inistellantous.
Parliament met on Tuesday pro forma', for the purpose of a further prorogation The Peers were represented by the Lords Commissioners —the Lord Chancellor, Lord Wharncliffe, and the Earl of Aberdeen ; the Commons, by their clerks and other officers. An unusual number of strangers and ladies were present to witness the ceremony. Parlia- ment was prorogued to the 19th December next. The account in the Times purports to give some gossip current on the occasion- " The prorogation now ordered, like the previous ones, was mentioned as being intentionally short, 80 that should an emergency arise the Parliament could be soon convened. It was also added, that it will at all events meet towards the latter end of January."
Some question having been made as to the health of the Prince of Wales, the Morning Chronicle states, "on the best authority," that " the health of his Royal Highness is extremely good, and never was better than at present."
While staying at Alton Towers, on the 9th instant, the Duke of Bor- deaux aesompanied the Countess of Shrewsbury and a large party to the porcelain-works of Messrs. Minton and Co., in the Potteries. On Friday, he went to Manchester ; staying the night at Trafford Park, the seat of Sir T. D. Trafford ; and returning to Alton Towers next day. On Monday, the Duke took leave of his host atio dostess ; going to Sheffield; whence he will proceed on a tour through the manufac- turing districts of the North. M. de Chateaubriand leaves Paris on the 20th instant, to meet the Duke in London.
The Post relates an anecdote of the Duke's sojourn at Alton Towers- " When the Earl of Shrewsbury was about to rise to propose his health, the Countess, turning to his Royal Highness, said, ' Nous allons boirc a la sauté de Monseigneur aver du sin de Bordeaux' : to which he immediately replied, in the most touching a.:d naive manner, Et moi, milady, je boirai aux votres avec du sin de Constance.'" M. de Berryer came to town to be present at a service in George Street Roman Catholic chapel, on Thursday, the anniversary of his wife's death ; and he left town on Friday, to rejoin the Duke at Burton Constable, the seat of Lady Clifford, near Hull. Among those who called on M. de Berryer, during his stay in town, were Sir Robert Peel, Sir James Graham, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Strangford, and Lord Mahon.
Great scandal has been created in Vienna by the announcement that Prince Gustavus Wasa, son of King Gustavus Adolphus the Fourth, who was dethroned in 1809, has instituted proceedings for a divorce from his wife, the Princess Amelia Stephanie of Baden, after having been married thirteen years. The act is imputed to hereditary insanity.
A new claimant of Brougham Hall is expected to appear ; for one of another large flock of Birds, from Bondgate, near Appleby, has lately been resident at the village of Clifton, near Brougham Hall, searching for copies of registers of births, marriages, and deaths of ancestors, and obtaining other information, in order to perfect a pedi- gree and case previously to making a formal claim to the property. The late trial, however, seemed to settle, not merely the claim of the defeated Birds, but Lord Brougham's positive title to the estate.
The Berkshire Chronicle states, that, in retaliation for the exclusion of notorious defaulters from places devoted to the business of racing, certain lawyers have been set to work against noblemen and gentlemen of distinction, under the 9th Anne, c. 14th, to recover penalties for "gambling,"—that is, for winning money on the turf, to the amount of 300,0001.; which the prosecutors expect to realize for themselves in the shape of threefold penalties. Lord Eglinton, Lord George Ben- tinek, Colonel Peel, and Mr. Greville, are among those named as the objects of these actions.
The Morning Chronicle of Wednesday, discussing the probabilities as to the result of the Salisbury election, prepared to profit by it which ever way it might go; its anticipations of a Whig restoration growing apace- " The return of another Tory, in the room of the late Member, would simply show that the electors of Salisbury were in a state of disgraceful vassalage to the clerical and landed aristocracy of the district : it would be no proof of confidence in Sir Robert Peel's Government, at a time when a general and contemptuous distrust in that Government has become a matter of notoriety; and it is perfectly plain that the substitution of one aristocratic nominee for another in the representation of that city, would not avert the fate which al- ready darkens over the weakest and most unprincipled combination of public men that this generation has seen."
A new practice came into operation at Manchester last week, that of giving a half-holyday every Saturday to all the clerks, shopmen, and other subordinates engaged in business. It is probable that it will be extended to Leeds and other towns in Yorkshire. The Leeds Mercury says that the example can hardly be followed by the millowners. Quare—if a half-holyday were given to all factory hands every Satur- day during periods of "prosperity," would there not remain rather more work to do in times of " distress "? Alluding to the Manchester plan, the "employer of more than a hundred men in London" lately wrote to the Times, expressing his willingness to conform to such a practice if generally adopted in the Metropolis. It is much to be doubted whether it would cause any real diminution of business ; on the contrary, the extra holyday-making would legitimately create new wants, to be supplied by more trade.
The Globe is publishing piecemeal a third letter, which was sent by General Duff Green to the Times, but rejected by that paper. The first portion is intended to show, that whereas Sir Robert Peel and the English profess to retain the discriminating duty on slave-grown sugar as a help in abolishing slavery, Mr. Calhoun and the Americans attri- bute the endeavour of the English to compel the abolition of slavery in foreign countries to the consciousness that Negro Emancipation has failed in the West Indies, and that free-labour cannot compete with slave-labour in Tropical productions.
The concluding portion of General Duff Green's letter is published by the Globe this evening. The General refers to a statement by Sir Robert Peel, that an estate which produced 10,000/. under slavery, in the West Indies, produced only 6,400/. under apprenticeship, and is now cultivated at a loss. He deems this a proof that coercion is neces- sary to the cultivation of cotton and sugar ; and infers that the English desire, by abolishing slavery in the slave-holding countries of America, to transfer the cultivation of those productions to the East Indies : though nominally free, the East Indian, he says, is really a slave. Thus we should obtain the monopoly of cotton and sugar. He further re- proaches us, somewhat Anti-Poor-law fashion, with the treatment of paupers in England ; and also with the inconsistency in Lord Brougham's Slave-trade Suppression Bill which enables British subjects to sell or transfer slaves of whom they obtain possession as creditors. The whole letter is on the In guoque principle; eked out with a good deal of quibbling. Its practical utility is not apparent.
There will be several eclipses in 1844. Three partial eclipses of the sun, on the 15th June, 6th November, and 9th December, will be in- visible in this country. Two eclipses of the moon, on the 31st May and the 24th November, will be total, and visible to us.
Among some" notabilia of science," the Morning Post mentions two American inventions- " A Dr. Drake, of Philadelphia, is stated to have invented a gas-engine, which promises to effect wonders, and to displace steam as a moving power. In an engine of three-horse power, which is said to be in operation, the gas ge- nerated from one pound and a half of resin (loot the work for an hour; but the ordinary food for this new mechanical agent is a mixture of spirits of turpentine or lard, with whisky. The recommendations of the gas-engine, independently of its alleged cheapness, are—that it occupies only half the space of the ma- chinery of a steam-engine ; there is no boiler to buist (no slight consideration in America); and it can be put into action within a minute. It must be con- fessed that there are no very clear accounts of the means by which all this is to be accomplished ; nor are spirits of turpentine and whisky, in this country at least, such very cheap materials for fuel as to be likely to supersede the con- sumption of coal. " Some of the ' smart' philosophers across the Atlantic have been applying the daguerreotype and the electrotype to the purposes of forgery and coining. The notes of the Cincinnati Bank have been daguerreotyped and engraved with such accuracy that the forged notes and the genuine cannot be distinguished. The dollars have been electrotyped, and the voltaic castings filled with a metal that is said to ring ' even more like silver than the genuine coin. Between the forgeries and the counterfeits, Jonathan stands in a 'regular fix.'"
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