Aitiscellaneous.

Parliament met, pro Jot-m8, on Tuesday, and was further prorogued lust- the 19th instant; then to meet for the despatch of business.

Cabinet Councils were held on Wednesday afternoon at the Foreign., Office and again on Thursday. Most of the Ministers attended, includnsg; Mr. Office,

At a Court of Directors, held at the East India House on Wednesday*. Lieutenant-General Sir Willoughby Cotton, G.0 B., was appointed Come- mender-in-chief of the Company's Forces on the Bombay Establishment.

Liutenant-Colonel Hall, of the Royal Engineers, has been appointed. Director-General of the Ordnance Survey in Ireland, in succession to. Major-General Colby, promoted by the last Brevet.—United Service Gazette. The eminent Spanish merchant M. Pedro de Zulueta has been appointed. a member of the Spanish Senate, and created Count de Torre-Diaz. Ho, has left England for Madrid; and in the exercise of his new functions ie. his native country, we are confident he will not support any such tyran- nical measure as the imprisonment of his friend M. Olozaga.—Morwing. Chronicle.

The Dublin Evening Post mentions that Mr. More O'Ferrall is so seriously ill that he will probably be unable to attend his Parliamentary duties * the commencement of the session.

Mr. Byng's last public- act, that of taking leave of his constituents, has been speedily followed by his death. The venerable "old Whig" departed this life on Sunday last, at Wrotham Hall; having attained the age of- eighty-two. Mr. Byng entered Parliament in 1790, as one of the Repre- sentatives of Middlesex, and retained the confidence of his constituents t$. the last. He served in sixteen consecutive Parliaments, and at the time o6 his death had held his seat for fifty-six years. At every election but one, he was returned at the head of the poll. Although married in early life,. Mr. Byng died childless; and Lord Strafford is believed to be his nearest surviving male relative.

Sir Edward Hyde East died suddenly, on Friday, at Sherwood Lodgor,‘ Battersea. He was born on the 9th September 1764, and was consequent*, in his eighty-third year. He was called to the bar in 1786; practised, there for many years, and was the author of the works so well known ter, the profession under the title of " The Term Reports," and "East's Re- ports," as well as of the celebrated treatise on criminal law called "East' Pleas of the Crown." He subsequently entered Parliament. In 1813, he was appointed Chief Justice of Bengal, and was mainly instrumental is. founding the Hindoo College. When he left India in 1822, a statue was, erected by public subscription in the Grand July-room of the Supremos' Court at Calcutta. On his return to England he was created a Baronet;_ soon afterwards he reentered Parliament, as Member for Winchester; and on. the accession of William the Fourth, was created a Privy Councillor. He, was married in December 1786; and has left an only son and a daughter.

Mr. Cripps, the late Member for Cirencester, died on the 8th instant, at Ashcroft, aged eighty-one. Mr. Cripps was elected for Cirencester in 1807, and continued to represent it until 1841. Mr. Charles Watkins William Wynn, Member for Montgomeryshire is now the Father of the House of Commons. He was born in 1775, and isms been in Parliament fifty years.

Mr. Campbell Foster continues his able letters on the subject of marriage between a widower and his sister-in-law. His third letter comprises s great number of little narratives exemplifying the operation of the law; in cases where persons had married in spite of the prohibition; where they had been prevented from marrying, and had consequently lived in open cone's.- binage; and where the obstacle inducing them to live apart had produced great individual wretchedness. Among the persons conniving at a breads of the law were people most respectable both in character and condition.— even ministers of religion. In his fourth letter, Mr. Foster sketches the ecclesiastical history of the' prohibition, beginning with the early Fathers, and finishing with the reigtv of Henry the Eighth.

The attempt made to procure for the family of the late Thomas Hood s continuance of the pension which ceased on the subsequent death of Mrs. Hood has been unsuccessful. Lord John Russell has written a letter to Messrs. D. Salomans, W. Elliot, and Thomas Pringle, explaining why it is, impossible to renew the allowance—

'Upon the accession of the present Queen, it was determined by Parliament, on the recommendation of a Committee of the House of Commons, that, instead of a fixed sum to be granted in pensions, an annual sum of 1,2001. should be at the disposal of the Crown.

"Under the former plan, when a pension fell vacant, it could be renewed to any member or members of the family: under the present arrangement, the pension lapses to the public, and cannot be renewed. It is true, a pension can be granted if any portion of the 1,2001. remains undisposed of; but that is not at present the case. The whole sum has been already bestowed, and any grant I should recom.: mend for the children would be illegal and void.

"I much regret this circumstance. I should have been happy to have recom- mended the continuance of this pension: but until June next, the Crown has not the power to grant any pension on the Civil List."

For some time past it has been understood that Mrs. Butler would setup& to the stage • and from a correspondence published in the Morning amyl- nick of Wednesday it would appear that her reappearance at Drury Lane. has been actually under negotiation. There has, however, been a split upoos terms; Mrs. Butler asking 1001. a night, while Mr. Bunn offered WM. Ths, Queen of Tragedy dismisses this offer of the Bunn of Poetry in a vary, summary way: her reply is most decided, and characteristic- " Sir—You desired that I would state my lowest terms for acting at Dime Lanel and I did so. I regret that they do not suit you. "I am, Sir, your obedient servant, FRANCES ANN Bona**.

Amongst numerous deaths recently recorded, is that of Mrs. Martyn, who formerly obtained some celebrity as a singer under her maiden name of Inverarity. She died of consumption, on the 27th December, at New- citstle.upon-Tyne.

Mr. Dyce has been commissioned to paint, in fresco on the walls of the staircase at Osborne House, a poetical subject—" Neptune yielding to Britannia the sovereignty of the seas."

Experiments with the inhalation of sulphuric ether have been tried with success at the various metropolitan Hospitals. The practice is now quite established.

On Christmas Day, the Tyne frigate, homeward-bound, under the command of Captain Glaseock, fell in with a French barque in great distress, during a storm. i

At mminent hazard, Mr. James Penn, the Master, and Lieutenant Selwyn, boarded the barque; which they found rudderless. Captain Glascock remained by the ship for- Eve days; during which he supplied her with a temporary rudder, and wovisions sufficient to complete her voyage. Between the 26th and 28th, the Tyne's crew were constantly engaged by day and night, occasionally casting off the tow, and employed in the boats, towing the two vessels apart, as the wind fell light aud the swell increased, in consequence of the two vessels having a great tendency to close.

The statement that the South-eastern Railway Company intended to increase their charges for parcels at the opening of the present year turns out to have been erroneous.

The Lancaster and Carlisle Railwaz is now opened throughout; and 88 it constitutes the route to the her-lamed Isretna, if the electric telegraph should be adopted by the directors on that line, elopements would become almost impracti- cable.

The workmen on a railway now forming near Carnarvon were treated by the contractors on New Year's Eve with an entertainment in an appropriate banquet- ling-hall—a tunnel; which was tastefully fitted up for the occasion.

.Colonel Count Zield Ferrari, brother of Princess Metternich, has been killed, the overturning of a carriage in which he was travelling from Vienna to Oldenburgh.

[FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

The reserve of our Ambassador at Paris, and of our Minister Extraordinary at Madrid, to express the usual congratulations upon the marriage of a member of the Royal Family at whose Court they are accredited, excites inquiry and surprise. Mr. Bulwer absented himself from the ceremony of the marriage of the Duke de Montpensier; and the Marquis of Normanby is said to have obtained the omission of all reference to that event in the annual address presented to the King of the French Jo the Diplomatic Corps. In time of war no such course of proceeding is usual. When the negotiations for a peace were broken off between England and France, George the Third notified his marriage to Louis the Fifteenth; who assured him that he felt sincere joy at the event. (Mimoires Historigues des Negociations de 1761, p. 181.) Such courtesy is not a mere matter of form. It helps during a war to excite amicable tendencies, and it teaches the people of the belligerents that the contest they are engaged in does not suspend sentiments of generosity and good feeling. It adds solemnity to the contest, by calling atten- tion to acts of friendship, which the people of both nations, by a great necessity, are checked in performing; and it inculcates the hope of the restoration of peace, and the renewal of friendly intercourse. But was it ever known, that in a time of peace, congratulations on the marriage of the member of a Royal Family should be refused; hostile feelings excited by the refusal among a people at amity with us; or that no man should be able to tell the las* of this country what treaty or agreement the responsible Ministers of the Crown have made, which leads them to regard the marriage of the Duke de Montpensier as a wrong, or as an injury that should excite our indignation? Why should the mar- riage of any Spanish Infanta be an injury to the people of this country, or be made to be injurious to them ?

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

Number of deaths.

'Winter average.

Eymotic (or Epidemic, Endemic, and Contagious) Diseases 164 .. . 183 Dn•istY, Cancer, and other diseases of uncertain or variable seat 91 .. • • 112 Diseases of the Brain, Spinal Marrow, Nerves, and Senses 192 • • 170 Diseases of the Lungs, and of the other Organs of Respiration 611 . • • • 354 Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels 67 • • • • 32 Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other Organs of Digestion 90 .• • • 70 Diseases of the Kidneys, .2.c 19 ....

a

Childbirth, disease, of the Uterus, dtc 17 • • • • 12

Rheumatism, diseases of the Bones. Joints, etc.

13 ....

r

Diseases of the Skin, Cellular Tissue, Sc.

4 .. .

2

Old Age

91 . .. Si 'Violence, Privation, Cold, and Intemperance 19 • • • 30

—

— Total (including unspecified causes) 1388

1068

The temperature of the thermometer is given imperfectly, the instruments being out of order: the lowest was 30.6°; the mean temperature by day was warmer than the average mean temperature by 0.8°. The mean direction of the wind for the week was South-cast, but during a large portion of the time it Was calm.

BANK OF ENGLAND.

An Account, pursuant to the Act 7th and 11th Victoria, cap. 32, for the week ending on Saturday the eth day of Jan. 1867.

ISSUE DEPARTMENT.

Motes issued £27,551,100 Government Debt ...... £11,f15,100

Other Securities

2,9.4.900

Gold Coin and Bullion 11,462 442

Silver Bullion 2,069.658

£27,552,100

427,852,100

BANKING DEPARTMENT.

Proprietors' Capital

L14.523.000

Government Securities,

(in-

Rest 3,520,048

cluding Dead WeightAnnuity)C12.767,326

Public Deposits' 5,860,631

Other Securities... 14.461,948

Other Deposits 9,784,767 Notes 8315,255 Seven Day and other Bills .... 975.005

Gold and Silver Coin

715,922

£30,093,411

£34,693,451 • Including Exchequer, Savings Banks,Commisaioners of National Debt&DivIdend Accounts.