OUR CHRONICLE.

Courteous Reader,-Another year has gone. The sun has completed another annual revolution; and you, as well as ourselves, have now another opportunity of greeting your friends with "a happy new year." This benediction, while it conveys a pleasing sensation to the mind, ought, also, to remind us that Time waits for no inan, and admonish every individual to improve the passing moments as they speed along. Yet, how many do we behold, trifling away the precious moments allotted them, to prepare for usefulness in life and happiness beyond the grave. How many spend their time in dissipation and unrighteousness, regardless of the admonitions of the wise and virtuous? How many, who were healthy, active and vigorous, at the commencement of the year 1841, are now, alas! cold and lifeless. It therefore becomes us to be diligent in discharging the various duties assigned us. As parents and children, husbands and wives, magistrates and citizens, we are bound to fill our stations with duty and usefulness; remembering at the same time, to act with a wise reference to futurity. We ought to store our minds with useful knowledge-and thus be prepared to meet the ups and downs of life with dignity and composure.

According to promise, we commence the year with an improved number of the Visitor. To all our readers we say may your prospects brighten and improve as the Visitor has done, and nothing occur to mar your happiness during the course of the year.

It will be observed that we have adopted among the improvements in our present volume, the reduction of the number of pages from thirty two to twenty four, confident that our motives will be deemed satisfactory. In the first place the quantity of reading matter is quite as great, if not, indeed, greater than before, owing to the new and particular cast of the type, which was procured expressly for that object, and which the most superficial glance of our readers must instantly observe. Then, a steel engraving of the Fashions for the month is given, executed in a style which defies competition, and can only be found in the Visitor, and which will always be given one month in advance of any other periodical in the country. Our plates will be far superior to any heretofore used in the work; the paper is also of a much betquality, and the typographical execution will be equal to any, and superior to most of the periodicals extant,while no addition whatever will be made to the price of subscription. We therefore trust, that the change, with this explanation, will prove satisfactory to our readers.

The New-York Visitor has now been published four years, and has proved so far a cheap and interesting periodical; and we shall continue to make such other improvements, in the mechanical and literary department of the work, as shall still more strongly recommend it to the patronage of the public. For past favours we return our cordial thanks, and shall endeavour to deserve a continuatiou of them.

THE PUBLIC WILL PLEASE OBSERVE THAT our Agents are furnished with printed Certificates of Agency, signed with the name of the proprietor, who will not hold himself responsible for any subscribers but those obtained by agents thus authorised. In order to guard against counterfeits, those certificates will all be printed in the same style of type as the words-" And Lady's Album," which is a part of our title, and may be be seen on the first page of each number of the Visitor.

THE WEATHER. During the past month, we have had alternations from cold to warm in quick and sudden succession. For the most part, the month has been quite moderate, although we have had several snowstorms, and the merry jingle of sleigh-bells has been heard, during the live-long night in the principle ave. nues leading from the City to the neighbouring villages. We have had several severely cold days, and some so warm that passengers doffed their overcoats, and housekeepers let their fires go out. Altogether it has been an unusually warm month.

MELANCHOLY AND MYSTERIOUS. More than twenty persons have recently been poisoned by eating smoked beef, purchased at the store on the corner of Vestry and Washington streets. These unfortunate individuals were first taken with chills, to which succeeded vomiting and excruciating pains. The affair is undergoing an investigation by the Mayor, who has subjected the beef to the examination of scientific men, and has applied to the butchers to know whether there is any disease in cattle which could embue their flesh with poisonous qualities. We sincerely hope that the true cause of this calamity may be discovered. No imputation rests upon the persons who sold the beef, who were, of course, as ignorant of its noxious qualities, as the persons who purchased it.

ENGLAND. This devoted country is still labouring with internal discontent and commotion. In Manchester, where thousands are destitute of employment, continual disturbances occur The contributions from other parts of the kingdom are insufficient to supply the wants of the manufacturing districts. Crime, of course, becomes more frequent under these circumstances. Thirty two cases of felony, and one hundred and forty two of drunkenness, came before the borough magistrates of Manches. ter recently. The government finds this a good time to carry forward its project of enslaving the world; and men go very willingly to China when they have nothing to do at home.

COURT OF OYER AND TERMINER. The case of Sarah Ann Robb, to be tried for the murder of her child by strangling it, will come on next Wednesday.

Sophia Pothast was arraigned for arson in the first de. gree. She was charged, in the indictment, with wilfully setting fire to the house of John Ansler, No. 149 Leonard street, on the night of the 29th October last. The punishment for this crime is death.

On account of the absence and indisposition of an important witness for defendant, the case of John C. Colt, who was indicted for the murder of Samuel Adams, Printer, has been postponed until Monday the 17th inst.

The case of James Gordon Bennett, indicted for libel, will be tried on next Thursday. Prosecutions for libel appear to be the order of the times, and some of them are of a trivial nature. Editors should be careful, and handle delicate reputations with the tenderness which they require.

AMERICAN MUSEUM. This establishment, containing more than five hundred thousand curiosities, was sold, on the 27th of last month, to Mr. Barnum-a gentleman every way calculated for the management of such a concern. This museum is the largest in America, and was founded by the eccentric and enterprizing Jno. Scudder, in 1810. The present proprietor will, duubtless, so manage the establishment as to add, if possible, to its popularity. By the bye, Mr. B. is, in private life, a gentleman in every sense of the word. Success attend him.