• IllistEllancotts.

The Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel gave state .dinners to those connected with Government in either House of Parliament, on Wednesday ; when the Royal Speech was read.

The Earl of Aberdeen has been prevented from attending the Par- liamentary dinner and the Privy Council by indisposition, but not of a serious kind.

We understand that Mr. Stephenson junior, secretary to the Pre- mier, will succeed Mr. Drummond as chief private secretary, and Mr. Arbuthnot, of the Treasury, supply the place of Mr. Stephenson.— Standard.

Mr. Joseph Parkes, the well-known Liberal Parliamentary agent, has been alarmingly ill ; but he is now considered out of danger.

Mr. George Alfred Muskett, the banker of St. Albans and former Member for that borough, (whose name has so recently been before the public in connexion with a libel on him confounding him with Charles Muskett, the keeper of a house iu the Quadrant,) died suddenly, in a fit of apoplexy, on Tuesday morning, at the house of his brother, Major Muskett.

By the death of Mr. Thomas Botfield, of FIopton Court, without issue, his large estates devolve upon his nephew, Mr. Beriah Botfield, the Member for Ludlow.

A paper defending the Tariff and its principles, which appears in a new periodical, the Foreign and Colonial Quarterly Review, is attributed to Mr. William Ewart Gladstone, the Vice-President of the Board of Trade, and excites much notice : Mr. John Gladstone, his father, has this week sent a long Anti-Free-Trade letter to the Morning Post; and this sets some malicious persons laughing at the discrepancy between " Gladstone senior" and "Gladstone junior."

The debate on the address in the French Chamber of Deputies was begun on Friday by M. Gustave de Beaumont ; who condemned M.

Guizot for having one policy of his own and following another, that of a majority. He dwelt on the fact that England did not complain of the breach of faith respecting the treaty of 1841; a great reason to make France mistrust M. Guizot. M. de Lamartine made a very

generalizing speech, denouncing the fortifications of Pan i r, the laws of September in their recent and severe application to the restriction of the

press ; but he exonerated both the 'present and previous Ministry at the expense of "the system "—covertly alluding to the active part taken by Louis Philippe in the business of government. M. Lamartine

declared that he abandoned the Conservative party, and passed over to the Opposition. M. de Gasparin delivered an eloquent address in favour of peace, and the sincere coOperation of France in the suppres- sion of the slave-trade; which he declared would increase frightfully without the right of search.

French vessels had been detected in the trade—one in 1838, three in 1839. France ought to do a great deal for the suppression of the slave-trade, for she had done much to establish it. A decree of the Empire restablished it.

The Restoration protected it. The example of the United States was men- tioned ; and they refused the right of reciprocal search ; but they had a reason,

which was, that England, in virtue of the laws of impressment, would seize English sailors on board of the American vessels, and those are in great num- bers; the United States declared, that if the laws of impressment were abolished.

they would grant the right of reciprocal search. It has been said that the reci- procity of search was an illusion. It was true ; but the reason was, that France had not the right of search upon vessels which carry on the trade, such as the Brazilian, Spanish, and Portuguese vessels. It was the turn of France to negotiate and obtain that right.

M. de Gasparin concluded by asking "did it become France to exclaim, with the first murderer, Am I my brother's guardian ? ' " M. de Tocqueville made a general onset on the policy of M. Guizot ; which he declared might be reduced to this—peace as an end, the re-

turn to the English alliance as the means. M. Guizot called this a quiet

and modest policy : if modesty is a virtue in private life, it sits ill upon a great people. He did not blime the Cabinet for endeavouriag to calm

the irritation between Great Britain and France, but the means em-

ployed. It is not the caprices of those who govern people, but the sym- pathy of nations themselves, that is the sure foundation of their alliance ;

and if that sympathy does not exist, the endeavour to create common

interests will only breed dissension. Thus the convention of the Straits, instead of allaying the irritation caused by the treaty of 15th July 1840,

only increased it. M. de Tocqueville avowed that he disapproved of the threatening language that had been held towards England in the Chamber, because he feared that a Government might not be found, in

case of need, ready to support it. He also blamed the Government

for repeatedly declaring through M. Guizot, that the honour of a nation depended upon keeping its word, and that France was morally engaged to

the Quintuple Treaty of 1841 ; after having uttered those solemn words,

being obliged to refuse the ratification, and thus betraying the Chamber into the appearance of insult towards Engt.snd. He was not led away by the mad desire to upset Government ; for Ministers in France were merely the organs of Government, not its dominating or directing mind. Towards the close of his speech, M. de Tocqueville remarked that 300,000 slaves annually cross the ocean : the right of search has not stopped that, and therefore other means should be tried. M. St. Marc Girardin contended, that although there was no objec- tion to the treaties of 1831 and 1833 before the treaty of 15th July

1840, when England and France were in real alliance, that treaty had so altered the circumstances as to remove the cause for reciprocity in the right of search. He also recommended the adoption of other means to suppress the slave-trade ; objecting to Lord Aberdeen's prohibition of the destruction of slave-factories.

The general discussion closed on Monday, and the debate on the paragraphs commenced. On the fifth paragraph, echoing the state- ments of the speech respecting the East, M. David moved an amend- ment, having for its object to invite the Cabinet to vindicate the rights and privileges which were granted to France by the Porte so far back as Francis the First, and to resume the protection of the Christian po- pulation of Syria, which she had possessed from time immemorial. M. Guizot assured M. David, that France had abandoned none ef her treaties or privileges in the East ; but next day, M. Dumon, the reporter on the address, introduced a modification which made it express con- fidence that the ancient privileges and influence of France would be maintained. In a desultory and uninteresting debate which fol- lowed, on what should or should not have been done in Syria, M. Berryer introduced an amendment congratulating the King, not, in echo of the speech, that an administration bad been formed in Syria "conformable to the wishes of the Syrians," but "that the interven- tion of his Government had brought about in Syria the establishment of a regular administration.; This amendment was carried, by 206 to 203; all the members present voting. M. Dufanre threw his vote and influence into the scale, and turned it in favour of M. Berryer.

The right of search was the next specific subject, and there were various amendments before the Chamber. The debate proceeded with little interest, until M. Guizot's declaration, on Wednesday, "that he would not open any negotiations for the modification of the treaties of 1831 and 1833, until he saw fair prospects of obtaining that modifica- tion from England by a common accord, and with success." This de- cided avowal was received by what the French call "profound agi- tation."

The French Government received last week despatches from Ma- drid announcing that the Regent had refused to make any concession to France. M. Guizot immediately forwarded an order to the French Chargé d'Affaires at Madrid to demand his passports unless satisfaction were forthwith given.

The father of Fanny Ellsler, the celebrated dancer, died at Vienna about a fortnight ago.

The Levant mail brings intelligence from Constantinople to the 7th January, and from Alexandia to the 6th. Captain Williams, R.A., had been appointed by Sir Stratford Canning to proceed immediately to the Persian frontier to act as Commissioner, with those despatched by Persia and the Porte, and a Russian Colonel, named by M. de Boutenieff, for the final arrangement of all existing difficulties. Redschid Pasha had been directed to return by Vienna to consult with Prince Metternich on the Servian question, on which no decision would be taken by the Porte until his arrival at Constantinople.

The advices from Egypt announce the death of Ahmed Fethi Pasha, the Turkish Admiral who delivered up the fleet to Mehemet Ali. His death is stated to have been caused by poison, but by whom admini- nistered had not been ascertained.

The packet-ship Ashburton, which sailed from New York on the 11th, and the packet-ship Stephen Whitney, which sailed on the 14th instant, both arrived at Liverpool on Monday.

The Oregon question still possesses a disagreeable prominency. The Correspondent of the Morning Chronicle says- " The bill introduced for the occupation of the Oregon Territory now oc- cupies the Senate. Mr. Calhoun, a host in himself, opposes the bill, on the ground that it is inconsistent with the spirit of the treat3 with Great Britain, which left the country open to settlement on both sides. To show you the animus or rather virus of Mr. Linn, who framed the bill, that Senator said in hie speech, Great Britain's claim began in nothing : Great Britain had not Stopped to consider whether her claim was just or not.' Mr. Linn, always violent against England, then observed, that 'Great Britain had made aggressions: he for one would never submit to those aggressions. It had been her custom to go whither she would ; it was time that she was stopped.' This disputed boundary question promises difficulty, and the sooner it is settled the better."

The following account is given of the measure— The President is authorized to cause to be erected, at suitable places and distal tee, a line of stockade and blockhouse forts, not exceeding five in num- ber, from some point on the Missouri and Arkansas rivers into the beet pass for entering the valley of the Oregon, and also at or near the mouth of the Columbia river. Provision is to be made by law to secure and grant 640 acres, or a section of land, to every 'White male inhabitant of the territory of the age of eighteen years and upward, who shall cultivate and use the same for tee consecutive years; or to his heir or heirs at law, if such there be, in case of his decease. And to every such inhabitant or cultivator (being a married man) there shall be granted in addition, 160 acres to the wife of said husband, and the like quantity of 160 acres to the father for each child under the age of eighteen years he may have, or which may be born within the five years store-

The President is also authorized and required to appoint two additional Indian agents, with a salary of two thousand dollars, whose duty it shall be (under hts cirection and control) to superintend the interests of the United States with any or every Indian tribe west of any agency now established by law. For these purposes 100,000 dollars are appropriated.

Next, the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and District r'Courts of the territory of Iowa is extended over that part of the Indian territo- ries 13 ingt, est of the present limits of the said territory of Iowa, and south of

the forty-ninth degree of North latitude, and west of the Rocky Mountains, said nolth of the boundary-line between the United States and the Republic of Texas, not included within the limits of any state; and also, over the Indian territories comprising the Rocky Mountains and the country between them and the Ps ific Ocean, south of fifty.four degrees and forty minutes of North latitude, and Borth of the forty-second degree of North latitude; and Justices of the Peace may be appointed for the said territory in the same manner and with the some powers as now provided by law in relation to the territory of Iowa. Provided, that any subject of the Government of Great Britain who shall have been arretted under the provisions of this act for any crime alleged to have been committed within the territory westwaru of the Stony or Rocky Mountains, while the same remains free and open to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the Uuited States and of Great Britain, pur- suant to stipulations between the two powers, shall be delivered up on proof of his being such British subject, to the nearest or most convenient authorities haring cognizance of such offence by the laws of Great Britain, for the pur- pose of being prosecuted and tried according to such laws. Further provisions of the act prescribe the appointment of certain officers in this territory, and their duties.