The great usefulness of the Governesses' Benevolent
Institution was fully shown at the annual meeting on
the 3rd. Since its establishment, 775 ladies have
received temporary assistance, to the amount of
£3980 18s. 6d. During last year £942 was expended in
assisting 382 persons. During the same period eight
annuitants have been added to the list, and there
are now 45 ladies under the Society's care, including
the occupants of the Asylum. "The Home" has, in
the same year, received 212 contented and happy
inmates, and may now, according to the report, be
considered self-supporting, whilst the "free-registration,"
which occasions its apparent excess of expenditure,
has proved of the utmost utility. In the past
year 1506 have been registered, and of them 866 have
been engaged, and this without expense either to the
successful or unsuccessful candidates. The "Aged
Asylum" is also reported to have answered its purpose
well; and "the College" has, by the issue of its certificates,
and the providing free evening classes, enabled
the qualified governess to prove her value, and offered
to many actually engaged in tuition the means of further
gratuitous instruction.

A meeting, in aid of the building and permanent
endowment of the King's College Hospital, was held in
the hall of the College, Somerset House, on Wednesday
the 15th, the Archbishop of Canterbury in the
chair. Its object was to raise a fund for building and
endowing a new hospital; the present, as was stated,
having been barely sufficient in 1840, when there were
only 4834 patients, and being now wholly inadequate
when the number is 22,309. Among the speakers was
Major Edwardes, who mentioned that he had in
his youth attended the theological lectures in King's
College, and strongly recommended religious and moral
discipline. The gallant officer was loudly cheered. In
the evening, the annual dinner, at which Major
Edwardes was the Chairman, took place in the New
Hall, Lincoln's Inn, and nearly £4000 was subscribed to
the fund.

There was a crowded meeting at the Whittington
Club House, on the 13th, convened to support the
Metropolitan Interment Bill. Lord R. Grosvenor was
in the Chair. Mr. Mackinnon, M. P., moved the first
resolution, "That in the opinion of this meeting the
present system of burial in the metropolis is prejudicial
to health, incompatible with decency and solemnity',
demoralising in its tendency, and unnecessarily expensive,"
which was seconded by Lord Ebrington. The
speakers were interrupted by clamour and hooting from
a number of persons who were understood to belong to
"the trade." When the resolution was about to be put,
a Mr. Node got upon the platform, and declaring
himself to be an undertaker, inveighed against the
measure, which, he said, was a "dead set against their
trade;" and another undertaker, Mr. Box, moved as an
amendment, that the words "unnecessarily expensive"
should be omitted. A number of hands were held up
for this amendment, but the resolution was carried,
amid great cheering, by an immense majority. Mr.
George Cruikshank then rose to move the second
resolution, but the opposing party raised a violent
uproar. A rush was made at the platform; chairs and
benches were broken; the room became a scene of
confusion; and amid screams of women and calls for the
police, the chairman found there was nothing for it but
to adjourn the meeting.

The Newsvendors' Benevolent Institution held its
eleventh annual meeting at Anderton's Hotel, on the
16th, J. Harmer, Esq., the President, in the chair. The
report stated that the present position of the Society was
satisfactory. In November last it had been decided to
establish an annual festival. The first dinner was under
the presidency of Mr. Charles Dickens, and the result
had been very successful. The donations had exceeded
£240, the bulk of which was contributed by parties not
connected with the trade, and the list of subscribers
had considerably increased. The committee had thus
been enabled to invest £200 in the Three per Cents.,
which raised the permanent fund to £1200. Thanks
were voted to Mr. Dickens for presiding at the annual
dinner in November last, and for his efforts in favour of
the Society.

           PERSONAL NARRATIVE.

On Wednesday the 1st of May, at twenty minutes
past eight in the morning the Queen gave Birth to a
Prince. On the same day Prince Albert visited the
Duke of Wellington to congratulate him on his eighty-first
birthday, and stated from the Queen, that as a
token of regard, she intended to have the royal infant
baptised by the name of Arthur.—The foster-mother of
the young Prince is Mrs. Jane Jones, a Welchwoman,
the wife of an industrious workman on the Chester and
Holyhead Railway.—Her Majesty's birthday was
celebrated on Wednesday, the 16th, with every demonstration
of affectionate loyalty both in the metropolis and
the provinces.—On Tuesday morning, the 21st, the
ceremony of churching the Queen was performed in the
private chapel, Buckingham Palace, by the Hon. and
Rev. Gerald Wellesley, Her Majesty's domestic chaplain.
—Her Majesty and Prince Albert, with the royal
children, left town on the 22nd for Osborne.

Lord Howden, it was announced in the Gazette of the
14th, has been appointed ambassador to Spain.

The Rev. Richard Dawes, M.A., has been nominated
Dean of Hereford, in the room of the late Dr. John
Merewether.—The Rev. Gilbert Elliot, M.A., has been
nominated Dean of Bristol, in the room of the late Dr.
John Lamb.

A banquet was given on the 22nd by the officers of
the Coldstream Guards to celebrate the two hundredth
anniversary of the enrolment of that distinguished corps by
General Monk. Colonel Chaplin, the commanding officer
of the regiment, was in the chair, supported by the
Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Wellington.—On
the same day an entertainment was given to the
non-commissioned officers and privates, in Portman-barracks.
The Duke of Cambridge, colonel of the regiment, and
all the officers were present. His Royal Highness took
a seat among the privates, with whom he conversed with
his wonted affability. The fare consisted of about 1400
lbs. of beef, with a liberal supply of pudding and beer.
Later in the evening the men were permitted to admit
their friends, and dancing and other amusements were
kept up for some hours.

Lord John Russell on the 28th announced in the House
of Commons the intention of the Lord Chancellor to
Resign his Office, and that it is intended to put the Great
Seal for a time into Commission. Lord Brougham alluded
to these reports in the House of Lords on the 27th, denying
at the same time the assertion which had been made, that
there was a great accumulation of arrears in the Court of
Chancery, and the appeal business of the House of Lords.

          Obituary of Notable Persons.

JAMES THOM, the self-taught sculptor, author of "Tam
O'Shanter and Souter Johnnie," died at New York on the 17th April,
of consumption, in his 51st year.

The Right Hon. and Right Rev. LORD ROBERT PONSONBY
TOTTENHAM, Bishop of Clogher, only brother of the Marquis of
Ely, died at Woodstock, County of Wicklow, on the 26th April,
in his 70th year.

M. DE BLAINVILLE, the successor of Cuvier in the chair of
Comparative Anatomy in the Musée of Natural History at Paris,
was found dead on the 1st inst. in one of the carriages of the
night train on the Rouen Railway, while on his way to England.
He was in his 72nd year.

M. GAY LUSSAC, the celebrated chemical philosopher and peer
of France, died at Paris on the 2nd, at the age of 71.

LORD WILLIAM HARVEY, second son of the Marquis of Bristol,
and formerly Secretary to the British Embassy in Paris, died lat
Torquay on the 6th.

LADY ISABELLA ANNE BRYDGES, eldest daughter of the first
Marquis of Waterford, and widow of the late Sir W. H. Bridges,
died at Avisford, Sussex, on the 7th, aged 73.

PRINCESS JULIANE SOPHIE, a sister of the late King of Prussia,
and widow of the late Prince Frederick William of
Hesse-Philipstahl, died at Berlin on the 9th, in her 62nd year.

MRS. CHARLOTTE WILKES, widow of the late Lord Jeffrey,
died on the 18th, at the residence of her son-in-law, Mr. Empson,
at Haileybury College.

MISS JANE PORTER, the celebrated novelist, died at the house
of her brother, Dr. Porter, of Bristol, on the 23rd. She was in
her 74th year, and preserved to the last her vigour of intellect
and cheerfulness of temper.

MRS. LABOUCHERE, wife of the Right Hon. Henry Labouchere,
President of the Board of Trade, died suddenly on the 25th.
Premature labour is said to have been the cause of her death.