February 5.—Brigadier-General T. F. Meagher, accompanied by General Shields and a brilliant staff, formally took command of the Irish Brigade, in the army of the Potomac, amidst great enthusiasm and much rejoicing from officers and men. General Shields addressed the troops in most effective terms on the occasion, —Jesse D. Bright was this day expelled from the Senate of the United States.—(Doc. 27.)
—The British schooner Mars, laden with salt, was captured to-day off Fernandina, Fla., by the United States steamer Keystone State. Her charter party indicated her intention of running the blockade. A small sum of money was found on board, among which were bank-bills and certificates of deposit in South-Carolina and Georgia banks.—Baltimore American, February 14.
— The Fourteenth battery of Ohio artillery, under the command of Captain Burrows, consisting of one hundred and forty-five men, one hundred and twenty-three horses, six pieces of cannon, six caissons, and one forge, left Cincinnati for St. Louis on the steamer J. W. Cheesman.
—Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, received to-day the following telegram from the Governor of California:
“Sacramento, January 31. “I am instructed by a resolution of the Legislature of California to inform you that this State will assume and pay into the Treasury of the United States the direct tax of $254,538 apportioned to this State by act of Congress.
“Leland Stanford, Governor of California.” —Boston Advertiser, February 5.
—A monster meeting was held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, Mass., this evening, in behalf of Colonel Corcoran, confined at Richmond, Va. Mayor Wightman presided and made one of a number of speeches. Letters from several distinguished men were read, and strong resolutions were adopted.—N. Y. Tribune, February 6.
—The funeral of Adjutant George F. Hodges, of the Eighteenth regiment Massachusetts volunteers, who died of fever at Hall’s Hill, Va., on the thirtieth of January, took place this afternoon at Roxbury, Mass.—Boston Traveller, February 5.
—The Fourteenth regiment, Maine volunteers, under command of Colonel Wickerson, arrived at Boston, Mass., to-night from Augusta, Me., and were quartered in Faneuil Hall. They were attached to General Butler’s expedition.—N. Y. Times, February 6.
—Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, this day removed the prohibitions “subsisting under her majesty’s royal proclamations of the thirtieth day of November, and the fourth day of December, 1861, on the exportation out of the United Kingdom, or carrying coastwise, of gunpowder, saltpetre, nitrate of soda, brimstone, arms, ammunition, and military stores, (including percussion-caps and tubes,) and lead.”
