... [TO THE EDITOR.] SIR,'—I have been in this part of the world some years, and as I regularly receive my old friend, the MONMOUTH- SHIRE MERLIN, I often see that many of my Monmouth- shire friends emigrate from my former home to Aus- tralia. In the hope of doing some good, I forward you the following, for insertion in the MERLIN, knowing from experience that the information therein is worthy of ...

... A SLEDGE MASQUERADE. Potsdam was enlivened by an animated spectacle on Saturday evening. The officers of the garrison got up masquerade, or rather en costume representation-partly III sledges, and partly on horseback-wherewilh they traversed the crowded streets, to the great delight, but not much to the historical edification of the spectator. The masque represented an episode in the history ...

... THE SECOND REPORT OF THE OFFICIAL MANAGERS. The official managers, by the desire of the Master of the Rolls, beg to lay before the shareholders a fur- ther report of the company's affairs and to refer them to- their former report, dated 17th December, 1853. The accompanying statement of the liabilities and assets of the company, as made up to the 30th September, 1853 and to the corresponding ...

... AUSTRIA. VIENNA, SATURDAY MORNING.—The Vienna papers state that on the 3rd instant, a convention was concluded between England and Turkey, by which the former took 20,000 Turks into her pay. The whole of Southern Ana- tolia is declared in a state of siege. The combined attack of the fleets and army was shortly to take place on Sebas- topol. Both, the Russian Grand Dukes are now, with an army ...

... We have much pleasure in transferring to the columns of the MERLIN an abstract of the report presented to the meeting of the shareholders of the East India Iron Com- pany, held inLondon on Friday last. It will be seen that most honourable mention is made of the Indian manager, a Monmouthshire man, Mr. Beaumont, a gentleman well known, and highly esteemed in this county, and the son of a ...

... THE PRINCIPALITIES. A letter from Bucharest, of the 3rd, mentions that the Croats in the Austrian service have been committing such atrocities in the neighbourhood of Craiova and other parts of Moldavia, that Prince Ghika at length declared to Gen. Coronini that unless something were immediately done, he would lay a statement of them before the Emperor. Gen. Coronini seeing the firm resolution ...

... FURTHER NEWS OF THE NAVVIES. Though the correspondence of the papers of Saturday acquainted the public that a commencement had already been made of the railway works on the intended line from Balaklava to the heights around Sebastopol, yet, as letters have been received from the navvies themselves, and from some others connected with the engineering expedition, the details so furnished will be ...

... A CURIOUS SUIT is about to be tried in the Bristol Small Debts' Court, W. O. Bigg, Esq., having summoned Monsieur Jullien for the sum paid for reserved seats at the late concert; the places appropriated to Mr. Bigg and his family not being the same as those he selected from the plan of the room, ...

... CHEPSTOW. Died, on the 20th inst. after a lingering illness, in the 82nd year of his age, Wm. Curre. Esq., of Itton Court-a member of one of the most ancient and respectable families, and one of the oldest magistrates of Monmouthshire. The deceased was esteemed as an upright magistrate, and for the general tenor of his character as a country gentleman, whilst his charitable disposition ...

... LITERATURE. THE SOLDIER'S WIFE.—A member of that intelligent community—the commercial travellers—Mr. Titus Lewis, of Carmarthen, generously presents to the managers of the Patriotic Fund, the entire profits of a metrical production of his, in verse, entitled the Soldier's Wife, a Tale of In- kermann, just published. The moral of the poem is good, the style easy and perspicuous, and if the ...

... PERILOUS POSITION. On Saturday last, Mr. Langham, plumber, was pI tced for a short time in a position of extreme peril, and from which it is almost miraculous that he escaped without injury. He had been on the top of Emanuel College, clearing the snow from the gutters, and came down, for- getting his hat on the roof. Before he recollected where he had left it, the fastenings of two ladders, ...

... The following description of an appearance observed by Captain Charles S. llichardson, of the brig Abeona, on the 4th September, 10-54, lat. 38 south, long. 13 east, on the recent voyage of that vessel from Liverpool to China, is taken from the official log of the captain:—Sept. 4. At 5 p.m.-liglit winds and smooth water-observed broken water on the larboard quarter, about three ship lengths' ...