... MERTHYR JUNCTION RAILWAY.—The cost of con- structing this proposed new line and works, including the purchase of land, &c., is estimated at £ 80,000. ASSIZES.—Mr. Baron Watson and Mr. Baron Channell will sit at the ensuing assizes on the Oxford circuit. EXORBITANT PRICE OF GAs.-Private meetings have been held at Brynmawr, to discuss the high price charged for gas. The proprietor, who it is ...

... The rebels, defeated at Cawnpore, have fled to Bithoor and Calpee. Thirty-eight guns have been taken. Colonel Seaton again defeated the rebels at Puttiala, near Futtyghur, with great loss, on December 17th. He took eleven guns. The loss on our side was trifling. A force, under Captain Woolly, on December 7th crossed the Soonair River, and routed the rebels. On the 10th of December the same ...

... A MYSTERY SOLVED.—A poor man was selling newspapers in this locality, about a week ago, and meeting or passing a gentleman on his way, he solici- ted him to become a purchaser of his wares, to which the latter most indignantly refused to comply, at the same time informing the vendor of the broad sheet to tell the publisher of the same to mind and not print any more lies in his paper, and then ...

... A long article in the Revue de deux Mondes has just appeared. The contrast is not hurtful to our self-love. The writer thinks the English press wonderful for its flexibility, and intelligence, and self-possession. That of France is exclusively political. The gist of the article may be found in the following extract:—111 informed both as regards foreign and home affairs-superficially ...

... Accounts from Constantinople state that the new Minister of Police, Mehemed Pacha, has definitely re- organised the police of that capital on the French system. The city has been divided into four quarters, which will be guarded by 700 policemen; patrols will, moreover, scour the streets every night. These measures had given general satisfaction to the population, and it is hoped that they ...

... In his recently published work Lord St. Leonards says: — A word of advice about your fire insurance. Very few policies against fire are so framed as to render the company legally liable. Generally the property is in- accurately described with reference to tha conditions under which you insure. They are framed by the com- pany, who, probably, are nor. unwil!ing to have a legal defence against ...

... INDIA.—-LATEST INTELLIGENCE.—DEATH OF GENERAL HA VELOCK—SLAUGHTER OF 64th REGIMENT. General Havelock died on the 25thof November, from dysentery, brought on by exposure and anxiety. On the 27th November, an affair took place near Cawnpore between General Wyndham and his divi- sion and the Gwalior Mutineers, in which the British Troops retreated, with the total loss of the tents of the 64.th, ...

... The French papers publish accounts from Naples to the 2nd, received by electric telegraph. Shocks of earth- quake were felt there almost every day. In the night between the 1st and 2nd there were two very sharp shocks, and also on the 28th and 29di of December. Very few casualties occurred, but grave apprehensions Were entertained. The King slept in Naples on the nights of the 28th and 29th ult. ...

... IT will be strange if a reform in the church service be the result of the royal wedding. A writer in the Times says:—Now that her Majesty has appointed a Drawing- room to be held on the anniversary of the martyrdom of King Charles I., may not churchmen hope that her Majesty's Ministers will follow it up by introducing a bill for abolishing the parliamentary service appointed for that day ? The ...

... From a letier of Mr. Montgomery, Judicial Commis- sioner for the Punjaub, on the trial and sentence of ten Sikh Sepoys of the 23rd Bengal Native Infantry, charged with being implicated in the mutiny of that regiment, we learn the real character and extent of the force which surprised and was defeated by Greathed's column at Agra on the 10th of October. It is generally supposed to have been a ...

... THE LEIGH WOODS MURDER.-EXECU- TION OF JOHN WILLIAM BEALE. The execution of the prisoner, John William Beale, who was convicte.i of the wilful murder of Charlotte Pugsley, at the recent winter assize for the county of Somerset, took place last week, on a scaffold, erected in front of the county gaol at Wilton, near Taunton. It will be remembered that the deceased woman was a cook in the ...

... The Queen has been pleased to command that Colonel John Eardley Wilmot Inglis, of the 32nd Regiment, be promoted to the rank of major-general, for his enduring fortitude and persevering gallantry in the defence of the Residency of Lucknow, for eighty-seven days, against an overwhelming force of the enemy. JONES AND .FROST.-At the recent meeting in London on the subject of the extinction of the ...