Alisttllantous.

The Marquis of Northampton, as President of the Royal Society, held a conversazione on Saturday night, at his mansion in Piccadilly. Prince Albert spent a couple of hours with the company. The Duke of Sussex was prevented front being present by the effects of his late illness.

The appointment of a successor to Admiral Elliot in the India com- mand has given rise to a continued succession of reports and contra- dictions. The last announcement is, that Sir William Parker has po- sitively been appointed. If the next intelligence from China be favour- able, it is said, Sir William will go in the Cornwallis, 72 ; but otherwise he will proceed by the overland route to India on the 1st May

Despatches were received on Tuesday last, at the Spanish Embassy, recalling General Alava, and accrediting S. Gonzales, who was recently here on a special mission, as Ambassador to this Court. S. Gonzales "eft London on Monday night, for Madrid, unaware of his new appoint- ment. A courier has been sent after him, with the expectation of over- taking him at Paris.

The Reverend Mr. Newman, the author of the famous No. 90 of the Tracts for the Times, has addressed a letter to the Bishop of Oxford, acquiescing in the Bishop's intimation that such writings had better be discontinued ; but justifying the writer's motives, and promising to prove that he has no " leaning towards the Roman Catholic error," by passages culled from the Tracts.

The company of the Adelphi Theatre have presented to Mr. Dun- combe a highly-wrought cup, worth fifty guineas, in acknowledgment of his services in Parliament in behalf of the drama and its professors.

Great numbers of distinguished persons have been to see the Albert, one of the vessels of the Niger Expedition. On Monday, it was visited, among others, by Lord John Russell, the Earl and Countess of Minto, the Earl of Clarendon, Lord Morpetb, Mr. Charles Wood, and the Duke of Buckingham ; on Tuesday, Sir Robert Peel, Sir George Clerk, Mr. Colquhoun, Sir Thomas Acland, Sir Harry and Lady Verney, Captain Beaufort, and several Members of both Houses of Parliament, were among the visiters.

Another of the Niger vessels, the Soudan, Captain Bird Allen, sailed from Deptford for her destination on Wednesday afternoon.

Arrangements have been made for introducing the Metropolitan Po- lice into the Royal Dockyard and Victualling-office at Deptford and the Royal Dockyard and Arsenal at Woolwich. The change will take effect on Monday next ; and it is intended as speedily as possible to ex- tend the operation to all the other naval and ordnance departments in the kingdom. The old officers of the yards will retire on pensions, or be incorporated with the new force.

The Paris papers of Wednesday announce the conclusion of the general debate in the Chamber of Peers on the Fortifications BilL The Chamber then proceeded with the separate clauses.

On Friday, the debate was interrupted by a strange Carlist outburst. M. Persil, from the tribune, accused the Legitimist party of being united against the measure because the fortifications would keep out foreign armies, and with them the Pretender. This called up M. de Dreux Braze ; who protested, first in the name of the Prince, and then in the name of his party, against such a supposition. Each time his voice was drowned by the outcry of the Peers and by the President. On Saturday, Count Bresson, the French Ambassador to Prussia, exposed the view taken of the question by the most distinguished and expe- rienced officers of that country. They all, he said, considered Paris to be the vulnerable point of France ; and the manoeuvres which led to the surrender of that capital in 1814 and 1815, were accordingly recom- mended as an object of constant study, and of imitation in all future campaigns. He thought a good understanding with the other Powers practicable; but permanent alliances were more difficult, and he en- treated the Chamber not to leave the road open to future aggression. The question of expense puzzles the promoters of the measure : Count d'Argout defended the bill on this singular ground, that the sinking of the fosse had already taken place, and works to the amount of nearly a million had been executed ; and that to rase all those works would cost five or six millions more.. General Terlet, an old artillery officer, however, declared that the wall would not strengthen the capital, and that the mere necessity of keeping four million pounds of gunpowder always ready for the two thousand cannon with which the wall was to be furnished, would be a permanent danger to the city, more than counter-balancing any security to be derived from the fortifications.. On Wednesday, the Chamber rejected the modifications of the bill pro- posed in Baron Moulder's report, by 148 to 91, The Chamber of Deputies has fixed the duration of copyright to thirty years after the death of the author ; to vest in his heirs, whether direct or collateral, should he not have ceded or sold his right. Some Deputies proposed that literary property should not be subject to the law of marriage so as to give a husband power over his wife's writings.. The case of Madame Dudevant (George Sand) was in every one's mind, The Chamber, however, would not sanction the exception.

The motion of M. Mauguin and M. Pages (de 1' Ariaze) in the Chamber of Deputies, on the diminution of paid functionaries in Par- liament, was postponed from Saturday till Monday April 5th, as the Ministers were engaged in the Peers with the Fortifications Bill.

The Presse states that the Prince de Joinville had been appointed to command the naval station at Newfoundland.

There has been a revolutionary movement in Marseilles. The police had been for some time aware of a conspiracy, the object of which was said to be to fire the fort. At length they learned that the con- spirators bad planned some decisive movement, in order to which they were to rendezvous at a wine-shop in the town. The police repaired to the place, and occupied the roads through which the rioters were likely to pass. About eleven at night on the 28d, the conspirators began to assemble at the wine-shop, arriving in groupes of five or six, to the number of 250 or 300. The police were about to surround them, when they were observed, and a gensdarme was fired at. The fire was returned. The conspirators in the house were alarmed, and before the military had arrived they dispersed and fled. Fourteen, however, were captured at once ; three more were seized on their way to another ren- dezvous ; and four others were taken next day. All except one are under thirty years of age. They were armed with swords, poniards, and pistols, with the requisite ammunition.

The Marseilles Semaphore of the 25th adds, that in the same night a. band of sixty conspirators assaulted the house of a tobacconist and re- tailer of gunpowder, in the village of St. Louis, situate at a league from Marseilles. The Paris correspondent of the Times mentions that the insurgents had acted from orders transmitted by the Paris Republican. Committee.

On the same night with the outbreak at Marseilles, riotous demonstra- tions were made in several places throughout the department of Van- cluse. The authorities, however, were on the alert to suppress violence_ The diners at a Radical Reform dinner, to the number of 250, at the Barriere du Maine, on Monday night, were abruptly dispersed by the Mayor of Montrouge. On descending into the street, the guests.

formed in marching order, singing the Marseillaise. The police-ia and a riotous scuffle ensued. The bystanders took part with the police.

The police has just arrested at Beziers a man who declares himself- to be the officer Cantillon, who in 1815 was brought before the Court of _Assize in Paris, under the accusation of an attempt at murder upon the person of Lord Wellington ; when he was acquitted. It may be- remembered that the Emperor Napoleon left in his will a gum of 10,000 francs to this officer ; giving it as his opinion that Cantillon had as much right to assassinate Wellington as that oligarchist had to send him to St. Helena, and to order Ney to be shot against the faith of conventions. The pretended Cantillon is bearer of an extract of this will ; but it appears that the signature of General Bertrand, which certifies it, has been forged, as well as the divers passports by means of which he has got numerous assistances in money, to defray the expenses of his many voyages.— Courrier du Midi.

Advices have been received from Alexandria to the 7th instant. Both the Pasha and Commodore Napier had left that city ; the Pasha. for Cairo, to visit Ibrahim Pasha, and the Commodore for Mar- morica.

Before his departure, Mehemet All had sent a letter to the Grand, Vizier in Constantinople, objecting strongly to the conditions with which the Porte had burdened the cession of the hereditary Pashalie of Egypt. He required the following modifications of those conditions : that the Governor of Egypt should enjoy the right of choosing his suc- cessor himself; that this successor should not be obliged to proceed to Constantinople to receive his investiture from the Porte ; that the supe- rior officers of the Egyptian Government should be appointed by him- self and his successors, and not by the Sultan ; that he should be exone- rated from paying the tribute fixed by the Sultan, during a limited period, in order to apply the entire of the public revenues to ameliorate the condition of the inhabitants of Egypt ; and that he should not be obliged to admit a Committee of Surveillance, mentioned in the Imperial hatti-scheriff as about to be sent to Egypt.

Although Commodore Napier had freely expressed his opinion as to the injustice of the conditions demanded of the Pasha, a coolness had sprung up between the two. Overtures towards reconciliation had - been made by the Pasha, in the shape of a diamond snuff-box, which. Boghos Bey, his Foreign Minister, offered to Commodore Napier in his=- master's name. The Commodore, however, declined accepting it. Me- hemet Ali, already too much chagrined to conceal his discontent, seemed more discomposed than ever.

Ibrahim Pasha's retreat from Syria appears to have been far more disastrous than it was at first supposed to be. Ibrahim himself was so. borne down by illness that his death was expected ; and the public in. Egypt were already speculating upon the probable effect which his re- moval would have in facilitating the final settlement of the Eastern question. Of 40,000 meta, which formed the strength of his army when it left Damascus for Egypt, only 20,000 survived the. march; and an unenumerated crowd of women and children also perished. Among the latter were 200 or 300 boys, whom Ibrahim Pasha had seized as host- ages for the unmolested retreat of his army.

The Delta of the Nile was infected with plague. The very extent of the evil forbade quarantine restrictions ; and a physician, Dr. Grassi, was consequently allowed to use measures of purification.

Advices from Constantinople to the 11th instant announce the receipt of Mehemet Ali's letter of remonstrance to the Grand Vizier. The ministers and high functionaries of the Porte immediately assembled in extraordinary council, and the representatives of the European Courts were consulted. The result of the conference is not stated ; but it is understood that the Porte would await a reference to the Four Powers. Lord Ponsonby is said to have admitted that the conditions demanded of Mehemet All were more stringent than Great Britain expected they would be.

A firman from the Porte to Mehemet Ali, dated February 13th, has been published. Alluding to a former firman, conveying under certain conditions the hereditary government of Egypt, the Sultan offers to confirm the appointment of the higher officers of government already in occupation. The same firman forbids the detention of persons in the provinces who have been retained as hostages for the payment of troops, and the mutilation of men for the guard of the harem.

The mail steam-ship Britannia arrived at Liverpool on Wednesday morning, having left Boston on the 16th March, and Halifax on the 18th. She performed the voyage in fourteen days eighteen hours, the longest of any by Mr. Cunard's boats ; but the weather was very tem- pestuous.

No public event of great importance had occurred since the departure of the previous intelligence from the United States. Nothing new had been done in Mr. M'Leod's case. To give him better security of an impartial trial, he had been removed from the frontier town of Lock- port to Albany. The trial was to take place on the 22d March ; and it as said that the British Government's responsibility for the destruction of the Caroline will then be pleaded, and that the plea will be admitted. Mr. Crittenden, the new Attorney-General, was expected to watch its proceedings.

It was rumoured in New York, that Mr. Fox had instructions to de- mand the immediate release of Mr. M'Leod, or his own passports. The application, however, if it really was to be made, had been delayed by the circumstance that the British Minister, not having been presented till the 9th, had not been put in official communication with the new President till then. On that day, the Corps Diplomatique was pre- sented ; the Russian Ambassador alone being absent, on account of in- disposition : be was presented on a subsequent day. In the name of the rest, Mr. Fox delivered the subjoined address-

" Sir-1 have the honour to address you in the name of the diplomatic body accredited to the United States of America. We hasten, Sir, to congratulate you upon your accession to the high office of President of this Republic, which the confidence of your fellow-citizens has conferred upon you. We speak the true sentiments of our respective governments and countries, in offering this testimony of regard and respect for your person and for your station. We re- joice, Sir, to have heard from your own lips, in your inaugural address, the declaration of a virtuous desire to promote the relations of national friendship and peace between the United States and foreign powers ; and we are happy to recognize, in your personal character and qualities, the strongest assurance that the efforts of your government will be faithfully directed to accomplish so wise and noble a purpose."

The President made the following reply-

" Sir—I receive with great pleasure the congratulations you have been pleased to offer me in the name of the distinguished diplomatic body now pre- sent, the representatives of the most powerful and polished nations with whom the Repubhc which has honoured me with the office of its Chief Magistrate has the most intimate relations ; relations which I trust no sinister event will for ages interrupt. " The sentiments contained in my late address to my fellow-citizens, and to which you have been pleased to advert, are those which will continue to govern any conduct through the whole course of my administration. Lately one of the people—the undisputed sovereigns, of the country—and coming imme- diately from amongst them. I am enabled with confidence to say that in thus acting, I shall be sustained by their undivided approbation. " I beg leave to add, Sir, that, both from duty and inclination, I shall omit nothing in my power to contribute to your own personal happiness, and that of the friends whom on thivecasion you represent, as long as you may con • tinue amongst us."

According to the New York papers, several special messengers have passed between Lord Sydenham and Mr. Fox ; and a special messenger from the latter is said to have come over in the Britannia.

Mercantile advices from New York speak in the most confident terms of the maintenance of the amicable relations'between England and the -United States. They scout the very idea of M`Leod's case involving the two powers in war.

The late President had transmitted to the House of Representatives, in compliance with their resolution of the 30th January last, a report from the Secretary of State, with documents on the subject of British seizures and searches, and the slave-trade.

The Legislature of Maryland has unanimously passed a series of resolutions in relation to the claims of Maine and the disputed boundary . After asserting the justice of the claim of Maine, they declare that the Federal Government alone can be allowed to settle the question ; that Maine should contribute by all the means in her power towards an amicable settlement of the dispute upon honourable terms ; and that if the British Government would acknowledge the title of Maine, and offer a fair equivalent for the passage through the disputed territory of a military road, that would be a reasonable mode of settlement, and ought to be satisfactory to Maine.

A duel had nearly taken place between Mr. Clay and Mr. King of Alabama, another member of the Senate. The appointment of a sub- ordinate officer by the late Government was called in question ; and Mr. King, who defended it, declared that the man's character was equal to Mr. Clay's. This was taken in a contumelious sense, and Mr. Clay declared the assertion to be " untrue, false, and cowardly." Mr. King returned to his seat ; wrote a note; took Mr. Wise, another Senator, into an ante-room ; and Mr. Wise presently returned and went up to Mr. Clay. At this point accounts differ: one says that, upon Mr. Clay's expressing his acceptance of the challenge which he assumed

the other to bear, Mr. Wise told him that there had been a challenge, but that it was torn ; and then he tried to make some explanation, which Mr. Clay refused to hear. Another version of the story is, that a challenge was actually handed to Mr. Clay. Whichever was the case, the hostile appearances were observed, and the Sergeant-at-Arms procured a Magistrate's warrant and arrested both parties. On the following day, the mediation of Mr. Wise and another gentleman effected a reconciliation, the offensive words being retracted. The long-pending cause of the African Negroes found on board the Spanish ship Amistad, was, on the 9th March, finally decided in favour of the Negroes, by a judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States, then in session at Washington. By this decision the Negroes were declared to be free men ; and all claim against them, whether on the part of the Spanish Minister or of the pretended Spanish owners, is dismissed. The Negroes were to be immediately set at liberty in the State of Connecticut, where they had been detained in custody waiting the event of the trial.

Commercial affairs were in a worse condition than ever. All the banks South and West of New York had suspended cash-payments ; and the Legislatures of the States in x hich those banks were situate were expected to legalize the suspension. This would constrain the banks of New York and Boston to limit their discounts. United States Bank Shares were quoted at 17 ; and the notes of that bank were sel- ling in New York at 15 to 18 per cent. discount. Little business was done for the Britannia in foreign exchanges. The rates on England were 7i to 8 premium for New York bills, and 61 for Southern bills not endorsed in that city ; on France, 5 francs 27 centimes to 30 centimes.

Government received despatches from Mr. Fox by the same steamer which brought our letters and papers; and those despatches leave no doubt of an amicable and immediate settlement between the United States and Great Britain as far as regards the question of M'Leod. Mr. Fox had received a communication to that effect from the American Government, couched in the most conciliatory language. We think that the public mind may be at rest on this point.— Times, April 2.

Electioneering speculations and stale comments on the M'Leod affair fill the Canadian papers.