Russian Court, recently died at St. Petersburg; and he has left
the whole of his very large fortune to the Emperor. Sir James
was a Scotchman, and was born in 1768. He was knighted by
the Prince Regent in 1814, and created a baronet at the
request of the Emperor Alexander, on his departure from
England.

COLONIES AND DEPENDENCIES.

The Overland Mail has brought dates from Calcutta
to the 4th, and from Bombay to the 14th of February.
The accounts from Burmah are still very unsatisfactory.
Captain Barry, the Commandant of the Arracan
Battalion, left Kianggiam in command of a detachment of
his regiment, to act in concert with a large force under
the command of Major Cotton, of the 67th Regiment of
Native Infantry, which had been despatched from
Prome against a party of Dacoits. When on the line of
march the guides of his detachment led him into an
ambush, and whilst about to cross a river he was
attacked by a body of Burmese under the command of
Moung-goung-gee, and shot dead. He was mortally
wounded by two musket-bullets, one of which passed
clean through his head, and having fallen from his
horse he survived but a few seconds. In the rencontre
Lieut. Thompson, of the 68th Native Infantry, was also
wounded in the arm so severely, we are sorry to say,
that it became necessary to amputate the limb. It was
stated that the men whom Lieutenant Proctor had shot
were the guides of this detachment, but recent accounts
contradict the assertion, and as yet all that is known is
that the Lieutenant is in arrest for executing, on his own
responsibility, two Burmese.

A contradiction of the circumstances attending the
murder of Captain Latter, as related in a previous
account, has been given by a brother officer. No
authentic particulars of the melancholy occurrence have,
however, transpired.

The scarcity of food in Madras will, it is said, almost
amount to a famine.

The East India Company has sustained another loss by
the wreck of the Indus river steamer Meteor. When
near Jorruck she struck on a rock, and although her
commander ran her ashore, yet she filled so rapidly that
no hopes were entertained of saving any part of her,
except her engines.

The West India Mail has brought accounts from the
different colonies. At Jamaica cholera had broken out,
but was confined, at the latest dates, to the Lunatic
Asylum, where sixteen deaths had occurred. In the
market dealers were still deterred from operating to a
large extent, in consequence of the general advance
which was maintained in the prices of all imported
goods. At Demerara the crop is likely to be plentiful,
and weather suitable for making sugar. Grenada will
make a thousand hogsheads of sugar more this year than
last. At Antigua the weather was dry and unfavourable.
Incendiary attempts had been made to burn the
city. At Nevis there had been some cases of cholera.
Cholera also raged at Belize and Tortola. At St.
Thomas the cholera had nearly disappeared.

Advices from Melbourne of December 12th bring the
report of the Committee on the new Constitution. The
following is a digest of the franchise, &c. That the
property qualification of a Legislative Councillor should
be a freehold of £10,000 value, or producing an income
of £1,000 per annum. That no Legislative Councillor
should be elegible unless he shall have possessed his
property qualification for one year previous to his
election. That every Legislative Councillor should be
a British-born subject. That the possession of a freehold
valued at £1,000, or producing an income of £100, should
be the qualification for an elector to the Legislative
Council. That any person having in possession a lease-
hold estate which shall have been held for one year,
and shall have three years to run, and which shall
confer upon him a beneficial interest over all charges
and outgoings of £300 annually, and any tenant in
occupation of any leasehold estate who shall pay the
sum of £300 as the rent thereof, should be an elector
to the Legislative Council. That all graduates of
any university in the British dominions who shall have
been resident in Victoria for twelve months should be
electors to the Legislative Council. That all barristers
and solicitors on the roll of the Supreme Court who
shall have resided in the colony for twelve months
should be electors to the Legislative Council. That all
legally qualified medical practitioners who shall have
been resident in the colony for twelve months should
be electors to the Legislative Council. That all
officiating ministers of religion, as defined by the act
16th Victoria, No. 76, should be electors to the
Legislative Council. That all licensed occupants of Crown
lands possessing 8,000 sheep or 1,000 head of cattle, free
of all charges and incumbrances, and having been in
possession for one year, should be electors to the
Legislative Council. That the qualification for a member of
the House of Assembly should be a freehold estate of
the value of £2,000 free from all incumbrances, or
of the annual value of £100. That every member
should be required at the commencement of
every new session, to make a declaration that he is
possessed of the qualification required by law, and to
give a description thereof. That no naturalised alien
should be qualified to be a member of the House of
Assembly, unless he shall have been naturalised for
five years next preceding the registration before the
election, and resident two years in the colony before
such registration. That the qualification of an elector
to the House of Assembly should be one of the follow-
ing:—1st. Freeholder, of £5 annual value. 2nd. Lease-
holder, of £10 annual value, in sole or joint occupancy.
3rd. Householder, of £10 annual value, in sole or joint
occupancy. 4th. The holder of a salary of at least £100
yearly. 5th. Any person giving consideration which
will entitle him to occupy crown lands for twelve
months. Six months' possession, prior to registration
of any one of these qualifications, in the same electoral
district, should be necessary. On the 15th of December
the subject was resumed by the colonial secretary in the
Legislative Council, when the bill was read and
discussed, and the 18th of January appointed for the
second reading.

NARRATIVE OF FOREIGN EVENTS.

The Hon. Captain Blackwood, who was charged to
deliver the British ultimatum to the Emperor of Russia,
returned to London on the 25th inst. from St. Petersburg.
The Czar has gratified his pride, and gained six
days by refusing to return any direct reply to the
summons from France and England. The Czar "has
no answer to send." Captain Blackwood arrived at
St. Petersburg on the 13th, and delivered his message,
waited until the expiration of six days, and on the 19th
begun his homeward journey.

It appears that the Emperor of Russia, baffled in his
attempt to gain over England to his views, has made a
similar attempt in France. The Moniteur has published
an article on the Russian secret correspondence, closing
with the following passage: "As to the government of
the Emperor Napoleon, there is but one observation to
make upon the studied endeavour of Russia to leave it
out of the question in her plans of territorial remodification,
—which is, that Russia came back to the French
government after having failed in London, and that