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Major-General Lawrenson, formerly of the 17th Lancers, now command- Berlin advices state the views of Austria and the National German ing the Cavalry Brigade at Aldershot, will succeed the Earl of Cardigan as Hugh Rose, G.C.B., who will retain it until the return of Lord Clyde from India.
Mr. James Brown Gibson, M.D., C.B., has been appointed successor "to the lamented Thomas Alexander." Mr. Brown has been engaged in all parts of the world for thirty-four years of full-pay service.
The annexed memorandum, dated the,4th instant, has been just issued from the Horse Guards, by General Sir G. A. Wetherall, the Adjutant- General:—
"The General Commanding-in-chief observes that, among the pecuniary embarrassments of young officers, which too often form the subject of com- plaint to his Royal Highness, debts due to messmen form a considerable por- tion—not for the mere ordinary mess expenses, but generally for money borrowed to pay sudden and casual demands—until, in the aggregate, the amount becomes considerable.
" His Royal Highness has also reason to believe that debts to messmen are sometimes increased, by their consenting to charge the messing to the officers' private accounts ; and that the certificate required weekly, that all mess debts have been paid, is not always strictly correct. " It is incumbent upon commanding officers and upon general officers, at their half-yearly inspections, to ascertain, by personal inquiry from all parties, whether any officer is in debt to the messman, not only for messing, but on any other account. " His Royal Highness strictly enjoins commanding officers to prohibit as a breach of good order the reprehensible and unworthy practice of borrow- ing money from messmen, and recommends that in all mess contracts, a clause may be inserted, rendering nugatory all such transactions and bind- ing the messmen with penalties for any infraction of the rule."
A return just published shows the numbers of the Militia present at the last annual training of each disembodied regiment, and the number of absentees from each regiment on that occasion :—England, 30,597 present, 20,505 absent ; Scotland, 4706 present, 2065 absent ; Ireland, 9037 present, 7937 absent ; total, 44,340 present, and 30,557 absent.
Lord Macaulay held in high veneration the character of the famous Ad- miral Robert Blake, and some months prior to his lamented death the great historian expressed a hope to a gentleman in Somersetahire, that the people in Blake's county would, at least, set up some memorial of the illustrious Admiral, even if funds were wanting to erect a statue worthy of that naval genius. The suggestion is in course of being carried out. Mr. Rally, the well.known sculptor of Eve at the Fountain and other memorable works of art, has been intrusted with the preparation of a bust of Blake, which will be ready for inspection in a few weeks.
The Prince Consort has become a patron of the National Rifle Asso- ciation.
On Monday morning, the Earl of Elgin left London for Paris, to consult with the French Government, preparatory to taking his departure for China.
The statement that her Majesty was about to extend the limitation of the present barony of Brougham and Vans in favour of Lord Brougham's younger brother is not correct. A new peerage patent is being made out in favour of Lord Brougham as Baron Brougham, with remainder to his brother. The patent will bear the date of 1860, not of 1830, and the future Lord Brougham will take precedence at the bottom of the roll of theHouse of Lords, next after Lord Taunton, and not, as now, next before Lord Talbot de Malnhide.
The Due de Montpensier has just arrived in this country in a Spanish ship-of-war.
The Krum Zeitung reports that Prince Alexander von Hesse, General of the Austrian army, will shortly arrive in Berlin, en route for St. Petersburg.
The Reverend Dr. C. J. Vaughan, late Head Master of Harrow School, who recently declined the bishopric of Rochester, will, it is said, be the new Dean of Lincoln, in the room of the Very Reverend Dr. J. G. Ward, deceased.
The Bishops of Bath and Wells, Lichfield, Llandaff, the Earl of Shaftes- bury, and Lord Ebury, are among the subscribers to the fund for the prose- cution of the Reverend H. J. Hatch's accusers.
Mr. David Roberts,' the celebrated oriental painter, contributed to the g Volunteer Bazaar, held in Edinburgh, two of his orignal Egyptian sketches made on the spot.
Mr. W. B. Donne, Examiner of Plays, who has had the direction of re- cent theatrical performances at Windsor, has been presented by the Queen with a handsome silver inkstand. Mr. Donne has also received her Majes- ty's commands to continue to direct the Windsor theatricals.—Observer.
The Countess of Granville, long distinguished for the high position she held in both the fashionable and political world, died at Brighton on Wed- nesday, after a somewhat long and painful illness. Lady Granville was but forty seven years of age. She was a daughter of the Duke of Dalberg.
Mr. Baron Watson died suddenly on Tuesday at Welshpool of serous apoplexy. He had just concluded charging the Grand Jury of the Mont- gomery Assizes, when he put a handkerchief to his face, applied a smelling- bottle to his nose, and leaned back in his chair. He ceased to breathe a few minutes after he had been conveyed to his lodgings. He was born in 1796, was educated at the Royal Military College, Marlow, and entered the Army as Cornet in 1811, and served in Spain and France up to 1814, and in Belgium and France in 1815. Having retired from the Army, he en- tered as a student at Lincoln's Inn, 1817, was called to the bar in Lincoln's Inn, in 1832, made a Q.C. and a bencher of that Inn in 1843, and was ap- pointed a Baron of the Court of Exchequer in November, 1856, when he received the honour of knighthood. He was the author of two legal works, was Member for Kinsale from 1841 to 1847, and for Hull from 1854 to 1856, The death of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburgh-Strelitz, brother of the late Queen Louisa of Prussia, and uncle of the Prince Regent, is daily ex- pected. The Grand Duke is the oldest sovereign in Europe, being in his eighty-first year. His son and successor is blind.
The Post publishes a letter addressed to Lord Normanby by General De- cover°, the Tuscan Minister of War, whom Lord Normanby, in his pam- phlet, " The Cabinet and the Congress," has charged with appropriating public moneys of the Tuscan State to the amount of 60,000/. In the name of public morality and justice, the Sardinian general, who has honourably served his country for a period of forty-seven years, now publicly calls on Lord Normanby to place the grounds for such a charge in the hands of Baron Ricasoli,. the head of the Tuscan Government ; "and in the name of English integrity and honour," observes our contenr orary, "we declare that, if Lord Normanby does not answer this appeal, he will be branded by the public opinion of his own countrymen as guilty of the most groundless and heartless calumny."
Colonel Dickson has forwarded to the Globe a correspondence which has taken place between himself and Lord Wilton. The Colonel refers to the fact that he has obtained a verdict against Lieutenant-Colonel Walker, who succeeded him as lieutenant-colonel of the regiment under the command of his lordship, accompanied with an apology and a retractation of the state- ments which originally induced his lordship to recommend his displacement, and expresses his belief that his lordship would now feel satisfaction in doing justice to an old officer by urging on Lord Combermere and the au- thorities his claim to be restored to his former position. Lord Wilton, in reply, states that in however favourable a light Colonel Dickson may con- sider the verdict at the recent trial, it in no way affects the position of Lieu- tenant-Colonel Walker, who still remains Lieutenant-Colonel of the Tower Hamlets Militia, and that he must decline to interfere in any way with the previous decisions of the authorities sanctioned by her Majesty, regarding Colonel Dickson.
The restoration of the Red Sea telegraph brings England within six days' distance of India, so that the telegram due in London from Marseilles on the 18th instant, may contain news from all parts of British India up to the 12th instant.
The 20-ton steam hammer for the manufacture of gun-coils, as well as the arrangements for making the 100-pounder Armstrong guns at Woolwich, are now complete.
A new and successful method for remedying the disadvantage and delay hitherto experienced by the necessity of sponging out the guns under a course of constant firing has been invented by the experimental officers at Shoeburyness—namely, a lubricating wad, simply made of hemp dipped in a solution of bees'-wax and grease. The wad has been tried in a course of experiments, and has been found to remedy the fouling effectually. The wax, of course, is placed between the charge of powder and the missile, and, on examination after the discharge, the gun has been found cleaned out, ready for being reloaded.
The racecourse at Newmarket is to have a telegraph office, united with the railway station by subterranean wires. The powerful telescope recently employed at the Newmarket terminus for reading the information posted high up on the course is of no use in bad weather : hence the new arrange- ment for transmitting sporting telegrams.
Twelve new life-boats have been placed on the coast by the National Life- boat Institution during the past year. Two hundred and eighteen lives have been saved from thirty nine wrecks. The total number of lives saved by the life-boats and other appliances of the institution amounts to 2332.
Forty-one French paper-makers have addressed a petition to the Empe- ror, praying him not to remove the prohibition against the exportation of rags from France.
The Zoological Society have just received a fine living specimen of the Gigantic Salamander of Japan, the largest known species of amphibion. It is at present about three feet in length, and is the first of the sort that has been brought to this country alive.
Mr. A. T. B. Carter, of Rowland Cottage, and Mr. George Saunders, of Belgrave House, Bristol, had arranged to fight a duel at Calais. Mrs. Carter found it out, and employed the authorities to arrest the belligerents. They were subsequently brought to the Council-house, and each of them bound over, himself in 500/., and two sureties in 8001. each.
The Belgian Chamber on Thursday adopted some severe enactments against duelling. In the event of the death of one of the parties, the sur- vivor will be liable to imprisonment of from one to five years, and with a fine of from 2000f. to 10,000f.
During the night of the 7th instant, General August Baron von Eynatten, second proprietor of the regiment of ljhlans, Austria, hanged himself with trimmings off his coat. He was in a military prison, having been committed there for fraud, while at the head of the military administration in 1859. He left a written document, confessing his sins and begging forgiveness from his sovereign. He had tried to kill himself before by forcing a breast-pin into his heart. He had accomplices in his crimes, but he refused to name them. On the 4th instant, two officers shot themselves at a small town some ten miles from Vienna.
M. Richter, chief director of the Credit Mobilier Association, has been arrested, it is supposed, for complicity with the late General Eynatten. The managers of the Credit Mobilier have declared that the affairs of the establishment are in perfect order, and in no way connected with the frauds of the Austrian General.
The health of the metropolis is improving. The deaths have fallen in three weeks from 1500 to 1397. The mortality of last week was 32 above the calculated average and 45 less than the previous week. The Registrar- General says—consumption does not appear to be accelerated by cold. "Eight persons were killed by mechanical violence ; 4 by drowning ; 13 by suffocation ; and 8 by burns. The fires of Smithfield and the Suttee tires of India have been extinguished, but the fires of our own hearths destroy hundreds and deform thousands of English women and children annually. Asauredly some remedy may be found ; why are combustible dresses carelessly worn ? Eight persons should not be burnt to death, or 10 children be suffocated under the bedclothes and otherwise in seven days. Such deaths can scarcely be considered inevitable accidents."
Dr. Letheby reports the mortality of the City to be below the average of the last four years, owing principally to improved sanitary arrangements. There were but five deaths from zymotic diseases during the week.
Mr. Keitt, brother to the member of Congress for South Carolina, had been murdered by some of his Degrees, who almost severed his head from his body. He was at the time confined to his bed by illness.
Accounts from Sydney, New South Wales, state that the crew of the No- vara—an Austrian frigate, despatched from that country about two years since on a scientific voyage round the world—have been committing fearful havoc amongst the natives of Stewart's Island, in the Touveatix Straits, carrying off hogs, cocoa-nuts, dried fish, &c., without recompensing the poor people to whom they belonged. For months after these outrages, the na- tives were in a state of starvation, and their previous friendliness to the white man has been turned to enmity.
A furnace exploded at Dundyvan Ironworks, in the neighbourhood of Air- drie, on Friday night, overwhelming three men and a boy with the liquid mass of scoria and ashes. The boy died within an hour, the men the next day. The furnace was believed to be in good working order. A Parliamentary return issued yesterday states that the total expense of tha Gloucester inquiry was 1924L 18s. 6d., and of the Wakefield inquiry 1485/. 19s. Each Commissioner receives 51. 5s. a day, and the secretary 31.3s.
By the returns of the Poor-law Board, the number of paupers in England and Wales receiving relief in the month of January last was 4,148,000; in January 1859, 4,323,299 ; showing a decrease for this year of 175,299.