311tort tlautnuo.

• Two Cabinet Councils have been held this week. At the first, on Wed- nesday, all the Ministers attended, except Lord John Russell. The Coun- cil broke up a few minutes past five, and LOrd Aberdeen instantly left London for Windsor Castle to have an audience of the Queen. The Council met again on Thursday, and sat three hours ; and again at its conclusion Lord Aberdeen went to Windsor.

A Supplement to the Gazette of the 19th was issued on Monday, con- taining the following telegraphic despatch, received by the Admiralty from Rear-Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons-

" Being informed that considerable consignments of munitions and con- traband of war have taken place from neutral ports of the Mediterranean to those of Odessa and Bertch, the Admirals of the English and French squad- rons have determined on establishing an effectual blockade of the principal Russian ports in the Black Sea, and to notify the strict enforcement of this blockade from the 1st of February 1855. Steps have been taken to provide for an efficient force being, prior to that date, stationed before the principal ports which are to be blockaded, furnished with due authority for the pur- pose in the names of the two Governments."

Sir Colin Campbell has been gazetted to bear the local rank of Lieu- tenant-General in the Crimea : the Scotsman had previously stated that he had been made second in command ; and the Globe points him out as the successor of Lord Raglan.

It is stated that Sir de Lacy Evans and Lord Cardigan will shortly be decorated with the Grand Cross of the Bath by her Majesty.

A short time back, correspondents of the daily journals called for some account of the investment and disposal of the Patriotic Fund. The Com- missioners have promptly met the demand. On Saturday last, when they had received considerably more than halt a million of money, they an- nounced that they had invested in Government Securities, up to the 9th January, 474,7181. 4s. 9d.; and they gave this account of the relief granted—

"The Honorary Secretaries commenced relief on the 20th November 1854; and there are now 460 widows and upwards, and this number is daily increasing, with about 600 children, besides 12 destitute orphans, receiving pecuniary assistance from the Patriotic Fund, in sums varying from 3s. 64. to 10s. per week, according to the rank of the deceased and the number of family.

"Ibis allowance is from 6d. to 2e. per week more than the half-pay al- lotted by petty officers, seamen' and marines, to their wives and families respectively ; which allotment is generally more than non-commissioned officers and privates of the army can possibly remit to their wives and families."

The enlistment of surgeons for the Russian army has been put a atop to in Prussia, mainly by the representations of the British Ambassador in Berlin, supported by his Austrian colleague. An interpretation has been put upon the 18th article of the Act of Confederation • and, as it draws no distinction between combatants and non-combatants, it is admitted that the engagement of military surgeons for any foreign power is consi- dered illegal, and prohibited for the future.

The effects of the coldness of the weather are apparent in the returns of the Registrar-General. The deaths in the Metropolis for the last three weeks have successively risen from 1404 to 1466 and 1549. Com- pared with the corrected average of deaths at this season, 1274, there is an excess of 275. The number of births during the past week is less than the number of deaths—births 1514, deaths 1549. The mean tem- perature of the week was 28:9 degrees, or 7.3 degrees below the average of the same week in thirty-eight years. The highest temperature in the week was 40.2 degrees, on Tuesday; the lowest, 16.2 degrees, on Friday.

The Duke of Cambridge and Admiral_Dundrus arrived at Malta on.Thurs- day morning.

It is reported that an aide-de-camp has been sent to Constantinoplfsto see that Prince Napoleon return instantly to France.

The Countess of Carlisle is better, and should no relapse occur her con- valescence may be pronounced. Cardinal Wiseman is now on his return from Rome to England, by way of France.

Sir Frankland Lewis, who had occupied various offices of honour and trust for forty years, but who was perhaps best known as Chairman of the Poor-law Commission in the early years of its existence, died on Monday. He represented Beaumaris from 1812 till 1826; Ennis for the next two years; Radnorshire from 1828 to 1835; and the Radnor district since 1847. The title descends to his son, Mr. George Cornewall Lewis, formerly in Par- liament and in public administration, but now editor of the Edinburgh Be- view.

Sir John Hill, Rear-Admiral of the White, recently died at Weimer. He entered the Navy in 1781; and obtained his Commander's commission for gallant conduct as senior Lieutenant of the Minotaur at the battle of the Nile. He afterwards served in the Channel, the Mediterranean, and the Baltic.. In 1831 he was knighted.

General the Honourable Arthur Percy Upton, an old Peninsular officer, died on Monday, at Brighton, aged seventy-nine.

The Venerable Charles Julius Hare, a well-known divine of the Church of England, died on Tuesday, at Herstmonceux. He was Archdeacon of Lewes, Vicar of Herstmonceux, a Prebendary of Chichester Cathedral, and one of her Majesty's Chaplains.

Dr. Warneford, the munificent benefactor of Queen's College Hospital, Birmingham, died recently, at the Itectory, Bourton-on-the-Hill, aged ninety- two.

M. Paul Guerin, a painter of some celebrity, has just died at Paris. His chief work, "The Curse of Cain," is in the gallery of the Luxembourg.

The Bishop of Lincoln is delivering at Nottingham a series of lectures to the working classes on the evidences of Christianity. The lectures are given on Thursdays, and the church is crowded, mostly by working people.

A mercantile suspension which had been expected was announced on Sa- turday—that of Messrs. Home, Eager, and Co., who were largely engaged in making shipments to the Cape. Their stoppage arose out of that of Messrs. Rogers and Co. The prospects of the creditors are believed to be good : the liabilities are 130,000/.

Messrs. Millers and Thompson, skipping agents at Liverpool, have stopped payment, in consequence of losses in Australia : liabilities, 60,000/.

The trade in tallow and hemp has recovered from the depression caused by the temporary expectation of peace, and the market is on the rise again.

Of every 100 tons of coals brought to London by rail, the Great Northern Railway brings 40i, the North-Western 30f, the Eastern Counties 20, the Great Western 5, and the South-Eastern 4.

The library of the late President of Magdalen College, Oxford, is, by a deed of gift made two years ago, conveyed to the Warden, Masters, and Scholars of the University of Durham. The library is said to comprehend nearly 20,000 volumes.

There is now living at Exeter a soldier who is in his hundredth year— Sergeant Thomas Seabright. He served in the American War of Independ- ence, and he has enjoyed a pension for more than half a century.

There has been a great mortality of late among persons who have reached an uncommon age. Last week we. noted the decease of two men who had attained respectively a hundred-and-three and a hundred-and-four years, while in the obituary there were five deaths at ages varying from ninety- two to ninety-seven : this week there are seven more of ninety years and upwards—from ninety to ninety-nine.

The weather has been intensely cold at Paris, such as has not occurred for years.

A piece of ground belonging to the City of Paris, at the corner of the Rue des Lavandiares and the Rue de Rivoli, and containing 352 metres, was lately sold for the sum of 176,000 francs, or more than 501 franca the square metre.

At Tarbes, in the South of France, out of 100,000 francs received as de- posits on the Loan, two-thirds of the payments were made in old French and Spanish coins, which had long disappeared from circulation, and must have been hoarded for many years.—Galsgnarn's Messenger.

Honorary distinctions are in future to be granted to the shipowners and captains of vessels of the Pontifical States who have deserved well of the state by exporting and importing goods and produce to a large amount and to and from distant parts. One of the distinctions is the privilege to hoist certain flags.

Early next month, Rome will bg placed in telegraphic communication with the principal cities of Europe, by the completion of the line from Rome to Bologna.

There is great distress among the labouring classes at Madrid ; thousands are out of work, and they have demanded employment from the city authorities.

• The port of San Sebastian in Spain is quite encumbered with the large quantity of wine sent thither for export to France.

An establishment has been formed at Neuwied, on the Rhine, for slaughter- ing cattle for the use of the English army in the Crimea; one at Lahnstein having been prohibited by the Nassau Government.

It is intended to build a permanent bridge over the Rhine at Cologne. It is to be constructed by the Prussian State architect Lescze; the piers to be connected by trellis-work, not by arches. The bridge will be used for railway traffic. One end will be surrounded by strong fortifications.

The Thatre de in Monnaie at Brussels has been completely destroyed by fire.

In the quarter ended September last, the revenue of Victoria was 352,929/. more than in the corresponding quarter of 1853; the increase on the year was 747,2801.

Dry weather in Nei/ South Wales had put the grain and fruit crops in peril, but at the beginning of October there had been some welcome showers. Three Finlanders who had served as sailors on board a ship on the voyage to Australia, had deserted at Adelaide ; and it was supposed that they in- tended to act as Russian spies. [Perhaps they only meant to turn gold- diggers; other sailors desert in Australia.] Fires have become so frequent at Melbourne and Geelong that the insur- ance-offices suspect foul play, and call for inquiry by coroners. A subscription is opened at Melbourne for a testimonial to Mrs. Chisholm, and there is a demand for a vote of money by the Legislature to add to it. A fire at Moulmein has swfipt away no fewer than a thousand dwellings. There is great suffering i India from the high price of rice. At Madras it has led to rioting, only quelled by military force, after considerable damage had been done. In Ceylon mothers have sold their infants to obtain*. means of buying food.

Though the state of the money-market in America is better, the last mail announces many more commercial failures. The most serious is that of Belcher, Brothers, sugar-refiners of St. Louis, who had been reputed very rich : they have stopped for 400,0001., and in their fall have pulled down several firma in other towns.

The Yankees have never been troubled with much modesty, and the Go- vernor of Michigan evidently has no acquaintance with it : in a message to the Legislature he boasts that the interest of the State debt is promptly paid —that is, the interest on the small part of the debt not "repudiated' ; the Governor takes no notice of the large amount of debt and interest of which not a cent is ever paid.

The last commercial advices from Canada are more cheerful than they had been of late ; no more failures have occurred, and some remittances have been sent to England.

A Boston paper notes that since the breaking out of war immigration to America has much diminished.

• At the close of last year there were 19,438 miles of railway open in the United States ; the increase in the year was 3927 miles.

CRYSTAL PALAUE.—Return of admissions for six days ending 26th Janu- ary, including season-ticket-holders, 3141. M. Dien, of the Paris Observatory, announces that, on Sunday evening last, he discovered a telescopic comet in the constellation of the Scorpion, at 21' to the South-east of the star Gamma. As nearly as could be made out its right ascension was 225r, and its Southern declination 27° 34'. On Thursday morning the comet was again seen—its right ascension was 228' 32' 1", and its Southern declination 27° 34". The comet presents no appearance of a tail, but has several centres of light. —Gal/et:anis .Messenger. A letter from Munich, in the 41vg8burg Gazette, states that a fisherman on. the Lake of Sternberg, recently discovered and took out of the water the bodies of the Hungarian historian Count Mailath and his daughter. They had been for some time residing at Munich. From the bodies being tied together with a shawl, it appears that their deaths must be attributed to suicide ; but no motives for such an act can be assigned.

The late Lord Frederick Fitzclarence's favourite pony "Punch" was shot at Bombay, much to the dissatisfaction of the soldiery, Punch having been a proficient in performing divers tricks. 'Why the animal was slaughtered is not apparent.

There has been a curious incident at San Francisco. The ship Sitka, captured near Petropaulovski, put into the bay, with some of her former crew prisoners on board. In the name of a Russian subject resident at San Fran- cisco, a local lawyer sued out a habeas corpus in favour of the prisoners, alleging that it was illegal to confine persons as prisoners on board an un- condemned merchantman; and that it was contrary to the law of nations to bring into a neutral port prisoners who have been once confined in the terri- tory of the captors. The writ was issued on the 25th November, returnable On the 27th: but on the 26th the Sitka left the bay.