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The long-expected announcement that her Majesty has signified to Sir Colin Campbell her intention to raise him to the dignity of a British Peerage in consequence of his distinguished services has now been made. It remains to be seen whether he will accept it. A Field Marshal's baton would, perhaps, have been a reward that would have been more grateful to his feelings as a soldier.

There seems to be some difficulty in providing a new Dean for the Arches Court. The late Sir John Dodson held the office until his death : it was the condition annexed to his retiring pension as Judge of the Pre- rogative Court. The salary of the Deanery was only 30/. The Govern- ment will not increase this salary. Who will accept so responsible a post for 30/. a year ? No one ; unless it be one of the Judges. The hint has been thrown out that Sir Cresswell Cresswell should accept the office. Sir John Dodson was also Master of the Faculties, and that post will probably be conferred upon some ecclesiastical lawyer.

The _Daily News has sought to show the evil of "single executive go- vernment under direct Parliamentary Responsibility" by going to our experience of the working of the Poor-lawBoard and the Board of Health under that system. In the former case the writer admits the mal- administration of the first permanent Commissioners, but contends that instead of appointing a Parliamentary Board, the offenders should have been dismissed and successors appointed. •

"One of the first effects of the change was marked in the character of the appointments to the first vacancies. The permanent deliberative officers —(with all the faults of the first selection, of a man routined, in old and vi- cious political administration)—having no' party debts to pay, no party or political interests to promote, being most interested in their permanent work, and more amenable to the opinions of the better-informed public, composed of those, whether paid or unpaid; officers conversant with the special branch of administration, made their first appointments with a

view to the efficiency of the service On the first vacancy after the department was so to speak ` Parliamentarized,' or made responsible to Parliament, the political President appointed aperson who had no ex- perience whatever in the special branch of administration, but was an at- torney, the sou of the electioneering agent of one of his party friends, the President of the Board of Control. Shortly afterwards the brother of the President of the Poor-law Board was seen to receive from the President of the Board of Control a patronage appointment in India. A place was made in the Poor-law Board for a fashionable young gentleman who was an active body in party and political coteries. Vacancies were filled by the political adherents of the political President, and, where it was practicable, were made for them. . . . . The competent permanent chiefs had given undivided attention to their duties; the attention of the political partisan was now divided by Parliamentary duties and by party conflicts. Few considerable administra- tive improvements, the subject matters of legislation, could be made which

did not trespass on some Parliamentary 'interest' or other. . In Ire- land, however, where the principles of Poor-law administration developed by the Poor-law Commission of Inquiry have been carried inteexecutionwith greater integrity by permanent Commissioners, . . . there, with a far poorer population, and the frequent'occurrence of more wide-spread destitution, but with as effectual relief of real destitution, the annual expenditure is at the rate of la. 9d. per head of the population; whilst in England it is at the rate of 6s. 81d. on the population. In Ireland, the expenditure of poor- rates on the valuation of property is lltd. In England, with much higher property over which to spread the charge, the expenditure is at the rate of is. 9id. in the pound, exclusive of the large expenditure in aid from the Consolidated Fund."

In like manner, the writer shows that the change in the Board of Health from permanent to Parliamentary officials has been a change for the worse.

""-The working of the plan of the single-seated executive-changing and party Minister, responsible to_Parliaittent," for the administration of the laws for the protection of the public health, will be found, on competent and impartial examination, to have been most disastrous, for the public, for preventive science, and for administrative improvement."

:The lesson ,sought t6 be inculcated is, that a system which has failed in the administration of the Poor-laws and the management of the Board of Health cannot be good for India.

The Countess of Derby enlivened the Premier's sombre official residence in DowningStreeton ednesday.with a grand ball. On the same evening the Duke of Northumberland had a dinner-party and the Duchess held reception ; and ,Sir John Pakington, the Speaker, and Lady Molesworth had dinner-parties. . . •

- The , Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress entertained the Judges and the leading. members of the bar at dinner on Wednesday. Covers were laid for 280 'amens. :

Madame Szarvady—so well known as the brilliant pianiate Wilhelmina Clause, returns to a London audience on Monday, giving her first matinee musicale at Willis's Rooms.

The Deanery of York is vacant by the death of the Very,Reverend Sir William Cockburn. He was the brother of Admiral Cockburn and General Cockburn. His first wife was a sister of the late Sir Robert Peel. The Baronetcy devolves upon the Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas.

The "Irish Patriarch" is dead—James Nolan, a farmer of Knockin- drane, in Carlow county, a tenant of the Earl of Bessborough, who died on i Friday sennight, at the great age of 116. He was very simple n his habits, moderate in his diet, and exceedingly temperate. He enjoyed good health almost to his last day ; and he conversed with his family a few hours before his life calmly passed away. . . . The new cavalry regiment, the 18th Light Dragoons, has been rapidly formed. In the course of two months the regiment has been filled with the exception of some half-dozen soldiers. The Earl of Cardigan inspected the men last week-530 mustered on parade, at Leeds.

• The Victory is again moored off the Hard, Portsmouth. She looks better than ever she did, haying been most handsomely refitted.

Advices from Havanna received at New York state that eight British gun- boats are stationed round Cuba on coast survey, and to prevent the landing of Negroes. And the news of the West India mail tells that her Majesty's gun-boat Jasper had arrived at Jamaica with a slaver she captured on the coast of Cuba on the 22d of March. The slaver was a full-rieged ship, 750 tons burdem-and had 8000/. in doubloons on board. She had crew of be- tween forty and fifty men, but no slaves.

Mr. E. J. Treffry-, of Fowey, Cornwall, publishes an account of the por- phyry sarcophagus of the Duke of Wellington in St. Paul's. "The great Duke's Sarcophagus was wrought and polished by steam power in the parish of Luxitlyan, in this county, in the field in which the huge 'boulder' stone of porphyry, weighing upwards of seventy tons, nearly the whole of it above the surface of the ground, had been standing for ages. It is not a figure of speech, but fact, that the Continent had been searched in vain for a se- pulchral stone sufficiently grand for a sarcophagus that should contain the mortal remains of the great Duke. That stone was at last found in Corn-

wall, and the whole"of the work was executed by workmen in the employ of the Treffry estate, whose representatives were intrusted with the matter throughout. The cost of this unparalleled tomb was 11001."

The French Commission appointed to consider the claims for compensation of Mr. Morse, the inventor of the system of electric telegraphs as used in France, has recommended that the Government should give him 400,000 indemnity. ndemnity.

The Atlantic Telegraph cable is nearly all stowed on board the Agamem- non and the Niagara at Plymouth ; but some additional cable is yet to come from the manufacturers—it is intended to have "enough and to spare" for the distance over which the cable will be laid.

An important contest for an independent route to Dover has just been decided by a Committee of the House of Commons in favour of the East

Kent Company by an extension of their line from Strood to St. Mary i Cray. The effect is to e place intim hands of this Company, whose total capital s only 2,000,0001.,' the shortest route by Dover to the Continent, avoiding the angle by. Reigate: It is stated to save twenty miles to Canterbury, RamsgateZ and.Margate, nearly thirty to Herne Bay, and eight or nine to Dover, affording also by means of another line before Parliament a west- end terminus at Pimlico.

_ The returns of the Registrar-General show a decrease in the mortality of London. Last week the number of deaths was 1125, or 29 less than in the preceding week, and 24 under the calculated average. , , • The Mississippi, flooded by immense volumes of water from the upper tri- butaries, has overflowed its banks, and hundreds of miles of country were inundated at the time the last accounts left. There has not been so disas- trous a flood since 1844.

A. proposal is afloat for a second electric cable to join England and Ame- rica—an "European and Submarine Telegraph Company," with a capital of 1,000,000/. Plymouth is to be the point of departure from the English coast, whence it is to proceed, via. Cape Finisterre, Lisbon, and the Azores, to Boston in the United States or to the Island of Bermuda, and thence to Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. The total length would thus be nearly COO nautical miles. The promoters state they have received certain con- cessions, with exclusive privileges, from France, Spain, and Portugal. It is also suggested that an advantage of the route would consist in the fact that the line eduld be continued from Lisbon to Gibraltar, so as to connect with the Indian communication by way of the Mediterranean.

The prospectus has been issued of the Imperial Plate 'Glass Company, which is proposed to be constituted by the- union under one management of -all the plate glass companies in Great Britain. The capital is fixed at 1;000;0001., in shares of 101. each, and debentures. The persona interested in the'silekieting works subscribe for 380,0001. in shares. Debentures at 5 per centre-ye-alio-been .taken for 270,0001., and the proportion of shares offered to the pablieia consiquently.350,0001. .- It is said that the cost of Production will be materially leasened under the new arrangements.

The Asia Minor Central Railway Company is advertised. This line is to run from Samsoun, on the southern coast of the Black Sea, to Sivas, and ultimately to Erzeroum. Capital, 4,625,0001.; one-third to be taken by the Ottoman Government, which will also grant a guarantee of 7 per cent. It appears that the 2,000,000/. to be paid in redemption of Exchequer Bonds on the 8th, will be provided for by an appropriation of 1,000,0001. from the balances in the Exchequer, and by an issue to the Bank of Eng-

land of 1,000,0001. new bonds at 3i per cent, instead of 31 per cent, the present rate, to be redeemed in 1862. The Bank, it seems, have also agreed to let the Government have a further call of 1,000,000/. on similar terms at the end of the year, if necessary. This is virtually a time-bargain in public securities, such as in the present state of the law is illegal, and furnishes a curious illustration of the necessity of our following the example just set by the State of New York in abolishing the prohibition.— Tine s, Wednesday.

A statement of the affitirs of Messrs. Calvert and Co. has been issued. It appears that if no steps damaging to the property are taken, there will be a surplus of 180,000/. for the partners when all claims are paid. The amount due to depositors is 326,4351.