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IN THE LATE MEETING OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, of Paris, it was announced that the Academy had received from Mr. Pennington of Baltimore, United States of America, a manuscript and a printed prospectus Concerning a project of a steam balloon, upon which he wished the Academy to decide.
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The holder of the appointment of Examiner of Plays, in England, enjoys a salary of $2000 per annum, beside a tax upon every play, interlude, farce, or song, licensed for representation upon the stage. This appointment is in the gift of the Lord Chamberlain.
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GEORGE CATLIN, the Indian traveler, is soon to sail to Texas from Liverpool, with a large body of emigrants; they will settle on the lands of the Emigration Colonization Society.
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AGES OF PUBLIC MEN.—The Duke of Wellington is aged 81: Lord Lyndhurst, 78; Lord Dunfermline, 74; Mr. Joseph Hume, 73; Lord Brougham, 72; Lord Heytesbury, 71; Lord Denman, 71; Lord Campbell, 71; Lord Gough, 71; Earl of Haddington, 70; Marquis of Landsdowne, 70; Lord Cottenham, 69; Earl of Ripon, 68; Earl of Minto, 68; Earl of Aberdeen, 66; Viscount Palmerston, 66; Right Hon. H. Goulburn, 66; Viscount Hardinge, 65; Sir Robert Inglis, 64; Sir John Cam Hobhouse, 64; Duke of Sutherland, 64; Sir George Clerk, 63; Duke of Richmond, 59; Mr. Andrew Rutherford, 59; Sir James Graham, 58; Lord John Russell, 58; Right Hon. C. Lefevre, Speaker of the House of Commons, 56; Right Hon. Richard L. Shiel, 56; Sir Frederick Thesiger, 56; Sir Francis Baring, First Lord of the Admiralty, 54; Sir Fitzroy Kelly, 54; Marquis of Normanby, 53; Right Hon. H. Labouchere, 52; Lord Stanley, 51; Sir George Grey, 51; Right Hon. T.B. Macaulay, 51; Earl of Clarendon, 50; Sir Charles Wood, 50; Mr. Fox Maule, 49; Lord Ashley, 49; Mr. J.A. Roebuck, 49; Earl of Carlisle, 48; Marquis of Clanricarde, 48; Earl Grey, 48; Sir John Jervis, 48; Mr. Cobden, 47; Mr. Benjamin D'Israeli, 45; Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, 41; Right Hon. Sydney Herbert, 40; Earl of Lincoln, 39; Mr. John Bright, 39; Hon. George A. Smythe, 32; Lord John Manners, 32.
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ANCIENT DISCOVERY OF CALIFORNIA.—In the popular and unique work, "Notes And Queries," we find the following paragraph, from a correspondent who probably gleaned it from the last years Proceedings of the New-York Historical Society. "In the Voyage Round the World, by Captain George Shelvocke, begun February 1719, he says of California, (Harris's Collection, vol. i., p. 233:)—'The soil about Puerto, Seguro, and very likely in most of the valleys, is a rich black mould, which, as you turn it up fresh to the sun, appears as if intermingled with gold dust, some of which we endeavored to purify and wash from the dirt. But, though we were a little prejudiced against the thoughts that it could be possible that this metal should be so promiscuously and universally mingled with common earth, yet we endeavored to cleanse and wash the earth from some of it; and the more we did the more it appeared like gold. In order to be further satisfied, I brought away some of it, which we lost in our confusion in China.'" How an accident prevented the discovery, more than a century back, of the golden harvest now gathering in California!