ilififscellantous.

Alluding to the Income-tax and the detected abuses in its collection, the Times says—" Since we drew public attention to this subject, on the 15th of May last, we understand the Basinghall Street Commissioners have had a most searching inquiry and investigation into the system of surcharges, and have inflicted most summary justice on one of their officials; but, if all we hear is true, their vengeance has fallen upon a minor offender when compared with an officer connected with the Stamps and Taxes, who has been in receipt of no less a sum than 6001. arising from the poundage al- lowed by Government out of the City Income-tax! We wait the decision of the Board before we make further comment; but it is quite impossible this tax can be renewed until Parliament has inquired into the whole pro- ceedings connected with what has been taking place during the last three months in Basinghall Street."

In consequence of the earnest desire felt by the late Dr. Arnold, as re- corded in the history of his life, that some mark of Royal favour should be bestowed on Rugby School, the Queen has been graciously pleased to inti- mate her intention to found a gold medal, for the special encouragement of the study of history at that institution.— Glube.

The workmen in the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich are to be formed into a military corps. Sergeant-Major Moore, of the Royal Artillery, has been appointed Adjutant of the intended battalion.

By advices from St. Petersburg, dated May 29th, it appears that the question of prohibiting the exportation of corn from that port is believed to have been at length absolutely entertained by the Russian Government, although the idea is now given up, in consequence of the corn-dealers having put a quantity of 700,000 chetwerts aside to be sold at lower prices to the poorer classes.—Times.

The weather underwent a great change towards the end of last week The temperature fell very considerably; and the sunny summer skies were succeeded by clouds which have this week discharged copious show- ers in many places. In London, there has been some exhibition of elec- tricity. At Manchester, on Tuesday, after wintry weather, there was a very violent but brief thunder-storm. A tall chimney was struck, and also a house on Sale Moor; but in neither case was much damage done, or anybody seriously hurt.

The accounts of the potato-crop are contradictory. Mr. Alfred Smee- whose animalcular doctrine, however, is much disputed—announces with confidence that the "aphis vastator " has reappeared in every district round London. The Newcastle Journal speaks of the potatoes in the North as presenting a particularly healthy appearance. Some unfavourable symp- toms are reported from Gloucestershire.

The admirers of M. Soyer, the gastronomic regenerator, celebrated hi return from Ireland by a splendid dinner, at the London Tavern, on Tuess day. M. Soyer's philanthropic exertions in behalf of the starving Irish were duly commemorated by meats, bumpers, and oratory suited to the occasion.

At a recent meeting in Cork, in connexion with the existing distress, it was stated that the Reverend Theobald Mathew has for some time past been feeding 2,500 poor persons every day.

The eighth annual match for the challenge cup given by the Royal Thames Yacht Club was won, on Tuesday, by the Secret, after a very exciting contest. The cup must be won in two successive years, in order to insure perpetual possession; and the Secret is the first yacht that has secured the trophy. The weather was stormy, but the frequent squalls added to the interest of the race. The distance sailed was from Greenwich to Coal- house Point, two miles below Gravesend, and back to Greenwich.

A letter from Berlin, of the 4th June, states that the Privy Councillor Meltzner, belonging to the General Post-office of Prussia, has set out for Paris, to arrange the postal convention on the point of being concluded between the Governments of France and Prussia.

The Spanish Government issued, on the 2d instant, a decree relative to the coinage. It is enacted that the monetary unit is to be the real; but there shall be pieces in gold of the value of 100 reale (about IL) to be called Isablinos or centens; in silver of the value of ten reale, to be called the half-piastre or decen; and in copper the one tenth of a real. There are also to be silver pieces of twenty, four, and two reale; and copper pieces of five and two tenths. " The Pope," says a letter from Rome, in the Sit cle, " has appointed a com- mittee to inquire into the position of the Jews. His plan is to withdraw them from their detestable ghetto. There is a controversy in the ghetto on the subject of the Pope. 'Young Palestine' is of opinion that Pius IX. is the Messiah. The Conservatives maintain that he is merely a great pro- phet. We have admitted five Jews into the circolo Romano. Such an event never before occurred."

Letters from Italy state that the principal chiefs of the thirty-three pro- vinces of the community of Capucins have been convoked at Rome, for the election of a General of the order. It is the first time for seventy years that the chiefs of this religious community have been called together. Among the countries represented are France, Ireland, Belgium, Bavaria, Austria, the Tyrol, and Switzerland.

Dr. James H. Pickford has addressed to the Morning Chronicle a solemn warning against the use of ether. He denies that the insensibility which it produces is no worse than that of drunkenness or asphyxia. There is a chemical alteration in the vital constituents of the blood; for not only is that deprived of its oxygen, and of the power of coagulation—like the black vitiated blood of malignant and putrid fevers—but the corpuscules whence fibrin is formed are actually dissolved. Hence the blood takes a long time to regain its life-supporting, flesh-forming character; wounds show everted edges and refuse to heal; and the patient often sinks into death. The use of ether also tends to produce tubercular consumption of the lungs: in thirty cases of death after the use of ether, in the Dublin Hospitals, the deaths could be traced to recent tubercles, believed to be the product of the ether.

In another letter to the Times, " Mentor " denounces a very fatal habit that has newly sprung up-

" Entering a chemist's shop, a nurse came in for four ounces of ether. As the Chemist poured it out, he said to me, This is all the go now: it is used for inha- lation. A small apparatus has been invented for ladies. So delightful are the sensations it produces, that persons who have used it for the relief of pain continue to use it for the pleasure it affords.' On a former occasion I had warned a chemist of the danger of yielding to a habit which would become his master: the warn- ing was neglected; the habit has gained the mastery; and the man of talent and nergy has become the imbecile, drivelling idiot.

The Reverend Thomas D. Allen has communicated to the Times an ex- tract from a letter by Dr. Dickeson, of Natchez, on the subject of the human fossil which has so much perplexed geologists, and been rather sum- marily sneered at by Mr. Lyell. Dr. Dickeson gives reasons for believing that the bone, which was part of the ossa innominata, was a true fossil: it resembled true fossil bones in colour, density, &c.; it was associated in position with bones of the megalonix and the like • it lay three miles from the river banks, seventy feet below the surface, and at least two feet below three skeletons of the megalonix, in an unmixed homogeneous blue clay, not appreciably affected by any current or other displacing power; the osseous relics near it bore every appearance of quiet deposition ; and the high antiquity of the bone is vouched for by Professor Agassiz and the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences.

On hoisting his flag at Portsmouth, Sir Charles Napier has issued this charac- teristic notice—" The crew of the St. Vincent is increased to 850 men. Any young fellows who are fond of fun had better rally round the Old Commodore, whose bit of blue flies on board of her, and who is looking out for squalls. Apply on board the flag-ship."

A Mr. Lillibridge, of New York, has discovered a method of making ice cream by steam. He proposes to cool the parched throats of the people at half the former rates.

"It must behighly gratifying," saysa provincial paper, "to know that, from all accounts upon which reliance can be placed, the present appearance of the potato crop was never known to be more healthy throughout the country"!

In consequence of the great demand for cart-horses by railway contractors, those animals are now forty per cent dearer than they were a year ago.

"Jack," the well-known elephant of the Zoological Society, who had long amused the visitera to the Regent's Park Gardens, died on Sunday morning, after a short illness, produced, it is said, by want of sufficient exercise and too much About two hours before his decease, he sank upon his haunches, and re- mained motionless, retaining his posture even after death.

Mr. Turner, a solicitor of Sheffield, has been committed for trial by the local Magistrates on a charge of forging a writ. In November last, Turner was em- ployed by the trustees of a benefit club to sue a defaulter; before the writ arrived, the man paid his debt; Turner said he had received the document on the follow- ing day, and exacted 25s. costs. When the writ was demanded, he reluctantly delivered ix up; there were erasures in it. This writ appears to have been issued in January 1846; and Turner had no defence to the charge, as he could produce no letter from his London agent respecting the matter.

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

166 99 158 275 29 70

8

10 2

5;

28 — 914

The temperature of the thermometer ranged from 114.8° in the sun to 33.50 in the shade; the mean temperature by day being warmer than the average mean temperature by 5.1°. The mean direction of the wind for the week was North- north-east.

The comparison of the deaths registered last week in London with the deaths which would have been registered if the rate of mortality had been the same as in Dorsetshire, shows these totals—London, 786; Dorsetshire, 684; excess, 102.

Zymotic (or Epidemic, Endemic, and Contagious) DIseaam 160

Dropsy, Cancer, and other diseases of uncertain or variable seat 93

Diseases of the Brain, Spinal Harrow, Nerves, and Senses .

122 Diseases of the Lungs, and of the other Organs of Respiration

202 ....

Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels 29

Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other Organs of Digestion 77

Diseases of the Kidneys, eke Childbirth, diseases of the Ilterm, &e.

9

12

Rheumatism, diseases of the Bones, Joints, &c.

1 1

Disease. of the Skin, Cellular Tissue, &c.

3 . .:

Old Age 17

Violence, Privation, Cold, and Intemperance 29

—

Total (Including unspecified causes) 786

Number of Spring deaths. average.