tiplication of that amount appeared in several journals, and, by inad- vertence, in our own.] The best feeling towards the English prevails in Hamburg. The Senate of Hamburg have prepared a voluminous plan, to be sub- mitted to the Burghershaft, for repairing the injury done by the late fire. They propose that a Committee shall be appointed, consisting of five of their own body and fourteen of the Burghershaft, to revise a scheme already arranged by the Senate, as follows. A state loan is to be raised, not exceeding 32,000,000 marks banco, equal to 40,000,000 marks currency. The houses burned down are estimated at 42,000,000 marks currency ; but the remains are valued at 2,000,000 marks cur- rency. The loan is to be raised abroad. The interest on it is to be provided for by a tax of 1 per cent on the insured value of all the houses in town, which will raise 1,800,000 marks banco : the ground- tax (170,000 marks) is to be abolished, as otherwise the impost on houses would be too heavy ; and to make up for the deficiency in the ordinary revenue, the income and property-tax of 1836 will be renewed at a double rate ; income under 400 marks will be exempt, from 400 to 1,000 will pay three marks, above 1,000 will pay four marks ; and the import-duty, per cent, and export-duty, k per cent, are to be paid in banco instead of currency, four marks banco equalling five currency. Of the 100,000 devoted to road-making, 60,000 will be converted to state purposes. The plan for rebuilding the town contemplates a great improvement in the disposal of the streets ; and the conflagration has pointed out defects in the style of building—as wooden pipes and gut- ters. The Committee will prepare reports on these subjects, and on a general police-law for architectural, fire, and sanatory regulations.

Mr. Walters, the commander of the ship William Cannynges, who arrived at Bristol on Monday, from Cape Coast Castle, which he left on the 22d of March, reports that the Wilberforce, of the Niger Expedi- tion, was there, on its way to Fernando Po; whence it was to proceed with the Soudan on a second expedition up the river. At Ascension, on the 10th of March, most of the invalids had sufficiently recovered to be sent home.

Jamaica papers, to the 21st of May, announce the arrival of the new Governor and the departure of the old. Lord Elgin arrived on the 16th; and on the 19th the ceremony of his inauguration was per- formed at the Court-house in Kingston, in the presence of a large con- course. The Morning Journal makes the interesting announcement that Jamaica will be the birth-place of Lady Elgin's first child. When Sir Charles Metcalfe embarked on the 20th, he remained half an hour on the shore shaking hands with eager crowds of his regretful subjects, A book has been sent to us by Mr. De Cordova, of Kingston in Jamaica, the printer, which is a curiosity of literature. It is a sub- stantial octavo volume in a paper cover, containing sixty-five closely- printed pages, and consisting, in the words of the titlepage, entirely of "Farewell Addresses presented to his Excellency Sir Charles T. Met- calfe, on the occasion of his resignation of the Government of, and de- parture from this island ; with his Excellency's replies."— Colonial Gazette.

The Great Western has arrived from New York, which it left on the 16th. The advices add nothing to the intelligence already received. Lord Ashburton's negotiations at Washington were understood to pro- ceed favourably. General Jackson had written a letter to Mr. Mooney-, the Irish Repeal tourist in the United States, expressing sympathy with his party; but he says that he does so "without meaning to transcend the maxim which teaches us not to interfere offensively with the internal affairs of other nations." There was nothing remarkable in the state of money-matters, except that banking affairs in New Orleans continued in disorder.

The Genevese Traveller says that the Tariff is in a novel position before Congress- " Four bills have been presented to the House of Representatives: " I. A bill from the Treasury department; "2. A bill from the majority of the Commitee of Ways and Means; "3. A bill from the minority of the said Committee;

"4. A bill by Mr. Fillemore extending the operations of the present Tariff- laws to the let of August instead of the 1st of July, and repealing that clause of the Distribution Act which prevents the proceeds of the public land from being distributed so long as any duties are levied at a higher rate than twenty per cent.

" On this last bill it is probable the great battle will be fought. It is to settle vital principles as it respects the Tariff. The personal and confidential friends of the President boldly assert that he will veto any bill containing a clause which authorizes distribution while duties higher than twenty per cent are levied. On the other hand, it may be considered certain, I think, that Congress will pass Mr. Fillemore's bill If it does pass, and the President re- fuses to sign it, then the Compromise Act goes into operation on the 1st of July; and, in my opinion, Congress will adjourn without making any further or other provision for the wants of the Government. I do not believe, there- fore, that the President will veto any bill in relation to the raising of revenue which the national Legislature may deem it expedient to pass."

The Columbia mail-steamer arrived at Liverpool on Tuesday morn- ing, after the quickest voyage across the Atlantic on record—nine days and twenty-hours ; having left Halifax on the evening of the 18th in- stant.

Quarterly average of the weekly liabilities and assets of the Bank of England, from the 29th March 1842 to the 18th June 1842— LIABILITIES. ASSETS.

Circulation '£17,795,000 Securities £21,181,000 Deposits 8,011,000 Bullion 7,320,000

£25,806,000

£28,501,000