Lord Dalhousie, the Commander-in-Chief of the army in India, has

just arrived in the Minerva, which sailed from Calcutta on the 7th January. His Lordship's health is stated to be much improved by the voyage.

The Marquis of Hertford recently gave a grand dinner at Pompeii. on the site of the ancient baths. Some of the guests were conveyed thither in a French omnibus. The passage of this stupendous modern machine, followed by several elegant English carriages, along the narrow streets of this antique town, formed a most singular spectacle.

Lady Anne Wyndham, the mother of Lord Durham, died at Queen Street, May Fair, on Saturday morning, a victim to the pre- vailing epidemic. She was seized on Friday with the most alarming symptoms. The case was reported to the Board of Health, and was included in the official report as a case occurring in St. George's, Hanover Square. On Saturday morning, Lord Durham was sent for express from Richmond, and arrived in time to witness the last mo- ments of his parent. The remains of her Ladyship were interred on Sunday morning, according to the regulations of the Board of Health.

We have the satisfaction of stating, that the Duke of Norfolk is now much better. In consequence of his Grace's convalescence, the Earl and Countess of Surry have quitted Norfolk House, in St. James's Square, to spend the recess at their seat at Littlehampton, in Sussex.— Morning Post.

Washington Irving has taken his departure for America, the land of his birth, which he has not visited these twenty years.

A Marchioness, whose disputes with her lord have been pending now since 1819, has adopted the novel method of advertising him as a de- faulter in all respects.

The Earl of Thanet expired at his seat, Hoathfield Place, in Kent, on Friday last. He had an attack of apoplexy while attending divine service at Hoathfield Church ; and soon after he reached his mansion, he breathed his last. The noble Lord was in the sixty-second year of his age : he succeeded his brother, Sackville, in 1825. The title de- scends to the Honourable Henry iufton, the next brother of the de- ceased, and member for Cockermouth. The late Earl was never mar- ried. He had been, for some months past, in a feeble state of health; and, not being able to undergo the fatigue of a journey to London, he transmitted his proxy to Earl Grey, in favour of the second reading of the Reform Bill. The present Earl is about fifty:five years of age, and unmarried. The earldom has devolved successively on three bro- thers, none of whom has bad any issue; so that this ancient title will probably, on the death of the present Earl, become extinct. The death of Earl of Thanet will cause a vacancy in the borough of Cocker- maiith, and give one steady supporter in the Committee of the Lords to the Reform Bill: it is said that a discounter of bills in the City has become proprietor of such a share in a Minor Theatre as entitles hint to a free benefit each season. This is made very available in avoiding the Usury Laws. A bill of twenty pounds is taken to him ; if he likes it, he agrees to dis- count it, if the party will take five pounds' worth of tickets for the free benefit night, telliog him he .can easily dispose of them among his friends. lie does so ; but such a number of tickets has been disposed of ii a similar way, that on the expected -night the Theatre is beset by crowds who cannot find IC0111 within the walls. When the expostula- den takes ].lace, the answer given is—" Sir, you should have gone

earl i e r." 1Ve urctl. that on rule occasion upwards of a thousand

pounds in tickets sold, tun:: 4i tine house will not contain three hundred. This is what is called '' doing bills," though it would be more applicable to term it dole.; the public,—True Sun.

The loPowing has been sent us as the comet account of a literary fracas, noticed by some of our contemporaries, which took place last week not one hundred miles from the Tower of London. A learned gentleman, Avho writes himself F. R. S., F. A. S, and barrister-at-law, has for many years past enjoyed, under the patronage of some stanch Tory friends, a snug 1,501.1. a-year for editing sonic Record Book, of which probably none of our readers ever heard; and was completing his arrangements for continuing the same comfortable employment under Whig auspices, when one of his coadjutors took occasion to re- monstrate with him On the grossness of the job. The wrath that an appeal to honesty would occasion may easily be imagined ; and the learned editor so fin• forgot himself as to give his collaborator the lie, and, as a matter of course, NVIIS knocked down. This chastisement did not, however, prevent a repetition of the offence, and the erudite gentleman again measured his lorgth on the floor.—Gltbe.

On Saturday, a young lady, wino rejoices in the polyonymons desig- nation of Rosa :Matilda May Baxter, a grandaughter of the late Al- derman Crowder, eloped with a gentleman named Newton, of Warwick

Square. The parties met in the Zoologieal Gardens. A correspondent in the Titres of Monday retie:eked in praise of the ticket system that

it prevented those assignations in the gardens which would necessarily ensue from throwing them entirely open. it would appear that a few may take place even with the tickets.

If bank-notes be sent in a letter, that letter is not taken any extra care of by the Post-office, nor is a letter containing cash, if it be merely dropped into the letter-box; but if a letter containing cash, either gold

or silver (notes alone will not do—although why they will not, it might puzzle tine Luke of Richmond to tell), be given into the hands of the

Postmaster,. marked " money letter," he will put it into the bag in a separate envelope, amid make a special entry of it on his way-bill, which entry will be repeated at every post-office it passes through; and the fleet thing done by the Post-office clerks, on a bag arriving, is to see that tine meney letters are all right ; and they, if all be not right, will give immediate information, and an inquiry is commenced, even before the intended receiver of the letter could know whether his letter would mu rive in due course or not. Many commercial travellers, aware of the additional care taken of "money letters," send every remittance

to their employers in a letter having a sixpence put into the notes and bills, to make it a money letter ; and having marked it as such, they. give it to the Postmaster as before mentioned.

The duty on carriages with less than four wheels, each of which is of less diameter than thirty inches, and which is drawn by any pony or mule not exceeding twelve hands in height, was repealed by sec. 3, I Ith George IV. c. 35.

On Saturday next (the 5th May) the planet Mercury will cross the disc of the sun. The celestial phenomenon will he visible, from its commencement to its termination, to the whole of Europe and a great part of Africa; the ingress will be visible to Asia, and the egress to America. The beginning of the transit will be 9 h. 2 in. 57 sec. A. M. apparent time, and its end 3 h..54 m. 31 sec. r. m.

A provincial journal gives an account of a person named Vanhorn, who, in the space of twenty-three years, is computed to have consumed nearly 60 pipes of port wine.

There are now living at Bathampton, one mile from Sydney Hotel, two boys, named Holbrook, of the respective ages of eight months and

two years and eight months' whose prodigious bulk, for their age, is a matter of astonishment mid curiosity. The weight of the eldest is as nearly as possible four stone ; and that of the youngest, two stone twelve pounds.—Bath Journal.

In a society, held at the Maisons' Arms, Middleton, consisting of thirty-four members, there are twenty whose united ages amount to nearly 1,600 years, or more than a fourth of the world's age, according to the Mosaic chronology !

The ship Clio left the London Docks, Eastern basin, on Thursday evening, and was hauled into the River ; from whence she set sail, with_ one hundred and fifty passengers on board, for Quebec and Montreal.

It is said to have been ascertained, that a whole family, who have been under treatment for the cholera in St. Giles's, actually brought

the seeds of the disease with them all the way from Cork.—.211ineitag. Herald. [This is a mistake—the seeds were found in unpacking a mummy, sent home the other day by the British Consul at Alexandria. They had lain, without germinating, for 3,567 years, in the cold hand of the Egyptian ; but no sooner did they touch the warm palm of the - Irishman, than they budded and bore fruit.] On Sunday, a German gentleman named Kreeft spent the day with a Mr. Orange Boroscossi, a relative, in Princes Street, Hanover Square. In the evening, he complained of a slight pain across the chest. Shortly after supper, he left for his residence in Queen Street, . Golden Square. He had not, however, been gone many minutes, be- fore Mr. Boroscossi was alarmed by a succession of loud knocks at the • ' door; and hastening down stairs, to ascertain the cause, Mr. Kreeft rushed into the passage, exclaiming, " Oh my dear Boroscossi, dying," and immediately sank senseless in his arms. Medical assist- ance was immediately called in, but the deceased was a corpse before it arrived.

The sect of the Saint-Simonians is now in a state of dissolution.- The " Supreme Father," M. Enfantin, after struggling with his own. converts and with the public—after contending against " Father" Ba- zard and the Police—may be said to have given in his resignation of

the new government of society. Having in vain solicited new subscrip- tions, and invited new disciples to aid his cause, he has been obliged to take leave of " his children," and announces that he is retiring to the country to meditate on new schemes for the promotion of human happiness.

M. Van der Weyer, the Belgian Plenipotentiary, measures about five feet. Count Orloff measures somewhere about six feet nine inches. At the last Conference but one, words ran rather high. The Plenipo- tentiaries of the Northern Powers demanded a postponement of the ratification to a distant period. M. Van der Weyer refused : the Ple- nipotentiaries intreated, and, with flattering and soothing words, endea- voured to win him over; but the little gentleman remained firm. At length Count Orloff, turning his back on M. Van der Weyer, ad- dressed himself to Baron Bulow, and endeavoured to persuade the Prussian Minister to persist in his demands, and to pay no attention to the denial of any party. The Belgian Plenipotentiary became irri- tated ; and he endeavoured to obtain a hearing by pulling the skirts of the Count's coat ; it had no effect—the sound of his voice reached not the ears of the Russian. At length, no longer able to control his feel- ings, he explained—" Count Orloff, unless you stoop and listen to the representatives of the Belgian nation, I shall be compelled to call for the assistance of a British naval speaking trumpet, which I have no doubt will soon cause me to be heard, and that with attention and re- spect." Count Orloff became more complaisant, and a few days after Austria and Prussia ratified.-2Iforning Herald.

By the Havre papers it appears that emigration from that port to various parts of America is going on extensively.

The Journal des Connaissances Usuelles et Pratiques for the present month has a letter upon the subject of distillation from bread, signed M. Lejeune and B. Moreuse, in which it is denied, upon the autho- rity of experiments made, that the results alleged to have been obtained here are at all attainable ; first, because the materials of ovens are too permeable to prevent the alcohol from escaping ; and secondly, because, at a temperature of 300 degrees, the alcohol, if it exists, is immediately converted into acetous acid by the air contained in the oven, or which penetrates by imperceptible fissures in spite of every imaginable pre- caution. Neither, it is added, can ovens he at all adapted for distilla- tion, without materially impeding the baking of the bread.

' Don Pedro has named as his aides-de-camp the Marquis de Louie ; Count da Meath° ; M. Candid° ; Joseph Zavier, formerly Minister of War; Bernard de Sas, so well known for his bravery, patriotism, and persecution ; Captain Sarmento ; and Captain Pina, who are to hold their situations till his arrival in Portugal.—Courier.

It is reported that a case of cholera morbus has appeared in Lisbon, producing immediate death.

The last letters from Bohemia state, that the total number of cholera cases in that country bad been 27,300: of which 8,100 had ended fatally, and 16,560 had recovered. In all, 870 towns and villages had had the disease prevailing in them.

The King of Bavaria (travelling under the name of Count of Augsburg) arrived on the 9th instant at Florence, and after a short stay, proceeded onwards to Rome.

The Emperor Nicholas has lately issued an ukase, strictly prohibiting card-playing, and all games of chance, and to punish the gamblers on a scale rising with their rank in life.

An examination of several varieties of Indian coal was laid before the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, at their meeting on the 8th of June. The coals of this country differ principally from those of Europe in the quantity of earthen ash which they leave behind on burning, and -which in the best English pit-coal does not exceed one or two per cent. The Chinese coal contains very little valuable matter, and consequently burns slowly and without flame ; it is therefore unfit for steam-engines, but it seems well adapted for purposes to which coke would be applied.

Steam-boats now run between Canton and Pekin. A Canton paper contains an advertisement of the steamer King-fa, to leave on the fol- lowing day. " She carries cows, a surgeon, band of music, and has rooms elegantly fitted up for cards and opium smoking."

Boring for water has been tried in the desert .of Suez; by order of the Pacha, and has been eminently successful. At about thirty feet below the surface, the men employed found a stratum of sandstone ; when they got through that, an abundant supply of water rose. The water obtained from the surface is usually of an inferior quality ; that which has been obtained by boring is soft and pure. Already, in the desert of Suez, a tank capable of holding two thousand cubic feet of water has been made, and several others are in progress.

Accounts from Swan River to the 23d November say, that the har- vest was to be reaped in three weeks from that date ; the crops looked amazingly well, and a most abundant harvest was expected. The Government contract for Colonial wheat was 15s. per bushel of 60Ibs. The country over the mountains had been settled, and the farmers were about to remove thither, on account of the facility of tillage and the richness of the soil ; which was a very superior black mould, with not more than five trees to the acre, and very little bush.

.There are now finished, in progress, and projected, in the United

rtates, two thousand nine hundred and thirty-eight miles of rail-road. Marshal. Saxe computed, that in a battle only one ball of 85 takes effect. Others have computed, that only one in 40 strikes, and no more than one in 400 is fatal. At the battle of Tourney, in Flanders, fotight on the 22d May 1794, it is calculated that 236 musket-shot -were expended in disabling each soldier that suffered.