the 16th instant; the Bishops of Worcester and
Manchester, Lord Calthorpe, and some members of the House
of Commons, sharing in the proceedings. The whole
debt owing by the institution three years ago—£98,000
—has been paid off; the yearly revenue is £10,000; and
the scholars are 1460,—a noble instance of what may be
done for our great public seminaries by sound and
judicious administration.
A statement has been published, showing the Immense
Increase in the Consumption of Sugar in this country.
This increase is steady and continuous. In 1844, the
last year of the old system, the consumption of sugar
was 207,000 tons. In 1851, its consumption had
increased to 330,000 tons; and there has been a positive
increase in the last month, as compared with the
corresponding month in the previous year, of more than 5000
tons. In the short space of eight years we thus see an
increase of more than one-half, or upwards of fifty
per cent.
The annual meeting of the friends and supporters of
the Lambeth Ragged Schools was held on the 23rd, the
Earl of Shaftesbury in the chair. The report was
gratifying. The Sunday evening schools progress
favourably; they are under the care of thirty teachers,
and are attended by 509 children, of which 260 are boys,
and 249 girls. Both the infant day schools and the week
evening schools are in a prosperous condition, and the
improvement is so manifest in the children as to call
forth expressions of gratitude from their parents. The
former of these is attended by 255 boys and 137 girls,
and the latter school by 80 boys and 115 girls, making
in all 1096 children who are in the receipt of a sound
religious and moral instruction. The ladies' committee
have provided eleven girls with good situations, and
assisted them with suitable clothing. The financial
statement showed the receipts for the past year,
including subscriptions and donations £145 16s., to have
been £238 5s. 01/2d., while the expenditure for the same
period amounted to £345 2s. 91/2d., thus leaving a sum
of £106 17s. 9d. due to the treasurer.
PERSONAL NARRATIVE.
HER MAJESTY held an investiture of the Order of the
Bath, at Buckingham Palace, on the 22nd. Lord
Broughton was invested with the riband and badge of a
Civil Knight Grand Cross; General Sir Peregrine
Maitland, Admiral Sir Thomas Capel, and Lieutenant-
Generals Sir Alexander Woodford, Sir Henry Frederick
Bouverie, and Sir John Fox Burgoyne, were invested
with the insignia of Military Knights Grand Cross;
Major-General Sir John Owen, Lieutenant-General Sir
Thomas Downman, Vice- Admiral Sir Anthony Maitland,
Lieutenant-Generals Sir Archibald Maclaine, George
Charles D'Aguilar, Henry Goldfinch, John Bell and
George Brown, and Rear-Admirals Phipps, Hornby and
William Farebrother Carroll, were invested as Military
Knights-Commander.
The successor of Prince Schwartzenberg as Prime
Minister of Austria, is Count Buol Schauenstein, who
has been for some months the Austrian Minister in
London.
The Earl of Mansfield is appointed to be her Majesty's
High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the
Church of Scotland.
The Queen and Prince Albert have authorised their
names to be put at the head of a subscription-list for the
sufferers by the loss of the Birkenhead; and the
members of the Cabinet have also subscribed.
Professor Wilson has resigned his Chair of Moral
Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. In his
letter of resignation, addressed to the Magistrates and
Council of Edinburgh, he adverts to his declining
health, which he had hoped would have been sufficiently
restored to enable him to resume his duties; but, he
says, as the year advances, these hopes decay, and he
feels that it is now his duty to resign the chair which he
has occupied so many years. The communication was
received with expressions of deep regret.
Mr. Feargus O'Connor has suddenly left London, and
embarked at Liverpool for the United States. The
object of his flight is said to be, to avoid the
commission of lunacy which has been issued against him.
Thomas Meagher, the Irish political convict, has
escaped from Van Diemen's Land. He had previously
given notice that he would not renew his parole.
Considerable excitement has been produced by an
account of Two Ships having been seen Imbedded in an
Iceberg about twelve months ago, which are supposed
to have been Sir John Franklin's vessels, the Erebus
and Terror. A correspondence published by the
Admiralty contains a statement by Mr. Simpson, mate
of a brig called the Renovation, then on a voyage from
Limerick to Quebec. Mr. Simpson says:—
"On the 20th of April 1851, at six A.M., I saw two
full-rigged ships (one about 500 tons, the other 350) on
an iceberg, high and dry, the larger one on her beam-
ends, head to the westward, three ships' lower masts
only standing with bowsprit, masts painted white,
apparently not housed over; the smaller one was about
350 tons, head to the south, with lower and topsailyards
across, sails unbent, topmost on end, yards very square
and black, not housed over, nearly upright: both
vessels apparently abandoned."
Mr. Simpson added, that the master, Captain Coward,
was very sick in bed; and when Mr. Simpson called
him, and stated that two vessels were in sight on an
iceberg, he was too unwell to take any notice, and
answered "Very well;" Mr. Simpson therefore did not
like to take the responsibility of bearing up to examine
the vessels. He also states that the iceberg and the
vessels were seen by Mr. Lynch, a passenger, and
the other mates. But the fact of the vessels having
been seen, and the inference that they were Sir John
Franklin's, have been called in question. Mr. Simpson's
statement, it seems, does not correspond with statements
made by Coward, the master, that he himself was upon
deck and saw the vessels, but did not at the time think
of Franklin's missing ships. Further inquiries are going
on by order of the Admiralty. Captain Ommanney has
been to Limerick, and personally examined Mr. Robert
Simpson, the late mate of the Renovation. No new
facts are brought out, but the former statement is made
more exact; and the official report of Captain Ommanney
shows that he believes the statements of Simpson, and
is inclined to think the ships seen may have been those
of the lost expedition.
The new expedition to search after Sir John Franklin,
—consisting of the steam-ships Intrepid and Pioneer,
and the ships Resolute and Assistance, under Captain
Sir Edward Belcher,—started from Woolwich on Thursday,
on their voyage to the Arctic regions. They have
among their apparatus charges of gunpowder in copper
tubes, for blasting the Arctic ice, when it may be
important to save time by hastening the break-up of
detaining masses; harpoon-guns, for striking large
cetacea at a distance; and Minié rifles for bringing
down deer at four times the present range of Arctic
fire-arms.
Obituary of Notable Persons
THE DOWAGER QUEEN OF DENMARK, SOPHIA FREDERICA,
widow of Frederick VI., and daughter of the late Landgrave
Charles of Hesse Cassel, died at Copenhagen on the 21st ult., in
her eighty-fifth year.
SIR JOHN SHELLEY, BART., died suddenly on the 28th ult., at
Lonsdale House, Fulham, in the eighty-first year of his age.
HER SERENE HIGHNESS THE DUCHESS IDA OF SAXE WEIMAR,
mother of his Serene Highness Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar,
and sister of the late Queen Dowager of England, died very
suddenly on the 3rd inst, at Weimar, in the fifty-eighth year of
her age.
PRINCE FELIX SCHWARTZENBERG, the Austrian Prime Minister,
died suddenly of apoplexy at Vienna, on the 5th inst. He was
born on the 2nd of October, 1800, and was consequently in the
fifty-second year of his age.
LIEUT-GENERAL SIR JOHN HARVEY, K.C.B., Lieut-Governor
of Nova Scotia, died at the Government House, Halifax, on the
morning of the 22nd ult., In the seventy-fourth year of his age.
LORD DYNEVOR, who had been for some time an invalid, died
at his seat, Barrington Park, Oxfordshire, on the 9th inst., in
his eighty-seventh year.
LORD DUNSANY, one of the representative Irish peers, died on
the 7th inst. at Dunsany Castle.
LORD PANMURE died at Brechin Castle, on the 13th inst., at
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