FEBRUARY.

2. CONSECRATION OF AFRICAN BISHOPS. - The Rev. W. G. Tozer, of St. John's College, Oxford, vicar of Burghlock Winthorpe, Lincolnshire, nominated to the bishopric of the Oxford and Cambridge Mission to Central Africa, and the Rev. Edward Twells, of St. Peter's College, Cambridge, incumbent of St. John's, Hammersmith, nominated to the bishopric of the Orange River Free Territory, were consecrated in Westminster Abbey. The Archbishop of Canterbury was received by the Very Rev. the Dean (Dr. Trench), the Rev. Canon Jennings, and the Rev. Canon Nepean, and immediately afterwards a procession was formed, which moved into the choir. It consisted of the Archbishop, the Bishop of Oxford, the Bishop of Lincoln, the Bishop of Cape Town, the Bishop of Montreal, the Dean and Canons, and a large number of clergy in their robes. The bishops designate were attended by Dr. Travers Twiss, the Vicar-General of the Province, Mr. F. Hart Dyke, the Registrar, and other officials. The Archbishop having taken his seat on the north side of the Communion table, the bishops designate were conducted to seats in the sacrarium. The Communion Service was then read by the Archbishop, the Bishop of Cape Town reading the Epistle, and the Bishop of Oxford the Gospel. The sermon was preached by the Bishop of Oxford, who selected for his text the 4th chapter of St. Paul's Second Epistle to Timothy, verses 5 and 6-" Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand." His lordship remarked that their two brethren who were going out were the successors of bishops who had occupied the same posts before,the one, Bishop of the Orange Territory, who was about to succeed the Metropolitan of South Africa (Dr. Gray), in whose diocese it had hitherto been included; and the other, the Bishop of Central Africa, as successor to the late beloved Bishop Mackenzie, who was now lying in his lonely grave on the banks of the fever-laden waters of the distant Zambesi. At the close of the sermon, the bishops designate retired, and having been vested in their rochets were presented to the Archbishop, who, when they had assumed the full episcopal habit, admitted them to the rank and dignity of bishops of the Church of England.

5. THE PRINCE OF WALES TAKING HIS SEAT IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS. This interesting event took place on the first night of the session, and, as nearly three-quarters of a century had elapsed

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since a similar ceremony occurred, it occasioned great interest. It happened, by a rather singular coincidence, that the two Archbishops of Canterbury and York on the same evening took the oaths and their seats on the episcopal bench of the House of Lords. At two o'clock the Royal Speech was read by the Lord Chancellor, both to the Lords then assembled, and to the members of the House of Commons, who had been previously summoned to attend at the bar of the Upper House for the purpose of hearing it. The Royal Commissioners, in addition to the Lord Chancellor, were the Duke of Argyll, the Earl of St. Germans, Viscount Sydney, and Lord Stanley of Alderley. They were all clothed in their official robes, and took their seats at the foot of the throne. Upon the conclusion of the reading of the Royal Speech, the Commissioners and other Peers retired, and remained absent from the House until nearly four o'clock.

As the hour of four approached, the Peers reassembled in considerable numbers to await the arrival of the Prince of Wales. Upon the Ministerial benches were Earl Russell, the Duke of Somerset, Earl De Grey and Ripon, and in their immediate proximity were Lord Ebury, Earl Grey, the Earl of Clarendon, Lord Wodehouse, the Earl of Minto, Lord Eversley (the late Speaker of the House of Commons), Lord Cranworth, and the Earl of Dudley (as mover of the address, wearing the uniform of a colonel of yeomanry). Upon the Opposition benches were the Earl of Malmesbury, Lord Redesdale, Lord Colchester, the Marquis of Bath, Earl Beauchamp, Earl Stanhope, Lord Chelmsford, the Duke of Marlborough, the Earl of Lonsdale; the Dukes of Richmond, Buckingham, and Manchester; the Earls of Shrewsbury, Carnarvon, and Ellenborough, and others.

In the side galleries near the throne were seated their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Cambridge and the Princess Mary of Cambridge, and a large number of Peeresses and foreign Ambassadors. In the Commons' gallery were several members of the Lower House.

At about a quarter before four o'clock the Lord Chancellor, attired in his ordinary dress of black silk, full wig, and three-cocked hat, entered the House, preceded by the Great Seal, and took his seat on the woolsack.

Prayers having been read by the Bishop of Worcester, a procession of Peers, headed by certain officials, emerged from the Prince's Chamber and advanced slowly and solemnly up the floor of the House. Sir Augustus Clifford, Usher of the Black Rod, followed immediately by Sir Charles Young in his robes as Garter King-atArms, took the lead. Then came the Prince of Wales, preceded by an equerry bearing a coronet upon an embroidered crimson cushion. His Royal Highness was also accompanied by the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of Argyll, the Earl of Derby, Earl Granville, Lord Kingsdown, and Earl Spencer, in their robes as Peers; Lord Willoughby D'Eresby, Hereditary Great Chamberlain; and

Lord Edward Howard, who represented the infant Duke of Norfolk, Hereditary Earl Marshal.

The Prince of Wales wore the scarlet and ermine robes of a Duke over the uniform of a General in the Army. He was also decorated with the ribbon, &c., of the Order of the Garter, the insignia of the Golden Fleece, and the Star of India. As he entered the House the Peers rose in a body, and remained standing throughout the subsequent ceremony, the Lord Chancellor alone remaining seated, and covered with his official hat. His Royal Highness, having bowed his acknowledgments, advanced to the woolsack and placed his patent and writ of summons in the hands of the Chancellor. He then returned to the table, when the oaths were administered to him by Sir J. Shaw Lefevre, the Clerk of Parliament. The titles under which the Prince was sworn were the Duke of Cornwall, Earl of Chester, Earl of Carrick, Earl of Rothsay, and Lord of the Isles. After signing the roll the procession moved on, passing slowly at the back of the Lord Chancellor, who was still seated, with his head covered, on the woolsack. His Royal Highness, on reaching the right-hand side of the throne, took his seat upon the chair of State specially appropriated on State occasions to the Prince of Wales. Whilst thus seated he placed his cocked hat upon his head. The hat and feathers were such as are worn by general officers in full dress. Having for a moment surveyed the objects in front of him, His Royal Highness rose, and, again uncovering his head, was conducted to the woolsack, where he shook hands with the Lord Chancellor, that high functionary deigning, for the moment he was thus personally honoured, to raise his hat a few inches above his head. The Prince and the other Peers, together with the officials already named as forming the procession, then left the House, retiring by the entrance at the right of the throne in the same order as they had entered. The business of the House was then suspended until the usual hour.

At about five o'clock His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, accompanied by the Duke of Cambridge, re-entered the House (both dressed in private clothes), and took his seat beside his royal kinsman on one of the cross benches. The Prince remained almost throughout the entire debate.

6. WRECK OF THE "ORPHEUS."-The sad intelligence was received of the total wreck of H.M.S. "Orpheus" on the west coast of New Zealand, with the loss of Commodore Burnett, C.B., 23 officers, and 166 sailors, Royal Marines, and boys, only 70 lives being saved out of a complement mustering 260.

The "Orpheus," a new steam-corvette of 21 guns, and 1706 tons, was commissioned at Portsmouth late in the year 1861, for the broad pennant of the Commodore in Australia, and was at Spithead waiting orders when the news of the "Trent" affair reached England. Commodore Burnett was at once despatched to convey the "Melbourne" transport, with a valuable freight of rifles and

ammunition, across the Atlantic, and remained on the North American coast, doing good service in directing the disembarking of the troops sent out to Canada all through the winter months, when he received orders from the Admiralty to proceed to his command in Australia, arriving in Sydney in July, 1862.

During the detention of the "Orpheus" in dock, completing a necessary refit and replacing copper torn off in the ice, the Commodore proceeded in the "Pioneer" to ascertain the most favourable site for a new settlement near Cape York, and to select the most eligible harbour and outlets for the new country recently opened up on the north-eastern shores of Australia. Subsequently, the Commodore proceeded to make the rounds of his station in the "Orpheus." Having just returned from a visit to the beautiful colony of Tasmania, he left Sydney for New Zealand on the 31st of January, and, after a very fine passage under canvas, made the land off the Manukau Harbour on the 7th of February.

The harbour of Manukau, situated on the west coast of New Zealand, is but little known. It is a large sheet of water, 100 miles in circumference, formed of innumerable mudbanks, which are dry at low water, intersected by intricate channels, more or less deep. It derives what little importance it has from its position with respect to the capital, Auckland, the two harbours being separated by a narrow neck of land only six miles wide. It has recently come into note as a place for embarking troops, and as a station for men-of-war, when employed against the natives in the Taranaki operations.

A bar, with 30 ft. at top of high water, extends, at a distance of three miles, right across the entrance, inshore of which are large shifting sandbanks, upon which the sea is constantly breaking with the uninterrupted force of the great Pacific Ocean. Charts of the deep-water channels, compiled from the elaborate surveys of Captain Drury, R.N., are published, to which additions and corrections have been made from time to time by the New Zealand Government. A pilot look-out, with a semaphore signalstation, is in existence near the entrance. Navigators are instructed to pay attention to the signals in their approach through the outworks of shoals and sandbanks, towards the Heads, where they are boarded by the pilot.

As before stated, the "Orpheus" made the land about eleven a.m., in beautiful, fine, clear weather, with a moderate breeze from the south-west. Soon after was observed the signal-station, with the signal flying, "Take the bar;" the ship being under all plain sail. Steam was got up for half-speed, and she proceeded across the bar, the tide being just on the turn to ebb. Steering by the Admiralty sailing-directions, the pilotage being altered now and then in obedience to the signals, all precautions were taken with the steerage, and to keep the ship under perfect command, keeping, as was thought, in mid channel, making at a good rate for the entrance. It appears that either she was not kept far enough to the northward,

or that the middle bank had very recently extended itself unknown to the pilots, for very shortly after passing the bar, and when about two miles from the Heads, at about 1.30 p.m., the ship struck on what was subsequently discovered to be the extreme northern edge of the middle bank, and at about fifty feet from the deep

water.

The order was given to back astern, but the engines never moved; the ship immediately broached to, with her head to the north, and the rollers made one complete sweep over the port broadside, tearing to pieces and sweeping every thing before them, whilst the heavy bumping of the ship forced up the hatchway fastenings, and she consequently soon filled with water.

All hands were employed lightening the ship of her heavy broadside guns, and getting out the boats.

Two boats, one a cutter with the records and valuable papers, and another with Lieutenant Hill and Mr. Amphlett to obtain the services of the life-boat at the Heads, and to give the alarm to H.M.S. "Harrier," known to be in the port, were despatched by the Commodore.

Mention should here be made of the perfect coolness and judgment of Commodore Burnett, of the discipline and quiet order maintained throughout this trying occasion; and the absolute good feeling displayed by all, from the chief to the smallest boy, speaks well for the service.

With great difficulty, and in imminent danger of swamping in the rollers, both the boats succeeded in reaching the Heads at five o'clock, where they met the pilot, and observed the small steamer "Wonga-Wonga," which had a few hours previously proceeded to sea, returning by the south channel into port. The life-boats having been reported unserviceable, the steamer closed the boats, took them in tow, and steamed out to the scene of the wreck, which they did not reach till six o'clock. They found the ship almost buried in the water, the seas breaking clear over all and half-way up the rigging. All the people in the tops had mounted in the rigging; the Commodore, with all his young officers, being in the mizentop.

It was at once seen that the only chance of saving lives was from the bowsprit and jibboom, which overhung the deep, still water. The boats were placed to pick up all that ventured to jump and swim for it. With the exception of the boat's crews, all that escaped were saved in this manner. Nearly all that left the ship abaft the foremast were taken down by the eddies and undercurrents around the ship. Some of the more young, active sailors slid down the stays from head to mast until they reached the jibboom. It was stated by the men who were picked up, that, shortly after the two boats had left the ship, the launch was got out and manned with forty hands, but in endeavouring to clear the ship had got swamped alongside, and that all were drowned.

At about seven o'clock the flood-tide set in strong, and the rollers