311isullaurns.

Report names Sir Edward Colebrooke as the probable mover of the House of Commons' Address in answer to the Queen's Speech.

The reply of Sir De Lacy Evans to the promoter of the Address to Lord Palmerston, demanding a reduction of expenditure, has been pub-

lished. Sir De Lacy desires a revision of taxation and expenditure with a view to economy. But he is of opinion that it would not be safe or expedient to disarm the country. He says— I am not so confident as you appear to be of the maintenance of peace in Europe, or of the unaggressive intentions of the Emperor Napoleon. His preparations for war, naval and military, while he talks of peace, and his seizure so shortly since of two frontier provinces of great strategical import- ance, in violation of his repeated asseverations to the contrary, and against which most of the Governments of Europe protested in vain, seem to have escaped your notice or appreciation. To these may be added a few other sig- nificant particulars of similar import. Moreover, I venture to think that 4 private' communications to a Prime Minister to influence by anticipation public legislation are not quite in unison with our institutions and the good usages of open discussion, and might become ii mischievous pre- cedent."

He, therefore, declined to sign the memorial.

The commanders of the Middlesex Rifle Corps have resolved to present an address to Earl de Grey and Ripon on his retirement from the War Office, expressing their gratitude and respect for the courteous and able manner in which he has performed his duties in connexion with the Volunteer Force.

The Volunteer movement does not flag. In spite of the weather, shooting matches have proceeded in many places. New corps are spring- ing up, and old ones are obtaining recruits. Several counties, following the example of Cheshire and Lancashire, have established County Rifle Associations ; so that next July we may hope to see a national contest admirably sustained by the pick of the best shots in Great Britain.

"Common Sense" writes to the Times, making some sharp strictures on the build of the " Warrior " as a fighting ship, and then speaking of "La Gloire."

"I have recently had an opportunity of seeing La Gloire, although I was not allowed on board. She is a vessel of apparently about 1800 tons, and cannot be, as reported, the old Napoleon simply plated with iron. Her model is quite distinct, and the Napoleon now lies in the dockyard of Toulon. To save the weight of plating the whole vessel with iron, La Gloire is built as a two-decker, with ports on her lower deck, and this deck alone is pro- tected by plates which run deep under water fore and aft. Her bow and stern are alike. Her masat are very light, and let down upon deck. This would be done on going into action. Thus the upper portion of the vessel might be shot through and through, but, as it would not be fought, no loss of life could happen, nor could she by any possibility be sunk unless her plates were penetrated. She carries thirty-eight guns on the lower deck, and carries her ports about seven feet out of water. She is certainly not a perfect success as a sea-going ship, but she is faster than the Algeciras, the quickest French two-decker, in smooth water. That she is not a perfect failure is proved by, the fact, that the French have entirely stopped the con- struction of wooden vessels, while every dockyard in France is hard at work building more fregates blindees on an improved plan."

The Department of Antiquities at the British Museum is to be divided into three sections, and placed under Mr. Vaux, Mr. Birch, and Mr. New- ton. This is an " infusion of new blood."

The following papers will be read at the meeting of the Royal Geogra- phical Society, on Monday next-1. Papers on the " North Atlantic Telegraph," by Captain Sir F. L. M'Clintock, R.N., F.R.G.S., of H.M.S. Bulldog, and Captain Allen Young, F.R.G.S., of the Fox ; 2. "Explorations in the Forties and Iceland, ' byDr. John Rae, F.R.G.S. ;

3. " The Fjords of South Greenland," by F. J. Taylor, Esq. ; 4. "Elec- tric Circuits," by Colonel Shaffner, F.R.G.S., &o.

The Prince of Wales is made much of at Cambridge. The heads of colleges and proctors have called on him with due state and circumstance, and the Corporation has presented an address. The. Prince matriculated on Saturday.

Kings and Grand Dukes have singular ways. At Berlin, the King has con- ferred the Black Eagle on the Grand Duke of Tuscany ; and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, now on the Retired List of Sovereigns, gave King William L the Order of the House of Tuscany. Surely this is the Key of the Street.

Lord Palmerston, Lord John Russell, and the Duke of Argyll have re- turned to town.

Lord Palmerston will give the usual Parliamentary dinner on the 4th of February, the eve of the session.

The "'aerie, speaking on the faith of Shanghai reports, says that the Em- peror of China will probably send Prince Kung as ambassador to London and Paris.

Mr. Colley Harman Scotland, of the Oxford Circuit, has been appointed

to the Chief Justiceship of Madras, vacant by the death of Sir Henry Davidson.

The vacant Reeordership of Bury St. Edmunds has been filled by the appointment of Sergeant Tozer.

Henry Cinch Count de Chambord, has suddenly gone to Brussels, the Frankfort Journal being the only chronicler of the Pretender's movements. Princess Clotilde, escorted by her husband, is daily expected at Turin for the rest of this winter. Lamoriciere has publicly declined by letter the offer of a sword in honour of his recent exploits, informing Anatole Le- mercier, the getter up of that testimonial, " that swords of honour are only acceptable to generals victorious in the field, or who have prolonged the defence of a fortress beyond the ordinary calculations of war."

Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair, a Volunteer officer of 1804, and subsequently a soldier in the army of the East India Company, died on Monday. But he will probably be remembered more as Provost of St. Andrew's, a post ho filled for eighteen years, than for his military service. He was elected Provost in 1842, says the Scotsman, " and from the hour of his appoint- ment he devoted himself with great and appreciated energy to the im- provement, physical, social, and intellectual, of his native town." He was the son of Principal Playfair, of the United College of St. Andrew's.

The Postmaster-General notifies that the Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company, being unable at present to provide vessels for carry- ing on the Mail Service between Galway and America, the Postmaster- General: has consented to suspend the operation of the company's contract until the 26th of March next, on the understanding that the company will then be prepared to carry on the fortnightly serviee, in a regular and effi- cient manner, in accordance with the terms of the contract. The next vessel will be despatched from Galway to Boston, calling at St. John's, Newfoundland, on Tuesday, the 26th of March next; and thenceforward on every alternate Tuesday a vessel will be despatched from Galway, pro- ceeding alternately to New York and Boston.

A Committee of the Lords of her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Coun- cil sat yesterday in the Council Chamber. Reference had been made to' their lordships, for the consideration of an ordinance of the Oxford Uni- versity Commissioners, bearing date the 16th of April, 1858, relative to St. John Baptist College, in the University of Oxford, and the report of the Commissioners, dated 10th June, 1850, addressed to the Secretary of State for the Home Department. Reference had also been made to their lordships of petitions, from the President and Scholars of St. John Baptist College ; from the Master and Wardens of the Merchant Taylors' Company in the City of London ; from the Head Master of the Grammar School, Reading ; from Mr. E. C. Dermer, Mr. W. Marshall, Dr. Stanley, and L. A. Sharpe, B.D. The lords present were—the Lord President, Lord Cranworth, the Lord Justice Knight Bruce, the Right Honourable Spencer Walpole, and the Right Honourable Robert Lowe. Mr. Helps, clerk to the Privy Coun- cil, attended. The Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General were in attendance as assessors. Sir H. Cairns and Mr. R. Palmer were heard by their lordships.

There has been, it seems, a tempest in the tea-chest. It has been the custom for the buyers of tea to pay the brokers, in addition to their or-

dinary commission one penny per chest, on all " lots" of tea worth 51. and upwards. After enduring this for many years, the buyers revolted. The dispute gave rise to quite a formidable series of negotiations between the Powers who buy, and the Powers who sell, and they have ended in a com- promise. Lot money is not abolished, but henceforth it will only be charged on lots worth more than 101.

Mr. Horace Wilkins, of Cleveland, Ohio, reports that rock oil, or petro- leum, found in Pennsylvania and Ohio, is now plenteously produced, and

largely used as a " lubricator " and, when refined, for "illuminating pur- poses." He points out that Sir Charles Lyell mentions the existence of petroleum springs in Burmah, and he asks the Times to give "in brief the origin, character, and uses of the Burman oil, how procured, quantity, and its utility as an article of use, and its importance in commerce." The oil is procured from earth pits, is produced in inexhaustible quantities, but is a monopoly of the King.

A coal-field, thirty square miles in extent, on the East side of Newcastle, is now, in mining language, " drowned ; " in other words, there is beneath the surface a lake 100 fathoms in depth. It is now proposed to drain 22,000 acres of this vast district, by placing draining-engines at Jarrow, Howden, and other: places at a cost of 60,000/. ; and a bill, to enable this to be done, is to be brought into Parliament.

A troop steamer for the Indus, built on the American principle, with cabins rising above the main deck, was tried in the Thames, on Wednesday, and gave great satisfaction.

At Liverpool, within the last few days, several American vessels have been registered under the British flag, in order to enable them to carry salt to South Carolina and return with cotton without fear of capture.

Professor Campania, of Sienna, has published a letter addressed to Pro- fessor Matteucci, recording the fall of rain of a reddish hue at Sienna on the 28th of December. The shower was confined to a limited area, all the other rain falling at the time being white. Two more showers of red rain fell at Sienna Ion the 31st of December and the 1st of January, and each time it fell in the same quarter of the town.

Captain Barton, of the yacht Zouave, while crossing in a steamer from the Isle of Wight, stumbled on the deck and fell on the engine, and one half- revolution of the machinery tore his body in pieces. The engine was stopped very promptly by the engineer, but the one half-revolution sufficed to destroy the unfortunate gentleman.

"A Practical Man " writes to the Times on this subject, advancing very conclusive arguments against the idea that the tires of railway wheels which have broken lately have done so in consequence of the strain arising from contraction. "The greatest variation of temperature in the atmosphere of this country say between that of a hot summer's day to that of a cold win- ter's day, will not affect the length of malleable iron more than about one inch in 100 feet. This in a tire nine feet long would be lees than one-tenth of an inch; and, as the strain requisite to stretch malleable iron one-tenth of an inch in nine feet does not exceed five tons to the square inch, it follows that the force exerted by contraction alone is also under five tons per square inch. But the breaking strain of ordinary malleable iron is known to be over fifteen tons per square inch, and that of good tire and axle iron over twenty-five tons ; contraction alone is, therefore, not the cause of fractured tires in frosty weather. It is a known fact that tire iron of the very best quality has failed recently ; also that a bar of good iron, which in an atmos- phere of ordinary temperature would bend up like leather, has broken short off with the single blow of a hammer on a frosty night. I therefore con- clude that frost exercises a subtle influence on the quality of iron, reducing

its tensile strength, and that the recent breakages were the result of this loss of cohesive power, and not from excessive contraction."

At St. Petersburg, the custom hitherto has been to grant, on the Russian New Year's Day, promotions, recompenses, decorations, &c., to the civil functionaries of the Government ; but this year, to the grievous disappoint- ment of the parties interested, none have been accorded.

In the course of last year, 83 timber ships, with a tonnage of 52,898 tons, arrived at Greenock, as compared with 68 ships, of a tonnage of 40,016 tons, in 1859, showing an increase in 1860 of 15 ships and 12,883 tons. The total tonnage accommodated in the harbour last year was also in advance of 1859. Pig iron shipments continue moderate, last week's return having been 1108 tons below the corresponding period of 1859. Mr. F. H. M'Leod, in his circular on the wool trade, reports that business is quiet, spinners only purchasing for immediate requirements.

CRYSTAL PALACE.—Return of admissions for six days ending Friday, January 25th, 1861, including season-ticket holders, 8670.