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We are informed that her Majesty will not open the next session of Parliament in person. We have reason to believe that her Majesty's absence on that occasion will be owing to the near approach of an event which will probably add another member to the Royal Family.—Times, Monday. We have reason to believe that the auspicious event which We mentioned yesterday as lady to increase the number of the Royal Fa- mily may be expected about the middle of April next—Times, Tuesday.

The Admiralty has sent to the daily papers a mass of despatches re- ceived from the officers of the Bating's- Straits expedition in, search of Sir John Franklin. The greater part are written by Captain_ 'Kellett, of the. ship Herald, and bear the latest date-22d November 1849. There are also despatches from Commander Moore, of the war-steamer Plover; and from Lieutenant Pullen, of the same vessel, commander of the boat expe- dition to the Mackenzie. The two vessels had come from Polynesia : the Herald left Oahu on the 19th May ; sighted Kamschatka on the 221 June ; and found the Plover at anchor under Chamisso Island on the 15th July. The Herald had previously fallen in with the schooner Nancy- _ Dawson, of the Thames Yacht Club, owned and commanded by Ma. Sheddon, formerly a Mate in the Royal Navy ; who had gone on a volun- teer voyage in search of Sir John Feanklin Ire stuck to the expedition, very closely, in spite of failing health and a mutinous crew ; accompany- ing the boat-expedition very far to the North-east. We have already mentioned the death of this gentleman before his return to Mazatlan. In the voyage Northward, the Herald encountered a number of American whaling-ships : an enterprising mariner had made an experhnental voyage in this untried region, and had collected 4,000 barrels of oil in six weeks ; a success which bad. attracted about twenty other whale-ships to Bela- ring's Straits. The expedition had frequent intercourse with the natives ; who without exception showed the most fdendly dispositioa, audfurnialted substantial aid in the shape of rein-deer meat, &c. At Chamisso Island, a cask of flour, left by Captain Beee,hey twenty-tbrest years previously, was dug up from the sand. "It required the united ' strength of two boats' crews, with a parbuckle and a large spar as a lever, to free it altogether. The sand was frozen so hard that it emitted sparks with. every blow of the pickaxe. The cask itself was perfectly sound, and the hoops good; out of the 3361b. of flour which it contained, 1751b. was- as sweet and well-tasted as any we had on board. The tin of beads was also found ; those not of glass much decayed; the cotton stringing quite sound?' On the 25th, the vessels anchored at Wainvrright's Inlet, Eastward of Cape Lisburne ; where it was proposed that the Plover should winter. In many respects the station was excellent, particularly in the friendly •

tion of the natives and the abundance of rein-deer meat ; but the inlet proved to be nautically unsuitable, and the idea was abandoned. The boat- expedition under Lieutenant Pullen was despatched, however, at midnight of the 25th: it consisted of a pinufice schooner-rigged, a half-decked pin- nace, two whale-boats, and a native balder, with crews amounting to four- teen persons in all. In the course of his journey, Mr. Pullen bought another baidar, and sent back the whale-boats. On the 4th of August, he was in la- titude 71° 12' North, longitude 154' 56' West ; and, was just about to start Eastward, "with a clear open sea and a fair wind." His orders were to winter at Fort Hope, and make the best of his way to York Factory ; where he would report himself to the Admiralty and receive instructions.

The Herald continued cruising about within the Arctic circle ; pre- vented from making much Northward progress by the packed ice. On the 17th August, Captain Kellett discovered and landed on SE island, in latitude 71° 20' North, longitude 175' 16' West,—that is to say, considerably North and somewhat West of BeluintiStraits. "At the same time, he dis- covered a small group, with a very • h and extensive land to the North of it, deeply seated within the ice." "It becomes," says Captain Kellett, " nervous thing to report a discovery of land in these regions without actually landing on it, after the unfortunate mistake to the Southward" ; but many circumstances contributed to establish the fact, especially the thick collection of clouds about a fixed point. Captain Kellett thinks "it is more than pro- bable that these peaks are a continuation of the range of mountakur seen by

this natives oft' Cape Jahn, [on the coast of Asia] and mentioned by Baron Wrangel in his Polar Voyages."

The two vessels rendezvoused off Cape Lisburne and returned to Rot- Value's Sound ; whence the Herald sailed on the 24th September, leaving the Plover to winter there. Captain Kellett returned to If azatlan on the 14th November last. He intended to refit at Guaymas ; continue the Bur- Vey of the ports and anchorages in the Gulf of California ; and return to Mazatlan, for orders, in March. He asks whether he is to send another boat-expedition to the Mackenzie next season [1850]? Before that time, Captain Moore would probably have made another voyage as far as Point Barrow.

Now that the labours of the Morning Chronicle are probably drawing to a close, the Times has despatched its "own Commissioners" on a "tour of investigation through the agricultural districts of England," with the duty of drawing from the actual condition of agriculture materials where- on to rest "a decision which, if possible, may reconcile the permanent prosperity of the agriculturists with the adequate provisioning of the nation.' In a preliminary communication, the Commissioners explain the "origin and nature" of their mission, and indicate the spirit in which it will be discharged. "Within the last few months the price of corn has fallen so low, that great alarm has been excited throughout that large

portion of the community who live by the practice of aviculture On the other hand, while so many connected with the land are anxious, fearful, and discontented, the public at large, as consumers of corn, are not disposed to feel otherwise than satisfied at its cheapness. Thus it happens that a conflict of interests, real or apparent, arises, which it con- erns the welfare of the state to decide equitably." The conductors of the Times have thought this is to be done "by a personal inspection of the agricultural districts of England, by a careful and impartial examina- tion of their present condition, by ascertaining how far the practice of agriculture has followed the progress which it has made of late years as a scienc,e, and to what extent those large economies have been effected in the cultivation of the soil which a Judicious application of capital has never failed to accomplish in every other department of human industry." The series begins with a lucid account of fanning in the benighted "vale Of Aylesbury.'

In a letter to the Morning Chronicle, Mr. Wolryche Whitmore comes forward as a combatant of the farming statistics in Blackwood's Magazine. Be selects Mr. Watson's account, and endeavours to show that, taking the facts as they stand, the return under free trade ought to be as large as it was under protection, provided the best use were made of the land. "The first point which strikes one is the very small return from the grass land and green crops. At 8001. it is only 21.158. per acre ; and at 6401., only 21. 2s. 8d. This is very singular farming, and what in this country would indicate great backwardness. If the same care were bestowed on grass and green crops which marks Mr. Watson's system in the growth of corn, we should, I suspect, have a very different result.

"Why are 200 acres of good land-the rent proves it to be so-to be devoted to grass, yielding 2/. 2s. 8d. per acre ? The 100 acres kept in green crop appear only. to return the same amount. It is difficult to imagine what this green crop 113. Either Swedish turnip or mangold wurzel would surely be worth much more; with good cultivation twenty tons of the former might be frown.

There is a question among agriculturists what ought to be the value of an

acre of Swedish turnips of twenty tons. Some, with Mr. Huxtable, allege that 71. may be made ; others stating it at dl. Let us take the lowest; this would give 500/. from the root crop, and not 2131., as now reckoned. Then as to the grass land : if, instead of being pastured, its produce were con- warned, partly green in the stalls in summer, and partly in hay in winter, surely more than 2/. 28. 8d. per acre would be made of it. In summer, three or four animals might be kept on each acre, yielding 2/. per head, either 6/. or 8/. per acre, as the case might be. Take again the lowest estimate, and suppose 100 acres so managed : this would give us 6001., in lieu of 213/. "-I have thus disposed of 200 acres ; but one other hundred remains. Why should this not be cultivated as arable? Taking its produce at the rate, both in quantity and price, given by Mr. Watson, it would amount to 3981. Let us put these items together-

200 acres cultivated by Mr. Watson £791

100 „ now in grass, cultivated 898

100 „ roots 500 100 „ grass and bay GOO 2,295 Produced under protection 1,956 £339

"About 2001. of this extra sum would probably be required to pay the ad- ditional labour and interest upon extra capital on this system ; but if so, 'where would be the grievance ? "

Now that the legal proceedings against Mr. Hudson, by the York, New- Castle' and Berwick Railway Shareholders, have been compromised, Mr. Hudson feels that he is permitted to make a few remarks on the proceedings instituted and threatened. He has therefore published a letter stating the pith of his justifications in the several matters of-1. the Brandling Junction Railway, and the Newcastle and Berwick Railway ; 2. the Sunderland Docks ; 3. the purchase of his own iron rails for the York, Newcastle, and Berwick Company. On the first head, he says the shares were voted to him in public meeting, for services previously rendered, and then thought valuable. On the second, he says that his Newcastle and Berwick Railway shares were original shares in the company of which he was the originator, and for which he was responsible. The Sunderland Dock shares were taken by him with two other directors, for the direct benefit of the York, Newcastle, and Berwick Company. It is not denied that in this he exceeded the legal authority reposed in the Directors : Parliamentary sanction was, no doubt, necessary, as in all former cases, "where the Directors had not shrunk from this description of responsibility, when it was important that delay should be avoided." "The Company has ratified the purchase of some West Durham Railway shares taken by me in a similar manner, and with the seine absence of authority ; the only difference being that it has now been thought advantageous for the Company to retain these shares." On the third point, he says he purchased iron largely in October 1844, when the Company was not in existence, but when iron was low : "like any other man,' he was "surely entitled to the enhanced worth of his own iron." The tenders for the iron were open and public ; and Messrs. Thompson and Forman, in furnishing iron partly out of their own stock and partly out of that which they held for him, did not in anywise affect

the price. •

"In conclusion," says Mr. Hudson' "I would observe, that I am aware. that transactions have occurred which are to be regretted ; but in respect to which it is some consolation to me to reflect that the Company have in no- instance sustained pecuniary loss. Allow me to ask you to review those transactions with some remembrance of the excited period in which they oc- curred-of the multiplicity of concerns which I had to superintend and di- rect-of the brief opportunities I had for reflection-and of the impossibility of my giving sufficient attention to the public duties and private matters , which then claimed my attention."

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 ag- gregate number of deaths in the corresponding weeks of the ten previous years-.

Ten We Week.

01 183949. of 1850.

Zymotie Diseases 2254 193 Dropsy, Cancer, and other diseases of uncertain or variable seat 572 46 Tubercular Diseases 1786 .... 207 Diseases of the Brain, Spinal Marrow, Nerves, and Senses 1280 .... 129 , Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels 336 51 Diseases of the Lungs, and of the other Organs of Respiration . 2449

Diseases of the Stomach, Lim., and other Organs of Digestion 68'

Diseases of the Kidneys, 45.e 9 Childbirth, diseases of the Uterus, &e III .... 13 Rheumatism, diseases of the Bones, Joints, tee Diseases of the Skin, Cellular Tissue, itt 11 Malformations 18 Premature Birth 36 Atrophy 21 Age 73 Sudden 117 .... 7 Violence, Privation, Cold, and Intemperance 241 27 Total (including unspecified causes) 11245 1156

"In the week ending last Saturday, 1,156 deaths were registered in the'; Metropolitan districts ; the average for ten corresponding weeks of previous years (1840-9) is 1,125, which, if a correction be made for increase of papa- • becomes 1,227. The lowest number in the ten weeks was 916 in 1840. the highest was 1,401 in 1848. Though the rate of mortality has much in- creased since December, and the present return shows an increase of nearly a hundred on the previous week, the deaths are still less than the average by 71. To the coldness of the weather may be chiefly ascribed the increase of mortality which recent returns have exhibited. In the last three weeks the deaths from phthisis or consumption have been respectively 129,.- 140, and 157, (the corrected average for last week being 146) ;_from bronchi- tis 103, 120, 131, (the average being 73.) ; from asthma 19, 35, and 27, (the " average being 52) ; and from pneumonia 95, 83, and 85, whilst the average is 117. Of the 85 persons (-comparatively few) who died last week from.

pneumonia, 60 were children ; but of the 131 who died from bronchitis, which much exceeds the average, by far the larger proportion were persons of advanced age. Seven men and 14 women died last week at eighty-five years of

age and upwards ; one of the latter, in Bishopsgate Workhouse, had reached the age of ninety-nine. Epidemic diseases continue to be less fatal than usual, ex- cept measles, which carried off 37 children, or rather more than the average. This disease ranged in the corresponding weeks of ten previous years from 8 _ to 51. Only 10 deaths occurred from diarrhcea ; and no deaths are ascribed to cholera in the returns of the week, but a man who had cholera in August, and never wholly recovered from the effects of it, died in St. Thomas's Hos- pital, where he had been for nine weeks. During the last seven weeks only- 2 deaths from cholera have appeared in the bills of mortality: "The mean daily reading of the barometer at the Greenwich Observatory was 29.574 in. The mean daily temperature ranged from 25.5' on Tuesday • to 40.6' on Saturday. The mean of the week was 31.1°, which is 5-55 less than the average of the same week in seven years. On Tuesday the- mean temperature was nearly 11° less than the average." The general direc- tion of the wind for the week was North-east and North.

Not for many years has the severity of winter been so general as at present. From all accounts the lochs and pools in all parts of the countryr are sheets of ice, and snow lies on the ground in genie places to the depth of many feet. Snow has fallen here less or more, for the last few days ; but it has not covered the ground beyond a few inches. We are occasionally visited by a partial thaw, but in the evenings the frost sets in with extreme keenness.. -Greenock Advertiser.

Letters from the French departments are still full of accounts of intents). severity of weather, particularly from the Pyrenees, the Haute Garonne,

Lyons, Lille, Dieppe, and other parts. Travellers who arrived at Lyons from

Puy record that they saw several dead bodies along the way : in one spot, a man wrapped up in his cloak, lying on the ground and frozen to death • in

another, a traveller also dead, and Ins body in a sitting posture ; and further, a woman standing in the snow up to her middle, her hands clasped and raised as if in the act of recommending her soul to Heaven ; she also was a corpse.-Paris Correspondence, Saturday.

It is stated that the new House of Commons will not be ready for the Members until after the Easter recess. The admission of the pubhe to view the House of Lords will recommence on Saturday the 25 February, by tickets, to be obtained at the Chamberlain's office on the 30th instant.

We have much pleasure in announcing that the wife of Kossuth has es- • caped from Hungary, and had reached Belgrade on her way to join her hue- band at Shtunda.-Doily News.

The brother of Emily Sandford, who accompanied her to South Australia, was drowned on the arrival of the ship at Port Adelaide : he fell into the water while attempting to land from the ship. Buchanan House, the seat of the Duke of Montrose on the shores of Loch Lomond, waa totally destroyed by fire on Monday night, in the absence of the &lad family. Many relics, which money cannot replace, perished; but the _pictures and the principal family records were saved. News has arrived of the wreck of the transport Richard Dart, with a la- mentable loss of life. The transport left Gravesend on the 5th of April, for Auckland : besides the crew, there was a detachment of twenty-eight Sap- pers and Miners, under the command of Lieutenant Liddell, Dr. Fitton with his wife and child, Dr. Gale, Mr. Kelly, four soldiers' wives, and nine chil- dren. South of the Cape of Good Hope, bad weather was experienced ; and on the 19th of June the ship struck on the North side of Prince Edward's. Islands. "The rollers ran terrifically high ; and within a short time after the ship struck, the stern-cabin-windows were stove in; the boats were filled and torn from the quarter, and the uninterrupted breach of the sea over the deck swept away forty-seven of the passengers and crew. Of these, the chief mate alone contrived to reach the rocks. The commander, four sea- trien, an apprentice, and four of the soldiers, took refuge in the mainmast rigging ; and, the wreck having been driven broadside to the shore, the mainmast went by the board, falling fortunately upon the rock, and the survivors crawled along the spar to the shore. The rocks being exceedingly steep and difficult of access, the survivors had to undergo much labour and fatigue in reaching the summit of the cliff. The night was intensely cold, and there were frequent falls of snow ; the sufferings of the unfortunate men. were consequently most severe. They found on the shore a few blankets, which had been washed from the wreck ; but they were unable to obtain any provisions beyond a piece of beef, and they subsisted upon the raw flesh of birds. In the course of six or seven days they determined on exploring the island ; and here their toil and misery became greater. One of the sol- diers perished from the intensity of the cold and the want of proper nourish- ment, and the same fate seemed to await the other poor fellows. After ramb- ling about the island for no less than forty-two days, they fell in with a party of men, explorers, in the service of a Mr. Geary, of Cape Town ; and for the following thirty-two days, no vessel touching at the island, these peo- ple generously shared with the sufferers their stock of food." The sufferers were eventually conveyed to the Cape, by a schooner that had brought a supply of provisions to the island.

The ship Emily has been wrecked on the Andaman Islands, and it is feared that all her crew have perished. On the arrival of the East India Company's steamer Proserpine, in search after the crew, the body of the second officer was found near the wreck, bearing spear-marks and wounds which had caused his death. No other token of the crew was found. The provision-casks had been broken up by the natives, to gain their iron hoops i for conversion into weapons. The slanders were hostile, and were deterred from attacking the party on the wreck only by the discharge of grape-shot. They are spoken of as cannibals.