neous.
The Morning Post reports that the Queen's visit to Irelan'd is fixed to take &el early in July; and that, in order to allow the attendance of Cabinet Minis- ters on her Majesty, the Parliamentary session will be brought to a close much sooner than usual.
Tuesday's Gazette stated that the Queen had granted a cone d'elire to the Dean and Chapter of Ely Cathedral to elect a Bishop to the see; recommending Dr. Turton, Dean of Westminster, for the vacant post.
We are assured that Archdeacon Samilel Wilberforce is to be the new Dean of Westminster.—Standard.
The Morning Herald mentions "a strange rumour that Mr. Ward was married on Tuesday last, first by a Romish priest, afterwards by an English clergyman." The bride is the daughter of a dignitary in the Church of England.
The Earl of Romney died rather suddenly, at Mote, his seat in Kent, on Satur- day last; having been seized with a paralytic stroke on the previous Thursday-. Charles Marsham, Earl of Romney, Viscount Marsham of the Mote, county of Kent, Baron Romney, and a Baronet, was born on the 221 November 1777; suc- ceeded his father Charles in 1811; married, in 1806, Sophia, daughter and sole heiress of Mr. William Morton Pitt, of Kingston House in the county of Daudet; by whom he had issue a son and three daughters. The lady having died, Lord Romney married secondly, Mary Elizabeth, daughter of the second Viscount Syd- ney, and widow of Mr. George James Cholmondely; by whom he had a son. - In politics the Earl was a moderate Whig; but of late years he rarely interfered with political matters. His last public act was a journey to Oxford to add his
to that of the majority who voted for the degradation of Mr. Ward. The title and estates descend to his eldest son, Charles Viscount Marsham, the Conservative Member for West Kent. The present Earl married, in 1882, Lady Margaret Harriet Scott, sister of the Duke of Buccleuch; and has issue.
Mr. Thomas Hood is said to be on his deathbed. The announcement is made in hjaMagazine for April, and it is not expected that he can live to see another number of it appear. He is aware of his condition. "He has taken leave of his friends, and forgiven his enemies, (if any such he have,) and turned his face to the wall.' " Dr. Wolff arrived at Malta towards the close of last month, and left it on the 28th for England.
A curious correspondence between the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery So- ciety and the Foreign Office, on the " right of search," has just appeared. It is re- markable for the naked manner in which the Society denounce the present means of attempting to put down the slave-trade. Their letter is signed, "On behalf of the Committee, Thomas Clarkson, Pre- sident," and is dated on the 1st of March 1845. It points out that the Society has always looked to the abolition of slavery as the only means of annihilating the slave-trade, and has therefore "never countenanced the supPrUssio.n of the slave-trade by an armed force." The history of the traffic for many.yeara past abundantly proves "the inefficiency, not to say impolicy, of that mode of sup-: pression." The treaties for the purpose are defective; are rendered a dead letter- by the positive bad faith of Foreign Powers; are impracticable, on account of the extent of the coast to be watched; and while the armed force hi Maintained at an immense cost, its use has aggravated the horrors of the traffic. " Governments may enter into negotiations, engage in treaties, enact laws,and-promulgate ordi- nances for the abolition of the slave-trade; but the experience of thirty years has proved that all will be in vain if they are not in unison with the feelings and not supported by the opinions of the people themselves. What then is to be done? The Committee would respectfully reply, Direct all your energies and influence against the system of slavery." "An opportunity is now afforded." " France asks to be relieved from the right of search: in her case the equivalent should be the complete and immediate abolition of slavery in her colonial possessions. This would be a guarantee—the best guarantee which could be given—that her flag should not be surreptitiously employed in feeding them at least with slaves. And in asking this great act of justice and mercy from France, no indignity would be offered; for her Government, her Legislative Chambers, and her people, have re- solved that the abolition of slavery shall take place. It is then simply a question of time. Let that be fixed; and the day which proclaims freedom to the *for- tunate slave, in Martinique and Guadeloupe, in Bourbon and Cayenne, in Senegal and Algiers, be the epoch fixed for the abandonment of the right of search." Lord Aberdeen replies through his Under Secretary, Viscount Canning. He expresses concurrence in much that the Society say, and promises "respectful consideration" of the suggestion made; but he denies that the past course has been without. good fruit. Portugal has of late executed in good faith the treaty of 1842; Spain has "redeemed the engagement of the treaty taken in 1835 for the enactment of a penal law of great severity against the slave-trade"; "and, though the unhappy beings yearly landed on the coast of Brazil may still be
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reckoned by thousands, the increasing demand for labour in that country places it beyond all doubt, that but for the operation of British cruisers, the numbers would have been many times multiplied." " But the influence of one country upon the domestic institutions of another, those institutions being recognized and upheld by the laws, and closely interwoven with the habits and interests of the people, can rarely be otherwise than slow and uncertain; and it becomes a matter of grave consideration, whether, in the hope of being able to contribute to the' eventual abolition of slavery in Cuba and -Brazil, the Government of England would do wisely to abandon those means of direct action against the slave-trade,' which, though far from complete in their operation, have not been without their' good effect, and are likely, as Lord Aberdeen confidently trusts, to gain in effi- ciency." [It is remarkable, that if the Society are so confident of the impolicy of the armed suppression, they do not at once propose to give up what 18 positively bad, without waiting to exact ulterior conditions. Such course would much facilitate the solution of all such questions of international morals.)
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The ship Liverpool arrived on Saturday last from Manilla, with the largest parcel of free-labour sugar that was ever brought to this port, being nearly 20,000 hags. Under the recent act of Parliament, it is admissible for home use; and we are informed that a large proportion of it is very suitable for grocery purposes.— Liverpool Advertiser.
There are reports of great scarcity of corn, not to say " famine," in the North of Europe; but it is suspected that they are got up with a view to influence the markets here.
Advices from the River Gambia, of February the 24th, complain that French traders have intruded into that river, in violation of treaties, and to the serious detriment of English merchants.
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