The late Cabinet Councils have been remarkable for the length

of the sittings. At the meeting on Saturday, the Council sat four hours • at the meeting on Thursday, the Council sat five hours and a half. Lord Loath:mile was not present at either meeting.

It is somewhat singular that both the resignations of Lord Palmerston rill December 1851, and in December 1853—should have been predicted' is Vienna before they were known to the public in London. Lord Pal- merston's dismisaal in 1851 was public here on the 22d December ; it was announced in Vienna on the 23d December as "certain to happen soon," in consequbnce of negotiations for a rapprochement between Austria and England, carried on there, " without the knowledge of Lord palmerston.', Lord Palmerston's resignation in 1853 was announced by the Times on Friday the 16th instant ; in the Vienna correspondence of the Time of Wednesday, dated 16th December, we find this sentence-

,. /telegraphic despatch has been received here today, by which we learn that i.ord Palmerston will positively quit the Ministry The report of the Registrar-General, for the week ending Saturday last, shows that the deaths from cholera had decreased to eleven in the Metropolis. The total deaths were a little in excess of the calculated average.

It is announced that Government has adopted a suggestion frequently made when the India Bill was discussed last session, that a permanent Secretary 'should be appointed in the Board of Control. The choice has fallen upon Sir Thomas Redington.

Heavy batteries are about to be placed on the Solent, so as to render its passage impossible (?) to a hostile fleet. Sixty heavy guns are to bo mounted at Sconce Point, on the Isle of Wight; thirty at Hurst Castle, oppoaite the island ; and another battery at Cliff-end, about half a mile from Seenee Point, and opposite Hurst Castle.

The Duke and Duchess of Wellington have left Lisbon for Madrid, en route for Paris. It is expected that the Queen of Spain will give the Duke 'a private audience, and that the estates granted to the Great Cap- tain will be continued to his son.

The Marchioness of Wellesley, the widow of the late Marquis Welles- ley, elder brother of the late Duke of Wellington, died on Saturday, after a short illness, at her apartments in Hampton Court.

tprel Derby has been the greatest winner of stakes in horse-races this year : -exclusive of allowances for running second or third, he has won 13,0391. Mr. Bowes has won 11,070/., the Marquis of Exeter 81651., and Baron Rothschild 65381.

It is currently reported that Mr. Disraeli has prepared the outlines of a measure of Parliamentary Reform.—Sun.

*Professorships at Ring's College, London, recently vacated by the Rei■e.Onel Frederick Maurice, have been filled up. The Reverend Dr. A. li.PCinCis'ieleoted to the chair of Ecclesiastical History; and Mr. George Wehlse 1.serrt,, ef Magdalen Hall, Oxford, Doctor of Civil Law, is elected to the chairedEnglish Literature and Modern History. Dr. M'Caul still reiains thenhair of Hebrew and the Old Testament ; and a lecturer will beappointed to relieve him, by instructing the junior classes in Hebrew, A party of gentlemen connected with the projected Darien Ship Canal sailed by the Orinoco mail-steamer, which left Southampton on Saturday, to make a survey of the route. They consist, on the part of the Atlantic and Pacific Junction Company, of Dr. Cullen, the discoverer of the route, Mr. Lionel Gieborne, Mr. Ford Bennet, and several assistant-engineers. These gentlemen are accompanied by Lieutenant Lingen, R.E., on behalf of the British Government. They will rendezvous at Port Royal, Jamaica ; where they will be joined by a British vessel of war, and by Lieutenant Strange, United States Navy, in the American sloop of war Cyanc, and by a French steamer of war from Martinique. It is understood that the squadron will then proceed to Caledonia Bay, on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus; where her Majesty's surveying-schooner Scorpion is expected to be fouod. The surveying part of the expedition, immediately on arri- val, 'will commence a detailed survey of the route, and cross the Isthmus to the river Savana and the Gulf of San Miguel, where a ship of war will be ready to receive them. It is supposed that the objects of the ex- pedition will be accomplished in time to permit their return to England by May next,

While Mr. Sheridan Knowles is lecturing with great vehemence against Popery, his son, Mr. Richard Brinaley Knowles, is said to have become a Roman Catholic.

Mr. John Martin, the artist, has suffered from an attack of paralysis, which has disabled his right hand and impeded his utterance. He was at Douglas in the Isle of Man, planning improvements for the harbour, when this affliction came upon him.

Mr. Alexander Smith, the Glasgow poet, is a candidate for the office of Secretary to Edinburgh University, vacant by the resignation of Mr. Blair Wilson. Mr. Smith recently lectured at the Dunbarton Mechanics' Institute, oh the life and genius of Robert Burns.

Messrs. Bradbury and Evans have been appointed printers to the Crystal Palace Company. It is said they are to pay the authors of the books they print for the. Company, and to pay such prices as the Company shall direct to be paid. In other words, the Company will draw checks for their authors upon their printers; and Messrs. Bradbury and Evans must get their money back out of the profits of their printing.

Mr. Vizetelly has replied to Mr. Macaulay's attack on him for publishing his Speeches. As to their inaccuracy, the blame is Hansard's, from which they were taken. " With regard to the observations of a personal character, which Mr. Macaulay has thought fit to indulge in, these I shall leave to be dealt with, as advised, by a court of law."

A. collection of autograph letters of Charles the First was sold by Messrs. Puttiek and Simpson last week. Fifty-nine were communications written on scraps of paper, in a feigned hand, to Sir William Hopkins, when the King was confined in Carisbrooke Castle ; and one was written from Wind- sor, The price obtained was fifty-one guineas.

The health of the Bishop of Norwich has considerably improved of late, but not sufficiently to allow the estimable prelate to discharge the active duties of his diocese, Dr. Stevens, Dean of Rochester, is so dangerously ill that his life is de- spaired of by his friends.

Mr. Rose, a retired cheesemonger, who carried on business in the Strand for fifty-four years, has died at North Bank, Regent's Park, in his hundredth year. His medical attendant says—" When in business, be very rarely took any recreation, beyond a walk in the country on a Sunday afternoon." But "he was always a sober man, an early riser, and lived very plainly." At the recent Conference of the Congregationalists at Manchester, the Reverend T. Binney of London enforced the desirableness of a liturgy being introduced.

A young Esquimau, named Kallihirua Kalliessa, has been publicly bap- tized in the church of St. Martin, Canterbury. This young man was brought to England by the Expedition sent out in search of Sir John Frank- lin in 1848, under the command of Captain Austin and Captain Ommaney, who discovered in let. 76' a small tribe of la' quimaux ; he has been edu- cated at the expense of the Admiralty.

A miser named Beaving recently died at Chilcompton, at the age of ninety. three. He pretended that he was utterly destitute; but after his death 2001. in gold was found in his cottage, and he had 309/. out at interest. He bought some coals twenty-one years ago, but he had never found heart to burn them.

In the case of " Madan v. Karr," a suit in the Arches Court, promoted by the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol against the Vicar of Berkeley, for immo- rality, and in which the Vicar was sentenced to be admonished, the Dean of the Arches, on the ground that the expenses of the prosecution had been ex- cessive, ordered each party to pay his own costs. The bill sent in to the Bishop was resisted as exorbitant ; the Proctors took off 1000/. ; and the Bishop has had to pay only 36001. !

Result of the Registrar-General's return of mortality in the Metropolis for the week ending on Saturday last.

Ten 'Weeks Week

0(1813-53.

01'1813.

Emetic Diseases 2,673 .... 268 Dropsy, Cancer, and other diseases of uncertain or variable seat 473 .... 52 Tubercular Diseases 1,758 .... 198 Diseases of the Brain, Spinal Marrow, Nerves, and Senses 1,323 .... 151 Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels

Diseases of the Lungs, and of the other Organs of Respiration 2,720

Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other Organs of Digestion 535

311 Diseases of the Kidneys, Se 108

1 Childbirth, diseases of the Uterus, ac 121

Rheumatism, diseases of the Bones. Joints, 6:e

85 ..... 6 Diseases of the Skin, Cellular Tissue, Sc 13

3 Malformations. 30

1 Premature Birth 218

51 Atrophy

200

29 Age 638

70 Sudden 168

11 Vielence,Privation, Cold, and Intemperance 450

• ..•

31

—

...-- Total (Mantling Unspecified causes) 12,104

1,06

The Russian squadron in the Chinese seas,—consisting of the Pallas frigate,, the Oliwaza corvette, the Rostock schooner, and the Prince de Menschikoff,—visited Nangasaki on the 22d August, and their crews were cordially received by the Japanese.

Mr. Soule, the son of the American Minister at Madrid, has fought two duels, The first arose out of the late ball-room quarrel with the Duke of Alba, who spoke slightingly of the costume of an American lady. The two antagonists met and fought with swords : neither being able to wound the other, the seconds declared the honour of each satisfied. The second duel was fought with M. de Turgot, the French Ambassador at Madrid, for a reason not stated. M. de Turgot was severely wounded.

General Poerio, a brave soldier, and uncle to the famous prisoner in Naples, Carlo Poerio, was recently struck by apoplexy during a soirée at the house of the French Minister at Turin.

Thanks to the considerateness of the late Governor Sir Charles Adam, the veterans in Greenwich Hospital will in future have baked meat for dinner alternately with boiled : hitherto the dinner consisted of boiled meat every day.

A plan of loading cannon at the breech has been [invented by a Dr. Church. Report speaks highly of it. By this mode, heavy ship-guns can be loaded and fired and brought into position by two men five times in a minute, and a field-piece eight times in a minute.

To facilitate the rapid repair of a ship at Liverpool, gas has been intro- duced into the hold and between decks ; a pipe being carried through the ship's side, and a number of street-lamps distributed within, so that the workmen could readily pursue their labours during the night.

It is believed that the loss of life by the foundering of the steamer Mar- shall was greatly overrated : instead of 150 passengers, as at first stated, the highest number given now is thirty-eight.

Mr. Prideaux, author of a work on the Economy of Fuel, has been per- mitted to try an experiment at Portsmouth Dockyard with his invention for the consumption of smoke. The experiment seems to have been quite suc- cessful. It consists of a valve in the furnace-door, of a simple character, " insuring intense heating and minute subdivision of the air in its passage through it." The door of the furnace remains cool, instead of becoming red- hot ; merely a thin steam-coloured vapour arose from the chimney.

The Portsmouth correspondent of the Times, writing on the 21st, says- " The Russian corvette Navarin, 22, after a thorough refit, was got out of dock this afternoon. She is now shipping her sea-stores again, and will be at sea within twenty-four hours. While the public eye has been kept upon this vessel and the frigate Aurora, another Russian apparition on the Gosport side has hitherto escaped notice. The Russian yacht Rogneda, (well known in English waters as once the Earl of Wilton's Circassian, a schooner of the Royal Yacht squadron ) now the property of Prince Nicholas Labanoff de Rostoff, sailed a few days since from this harbour, but so quietly that no remark has been made about her. She sailed with scaled orders from the Russian Government. This fine fast-sailing schooner has been heavily and well armed in all respects. She was bound ostensibly for the Pacific, but we believe more truly her commission is a roving one. The Prince has lately received a commission, appointing him a Lieutenant-Commaudant in the Imperial Navy."

Of the entire acreage of the parishes in England and Wales into which railways penetrate, amounting to 9,177,190, the railways occupy 65,047 acres.

The gross amount of poor-rates in England and Wales in the parishes traversed by railways, in the year ending Lady-day 1852, was 3,113,9261.; of this, railway property contributed 186,639/.

It is estimated that the United Kingdom consumes 1,500,000,000 eggs yearly, of which Ireland produces nearly a third. The North-Western Railway fre- quently receives a million eggs in a day at Liverpool from Ireland, to be for- warded to manufacturing towns.

A correspondent of the Times notes* case of "cruelty to children," which calls for the interference of the Police. An old woman stations at night two little girls—delicate and interesting children—thinly clad, under a lamp in Euston Square ; they hold a written petition for alms. In the coldest and foggiest evenings the little creatures are exposed for hours, doubtless getting much money for the woman; while their own prospect from the exposure must be an early grave or a life of disease and misery.

The Great Western Railway brought to town last week no less than three tons of mistletoe.