0, and the lion's share of it, the remaining L1000,
is appropriated in a singular manner. It has been bestowed upon the wife
of the new Lord Chancellor, Lord Truro, lately Mr. Solicitor Wilde. This
lady is the daughter of the late Duke of Sussex, one of the sons of
George III. The duke contracted a marriage with her mother, which was
illegal by the terms of the Royal Marriage Act, and which he afterward
repudiated by forming a similar connection with another woman, for whom
he succeeded in procuring the title of Duchess of Inverness, and an
allowance from the public treasury, to enable her to support her
dignity. On the death of the duke an attempt was made to procure the
recognition of his children by the former connection, as members of the
royal family, with a pension. This being unsuccessful, the sum of L500 a
year was first given to the daughter, who bore the name of D'Este, from
the literary fund; which sum was afterward increased by an additional
L500, from the same fund. The chief counsel in prosecuting these claims
was Mr. Wilde, who, immediately on his elevation to the bench, as Chief
Justice of the Common Pleas, marries this _soi-disant_ Princess D'Este.
Though the present chancellor is very wealthy, and receives a large
income from his office, his wife still continues to absorb five-sixths
of the sum at the disposal of the crown as a reward to "eminent literary
merit:" her merit, like that celebrated in Figaro, being that she
"condescended to be born;" from all of which it appears, that the merit
of being a spurious off-shoot of the royal family, is just ten times as
great as that of the most earnest and successful prosecution of literary
and scientific pursuits.

The English papers, and especially the Literary Journals, express
considerable apprehension that the English people are likely to be
outdone in the coming Exhibition. The _Athenaeum_ complains of the
comparative indifference which pervades the English manufacturers, while
every mail from the Continent and from America, brings intelligence of
an increased activity in their workshops. The prize of victory, in this
case, it says, must rest with the strong. A new era in industry and
commerce opens with 1851: and for a producer to be out of the Catalogue
of the Exhibition will be equivalent to abandoning the field.

The gardens of the Zoological Society of London are constantly receiving
new accessions from the liberal efforts of the English colonial
G