MEMORANDA.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 166, 24 May 1859, Page 3

MEMORANDA.

A letter from Rome in the Opinions of Turin J acidises Colonel Bruce of a breach of etiquette in not allowing the Prince of Wales to have a private interview with the Pope, but entering the presence with his royal highness, although, observes the writer, the prince was received as sovereigns are, and as such should have been introduced to his holiness alone. " The writer of the letter is no doubt ignorant of the fact,"' observes Galignani, " that Colonel Bruce has positive instructions from home not to leave the prince alone for a single minute, and that he could not therefore act otherwise than lie did." , . The baptism of the inf.ait son' of Prince Frederick William took place at Berlin on tho oth of March. Tlie name of the young prince is Frederick William Victor Albert. A letter from the Prussian capital gives us a few particular,. "The Prince Regent held the inmnt prince/at the baptismal font; and the young mother, the Princess- Frederick William, was a witness ofthe ceremony from an apartment the doors of which open into the chapel. -When the baptism was over, the Grand Mistress of tlie Household, Countess Perponcher, took the child to its mother, and all the company followed to present tlieir congratulations to her royal highness. The streets were dressed with flags and "garlands, and at night the entire city was illuminated. Some of the streets presented a magnificent appearance. Among the public edifices remarkable for the splendour ofthe illuminations was the Hotel de Villo, which was lighted up by more than 50,000 jets of gas. At all the theatres a gala representation was given." _ A few days ago, the Roman Catholic municipality of Vienna contributed £5000 -towards the construction of a Protestant school-house. His majesty the emperor has just given SOOO florins towards a new church'for the Jesuits, and he has also contributed the same sum towards a place of worship for his Protestant subjects. The leading submarine cablemakers are now willing to contract for the successful submergence of an Atlantic wire, taking all the risk of loss or damage upon themselves. As regards the old cable afc Valentia, no change has taken place in its condition; in case of a fresh, wire being laid, the old one would undoubtedly be valuable for the return current; but, except, to this limited extent, there are no hopes, it is said, of its ever being further utilised. In consequence of a difference of opinion .as to the Reform Bill, Mr. Walpole and Mr. Henley have retired from the Cabinet. Mr. Walpole is succeeded as Secretary of State'for the Home department by Mr. Sotheron Estcourt, now President ofthe Poor Law Board, and Lord March will replace Mr. Estcourt. Mr. Henley has been .succeeded as President ofthe Board of Trade by Lord Donoiighmore, Vice-President of the same department; and Lord Lovaine, a lay. Lord of the Admiralty, replaces Lord Donoughmore. Mr. F. Lygon, M.P. for Tewkesbury, will succeed Lord Lovaine at the Admiralty. Lord H. G. Lennox has retired from his office as one of the Lords of the Treasury ; and Viscount Hardinge has.resigned the office of Under Secretary of- State for War. The latter has been succeeded by Lord Rosslyn.. Major-General Charles Havelock, the brother of the late Sir Henry, has, the United Service Gazette hears, been appointed Chief of the Constabulary of Lancashire. . Cardinal Wiseman presided the other evening at the anniversary dinner of a charitable institution connected with the Roman Catholic church. The cardinal, in proposing the health of the Pope, referred to Lord Palmerstou's recent speech on the State of Europe, and expressed his surprise that the noble lord should have forgotten that, a year ago, the Pope, relying upon the fidelity of the Roman people, proposed thafc Austriaand France should evacuate Rome. Sir Francis Head published some weeks ago, in the Times, three letters in defence of the Emperor Napoleon. He afterwards cut them out from the columns of that journal and addressed them to the emperor himself. The emperor has acknowledged them in the following letter, which Sir Francis also sends to the limes :— Palace of the Tuileries, March 1. My Dear Sir Francis, —I thank you for having collected together, in order to send them direct to me, the different articles you have had inserted in the English journals, for you thus give me an opportunity of expressing to you all my gratitude for the sentiments of which you have nofc feared fche spontaneous manifestation in my favor. I have seen in them, and lam much touched by it, a new proof that my old friends in England have not forgotten me, and that they know how much I always preserve for the English people the esteem and the sympathy which I felt during my exile in the midst of them. Even in writing to you to-day I detect myself in recollecting as a happy time the epoch when, described, I saw you in England. It is that in changing one's destiny one only changes one's joys and sorrows. Formerly the afflictions of exile alone appeared to met to-day I see plainly the cares of power, and one of the greatest of them around me is, without doubt, to find oneself misunderstood and misjudged by those whom one values the most, and with whom one desires to live upon good terms (vivre en bonne intelligence). Thus (ainsi) I consider it very natural that the parties whom it has been my duty to oppose and to repress should bear me ill-will, and should seek the means to injure me; bufc that the English, of whom I have always been the most devoted and the most faithful ally, should attack me incessantly in the journals in "the most unworthy and the most unjust manner, is what I cannot comprehend; for, in truth (de bonne foi), I cannot discover any interest they can have in exciting the public mind against France. If, in my own country, 1 chose to act in that manner,, ifc would :be impossible forme affcerwards,to restrain the passions which I should have let loose (dechamces.) I have always entertained a great admiration for the' liberties of* the English people; bat ; I regret, deeply that liberty, like all good things, should also have its excess. Why is ifc that, instead of making truth known, it uses every effort to obscure it? Why is it that; instead of encouraging and developing generous sentiments, it propagates mistrust and hatred? I am happy, then, among all these manoeuvres of falsehood (mensonge) to have found a defender, who, guided by the sole love of truth, has not .hesitated energetically ,to oppose his loyal and disinterested voice.—Believe, my dear Sir Francis, in my sentiments of friendship. Napoleon. Sir Francis Head, Croydon. In inclosing to the Times a copy of the above letter, Sir Francis says:-—" Its calm magnanimous sentiments towards England, will, I feel confident, be duly appreciated and admired by your innumerable readers, of all classes and politics, in every region of tlie globe. Indeed, it must be evident "to them all, thafc if the English press, in accordance with the desire of the British nation, would but accept instead of repudiate the hand of friendship which the Emperor Napoleon 111., now at the i head of half a million soldiers, has unceasingly extended towards England since his election by the French people, the combined power, energy, and wealth of both countries would be enabled to insure to Europe the inestimable blessings of ' that peace which passcth all understanding.'" A good deal of attention has been excited within the last week by a pamphlet on the Italian question, which M.* Faririi has just poblished-at Turin, under the form of a letter to Lord Johu Russell. Farini's endeavor is to show that

Austria has violated the treaties of 1816; that there is, therefore, so far as she is concerned, no obligation to regard those treaties; and.that England aud France ought at once to join against her in a war for Italian independence. Lord Cowley arrived some time ago, as tvo noticed in our last, in London. He was ordered on a special " mission of reconciliation" to Vienna. He returned to London a few days ago without having succeeded, it is understood, in improving the relations between France and Austria. The Queen has been pleased to direct letters patent to be passed under the Great Seal, granting tlie dignity of a baronet ofthe United Kingdom of . Great Britain and Ireland unto Charles Nicholson j of Luddenham, in the colony of New South Wales, knight, and the heir male of his body lawfully begotten Mr. Cobden's arrival in New York is announced in the American newspapers. Sir Henry Dryden, the representative of tho family of the poet, has promised his valuable collection of local antiquities to the townspeople of Northampton, if a suitable and prominent museum is established in the town. A chess match is now in progress at Paris between M. Moneredien, the president ofthe London club, and Mr. Morphy. The two first games wero played on the 26th of February, in the presence of several eminent French players, among whom were noticed M. de Riviere and M. de St Amant. The conditions are -that the winner of the first seven games, as was the case in Mr. Morphy 'a ■ matches with Harhvitz and Anderssen, is to bo r the victor, Present score :—Morphy, 4; Mongredien, 0; drawn, 0. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, who has been practising for the last' seven years in New-York as a physician for women and childveii,,J^a_ delivered, during the last two weeks, afc-tlie. Marylebone Institute, a series of lectures to ladies on topics con- '' nected with tho subjects of medicine and hygiene in connection with special duties of women in the spheres of domestic life. One lady has offered to contribute the sum of ,£BOOO towards the endowment of a female sanitary professorship and women's hospital, provided such au institution shall bo established in London. The fair lecturer delivered her discourses with much ease of manner.