NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE death of Sir Cornewall Lewis, which occurred on Monday, has saddened the week. He belonged to a class of statesmen little known out of England—judicious, reflective men, who yet do not fear change, and have not lost the power of determined and vigorous action. The most deeply learned man in the Cabinet, and incessantly at work with his pen, he was a cautious and successful Home Secretary, en admirable Chancellor of the Exchequer, and a fair, though not very conspicuous Secretary for War. His value, however, was not in his department, so much as in the Cabinet, where his grave, solid sense, freedom from prejudice, and habit of rapidly grouping weighty facts, gave him an influence higher even than that which he possessed in the House of Commons. He was a genuine Liberal in the sense of disliking abuses, but bad but a limited faith in any special machinery of reform. Liberal views and Conservative temperament are the words which describe most nearly the attitude of his mind. He was recognized by the " old Whigs" as their future leader in the Lower House, and his death is a most serious loss to his party, as well as the nation.

Rumours as to his successor are, of course, flying in all directions, but nothing has yet been announced, and the clubs are somewhat at fault. The " favourites" in the race are Lord do Grey, who has made his mark in the department by his management of the volunteer force, and Mr. Cardwell, whose present appointment does not bring out one whose first quality is his hunger for work. The public would prefer a new man to either of them—to Lord de Grey because strength is wanted in the Commons, where, if Lord Palmerston were ill, Mr. Gladstone would stand alone, and to Mr. Cardwell, because he is already in the Cabinet, and a great deal too apt to do his own work and contribute nothing to the general administration. Either might do good service, but if Lord Palmerston is wise he will seize the opportunity to introduce yet more extensive changes.

The Bishops have not all had their fling at Dr. Colenso yet, and some, we hope, one at least we trust, will still be found to abstain. The Bishop of Durham finds a " wide- spread spirit of scepticism" in the press, but will not level so gross a calumny at his clergy as to assume that they are, any of them, even capable of asking the Bishop of Natal to preach in their pulpits. The Bishop of Salisbury openly prays for him, which is a severer policy even than the Bishop of Durham's. Dr. Colenso can bear it no longer, and has re- plied rather warmly to the Times, that since the days of Bonner and Laud there has been nothing so arbitrary as those pro- hibitions to preach in all pulpits as a punishment for no proved crime. We think the Bishop of Natal rather exagge- rates. Ono can bear to be prayed for, after all; but certainly the.Bishops do seem a narrower and leas cultivated set of they were two or three hundred years ago. The episcopacy of Hooker's or of Cudworth's time would never have treated the integrity of the Pentateuch as these half- educated Bishops are now treating it,—as rather more im- portant than the Incarnation, and perhaps involving, as one of them said, the existence of God.

Mr. Gladstone brought in his Budget on Thursday, amidst general applause. He is going to repeal the tax on parcels imported and on bills of lading for exports, to reduce the income-tax by 2d., i.e., to 7d., which is about its fair peace level, to allow all whose incomes are below 2001. a year to deduct 601. a year for maintenance from their income, before paying income-tax, and to reduce the tea duty from ls. 5d. to ls. per lb. A. few small and not very im- portant additions, elsewhere explained, are to be made to the taxes. On the whole, the estimated account for the current year will stand, we imagine, thus. We speak uncertainly, because Mr. Gladstone did not fully explain what he expected from the Excise, after adding the new duty on chicory grown in this country:— ESTIMATED LNCOME AFTER REDUCTIONS AND ADDITIONS.

Customs ... ••• £22,737,000 Excise ... 17,650,000 Stamps ... 9,000,000 Taxes ... 3,218,000 Income-tax .8,625,000 Post Office 3,800,000 Crown Lands ... 300,000 Miscellaneous ... 2,500,000 China Indemnity 450,000 68,280,000 Estimated Expenditure ... ... 67,749,000 Surplus ... £531,000 This is at least a moderate estimate, and unless the Lancashire distress proves infinitely more disastrous than we at present expect, or war breaks out during the year, Mr. Gladstone may again hope to have even a better surplus than he expects.

Mr. Gladstone made one very remarkable admission in his Budget. He believed the state of Ireland to be most deplor- able. The progress of the island stopped in 1859, and the amount of the oats, wheat, potato crop, and one-third of the actual value of the live stock in Ireland, was, from 1856 to 1860, on an average, 39,437,0001. per annum. In 1860-61 it fell to 34,893,0001.—a decrease of 4,550,0001. In 1861-62 it fell to 29,077,0001.—a decrease of 10,360,0001. In 1862-63, low as was the previous point, it descended yet lower, and fell to 27,327,0001., from an average of 39,437,0001., showing a decrease of somewhat above 12,000,0001., nearly one-third of the total value of the agricultural products. There can be no doubt that Englishmen, misled by the habitual Irish exaggeration, have under-estimated Irish dis- tress, and that there is risk of another vast Irish exodus. Yet what is to be done—what can be done for a country where the peasantry are too poor to become proprietors, yet shoot down the capitalist who comes among them ? It is the tenure of Ireland which is the root of the mischief; and yet how alter the tenure under pistol-compulsion ?

On Thursday week the Lords of the Admiralty visited Shef- field to see the process of rolling out the armour-plates which " they subsequently destroy at Shoeburyness. After viewing the ironworks of Mr. Brown, the Mayor of Sheffield, and assist- ing in the fiery rites by which these plates are prepared, Mr. Brown gave the Admiralty a sumptuous feast, at which the Duke of Somerset made a very amusing speech. He is overwhelmed, ho says, with letters explaining to him how to plate the ships most effectually. One gentleman writes that he should copy in the plating the scales of the croco- dile; another is anxious that the rhinoceros's bossy hide should be the model; another is in favour of a beetle's wing, which is so slippery that everything slides off it ; another declares for chain armour ; another- for a system of elastic springs. The Record, we think, once gravely maintained that the description of the Leviathan in Sob was a prophecy of the Great Eastern. It might, with much more plausibility, refer it to these iron-plated steam vessels :—" His scales are his pride, shut up to- gether as with a close seal—one is so near to another that no air can come between them. When he raiseth himself up the mighty are afraid ; by reason of breakings they purify them- selves ; he esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee ; strong stones are turned with him into stubble. He maketh the deep to boil like a pot, he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment ; he maketh a path -to shine after him ; he maketh the deep to be hoary." We wonder the Duke has not received a suggestion to copy the design in the Book of Job.

Sir Morton Peto moved on Wednesday the second reading of his Dissenters' Burial Bill, which gives Dissenters (even unbaptized) a right to burial in the parish church, and pro- poses to require the clergyman either to allow the Dissenting minister of the sect to which the deceased might belong to perform the service over the grave, or to require him to explain in detail to the bishop his reason for refusing. Thg first clause of the Bill, which makes it obligatory on the clergy to admit the body, at least, to the churchyard, was supported by Mr. Glad- stone and Sir G. Grey, who voted for the second readily, on the understanding that this was the provision they wished to support. In the second clause, securing, or trying to secure, an entrance for the Dissenting clergy into the churchyard, they saw, justly enough, the germs of very undesirable quarrels. Lord Robert Cecil and the Tories generally would have nothing to say to the Bill, and scarcely admitted a grievance at all. The grievance, however, of being refused burial altogether is heavy enough, and the superstitious feeling against perfect silence at the grave, which many good people think of with horror as being " buried like a dog," is more real than enlightened persons may think. The clergyman may clearly refuse to permit any service over an unbaptized child, and sometimes is petty enough to do so. This can, however, scarcely be a serious grievance, except to those who think the ground itself gains something by the service ; for the service may always be performed in private, and this hardship, when it is felt so, is at least better than to have a clergyman and Dissenting minister heading faction fights on the subject, either in country churchyards or country newspapers. The Bill was rejected, amid loud Tory cheering, by a majority of 125; 221 to 96, The Americans seem half inclined to pick a quarrel with England, by way of extricating themselves from their diffi- culties. General Butler,- at a public meeting at New York, has asserted that the time has nearly arrived for rememberino. the Trent affair, and the vindictive allusion was received with a storm of applause. The West India Islands complain that they are blockaded by Federal cruisers, vessels being stopped and searched. More than all, it is asserted that the Wash- ington Government has issued orders for the seizure of certain vessels named, irrespective of their destination, or of their cargo—an order which, if issued and adhered to, must pro- duce war some day. The City also is irritated by a discovery that the American Minister has recently granted a pass to a vessel bound for Matamoras, and laden with arms for the Mexicans—a proceeding quite without precedent. We sin- cerely hope that all these proceedings have been taken at the bidding of individual members of the Cabinet, and will be repudiated by the President, who has already refused to issue letters of marque, as likely to lead to quarrels.

A correspondence has been published between Lord Russell and Mr. Adams concerning the English ships which break the blockade, in which the American Minister certainly does not appear to be very reasonable. It commences with Lord Russell's complaint of the mode in which the American Government is treating us in the case of the Labuan, which was recently captured at Matamoras, in Mexico, and taken to New York as a prize. Mr. Seward justifies the proceedings so little that he has assured Lord Lyons that seizures under the circumstances under which the Labuan was captured "shall not be repeated," and yet declines to release the ship till the decision of the Prize Court has been taken. Mr. Adams very illogically justifies his chief on the ground that so many British ships have tried to run the blockade that they are all in bad odour. Lord Russell replies with dignity and firmness that nothing can be less reasonable than for the North to complain of the export from England of contraband of war. If we interdicted it at all we must do so both to Smith and North, and as the North has been supplied with arms and ammunition chiefly from England, this would scarcely meet Mr. Adams's views. The truth is that the American Minister shows himself in these papers utterly unreasonable and had we not given real cause for irritation by an unjustifiable delay in the case of the Alabama no Englishman could read his despatches without annoyance.

A terrible murder was committed in London on Thursday, 9th inst. A man unknown, and a street girl named Emma Jack- son, entered a low brothel in St. Giles's at 7 o'clock in the morning, and took a room for two hours. No noise was beard in the room, no one was seen to go out, yet at 5 o'clock p.m. the woman was found horribly murdered. Five wounds had been inflicted : two on the neck, and two on the back of the head,. and the surgeon believed the first blows had been given while the girl was asleep. No clue has been found to the man, nothing was taken from the girl, and no motive can yet be assigned for the murder. The attendants of the house even profess not to have noticed the manes appearance, though he left in broad daylight, and though they were so afraid of robberies that they kept the bed-room door holted on the out- side. The Crown has offered a reward of 100/. for any evi- dence ; but the length of time between the murderer's escape, supposed to have occurred about 10 a.m., and-the discovery of the crime, are greatly in the criminal's favour..

The Italian Parliament has abolished the national grant to theatres. It amounted to 44,0001. a year; but very little of this amount ever reached the stage, the money being squan- dered in jobs and pensions. La Scala, for instance, is starved.. It was resisted on the sound ground that such a grant could be justified only as an encouragement to art, that Italian art had never flourished except when independent, that it was doubtful whether the ballet was art in any high sense of the word, and that the theatre, as a matter of fact, was in a miserably low condition. The Minister pleaded for one year's- delay, but the majority ruthlessly stopped the grant. The matter seems a small one, but few debates have been more creditable to the growing social intelligence of Italy.

Her Majesty's steamer. Orpheus, 21 guns, has been lost off the coast of New Zealand. She struck on a shifting sand- bank on 7th February- while crossing Manikau Bar, and in four hours became a total wreck. Nothing could exceed the coolness and discipline of the crew, who pushed off the cutter with the ship's papers, and the pinnace with two sick men and the lieutenant, without an attempt to crowd. The re- mainder of the crew swarmed into the rigging, where they were gradually swept off by the furious sea, or dropped into the surf to try and swim to the boats. Of the few who were left a number were on the mainmast, and about midnight it also was swept away, while the men who had clung to it as it fell gave " three farewell cheers " to life. A hundred and eighty-five of the crew perished, and they could not have died more nobly had they been slain in battle. It is this calm adherence to duty, rather than mere bravery, which is our countrymen's justification for their boast-of their valour. A Zouave will charge anything, but only an Englishman meets death with a silent welcome because it is his duty to keep his post.

The Times' correspondent at Constantinople affirms that the Turkish Government is again at its wits' end for money. It raised 8,000,000/. a year ago in London, but since then has issued 17,000,0001. in Consolides, and has just completed a third loan. with the concessionaires of the Ottoman Bank for the nominal amount of six millions issued at -68. He believes that although the revenue has been increased by new taxes up to 15,000,0001. a year, the financial result.of 1862 will be worse than the Budget by 4,000,0001., and that the total debt is 55,000,0001. This bears an average interest of 6 per cent., and requires, therefore, 3,300,0001. a year. This would not be very formidable to European finances, but the Turks-seem to think that in the facility of opening loans they have discovered Fortunatus's purse, and discount the future with true Oriental recklessness. None of this money has been spent in improving the country, and very little in redeeming the currency. The Turks are about to issue another budget, which will be a great deal more flattering than the last, and will in all probability be followed by a demand for another loan. A curious story is going the round of the American papers. The Southern envoy to France has, it is said, claimed French support, on the ground that as soon as the war is over the leaders of the South mean to create themselves nobles. They calculate that the mass of the whites will then emigrate and leave only the nobles and their slaves, a state of things which must meet with the approbation of the Emperor. Tho story is absurd on the face of it, the planters needing the mean whites to make a powerful army. It is probably an ex- aggerated account of the planters' project for restricting the suffrage to the holders of slaves, and thus making of them legally what they now are practically—a powerful aristocracy.

Mr. Gladstone holds over a surplus of 531,0001., and he is wise, for it is threatened already. A telegram from Shanghai, dated the 9th March, informs us that " military hostilities have broken out in Japan, and Admiral Kuper has proceeded thither with the British fleet." That means mischief, even though the military hostilities are only between the Mikado and the Tycoon. The latter, who is • the friend of the foreigner, was at the end of February on his way to Miako, with an escort of 4,000 guards, and an attack may have been made upon him as a preliminary to the general massacre of the foreigner. In any case, a British admiral with a fleet at command will be very much in the position of an Irishman looking on at a row, aware that he has nothing to do with it, but wholly unable to keep himself out of the fray.

A French correspondent informs us that the Emperor really intends to be elected at once to the Institute, and that M. Gnizot will propose his election by acclamation. This dispenses with the irksome necessity of a canvass for individual votes. The ground of claim will be the " Mies Napolebniennes," and not the "Life of Caesar," and the Emperor will be elected by about thirty-five votes out of forty. The claim in itself is not an unfair one, the Emperor being, after all criticism, a very remarkable thinker, and we question if learned,/ bodies are injured by contact with the actual life of theodion. It is the intrusion of the Emperor by force, the smashing of locks with the sceptre which the Academy should resist, and to which Englishmen of the same calibre would certainly never yield. M. Guizot's argument, we are told, is that refusal would certainly be attributed to disaffection, and furnish a pre- text for destroying the Institute, either by a great in- crease of numbers, or by applying the law relative to associa- tions.

The Polish revolt extends. It seems certain that Lithu- ania is in arms, and that the peasants have in that pro- vince committed themselves to the movement. They were compelled thirty years ago to join the Greek Church, and have, consequently, commenced the revolt by destroying the Greek churches, and asserting themselves once more as Roman Catholics. Their adhesion is most important to the insurgents, more especially as documents are in circulation inciting the peasants to cut the throats of their lords, and promising them the land if they do. One of these proclamations is attributed by the correspondent of the Daily News to General Berg, the new Commander-in-Chief; but the statement is quite incredible. He may have connived at its circulation, and it seems certain that the officials make no effort to stop it; but he would hardly have thrown away the last shred of Muscovite reputation for civilization and justice.

Two decrees, clearly genuine, have been issued during this month. By the first, dated 3rd April, the Emperor orders that all the property, real, and moveable, of all persons accused of 'complicity in Polish disorders shall be sequestrated. The ontner is to be driven off his land, but " if the members of his, family have not 'participated in the disorders, and, not possessing separate property, want the means of existence, the local superior authority may give them for their support a portion of the net revenue remaining after all the payments and expenses authorized by this regulation have been met." The families' innocence being admitted, they are not sen- tenced to die of starvation,—a rare example of clemency. Even should the proprietor clear himself, all the expenses, calculated by an official who would sell his soul for a rouble, are to be deducted from the receipt s. On 13th April the Emperor published an ukase offering a full pardon -to all who might submit by 13th May, but not recalling the edict of proscription, and adhering firmly to the "bases" he has laid down, and under which Wielopolski seized every medical student in Warsaw for service in the Caucasus. Vade in pacena, says the clement Emperor, in the very spirit of the old monks, and Poland pardoned is to be buried alive. The National Committee has, of course, rejected the amnesty, ordered the people not to pay taxes, and established an affiliated committee in every district. The Russian army, meanwhile, makes no progress, and the soldiers of one regiment being recently menaced for plunder, bayonetted the officer who menaced them.

The only news from America of military importance is the failure of Admiral Farragut's attempt to pass the batteries of Port Hudson. He himself, in the flag-ship, passed, as did also another vessel, but the rest of the fleet were beaten back, and General Banks, who was to have aided, retired to Baton Rouge. It is reported that General Grant, now opposite Vicksburg, has opened fire on the city, but as long as troops cannot reach it, that is a merely destructive measure. The South will apparently suffer much more from the want of food than from any military attack. The breadth of land sown is insufficient, supplies from the Border States are no longer forthcoming, and in parts of the South the inhabitants are talking of living on game and fish. Even the rice crop would appear to have failed, and the Tines' Southern corre- spondent writes nonsense about feeding the people with grain imported in swift steamers. It would cost its weight in gold. There must be some exaggeration in these accounts, though the raid into Kentucky looks very like an expedition for pro- curing grain. Kentucky has never been ravaged.

By the latest advices from Mexico, General Percy had divided his force into two bodies, one of which .was advancing on Puebla direct, and the other by way of Jalapa. Neither had accomplished anything yet, and General Octega still re- mains at Puebla, with 18,000 men. Unfortunately the tele- gram gives no date.

A Moa has been seen in New Zealand. A Moa is a walk- ing bird about eight or nine feet high, hitherto believed to be extinct, and seen by a miner in one of the gold diggings some time before the mail left. It was seen by him while sitting at a camp fire, and mistaken at first for a man. The miner next morning followed its track,—which showed three claws, and, about a foot behind, the mark of a pad, and behind that again of a spur,—for a long distance, but at last lost it. A Mr. Rees has offered 5001. for the bird, " alive or dead," and there is still somo hope of securing it for Professor Owen.

Sir George Grey has announced his intention of bringing in a Bill to amalgamate the Metropolitan with the City Police, and the Common Council is extremely indignant. It has called on the corporations throughout England to resist, and will demand the removal of "spiteful" Sir George Grey. Alderman Sidney rose in the discussion to a grand flight of eloquence, comparing Sir De Lacy Evans who assisted the Poles with the De Lacy Evans who censured the City Police, and affirming that " it would have been better for his repu- tation if he had died thirty years ago." The Council agreed heartily to stand by their policeman, and they have plenty of resources for battle. The Metropolitan members have already been warned that their seats depend on resistance, and the country municipalities are expected to rise to the grand cry, "Mayors and boadles to the rescue !" We should prefer, looking at the state of parties, to bet on the City.

The latest price for Consols was 923 923 for money, and 923 93 for the account. The New Threes and Reduced wore 915 915. Indian 5 per Cents., 1093 1093 ; ditto, Enfaced, 1083 ; and Exchequer Bills Is. prem. Turkish 6 per Cents., 1862, were 703 71; ditto, Consolidds, 483 483. Greek, 283 293. Spanish Passive, 293 30; ditto, Certificates, 103 105. Mexican, 335 335. Peruvian, 89 895. Russian, 955 953. Italian, 715 713. A company has been launched of a totally new kind, called the " Commercial Institute and General Share Exchange." Its object appears to be to " promote" new companies, receiving five per cent. on the share of profits obtained by the new company instead of promotion money. The capitals for companies intended to work particular businesses will be raised much as insurances are effected by underwriters, each capitalist subscribing at his own pleasure. It seems a clever scheme for superseding ordinary "promoters" and giving investors a wide range of choice.