IftisctIlantous.

We mentioned recently that the health of Prince Metternich was de- Slicing, and that he was anxiously watched by his friends. On the author- ity of a letter "from the Danube," the Cologne Gazette says that he is now dangerously ill, and that he has been confined during several days to his bed. It appears that he is suffering under a species of fever wifich allows him no rest. The Gazette adds, that Count Munch-Bellinghausen, the President of the Germanic Diet, is with the Prince night and day.

A move in the Peerage is caused by the death of Lord Stourton, a Ro- man Catholic Baron of ancient family. He was a Liberal, but took no active part in political affairs. He is succeeded by his eldest son, the Ihmourable Charles Stourton. The present Baron was married in 1825, to Lucy, sixth daughter of Lord Clifford of Chudleigh.

Among the recent deaths is that of the aged Sir Charles Morgan. He died on the 5th instant, at his seat, Tredegar Park, in Monmouthshire: he had been seized with a severe attack of influenza, accompanied with fever, about a fortnight since. Sir Charles was born on the 4th of February 1760, and had consequently nearly attained his eighty-sixth year. The title de- volves upon the deceased's eldest son, the present Member for Brecon.

Colonel Wade, the successor to Mr. Day in the office of Assistant Poor- law Commissioner, died on the 3d instant, at Haverfordwest. He was paying an official visit to the Workhouse, in company with the Chair- man of the Board of Guardians, Mr. Henry Leach; and was suddenly seized with illness while inspecting one of the bedrooms. He received prompt medical aid; but rapidly sank. An inquest was held on the same day; and Mr. Rowe, the surgeon, gave it as his opinion that the cause of death was the rupture of a blood-vessel in the brain.

Mrs. Hood, the widow of the late Thomas Hood, has not long survived her husband; ehe died on the 4th instant.

j The death of M. Michalek announced lately in most of the papers, was not that of the historian, but of his father.

Captain Miutby, the well-known philanthropical inventor, has requested the Times to contradict the report of his death. He is hale and hearty, though in his eighty-third year.

The Siècle acknowledges the receipt of a letter from Mademoiselle Ra- chel, contradicting an assertion made by that journal that she had forsaken Judaism and become a convert to the Roman Catholic faith.

Mr. Cox, of Exeter College, Oxford, was received last week into the Roman Catholic Church at St. Mary's College, Oscott...--Morning Post.

Liszt has recently married, at Prague, the daughter of a wealthy jeweller. The lady, is is said, has brought her husband a dowry of three millions tfranes.3—Menikur Parisian.

It is now understood that Parliament will not be convened for the despatch of business before February.

A combined deputation of gentlemen representing the manufacturing and mercantile interests of Glasgow, Leeds, Blackburn, Manchester, Dub- lin, and Norwich, had an interview with Lord John Russell and the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer, at Downing Street, on Saturday, to urge a reduc- tion in the duty on tea. Several memorials were presented, and statements were made to show the injurious effect of the present rate of duty. Lord John Russell assured the deputations that Government were fully im- pressed with the importance of the question: it was, as all knew, a revenue question : but he would promise for it the early consideration of the Government. More he could not say, nor could it be expected of him.

A deputation of the associated manufacturers of tobacco, accompanied by four Members of Parliament—Dr. Bowring, Mr. Barkly, Mr. lieneage, and Mr. Ludlow Bruges—had an interview with Lord John Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Saturday last, in Chesham Place. Dr. Bowring, Mr. John Lloyd, and Mr. Austie of Devizes, represented the con- dition of the trade as depressed by the high duties. and described their in- jurious operation on the comfort and morality of the public. The various. statements were listened to with courtesy, but the deputation retired without receiving any intimation as to the intentions of the Government.

The absence of Lord Ashley from the recent meetings in Yorkshire and Lancashire, to promote the Ten-hours factory agitation, has occasioned

some surprise in this part of the country; and has not, we believe, beeir satisfactorily accounted for, except that his Lordship is not willing to sur- render his own judgment to the dictation of much less cool-beaded men.— Leeds Mercury.

Mr. Rowland Hill's influence is already felt in the Post-office. Various alterations are announced. Among others, measures are taken for the earlier despatch of all the letters and newspapers posted over-night and before the first delivery in, the morning. Extra sub-sorters will be ap- pointed in the District Office. It is said that, very early in the ensuing year, the deliveries of letters will take place every hour; and that there will be additional sorting-offices arranged upon the "central" principle in several parts of the Metropolis, at points of despatch considered most eli- gible by the authorities. The Money-order department is to undergo an immediate reform. A new office is in preparation in Aldersgate Street for this branch of the service. Since the reduction of the commission on money-orders in November 1840, there has been a surprising increase of business: the number of orders issued and paid at the London Office in the quarter ending the 5th of April 1839, was 9,423—amount, 17,4011.; for the quarter ending 5th of April 1846, the number was 391,918—amount- paid, 681,2981.

A scientific commission is now engaged in investigating the principles ca Lord Duudonald's war plan.

Such has been the rush at the various rendezvous opened for the entry of lads for the Navy, that the Admiralty have been obliged to issue orders that no more can be taken at present. The St. Vincent, 120 guns, at Portsmouth, is ordered to fill up her complement by the entry of between eighty and ninety boys; and a large number of fine stout healthy lads have been and are about to be sent to the Channel squadron, to distribute among- the various ships.— Glt.be.

The half-yearly public examination of the gentlemen cadets educated in the East India Company's Military Seminary at Addiscombe took place, yesterday, in the presence of the Chairman, Sir.J. W. Hogg, M.P., and a nu- merous assemblage of visiters. Thirty-four geatlemen cadets were brought forward for public examination; of which number eight were selected for the Engineers, twelve for the Artillery, and fourteen for the Infantry. The report, which was publicly read by Mr. T. R. Clarke, chief of the cadet department, stated that the conduct of the gentlemen cadets, the re- markable degree of discipline, 'good order, sad gentlemanly propriety which had prevailed during the whole period, were highly satisfactory.

The head-quarters of the Thirty-first Regiment disembarked at Graves- end on Monday, after a service in India of twenty-one years. ' Of tint officers who went out in 1825, only two have returned; and of the privatb' soldiers, it is estimated that not' more than thirty are now in'the.ranks,. The Thirty-first took a distinguished part in the recent victories of Mood:- kee, Fen5zeshah, Buddewal, Aliwal, and Sohnion• and brought home form standards captured from the Sikhs. The landing of these trophies wag enthusiastically greeted.

Sir Henry Pottinger sailed on Saturday for the Cape of Good Hope, in the Peninsular aid Oriental Company's new iron steam-ship Haddinkton. This vessel is bound for Calcutta, with stores for the Company's vessels in the East. Besides the Cape, she is to touch at Gibraltar, Madeira, and Mauritius.

Dr. Gilbert King has been appointed to the Devastation steamer, on the coast of Africa, as Inspector of Hospitals and Fleets. He left England last week, in the war-steamer Sphynx, for Boa Vista, to inquire and report on the nature of the fever which committed such ravages among the officers and men of the steam-vessel Eclair. Dr. King will join he De- vastation at the Island of Ascension.

The Overseers and Churchwardens of Windsor have received a commu- nication from the Queen's Chaplain, announcing that her Majesty intends to place in the hands of the parochial authorities there the sum of 2501., to be distributed among the needy and distressed parishioners on New Year'a Day, in meat, bread, coals, and blankets.

The cotton-market at Liverpool has been agitated by an unprecedented fervour of speculation. On Monday, prices rose to the extent of id. or upon all classes, standing at 54. to 744 per pound for American and 144. to 194. for Sea Islands: nevertheless, in expectation of still higher rates, the enormous quantity of 30,000 bales was sold. On Tuesday, 20,000 bales went off at the same prices, one-half to speculators; on Wednes- day, with prices 1 higher, 30,000 bales, nearly one-half to speculators. On Thursday, the market had cooled: prices were supposed to have reached their maximum; and though they did not recede, purchases fell to the more modest amount of 15,000 bales; speculators again taking about one-half. Yesterday, however, the sales were 20,000 bales, 14,000 to speculators; and it was reported that large quantities changed hawk after the close of the market. The total amount of recorded sales for the week, up to last night, was 121,970 bales.

A further portion of the Warsaw and Vienna Railway was opened with military honours on the 10th November. Prince Paszkiewizc, with his staff, travelled from Warsaw to Petrikau, on the frontiers of' Silesia, the extent to which the line is completed; returning at night. The whole railway is expected to be opened at the end of next year.

The Ipswich and Bury St- Edmund's Railway was publicly opened on Monday, by an excursion of the directors along the line to the last town; where there were rejoicings of the people and a dinner. The line is about twenty-six miles long. There is but one tunnel, near the Ipswich termi- nus' which is a quarter of a mile in length; at Bury there is a very lofty and long embankment and viaduct; and about the centre an "almost unfathomable morass" has been crossed. The line has cost 17,0001 a mile, and has been completed in a year.

The directors of the Eastern Counties and Norfolk Railways, with a view to give the poorer classes greater facilities in travelling, have started a fourth-etas train by which passengers are conveyed from Yarmouth to Norwich, and trough to London, for 7s. 6d.,, and a return ticket, avail- able from Monday, or any other day, to the following Sunday, for 103.; which is little more than one farthing per mile.

It is asserted that on and after the 1st of January next, no goods-trains are to run on the line of the London and North-western Railway during the day ; arrangements being in progress for conducting most if not the whole of the traffic during the night. To facilitate this object, and enable directors to run additional trains during the day, the company intend to take the carrying business into their own hands after the above date.— Aria's Birmingham Gazette.

The Parcel Post Company are about to adopt the penny system, and to convey to any part of London a package not exceeding eighteen ounces in weight for a penny.

The Aix-la-ChapelleiGazette of the 30th November states, that so great is the distress of the labouring classes at Berlin, that they are compelled to pawn almost everything they possess to procure bread. The crowd is so great at the doors of the ,pawnbrokers, that it has been found necessary to place sentinels there tceprocure order.

A serious misunderstanding appears to have occurred in the Mauritius between the French Consul in that island, M. Barbet de Jouy, and the English Admiral Deere& The Cernien gives the following account of the affair- " On the 15th of August last, the French Consul received from Captain Stan- ley awl his officers an invitation to a ball on board the frigate President, bearing the Admiral's flag, but commanded by Captain Stanley. On the following after- noon, two officers of the frigate, in uniform, presented themselves at the French Consulate, and withdrew the invitation; which, they informed him, had been sent under the erroneous impression that the Consul had paid a visit to the AdmiraL Surprised and indignant at such a proceeding, M. Barbet de Jony had great difficulty in suppressing his feelings. lie returned his ball-ticket to the officers, after having given them his opinion of the nature of the message which they had tak.n upon them to deliver, and reproached them with having extended the prin- ciple of passive obedience beyond its natural limits."

It is added, that although there have been appeals to the Governor on the sub- ject, M. Barbet de Jouy remains without any reparation.

"The Governer of the island of Bourbon, on being made acquainted with this incident, sent the steam-ship Crocodile to the Mauritius; which came to an an- chorage outside the space covered by the flag, and her boat went into tho port to hold a communication with the Consul, but did not salute either the forts or the English ships."

Advices from Mexico, to the 29th October, show that the story of Santa Anna's having seized upon 2,000,000 dollars intended for this country was a perversion of the facts: his object was protection, not spoliation. He could not spare the necessary escort, and did not like to let the specie go without one.

At Santa Martha and Carthagena, the authorities were looking Out for the arrival of the expedition under General Flores, against Ecuador.

"Versa," a correspondent of the Times, tells the whole story respecting the purchase of the fable " Holbein " for the National Gallery-

" Before the end of July, Mr. Eastlake, with the assistance of an 'eminent Ger- man friend,' had the luck to stumble on the ' libel on Holbein.' As I have before stated, it was offered in my presence to a private person for 300L; but that would have been a price unworthy of the nation. The more dignified sum of 8001. was therefore demanded; and, after a little delicate flirtation, it was secured for 6001. So great was the rejoicing on this memorable occasion, that the dealer was even complimented for having favoured us with so precious an article; and the fine Vandyke horses were displaced to make room for it." The picture, however, proved to be spurious. "Down it came; entreaties and threats were used alternately to induce the dealer to return the money; but to no purpose. In vain did Mr. East- lake endeavour to coax the obdurate man with the splendid offer of 1001. on the part of the Trustees, and of an additional 501. out of his own pocket, to take back the libel.' The tremendous sacrifice of 25 per cent under prime coat' wits ob- stinately refused !" Versa estimates the market-value of the picture at 401.

The story respecting the discovery of a human fossil—involving the coexistence of man and the megathorium—has called out the eminent geo- logist Mr. Charles Lyell, in a letter to the Times. We subjoin a portion of his letter, abridged- " I feel sure that the story relates to a part of a human pelvis (a fragment of the es innominaturn) which was shown to me at Natchez last spring, together with several very remarkable remains of megatheroid animals. I visited Natchez in Idarch last, on which occasion I was informed of the antiquity assigned to the human relic; and having examined carefully into the evidence, came to the con- clusion that the proof of the coexistence of the human individual with the mega- theruid and other extinct quadrupeds found in the vicinity was altogether unsa- tisfactory."

Mr. Lyell gives an interesting description of the geological formation of the region. The bone was no doubt found in a water-course, named by Dr. Dicken- son "the mammoth ravine"; which is now seven miles long and sixty feet deep. This mine has been entirely formed since the earthquake of New Madrid in 1812. "it is, however, enough for our present purpose to affirm, that whatever be the date of the origin of this water-course, it has of late years been considerably en- larged and lengthened; its banks presenting everywhere precipices, in which the loam, unsolidified as it is retains its verticality, as is the case with its counterpart,

the loess of the Rhine. is, are seen in great numbers at the depth of about thirty feet from the top; and the fossil bones of the mastodon, and other extinct quadrupeds, are usually picked up in the bed of the stream after they have been washed out of the undermined cliffs, where, however, some few have also been observed in situ. Under these circumstances, as I was given to under- stand, the human pelvis was procured at the base of the cliff. Even if it had been dug out in the presence of a practical geologist, it would have been necessary for him to be more than usually on his guard against deception; for land-slides have detached large masses from the cliffs, and these may easily cover human bones previously washed down by the stream, or dislodged from the soil near the top of the cliff, where some old Indian graves, so common throughout the country, may have been undermined. It is not rare to find on shoals and on the shores of the islands in the Mississippi, at low water' numerous bones of man, mingled with those of extinct animals, washed out of the bluffs. In these cases, the hu- man bones are as black as the quadrupedal fossils, having been apparently stained with peaty matter in the soil were they were buried: but no geologist has ever ventured, on this evidence, to infer the contemporaneousness of man and the fossil species thus accidentally associated."

"Considerable sensation," says the Globe," hits been excited at the West-end of the town, and in literary circles, by the result of the inquiry into the appropriation of books from the library of the Athemeum, which has been the detection and ex- pulsion of one of the members of the club." "The manner in which this appro- priation ' was discovered," adds the Daily News, "is a little singular. She private library of the purloining member was brought to the auctioneer's hammer; when' it was seen that several of the books were stamped with the library malls of the Athenreum Club. This coming to the ears of the authorities of the institution,' they adopted the lenient course of buying back the books and expelling the offender."

The National mentions that Queen Christina of Spain is about to appear by proxy as a defendant in the Paris Tribunal of Commerce. It appears that whilst M. Bresson was arranging at Madrid the llontpensier marriage, he instructed _ Madame Bremen, on the part of the Queen-mother, to select at one of the chief repositories in Paris some very choice lace for the toilette of the two brides. With commendable prudence, the Ambassadress made the purchase conditionally: the lace was to be sent to Madrid for approval, and returned immediately if not liked. The lace was not liked, but was not returned. At the end of many months, the dealer received notice of the arrival of the lace in Paris; but, instead of then taking it back, he alleged that the inexplicable delay warranted him in considering the sale complete. He has accordingly claimed payment, and is suing the Queen-mother in the person of her steward.

Two brothers, Frenchmen, master and mate of a St. Maio vessel, have perished in the Tyne by suffocation, in consequence of having placed a pan of lighted coals in the cabin where they slept; the only ventilation being a broken pane of glass. A boy has been killed at Gannon by a gun going off while a young man, who - was shooting small birds, was holding it under his arm.

A lad at Avon Dassett having taken down a loaded gun to examine it, three children collected round him: presently the gun exploded, and a little boy EEL shot dead.

By the bursting of a cannon, at Runcorn on Tuesday last, a boy named John Heaton had his head nearly severed from his body. The cannon was fired on the

occasion of his employer's nuptials.—Liverpool Chronicle. • Three persons—a father, mother, and son—have been suffocated in their bed- room, at Kilmallock in Limerick, by the fumes of carbonic acid gas.

An unpleasant feeling has been created this week by a case at Worship Street Police. office. William Cotton was accused of begging, and exposing frightful wounds with a view to extort alms, lie proved to be a discharged soldier, formerly of the Twenty-second Regiment, which fought at Meeanee and Hyderabad. This case illustrates the hardships which are inflicted on the soldier by the present army system; but it does not appear that the police authorities have been to blame.

A painful accident happened on Monday sennight to Mr. Pistrucci of the Royal Mint. While descending some steps from his house to the garden, he slipped, and in falling sustained a very severe sprain of the right ankle. He is confined to his bed, without the power of moving.;

Number of Aatainn Annual death.. average. average, ZymotIc (or Epidemic, Endemic, and Contagious) Diseases . 154 ... see 188

Dropsy, C.ancer' and other diseases of uncertain or variable Neat 80 ... 101 104

Diseases of the Brain, Spinal Marrow, Nerves, and Senses . 159 ... 151 137 Diseases of the Lungs, and of the other Organs of Respiration 381 ... Si 254 Diseases of the Heart and 'Hood vessels 51 ... 29 Diseases of the Stomach', Liver, and other Organs of Digestion 90 ... 70

Diseases of the Kidneys, gtc

Childbirth, diseases of the Uterus, Ite. 10 ... 11 Rheumatism, diseases of the Bones, Joints, &e 13 ... 6 Diseases of the Skin, Cellular TLasne, &a

dashit ii ... ce

Eloleami, Privation, Cold, and Intemperance 30 ... 27

Total (Including unspecified orates) 1,050 ... 1,000 ... 985

The temperature of the thermometer ranged from 52.8' in the sun to 21.3° in the shade; the mean temperature by day being colder than the average mean temperature by 10.8°. The mean direction of the wind for the week was North- north-west.

Results of the Registrar-General's return of mortality in the Metropolis for the week ending on Saturday last—