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The Government has issued an order forming "a Coast Brigade of Artillery" to be distributed in the forts, batteries, and towers of the United Kingdom. The appointments to this brigade, both in officers and non-commissioned officers, as well as gunners, will be given " as a reward for good and faithful service." They will, therefore, all be trained men. The chief part of their duties will be to instruct Militia and Volunteer

Artillery, not only in mere drill, but in the science of gunnery. They are to be ready to do this at all times, and are expected to do it with zeal. This is an admirable measure.

Unless we greatly err, the Secretary of State for India has had the happy idea of dividing his Council into the following six permanent Committees :- Financial.—Mr. William U. Arbuthnot, Chairman ;• Mr. Charles Mills, Mr. Elliot Maenaghten, Mr. Henry T. Prinsep, Sir T. Erskine Perry. Public Works, Railways, and Telegraphs.—Colonel Sir P. Cautley, K.C.B., Chairman ; Mr. Charles Mills, Mr. Elliot Macnaghten, Mr. Ross D. Mangles, Colonel Henry M. Durand, C.B.

Military.—Major-General Sir R. J. H. Vivian, K.C.B., Chairman ; Mr. John P. Willoughby, Mr. William J. Eastwie,k, Colonel Henry M. Durand, C.B., Right Honourable Sir J. L. M. Lawrence, G.C.B.

Political,—Right Honourable Sir J. L. M. Lawrence, G.C.B., Chairman ; Mr. John P. Willoughby, Mr. William J. Esstwick, Sir Frederick Currie, Major-General Sir R. J. H. Vivian, K.C.B.

Revenue, Judicial, and Legislative.—Mr. Ross D. Mangles, Chairman ; Mr. Henry T. Prinsep, Sir Henry C. Montgomery, Bart., Sir James W. Hogg, Bart., Sir T. Erskine Perry.

The Minister for India has also appointed other Committees to eon- eider several important subjects now before him. The mode of conduct- ing the business of his office is likewise to be altered. During the last year the smallest matter has had to originate in Committee, and then to pass through some half-dozen hands, and not always the most expe- rienced. The natural consequence has been a system of procrastination, vexatious to the public and injurious to the character of the office. Under the proposed system all matters of importance will have, in the first place, to be submitted by the chief of a department to the Secretary of State in personal communication, thereby giving the head of the de- partment an opportunity of explaining his own views ; while minor questions are to be disposed of by the proper department without any reference to the Secretary of State or his Council.—Allen's Indian Mail.

It is satisfactory that England, France, and Russia have at length agreed to coerce the dishonest Government of Greece into making some partial provision for the payment of the interest on the Greek loan of 2,343,7501., contracted six-and-twenty years ago, under the guarantee of the three Powers, who have been left throughout the period to provide for the liability. The sum now to be extorted from her is, however, only 36,0001. per annum, while the amount actually required is 167,1871., to say nothing of any repayment for past defaults. The other loans granted to enable her to gain her freedom she has dishonoured during her whole existence is an independent State. They were contracted respectively in 1824 and 1825, and now amount with arrears to about 7,000,0001. On these there is no guarantee, the only security of the bondholders being the pledged faith of the Greek nation,—a commodity which for many years has been entirely unmarketable.—Times, City Article.

Mr. Mechi,' so well known for his enterprise in agriculture, has sent the following letter to the Times.

" I consider it a public duty to direct attention to a danger of great mag- nitude which threatens British agriculture, and through it the nation at large. I mean the gradual, but sure exhaustion of the soil of Great Bri- tain by our new sanitary arrangements, which permit the excrements (really the food) of 15,000,000 people, who inhabit our towns and cities to flow wastefully into our rivers. The continuance of this suicidal practice must ultimately result in great calamities to our nation.

"Science has shown us that the land, to the depth at which it is ordi- narily cultivated, contains but a limited and measurable quantity of the elements of our food ; that these elements may be readily exhausted, and that they can only be profitably restored by the application of human and animal odure such as we now waste. A century of abstraction without replacements has reduced the old and once fertile States of the American Union to comparative barrenness, and although by extensive purchases of guano, bones, and feeding stuffs, we are trying to mitigate the evil, we are warned by that great man Baron Liebig (the Sir Tsaac Newton of agricul- tural science), that these attempts arc but as a drop, compared with what we waste. By a false delicacy and want of knowledge we have been accus- tomed to deprecate as indelicate the very mention of our excreta, but the stern requirements of a rapidly increasing population imperatively demand of us the only profitable and available means of providing food for the people. Increase of population would, but for our sewer system, bring with it in- creased means of production. Such has been the case in China, where the commercial value of human excrement has ever been most wisely appre- ciated and availed of. Of course our Boards of Health very properly con- sider their only duty is to cleanse our towns and cities. It is for our land- lords and agriculturists to associate their will and means to convey to the land those precious streams which now exhaust our soil, contaminate our livers, and impoverish our agriculturists, and those dependent upon them. It may be said we are producing more food than we used to do ; no doubt we are, by enclosing wastes, removing trees and fences, cleaner and deeper cultivation, &c., but by these very means and by the application of stimu- lating substances we are more rapidly hastening the exhaustion of our country. A very large proportion of our population would be starved but for the enormous importations of foreign food."

The first step in advance towards the long-contemplated reorganization of the important establishment composing the gun factories in Woolwich Arsenal was taken on Wednesday by handing over the direction of the de- partment in due form from the military to the civil service, to be conducted in future under the auspices of Sir W. Armstrong, C.B., and the resident superintendence of Mr. John Anderson, late inspector of machinery. Great preparations are made for manufacturing rifled ordnance on Sir William's principle, calculated, according to present arrangements, to bring out, at the lowest computation, 1000 guns a year, with the prospect of a considerable addition to that number, in case of actual demand. A number of cast-iron guns will be made in the factories and by the trade for experimental use, to be encased in a kind of network, termed a " chemise," composed of wrought- iron, which it is suggested will add to the endurance of the inner metal of which the gun is cast, and resider it sufficiently strong for the purpose. The new department has received instructions to bring out as speedily as possible a batch of 40 6-pounder rifled guns to carry the elongated shot for field ser- vice in China, to be transported overland. It is stated that, as a necessary consequence of the whole of the gun factories being employed for the manu- facture of Sir William's guns, the shot and shell foundries will be ulti- mately handed over to the same direction, and that the superintendence of the laboratory will merge into that of the gun factories, which will create a reduction of no insignificant importance in the general expenditure.—Times. A full report on Milford Haven as a commercial and naval station has just been issued by Mr. Page. It confirms in every respect the superiority of the position as regards safety and convenience, and shows, from the fact of its not having long ago become the emporium of our western trade, the powerlessness even of the greatest natural advantages to attract traffic from old-established and routine channels. If the sums wasted by the Great Western Railway Company had been devoted to the simplification and cheapening of this route, the shareholders might have been prosperous, but all who are now interested in it are cramped by want of funds and courage, and its development, therefore, although certain, must be gradual. That there is no haven in Europe more spacious and secure seems to be generally admitted, and also that it requires no expenditure of importance to complete it with every requirement of modern commerce. The extension of the pier at the town of Milford to such depth of water as would accommodate ocean steamers is apparently the only work immediately requisite, the rapid growth of all those conveniences that mark a rising place being certain to follow. As a port for passenger and goods traffic from London it already contrasts well with others both on the score of time and expense, but there are yet sixty miles of railway to be made before it can take any part of the great throng from Manchester—namely, fourteen from Carmarthen to Llandeilo, and forty-six from Llandovery to Knighton. Compared with Galway, Liverpool, and Southampton, Mr. Page contends that Milford presents in each case a great saving for passengers from New York to.London. Even in point of time it is two-and-a-quarter hours better than the Galway route, while reckoning railway fares, and the annoyances of the short sea passage from Dublin to Holyhead, the advantages as regards convenience and cost are much more considerable. Over Southampton the gain is eleven hours, and over Liverpool ten-and-a-half hours, apart from which the several mail companies would enjoy an economical supply of coal, a free entrance ample depth of water, avoidance of risks in the Channel, and a saving in light dues. In the cost of coals, especially, an economy of 78. 6d. per ton is claimed for Milford over Southampton, while it is also stated that the coal- - ing would be effected at one operation,. at the rate of 2000 tons per day for one ship. With respect to the capabilities of the place as a naval establish- ment, the arguments are equally strong. In time Of war the facility -for a steamer entering a harbour at any state of tide, and taking in her coal with the least possible delay, is a question of the first importance, and in this respect Milford is preeminent. In its comparative safety and capability of defence from those long-range projectiles which constitute the great feature of modern warfare, it is alleged likewise to possess exclusive re- commendations. "Pembroke, ten miles from the sea, would," it is said, with fortifications and artillery of the present day at the entrance of Rlilford Haven, be rendered quite secure." The possibility of merchant ships being shelled in the harbour is also far less than in the instances of Portland, Holyhead, and Dover. Thus, although the sums expended, or to be ex- pended, on English harbours of refuge according to the estimates commenced in 1847 reach an aggregate of 5,502,1251., Milford Haven, which contains as great an area of deep anchorage at low water as the aggregate of Ply- mouth, Portland, and Holyhead, will, it is aaserted, unaided by improve- ments, still stand out far superior to them all. Certamly, the comparative neglect in which it has been allowed to remain must be admitted as another illustration of the indifference often bestowed on the benefits we have. If France or any other country in Europe could boast of such a natural point either for aggression, defence, or refuge, we should probably hear constant lamentations at our lack of a corresponding seat of power.—Times, City Article.

The Prince and Princess Frederick William did not arrive at Dover until Tuesday. They had an easy passage across the Straits, were received at Dover by the 32d—the Lucknow Regiment, and other regiments in garri- son ; and they started at once for London. Here they were again received in due state, and drove off to the Great Western Railway, escorted by dra- goons.

Advices from Nice state that the Queen of Denmark, the Duke of Holstein, and the Grand Duke Nicholas, son to the Grand Duchess of Leuehtemberg, are shortly expected at that place.

The Prince of Orange and Prince Frederick of the Netherlands have ar- rived at Berlin from Muskau.

Colonel Clifford, son of Rear-Admiral Sir Augustus Clifford, has been ap- pointed Yeoman Usher of the Black Rod at the House of Lords, in the room of the late Mr. James Pulman, F.R.S., Clarenceux King of Arms.

An honour seldom paid to a foreigner having no connexion with Prussia has just been bestowed at Berlin in memory of the late Earl of Westmore- land, so many years the British Ambassador in that capital. All the prin- cipal military bands were assembled in presence of the Prince Regent and the most distinguished persons in Berlin, and performed Beethoven's Funeral March, a favourite work of the late general and diplomatist, whose compositions are well known and appreciated in the Prussian capital.

M. Pierre Leroux, the ex-deputy, is a candidate for the historical chair in the Academy of Geneva.

Mr. James Monerieff, Lord Advocate of Scotland, lectured the Young Men's Christian Association gathered together in Exeter Hall on Tuesday, on Knox end the Scotch and English Reformation.

The Russian Government has just authorized the Princess Czartoryska to pass some months with her family at Warsaw and in Volhynia.

M. Baze, formerly questor of the Legislative Assembly, who has returned i

to France lately in consequence of the amnesty, has just inscribed his name on the list of advocates at Paris.

A recent decree of King Victor Emmanuel confers decorations on different members of the French press in Paris. M. Ravin, director of the Sleek and M. Delamarre, director of the Patrie, have been named Commanders of the Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus; M. Paulin Limayrac of the Patrie, M. Leon Plee of the Sleek, and 11.Gueroult of the Opinion Na- tionale, to that of Officer ; and H. Edmond Texier and M. L. Jourdan of the &eels, M. Leonce Dupont of the Pays, M. d'Audi r of the Patrie, M. Paulin of the Illustration (since deceased), and M. Lemoidne and M. St. Ange of the Debats, to that of Knight.

The Board of Trade has directed an official inquiry into the causes of the loss of the Royal Charter. Mr. O'Dowd, solicitor of the Merchant Shipping Department, will conduct the inquiry, which will be held next week at Liverpool.—Globe.

Messrs. Pete, Betts, and Brassey say in the Times, that they employ no men who will not sign the declaration. " We," they state, " have no diffi- culty in obtaining as many men from the country as we require in London, and arrangements are now being made to bring over skilled workmen from the Continent, who we are aware may be obtained in almost any numbers at a much lower rate of wages ; and we most deeply regret that the indus- trious men of London should allow themselves to be so far intimidated and misled as to render this course necessary, as it must inevitably involve the greatest possible distress and privation to them and their families during the winter ; and when their places are filled they will be under the necessity of seeking employment elsewhere at a considerably reduced rate of wages."

The celebration of the Schiller festival at the Crystal Palace, on Thurs- day, appears to have been very successful, and satisfactory to those who took part in it. The torchlight procession, and the playing of the fountains by the light of their fires, seem to have been the great novelties. The fes- tivities were kept up until midnight.

The Emperor of Russia has approved and confirmed the statutes of a so. ciety, lately organized in Russia, to afford pecuniary. assistance to poor scientific and literary men and their families. The society, which is said to be numerous, is maintained by annual subscriptions, donations, and the profits arising from concerts and theatrical performances.

A Paris letter in Le Nord states that the Academy had received a com- munication from Mexico to the effect that a statue had been decreed by that city to the illustrious Alexander von Humboldt. The statue is to be executed in marble by an Italian sculptor. It will be placed in the interior of the "School of Mines," and will bear the inscription—" A Alexandre de Humboldt, le Mexique reconnaissant."

A Venice letter announces a fact which the lovers of art will hear with regret. The Hall of the Doges threatens to fall; a fresco on the ceiling is cracked across, and a portion of it has fallen. This hall is the largest in any European palace, and contains the most extensive painting in existence ; it is by Tintoretti, and the subject is the Happiness of the Blessed.

The residence of the court at Compiegne is likely to have a decided in- fluence upon the fashions of the season. At the instance of the Empress, crinoline is to be definitively abandoned, and woollen stuffs are to be adopted for walking dresses, not worn as long in the skirt as of late, but so as to show the ankle. It is certain that ladies have of late reached the utmost limits of amplitude in their garments, and consequently whatever change takes place must be in the opposite sense.—Horning Post.

The following excerpt from the " Memoirs of Bishop Horne " has been published apropos of the proposed liturgical revision. " If the intended reformation of our liturgy goes on, the reformers may hereafter bring us in a bill like that of the Cirencester painter :-

"` Mr. Charles Terebee to Joseph Cook, debtor.

To mending the Commandments, altering the Belief, and making f s d a new Lord's Prayer 1 1 0"

The Lien reports a curious sentence which has been passed at Unter- walden, Switzerland. One Melchior Risi, accused of disturbing the public order, has been condemned to a month's imprisonment, and to a regular attendance for two years at the morning and afternoon religious services !

No fewer than 2156 Jews from Tangier have taken refuge in Gibraltar. General Codrington has put up tents for them ; and has appealed to Alderman Salomons to help in getting money to assist the needy.

The Pasha of Jerusalem has ordered blockhouses to be built for troops on the roads from Jaffa to Jerusalem, from this place to Ebron, and from Ramleh to Gaza. The foreign Consuls have thanked him for taking these measures to protect Christians.

Amsterdam will have a handsome Crystal Palace in ;1861, constructed like our own of iron and glass, and built and superintended mainly by Englishmen. It will be 400 feet long, 200 feet wide, and the central dome will be 200 feet high.

We regret to say that the revival epidemic has broken out at Nottingham, where some of the clergy are about to originate revival meetings.

Certain scoundrels resident in the United States have recently adopted a villainous practice of begging for money. They write under a female name to persons who have died, as if they are still in existence, reproach them for not sending money to support an illegitimate child, and implore them to send a 101. note. One of these scoundrels, signing himself Mary A. Stanhope," has just been exposed.

A challenge has been forwarded to England by the friends of Mr. R Green, the champion puller of Port Jackson, to pull any man in England for from 5001. to 10001., the acceptor to receive. 1251. for his expenses in coming out. A gentleman in London has been instructed to make the ne- cessary arrangements.—Australian Mail.

The splendid bull, "Master Butterfly," died a few weeks ago, on his way from the Western district to the Melbourne show. " Master Butterfly" has been two year in the colony, and was purchased of Colonel Townley for 1200 guineas.—Melbourne Herald.

The Australian and New Zealand Gazette states that the largest nugget of amalgamated gold ever produced has been got from 60 tons of the first crushed quartz of the Corfu Reef. The nugget weighs 1040 ounces.

The cold season is telling upon the population. Last week the deaths rose to the number of 1182, no fewer than 41 above the calculated average. Two soldiers, both dragoons, one a sergeant, the other a private, entered a railway carriage. The sergeant fell asleep ; the private stealthily took out a razor, and to the horror of the passengers began to sharpen its edge. He allayed their fears for a moment by cutting bread and meat with the weapon. Then he put the remainder away, and continued to sharpen his razor. The excitement of the passengers was now fearful to behold. Sud- denly the sergeant awoke, and seizing the private by the throat, disarmed him. That private was a lunatic en route to an asylum.