after the 1st of this month, by which letters to the West India Islands,
ports in the Gulf of Mexico and on the Atlantic Coast of South America,
can be sent through the United States Post Office, on prepayment of the
American postage to any of the British ports, with the addition of the
British postage, when destined for ports belonging to other Governments.

M. de Sartiges, the newly appointed French Minister to this country,
presented his credentials to the President on the 29th of May. Mr.
Paine, who claims to have invented a process for manufacturing gas from
water, is in Washington endeavoring to procure a contract from
Washington for the illumination of light-houses. The pendulum
experiment, exhibiting the rotation of the earth, has been tried in the
Capitol, with the most satisfactory result.

The projected expedition for the invasion of Cuba, has, it is believed,
been completely broken up. The Steamer Gaston, after searching the
coasts and rivers, returned to Baltimore with twenty-five men under
arrest. A camp of three hundred men, near Jacksonville, had been broken
up just before the arrival of the Steamer. Upwards of fifteen hundred
persons had visited the place since the invasion was projected, but
after squandering their funds, they again dispersed. The U.S. revenue
cutter Fancy went on a similar cruise, a week after the Gaston, and
succeeded in discovering an encampment on a branch of the St. John's
river. The three officers and leaders of the company were arrested and
taken to Savannah; the men were ordered to return to their homes.

There has been considerable stir in State politics and legislation
during the past month. In the Virginia Reform Convention, the violent
debate on the question of representation, on which the members of the
eastern and western parts of the State were arrayed against each other,
has been settled by the adoption of a compromise. The difficulty was in
relation to slave representation. The committee to whom the subject was
referred, reported a plan providing that the House of Delegates shall
consist of 150 members, eighty-two to be chosen from the West and
sixty-eight from the East, making a Western majority of fourteen; the
Senate to consist of fifty members, thirty from the East and twenty from
the West, making an Eastern majority of ten. It is also made the duty of
the General Assembly, in the year 1865, to re-apportion the
representation in both Houses. The people of Maryla