4131fsttllantous.

The Times, whose report has a somewhat ex parte aspect, says that the ex- posure in the Ordnance department will be followed up by another case of the

kind, implicating the Admiralty. "A petition is about to be presented to the House of Commons by the Commissioners of Rye Harbour, praying for a Com- mittee to inquire whether certain persons ell Tally connected with the Admiralty have not been induced to alter their decision upon an important question, affect- ing the interests of the said harbour, from corrupt motives. The facts of the case are simply these. Previous to the commencement of the session, the South-eastern Company deposited plans and sections, according to the Standing Orders of Par- liament, for making a line of railway from Hastings to Ashford; and the said railway is intended to be carried across a portion of Rye Harbour, which will form a serious obstruction to the navigation, though there was not the slightest neces- ity for the said railway to cross the harbour, any more than it is necessary to cross the Thames to go from Westminster up to the Bank. Accordingly, the Com- missioners and merchants and shipowners of the port of Rye memorialized the Admiralty against allowing a bridge to be made; and after the Tidal Harbour Commission had heard evidence upon the case, they decided most positively that no bridge should be made across the harbour; and a letter was sent down to Rye by the Secretary to the Admiralty, saying they would not allow this bridge to be con- structed. When the case came before the Committee of the House of Commons on the 4th, this letter was produced, and the question submitted, whether under those circumstances it was necessary for them to go any further into the matter? After some little demur, it was decided that the Chairman (Mr. Lascelles) should write to the Admiralty upon the subject ; and he received for answer, that they would not allow the railway to cross the harbour. But as this was not at all in accordance with the wishes of the Sonth-eastern Railway Company, by some most extra- ordinary means the Tidal Harbour Commission was got together the next day, which, being Saturday, is not a day upon which they usually meet ; and some most persuasive arguments were used to induce a gentleman officially connected with the Commission to get the decision reversed, and this without communi- cating with the Rye Harbour Commissioners; and he not having the firmness of Fabncins, permission was given for the bridge to be erected, provided the South- eastern Company would agree. to spend 10 i,0001. upon improving the harbour. We should like to know what right the Admiralty have to sell the nterests of the harbour for any sum of money? The Commissioners have protested against this unjustifiable conduct; and they immediately sent up a memorial to the Admiralty, praying that they would not agree to any such proposal, as they did not consider that 10,0001. was any compensation for the injury that would be sustained by them. However, before this bridge can be erected, the case will have to be decided upon by a Committee of the House of Lords, where justice is more likely to be obtained."

The following rule, which is among those issued by the Board for the govern- ance of its oflicers, contrasts strangely with the conduct of Mr. Bonham and Captain Bolden), as brought to light by the recent Parliamentary inquiry- " Rule 86. Ordnance Department. No person belonging to this department is to receive any fee, consideration, or compensation from any one whatever, on pain of dismissal from the service."—Globe.

Mr. Bonham was formerly Member for Harwich, and acted for several years in the capacity of Conservative whipper-in to the House of Commons. He has not had a seat m the present Parliameat; bat, on the reaccession of Sir Robert Peel to office in 1841, was again appointed Storekeeper-General of the Ordnance. The emoluments of the office are said to be about 1,2001. a year.—Morning Chronicle.

Captain Boldero is Member for Chippenham; for which place he has been four times returned. He is married to a sister of John and Joseph Neeld, both Mem- bers of Parliament, and well known for their great wealth. He has for several years held the situation of Clerk of the Ordnance, the salary of which, inde- pendent of patronage pertaining to the office, is 1,26111.—Idem.

We learn from a generally well-informed quarter, that Parliament will be pro- rogued either on the 5th or 7th of the ensuing month.—Morning Chronicle.

It is now generally thought Parliament will not be prorogued until the second week in August; that it will be impossible to get through the public business before that time—Standard of last night.

Mr. Fitzroy Kelly was sworn into the office of Solicitor-General before the Lord Chancellor, in his private room at the House of Lords, on Thursday.

Tuesday's Gazette announced these appointments—Captain George Grey, to be Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony of hew Zealand; Major Frederick Holt Robe, to be Lieutenant-Governor of South Australia; Mr. George Lilly, tobe Assistant- Judge of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland.

The following is a list of all pensions granted between the 20th day of June 1844 and the 20th day of June 1845, and charged upon the Civil List.

January 28th, to Patrick Frazer Tytler, Esq. ; in consideration of his eminent literary attainments and merits as an historian, 2001.

January 28th, to Mrs. Jane Hood, 100/., the wife of Thomas Hood, Esq., author of various popular works ; in consideration of his literary merit and infirm state of health.

January 28th, to Susan Robertson, 501. ; Mary Robertson, 501.; Eleanor Robertson, 5W.; Elizabeth Robertson, 501. ; the four daughters of Lieutenant-Colonel Robertson Macdonald, and grand-daughters of the late Principal Robertson ; in consideration of the eminent literary merits of their grandfather as an historian, and their own destitute situation.

January 31st, to Jane Caroline Stoddart, 751. ; Frances Agnes Stoddart, 751. ; sisters or the late Lieutenant-Colonel Stoddart, murdered at Bokhara • in consideration of the services of their brother, and of there being no adequate provision for them.

March 25th, to Mademoiselle Augusta Emma D'Este, 5001. ; in consideration of her nst claims on the Royal beneficence.

June 11th, to Clara Maria Susanna Lowe, 501., daughter of the late General Sir Hud- son Lowe ; in consideration of the services of her father, and her own destitute condi- tion. Total, 1,2001.

Lieutenant-General Ready, the Governor of the Isle of Man, died on Thursday week. He was dreadfully afflicted with cancer, and all hopes of his recovery were at an end, when his sufferings were cut short by a mistake, which, it is said, " can hardly be called a luckless one": a wrong medicine was administered "by hands the most devoted to the deceased." An inquest has been held, and a ver- dict of "Accidental Death" returned.

The bar has this week lost a veteran member, in Mr. John Adolphus; who died on Wednesday night, at his son's house, in Montagu Street, Russell Square. Mr. Adolphus was the father of the Old Bailey bar, and he had enjoyed great emi- nence in the practice of the Criminal Courts. He was also an author: among his writings may be mentioned The History. of the Reign of George the Third; The Political State of the British Empire; Biographical Memoir") of the French Revolution; and a Life of Bannister.

M. Victor Hugo, Peer of France, has just taken a passport, and is going to make an excursion either in the provinces or in foreign countries, to recover his health, compromised by the awkward occurrence which lately occupied the atten- tion of the public.—National.

The Canadian papers report the wheat-crop throughout the colony to be " a fair average."

Fresh salmon has been importedto London in ice from Holland; and pease have been sent from France.

The New York Express reports extraordinary activity in the internal slave- trade in the Border States of the Union. " We copy the following from the River State Review, a paper published in Marion, Negroes sold last sale-day at the Court-house rather high, it seems to us, for the buyers and times, but most assuredly not too high for those compelled to part with them. Fellows brought near 650 dollars, average; one brought as high as 692 dollars. Women sold from 500 to 610 dollars, one only b g the latter sum. Girls about four- teen yeah, old sold from 375 to 400 dollars. Some families sold in proportion much less. The annexation of Texas has raised the price of slaves from 30 to 50w cent; and the effect of this is a most powerffil stimulus to the slave-trade, and. to the breeding of slaves for sale. The domestic slave-trade was never live- lier than it is now, in most parts of the South and West. The rush of emigra- tion to Texas is prodigious, and the purchase of slaves for that market is begin- ning to be prosecuted with astonishing vigour. The roads towards New Orleans, and the routes via the Red River, are thronged with slaves.'" No fewer than fifty-seven candidates have made application for the Auditorship of the Oxford and Worcester district, while the number of electors is but thirty- eight. A Life Insurance Company has issued a prospectus in which they hold tho dangers into which amateur soldiership may lead insurers very cheap indeed. "This office assures the lives of persons who may be members of Yeomanry or Volunteer corps, without charging any extra premium thereon."

" Vigil," a correspondent of the Times, points out a danger to which West- minster Hall is exposed.—"Be so good as to send one of your reporters to Palace Yard, to make a reconnoissance before Westminster Hall. He will find there, immediately in front of the grand entrance to the Hall, and along the Northern end of it, close under the windows, a line of low wooden workmen's shops, con- nected with the buildings going on at the new Houses of Parliament, covered with a roofing of tar or bitumen, out of which several low chimnies project. If by any accident these sheds caught fire, the windows of the Hall would in- fallibly be cracked in pieces ; the burning embers would enter the Hall, which is now filled up to the rafters with the hoarding of the exhibition; and that mag- nificent building would be inevitably destroyed.

It has been resolved to demolish the remains of the Old Greyfriars Church at Edinburgh; in attempting to renovate which, a man was killed a short time back. The fabric appears to be in such a tottering state ahat a battering-ram has been employed to bring down the roof by breaking the pillars which supported it.

The storm at Birmingham on the 3d instant was followed on the 6th by one which did still greater injury. It occurred in the evening, and the lightning was very vivid, while the ram fell in torrents; so that in a short time the water descended to the lower parts of the town " with the force and velocity of a moun- tain-flood." Cellars and the lower apartments of many of the houses were soon under water, and the tradesmen are sufferers to the extent of many hundreds of pounds. The publicans were particularly unfortunate; a great many of their cellars being filled by the flood, and the stock of liquors spoilt. One man had all his beer destroyed on Thursday.; and having immediately brewed a fresh supply, it was rendered useless by the flood of Sunday. It is said that the culverts are insufficient to carry off the rain when much falls; and the sufferers by the late storms have held a meeting to complain of the Street Commissioners, who have neglected year after year to supply sufficient drains.

During the thunder-storm on Friday week, a Swiss dealer in watches named Richon was struck by the lightning in the Finchley Road, and was so injured that he died the next day. The only apparent injury was a blister on the right fore-arm, of the size of a halfpenny, as if from burning.

The ship Chance, Captain Roxby, recently arrived at London from Sydney, brings tidings of a dreadful shipwreck on St. Paul's Island, a group of rocks near the Equator, in 29 degrees West longitude. The crew of the Chance wished to ascertain the exact position of these rocks, and the captain stood that way; on coming in sight of them, on the 3d June, by means of a telescope, a Dutch ensign was seen flying on the shore, and afterwards men were discovered. Captain Roxby sent the pinnace to the rock, and it brought off nine men out of twenty, who were found in a famishing state, intending to return for the remainder; but ere the seamen could do so, a breeze sprung up, with &tremendous swell, and two boats beat about for five hours in a vain attempt to make the land: they were at last obliged to return to the ship. For ten days the Chance was kept beating about the island, but nolanding could be effected; and it being considered that all the men on shore must have perished by that time, from heat, thirst, and hunger, and the provisions of the Chance running short, 'that-vessel at length continued its voyage for England. From the persons rescued it was learned that a Dutch Indianian, the John Herrick, ran on to the rocks on the 29th May, and soon became a wreck. Four men were drowned in attempting to laud in a boat; but the rest of the crew got ashore by means of a rope which the captain succeeded in fasten- ing to a rock, though lie was dreadfully injured in doing so. Their condition was wretched. "Of wearing apparel they had saved none, except the few drenched tattered rags that covered them ; and of food, all they could rescue from the wreck was a cask of butter, a cask of flour, a small biscuit, and a small keg of gin. Immediately under the Line, exposed to a burning Tropical sun, and not having a particle of water to quench their thirst, their sufferings were dreadful: the heat was scorch- ing, and they could only allay it by wading. into the sea up to the chin, and thus remaining the whole day. At night the sprit was distributed among them; the single biscuit was broken up and divided equally; and then they commenced scouring the rocks, in the hope of finding further food. They succeeded in ob- taining a few wild-fowl and eggs, and with the eggs they managed to appease their hunger. On the next morning, almost the whole of the wreck had disap- peered; and in respect of sustenance, their presence bad frightened the wild-fowl away. The heat they felt more severely; and for the want of water they were almost driven to madness. They contrived to cook the fowl they had caught on the previous day, by firing pieces of their shifting under the magnifying-glass of a small telescope exposed to the rays of the sun; and they endeavoured to make a kind of bread by mixing the flour and butter in the shape of balls. Their thirst however, as may he imagined, overpowered their hunger. At dusk, a few drops of rain were felt descending; they instantly laid out a kind of sail to catch it, and held their heads up to the heavens with their mouths open. It soon, however, passed over. On the third day, to their great joy, a vessel, bearing American colours, hove in sight in the offing. They hoisted the signal on the spar; and in order to make doubly sure, the mate, seven seamen, and a passenger, put off iq the only boat they had been enabled to save, with a small piece of wood paddle

along, the oars being lost, to the approaching ship. The American 1, and was not seen afterwards. The poor creatures in the boat then strove ir utmost to regain the island ; the current was too strong for them, and they were speedily out of sight. That they perished there can be no doubt: they had not the slight- est provision with them, no compass, and no oars; the nearest place being Cape Roque, more than six hundred miles distant."

Letters have been received by the war-ship Lapid, announcing the loss by fire of the Indianian Uruguayduring her outward passage. On the 19th June, when off the Cape Vend Islands, fire was discovered in the forecastle store, and despite the exertions of the seamen the flames gained such a bold that at length the crew were obliged to abandon the ship. They had hardly left the vessel in their boats before the powder-magazine exploded, and shortly after the wreck sank. The crew, twenty-one in number, were picked up three days after by a brig bound to Africa. The Uruguay was a very fine vessel, only two years old; and her value, including cargo, was nearly 50,0001. The insurances on her amount to 35,0001.

Two privates of the Coldstream Guards received one hundred lashes each, at Windsor, on Friday last- A whole company had been commanded to strip, in order to a medical inspection • from motives of modesty, the two men, Lawrin and Seaman, refused to undress in that public manner; and when ordered to the black-hole for twenty-four hours, they refused to go, saying that they had com- mitted no offence: they were instantly summoned before a Court-martial, sea-

tenced, and flogged. The moment the flogging was over, the whole of the soldiers assembled sent forth a loud hiss.

Signor Comasehi, a well-known aeronaut, who ascended from Constantinople in a balloon during the festivities when the Sultan's sister was married, has not been since heard of, although by the latest accounts thirteen days had elam. Mes- sengers, despatched in the direction in which it was supposed he would have been earned by the wind, have returned without any tidings of him: a report, requiring confirmation, had, however, got abroad, that the body of a man answering to his description, and the remnants of a balloon, had been picked up in the Danube.