Notice was given in Tuesday's Gazette, that the Queen will

hold levees at St. James's Palace on Friday the 12th and Wednesday the 24th February.

A Cabinet Council was held on Saturday afternoon, at the Foreign Office-

A deputation consisting of several members of the Central Society for the Protection of Agriculture, and of the Anti-Malt-tax Association, had an interview with Lord John Russell on the 22nd. The deputation was headed by the Duke of Richmond; who, with Mr. Miles, the Member for Somersetshire, explained the views they had come to represent. Lord John Russell told the deputation, in the most courteous manner possible, that the present state of the national finances rendered it impossible to propose any modification of a tax producing five millions per annum.

There was a great Conservative dinner at the Carlton Club on Saturday. Among the diners were the Duke of Newcastle, who presided, Lord Stan- ley, and Lord George Bentinck. It is reported that their counsels were not altogether harmonious; Lord Stanley holding forth so emphatically on blandness, courtesy, and moderation, as requisites for leadership in these times, that another noble Lord " took it to himself," and flared up.

At a Court of Directors held on Wednesday, Lieutenant-General Sir Willoughby Cotton, G.C.B., Commander-in-chief of the Company's forces on the Bombay establishment, was appointed second member of Council at that Presidency.

The Admiralty have ordered Vice-Admiral Sir William Parker, G.C.B., the Commander-in-chief in the Tagus, to detach another ship from his squadron in Lisbon to Oporto, to assist the Gladiator steam-frigate and the Nautilus, Lieutenant Commander Rivers, in protecting British interests during the present crisis.

Lord Howden has been appointed Minister to Brazil. We understand that his Lordship will call (en route to his station) at the River Plate, with a view of bringing matters in that part of the world to a satisfactory ter- mination. His Lordship arrived in town last week frorn the Continent; and will, we understand, proceed to Rio early in the ensuing month.— Morning Chronicle.

The Judges recently decided in Mr. Hayward's case, that a member of the bar acquires no legal right by being made a Queen's counsel to be elected a Bencher. As their Lordships, however, recommended an altera- tion in the mode of electing Benchers for the future, and intimated dissa- tisfaction at the power of exclusion by a single black ball, at a very full assemblage of the Benchers on Friday evening last, it was unanimously resolved, that henceforth no one shall be elected to the Bench of the Inner Temple unless he obtain the votes of a majority of the existing Benchers; and that four black balls shall be sufficient to exclude; an arrangement which certainly appears unobjectionable.—Times.

The Times is informed that the following document has received the approbation, if not of the highest Personage of the realm, at least of a large number of the highest ranks in our nobility- " We, the undersigned, deeply impressed with the distress which prevails among a great number of our fellow-countrymen in Great Britain and Ireland from the want of necessary subsistence, and observing that the prices of food are rising, think it our duty to pledge ourselves to reduce in our families, as far as maybe practicable, the consumption of bread and flour; and we invite the coope- ration of all those who may concur with us in our estimate of the present emer- gency."

It is announced that several steam-vessels belonging to the Navy have been despatched to Ireland with provisions: two steam-sloops, two tenders, and two lighters, one Liverpool mail-steamer, and a Holyhead packet, have either arrived at Cork, or are on their way; the Odin and Amphion steam- frigates, and other vessels, are loading supplies for Ireland.

It is reported that the Pope is about to issue an encyclical letter calling on the faithful Catholics of all countries to come forward in aid of their destitute brethren in Ireland.

The .Dundee Courier remarks, that during the discussion on the Queen's Speech not a single Scotch Member made the slightest allusion to the suf- ferings of his countrymen. Lord John Russell, Sir Robert Peel, and other English Members, did so; but what had become of the Lord Advocate, Mr. Fox Maule, Mr. Macaulay, Mr. Gibson Craig, and the rest of the Scots in Parliament?

The Government sanatory measures will, it is said, be brought forward as soon as the Irish measures are disposed of.—GlJbe.

The Church and State Gazette makes an extraordinary statement respect- ing the conduct of the Romish neophytes at Leeds. " One of the results of the investigation instituted by the Lord Bishop of Ripon into the pro- ceedings at St. Saviour's Church, Leeds, has been the ascertaining that, on the very eve of Mr. Macmullen and his confederates formally abjuring Protestantism, they obtained the keys of that church, and therein cele- brated a complete Roman service, in anticipation of the period when the church would be wholly in the hands of that communion! "

The Bishopstoke and Salisbury Railway, a branch of the South-western, was opened for goods-traffic on Wednesday. The line is twenty-one miles long. Up to the very last moment, the construction has been marked by disasters; for an arch fell in only last Friday: by great exertion the damage was repaired by Monday.

All concerned in printing affairs will observe with regret the death of Mr. William Clowes; who expired, after a short illness, on Tuesday even- ing. Mr. Clowes was the proprietor of the largest printing establishment in Europe—a perfect town, on the Southern bank of the Thames. It was from that officina that the Spectator first issued, in 1828. The Hominy Chronicle gives the following obituary notice-

" Mr. Clowes was the architect of his own fortune; having come to London, some forty years ago, after the expiration of his apprenticeship to a printer in his native town of Chichester. lie soon after commenced business on his own account, in a small way; and by unwearied industry and perseverance, gradually established a respectable connexion. He was amongst the first, a quarter of a century ago, to see the new :era of printing that was opened by the introduction of the steam-press; and his engines at Northumberland Court were the earliest applied to the production of books. The demand for cheap literature, of which the Penny Magazine was the most extraordinary example, gave a new impulse to the energies of Mr. Clowes; and, in connexion with a vast amount of Govern- ment business, gradually established the gigantic printing manufactory of Duke Street, Stamford Street, so often described and so celebrated wherever English books penetrate. To have accomplished the great results of his business from email beginnings, required the efforts of no common man. Mr. Clowes did not aspire to the honours of the learned printers; but he possessed the highest powers of business organization, and an energy which overcame every ordinary difficulty, and in many instances accomplished undertakings which are almost marvels. To work off half-a-million sheets of paper in a week—to set up the types and complete the impression of a thousand WM pages of a Parliamentary report in the same time—to print the 'Nautical Almanack; consisting of 500 or 600 pages of figures, without a single error in sixteen or seventeen days—are amongst the recorded wonders of Mr. Clowes's establishment. The labours of Mr. Clowes's life will be permanently associated with the intellectual develop- ment and the persevering energy which are the distinguishing characteristics of our own times; and his loss will be deeply lamented by a large circle of Mend; to whom he was endeared by his kind and generous nature."

The current number of the Revue des Deux Mendes contains this pas- sage on the designs of Russia, picked out and translated by Mr. Urquhart- " Some time before the declaration of the Great Powers on the subject of Cra- cow, the Russian Consul at Bucharest had communicated to the Sublime Porte all the disquietude which the situation of those provinces caused to his Government. He had piously pointed out the progress of Communism and of irreligion among the Bayards, and conjured the Porte to interfere, under the now too famous pretext that regular states could not suffer so near them a focus of revolution. We re- call this fact, which is too little known, and which throws light upon the affair of Cracow."

The Augsburg Gazette has a rumour, for the hundredth time, that the Prussian constitution was positively to appear—on Saturday the 24th in- stant, the anniversary of Frederick the Great's birthday. [Saturday was sot the 24th.)

The King of Prussia has conferred the decoration of the Black Eagle on Baron Alexander Von Humboldt.

Among the increasing number of successful experiments with the inhalation of ether, one recorded by the Edinburgh Witness is perhaps the most surprising and amusing. The operation was performed by Professor Miller, at the Royal In- firmary. The patient was a middle-aged Irishman a " navigator," who had sustained compound fracture of the leg nine weeks before. The fracture had not stinted, in consequence of the presence of a dead piece of bone; and it became ne- cessary to remove this by a painful operation. The man appeared to resist the influence of the vapour. He said he was not asleep, and declared, that "it would not do." The operation was at length begun; the patient remained unconscious, repeating that ' it would not do"—that the thing bad not succeeded with him. At the end of ten minutes the operation was finished; and the operator remarked to the man, " Well, I suppose you won't let me operate today ?" " Certainly sot," said the patient: " tt won't do: I must be asleep. We can try it another time." On sitting up and seeing the wound, he burst into an immoderate fit of laughter, saying, No doubt there's blood, or something very hke it; but I haven't felt a single thing done to my leg. That bates the globe "; and on being asked decidedly as to his having " felt anything," he repeatedly answered, " Not a ba:porth." He got into amazing spirits, and refused to leave the table until he bad told " all about the toldrums of the business."

A more novel but equally successful application of the inhalation is recorded in the Edinburgh Weekly Journal. Professor Simpson has administered it in a ease of difficult labour. The patient was deformed, and on a former occasion has suffered dreadfully in labour daring three or four days: on the present occasion the woman was delivered in as many minutes. A remarkable circumstance ppoommbed out in the case by Dr. Simpson was, that, whilst breathing the ether, the Tubuai-throes continued, and yet the mother was unconscious of pain.

Fierce gales have raged this week, and it is to be feared that many disasters have happened on the coasts. A brig has been wrecked near Portsmouth: the crew, ten in number, took to their boat; it was capsized in the surf, and all the people were in danger of perishing: Lieutenant Clarke, of Haying Coast Guard illation, and his men, rescued nine; the other, a boy, was drowned. It is reported that a fishing-vessel has been swamped off the Isle of Wight, with loss of all hands. On Sabbath last, a boat belonging to Wick, while attempting to get out of Helmadale harbour, was struck by a sea, and driven to the South part of the river, where she became a wreck. The cargo, wheat and barley, was considerably da- maged. The good people of Helmsdale refused to render assistance, because it was Sabbath I—John Or Groat Journal.

The Lady Falkland, just arrived at Liverpool from New Orleans, brings news of a sad disaster to the Columbia, a New York and Liverpool packet-ship. On She 18th, the Lady Falkland fell in with the Columbia, in distress, without a com- mander. It appeared that on the 13th, during a gale, while the ship was scud- ding before the wind, a sea swept the deck and carried nine persons; who all perished: they were the captain, Mr. Rathbone, the first and second mates, five seamen, and a boy. The Lady Falkland put her mate on board the Columbia, to navigate her to Liverpool; which port she is expected to reach in safety. Mr. Rathbone was highly esteemed both in his business and by his friends.

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

Number of Winter deaths. average. Zymotle (or Epidemic, Endemic, and Contagious) Diseases 151 . 183

Dropsy, Cancer, and other diseases of uncertain or variable seat lit.... 112

Diseases of the Brain, Spinal Harrow, Nerves, and Senses 163 . . 170

Diseases of the Lungs, and of the other Organs of Respiration 581 .... 354

Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels 54 32 Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other Organs of Digestion 78 70 Diseases of the Kidneys, dm 14 8

Childbirth, disease, of the Uterus, Sc. 17 12

Rheumatism, diseases of the Bones, Joints, 8m. 11 7

Diseases of the Skin, Cellular Tissue, Sc. 2

Old Age 65 81

Violence, Privation, Cold, and Intemperance 18 so

Total (including unspecified causes) 1225 1008

The temperature of the thermometer is given imperfectly, the instruments being out of order: the lowest was 25.9°; the mean temperature by day was colder than the average mean temperature by 3.2°. The air was principally calm throughout the week.