NEWS OF TIIE WEEK.
\ATE were able to record the division of Friday night in time for part of our issue, but the analysis of the vote is still not with- out its interest. The Tories really secured eighteen Ultramontane votes, but lost the game through the resolution of their own side not to support them. The numbers were in England, for Govern- ment 260 to 220 against ; in Scotland, 37 to 14 ; in Ireland, 27 to 72, giving Government a majority of 63 in Great Britain, reduced to 18 by the Irish vote. Five Conservatives voted for Government, 17 Liberal Irish Catholics and Colonel Greville against it, but no English or Scotch liberal quitted his party. On the other hand, only 9 Liberals were absent and 15 Conservatives; making with the 5 deserters 20„ who might have turned the scale. 'Without the Irish defections, on the other hand, the Government would have had a sweeping majority. Mr. Newdegate, whose amendment included war, withdrew it, but he and his supporters could of course vote neither for Mr. Disraeli nor Mr. Kinglake, as both their resolutions affirmed the expediency of peace.
The division on Friday night in the Lords rather surprised the country. The unusually large number of 212 Peers were present, and the division showed 123 for Goveromeat, and 119 against. The proxies were then demanded, and showed 45 for Government against 59 for Opposition, but even with this assistance Lord Malmesbury had only a majority of nine. It is also curious that every Duke of full age either voted or paired, except the Duke of Bedford, the nephew of the Minister whose policy was attacked. Probably, however, the Duke has not taken his seat this session, and therefore could not vote by proxy— a remark which may also apply to some of the seven absentee Bishops.
The star of England is for the time overcast. IIer allies are plundered, her diplomatists worsted; and, her statesmen, ingloriously foiled, confess themselves afraid to use the power they have so long been taxing us to raise. In the swamps of Africa her soldiers. have been beaten and decimated by disease in a contest that never even commenced. In New Zealand one of the most illustrious of her regiments has been routed disgracefully by their Maori foes, and in the compensating victory the chief laurels were borne off by Maori allies who led the van in every charge. The defeat at Tauranga, on the east coast, appears to have been worse than the telegraph reported it. General Cameron landed his troops at 'rauranga, and took a Maori pah south of that place, after which he began to bombard the Gate Pah of Tauranga, which lies on the crest of a hill in a small peninsula. After making a breach, the storming took place on the 29th of April, the storming party con- sisting of an equal detachment of troops from the distinguished 43rd Regiment, and from H.M.S. Harrier. The storming party gained the pah, and, it is said, thrown off their guard by finding it almost empty, dispersed in search of plunder, when a terrible fire was opened on them from the sunken defences, the officers falling rapidly and the men taking to flight in the utmost panic.
Excessive interest was created on Monday by the report of a railway murder which had occurred on the North Louden line. The victim, Mr. Briggs, was cashier to Sir J. Lubbock and Roberts, the bankers, and was on his way to Hackney about ten o'clock on Saturday night. Between Bow and Hackney he was found by a
train which passed a few minutes after, dying on the six-foot way, with the back of his head beaten in and a frightful cut over the left ear. The blood from this cut had spurted over some ladies in the next compartment, his watch was gone, and a leather bag he carried had been tampered with. Gold, however, to the amount of 41. 10s. was found in his pockets, and his gold eye-glass and diamond ring were not touched. He was a very feeble man, just recovering fr a dangerous disease, and though alive when dis- covered he never recovered consciousness or spoke a word. The murderer in his flurry left his hat in the carriage and took his victim's. The chain was changed at a jeweller's next day, the wearer taking no money, but another chain and a ring, and left on the jeweller's mind the impression that he was a foreigner. .We have tried in another column to reconcile the facts, but it is just to state-here that the innocence of the two bank clerks who, owing to a stiange: chain of circumstances, were suspected by the public, has been established beyond all question.
The Episcopal Bench in the Lords consists of thirty Prelates, of whom fottr are Irish. No lesii than twenty, including three Irish, 'either voted or paired for the Government. and only three for the Opposition ; so that, if .tiiere:had been no bishops in the House, J.,-ord Derby's majority woUld:ltive swollen from nine to twenty- Sit. It is remarkable. that ne Prelate voted against the party which promoted hits, . 'except the Bishop of St. Asaph, a Prelate who voted for Government. Of -the other four bishops made by Sir Robert, two, Ossory and Lichfield; were absent ; and two, Oxford and Chichester, supported the Opposition. So, of course, did the Bishop of Bangor, who owesliisiee to Lord Derby. The nineteen Prelates who, besides the Bishop of St. Asaph, voted for Govern- ment were nilas;—one by Lord Melbourne, four -by Lord Russell, four (including The -Bishop- of Salisbury). by Lerd 'Aberdeen, and ten by Lord palmerston';:tiud it is to be obierved that, if the Arch- bishops of _Canterbury and Armagh owe their first mitres to Lords Melbourne and Aberdeen Lord Paltneraten ha3 recently translated Dr.- Beresfcird once, and Dr. Longley less than three times. The only Whig absentees were the Bishops Of St. Davids, Llau- daff, and . Norwich, for whom respectively. Lords Melbourne, Russell, and Palmerston are responsible. The two senior Bishops (Winchester and Exeter) appoint.: 1 by LOrd Liverpool and the Duke of Wellington also took no part in the struggle.
Lord Palmerston, as usual, has been a little overset by victory. The congratulations of friends and fora which he received in state at his party on Saturday night have mounted into his brain, and brought out again traces of that cavalier and contemptuous manner which contributed so much to his fall in 1858. On Tues- day night, in answer to a question as to the bad faith of the Brazilian Government towards the emancipados, Lord Palmerston enumerated the twenty steps of the Brazilian circumlocution office, by which alone the slave, after working out his fourteen years" apprenticeship, can gain his freedom, and stigmatized the had faith of that proceeding much as it deserved ; but when Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald, who, with Mr. Bright, appears to regard all strong censure of ' foreign Powers, however much they may have deserved it, as menaces, remonstrated, Lord Palmerston put him down savagely and blunderingly by regretting " he was so ignorant,"—Mr. Fitzgerald having called forth this illo- gical snub by saying that he did not dispute Lord Palmer- ston's statement. Lord John Manners then took up the fight and wondered that Lord Palmerston should have quoted from an unoffi- cial Brazilian paper after what the Ministry,—we believe Mr. Gladstone,—had said in the late debate about "the ribald trash of the foreign press." Lord Palmerston then shied the blue-book in which this newspaper extract had been embodied across the table to Lord John MEnners in a huff, and altogether. left an im. pression on the House that he had lost his head and his temper with his fears.
There is one httle gleam of 'light in the political horizon. The French Government; annoyed by the tendency' towards alliance A Coalition Ministry has been formed in Canada pledged to secure the Federation of the North American Colonies. We have discussed this great project at length elsewhere, but we must add here that the scheme of Federation believed to be ac- cepted is most unusually able. Instead of making each colony a state with a legislature of its own, and so creating a double drain on the small supply of political capacity, the Government intend to propose that the representatives of each colony sent up to the Central Parliament shall form by themselves the local legislature. So that the State will always be governed by men who have an interest in extending instead of limiting the central power, all the ability obtainable will be used for both purposes, and the colony will choose men of all parties and not vote en bloc.
The news from Mexico is not a little curious. It is very difficult to rely on accounts which are unchecked by independent narratives, but the main facts asserted are these :—The Emperor Maximilian has reached Mexico, and has been received coldly by the mixed classes, well by the Spaniards, and with wild enthusiasm by the Indians, that he has declined to publish any constitution, and that he intends to govern the country ad interim through lieutenants, i. e., satraps. The Indians declare that he is the man with blue eyes and fair hair who is to revive their empire, and have, it is said, dug up the long lost Aztec crown, and offered it to the successor of Montezuma. The latter story is very unlikely, as Montezuma wore, if we recollect aright, a plume as his mark of sovereignty ; but it is quite possible that the Indians understand and appreciate monarchical government, and as they are five and a half millions out of seven their adhesion is important. The Emperor is obviously acting wisely in retaining his dictatorship for the present. Mr. Newdegate, the member for North Warwickshire, is an old Tory in politics, a Protectionist in finance, and a Recordite in re- ligion, three characters with which it is hard indeed to sympathize. But for all that a manlier English gentleman never solicited suf- frages. On the night of the party division he faced a howling House of Commons on behalf of Denmark, and on Tuesday wrote to the Herald a letter which Win its way a model: The Herald had called him all manner of names, which Mr. Newdegate passes by with the quietest humour, but explains that he does not accept Mr. Disraeli as a leader, that his object in pushing the amendment was to convince the Danes that they had nothing to hope, and that he did not intend "to join 191J1tramontane Roman Catholic members in declaring his country dishonoured."
It is affirmed officially that the Danish Government has sued for peace, but the terms are still undefined, the most mode- rate suggested being the total surrender of Holstein, Lauen- burg, and Schleswig, the most exorbitant those three pro- vinces plus the entire fleet, plus an indemnity of 11,000,0001. sterling. It appears that Prince John of Glucksburg has been the agent employed to secure a hearing for Denmark, that he visited Vichy and obtained the good offices of the Emperor, then proceeded to Berlin to see Herr von Bismarck, and after a -brief stay went on to Carlsbad, where the King of Prussia is residing. Rumours of the offers made by him are rife, the most persistent and most exorbitant being that of ceding the fleet. The answer of the Prussians is not yet known, but Denmark has officially ceased to offer further resistance at sea, and it seems pro- bable that the armistice will be conceded. The story about the cession of the fleet is perhaps the result of a demand for its deposit as a guarantee.
Mr. Bonverie's Bill for dispensing the fellows and tutors of col- leges at Oxford and Cambridge from declaring that they would " conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England " was rejected on Wednesday by an unusually large majority (56),-157 voting against, and only 101 for it,—Mr. Neate, amongst others, voting against it, and giving, as we believe, the most mistaken reason for
displayed by St. Petersburg, Berlin, and Vienna, begins to repent doing so. Mr. Bouverie's Bill was in no way intended to prevent of its exhibition of temper, and through the semi-official papers the colleges which wish to elect only Church of England fellows calls for a rapprochement of England and France. Liberals will and tutors from insisting on Church membership, but only to enable heartily hope for its occurrence, for the disunion in the colleges which do not wish to insist upon this, to elect Dissenting West leaves to three wicked families on the Continent the power fellows and tutors if they please. MT. Bouverie only proposed to of massacring civilized mankind almost with impunity. There is, repeal a restriction imposed by Act of Parliament, and so to however, one little point to be explained. It is asserted in several quarters, by the Opinion Nationale as well as the correspondent of the Times, that French iron-clads have been sold to Prussia with the Emperor's consent for use against Denmark. If that is the fact, it points to a secret understanding between Napoleon and Herr von Bismarck, and the British Government is playing the game against men who are using loaded dice.
increase the liberty of choice in the colleges, not to impose upon the colleges Dissenting fellows or tutors against their will. Mr. Neate is reported to have said that if the Bill passed-the colleges " would be precluded from taking into consideration in the election of fellows whether the candidate was a member of the Church of England or not,"—a complete misapprehension. Mr. Bouverie's Bill only proposed to repeal a certain section of the Act of Uni- formity, and to leave the colleges freer than before. Is Mr. Neate deserting on this question to the Conservatives ?
A conversation in the House of Lords on the Burial Service difficulty on Monday night resulted in a promise of Lord Gren- ville's that the Government would try " to satisfy all parties." That will be a very difficult work indeed. Four thousand clergy thirteen years ago wished for some relief to their consciences in the use of the service. The Archbishop of Canterbury will not even hear of a Commission to consider its alteration ; and what he does consent to hear of,—a Commission to consider how the clergy may be relieved from reading it in cases where it hurts their con- science even to hope that a fellow-creature may be resting in Christ,—the laity in general, we imagine, will not consent to hear of. The Bishop of London proposes that clergymen should be excused from reading it, like the priests in France, on the ground of "open and notorious profanity" on the part of the deceased. No English public would bear this plea without bringing the clergymen to book, and a greater scandal than accusations by the clergy against their late parishioners cannot be conceived. Besides, it would end in " respect of persons." Profane and dissolute dukes would be buried with all respect, while the clergy would be troubled by sad scruples about profane and dissolute peasants. Lord Granville has a pleasant task before him.
The Lords have at last consented to be beaten on the supervision of the ticket-of-leave men. We are happy to say that the amend- ment of the Commons, insisting on their original amendment, and requiring the monthly report to the police as a condition of the licence, was carried in the House of Lords on Thursday night by a majority of 37—(62 to 25).
The Whitebait Ministerial dinner is fixed for this day week, the 23rd inst., and the Houses will probably rise before the 30th.
The King of Denmark, previous to despatching his brother to Berlin, found it expedient to change his Ministry, Bishop Monrad being hated in Germany at once as democrat and Dane. He therefore selected Count Moltke Nuchau as Premier without port- folio, and M. Bluhme as President of the Cabinet. The Count is a Holsteiner of absolutist tendencies, and a wish to keep the provinces together by the nexus of the Royal authority only, and M. Bluhme is a strong but respectable Tory official who has been a Cabinet Minister before. It was believed for a moment that the Ministry contemplated a coup d'etat, but they repudiate the design and put out peace as their only programme. The special correspondent of the Morning Post says they are willing to admit a Ruffian garri- son into Copenhagen, but there is no confirmation of this astound- ing assertion.
On 28th June M. Drouyn de Lhuys addressed a circular upon Danish affairs to all French diplomatic agents. He recounts the proceedings of the Conference, expresses the Emperor's approval of the English proposal as favourable to nationalities, aid ends the despatch with a sentence Prussians will be wise to pondpr :—" We entertain the sincerest wishes that the dangers may be avoided which these events might bring about ; and, guided by the same sentiments which have hitherto proved the rule of our conduct, and desiring to maintain the impartial attitude we have taken up, we are willing to hope that no complication will arise of =so grave a nature as to necessitate our embrating a different policy."
Thomas Hopley, a schoolmaster, was in 1854 condemned to imprisonment for beating a boy named Canceller to death, because it was necessary to " conquer " him. Fanny Hopley, his wife, has now prayed for a judicial separation, on the ground of cruelty, and her story is a most heartbreaking one. Hopley used to treat her " like a pupil," i. e., an enemy, teach her lessons, and beat her savagely for blunders, beat her during pregnancy, compelled her to deliver herself, five days afterwards forced her and the infant out in a carriage, and then beat her again because she did not
:suckle the child as he approved. All this was borne, but he kept up also an irritating system of interference, regulated every act by a written code, spat in her face, ordered her to bed b efore a party of guests, in fact treated her just like a wicked child. Hopley's de- fence is that while in prison his wife wrote him loving letters, which is doubtless true. The poor woman's pity for the father of her children re-awoke at his suffering, and even in Court she apolo- gized for giving him pain for the sake of her children, whom he also beat till one of them became imbecile. The man in all these brutalities seems to have been guided by some strange notion of principle, just the feeling, in fact, which makes the Inquisition :torture heretics and the Record publish the names of clergymen who go to a ball.
Three cases of indecent assault have this week been reported with very different results. In the first a girl assailed with im- proper questions, and afraid of her clothes being thrown up, got out of the carriage, and was only saved from death by a fellow passenger, Mr. Stokes, military saddler of Aldershot, holding her up at the risk of his life for five miles. The assailant is not yet tried, the county magistrates not having jurisdiction, as the train had just passed the limits of their authority. In a second case a young woman obviously respectable complained that a gentleman opposite had insulted her in a tunnel, but other passengers did not perceive it, she herself "could not tell if he had gloves on or not," and it was clear that she had misinterpreted the pressure of her own crinoline. In the third instance a railway inspector was accused of rape, but the woman had compounded an assault before ; she gave no alarm audible through a communication which existed at the top of the compartments, and she and her husband contradicted each other grossly. The inspector was accordingly acquitted. It really seems as if both men and women required more protection in railway carriages, though Mr. Milner Gibson, when questioned in the House, asserted that there were difficulties in the way, and refused to propose a legislative cure. The President of the Board of Trade wants the keen air of the Ashton hustings to brace his mind up a little.
There is little military news from America, and what there is is not favourable to the Federals. General Wilson's (Federal) .cavalry had destroyed twenty miles of the Danville railroad, but on their return on the 17th of June their re-junction with the Federal army was opposed by a powerful force of Confederates at Beacon's station on the Weldon railroad, and it is said that Wilson fought all night without being able to push his way through. The news terminates abruptly by saying that General Meade had sent the 6th Corps with a division of the 2nd Corps to Wilson's assist- ance, but the result was not stated. There was no further news from General Sherman and the Georgian campaign.
Mr. Chase had resigned, and his place, it is said, had been offered and declined by ex-Governor Todd of Ohio, and then offered to Senator Fessenden of Maine, an able man, who appeared uncertain, on the score of weak health, whether he could accept it. The cause of Mr. Chase's resignation is not known, but is attributed to a conflict with the President about Treasury appointments. Con- gress had repealed the silly and unpopular Gold Bill, which may have had some connection with Mr. Chase's resignation.
A warm discussion took place on Thursday night on the second reading of the New Zealand Loan Bill, which proposes to give the British guarantee to a nominal loan of 1,000,0001. sterling to the New Zealand Government,—really of only half that sum, as the other half will be retained by the Government here in repayment of its former claims. Mr. Cardwell also proposes to lend it only on condition that the New Zealand Government contri- butes 40/. per man annually for every English soldier employed in New Zealand, which is supposed to be rather less than half the expense. If Imperial guarantees for colonial loans are bad in principle,—which we do not deny, it is at any rate quite a new thing for any of our colonies to be paying half the expense of the British regiments employed on its behalf. Mr. Cobden and Lord Stanley, co-operating as usual, spoke of this arrangement in a manner grossly unjust to the colonies ; but Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Cardwell, and Lord Palmerston, all for once did justice to the colonists. The Times echoes the most unjust of the many utterly unjust slanders, and calls upon the colonists to fight their own battles (as if they were not doing so), and not ask reluctant British soldiers to bleed in so "cold-blooded" and "sordid" a cause ; to which Mr. Chichester Fortescue quietly replies, that in Auckland "there is scarcely an ablebodied man who is not under arms ;" and in Taranaki a return not long ago showed that the volunteer force under arms actually outnumbered the regular soldiery.
A curious charge of forcing an oyster—and a dirty oyster—upon a Jew was brought before Mr. Paget at the Thames Police Court last week. Robert Brown, a general dealer, was eating oysters in Leman Street, Whitechapel, and wished to press one on a Jew, Jacob Flander, who protested and pleaded his religion. Brown would not admit the plea, broke the glass which complainant was carrying, and picking up the oyster out of the mud, where it had dropped in the scuffle, forced it into his mouth. The prohibition against shell-fish in Deuteronomy xiv., verses 9 and 10, was read by Mr. Paget :—" These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters ; all that have fins and scales shall ye eat, and whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat : it is unclean unto you." This oyster, at all events, was unclean to Mr. Flander in every sense, and we are glad to learn that Mr. Paget fined the prisoner 40s. for the assault, in addition to 4s. 7d. the value of the broken glass, and in default of payment gave him five weeks' imprisonment in the House of Correction.
Mr. Lincoln accepts the nomination of the Baltimore Con- vention, but remarks in his letter that while he fully concurs in the resolution " in regard to the supplanting of Republican Government on the Western Continent, there might be misunder- standing were I not to say that the position of the Government in relation to the action of France in Mexico, as assumed through the State Department and endorsed by the Convention, among the measures and acts of the Executive, will be faithfully maintained, so long as the state of facts shall leave that position pertinent and applicable,"—which means, we suppose, that Mr. Lincoln approves a resolution theoretically which he does not choose to carry out practically by interfering with the new Mexican Empire.
At the half-yearly meeting of the Union Bank of London the usual dividend of 15 per cent. per annum and a bonus of 2* per cent. were declared. The meeting was afterwards made special to pass resolutions increasing the capital of the Bank to 4,000,0001. The amount of deposits now held is upwards of 19,000,0001.
The Directors of the Indian Tramway Company have issued an advertisement announcing an increase of capital in order to com- plete the lines at present under construction. The object of this company is to construct cheap branch lines of railway in the three Indian Presidencies. The line which at the present moment nearest approaches completion is the Arconum line in Madras, which has so far been constructed at a cost, including engines, rolling stock, &c., of 3,0001. per mile. Rapid prog,ress is also being made with the Bargee line in Bombay and the Mozufferpore line in Bengal.
The Robertsfors Iron Works Company, capital, 300,0001., in 15,000 shares of 201. each, proposes to purchase the extensive estates of Robertsfors and Fredrikfors, on the Gulf of Bothnia, in Sweden. In addition to the manufacture of Bessemer steel, which the report states may, by extending the works at a cost of 16,0001., be produced at the rate of 200 tons per week, the company intends to export timber extensively, and to undertake shipbuilding.
On Saturday last Consols left off at 901 for money, and 90i I for account. Yesterday the closing quotations were :—For money, sot i; for time, 91 to 91*. A considerable rise has taken place in the value of the Confederate Loan, the quotation being 77 to 79.
The stock of bullion in the Bank of England is 13,701,1121.
Yesterday and on Saturday week the leading Foreign Securities left off at the following prices :—
Friday, July 8. Friday, July II
.. 251 .. 251 .. — .. — 24 .. 291 — .. 291 .. — .. 101 .. 701 .. 72 .. 681 .. C91 .. 51
the leading British Railways
Caledonian ..
Great Eastern Great Northern .. Great Western.. ..
Lancashire and Yorkshire .. London and Brighton London and North-Western .. London and South•Western London, Chatham, and Dover ..
Midland ..
North•Eastern, Berwick Do. York .. West Midland, Oxford .. Greek Do. Coupons .. Mexican Spanish Passive ••
Do. Certificates
Turkish 6 per Cents., 1858..
1862.. „ ▪ Consoildes..
Subjoined are the closing prices of yesterday and on Friday week
• •
Friday, July 8.
1201 so 136 71 117 106 114 98 42
136/ 105
Friday, July 15.
125 51
14072
1191 107 118 981 48 188/ 108/ 98
••
oo pd as • -• a■
4'
• • •
114
