Olistellarteous.

A Supplement to Saturday's Gazette announced that the Queen will hold a drawing-room on Thursday the 18th instant, and also on Thurs- day the 25th, to celebrate her Majesty's birthday. A considerable reduction has taken place in the Royal Household ; Mrs. Wakeley, the Housekeeper at Buckingham Palace, several Pages and other attendants, having "retired." It is understood that the Honourable Mr. Murray, Comptroller of the Household, tendered his sesignation ; but it was not accepted.

We learn that the directors of the Edinburgh Public Baths have just received by letter the very handsome douttion of 100/. from his Royal Highness Prince Albert ; and he has also been graciously pleased to intimate that "he feels most happy to contribute that sum to the effect- ing of so very praiseworthy an object."—Caledonian Mercury.

The usual Royal alms has been bestowed this week. The Small Maundy, of 5s. each to 800 poor aged men and women, and the Gate Alms of 13s. each, were given on Monday and Tuesday. The oldest recipient was a hundred-and-one years of age. On Maundy Thurs- day, twenty-five aged men and women—the number corresponding with the Queen's years—attended at Whitehall Chapel, and received, the men 21. 10s, with enough cloth for a suit of clothes, the women 41. lOs , besides twenty-five silver pennies each. The Morning Post states that the Queen has accepted the resignation of Lord Stuart de Rothesay, the British Ambassador at St. Petersburg. His Lordship is sixty-five years old ; and he has spent forty-eight years in the diplomatic service. The rigorous climate of the Russian capital has proved too much for his health. The Honourable Mr. Bloomfield, Charge d'Affaires and First Secretary of Embassy, is appointed Minister Plenipotentiary. On this the Chronicle observes—" It has been long known that the British Government recalls its Ambassador, and appoints but a Charge- d'Affaires at St. Petersburg, that Court having done the same in London." At a Court of East India Directors, on Wednesday, Mr. John Pollard Willoughby was elected a Provisional Member of the Council of Bombay.

Lord Abinger is dangerously ill. After having presided with his Latta ability in the A5size Court at Bury St. Edmunds, on Monday, he was entertaining the County Magistrates and other gentlemen at dinner, when he was seized with paralysis, and was removed to bed. Lady Abinger, his son Mr. Scarlett, and his usual medical attendant Mr. Bransby Cooper, arrived next day. Though no longer unconscious, he is speechless, and lies without hope of recovery.

One of the truly illustrious men of the day has gone—Bartel Thor- ivaldsen, the Danish sculptor ; whose sudden death is announced in letters from Copenhagen of the 26th March. Respecting his life the following particulars are gleaned chiefly from the Adorning Chronicle — Thorwaldsen, or, as he himself wrote it, Thorvaldsen, was born in 1770, during a journey made by his family from Iceland to Copenhagen. His father, Golskalk Thorwaldsen, was a carver of figure-heads for ships, his mother the daughter of a clergyman. The child showed an early disposition for drawing; and was placed by his parents, whose circumstances were narrow, at the Arts Academy of Copenhagen, where he was received without charge. He began early to exercise his skill, it is said, upon the figure-heads at which his father laboured, and at which the young Thorwaldsen would work when he carried his dinner to the carver at the wharf. In 1787, the historical painter A.bild- gaard took a fancy to him, and gave him further instruction in the general principles of art. In 1793, his mezzo-relievo of " Peter Healing a Lame Man at the Gates of the Temple," obtained for him the Academy's great gold medal and the three-years travelling studentship. On the 20th May 1796, Thor- waldsen left Copenhagen in a Danish ship of war; but the voyage of the young sculptor was so tedious and dangerous that he did not reach Rome till May 1797; having passed by Malta, Naples, and Palermo. His three years' salary was come to an end, and he had made preparations to return to Denmark, with the clay model of the Jason statue, which he had completed for the Academy, (having broken up the first model,) when Mr. Hope, the well-known patron of art, ordered the marble of him, and enabled him, by his munificent remuneration, to remain in Rome. Henceforth, wealth and honour flowed in upon him. Having visited France in 1819, he finally returned to Copenhagen in 1837. In the forty-two years of his labour, he completed about two hundred great works and a great number of busts.

On the night before the fiftieth anniversary of his having received the first

gold medal from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, he went to the theatre, and occupied hie usual stall in the pit. Before the curtain rose, at the commence- ment of the second act, he mentioned to his next neighbour that he felt unwell: that gentleman immediately called for some assistance, and the great sculptor was carried home. In passing through his studio, he once more opened his eyes, and looked for a few moments steadily and cheerfully at the model of a statue of Martin Luther, which for the last few months had exclusively engaged him, and at which he had worked within a few hours before. He was then taken to his bedroom, and expired about ten minutes afterwards. His funeral was to take place on Saturday the 30th March, in the church of Notre Dame, which be had so much embellished and beautified by his statues of Christ and the Apostles. The King and the Royal Princes were to attend the ceremony; for which Ochlenschlayer, an intimate friend of the deceased, had written a requiem, to be sung by all the best singers of the capital. According to his will, all his property goes to the valuable museum which he founded some years ago, for the benefit and embellishment of the city where he received his first education. His property, however, is said not to be so large as might be supposed; for his generosity in assisting pour and deserving artists was unbounded ; and his perfect openness in laying his advice, resources, and even materials, at the use of students, of any nation, is recorded with gratitude by some who have attained eminence in the profossion. He boasted, and truly, that he lived " for art itself."

He had a natural daughter, a very beautiful woman, who has been married to a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to the King of Denmark. Thorwaldsen was about five feet nine inches in height. In his latter years he looked like a most respectable English gentleman ; with a thoughtful and peculiarly bland expression of face. A. portrait of him, lately published, which may be seen at blolteno's, is pronounced a perfect likeness.

A French paper describes a most extraordinary debut performed by the Spanish dancer Mademoiselle Lola Montes, not unknown in Lon- don. She has now carried what may be called the " Honi soil qui mal y pense " principle to its extreme point.

" The newspapers beyond the Rhine mentioned this lady some months ago on the occasion of a freak which greatly disturbed the composure of the North- ern Courts. Being, we believe, at 1V.rsaw, and attending a review of the Russian troops, the said danseuse, who rode a frisky horse, ventured beyond the limits imposed upon the public. An attempt was made to make her re- enter them; but the impetuous Spaniard responded to it with her riding-whip, and routed a party of Muscovite gendarmes. This sort of liberty could not re- main unpunished, and the Governor of Warsaw issued a warrant for the ap- prehension of Mademoiselle Lola. But Mademoiselle Lola bad not parted with her whip ; she applied it to the fronts and rears of the Government's agents, and, quick as lightning, fled and vanished. The Government sent a squadron of cavalry in pursuit of her ; but the townspeople protected her retreat, and there was almost a riot on the occasion. From that moment the name of the brave and valiant Spaniard acquired a degree of celebrity, and Paris remem- bered her prowess quite well, when, a few days ago, it was informed that two foreign dancers, Mademoiselle Cerito and Mademoiselle Lola Montes, had just entered its walla. Mademoiselle Cerito had often been demanded by the habi- tues of the Opera; but for the present there was too strong a competition for her to stand. The triumphs achieved by the Italian danseuse at the theatres of Venice, Milan, and London, could not rival the horsewhipping dealt by Madainoiselle Lola in a mantedvering field, and before a Russian army. 'Let us have Lola Mentes,' cried the orchestra, stalls, and pit: we wish to see whether her foot he as light as her hand.' Forthwith were the Opera-gates thrown open to her ; and surely never did orchestra, stalls, and pit, witness a more astounding entrée. After her first leap she stopped short on the tips af her toes, and, by a movement of prodigious rapidity, detached one of her garters, to the utter amazement of every opera-glass. Mademoiselle Lola then took another leap to the very edge of the proscenium, shaking with her fingers the riband which had just encircled her leg, and, mustering her most fascinating graces, she flung that riband to the spectators. Mademoiselle Fanny Elssler was content to send kisses to the public in her Cachucas ; but Mademoiselle Elesler was but a Spaniard of Berlin. Notwithstanding the excellent effect produced by this piquant eccentricity, Mademoiselle Lola has not met with the reception she expected. Her style of dancing has not been understood ; and it has been deemed proper to dispense with her second debut, although it had been announced. She may solace herself with the persuasion that she has been the victim of a diplomatic cabal, and been sacrificed to the pretensions of Russia."

The line-of-battle ship Boscawen was launched at Woolwich on Wednesday. The river was crowded with boats, and the booths on each side of the ship were filled with spectators. The Countess of Haddington, accompanied by Commodore Sir Francis Collier and Mr. Oliver Lang the Master-Shipwright, was stationed at the bow of the vessel ; which her Ladyship christened in the usual way with a bottler of wine. Success to the Boscawen was drunk, the band of Marines played "Rule Britannia," the dog-shores were knocked away, and the ship glided into the Thames amid the cheers of the multitude. Its length on the gun-deck is 180 feet ; extreme breadth, 54 feet ; depth in hold, 24 feet ; burden in tons, (new measurement,) 1,911 2,931-3500.

Three more vessels were launched on Thursday, in sight of an im- mense concourse afloat and on shore,—the Wellesley East Indiaman, christened by Lady Hayes ; the Monarch East India steamer, by Mrs. H. Green, a relative of the builder ; and the Meteor, a river steamer, by Miss Harmer, a daughter of the ex-Alderman. We regret fo state that her Majesty's steamer Wilberforce, in going up the river Gambia to Macarth's Island, early in February, struck Oa a reef of rocks at Dog Island ; and, notwithstanding prompt assistance

--Trout the Governor in person and the captains of vessels in the harbour, was expected to become a total wreck. She was the largest of the steamers built (by Laird) for the ill-fated Niger expedition, and had lately been stationed at the Gambia for the service of that colony. —

DMUS.

We often see advertisements "to persons about to marry "; but the persona about to marry do not often themselves take such public means of .address. An advertisement in the Morning Post of Tuesday, how- ever. conveys a general offer of the advertiser's hand and heart, with unusual advantages to the consumer- ." Matrimony.—A young nobleman, with large expectations, and at present with a moderate income, wishes, through the present medium of an advertise- ment, to meet with a lady of fortune, who would be elevated to a high rank, and also meet with a young and kind partner for life. Letters addressA, pre- paid, to Coronet, 43 Upper Berkeley Street, Connaught Square, will meet with immediate attention."

At the Mansionhonse, on Saturday, Barber, Fletcher, Griffin, Sanders, Mrs. Sanders, and Mrs. Dorey, were finally examined on the charges relating to the will-forgeries and the fraudulent transfer of stock. Mrs. Dorey's look exhibited strong suffering of mind ; her health seemed to be quite broken down, and her moans were distressing. Her sister, Mrs. Sanders, was also low-spirited : she is "a good-looking stout woman, apparently about thirty. five or forty years of age, with good black eyes, and rather a handsome expression of face." Some of the evidence was retraced ; witnesses identifying Sanders as the man who personated Thomas Hunt, the executor of Mary Hunt, at Doctors Commons, and his arife as the personator of Emma Slack, the execu- trix of Anne Slack. All were committed for trial at the next sessi.ms of the Criminal Court ; the Lord Mayor observing, that probably the trial would take place on the first day of the sessions.

There was an error in the Parliamentary Division-list last week, which occurred in the original list, while the correction escaped us : in the first division, on the 18th 'Starch, the name of Mr. Raikes Currie should he omitted, and that of Captain Plumridge inserted. In subse- quent divisions, Mr. Currie voted with Ministers : Captain Plumridge voted in all the divisions with Lord Ashley.