The Press.
London, England, 1854-04-22 00:00:00

370

MR. HENRY UNWIN ADDINGTON has resigned his
office of Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,
which lie has held since March 4, 1842. Mr. Ad-
dington entered the service of the Foreign-office so
far back as 1807. After having been successively at-
tached to the missions in Sicily, Spain, Berlin, Stock-
holm, and Switzerland, Mr. Addington was appointed
Secretary of Legation at Switzerland in 1814 ; at
Copenhagen, 1821 ; at Washington, 1822; and Mi-
nister Plenipotentiary at Frankfort in 1828; and at
Madrid in 1829. He is of course entitled to his diplo-
matic pension after so many years' service, and on
his retirement has been elevated by the Queen to the
rank of a Privy Councillor. Mr. Addington is suc-
ceeded as permanent Under-Secretary of State in the
Foreign Department by Mr. Edmond Hamond, who
entered the Foreign-office in 1824, and who has been
a clerk of the first class since 1841, at the head of one
of the departments.
THE ANNUAL RETURN relating to loan societies
for 1853, by Mr. Tidd Pratt, has just been printed.
There are 267 loan societies in England and Wales,
only one being in Wales. In Lancaster there are
58 (the largest number) ; in Middlesex, 34; in War-
wick, 42; and in York, 33. There were as many as
6,267 applications to one office in Manchester, and
the amount in circulation by the office last year was
25,632. In the year out of the 267 loan societies,
318 distress warrants were issued.
THE " RIGHTS OF NEUTRALS" are further ex-
plained and extended by an order in Council, pre-
pared on the 15th instant and gazetted on Tuesday.
It is now ordered that
all vessels under a neutral or friendly flag, being neutral or
friendly property, shall be permitted to import into any port or
place m her Majesty's dominions all goods and merchandise
whatsoever, to whomsoever the same may belong, and to export
from any port or place in her Majesty's dominions, to any port
not blockaded, any cargo or goods, nothing being contraband of
war, or not requiring a special permission, to whomsoever
the same may belong.
And it is also permitted that
all the subjects of her Majesty and the subjects or citizens of
any neutral or friendly state shall and may, during and notwith-
standing the present hostilities with Russia, freely trade with
all porta and places wheresover situate, which shall not be in
a state of blockade.

IT is currently reported in respectable circles in
Manchester that the Greek mercantile houses there,
and in London and Liverpool, have subscribed largely
to promote the insurrection in Turkey. The Man-
chester fund alone is said to have reached 10,0001.

THE ANNUAL ACCOUNTS OF THE BRITISH MU-
SEUM laid before Parliament were printed on Satur-
day by order of the House of Commons. It appears
that the sum required for the year ending on the 31st
March, 1855, is 55,2251. The sum granted for the
year ended the 31st ult. was 55,8401. There was an
increase in the number of visitors to the general
collection last year compared with the preceding.
In the year ended Christmas, 1852, the number was
507,973, and in the year ended Christmas last,
601,113. The expenditure in the financial year
ended the 31st March last was 54,0341. 4s. 6d., and
the balance carried to the current account was
16,189/. 10s. Bd.
THE HORSE GUARDS AUTHORITIES have restored
Colonel Peyronnet Thompson, the author of " The
Corn Law Catechism, " to the list of Colonels, from
which he was excluded in 1848. _ _

IN the week ending Saturday last the deaths regis-
tered in London showed a decrease on the returns of
preceding weeks. The number was 1,087; in the
previous week it was 1,149. In the ten corresponding
weeks of the years 1844-53 the average number was
1,013, which if raised in proportion to increase of popu-
lation, becomes 1,114.
A MEETING is to be held in London on Saturday,
the 29th inst., for the purpose of considering the best
method of carrying into effect a desire universally en-
tertained by the friends of Sir Thomas Noon Tal-
fourd, that a suitable memorial shall be erected in
honour of the late lamented judge. The idea, which
has up to the present time met with the largest share
of favour amongst the literary men who have been
consulted upon the subject, is the foundation of a
Tefourd scholarship in one or both of the great na•
tional universities.

THE value of the practice of " conditioning" silk is
daily becoming better understood in London, and a
resolution is contemplated by the most influential
portion of the trade to adopt it in every case after tbe
Ist of June next, with the exception of China and
Bengal raw silk.

DURING the year 1853 there were built and regis-
tered in the United Kingdom 635 sailing-vessels of
timber, of the collective burden of 146,380 tons, and
ten of iron, of 8,576 tons ; the number of steamers
built was 30 of timber, with a tonnage amounting to
3,305, andll7 of iron, with a tonnage of 44,010 ; 32
colonial•built vessels (20 of them from New Bruns-
wick) were registered here, and ]O2 foreign ; the ton-
nage of the former was 26,443, of the latter, 30,073.
69 of our sailing-vessels and 15 of our steamers,
with a united tonnage of 5,221, were broken up in
the course of the year, and 669 of our sailing-vessels,
and 12 of our steamers, together of 120,714 tons,
were wrecked.