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Mr. Marvey Napier, the editor of the Edinburgh Review, has ad- dressed a letter to the Newspapers, which is intended for a defence of the notorious article in the October Number. The first part of the letter contains some peevish remarks on the impropriety of which Lord Durham has been guilty in addressing hisletter of contradiction to the Publisher, instead of the Editor of the Review. As Lord Durham's object was to clear himself with the public, not to enter into a contro- versy with the Review, it seems to us that his letter was addressed with perfect propriety to the Publisher. Mr. Napier then endeavours to make out that the disclosures in the Review were no disclosures at all; but mere repetitions of what Lords Grey, Brougham, and Durham himself, had said elsewhere. We give the pith of his letter, which is contained in the following passage.

" The fact that the franchise originally fixed upon by the framers of the Reform Bill was a twenty-pound franchise, has been more than once alluded to in the House of Lords. It was particularly mentioned both by Earl Grey and by the Lord Chancellor on the 7th of October MI. And the fact that Lord Durham was a member of the Cabinet Committee who framed the scheme embracing that franchise, was disclosed, about a year ago, by Lord Durham himself, at a public dinner at Newcastle; he having then spoken of the Bin as framed by him, with the assistance of a small committee of his colleagues. In as far as I know, the public was not till then aware of there having been a Cabinet Committee appointed to digest this scheme, or of Lord Durham's share in it. If this be true, as to the best of my knowledge and belief it is, Lord Durham must be viewed as the primary divulger of this piece of Cabinet procedure. Now. I would have taken leave to ask his Lordship, whether the facts just specified. joined with those of a public nature, regarding Lord ,Chandos's amendments, the freemen's fran- chise. and the restriction of burgh votes, are not the whole facts upon which the charge brought against him in the Review is founded; and whether, if this be true, there was any good ground for the allegation that those facts were 'assumed ' without any authority ?"

The sufficient answer to all this is that the speeches referred to contain not a syllable about the report of the Sub-Committee. Mr. Napier must produce better authority for the statements in the Review, which were positive, and not inferential.

The retirement of Mr. Ellice from the Cabinet and his office of Secretary at War is spoken off in town ; the indifferent state of his health, and a desire to spend some time in a warmer climate, are as- signed as the reasons.

Colonel C. J. Napier is to be the Governor of the new colony of South Australia. Messrs. Grote, Wolryche Whitmore, H. G. Ward, M. D. Hill, Clay, Norman, and Colonel Torrens, are the Commis- sioners under the Act.

Mr. Stephen Leake, who was one of Earl Grey's Secretaries' and has latterly acted as one of Lord Melbourne's, has been promoted to a Chief Clerkship in the department of the Treasury.

The Reverend Mr. Douglass, who has been presented to a Stall in Durham Cathedral, is a nephew of Mrs. Van Mildert, the wife of the Bishop of Durham.

Lord Althorp is about to marry the widow of the late Lord Clin- ton, daughter of Mr. S. Poyntz.

Sir Robert Peel has declined being a candidate for the Rectorship of Glasgow College. The impossibility of paying sufficient attention to the duties of the office, is assigned by him as a reason for his re- fusal. Lord Durbain and Lord Stanley are now spoken of as likely to be proposed.

The Morning Herald, alluding to Mr. Charles Phillips's probable appointment to the office of Public Prosecutor in the Central Criminal Court, observes—" We are now enabled to state, that Mr. C. Phillips has only received the promise of the appointment from the Govern- ment, and that the learned gentleman will not enter on any of the duties of such office till both it and, what is far more material, the salary, shall have obtained the sanction of Parliament." This fact was mentioned in the Spectator a fortnight ago.

Every new Speaker of the House of Commons, on his accession to office, is presented with a magnificent Bible.

It is said a great literary curiosity has recently been discovered—the identical copy of Junius's Letters in two volumes, bound in vellum, by Mr. Woodfall, the publisher, at the express wish of the author ; which copy is particularly alluded to in the variorum edition of these letters, published by Mr. George Woodfall a few years ago.---Morn. ing Chronicle.

A hitherto u'nrecorded instance of the patronage which George the Fourth occasionally afforded to genius, has just come forth in the memoir of the late N. 'F. Carrington, the author of the poem of Dartmoor. When it first appeared, in 1826, the Monarch ordered his opinion of the poem to be transmitted to the author in the shape of a present of .50 guineas. At the late grand fête at Wentworth House, there was placed in the refreshment-room a bouquet de fruit, composed of every variety of grapes, pines, peaches, nectarines, &c. five yards in circumference, and valued at 600/.

Admiral Adam, the new Lord of the Admiralty, has announced his intention of again offering himself as a candidate for the representation of Clackmannan and Ross.

The Dutchess Dowager of Newcastle died on Saturday week. The newspapers have given a fulsome panegyric on her generosity to the

poor ; which has provoked the following brief and just remark from the True Sun. " We have no authority for disputing any part of the statements relative to the beneficence of the deceased lady. It would have been as well, however, had it been stated, that, in addition to the Dutchess' claims to public admiration here set forth, she was in the receipt of a Government, pension of about 800/. a year for upwards of twenty years !"

The Duke of St. Albans has manned eight hawks, and their train- ing with leash and crease and lure is now in actual progress. The Duke

has thought it necessary " to request of the public respectively," so says a notice posted up at Highgate, " not to shoot or throw stories at these falcons during their training."

Lord Byron's sister, Mrs. Leigh, was present at the performance of Manfred at Covent Garden on Wednesday night.

Mr. Scrope Davies, the friend of Lord Byron, has written a letter to the newspapers in contradiction of a slanderous repot t that he kept a gaming-house in Ostend. He never sanctioned high play at his house at all, rind has not resided in Ostend since the Belgian Revolution.

Sir George Hamilton, Secretary to the Embassy at Brussels, has had a squabble with that notorious person Mr. Long Wellesley. The story published in the papers is, that Sir George, at the instigation of the Duke of Wellington, warned young Mr. Wellesley, who will be of age next month, against having money transactions with his father. This

provoked Mr. Wellesley to abuse Sir George; who challenged his de. famer. Mr. Wellesley would neither fight nor apologize ; so Sir George has publicly denounced him as a slanderer, and "no gentleman."

The splendid mansion of the Marquis of Hertford, in Piccadilly, is about to be converted into chambers upon the principle of the late Duke of York's mansion, now called the Albany.

Notwithstanding the protest of M. Laporte, the assignees of Chambers closed on Saturday a treaty with Severini, Robert, Rossini,

and a Parisian hanker, for the lesseeship of the Italian Opera for the ensuing season, at a rent of 12,000/. 'These gentlemen are also the lessees of the Opera Italien in Paris, and much advantage is expected from the junction of the two companies. Rossini is to preside over the musical department.

Mr. F. Warrington, the son of Mr. Warrington, Consul-General at Tripoli, who has lately arrived from Tripoli, in his Majesty's ship Rover, has favoured us with a communication, complaining of calumni.

ous statements respecting his father, and also of a report of his dis- missal, which have appeared in certain London 'journals. Mr. F.

Warrington professes his knowledge of the source from which the statements alluded to have been received, and expresses his anxiety that the public should suspend their judgment until the result of an inquiry now pending be disclosed.—Courier.

The Parliamentary costs of passing the act for the Southampton Railway appear, by a published account, to have amounted to nearly 20,000/.

The James and Thomas a vessel trading between Maranham and Liverpool, was bearded on the 22d of September, by a piratical schooner, full of guns and men, off the coast of Mexico. It is feared that some of the Mexican pack!ts with dollars for England may fall into the hands of this buccaneer.

On Sunday last, a large congregation assembled in Ebenezer Chapel, in the island of Guernsey. It was perceived, shortly after the com-

mencement of the service, that the gas-lights waved and fluctuated up,

and down. The service, however, which was unusually solemn, pro- ceeded without any inconvenience from this cause. Just as the con-

gregation were about to rise for the purpose of singing, the gas sud- denly commenced waving and fluctuating as it had done at the com- mencement of the service, only considerably more than before ; the lights at one moment flaring up, at the next all but totally out : at the second descent several of the lights went out, and at the next several more. All thi- took place in the space of a few seconds. A few doors- were then heard to open, and one Of two ladies shrieked. The smashing of the windows, which many took for explosions from the burners, was heard in various directions, accompanied by the cry of fire ! In the rush which ensued, seven persons were crushed to death. [This extraor- dinary story is taken from the Guernsey Star; which says the panic was groundless, but does not account for the unusual waving up and down of the gas-lightr.] We observe an amusing instance of the manner in which the Carlist party in France relate stories to prove that the Reform Bill in Eng- land has destroyed the Constitution of 1688. The Gazette de France, which has prophesied the immediate ruin of Britain any time these twenty years, now sees it accomplished in the destruction of the Houses of Parliament. Lord Altborp's energetic apostrophe to the workmen on that occasion is quoted thus : we transcribe literally—" Damn the the House of Lords Let it blaze away ! but save, oh save, the Hall! —Au diable la Chambre des Lords ! Elle eat perdue; mats sauvez, oh sauvee, la Chambre des Communes!" Another Paris paper, in speaking of the various causes to which the fire is attributed, says—" Some of the English papers imagine that it broke out in the kitchen of the coffeehouse, where Lord Howard had ordered a splendid dinner." We presume this refers to the report that the fire broke out in Howard's Coffeehouse ; the proprietor of which the French translator has raised to the Peerage. A squad of a dozen well-paid men, under the orders of a chief, and having at their disposal superb horses and elegant tilburies, continually follow Louis Philip, and form what is called at the château the Secret Police. During the excursions and journeys undertaken by the sing,

they are scattered along the road, before and behind the royal carriages, and have the appearance of simple fashionables who are driving about

for their own pleasure. These estimable alguazlls have established their head-quarters in the Pavilion, which belongs to a property his Majesty has purchased to render his estate at Neuilly more compact. It looks into the park at Neuilly; so that its inhabitants are able, from their windows, to watch over the lives of those persons who may be upon the immense possessions of the Chief of the State. When the King is at Paris, the dandy spies stroll about the gardens of Tuileries, approach- the groups, mingle in conversation, endeavour to inspire confidence, and, without any pretext whatever, seize upon the imprudent persona who express themselves too freely.—Bon Sens. A singular case of exemption lately occurred before a Council of Revision in France. A young soldier was sent home because he wits of such colossal stature and so stout that he could not march in an infantry regiment, and so heavy that in the cavalry his weight would destroy any horse he might be put upon ! The Prison of Mont St, Michtl, at A vraaches in Normandy, was totaly destroyed by fire on the night of the 22d October. The pri- soners, both political and criminal, assisted strenuously in petting out the fire, and made no attempt to escape.

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