of vessels—eight vessels, of 2800 tons aggregate burden
—now building at Liverpool, "is not under the average
number." The moderate prices held for some time past
by all the articles of food-consumption, have induced an
increased consumption throughout the country; and the
increase of consumption has in its turn raised to their
natural position in the wholesale market some articles
which special influences had depressed to panic prices.

The Hospital attached to the medical school of King's
College has been placed in permanent connexion with
the College itself. At a special meeting of the Governors
of the Hospital, on the 29th ult., it was resolved to abrogate
the thirty-fifth rule, vesting the funds of the
institution in trustees, and further, "that the site of the
Hospital, together with all the property belonging to it,
shall vest in the corporation of King's College, London,
for the purposes of the Hospital." This amalgamation
has been effected with a view to facilitate the measures
now in active progress for carrying out the project of a
new and regularly endowed hospital. The subscription
towards the fund of £50,000 for the new building and
endowments, in the short time since the Council of
the College took the matter in hand, has risen to nearly
£21,000.

The Financial Returns of the country, to the 5th
instant, present very satisfactory results. Notwithstanding
the replacement on the 1st of February, 1848,
of the last sliding-scale of duties on corn by a nominal
duty, and the reduction of the sugar duties on the 5th
of July, the decrease on the Customs, as compared with
the Customs of the quarter ending January 5, 1849, is
little more than £40,000. On the Excise there is an
increase of about £36,000, and on the Stamps of about
£40,000; both showing resuscitated enterprise, full
employment, and wages more than sufficient for the
necessaries of life. On the assessed taxes there will be a
decrease of about £20,000; and in the Post-office a
trifling increase. In the Excise there is a decrease of
about £89,000, arising wholly from the postponement of
the hop duty. The Stamps show an increase of about
£257,000; the assessed taxes, a decrease of £9,000, and
the property tax, an increase of about £65,000—a sum
which represents additional income to the amount of
£2,200,000 per annum, and, at 5 per cent., an additional
capital of £44,000,000. From the beginning of the
financial year to the end of December, including a period
of nearly nine months, the expenditure of the United
Kingdom fell short of that in the corresponding period
of the previous year by no less a sum than £3,340,000.
This is made up out of the following items:—To the
reduction on the interest of Exchequer Bills we owe a
difference of nearly £150,000; to the reduced expenditure
in the army we owe nearly £540,000; to the same
process in the navy nearly £1,300,000; in the ordnance
about £740,000, and in the services provided for by the
miscellaneous estimates nearly £300,000.  Since April 5,
there has been no fresh grant for Irish distress, whereas
in the corresponding period of the previous financial
year, there was expended on this account £272,382. In
other items there is an aggregate difference of about
£70,000 in our favour. The Treasury, however, does
not yet derive the full benefit of this sum of £3,340,000;
for, owing to the advances by way of loan under various
British and Irish acts, which nearly double the repayment
of advances during the last nine months, the
actual reduction of expenditure during that period
amounts to about two millions and a half.

PERSONAL NARRATIVE.

The Queen and Prince Albert, with their children,
personally witnessed the distribution of her Majesty's
New Year's Gift of food and raiment to the poor of
Windsor. The distribution took place in the Riding-
school of the Castle. The presents consisted of a handsome
quantity of blankets, flannel, and calico, of meat,
bread, and plum-pudding, and of coals, distributed to all
the deserving poor in the parishes of Windsor and
Clewer, as indicated in a list by the ladies of the
District Visiting Society. A number ot the clergy were
present. The poor people manifested respectful
gratitude.

On New Year's Eve, the Lord Mayor and Lady
Mayoress gave a Juvenile Entertainment, in the
Mansion House, to several hundreds of the young children of
the citizens. The company entered the Egyptian Hall
at about seven, and the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress
tliemselves led off a country-dance with a young partner
each. At ten o'clock the amusements were varied by
the introduction of Mr. Love the polyphonist; who,
from a stage erected for him in one corner of the room,
delighted and mystified the young people with his clever
ventriloquisms. At eleven the parents of the children
arrived, and assumed a wise control at the sumptuous
supper-table. After supper, dancing was resumed till
near twelve.  When the hour of midnight began to
strike, the lights waned simultaneously, in signification
of the departing year; when twelve o'clock had struck
the lights again sprang up, and the hall was in its former
blaze of illumination. The Lord Mayor and Lady
Mayoress seated themselves at the upper end of the
hall, and shook each young couple by the hand as they
passed; a courtesy they acknowledged with wishes of a
"happy new year."

Lord Brougham has been passing his time, in his
retirement, at Cannes, in philosophical pursuits. A
letter from that place dated the 19th, says, "Lord
Brougham has been making some interesting experiments
on light here, which are just terminated. At
eleven o'clock at night on the 14th inst., four members
of the Royal Society of London gave to our population
a ravishing spectacle; at the top of the towers of the
Noble Lord the apparatus of the electric light was
placed, and at the same instant a luminous point shone
from the Ile Sainte Marguerite, and its brilliant rays
displayed to all eyes the beauty of that enchanting site.
The same rays were afterwards directed on the
magnificent scenery of the Cap-Roux, and on the
picturesque roadstead of Agai. The coup d'Å“il at such an
hour was so beautiful, that applause suddenly broke
forth from all parts. The next day Lord Brougham, in
the midst of a numerous and chosen circle, gave a
detailed and very interesting account of his experiments
on light."

At a meeting of the York, Newcastle and Berwick
Railway Company at York on the 1st instant, the settlement
of the company's Claims on Mr. Hudson, their
late chairman, came on for discussion. The chairman
said that legal proceedings had been commenced, two
bills in equity having been filed; but propositions had
been made by the friends of Mr. Hudson, and the directors
had taken legal opinions which recommended a
compromise with Mr. Hudson, on the following terms:
Mr. Hudson had undertaken to pay in all to the
company the sum of £100,000, he (Mr. Hudson) having,
during the past year, paid to the company no less than
£90,036, and Mr. Hudson would further pay the
expenses the company had been put to in the matter. After
some sharp discussion the compromise was agreed to.

Mr. Hudson has at length come forward to defend
himself from the charges made against him in regard to
his Railway Transactions. He has published a letter
stating the pith of his justifications in the several
matters of—1.The Brandling Junction Railway, and the
Newcastle and Berwick Railway; 2.The Sunderland
Docks; 3.The purchase of his own iron rails for the
York, Newcastle, and Berwick Company. On the first
head, he says the shares were voted to him in public
meeting, for services previously rendered, and then
thought valuable. On the second, he says that his
Newcastle and Berwick Railway shares were original
shares in the company of which he was the originator,
and for which he was responsible. The Sunderland
Dock shares were taken by him with two other directors,
for the direct benefit of the York, Newcastle, and
Berwick Company. It is not denied that in this he exceeded
the legal authority reposed in the Directors:
parliamentary sanction was, no doubt, necessary, as in all
former cases, "where the Directors had not shrunk
from this description of responsibility, when it was
important that delay should be avoided." "The
Company has ratified the purchase of some West Durham
Railway shares taken by me in a similar manner, and