18 APRIL 1857, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

IF Easter has brought with it the customary suspension of business public and private, it has this year been distinguished by some events, public and personal, that do not occur at every Easter. It is not every year that a Queen-regnant of England adds a ninth to the number of her ohildren—a ninth to the number of living guarantees that the crown of England will not depart from that succession in the house of Kent which has proved so fortunate.

The present Easter has witnessed the completion of a general election—one of the, quietest, yet strangest, that the country has undergone. We ,have seen tho counties "rescued from Tory domination," as agents on the other side say. We have seen Ireland peculiarly Conservative, yet there too we see Galway rescued from the nomination of Dr. M'Hale ; his nominee, Captain Bellew, being defeated by a Liberal Protestant, with undoubted support from the Roman Catholic gentry, and even, it is said, from Roman Catholic priests. Such is the fusion of parties even in the highest Papal quarters.

Yet Protestantism has had its checks. In the Court of Appeal, lately, it was as it were a drawn battle between Liddell and Westerton ; and while, as a consequence of the judicial decision pronouncing the legality of credence-tables, altar-cloths, and crosses, -various churches, most especially All Saints in the district of St. Marylebone, have blazed forth in a gorgeous display of ecclesiastical decoration both omen and furniture, St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, has reelected Mr. Westerton in the face of Mr. Liddell.

The week has brought an official reassurance against too great panic on the score of cattle murrain. Dr. Greenhow, in a report to the President of the Board of Health, draws certain distinctions, showing that the disease which has affected cattle heretofore imported is the "lung disease," already well known in this country, and not very serious ; whereas the proclamation has cut off the import from the very moment that the more alarming disease of "steppe murrain" had crossed the border of Prussia or Austria, Westward. We were therefore free to eat our holiday beef without very serious apprehensions of the Tartar taint : yet it certainly has been an eventful Easter which thus interfered with the hopes and fears of the dintier-table.

The one important piece of public business transacted this week is the issue of a general order from the Horse Guards, defining the qualifications which in future will be required from all officers seeking Staff appointments. Their possession of the qualifications will be tested by examination. The posts specifically included within the scope of the order are those of Aide-decamp, Brigade-Major, and the subordinates of the AdjutantGeneral and Quartermaster-General's Department. The young men will be required to exercise their brains in arts besides those of riding an errand, singing a song, and catering for the General's dinner. The Brigade-Major and the upper officers must possess a real technical knowledge of military movements, regulations, flying surveys, castrametation, and other profound branches of science that cannot be purchased and are not necessarily involved in a peerage ; including for every Staff-officer the knowledge of one foreign language, and his vernacular grammar ! The order is a step in the right direction : though it looks mild, we suspect that it will by some " practical " men be regarded as a sweeping

[LATEST EDITION.]

if not a subversive measure. If this merit be really

carried out, more must be done ; and le premier pas qui

cofite. "

Popular education in one form or other is the fashion of the season ; and besides the more fashionable manifestations of it, there have been some substantial evidences of real progress. The most fashionable form consists in the ceaselessly-advertised preparations at Manchester for the Exhibition of Art Treasures. It is turning out more of a great local won. • eat—more of au

excursion-train attraction, making Man 4 a fashionable re

sort for the summer—than any sober and eat instrument

for teaching the resident working men of c, nchester. These notices are anticipative parallels to the ordinary notices of the exhibition of the Royal Academy or the daily descriptions of the Crystal Palace in 1851 when it had become a reality ; and their appearance might be accounted for in the fact that the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition is especially calculated to combine the personnel of more than one public department, of a dilettante clique, and of London journalism ; so that there is a perfect manufacture of practical restheties on the spot and in the press. The show will do no harm ; it will indeed do good, for

• there arc minds among the working men of Manchester who will probably seize the passing occasion to begin the formation of enduring ideas. The Free Library at Liverpool is likely to be a standing success for all parties. Mr. William Brown, the merchant magnate of Liverpool, who has made his fortune coincidentally with the rise of the town, has embodied his gratitude for the prosperity that he has shared by bestowing upon the working classes the building to contain a free library ; and he seems to have been astonished at the sense which public opinion has shown of the favour—at the weight of gratitude that has been heaped upon him. Yet he added to the benefit which he has conferred on Liverpool the further favour of a lecture on the immense advantages to be derived from a decimal system of coinage. There is something humorous in combining this hobby with the brandishing of the trowel in founding his own monument; yet there is solid sense in what the Member for South Lancashire says on the subject. By removing endless trouble, vexation, and confusion, from all arithmetical processes connected with money, the introduction of the decimal system would facilitate education and the business of life.

The gravest and solidest contribution to popular education, however, is shown in the second report of the Working Men's College in London. Here again we have gentlemen giving a handsome gift to the working classes in the shape of money front some who are not among the wealthiest in the land ; time from men who are busy ; conscientious earnestness from men who are proper to be examples, and pertinacity sufficient to command a self-supporting success. By their sacrifices and their exertions, the men at the head of whom is the Reverend Frederick Maurice have secured for the Working Men's College examinations in the University of London, examinations for the Civil Service, and a home which is their freehold property. A solid corporate cha racter is given to the College ; and its repute must soon draw to it sufficient business from the working classes to render it finally independent of patronage. Two other institutions of the kind, in Cambridge and Oxford, both succeeding, show that the example has already taken effect ; and if similar attempts have failed in other towns, they have proved that there was the disposition among the working classes, who have now been shown more than one method of attaining success.

A diplomatic ferment in the relations between America and Europe is indicated by recent occurrences, but without any satisfactory explanation. A treaty concluded between this country and France has caused great vexation in British North America. Long since, the French claimed the right of fishery on the coasts of Newfoundland, a right which they had exercised when France held possessions in North America. The practice has continued de facto ; the colonists always objecting, and the English Government trimming between the French claim and assertions of the Colonial claim. But recently a treaty has been arranged

between France and England, confirming the claim of France. The consequence is an outburst in Newfoundland, with a sympathizing outburst in Nova Scotia, New 'Brunswick, and even Canada, to the extent„ it is said, of contemplating a federal protest. The treaty, indeed, has been reserved for tha_confirmation of the Legislature of Newfoundland,—rather a curious provision in an Imperial treaty. Would it not have been a more direct course, more conformable to the interests of this country, if France had been induced to resign her pretensions upon actual compensation to the interests specially engaged? There is no doubt that salt fish could be furnished to the Roman Catholics of France quite as cheaply by an English as by a French fishery. And if the pride of the French people had been concerned, concessions such as the free navigation of the Gambia, and .other compensating compliments, might have been paid by this country as a set-off.

As it is, thore is a chance either that the colonists will be irritated at some official " management " to fulfil the wishes of France, or France will be annoyed by the rejection of a treaty which we have concluded ; chances both of which would have been prevented by departing from the dogmatic secrecy of diplomacy and openly discussing the question on its merits.

It is reported that the dispute between Spain and Mexico proves to be irreconcilable, notwithstanding the good offices of the English and French Ambassadors in Madrid. In connexion with this minor embroglio, an English journal supposed to be semi-official gives currency and credit to the assertion, that "in the event of a war between Spain and Mexico, the United States intend to make a diversion on Cuba." Not the faintest shadow of authenticity is ascribed to this rumour, which is highly improbable in the actual relations between Washington and Mexico ; but it is made a peg for a sermon of innuendo against President Buchanan, with something like a threat that "the nations of Europe, allies of Spain," will not "remain impassive spectators while this act of international piracy is being consummated." We believe that their best exertions will still continue to be applied to the worthy object of arranging the existing cause of difference, if we are in friendly relations with Washington, where is the use of thus railing at our ally through semiofficial channels ?