Way, Professor Simonds, Professor Morton, Rev. dwelt at some length on the advantages of sewage Thomas Henderson, Edwin Chadwick, Esq., Board of manure, Mr. Mechi complained of the backwardness of Health; W. Lee, Esq., Board of Health; Mr. Appold, his neighbours in promoting education. A parish of inventor of the centrifugal pump; Mr. Fowler, inventor 5000 acres had only contributed 15. a-year, being a of the draining plough; W. Fisher Hobbs, Esq., rate of about three-farthings a head. But all these C. Knight, Esq.; and other gentlemen of eminence in obstacles would disappear before the force of public science, literature, and the arts. After a slight collation, opinion, and farmers would become as intelligent and the company proceeded to inspect the farm, the growing enterprising as their neighbours, if they could only once crops, and especially the new process of irrigation, from get rid of the cumbrous machinery which interfered which such fertilising effects are anticipated. The with the transfer of land. If he wanted to sell them a general results of this examination may thus be briefly razor, how would they like to have to inquire who had summed np. On a small farm of 170 acres, the soil of owned that razor twenty years ago? and yet that was which was originally poor, cold, and wet, Mr. Mechi the process they must go through before obtaining a has displayed the power of drainage, high manuring, single acre of land. If they followed his plan, the ox and elaborate cultivation, to produce a degree of fertility which went up to market on Monday would be back scarcely surpassed and rarely equalled, even on our with them again in manure before Friday, but to appremost naturally fertile soils. His land has been well ciate and attain these results there must be more drained and subsoiled, or otherwise cultivated to greater education among the farmers. He was happy to say than ordinary depths; trees and fences have been that the college at Cirencester was getting on well, entirely cleared away, so that there is no waste of but was sorry to be obliged to add that there ground and nothing to impede the free access of sun was not a single farmer's son among the pupils. and air to the soil; all his stock-with the exception of During the whole of this address Mr. Mechi was sheep during summer which are folded on the land, warmly cheered. On the health of the "foreign his innumerable pigs and numerous cattle, are constantly visitors" being given, Mr. WHITE, one of the commiskept in sheds, the floors of which are boarded, with sioners from the United States, was called upon to spaces for manure to fall into spaces underneath; and return thanks, and obeyed the call, though he did not from each shed pipes are laid to communicate with an know (he said) why he should be called a foreigner. immense liquid manure tank. All the manure is from The first white child that was born in New England, time to time washed into the tank by means of flushings in February, 1620, was his ancestor, and therefore he of water directed by a hose, and forced by the pressure claimed a share in that mixed Norman and Saxon of the steam engine. All the straw grown on the farm blood of which he was so justly proud. As an is cut up into chaff for food, and is steamed for the American, he was proud of his noble country-her purpose. A large reservoir, or small lake, formed to mighty rivers, and her vast forests; but he was also receive the drainage of the land, affords the means of proud of his Saxon ancestry, and that community of diluting the strong manure in the tank, which would laws, institutions, and sympathies which naturally otherwise be too powerful for vegetable life; and finally, existed between England and the United States. If this liquid manure is carried, through iron pipes laid any attempt were made on the liberties of England by down all over the farm, to such of the fields as may the despotisms of the continent that sympathy would require to undergo the manuring process. Having soon be proved. Several other toasts and speeches minutely examined every object of interest, the brought to a close this pleasant and important meeting. company repaired to the most extensive of the out- The New Metropolitan Burial Act, which became offices, which had been fitted up as a banqueting hall, operative on the 1st instant, when it received the royal and tastefully decorated with laurels and evergreens, assent, contains fifty-four clauses. It is entitled An besides an abundance of ornaments of a more substantial Act to amend the laws concerning the Burial of the character. Mr. Mechi himself presided, with the Earl Dead in the Metropolis," and was passed in consequence Fortescue in the vice-chair, and near the chairman of the "failure of the Metropolitan Interments Act, were the American minister, and Messrs. White and 1850," which it repeals. It is now provided that on Routh, both from the United States, Lord Ebrington, the representation of the secretary of state, her Majesty and others of the more distinguished guests. The in council may order the discontinuance of burials in American Minister, in a pleasant and cordial speech, any part of the metropolis, which order is not to extend mentioned the probable accomplishment of the projected to the burial-grounds of Quakers or Jews, unless route across the Isthmus of Darien. It might be thought expressly included. After such an order in council (he said), that the Isthmus route had little to do with for discontinuance of burials, it is to be deemed a agriculture, but his belief was, that everything which misdemeanour to bury therein. There is a saving of favoured the communion of the Anglo-Saxon race, was certain rights to bury in vaults, &c., and also as to a benefit to every class in the world.-Lord Ebrington cemeteries mentioned in the schedule annexed to the and Mr. Chadwick dwelt upon the importance of act, and in new burial-grounds or cemeteries hereafter Mr. Mechi's plan for drawing off the sewage of great to be provided with the approbation of the secretary of cities, as an aid to the great cause of sanitary reform.- state. There is an exception to St. Paul's Cathedral Earl FORTESCUE, amid loud cheers, gave the health and Westminster Abbey. No new burial-ground or of the chairman. He said he could well remember the cemetery (parochial or non-parochial) is to be provided time when Mr. Mechi was ridiculed as a quack, or and used in the metropolis, or within two miles of any mentioned as a well-meaning enthusiast, but now things part thereof, without the previous approval of the assumed a different aspect, and even the good man who secretary of state. In any parish in the metropolis, had driven them over that day could say "there is on the requisition of ten or more rate-payers, that the great improvement in the county since Mr. Mechi came place of burial is "insufficient or dangerous to health,' amongst us." He trusted that Mr. Mechi would live a vestry may be called to determine whether a buriallong to enjoy his success, and to bring to perfection his ground shall be provided under this act; and if agreed ingenious system of cultivation.-Mr. MECHI, in return- upon, then a "burial-ground" is to be formed to carry ing thanks, said he had been often told he was wrong, out this act, and to act in the manner prescribed by the but he hoped and believed he was right, and he thought several clauses for the benefit of the public concerning all who with him had travelled to Lewes would be the burial of the dead. prepared to admit that improvement was not quite unnecessary in farming operations. He expected much from the application of liquid manure and improvements in draining; but the farmers, before draining their lands, must begin by draining their heads. They must THE Queen, Prince Albert, and the royal family, endeavour to get rid of prejudice, and recollect how embarked at Cowes on Monday morning the 19th, on long prejudice had retarded the admission of railroads board the Victoria and Albert steam-yacht for a into their district. He had firm faith that a hundred cruise. The royal party visited Dartmouth, Totnes, years hence, long after he had become a huge turnip or Ashburton, and Princetown, Plymouth, and Mount a gigantic cabbage-they would find that his principles Edgecumbe; and returned to Osborne on Thursday were sound, and his system an improvement. Having evening. PERSONAL NARRATIVE. The royal family left Buckingham Palace for Osborne on the 3d inst. The Anniversary of the Queen's coronation, on the 28th of June, was celebrated at Southampton by a general holiday: thousands of people went on excursions to London, to the New Forest, and to the Isle of Wight; there were matches at cricket and shooting; five hundred persons came on a visit from Dorchester; and a large number of "Foresters," a widely ramified benefit society, walked in procession, and then dined together, the mayor and the members for the town being among their guests. The Princess Gauromma, the daughter of Prince Vere Rajunder, late Rajah of Coorg, was Baptised by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the private Chapel of Buckingham Palace on the 30th of June. Her Majesty stood sponsor for the young princess, and has accepted the responsibility of her christian education in this country. Bishops Selwyn and Tyrrell have had a marvellous escape from murder in New Zealand. It appears that the two prelates were on a visit to one of the Polynesian islands, when they were set upon by the natives, and, becoming separated, were in the greatest possible danger. They and their crews were surrounded by the natives, who were full of ferocity and who were eventually subdued by moral resolution rather than by physical strength. Dr. Paul Cullen was installed in the dignity of Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin on the 29th of June. No fewer than sixteen Roman Catholic prelates, including Dr. M'Hale, assisted at the ceremony. Mr. Gladstone, who has accepted the pastorate of a Free Episcopal Chapel at St. Mary's Torquay, has been prevented from preaching there by a monition from the ecclesiastical court. Kossuth has arrived in England from the United States. He had taken berths in the Africa steamer from New York, for himself and Madame Kossuth, under the name of A. Smith and lady. He threw off his incognito before the passage had been completed. He was accompanied by Count Colonel Blethen and Colonel Ihaz, who also secured passages in assumed names. The Benchers of Lincoln's Inn have appointed William L. Birkbeck, Esq., late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, to the Readership in Equity instituted under the new arrangements for legal education. Obituary of Notable Persons. 25th ult. He was born in 1800, and succeeded his father, the LORD ABERCROMBY died suddenly at Airthrey Chase, on the late Lord Abercromby, in 1843. COUNT MENSDORFF-POUILLY died at Vienna on the evening of the 28th ult., in his 76th year. Count Mensdorff had married the eldest sister of the late Duke of Saxe Coburg and Gotha, the Duchess of Kent, and the King of the Belgians, and was consequently a maternal uncle of her Majesty and paternal uncle to Prince Albert. MR. THOMAS GISBORNE died at his residence, Yoxhall Lodge, in Staffordshire, on the 20th inst. BARON DE LANGSDORFF, the celebrated botanist, died at Frieberg in the Grand Duchy of Baden, in his 78th year. W. SCROPE, Esq., author of "Days of Deer Stalking," and at his house in Belgrave-square, in the 81st year of his age. "Days and Nights of Salmon Fishing," died on Tuesday last, MR. JOHN DUNCUFT, who had just been returned for Oldham, died there on the 27th ult. COLONIES AND DEPENDENCIES. THE Overland Mail has brought advices from Madras to the 10th of June. The accounts from Rangoon are to the 26th of May. On the 17th of May, four of our war-steamers started from Rangoon for Bassein, the chief port on the westernmost branch of the Irawaddy, to capture that place. A force of 400 of the Queen's 51st Regiment, 300 of the 9th Native Madras Infantry, 60 Sappers and Miners, and a number of Marines, was landed at Bassein on the 19th. The place was defended by 4000 Burmese troops and 2000 armed men of Bassein, fighting behind stockades well mounted with artillery. After a brief parley, the place was tremendously battered by the guns of the steamers and then taken by storm. The defence was bravely made. We lost three men killed, and had seven officers and 24 men wounded. The officers wounded were- -Captain Rice, very severely; Lieutenants George Rice, Carter, and Ansley, severely; and Major Errington, Captain Darrock, and Lieutenant John Elliott, slightly. The enemy lost 800 killed. It is said that "a fair-faced dark-whiskered man was plainly seen on the works directing the artillery; but whether he was an European or Armenian could not be discerned. The health of the troops was greatly improved. The advices from the West Indies come down to the end of last month. Almost all the islands have been suffering from long-continued drought. Antigua, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, Anguilla, and Curaçoa, have suffered from the want of water. In Antigua the drought continues in all its severity, and great distress has begun to be felt for want of water for domestic purposes. The crops are suffering greatly from the drought, and the cattle on many estates are dying for want of water. In St. Kitts the want of water for domestic purposes had begun to be felt in the town of Basseterre and at Sandy Point. Every cistern in the town, with the exception of one in the jail, was dry. In Saint Lucia the drought continued very severe. The sugar crop, which is being manufactured, has not suffered much from this protracted drought, though the want of water is felt in several districts to retard the operations of the mills; but it is feared that the consequences will be much to the prejudice of the next crop. In Anguilla the drought which had prevailed for several months had reduced the poorer classes of the inhabitants to a state of absolute destitution and misery. The people were absolutely dying from want. A boat-load or more of flour and corn-meal had been forwarded from St. Christopher's for their relief. A fearful conflagration occurred at Montreal on the 9th instant. The flames raged for two days, and destroyed about 1200 houses. The loss is estimated at one million sterling. The provincial government has placed the sum of 25007. at the disposal of the relief committee for the immediate relief of the sufferers, and private subscriptions in their aid had commenced. The advices from the Cape of Good Hope bring intelligence from the war frontier to the end of May. General Cathcart had removed his head-quarters from King William's Town to Fort Beaufort, towards a line connecting the Waterkloof and Amatola mountains ; and he was so arranging his forces as to form a connected chain of columns across the whole territory, which he had announced his intention to clear of the enemy by driving the Caffres beyond the Kei, and banishing them from the colony for ever. This scheme, however, appeared difficult to carry out; for the Caffres had slipped through the links of the chain in several places, and in one instance had been discovered in alarming numbers camped in the Kowie bush close to Graham's Town. In several places single herdsmen, and even small weak parties, had been cut off, or attacked and roughly handled by the Caffres. Governor Cathcart had not, however, completely organised his plans. He was endeavouring to levy a force of Burghers to act as scouring-parties within his cordon; and was offering the pay of 5s. a day for privates and 7s. 6d. a day for officers. By the overland Indian mail there is intelligence from the Australian Colonies to the middle of April-from Port Philip to the 17th. The gold-finding reports continue very favourable, and the extent of the produce was daily increasing, new spots being constantly discovered of extraordinary richness in various directions. The produce of gold for the Victoria district for five months is given at 653,270 ounces, or about 2,600,000l. money value; and the exported produce of the Bathurst and Turon districts to the 20th March was 1,125,317 ounces, or value 4,500,0007.; in all, about seven millions sterling. At a time when all letters from Australia are eagerly read, perhaps the following copy of one received from a lad sent out from the Union Mews Ragged School, in 1850, may not prove uninteresting: "Melbourne, March 5, 1852.-Dear Father,-Enclosed is a bill of lading of one small box of gold dust, which I send you as a present per Benjamin Heape. I have written you at length by other vessel, and send this in case it may be lost. You will receive the box on board the B. Heape from Captain Hodgson, or at the ship's agents.-J. M." The bill of lading states the box to contain 24 ounces of gold dust. In a letter lately received from him dated December 16, he mentioned his intention of proceeding to the diggings after Christmas; consequently this must be a portion of the "first-fruits" of his industry. Accounts have been received of the wreck of the Isabella Watson, passenger-ship to Port Philip, which sailed from Plymouth on the 3rd of December last. She was lost off Point Nepean, at the entrance of Port Philip Heads, and we regret to say that the following lives were lost:-Mrs. Derrick, Mrs. Hall, Mrs. Langford, Mrs. Orphelt, all young married women; Miss Allen, Miss Patterson, Mr. Orphelt, and Mr. Langford in endeavouring to save his wife. The captain was saved with difficulty. PROGRESS OF EMIGRATION AND COLONISATION. A Parliamentary paper has been printed respecting Emigration to New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. For seven months, ending the 30th of April, the number of vessels that sailed to New South Wales (both unassisted and ungovernment ships) was 27, the aggregate tonnage of which was 18,605, and the number of emigrants 4583. In the like period of the preceding year the number of vessels was only five, the tonnage of which was 3425, and the number of emigrants 852. The available balance in the hands of the Emigration Commissioners for New South Wales on the 30th of May was about 61,000l. For Victoria 27 vessels sailed in the seven months ending the 30th of April last. The tonnage was 18,840, and the number of emigrants 7634. In the like period of the preceding year the number of vessels was 11, of 10,541 tonnage, and the number of emigrants 1941. The available balance for emigration was 127,2007. For South Australia 19 vessels sailed in the seven months ending the 30th of April last, of 11,127 tonnage, and the numbers of emigrants was 3822. In the like period of the preceding year the number was 17, of 12,310 tonnage, and the number of emigrants 2833. There are two letters in the document to the Colonial Office from Captain Stanley Carr, Chair man of the Committee of Australian Colonists, urging extensive emigration. From a late report of the Emigration Commissioners, it appears that 103,216 persons emigrated in the first four months of the present year from the twelve principal ports in the United Kingdom. In the corresponding period of 1851 the number was 103,554. From official returns, just published, it appears that the Irish Emigration in ten years (1841 to 1851) numbered 1,289,133 persons. The decrease in the population of Ireland between 1841 and 1851 was 1,659,330. The government of Holland has sent notes to all the German governments informing them that they are ready to grant peculiar facilities to German emigrants disposed to settle in Suriman. Mr. Ellis, the well-known caterer for public amusement at Cremorne Gardens, the Flora Gardens, and other places of entertainment, has just sailed from Plymouth in the Coldstream, for Port Philip. Mr. Ellis takes with him scenery, properties, and the necessary adjuncts for a portable theatre, to be erected at the diggings, a complete band of musicians, and a Thespian company. Mr. Ellis proposes to introduce casinos into Geelong and Melbourne, and thus combine pleasure with gold-seeking. A meeting of intending emigrants to Australia, under Mrs. Chisholm's Plan, was held on the evening of the 26th, at the British Institution, in Cowper-street, Cityroad. Mrs. Chisholm addressed the meeting. She said as there were a number of females present, she would call attention to the necessity of not uselessly expending money in outfits. In all the books in which outfits were spoken of, people were advised to prepare themselves for hot and cold weather, but she was anxious to do away with the mystery about these outfits, whereby money was expended which might be carefully preserved against landing in the colony. For a female, two gowns were sufficient for a voyage. She wished to caution them against wearing thin shoes in the morning and evening, when the deck of the vessel was more or less damp, and diarrhoea frequently resulted from cold feet. After entering into some necessary and minute details, she said the ship Chalmers would leave the London Docks on Sunday, immediately after divine service had been performed on board. Another ship was about to proceed from Southampton, and another from Cork, being the first that would sail from Ireland in connexion with this system of emigration. She approved of the plan of small remittances being sent home, and she hoped soon to see the English emulate the Irish in aiding their relations to emigrate. After further observing that she would closely follow her plan of watching over the comforts of the ships, Mrs. Chisholm took leave of the meeting amidst much applause.-Mr. Sydney afterwards addressed the meeting, which then adjourned. The mania for emigration to the gold mines of Australia is most prevalent in South Wales. From Neath a number of persons have taken their departure, and an increasing number are preparing to follow their example. At Pontypridd, likewise, a number of hardy young men are about to seek their fortunes at the Antipodes; and from Laugharne and St. Clears, many farm labourers have quitted their homes for the diggings. Large parties will soon leave the more populous towns, such as Swansea, Carmarthen, &c., in addition to the persons who have already left. Hitherto, the exodus has been to a large extent to the United States; but the current has now been turned to Australia. NARRATIVE OF FOREIGN EVENTS. THE session of the French Legislative Assembly was closed on the 28th of June, with a message from the President. He thanked them for the loyal cooperation and support they had given to the new institutions, and said that "the first trial of a constitution completely of French origin must have convinced them that they possessed the conditions of a free and strong government: "On returning to your departments, be the faithful echoes of the sentiment that predominates here-confidence in reconciliation and peace. Tell your constituents that in Paris, the heart of France-that revolutionary centre which scatters over the world alternate light or conflagration-you have seen an immense population labouring to efface the traces of revolu tions, and joyously applying themselves to industry with confidence in the future. Those who so recently, in their madness, were impatient of all restraint, you have heard saluting with acclamation the restoration of our eagles, the symbols of authority and of glory. At that imposing spectacle, where religion consecrated with her benediction a great national festivity, you have remarked their respectful attitude. You have seen that proud army which has saved its country rise still higher in the esteem of men, and kneeling in devotion before the image of God, presented from the summit of His altar. The meaning of this is, that there exists in France a government animated with the faith and the love of good, which reposes on the people, the source of all power, on the army, the source of all force-and on religion, the source of all justice." The property of Villeneuve, near St. Cloud, has been recently purchased for 44,000l. for the President. This estate is said to be destined for the English lady who accompanied him to France. The French President left Paris on Saturday morning, the 17th, to celebrate the opening of the Strasburg Railway. He arrived at Strasburg on Sunday at noon. A salute of a hundred and one guns was fired on his arrival. He was met by the authorities, and the keys were given up to him. The bishop then performed divine service in a large pavilion near the station; blessing the railroad and the locomotives. Thence M. Bonaparte proceeded to the Prefecture, well guarded by soldiers. The population filed past him; and, in the evening, Strasburg was in a blaze with variegated lamps, Bengal lights, and fireworks of all kinds. On Monday morning, he reviewed the troops. The bridge was thrown over the Rhine, and the President, accompanied by the envoys of Prussia, Baden, Wurtemberg, Hesse, and Switzerland, passed over to Kehl; where he reviewed the garrison of Baden. Having returned to Strasburg, he set out on Tuesday for Baden-Baden. After he had crossed the frontier he refused a military escort. The Grand Duchess Stephanie of Baden, having shared in the festivities of Strasburg, returned to her territories with Louis Napoleon. It is rumoured that the main object of the President's visit to Baden-Baden was to see a fair relative, who might possibly some day become his wife. The lady is a daughter of Prince Gustave de Vasa, now an officer in the Austrian army, and granddaughter-by her mother-to the Duchess of Baden her name is Stephanie de Vasa. The accounts of the President's reception at Strasburg, and at all the places on his route, being all derived from official sources, are of course couleur de rose. The feeling excited by his presence is described as unmingled enthusiasm. He took his usual means of gaining popularity-making telling speeches, attending fêtes and balls, and dancing quadrilies with the wives and daughters of his prefects and other officials. It is curious to note by what stealthy degrees he approaches the summit of his ambition. At Nancy his chair was starred with the imperial bee; at Strasburg he adopted, for the first time, the white breeches and jack-boots, which formed an invariable feature of the emperor's military costume. He returned to Paris on the evening of Friday the 24th. The correspondent of the "Daily News" describes his reception as being exceedingly cold. An event worth attention, as showing the lengths to which the present government is prepared to go to curry favour with the priesthood, has just occurred in La Vendée. The family of a person lately deceased, who was one of the only three Protestants in the parish, desired to bury him in the Catholic cemetery. The parish-priest opposed this, but the mayor supported the family and appealed to the prefect, who decided that the interment should take place in the consecrated ground. As soon as these facts came to the knowledge of M. Fortoul, the Minister of Public Instruction and Worship, he sent down orders that the heretic's body should be exhumed and removed out of the holy precincts. This has been done to the great delight of the bigoted inhabitants of La Vendée, with whom the government will doubtless gain much popularity in consequence. The anniversary of the taking of the Bastille on the 14th of July, was this year celebrated by the deposit of a single crown on the railings of the column of July. This solitary homage to a day so often commemorated by countless thousands on the same spot, was performed by a lady elegantly dressed. The crown was instantly taken away, and the lady with her husband arrested. The accounts from Italy contain particulars respecting the system of wholesale arrest now going on in Lombardy. A letter, dated Milan, July 3, states that it has been ascertained that the body of Signor Pezzotti, who was found strangled in a Milanese dungeon immediately after his arrest, was instantly cut open, with a view to get possession of some papers which he had swallowed at the moment of his arrest. It is said, too, that the tale of his having strangled himself is a mere invention to conceal the fact that he was assassinated. Arrests continue at Brescia, Pavia, Cremona. At Cremona one Antonio Binda, a landed proprietor, has been arrested along with others. To those arrested at Mantua has to be added the name of Count Arrivabene. At Venice many deplorable arrests have been made Scargellini, Canal Zambelli, Ferracini, and others. Here, as at Mantua, the arrests have been made in succession, this being an old trick of the Austrian police, to induce the imprisoned to believe that they have been denounced by their previously arrested companions, and so to spread abroad through the liberal part of society the suspicion of mutual treachery. Altogether at Mantua the arrests hitherto known exceed one hundred; at Venice there have been in all eighteen; in the other towns the numbers are proportionate. The Emperor of Austria is making a tour through his Hungarian dominions. On the 11th he was at Buda-Pesth; and, accompanied by forty generals, among whom was Ban Jellachich, he inaugurated an iron monument to Henzi, who was killed defending the fortress from the Hungarians under Görgey. Medals | were distributed to the soldiers engaged in the defence. On the 13th the emperor left Buda for Semlin.-One incident, which is related as having occurred before he reached Pesth, throws some light on the internal state of Hungary::-"In Stuhlweissenburg, it is said, the violence of an officer-a general-completely scared the people. On the arrival of the monarch, the countryfolks, who had assembled from all parts, were so intent on getting a good sight of a real emperor, that they forgot to doff their hats, until a hint from the obergespann reminded them of what was proper. In the principal Place the same thing occurred; but instead of employing his tongue, the before-mentioned officer used his sword, with which he knocked off the hats of the gaping Magyars. This specimen of military tactics put an end to the 'Elgens' at once.' The important intelligence has been received from Brussels that a convention has been concluded between the Belgian and Dutch governments for the amalgamation of the railways of the two countries. The great trunk line beginning at Antwerp will be continued to Rotterdam, and so be put into communication with the whole of the Netherlands. It is stated, upon good authority, that the Bavarian government has engaged to pay 1,400,000 florins to the administration of the Palatinate Railway on condition that the latter shall undertake to execute the works on the line from Ludwigshafen to Wissemburg speedily. This is the point to which the Strasburg Railway is to be continued beyond the French frontier. In the Roman States great resistance is offered to the tax-gatherers; and conflicts between the bailiffs and the people are not uncommon. It was rumoured at Rome, that about 2000 men, infantry, cavalry, and artillery, forming part of the French force in Rome, will be sent home in August; and that a proportionate force of Austrians will evacuate the Roman States at the same time. M. Thiers has been ordered by the Swiss Federal Government to leave his residence at Vevay, and either convey himself into the interior or leave the canton. M. Thiers preferred the latter, and on the 2nd instant was about to quit Switzerland altogether, for Florence. This measure, prompted by the representations of the French envoy at Berne, is deemed the retaliation of President Bonaparte for his own extrusion from Switzerland, at the demand of M. Thiers, as foreign minister of France under Louis Philippe. There are advices from New York to the 10th instant. Henry Clay, the great American statesman, died at Washington on the 29th of June, at the age of 75. As soon as his death was announced to Congress, both houses adjourned. On the 1st of July a grand and solemn funeral service was performed over the remains at Washington; at which the President of the Union, the Ministers, all the members of Congress, and a concourse of other American worthies, participated. After the obsequies, the corpse was removed in state to Baltimore, and thence to New York, on the way to its final resting-place at Lexington in Kentucky. The authorities of Baltimore and New York, and the citizens of those towns en masse, went out to meet the cortége. A terrible calamity had occurred on the 5th inst. at Staten Island, by the giving way of the Ferry Bridge, and 159 persons were precipitated into the river, about 25 of whom were drowned. On the 4th, a fatal affray took place at Hoboken between two sets of waiters, one set white, the other coloured. The whites were Irishmen; one of the coloured men was killed in the encounter, and some severe wounds inflicted on both sides. Several deaths had occurred in New York from sun-stroke, and the weather had been intensely sultry. In the southern states, the whigs have declined to sanction the nomination of General Scott for the presidentship, and fresh opposition continues to pour in every day from the slave states. In the House of Representatives a bill had been reported authorising the postmaster-general to contract for the transportation of mails twice in the month, in first-class steamers, between New York and Galway; the sum to be paid not to exceed 10,000 dols. the round trip. An extensive fire occurred at Boston on the 10th instant, which destroyed property to the amount of half a million dollars. Accounts from the Havannah state that a conspiracy of 30 young men of that place had been discovered. Eight of them had been condemned to death and executed. The conspirators had freighted a vessel, with the intention of joining, either at sea or in an American port, the adventurers who are said to contemplate another descent on Cuba. NARRATIVE OF LITERATURE AND ART. THE remark was made in last month's "Narrative," | that the publishing world could hardly at any time have been so dull as in the month then immediately preceding. But, as Dryden said of his friend Durfey that vast as was his reputation for dulness his powers were quite underrated, and that nobody yet knew how far he could go in that direction, so is it now to be said of the world of books. The month of July 1852 may hereafter be not only remembered as that of the famous general election when the Protectionists all swallowed the big loaf of Free Trade, but also as the month when the sum of the contributions made to general literature by all the great metropolitan publishing houses, consisted of nothing more worthy of mention than two novels, neither of them natively grown, two biographies, neither of them likely to outlive the year, and a single volume of very earnest politics and more than doubtful political economy: Such is literally the case. "Leather and prunella' would be a too exalted description for the rest of the month's literature, mainly consisting as it does of entirely unimportant pamphlets and tracts, that may never hope to aspire to the dignity of calf or sheepskin. We do not know that exception may be made for even the bulky collection of Reports of the Juries of the Great Exhibition on the award of the several medals and certificates. As a set-off to such lack of performance, however, we have a magnificent promise to record. Mr. Halliwell has announced a new edition of Shakespeare to be contained in twenty folios, each of the same size as that single folio of Heminge and Condell which for two hundred years and upward has managed to keep the poet's fame tolerably lively and flourishing. It may be doubted if the twenty folios are likely to do more. biography is a Life of the Rev. Wm. Kirby, the delightful naturalist, who deserved an easier biographer. Mr. Freeman is full of good intentions, and a sensible grave admiration, but he sits rather heavily on his friend. The book of Political Economy, which is by Mr. Lalor, under the title of Money and Morals deals with several unsettled questions of financial science, always earnestly if not always so successfully. The most heterodox of Mr. Lalor's economical views have been propounded before, but he brings much novel and forcible illustration in aid of them, and the volume deserves attention. As for the rest of the publications of the past month, they are really not worth the space which it would take to transcribe their titles. Where they are not new editions (as the neat little Poems of Coleridge, which Mr. Moxon has issued; the handsome volume of Messrs. Black's Waverly Novels; Mr. Knight's re-issue of his Imperial Cyclopædia; Doctor Forbes's Physician's Holiday; Mr. Moultrie's republication of poor Sydney Walker's Poems, to which is prefixed a slight but not uninteresting Memoir; Mr. Bohn's excellent addition of Miss Bremer's Works, Neander's Memorials, and Kirby's Bridgewater Treatises, to his Standard and Scientific Libraries; Hazlitt's republished Life of Napoleon; a cheap and careful revision of Webster's Dictionary; and a new translation of Madame Guizot's Moral Tales ;) they are pamphlets on subjects of little or no interest, or they are waifs and strays of volumes that nobody should care to own, and that should be therefore permitted to pass out of the world as they have entered it, in obscurity and silence. The last concert of the Philharmonic Society took place on the 28th of June. The season has been highly successful. Woman's Life and The Blithedale Romance are the two novels to which allusion has been made. The first a translation from the Swedish, the second an importation from America; the design of the first, to depict The Sacred Harmonic Society have also 'terminated those frailties and trials of the heart and temper which a very successful season. On the 5th inst., Spohr's are common to all countries, and have lasted as long as celebrated oratorio, Calvary, was performed at Exeter the old world; that of the second, to show the folly, of Hall under the personal direction of the composer. The trying to build a new world with no better materials to society has published a report for the year 1851, from set it or keep it going than those very frailties aforesaid. which it appears that the 31 concerts of that year proBoth are well-written stories. The Life of Lord Lang-duced upwards of 90007. and that the ordinary expenses dale by Mr. Duffus Hardy, is in bulk as disproportionate to the demands of the subject as the expectations once formed of the hero of the book transcended what was actually achieved by him. But it is a conscientiously written biography, containing among other things curious evidence of the petty motives that so often frustrate great designs in the affairs of public life. The late Lord Cottenham makes a poor figure in its revelations as to law reform, and it is to be wished that even Lord Brougham figured better than he does in the same field. The other connected with them were nearly 76007. Including subscriptions, the gross receipts of the year exceeded 10,000l. Exeter Hall is now closed for alterations and re-decoration; and important improvements are to be made in the organ, which will be entirely reconstructed. Spohr's opera, Faust, was produced at the Royal Italian opera on the 15th under the composer's own direction. In order to adapt it to the Italian stage, the dialogue, originally spoken, was converted into recitative, the music of which was written by Spohr himself. |