Zioullaurano.

An interesting military spectacle is announced to take place, on the parade ground at the Horse Guards, early in July : the Queen in person will distribute the Victoria cross to those who so nobly won it. y Mr. Robert Chambers, moved by the discussion in the House of Commons on the condition of pauper lunatics in Scotland, has furnished the Times with an account of Miss Dix, the American lady to whose earlier exertions the report is due.

"The appointment of the Commission was wholly owing to the exertions of the American lady who has been referred to, Miss Dix. Originally a teacher at Boston, this remarkable person no sooner became possessed of a small independency than she devoted herself to the improvement of the condition of lunatics in her own country. It will scarcely be credited, yet I am assured it is strictly. true, that bliss Dix has been the means of inducing nineteen of the American local Legislatures to erect and endow State lunatic asylums. Of such weakly constitution that she can scarcely walk half a mile at a time, she has travelled over the whole States, seeking to do good in this way, often in the South-western States encountering the most serious dangers to life, constantly submitting to the greatest personal discomforts. She also was the means of raising lighthouses and establishing life-boats in many parts of the American coast. On one occasion, having' gone to Table Island, personally to arrange a set of life-boats for that perilous locality, she had the gratification of superintending measures by which, the very next day, a shipwrecked_party was saved. ' "Having come to-Beotland at the beginning of 1866—on which occasion I had the honour of receiving her as a guest—she soon became aware that there was a want of proper legal Arrangements for the protection of pauper lunatics. She made all possible exertions to obtain admission to the private asylums in which many of these wretched creatures were kept ; but, not succeeding in getting official aid, she only could learn enough to fix a strong suspicion in her mind, that bad arrangements, cruelty, and neglect, existed to a dreadful extent. She then proceeded to London, with an introduction to the Duke of Argyll and one or two other Ministers, to make representations on the subject; when such was her energy that she drove direct from the railway station to the residences of these persons, and actually before changing her dress, or even entering a lodging, had succeeded in obtaining a promise that a commission should be appointed. Miss Dix has sincereturned to her own country; and it is in the midst of continued usefulness in the same field there that she will hear how the British House of Commons has thrilled with the recital for which she WM the means of furnishing the materials. I cannot but meanwhile accept it as a great discredit to my native country, not merely that such evils existed in it, but that their existence was overlooked by her clergy, her officiale, and her philanthropists, and left to be detected and brought to light by a fragile woman—an American by birth, a Unitarian in creed.-a person wholly without local influence, and who could have no motive for interference beyond the promptinga

of a noble benevolence." • — ,

It is natural that the West India islanders., should show considerable anxiety for the suppression of the slave-trade. The subject is constantly discussed in the island_jouinals, "eipecially with reference to the supplies poured into Cuba. • The Jamaica Despatc/c of the 11th May caleulates that the annual export of slaves from Africa intended for Cuba, _is from 40,000 to 50,000, of whom -about" 30,000 are landed alive:: In'orderto stop the traffic, this journal suggestithat the blockade of the West Coal of Africa should be terminated, and that half-a-dozen steamers of light draught should be permanently stationed off the coast of Cuba as dpreventive service. No regular preventive service is at present maintained there. The Despatch cites the case of Brazil, and maintains that there the trade was not stopped by the African squadron, but by the rigid blockade of the few Brazilian ports where alone cargoes could be landed.

The mortality of the MetroPolis continues to decline under the influence of the genial summer weather. The number of deaths has decreased during the last three weeks from 1060 to 948 and 916—or 154 below the calculated average. Four women and two men died last week at or above the age of ninety.

On his way from Cannes to London, the indefatigable Lord Brougham read a paper before the Paris Institute, on Monday, "On paradoxes imputed to the integral calculus."

A short time since, it was stated that Lord Fitzhardinge was much better ; but he has suffered a relapse, and it is now reported that his case is hopeless : the stomach refuses to perform its functions. The Earl has been reconciled to his brother Mr. Urantley Berkeley, though they have not yet met.

Lieutenant-General Sir William Heavies, brother of the late Mr. Charles Herries, and a distinguished officer in the French wars, died in Bolton Street, on Wednesday, in his seventy-second year. 'Sir William was wounded in the famous sortie at Bayonne, and lost a leg.

Boson Hyde de Neuville, formerly Minister of Marine, died at Paris on the 28th of last month.

As a reward for his fidelity to the RUN.= throne, the Emperor Alexander lute created M. Anthony Frenkel, a Jew banker of Warsaw, a baron of the empire.

Captain Clifford and the officers of the steam-corvette Centaur gave a

rand ball at Naples to celebrate Queen's Victoria's birthday : Vesuvius lighted up on the occasion," with a long column of fire.

The Paris papers have been directed not to mention that the Emptror took the King of Bavaria to the Museum of Artillery—the too curious Grand Duke Constantine was not taken there • and he is not to know that the King of Bavaria had a preference shown bin:.

A letter from Madrid states that the Governor-General of the Philippines has been directed to place stores of all kinds at the disposal of the British and French ships-of-war. The measures adopted by the Spanish Government on this OSMIUM are the more useful as Manilla affords many resources, and is at a reasonable distance from the coast of China which is to be the theatre of the approaching operations.

Great alterations and improvements are made in the "Palace of the old Ring," at Berlin, to fit it for the residence of the Prince of Prussia and our Princess Royal.

Further ceremonies have taken place at the Chapel Royal at Madrid in connexion with the nail of the cross : the nail was carried in procession, placed on the high altar, mass was performed, and then the pious Court " adored " the bit of iron.

Shortly before the arrival of the Empress Dowager of Russia in Rome the poor people crowded to the Mont de Piete to pawn clothes and other articles, in the expectation that they would all be redeemed by the Empress. This expectation was not realized.; though the Empress granted aid to six hundred petitioners.

A Russian who had amassed immense wealth in the Ural Mountains died recently, on the day after a lawsuit involving several millions of roubles had been decided in his favour.

Monday and Tuesday were the settling-days at Tattersall's for the Epsom bets. On Monday Mr. Davis entered the place with 20,000/. and quitted it with a residue of 15 sovereigns. On the whole, the settlement passed off satisfactorily. A pickpocket made a good booty on Tuesday, robbing a gentleman of 500/.

M. Riches, a noted French agriculturist, has invented a manure which is to be applied in a new way:—the seed is to be coated with it before sowing. M. Biches, from his experiments, states that the powers of this new fertil izer thus applied are extraordinary.

A company has been formed at Taganrog, principally by Frenchmen, for preserving and exporting the lean of the animals slaughtered on the steppes an vast numbers hitherto for the sake of the tallow only.

A number of steamers built in England, and intended for the Black Sea Navigation Company, have arrived at Odessa.

According to the Russian journals, several new railways are projected besides those included in the grand scheme. One is to connect St. Petersburg with Abe in Finland.

The price of wheat in Madrid is enormous—equivalent to 1008. to 106e. per English quarter ; and the poor suffer much, though bread is sold to them by means of Government aid at less than cost-price. The cost of grain at Madrid, however, is no guide to the market value in other parts of Spain, the country being so deficient in means of transit that wheat might be at a sea-port and dear in the capital.

The shipping returns for April show a falling-off in the number of arrivals, owing to the adverse winds ; but the clearances outward exhibit a large increase.

The excise accounts for the first three months of this year show a considerable augmentation in the quantity of malt, paper, and spirits charged with duty, compared with the same period of last year.

Gold to a small amount has been found in Nelson Province, New Zealand.

There has been a great discovery of gold at Upata, in the province of Venezuela. The gold is exceedingly pure, and the quantities realized are very large. Two miners discovered in one day thirty-four ounces. The gold found is principally in large nuggets of from four to five ounces.

Coal has been discovered in the Schwan district in Scinde, by Captain Phillips, deputy collector.

In the year ended the 31st of March last, 38,127,378 bushels of malt were brought to charge, against 33,524,494 bushele in 1855, 35,208,568 in 1854, and 41,020,381 in 1853. The average price of barley was 43$. 2d. per quarter. The amount in "old duty" charged on English hops was 267,7051. The quantity of foreign hops imported into the -United Kingdom was 11,261 hundredweight.

From the 1st of November to the middle of April the emigration of Chinese from Hongkong to Australia amounted to 14,600.

The Neapolitan Government shows great discrimination in its liberation of prisoners : Poerio and suchlike offenders are kept fast, but by the recent "thieves' amnesty" one at least of the murderers of Mr. Blandford was set free. This interesting ruffian has confessed, that between the time of his liberation and his joining in the murderous assault and robbery, he had committed ten robberies with violence.

A young sailor of the English galliot John Edward has been shot dead in the roads of Belleiele, in consequence of a delay in showing the colours of the ship : a French war-cutter first fired a musket loaded with powder, and then one charged with a ball, which hit the sailor. According to an account sent home from the English vessel, the Frenchmen acted with culpable precipitation, for the people of the John Edward were preparing to show their colours when the fatal shot was discharged.

A letter dated New Orleans, May 11, says—" The British war-steamer Tartar, Captain Dunlop, arrived at the bar a few days ago, and brought from Nicaragua a lot of poor wretches who had been a part of Walker's army. They were starving, and humanity induced Captain Dunlop to bring them to their own countrY. When he arrived at the bar, the American tow-steamer demanded the guarantee to receive 500 dollars for taking them up to the city, besides which there was put on board the, steamer from the frigate a lot of provisions. When the British residents heard of it, they made up a purse to indemnify Captain Dunlop, as the City Corporation took no notice of it ; but one of the New Orleans clubs immediately paid over the money, and very handsomely invited Captain Dunlop and the officers of his ship to an entertainment."

Sacrilegious thieves are very common in Spain. During March fifteen churches were robbed ; in April, seventeen.

"They pun. ieh these things better in France." A banker named Malvergne, liasharach a bookbinder, and Ferrier de Mental, have been convicted of 'minding by the Paris Tribunal of Correctional Police; they having defrauded a number of persons whom they induced by false statements to become shareholders in a company for providing a substitute for-whalebone from the horns of oxen. They appear to have done nothing but what

they might have performed here with impunity; but they were fined and sent to prison for six months, three months, and one month respectively.

A terrible accident has occurred at Hauenstein in Switzerland. While the workmen were engaged in excavating a railway tunnel it suddenly fell in, and fifty men perished.

Hail-storms have committed great ravages in many parts of France.

In digging out a litter of seven fox-cubs at West llolme, near Wareham, it was found that the parent Reynards had poached to some purpose, their larder containing eight hares, a pheasant, a brace of partridges, a stoat, a ferret, and four rats, all in a fresh state.