The greatest activity prevails in the naval departments at Plymouth.
The Calcutta, ;;'4, was coo ii ioned on 111i4:1y, by Captaid Sir S.
Roberts, C. II. The lloittb;,y, 81, i b‘2. tua:led my ithmit de/ay ;
she is expected to be coll;miesioited immediately. The Nile, 92, the Clarence, e4, the Ve”gcauce, $4, and the Foudroeant, 78, arc reported as ready for speedy commissioning. At Portsmouth there are at present no ships ordered for service ex- cept the Britannia, 120. The Qncen, 110, is to bear the flag of Sir E. Codrington, and is preparing for the purpose. The Portsmouth corre- spondent of the Beighten Gazette says- " Earl Minto and Sir William Parker, accompanied by the Sceretary and Surgeon of the Na':', have been mere since Friday, on their annual tour of 5Ft:twit. Their Lordships II Tilt on Wednesday morning, in the Admiralty steam-yacht Firebrand, for Ply :natal; and Milford, Cm .k and Leith ; at whirh. two latter ports, it is said, frkate guard-ships will in future be stationed. The N..anguard, 84, Captain Sir Drrid Dunn, is ready and hourly expected to sail. ahem Lordships inspected her on Sunday, and directed that she should in the first instance go to Cork, and thence to the Mediterranean. She takes out for the fleet a large quantity of shells and shot and 5 ix-i11(11 guns. One !minimh pensioners are ordered to be entered for harbour-dtey in the guard-ships at the
several ports, to admit of the men, now in them, being drafted to sea-going ships."
An order for preparing the Howe, first-rate, 120 guns, for sea, arrived at Sheerness on Thursday sennight. She was accordingly taken into the basin at half-past twelve o'clock : thence into one of the dry-docks, with all her masts guns, stores, and every thing on board. The water was pumped out 1:y the steam-engines; she was blocked up, her bottom examined, and her copper repaired where necessary ; and she was ready to go to sea the same evening. The following day she was taken out of dock. Thus the whole process of docking, undoc-king, cleansing, and examining the bottom, and repairing the copper of a first-rate of ItO guns, with all standing, was completed in the short space of twenty- four hours; and, had it been necessary, it might have been completed even in less time.— Times.
The Oriental steam-ship, for Alexandria, with the first of the East India accelerated mails, started from, Southampton on Tuesday, and was to call at Falmouth on the following day for the mails. She got under weigh exactly at half-past ten, and was saluted from the battery at the east end of the town, and cheered by a vast concourse of spec- tators. She returned the salute as she proceeded. She carries out about sixty cabin-passengers, a detachment of the Seventy-seventh Regi- ment, a company of Royal Artillery, and a considerable amount of specie. The Oriental is expected to reach Gibraltar on the evening of the 6th, and Malta on the evening of the loth.
A pause seems to have occurred in the operations of private indivi- duals and companies united tor the purpose of completing what is left undone by the East India Company and the Government in regard to steam-communication in and with India. On the information of a cor- tespondent, who seems in a good channel, may be stated as the caure of' this, sonic discordant action on the part of the Committee sitting in Calcutta, and the promoters of what is termed the " comprehensive scheme" in this country. These parties, instead of cordially uniting, • which appeared the only course for their common safety and advantage, are understood to be receding more and more from each other. Where the fault lies, is not very appareut ; but it has happened more than once, that the feeling in Bengal and in the other Indian Presidencies in favour of all measures for the improvement of the communication has not been very cordially seconded in this country. As the projectors of the " comprehensive scheme" have made it from the first a part of their plan to obtain the carriage of the mails through Egypt, this want of union, if it really subsists, with the Calcutta capitalists, will tend to remove them further from thst object ; and the public will be slow, at all events, in sanctiouing any proposal for relessing the East India Company from the management of the mails, which have gone on of late in a satisfactory manner, and with every prospect of further itn- provement.— Times, Saturday.
The British Queen left her moorings at Blackwell on Sunday after- noon ; the company havine. obtained leave for the vessel to sail, by snaking themselves answerahle that the final decision of the Commis-
sioners of Customs sh.-11 flfIllee on their part. We have heard that the owners have bee:: :hied ad., but that they expect to get even that trifling fine mitigated. The British Queen takes out about one hundred and fifty passengers, among whom are an operatic company for the Ha- vanna, composed of Italians and other foreigners ; a valuable cargo of light goods ; several thousand post-office letters ; and an immense num- ber of newspapers.
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