TOPICS OF THE DAY.

THE NEW POWER IN EUROPE.

Tn.E present state of affairs on the Continent suggests the existence of some influence which is not generally recognized though its power must be overruling and its operation universal. It is not seen, yet it reverses the councils of Governments which hppear to be supreme ; it disregards equally public opinion and the interests of the states in which it has its agents. The monetary condition of France and of Northern Europe draws attention once more to the irregular and dangerous speculation which the most powerful man in Europe tries in vain to curb : it would seem that there is some power greater than he, irresponsible, and absolute ; and when we turn to ascertain the fact, we are not long in discovering at least enough to create uneasiness and to demand scrutiny. We perceive some corroborative proof that such an influence does exist, that its power is becoming supreme, that it is now doing mischief, and that it may become dangerous alike to the material condition, the political independence, and the domestic order of states. Nor are we speaking of any imaginary or mere " moral " influence ; we speak of a powerful combination more than political, more personal than a congress of diplomatists or princes.

The Emperor Napoleon haa long been engaged in the endeavour to draw out the enterprise of his subjects; and the effect throughout France is great. Any traveller in the most outlying provinces perceives a remarkable change in the aspect, action, and condition of the people. The trading classes, as well as the industrial classes, are animated by a spirit of energy hitherto unknown to the Celtic copulation. They have learned not only to employ their time with more vigour, but to employ, their savings—to venture that which they once hoarded ! In that economical sense France was almost a virgin soil, and the effect is described by the traveller as marvellous. Thus far a blessed change. But look beyond. The very capitalists who fostered if they did not implant the idea in the Imperial mind have seized the same opportunity to project movements for the further development of capital, its power and productivity. The great speculator in this sense differs in some degree from the ordinary trader. The money-merchant obtains his profit entirely from the simple act of exchange, and he does so equally whether the original holders are profiting in the transaction or not. Ho may be the broker between two communities who are ruining each other, and build his fortune upon their downfall. And the individual trader in this merchandise will be instigated principally by the desire to grasp large and prompt profits. He is not a safe councilor for those who have in charge the permanent interests of states. For the welfare of a community, immensely accumulated wealth, hoards of gold, are not so essential as welldiffused supplies of the necessaries of life and its enjoyments. But the same movement which gave an impulse to the commercial spirit in France made the largest opening that the world has ever seen for a forward movement of great capitalists ; and they have snatched it. Alarmed at the vast proportions which these joiutstock combinations have attained in France, the Emperor and his political Ministers have issued their protest against excesses in that direction ; they have followed up protests with restrictive imposts ; but still the movement goes on.

The commercial activity directed to the development of real trade would with as much steadiness as rapidity increase the available means of the French people ; would make them more independent of the casualties of the seasons ; would make them more comfortable, more orderly, more capable of supporting their ruler, more obedient to his decrees. It is easily to be understood why the Emperor Napoleon desires to add that element of English order to the military capabilities and energy of the French. He has in great part succeeded. But the excess of speculation invoked by those who have stood ready to take advantage of the impulse has, again in the present moment as it did in the autumn of last year, threatened to defeat the improvement by overdoing it: and we in England are under the same commercial pressure which visited us in the autumn. At the same time, there appears to be no suspense in developing, extending, and multiplying the immense joint-stock combinations which the French Emperor has endeavoured to restrain ; though at such a time such operations ought to be entirely suspended. We see on the stocks the new International Society of Commercial Credit, whose founders are connected with the great money corporations in every capital of Europe—the banks of France, England, Amsterdam, &c. The list of the Council of Administration of the grand Company lies before us. Of the great Russian Railway Company half of the members short of one are Russians, and the greater number in that half are Councillors of State and officers in the service of the Emperor Alexander. In that Russian half, however, we see the name of "Thomas Baring, banker in London." The other half consists of men whose names are well known in every capital : S. Gwyer, Member of the Council of Commerce; Ernest Sillem, a partner in the house of Hope and Co. at Amsterdam; Guillaume Borski, banker in Amsterdam ; Francis Baring, banker in London ; Henri Hottinguer, banker in Paris ; Isaac Pereire, Administrator of the Paris and Lyons Railway ; Baron Sealer% banker in Paris ; M. Auguste Thurneyssen, Administrator of the West of France Railway ; and M. Louis Fould, brother of the well-known state financier. Some of these are the names we so constantly encounter in that comparatively small list of men who are administering the greatest financial opera tons in Paris, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Amsterdam, and London. The object of this company is to take forty-five millions of capital,—a sum which could easily be raised for a reproductive pur pose, but which they intend to sink in railways through the Russian deserts ; while the actual state of the whole world—of Europe, England, America, and the far East—proves that we cannot spare that forty-five millions, nor even the first instalment of it. etthese few gentlemen, who rule the world at preient, have determined that it shall be taken, despite the Emperor of the French, the Bank of England, or the commereitil public of this country.

It is said that the position of M. de Morny i3 not satisfactory either to the Emperor of All the Russias or to the Emperor of the

French : but M. de Morny is fulfilling a career which has become independent of emperors. He has attached himself to the Grand Council of the International Finance ; and it is that Grand.

Council at present which arranges the affairs of the world by the power of the purse, let Potentates and Parliaments think what they may. The Emperor of the French is at present engaged in attempting to restrain the use of fictitious titles—counties, viacounties, and baronies—baubles at which the aristocracy of wealth may laugh. The power of that order, which is the more powerful because its members are comparatively limited, proceeds in its action independently of these ordinary political movements, and shows itself pursuing its course uninterrupted, undiverted, whatever may be the state of the commercial world, whatever may be the mood of the Imperial mind, whatever may be the action of ordinary statesmen.

We are not considering the diversion of capital, the dangers thatmay arise from over-speculation, the ruin that may visit shareholders in these huge joint-stock companies from which the directors always withdraw before the crash. WC are not considering the commercial disturbance, created by the necessity which is forced upon Europe just at present, of undergoing a high rate of interest for ordinary commercial accommodation, while millions are lavished upon the fancies or the schemes of those millionaire statesmen. We are simply considering the magnitude and the independence of that power of combined millions. It is a new order, a new administration in the world. The names most conspicuous in it are remarkable for certain characteristics. Read them again,—Rothschild, Baring, Stieglitz, Pereire, Hottinguer, and Fould ; with a second order, comprising the Weguelins, the Hopes, and the Seilleres. They form a grand council of small numbers, that could all be assembled in a diningroom. They are remarkable for being closely connected with the Governments of all the principal states in the world, while at the same time they are not closely connected with the states under those Governments. You would not accept a Baring as being peculiarly representative of England; you must choose many other names before it—the Russells, the Stanley's, the Salts, the Crawshays, Cobdens, and Tyrells. France would certainly not be represented by Pereire, no country by a Rothschild ; a Steiglitz is by no means exclusively Russian, any more than Fould is French. The class is alien to anyparticular country, and yet is deeply rooted in the administration of each country. It can command not only a mass of capital enough to determine the financial operations of a government, the success or failure of a state loan, but it can influence, beneficially or fatally, the course of trade, by turning upon any one branch the combined mass of capitals from states elsewhere, just as the five Potentates of Europe can muster an army which could crush the people of any one empire mutinying against any one of the five. But this grand council of millionaires has proved that it is superior to the political administration of the separate oountries. It is at once alien to the aristocracy of any country, and yet becoming more powerful, and therefore more respected, than any one aristocracy. Unlike any order which we have yet seen, it has its home equally in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam, St. Petersburg, or London. It is republican, but of the aristocratic republic, more close than the Grand Council of Venice, infinitely more arbitrary. Like that commercial republic, Kings bow down to it ; but the Kings that now bend are the giant Emperors of our day, not the brawling leaders of the middle ages. The debates of this council are not reported ; its constitution is as yet unascertained and undetermined. We feel its power before we can define it. It is independent of political councils, higher than political responsibilities; ignorant of constitutional checks. It stands confessed in the actual events of the present week ; and in its independence' perhaps

disregard, of the interests which it overrides, it extorts from us the question, whether any account has yet been taken of the immense institution that has sprung up while emperors and common politicians were thinking to settle the world with armies and treaties ?

CHOICE OF A SPEAKER.

TIIE first duty before the new House of Commons will be the election of its own Speaker. No duty can be more important. We adverted to the subject when the late Speaker retired ; it was ably and very fairly treated in the Daily News of last Saturday; and we return to it again simply for the purpose of expressing our agreement in the opinion that the question is one which should not be settled precipitately, or on grounds irrespective of the specific duties of the office. Since Mr. Shaw Lefevre retired at the close of ..last session, and will not lend the aid of his experience and his high qualities in drilling the new Members through the first experimental session of the new Parliament, it is on some

accounts to be regretted that he did not retire sooner, if only for the purpose of facilitating the election of a Speaker at that earlier season, and thus giving to his successor time for acquiring familiarity with his duties before confronting the difficult task of guiding a host of new Members. And it is to be observed, that the new Members not only form a larger proportion in the present House of Commons than in most that have been elected, but that probably among those new Members is an unusually large proportion of men comparatively unfamiliar with Parliamentary or public business.

If a person• wished to acquire a clear knowledge of the vast amount of experience and authority which should centre in the one officer, he would find the evidence in the volume of decisions left by Mr. Speaker Lefevre ; a volume which exhibits the immense variety of questions and of business that comes under the jurisdiction of the chief officer in the House of Commons. The duties of the Speakership, as the requisite lualities, are of two, kinds, but the two kinds are called into activity in periods of different character ; so that a Speaker who should perfectly fulfil the requirements of his place must be a man capable of adapting himself to two sets of circumstances. He must have the power, courage, firmness, and temper, to rule a numerous assembly during periods of great excitement, where each Member is filled with a sense of his own importance and independence ; and he must have the power of applying his mind calmly, with consecutive attention, to the details of a very heterogeneous business. In proportion as political excitement declines and the more obvious quelities of the Speaker are called into less active requisition, the practical business of Parliament increases, and his capacity for the lawyerlike minuteness of attention must come into play. The Speaker has to be at once president of a republic and chief practising attorney : if he is not acquainted with every business that may be brought within the encycloptedia of legislation, he must have the capacity for obtaining information where it is to be procured, and for testing its value in receiving it. It is his duty to see that the business comes before the House in a proper state, and that the House itself handles the business properly. With the exception of the time passed in Committee, he must attend the most protracted sittings of the House. If every other Member in the House may doze during a prosy, speech, the Speaker, like Argus, must never slumber. Thus he must be a man of ample information, of power for command, of indefatigable capacity for work, of unbroken temper, of sleepless vigilance, and of sustained health. These are not only the ordinary reguirements, but the positive essentials of a real Speaker ; without which he must fail in some part of his duties.

But for the Speaker to fail is for the House to fail, and to fail seriously. Wellington is said to have remarked of seine general, not supposed to have been the best officer of his day, that if he got twenty thousand men into Hyde Park he would not be able to get them out again. It is the same with the House of Commons: it has the latent power for conducting the business allotted to it, but the power must be drawn out by the man that guides it ; and if that man be too feeble to keep the Members in their proper course, it will be vain to reckon upon any good from the assemblage. This is true at all times, but it bears with triple force upon the present House of Commons. The relations of parties have been thrown into great confusion ; the business before the House of Commons stands already at an advanced stage, and has to be continued from that point; and an unusually large proportion of the men will be so unaccustomed to the routine of business that their very desire to get on may render them obstructive. Never, therefore, did the House more require a Speaker possessing • absolute confidence in himself, and the absolute confidence and obedience of the House.

It would be very unfortunate if the peremptory consideration of these requirements were waived on any specific grounds of party, obligation. Properly viewed, the question of the Speakership is not one of party. On whichever side of the House he may have sat, a good Speaker is of no party ; and it would be a libel on Mr. Speaker Lefevre to say that when he received the thanks of all the Members uncovered, he was or had been a " Liberal " Speaker. He was simply "the Speaker." Several candidates have been submitted to public consideration : all of them have been most estimable men ; all of them would command the suffrages of any party in the House of Commons for a post of trust and honour. The choice among such candidates would properly be determined, as we said before, by the balance of objections. Hone man, however fitted for the choice by nature were not qualified by sufficient business knowledge, he would not be the right man. If a second, however able and familiar with the business of Parliament and of the country, were uncertain in temper, he would be an unsuitable candidate. If another were of too yielding a disposition, his want of firmness, encouraging encroachment and a consequent reaction on one side or the other, would disqualify him for maintaining order. If he lacked the voice or the presence to command instant attention, and to maintain a positive physical superiority over any Member questioning his decision, he would be on those corporeal grounds alone unequal to the work. If, however high his qualifications in all respects of intellect, business knowledge, or a polished demeanour, his health were infirm, he would be unable to keep the post from which the sentinel must not be absent and at which he must not slumber. If either of the candidates were open to none of these objections, that man would be the proper Speaker for the House of Commons : it would matter little among villa political party he had eat, for there

can be no man, among the classes which will be nominated even as candidates, so deficient in the requisite qualifications, so forgetful of himself, as to remain a member of any party. after he has been appointed Speaker of the House of Commons.

MILITARY EDUCATION.

Now that the din and turmoil of a general election are subsiding, we may appropriately call attention to an almost forgotten topic —Military Education in connexion with Army Reform. There are two questions : first, Shall the officers of the British Army receive a special education for the service of anus? secondly, To what extent shall that education be carried, both as regards quality and scope ? Before the second question can be answered, we must have an answer to the first; and at present the first question has not been distinctly answered by any official person com petent to answer it. Ministers have, indeed, given a pledge by implication that they will do something to improve the quality of the British officer ; but unless they be sharply looked after, or, if they mean well, amply supported out of doors and in the House of Commons, the obstructionists will prove too powerful. The blow should be struck before we forget the lessons of the late war. In short, the blow should be struck now, in the approaching session of Parliament ; and Ministers should be forced to declare their intentions and display their plans at once. Want of information cannot any longer serve as an excuse. Her Majesty's War Department has now in its possession a thick blue-book entitled "Report of the Commissioners appointed to consider the best mode of Reorganizing the System for Iraming Officers for the Scientific Corps ; together with an account of Foreign and other Military Education." This report is the work of three able men appointed

by Lord Panmure,—Lieutenant-Colonel Yolland, ; Lieutenant-Colonel Smythe, R.A. ; and the Reverend W. C. Lake, M.A., of Balliol College, Oxford. It is the result of a laborious and thorough inspection of the great military schools in France, Austria, Prussia, and Sardinia, as well as of the little schools in the islands of Great Britain. It is written with force and arranged with admirable clearness ; it abounds with accurate information, and bears the impress of sincerity and thoroughness ; and it must tell with great effect on the settlement of the controversy respecting military education.

England is happily situated. She neither has to maintain a vast military force to protect the Crown from the hostility of the people, nor to defend her frontiers from the hostility of her neighbours. A comparatively small army suffices to defend her coasts and man her garrisons in all quarters of the globe. She is therefore in the best possible position for solving the problem—how to maintain a small, compact, and easily-expanded army, in the highest state of efficiency. But notwithstanding the smallness of her military wants compared with the magnitude of her territories and the vast resources at her command, it is a remarkable fact, that she has hardly made any attempt to solve this problem, —apparently content to rely on the indomitable fighting qualities of her soldiers, and the chance exhibition of those high military capabilities of her officers which are brought out in actual war. 'fhe officers of the British Cavalry and Infantry receive absolutely no special instruction in their profession, except such as they pick up in camp or quarters ; and we all know what that amounts to. The officers of the British Staff are selected on no principle whatever that we can discover ; and, with a few bright exceptions, none of them ever receive any special training for the responsible posts they fill. No inducements in the shape of staffappointments are held out to able young men. In fact, at least until quite recently, a knowledge of war—of military history, of the details of the profession—would have been a disqualification in barracks, and no recommendation at head-quarters. The absolute failure of the Senior Department at Sandhurst is alone a condemnation of the British military system. Nor is the education of the officers of the two corps, the Artillery and Engineers, which we have attempted, as perfect as it might be. It is not that the officers are deficient in theoretical knowledge, but they are deficient in practical knowledge. So that no kind of education is imparted to the great bulk of the officers of the Army, and in the cases where it is imparted it is comparatively imperfect.

Such being our condition, let us glance at the condition of the military monarchies of the Continent, with whose armies we may, in some unhappy emergency, be forced to contend. If we take the report of the Commissioners, what do we find? France literally swarms with military schools for all arms. They are abundantly furnished with professors, amply provided with means ; and the pupils are stimulated by the hope of great rewards to work through the high and rigorous course of instruction insisted on. In Prussia, the schools are numerous ; the military education is very careful and complete ; the "school for the Staff is a very laborious, indeed an almost over-taught senior department." But Austria surpasses the others in the number and variety and peculiarity of its military schools. It possesses what is to be found in no other country—schools for noncommissioned officers —wherein no fewer than 5730 pupils were in attendance at the time they were visited by the Commissioners. Austria also possesses a great variety of schools for officers of every arm,_ the Noncommissioned Officers Schools forming a sort of base, and the very efficient Staff School the summit. In addition to Government aids, there is "a system of public and private foundations"

for the education of soldiers. It is curious to observe," the Commissioners remark, "the aid to education which is so corn mon in our own Universities devoted in Austria to what may be termed the great National Institution the Army, and retaining all the limitations to the descendants of Founders or Natives of provinces which marked our own foundations." The Commissioners were profoundly impressed with the immense superiority of Continental military education over ours.

"We should not," they say, "adequately convey our impressions, which are founded on a careful study of the schools described in this report, if we did not at once state our belief, that in all countries we have visited, a far greater value is attached to the possession of high scientific trainin,,,o. by at least a considerable portion of the officers of the Army, than is the ease ainong ourselves. Not only are schools made of more importance, the teaching of every school higher, the discipline apparently more strict, the number of teachers generally greater, but the whole education is conducted on a more complete system, the sums expended for the purpose are far larger, and (what is perhaps most important of all) the advantages to be denved from an intelligent study of their profession are made more certain, and more apparent to the pupils, or the officers themselves." In fact, we have nothing that will stand a comparison with Continental military education. Latterly "there has been only an attendance of nine or ten officers at Sandhurst," and only one professor. "The significance of this last fact may be estimated when we mention, that for the Staff School in Franoe there are thirteen military and five civil professors." "Nothing, indeed," say the Commissioners, "shows more completely how military education has been treated in England, than the following statement of the• sums paid by the State for the education of officers of different arms in our own and other countries." In this statement we find France paying annually a total of 48,6071.; Prussia, a total of 26,1491.; Austria, a total of 127,2001.; England, only 66501. Even of this miserable dole 47081. consists of recent and temporary expenditure, and 796/. must be deducted because it represents the saving on Sandhurst College ; leaving 13001. as the annual sum we expended, until very recently, on the education of officers, or "not one twentieth part of the expenditure of Prussia, one thirty-seventh of that of France, and about a hundredth part of that of Austria"

The report from which we have drawn these facts does more than answer the question "Shall we have educated officers ?" It throws into high relief the deficiencies of the British system— deficiencies which we should have striven to amend the moment that the application of steam power to land and sea transit became general. We are not called upon to imitate any of the Continental systems. Our polity and institutions are peculiar to ourselves, and our military establishments must always be maintained in harmony with them. "We cannot be a military nation, but depend upon it, we are a fighting nation," said Lord Palmerston in reply to Mr. Palk. What we require is a system which shall provide for the best application of the fighting elements in order to obtain the eads of war. -Preserve the fighting officer, but secure the instructed officer, and set him in a position to make the most of his dashing brother. Don't discourage the gentlemen of England from seeking to lead the soldiers of England, but at least select those gentlemen who have some aptitude for war, and insist upon their learning the duties of their profession. Stimulate the industrious and the capable by rewarding the exhibition of industry and capacity ; and above all things devise some arrangements to secure a constant supply of specially-trained and efficient officers for the whole of the Staff.

PALMERSTON.

A PORTRAIT of Lord Palmerston is given as part of a biographical sketch in the Russian journal published in Brussels. There is nothing new about it, but it will pass as a literary medallion, the more readily since it is written with great clearness and the traits are as like the received literary portrait of Lord Palmerston as any stamp of Queen Victoria is like the received type of that exalted lady. The sketch tells Europe what it has been told over and over again by the most distinguished litterateurs of Paris,— that Lord Palmerston began life as a Tory ; that he was not very distinguished as a speaker while he was merely Secretary at War ; and that his political successes were anticipated by his " succes" of another kind. It is here that the personal portrait comes in.

"An indefatigable labourer in public affairs, he gave much time to the pleasures of the world." "Re was always characterized by a levity of tone and of manner, and by the audacious grace of a man spoiled by good fortune." "He passed for one of the boldest and most amiable of waltzers." The fair sex made him the object of their sighs, and their benevolence ; " there is not a banquet at which he is present" that he does not toast them.

"In his youth, he dressed with exquisite taste, bestowing upon every portion of his person those cares which mark the character of dandyism."

"When his youth bad departed, he still preserved his exterior appearance and his habits. He has much natural distinction: his manners are easy: and aristocratic ; his face, his mouth, his eyes, still preserve a great purity of expression; his smile is sweet, even in irony.

"The habits of Lord Palmerston are of a jocose character, and his pleasantries appear to suit well the English taste. He has the good discretion never to appear annoyed.

"Lord Palmerston has for a long time concealed, under an elegant form and a frivolous exterior, an excessive ambition—a character audacious and enterprising."

This portrait is received as the correct likeness of " Palmerston " just as a profile with a certain Cast of nose is recognized for " Wellington " but there is another view of the original, which is affirmed to be more really like. And this is probable, since forced pattern-drawn portraits are seldom very true to nature. Palmerston has always been accounted to have the bearing and aspect of a thorough English gentleman, a character incompatible with that of "a dandy." With the combative faculty so strongly characteristic of the favourite boy at school, Lord Palmerston has always shown himself prepared to confront any danger, as danger; but he has more prudence than permits the word " audacious" ; and we have yet to find that Henry John Temple, as he was born, has been "spoiled" either by his training or his good fortune. Nor is any quality more misconceived than his " levity " or his "frivolity." Born with hereditary powers which had already become known in the literature of his country for accomplished taste, versatility, and refinement, Palmerston's mind is essentially of a practical turn : it was early directed from literature and thought, to action ; but on no occasion has he had to handle any of the innumerable subjects that come before the British public without showing that he had mastered, in a more than ordinarydegree, the essentials and spirit of the matter. He has declared his belief that the British constitution is the best that the world ever saw; he was bred and trained among the administrators of that constitution ; and he is its servant more than its master. He knows that it has changed, and he has helped to cultivate its recent growth ; but he has no theoretical desires to satisfy. He is a politician of the day—not of the future. In his answers to those who have pressed for sectarian innovations, he has sometimes said in a few terse words enough to show that he is with the most advanced spirits of the age ; but his Church appointments, in accordance with the practical turn of his mind, have gone with the general balance of received opinion, and with a view to good working in the Church as it exists. Born in a grade above the average level of his coon' II en— not, it would appear, accustomed to associate with the erent classes of society—he has learned a habit of governing for the people rather than with them. Probably he thinks that harm would come of any attempt to treat the world as if it were already as for advanced as the quick spirits of the age. It is his business to administer things as they are, not as they ought to be ; and he understands his business. In his early political training, he showed less aptitude for senatorial debate than for administrative life ; his faculties developed themselves best in office, and best of all in the most official of all offices, the diplomatic. In that department official men are taught to meet each other privately and arrange the world. The art of the profession is to early on a commerce of small concessions for great advantages ; and Palmerston, who has become a master of the art, has applied it to internal statesmanship. In his convictions and feelings he shares the habits of a manly English mind, but he differs from the mass even among men in his own order in trusting more to diplomatio than to Parliamentary methods. He enters debate as an oral " correspondence " ; aims at victory by telling hits ; yields little, to retain or to obtain more. He diplonisitizes with the English people, and they do not quite understand it. He talks to them in good homely English, but his thoughts are somewhat superciliously oast in a range above the vulgar. The ludicrous presents itself to his mind with great force, and he handles it with merciless humour ; hence, while he does not refuse to work out in his own quiet way the acquisition of every object which common Englishmen have at heart, he lays himself open to suspicions of " levity" in feeling and of " absolutism " in purpose. Yet at the same time, say those who know him, and who boast that they are not the slaves of mechanical methods in criticism, the heartiness and manly spirit of his nature are sufficient gages for sympathy at heart.

EUPHRATES AND SUEZ.

M. FERDINAND DE LESSEM has published a letter disclaiming any spirit of rivalry between his project of a Suez Canal and a Euphrates Valley Railway ; works, he says, which may go on in a parallel progress, and may equally be supported by private capital. Tlus is true ; and we are not aware that the Suez Canal was ever represented as a rival to the Euphrates Rail. Even were they in juxtaposition, it is quite possible that a rail and. a canal might be mutually auxiliary. If there has been any spirit of rivalry, it has been rather on the other aide; and there have been some signs of a certain favouritism which was the more noticeable because it went counter to common sense. The rivalry was brought out by the preference given to one route over the other for telegraphic communication. A contemporary, holding the balance between the two projects, considers that they may be judged on their own merits,—that one to be preferred whose projectors carry it first into actual operation. Now, if there is any official favouritism, this is placing the decision on a false issue. It is tantamount to the old Oriental notion, that he who could first buy the judgment was in the right. As a matter of distance, the difference between the two routes is immaterial; but the route by the Red Sea already exists as a commercial route. It is a public highway, with many of the advantages attendant upon publicity. It is less easy to be attacked, more easily defended. It has been surveyed. The telegraphic stations are ready, So far it stands foremost in the race. The other lino is still nothing more than a project. We have pointed out very serious questions respecting the working of a line broken into so many parts. It would traverse a country under very uncertain government. It is not a highway, but a backway, and is likely to continue so for some time to come. If, however, the English Government lend its patronage in cooperation with powerful Railway Companies, undoubtedly the Euphrates line might be the first carried out. Would that decide the question of its being preferable ? A alight local conflict in that unruly region might cause the line to be torn up within a week after its being laid down. The trim question is, which is likely to be the first in coming permanently

into operation, and which would serve the greatest variety of useful purposes.

HOW TO MAKE BILLS INTO ACTS.

Jr would be unjust to the extent of folly if the new 11■?.use of Commons were to be judged, during the first session, by its pro

s in converting the due proportion of Bills into Acts. The list of measures which stand suspended, private as well as public, is unusually large. With respect to some, the details are unusually important, and to work them out would require attention as unbroken as in a long sum of arithmetic. At the same time, the House is threatened with political measures involving some degree of out-door excitement and in-door distraction. We have no expectation, therefore, that the present House of Commons will do any better than its predecessors. On the contrary, we fully anticipate that the present session will be exactly a counterpart of many former sessions. We could give a list of some of the measures which will be brought forward. Most of our readers have them off by heart,—bills for the Amendment of the Law, Matrimonial Causes and Divorce, Testamentary Jurisdiction, Ecclesiastical Courts, Local and Passing Dues, Metropolitan Drainage, New Public Offices in Westminster, Limited Liability Amendment, Reformatories, Secondary Punishments, Church-rates, &e. We could almost state the provisions of each measure, the speech introducing it, and the remarks, either in objection or in support, from the various sides of the House—always, of course, making ample allowances for the divergencies which may be introduced by new Members. The bill will be read a second time ; and again, any of our readers could, from an old number of the Spectator, sketch out the constituted debate upon the second reading as easily as he could sketch out the debate of any session upon Mr. Berkeley's Ballot motion. The bill will or will not go into Committee, and it will or will not come out of Committee ; but whatever stage it may reach, any of us can predict almost the turn of expression with which the Member in charge of it will rise one night and say, that "at this late period of the session, it would not be desirable to occupy the time of the House with discussion on this important measure," and that therefore, with the leave of the House, he should withdraw the motion for its being taken again in Committee, for the third reading, or whatever it might be ; adding "a hope that he should be able to introduce it at an earlier period next session, with a greater prospect of being able to early it." We all know the history of these measures, immortal in the shape of "bills" never to become acts.

What prospect is there of escaping from this life in death, this congestion of legislation ? We see none to be derived from any new Reform Bill ; certainly not from an extension of the franchise, which would introduce new men with further views and more debate. We have no hope from the "new blood" already introduced; for new blood is given to ferment in debate, and " discussion " is the very obstacle to the completion of bills. The fact is, that the responsible Minister, knowing the popular expectation, introduces these promissory notes every session, and adds to the superabundance of work which annually prevents the House of Commons from finishing its business.

There is a reform which would in a great measure relieve us from the burdensome obstacle. The House of Commons is prevented from doing its work not only by having too much work to do, but work of kinds unsuitably combined. It is debarred from fulfilling the rational expectations of the public, because it spends its time in fulfilling the behests of private and local interests. The House of Commons is burdened with a mass of county and parish business, which is, in accordance with "the system," sent up to be transacted in Westminster. Every year there are a host ot Parliamentary agents, London attorneys, country gentlemen, mayors, town-clerks, and local busybodies, pestering the House through its Committees to finish the statutes necessary to authorize new roads, new bridges, new buildings, new schools, anything new in any district, however paltry. The time of the Member who is of the working ago may be divided into four parts,—Committee by day, private business in the House, with a nibble at public business before dinner, and the real discussion of public business between dinner and midnight. In "the House," the private business occupies a comparatively small part of the time ; but it assists in consuming the day, and the rules for getting through it modify all the arrangements of Parliament.

The entanglement in the private and local business, however, has a far worse effect. The Member himself is selected less for his fitness to conduct the business of the empire—that is, the proper business of the House of Commons—than the business of the county or the borough which puts him in Parliament. The consequence is, that the imperial business stands, while the local agents assembled in Westminster under the name of Members of Parliament finish off the business of their employers. The reform which would enable the House of Commons to get on with its proper work would be to send back the county business to the county, and the parish business to the parish. No new Reform Bill could ever set the House free from the discredit which clings to it year after year until it be relieved from that incubus.

MR. LETHEI3Y'S REPORT.

THE report of Mr. Letheby on the state of poor neighbourhoods in the Eastern parts of London equals in squalor and depravity any picture that has ever been painted of the worst of towns. It describes a state of things pervading a considerable district, which appears to render it impossible that a poor man should find a

home near his work, without consenting to dwell amidst abominations that must destroy moral health as absolutely as physical health. The sickening feeling—the horror—is even stronger than that which was excited by the reports of Mr. John Simon, Dr. Lynch, Dr. Sutherland, and. Dr. Hector Gavin, although the things de scribed by them were the same as those described by Mr. Letheby, and those writers were equal to him in powers of description. But we had supposed that improvement was going on ; and while we are shocked to find that the improvement has only made progress for the classes and portions of the metropolis which less required it, we have the same horrors in a broader light, so that repetition has somewhat the effect of novelty redoubled. It is true that we have had reason to doubt whether the improvement, even in the West, was so great as it looked on the surface. We have found out, for example, that sonic of theplaster ing and painting of particular streets and courts inhabited by the poor in the neighbourhood of St. Giles's have smeared over the surface without curing the infected state of the dwellings or the manners of the inhabitants. We have observed with regret that the more substantial improvement, of which a model was set in Albert Buildings, has made no progress in comparison with the more specious but superficial kmds, and has had no effect in sweeping away those abominations that still exist in the Eastern end of London. Much more, therefore is wanted. To know that

such things exist as those which Mr. therefore, describes, and yet

to permit their continuance, is not only criminal, it is against our

interest. As the Times says, with its swinging style of practical

morals, if Dives permits such things at his door, the tribe of Lazarus may revolt against him and exaet a terrible retribution. If humanity fails to stir us, fears for our own comfort and peace might perhaps make us attend a little more to a business that ought not to be deferred.

Contemporaneously with this disgusting London exhibition, we observe a cognate case of defective sanitary arrangement in Edin burgh,—cognate, but not parallel, for it wants the feature of moral atrocity which the London picture presents. A functionary of the place addresses a report to the Lord Provost, Magistrates, and Council of Edinburgh, on "the 159 closes" examined by him this

year' to ascertain the effect of improvements instituted last year ; and the report is not favourable. As much as 50001. had been

spent in the drainage of a section of the main street of Old Edin

burgh; but the condition of close after close is described as being " horrible " ; and this after only an outside inspection of the

houses, with none of the interior inquisition executed by Mr. Letheby. Mr. Johnston says that the powers conferred upon the local government of Edinburgh "are ample, and should be exer cised with the utmost stringency." Yes, it is not acts of Parliament that we want, but stringent action of officers and of the responsible public bodies.

In most great towns, and especially in this metropolis, the improvements that are going on to a certain extent aggravate the evil. Inconsiderate building speculations are extending the area

of the metropolis, and are compelling the working man to live further off from his work, unless he consent to find a cheap home

in such places as Mr. Letheby has exposed. Some general ad ministrative control is required, beyond the mere enforcement of statutes. To enforce the Common Lodging-houses Act is one necessity ; but it will only scratch the surface of the abuse ; while to remove buildings is to deprive alelpless and dangerous host of all shelter. The department of Public Works should have positive as well as the negative duties of control. But the mode in which it might interfere must be reserved for consideration. It is impossible that a statement like Mr. Letheby's can be left to the existing feeble and imperfect agencies.

MORE WITCHCRAFT,

A MAGISTRATE has been called upon in the execution of his duty to have a witch "proved." The application happened in November last, though the fact is only now published ; and although the Magistrate did not issue any writ for the purpose, he did to a certain extent receive a preliminary examination,—that is, he entered into conversation with the person who applied for the order. We are not told the county, but we could ourselves name two or three counties in which the incidents might have taken place. The interesting point in the account, which is given in a letter to the Times, is a certain reasonableness and consistency of argument which challenge something more than ridicule. The story itself is simple enough. "J. B." farms about forty acres in the parish of Hockham ; he was in affliction about his wife, for she was troubled with many bodily afflictions, which are traceable to indifferent health, and probably to very objectionable diet. The leading symptoms were "continual worrying, as if a sow and all her young pigs were pulling her to pieces" ; and her neighbours at once detected the obvious symptoms of her being "bewitched." Many other cases were told by J. B. of such visitations, and one case was very remarkable. There is a mode of encountering a witch that appears to be always successful,—it is, not to speak to her when she talks ; and a man and his wife who received a visit from a noted witch in the neighbourhood, by this passive resistance compelled her to leave the cottage "in an agony, and she dropped down dead." This experimental proof of witchcraft was confirmed by an experiment e converse: the daughter of the witch came in, but she did not die, because the couple whom she visited unluckily spoke to her. Now it happens as a mere matter of fact that there was no sudden death in the case, and that the mother witch is still alive! But uneducated rea eoners have a remarkable facility in rejecting such fads as are not pertinent to their impressions or to the conclusions which they wish to enforce ; so that the little circumstance -that the witch was alive and not dead was no doubt omitted from the account through honest inadvertency. How many educated people are guilty of the same eclecticism in argument ! In the case of Mrs. J. B., however, her malignant assailant had actually been identified. "My wife was advised to send for the woman —, of —, who is wonderful clever in these things. She came, and told us to take some particular liquid and put it in a bottle, with some of the hairs out of the noddle of my wife's neck and the parings of her finger-nails and toe-nails, (these we cut quite close,) and some old horse-shoe nails. Well, Sir, we put the bottle on the fire, an we waits while it's boiling and burning, and what not ; and when it bursts we looks out of the window, and the evil-disposed person stands before us. Last Friday night was a month that my wife did this ; and after she done it she got out of bed, as she do sometimes, to take a drop of drink or a little magnesia, and she looked out of the window, and there she saw the woman C— standing before the window, at a most unsealable hour, in the moonlight, in an agony sort of state."

There is no resisting this proof. But J. B. desires nothing unfair or harsh; he is for proceeding strictly according to law. He

does not assume the guilt of Mrs. C , but wishes to have her legally convicted, or, as he calls it, "proved." " And hew do you prove a witch ?" asked the Magistrate. J. B. is primed with information on that point also. He mentions k case of a gentleman who proved a witch, and "had it done right public "— " Her name was Pointer. They tied her clothes about her legs and used her decent. She had a line put round her waist, and one on each side, to keep her from sinking if she was an upright woman, but if she's a witch they can't sink her nohow. Old Mr. L—, who done it, jumped upon her, but couldn't sink her nohow; when her head was down her heels was up, and when her heels was down her head was up." J. B. says very simply, of this incident, "I do not know exactly how it finished, but I heard she did not live long after it." It might therefore be a nice question in casuistry, whether the guilt of the woman was really proved or not : if she died of the drowning, she was innocent—and we must always be glad that a person is innocent rather than guilty. It she was guilty—" served her right." Now what would be easier than for the Magistrate before whom this complaint was laid to issue an order for having

Mrs. C "proved." That was all that was asked. Could anything be more consistent with the information of J. B. and his neighbours, with the facts which they had ascertained, or with justice or humanity ?

It is true that the Magistrate considered, as many other persons must consider, the whole story to be absurd ; and he asked J. B. "how can you believe such nonsense ?" The answer was awkward. J. B. brought forward "the witch of Ender, the demoniaes of the New Testament," &e. On the highest authority we are to understand that there are or were witches. Now, the circumstances of different ages may differ ; we are not to interpret the physiology of very early periods by contemporary physiology, or at all events without we have more information as to the influences which have created and ruled the world. But J. B. must have heard the most natural arguments put down by authority, often advanced as if it must be questioned at the peril of the person to be refuted. Possibly, if J. B. had mutinied against any received argument from the bench, whether in morals or physiology, it would have been answered by a text as a final blow to silence him ; and it is quite natural that ho should use the same weapons for his own purpose. Just reasoners know that authorities can never be employed, any more than the figures of statistics, independently of the argument into which they are brought ; yet how often is this rule attended to by public teachers, in or out of the pulpit ? On the whole, J. B. conducts his pleading with great fairness and reason. He might indeed appeal from this sceptical Magistrate to contemporary literature. Let him turn to the most illustrious mansion in the world, at present the diplomatic capital of Europe, the centre of ruling influences—the Tuileries. He will see introduced into that abode a very eminent "spirit-rapper," Mr. Hume, under whose ministrations the most distinguished persons, French and English, have been perplexed beyond the discrimination of their seven senses. Hands have appeared from under a table where no one could possibly be, and have dragged beneath the table a most accomplished Member of our Parliament, known all over the world for his literary power—dragged him, although he is a strong man and he resisted manfully. Yet there was no body to that hand ! A wreath of roses has been placed upon the head of an eminent authoress, whose not legs eminent husband found no mode of combating the necromancer but by cutting his acquaintance ; which is certainly not . a very logical mode of terminating an argument. It is reported in the newspapers, that the Empress of the French has been so affected as to render the visits of Mr. Hume to the Tuileries dangerous ; and on this account— not on account of imposture detected—the Emperor has forbidden him the palace. What is this but witchcraft stalking abroad in the most public place of all Europe, accepted as self-evident in the very capital of modern European scepticism ? How can we wonder, if the ruling men of Paris believe in Mr. Hume, that J.

B. believes in Mrs. C ? We must exile witchcraft from high places before we can extirpate it from the low. We must, as " Habitans in Siceo " contends in the Times, render our preaching a little more logical, before we can teach men like J. B. not to knock down sound reasoning with the butt-end of a text. And perhaps public education would do more to cut up witches, root and branch, than any burning for sorcery, or even fine and imprisonment for imposture,

Valitirat Gltaniugs.

LORD jonx RUSSELL : AN INTIMATION.—That there exists at present a certain amount of antagonism between Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell, is so obvious that it would be affeetatMn to attempt to conceal it. That this antagonism implies any lack of cordiality between Lord Palmerston's colleagues and Lord John, we are not inclined to believe. Thus circumstanced, Lord John's resumption of office at an early date is not an event to be looked for. But it does not follow that he will assume an attitude of opposition to Lord Palmersten's Administration. Indeed, we have his own word for it that he cherishes no such intention; and we are of opinion that such a declaration, spontaneously, deliberately, publicly made by Lord John Russell, is more entitled to credit than the random essortions of any anonymous scribbler. We do not, therefore, look upon Lord John as an immediate candidate for office' but we believe that he occupies at present a position which invests him with far greater power to promote the cause of reform and good govern ment than the highest office could bestow He will take his seat in the House of Commons not merely as one whose personal qualities command. liking or esteem, but as the exponent and champion of certain definite principles. It is expected that Lord John Russell will in the House of Com'eons throw all his weight into the stale of real, practiced, Parliamentary Reform ; that if Government, without loss of time, bring forward an acceptable measure he will cordially support and aid them ; that if they hesitate and hang back, he will employ his influence to urge them on. It is expected that Lord John Russell will be the wary, watchful, and ardent advocate of a foreign policy worthy of the ancestral reputation of England.At this moment, Switzerland, having been persuaded by fair promises to disarm prematurely, sees herself in danger of being outwitted and betrayed in the salons__ of diplomacy. At this moment, the internal liberties of Piedinetiritt-b" threatened by the brutal arrogance of Austria. At this moment, Prussia and Austria are insidiously availing themselves of the jealousies which exist between the Danish and Teutonic races in Schleswig-Holstein,to institute a secret propaganda of the effete principles of German aristocratic sorvilism. At this moment, Russia is again threatening the independent tribes of the Caucasus, and through them the liberty of the Black Sea. The eyes not only of all in England who sympathize with these endangered nationalities_, but of all true patriots in the countries we have indicated, are fixed with expectant eagerness upon Lord John Russell as their mouthpiece in the English House ot Commons. They are confident that he will energetically, incessantly, remind Ministers and the Legislature that their true place is at the head of the constitutional governments of Europe ; that their duty is to protect those weaker countries in which free governments are established from the aggression of despotic neighbours, and to preserve those in which the struggle for extended freedom is waging from foreign interference in their domestic affairs. In short, the reason why Lord john Russell's triumphant return to Parliament has given such universal satisfaction is, that men feel assured that so long as he is there, sound principles of domestio liberty and foreign policy will find an able advocate in one whose antecedents lend additional weight to his words ; that there will be at least one Member in the House under whose banner all true Liberals will be ready to rank themselves whenever it is necessary to do battle for some great principle.—Daily -.Vries, April 8.

Mu. BRIORT.—The enforced retirement of Mr. Bright from public life, upon which he addresses his late constituents in the letter we publish today, is an event in our modern Parliamentary history which we cannot peRS over without notice. Let men agree or disagree with, his political opinions as they will, upon one point there can be no doubt whatsoever, that a wellgraced actor has left the scene. There was a vigour and fire in the man, which we seek in vain elsewhere among the candidates for the orator's chaplet in the House of Commons. We remember well, when the Reform Bill was passed it was anticipated that a number of rough untameable speakers would be sent up by the new-born constituencies to the House of Commons—men who would deal with the old Parliamentary rhetoric and the good old quotations from the classical authors, and all the received elegancics of the place, in no very reverential spirit, and who would yet earn for themselves a great name, and for their constituents greater influence and greater power in the political system. The late Sir Robert Peel is reported to have said when Mr. Bright made his first effective appearance in the House " Ah ! here at last is one of those terrible men of Thirty-two ! " Mr. Bright" and Mr. Cobden are the only two instances which occur to us of men who have realized the anticipation; and of the two there is no doubt that Mr. Bright is the one who had earned for himself by far the higher position in the House. Mr. cotaien' a name is associated imperishably with one great question ; but out of that, it would be admitted, we presume, even by his immediate admirers, that he had not attained the same general reputation for high oratorical _power as Mr. Bright Who among those who rail most loudly at John Bright will ever do one tithe of what he has done' even with all the adventititious circumstances of birth and wealth upon their side ? We are always ready and eager to give our tribute of admiration to any person connected with the upper ranks of English society who displays any extraordinary amount of ability, any great degree of courage, any peculiar aptitude for the public service ; but why should we of the middle chases be ever affiliated to a huge secret conspiracy for keeping down our own peers ? . . . . a/Ve believe Mr. Bright to have been conscientious in his views ; no man could have produced the effect he produced upon his fellows without a great amount of earnestness and real conviction. We know him to have been one of the most eloquent men in the House of Commons ; and as a man of high ability we regret his loss. We are not to be reckoned among Mr. Brigitte political friends ; but let him feel satisfied that there are thousands of his political opponents who would rejoice equally with his friends at his full restoration to health and to his public career.-7'imee April 10.

" REFORM ! "—The prospect of stirring times at band sends aglow through the spirits of old Reformers. They seem to hear again the voices of Lords Grey and Althorp, prophesying that their Reform Bill would soon be popularly considered "the most aristocratic measure of modern times," and to discern the near advent of the inevitable consequence—an expansion of the national constituency, bearing some proportion to the progress of the nation in other respects. The House of Commons, which was once a democratic institution in its whole intent and character, by degrees became aristocratic, to an extent that rendered it, in a constitutionalyoint of view, a mere abuse. By energy proceeding from the popular will, it was, a quarter of a century ago, put under conditions of improvement—prepared for restoration to its original character, with due securities against future lapse; and now, after an interval of live-and-twenty years, we are going to do the duty imposed on, us by the condition of the world, and owing to all future generations of Englishmen. Those who have been "disappointed in the results of the Reform Bill" have been, it seems to us, unreasonable. Lords Grey and Althorp told them beforehand what they must inevitably think of it very soon,—that it was not the popular extension ultimately required, but only the preparatory reform which existing circumstances imperatively demanded; and that a considerable interval must elapse, and had 'better elapse, before the nation would set in earnest about making the House of Commons a real representation of the people. That interval may have seemed long to Reformers who have gone to their graves, or feared to $o, without witnessing any important expansion of popular representation. But it will look like a mere nothing in history, and may even be almost forgotten by the existing generation if they do their work properly now. The short delay has brought everybody to an agreement about the aristocratic character of the present House of Commons, and discredited the alarms about legislative Tack Cedes which really did operate to some purpose in the days of William the Fourth ; while it has disposed of some questions, and transacted some affiiirs, which leave us at leisure for resuming old objects and framing new parties. It seems as if the new parties, however, must arise out of some other difference than the question of Reform or No-Reform ; for, wherever we go, the matter seems settled. Not only does every candidate on the hustings talk about it, and every constituency demand it, but in quiet old Tory places, old Tory squires and parsons are saying that the country will clearly not accept Lord Derby; and that Palmerston must give us a Reform measure if ever he, the only apparently practicable Minister, means to keep his place. We certainly remember nothing like this for a quarter of a century past ; nothing like the acquiescence of the Conservatives, and the rapid ripening of the will of the Liberals.—Daily Hews, April 9.

"To WASTE A YEAR."—Our readers will remember this sentence in Mr. Disraeli's address to the electors of Buckinghamshire and of England, put forward with all the prominence and emphasis that paragraphic isolation and particular printing could give it Never surely did confident assertion receive from actual events such emphatic contradiction. On the 21st of last month—the earliest day that the public business would permit—the Parliament of 1862 was dissolved; and on the 30th of the present month the Parliament of 1857 will meet for the despatch of business. Unquestionably, never in the history of this country was an appeal made to its constituencies with so much promptness, nor a reply returned with so much celerity and agifil6r!r. it.M.matters gone on without interruption, Parliament in the ordinary course otthings would have adjourned for the Easter holidays from Friday last the 3d to Tuesday the 21st of the present month ; so that the time actually sacrificed in order to obtain the judgment of the people amounts to just three weeks, and the new Parliament will have before it for the business of the country in the present year a practically available unbroken session of four months; an ample period for the consideration of all that is necessary now to be undertaken.—Morning Post, April 11.

Rnssisw POLICY.—It is said that the present Czar is in favour of a new system, or wants the iron courage to maintain the old. It is certain that the rigour of the Government has been much relaxed, and freedom of travelling, of speech, and of trade, has been given to the Poles. The Russians appear to think, and _perhaps are not in the wrong, that the possibility of an independent Poland has passed away, and that the Poles know it. Perhaps the hope or even the wish for a separate nationality survives only in the trusting hearts of refugees, who do not know what has been passing at home during their long term of exile. It would seem that the Poles, like the rest of the world, are finding a solace for the want of liberty in the acquisition of wealth. The Russian Government takes advantage of this modern tendency. 'While the Church regains its old jurisdiction, and the prisons are emptied by liberal amnesties, the commercial interests of the nation are not forgotten, and Poland is represented in the Commission sitting at St. Petersburg for the reform of tariffs and the extension of commercial freedom. As Poland is the only part of the empire which is in contact with really civilized countries, and as the railway system of Central Europe will bring Warsaw within a few hours of the Western capitals, this abandonment of the policy of isolation shows something like confidence in the Russian Cabinet. Alexander and his Ministers must count much on the identification of the two countries, when we find them willing to allow Poland, the olasaieland of misfortune, to associate with foreign states which have for years set no bounds to their indignation at her wrongs. The relaxation of the Warsaw Government is an instance of the change which we conceive to be taking place in the Russian empire. There are the governors and the governed. Everywhere the people are seeking to rise into something higher, to get a little knowledge, to earn a little money, and to naturalize some of the appliances of Western civilization. However warlike a race may be, private interests are, after all, most constantly present to them ; and the Russian, the Pole, and the German, are equally anxious to gain something which they have not and which they know that more favoured nations possess. On the other hand, the Government may be, as hitherto, intent on war and conquest, but it feels that it must change its course, and that it can only hope for future slICCCSseB by laying a solid foundation of material prosperity at home. We cannot doubt that the policy of St. Petersburg will, for some time to come, side with the instincts of the people, and be directed to develop the resources of the country.—Times, April 6.

ANOTHER VIEW.—It cannot be too often repeated, that an advance through Asia Minor forms as essential a part of any Russian operation against Constantinople as does the passage of the Balkan. It is a received maxim in Russian strategy, on the authority of General Valentine, that " there is one idea that naturally presents itself—that of effecting a landing in Asia Minor before coming to the attack upon Constantinople. Such a measure would produce the happiest effects in a military point of view, besides hindering the Grand Signior from quitting Me Seraglio and fleeing into Asia Minor with his treasures, which must serve to indemnify the expenses of the war." The plan proposed by this officer is, however, now out of date Hence it follows, that some other method of getting at the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus must be devised ; and the two railways we have mentioned above are both directed to that end. That by Feodosia would enable an expedition to be assembled which would be equally menacing to whatever point on the Northern coast of Anatolia in the neighbourhood of Scutari, where a landing might be practicable, or Trebizond itself, if the Russians were sufficiently strong in the Black Sea to attempt such an expedition ; a circumstance which could only arise from some lamentable disagreement among the oilier great naval powers, or, more properly speaking, between France and England. Still, a railway to Kaffa would keep a path open that way in ease it ever should become possible to attack by sea, and therefore it is to be made ; and according to the Czar's present intention, principally with our money. The other project—the railway from Moscow to hislini Novgorod—has also its double object. On the one hand, it secures to the Russians the power of turning the Caucasus by sea, in ease—as might be expected, and certainly was expected lately, but in vain—a more than usually determined insurrection might accompany the commencement of military operations in Asia, and the Cireassians might harass or even cut off the communications by the Vladi-Cauesisus and Derbend. Should anything of that sort threaten, torees might be assembled in the very heart of the empire, or at any point of it—sent to Nishni Novgorod by rail; thence, by the multifarious craft that swarm on the 'Volga, to Astraken ; whence, after a short and easy passage to Baku, the Caspian being entirely in the power of Russia, they might commence operating from Georgia, . . . This Nishni Novgorod Railway is also of much consequence with regard to the support to be given to Russian intrigues in Persia, Bokhare, or Khiva, for the purpose of sapping our power in India. An unbroken line of railway and steam-ship communication from Warsaw and St. Petersburg to Moscow, and thence through Nishni Novgorod and Astrakan to Astrabad, would most influentially forward such views.—Morning Post, April 9. THORPE'S TRANSLATION OF "LAPPENBERG'S ENGLAND UNDER THE NORMAN ICINGS..

A DOZEN years ago, we noted with some fulness the characteristics of Lappenberg as an historian, and the peculiar plan of Mr. Thorpe as a translator, when reviewing the "History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings."t There is not much change in the literary character of the present work. A _History of England under the Norman Kings exhibits the wide and patient research of the antiquary and the German doctor in collecting materials; while Mr. Thorpe as amicus ciuiai corrects and occasionally enlarges the text when needful, and adds additional notes, the last alone exhibiting a distinctive mark of the author. The tone and expression of either writer does not reach the epic style of history, but it has a simple homeliness, derived in part from the chroniclers, which is not ill adapted to the subject. There is no lack of critical acumen in selecting the facts and images that are to present the particular thing ; but the things themselves are not always well chosen. The characters and doings of men who are quite subordinate as historical personages receive an attention which belongs rather to arclueology than to history, overlaying as well as interfering with the larger narrative. Blemishes of composition are more conspicuous than in the Anglo-Saxon period. The German original we are not acquainted with ; the English, though seldom obscure as to the real meaning of the writer, is frequently awkward, and indeed ungrammatical, especially in reference to relatives and their antecedents. It is not often that we dwell upon verbal defects, but some of the instances are so strange that they challenge notice. For instance, the narrative of Stephen's reign thus mentions the return of Robert of Gloucester from Normandy. " To this concession he [Stephen] was, however, in great measure prompted by the return of Earl Robert from Normandy, wlao, when apprized of the critical position in which his sister was placed, had landed with a force at Wareham, and the castle of which place having besieged and taken, was vigorously preparing to attack him."

The meaning is clear—Gloucester took the castle, and then prepared to march against the King : the statement is, that the castle, after being "taken, was vigorously preparing to attack him." [The captor.] There are many examples of similar carelessness ; many, too, of the lumbering periods found in the former work. The meaning itself is not invariably clear. Thus it is said" The death of Henry [the First] had caused great excitement in Wales ; to subdue which he had resolved to pass over to England." It is impossible to make sense of this. We would readily jump over two or three antecedents, 'but the previous names are a list of mercenary leaders in the pay of Stephen. The facts are, that an insurrection took place in Wales, which Henry had resolved to embark from Normandy to quell ; but mortal sickness intercepted him. The meaning perhaps is that the disorders in Wales were increased by the King's death.

As a work of art, this history is of slender account. Its value is owing to the painstaking labour with which facts have been selected, and facts which generally, exhibit with accuracy the circumstances they are intended to illustrate. Minute particulars, well selected, even if they are told somewhat in the style of a newspaper, often throw a fuller light upon matters very much larger than themselves. The repulse of William's troops at Romney after the battle of Hastings—the delays of the Conreror on the coast, partly from illness—the great loss of the 1st ormans in a guerilla warfare—the disposition to resist in the Anglo-Saxon masses, and indeed by the authorities of London and some of the nobility (though the want of a head, and consequent dissensions, rendered that disposition useless)—being told simply, impress the dangers of William and the risks of his enterprise more convincingly than the general statements of epic historians ; yet the effect of magnitude is not lost by Lappenberg. In estimating the risk of William, regard must no doubt be had to the political and social state of Saxon England, harassed by Danish freebooters, disorganized by anarchy springing from the weakness of the crown or the sovereigns who wore it, distracted at that time by civil war, and the bulk of the higher classes vicious find corrupt; with all which the Conqueror was doubtless as well acquainted as any one. Still the success exceeded the probabilities. Had Harold survived, or left any capable person able to take his place, the

adventure of the rmans would most likely have ended in defeat, or in destruction during their winter campaign. The facts of the volume speak more favourably for the Conqueror than the author's conclusions, though one object of the work was to modify the colouring of Thierry. That William was a ruthless man, ready to perpetrate any deed which his interest required, is clear enough. It is equally clear that the conquest of a country, by the aid of mercenaries and adventurers looking to spoil and confiscations for reward, could not be accomplished without gross injustice and extensive suffering. But in the opinion of the age such enterprises were as justifiable as wars now, if indeed there is any essential change of opinion,—as witness the Napoleonic and Russian wars of conquest; the annexations of "manifest destiny " in America ; possibly some of the

• A History of England under the Norman Rings, or from tke Battle of Hastings to the Accesmon of the House of Plantagenet. Ts which is prefixed an Epitome of the Early History of Normandy. Translated from the German of Dr. J. M. Lappeuberg, For. F.S.A., Keeper of the Archives of the City of Hamburg, by Benjamin Thorpe ; with considerable Additions and Corrections by the Translator. Pubtithed by Russell Smith. t Spectator ISIS. page 512. English acquisitions in the East. The Conqueror, whether from policy, love of order, or a sense of humanity, appears to have restrained his mercenaries beyond the custom of the age, and occasionally to have punished them with some degree of firmness. The country, though conquered and occupied by an army on the alert, suffered less than during the civil wars of Stephen. "V83 victis-" was the motto of the age, as it is of a good many ages. When Rufus led a body of Anglo-Saxons into Normandy, they seem to have ravaged the adjoining districts as much as the Conqueror's bands did England. The devastations of the English in France during the wars of Edward the Third were worse than those of the Normans in England. The destruction dealt out to the country North of the Humber is the great blot upon William's character. As a matter of principle, the only answer is "the tyrant's plea," which Milton puts into the mind of Satan. The facts may be somewhat exaggerated so far as William's share is concerned. The country had already been disturbed by partisan warfare between Normans and Saxons. The Anglo-Saxons, accompanied by Scotehmen, had invaded it from Scotland a large body of Danes had also arrived. William, coming after n11 these, had the credit of the whole. That whole, however, was terrible ; worse than the devastations of the Russians in the conquest of the Crimea, or of the French in parts of the Peninsula, or of Irelandunder Cromwell.

"William then proceeded to Northumbria. There the Danes had spread themselves over the land South of York, and many of them had crossed the Humber to the opposite shore of the rich district of Lindesey ; where, however, they were attacked by Robert Count of Mortain and Robert of Eu, and, after suffering considerable loss, with difficulty reached their ships. The King in the meanwhile continued to march forwards. At Pontefract he found the Are co swollen that it was not passable at any of the usual fords. In this conjuncture he was by some advised to return ; to others, who would persuade him to construct a bridge, he answered that it would not be prudent, lest the enemy should suddenly attack them while engacd on the work. For three weeks he was detained there, until a valiant soldier, named Lisois des Moustiers, after much labour, discovered a ford, where, at the head of sixty horse, he crossed the river. On the opposite shore he was assailed by a numerous body of the enemy, whom, however, he repulsed. On the following day, having returned to the camp, he showed them the ford, by which the whole army crossed without delay. They had now to pass through forests and across morasses, over mountains and through valleys, and ways where two were unable to march abreast. On reaching York they found that the Danes had abandoned it. With all his rancour towards his enemies William did not forget that he could inflict on them much greater injury by other and more effectual means than by the sword. The object of the jar Asbicirn in engaging in the expedition was gain, and this ho found in the rich presents of gold that William caused to be made to him, and for which he engaged to hold his countrymen in a state of inaction on the coast till the spring, and then return with them to Denmark. Many of them had in fact already returned, on account of want of provisions, and not a few had perished by storm. Asbionis return to Seeland was delayed until July of the following year. On his arrival he was met by a sentence of banishment. William now gave the reins to his insatiable vengeance. He sent seine of his chieftains with a body of troops to York to restore the ruined castles, leaving others lir oppose the Danes on the banks of the Humber, while he himself went in pursuit of the enemy, who had taken refuge in thickly-wooded and almost inaccessible places. Corn, cattle, utensils, and every species of food, he ordered to be heaped together and burnt. The famine, that had already raged for more than a year, was by such execrable proceedings so aggravated, and so horrible was the misery, that the wretched inhabitants were compelled to subsist on horses, cats, and oven on human flesh. Hunger forced many to sell themselves and families into perpetual slavery to their oppressors. During this calamitous state of things, it is supposed that no legs than a hundred thousand human beings perished. Many who, with some little property, had forsaken their country, in the hope of finding an asylum in a foreign laud, perished ere they could reach the wished-for shore. Appalling was it in the silent houses, in the lonely streets, and public roads, to see the corpses rotting, covered with myriads of worms, in an atmosphere insufferably redolent of putrefaction. For the last duty, that of burial, no one survived to perform it in the desolated land. Those whom the sword and the famine had spared had fled from the scene of ruin. Even /Egetwine, the Bishop of Durham, and other innocent ecclesiastics, durst not venture to remain at home ; for the sword of the avenger knew no difference among Anglo-Saxons. Northumbria and the parts adjacent were become one vast desert, where no one for the next ten years would settle with the object of cultivating the land ; and even after the lapse of more than half a century, tracts of above sixty miles in extent were still in a state of desolation. On the once frequented road from York to Durham, as far as the eye could reach, not a single inhabited village was to be seen. In ruins and caverns dwelt only crews of robbers and wolves, for the destruction of the traveller."

This is terrible, and the number of lives lost is probably not overrated at a hundred thousand. To understand the description properly, however, the reader must do a difficult thing—endeavour to realize to his mind the state of the country at the time, without which the picture will be exaggerated. See in what a natural or rather savage state the land was between the Tees and York and between York and Chester.

"William returned to York by a way until then never trodden by an army, where, while the adjacent country was rejoicing in vernal mildness, the mountain-tops and the deep valleys were thickly covered with snow. But William prosecuted his march, during an intensely hard frost, cheering his soldiers by his alertness. During his progress a great number of his horses perished. Every one was anxious only for his own safety, reeking little for his chief or his friend. In this state of difficulty, the ling, attended only by six knights, lost his way, and passed a whole night without knowing Where to find his army. On his return to York, he caused several castles to be restored, and the necessary measures to be taken for placing things on a better footing in the city and neighbourhood. He then proceeded with his army against the men of Cheshire and the Welsh, who, in addition to their other offences, had laid siege to Shrewsbury. But the army, whirl] had already undergone so many hardships, was fearful that still more and greater awaited them in this expedition. They dreaded the rugged ways, the severity of the winter, the scarcity of provisions, and the terrific ferocity of the enemy. The Angevins, Bretons, and those of Le Maine, who were in the pay of William, were' as they said, oppressed beyond endurance by intolerable duties ; they therefore pertinaciously demanded their thimissid. The King did not vouchsafe to retain them either by entreaties or promises; but boldly continued his march, commanding those bands that were faithful to follow him, and looking with contempt on the deserters, as spiritless, cowardly, and weak. 'Unwearied he pursued his march by v never before explored by cavalry, over lofty mountains, and through deep valleys, across streams said rivers, in rain and hail."

The knowledge conveyed by the particulars which are collected (for how Much ss due to Dr. Lappenberg, and how much to Mr. Thorpe is not clear in the text) is not always so satisfactory as in the parts of William's reign alluded to. The state of anarchy under Stephen may be very difficult to present in detail, but an idea of that anarchy should be impressed on the reader's mind ; which is not attained by an account of the many petty forays or partial " affairs " between the two factions.

Mr. Thorpe, to complete the work, has prefixed to the history of England, Lappenberg's early history of Normandy; brief, hut with the spirit of knowledge that original research imparts, especially displayed in its account of the manners and customs of the Normans sealed in France. There is also a literary introduction, presenting a coup d'o3i1 of the authorities on which the history is founded.

AMOS ON THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND.'

THE optimist Sir William Blackstone was of opinion, that though the practice of Government under Charles the Second was wicked," "sanguinary," and "oppressive," yet our "public law" attained its "theoretical perfection" in that reign ; and he fixes the year 1679 (when the Habeas Corpus Act was passed) as the culminating point. Fox in his James the Second adopts the opinion, and characterizes the reign of the Merry Monarch as the fora of good laws and bad government"; summing up his remarks with a true party politician's conclusion—" How weak and pernicious the maxim that measures not men, are to be attended to." Other writers—as Lord John Russell—have echoed tho opinions of Fox and Blackstone.

To refute this theory is the purpose of Professor Amos in his

present treatise, by showing that greater improvements have been made in constitutional law aince the time of Charles than merely. "lopping off or more clearly defining some invidious, nay dangerous branches of the prerogative,' which Blackstone admits remained after the meridian splendour of the constitution had been attained. To accomplish this object, Professor Amos subjects to examination the powers, claims, and practices of the Sovereign; the rights, legal existence, and duration of Parliament, as well as the nature of its composition ; together with the power and position of the Established Church in relation to other sects. The various " liberties " of the conscience, the person, property, and the press, so far as they were affected by laws and usage, are also investigated. The survey closes with what Mr. Amos truly states is a very important matter as regards the freedom or oppression of' persons disliked by men in power, the Procedure in Prosecutions. for State Offences.

The inquiry is perhaps more successful as a curious exposition

of the state of public law, received executive, judicial, and political usage' and the legal rights of the subject an against the Crown from the Restoration to the Revolution, than as a refutation of Blackstone and Fox. In the first place, it mustlie borne in mind that Blackstone wrote nearly a hundred and Fox upwards of fifty years ago when, if constitutional law was not greatly different from what it is at present, the practice is now much milder, andpublic opinion much more powerful. Fox had Pitt's high treason and libel trials, with the Edinburgh transportations for sedition, and the alleged bearing of Brimfield, fresh in his memory. Dr. Blackstone would not, as a Member of Parliament, have had any qualm in voting for the imprisonment of an audacious reporter who had published the speech of himself or any brother M.P. Such a political atmosphere would unquestionably modify the judgment, and induce men to take a more favourable view than we might do of an interpretation of constitutional law if not pushed to a sanguinary or oppressive point. Both Blackstone and Fox however, were too favourable in their view of public law under Charles the Second. By a statute passed soon after the Restoration, speech with an animus (which 18 always matter of opinion) was made treason without any overt act. The Triennial Parliaments Act, which both Blackstone and Fox praise, was in reality a delusion. It did not fix the duration of Parliament— the Long called also the Pension Parliament, for instance, lasted nearly eighteen years ; nor was there any limit to the interval of prorogation. The removal of judges at pleasure was another evil,

less perhaps for the direct influence it exercised over the bench, as there was generally spirit enough in some of the judges to reslat dictation, than for the means it gave to pack the bench with unscrupulous tools, as the occasion arose. These and equal or lesser legal powers gave greater means to tyranny than it would now possess: but the root of the oppression and corruption of Charles the Second's Government is to be found in the state of public opinion —using that word to embrace many others as feeling, conviction of duty, sense of public morality, and sillier things. For instance, there is nothing in the state of the law to prevent the great popular atrocity of James the Second's reign, the Bloody Assizes, from being repeated now. Every man who should join the "array" of a claimant to the crown would-undoubtedlybe guilty of high treason. Legally, thousands might be tried, in

• The English constitution in the fkign of King (Marla the Second. By Andrew

Amos, Esq.. Downing Professor of Law in the University of Cambridge, and late Member of the Supreme Council of India. Published by Stevens and Norton, Lon

don; D.:tenon and Bell, Cambridge„ stead of the hundreds put upon their trial during the Western Assizes, and legally they would all be guilty. The invalidity of a pardon against an impeachment by the Commons would seem a bar to such a thing as the promise of pardon to Denby by Charles : but Denby was never impeached ; lie was screened by dissolution. The settled intervals between dissolutions and prorog,ations, now fixed by law, would not give such facilities as Charles possessed for playing the same game ; but there is nothing legally to prevent a guilty Minister backed by a resolute Sovereign from baffling an impeachment (were impeachment possible with our manners) by repeated prorogations or dissolutions. The oppressions and tyrannies of Charles the Second were often advised and mostly carried out by the aid of the Crown lawyers. They were a class whose unscrupulous villany has made the title a bye. word, and has thrown some odium on the profession. But lawyers above all men are creatures of their time. With the violent politics of the thirty years succeeding the Restoration—a legacy from the Civil Wars—Crown lawyers passed away. They were revived in a more decent breed, between the French Revolution and the death of Castlereagh. Those who closely observe the modern bench will be able to see that certain men trained as ready advocates and unscrupulous political partisans exhibit, though in a slight degree, the quality that at bottom was almost as much as love of promotion a cause of the conduct of the Stuart Crown lawyers—that is, a chameleon-like faculty of representing the colour last conveyed to them—of reechoing the voice of power, which is now that of public opinion. Unscrupulous, cruel men, indifferent to human life, are the product of all times, though the cruelty and indifference may take a milder form in a very civilized age. The coarse language and brutal demeanour of Jeffreys could not be reproduced now, or at least no man holding forth in this strain could be placed upon the bench or kept there. Parliament would address the Crown for his removal. But there is no specific law to prevent such an effusion of a coarse nature excited by strong drink. "The following is an instance of deffreys'a manner of alternating menaces with wheedlings. It should be premised that the witness was a baker, and that much wit was lavished on his supplying testimony of light weight. The Chief Justice thus addressed him= I would not terrify thee to make thee say anything but the truth ; but assure yourself I never met with a lying, sneaking, canting fellow, but I always treasured up vengeance

for him God in heaven may justly strike thee into eternal flames, and make thee drop into the bottomless lake of fire and brimstone pity thee with all my soul, and pray to God Almighty for thee to forgive thee, and to the blessed Jesus to mediate for thee, and I pray for thee with as much earnestness as I would for my own soul Thou wretch ! all the hills in the world heaped upon one another will not cover thee from the vengeance of the great God. What hopes can there be for so profligate a villain as thou art ? Jesus God ! was there ever such a fellow in the world

as thou art ) If I know my own heart, it is not in my nature to desire the hurt of anybody, still less to delight in their eternal perdition ; no, it is out of tender compassion to you that I use all these words Jesus God ! it is infinite mercy that, for these falsehoods of thine, you are not immediately struck into hell. . . . . I pity thee, upon my soul, and pray for thee, though it cannot but make all mankind tremble and be filled with

horror, that such a wretched creature should live upon the earth If I catch you prevaricating in the least tittle (and perhaps I know more than you think I do) none of your saints shall save your soul—no, nor your body

neither Simili! thou art a prevaricating, shuffling, snivelling, lying rascal.'—Well might the witness exclaim, when, in addition to such verbera linguro, a lighted candle was held close to his nose, 'I am quite cluttered out of my senses ; tell me what you would have me say.' " It must be borne in mind, that all the reports we have et state trials antecedent to the Revolution have been licensed to be printed by the judges presiding at them. What a different and darker picture would they present if reported by the pen of impartial truth ! As they stand, they afford manifest evidence that judges were not ashamed of what they are reported to have done and said. Habennis confitentes revs."

We have alluded to the Pensionary Parliament, but it appears to have been a poor, paltry, spiritless concern. A modern bank director or his recommendee will cony off as much in a morning as the House seems to have been able to divide in a twelvemonth.

"In Parliaments of every duration bribery has been practised in multiform shapes ; but there was greater facility /or nefarious purchase of votes, when recipients did not feel any qualms for a new election, and the Sovereign was not afraid of losing by a contract of do ut finders, through non-performance of his themes. Hence, the practice of systematic bribery is supposed to have originated with the Long Parliament of Charles II. ; it was certainly carried therein to an extent which has given to that Parliament the traditional epithet of the Pensionary Parliament. Evelyn, in his Diary, under the date of the year 1678, writes of the Lang Parliament growing now corrupt and interested with long sitting and court practices ' ; and under the date of 25th January 1679, The Long Parliament, which had sat ever since the Restoration, was dissolved by persuasion of the Lord Treasurer Danby, though divers of them were believed to be his pensioners.' "A Committee appointed by the Parliament which succeeded the Pensionary Parliament exposed a considerable exhibition of pensions and bribes given by the King, himself a pensioner, to Members of Parliament, under the name of the 'Xing's bounty.' It appeared that Lord Denby had raised the amount of money annually spent in traffic for votes from 12,000/. to 20,000/. In a small book entitled For secret service,' were found fifty items for pensions to Members of Parliament, and among them 30001. a year to the Speaker, paid to him as well during recesses as sittings, and particularly during the prorogation for fifteen months : there was also a edger containing similar items which was not forthcoming. Chillineh, the well-known closet-keeper of the King, was proved to have been in possession of a hundred acquittances by Members for the receipt of their pensions."

The topics touched upon in this notice form but a small part of the points of The English Constitution in the Reign of King Charles the &cond. It is a thoughtful, painstaking, and learned work—with a slight leaning to the theories the author starts to uphold, or it would not have been 'written; valuable for the historical student or politician, and useful to the better class of general readers. THE precise design of Mr. Herman Melville in The ConfidenceMan, his Masquerade, is not very clear. Satire on many American smartnesses, and on the gullibility of mankind which enables those smartnesses to succeed, is indeed an evident object of the author. Ile stops short of any continuous pungent effect ; because his plan is not distinctly felt, and the framework is very inartistical ; also because the execution is upon the whole flat, at least to an English reader, who does not appreciate what appear to be local allusions.

A Mississippi steam-boat is the scene of the piece; and the pas

sengers are the actors, or rather the talkers. There is a misanthropist, looking like a dismissed official soured against the government and humanity, whose pleasure it is to regard the dark side of things and to infuse distrust into the compassionate mind. There is the President and Transfer Agent of the "Black Rapids Coal Company," who does a little business on board, by dint of some secret accomplices and his own pleasant plausibility and affected reluctance. A herb-doctor is a prominent person, who gets rid of his medicine by immutable patience and his dexterity in playing upon the fears and hopes of the sick. The "ConfidenceMan" ' is the character most continually before the reader. He is collecting subscriptions for a "Widow and Orphan Asylum recently founded among the Seminoles," and he succeeds greatly in fleecing the passengers by his quiet impudence and his insinuating fluency ; the persons who effectually resist being middle-aged or elderly well-to-do gentlemen, who cut short his advances : "You —pish why will the captain suffer these begging fellows to come on board?" There are various other persons who bear a Fart in the discourses : one or two tell stories ; and the author himself sometimes directly appears in a chapter of disquisition.

Besides the defective plan and the general flatness of execu

tion, there seems too great a success on the part of the rogues, from the great gullibility of the gulls. If implicit reliance could be placed on the fiction as a genuine sketch of American society, it might be said that poverty there as elsewhere goes to the wall, and that the freedom of the constitution does not extend to social intercourse unless where the arms and physical strength of some border man compel the fears of the genteel to grudgingly overcome their reluctance for the time. This reliance we cannot give. The spirit of the satire seems drawn from the European writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with some of Mr. Melville's own Old World observations superadded. It sometimes becomes a question how much belongs to the New World, how much to the Old, and how much to exaggerated representation, impressing a received truth in the form of fiction. The power of wealth, connexion, and respectability, to overbear right, while poor and friendless innocence suffers, may be illustrated in the following story of a begging cripple, tRld to the herb-doctor; or it may instance the unscrupulous invention of vagrant impostors; but it can scarcely be taken as a true picture of justice towards the poor at New 1 ork. "'Well, I was born in New York ; and there I lived a steady, hard-work ing man, a cooper by trade. One evening I went to a political meeting in the Park—for you must know, I was in those days a great patriot. As bad luck would have it, there was trouble near, between a gentleman who had been drinking wine and a pavior who was sober. The pavior chewed tobacco, and the gentleman said it was beastly in him, and pushed him, wanting to have his place. The parlor chewed on and pushed back. Well, the gentleman earned a sword-cane, and presently the pallor was down— skewered.'

"'How was that ? '

"'Why you see the parlor undertook something above his strength.' "'The other must have been a Samson then, Strong as a pavior,' is a proverb.' " So it is, and the gentleman was in body a rather weakly man ; but for

all that, I say again, the pavior undertook something above his strength.' "'What are you talking about ? He tried to maintain his rights, didn't

he ? '

"'Yes; but for all that, I say again, he undertook something above his strength.'

"'I don't understand you. But go on.' " Along with the gentleman, I, with other witnesses, was taken to the

Tombs. There was an examination ; and, to appear at the trial, the gentle man and witnesses all gave bail—I mean all but Inc.'

"'And why didn't you ?' "'Couldn't get it.'

" ' Steady, hard-working cooper like you ; what was the reason you couldn't get bail ? ' " 'Steady hard-working cooper hadn't no friends. Well, souse I went into a wet cell, like a canal-boat splashing into the lock ; locked up in pickle, d'ye see, against the time of the trial.' But what had you done ? ' " • Why, I hadn't got any friends, I tell ye. A worse crime than murder, as yell see, afore long.' " Murder ? did the wounded man die ?

"Died the third night.' "Then the gentleman's bail didn't help him. Imprisoned now, wasn't he ? '

" ' Had too many friends. No, it was /that was imprisoned.—But I was

going on : they let me walk about the corridor by day, but at night I must into lock. There the wet and the damp struck into my bones. They doctored me, but no use. When the trial came, I was boosted up and said 1115 '.8'aL:

' d what was that ?'

"My say was that I saw the steel go in, and saw it sticking in.' " ' Aiid that hung the gentleman.' Hung him with a gold chain ! His friends called a meeting in the Park, and presented him with a gold watch and chain upon his acquittal.'

• The Confidenee-Hast: his Masquerade. By Merman Melville, Author of Omoo," " Typee," k..e. Authorized edition. Published by Longman and Co.; The Bre of St. Mark. By Thomas Doubleday. In two volumes. Published by Smith and Elder.

_Ernest Basil : a Novel. By J. Id.thigor Allan, Author of "The Woman-Hater, or True and False Love." fte, Is three volumes. Published by Newby, London ; Oliver and Boa, Edinburgh. "There was a pause, broken at last by the herb-doctor's saving, Well, there is a bright side to everything. If this speak prosaicallr for justice, it speaks romantically for friendship. But go on, Inv tine fellow.'

', My say being said, they told me I might go. I said I could not without help. So the constables helped me, asking where trould I go ? I told them back to the 'Tombs.' I knew no other place. 'But where are your friends?' said they. I have none.' So they put me into a hand-barrow with an awning to it, and wheeled me down to the dock and on board a boat, and away to Blackwell's Island to the Corporation Hospital. There I got worse—got pretty much as you see me now. Couldn't cure me. After three years, I grew sick of lying in a grated iron bed alongside of groaning thieves and mouldering burglars. They gave me five silver dollars, and these crutches, and I hobbled off.'" As an historical romance, Mr. Doubleday's Ere of St. Mark differs little from the many other fictions whose authors lay their scene in a foreign country and a remote period, without the original research or the power of dramatic development which are requisite to support their attempt. The thoughts, the ideas, the structure of the speech of Mr. Doubleday's persons, are all modern, with a garnish of Italian terms as recondite as "Signor," and of Elivabethen phrases transferred to Italy. The conduct of the story, the conception of the characters, the notions of Italian especially of Venetian life, are the merest conventions of the commonest novel. Of more tangible verisimilitude the auther makes strange havoc. For some motive impossible to divine, he deals with chronology in the oddest way. His opening chapter fixes the date "Venice as it was in 1.590"; but from the allusions of his interlocutors 1490 seems to be meant, except that a character speaks of Colon (Columbus) having just returned, though he did not set out till 1492; and at the same time the voyage of Vasco de Gama is mentioned, though his discovery was not effected till 1497. On the other hand, many of the references relate to 1590. We have not only the Reformation established in Germany, but "spread over England, Sweden, Denmark, parts of France and portions of the Low Countries " ; Elizabethan worthies are alluded to by discoursers and an Italian "blue "quotes "John Frotcher."

Yet in spite of defects, The Ere of St. Mark will be found a romance of interest for the novel-reader. There is plenty of variety in the persons and scenes ; the incidents are deep and moving in the sense of motion ; while Italian priests, Venetian senators nobles, and ladies, Turkish corsairs, and mystery enough and to spare, enrich the story. There are better points than these in the tale. If he has not much knowledge of life, or the period is too

• different from ours to allow of its efficient use, Mr. Doubleday .has observed men, and he skilfully introduces natural traits in painting the " characters " of his actors. Notwithstanding the strange jumble of his chronology, he has carefully looked into history at lea.st in its political economy, and has a clear conception of the learned and excellent women, as Vittoria Colonna, who flourished in Italy during the sixteenth century, though he may not manage their dramatic exhibition very felicitously). Mr. Thomas Doubleday, the author of The Ere of St. Mark, was of yore engaged on graver matters—the Political Biography of Sir Robert Peel, and the True Law of Population. As has been hinted, there are touches of political economy in the midst of the romance. Here, indeed, we have it in the middle of a gala given to signalize the rescue of the Princess di Santa Croce from a corsair, through the valour of the hero, young Raymond Delaney. "'It is believed,' resumed Lanfranco, 'or at least 'tis whispered, and in high places too, that Vasco de Game, so long given up, has returned to Portugal, and that he has found that sea-road to those Indies which Christopher Colon thought he had achieved when he stumbled upon his new world !'

"'These rumours, Lanfraneo, are far from new,' said Thomaso, with a look of utter incredulity. "'The rumours are not new,' rejoined the other, but their confirmation is. Now mark : men now deem that Portugal may be the rival of the Republic ; that the road is open to her. It may be so, but not for 'her is destined that Eastern empire, believe me, signor.' " ' Indeed ! for whom then say you is it destined ? '

"'For that restless, never-satisfied race who inhabit yon islands, wrapt in mists, once the world's Ultima Thule,' replied Laufranco.

"'For the English !' exclaimed Thomaso in astonishment.

" Yes ; for these proud, reaching, and grasping islanders,' continued the speaker. Heretofore they have wasted their strength in attempts at conquest, which bravery might achieve but which no bravery could hold. Now they know their vocation. They have now learned the fatal secret, .that the power of the seas is the abridgment of an empire, and that empire is becoming theirs ! Even now they dispute with Spam that new world ' which Christopher Colon gave to Leon and Castille, to be reguerdoned with fetters and a prison-ship ; and though de llama may have been first to see that Southern cross glittering near the further pole, of which the divine Dante prophesied so strangely, you sea-kings, who heed nor cross nor crescent, but whose god is gold, will assuredly follow, and into the Thames instead of the Tagus will they turn the riches of the Indies.'

"Again the interlocutors were interrupted by the noisy strain of a Turkish march, which filled up some interval with its loud and stunning but martial and stirring music; when Thomaso, turning round suddenly, and calling Lanfranco's attention by a gesture, exclaimed, 'After all, who can look upon you splendid creature and not be fascinated ? ' "

The theme of Ernest Basil is the career of an artist, at New York in his student days, and subsequently in this country. Beyond a few student doings in "the Empire city," and an exaggeration of vulgar patrons in England, little use is made of art for critical purposes. The flirtations, loves, and social descriptions that take place at "the town of Y— in Scotland," and afterwards in the metropolis, might have occurred with a hero following any other calling of a gentlemanly" character. The defect of the novel is want of breadth, depth, and purpose,

though the character of the hero contains the elements of a moral. Basil is painted as a youth of spirit, feeling, principles, and. genius. But as an artist he fritters away his time to the eye of the reader' in the small gossip, social pleasures, and amusements of a country town ; and instead of this trifling with time leading to failure as an artist, Ernest "gets on" surprisingly in London. Impressible, and with a toush of goodnatured selfishness, he occupies himself with attentions that pass beyond flirtations ; bat, though he is jilted by one lady and made wretched for a time, his conduct receives no further punishment than this censure from his wife that is to be.

" ' Ernest,' said Miss Lawrence sorrowfully, almost reproachfully, 'do you think the experience of abortive attempts at attachment are confined to you alone ? Do you think that some of those girls whom you have tried to love, and have left, have not bitterly felt the deficiency which caused them to be forsaken ? Do you imagine the punishment, the reaction of disappointment, was all on your side alone ? Do you think that women have not their imaginations and their ideals as well as men, and their sad awakenings from dreams to reality ? Do you think they do not feel all the more deeply that they may not demonstrate their professions so openly Qs men ? Besides, we labour under this disadvantage, compared with your sex, who can go away, and forget the girls they have dangled after, in the pursuit of ambition or fresh loves, while we may carry our heartaches to the grave. Oh, Ernest, be assured that a flirt, whether man or woman, is the most selfish thing that lives.'" The sketches of society and characters at Y— are smartly done, and have an appearance of vraiserablance, especially the portraits of some " serious " people, though the sarcasm may run into caricature. In these sketches, cleverly as they are conceived and trippingly as they are written' there is a superficial air which gives the idea of masks rather than of living persons.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Tarantasse Journey through Eastern RtIASitl, tot the Autumn of 1856. By William Spottiswoode, MA., 1' .R.S.

The Popular History of Log/cod: an Illustrated History of Society and Government, from the earliest period to our own tunes. By Charles Knight. Volume II. From the Reign of Richard II. to the Reign of Edvtuvl VI.

The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspeare Unfolded. By Delia Bacon. With a Preface by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Author of "The Scarlet Letter," ice.

The Ma/sea: a Tale of the Sea. By the Author of "The Two Midshipmen," &c. Iii Once volumes.

Madaron, or the Art iSalt of Ntsmes : an Historical Romance of the Sixteenth Century, By D'Aubigne White. In three volumes.

The Confidenee-Man : Ma Masquerade. By Herman Melville, Author of °moo," Typsc," Sm. Authorised edition.

Ernest Basil: a Novel. By J. M'Grigor Allan, Author of "The Woman' Hater, or True and False Love." In three volumes.

Christianity and our Era : a Book for the Times. By George Gilfillan.—According to the author, the whole doctrine of his book "may be condensed in three statements,—first, that Christ hns come ; that Christianity is divine, and has been sufficient for the purposes intended by God, even as Judaism was divine, and adapted for its day ; but, secondly, that new circumstances and conditions of life and thought have arisen, which render a new sublimer, and stronger shape of the old divine thing necessary and probable; and, thirdly, that Scripture has rendered it in the highest degree likely that this final form is to be introduced by (ho direct agency and divine power of the descending Son,"—in fact, that we may expect "a coming religious convulsion" and the millennium. The "Book for the Times" is not so remote in its topics and visionary in its ideas as might be expected from this statement. Diffuse not to say verbose in style, with a second-rate kind of platform energy, Mr. Gilfillan is pretty sure to be. His mode of treating existing "Christianity and our tora" imparts an interest if not a reality to the composition. By far the larger portion of the volume consists of an exhibition, or—the same thing in homelier words—a " show-up " of the different churches, their clergy and flocks, as well as of the different schools of free-thinking Christians, sceptics, doubters, and what not, whose various misbelief and misdoings require a "second advent" to remedy. Persons are frequently introduced.—as Carlyle, Emerson, Maurice but we have seen nothing improperly personal in the volume ; for, of course, men who put themselves and their opinions before the public, are open to public handling. A large portion is general in its pictures, but belonging to the "trenchant" style. Here is the best passage we can find room for: the decline of clerical power. "The oracular power and virtue which once dwelt in the pulpit have doparted to the printing-press on the other side of the street, The perishchurch, which once lorded it over the landscape, and pointed ite steeple, like a still finger of hushing awe over the landscape, and even the minster, which lifted up a broader hand of more imperative power, have found formidable rivals not only in the Dissenting chapel but in the private school, nay, in the public-house of the village, where men talk and think and form passionate purposes over newspapers. Sermons are now criticized, not obeyed ; and when our modern Paula preach, our Follies yawn instead of trembling. Ministers have become a timid and apologetic class ; the fearlessness of Knox is seldom met with, save among the fanatics of their number, in whom it looks simply ludicrous. The thunders of the pulpit have died away, or, when they are awakened, it is through the preacher's determination to be popular, or through the agitation of his despair : he in general consults, not commands, the taste of his audience ; and his word, unlike his professed Master's, is without authority, and therefore as that of the Scribes, nay, less powerful far than theirs. John Howe could preach six hours to unwearied throngs ; twenty years ago, Edward Irving could _protract his speech to midnight ; but now a sermon of three-quarters of an hour, even from eloquent lips, is thought sufficiently exhaustive both of the subject and of the audience."

Lectures on the British Poets. By Remy Reed, late Professor of English Literature in the University of Pennsylvania. In two volumes.— Encouraged by the friendly reception given to the publication of Professor Reed's posthumous lectures on "English Literature," and "History as Illustrated by Shakespeare's Plays," his brother has printed the present series, first delivered in 1841. It is probable that the quiet respectability of the Professor's character, the sensible moderation of his opinions, his friendly leanings to this country, and above all the catastrophe of his death by the collision of the French and American steamers off

Newfoundland, may have influenced the reception of his works here, all much as the intrinsic merit of the lectures themselves.

The present series proposes to take a survey of British poetry in its most prominent poets. It strikes us that the lecturer undertook his task without adequate preparation for his second object, of displaying the national mind as exhibited in poetry. Ile was probably familiar enough with the poets he treats of; but there are so many omissions, causing such frequent gaps, that the lectures are rather on some leading writers than on the British poets. Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspere, Milton, Dryden, and Pope, are the poets discussed at any length in what may be termed the early period. From Pope a jump is made to Cowper and Burns ; after whom the poets of the present century are somewhat fully presented. The whole is handled pleasantly, with more of genial admiration perhaps than very acute critical acumen; while the quoted specimens agreeably relieve the prose. To English judgments, the Lectures seem more adapted to the mixed audience of a literary institution than to the students of an university. In the long space of time between Chaucer and Spenser, the only intervening poets mentioned are Surrey and Sidney, and they but slightly. Some of the minor poets of the seventeenth century are also touched upon, though with equal slightness : the few of the eighteenth century alluded to are passed with little more than a mention of their names.

Two Lectures on some Changes in Social Life and Habits. By E. B. Ramsay, M.A.' &c., Dean of Edinburgh.—The "social life" illustrated by the first of these lectures is the Scottish life preserved in tradition and the memory of elderly folk. The illustrations mainly consist of anecdotes containing traits of the manners dialect, humour, modes of thought, and bacchanalian doings of the good old times. To all except the tippling, and the want of social accomplishments and pursuits that went so far to produce it, the Dean is partial. Ho particularly regrets the discontinuance of the racy dialect ; though the instances he gives of its power, humour, and the like, scarcely support his praise. The second lecture refers to the changes wrought by "the Iron Road."

The Night Side of London. By J. Ewing Ritchie, Author of "The London Pulpit."—Sketches of the saddening scenes of night " gayeties " in London, chiefly taverns, where debating societies, "harmonic meetings," and dancing, are combined with drinking. There is a matter-offact reality aboiit the sketches, but they are chiefly remarkable for the moral tone of the reflections. Generally speaking, painters of these subjects rather throw a "purple light" over the actual scenes, and say nothing of the consequences to which they lead. Mr. Ewing Ritchie is ever stripping off the mask of the mock gayety before him, and pointing the end to which it must finally come.

Sylvia, or the Last Shepherd, an Eclogue ; and other Poems. By Thomas Buchanan Read.—This volume is an American publication. The principal poem is a species of allegory, describing the busy manufacturing age as superseding the pastoral under the story. of the maid Sylvia deserted by her lover, the shephereLeon, for a rich artificial beauty attended by foreign servitors. There is much prettiness in the description of Sylvia's pastoral life ; but there wants more depth of thought and purpose; one is tempted to ask " cui bono ? " This query may be extended to the other pieces, for they tell us nothing we did not know, and impress no "thing of beauty," no "joy for ever," upon the mind. Although there is no formal resemblauce between Sylvia and In Memoriam, we are strongly reminded of the Laureate in perusing Mr. Read.

Psyche, and other Poems. By James Cruice.—The "Psyche" of Mr. Cruice is not the nymph of Grecian mythology, but the daughter of a certain Count Randolph, who has betrothed her without her consent to the Florentine Ilirio, a very rich, bloody-minded, and mysterious person. After her marriage, Psyche elopes with her lover Palerno—though she had better opportunities before the wedding ; she is pursued by her husband and his myrmidons, and shot. The tale itself exhibits a strange jumble of manners, including a fluent imitation of Byron.

Elvara and other .Poems.—An accompanying sheet with specimens states that these poems are the production of a person of seventeen. In point of versification they arc creditable to that age.

Supplement to the Fifth Edition of A Manual of Elementary Geology. By Sir Charles Lyell, D.C.L. &e.—An account of the discoveries in geology since the last edition of Sir Charles Lyell's Manual. It is printed in the pamphlet form, to range with the work to which it is supplementary, and illustrated by cuts.

The only new edition of the week that does not explain itself, is "The Old Farm and the New Farm," by Francis Hopkinson. It is an American reprint of a sort of tract published during the Revolutionary War, stating the case of America versus Great Britain, in the allegory of an old farmer settling some of his children on a distant spot and violating the agreement. It is handsomely got up, and appears to have been reprinted with a reference to the recent discussions about maintaining the Union. Tho reprint of Grattan's " Jacqueline " is a cheap book.

The Old Farm and the New Farm : a Political Allegory. By Francis Hopkinson, Member of the Continental Congress. With an Introduction and Historical Notes, by Benson J. Loosing, ALA., Author of "The Pictorial FieldBook of the Revolution," fke.

Jacqueline of Holland: an Historical Romance. By Thomas Colley Grattan, Author of' The Heiress of Bruges."

Fables de Gay, traduites en Vera Francais, par Le Chevalier De Chatelaine. 3eme edition ; revue, corrigfe, completee, et preeedee d'une preface nouvelle; et suivic de &aides de la Poesie Anglaise.

The German Language in one Volume; containing 1. A Practical Grammar, with Exercises to every Rule ; 2. 'Coffin°, a Tale, by De La Motte Fouque ; with Explanatory Notes on all difficult words and phrases ; 3. A Vocabulary of 45,000 synonymes in German and English. By Falck Lebahn. Sixth edition.

Fey to Me Exercises eantained its Falek Lebahn's German Grammar ; and Examples of the Expletives used in German. Fifth edition. to be Lieut. by pui chase, vice Jameson ; P. P. Mosley, Cent, to be Cornet, by purchase, vice Stewart.

17th Light Dragoons—Lieut. A, Burnand to be Capt. by purchase, vice Watson, who retires ; Cornet and Adjt. J. Duncan to have the rank of Lieut.; Cornet W. R. Nolan to be Lieut. by purchase, „lice. Burnand; A. Gooch, Gent, to be Cornet, by purchase, vice Nolan.

Military Train—To be Paymasters—Paymaster T. C. Brone, from the late Land Transport Corps ; Paymaster M. Reeve, from the late Land Transport Corps.

Royal Artillery—Second Capt. G. H. .1. A. Fraser on the Supernumery List, to be Capt.; Brevet-Major F. J. &rads' to be Capt. vice Calder, deceased ; Lieut. J. A. Price to be Second Capt. vice Brevet-Major Soady.

The undermentioned Lieuts. with temporary rank, to be Lieuts. with permanent rank. viz.—Lieut. F. S. Stoney ; Lieut. 0. O'Connor.

To be Quartermasters—Second Capt. A. Henry, from half-pay of the late Land Transport Corps, vice Steele, retired upon hall-pay; Quadermaster-Sergt. W. Armstrong, vice White, retired upon half-pay ; Sergt.-Major W. Cairns, vice Nicoll, retired upon half-pay ; Sergt.-Major J. Morris, vice Eager, retired upon half-pay ; Staff-Sergt. J. Williams, vice Dunbar, retired upon half-pay.

Infantry—Grenadier Regt of Foot Guards—Lieut. and Capt. and Brevet Lieut.Col. G. W. A. Higginson to be Capt. and Lieut.-Col. by purchase, vice Brevet-Col. E. Goulbourn, who retires ; Ensign and Lieut. C. Gasecogne to be Lieut. and Capt. by purchase, vice J. D. F. Davie, avho retires ; Ensign and Lieut. William P. Earl of Sefton, to be Lieut. and Capt. by purchase, vice Brevet-Lieut.-Col. Higginson; C. B. Jarrett, Gent. to be Ensign and Lieut. by purchase, vice Gascoigne.

2d Regt. of Foot—Quartermaster-Sergt. W. Mackie to be Quartermaster, vice Mansfield, who retires upon half-pay. 9th Foot—Capt. A. 0. Richards, from half-pay 9th Foot, to be Capt. vice Lonsada, who exchanges; Capt. J. H. H. Gammen, from half-pay 9th Foot, to be Capt. vice Hon. W. L. Talbot, who exchanges. 14th Foot—Lieut. D. S. Warren to be Capt. by purch. vice Segr, are, who retires. 21st Foot—Capt. R. Killeen, from half-pay 21st Foot, to be Capt. vice King, dec. 25th Foot—Lieut. W. R. Goodall to be Capt. by purch. vice Ogilvy, who retires ; Ensign E. H. Layard to be Lieut. by purchase, vice Goodall. 33d Foot—Ensign F. C. H. Glasgow, from the 72d Foot, to be Ensign, vice H. F. Campbell, who exchanges. 41st Foot—Lieut. W. Johnson has been permitted to retire from the service by the sale of his commission.

44th Foot—Lieut. A. W. Cobham to be Capt. by purchase, vice Greene, who retires ; Ensign T. Cash to be Limit, by purchase, vice Cobham; H. W. Heane, Gent. to be Ensign, by purchase, vice Gash.

72d Foot—Ensign 11. F. Campbell, from 334 Foot, to be Ensign, vice Glasgow, who exchanges.

91st Foot—Lieut. T. E. A. Hall to be Instructor of Musketry.

9711, Foot—R. Grey. Gent, to be Ensign, by purchase, vice Annesley, promoted. 98th Foot—Capt. it. Reid, from half-pay tinatt. to be Capt. vice H. W. Goodwyn, who exchanges.

Rifle Brigade—Lieut. S. S. Windham to be Instructor of Musketry, vice Capt. Itowles, who resigns that appointment.

3d West India Regiment—Lieut. T. M'Curdy to be Capt. without purchase, vim Macdonald, appointed to the Military Train.

Cape Mounted Riflemen—Lieut. J. F. Boyes to be Capt. without purchase, vice Sails, promoted in the Military Train.

Depot Battalion—The Commission of Paymaster A. Corcoran, appointed 10th March 1857, has been antedated to 7th Nov. 1856, Unattached--Lieut. R. Reid, from the 98th Foot, to be Capt. without pur. Purveyor's Department—G. Bridgett, Gent, to be Purveyor to the Forces. Brevet.—Lieut.-Col. W. T. Renwick, of the Royal Engineers, having completed three years' actual service in the rank of Lieut.-Col. to be Col, in the Army, under the Royal warrant of 3d Nov. 1851. The undermentioned Quartermasters, retired upon half-pay, to have the honorary rank of Capt. under the Royal warrant of 17th Dec. 1855—J. Nicoll, half-pay B,oyal Artillery ; R. Eager, half-pay Royal Artillery ; A. Steele, half-pay Royal Artillery; .1, White, half-pay Royal Artillery ; C. Dunbar, half-pay Royal Artillery ; J. Mansfield, half-pay 241 Foot.

The undermentioned Cadet of the East India Company's Service to have the local and temporary rank of Ensign, during the period of his being placed under the command of Col. Sand ham, of the Royal Engineers, at Chatham, for field instructions in the art of Sapping and Mining—W. Merriman, Gent.

Menforandum.—The following Corps, viz. the British German Legion, the British Swiss Legion, and the British Italian Legion, have ceased to exist, their services being no longer required.

frahr.

PROM THE LONDON GAZETTE, APRIL 7.

Partnerships Dissolved.—Smithard and Sons, Derby and elsewhere, pork-butchers —Brunel and Co. Edward Street, Hainpstead Road—Craven and Co. Whitby, Yorkshire, confectioners—Alargerison and Sutcliffe, Bradford, Yorkshire, woolstaplersBanks and Pretty, Coventry, curriers—Taylor and Co. Sunderland, grocers—Smelt and Co. Sheffield, engineers ; as far as regards W. Cross—Sheard and Mather, Heaton Norris, Stockport, plumbers—J. and R. Godwin, Bristol, iron-merchantsSharpe and Co. Chepstow, Monmouthshire, millers—Dorning and Johnstone, Manchester, merchants—Rolph and Co. Thornbury, Gloucestershire, bankers ; as far as regards W. Rolph—Cowdery and Wavell, Newport, Isle of Wight, grocers—Caporn and Campion, Nottingham, lace-merchants.

Bankrupts.—Samrar. Riesuinns, Bedford Square, apothecary, to surrender April 17, May 19; solicitors, Lawrence and Co. Old Jewry Chambers ; official assignee, Graham, Coleman Street.

FREDERICK Birfeuxo HOWLAND, Lee, Kent, April 17, May 19; solicitor, Stopher, Cheapside ; official assignee, Graham, Coleman Street.

Joux Eserrox, Clapham Road Place, Clapham Road, builder, April 17, May 22; solicitor, Crouch, Gray's Inn Square ; official assignee, Carman, Aldermanbury. EDWARD DUCE MOORE, Southgate and the Minones, merchant, April 23, May 19: solicitors, Lawrance and Co. Old Jewry Chambers ; official assignee, Lee, Aldermanbury. Cruusrorimm HALL, Sun Court, Cornhill, merchant, April 23, Mar 25: solicitors, Linklater and Hackwood, Sise Lane ; official assignee, Pennell, Guildhall Chambers.

Citaiurfs COPLAND and WILLIAM GEORGE B.s.axm4, Botolph Lane and Southampton, provision-merchants, April 24, May 2.5: solicitors. Linklater and Hackwood, Sire Lane ; official assignee, Nicholson, Basinghall Street. FREDERICK Wii.uAlt Wnurrox, Birmingham, druggist, April 22, May 13: solicitors, Southall and Nelson, and llodgson and Allen, Birmingham ; official assignee, Christie, Birmingham.

ELIJAH Lswrost, Manchester, cotton-waste-dealer, April 22, May 18: solicitors, Boom and Jellieorse, Manchester; official assignee, Pott, Manchester. Jorms BILADSHAW and Asaox Commmorr, Burnley, cotton-manufacturers, April 23, May 14: solicitors, Shaw and Co. and Handsley, Burnley ; Sale and Co. Manchester; official assioonee, lieniaman, Manchester.

BicnAssD JONES, Newtown, Montgomeryshire, fiannel-manufacturer, April 16, May 11: solicitor, Jones, Newtown ; official assignee, Morgan, Liverpool. WILLIAX Joins Romani, Pembrey, Carmarthenshire, draper, April 17, May II: solicitor, Prideaux, Bristol ; official assignee, Acmrnan, Bristol.

HENRY BISHOP, Durslev, Gloucestershire, scrivener, April 17, May II : solicitors, Bevan and Girling, Bristol; official assignee, Miller, Bristol. Wimax Berama, Bedale, Yorkshire, grocer, April 17, may 8 solicitors; Newton and Robinson, York ; Bond and Barwick, Leeds ; official assignee, Young, Leeds. Timms Pvmeaorr. Sandal Magna, Yorkshire, carrier, April 21. May 25: solicitors, Plaskett, Gainsborough ; Bond and Barwick, Leeds ; official assignee, Hope, Leeds.

Wits.rsx Gnitiox, Spenny Moor, Durham, grocer, April 20, May 26: solicitors, Scaife, Newcastle-upon-Tyne; Bolding and Simpson, Gracechureh Street ; official assignee, Baker, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Eividends.—April 28, Crofts, Strand, coffeehouse-keeper—May 14, Deeks, Fernbridge Villas, Westbourne Grove, auctioneer—April 29, Hartz, Mark Lane and Fenchurch Street, merchant—April 29, Williams and Co. West Smithfield, tailors— April 29, Perrin, Cleaveland Street, Fitzroy Square, dealer in foreign woods—April 29, Lawrence, Shoreditch, upholsterer—April 29, Paul, Bedford and St. Mary Axe, Long Buckley Northamptonshire, coal-uterehant-April 28, Hills, Woodside, Croydon, and Isle of Dogs, oil-manufacturer-April 28, Burch, Back Hill, Hatton Garden, last-maker-April 28, Phillips, Norwich. currier-April 28, Green, Sunderland, patent rope-manufacturer-April 28, Hunter, Little Tower Street Chambers, Eastcheap, merchant-April 28, Futvoye, Regent Street and Beak Street, jeweller -April 28, Wilson, Gresham Street, money-scrivener-May 1, Berry, Rochdale, machinist-April 28, Travis and Kershaw, Prestwich-cum-Oldham, Lancashire, cotton-spinners-May 28, Harrold, Frome Selwood, Somersetshire, chemist-April 28, Fell, Liverpool, tea-dealer.

Certificates to be granted unless cause be Shown to the contrary on the day of mecting.-April 28, Potter, High Street, Marylebone, livery-stable-keeper-April

28, Butt, Littlehanspton, Sussex, ironmonger-April 29, Etherington, Godalining and Aldershot, grocer-April 28, Foseolo, Dunster Court, Mincing Lane, corn-merchant-April 30, Henderson, Stanhope Terrace, Rare, nt's Park, apothecary-April

29, Truscott, Austinfriars, commission-agent-April 29, Davis. New Cross Road, Deptford, builder-April 30, Garnett, Dover, stationer-April 30, Hawkey. Mile End Road, tailor-May 5, White, Shadwell, miller-April 30, Dangerfield senior, Kirtley, otherwise Kirkley, Suffolk, builder-April 30, Wakinshaw, Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, iron-manufacturer-April 29, Sankey, Salford, wheelwrightApril 30, Lane, Birmingham, jaoanner-April 30, Baker, Birmingham, clock-maker -April 30, Tyler, King's Bromley, Staffordshire, miller-April 30, Slascall, Wolverhampton, grocer-May 5, King' Spalding, victualler-May 5, Lee, Cnnuford, Derbyshire, currier-May 5, Smith, Mansfield, victualler.

Declarations of Diridends.-Walker, Charles Mews, Westboume Terrace, coachbuilder ; first die. of 51. Wednesday next ; Lee, Aldermanbury-Greig, Bartlett's Buildings, Holborn, and Wheatsheaf Yard, Farringdon Street, cabinet-maker ; firstdiv. of -5s. any Tuesday ; Nicholson, Basingliall Street-Murray, Middle \Thad, Great Scotland Yard, coal-merchant ; first div. of 5s. 64. any Tuesday ; Nicholson, Basinghall Street-Kingston, Bridge Road, Lambeth, linen-draper • that div. of St. lino Tuesday ; Nicholson, Basinghall Street-Tagg, Reading, ion-keeper; first div. of .7s. 6d. any Tuesday ; Nicholson, Basinghall Street-SPGregor, Manchester, travelling draper ; first div. of 6s. 344. any Tuesday, Hentaman, Slauchester-Milligan, Manchester, draper ; first die. of Is. 3Id. any Tuesday ; Hematite'', Manchester -Saul and Kirby, Preston, joiners; first div. of 21d. any Tuesday ; Hernaman, Manchester-Eccles and Co. Tottington, Lancashire, cotton-spinners ; first div. of qd. any Tuesday ; Hemaman, Manchester-Claus, Liverpool, merchant ; second div. of Mi. any Monday ; Bird, Liverpool-Ridgway, Liverpool, merchant ; second dir, of gid. any Monday ; Bird, Liverpool-Jardine, Liverpool, stone-mason ; first elle. of 3s. ad. any Monday ; Bird, Liverpool-Webb, Newport, Monmouthshire, ironmonger; div. of Ts. 9d. on new proofs, and Is. 9d. on old proofs, April 15, and any subsequent Wednesday ; Miller, Bristol. Scotch Sequestration.-Ross, Aluess, merchant, April 16.

PROM TIIE LONDON GAZETTE, APRIL 111

l'artnerships Dissolred.-Wilkes and Goucher, Shrewsbury, grocers-Greenwood and Dawson, Bradford and Brunthwaite, Yorkshire, woolstaplers-Williams and Moore, Bolton-le-Moors, spinille-makers-Buttle and Waterson. Norwich, coalmerchants-Ashworth and Co.:Blimp, Lancashire, slaters-Ward and Barrowcliff. Normanton-on-Soar. Nottinghamshire, lime-burners-Desilva and Cooper, Leeds, cloth-merchants-E. Arnold jun. rind B. Arnold, Baker Street. Portman Square, watch-makers-Smith and Co. Heywood. Lancashire, cotton-manufacturers ; as far as regards M. Smith-Colling,' and Imray, Bridge Road, Lambeth, engineers-T. and I. Clarke, Minehead and Dulverton, Somersetsbire, linen-drapersMore and Sankey, Liverpool, shipping-agents-Blake and Selby, Eceleeton, Lancashire, earthenware-manufacturers-Forster and Atkins, Onehan. Isle of Man, brewers-B. and J. Wrigley, Royton, Lancashire, eotton-spinners-Fisler and Fisher jun. Ashby-de-la-Zurich, solicitors-T. and II. White, Stratford-upon-Avon, lead-rnerchants-Aspdin and Jackson, Newcastle-tipon-Tyne, Portland cement

' manufacturers-Young and Ashton, Liverpool, mill-wrights-Bradford and hamson, Great Dover Street, Borough, bedding-manufacturers-C. F. and k. Healey, lierkhampstead, Hens, brewers-Hill and Latham, Liverpool, brokers.

Bankrupts.-Tuomas l'EFFER, Mamtlield, Sussex, wheelenight, to surrender April 23, May 22 : solicitors, .1. and S. Longhorn, Bartlett's Buildings; official assignee, Whitmore, Basingliall Street. JOHN Emmeesox, High Street, Poplar, victualler, 'April 23, May 22: solicitors, I.awrance and Co. Old Jewry Chambers ; official assignee, Whitmore, liaraingliall Street.

THOMAs Sfostsx, Coburg Place, Old Kent Road, builder, April 16, May 11: solisitars, Depree and Austen, Lawrence Lane, Cheapside ; official assignee, Bell, Coleman Street Buildings.

PruenioN Ger, St. James's Road, Holloway, builder, April 23, May 25: solicitors, Paterson and Longman, Ohl Broad Street ; official assignee, Nicholson, Basinghall Street.

BARTHOLOMEW WAnu, High Street, Southwark, stationer, April 24, May 25; solicitor, Marsden, Sine Lane; official assignee, Pennell, Basingliall Street. &WAR Mum: Sastre, Liverpool, sail-maker, April 30, May 21: solicitor, Cobb, Liverpool; official assignee, Turner, Liverpool. THOMAS Bow and Joins W.maiar Tursczur, Lincoln, ironmongers, April 29, May 27: solicitors, Reece, Birmingham ; Bond and Barwick, Leede ; official assignee, Carrick, Hull, WILLIAM THRELFALL, Preston, iron-merchant, April 21, May 12: solicitor, Catterall junior, Preston; official assignee, Pott, Manchester. ALFRED CHARLES Woou, Pei-shore, Worcestershire, linen-draper, April 24. May 15: solicitors, Heinle and Walcot, Worcester ; Knight, Birmingham ; official assignee, Christie, Birmingham. ROBERT ALEXANDER, Crawford Street, Camberwell, furniture-dealer, April 21, May 26: solicitors, Child and Son, Cannon Street; official assignee, Lee, Aldermanbury. Tnoxas LEWIS, Nantwich, Cheshire, draper, April 24, May 15: solicitors, Sale and Co. Manchester ; Evans and Son, Liverpool ; official assignee, Turner, Liverpool.

Dirielends.-May 4, Day, Edgeware Road, builder-May 4, Bell, Gracechurch Street, contractor-May I. Potter, High Street, Marylebone, livery-stable-keeperMay I, Johnson, Adelaide Chambers, Graceehurch Street, merchant-April 24. Jenkinson, Salford, agent-May 1, Gandy, Bradford, Yorkshire, stuff-merchantMay 1, Clarke and Wade, Huddersfield, woollen-yarn-manufacturers.

Certificates to be granted unless cause be shown to the contrary on the day of meeting.-May 1, Ingersent, Notting Hill, victualler-Slay 1, Cornell, King Street, Regent Street, carver, and Roydon. Essex, farmer-May 4, Dearlove, Palace Row:, New Bowl. timber-merchant-May 4, Salle, Sheerness, watch-maker-Slay 5, Kindred, Framlingliam, miller-May 5, Baker, Titehborne Street, victualler-May 12, Griffiths, Bristol and Cardiff, builder-May 12, Rees, Llanelly, grocer-May 11. Collison junior, Bath, provision-merchant-fday 4, Tuscan, Plymouth, currier-May 7, Walker, Blackburn, commission-agent-May 1, Manwaring, Tosteth Park, Liverpool, grocer-May 4, Hemmen, Bradford, Yorkshire, grocer-May 4, Barker, Scarborough, draper.

Declarations of Diridenda.-Tipple, Norwich, shoe-manufacturer; first div. of 54d. any Wednesday ; Whitmore, Basinghall Street-Bickerton. Castle Street, Southwark, hat-manufacturer ; first div. of 44d. any Wednesday ; Whitmore, Basinghall Street-Scott, Manchester, ironmonger ; first div. of 4s. 74.; April 21, and any subsequent Tuesday ; Fraser, Manchester.

Scotch Sequestrations.-Scott, publican, April 18-Goes-in, merchant, Kinross, April 21-Hendrie, horse-dealer, Glasgow, April 15-11ralou, baker, Messick, April I7-J. and W. SPEride, power-loom cloth-manufacturers, Glasgow, April 10.