31liorttlourano.

The morning journals were, on Thursday, "requested to state that Mr. Gladstone has accepted the Lord High Commissionership of the Ionian Islands, though his tenure of that office will be of extremely short du- ration. He was to open the session of the Ionian Parliament on the 26th instant. -About the beginning of the second week in February ho will be recalled, and his successor appointed; so that, although his temporary acceptance of office vacates Mr. Gladstone's seat for the University of Ox- ford, he will be reeligible by the time a fresh election can take place, while the primary measures connected with the better administration of the islands will be introduced with greater advantage than by any suc- cessor to his; office."

An address in reply to the Queen's Speech will be moved in the' House of Lords by the Earl of Winchelsea and Nottingham, and will be, seconded by Lord Delamere.

Sir Matthew Sausse, late Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of Bom- bay, has been promoted to the Chief Justieeahip of that Court. The va- cant Puisne Judgeship has been conferred on Mr. Arnould, of the Middle Temple, and the Home Circuit. Mr. Arnould is the author of a well known work, "The Law of Marine Insurance."

The Council of India have appointed Mr. James Ronald Martin, F.R.S., to be Examining Physician to the Secretary of State for India in Council.

Through the usual fashionable channels we are informed that " Vis- count Palmerston will give a grand Parliamentary dinner on Wednesday, the 24 of the ensuing month, at Cambridge House to which upwards of forty a his lordship's political friends, members Of tho House of Com- mons, arc invited."

The Great Eastern is at last seriously taken in hand. She will shortly be fitted up for service. What service, therefore, now becomes the question ?

Prince Alfred has been visiting the coast of Africa. At Tunis he was re- ceived by the Bey "with an affection suite paternal" and that great po- tentate -gave him "the badge of the reigning family of Tunis—a diamond only worn by princes of the bleed"! The Prince Midshipman visited Utica and Carthage ; and returned to Malta. During his stay in Africa he had a taste of rough weather—a tempest preventing him from going to a great boar hunt.

A telegraphic despatch from Athens states that the King of Greece has conferred the Grand Cross of the Order of the Holy Saviour on Queen Vic- toria.

The Speaker of the House of Commons will give his first full-dress Par- liamentary dinner on Saturday, the 12th of February, to which the Minis- terial Members of the Lower House, as customary, are invited. The banquet will be given at the right hon. gentleman's official residence, at the Palace at Westminster.

Politicians are now winging their way from the Continent and from the provinces to the metropolis in order to be at their posts next Thursday.

A letter from Corfu states that Mr. Arthur Gordon, who accompanied:Kr. Gladstone in the capacity of secretary, has just sent in his resignation,-en the ground of a difference of opinion with Mr. Gladstone as to the course he has pursued.

The Lord Chancellor has conferred upon Sir Walter Riddell the impor- tant and lucrative office of Judge of the County Courts of North Stafford- shire.

Mr. Adams Member for Boston, has been appointed Recorder of Derby, in the room of the late Mr. Balguy.

The Cape papers state that Mr. Justice Bell is, on account of ill health, about to visit England on leave of absence for six months.

The solicitors of England and Wales have presented a handsome silver testimonial to Mr. E. W. Cox, editor of the Law Times, "in recognition of his unwearied and successful endeavours to promote the mental, moral, and social advancement of their branch of the legal profession."

Sir James Weir Hogg has reserved two Indian cadetships for the scholars of the Wellington College, and announced his intention of reserving one an- nually.

The journals announce the retirement from the public service of Mr. Charles H. Chieheley Plowden. Mr. Plowden has served in the Board of Control for upwards of forty years, having been appointed by the late Mr. Canning in 1818. After holding several prominent positions there, he was transferred to the secretaryship of the Marine and Transport Department at the India Office. Mr. Mason, who was formerly superintendent of the Ma- rine Department to the East India Company, succeeds Mr. Plowden.

Mr. Boyle, one of the gallant defenders of Arrah, has received a Govern- ment !rant of lands to the value of 10001. per annum, free of charge, with a reversion to the value of 6001. per annum to his heirs, accompanied with a recognition of his "very valuable services" rendered in his fortified house at Armh, in July 1857.

Sir John Young was to quit Corfu with his family today.

Prince Louis-Lueien Bonaparte has been named member of the St. Peters- burg Academy of Sciences. 'The academy has also conferred this distinction on Baron de Brunnow, Russian Minister in London, and on other eminent personages.

The Diritto of Turin states that the Marquise Letitia Pepoli Murat, mo- ther of the ex-King Joachim of Naples, has Just had a stroke of apoplexy at Bologna.

The Baron de Wolbeck tells of his own knowledge a curious story about the hearts of Louis X_III. and Louis XIV. Taken from St. Denis by Raw- bell, they were given to an artist who was to use them in manufacturing colours. The artist began to do so, but, relenting, he gave them to a royal- ist who presented them to Louis XVIII. At his decease, and by his direction, they were buried when he was buried in St. Denis.

The chief editor of the Univers, M. Veuillot, has gone to Rome, to offer, as it is said, his explication about the conduct of the paper in the Mortara affair. The party in power in Rome agrees in the late Prince Talleyrand's famous saying of " Surtout, pas de aide ! ' and therefore condemns him for his violent attacks on Jews and Philistines—M. Fould, Hebrew banker, and ministre de la maison de l'Empereur included. Seat least says the Brussels Indepen dance.

The mortality of London is still in excess. There died last week 1380 persons, or 68 more than the average of the last ten years. Amon..' those who died were five persona, aged respectively, 90, 91, 93, 96, and 100 years.

A Mr. Lees Willson, a native of New York, is travelling through France at present with an exhibition of a most extraordinary kind. He has col- lected, throughout the four quarters of the globe, all the instruments of torture and death, which it was possible for him to purchase ; and has thereby formed a museum, unique in its kind, illustrative of the history of criminal punishments. Among the objects is a complete guillotine, said to be the identical one which was built by the learned doctor who gave ins name to the instrument, and Which was erected—and had hard work—in 1793, on the Place Maupert, in Paris. The chambers of the Inquisition, and the secret prisons of the Vehmgericht, are likewise represented by a large number of hideous contrivances. The Courrier de Lyon, from which paper we get these particulars says that Mr. L. Wilson arrived in that town a few days ago, with his exhibition packed up in two waggons of most gigantic dimensions.

For the last three days there has been, according to the (burlier de Paris, a perfectly spring-like temperature in France, the Champs-Elysem and the Bois de Boulogne are every day crowded with elegant ladies and gentlemen, ..many of them in light attire ; and the flower-markets of Paris, which have lately increased in number, are filled already with white lilies, roses, and other small shrubs in full bloom. "It looks like Palm-Sunday," says the Courrier.

The Bishop of London has issued a commission to inquire into various allegations affecting the character of the Reverend Henry Hampton, minis- ter of St. George's 'Temporary Church, Holloway.

An insolvent, discharged by the Insolvent Court, was committed by the Brompton County Court for a debt not inserted in his schedule. On an ap- plication to Mr. Justice Wightman, that Judge said the man was entitled to be discharged. This was effected by applying, at the instance of the Judge, to the Brompton County Court. This is the first decision of the kind.

The liberation of Mr. Strahan and Sir John Dean Paul is demanded on the ground that since they were sentenced to fourteen years' penal servitude, the punishment for the offence they committed has been fixed by Parliament at three years' imprisonment. They have already been imprisoned three years.