The Sun. — London, England, 1868-02-05 00:00:00

.sriii,T OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. Mr. Bright, says the Times, has broached his scheme of redressing the anomaly or the Irish Church. It must be taken and weigned with many others which come to us from all quarters, but as a prelude to legislation it is lan promising. Mr. Bright's plan for settling the land ques. tien we are tempted to call whimsical. The ballot is pparently the instrument of cure upon which he would most rely. Grant the ballot and leases would follow : and if leases, prosperity, good farming, and con t-ntment. Next to the ballot, and auxiliary to it, Mr. Bright would place his plan of assisting tenants to buy the farms they hold from the great English landlords. We regret to think that these remedies smack of the quackery against which Lord Stanley protested. Everyone who knows Ireland knows that the estates of the great English landlords are those which are best managed, and the tenantry of which are the most cn,ntented. But, apart from this, we must lay it down as an indisputable result of experience that no class in Ireland can be trusted with the absolute control of its agricultural res, - nrces. There are many districts where leases have been granted and lessees hold undisturbed possession, and they all tell the same story of neglected cultivation, bad farming, cynical contentment with poverty. The Encum bered Estates Court, followed by the Landed Estates Court, has subdivided many great estates ; they have come into the possession of small purchasers, and we hear the tale of proprietors in Irish towns who had saved just enough money to buy a lot, and now extract from the cultivator of the soil the utmost penny, to the consequent debasement of the farmer and impoverishment of the land. If the existing state of Ireland be laid to the charge of the present race of landlords, there is no warrant for believing that the substitution for them of a number of petty pro prietors, or the indiscriminate granting of leases, would produce any beneficial change. If legislation afford any cure, it must be legislation of a totally different character. There must be some authority capable of intervening between proprietor and cultivator, and of reconciling the claims of each with the wants of the community. We do not say such intervention is necessary, but we protest that any suggestion for removing the ills of Ireland by a trans. formation of the race of Irish proprietors must be branded as an instance of the quackery which Lord Stanley deprecates. In the opinion of the Daily Noes, secresy is the bane of the Foreign Office ; the remedy for its faults, errors, defects, and partialities is light. The public knows little or nothing with certainty of what the Foreign Office is cloin7. It is a public department without supervision or verification. It can involve the nation in grave obliga tions and serious responsibilities without notice, and in the most complete ignorance. It makes political treaties on subjects of which we have never heard, and commercial treaties which surprise our merchants and traders. It involves us in wars with countries of which we know nothing, by a series of mismanagements which announce themselves only by their consequences. It employs a set cf men as diplomatists whose names we scarcely know; it transfers charges which ought to be voted annually for tic consular services to the Consolidated Fund ; and it has gradually deprived the consular service of its higher rewards, without a word of explanation until the change was made. It has induced Parliament to assent to a foolish and mischievous rule not to insist on its correspon dence being made public until it is concluded—that is, until public discussion is useless for remedial purposes. And, when it wants to snatch a public judgment in its favour, it foists interlocutory despatches into the London Gazelle. Clearly, then, says the Noce, the Foreign Office is just in that plight when a committee of the House of Commons on its composition and administration would be most valuable ; and if the investigation resulted in requiring from it an annual report to be laid before Parliament on what it was doing, and how it was doing it, a much more active sense of responsibility would be brought to bear on its members, to the breaking up of its habits of routine, its prejudices, and its spirit of exclusiveness, than now exists. The Standard understands that the decision of the Court of Common Pleas in the case of Grissell v. Bristow has been received with surprise and dismay on the Stock Exchange, and that the brokers now as a body feel them selves to be greatly ill-used men. It is said that an appeal to the House of Lords has been resolved on. But the iosoe seems to our contemporary a very plain one. It often happens that the motive of a man who sells shares, when they stand at a heavy discount, is to get rid of his liability, and this he can only do by transferring them to some one else. The broker knows this better than anybody, and by the course of business he virtually undertakes to secure the making of the transfer, at least so far as he has the power to promote it. If the transferee refuses to execute, the broker cannot help his refusal, or compel his compliance, and the vendor's remedy in such case is against the buying principal. But it is quite another thing when the broker, for his own convenience, arranges with his fellow broker not to do something which he ought to do, and so fails to make any endeavour to get the shares transferred at all The defendant relied upon the usage of the Stock Ex. change ; but this usage was very properly held insufficient to protect him. In the first place, the usage is unreason able ; and in the second, it was one of which the plaintiff did and could know nothing. Again, though the members of the Stock Exchange invariably deal with each other as principals, their rules expressly reserve the right of resorting to their employers whenever any necessity for so doing arises. In other words, though the defendant may have to pay Mr. Grissell the money which that gentleman has lost by his default, he has, or might have had, his remedy against the person for whom he bought. It certainly does seem strange to the Times that a sane and respectable man, who left his friend's house after five o'clock with the alleged intention of returning before seven, and who, moreover, had a wedding to attend the next morning, should of his own free will absent himself altogether, and disappear from the world. Yet such an event is proved by experienced not only to be possible, but to be even more likely than a murder in a tavern or a brothel. People are always disappearing, sometimes under the influence of an uncontrollable impulse bear ing no affinity to reason, sometimes under the spel of a sudden temptation, sometimes out of shame at some excess into which they may have been be trayed. It may be remembered that at the time Qf the accident on the ice in the Regent's Park many persons were looked for by their friends in the dead-house who had never been near the park at all, but had merely dis appeared during the preceding twenty-four hours. Tlrso represented, in fact, the evasions of a single London day. It is at least within the bounds of possibility that the missing man may have gone to some place where he was made intoxicated and kept until the dinner and the next day's wedding were over, and that afterwards he was ashamed to return. The posting of the placard, with the offer of a reward for his recovery, may have still further pre wen tcd his reappearanceby seeming to preclude the poss:- bility of the matter being hushed up. The throwing away of the hat may have been but a stratagem, and if it should turn out that the finder, who kept it several days, was roi,:taken as to the day he found it, this supposition would acquire further strength. There is also the possibility of a simple unreasoning flight. Men have before now gone out to their business like Mr. Speke, -and the next thing that has been heard of them is that they were at New York or Bombay. It is not always the surest way in these matters to look for what appears the most reason able. Men's minds often act in utter defiance of reason, and the most improbable solution proves to he the tn.° The Post, a propos of the American papers on the re lease of Mr. Train, proceeds to consider the principle of naturalisation lately enunciated in the President's Mes sage. Certain individuals accused of Fenianism before British tribunals alleged that, although British subjects by birth, they had become naturalised citizens of flit American Republic, and in such capacity had been divested of the allegiance which they owed to the land of their birth. The plea was disallowed, and all the autho rities on the law of nations confirmed the justice of this a iverse decision. In the United States, hoWever, this adoption of a well-established principle was regarded as an attack upon the liberties of the Ame rican people, and at th e open i ng o f C ongress t h e President, in Ins Message, suggested that a measure should be passed with the view of putting an end to this foreign jurisdiction. The Committee on Foreign Affairs, to which the matter was referred by the House of Representatives, has, it is believed, agreed upon the leading provisions of bill calculated to give effect to the proposal of the chief magistrate. Our contemporary expressed at the time astonishment at a proposed act of legislation so obviously beyond the province of any particular State as th a t indi cated in Mr. Johnson's Message. Whether a British natural-born subject can be divested of the duties inciden tal to his allegiance, as such, by the process of naturalisa tion in another State, can alone be a subject for the consideration of the British Legislature. If it is the law of England that his obligations cannot be got rid of by any act of his own in a foreign country, it is clearly for I:;iglish legislators, and for them alone, to change this law. In lii speecli at Bradford, the other day, says the Tde craph F o r,4cr made one or two c riticil , remarks of valut; On the Workshops Act ano the Factory Acts. The V. - ,rk , lioos :Ict does not order the Government in ! pc,:tors to visit tie place 3 in which it is mea T r!t to be oar . out--it only permits them. But, as, Mr. ()niter said, p,raiission riot sufficient. Already the Inpectors have enough t, do, and we cannot (XI wet vr, ip to , evcry large workshop as well as every large mill. _I hey will follow the example of some colliery inspectors, who do not go down hail a dozen pits in the course of a year, and whose supervision is thus comparatively worthless. Sai,ll laxity will not do. Without rigid inspection the Workshops Act will in many cases remain a dead letter; employers will dodge it—there is no other fitting word — just as they often strive hard to be classed in tie list to which the Factory Acts do not apply. Mr. Forster well said that, for the sake of the children, inspectors are as 4ccc4iipxy wen hops as Whops are ba the Church, MURDER AND SUICIDE. An inquest has been held at Leicester on the bodies of Emma Stone 'Crofts, aged 34, and Amy, her -daughter. The mother of the child for many years past had led a loose and immoral life. About seven years ago she was at some open-air movement, when a young man named Charles Crofts, of respectable,: position, a clerk in a solicitor's office in the town, fell in love with and married her. They lived together but a little time, as her husband, on finding that she was leading a profli gate life, abandoned her, went to America, and has not since been heard of. About two-and-a-half years ago she was taken to by a man named Preston living at Grantham, with whom she seems to have stayed up to within the past six months, and by whom she had the deceased child, who had attained the age of 1 year and 7 months. Since her return to Leicester she had again indulged in dissolute habits, had frequently been seen in a state of intoxication, and had often been heard to say that she would destroy the child and herself too. On Wednesday her sister happened to go into the house of her parents in Sandiacre•street, and was nursing the child in question, when deceased snatched it out of her arms, and said, " Give me my child, and I'll do for it and myself." She then took out of her pocket a bottle containing a dark fluid and endeavoured to swallow its contents, but both it and the child were wrested from her. She, however, took another bottle from her pocket and was about to drink the contents, when it was also taken from her, and also a caster from her pocket, which were all found to contain laudanum. On Saturday morning she re turned home about one o'clock, and seeme d very strange. She had several glasses of ale during the day, and about six o'clock in the evening, while her mother was feeding the child, she snatched it out of her lap and ran out with it ; but as it was supposed she was going to a neighbour's no further notice was taken of the act. A few minutes afterwards she was seen by aman named Joseph Rudkin passing down the street towards the canaL Fearing that something was wrong, he watched and followed her for some &lance. After looking about in various directions, she turned her back towards the Abbey and ran towards the canal side. Rudkin followed her, and shouted, " What are you going to do ?" but she rushed onward, and before he could get near to her hurled the child, which she had in her arms, into the water. She then threw her bonnet and child's hood aside, and rushed into the water herself. Rudkin then went to his own premises and procured a drag, and was using it, endeavouring to reach the deceased, when, with . . the excitement, he let it slip through his hands into the water. Assistance having arrived, he went to his yard. loosened a boat, and pushed it towards the floating bodies. He soon succeeded iu rescuinv the child, which was still alive, and which was taken into his house and properly attended to, but expired soon. In a few minutes he secured his drag, and with it brought out the deceased woman, whose body had floated some distance down the stream, and must have been in the water from twenty to thirty minutes. Life was quite extinct. Rudkin also stated that about a week since he was the means of preventing the deceased committing a similar act, when she said, " If I had got into the water no ono would have known anything about it." The jury returned a verdict that the deceased woman committed both acts while in an unsound state of mind, brought about by her intemperate and profligate habits. THE MURDER IN DUMFRIES, We yesterday reported a horrible murder from Dumfries shire. The circumstances of the case are of great atrocity. The little girl who was the victim of this fearful crime is named Thomasina Scott, the daughter of John Scott, shoemaker, at the village of Cummertrees, about three miles and a half north of Annan, and was one of a family of eleven children. She was a smart little girl, and her mother had been in the habit of sending her to Annan on Saturdays to make some household purchases ; and on Saturday forenoon, about twenty minutes past ten o'clock, she was despatched upon her weekly errand. Half-way between Cummertrees and Annan stands a lonely cottage —Longford Cottage—inhabited by a farm servant named Creighton, who is employed on a neighbouring farm. There the little girl called for shelter. A young man, named Robert Smith, or Colvin, was sitting in the kitchen talking to Mrs. Creighton, who was the only other person in the house. He had been engaged in harvest upon the af'j ,ining farm, and was therefore acquainted with the people of the district. When the little girl entered he asked whither she was going, and, hearing she was going to Annan, said he would accompany her on tho road. The two left the cottage together between eleven and twelve o'clock. The girl was never again seen alive, ex cept by Smith. The prisoner next appears upon the scene between three and four o'clock in the afternoon, when he re-entered Longford Cottage, in which Mrs. Jane Creighton (whose maiden name was Patterson) was then engaged in washing and scrubbing the kitchen floor. He struck her a heavy blow with a stick, or some such instru ment, and having thus stunned her he seems to have rushed upon her with a pocketknife, with which he inflicted coins severe wounch upon the unfortunate woman, cutting her throat acro33 in front, and inflicting two other scr:)r.s wounds upon the side and back of her neck. The blood flowed copiously, as the appearance of the floor amply :hewed afterwards. He then dragged the wounded woman into a back room, she struggling ; but while he was intent upon ccunpleting -the horrible murder he had commenced, two little boys who were passing on the road with a donkey cart, on their way to the farm where Creighton worked, called at Longford Cottage with a message for Creighton's wife. They knocked loudly at the door, but could obtain no answer. The noise, how ever, had the effect of alarming Smith, who seems to have desisted from his murderous work, for the woman soon came staggering to the door with her face covered with blood and with blood streaming down from her neck. The boys, alarmed at the horrible sight, call _l a shepherd from the neighbouring fields, 4nd in the meantime the prisoner rushed out of the house-door and was seen by the boys, who recognised him, he having been working on the same farm during the harvest. He ran across the rail way, and was there afterwards seen washing his hands by some railway labourers, among whom was a brother of the little girl who had been murdered. He then disap peared. Assistance was rendered to the half-murdered woman ; the police authorities at Annan were communi catal wall, and t'ie county constabulary at once com menced a search for the prisoner on the charge of the murderous assault upon Jane Creighton. The fate of the little girl Scott had not then been ascertained ; but the news of the assault upon the woman having been spread, the parents of the little girl became alarmed for her safety. They heard that she had been on the road with the prisoner and, as the child did not return home when she was expected, a search was commenced by lantern-lig7 t. Inquiry at Annan shelved that she had not been there ; and the roadside and neighbouring plantations were then carefully examined. At a place about half a mile south of Longford Cottage traces were first dis covered. There, by the side of a plantation, marks were found of a violent struggle ; and, crossing the palings and entering the wood, the searchers found the little girl lying murdered. There was a mark around her neck, sheaving that she had been strangled by a thin ligature —probably a leathern boot-lace—and the condition of her clothes and person sheaved but too plainly that a horrible violation of her person had been comm:tted before she had been murdered. The police were now informed of this second outrage, and they continued their search with redoubled eagerness. - Under the direction of Mr. Jones, the chief constable of the county constabu lary, the whole country round was scoured by police officers ; and intelligence was sent to Carlisle and other places with descriptions of the suspected murderer. After he had washed his hands in a - pool near the railway, he had been seen skulking beneath some hedges, and he was afterwards heard of upon the highway, but there traces were lost. On Sunday morning, however, the police again got upon the track of the murderer, and he was ap prehended about noon on Sunday, at 35, Queensberry street, Dumfries, where he had been lodging previously. His clothes were found stained with blood, and his under clothing was similarly marked ; and' a leathern shoe-lace tied in a noose was found in his pocket. The little girl had been robbed of about 103., the purse being found rifled near her body ; and some money was found upon the pri soner. The prisoner, Robert Smith, alias Colvin, is be tween 19 and 20 years of age. He is a native of Eagles• field, near Kirtlebridge, in Dunifriesshire. Dr. Deane, Q.C., has been appointed Admiralty Advocate, in the place of Sir Travers Twiss, who resigned on his appointment as Queen's Advocate. DEBT AND DOWER. —ln a case heard at the Assize Courts, Manchester, it was shewn that the e3tate of a deceased gentleman who had died intestate was insolvent, and the question before the court was as to the priority of claim of the widow and creditors respectively. The judge decided that the widow was entitled to dower out of the balance in priority ever ordinary creditors. TH2. RAVNG op POLICEMEN AND POSTMEN.— Mr. Bowater, a letter carrier of the Birmingham Post Of!ice, has receivel the feowing reply from the Chan cellor of the Exchequer in answer to a question as to whether the supposed exemption of policemen from rating extends also to postmen :—" Downing-street, rel , ruary 1, 1803.—Sir, in reply to your letter of the 30th of January, I am directed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to inform you that policemen are only exempt from rates when they occupy a police station or building used for public purposes, in which they are required to reside in discharge of their official duties.—l am, ail; your obedient servant, MONTAGUE CORRT. Mr, Henri Bowater." NA V. I L AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE. The armour-plated iron turret-ship Monarch, 6 guns, 5,100 tons, 1,100 -horse power, building at Chatham dockyard, the only turret-ship under con struction in either of the Royal shipbuilding yards, was commenced shortly after the keel of the Her cules was laid down, in the latter part of 1866. A variety of causes have, however, contributed to pre vent the turret-ship being pushed forward with that rapidity which has characterised the construction of the llercules, and fully 12 months more are likely to elapse before the Monarch will have a gun on board, or be ready to proceed on her experimental cruise. Although nominally intended to represent a power ful ship on the turret principle the " improvements" and alterations made in her design—for which it is only fair to remark the members of the late Ad miralty are chiefly responsible—have been so many and frequent that the principal advantages of the turret principle have been entirely sacrificed to the prejudices of naval officials connected with the Ad miralty, and for which the constructing department of the Board is in no way responsible. The chief distinguishing feature in the Monarch is the great comparative height of her free-board, or, in other words, the height of her sides out of the water, which from her water-line to her upper deck are 14 feet, or more than double the height of American turret ships, as well as those building for European Powers. In the turret-ship Captain, building for the Admiralty at the yard of Messrs. Laird, at Birkenhead, under the sole superintendence of Capt. _ _ _ Coles, the free board is carried to a height of 9 feet, the additional height being, it is understood, in sisted upon by the Admiralty. Another important deviation from the accepted theory of a true turret ship has been in the placing of a huge topgallant forecastle on the Monarch's upper deck—a strikingly novel feature, insisted upon by the Admiralty in opposition to the remonstrances of the officials con nected with the department of the Controller of the Navy, to whom the designs of the Monarch are credited—the effect of which will be that the turret guns will only be enabled to sweep a portion of the deck, instead of having an all round fire. The mechanics are busily engaged in the construction of the turrets, which are now being carried up to the upper deck. The turrets alone will absorb 177 tons of 10-inch and 8-inch armour-plating, the maximum thickness of 10-inch plating being fixed in that part of the turret close to the gun, and plates of Bin. in thickness in the remaining parts. The 10-inch plates will be laid on a backing of teak timber Biu. in thickness, and the 8-inch plates on a similar back ing of 10in. iu thickness. Behind the timber back ing will come a skin of i-inch iron plating, fastened to 7-inch girders, with au inner plating tin. in thickness, the total thickness of iron and wood in the turrets being 2f t. 2iin. Along the entire broad side of the vessel protecting the turrets will be laid armour-plating of 7in. in thickness, laid in five tiers, with a single tier of plates 6in. in thickness. All the plates are of the best rolled iron, from the esta blishment of Messrs. John Brown and Co., and Messrs. Cammell and Co., of Sheffield. The total quantity of armour-plating protecting the Monarch's sides will be 1,380 tons, of which about two-thirds have already been bolted to her sides. From the central broadside aft the plates range from a thick ness of 7in. to 4iin., with a minimum thickness of Sin. under the counter. Forward the plates taper from 7in. to 4in., with the exception of the third tier, in which none of the plates are less than Sin. in thickness. The armament of the Monarch, as at present decided upon by the Admiralty, will con sist of a couple of 22-ton guns in each of the turrets, the foundations for the platforms being already laid in each turret. In addition to these, however, and as a compensation for the Monarch not being able to fire her turret guns directly ahead or astern, a 6i-ton gun will be placed in the bow and stern. both guns firing in a line with the vessel's keel, and each protected by armour-plating. These guns will complete the Monarch's armament, while the height of the turrets above the water will enable the guns to have a greater range of training than could otherwise be obtained. The Monarch will be a full rigged ship, her running gear being worked from the upper deck as an ordinary vessel, the fore and aft bridge, or hurricane deck, usually seen in turret e n rs. ships not being fteaoir,efn : t e ennsp q or uetnehli Deptford-pier, e lntytf d aop . : r)oldeb:vsuprels tt he je m aanbci a llid e lent h )oth i r‘f n vra. e yiel r yl slty: being eii Ten nant,i e u i op t r oo s e al a i o bo n f or c su l m et C p a s o o : x . u w , that the vessel shall steam at a mean speed of working knotsyespteerrday hour. the shipwrights at Chatham dockyard commenced preparations for the launch of the iron clad frigate Hercules, which takes place on Satur day nex p t a , dshdloerwtlhyeael te fte n r anap mid-day. shi The Buzzard, 6, Staff Commander J. G. 11. Thain, from Queenstown, arrived in Plymouth Sound on Monday, and is now in A Ba N r re n r p y oo la l r w ge ai f t o in r g ee o is rders. expected at Aldershot dur ing the ensuing season. Among other regiments to arrive at the Camp are named the Ist battalion the th 2 e d abrraitvtaallioonf the st e h gi F tn u e s n i t l , ier f s r , ora fro E m di Dovernburgb ; , 42d Highlanders from India ; the 2d battalion 7th Regiment, from Bury ; the 2d battalion Bth Regi ment, from Malta, to arrive about the 22d inst. ; the 2d battalion 13th, from Portland ; the Ist bat talion 20th, from Devonport ; the 2d battalion 22d, f r om Newcastle ; the 31th, from P o rtsmouth ; the 57th, from Manchester; the 97th, from Portsmouth the 10th Hussars, from Newbridge, early in March ; the 3d Hussars, from Hounslow, to give over their horses prior to departure to India ; the Gth Innis fromc York,amp and the sth Dragoon togointo temporary Guards, ystables Northi n the from Colchester, to occupy the East Cavalry Bar r regiments lately arri v ed, and to ar rai v c e k , s h . emSeevwerila will also also be moved to Aldershot during the year, among others the 2d battalion 3d Buffs, 27th, 35th, and 67th Regiments, and 2d Rifle Brigade. A number of militiaregimebnattst,atloioan, will be sent to the Camp for the usual 28 days' training, making altogether a force equalled only in of officers, composed of Col. the A ea r r e l g y ini d e ay nt s a o l f h t o h a e rd C o a C. W. Adair, Royal Marines Light Infantry, pre sident ; Major J. C. Jervoise, 3d Depot Battalion ; and Major J. Thompson, 50th Queen's Own Regi ment, assembled at Chatham garrison yesterday, for the examination of the following officers of the Royal Engineers as to their qualifications for pro motion :—Lieut. S. C. Turner, Lieut. G. J. Jack son, Lieut. D. C. Courtney, Lieut. W. 11. Purcell, Lieut. V. F. Garwood. and Lieut. 11. S. F. Hayns. One hundred and eighty non - commissioned officers and gunners of the 2d Division, Depot Bri gade, Royal Artillery, arrived at Sheerness yester day from Warley, to augment the strength of the Ist Division, which has been lately considered re duced by large draughts having left for India to join their respective Brigades. Messrs. Kirk, building contractors to the War Department in the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, on the foundations of the s S e a l t ,e u n r d n a i y a gcaortinnienseriecsredderle3dyintog be erected on the river bank in the Arsenal marsh. They are to be bomb proof, and detached from each other by lofty mounds of earth, to guard against injury in case of acci dental explosion. They are intended for filling and preparing live shells and 40-pounder gun cart ridges. In addition to the metropolitan police on duty at the dockyard and naval establishments at Chatham having the charge of the ordnance establishment, the armoury, and the magazines and stores of am munition at Upnor Castle, another duty has been imposed on them, by direction of the Secretary of State for War, the charge of the Royal Engineer tieldworks, which cover a considerable extent of ground at Chatham. This duty it has been found necessary for them to discharge in consequence of the great injury occasioned to the fieldworks by unauthorised persons trespassing on the Crown lands, as well as the depredations and thefts which are constantly occurring. The charge of the Royal Engineer fieldworks by the police commenced on Saturday, a force of men being now on the ground both by day and n'ght. It is needless to add that this arrangement is in no way connected with Fenianism. _ • The Danae, 6, screw sloop, Captain Sir Malcolm THE SUN, LONDON, WU DNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 5, 1868. M'Gregor, is taking on board in Portsmouth har bour steam navigation coals and ballast preparatory to making renewed trials of her speed over the mea sured mile in Stokes Bay, ordered to be made before she sails on foreign service. The Danae is just now the representative vessel of the Amazon class, and as she so represents seven sister vessels now in com mission, and serving on foreign stations, two others just completed on the building slips, and three whose frames and timbers are cut out and ready to be laid down on the slips, it will be as well, perhaps, to see what these vessels really are, and under what conditions they are being equipped and sent to sea. The twelve vessels possess a total measurement of 15,208 tons, and a nominal engine power of 4,200 horse, the latter being capable of working up to 25,000 horse as the combined and exerted power of all the engines. All are uuarmoured vessels, are ship rigged, carry as armament two 7-inch, 6i ton muzzle-loading rifles, and four 64-pounder con verted (Palliser) rifles, and average a speed over the measured mile with ordinary steam coal of 12.5 knots with full boiler power, and of 10.3 knots with half boiler power. The Danae class thus form quite a little fleet of unarmoured, wood-built ships of themselves on the Navy List of the Admiralty; but it may be sail at once, and this is the understood special complaint of the Constructive Department at Whitehall, they do not fulfill all the conditions upon which such uuarmoured wooden vessels should be equipped and sent to sea. When Lord Clarence Paget first drew the attention of the House of Com mons from his place as Secretary to the Admiralty to this class of vessel, as the then Amazon class, his lordship, no doubt, anticipated a still higher rate of speed than even the 12.5 and 13 . 3 knots they have since averaged under full and half boiler power. Now the complaint is that the Board of Admiralty, I or rather the Sea Lords' portion of the Boards, by their continued interference with the Constructive Department, so cripple the latter, that no one de sign for a ship submitted is ever built and equipped for sea according to the ideas of her designers. Clearly, if this is so, the responsibility of a ship's success or failure must lie on the shoulders of the Boards of Admiralty rather than upon the Control ler and Constructor of the Navy. A careful exa mination into all the particulars connected with the design and equipment of the first-named class of vessels, from the Amazon downwards, only furnishes one answer. It is entirely owing to the interference of the members of Boards of Admiralty with the duties of the Controller's de partment of the navy in technical and vital matters connected with the design or equipment of a ship, and With regard to which a Lord of the Admiralty could know nothing, except by some fancied and private theory of his own. When the Amazon class were first designed in the Controller's office the intention was to produce exceptionally fast vessels under steam at full speed, and economically steam ing vessels at slow speed, and carrying too heavy guns as armament. With these primary objects of rapidity of motion and concentrated offensive power, all weights in the form of rig, boats, crew, and stores, were cut down as much as possible. A very light rig was designed that should only give sufficient canvas to control the vessel, no boom boat was allowed, and 90 hands named as the number of the crew, all told. The Board of Admiralty no w send the Danae class to sea with a full ship rig three times the weight of the one designed for ; a heavy boom boat amidship s ; an a ddition of two 6 4 - pounder guns, and 180 as the number of her c rew all told. To put it, per h aps , more plainly, the weights she carries i n excess o f what she was de signed to carry ar e —t w i ce the weight of masts, yards, sails, riggin g , and all boatswain's stores ; a large boom-boat with it s gear an d fittings ; two 64- pounder rifled guns, with their carriages a nd s lides, shot, shell, &c. ; and 90 officers and me n, with all their provisions, st ores , an d c lothing. Under these altered conditions, th e co untry is having adde d to its navy two spoilt, uuarmoured cruisers for the sum which ought to give three perfect and very much swifter vessels. Her Majesty's 2-gun steam storeship Fox, Staff- Commander William S. Leeke, yesterday com menced shipping in Woolwich steam basin a cargo of naval stores for Portsmouth, Ireland, and other places. Her spacious hold and storeage room ren der her infinitely superior to any vessel of that de scription iu her Majesty's service, and, although carrying double the amount of stores, the objec tionable deck cargoes, t he sub j ect of so much com pavoided, oided'the huge boilers and other iu t are av y gearbeing stowed, with the remainder a e of the cargo, below. totally The Magpie, 3, twin-screw gunvessel, 663 tons, wood built, to be fitted with engines of a combined nominal power of 160 horse power, will be launched from No. 2 slip in Portsmouth dockyard on the 12th instant. MISCELLANEOUS NEWS. From the Anglo-American Times.) PARIS, Jan. 30. It must prove interesting to the general reader, accustomed to regard the Emperor Charlemagne the real founder of the monarchy of France, simply in the light of one of the steel-clad and iron-fisted Paladins of romance, to learn that he was the first i t o s y rewarding the ch of her monarchs to com p rehend th e necessity of public instruction ; that he not only established sc hools, but exhibited t he g reates t personal interest in v o s a i r t s ing who he hi m self with the greatest attent ion to the masters, and inviting to his Co urt the most distinguished scholarsdistinguishedl andn pers themselves—listening savants of every country. Canonized by the Church after his death, he has been selected as the patron of scholars and of the Lye6es or colleges of France. His fete has been fixed for the 28th of January in each year, and on that day all the schools of France honour the memory of their august founder. By the Lycees of Paris this fete is celebrated by a banquet; but as Charlemagne in his day recom pensed only the deserving, tradition has been so far followed as to give only to those pupils who have been either first or second in their class the right of attending the festival in question. At this ban quet, usually held in one of the most ancient colleges, the convives represent all nations, all creeds, and all races, whilst amongst the guests of bygone days were reckoned Moliere, Voltaire, Crebillon, and others of the most distinguished literary names of France. The banquet on Tuesday last, received additional prestige from the presence of the Prince Imperial, who has already distinguished himself in his course of public instruction, whilst the Em peror, with his usual kindness of heart and fore thought, furnished a liberal supply of game, together with sundry baskets of champagne. In deed, it is more than probable that the two days' sport in which his Majesty has indulged at Com piegne, in which no less than 2,364 head of game of different kinds were brought to book, were under taken principally for this reason, for the heart of the father goes out towards the son, even in the smallest matter, and the affectionate solicitude with which he guides his steps from day to day in the glorious path of peace and progress, is proverbial. Never did scion of royal race commence the ardu ous education befitting royalty under more favour able auspices. President of one of the noblest and most brilliant Expositions the world ever saw, win ning his way by merit in the grand old colleges of the Empire open to all the world, what is there left to hope, not only to the children of France, but to the general philanthropist, but that the career com menced so brilliantly may have as brilliant a course and a long career. The period appointed for the " closing of the chase" is now rapidly approach ing, and the vast quantities of game with which Paris has been inundated will speedily disappear. I find that scarcely a twentieth part is furnished by France, the principal supply coming from Germany, Poland, and Russia by the railways ; the importers being chiefly Jews. Wild boars, roe bucks, deer, hares, and rabbits arrive in vast numbers from the Grand Duchy of Baden and from \Vurtemburg, as do also pheasants and partridges. Heilbronn and Strasbourg supply heath fowl, Russia and England grouse and woodcocks. The latter are rare in France, but are very plentiful in Corsica, Sardinia, and iu various parts of Italy, where they are taken in nets. Thrushes and small birds come from the Lago Maggiore and Lago da Gardo, where they are captured in vast numbers by the Lombard peas ants. Larks from the neighbourhood of the Lot, Lot et Garonne, Loiret, &c., whilst the various species of water fowl, swans, ducks, geese, snipe, &c., arrive from Holland, Bretagne, Somme, and the Bay of Arrachon. The financial estimates of France for the coming year have been made public. The sum required for the maintenance of the two services, public works, maintenance of public order, &c.,, Sze., amounting to the sum of 440 millions of fralics, about a million and three-quarters sterling. The, Democratic party have availed themselves of this circumstance to make a final coup against the proposal for the reorganization and amelioration of the military service ; but the lovers of order will scarcely imagine the security of the country and the consequent re-establishment of public confi dence too dearly purchased at such an outlay, espe cially when the enormous sums are considered at present lying idle in the coffers of the Bank of Prance, principally from the timidity of capitalists, which the feeling of increased security would pour forth in a thousand channels to supply the great arteries of commercial enterprize, and to react in the prosperity of the country. A grand banquet lbas taken place at Nice in honour of Admiral Farragut, and amongst the distinguished guests present were—King Louis the First, the Dukes of Glucksburg and Parma, Prince Stirbey, and a host of aristocratic names, assembled to do honour to the American hero. A new piece has just been brought out at the Theatre Francais, entitled " Paul Forestier," which bids fair to create a furore in Paris. The drama is exceedingly well put on the stage, and the vivid colouring with which the author, M. Emile Angier has invested the passions developed in the course of the piece, does infinite credit to his imagination as a poet. In its outline the play bears a strong resemblance to the " Dame aux Ca melias" or " LaTraviata" of Dumas; and although in " Paul Forestier" everything is brought right in the end, and the curtain falls upon the triumph of con jugal happiness, there are certain points which I fear would bring the drama below the standard of morality required by an English or American audience. A very brief outline will serve to give the reader some idea, not, indeed, of the poetic and beautiful language in which the plot is clothed, but of the plot itself. Master Paul has formed a liaison with a young lady, married and separated from her husband, who, in respect to said husband, seems perfectly capable of repeating the line of Byron's heroine— " The proof how much I can lova is, I love not thee." The aforesaid liaison does not meet the approval of Forestier, senior, who by a little intrigue induces his son to believe that his mistress (Lea) is weary of and deceiving him, and presses him to marry a young and highly accomplished lady, who is quite prepared to leave her convent for that sacrifice. Paul appears to resemble _Midshipman Easy in his younger days; you may lead him with a thread to pick cherries, however much they may disagree with him afterwards ; he yields, and is married accordingly. All goes on merrily for three months, when a certain Adolphe de Beaubourg, friend of Paul, appears on the scene. De Beaubourg is a sort of fop, always seeking hat the French term les bowies fortunes, but seldom having the good fortune to succeed. He confides to Paul that he encountered in Italy a certain dame to whom be laid siege for some time without the remotesb prospect of success ; how, on a certain night, as the clock struck twelve, she came to him of her own accord, and on the following day he had been turned out of doors and never since allowed another interview ; how he has again discovered his charmer in the shape of a widow living at Paris; and lastly, his wish (not being over particular) to offer her, through the medium of Paul, his hand. Paul undertakes the office, and of course here au explanation comes about, and the hero of the piece finds out, first of all, the little game of his respected parent ; and, secondly, that in her conduct towards De Beaubourg, he has acted from feelings of jea lousy and revenge towards himself. Of course all the varied feelings of old love, jealousy, disgust at being deceived, &c., throw him once more at the feet of his ancient mistress, who, however, resolves for a change, to do the virtuous, and dismisses him, favouring M. De Beaubourg with her hand, in order to place au eternal barrier between them—a barrier which, at the commencement, did not seem to pos sess any great weight in the way of opposition, whilst at the same time Camille, the wife of Paul to back her up, makes an attempt to kill herself, taking care at the same time that Forestier, junior and senior are in the way to prevent her. These circumstances combined overawe Paul, who appears a rather weak-minded character; he conspts to live happily with his wife, and the curtain ?ails ac cording to the French press, with the final triumph of virtue. There can be no doubt with regard to this most attractive drama that the human passions are vividly portrayed, that the language is im bued with the spirit of poetry in no ordinary degree, that the interest is kept up from the commencement to the fall of the curtain ; but the Parisian critics may rest assured that if ever a translation or adap tation of " Paul Forestier" comes to England or America the author will first of all have to answer the pertinent question -44 Wet knows you on his moral carakter ?" Our correspondent, writing from Naples Jan. 24, 1868, says :—The Duke and Duchess of Aosta arrived last week. They had been long expected, but the notice given of their actual arrival was so short that their reception was not as brilliant as it might have been. Besides, there is much distress amongst all classes, and the view of a live Prince is not enough to cheapen bread. It is to be hoped that the Carnival gaieties of which there are plenty in store will cause a little money to circulate. Vesuvius continues to throw out lava, several new streams having appeared, thus affording ample scope for sight-seeing to the crowd of visitors. On the evening of thel3th January certified state ments of the decision of the Senate pronouncing the President's charges against Mr. Stanton unsustained, and the removal from the Secretaryship conse quently unjustifiable, were served both on Mr. Stanton and General Grant. At nine o'clock on the following morning Mr. Stanton proceeded to the War-office to take possession, but General Grant had then gone to the Head-quarters of the Army, leaving the key with his adjutant, which was brought by an orderly to the Secretary. From that office the General addressed to the President the following note :-- " Head-quarters, Army United States, Jan. 14, 1868. "His Excellency, A. Johnson, Thqsident. " Sir,—l have the honour to enclose herewith a copy of official notice, received by me last evening, of the action of the Senate of the United States in the case of the lion. E. M. &Anton, Secretary of War, according to the provisions of an Act regulating the tenure of civil offices. My func tions as Secretary of War ad interim ceased from the mo ment of the receipt of the within notice.—l have the honour to be, respectfully, your obedient servant, (Signed) "U. S. GRANT, General." It is stated that the President will decline to hold any communication with Mr. Stanton, issuing all military orders through General Grant, and, it was said, but it is now denied, that Mr. M'Culloch has ordered his department to hold no official communication with the Secretary for War until he states his determination. Indeed all the depart ments recognise the present incumbent, and the Treasury honours his drafts. It is also announced that both Generals Grant and Sherman have urged Mr. Stanton to resign, but numerous members of the Senate had written urging him to retain his seat. After Mr. Stanton had become installed in his office, he had an interview with General Grant. He had - directed General Louis 11. Pelowze to take charge of the office and resume his old place as Adjutant-General; aad he had given instruc tions to his own clerks, who hal returned, while those of the General had left ; also he had drawn his pay, amounting to $3,000 for the period he had been out of office. General Butler paid his visit to Richmond on the 13th January, and was received by about 15,009 Virginian freedmen, who escorted him through the city. In the evening he delivered an excellent ad dress, which was listened to with enthusiasm. He sketched the history of the Government from 1789 to the war which ended with emancipation. He described the effects of that measure on the status of the blacks with force and clearness. The most important part of his speech related to confiscation— - the time for which had gone by, if it ever existed and it was now impracticable, and if practicable, undesirable. He held that farms which cost nothing were worth nothing, and were land grants made to the negroes they would probably be of as little use to them as those made to the white sDldiers in the i'Vest. At the same time he warned the holders of great estates that they must be broken up, and advised the sale of small lots either for money or labour to the coloured people, which would anticipate legislative action, for to that it must come. He disliked as much a landed Northern aristocrat as a Southern one. If any wax of races occurred he considered it would not be begun by the blacks. The New York, Citizen is severe on the auction sales of sittings in Plymouth Church. The bid dings took place on the 6th January, when a throng of fashionable Christians competed for pews in Mr. Beecher's capacious church. " The stock has been unusually active during the present week among the board of brokers," remarks the Citizen, as if re porting on the markets ; and again, " among the auction sales of the present week none have been s) well attended with wealthy buyers, as the sale of pews at Plymouth Church." In a leader the subject is animadverted on as follows : —" Is it not more than a suspicion that the best seats of the Plymouth play-house are purchased with the same view that the front seats are sought for at the opera, viz., because they are most favour able for the display of costly toilets ? Of such may be the kingdom of Beecher, but of such is not the kingdom of Heaven. Exclusiveness (at which high pew rents appear to aim) is well enough in society, but it will not answer in religion or politics." It is in this church that Mr. Dickens meets his audiences in Brooklyn. How it pays may be gathered from the following figures :—The assessed rental of the pews this year is 412,8.10, while at the sale bonuses were paid for choice places to the amount of $37,736 more, making the yearly income from the pews $48,738. Eight hundred dollars premium was given for the right of first choice at this sale, and some 40 persons gave sums ranging from that amount down to $2OO dollars for subsequent choice& The last nomination of the President to the Am bassadorship at Vienna has been the lion. Samue S. Cox, formerly Democratic Congressman from Ohio. . Like its predecessors, it is almost certain to be thrown out by the Senate, which will make the ninth attempt to fill the vacancy created by the key-hole observer, M'Cracken, who perhaps was not aware of the difficulties he would create by his foolish letter to the President. Congress, not content with laughing at and tabling the President's ‘lessage • publicly to recog nize General Ilancock's noble order at New Orleans, has introduced a bill, recommended by the Military Committee, reducing the number of majors-gene ral in the army to four, and of brigadiers-general to nine. The object is to remove Generals Hancock and Rousseau, and to effect this the Secretary of War is ordered to strike out the names of those las' commissioned. This is, indeed, a public recogni tion of the men the President " delights to honour," and, it is in keeping with the resolution, in reply to the Message thanking General Sheridan for his conduct while a District Commander, censuring the Presi- dent for having removed him, and thanking General Grant for his opposition to that step. The bill was postponed for a week, under a threat of the Oppo sition to "fillibuiter," if time for debate was not allowed. The agitation throughout the United States for protecting the rights of naturalized citizens is on the increase, and assuming a national aspect. It will give rise to important legislation, as all Americans are agreed on this subject ; and it is understood that the President will send a Message to Congress taking ve r y hi g h groun d . Th e op i n i ons h e ld i n America are generous and becoming to a great na tion, and will be: cordially reciprocated throughout Europe. " A great country like ours," said Speaker Colfax, at the mass meeting held at Washington on the 10th January, " must either cease to naturalize the millions who come to us from abroad, or protect them in the rights of citizenship professed by our laws. As it is the greatest glory of any nation that it protects the poorest and humblest of its citizens as earnestly as the richest and most powerful, we should be as quick to throw the shield of our na tionality over all who have taken our oaths of alle giance in our courts as if they had been born on our soil. To demand that they should fight, bleed, and die for the country of their adoption in war as American citizens, and then fail to protect then as American citizens in peace, at home or abroad, would be a national shame. I have no doubt that Congress *ill speak on this subject with no uncer tain voice." Meetings have been held throughout the country, in which all parties have joined. At some of these, the Fenians obtained control, when an element of hostility to Great Britain was intro duced. But the agitation is directed to the settle ment of the question on a fair, secure, and permanent basis, which should long ago have been determined. The difficulty will be with Prussia. That kingdom conceded to the United States so far as to permit citizens who emigrate, even without permission, accompanied by their sons under the age of 17, and who remain over ten years, to lose their nationality and become exempt from conscription. Otherwise the emigrant is liable to arrest on his return to his native land, unless he has discharged his service, or paid his commutation. Mr. Emile Kahn, a Prus sian, naturalized, and residing in Cincinnati, lately asked Mr. Seward if he, as an American citizen, would be protected against arrest on returning to Prussia. In reply, Mr. Seward stated that his right to exemption from military service could be main tained under certain circumstances, but he might be subjected to trouble, to which the United States Government would advise him not to expose him self. • The Five Constitutional C onventions now at work in the Southern States are getting through their business. On the 15th Jan. the Charleston Convention selected Collector Mackay of that city President, and as entire corps of coloured officers, excepting its Secretary. The negroes have a ma jority of 10, and they are using this to some purpose in the. Palmetto State, where is now presented as strange a freak as fortane has ever witnessed in this changing world. North Carolina has elected C. J. Cowles, of Wilkes County, President ; and James 11. Jones, the old body servant of Jeff. Davis, cap tured with him, for principal door-keeper. The Convention has resolved to expel any reporter who describes delegates by colour. In Louisiana a white man has been nominated for Governor, and a negro for Lieut.-Governor on the refusal of another coloured gentleman to accept the applintment, as he aspired to the higher post. Messrs. Sypher, Jones, - and New Sham have been nominated for Congress ; eighty-two articles have been finished, and the whole will soon be completed. There is no money to pay the delegates, as bonds have been in vain offered for sale, and a law enforcing a tax on pro perty has been fruitless. The Georgia Treasurer, removed by General Afeade, has surrendered his keys, but the General has found the vaults empty, the funds having been transported to New York. The General has also removed the Controller, and appointed a military successor. The Treasury bcoks have not been given up. The Convention of that State has adopted a resolution praying Con gress to appropriate $200,000,000 for a national system of cheap railways. General Butler visited the Convention at Richmond, on the 13th Jan., and while it was in the act of debating whether he should be invited, with the unbounded assurance that characterises all his actions, he delivered a speech which lasted an hour. The Conservative members left their seats, whilethose who did not re quire to be converted remained to be enlightened by the General's political notions. The Convention has adopted an ordinance prohibiting imprisonment for debt, and has passed a resolution of thanks to Gen. Meade. A question is suggested to Congress more easily asked than answered.—" Suppose the Supreme Court decides the Supreme Court Quorum Bill' to be unconstitutional by a two-thirds vote—What is to be done ?" How could the question be raised before the court, and by whom argued ? Thaddeus Stevens has published another letter in favour of Universal Suffrage. He predicts that " the Republicans, once beaten into a 'minority by ;he force of negro prejudice, will never again ob- - - taro the majority : the nation will become a des- potism." " With Universal Suffrage," he says, " I believe the true men of the nation can maintain their position ; but without it, whether that suffrage be impartial or in any way qualified I look upon the Republic as likely to relapse into an oligarchy which will be ruled by coarse Copperheadism and proud Conservatism." The Republican Convention of Tennessee has coupled Grant for President, with "Parson" Brown low for Vice! The National Convention of the Grand Army of the Republic in session at Philadelphia has also nominated Grant, as well as the Connecticut Republican Convention, which has brought forward William A. Buckingham of that State for Vice. Mr. Charles Dickens gave his first reading in Philadelphia, in the Concert Hall, on the 13th of January. -He was received in the Quaker city with enthusiasm. The Public Ledger describes it "as a state of popular excitement; that, taken in all its phases, is without a parallel on our side of the ocean." Many people stayed out all night to get seats in the Plymouth Church for the Brooklyn readings on the 16th and 17th January. Early this month Mr. Dickens will give his four readings in Washington, the price of each seat being fixed at five dollars. He will make a tour of the West, and it is announced will return to England on the 22d April. The telegrams from New York, which giving other than the market news, are dated January 25, and inform us that the steamers leaving for Europe on that day took out $1,000,000 in specie. Also, that according to Messrs. Neill Brothers' Circular, the receipts of cotton at all United States ports during the week amount to 82,000 bales, and since the Ist of September to 1,162,000. The week's exports to Great Britain were 47,000, and since the Ist of September 458,000. The week's exports to the Continent 25,000, and since the Ist of September 227,000. The total exports for the week 72,000, ar.d since the Ist of September 685,000. Stock at all ports, 350,000. The Times correspondent says there are rumours that Mr. Adams intends to resign the English mis sion, and that General M'Clellan will be nominated in his place. Even if true such a nomination has no chance of confirmation by the Senate. The news from Copenhagen on the 30th January was that the treaty with the United States relative to the sale of the Danish West Indies had just been finally passed by the Landsthing. Both Chambers of the Diet have, therefore, definitively given their assent to the project. Despatches from St. Thomas' have announced to Mr. Seward the result of the voting by the people of St. Joha and St. Thomas on the subject of annexation to the United States. In the total poll of 1,266 only 22 ballots were cast against the proposition. Mr. Arthur Dumas has written a letter announc ing that he is preparing a statement, with the names of ships destroyed by the Alabama, involving loss to Glas gow, London, Paris, and Rotterdam underwriters. I'he famous cruiser, ho says, not only caused a loss to America, but the burden fell as well on English and other Euro pean packets. It is rumoured that the Hon. S. Shellabarger, of Ohio, will resign his place in Congress from ill health. Mr. Arnell has introduced a resolution, adopted • by the House, instructing the Committee on the Library to inquire into the subject of an International Copyright. The Republican candidate for Governor in Con necticut is Mr. Harvey Jewell, brother of the Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He was born in Winchester, New Hampshire, in 1823. His father, Pliny Jewell, of the firm of Jewell and Sons, tanners, of Hartford, put him into his business. Becoming an export operator in telegraphing, he rose to be General Superintendent of the Telegraphic line between Nash ville and New Orleans. Iu 1849 he returned to Hartford, and entering as partner into his father's business succeeded iu establishing it as one of the leading houses of its kind in the United States. He has paid three visits to Europe, extending his travels to Esypt, the Holy Land, and Tur key. He spent a large portion of his time last summer at the Paris Exposition. He is a lover of art, and has shown an excellent taste in his admirable selection of paintings by the best artists of the modern school. His election is considered more than probable. Lord Hobart, who took the American view in the late controversy on the Alabaula claims, proceeds to Constantinople on a salary of £i,ooo a year, as manager of the Imperial Ottoman Bank. Among the deaths recently announced in Americs. are Judge William B. Wright, of the New York Court of Appeals, and his son-in-law, Commander Laßue P. Adams, Gen. Frederick Steele, lately in command of the military department of the Columbia, Philander P. Prindle, for three years clerk of the New York Assembly, and James Powers, a prominent and aged lawyer of Columbia county, New York. The Right Rev. John Henry Hopkins, Pro testant Episcopal Bishop of Vermont, died at the Episco pal residence at Rock Point on Thursday afternoon. Bishop Hopkins was of English extraction, but was born in Dublin, January 30, 1792, so that at the time of his death he was 76 years old. His parents emigrated to this country when he was only eight years of ago, and he was mostly educated by his mother. He was intended for the law, but, after receiving a classical education, he passed a year in a counting-room in Philadelphia, and for a. short time assisted Wilson, tho ornithologist, in the preparation of the plates for his work. In his 19th year he embarked in the manufacture of iron in Western Pennsylvania, but this business was much prostrated by the peace of 1815, and two years afterwards he failed, and betook himself to the study of the law. After six months' study he was ad mitted to the Pittsburgh bar, where he practised until 1823, when he quitted the bar for the ministry. He had previously married a daughter of Caspar Otto Muller, a re tired merchant of Baltimore, but previously of Hamburg, Germany. Immediately upon his ordination in 1824, Mr. Hopkins became rector of Trinity Church, Pittsburgh, where he remained until 1831, when he went to Trinity Church, Boston, as assistant minister on the Green foun dation. In 1827 and 1829 he was clerical deputy in the General Conventions of the Church, and in both he took a prominent part in the debates. He was a candidate for the assistant bishopric of Pennsylvanuia in 1827, but being a tie with his opponent, Dr. Ouderdonk, he decided the con test in favota of hid competitor by casting his own vote in favour of the othef: In the same year that Mr. Hopkins removed to Boston he became Professor of Divinity in the new Theological Seminary of Massachusetts, and the next year, 1832, he was elected first Bishop of Vermont, an office he filled until his death. He accepted at the same time the rectorship of St. Paul's, Burlington, which he retained until the year 1856. One of his latest works was a "Church History in Verse," published last year, but this effort did not reach the dignity of poetry. Bishop Hopkins was present at the Pan-Anglican Synod at Lambeth, in which he took a prominent part. While abroad the degree of D.C.L. was conferred upon him by the University of Oxford. He had but recently returned to this country and his diocese, and, notwithstanding his age, his death will be a surprise to many. In the dissension dividing the Episcopal Church, Bishop Hopkins was a de cided champion of the High-Church party, and refused to sign the famous protest of the bishops last year against High-Church practices.—New York Tribune. [ADVERTISEMENT.]-1 1 fo110way's Pills.—lt is difficult to determine which is the more trying to health-intense cold or excessive heat—though everybody knows that sudden transitions from the one to the other teem with disease, which may in most instances be staved off by an early resort to these purifying, regulating, and strengthen ing pills. This well known and highly-esteemed medicine affords a safe and easy remedy fur almost every constitu tional wrong which climates, changes, or dietetic errors can engender, and effectually removes any weakness self indulgent habits may have induced. In all conditions of the system bordering on disease, indicated by apathy, list lessness, and restlessness, Holloway's pills will prove espe cially serviceable in begetting a vivacity appreciated by both sound and sick. Births. ST. PAUL—On the 19th ult., Lady St. Paul, of a daugh- TIIROCKMORTON—On the 30th ult., at 293, Albemarle- street, the wife of Captain Throckniorton, Of a son. VIVIAN —On the 3d inst., at 5, Buckingham-gate, the Lady Augusta Vivian, of a son. Marriages. ABDY—MERRIMAN -On the 4th inst., at Tottenham, the Rev. Albert Charming Abdy, M.A., of Worcester Col lege, Oxford, to Dora, second daughter of S. B. Merri man, Esq., of Tottenham and Austinfriars. KINDERSLEY—MURRAY—On the 4th inst., at Paddington , Edward N. M. Kindersley, Esq., Captain 19th Foot, to Ada Good, fifth and youngest daughter of John Murray Esq., of Whitehall-place, and Stanhope-street, Hyde park-gardens. Deaths. MERRY - On the 3d , inst., at Upper Holloway, N., Thomas Merry, Esq., aged 80. STACEY—On the 2d inst., at Merstham, Mr. Mich!. Stacey, aged 77. TixsoN—On the 2d inst., at Cheltenham, George Tinsoni Esq., aged 79. THOROLD—On tho 3d inst., at Tunbridge-wells, Charles Thorold, Esq., of Dacre House, Lee, aged 61. London : Printed and Published by WILLIAM ANDBENO of No. 112, Strand, Printer , at THE SUN Office, No Il2 ' s Strand, in the Precinct of the SP voy, in the County 0' DLiddloox.—Wednesday, February 0, ItoB.