alisttlInurnm.

Sir Benjamin Hall has been appointed to the post of Chief Commissioner of Public Works vacated by Sir William Molesworth. It is a subject of general remark that Sir William is regretted by all who were under him or had communications with his office. He was an excellent man of business, very attentive and considerate. Sir Benjamin, however, comes from the Board of Health with a reputation for getting through business pleasantly and well.

Throughout the week a rumour has been current that General Simpson only commands the British Army in the Crimea until his successor is appointed. A statement is put forward that he requested to be relieved of his command, and that the Government acceded to that request. We give the rumour as we find it—a rumour, wanting confirmation. The Supplementary War Estimates issued during the week comprise, 1,141,1681. for the Navy ; 1,584,8031. for the Transport Service ; and 841,1381. for the Ordnance : a total of 3,567,1091.

The Gazette of last night contains a notification that on the 12th day of July instant, all Russian ports, roads, havens, and creeks in the Gulf of Bothnia, from Tornea, in lat. 65 deg. 46 min. N., long. 24 deg. 7 min. E. of Greenwich, to Nystad, in lat. 60 deg. 46 min. N., long. 21 deg. 20 min. E. of Greenwich, including especially the ports of 171eaborg, Bra- hestadt, Gamla Carleby, Nya Carleby, Wass, Christinestad, Biomeborg, and Raumo, were placed in a state of strict blockade by a competent force of the Allied fleets. All the islands off the coast of Finland are also blockaded.

Mr. Henry Berkeley's Select Committee on the Sale of Beer Act re- commend, as the result of the inquiry they have been enabled to make during the short period of their sitting, an immediate amendment of the existing act to the extent of allowing licensed houses to keep open from one o'clock in the afternoon till three o'clock, and from five o'clock till eleven o'clock, on Sundays. The omission of the words " bona fide" in connexion with " travellers" is also recommended as calculated to sim- plify the definition.

The Duke of Cambridge dined with Lord and Lady Poltimore on Monday.

The Duchess and Princess Mary of Cambridge, and the Hereditary Grand Duke and Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, dined with the Marquis of West- minster on Thursday.

The French Ambassador gave a grand banquet on Wednesday. Lord and Lady Palmerston and the Earl and Countess of Clarendon were among the guests.

Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar has returned from the Crimea. He ar- rived in London on Thursday morning. He had visited his father, at the Hague, on his way home.

General Sir George Brown arrived in London yesterday week. He is now at Leamington. He has brought his grey horse with him. It was wounded at the Alma, and is named after the battle.

The Duke of Newcastle had arrived at Constantinople at the departure of the last mail.

Prince Gholab Mohamed and his son, Prince Fcroze Shah, have terminated their long stay in England, and are now on their way to India.

The King of Denmark still suffers from the effects of his recent fall from his horse.

The King of Prussia had an attack of fever on the 18th, at Erdmanndorf; but this was succeeded by a tolerably good night.

It is affirmed in letters from Madrid that a marriage which has been long talked of between Prince Adalbert of Bavaria and the Infante Ernestine do Bourbon, daughter of Don Francisco de Paula, has been definitively resolved on.

Espartero is reported to be very unwell. The other day he was compelled to quit the church of San 'Bider very suddenly.

According to the Corriere Mercantile of Genoa, General Pepe is danger- ously ill.

Rossini is staying at the waters of Trouville. A correspondent of the Brussels bide'pendance says that the great composer travelled there partly by post-horses and partly by water—railways inspiring him with great terror.

Mr. William Ord, who for nearly fifty years represented Northumberland -constituencies, as Member for Morpeth, and, after the passing of the Reform Bill, for Newcastle-on-Tyne, died at his seat, Whitefield Hall, on Wed- nesday, in his seventy-fifth year. He was a steady old Whig, and was much respected in the House of Commons.

Lieutenant the Honourable Edward Fitzelarence, wounded in the attack on the Redan, has died in consequence of his wound. He was the youngest son of the late Earl of Munster, and had just completed his eighteenth year.

Mr. James Chevalier de Colquhoun, a man distinguished in several minor diplomatic services, died recently. He was the son of Dr. Patrick of Glasgow ; and in the first three years of the century acted as private secretary to Mr. Dundee, then head of the War Department. Re was subsequently engaged in many diplomatic transactions, as representative of the Hanseatic Repub- lics ; he was also agent for the West Indian Colonies.

Madame Heinefetter, a German singer formerly of some celebrity, has just died in a lunatic asylum at Vienna.

Queen Victoria is constantly evincing her interest in her soldiers and sailors by acts of kindness likely to prove very grateful to the feelings of her warriors. One is noted this week. She has sent handkerchiefs and neck- ties for thirty sick or wounded soldiers now at Portsmouth, the articles having been hemmed by herself and the ladies of the Court.

An attempt to obtain recruits for the Foot Guards from the Dublin Police has failed—the men saw no sufficient inducement to become soldiers with only half the pay they get as constables.

The men of the Foreign Legion, at Shorncliffe, follow the custom of the Continental camps singing in chorus when the work of the day is over and night closing in. It is not without its peculiar effect to hear German music thus chanted by soldiers wearing the English uniform.

The island of Inchkeith has been examined by Colonel Marryatt, B.A., and Colonel Gordon, R.E., with the view of determining the sites of two forts, to be so situated and constructed as to enfilade the channels of the Forth on either side.

The Moniteur of Sunday filled nearly five columns with names of non- commissioned officers and privates of the army of the Crimea whose gallant conduct before the enemy on the 7th and 18th June rendered them deserving of the decoration of the military medal. In that long list, drummers, buglers, and indeed every class of soldiers, were included, and with a few brief lines attached to each name making honourable mention of the parti- cular acts by which they were distinguished. It is easy to fancy the pride with which all these men and their families in France will point to such testimonials, in which no distinction is made between the General com- manding and the lowest drummer under his orders.—Times Paris Corre- spondent.

The Gazelle Medicate of Paris, and the Gazette Medicale of Turin, com- plain of the difficulty experienced in obtaining a sufficient number of mili- tary surgeons for the armies in the East. Scantiness of salary is supposed to be the cause. The Piedmontese Government has been obliged to send out young students who have not graduated. It appears that in the Belgian army the want is as much felt.

Mr. Rowland Hill corrects a misapprehension respecting prepayment of postage on letters to Australia : the rule applies to Victoria alone ; the post- age to be prepaid is ls. the half-ounce by packet, and 8d. the half-ounce by private ship

Another Post-office notice intimates that on and after the 1st August the postage to Van Diemen's Land will be reduced. A half-ounce letter will be conveyed for sixpence, either by packet or private ship : prepayment op- tional.

Result of the Registrar-General's return of mortality in the Metropolis for the week ending on Saturday-last.

Ten Weeks of 1845-'54. Wink 0(1855.

Zymotic Diseases 316.8 .... 229 Dropsy, Cancer, and other diseases of uncertain or variable seat • 44.3 .... 45 Tubercular Diseases 198.8 .... 201 Diseases of the Brain, Spinal Marrow, Nerves, and Senses 109.0 ....

92

Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels 35.1 .... 30 Diseases of the Lungs, and of the other Organs of Respiration 91.9 .... 10 Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other Organs of Digestion 65.3 .... 57 Diseases of the Kidneys, &e. 13.0 .... 18 Childbirth, diseases of the Uterus, etc. 8.5 .... 14 Rheumatism, diseases of the Bones, Joints, dtc 7.6 .... 8 Diseases of the Skin, Cellular Tiuue,&c. 1.8 • •••

2

Malformations. 3.0 .... 2 Premature Birth 17.3 •••• 33 Atrophy 30.1 • ..• 33 Age 35.5 ....

2J

Sudden 8.7 .... 3

Violence, Privation,Cold, and Intemperance

15.6 .... 19 Total (Including unspecified causes) 1,027.0

915

Self-interest ought to make railway companies avoid " accidents." The disaster at Croydon last August entailed an expense of no less than 20,0001. ; of this 17,0001. will fall on the Brighton Company, and 30001. on the South- Eastern Company, according to the award of the arbitrator.

The Reverend Newman Hall, of Surrey Chapel, has for many weeks paet preached in the open air, by the Obelisk at the bottom of the BlackfrWa Road, on Monday and Thursday evenings : large crowds have atteutiaely listened. Lately, a Police-Sergeant compelled him to desist. Lord Shaftes- bury represented the case to Sir Richard Mayne ; and the Police Commis- sioner has directed that the preacher shall not be interfered with.

The Reverend E. W. Foley, Incumbent of All Saints', Derby, has com- menced open-air preaching, on the evening of a week-day.

A "Holy Family" by Murillo was sold at Mr. Foster's auction-room on Saturday ; it was knocked down to Mr. Pennell, for 8451.

A large and aged elephant, formerly the property of Mr. Wombwell, had to be killed, at Birmingham, as its feet were diseased. Prussic acid and strychnine failed to destroy the huge animal; a continuous application of chloroform was equally unsuccessful ; a bullet was of no avail ; but an artery having been cut, the elephant bled to death in a few minutes.

The Caradoc has come home with "her bottom very foul from having laid a long time in the harbour of Balaklava." It is suggested that an attentive examination of the hull of this ship may set at rest the question whether a peculiar " worm " does really damage ships in the Black Sea, as the Rus- sian builders used to declare to explain why their vessels so soon rotted.

" One of the English Jury" attending the Paris Exposition complains bit- terly in the Times of the exclusiveness and want of hospitality exhibited by the British Minister in Paris—he does not condescend to notice any of the men eminent in science, art, or commerce, who were selected by the British Government as Jurors, unless they are titled, or are known in the "Court list." It is not so with the other Ambassadors residing in Paris.

The widow of Lucien Bonaparte, the Princess Alexandrine, who died a few days ago in the Roman States, was allowed by Louis Philippe, towards the close of his regime, to reside in Paris, and at that time her literary soirees were the delight of the capital. Lamsrtine, Beranger, and Victor Hugo, visited her to hear Balzac read the inedited words of Lucien. It is hoped that these works, arranged for publication by the Princess before her death, will ere long be given to the world. It appears that they include several letters of Napoleon Bonaparte, and some from the great celebrities of the Imperial epoch—such as Bernadotte, Augereau, Massone, Talley rand, Murat, &c.

The Austrian Minister of Finance hopes to save fifty millions of florins this year by the reduction of the army.

The interruption of the corn-trade with the Russian dominions has proved advantageous to Spain : a very considerable export of grain to England has sprung up at San Sebastian during this year.

It is surmised that Russia is about to find outlets for the produce of her Southern provinces through the Austrian dominion; or by the Danube.

Revel and Riga now possess telegraphic communication with St. Pe- tersburg.

On the 17th there;were as many as 312 cases of cholera at St. Petersburg.

Chamouni, which lately suffered by flood, has now been nearly destroyed by fire. Ou the morning of the 20th July, flames burst forth, burnt down a great number of houses belonging to the poor, and two hotels. No lives have been lost. All the travellers flocked to the HOtel Royal. The Hotel L'tJnion was rendered uninhabitable through the water that was poured upon it. A subscription was immediately opened on behalf of the sufferers ; and the English chaplain residing there during the season, as well as the British Consul at Geneva, will thankfully receive any contributions.

The story of the finding of the body of Jacques Balmat, the Swiss guide, turns out to be an entire fabrication.

Measures are in progress for connecting Sydney and Melbourne by electric telegraph.

Mr. Belperrond's vineyard near Melbourne has this year produced 5000 gallons of colonial white wine ; described as an "extremely pleasant wine, which, without containing the heat of sherry, has something of a lemon flavour, and is of a light character."

Mr. G. V. Brooke laid the foundation of a new theatre at Melbourne on the 19th April. The proprietor is Mr. Coppin.

A young man who suffered greatly from an incurable malady has com- mitted suicide by throwing himself from the column in the Place Vendome at Paris.

The prohibitory liquor law came into operation in New York State on the 4th of this month. It is stated that the effect of the act, from a particular clause, is not to prohibit the retail liquor business, but to make it an abso- lutely free trade : but how this has come about isnot explained. One thing is fully certified—the act is a dead letter. Numbers of whales have recently been driven ashore on the island of Skye.

CRYSTAL PALACE.—Return of admissions for six days ending Friday, July 27th, including season-ticket-holders, 44,101.