Visrtliguruno.

The various interests which claim a slice of Sir Charles Wood's finandir surplus have been active this week. A great number of parochial meetings in the Metropolis have made demonstrations to aid Viscount Duncan in his motion for the abolition of the Window-tax : the orators still " gOtfer the abolition pure and simple," and without any bargaining concession of a substituted house-tax. The paper-manufacturers have met in great strength, and listened to statements from Mr. Crompton, Mr. Charles Knight, Mr. Charles Dickens, and others, in aggravation of their strong case for relief. Other minor interests have made less imposing move- ments: the coachmakers, for instance, against the heavy duty on carriages. The influential conference of the paper-makers and their allies is the first body which has carried its steps so forward as to have an interviey with the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Sir Charles Wood was propi- tiously courteous; but, in acknowledging that Mr. Crompton had done everything in his power to make the arrangement of the deputation "as agreeable and convenient as possible," he said, doubtless he should have all through next week deputations from interests of every kind, claiming the same privilege of "whispering in his car." "Of course," said be,. grI can give you no information of what I intend to do."

It is understood that the Address of the House of Peers will he moved by Lord Effingham, and seconded by Lord 0 verstone.

Lord Langdale will retire from the Rolls almost immediately, and will be succeeded by Sir John Romilly.—Globe.

We understand that Lord Ebrington is about to retire from the Seem, taryship of the Poor-law Board, and will be succeeded by Mr. R. W. Grey, as Parliamentary Secretary ; Mr. Nicholls also retires, on account of ill health ; and will be succeeded as permanent Secretary by Lord Courtenay, who has already acted as a Poor-law Inspector for several years.—Globe. [From a letter by Lord Ebrington to Lord John Rime]; which the Plymouth Journal has received for publication, it would appear that the resignations are chiefly due to recent alterations of the relative status of the members of the Board and its Parliamentary Secretary, and reductions of salary effected in obedience to the recommendation of the Select Committee on Offices.]

The Duke of Newcastle, with the young Earl of Lincoln, remain at Clumber Park for the present. The Duke is not expected in town to take the seat of his deceased parent in the House of Lords till the middle of next month.

The Gazette of Tuesday notified several Colonial and Diplomatic apt pointments, some of them already informally announced.

Sir Charles Augustus Fitzroy is ieappointed Captain-General and Governot- in-Chief of New South Wales, Captain-General aud Governor-in-Chief of Van Diemen's Land, Victoria, and South Australia, and Governor-Gendral of all the Colonies of Australia, including the colony of Western Australia. 1 Sir William Thomas Denison is reappointed Lieutenant-Governor of Van, Diemen's Land ; Sir Henry Edward Fox Young.; Lieutenant-Governor, of South Australia ; Charles Joseph La Trobe, Esq., Lieutenant-Governor of the (new) colony of Victoria. The Earl of Westmoreland, recently her Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at Berlin, is appointed to the same functions at Vienna. Bear-Admiral Sir Rdmund Lyons Minister Plenipotentiary to the Swiss Confederation, is appointed Envoy 'Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Stockholm. Mr. Arthur Charles Magenkir now acting Minister Plenipotentiary at Vienna, is appointed Minister Plem- potentiary to the Swim; Confederation. The Honourable Henry George Howard, Secretary of Legation at the Court of Lisbon, is transferred to the Court of Vienna.

The Earl of Westmoreland is still at the British Embassy in Berlin, and is expected to return to this country before assuming the duties of his transferred credentials to the Court of Vienna.

The Prague Gazette announces the complete rupture of the diplomatic relations between Austria and the United States.

The Bishop of Durham has thought it necessary to send the followhig , letter to the newspapers- " Sir—Having seen it surmised, and more than surmised, in some pubOe journals, that my letter to the Archdeacon of Lindisfarne might be lookbd

upon as thou'{ an inference could he drawn from it respecting the inten- tions of her ..ilajesty's Ministers, I request your permission to undeceive them througl your widely-circulated columns. The sentiments and. sugges- tions in that Ind other replies to addresses from my diocese are entirely my own, and I gone am responsible for them. I am, Sir, your most obedient servant, "E. Deriegat. .ducklapit Castk, Jan. 25, 1851."

The deaffi of Lord Dalmeny, eldest son of the Earl of Roseberry, is much regretted, especially by Northern politicians of the Liberal school. Lord Dalmeny took an active part in the great Reform struggles of 1830-2, and afterwards for several years represented the Stirling district of Burghs in the Reformed Parliament.

A politician of subordinate status, but of more remarkable influence, bas been removed in the person of Mr. William Holmes, the same "Bill Holmes" who was for so many years the noted Whipper-in of the Tory party in the House of Commons. Mr. Holmes was a congenial son of the sister isle; joining the national characteristics of easy good-humour and companionable conversation with a marvellous faculty for organizing and managing the immense range of his personal acquaintances. His father, an opulent 'brewer in Sligo, gave him a university education at Dublin, en- dowed him with a very good fortune, and got him a commission in the Army, under which he for SUM time served in the West Indies. He entered Parliament for Grampound in 1808, and successively represented the now extinct Parliamentary boroughs of Tregony, Bishop's Castle, and Hazel- mere. Under the Reformed regime, Berwick-on-Tweed afforded him a rofng,e till 1841; but for a considerable period longer he exercised his vigilant activity on behalf of his party over the Parliamentary divisions. On retiring, a few years since, into private life, his health broke down, and he fell into that declining state which led to his death on Sunday lad—not, however, before he had reached the full period of human life.

A gentleman of inferior station and note, well known to the public in later years as a sufferer by official discipline somewhat harshly enforced, was Mr. Sergeant Sedgwick, formerly Chairman of the Board of Stamps ; whose death occurred suddenly in the street, on Sunday evening. Mr. Sedgwick had dined with Chief Baron Pollock, very abstemiously and svithout partaking of wine; and was found lifeless on the pavement on the route to his house. The Chief Baron had written a letter for him tp Lord John Russell, which was found in his pocket.

While the Crystal Palace rapidly approaches the stage at which it will be readyfor the reception of goods intended for exhibition, the Executive Committee, having taken possession of their offices within the premises, are busily engaged in completing all the arrangements requisite with re- ference to space. From the maps which we have seen France will be far the largest contributor of any foreign country. Next to it will come the Zoll-Verein and Austria ; then Belgium. To these succeed Russia, Turkey, and Switzerland. Holland, its commercial importance considered, will occupy a very small space. The Northern States of Germany not included in the Zoll-Verein, Egypt, Spain, Portugal, the Brazils, and Mexico, have confined themselves within still narrower limits ; and China, Arabia, had pm-ale have the smallest sections on the East side of the transept assigned to them. Of the British dependencies, the East Indies claim the lion's share of room ; and of the whole ground assigned to industrial preclude of the United Kingdom, nearly one-half has been appropriated to machinery. As far as possible, the different nations have been arranged in a manner corresponding to their distances from the Equator; the products of Tropical climates being brought nearest to the transept, and those of colder regions being placed at the extremities of the building. While the exhibition lasts the Crystal Palace will be treated by the Customhouse authorities as a bonded warehouse. The re- ception of articles will commence, it is believed, on the 10th of next month; and a large party of Sappers and Miners, intended to assist in this portion of the work, have already had quarters assigned to them in Kensington Palace.

The first and most difficult step in the necessary preparations for a great industrial exhibition, the erection of a covered space within which it could foe conveniently and suitably held, has now been accomplished. Other and hardly less arduous labours remain to be achieved. An elaborate estem of decoration, extending internally and -externally over eighteen "MRS of .ground; the entire filling up of that vast space with stalls, tables, cases, &c.; the preparation of walks and avenues, ornamented with statues, fountains, and other objects of artistic beauty ; the entire aryangement of the countless number of articles brought forward to be exhibited ; the fixing of an immense mass of machinery of the most com- plicated description ; the covering of the structure with a monster shade of calico, to exclude the sun's rays ; the organization of the modes in which visiters are to be admitted, property to be protected, and all the business details of the Exhibition, strictly so called, to be managed,— these form an imperfect summary of what must be done within the next three months.—Times.

The Royal Commission for promoting the arrangements of the Great Exbi- bition have decided, in order to prepare for the reception of foreign goods in the ensuing week, that the public must be altogether excluded from visiting the building after Monday next, the Bd of February.

The Secretary of the United States Navy has given pollee that the frigate St. Lawrence will be in readiness to sail for London on the let of February with articles for the World's Fair.

Despatches were received at Portsmouth on Sunday from the Arctic Ex- pedition which is prosecuting the search for Sir John Franklin from the Westward through Behring's Straits. The Herald arrived at Honolulu oe the 17th October, after having been engaged in her exploratory mis- sion since the 24th May. It was hardly expected that she would bring home news of the missing expedition ; but she brings satisfactory information of the progress made towards a hopeful prosecution of the enterprise in the succeeding season, the coming months of June and July. It will be recollected that the Herald and Plover were already engaged on this service, and that the Enterprise and Investigator have now joined them. Of the two latter ships, the Enterprise, under Captain Collinson, was the more rapid sailor, so it was supposed she would first pass through Mehring's Straits and reach Cape Lisburne, the point of rendezvous : but she was so unfortunate in the winds she met on her course that she did not get to the Aleutian chain before the 29th July and the island of St.

Lawrence till the 11th August, or communicate with the Herald and . . , . .

Plover in Wainright Inlet before the 15th Kunst. When Point Barrow was reached on the 20th August, the ice had closed so far down to the land that no progress could be made towards Cape Bathurst; and on a re-, tracing of the way in hopes of resoling a lane of water observed last year more to the North-west, that avenue was also closed. The Enterprise was therefore driven back into winter quarters till next season. But the slow-sailing Investigator, under Commander M'Clure, made an ex- traordinary passage from the Sandwich Islands to the ice-pack: she left Oahu on the 5th July, reached the Aleutian group on the 20th, got fairly through Behring's Straits upon the evening of the 27th, and communi- cated with the Plover in Kotzebue Sound on the 28th the despatches from Commander M'Clure bear date the 28th: it further appears that the Herald communicated with the Investigator off Point Hope on the 81st July, and that the Plover a second time fell in with her on the 5th August in latitude 70° and longitude 159 52' West, "when she was standing to the North under a press of sail, and in all probability reached the vici- nity of Point Banew fifteen days previous to the Enterprise," and found the coast line comparatively free from ice. Commander M'Clure thus had "the whole season before him," and there is no doubt that he made the best use of his opportunity. His intentions are expressed with interest- ing clearness in the following extracts from hia despatch to the Admiralty.. 1. After passing Cape Lisburne, it is my intention to keep in the open water, which, from the different reports that I have read, appears about this season of the year to make between the American coast and the main pack as far to the Northward as the 120' meridian, unless a favourable opening should earlier appear in the ice, which would lead me to infer that I might push more directly for Banks'a Land, which I think is of the utmost import- ance to thoroughly examine. In the event of thus far succeeding, and the season continuing favourable for further operations, it would be my anxious desire to get to the Northward of Melville Island, and resume our search along its shores and the islands adjacent as long as the navigation can be carried on, and then secure for the winter the most eligible position which offers.

2. In the ensuing spring he will send out expeditions provisioned for forty days to make every possible search by land.

"3. Supposing the parties to have returned without obtaining any clue of the absent ships, and the vessel liberated about the 1st August, my object would then be to push on towards Wellington Inlet, assuming that that channel communicates with the Polar Sea, and search both its shores, unless in so doing some indication should be met with to show that parties from any of Captain Austin's vessels had previously doue so ; when I should returty, and endeavour to penetrate in the direction of Jones's Sound, carefully ex- amining every place that was practicable. Should our efforts to reach this point be successful, and in the route no traces are discernible of the long- missing expedition, I should not then be enabled longer to divest myself of the feelings, painful as it must be to arrive at such a conclusion that all human aid would then be perfectly unavailing ; and therefore, under such a conviction, I would think it my duty, if possible, to return to England, or at all events endeavour to reach some port that would insure that object upon the following year. "4. In the event of this being our last communication, I would request you to assure their Lordship that no apprehension whatever need be enter- tained of our safety until the autumn of 1854; as we have on board three years of all species of provision, commencing from the 1st September prox- imo, which, without much deprivation, may be made to extend to a period of four years; as, moreover, whatever is killed by the hunting-parties I intend to issue in lien of the usual rations, which will-still further protract our re- sources."

Results of the Registrar-General's return of mortality in the Metropolis for the week ending on Saturday last : the first column of figures gives the aggregate number of deaths in the corresponding weeks of the ten previous years.

of 1341-60. of 11161.

Zymotle Diseases

2.032 ....

211 Dropsy, Cancer, and other diseases of uncertain or variable seat 533 .... 41 Tubercular Diseases

l,sii

Diseases of the Brale, Spinal Marrow, Nerves, and Senses. 1,251 .... 112 Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels 320

Diseases of the Lungs, and of the other Organs of Respiration 2,425 .... 102 Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other Organs of Digestion

521 ...,

52 Diseases of the Kidneys, de 95 ..., 16 Childbirth, diseases of the Uterus, Am

1* ....

10 Rheumatism, diseases of the Bones. Joints, Sc 71 .... 6

Diseases of the Skin, Cellular Tissuerde

11 .... I illalformations 32 .... L Premature Birth dimPhY 234 ..., 21 556 Ten Weeks Week.

' 641e Sudden

131 .... zo

Violence,Privation, Cold, andintemperante 240 - Total (including unspecified causes) usi.s