NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE Spanish Cortes seem inclined to create a Republic without declaring one. They have appointed Marshal Serrano " head of the Executive," apparently without title, and directed him to appoint a Cabinet. He himself in his speech of thanks alludes to his non-possession of the right of veto as if he felt himself a kind of President, and he will, it is hinted in the latest telegram from D id (February 25), admit the Republican leaders into the Ministry. It is possible, of course, that the leaders of the Cortes only wish to gain time for the selection of a monarch ; but it is equally probable that they are willing to try a Republic for a time, if they can still hold open the door of retreat. Anyhow, they have a Republic ad interim, and one of a good pattern, with a Premier instead of a President, no paper constitution, and an Executive able to do anything not forbidden by Parliament.

The Belgian Senate has passed the Bill prohibiting the sale of railways to foreigners without the consent of the Government by a majority of five to one. The French papers, however, have moderated their tone, and argue that France must wait to see how the Government will exercise its power. It is stated, and denied, that M. de Is Gruerroniere, Minister at Brussels, has been in Paris on a summons from the Emperor; but for the present the quarrel would appear to have dropped, leaving only an uneasy feeling as to the intentions of the Emperor of the French. It is rumoured, we know not with what truth, that His Majesty's order to the semi-official press was "to commence an economic campaign against Belgium," and that a Secretary forgot the word economic.

A verdict was given in " Saurin v. Star" on Friday evening. The brilliant speech of the Solicitor-General revived the somewhat fainting hopes of the prosecution, and greatly influenced the jury, who, in the face of the apparent bias of the Lord Chief Justice, found a verdict on the libel and conspiracy counts for plaintiff (damages, 1.200) ; on the trover count, for plaintiff (dowry to be returned) ; on the counts for assault and false imprisonment, for defendants. The verdict embodies in a rough way, we fancy, very nearly the judgment of the public and the justice of the case.

The Government has pardoned 49 of the Fenian prisoners. The fact was announced on Monday in the House by Mr. Fortescue, who said that 81 were now under sentence, and that Government had selected from among them those whom they regarded as dupes, leaving the ringleaders still in prison. We question if this lenity is quite wise. It does not go far enough to satisfy feeling in Ireland, where all the prisoners are regarded as sufferers for the sake of their country, while it will help to keep up the idea that rebellion is a very safe game to play. We have always regretted the absence of some minor punishment for treason which would make it very unpleasant yet not raise pity as for " martyrs," but these heavy sentences and quick pardons create an impression of caprice. Repression when needed at all should be mild, but steady as fate.

The first Lord of the Admiralty seems to have mastered the great Parliamentary art of answering questions. Interrogated on Tuesday by Mr. Hardcastle whether it was true that just before the general election the Admiralty subscribed for a large number of copies of a comic Tory periodical, called the Will o' the Wisp, and when and why that subscription was made and discontinued, Mr. Childers replied that on the 15th of October the officer who advises the Admiralty as to the literature supplied to the naval hospitals and the fleet put down the usual number of copies (96) of two weekly comic journals, Judy and the Will o' the Wisp, and on the 14th December, before the new Admiuisz tration came in, the same officer struck off the Will o' the Wisp from the list. "The reason why the two papers were recommended," said Mr. Childers, " was that they were likely to exercise a beneficial influence over the crews of Her Majesty's ships. I have no wish to hurt any one's feelings, and I will, therefore, request my hon. friend to excuse me if I do not give the reason why the Admiralty were advised to discontinue the Will o' the Wisp." The ironic considerateness and reticence of that reply delighted the House, which loves that subdued tone of satire in party reflections on jobs of trivial moment. The Will o' the Wisp has published quite an official correspondence on the subject, from which it would appear that the regular permanent clerk availed himself of the interregnum to put au extinguisher on this unjocular naval light.

Mr. Reverdy Johnson, who has been starring it at Manchester this week in spite of the ill omens for the issue of his diplomatic labours, is evidently not in his usual spirits. He told his Manchester audience, on Thursday, that on hearing Mr. Reuter's telegraphic report of the unfavourable disposition of the Committee of the Senate on Foreign Relations, he telegraphed (last Monday) to his Government for official news, and received for answer that though it was rumoured that a majority of the Committee on Foreign Relations were opposed to the Convention, they had not yet officially reported. The Committee on Foreign Relations, he said, consists of only seven senators, while the ratification of any treaty requires a two-thirds' majority of the whole Senate ; so that the report of the Committee, whichever way it might go, would by no means carry with it the decision of the Senate. Certainly not, but with a majority of the Committee against ratification, a two-thirds' majority in favour of it would seem one of the most improbable events in the world. Mr. Johnson's elastic spirits seem to have recovered, however, in the evening, when he declared that he did not expect to return home " till all our difficulties were settled," and quoted General Grant's declarations in favour of peace,—which no one has ever disputed. He omitted to quote General Grant's professed view of his administrative duty,—to carry out, as President, all the distinct wishes of the American people,—which, indeed, may be quite consistent with Mr. Reverdy Johnson's personal residence here till the Alabama claims are.settled,—however remote that event may be.

The Lower House of Convocation has met in a very angry and turbulent mood, on the extraordinary and mournful folly of which we have commented elsewhere. Canon Selwyn was the first to move the Lower House to strengthen the cautious address to the Crown adopted by the Bishops, so as to express a plain (and rather violent) opinion about the disestablishment of the Irish Church. The worthy Canon repeated the remark that disestablishment would " unchristianize the State " as regards Ireland, though if the policy of Mr. Gladstone has a defence, it is its precisely opposite tendency,—to carry our Christianity heartily into our Irish legislation. But Canon Selwyn was not nearly so warm as Archdeacon Denison, who believed that " a great national sin was on the point of being committed, a sin from which the nation could never recover. He had no hope, and no faith in, the future of England, if that great sin were once committed." Dr. Jebb thought it " the most ungodly and wicked attempt ever made in this country," and as he could not speak of the sin, he said, without allusion to the sinner, he prooeeded to describe the mind of the great author of the mischief as " a vacillating, uncertain, ultra-metaphysical mind,"—" a man who is the victim of his own intellect, and who has sacrificed his better feelings to the sophistries which his own mind originated." Dr. Jebb himself, we suppose, has sacrificed his better feelings to sophistries not originated by his own mind, but whether that is to his credit we are not clear. A few speakers,— the Dean of Westminster and Archdeacon Grant especially,— were, as usual, moderate, lucid, and even wise. But the tone of the Lower Ilouse of Convocation generally was decidedly not sane. "Let your Immoderation be known unto all men " appeared to be their adopted motto.

The amendment of Canon Selwyn was carried by 36 votes to 15, and Archdeacon Denison's rider was subsequently carried, both strongly condemning a policy not as yet before Parliament. But the Upper House was wise enough to disagree, the Bishop of Oxford himself resisting the proposals, and substituting in their place an amendment to the original address, which he thought might soothe the feelings of the Lower House. The amendment consisted in managing to define parenthetically the interests of " true religion," as equivalent to " the just claims of that ancient and reformed communion," the Irish Protestant Church. We are not yet aware whether the Lower House was soothed or not by this parenthetical manoeuvre, but it was certainly a shabby one. " The interests of true religion" may include those, but they certainly ought to include a great deal in the Roman Church too ; and humouring the Lower House by appearing to deny that Roman Catholic interests can involve any interests of true religion, was a piece of tactics worthy only of S. Oxon. It is good, however, to see on this occasion the superior prudence of the dignitaries.

Poor Archdeacon Denison, though so heartily supported when defending the Irish Church, had to endure a severe trial on Thursday, when he came to read to the Lower House a long petition on his own favourite heresy as regards the Real Presence in the Eucharist. The Lower House would hardly hear him, and in great agitation he threatened to leave it and never return. However, he was permitted to get to the end, though not without great interruption. The petitioners asked that they should be protected in regarding and openly stating that they regarded the Eucharist as " the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross, and as propitiatory and impetratory for the living and the faithful departed." The Lower House was excessively impatient of this request, and some declared that the House was not to be called upon to hear such opinions. What a painful and petty cross-fire of bigotries our Church life just now seems to be I Mr. Bright made a speech on Wednesday to the Associated Chambers of Commerce at their annual dinner in the Westminster Palace Hotel. lie advised the Chambers to establish a wider suffrage for themselves and obtain more publicity for their proceedings, and in a very eloquent peroration called on them to address themselves to the subjects every day advancing on us, " to which most of the peddling questions that sometimes occupy us are nothing," the prevention of pauperism and the instruction of the people. Why does pauperism increase 7—that Mr. Bright thinks is the real problem, not who should pay to feed paupers. Are we to understand that Mr. Bright is modifying his views as to " instructing and civilizing the people"? If he is, and is prepared to give up the form of laissez-faire called " voluntary education," he may yet do more for the masses than he did when he helped to cheapen bread. It is dread of bins as much as of the clergy which even now stops the only real preventive of pauperism, thorough compulsory education.

It appears from an account in the Anglo-Brazilian Times of January 23, that the Dictator of Paraguay is still resisting the Brazilians, and in a position to resist. Angostura surrendered on the 30th of December, and the deserted capital, Assuncion, has been occupied ; but Lopez is believed, " on undoubted authority," to be within fifty miles, at the head of 5,000 men, and attended by the American Minister, General M'Mahon, who declares that the Paraguayan Government, in its recent dispute with the United States, was in the right. The Argentines are expressing distrust of Brazilian designs in occupying Assuncion, and the paper we quote uses an odd expression about the necessity of peace " to allow the return of the Brazilian forces." It is possible that the Marquis of Caxias' recent efforts have exhausted the army.

Mr. Cardwell on Tuesday made a noteworthy reply to Lord Elcho. die had been asked whether he considered the Secretary for War supreme bead of the Army or not, as to promotions as well as all other points of discipline, and replied that there was no dual government, that the Secretary and "General Conunanding-in-Chief ought to be under one roof ; the authority of Her Majesty's Government exercised by the Secretary of State is supreme in all that relates to the administration of the Army, and that it may be brought to bear on. minor promotions as well as on the higher military appointments." We presume, therefore, that the " letter " which is always presumed to forbid the Secretary's interference with " discipline," i.e., with, promotions, has ceased to be operative. The declaration is very clear, but we should like to know whether Mr. Cardwell's instructions to the Horse Guards take the usual form of orders.

Mr. Childers on Thursday smashed Sir James .Elphinstone. Sir James put a string of questions, nominally intended to elicit answers, but really intended to insinuate that the new First Lord had increased salaries in the Admiralty, had unfairly dismissed clerks, and had diminished the number of men in the dockyards. In a short but telling speech Mr. Childers replied that he had reorganized the Board so that each department in it had a chief as directly responsible to himself as the Controller-General is to the Secretary of State for War, thereby saving some £5,000 a year ; that 33 clerks had been reduced, thereby saving £7,991 a year, but that they all would receive the compensation fixed by Act 22 Vic, cap. 26, and would be re-employed as vacancies arose; that his total saving in " clerical " expenses was £14,000, and that as to the dockyards, he had dismissed nobody, though he was about to close Woolwich, transferring the men to other establishments. His predecessors, however, had dismissed 5,409 men,—a little bit of information for which Sir J. Elphinstone will not be grateful. His cue is to show dockyard men that. Tories are their friends, not Liberals.

Mr. Goschen brought in his Bill for remedying the grievances produced by abolishing the compound householder on Thursday. It is unexpectedly mild. It does not revive compounding, hut compels landlords with weekly tenants to pay, and recover from them, while they are still the nominal ratepayers, and as such borne on the register. The plan is shrewd, but rather roundabout, and only defensible because it avoids a long debate about the meaning of household suffrage. Why not make the landlord pay, and get it back in his rent, just as he used to do, without bother of any sort?

Mr Goschen gave some remarkable details of the suffering caused by Mr. Disraeli's perverse attempt to. limit Household Suffrage in appearance, while granting it in reality. In Shoreditch there were in 1868 15,000 summonses ; in Hackney, 6,000— all by a refinement of cruelty to be heard in. one day ; in Lambeth, 7,000; in Birmingham, 25,000, of whom 5,000 were distrained, and in many other boroughs numbers almost as great. Most of these people in Birmingham, says Mr. Bright, had never seen a collector before, and of course regarded the tax as a new one, imposed because they were voters. Their patience under the infliction was really marvellous. There is not a Government on the Continent which could try such an experiment without risking a fierce conflict between the troops and the people.

The Duke of Argyll presented the Scotch Education Bill on Thursday in a speech remarkable for its clearness and spirit. We have analyzed it elsewhere, but must quote here the Duke's testimony to the sympathy felt in parts of Scotland for drinking. It is nearly impossible to obtain evidence against a master accused of that offence. Witnesses asked if they saw the master drunk will deny it, and then qualify the denial with " Ye wad hae kenned that he'd been tasting," meaning, says the Duke, that he could hardly lie on the floor without holding on. The Board of Education to be created by the Act, however, if morally convinced, will not require legal evidence, having, says the speaker, somewhat excessive, if not indeed arbitrary, power of dismissal,—power almost indispensable, from the difficulty of proving incompetence.

Captain Moncrieffs invention for mounting heavy artillery has been finally accepted by Government, and he is to receive 210,000 down, £1,000 a year while employed, £5,000 at the end of his service, and all expenses for models and experiments. The Pall Mall Gazette, which states these facts, seems half inclined to apologize for the liberality of the grant; but it is only barely just, being a very small per-centage on the sum the invention will almost immediately save to the nation. There are two ways of calculating the amount due to a military inventor. One is the price he could have compelled Government to pay if he could have kept his system as property, the other is the sum. he could have made by the same exercise of brain in ordinary life. An ingenious mousetrap would probably have given Captain Moncrieff more than he is to receive, or at least would, if our Patent Laws were framed to encourage invention. He ought to have a royalty on each gun-carriage built on his plan.

Mr. O'Beirne has been unseated for Cashel for bribing electors, personally and by agents ;—bat we do not hear that the disqualifying clause of the Act has been applied to him—and Major Knox for bribery and intimidation. Mr. Justice Keogh, in the second case, protested against the assumption that he ought to be " merciful." He was bound to perform such a duty with caution, but still to perform it thoroughly. He had no prerogative of pardon, a remark we recommend to the attention of all the Bribery Judges. They are getting wonderfully lenient, and we note a very suspicious desire among promoters to withdraw petitions.

Rain has fallen in Rajpootana, and has probably averted a calamity greater even than the Orissa famine. The threatened district at one time extended from the Nerbudda to the Indus, though the Punjab was saved some weeks since, and much of it was covered by native States where the means of relief are limited. The Government had been completely rowed, and ordered its officers to keep the people alive at any cost, but the difficulty of conveying food in masses to regions beyond the Railway system is excessive. Thousands died of hunger before the rain came, and bad the drought lasted six weeks longer a third of the population might have perished. It is not hunger which kills the men,—though the women often die of direct want,—so much as exposure and fatigue. It is impossible to feed them except at centres of relief, there is usually no means of housing them, and natives, already enfeebled by hunger—they are very good in their hatred of begging—if forced to sleep for a week or two without cover, die like gnats in a thunderstorm. If they would eat meat, which can do its own carriage, they would be safe ; but they will not, and fish alone, even when they can get it, will not keep them healthy.

Lord Hatherley, in reply to a deputation from Liverpool, received on Thursday, intimated that the new Bankruptcy Bill would abolish imprisonment for debt, would " leave creditors the sole choice as to the manner of winding up estates," would not give the Court any right of acting as public prosecutor, or apparently of insisting on inquiry into the cause of failure, and would increase a bankrupt's liability for the payment of his debts with property acquired after passing through the Court, but would still establish a " limitation." The deputation who represented the Chamber of Commerce were inclined to think that property subsequently acquired should all be liable ; but surely that would be equivalent, if they really meant that, to extinguishing bankruptcy altogether, and it would be simpler to abolish arrest for debt, and there stop.

Mr. Vernon Harcourt, Member for Oxford, made his maiden speech in the House of Commons on Tuesday night, seizing the occasion of Lord Bury's motion for leave to bring in a bill to repeal the Act vacating the seats of members who accept office under the Crown, which Mr. Harcourt vigorously opposed. We have examined the substance of his argument, which appears to us of no real weight, at some length elsewhere. But we may say here that the manner and form of the speech were eminently good, and attracted general admiration, which Mr. Gladstone, at the close of the short debate, cordially expressed. The speech of this future Solicitor-General, as so many regard him, was listened to with the most fastidious criticism on both sides of the House, and on both sides of the House evidently more than fulfilled expectation. As an augury of success, the substance perhaps was not less important than the form. That Mr. Harcourt knows so well how to formulate intellectually a perfectly Philistine deference for an obsolete popular tradition, has in it a better promise of rapid elevation, than if he could not help adopting the reasonable view, in spite of its unpopular flavour.

Why does not some one,—Lord Houghton, for instance,—put a question to the Duke of Buckingham concerning the Bishop of Capetown's extraordinary letter to Archdeacon Fearne, which was copied by the Times of Monday from last week's Guardian I In that letter the Bishop of Capetown,—who is, as far as our experience goes, as untrustworthy an author, for the authentication of facts, as the author of the Book of Tobit, or, indeed, any of the Apocryphal writers,—states that when he (Dr. Gray) wrote last from England, " the Duke of Buckingham had informed me that be had invited the Archbishop of Canterbury to apply for the mandate for consecration " of the proposed rival of Dr. Colenso in Natal, Mr. Macrorie. After this Dr. Gray states that some time was lost in discussing the title of the new Bishop, and certain legal questions submitted to the law officers of the Crown ; that the Session came to an end, after he had repeatedly importuned the Duke of Buckingham for the issue of the mandate without getting a reply,—that on the eve of sailing he obtained an interview with Mr. Disraeli, and "formally complained to him of the conduct of the Duke of Buckingham." Mr. Disraeli, says the Bishop, was most " frank and courteous," "regretting only that I had not appealed to him sooner ;" " he would make no secret of his general sympathy with me and my proceedings ;" but it was too late to reply before the Bishop sailed, though he would deliver an answer to any person named. On the wharf at Plymouth ho received notice that the Duke would communicate with the Archbishop. And Dr. Gray evidently still expected Mr. Macrorie's consecration before the latter left England, — which we now know did not take place. Very likely Dr. Gray misunderstood both the Duke of Buckingham and Mr. Disraeli. Still, the public would be deeply interested to learn what the misconduct of the Duke was, and what the form the " general sympathy " of the Tory Premier with schism actually took.

A suicide took place last week at Liverpool, which the coroner's jury declared to have been due to temporary insanity, and perhaps it was, but it was a temporary insanity of a kind iu which the accurate business mind of the man of the world was quite unaffected. The suicide, a Mr. George Childs, of Boston, Massachussetts, left behind him a letter of instructions to the American Consul, consigning to him a receipt for £300 in 5-20 bonds, on which " two years' interest had accrued." This was to be his security for the expense he would have to incur in obtaining for him a sealed coffin, enclosed in rosewood, which was to be sent out by the first mail to Boston. The minutest directions are given concerning the division of the bonds and property remaining to the suicide. "My bible is for Martha Bowditch, my accordion for Anne Lancaster," and so on. " I owe Miss ten weeks' rent up to last Friday, which you will not pay her, as she has imposed on me ever since I have been here. Sell my hat, and give credit for it." The cold minuteness of these directions sounds very odd from a man contemplating suicide. But there is really no reason why insanity should not take sometimes the form of extinguishing the feelings absolutely, as well as of stimulating them. Would not a man, who, if his house were on fire and people screaming with horror all round him, should anxiously compare his Centigrade with his Reaurnuar and Fahrenheit thermometers, attempt to get the spectrum analysis of his burning wife, or even measure with his quadrant the angle of the fireescape subtended by the house wall, be a great deal madder than a man who could only shrink with fright so as to be quite unable to take any practical measures for his escape ? Still, elaborate directions about your property, a request against paying your landlady's bill, accompanied only by suicide, are hardly adequate proofs of this sort of insanity.

The Consol Market was much depressed at the comtneucement of the week, owing to the expectation of a rise in the Bank rate ; but the publication of an unusually strong return caused a firm feeling in the market, and prices began to advance. Last night the closing quotations were 931 to + for ,money, and 931 to jF for the April account. Foreign Bonds have continued in fair demand, and our quotations show an improvement in several instances. The principal feature in the market for British Railway Shares is the flatness in Metropolitan Stock, which gave way heavily in value on an injunction, restraining the Directors from paying the full dividend proposed, being granted. Most other linos have declined on realizations, but the general tone of the market has been good. Money has been in good demand at 3 per cent. for the beat short bills in the open market.

At the meeting of the shareholders of the Liverpool, and London, and Globe Insurance Company, it was stated that the available total amounted to £211,237 17s. 11d. From it the Directors have determined to take the sum of £117,525 12e. for distribution amongst the proprietors, which will yield a dividend for the year of 80 per cent., free of income-tax. The funds of the Company now amount to £3,538,078 2s. Ild., being an increase upon last year of 1437,072 16s. ld.