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The Lord Chancellor continues to improve in health. His Lordship is now strong enough to hear counsel at his house, in Park Lane, on such matters as are represented to be of pressing interest ; but no day has yet been named for the commencement of the public sittings—Morning Chro- nicle, Wednesday.

The Guardian, with some asperity towards the Spectator, if not sore- ness on its own ;art, gives this satisfactory explanation of its not unequivo- cal statement that the Bishop of Exeter had not dictated Miss Sellon's letters to Lord Campbell, but "the reverse"—

"We meant to say, that the letters were written, as we had reason to be- lieve, entirely without consultation with the Bishop, and were never sanc- tioned by him."

The same high authority, making a statement from a correspondent, to the effect that upon reading the letters that passed between Miss Sellon and Lord Campbell, he lost not a post in entreating Miss Sellon to allow- him to double Lord Campbell's subscription towards the Orphan's Home,. remarks in a note-

" If we are not misinformed, our correspondent might have doubled Lord Campbell's subscription without being the poorer for his liberality. We be- lieve that his Lordship has never actually contributed a sixpence to the Or- phan's Home."

The death of William Wordsworth the poet, anticipated for some time, occurred about noon on the 23d instant, at his residence Rydal Mount Windermere. The materials of the following sketch are chiefly supplied by the Morning Chronicle, in an obituary notice industriously compiled, and pervaded by admiring veneration for the poet. William Wordsworth was born in the year 1770, at Cockermouth in Cum- berland. His parents were of the middle class ; and he was educated, toge- ther with his brother, afterwards Dr.. Wordsworth, at the Hawkshead Gram- mar School. The schoolboy was distinguished by studiousness and a passion for the classic poets; and by somejuvenile attempts at versification, which, how- ever, have not survived. In 1787 he entered St. John's College, Cambridge ; where he graduated. Shortly after, he made a pedestrian tour in France, Switzerland, and Daly; of which the result was a volume of poems, entitled "Descriptive Sketches in Verse." This production was accompanied by another poetical work, entitled the "Evening Walk," an "Epistle to a young Lady from the Lakes in the North of England." These formed together the young poet's first appeal to the public. They were issued in 1793, and at once ar- rested the attention of discerning men. Mr. Wordsworth went to Paris, but was compelled by the Reign of Terror to return to England. Making .s pedestrian tour of England, he settled in a picturesque cottage at Alfreton rn Somersetshire ; and there was opened that intimacy with Coleridge which so much influenced the intellectual life of both. The reader will recall with fresh amusement the account given by Coleridge, in his Literary Biography, of the ludicrous position in which he and Wordsworth were placed by the absurd surmises of the rustic authorities, that they were disguised emissaries of the French Democrats. A result of his Somersetshire life was a volume of "Lyrical Ballads," published in 1798. Soon after, the two poets and Mr. Wordsworth's sister made a tour together in Germany.

Mr. Wordsworth's marriage to Miss Mary Hutchinson of Penrith occurred in 1803 ; and he then fixed his abode at Grasmere in Westmorland.

In 1807 Mr. Wordsworth published a second volume of the "Lyrical Bal- lads" ' • and his other poetical works appeared at intervals, sometimes of one, sometimes of two, three, or more years. In 1809 he gave to the world a prose work, now almost forgotten, the object of which was to stimulate the national feeling against the French, by advocating the war in Spain. In 1814 he published his large work, "The Excursion' ; a poem ill conceived is plan, and wanting the interest of a work of art,. but so full of isolated pas- sages of grandeur.and. beautyl so nobly inspired by an enlarged philosophy and elevated by religious feeling, that even with all its faults it remains a living and enduring testimony to the folly of Lord Byron 's hasty and flippant criticism. "The White Doe of Rylstone" followed in 1815; and in the same year another edition of "Lyrical Ballads," with a defence of the system on which the poet had constructed some of his works. " Peter Bell" and " The Waggoner poet

carried his system to such an extent as to shake the faith even of some most venerating aamirers—probably they were a defiance of the Quarterly critics. The "River Duddon," a collection of descriptive sonnets, some of which arc masterpieces, appeared in 1820, followed at long intervals by other works, in which the nobler characteristics of his genius were developed, and his attempts to invest with a poeti- cal interest subjects utterly incapable of imaginative treatment were abandoned. " With progress of time his fame grew and spread ; the objections of his critical detractors lost their influence, and the true characteristics of his genius were more and more appreciated by his countrymen. To this result the accomplished editor of Blackwood's Magazine contributed in a main degree, by his earnest and manly out-speaking on be- half of one against whom prejudices had been excited by brilliant and clever but superficial critics, who had seized upon obvious caprices of his genius, but had scarcely given their due weight to his extraordinary and original excellences."

On the death of Southey, Wordsworth was nominated to the post of Poet Laureate ; and in this capacity he wrote an ode on her Majesty's visit to Cambridge. Of the poet's later years there is little to record. Mr. Wordsworth had early received the appointment of Distributor of Stamps for the counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland. This, with the tardy though sure profits of his works, enabled him to live in a dignified independence, in the midst of those beautiful scenes by which so much of his best poetry had been inspired. " Dying at fourscore years of age, Wordsworth enjoyed the happiness, so rarely given to men of the highest order of intellect, of contemplating the certainty of his own fame, and of seeing reversed by his contemporaries those hasty judg- ments which are usually left to the retribution or the contempt of posterity."

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 aggregate number of deaths in the corresponding weeks of the ten previous years.

Ten of Zymotic Diseases Dropsy, Cancer, and other diseases of uncertain or variable seat Tubercular Diseases Diseases of the Brain, Spinal Marron-, Nerves, and Senses Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels Diseases of the Lungs, and of the other Organs of Respiration Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other Organs of Digestion Diseases of the Kidneys, Sc Childbirth, diseases of the Uterus, Re Itheumatbsm, diseases of the Bones, Joints, Sc

Diseases of the Skin, Cellular Tissue, Sc..

Malformations Premature Birth Atrophy Age Sadden Violence, Privation, Cold, andlutemperance Total (including unspecified causes) Weeks 1839-49. 1695 .... 616 .... 2065 .... 1161 ....

1432 562 95 108

BO

9 11 201 132 579 101 239 — 9360

Week of 1850.

171 55 161 113 31 141 44 12 9 7 1

• 4 20

14 42 15 17 _ 566

An official return by the Dublin Police states the destruction of glass by the hail-storm of last webk to have been 294,302 panes in the four districts al- ready surveyed—cost 21,388/. ; making a proportionate allowance for the other two districts not yet surveyed, the total damage has been about 27,0001.

It is understood to be in contemplation to erect a monastery on an exten- sive scale near the Roman Catholic Chapel in Rugby, land having been pur- chased for that purpose. Several novices are at present in course of proba- tion for this new religious foundation.—Aris's Birmingham Gazette.

Eliza Chestney has recently changed her name by marrying. When on a visit to Cambridge with her husband, it was noticed that she still suffered from lameness.

Mr. limber, of Oriel College, Oxford, has performed an admirable feat. Two eight-oared out-riggers fouled each other near Utley Lock, and were both upset. Eighteen persons were thus thrown into a very deep and rapid stream, and three of them were unable to swim. Mr. Humber struck out to their assistance, and by his great strength, and the exercise of most per- severing tact, brought them all three safely to land.

• Jackson, the "American Deer," has been running a race against two horses, at Bingamon, in the United States. The horses were to trot ten miles against the man's five miles and a half : the horses performed their distance in 29 minutes 4 seconds ; Jackson his in 29 minutes 51 seconds ; the man thus losing by 47 seconds. The stakes were a thousand dollars.

An American sailor was found at Sunderland in the streets greatly excited with drink, and he was taken to the Police-station. When there, he sud- denly started from a bench, gained a yard, and clambered over some iron rails; a policeman attempted to save him, but the sailor slipped from his grasp, and fell a depth of forty feet. None the worse for his tumble, he climbed a wall, and got into the street. He was pursued ; he leaped into the river, was chased in vain for some time by a boat, but was at length caught by the jacket as he rose from diving under the boat. He was soon after g1ven up to a party of shipmates, as his vessel was then on the eve of sailing.

The "sea-serpent," which had ascended the Skull Creek near New York, turns out to have been a mother whale with young ones in her wake. They swam in file like Indian runners, and preserved their respective positions at all speeds ; so that their motions looked like those of a single animal moving with the undulations of a serpent. The leading whale frequently lifted its head out of the water about six feet, and beneath its mouth was a beardlike attachment, which might have suggested "the mane" of the sea-serpent.

Madame Auber, the mother of the celebrated composer, died last week in Paris, at the advanced age of ninety-three. Her funeral took place on Saturday last, at the church of Notre Dame de Lorette.

A young Scotch lady, Miss Lavinia Downie, has undergone, with fatal issue, an operation to extract a pin which was lately discovered to be in her ear. When a very little girl twenty years ago, Miss Downie put a pin in her mouth, and presently afterwards, as she believed, swallowed it. A fes- tering in the ear lately revealed the existence of a foreign substance ; and after great suffering the lost pin was extracted : it had become much bent in working its course through the tissues and bony structures. The young lady suffered long and intensely, and died on the 4th instant.

While the hounds were out at Coalbrook Park House, one of the horses fell into " a blind quarry-hole," and was killed on the instant; the rider, who sat firm, escaped quite unhurt.

Bird and his wife have been committed by the Devonshire Magistrates for a felonious assault on the girl Mary Ann Parsons, who died of the cruelties aeceived at their hands.

Six navvies employed in making a reservoir at Otley, ten miles from Leeds, spent Saturday evening in drinking; at midnight, they sallied out shouting and breaking the windows in the place, and abusing the inhabitants ; their violence at last proceeded to blows, which being returned, two or three of them drew their knives and stabbed the townsmen right and left. John Dawson was stabbed in the thigh, and died on the spot; a man was cut in the cheek, a woman stabbed in the thigh, and a girl in the shoulder. A constable and a number of men pursued and overtook the ruffians; but were for a time held at bay with the knives ; and two or three more persons were stabbed. A Coroner's Jury has returned a verdict of " Wilful murder."