5 MARCH 1842, Page 8

iftistellantous.

The Vienna correspondent of the Morning Post announces that Prince Esterhazy has retired from the Embassy at the Court of St. James's.

The Duke of Norfolk, we are sorry to say, is in a very delicate state of health at Norfolk House, Sheffield ; which prevented his Grace from officiating as Earl Marshal at the opening of Parliament. The noble Duke has attained the advanced age of seventy-three years, and he has not left Sheffield since his arrival there from Arundel Castle.—Sussex Advertiser.

The Marquis of Hertford died at Dorchester House on Monday after- noon. Francis Charles Seymour was born on the 11th March 1777 ; and he succeeded to the title in 1822. In 1798 he married Maria Fa- gnani, by whom he had three children ; the eldest of whom, the Earl of Yarmouth, succeeds to the Marquisate. The late Earl held several dig- nities and offices at the time of his death he was a Privy Councillor, Knight of the Garter, Knight of the Russian Order of St. Anne, Warden of the Stannaries, Steward and Vice-Admiral of the Dutchy of Corn-

wall, and Chief Commissioner for managing the affairs of the Dutchy, Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant of the Militia Corps of Cornwall and Devonshire Miners, Vice-Admiral of the coast of Suffolk, Recorder of Coventry and Bodmin, and Custos Rotulorum of Antrim.

While Mrs. Wood the singer was riding from her villa, near Wake- field, on Sunday, to take the train at Leeds, her horse started, and the lady was thrown with considerable force over his head. She was so little hurt, however, as to be able to keep an engagement at Leeds on Monday.

Mr. William Smith O'Brien has written a letter to the papers to say that it was not he, but his friend and namesake Mr. Augustus Stafford O'Brien, that spoke in the debate on Friday night.

It is beginning to be whispered in certain select quarters that Sir Robert Peel will throw the Anti-Slavery party overboard on the Sugar- duties. It is reported that he intends to bring forward a measure for reducing the duties on foreign sugar and coffee, but also to include our Colonial produce. If this report be true, he will act on the principles of the late Government, and go a step beyond them, by giving the con- sumer the further advantage of a lower duty on Plantation sugar and coffee.—City Article of the Morning Chronicle, Feb. 28.

The John Bull says that a plan, which is under consideration for the increase of the Army, has so far assumed a shape, that native regiments, intended for service in India, are to have their establishments raised at once to twelve companies instead of ten. There are to be one hundred rank and file in each company.

Mr. Braidwood, the Superintendent of the Fire Brigade, has sent to the papers the timely hint that the Act for the suppression of climbing- boys comes in force on the 1st July next ; and those persons who have neglected to have their chimnies inspected, and altered if need be, so that the maohine can be used, will do well to repair the omission.

A discussion was raised on the Quintnple Slave-trade Treaty, in the French Chamber of Deputies, on Monday ; in which M. Guizot took an opportunity of explaining the present position of France in regard to it. "The Crown had made known to its Ambassador in London, that it could not ratify the treaty, and that it could not take any en- gagement for the future. The French Ambassador had been authorized to negotiate for modifications in the treaty ; and the Powers had declared that the treaty would remain open for the future signature of France, without any fixed term. This was the plain and simple state of the affair."

The debate on the address of the Spanish Deputies closed, after a de- bate of unequalled length, on the 21st February, without any censure having been carried on the conduct of the Government, as some feared at the outset.

The Quotidienne of Monday publishes a letter by S. Tamariz, the Secreffiry- of Don Carlos, disclaiming, in the Prince's name, all partici- pation in the alleged Carlo-Christino conspiracy ; and Cabrera has issued a like disclaimer. Nevertheless, the subordinate Carlist officers do not relax their activity.

News has been received from Lisbon to the 21st February. Every thing was quiet again in the capital ; and the country appears to have everywhere acquiesced in the change from the Constitution to the Charter. Senhor Costa Cabral, and his colleagues of the Oporto Junta, arrived in Lisbon on the 19th, and were presented to the Queen. It was reported at first that the former, in conjunction with the Duke of Terceira, would form the new Ministry ; but subsequently it was said that the Duke would remain with his present colleagues Senhor More- sinho and Senhor Loureiro, and that Senhor Figuenas would join them as Minister of Justice and Lavadrio as Foreign Minister ; Costa Cabral being excluded.

The Pope's Nuncio was about to be presented to the Queen. The Duke of Palmella had been appointed to negotiate with him, and some material concessions had been made ; M. Capuchini giving up claims as to the restoration of convent property.

The Queen expected to be confined in a few weeks, and prayers were put up in the churches for her safe delivery.

The Times puts forth the following scrap of royal scandal. The Morning Post gives it a flat and total contradiction ; but it is reaffirmed by the Times- " Private letters from Vienna of the 20th ultimo state that the wife of the son and heir to the Emperor Nicholas had (although enceinte) determined to quit her husband, and return to her father at Darmstadt, in consequence of a series of brutal treatment to which she was exposed. The Duke of Leuchten- berg is said to have deeply regretted having quitted his happy residence at Munich to marry a Russian Princess and fix has residence at St. Petersburg; where he has received many incivilities from his father-in-law, the Emperor. The unfavourable accounts received at Munich of the manners of the Court of St. Petersburg are said to have prevented the marriage of the Prince of Bava- ria with the Grand Dutchess Olga, whose hand is now offered to the Duke de Bordeaux."

The Constantinople correspondent of the Morning Post supplies an authentic copy of a note addressed by the Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sarim Effendi, to the Baron de Boarquenay, disclaiming any intention to disturb the Government of Tunis. The French Minister had given the guarantee of his government that the Pasha of Tunis would punctually pay his dues to the Porte.

The most interesting intelligence brought by the Levant mail is con- veyed in letters from Jerusalem of the 27th January. Bishop Alex- ander, with the Consul-General, arrived at Jaffa on the 20th, and proceeded to Ramleh, where he passed the night. Thither came to meet him Mr. Nicolayson, a Dane by birth, but an English clergyman and head of a mission for the conversion of the Jews. On the follow- ing day the prelate made his entry into Jerusalem, in a procession -which is thus described- " When within live miles of the gates, they were joined by the few British and American residents on horseback, headed by Mr. Proconsul Johns, who is architect of the intended church, as well as booms tenets of Mr. Young. On approaching the town, the cavalcade, which already consisted of fifty or sixty persons, was swollen by the junction of the Bey, second in com- mand of the troops; who, accompanied by a guard of honour and the Janissaries of the Pasha, had been sent to compliment Colonel Rose on his arrival, while all the loungers of Jerusalem turned out for the occasion. Not the least interesting object in the throng was Mrs. Alexander, the fair partner of the right reverend prelate. Being in that state in which ladies wish to be,' it had been considered by the physician of the mission unadvisable for her to attempt the journey on horseback.. Accordingly, a large taterwan, or Oriental litter, was constructed, which, supported before and behind by stout mules, conveyed Mrs. Alexander and the younger portion of her family over the rocky and precipitous tracks which lead from Jaffa to Jerusalem. The procession then consisted of more than one hundred persona on horseback.

The throng passed on ; and the scene which ensued at the Bethlehem Gate, by which it entered the town, baffles all description : on the one side were the gray massive battlements and picturesque towers of Jerusalem—no mean speci- men of the solidity with which Sultan Suleyman fortified the conquests of his predecessor Selim ; and on the other was the vale that leads to Bethlehem, now rugged and now undulated, with all its light and shade softened in the ap- proaching twilight, while the dark and singularly even and unpeaked line of the mountains of Moab beyond the Dead Sea walled in the prospect. The wildly-accoutred and unearthly-looking Bedouin irregulars, who had been play- ing the djerectl, and gamboling round the procession at the full speed of their desert horses' contented themselves with firing off their muskets, being now hemmed in by the motley throng of citizens and fellaheen ; Aiussulmans in their furred pelisses and well-folded turbans, down to the filthy old Polish Jew in the last stage of wilful hydrophobia. "After acknowledging the presentation of arms at the Bethlehem Gate, the party moved on towards the house of Mr. Nicolayson ; and just as the new- comers turned their heads to admire the Titan-like masonry of the tower of Hippicus, which dates from the days of Herod the Tetrarch, the guns thun- dered forth the salute for the eve of the Courhan &thaw. Thus, by an odd chance the Protestant Bishop made his public entry into one of the four holy cities Of Islam (the others are Mecca, Medina, and Damascus) on the occasion of one of the greatest festivals of the Alahomedan religion." In the afternoon, the Bishop was introduced by Colonel Rose to Talk Pasha, who received him politely.

By the India, the first of the steamers direct from Calcutta, intelli- gence has been received from that city to the 11th January. The steamer arrived at Suez on the 11th February ; having touched at. Madrasand Point de Galle.

The mail by the India is a small one ; but she brings a sealed box of despatches from the Supreme Government, which are said to be of importance, and some pretend that they relate to the intended capitula- tion of the party at Cabal. Their situation is said to be so critical that they had been reduced to eat their native ponies. The Bengal Herald of January 8th says- " The fate of our troops at Cabal is now, we fear, almost certainly decided; for unless some special intervention of Providence relieves them from the dilemma in which they are placed, human aid is all unavailing. Accounts have been received from the city to the 8th December, which reeresent the state of affairs there to be much worse than they were before; provisions were becoming scarce, and the enemy more daring every day. They had closely in- vested the intrenched camp at Seca-Sung, and, it is said, had made over- tures of surrender to the Envoy, the conditions of which were, that he should deliver Shah Soojah over to the Afghans, and leave the country with our troops. God help our poor fellows, for they are indeed in a critical position." All was quiet in Candahar. News had been received there, that Colonel Maclaren's brigade, which had been sent to reinforce the troops at Cabal, had turned back. The brigade had found it impossible to overcome the difficulties in its way, and was therefore obliged to aban- don the undertaking, and fall back again on Candahar, leaving a wing of one of the regiments at Khelat-i-Ghilzee to strengthen that post. The following extract from a letter from Colonel Maclaren's camp, dated Tazee, November 28th, will give a good idea of what the force suffered before it was compelled to make the retrograde movement, with some of the flying reports about the state of matters at Cabal- " We arrived at Klielat-i-Ghilzee on the 23d; when we succeeded in getting some few camels and donkies, and next day continued our march. Leach was very anxious that he should make a diversion to capture a few hostile forts near Golan Bohan% and urged the Colonel to give the orders; but in vain. Every day was of material consequence to us ; a\-d, considering the positive orders he received from the General, he could not kave complied with Leach's requisi- tion. On the 24th we continued our march, and reached this place on the 26th, without experiencing any difficulties, excepting from the donkies knock- ing up. The march to this ground was through rain and snow, comfortless and wretched; and now we are halted in consequence of the continued fall of snow, hail, and rain. When we shall be able to move it is impossible to say. We are really in a most critical situation. Last night three hundred donkies with their loads deserted, and an hour scarcely elapses without reports being made of deaths among the remainder. —, who was on the rear-guard at this place, left a hundred or upwards with their loads on the road, unable to get them to move. The cold was most severe, and it was not till three of our men had fallen speechless and insensible from the effects of it that they abandoned the donkies and came into camp. You cannot conceive how great the sufferings of our poor camp-followers are. They are perfectly useless, and beginning to die from wet and cold. From ahead we learn that at Mookoor the snow is knee-deep. on the ground ; so you may imagine what a pleasant prospect we have. It tit not improbable that we may have to abandon the whole of our baggage, as camels cannot live through such weather as we now have ; and even then, I fancy, we shall be able to proceed but a few marches before we are brought up altogether. The idea of carrying our commissariat supplies on donkics is quite ridiculous. Report has it that a large force is now assembling at Oba to oppose us; we cannot of course rely on it. Not a word of news from either Cabul or Ghuznee ; or I should rather say, not a dak from either place since that n Lich contained the Envoy's despatch. You have, of course, beard of poor Guddoo Khan's fate. It is believed that he was the bearer of important letters from Cabal. The natives of the country say that Calml has been reduced to ashes, and not less than 5,000 or 6,000 of its inhabitants killed. What the real state things is there, we can only conjecture at. What- ever it may be, I don't fancy there is the least prospect of our brigade being able to arrive in sufficient time to render the troops there any assistance : in- deed, there seems little chance of our being able to advance more than a couple of marches further."

At Jellalabad, where General Sale was locked up, matters were in sleds quo on the 15th December. The enemy had not made a demonstration since the 1st ; and the works were therefore progressing, our troops having been employed upon them when not on other more martial duty. Provisions, according to one account, were still not plentiful ; at least the troops were on half-rations ; but it is observed that that may have been a precautionary measure. Another account makes a very dif- ferent representation. " There are now three months' provisions in Jellalabad ; an agreeahle contrast to the state and the anticipations of

the troops when they arrived there; for from all accounts nothing could have been more disheartening than when, on the 13th November, they found there were only two days half-rations for the whole force, the walls destitute of parapets and full of breaches, with shelter for an enemy within twenty paces of the ramparts." Oude is said to be in a state of the utmost disorder, the whole king- dom up in arms ; "the Chuckladars slaughtering the Ryots on the one hand, and the Thaloodars on the other murdering the King's troops whenever they get the advantage." Lieutenant Spry, son of Dr. Spry of Calcutta, was killed in one of the many conflicts.

We have reason to believe that the despatches received from the Indian Government give a worse account of the state of affairs in Afghanistan than the private letters. The courage of the troops at Cabal was daunted by the fearful odds around them, and overtures had been made for capitulation; but it seems that the terms demanded by the native chiefs were nothing short of the surrender of Shah Soojah himself, and the abandonment of the guns of the British army. To accede to these conditions would be to expose the army to the almost certain violation of them. The artillery is the last resource which compensates for the disparity of numbers; and without it, nothing can be foreseen but a massacre of the troops.—Times, March 2.

Just before the steamer left Calcutta, the Earl of Hardwicke arrived from Macao, which it left on the 1st December. The only news was the taking of Hang-tchou-foo by the Northern squadron. All was bustle at Calcutta, with troops embarking for China: sixteen transports, of 11,000 tonnage, were engaged for the service.

The packet-ship United States has arrived at Liverpool from New York in fifteen days, with intelligence to the 14th February. In the Senate, on the 4th, Mr. Calhoun made a proposition to refer to the Committee on Foreign Relations the message of the President on the mutiny and murder by the slaves on board the Creole, and the liberation of those slaves by the British authorities in Nassau, New Providence. He considered that prompt action on this subject was necessary, as it involved important principles, paramount to any of those which are now the subjects of negotiation between the United States Government and Great Britain. The message was referred to the Committee.

The House of Representatives had been wholly occupied in matters of a personal character. For nine days the House had been discussing a resolution involving a vote of censure on Mr. John Quincy Adams, for presenting a petition which proved to be a hoax, praying the disso- lution of the Union. The only result was, that five members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, of which Mr. Adams is chairman, took umbrage at something which he said in his defence, and refused to serve.

The Legislature of Louisiana, in a string of resolutions offering their cooperation to the Federal Government in maintaining the "national honour," had declared—" That the aggressive policy of the British Go- vernment, in its unwarrantable claims to the territory of a sister state, in its flagrant violation of the territory of another, its repeated outrages upon American commerce, and most especially in its recent interference with the rights of property in the case of an American vessel thrown by disaster within its jurisdiction, calls loudly for redress." Mr. Washington Irving, the well-known author, has been appointed United States Minister to Spain. The Bankruptcy-law came into operation on the 1st. In the chief cities applications to take the benefit of the law were numerous; among them was that of the editor of a New York paper which had strongly advocated the law. The accounts of the state of credit of the United States Government contained in the New York papers are of the most unfavourable de- scription. In the first place, there was the deficit of 600,000 dollars on the 1st January ; and it appears that since that period almost all claims upon the Government have been dishonoured. The Army and Navy are stated to be without pay ; and the outstanding Treasury notes being at a discount, are almost the only means of payment into the public treasury, the payments by these being nearly nine-tenths of the total receipts. Such a state of things of course causes a general alarm ; besides which, an anxiety was felt as to the effect to be produced by the Bankrupt-law. Even the soundest banks are said to have partici- pated in the uneasiness, and to be therefore exceedingly cautious in all their movements.

The Legislature of Pennsylvania, which was in session at Harris- burg, had before it a bill compelling the banks of the State to resume cash-payments. The bill had passed the House of Representatives. The case of Mr. Jaudon and others, charged with conspiracy to de- fraud the shareholders of the United States Bank, was still before the Court of General Sessions. Witnesses had been examined in support of the charge. The following account of the great cotton-speculation of Messrs. Biddle and Jaudon was elicited-

" Ashbel Green Jaudon, a brother of the accused, testifies before the Judge, that N. Biddle and Samuel Jaudon entered into an agreement or partnership in the transaction referred to, and furnished the witness, A. G. Jaudon, with funds of the bank to carry on the business as their agent. Under this ar- rangement, the witness obtained at different times about 2,000,000 dollars from the bank, with which he purchased cotton and tobacco at New Orleans. Be was allowed 2 per cent commission on these purchases ; and stated that this charge was added to the original cost of the merchandise. The goods were then shipped by him to the most eligible European markets, and sold. Be- sides the commission allowed him for purchasing the cotton and tobacco, which amounted to about 40,000 dollars, the witness said he received a 'bonifi- cation commission ' on the return or proceeds of sales, which amounted to upwards of 20,000 dollars more; making his compensation as agent rising 60,000 dollars. The money was obtained from the bank by credits passed to the witness's ac- count, on tickets or orders signed by Mr. Cowperthwait, cashier. The profits arising to the principals in this transaction amounted to about 50,000 dollars, which was equally divided between them. The witness said he paid the 25,000 dollars due to Mr. Biddle himself; the remainder was passed to his credit, he being then in London. It also appeared in evidence before the Judge, that this business was conducted through the Committee on Foreign Exchanges, and apparently with their knowledge and consent ; but two of the gentlemen who were members of that Committee at the time testified that they were wholly ignorant of the nature of the transaction, and would not have permitted its progress had they known it." The New York American mentions a report that relics of the Presi- dent steamer had been seen : Mr. Jepson, of the schooner Mokina, from the Cape de Verd Islands, stated that the stern-boat of the President and several water-casks bearing her name had been picked up by a vessel and carried into St. Nicholas.