the formality of bill and answer, and of
providing for the reference to the master, on a mere observance of
certain very simple forms. A motion to repeal the advertisement duty was
lost, 208 to 39. A motion to inquire into the sanitary condition of the
journeymen bakers was negatived, 90 to 44. A bill, the principal object
of which was to place in the hands of the Board of Commissioners the
regulation of all the Irish fisheries, was lost by a majority of 197 to
37. A bill proposing to allow railway companies to buy waste lands on
the margins of their railways and establish cemeteries on them, was
thrown out by 123 to 4. Lord John Russell has introduced a bill to
abolish the _Viceregal Office in Ireland_. The bill gives power to the
Queen to abolish the office by order in Council; to appoint a fourth
Secretary of State, chargeable, like the others, with any of the
functions of a Secretary of State, but in practice with Irish affairs:
some of the functions of the Lord Lieutenant will be transferred to the
Secretary for the Home Department, others be given to Her Majesty in
Council. The Lord Chancellor of Ireland will be President of the Privy
Council in Ireland. The bill was opposed by several Irish members, but
leave was given to bring it in by 107 to 13.

An official correspondence on the intention of Ministers to issue a
Royal Commission of inquiry into the state and revenues of the
UNIVERSITIES of Oxford and Cambridge has appeared in the newspapers.
Lord John Russell, after announcing the Ministerial intention in his
place in Parliament, wrote to the Chancellor of the two Universities "to
explain the views of her Majesty's confidential servants in recommending
this measure to her Majesty's approbation." His letter is now published;
and the other portion of the correspondence given to the public, is the
letter of the Duke of Wellington to the authorities of the University of
Oxford, requesting them to take the Premier's letter into consideration,
and give him the assistance of their opinions in a report; and the
report of the University authorities rendered in compliance with that
request. Lord John Russell, in his letter, after alluding briefly to the
legality of the Commission, puts forward the following general
considerations: "No one will now deny, that in the course of three
centuries the increase of general knowledge, the growth of modern
literature, the discoveries of physical and chemical science, have
rendered