13 DECEMBER 1851, Page 1

The home news of the week appears of very secondary

conse- quence in presence of the alarming intelligence from France. It is not merely that our domestic movements are less attended to, in consequence of the eagerness with which men hearken for the last report from the other side of the Channel, but the actors, listening along with others, are less earnest and energetic. Not that men are absolutely idle ; there has been a great deal of business done in a small way. The " bucolic societies " are making their annual demonstrations ; the exhibitors of fat cattle in Birmingham doing their best to rival the exhibitors of fat cattle in London, and both parties in their convivial speeches displaying the average amount of desire to flirt with politics. Mr. Walker, a genuine American lion, has been addressing the men of Man- chester, in a style that may well make them cease to regret the loss of the Hungarian lion now on his way to the United States. The deputation appointed by the Customs Reform meeting in the City last week has made its assault on Downing Street; which Lord John Russell has coolly parried. The opponents of the Maynooth grant have had a great meeting at Edinburgh ; at which the princi- pal speakers, even the Scotch, displayed considerable proficiency in

the Irish style of oratory. The advocates of " voluntary education have met in London to protest against unsectarian education. Lord Clarendon has appeared in the witness-box in a trial at Dublin, to explain the delicate relations which existed between himself and a newspaper subsidized in the cause of "law and order." Mr. George Thompson has been telling a London audience how he came to bo outvoted at the Reform Conference in Manchester.