niscellantotts.

The Times has surprised politicians with a series of very moderate lead- ing articles on the position of the " new Conservative party." They indi- cate a systematic plan, a deliberate exposition of policy, which precludes the notion that they are the mere random, unsuggested lucubration of a newspaper-writer. Based on the fundamental position that great principles cannot be compromised but that all ordinary affairs must be governed by expediency, they recommend, and in recommending seem to promise, a cautious but liberal course of action in the new Ministry,— a conciliatory if firm foreign policy ; " positive reforms " to meet the pressure of democratic encroachment ; and a provision " for the neces- sities of the public service in a manner the least burdensome to the community ": and it is added, of the fiscal questions, "There never can be any fundamental difference between Whigs and Conservatives upon points like these ; and it is idle for either party to seek to invent one." Where fundamental principles are not involved, " the Government of Sir Robert Peel must be a reforming Government ; by which we mean, not a Government which presumes that ` whatever is is wrong,' but simply one that does not make the contrary presumption—a Govern- ment which knows that society cannot stand still." These trite remarks indicate something very novel in the sense which the Times and its party have of the position in which they stand.

Mr. Rowland Hill calculates, that, at the present rate of increase in the number of letters, the Post-office revenue will be restored in five years from the commencement of the change. The coffee-duty was lowered only 50 per cent. in 1825, and it took four years to restore the revenue derived from it : now the amount realized is double what it was with the high duty.

The Postmaster-General has issued an order by which petitions addressed to Parliament, and forwarded by post to Members of either House, if they do not exceed thirty-two ounces in weight, are exempt from postage, provided they are sent in covers open at the sides, or without any covers. No letter, however, may be enclosed in such peti- tion ; and if any enclosure be found in a petition, it will be subject to the full rates of postage.

The favourable change in the weather has produced a change in the reports of the crops ; which now promise well in most quarters. We still see complaints in Ireland.

It is understood that Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Adam, K.C.B., who has been appointed to succeed Sir Thomas Harvey as Commander-in- chief of the West Indies and North American station, will take his de- parture the first week in September, for Bermuda. The Malabar is to be the Admiral's flag.ship.

The Royal Naval Club gave a dinner to Admiral Stopford at the George Hotel, Portsmouth, on Friday evening. Sir Edward Codring- ton, the Commander-in-Chief of the station, presided. About eighty guests sat down to table.

We learn that Mr. Robert Steuart, of Alderston, late M.P. for the Haddington Burghs, has been appointed to a Consulship in Columbia.— Edinburgh Witness.

The Dublin Pilot tells an amusing anecdote of an autocrat and an autograph. Mr. O'Connell was asked lately by a lady of high rank for an autograph, to go in a collection of the handwritings of " celebrated persons," to be sent to the Emperor of Russia. Mr. O'Connell's secre- tary, with a complimentary expression of regret at refusing " so dis- tinguished a lady," replies for his master- " The fact (to use his own words) is, that the hideous cruelties of the pre- sent Emperor of Russia, perpetrated in Poland even upon women and children, have marked his character with a deeper shade of infamy than that which stains the reputation of the Roman Nero; whilst his Satanic persecution of Catholic Christianity has reduced him beneath the level of the ancient Dioclesian. Mr. O'Connell therefore cannot consent by any act of his, however slight, to appear 'to pay a compliment to so atrocious a monster."

The Paris papers of Wednesday are particularly dull. The " Three Glorious Days" furnish little matter for remark : Paris was not con- vulsed, and that seems to content the Parisians this year. The usual ceremonies were performed. Extraordinary precautions were taken to preserve the peace : the soldiers were kept constantly in barrack, the cavalry with their horses saddled ; and the King's Guards were doubled. Not the least disposition to break the peace, however, had been disco- vered. [From the absence of any playing at emeutes, it might almost be thought that M. Humann had set the Parisians upon employing themselves about a little real mischief.] The difficulties of M. Humana, the Finance Minister, appear to in- crease. Though outward turbulence is kept under, the spirit of resist- ance to his measures seems to be by no means overcome. Metz with- holds its obedience : Baron Dufour, the Mayor, has caused a notice to be placarded in the town, in terms which read very ominously—" M. Humann's circular is a violation of the laws of the 4th Frumaire of the year 7, of the 4th Germinal of the year 11, and of the 21st April 1832." The Municipal Connell of Auxerre have held a meeting and refused to accompany the fiscal agents in their domiciliary visits ; and the Mayor in vain attempted to assemble a second meeting. The Surveyor of Taxes was allowed to proceed at the small town of Gradignan, near Bordeaux, until it was discovered that the taxes of a pastrycook had grown from seventeen francs to fifty-seven under the process of the survey : the people then became excited, and the Municipal Council refused any fur- ther assistance to the Surveyor.

While these obstructions to his administrative functions are going on, M. Humann does not close with M. Rothschild for a loan : some say that M. Rothschild refuses his terms ; the Minister himself says that he will not accept a loan while the Three per Cents., which three months ago were at 79 francs and 80 francs, are at the present prices of 76 francs and 77 francs ; as he should receive nothing from the lenders in compensation for abandoning one-third over and above the nominal -value of the loan.

He gets all the credit of these ill-successes : the King and his col- leagues are displeased with him, it is said ; and M. Duchatel, the Minis- ter of the Interior, shares in his disgrace, for the blundering conduct which made a survey of taxes the occasion for the Toulouse revolt.

The people of Toulouse have set on foot a subscription for a sword to be presented to the forbearing General Saint Michel.

The officers and soldiers of the National Guard of Martres had for- warded an address to their comrades of Toulouse, congratulating them on their conduct during "the deplorable circumstances into which a brutal power had plunged their city."

The Morning Chronicle explains away the rumoured Customs-union between France and.,Belgium : there has been a talk of a commercial treaty ; and negotiations have been carried on respecting the custody of some fortresses on the frontier, of which France wishes to take the charge—a proposal which Belgium resists.

Queen Christina has addressed to the Spanish nation a solemn pro- test against the act of the Cortes by which she is deprivedbf the guar- dianship of her daughters—an office now intrusted to S. Arguelles. The protest is dated July 19th. She sets forth her title to the office, founded on the 60th article of the Constitution of the State, and upon the common law as a mother and a widow. She asserts that the Cortes is only competent to nominate a guardian to a minor King when no guardian has been appointed by will. She then insists that her tempo- rary absence does not invalidate her rights. She proceeds- " I declare that the decision of the Cortes is a usurpation of power based on force and violence, a usurpation to which I neither ought nor can consent ; that the rights, privileges, and prerogatives which belong to me as Queen-Mother, and as testamentary and legitimate guardian and superintendent of the Queen Isabella and the Infanta Maria Louisa Fernanda, my dearly-beloved daughters, .cannot be lost nor proscribed; that I do not give up these rights, privileges, and prerogatives, but that they subsist, and will subsist in all their force and validity, although in fact the exercise of them is suspended and hindered from use in consequence of violence. For these causes, seeing that I am bound pub- licly to repel so monstrous an act of violence by all the means in my power, I have resolved to protest, as I do now protest, once and a thousand times, -solemnly, in the face of the nation and the whole world, of my full and free will and spontaneous movement against the decrees already pronounced of the 2d December last, which fettered in my hands the exercise of the guardianship; against the resolution of the Cortes which declares this guardianship vacant ; and against all the efforts and all the consequences of these arrangements. I declare, moreover, that the motives alleged for taking away from me the guard- ianship of my august daughters, and for thus tearing my entrails as a mother, are null and false. One consolation remains to me—this is, that while my hands held the helm of the state, a number of Spaniards saw shine for them the day of clemency, for all the day of impartial justice, for none the day of vengeance. It was I who, at St. Ildefonso, granted the benefit of the amnesty. Madrid was witness of my constant efforts to cause the renewal of peace. Valencia saw me for the last time defend the laws scandalously trodden under feet by men who were the most bound to defend them."

In a letter conveying this protest to the Duke of Victoria, Queen Christina repeats her complaint of the "outrage" at Valencia, and of the guardianship being taken from her-

" The Cortes, in thus deciding the affair, you and the Ministers, in sub- mitting to their deliberation, have arrogated to yourselves powers which do not belong to you ; you have not recognized the feelings of nature, and, as far as was in your power, have severed its bonds ; you have overturned every rule of justice, and you have pitilessly chosen me for your victim—me, who, to arrive at a wise conciliation, in vain made every sacrifice compatible with my dignity as Queen-Mother, and with my maternal duties. The long correspondence which I carried on with you to this end will be a weighty testimony ofit." It has been reported that this document was the joint production of Loris Philippe and M. Guizot : the Paris Temps asserts, with more likelihood, that it was drawn up by Zea Bermudez.

The King of Hanover has issued a proclamation, dated 14th July, explaining his views on the dispute between himself and the Second

Chamber of the State. Full half of it is devoted to a recapitulation— in the style of Royal brevity, yet rambling—of his quarrel with the people concerning the constitution and the final affirmation of the pre- sent constitution, which subsists under guarantees pompously enume- rated— " The duration and the inviolability of the Constitution is assured for the future by the basis of the ancient right of the Crown on which it reposes ; by the basis of the laws of the German Confederation, with which it is in accord- ance on all points ; by the Federal resolution of the 5th September 1839 ; by our Royal word; by the assent of the Prince Royal ; by the approbation of the States ; by the rights accorded to the General Assembly of the States, and in its absence, to the College of the Treasury, to invoke the protection of the Germanic Confederation. As long as Providence shall preserve our life, we shall not for a moment doubt the legality of that constitution. Our well- beloved son the Prince Royal has formally expressed for the future this wish in the First Chamber."

After announcing that some individuals, who were formally opposed to the regulations of the constitutional question, and who compromised public order, had been prosecuted—and threatening arrests under the law of 27th June 1838, whenever plots shall be entered into against the safety of the state, King Ernest proceeds-

" We have just heard that some enemies of our Government have spread a report that the taxes are about to be raised. Notwithstanding this and other

equally mischievous rumours, only taking counsel of our justice and of our solicitude for the welfare of our subjects, we have reckoned on the unalterable devotion and gratitude of our subjects. On the 2d June last the Chambers assembled ; thirty-six Deputies manifested their attachment to the laws of the country, twelve other Deputies have placed themselves at the head of a party who are hostile to our Government. Their object was to revive the consti- tutional question, and to oppose every measure favourable to our subjects. A number of others were drawn over to their way of thinking, and thus they formed a majority in the Chamber hostile to our Government. It has been

weak ; it has been, however, the means of paralyzing our paternal views, inas- much as they required the concurrence of the States. The Second Chamber, thus composed, have led away many Deputies who were animated with the

best intentions, making them believe that we wished to attack the established

laws, whilst, on the contrary, we respect them. It is thus with the Liberal party, which respects neither private nor public rights. The tyranny was be-

come so intolerable that the members of the majority, fearing the responsibility which would weigh on them, quitted the Assembly, not daring to support a con- trary opinion. Our governmental acts, our desire to lessen the taxes which press on agriculture, should have deprived the remarks of the enemies of the Govern- ment of all their force. The first acts of the Second Chamber showed hostile intentions. The choice of the candidates for the Presidentship fell, first, on a member who under the reign of William the Fourth used all his efforts to

constrain the Royal power to make concessions and to enter into compromises with the States. The second candidate declared on the 13th March 1833, in

the Assembly of the States, that he never wished for a fundamental law based on the existing laws. The third was declared, by us inadmissible to the func- tions of the Councillor of the Treasury. These three candidates obtained at

the first ballot the absolute majority of voices, which proved that there was in

the Chamber a party decided on carrying on a systematic opposition against the Government. Circumstances independent of our will having prevented us

from convoking the Assembly of the States at an earlier period, it WAS our in-

tention to shorten the session, that the members might not he kept from their homes beyond the usual period. The Budget should have been the first object of their attention. The Chamber, at the same time, had communicated to it different financial and other bills. The First Chamber hastened to form a Committee on the Budget. The Second Chamber, instead of forming a Com- mittee of able and intelligent men, made choice of members who had no know- ledge of financial matters, and by their turning their attention instead to con- stitutional questions prevented the proceedings of the other Chamber. It was our duty consequently to assure the carrying on of the public service by constitutional means, and as a commencement to dissolve the States agreeably to an article of the Constitution, which we should otherwise have done from the hostile atti- tude assumed by the Second Chamber. The President of that Chamber being

honoured with an interview, hesitated not to draw conclusions from my words contrary to their meaning, but in unison with his own ideas. In refusing all

concurrence with Government, it was wished to suggest to the people a false

idea that the Constitution of 1840 was not proper to assure the welfare of the people and the country, and to excite discontent against the existing autho- rities. The address was rejected by the First Chamber, and blamed by a large number of the Second. The discovery of these criminal projects will only render odious their authors, who have sworn fidelity to us and to our son. We

repel with horror such an opposition. * * • Conformably to the provisions of the Constitution of Gth August 1840, we shall convqke within the legal period an assembly of the States, to which we shall again submit the projects of

law which have not been examined ; and we are willing to believe that the errors committed by the majority of the Second Chamber of the dissolved Assembly will exercise a salutary influence on the composition of the new one. We do not require the concurrence of the States to carry on the public service

and to levy the taxes, but we do require their concurrence to realize objects which are of benefit to my subjects, always the object of my paternal solicitude.

Party-spirit, which is blind, could alone dissemble that the welfare and pros- perity of the country must inevitably suffer by a persistence in a state of things as adopted by the dissolved Chamber."

A royal decree has been issued, prescribing the mode in which the blind Prince of Hanover shall sign public documents after his accession. The royal signature shall be affixed in the presence of one of the Ministers, and of two persons taken from among twelve who shall be chosen for the express purpose of witnessing such signatures : the two are to sign a special act, declaring that all had passed in their presence, to be deposited in the archives : the royal signature is not to be made until the document to which it is fixed shall have been read in a loud and distinct voice by one of the witnesses ; and none but acts signed in this mode are to have any binding power. This decree is signed by the King, and countersigned by the Minister, Von Schele ; and a decla- ration of concurrence, signed by the Crown Prince and countersigned by all the Ministers, is appended to it.

The Levant mail brings intelligence from Constantinople of the 7th instant.

The Egyptian steamer Nile arrived on the 1st, having on board Said Mnhib Effendi, the Extraordinary Envoy of the Porte, and Kiemal Effendi, the bearer of the last hatti-scheriff to Alexandria. On the 6th, in the Egyptian steamer Rosetta, arrived Said Bey, the son of Mehemet Ali, and Sami Bey, his Aide-de-camp, with presents for the Sultan,—a huge rhinoceros, Arabian horses, &c., and, what was more acceptable, 11,000 purses, or nearly 50,0004 on account of the tribute ; besides the

renewed assurances of the Pasha that he would observe the conditions imposed upon him by the hatti-scheriff. The Consuls of the Four Powers parties to the treaty of the 15th July, had, it was said, been ordered to hold themselves in readiness to return to Alexandria.

Accounts from Alexandria are to the 5th instant. The Syrian and Arab tribes feel, or pretend to feel, a difficulty in rendering their tribute, in consequence of their suffering from Mehemet .Ali's tyranny, and of the expense and losses incurred in the late struggle. Private letters received at Marseilles contain news from Candia of the 3d instant. It is said that the Turks had gained sonic advantages over the Candiot insurgents, and that they disgraced their success by the most horrible excesses : females of all aces suffered from their vio- lence; innocent victims and prisoners were murdered, and houses and churches pillaged, notwithstanding 'rabic Pasha's efforts to preserve a better discipline.

A packet-ship brings papers from New York to the Sth instant. The national anniversary was celebrated on the 5th, the 4th falling on a Sun- day : it passed off with the usual hilarity and more than usual quietness. General Jackson had been attacked with an internal spasmodic com- plaint, to which he seems to have been subject ; and he was so much injured by it, that it is supposed he will never recover the shock to his constitution. The President had given general satisfaction by a Mes- sage to Congress in favour of a general bankrupt-law, " applicable to all classes of perions " ; a phrase which is supposed to include corpo- rations. Major-General Scott had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army, in the room of Major-General Macomb, who died lately.

By the same conveyance, Canada papers to the 3d July have been received. The United Parliament was occupied in the consideration of the Lower Canada controverted elections ; the subject having been complicated by a legal puzzle which had been set up. The last Parlia- ment of Lower Canada p..ssed a law which was to continue in force from the 1st May 1536 to the end of the " next session "; and it is now contended that this law is still in force, as there has been no complete session of Parliament since that time ; for although the two Houses met twice and were prorogued, no bill passed which received the Royal assent. On the other side, it is maintained that the prorogation termi- nates the session. The decision of the House, it is said, will be an im- portant one; because all the petitioners except one have not complied with the terms of the statute in question, by giving security, on the supposition that it had expired. The time for giving that security is now gone by ; and therefore the sitting members, if the law is still in force, remain =disturbed in their seats. There are about ten members whose seats are controverted.