Iftistellantous.

Prince Albert has undertaken the experiment of rearing the black- cock in the Southern part of the island. His Royal Highaess has pur- chased for preserves a tract of heath-grounds, some thousands of acres in extent, near Bagshot, which formerly belonged to the Duke of Glou- cester ; and on those preserves are to be turned out several male and female blackcocka, sent to the Prince by the Duke of Hamilton from the isle of Arran. The birds are considered fine specimens of their kind, weighing from twelve to fourteen pounds.

The Duke de Victoria and his suite removed from Mivart's Hotel on Wednesday, to a mansion which the Duke has taken in the Regent's Park.

The Ministers are quickly leaving town. Lord Eliot went last week. Hu: Robert Peel started on Monday, for Drayton. Lord Stanley, it is said, will remain in London during the vacation ; as it is necessary for

one of the principal Secretaries of State to be at the seat of Govern- ment.

The Count de Rohan Chabot, the French Chargé d'Affaires in Lon- don, left Manchester House on Thursday morning, to join King Louis Philippe's party at Eu.

The Morning Post gives the subjoined extract of a letter from Rome- " I'll tell you a good joke about Pusey. Some one sent his sermon to a man at Naples—Lushington, I think, the English chaplain. Well, the Cardinal Legate, or whatever he is called, seized the said sermon, and condemned it as heretical. So much for Romish notions of Oxford Romanism."

The Reverend II. Caswall, author of the History of the Mormons, late of the American Episcopal Church, having been admitted to the privi- leges of the English Church under the provisions of a special act of Parliament recently passed, has been licensed by the Bishop of Salis- bury to the curacy of Downton, in Wiltshire, on the nomination of the Reverend R. Payne ; and the appointment has been confirmed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. We are happy to have it in our power to contradict a statement which has been published in the London and one of the local papers, that Sir Mathew Wood is seriously indisposed. He is in the enjoy ment of his usual health, and passed through Gloucester on Wednesday in his car- riage, on a visit to a friend in the neighbourhood.—Cheltenham Free Press.

Sir Charles Morgan, whose death is announced this week, was a writer on literary and scientific subjects, but he is better known as the husband of Miss Owenson, the "Wild Irish Girl." When he married her he was a widower ; his first wife having been a Miss Hammond, the daughter of Mr. W. Hammond, of Chatnpnies, in Hertfordshire.

The benefits in London and the provinces for Mr. Elton's orphan children, twenty in number, have yielded the total sum of 1,2004 independently of the private subscriptions.

Can any satisfying answer be given to the following remarks of the Globe, on the connivance of the military authorities in the "escape from justice" of two officers engaged in the late duel? Private soldiers, ab- sconding in like manner, would probably be dealt with as deserters- " The indifference shown by the authorities at the Horse Guards to the son- happy transaction, and the apparent aid given to Lieutenant Monro and Lieu- tenant Grant, his second, in their flight from justice, have excited considerable public disapprobation. The question is put on every band, Where are these gentlemen ? They are either absent on leave, or they are not. Lieutenant Grant, though on half-pay, is within the jurisdiction of the military aa- thorities. Lieutenant Monro was with his regiment up to the morning of the duel. If Lieutenant Month is absent with leave, how is it that leave was immediately obtained by him, without the forms which are in- variably observed, and which require some delay before they can be perfected? Even if the leave were given before the facts were known, and before the vet- diet of a Coroner's Jury had branded the affair in which he had been a prin. cipal as murder, it was, we conceive, imperative on the Commander-in-Cbief to have recalled that leave, and to have directed Lieutenant Munro'u imme- diate return to his regiment. If absent without leave, how is it that he has not been superseded, or at least a notice inserted in the Gazette that he would be so unless he returned by a given day ? Under any other circumstances than those in which he stands involved, this would have been the course. How is it, that in a matter which especially called for a strict adhesion to the rules of the service, they have been relaxed, if not wholly disre- garded? Does the Commander-in-Chief design to intimate his approval of the practice of duelling—forbidden though it be by the Articles of War, and by the civil laws of the country And does the highest military authority thus encourage the too prevalent idea in the Army, that the soldier ceases to be a citizen, and even for offences against the civil laws is no longer amenable to the constituted tribunals? Surely this screening of persons by the military authorities, over whom the courts of criminal justice have declared serious charges to be pending, is any thing but calculated to inspire the Army with respect for the laws, to which they are equally amenable as the citizen. To this opinion may be traced a great portion of the breaches of those laws, both by officers and soldiers when off duty."

There is fierce controversy between the Standard and the Morning Chronicle about Lord Brougham. The Morning Chronicle made some disparaging remarks upon the eccentric Peer; and a correspondent of the Standard replied with an eulogium. The Chronicle asks, if the " cor- respondent ' is Lord Brougham himself? The Standard refits., to answer until the Chronicle answers this question— . • " Is it true that Lord Melbourne has declared, that it was not in consequence of the King's suggestion Lord Brougham was omitted front the Ministry of 1835; and that his Majesty had no objection whatever to the noble and learned Lord`a resuming the Great Seal ? "

Mr. James Gordon Bennett, the proprietor of the New York Herald, has sent a letter to the Times, explaining the circumstances of his in- troduction to Mr. O'Connell and the presumed reasons for that gentle- man's enmity. Mr. Bennett's explanation has been delayed by a tow in Ireland and Scotlaud, from which he has only just returned to London. , He says that Mr. O'Connell's statements against the character of the New York Herald are founded on the statements of Mr. James Silk Buckingham, whose enmity is thus accounted for. Mr. Buckingham used to send " puffs " of himself to the American papers ; and being told at the Herald office that his puffs must be paid for as advertise,- meats, he represented that as an attempt to extort money. A specific reason is also given for Mr. O'Connell's hostility. When the Repeal agitation began in New York, some of its leaders waited on Mr. Bennett and solicited his assistance, especially in reporting their meetings. Mr. Bennett demurred ; objecting that American manes; had no right to attempt the dismemberment of an empire with whims they were at peace, and that Mr. O'Connell endeavoured to foment an ill feeling between the Southern and the Northern States of the Union. The applicants attributed that to Mr. O'Connell's ignorance of American feeling- " They told me further, that many of them had the same view of the ab- surdity and impracticability of a repeal of the Legislative Union as I bad; hut they assured me that the great movement of Repeal in Ireland, with its affili- ated movements in the United States, was only the beginning of a grand revo- lutionary drama, that would soon be able to subvert the monarchies and aristo- cracies of England, France, and all Western Europe, and establish republics throughout all those countries. On hearing this remarkable disclosure, I had nothing further to say about the technicalities of Repeal. I assured them that I would send my reporters to their meetings, and report their proceedings fully and accurately. I did so; and in these reports will be found an open avowal, by their speakers and leaders, of the real meaning of the Repeal agitation both in Ireland and the United States." Then came Mr. O'Connell'a violent speech against the Southern States, to which the Herald gave extensive circulation ; the failure of the Repeal agitation in America ; and the diversion of funds actually collected for transmission to Ireland, to local objects of charity. Thus Mr. Bennett was an instrument in preventing the remittance of hun- dreds of thousands of dollars to Ireland.

The Morning Chronicle has had a disquisition on the state of parties and the " do-nothing session," extending over two days, Thursday and Friday ; very creditable for the comprehensiveness and clearness of its view, and in remarkable contrast with much that the same journal has been holding forth during the last two years. Here, for instance, is almost a true account of what brought about the change of Ministry-

" There cannot be a greater mistake than to suppose that Sir Robert Peel was brought into power in order to prevent any thing being done. The reac- tion which brought him into office was hy no means a reaction against what the Whigs were doing, but against them personally for not doing well, or not

doing enough. Some they disappointed by not doing what those persons thosight right ; but more still were deprived of all confidence in them, by seeing that, from whatever cause, they were not able to grapple at the right time with the great difficulties of our condition. Even those who were most strongly opposed to the Liberal movement were not opposed to all movement whatsoever, but to movement in the direction which the Liberals were or were supposed to be taking. A great national excitement had effected very great organic changes; Parliament had been first reformed ; and that

reform bad been made the means of effecting great changes in our institu- COWL it had been found that all these changes had produced no sensible

effect in bettering the physical condition of the people. When the great

excitement in favour of organic reforms had died away, after lasting longer than such states of public feeling usually do, the public, as it always does in such cases, despaired of any good from such reform, and took a disgust

at it. 'When, therefore, the Liberals proposed to carry the work of organic re- form further, and said that in order to attain the practical results of the consti- tutional changes already effected, still further changes were necessary to com- plete the work, the sympathies of the public did not go along with them. We have had enough, they said, of all this turmoil of organic change : we have changed institutions without getting practical improvements in our condition, and can no longer trust in such changes as a means for an end : your • Vote by Ballot' and 'Household Suffrage' will probably turn out as great delusions as The Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill!' we will now try another

,and see whether we cannot get some person to govern us who, under and by means of our existing institutions, can and will give us the practical im- provements which are, after all, the only legitimate objects of either maintain- ing or changing institutions. We do not agree with those who said this, and acted on it; there was some reason, but also some error, in their conduct : but this really was the feeling of that great majority which had originally given power to the Whigs, and at last deprived them of it. The late Government at last did take in hand the great practical questions affecting the condition of the country; but they did it too late, when in fact the country had made up its mind against them."

Although the people did not expect compehensive and generous mea- sures from Sir Robert Peel's party, they separated Sir Robert in imagi- nation from that party. He appeared also to have a determinate course; and in his first session he did not disappoint expectation. He opened the next session, however, by fairly stating that he could propose nothing further to improve the condition of the people. His measures of reform—the Law improvements and Factory Bill—touched on sub- jects of vital importance, but in so bad a spirit as only to provoke angry opposition. Then came the exposure of his financial miscalculations ; and finally, he was forced to encounter his great difficulty in Ireland, where his neutral policy, neither conciliating nor compelling, showed that he did not know what to do. That was how Peel lost the prestige of power ; and the change of feeling towards him is everywhere evident and avowed- " It is not merely that he has failed to inspire respect in the party which has always opposed him, or to conciliate their support ; but he has lost the con- idence of all that vast class that, belonging to neither extreme, support any Illinister that appears to be courageously and steadily doing his duty: nay, he has even inspired distrust, and created dissension among the stanchest and most thoroughgoing of his own party. Take the altered tone of that party in the House of Commons. See honest and straightforward men like Lord John Manners and Captain Roue coming out, and boldly declaring their inability to comprehend or support his do-nothing policy. See others giving vent to the Irritation of personal disappointment, and goading him with even unseemly dis- respect."

The Chronicle's moral of "this calamitous session "— " The consequences of such a general want of confidence in the Government— inch inertness and utter powerlessness on their part—are far too serious to he looked on as ending in the downfall of the Ministry or the triumph of the op- posite party. What we ace is not distrust in this man or knot of men, but distrust in the governing class, and the institutions of the country. These in- 'dilutions are found incapable of giving the people the relief which they need. Hence, those who want relief combine to procure it by their own exertions; and if they look to the Government at all, It is only to see how it mey best be coerced into concession."

A further moral (a little Whiggified)—

" We wish we could take a mere party view of the question. We wish we could wind up all we have been saying by the old party conclusion, that every thing would be set right by turning out the present Ministers and putting the Opposition in their places, and then predicting that this desirable consum- mation is about to happen forthwith. It is not in turning out the present Ministers that we see the great difficulty. The thing would he done in six months, if the country saw before it a party ready to take their places, for the purpose of carrying out some well-defined course of policy, promising relief to the country. Bat we are obliged to confess that the Liberal Opposition have not yet acquired the confidence which Sir Robert Peel has lost. Its members have gained much respect for the consistency and straightforward rectitude of thew conduct. Many of them have exhibited great ability in exposing the dishonesty and blunders of Ministers. On some remarkable occasions the leaders of the party, have gone further, and have, in centrast with the doubts and vacillation of Ministers, boldly laid down the true principles on a hich the Government of the country should be carried on. But there has not been enough of this. There has been too much acting in accordance with the execrable dogma of ;the bygone days of aristocratic action that it is the business of an Opposition to propose nothing, but find Lk with every thing.' This will not do when the country is crying aloud for some one to govern it. Those who aspire to such a trust must show clearly what it is that they mean to do for the country when they have power. They must hold out some reasonable promise of relief, and of setting things right. They must show a fixed purpose of fulfilling this promise. Depend upon it, that when they have done so, they will very soon be placed in a situation to give effect to their purpose, and realize the hopes they may have excited.

That this must be done, if an absolute disorganization of our present political state is to be avoided, is certain enough."

A recent return shows, that from the 2d February to the 17;11 August, the House of Commons sat 119 days : the hours of sitting were 986i ;

1051 being after midnight. The average time of sitting on each occa- sion was 8 hours and 17 minutes. The Times has some further statis- tics of the session-

" The aggregate number of questions brought before the House during the last session was between ninety and a hundred. Of these many were compa-

ratively unimportant and uninteresting. The importance and the interest of

others were circumscribed within local limits. A few only were of general ap- plication and universal importance; but we suspect that any person who ap- pealed to the division-list for information would not derive from it any very satisfactory hint as to the relative importance of the different questions mooted. On these questions there have been altogether 217 divisions. omitting the repeated divisions on the • adjournment of the House,' which was a

favourite manceuvre with the minority towards the close of the session. Of these 217 divisions' 10 were monopolized by that singularly small and innocu-

ous proposition called the Chelsea Out-Pensioners Bill ; six by that great legislative scheme the Dogs Bill ; and seven by the Canada Corn Bill ,• whilst no less than 51 were devoted to that most disproportionately debated affair the

Irish Arms Bill : so that out of 217 divisions, 74, or more than one-third, were- absorbed by one twenty-fourth of the questions, and one question alone pro- voked nearly one-fourth of all the divisions of the session."

The Morning Chronicle has some figures to disprove Sir Robert Peel's boasts that his sliding-scale works well. On the 13th June, he said. that prices had been steadier for six months than in any former similar period ; being then, says the Chronicle, at their lowest level, unaffected by the certainties of the past or the speculations of the coming har- vest. But what say the returns when the possibility of a deficient harvest has begun to tell on prices ?—

" By those published in the Chronicle last Friday, the average price per quarter of wheat during the week ending with August 18th, was 59s. 9d. Last year, after Sir Robert Peel's act was passed, the price was, as he stated, 61s. constituting a pretty level, certainly, as measured from harvest to harvest, with, however, as we are about to show, no small hollow betwixt them. In the week ending April 81h in the present year, the price was 45s. 5d., or 16s_ below the price after the harvest of last year, and 14s. 4,1. below the price just before the harvest begins to tell on the markets this year. On the lowest price, 45s. 5d., there was then a variation of more than 34 per cent, or upwards of one-third, between April 8th and last harvest ; and a variation of nearly on e- third,mr 31 per cent, between the same date and this harvest. Now, two va- riations, each amounting to one-third in the price of bread, in the short period of eleven months, or 2d. in the sixpenny loaf, twice in the year, seem to us at least enough to derange all the calculations of the most prudent man, with a family, whose wages through the year has been the unvarying sum of nine shillings per week. • • • " But great as are these variations, they by no means accurately express the full extent of those which actually take place. The price returned for

the London market itself is the average of many sales; showing, in truth, not the actual oscillations of price, but a fixed point, from which actual prices have continually departed, on one side or the other. The average price for the week is, in like manner, the average of many markets. Last week, the re- turned price for London itself, an average of many sales of different kinds of

wheat, was 633. 8d.; for Cumberland, 66s. ld.; and for Gloucester, 563. 7d.; so that the 59s. 9d. we have quoted was the average of these and many other markets. It was the fixed point, from which the Cumberland market varied some 10 per cent above it, and the Gloucester market some 16 per cent below it, or the actual prices in the week varied 26 per cent from the reported- averages. We repeat, then, that these averages do not show us the actual variations in price at different times and in the same place: they rather con- ceal them from us, by giving us in their stead some fixed points, about which actual prices continually oscillate."

The Chronicle further argues, that to show the real effect of the Corn-law, the prices in the many accessible foreign markets should be taken into the account, and the improved means of locomotion which have tended to make corn cheaper now than it was in 1815.

The accounts of the harvest throughout the country are all that the fine weather would lead one to expect ; and it is the same with the re- ports from France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, and North America. The Morning Chronicle observes—" In London the grasping bakers still charge 9d. and 7id. for bread : in France it is only ad. and 6d. the 41b. 8oz. loaf." A week ago however, our tables reported a fall of -id. in the London price of bread below that here stated.

In a letter to the Nottingham Review, Mr. Robert Wallace describes an improvement effected in the Post-office- " The Postmaster-General, with the concurrence of the Treasury, has issued a regulation under which any place whatever within the Three Kingdoms may have a post-office, with a free delivery of letters therefrom, provided that one hundred letters weekly may be expected to reach the pest-office; in which most liberal determination there is this further immense boon provided, namely, that when one or more places shall be contiguous, or in the route which a postman would take iii his course of delivering letters, these places taken to- gether shall be reckoned as one, if they can among them show that one hun- dred letters weekly may fairly be expected to arrive for the inhabitants of them conjointly."

A diplomatic curiosity—a letter in which Queen Pomare, of Tahiti, solicits the protection of the Queen of England against France—has found its way into general circulation through the City correspondence of the Times. The idiom may be Tahitian, but the sentiments are obviously Missionary-

" Tah:ti, 231 January 1843. "My dear friend and sister Queen Victoria, Queen of Great Britain : "Health and peace to you, and saved may you be by Jehovah, the foundation of our power as Queens of our respective countries. We dwell in peace, from the arrangements made by our predecessors.

"This is my speech to you, my sister friend. Commiserate me in my i affliction, in my helplessness, and n the difficulties in which my nation is involved with France.

"The existing Protectorate Government of France in my dominions I do not acknowledge. I knew nothing of what my Chiefs and the French Consul had done, before I wrote to you by Captain Jones; I being absent at Raiate.

"On the arrival of the French Admiral, A. Du Petit Thouars, the Same chiefs who formerly signed the document requesting French protection assembled, viz. the three Governors and Paraita, the person who was left in charge at Papecte, (Paraita is the root of this great evil)'; and the French Admiral and the French Consul, after Laving completed their design in signing the document, sent it over to me at Moores, through the medium of my messengers, Taimpa and Mr. Simpson, for my signatire.

Tairapa said to me, Pomare, write your name under this document. If

you do not write your name, you must pay a fine of 10,000 dollars-5,000 tomorrow, and 5,000 the following day ; and should the first payment be delayed beyond two o'clock the first day, hostilities will be commenced and your land taken.

"On account of this threat, against my will I signed my name. I was compelled to sign it, and because I was afraid ; for the British and American subjects residing on my land (in case of hostilities) would have been indis- criminately massacred ; no regard would have been paid to parties.

"This is the way my government has been taken from me, and constituted into a French government.

"My government is taken from me by my enemies, Paraita Hitate, Tati, and others connected with them; it was they who combined and entered into agreement with the French. They have banished me, that I should not be Sovereign of Tahiti ; that they should be Kings, and also their children. "And now, my friend, think of me, have compassion on me, and assist me : let it be powerful, let it be timely and saving, that I may be reinstated in my government ; let it be prompted by the feeling which caused the Messiah to come into our world to save you and me. "Rave compassion on me in my present trouble, in my affliction, and great helplessness. "Do not cast me away ; assist me quickly, my friend. I ran to you for refuge, to be covered under your great shadow, the same as afforded to my fathers by your fathers, who are now dead, and whose kingdoms have descended to us, the weaker vessel?.

"I renew that agreement ; let it be lasting and for ever. Let its continuance extend not only to ourselves and children but to our children's children. My friend, do not by any means separate our friendship. This is my true wish. "1 now deliver up to you, my friend, my last effort : my only hope of being restored is in you. Be quick to help me, for I am nearly dead ; I am like a captive pursued by a warrior and nearly taken, whose spear is close to me. "The time is very nigh when I fear I shall lose my government and my land. 'My friend, send quickly a large ship of war to assist me. A French ship i of war s daily expected here—speedily send a ship of war to protect me, and I shall be saved.

"It is my wish that the Admiral may speedily come to Tahiti. If he cannot speedily come, I wish a large ship of war may come just at this present time.

"Continually send here your ships of war ; let not one month pass away without one, until all my present difficulties are over. "I bare also at this time written a letter to your Admiral on the Spanish coast to come to Tahiti and assist me.

" Health and peace to you, may you be blessed, my sister friend, Queen of Great Britain, &c. PomAne, Queen of Tahiti."

The proceedings of the British Association closed on Thursday the 24th August. The General Committee met in the afternoon ; and among the business transacted was the following-

" The sum proposed to be granted for prosecuting researches in different branches of science, and for publishing the results of preceding investigations,

amounts to 1,8771. The receipts at Cork do not exceed 750!.; therefore the • Council have been obliged to draw largely on the capital stock of the Asso- ciation to make good the deficiency.

"An application was recommended to be made to the Board of Ordnance for their assistance in carrying out the proposed meteorological experiments with captive balloons, for prosecuting which large sums of money have been pre-

viously granted by the Association. The balloons are now completed, and all the preparations are made. It is proposed to ascend with the principal balloon,

which is to be attached to the ground by ropes, from Woolwich Common ; and for permission to do so, and for the requisite assistance during the experiments, it was now proposed to apply. It is stated that the balloon is of such size that it is calculated to ascend 8,000 yards."

At the evening meeting of the Association, Dr. Robinson made some concluding observations : his subjects being the Ordnance survey ; the recent trial of the pneumatic railway, whence he predicted a system of similar railways connecting all the principal towns in Ireland ; and Lord Rosse's great telescope-

'. The fittings-up of the great telescope, with a speculum of six feet diameter, are not yet completed, as it was hoped they would be before the present meet-

ing, but the masonry could not be proceeded with sufficiently quick. One re-

flecting telescope of his Lordship's, however' with a diameter of three feet, is in a complete state, and Dr. Robinson said it far surpassed in its powers any other

telescope in Europe. The view of .the heavens through this telescope threw a new light on numerous astronomical pliwnomena, and showed that many parts of the science of astronomy which were considered well-established required to be entirely remodelled. The view of the moon through this smaller telescope presented its chief geological features, in a manner more satisfactory than could be obtained of the geological features of the more ele- vated portions of the earth. Even a building of the magnitude of that in which the meeting was assembled could, if existing in the moon, be discerned with sufficient distinctness to mark its position."

The proceedings terminated with the usual complimentary votes of thanks. The correspondent of the Morning Post closes his report with these general remarks-

" The meeting in Cork has not been a very successful one; not, indeed, as regards the subjects brought forward in the sections, some of which have been very important, but owing to the absence of the most eminent scientific men, and the absence also of the influential gentlemen in the neighbourhood. A pledge was given before the meeting came to Cork, that politics should not be alluded to ; but political feeling has nevertheless had its influence. The parties at whose instigation the Association was induced to come to Cork are not of the same party as the country gentlemen, and the latter refused therefore to act with them. Even on such a question as this, party-feeling interferes with the best interests of Ireland."

At Stockholm, on the 2d August, a man was executed by decapitation' for murder, robbery, and arson. In accordance with a superstitious be- lief, a woman reached forward to soak some bread in the man's blood, as a specific for epilepsy ; when a fit seized her, and she fell dead in a trench dug for the culprit's grave. On the same day, two men quar- relled, and one struck the other a violent blow with an axe, and split his skull to the neck. The murderer was immediately arrested; and, when interrogated before a Magistrate, declared that the execution of the day had suggested to him the idea of using the axe. He was previously noted for his good conduct.

The Bradford Observer describes a remarkable flag-stone, which Mr. Avison' the landlord of the White Swan Hotel at Halifax, has trans- planted from its site as fence•post on a farm at Hipperholme, to the more profitable post of being a curiosity in his inn : the version of the Paragraph before us has a ludicrous misprint— "It is said, on unquestionable authority, that Sir Robert Peel passed some of his early jeers at Hipperholnse school ; and, moreover, that once upon a time, he exhibited his 'longing after immorality' [immortality) by carving, with his own hands, on a block of stone which serv the following inscription— 'It. Peel.

No hostile hands can nidedat

This, then, is stated to be the identical sto rived from the desert air,' as an object to feast the glittitlits curious. Old Time has slightly impaired the carving; but still the wor bedtple evi- dence of its having been executed with much taste and skill, and strongly shows the Premier's early promise in the use of the chisel."

By which it may be guessed that the great statesman might have been a greater sculptor, or at least a greater tombstone-cutter.