POSTSCRIPT.

SATURDAY.

The largest intentions of the Government appear most frequently to find their earliest foreshadowing in some such utterance as that which stands first in the leading columns of the Times this morning. It indicates an intention of reconsidering "the whole question of British settlements on the coast of China." The writer points out, quite correctly, that Chusan was surrendered by the British on the fulfilment of the treaty of Nankin, and Hongkong accepted as "an establishment from which the interests of British commerce in those parts might be protected and advanced." At Canton the treaty has never been completely fulfilled ; it has been more than once evaded, and is now flagrantly defied. "The events of the next few months will bring with them their own instruction as to the policy which it will now be advisable to pursue ; but there can be no doubt as to the imperfections of our last convention." [Are we to resume Chusan which it is said the Russians have already obtained by treaty ? or to iake and keep Canton ? or to find some other place ?] The Fats-is says, it is reported that the French Government is about to send several more vessels to China, and among them the steam-frigate Audacieuse, Captain Paris, now belonging to the Mediterranean squadron. The Audacieuse will be the largest French steamer that has yet been seen in the India or China seas. Each of the ships of the new squadron will carry out 1000 infantry.

Both Houses of Parliament will be engaged in swearing in their members until Thursday next ; when the session will be opened by a speech from the Woolsack, delivered by the Lords Commissioners on behalf of her Majesty.

The Bishops and Clergy forming the two Houses of Convocation for the Province of Canterbury assembled yesterday at St. Paul's Cathedral, where they met the Archbishop, and performed the religious ceremonies usual on the meeting of a new Convocation. The Litany was intoned in Latin by the Bishop of Lincoln ; and the Latin sermon was preached 'by the Reverend Hayward Cox, Prebendary of Hereford and Examining Chaplain to the Bishop of that diocese. The subject of his discourse was controversy and the principles that should govern it on religious ques

tions, with a special application to Convocation. At the close of his discourse, the preacher noticed some of the grave questions affecting the Established Church—

Such are the religious and secular education of the people, the revision of the present version of the Bible and of our Church services, measures of Christian and of civil liberty, the relations of Church and State, (expressing here an opinion that the carrying out the idea of separation in its completeness would impair the rights of Dissenters no less than of Churchmen,) and the constitution of Convocation itself. As regards the latter question, he urged instant attention ; dwelling forcibly on the perilous character of the position in which Convocation is at present placed. He reminded his hear ers, that at present they could do no more than deliberate—that they are without the power of enacting canons. He, for himself, heartily desired a nearer approximation to the representative character of our Civil Legislature in the constitution of their Synod—impressing on them, that unless the laity have a voice in the selection of those clergymen who might be sent as members to Convocation they could not expect sympathy or deference on the part of the Christian public. But with this modification, he could anticipate a bright future for the Church, in contrast to its history, when at the Revolution—the period of civil liberty bursting forth on the people—it was thought necessary to silence the ambitious tone and factiousness of Convocation itself. After the sermon, the prelates and clergy went in procession to the Chapterhouse ; where the writ summoning Convocation was read. The Archbishop then directed the Lower House to choose a Prolocutor, and meet him in the Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster, next Friday. The Lower House selected Dr. Eliot, the Dean of Bristol, as Proleenter. The Dean Of Ely, Who lately filled that office, has retired in consequence of ill health. The Queen has been pleased to order a conge d'elire to pass the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, empowering the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral Church of Norwich to elect a Bishop of that see, the same being void by the resignation of the Right Reverend Father in God Dr. Samuel Hinds, late Bishop thereof; and her Majesty has also been pleased to recommend to the said Dean and Chapter the Honourable and Reverend John Thomas Pellutm, M.A., to be by them elected Bishop of the said see of Norwich.—London Gazette.

The death of the Duchess of Gloucester is not to prevent Prince Albert from opening the Manchester Exhibition on Tuesday next. It has been publicly announced, that "in consideration of the importance of the occasion, and in order not to disappoint the vast numbers who must have made their arrangements, his Royal Highness Prince Albert has consented to perform the public duties allotted to him upon the 5th and 6th of May. It will be understood that with these exceptions his Royal Highness must remain in strict privacy."

A Manchester correspondent, whose genial courtesy is advanced with most "material guarantees," corrects our description of Manchester as "smoky," and of the Exhibition Buildings exposed to a "standing shower of blacks." Our knowledge of Manchester has disposed us to regard a wide district around as visited by the truant blacks that used to abound in that energetic centre ; but our experience is not very recent, and we confess that we did not take exact note of the effect produced by the "consumption" of smoke. We readily bow to our correspondent's more exact and familiar experience, and believe Manchester to be, as he says, not more smoky than London in the " crystal " year 1851.

The Admiralty have selected Vice-Admiral Reynolds to fill the post of Commander-in-chief at Devonport, in succession to Admiral Sir Williani Parker, whose period of service will shortly expire. Admiral Reynolds has served with distinction in the command of the African squadron engaged in repressing the slave-trade.

The election for the vacant Poetry Professorship at Oxford is fixed for Tuesday next. It is understood that Mr. Matthew Arnold and Mr. Bode are now the only candidates in the field. The contest is expected to be a very sharp one. On the same day, there will be an election for the chair of Political Economy.

The French Government has made a slight relaxation in the passport system; as will be seen from the following notice posted at Calais yesterday

" His .Excellency the Minister of the Interior has just ordered the suppression of the visa of passports for all travellers, without exception, coming from England through the port of Calais, having for their destination either Paris or Belgium and Germany."

A telegraphic despatch from Berne, dated the 29th April, states that on that day the Swiss Federal Council authorized the signing of the treaty for the settlement of the Neuchatel question on the conditions drawn up by the Conference at Paris.

A telegraphic despatch from Marseilles states, that the overdue steamer from Australia, the Oneida, had put back into King George's Sound, with damaged machinery. The mails and passengers of the Oneida were carried to Suez by the European, and thence in the Cambria to Marseilles, where they arrived this morning.

The subscription to the Franklin Fund moves well, although scarcely brought before the public. We understand that Captain Allen Young, who commanded the Adelaide steam transport in the Black Sea during the late Crimean war, has volunteered, if allowed to accompany the expedition, to contribute 600/. to the Fund.

The most compact account which we have seen of the Trans-Atlantic Electric Telegraph is given in the paper on the "Physical Geography of the Sea" in the current number of the Edinburgh Review.

"The capital destined to this enterprise is 350,0001., divided into 350 shares of 1000/. each; 262 of which have been taken in England, 88 in America. The British Government, besides certain preliminary aids, guarantees 4 per cent on the capital, tchen and 48 long as the telegraph is iss working order, in remuneration for all the work done on Government behalf.

"The submarine cable through which the electrical current will be conveyed (to use a conventional language which future knowledge may alter) is three-fourths of an inch in diameter. The copper conducting-wires pass through it, coated securely with gutta-percha ; and this central portion of the cable is covered and protected by strands of iron wire, eighteen in number, each of these composed of seven iron threads, loosely twisted together. The weight of the cable is about 20001bs., or somewhat less than a ton, to the mile. Though exceedingly flexible, it is capable of supporting six miles of its own length suspended vertically in water. The contract we understand to be for 2600 miles of this cable to be in readiness for use by the end of next May.

"The submersion, according to present plans, is to be effected by two steamers, each conveying half the cable. These vessels, meeting at the middle pint in the .Atlantic, will first effect securely the junction of the ends of the cable, and then separate—the one with a destination to Ireland, the other to Newfoundland—dropping the telegraph cable into the ocean' as they severally proceed ; and exchanging frequent electric signals through it, to indicate their relative position as well as to attest the completeness of the work accomplished. It is estimated that the whole cable may be laid down in its ocean depths in eight days from the time when the junction of the two halves has been effected."

"The scheme if not originating in a series of soundings across this ocean, has at least been matured and directed by them. These soundings, conducted chiefly by an American officer, Captain Berryman have disclosed i

the existence, between Newfoundland and the Western coast Ireland, of a sort of plateau forming the bed of the sea, at a depth nowhere exceeding 2070 fathoms ; and what is of greater moment for its destination, having a very uniform grade of descent from each side towards this point of greatest depression, which is nearly equidistant from Valentia and St. John's, the assumed Eastern and Western termini of the submarine telegraph. The actual distance between these points is 1900 statute miles,of which, about 1500 miles intermediate between the dips from each side, and named by Lieutenant Mewl,' the Telegraphic plateau,' afford a soft and singularly equable level ; chiefly, it would seem, of calcareous rock, covered in great part with a layer of microscopic Tropical shells, and well adapted in everyway to receive the wonderful instrument of human intelligence which is about to be committed to this submarine bed. It has been surmised, and not without show of reason, that these very materials, forming the bottom of the plateau, may furnish a coating of natural concrete to the electric cable ; adding to its stability of position, and lessening the chances of injury or destruction from the elements around ; and possibly also affording a more perfect means of transmission of the electric action itself."