311ioa11aunus.

The Secretary for War has issued a new circular on Volunteer Corps. It embodies, in the main, those concessions which have from time to time been stated to Parliament—the grant of 25 per cent of Enfield Rifles, of targets, of permission to officers of Volunteer Corps to study musketry in the school at Hythe and so on. The circular strongly re- commends the formation of artillery corps for service on the coast and in our rivers, and promises guns, ammunition, and instruction. Earthworks -thrown up by volunteers will be supplied with guns. Full details are embodied in a memorandum annexed to the circular, and both are easy of access to the public. [On one point we differ from the Government. Mr. Sidney Herbert discourages the formation of rifle corps in cases where no practice ground can be obtained. This is unwise. Too many trustworthy men cannot be accustomed to the use of arms. Drill, simple evolutions, the management of the rifle, and much knowledge of firing, may be obtained with blank cartridge. Should a practice ground be given to a corps thus taught it would rapidly become efficient because it would have a good ground-work to go upon. We trust, therefore, that Mr. Herbert will revise his decision.] Mr. Rarey has, on the recommendation of a Committee appointed by the Commander-in-Chief; been engaged to give instruction to the officers, riding-masters, and rough-riders of our cavalry depats in the art of sub- duing the horse. The Committee say, "it would be advisable that Mr. Rarey should be employed to teach the system to certain members of each regiment ; for, though the system may be explained by words or in Writing, there is also required to carry it into execution a great degree of firmness and resolution, temper and patience, and a manipulation that. requires to be seen by, and taught to, most men to render it successful."

For his historical picture of " Les Enfants d'Edouard," exhibited in L'Exposition des Beaux Arts in the [Department of the North, our countryman, Mr. John Cross, has received the gold medal—grande medallic, de superiorite. Physical indisposition prevented Mr. Cross from contributing to the walls of our National Academy this year, but as indisposition of another kind may operate to exclude him as well as

others from producing works of high historical art for a people who do not at present seem able to appreciate them. If there is " no demand for historical pictures" it is not only for want of lofty halls in our houses : it is for want of something in the national mind just now.

We have strong grounds for thinking that an importanteorsespondence has taken place between our Foreign Office and Mr. Daniel A. Lange, and that this gentleman has finally obtained from the Government a distinct reply respecting the Government's intentions on the subject of the Suez Canal.—.Daily News.

The Queen of Portugal died on the 16th, from the effects of a sore throat. It seems almost but yesterday. since this youthful and handsome sovereign was in England, paying a visit to Queen Victoria, prior to her departure for Lisbon, where her affianced husband awaited her arrival. She was a Saxon princess, born July 15, 1837, and on the day preceding that of her death entered upon her 23d year.

General Charles Murray, Earl Cathcart, died on Saturday at St. Leonardo. He was a veteran soldier and the brother of Sir George Cathcart, killed at Inkerman. Lord Cathcart served in Holland and Spain, and at Waterloo. After the peace he held several distinguished commands at home. His son Lord Greenock succeeds to the title and estates.

Mr. Henry Grattan, the last surviving son of the Henry Grattan, died on Saturday at his house in Wicklow.

Count Nugent, the last surviving officer of the old Irish Brigade, has just died at his country seat in the Department of the Seine et Oise, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. He was a prefect during the reign of Charles X., and refused to take the oath of allegiance at the accession of Louis Philippe.

The And de la Religion states that the Abbe Baujet, tutor to the children of the King of Sardinia, has just been drowned while bathing in the park of St. Salve.

Dr. Henry Northall, acting British Vice-Consul at Gloucester, U. S., committed suicide on Sunday by hanging.

Prince Alfred has returned from his travels as a midshipman. He arrived at Dover on Wednesday night, and set out the next day for Osborne.

The King of Sardinia, on the 16th, granted an audience to Prince Ottajano, sent by the King of Naples on a special mission.

Prince Paul Esterhazy, charged by the Emperor of Austria with a special mission, is shortly expected in Paris.

Prince Richard de Metternich is expected to be the new Austrian Am- bassador at the Court of the Tuileries.

Another member of the Russian royal family is expected at Torquay— the Grand Duchess Maria Nicolaevna, sister to the Emperor of Russia.

Queen Maria Christina, accompanied by the Duke de Rianzares, arrived at Marseilles on the 14th instant, on board the Spanish corvette Vasco Nunez from Italy.

Writers in the journals are urging the Government to adopt the sword bayonet of the Zouaves in our Infantry Regiments. It is undoubtedly a formidable weapon, but before the old instrument is given up it would be well to have proof of the efficiency of the new one somewhat better than that supplied by the highly coloured reports from the French camp.

The Victoria Rifles were inspected on Wednesday, by General Douglas, by the order of the Commander-in-Chief. They mustered 250 strong, and are said to have shown a creditable proficiency. The Duke of Wellington commanded them.

The Ifoniteur has published the official returns of the receipts of the taxes and indirect revenue for the first six months of the present year, which amounted to 533,473,000 francs, being a decrease of 6,454,000 francs i as compared with the corresponding period of 1858, and an increase of 7,456,000 francs on that of 1857.

The railway from Trebizond to Erzeroum is commenced. The Russians are surveying a line which is to connect the Black Sea with the Caspian, and will pass through Poti, Tiflis, and Bakou. The construction of these roads will establish a. rapid communication between the fertile provinces of the Caucasus on the one hand, and Asia Minor and Persia on the other.

The National Guard of Turin have opened a subscription for a medal to be offered to Count Cavour.

The family of M. Kossuth were to have set out to join him in Italy on Saturday. The news of the peace stopped their preparations, and they learned that M. Kossuth himself was " safe " in Switzerland.

A gentleman of this town (says the Bridgwater Ilferenry) has received a letter from M. Simonyi, who recently quitted England for Italy with Louis Kossuth, as aide-de camp to the ex-Governor of Hungary. M. Simonyi, in common with his compatriots, strongly denounces the manner in which Kossuth and the Hungarians have been befooled to serve the purposes of the French Emperor.

The council of the University College at their session, on Saturday last, made their first award of a Jews Commemoration Scholarship. Mr. Nathaniel Nathan was reported by the Faculty of Arts and Laws to be the student of one year's standing most distinguished for good conduct and gene- ral proficiency ; the scholarship was accordingly conferred on him.

The Shah of Persia has this year made a long journey through his do- minions. It appears that on this occasion, contrary to the usual custom, the inhabitants of the provinces through which he passed had not to complain of contributions levied on them by the Royal suite. The journey was in- teresting, inasmuch as the Persian provinces are stocked with game. One day the Shah stopped to hunt the deer in the province of Kezah, which is celebrated for that game, but but in hunting the deer the Royal party roused a herd of wild boars, and his Imperial Majesty was forced to ascend a tree for safety.—Letter from Trebizond.

A submarine telegraph has been successfully laid between Cromer in Nor- folk and the coast of Denmark. Heligoland is placed, by this line, in direct communication with London.

Lord Stanley has given 5001. to the Library at King's Lynn. Some years ago he gave 10001. to the same institution. A Te Deum was sung on Sunday morning in most of the Roman Catholic places of worship in the Metropolis, at the conclusion of high mass, in thanksgiving for the restoration of peace.

Eight ladies of the Westport branch of the Order of Mercy left Baggot Street Convent, Dublin, on the 1st July, for Sydney, there to found a con- vent, schools, se., in connexion with their order.

Sir Morton Peto, Bart., has presented the town of Lowestoft with a very handsome stained glass window, to be placed in the west end of the new Town Hall. A Paris correspondent of the ',dependance Belgevays he is assured that one of the last things uttered in the now celebrated interview at Villafranoa was a promise made by the Emperor of Austria to pass some days next winter at the Tuileries. The writer adds that it is rumoured that the English Ministry is already demanding how long the French troops are to remain in Italy.

Prince Lucien Bonaparte is at present sojourning among the hills at Stan- hope and St. John's, in Weardale, translating the Song of Solomon into the dialect of the county of Durham. He will proceed hence to Craven with a view of translating the book into the Yorkshire dialect.

The annual dinner at the Trinity House, which took place on Wednesday, was deprived of the presence of the Master of the Corporation, the Prince Consort. The Court being at Osborne he could not attend.

The deaths in the Metropolis rose last week to 1400, or 300 above the average rate of mortality at this season. Deaths from diarrheas have in- creased from 132 to 264, of these 24.5 occurred to infants. Four persons died from extreme heat.

The royal mail steamship Paramatta, running between Southampton and Panama, went ashore on the 30th, on a reef some fifty miles from St. Tho- mas's. 'Assistance was soon rendered by her sister ships at St. Thomas's, and her crew, passengers, mails, and cargo were saved.

The published return of pictures purchased for the National Gallery for the last twelve months includes—A portrait of Jeanne d'Archel, by Antonij Moro; whilst, at Sir C. Eastlake's suggestion, those from the Continent consisted of a half-length portrait of a Brescian nobleman, by Moretto ; a small picture of St. Francis, by Filipino Ifippi; a picture of St. Dominick, ascribed to Marco Zoppo ; the upper portion of an altar- piece, representing a Pieta; the "Dead Christ," with other figures, by Marco Palmezzano ; a bust portrait of a lady, by Battista Zelotti ; "The Madonna adoring the Sleeping Child," by Marco Basaiti; "The Madonna and Child," by Cima da Conegliano ; "A Beth," by Carlo Crivelli. In his general remarks the President observes that the deficiency which had previously existed of specimens of early Italian masters—a deficiency pointed out by the Committee of the House of Commons in 1853—has been in a great degree supplied. The addition of specimens, whether of the Italian or Northern schools, of the great masters, and of the maturer periods of art, will be at once more difficult and more costly ; and this is another reason for not reducing the means at the disposal of the trustees. Miss Clarke's bequest of a picture of a blind man led by a girl, painted by J. L..Dycknians, was placed in the gallery in March last; and another, given by the late Mr. J. Kenyon, called " Geraldine" (a half-length figure), by W. Boxall, A.R.A., will be hung up at the South Kensington Museum. Several of the pictures now in Trafalgar-square will, for a time, be located at Kensington, till the alterations proposed to be made in the present National Gallery, on the removal of the Royal Academy, can be carried out, so that sufficient space will be gained to hang the pictures in Trafalgar-square without undue crowding. A total of 553,766 persons visited Trafalgar-square last year, and 238,377 the pictures in Marlborough-house, now removed to Kensington.