31liortlInialluo.

EY THE QUEEN.—A TROCI,A.MATION. VICTORIA, R.

Whereas our Parliament stands prorogued to Thursday, the 13th day of- this instant tannery, we with the advice of our Privy Council, do hereby publish and declare that the said Parliament shall be further prorogued, on the said 13th day of January instant, to Thursday, the 3d day of February next, and we have given order to our Chancellor of that part of our United Kingdom called Great Britain to prepare a Commission for proroguing the same accordingly ; and we do hereby further, with the advice,aforesaid, de- clare our will and pleasure that the said Parliament shall, on the said Thursday, the 3d day of February next, assemble and be holden for the de- spatch of divers urgent and important affairs, and the Lords spiritual-and temporal, and the knights, citizens, and burgesses, and the commissioners for shires and burghs of the House of Commons, are hereby required and commanded to give their attendance accordingly, at Westminster, on the . said Thursday, the 3d day of February next.

Given at our Court at Windsor, this 11th day of January, in the year of our Lord 1859, and in the 22d year of our reign. God save the Queen.

Parliament was further prorogued on Thursday with all due ceremony, including the dramatic point when Mr. Putman Usher of the Black Rod, summons an empty House of Commons to attend the House of Peers.

The Times states that the answer to the Speech from the throne will be moved in the House of Commons by the Honourable Charles Trefusis, Member for North Devon, and seconded by Mr. Beecroft, Member for Leeds.

Ministers held their first Cabinet Council since Christmas on Wednes- day. All the members of the Cabinet were present except the Marquis of Salisbury.

The new Court of Directors of the East India Company now com- pleted, consists of the following persons. Colonel William Henry Sykes, 1LP., chairman ; Mr. John Harvey Astell ; Mr. William Dent ; Major John Arthur Moore - Mr. William Henry Chicheley Plowden ; Mr. Thomas William Helps ; Colonel Joseph Walker Jasper Ousely ; Mr. Lestock Robert Reid ; Major-General Duncan Sim ; Sir James Dal- rymple Horn Elphinstone, M.P.; Major-General George Moore ; Mr. Eric Carrington Smith.

Mr. Pearson Hill, of the General Post Office, son of Mr. Rowland Hill, left London for the Mauritius' by the last mail, having been se- lected by the Postmaster-General on the request of the Governor for the purpose of reorganizing the postal arrangements of the Colony.

Two matrimonial projects occupy some attention. The Princess Marie of Bavaria will shortly be married to the heir-apparent of the throne of the two Sicilies. This is virtually an Austro-Italian alliance. On the other hand, Prince Napoleon, son of Jerome is affianced to the Princess Clothilde, the daughter of King Victor Emmanuel—a French- Italian alliance. The Paris Correspondent of the Globe says-

" The personal attractions of Princess Clotilda of Savoy are a topic of con- versation; she is spoken of as taller and more developed than her age (born 2d of March 1843) would indicate, and bearing some resemblance to her great maternal ancestress Maria Theresa, mother of Queen Marie Antoinette. Her betrothed husband was born in 1822, on the shores of the Adriatic,

educated an Italian at Florence ; i his name now in the mouths of the population all throughout that peninsula as Napoleoneino—this terminology being one of endearment. The entrance of the imperial couple into Paris is already the subject of a grand programme, in which pomp and pageantry on a grand scale will gratify the Parisians."

The Reverend Thomas Binney, well known in London, has been on a visit to Adelaide. While there a memorial signed by the Governor and others was sent to the Bishop, Dr. Short, praying that Mr. Binney might be allowed to preach in the churches under his control. Dr. Short declined to comply with the request, because it would have vio- lated the customs of the church. A correspondence ensued in which the Bishop drew attention to the possible future union of Evangelical churches. In a letter to Mr. Binney on this correspondence Dr. Short says—

"Having stated why I was unable to invite you to preach to our congre- gations, I took occasion from thence to urge a consideration of the terms on which at some future time possibly that inability might be removed. The indisreasable conditions appeared to me to be three : "A. The acceptance in common by the eveang,elie.al churches of the orthodox creed.

"B. The use in common of settled liturgy though not to the exclusion of free prayer, as provided for in the Directory of the assembly of divines at Westminster.

"C. An episcopate freely elected by the United Evangelical churches, not (as I have been misapprehended) exclusively by our own. "No notice, however, of these preliminary conditions was taken in the memorial addressed to me. Without them there would be no security against the intrusion even of heretical preachers into our pulpits."

The Herta Militia controversy continues. The writer who first com- plained of Lord Salisbury's proceedings says that Mr. Dagg does not touch the main grounds of complaint. Thus Mr. Dagg set down 40/. for "repairs" of newly built houses, for "taxes" which militia build- ings do not pay ; for "insurances" which fall upon the landlord ; and for a drill ground wherein the regiment never meets. This is the residue of "undisputed facts." "It is then acknowledged that premises belonging to Lord Salisbury at Hatfield were taken of him by the county for a militia store-house on his own recommendation as colonel of the militia, and that on these premises,. leasehold for fourteen years at 501. a year, no less a sum than 13401. of the county money has been expended under his Lordships own immediate su- perintendence as colonel, and the accounts afterwards passed with his sanc- tion at the quarter sessions, of which he is the chairman ; and, moreover, all this outlay has been made in a village eight miles from the county town, on premises which Mr. Dagg seems to foresee will be given up at the expi- ration of the fourteen years' lease."

It is rumoured in naval circles that the government have it in contempla- tion to make a considerable augmentation in the Channel squadron by the addition of twelve sail-of-the-line. The greatest activity prevails at all the dockyards in hastening forward the completion of those line-of-battle ships which have been on the stocks several years, most of which are nearly com- pleted, in order that they may be commissioned and made ready for sea. During the present year several first-class screw steamers will be launched at Portsmouth, Chatham, Devonport, and Pembroke, when other line- of-battle ships are to be immediately laid down on the same slips.—Daily News.

The St. Louis Republican of the 24th December, announces the arrival there of Lord Cavendish and his friends. The Canadian government about a year since appointed Professor Hind and Messrs. Dickinson, Fleming, and Hind, Commissioners to explore the Red River Valley. They were joined by Lord Cavendish's party, who since then have occupied the time in hunt- ing and exploring the country from the mouth to the sources of the Red River. The party left Selkirk on the Red and Assiniboine Rivers on the 29th of November, with a train of seventy dogs for Crow Wing, which point they reached in fifteen days' travel. They have various trophies of the chase, such as buffalo and other furs, the hide and horns of a magnificent buffalo bull which was near killing Lord Cavendish, Indian curiosities, and a dog of the Esquimaux breed, used for drawing sledges. They described the life they had been living as thoroughly romantic—hunting and fishing, chasing Sioux Indians and chased by them in return, and enduring hard- ships not altogether unpleasant from the novelties attending them.

Mr. H. Rodwell, Mr. H. Hawkins, and Mr. G. F. Giffard recently ap- pointed Queen's Counsel, were on Tuesday called within the bar.

Sir John Bowring left Hongkong on the 29th November, in the Magi- cienne, for Manilla.

Prince Adalbert of Bavaria and his wife the Infanta Amelia de Bourbon, have been received at Madrid with much state festivity and regal cere- monial.

The little Prince Imperial of France was playing the other day in the gardens of g,rande mere Montijo, when some ladies well known to hint ran- up as usual to kiss and fondle him. But the little heir apparent, doubtless under instruction, astonished them by throwing himself into an attitude, and holding out his " hand " for their salute !

Madame Anna Bishop is now no longer Madame Anna Bishop, but Madame Schulze, having been recently united to an American gentleman of that name.

After a short illness, the Duchess of Cleveland died at Rabv Castle on Sunday. She was eldest daughter of John, fourth Earl Powlett,-by his first marriage with Sophia, only daughter and heir of Admiral Sir George Po- cock, K.H. She was born on the 16th of March, 1785, and married on the 16th of November, 1809, the present Duke of Cleveland.

Captain Shepherd, one of the newly-elected members of the Council of India, died on Wednesday afternoon. He was formerly deputy-master: of the Trinity House.

General James Gadsden, formerly United States Minister to Mexico, died. at Charleston on the 26th ultimo.

The Imperial Government of France, through its Minister at Lisbon, claims from the Portuguese Government 340,000 francs damages, for the detention and capture of the slaver Charles-et-Georges.

South Australia attained its majority, as a colony on the 21st December 1867. Large preparations had been made to commemorate an event so in- teresting to all the colonists, but they were frustrated by incessant rain. A more solid memorial is now proposed. South Australian colonists, retired as well as actual, are asked to subscribe to a fund for the purpose of es- tablishing three exhibitions of 100/. pound a year, open to every school in the colony, so as to enable the holders to complete their education at some European or colonial university.

Dr. Hills, of St. Nicholas, Great Yarmouth, Bishop-Designate of British Columbia, is pursued in his promotion by the esteem of his congregation. A subscription has been raised to establish in his diocese a permanent me- morial of that esteem. The ladies have given him a communion service. The general subscription exceeds 2001. The Bishop will be accompanied by twenty missionary clergymen.

An interesting discovery has just been made at Nonancourt, in the de- partment of the Eure. The parish priest of that village had in the vestry of his church an ornament called a bourse which is used to cover the chalice in carrying it from the vestry to the star and back. This bourse was worn out, and had not been used for some time. It had, however, been very rich, being composed of scarlet silk embroidered with gold. The priest took it to pieces in order to have it repaired, and in the lining he found a paper with the following words written on it, and spelt in the old French or- thography: I ant the cordon of James, the last King of Great Britain

of the family of the Stuarts. If you wish to know how it happened that I was converted into an ornament, read the history of the Regency of the Duke of Orleans during the minority of Louis XV. Given to the Church in 1753 by Madame L'Hopital.', The history of that period mentions that the Pretender, son of James IL, escaped assas- sination at Nonancourt in the year 1715 through the presence of mind and courage of Madame L'Hopital, grandmother of the Honourable M. L'Hopi- tal, late Mayor of Evreux, It may be inferred from this discovery that the Pretender left his cordon of the Order of the Bath with Madame L'Hopital, as he was forced to assume a disguise in order to escape from the assassins. According to St. Simon, Madame L'Hopital died in 1740, and her daughter- in-law gave the cordon to the church.—Journal de l'Eure.

The number of deaths in the metropolis last week was 1338, a very few less than the calculated average. In the thirteen weeks that ended January 1, the mortality in London was high. The deaths registered in that period rose to 17,688, whereas in the four corresponding autumnal periods of 1854- 57, they ranged from 13,840 to 17,238, the latter number having been in part the result of cholera and scarlatina in 1854.

The new standard of weight for the sale of corn in Liverpool and other markets, founded on the decimal principle, comes into operation on the 1st of February. To meet the difficulties which may be at first experienced in ascertaining the value of the usual measures of gram, meal, or flour at every usual price per cental, (1001b.) the Association of the Liverpool Corn Trade have computed and published a complete list of new corn tables, which will enable buyers and sellers to communicate with all other markets where the old standards of weight or measure are still maintained. In the construction of the tables the price of the cental is first given at 4*., and thence upwards, advancing a penny at each step, to 28s., and in parallel columns the price is stated for each of 11 of the weights most commonly used. Thus it is seen at a glance that corn at the given price, say 12r. per cental, (1001b.) is worth 5s. 4td, per bushel of 451b.; 7s. 2d. per ballet of 601b. ; 78.51d. per bushel of 621b.' 88. 4Id. per bushel of 701b.; 138. 51d. per cwt. of 1121b.; 23s. 6.1d. per barrel of 1961b. ; and 268. 101d, per barrel of 2241b.; and so on in proportion to the less or greater price per cental. At the end have been added the corresponding prices from 48. to 218. 6d. of the ton, (2,2401b.) and of the 2,0001b. or 20 centals.—Livespool Albion.

CRYSTAL PALACE.—Return of admissions for six days ending Friday January 14th, including season-ticket-holders, 15,458.